> - Amazon's $50B is only $15B, with the rest being "after certain conditions are met", whatever that means (probably an IPO, which isn't happening)

Startup funding is often given in increments depending on milestones being met. Most startups just don’t announce that it’s conditional.

For large funding rounds, nobody gets a check for the full amount at once.

The funding would not be conditional on an IPO because that wouldn’t make any sense. The IPO is the liquidity event for the investors and there’s no reason for a startup to take private investment money that only enters the company after IPO.