SPACInsider

AIR CEO Stuart Brazier on AIR’s $1.7B SPAC Deal and the Business of Hookah

This week, we speak with Stuart Brazier, CEO of Advanced Inhalation Rituals, or AIR, to discuss his company’s $1.7 billion combination with Cantor Equity Partners III (Nasdaq: CAEP).

SPACs often bring companies from emerging technology sectors into the public markets, but sometimes it is their role to list companies that have already established themselves, albeit in something of a niche. 

Stuart explains how the AIR’s profitable position in the high-margin hookah-shisha market gave it options on how to come public, and why it chose the SPAC route for that journey. How is this lifestyle brand growing and where? And, what additional revenue streams are there still to be had from its 600-year-old core product?

General Fusion’s Greg Twinney and Spring Valley III’s Chris Sorrells on Their $724M Fusion Deal

This week, we speak with Greg Twinney, CEO of General Fusion, and Chris Sorrells, CEO and Chairman of Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. III (NASDAQ:SVAC). The two announced a $724 million combination in January.

Fusion technology may sound like the future, but it is set to come to the public markets very soon. Greg explains General Fusion’s path to expand its technology beyond its first plant into commercialization in the 2030s, and what advantages fusion power plants can provide over nuclear fission reactors.

Chris lays out why now is the right time to bring General Fusion to the public markets, and how the Spring Valley team put a price on the opportunity at this stage in its development.

Give it a listen.

Inside Key Mining’s $303M deal with Compass Digital Acquisition Corp.

Titanium, copper and water. What do they have in common? All will be products of one of the latest companies to head to the public markets via a SPAC transaction.

This week, we speak with Key Mining founders Cesar Lopez and John Ryan as well as Compass Digital Acquisition Corp. CEO Tom Hennessy to break down their $303 million business combination.

Cesar and John discuss how they brought together a signature titanium mining project in Chile with a water desalination project that is set to support it. They lay out why they are combining these two assets with a copper project in Arizona and how both stand to benefit from the critical metals incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act.

Tom explains how this company fits in his growing family of SPAC transactions and what the roadmap ahead looks like for it beyond close and the listing this deal brings.

 

Adam Back and Sean Bill on Bitcoin Standard Treasury’s $4bn Deal with CEPO

The past year has seen a raft of crypto treasury companies go public via SPACs. Could the next entrant be the one to consolidate the field?

This week, we speak with Adam Back, CEO of Bitcoin Standard Treasury and Sean Bill, who serves as the company’s Chief Investment Officer. The two discuss their company’s $4 billion combination with Cantor Equity Partners I (NASDAQ:CEPO), announced last July.

They discuss why the Cantor team was a good fit for their goals of bringing innovative Bitcoin-based financing structures to the market, and why they believe Bitcoin Standard Treasury’s deep experience with the currency presents unique advantages as it aims to set up a multiple lanes for yield generation.

How do the company’s long-held Bitcoin reserves and its unique Bitcoin PIPE differentiate it from the other treasury plays, and what are the factors that unite the treasury companies that manage to consistently trade above NAV?

Building the Defense Backbone: Precision Aerospace & Defense and FACT II Acquisition Corp.

The work of maintaining and supplying the US armed forces is now front and center in the daily news, but Precision Aerospace & Defense has been long been carrying out a strategy to acquire critical manufacturers and suppliers in this area. Now, it is taking that platform to the public markets in a SPAC deal.

This week, we speak with Brent Borden, CEO of Precision Aerospace & Defense Group and Adam Gishen, CEO of FACT II Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:FACT). The two announced a $310 million business combination last December.

Brent explains how his company has selected with unique capabilities to build an EBITDA-positive network of subsidiaries that differs from traditional private equity roll-up plays.

Adam explains how the company’s backlog provides significant visibility into its future revenue and how the FACT II team will continue to advising the company through its next wave of growth and beyond.

 

Horizon Quantum and dMY Squared (DMYY) on Building the Quantum Tech Stack

SPACs have populated the public markets with a variety of quantum computing hardware technology companies, and now one is poised to list the first quantum software company.

This week, we speak with Dr. Joe Fitzsimons, CEO of Horizon Quantum, and Harry You, Chairman of dMY Squared Technology Group, Inc (OTC:DMYY). The two announced a $546 million combination in September.

Joe explains how Horizon is endeavoring to create the first universal operating system for quantum computers and why that presents both challenges and opportunities while these machines are still in the error correction phase.

Harry gives his perspective on how the development of the quantum computing space could mimic the trajectory of classical computing and which layers of this emerging tech stack could offer the greatest upside to public investors at this early stage.

Maximilian Martin on The Enhanced Games, Where Banned Substances Are the Point

The Winter Olympics and the World Cup are not the only international competitions kicking off this year. The Enhanced Games is gearing up for a May debut as well, with the injection of some SPAC cash and potentially some other performance enhancing substances.

This week, we speak with Maximilian Martin, CEO and Co-founder of The Enhanced Games. It announced a $1.3 billion combination with A Paradise Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:APAD) in November.

Max explains why he has endeavored to create this new competition where athletes may use banned, but otherwise legal substances to up their game, and how the company plans to parlay this event into a broader consumer business. How do you get athletes to walk away from their existing careers for this experimental idea and what kind of precedent is there for such a venture?

Podcast REPLAY: D-Wave, SPACs, and the Quantum Revival

Quantum computing companies have been among the highest performing de-SPAC sectors in years. And, SPACs have made a major impact on quantum computing by being the listing and financing mechanism for a large portion of the publicly traded cohort.

But, the market wasn’t always so bullish on quantum.

This week we return to a conversation we had with Alan Baratz, CEO of D-Wave (NYSE:QBTS) in February 2025.

At the time, Quantum computing stocks had just begun their recent revival and Alan helped break down the ups and downs of the previous years as well as what had changed in the technology.

He shares valuable advice from how D-Wave rolled with the punches in an unfavorable market after closing with DPCM Capital Inc. in 2022, and also how investors should interpret the news of technological advancements coming out the industry.

 

Dr. Christian Weedbrook and Bill Fradin on Xanadu’s $3.1B Quantum SPAC Deal

This week, we speak with Xanadu founder and CEO Dr. Christian Weedbrook and Bill Fradin, CEO of Crane Harbor Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:CHAC). The two announced a $3.1 billion business combination in November.

Is it possible to build a business model that combines features of Amazon Web Services, NVIDIA and a biotech drug developer? Well, Xanadu aims to find out, and it is funding that path via a SPAC.

Christian explains how Xanadu differentiates itself from other players in the quantum computing space by focusing on specific hardware advantages as well as a software approach that allows its machines to work in conjunction with other quantum or traditional computers.

Bill also explains the market has changed since the last wave of SPAC deals in quantum computing and how Xanadu matched the major proving points that Crane Harbor was looking for.

 

Teamshares and Live Oak V (LOKV) on Building a Programmatic M&A Platform

It is rare to find a SPAC deal that launches hundreds or even thousands of mergers in the future, but this one might be it. Teamshares has built a system for the programmatic acquisition of EBITDA-positive businesses that are typically too small to meet the criteria of private equity buyers. Now, it aims to accelerate these efforts with a $746 million combination with Live Oak Acquisition Corp. V’s (NASDAQ:LOKV).

This week, we speak with Teamshares CEO Michael Brown along with Live Oak V CEO Rick Hendrix and CFO Adam Fishman. Michael explains how the company has honed an approach that has seen it absorb targets from a diverse set of industries efficiently, and how this merger can reduce the company’s cost of capital for that mission.

Rick and Adam also lay out how Teamshares fits their own merger criteria that values opportunities that are first-of-their kind for the US market, and how they put a valuation on this unique business.