Good Morning! The US created a $1.8 billion "lawfare" fund in exchange for Trump dropping a $10 billion IRS suit. Public BDCs are pricing in their worst pain since Covid. And NextEra is buying Dominion in a $67 billion all-stock deal, the largest utility merger ever, in a direct bet on AI power demand.

Blue Owl returned to the market with a $400 million bond offering. Musk's xAI promised staff $420 for their tax returns but hasn't paid. And AI is poised to tilt job-market leverage toward older workers.

Plus: Family investors are turning to old-economy businesses like dealerships and fisheries to sidestep AI disruption, and 4 science-backed skills to start flourishing.

By all accounts, the Trump-Xi Summit appeared to be a success, but rare earth metals continue to be an obstacle. Learn more about the possible solution here.

SQUEEZ OF THE DAY

Elon Musk Lost

Yesterday, a jury unanimously rejected Musk's claims against OpenAI and Sam Altman after less than two hours of deliberation. Musk had argued that OpenAI "stole a charity" by converting the nonprofit he helped launch into a for-profit AI giant. But the jury ruled that Musk waited too long to sue. And after years of legal filings, billionaire depositions, and enough internal OpenAI texts, the statute of limitations ended the whole argument before lunch.

The business implications matter for OpenAI’s IPO. Musk had been seeking to oust Altman and President Greg Brockman, unwind OpenAI's for-profit conversion, and force more than $180 billion in damages into an OpenAI foundation. That would have been a nuclear-level problem for the company's IPO plans.

Instead, the main claims were dismissed. OpenAI's defense was simple and apparently convincing: Musk knew about the for-profit plans years ago, supported them at the time, and only objected after he failed to gain control.

The jury saw texts, emails, and internal documents suggesting Musk was in the loop as early as 2017. One message from Shivon Zilis, former OpenAI board member and mother of four of Elon's children, read: "Seems like Greg, Ilya, Elon a go on for-profit."

The trial also accidentally became the most revealing financial disclosure OpenAI has ever produced. Greg Brockman testified his stake is worth close to $30 billion. Former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever said his equity is worth about $7 billion. Microsoft's stake was valued around $135 billion as of October, with Satya Nadella testifying Microsoft had targeted a $92 billion return on its investment.

Altman holds no direct OpenAI equity but disclosed stakes in companies that do business with it, including Helion, Stripe, and Cerebras. So yes, this case was about mission and nonprofit governance. It was also about one of the greatest wealth-creation machines Silicon Valley has ever built, aired in public, under oath.

Takeaway: This was a high-stakes fight over the legal foundation of the company at the center of the AI economy, and it landed right before what could be one of the biggest IPOs in history. Appeals and antitrust fights may still linger, and Musk's xAI is pursuing separate claims. But the main event is over. OpenAI survived the lawsuit that could have derailed everything, and its IPO story just got a lot cleaner.

PRESENTED BY VICTORY METALS

The Art of the Deal

Last week, Trump and Xi sat down to negotiate trade. Tariffs, tech, and goods were all on the docket. China's stranglehold on heavy rare earth processing, however, likely wasn’t. China controls roughly 90% of global supply and placed all seven key elements under export restrictions last year.

The US has been searching for Western-aligned alternatives. One Australian company, Victory Metals, sits on a 321-million-tonne JORC-compliant resource producing all seven restricted elements, with a scoping study showing a 52% IRR and a US EXIM Bank letter of interest for up to $190M in financing.

If there’s someone who can get a China deal done, it’s Trump. If not, there’s Victory Metals.

Explore VTM and their mine here.*

HEADLINES

Top Reads

• U.S. creates $1.8B ‘lawfare’ fund in exchange for Trump dropping $10B IRS suit (CNBC)

• Public BDCs are pricing in most pain since Covid (BB)

• NextEra, Dominion announce merger to create US power behemoth (Axios)

• Blue Owl fund returns to market with $400 million bond offering (BB)

• Musk's xAI promised staff $420 for their tax returns, hasn't paid (BB)

• AI poised to tilt job market leverage toward older workers (BB)

• Family investors turn to old-economy businesses like dealerships and fisheries to avoid AI disruption (CNBC)

• Retail euphoria turns six-week fund into record-busting AI trade (BB)

• Tech and AI infrastructure industries push back on narrative that consumers are stuck with data center electricity bill (Axios)

• Playground Global raises $475 million for its fourth fund (Axios)

• Meta's layoffs starting this week underscore Zuckerberg's AI reality (CNBC)

• SpaceX's mega IPO puts a price tag on the fear of missing out (BB)

• Elon Musk loses court battle against Sam Altman and OpenAI after 3-week trial (CNBC)

CAPITAL PULSE

Markets Rundown

Market Update

• U.S. equity markets closed modestly lower as Treasury yields continued moving higher

• Energy led sector gains alongside higher oil prices, while technology and industrials lagged

• Internationally, Asian markets finished mostly lower overnight, while European equities moved higher

• WTI crude oil advanced amid ongoing disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz

• The U.S. dollar weakened against major currencies after strong gains last week

• Treasury yields continued climbing as investors reassessed the outlook for inflation and Fed policy

NVIDIA Earnings in Focus

• Investor attention is now shifting toward upcoming earnings from NVIDIA, scheduled for Wednesday

• Consensus estimates call for:

  • EPS growth of roughly 116% year-over-year

  • Continued strong AI-related demand

• Given NVIDIA’s central role in the AI investment cycle, results and guidance could significantly impact:

  • Technology sentiment

  • Semiconductor stocks

  • Broader market leadership

Movers & Shakers

• (+) Bio-Rad ($BIO) +14% after Elliott Investment Management reportedly built a significant stake in the company.

• (+) ServiceNow ($NOW) +9% because Bank of America reinstated coverage with a Buy rating.

• (–) Regeneron ($REGN) -10% after its Phase 3 trial of fianlimab failed to meet its primary endpoint.

  Prediction Markets

• The Iceman cometh.

• Trade on real-world events with Kalshi. Use code OWS to get a $10 bonus when you trade $10.

Private Dealmaking

• Sigma, an AI apps and agentic analytics platform, raised $80 million

• NVision, a German quantum-enabled medical imaging startup, raised $55 million

• Monaco, an SF-based sales platform, raised $50 million​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

• Fathom Therapeutics, a quantum and AI drug design company, raised $47 million​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

• Dust, a multiplayer agentic AI system, raised $40 million

• LTZ Therapeutics, an immunotherapy biotech, raised $38 million​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

For more PE, VC & M&A deals, subscribe to our Buysiders newsletter.

BOOK OF THE DAY

1873

Description:
A sweeping historical and financial examination from Liaquat Ahamed of the global panic of 1873 and how it reshaped modern capitalism. Centered around the influence of the Rothschild family and the interconnected financial system emerging at the time, the book explores banking crises, speculation, political upheaval, and the birth of modern global markets. It reveals how many of the forces driving today’s economies, leverage, contagion, and financial concentration, were already forming more than a century ago.

Book Length: 368 pages
Release Date: June 2, 2026

Ideal For:
Investors, history enthusiasts, and readers interested in financial crises, global capitalism, and the origins of modern economic systems.

Financial crises change more than markets, they reshape societies and redefine who holds power.

DAILY VISUAL

The Post-Buffett Era

PRESENTED BY DALOOPA

Accelerate Research Workflows with Daloopa’s Skills

Even the most powerful AI platforms need instructions for complex financial workflows. Daloopa’s skills are specialized prompts running on Daloopa's MCP that give these tools the instructions for an end-to-end workflow. From earnings deep dives and tearsheet generation to full research notes, financial models, and pitch decks, Daloopa offers 15+ skills to get you up and running quickly in LLMs like Claude. 

Select a skill, enter a ticker, and get a reliable output in minutes, saving you time to focus on more meaningful work. Every output is powered by the most complete and accurate fundamental dataset, with 5,500+ tickers globally and more data points per company than other providers across. Each data point is hyperlinked to its original filing so you can verify every number in one click. 

See why top investment firms use Daloopa for investment research.

Check out Daloopa’s open-source skills library today.

DAILY ACUMEN

Walk and Talk

Some of the most consequential conversations of your career should not happen across a desk. They should happen on a walk. The combination of side-by-side body positioning, gentle movement, and the absence of the implicit power dynamic that comes with sitting across from someone changes the entire texture of what gets said. People become more honest, more reflective, and more willing to surface the things they would never put in writing.

There is also a physiological piece. Walking activates parts of the brain associated with creative thinking and pattern recognition, which is why so many breakthrough ideas in any field have happened while someone was moving rather than seated. Sitting still in a conference room is one of the worst possible environments for thinking through anything genuinely difficult.

The next time something important needs to be discussed, the answer might not be a better meeting. It might be no meeting at all, just thirty minutes outside with the person who matters.

ENLIGHTENMENT

Short Squeez Picks

• 4 science-backed skills to start flourishing

• How long does it take to build muscle?

• Warren Buffett on 5 happiness tips

• Confidence isn’t the absence of doubt

• Why bosses don’t like the four-day workweek 

MEME-A-PALOOZA

Memes of the Day

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