Good Morning! America just got a whole lot richer. Over 560,000 new millionaires were minted in 2024, thanks to 401(k)s booming. Meanwhile, JPMorgan will let its clients borrow against crypto ETFs. And in a rare win for PE fundraising, Thoma Bravo closed a massive $34.4 billion across three funds.

Trump blasted ‘Too Late’ Powell after a new report shows lowest jobs growth in two years. OpenAI now has 3 million business users, and Reddit is suing Anthropic for illegal scraping of its site.

Plus: Businesses are raising prices after tariffs, even on unaffected goods, and JPMorgan’s 2025 summer reading list.

Spot critical errors before they cost you—see how Macabacus makes financial modeling faster, safer, and smarter.

SQUEEZ OF THE DAY

McKinsey Replaces MBAs With AI

McKinsey has been putting its own notorious playbook to work recently - trimming staff and outsourcing its bread-and-butter tasks. Lilli, the firm’s in-house generative AI, has already become its most productive “employee.” 

Lilli is named after McKinsey’s first female hire (Lillian Dombrowski), and Lilli now helps create proposal drafts and PowerPoint decks for 75% of the firm’s 40,000 staffers. Lilli doesn’t just spit out slides. She comes with “Tone of Voice” tuning, corporate-safe compliance features, and can leverage the firms’ massive troves of data.

McKinsey might be finding they don’t need as many MBAs on $200k+ salaries reformatting bar charts - when Lilli can do it in seconds. McKinsey, which may have championed more layoffs than any other firm in history, has been quietly putting its own advice into practice. Headcount has dropped 10% in 18 months, from 45,000 to 40,000. 

McKinsey isn’t alone - Bain consultants now lean on “Sage,” their OpenAI-powered chat tool; PWC’s Strategy& is hooked into Microsoft Copilot; and Boston Consulting Group says AI advisory now drives 20% of firm revenue.

McKinsey’s AI “czar” Kate Smaje sums it up: “Do we need armies of business analysts creating PowerPoint projects? No.” And while the move is aimed at helping analysts “focus on more valuable tasks,” McKinsey might at least need fewer of them. It’s very unlikely that even the smartest analysts were doing much more beyond PowerPoint and Excel arts-and-crafts.

Takeaway: AI is set to disrupt countless industries, and it’s starting with the one that built its brand on telling others how to cut costs. At McKinsey, the days of mind-numbing PowerPoint marathons may be numbered. But getting a job at an elite consulting firm might get a lot harder, unless you bring real value… like being the human who takes credit for Lilli’s work.

HEADLINES

Top Reads

• The U.S. minted more than 560,000 new millionaires in 2024 (Fortune)

• JPMorgan to allow crypto collateral (BB)

• Trump slams Fed chair Powell after hiring slowdown (Axios)

• Thoma Bravo’s $34B fundraising haul bucks private equity slowdown (WSJ)

• JPMorgan promotion goes to possible Jamie Dimon successor Marianne Lake (NYP)

• Amazon invests $10B in AI expansion (Amazon)

• ChatGPT hits 3M business users (CNBC)

• Reddit sued Anthropic for scraping (CBS)

• Businesses are raising prices after tariffs, even on unaffected goods (Axios)

• Wall Street's love for alternative assets isn't a good deal for clients (BB)

• Private sector hiring rose by lowest in two years (CNBC)

• Trump says ‘extremely hard’ to make a deal with China’ (CNBC)

• Trump says ‘Too Late’ Powell must lower interest rates after weak jobs report (CNBC)

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CAPITAL PULSE

Markets Rundown

Market Update

• Stocks were little changed Wednesday as softer economic data hinted at slowing momentum.

• ADP payrolls showed the weakest job growth in over a year, while ISM Services fell just below the expansion line.

• Bond yields dropped, with the 10-year Treasury yield closing at 4.36% and the 2-year dipping below 3.9%.

• European markets gained ahead of today’s ECB meeting, where a rate cut is expected. Asia finished mostly higher overnight.

Economic Data Highlights

• ADP Private Payrolls (May): +37K vs. +130K expected – weakest gain since March 2023.

• ISM Services PMI (May): Fell to 49.9 vs. 50.5 expected – signals contraction in the services sector.

• Job Openings (Apr): Held at 7.4M, still exceeding unemployment levels, indicating labor demand remains firm.

• 10-year Treasury yield: Closed at 4.36%, down 9 basis points.

Reported Earnings

• Dollar Tree (DLTR): Mixed – Revenue beat, but margins were under pressure, leading to an earnings miss.

• MongoDB (MDB): Beat – Strong Atlas platform adoption drove results above expectations.

• Five Below (FIVE): Miss – Sales and earnings came in below estimates; comp-store sales declined.

Earnings Today

• Broadcom (AVGO): Reporting June 5 (After Market Close) – Focus on AI chip demand and software segment momentum.

• Lululemon (LULU): Reporting June 5 (After Market Close) – Key watch on global expansion and inventory levels.

• DocuSign (DOCU): Reporting June 5 (After Market Close) – Investors looking at enterprise renewals and e-signature growth.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) Guidewire Software ($GWRE) +16% after the software company announced strong Q3 earnings.

• (–) Tesla ($TSLA) -4% because of weak sales in European markets.

• (–) CrowdStrike ($CRWD) -6% after the cybersecurity company issued weak revenue guidance.

Private Dealmaking

• Boltech, an embedded insurtech, raised $147 million

• Antheia, a Narcan ingredient manufacturer, raised $56 million

• Zero Networks, a cybersecurity startup, raised $55 million

• Buildots, a construction management platform, raised $45 million

• Voxel, a logistics safety startup, raised $44 million

• General Medicine, a telehealth provider, raised $32 million

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

BOOK OF THE DAY

On Air

Founded in 1970, NPR is America’s most powerful broadcast news network.

Despite being overshadowed by the larger and more glamorous PBS, public radio has long been home to shows such as All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and This American Life that captivate millions of listeners in homes, cars, and workplaces across the nation.

NPR and its hosts are a cultural force and a trusted voice, and they have created a mode of journalism and storytelling that helps Americans understand the world in which we live.

In On Air, a book fourteen years in the making, journalist Steve Oney tells the dramatic history of this institution, tracing the comings and goings of legendary on-air talents and the rise and fall and occasional rise again of brilliant and sometimes venal executives.

It depicts how NPR created a medium for extraordinary journalism—in which reporters and producers use microphones as paintbrushes and the voices of people around the world as the soundtrack of stories both global and local.

Featuring details on the controversial firing of Juan Williams, the sloppy dismissal of Bob Edwards, and a $235 million bequest by Joan B. Kroc, widow of the founder of McDonald’s, On Air also chronicles NPR’s daring shift into the digital world and its early embrace of podcasting formats, establishing the network as a formidable media empire.

Fascinating, revelatory, and irresistibly dishy, this is a riveting account of NPR’s unlikely launch, chaotic ascent, and ultimate triumph.

“An epic reported history of National Public Radio that reveals the unlikely story of one of America’s most celebrated but least understood media empires.”

DAILY VISUAL

It's a Homebuyer's Market If You Can Afford One

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DAILY ACUMEN

Self Esteem

Most advice on self-esteem tells you to boost it—say affirmations, collect achievements, seek approval.

But research shows these quick fixes often backfire.

When you don’t truly believe them, they create more internal conflict, not less.

That’s because self-esteem, as we commonly think of it, is conditional: it depends on performance, success, likability.

And anything conditional is fragile.

The alternative is unconditional self-acceptance.

This means recognizing that your worth isn’t something to earn. It’s not tied to your job title, your appearance, or how many people approve of you.

You can judge your actions—whether they were helpful, harmful, wise, or foolish—but you don’t judge yourself as a person. You’re not a score to be calculated.

This shift is powerful. It removes the constant pressure to perform. You stop asking, “Am I good enough?” and start saying, “I’m already enough.

And now, what do I want to do with that?” You still take responsibility. You still grow. But it’s rooted in self-respect, not self-punishment.

Real self-worth doesn’t come from winning. It comes from stepping off the field entirely—and realizing you were never in a contest to begin with.

ENLIGHTENMENT

Short Squeez Picks

• How to manage your time better

• JPMorgan’s 2025 summer reading list

• You don’t have to love your job to live a purposeful life

• How a 5-minute habit can 10x your weekly output

• How to build a winning team, on or off the court

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