From the Human Brain to the Battlefield: MSX Pre-IPO Phase III Introduces Neuralink and Anduril, Betting on the Next Frontier of AI

Source: MSX

What makes Pre-IPO investments so attractive?

Perhaps it lies in the fact that it occurs at a window where the value of a unicorn is gradually becoming visible, yet has not been fully priced by the public market. At this time, technology begins to be validated, the commercial path becomes clearer, but the ultimate value discovery is still ongoing.

In recent years, this window has become increasingly important.

A number of the world’s most watched unicorns, such as SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic, have completed significant financing and valuation leaps before their IPOs. Therefore, how to allow investors to gain core equity exposure before the giants ring the bell has become a core demand in the global capital market.

On August 31, 2026, MSX will open subscriptions for the third phase of its Pre-IPO project.

Compared to five months ago when it first launched, this time the starting point is different. The first two phases have transitioned from subscription and holding to listing or buyback, and the first round of product closure has begun to be practically validated.

On this basis, the third phase will push the asset boundaries further to two highly representative super unicorns of the era: Neuralink and Anduril.

From Listing to Premium Buyback: MSX Pre-IPO Completes "Full Process Closed Loop Verification"

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On March 2, 2026, MSX officially launched the Pre-IPO section and introduced its first project.

In just a few months, the demand for Pre-IPO investments around leading unlisted tech companies has rapidly increased, and various forms of Pre-IPO, Private Equity, and other unlisted asset-related products have emerged in the market.

The logic behind this is not complicated.

A group of the most growth-oriented tech companies create the majority of their value before their IPOs. For ordinary investors, the demand naturally extends forward: can they participate before the company actually goes public?

However, for any Pre-IPO product, a more important question than "which star companies can be bought" is whether this path can truly be walked after purchase.

In the past five months, MSX has provided a strong answer through the actual operation of two phases of Pre-IPO products.

Among them, the first phase of MSX's Pre-IPO featuring Cerebras and SpaceX has successfully completed the trading closed loop from private share confirmation to public market listing:

• Cerebras (CBRS): Users participated in the subscription at a price of $100.35. With Cerebras's listing, MSX simultaneously opened CBRS spot trading, and based on the intraday high on the first day of listing, early participants saw a peak comprehensive return rate exceeding 300%;
• SpaceX (SPCX): After stock split adjustments, the early subscription cost for MSX was about $119, while the post-listing price reached $166.85 on the first day, peaking at $176, with a stage increase of nearly 50%;

At the same time, in addition to the liquidity exit path of listed companies, another critical piece of the puzzle during the unlisted phase—the buyback exit—has also undergone multiple successful validations.

This includes the recent buyback of the second phase projects Anthropic and Polymarket on August 20, where eligible holders can choose to exit and settle in USDT at the current buyback price based on their own judgment, or continue to hold and wait for future valuation changes or IPOs:

• Polymarket: The previous Pre-IPO subscription price was $152 per share, and the latest buyback price has risen to $202.67 per share, yielding approximately 33.3%. This means early participants have the option to convert paper profits into actual exit gains;
• Anthropic: The second phase subscription price was $855 per share, corresponding to a valuation of about $950 billion. Currently, its private market valuation is further rising, with discussions of a $2 trillion IPO valuation, allowing investors to choose to continue holding and enjoy the long-term growth dividends of the public market;

Of course, a single project rising by 30%, 40%, or even more does not mean that all Pre-IPO assets will replicate similar performances in the future.

What is truly worth noting is that the two core exit paths have begun to be validated, and the product chain of MSX Pre-IPO is gradually becoming complete: target selection → Pre-IPO subscription → holding → listing / buyback → liquidity and exit.

This also gives the upcoming third phase a completely different starting point compared to the first phase launched five months ago.

This time, MSX is focusing on Neuralink and Anduril.

Neuralink and Anduril: One Connects the Human Brain, the Other Enters the Battlefield

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For the third phase of Pre-IPO, MSX has chosen two companies: Neuralink and Anduril.

The industries these two companies belong to seem far apart, yet they both point to an increasingly clear change in the next phase of AI: AI is moving from the digital world deeper into the physical world.

1. Neuralink: If the Next Generation of AI Entry is the Human Brain

In all current cutting-edge technology narratives, Neuralink may be the company with the highest cognitive threshold and the most difficult long-term ceiling to estimate.

Founded by Elon Musk in 2016, Neuralink is a brain-machine interface company. To understand Neuralink merely as a medical device company that "implants chips in the human brain" undoubtedly underestimates what it truly aims to achieve.

From implanted devices and flexible electrodes to neural signal decoding and wireless communication, and even surgical robots responsible for precise implantation, Neuralink has built a complete brain-machine interface system from the very beginning.

In the past two years, its most significant change has been bringing brain-machine interfaces from the laboratory into the human body.

In 2024, Neuralink completed its first human implantation; since then, clinical projects have continued to expand, and by early 2026, over 20 participants worldwide had received implants. For Neuralink, this means it has taken a significant step from 0 to 1.

The question has become: if it can really be done, how big can it ultimately become?

Today, when we complete the most ordinary communication with AI, we still need to go through the process of "brain → hand → keyboard → AI → screen → eyes."

Neuralink's most radical endgame is to compress this chain into "brain ⇄ AI," allowing people to control computers, smartphones, robotic arms, and even more machines in the future through direct reading of neural signals using "thoughts."

Currently, healthcare remains the most realistic and important entry point.

If brain-machine interfaces can overcome long-term limitations in safety, bandwidth, implantation efficiency, and scalability, the market corresponding to Neuralink may no longer be simply measured by the TAM of any current medical device industry.

What it ultimately competes for may be the Human × AI Interface, a new generation of interface between humans and AI.

This is also why its valuation is rapidly changing—during the Series E financing in 2025, the company's valuation was about $9.65 billion; entering 2026, some private market transactions and buyer quotes have already pushed the valuation into the hundreds of billions range.

Capital is pricing in a future that has not yet fully occurred.

In a sense, today’s Neuralink easily reminds one of an earlier stage of SpaceX, which at the time was also difficult to explain using traditional aerospace company valuation models.

What truly drives its value to continue rising is not that every timeline is accurately fulfilled, but that Musk repeatedly proves that some engineering problems once thought nearly impossible to commercialize can indeed be turned into products and then into industries.

Neuralink may be Musk's most challenging bet to date.

And precisely because of this, the imaginative space corresponding to Neuralink is also large enough—while it has proven part of its potential, the aspects that truly determine the upper limit of its valuation have not yet been fully proven.

2. Anduril: AI is Reshaping the "Execution Layer" of National Defense

If Neuralink is bringing AI into the human brain, then Anduril is making AI truly enter the battlefield.

Founded in 2017, Anduril was best known for its border surveillance and anti-drone systems.

In less than a decade, the company has expanded its product line to include unmanned combat aircraft, cruise missiles, underwater unmanned systems, anti-drone defenses, solid rocket engines, and the AI command and control platform Lattice, which serves as the central hub of the entire system.

So, viewing Anduril as merely a "drone company" today is clearly insufficient; what it truly challenges is the traditional military-industrial complex that has persisted in the U.S. for decades.

The traditional defense industry often implies long R&D cycles, high costs, and a relatively fragmented procurement and development system between hardware and software. Anduril brings a logic closer to Silicon Valley, which prioritizes software, is AI-driven, autonomous, rapidly iterative, and focused on scalable manufacturing;

If Palantir has already proven that AI can penetrate the decision-making layers of the defense system, helping to process data, form judgments, and assist in decision-making, then Anduril represents a forward step: entering the execution layer of defense, truly connecting sensors, drones, fighter jets, and weapon systems, and participating in mission execution.

This is also why the capital markets are redefining Anduril.

By 2025, the company’s revenue is expected to reach approximately $2.2 billion; entering 2026, the U.S. Army established a corporate procurement framework with it worth up to $20 billion over ten years, transforming Anduril from a Defense Tech Startup vying for individual military contracts into a more long-term, scaled participant in the U.S. defense procurement system.

Meanwhile, the company is advancing its Arsenal manufacturing system, further addressing the most challenging capability for military startups—large-scale production.

In other words, what Anduril aims to do is combine "AI + Autonomy + Software + Hardware + Manufacturing" into a new defense industrial platform.

The valuation is also reflecting this identity change:

· In 2022, Anduril was valued at approximately $8.5 billion;
· In 2024, around $14 billion;
· In 2025, about $30.5 billion;
· In May 2026, during Series H financing, the valuation had risen to $61 billion;
· By August, the implied valuation corresponding to the Forge private market reference price further exceeded $110 billion;

This cannot be considered cheap.

But for Pre-IPO investors, Palantir has already demonstrated that the capital markets are willing to pay a valuation premium far above traditional military enterprises for "AI + Defense + Platform capabilities."

What Anduril is competing for is the next round of similar identity reassessment.

Pre-IPO: Focusing on Early Opportunities Not Fully Priced by the Market

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Overall, Neuralink and Anduril operate in completely different industries, but when placed together, one can find a very similar aspect: the market is trading on what they might become in the future.

Neuralink is evolving from a "brain-machine interface medical company" to a potential Human × AI Interface; Anduril is transitioning from a "defense technology startup" to a potential AI + Defense Platform.

This is also the most noteworthy common thread when Neuralink and Anduril were both included in the third phase of MSX Pre-IPO:

The next round of value creation for AI may no longer only occur within models and screens.

From the first phase to the third phase, the asset boundaries covered by MSX Pre-IPO have been continuously expanding. From Cerebras, SpaceX, to Anthropic, Polymarket, and now Neuralink and Anduril, the directions covered have extended from AI computing power and commercial space to generative AI, prediction markets, brain-machine interfaces, and AI military applications.

But more important than industry labels is a gradually clarifying asset selection logic, which is that MSX Pre-IPO will continue to seek leading unlisted companies that have completed some technological or commercial validation but are still not fully priced in the public market.

Ultimately, the value of Pre-IPO is never just about "buying earlier than the IPO."

Because "early" does not inherently mean cheap, nor does it guarantee returns.

What truly matters is to judge whether a company is crossing a node significant enough to change its future valuation system while its technological capability, commercial scale, and market identity are still rapidly evolving.

After all, changes in a company's identity often mark the beginning of changes in its valuation system. Just as SpaceX is no longer just a rocket company, Palantir is also no longer seen merely as a government software contractor.

The market's re-understanding of what a company truly "is" often coincides with the most important round of value reassessment.

Of course, this also implies greater uncertainty.

Neuralink still needs to face long-term tests of clinical, safety, regulatory, and commercialization cycles; Anduril must continue to prove that large-scale orders and procurement frameworks can ultimately translate into sustained revenue and profit growth while absorbing the significantly increased private market valuations.

This is also an aspect that all Pre-IPO investors cannot overlook.

Final Thoughts

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Good Pre-IPO assets rarely appear after all the answers have been revealed.

Because when technology is fully mature, business models are thoroughly validated, and growth paths become clear, the public market has often completed the most important round of pricing.

What is truly worth observing are those companies that are changing their identities:

· SpaceX has gradually grown from a rocket company to a platform-level asset spanning commercial space, satellite communications, and next-generation infrastructure;
· Palantir has also been reinterpreted from a controversial government software contractor to a data and decision-making platform in the AI era;

And today, Neuralink is betting on the next way for humans to connect with AI, while Anduril is betting on the next defense industrial system in the AI era.

One is focused on the human brain, the other on the battlefield.

They operate in completely different industries but stand at similar nodes of value reassessment—the market is curious about what these companies will become in the future.

For MSX Pre-IPO, the third phase truly continues this longer-term asset search logic:

Before the next generation of tech companies is fully recognized by the public market, discover those platform-level assets that are redefining themselves and may redefine an industry.

This article is from a submission and does not represent the views of BlockBeats.

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