Market Maker

Can governments really control financial markets, or can they simply delay the inevitable?

Japan has spent nearly $100 billion trying to support the yen, with the US taking the extraordinary step of joining the intervention. But despite the firepower, the forces driving the currency, interest rate differentials, the carry trade and Japan’s economic fundamentals, haven’t simply disappeared.

In this episode, Anthony Cheung and Piers Curran explain how FX intervention actually works, why governments and central banks step into financial markets, and why intervention often treats the symptom rather than the underlying cause.

We also revisit the extraordinary 2015 Swiss franc collapse, when the Swiss National Bank abandoned its currency floor and triggered one of the most dramatic moves in modern FX history, before looking at the US Treasury market and the attempts to bring rising long-term bond yields under control.

From the Japanese yen to US Treasuries, this is a practical guide to what happens when governments decide to fight the market and why the market often has the final say.

(00:00) Can Governments Control Markets?
(07:26) Why the Yen Is So Weak
(15:24) The Yen Carry Trade
(17:59) The Intervention Explained
(19:41) Symptom or Disease?
(21:14) Japan’s $100bn Intervention
(27:11) The Swiss Franc Collapse
(41:10) The US Bond Market Problem
(45:51) What Could Break Next?
(52:49) What Happens Next?

Stripe has just made one of the biggest AI acquisitions yet, buying OpenRouter for around $7.5 billion — a company that was valued at just $1.3 billion only months earlier. So what exactly is Stripe buying, and why has OpenRouter become so valuable so quickly?

In this episode of the Market Maker Podcast, Anthony Cheung and Stephen Barnett break down OpenRouter’s extraordinary rise, how its platform connects businesses to hundreds of different AI models, and why the economics of AI could increasingly favour the platforms routing intelligence rather than the companies building the models themselves.

We also unpack the remarkable story of Stripe, founded by Irish brothers Patrick and John Collison, which now processes payments equivalent to around 1.6% of the entire global economy. We explore how Stripe became a critical part of the internet’s financial infrastructure, and why its latest acquisitions point to much bigger ambitions across AI, payments and agentic commerce.

From venture capital and AI valuations to network effects, business moats and the future of online commerce, this is the business behind Stripe’s $7.5 billion bet on the AI economy.

(00:00) Stripe’s $7.5BN AI Bet
(02:30) The OpenRouter Deal
(05:01) From Startup to $7.5BN
(09:29) How Venture Capital Works
(11:13) What Is OpenRouter?
(16:32) Building a Billion-Dollar Startup
(22:21) What’s OpenRouter’s Moat?
(28:19) Why Stripe Bought OpenRouter
(33:20) The Rise of Agentic Commerce
(37:12) The Story of Stripe
(40:07) How Stripe Makes Money
(44:35) Stripe’s Acquisition Strategy
(47:13) Have We Reached Singularity?

The global IPO market is roaring back but some of the most interesting action isn’t happening on Wall Street.

In this episode of the Market Maker Podcast, Anthony Cheung and Stephen Barnett take a whistle-stop tour of the global IPO boom, from China’s extraordinary robotics race and Hong Kong’s growing pipeline of AI listings to what could become the biggest IPO in India’s history.

We break down why Chinese robotics companies are attracting huge investor demand, what embodied AI could mean for the next stage of the technology cycle, and why Hong Kong is emerging as an important fundraising hub for the sector. We then head to India to look at the planned listing of the National Stock Exchange, before exploring the surprisingly active IPO markets of Pakistan and Zambia.

Finally, we return to the US to ask an important question: with so much investor capital being pulled towards mega AI and technology listings, are other companies being crowded out?

A global look at where capital is flowing, why IPO activity is returning and what it tells us about the changing shape of markets.

(00:00) The Global IPO Boom
(03:48) IPOs Are Back
(06:00) Careers in Equity Capital Markets
(10:04) China’s Robot IPO Boom
(11:36) The Unitree Robotics Story
(18:36) China vs the US
(22:15) Hong Kong’s Robot Gold Rush
(27:27) India’s Biggest IPO Ever
(30:36) Inside an IPO Roadshow
(33:01) Pakistan’s Record IPO Year
(36:12) Zambia’s IPO Boom
(39:10) Why This US IPO Flopped
(40:39) The Defence Tech Opportunity

Boeing is back in the spotlight following the release of Netflix’s new documentary Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing. But beyond the safety failures and scandals, there’s another important story: how does Boeing actually work as a business?

In this episode of the Market Maker Podcast, we break down the economics behind one of the world’s most important companies. How does Boeing make money? Why can selling aircraft be loss-making while servicing them generates huge margins? Why is its $700bn+ order backlog so important? And how have Boeing and Airbus ended up controlling more than 90% of the commercial aircraft market?

We also explore the decisions that changed Boeing: the McDonnell Douglas merger, the shift from engineering excellence towards shareholder returns, billions spent on share buybacks, the development of the 737 MAX and the financial consequences that followed.

If the Netflix documentary tells the story of what happened at Boeing, this episode helps explain the business behind it and why the decisions made decades ago still matter today.

(00:00) The Business of Boeing
(01:32) How Boeing Became an Icon
(05:29) How Boeing Makes Money
(11:33) Boeing’s Hidden Profit Engine
(16:06) The Accounting Behind Boeing
(21:43) Boeing’s $55bn Debt Problem
(26:24) Boeing vs Airbus
(29:45) Can China Break the Duopoly?
(33:16) When Boeing’s Culture Changed
(38:18) The 737 MAX Disaster
(41:52) Boeing After the Crisis
(43:43) Boeing Today

SpaceX shares have surged nearly 40% from their recent lows, despite fears that its unusual staggered lock-up structure would unleash a wave of selling. So what actually happened?

Anthony Cheung and Stephen Barnett break down how IPO lock-ups work, why SpaceX’s tiny public float matters and how retail buying, index funds and a potential short squeeze helped drive the rebound.

We also return to EasyJet following Apollo’s £5.7 billion takeover, unpacking the private equity financing behind the deal, before looking at Cambridge Aerospace — the two-year-old UK defence technology company now valued at more than $3 billion.

A packed episode covering IPOs, private equity, debt financing, defence technology and some of the biggest stories moving markets.

(00:00) What’s Coming Up
(04:21) Why SpaceX Stock Surged
(05:27) Staggered Lock-Ups Explained
(12:36) Why Investors Bought the Dip
(15:45) The SpaceX Short Squeeze
(17:24) The Elon factor
(21:10) The Success of Staggered Lock-Ups
(23:12) Can SpaceX Justify Its Valuation?
(24:55) Apollo’s £5.7bn EasyJet Deal
(29:21) How Private Equity Funds a Takeover
(36:37) Apollo’s Plan for EasyJet
(40:00) The UK’s $3bn Defence Startup
(44:53) Coming Next: Boeing Deep Dive