Good Morning! Micron's revenue nearly tripled on soaring memory demand. Trump's border wall spending has minted a billionaire family: North Dakota's Fisher Sand & Gravel has raked in over $8 billion since last July. JPMorgan is tapping Dwyane Wade and Tom Brady for its new athlete wealth management push.

Nespresso hired Dua Lipa in a bid to win over Gen Z coffee drinkers. Fontainebleau Miami Beach is getting a water park despite local protests. And Meta is now paying Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube creators to post on Facebook.

Plus: Companies say the risks of open AI models are worth it, PIMCO sees private credit strains triggering a wake-up call on liquidity risks, and how to be a better walker.

Looking to build AI agents for finance? Request a demo of Daloopa - the deepest and most complete fundamental data API.

SQUEEZ OF THE DAY

Kirkland's Record $11M Partner Pay

While private equity firms spent 2025 stuck in the mud, struggling to exit portfolio companies bought at peak valuations, unable to return capital to LPs, and watching carry fade in slow motion, their lawyers were having a monster year.

Kirkland & Ellis became the first law firm in history to top $10 billion in annual revenue, posting $10.6 billion for 2025, up 21% from the year before. 

Its 595 equity partners averaged $11.1 million each, a roughly 20% raise in a single year. So while LPs were explaining away another weak distribution year, the firm billing them was printing money.

Kirkland advised on more than $800 billion of global M&A last year, good for roughly 15% market share, more than any other firm in the world. Its mandates included the Warner Bros. Discovery split and the $55 billion Silver Lake-led take-private of Electronic Arts. If a megadeal happens, Kirkland is likely getting paid.

Kirkland’s dominance, though, is starting to irritate the very clients who made Kirkland rich. Last year, the firm gave lawyers communication training after PE firms complained Kirkland had become dismissive in negotiations, rejecting even minor fund terms without explanation. And these are not retail clients whining about legal bills; these are some of the most powerful buyout shops in the world, and they were essentially telling their outside counsel you’re acting like you don’t need us anymore. 

The tension got more visible when star debt lawyer David Nemecek defected to Simpson Thacher after his restructuring practice reportedly strained Kirkland's sponsor relationships. Around the same time, Kirkland resigned as counsel to Altice USA under pressure from major private capital firms. Kirkland is still winning on economics, but the relationship equity built over decades is starting to get spent down.

And if the $11.1 million per partner figure has you eyeing Big Law as the easiest arbitrage on Wall Street, it isn't. Kirkland pays extremely well, and top associates can make serious money. But the lifestyle can be even harsher than investment banking or private equity because the hours are just as brutal if not worse, the work is more open-ended, and there is no clean, predictable promotion track.

Takeaway: Kirkland is the ultimate toll booth on the PE highway. When deals flow, nobody complains about the tolls. When exits dry up and carry disappears, watching your law firm become the first $10 billion revenue machine in Big Law history stings differently. It's a relationship problem disguised as a fee problem, but one thing is clear: Big Law finds a way to get paid regardless of cycle.

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HEADLINES

Top Reads

• Micron gives a blowout earnings forecast, but its stock falls (CNBC)

• JPMorgan taps Tom Brady, Dwyane Wade for new athlete wealth management push (CNBC)

• Trump immigration spending creates the first border wall billionaire (BB)

• Nespresso knows Gen Z runs coffee now, so it hired Dua Lipa (Fast Company)

• Fontainebleau Miami Beach gets water park in lobbying push amid protests (BB)

• Meta will pay Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube creators to post on Facebook (CNBC)

• Companies say the risks of open AI models are worth it (WSJ)

• Pimco sees private credit strains triggering wake-up call on liquidity risks (BB)

• The development boom in Gramercy Park (NYT)

• C.O. Bigelow: NYC pharmacy packed like sardines due to 'Love Story' (CNBC)

• PPI inflation surprise: producer prices rise more than forecast in February, complicating Fed outlook (YF)

• Trump issues temporary waiver of Jones Act requirements to fight rising domestic energy prices (YF)

• Banks lean in to finance private credit fund withdrawals even as sentiment sours (WSJ)

• He's leaving Citigroup to be a CEO — can he land the big job? (WSJ)

• Powell says no intention of leaving Fed until investigation is over (BB)

• Banks prepare to offload $18bn in debt tied to EA take-private deal (FT)

CAPITAL PULSE

Markets Rundown

Market Action

• U.S. equities moved lower following a hotter-than-expected inflation print and the Fed decision

• Weakness was led by consumer staples and consumer discretionary sectors

• Asian markets were higher overnight, led by Korea’s Kospi, while Europe closed lower

• The U.S. dollar strengthened as investors leaned into safe-haven assets

• WTI crude continued to rise amid ongoing disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz

• Treasury yields climbed, with the 10-year reaching ~4.26%

Fed Decision

• The Federal Reserve held rates steady at 3.50%–3.75%, in line with expectations

• Updated projections still point to one rate cut this year and another next year

• The Fed raised its inflation outlook for 2026–2027, citing:

  • Higher oil prices

  • Ongoing tariff effects

• Growth expectations were also revised higher, supported by productivity gains

• Policy is now viewed as roughly neutral, with rates near 3.65% vs. PCE inflation at ~2.8%

• A stable labor market gives the Fed flexibility to wait for clearer evidence of sustained disinflation

Inflation Trends

• Producer Price Index (PPI) rose to 3.4% YoY, above expectations of ~2.7%

• The increase was driven largely by services inflation (+3.8% YoY)

• Wholesale inflation is now running well above CPI (~2.4%)

• Some PPI components feed into PCE, reinforcing the case for Fed caution

• Elevated input costs, combined with energy pressures, suggest inflation remains sticky in the near term

Movers & Shakers

• (+) Macy’s ($M) +5% after the department store beat Q4 earnings and revenue estimates, with same-store sales growing 1.8%, its first positive comp growth in years.

• (+) Rocket Lab ($RKLB) -12% because the company announced a $1 billion stock offering following its strong run, diluting existing shareholders.

• (–) Gemini Space Station ($GEMI) -16% after Citi downgraded the crypto company to Sell, citing ongoing profitability concerns.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Prediction Markets

• March Madness Week: Biggest upset of the tournament

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

Private Dealmaking

• Xbow, an autonomous offensive security startup, raised $120 million

• Advanced Navigation, a developer of navigation and autonomous systems, raised about $110 million

• Excalipoint Therapeutics, a biotech focused on cancer and autoimmune therapies, raised $68.7 million

• Surf AI, an agentic security operations platform, raised $57 million

• Roboforce, an industrial robotics company, raised $52 million

• Solugen, a biochemical startup, raised $50 million

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

BOOK OF THE DAY

The Mattering Instinct

Description: A thoughtful exploration of the human need to matter and how that instinct shapes behavior, relationships, and society. Goldstein draws on philosophy, psychology, and cultural analysis to show how the desire for recognition and significance can inspire achievement and connection, while also fueling division, conflict, and misunderstanding. The book offers a nuanced view of how this core drive influences both individual lives and broader social dynamics.

Book Length: 320 pages
Release Date: January 13, 2026

Ideal For: Thinkers, philosophers, psychologists, and anyone interested in the forces that drive human behavior and social connection.

The desire to matter is one of the most powerful human motivators, capable of building connection or creating division depending on how it is understood and expressed.

DAILY VISUAL

Corp America Won't Shut Up About AI

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DAILY ACUMEN

Confidence

Most confidence is not a personality trait. It is familiarity in disguise. People seem fearless in the areas they have simply practiced longer than everyone else in the room.

This is actually great news, because it means confidence is not something you either have or don't. It is something that accumulates as a byproduct of doing the thing enough times that it stops feeling like a performance and starts feeling like just a thing you do.

The terrifying first attempt is not evidence that you lack confidence. It is evidence that you haven't started yet.

ENLIGHTENMENT

Short Squeez Picks

• How to be a better walker

• A tool to measure your emotional labor

• How to rebuild your reading habits

• Why Gen-Z wants more office work

• Jamie Dimon’s career goal he learned at 28

MEME-A-PALOOZA

Memes of the Day

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