Good Morning! Morgan Stanley is working to contain the damage from a leaked deal list, and regulators in China and India are already investigating the incident. Ken Griffin is running into opposition over plans to build a personal heliport in Miami Beach, even after claiming his helicopter is the quietest model available.

Blackstone is launching a private markets fund for retail clients outside the US for the first time in its history. Leopold Aschenbrenner's Situational Awareness hedge fund reportedly paid Goldman Sachs over $200 million, more than any other Goldman hedge fund client. And Trump Jr.'s 1789 Capital is in talks to raise $3 billion in new funds.

Plus: Blackstone shelved a $3 billion collateralized fund obligation deal after months of trying to offload aging PE stakes, and just how gross nail-biting really is.

Mosaic continues to ship upgrades to their modeling platform. See their new accretion/dilution model here.

SQUEEZ OF THE DAY

Private Credit Wants JPMorgan’s Rejects

It's been a rough year for private credit, and it's looking for new places to lend. JPMorgan has an idea for the credit-card applicants it doesn't want: let private credit have them.

The bank is exploring a so-called “second-look” program that would allow outside lenders to approve some applicants JPMorgan rejects for co-branded cards. The cards are tied to partners like United Airlines, Amazon and Marriott, and some private-credit giants like Blue Owl, Blackstone, KKR and Sixth Street have expressed interest. 

Airlines and retailers want as many customers as possible approved for their cards because more cardholders mean more spending. But banks, on the other hand, are the ones on the hook for the credit risk if those customers stop paying. That tension has blown up partnerships before, and Walmart ditched Synchrony partly over approval rates, and Goldman's willingness to approve nearly everyone Apple wanted contributed to a much riskier Apple Card book. JPMorgan, which is preparing to take over the Apple Card program, has a pretty obvious incentive not to relearn that lesson the hard way.

JPMorgan can keep its own underwriting standards intact while allowing another lender to take a second look at borrowers it turns down. Roughly 85% of JPMorgan's existing credit-card balances come from consumers with FICO scores of at least 660, so the second-look pool would naturally skew toward borrowers outside the bank's normal comfort zone. And private credit's entire business model, which is all about finding ways to fund loans banks either can't or don't want to keep on their own balance sheets, seems like a pretty good middle-ground.

The private credit industry had a much rougher 2026, with rising defaults in the corporate direct-lending business that made private credit famous. So naturally, the industry is looking for new places to put its enormous piles of capital to work and, rather than making a $500 million loan to one highly leveraged company, firms can fund thousands of credit-card, personal-loan or buy-now-pay-later balances and spread the risk across a much larger pool of borrowers.

Takeaway: Private credit grew up feasting on loans banks backed away from after the financial crisis. Now it may be getting a shot at something even more mainstream: the customers JPMorgan itself says no to. If this goes anywhere, the next frontier for private credit might not be another leveraged buyout; it might be the guy who just got declined for a United card.

PRESENTED BY MOSAIC

Mosaic Now Supports a New Accretion/Dilution Model

With Mosaic’s FactSet or CapIQ integration, users can quickly build an M&A model that incorporates acquirer and target operating forecasts, synergies, purchase price allocation, and deal financing assumptions.

• Evaluate public and private targets

• Build flexible operating models and TEV

• Model synergies and purchase price allocation

• Refinance or roll over target debt

• Customize Acc/Dil sensitivities

Save yourself hours of modeling stress, and let Mosaic do the heavy lifting on your models.

Book a demo today.

HEADLINES

Top Reads

• Morgan Stanley rushes to contain fallout after deal list leak (BB)

• Ken Griffin's Miami Beach helipad plan faces resident pushback (BB)

• Oracle cites 'force majeure' to shield itself on controversial data center (BB)

• Blackstone debuts first multi-asset fund for non-US individuals (BB)

• Trump Jr.'s 1789 Capital in talks to raise $3 billion in new funds (BB)

• Blackstone shelves $3 billion deal as buyers spurn old PE stakes (BB)

• Goldman made more than $200M in fees from hedge fund Situational Awareness (FT)

• Amid raves for Meta's Muse, subscription stocks slump (Axios)

• Jamie Dimon says hyperscaler AI spending could hit $1 trillion next year (CNBC)

• Meta debuts dedicated 'Charm' device for using Muse AI (BB)

• The AI build-out is becoming the biggest economic bet in U.S. history (WSJ)

• Anthropic's coming IPO riches fuel a new political donor network (BB)

• Kobayashi in $3.2 billion buyout talks after red-yeast scandal (BB)

• Surging Treasury yields pose a brand new problem for Kevin Warsh and the Fed (CNBC)

• Pete Hegseth reports at least $3.1 million in cash, investments and Bitcoin (CNBC)

• Anthropic strikes $12 billion deal with Akamai for AI computing (BB)

• Family offices double down on stocks and private equity even as inflation spurs worry, Citi survey finds (CNBC)

• Barry Diller folds on MGM Resorts takeover (Axios)

CAPITAL PULSE

Markets Rundown

Market Update

• Stocks ended little changed as WTI crude rose 3% and Brent stayed above $100, with reports of talks for a phased Strait of Hormuz reopening.

• The 10-year Treasury yield hit 5.21%, its highest since 2007, and the 30-year climbed to 5.47%, its highest since 2004.

• Diesel prices surged to record highs, adding to broader inflation concerns.

Economic Data

• Yesterday's PMI data showed business activity expanding at its fastest pace since 2021, consistent with roughly 5% annualized GDP growth.

• S&P 500 earnings are on track for the year to grow 36%.

• Rising yields reflect both inflation concerns and stronger growth, per the report.

China Trade and Corporate News

• Treasury Secretary Bessent announced the U.S. and China agreed to extend their trade truce two months, through January 10.

• The extension precedes planned leader meetings at the APEC summit in November and the G20 summit in December.

• Oracle shares fell more than 3% after invoking force majeure on a New Mexico data center project amid regulatory setbacks.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) Meta ($META) +5% after unveiling the $1,299 Meta VR headset and a compact AI device called Charm.

• (–) Oracle ($ORCL) -3% because the company sent a force majeure notice on its $165 billion Project Jupiter AI data center in New Mexico.

• (–) MGM Resorts ($MGM) -11% after Barry Diller's People Inc. withdrew its $18 billion bid to take the casino operator private.

Prediction Markets

• After such a busy week, fear seems to be the overwhelming theme this week.

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

Private Dealmaking

• Island, an enterprise internet browser and control layer, raised $400 million

• Precision Neuroscience, a brain-computer interface startup, raised $250 million

• Rightway, a pharmacy benefit management and care navigation startup, raised $155 million

• Basecamp Research, a developer of AI models for therapeutic designs, raised $140 million

• Pixxel, an Indian hyperspectral imaging startup, raised $100 million

• Poseidon Aerospace, a developer of cargo-hauling unmanned aircraft, raised $60 million

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

BOOK OF THE DAY

The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State

Description:
Jill Lepore examines how technology, data, automation, and artificial intelligence have transformed the relationship between governments, corporations, and citizens. Drawing on history, political theory, and technology, she traces the roots of what she calls the “Artificial State,” from the rise of technocracy and machine-driven decision-making to today's algorithmic systems and AI. Lepore argues that the growing reliance on machines to govern, predict, persuade, and organize society raises fundamental questions about democracy, human agency, and the role of government. She also explores the environmental consequences of the technological infrastructure behind the digital economy. Rather than treating today's technological transformation as inevitable, Lepore places it within a longer historical trajectory, asking whether societies can understand its origins well enough to reshape its future.

Book Length: 336 pages
Release Date: August 25, 2026

Ideal For:
Executives, technology investors, entrepreneurs, policymakers, historians, and readers interested in AI, democracy, technology, political economy, and the long-term consequences of automation.

“Technology may shape the future, but history reminds us that the systems humans create can also be changed by humans.”

DAILY VISUAL

Hyperscaler Credit Rests on One Consensus Assumption

PRESENTED BY ROADWAY MOVING

Moving in NYC, Done Properly

Moving in New York is expensive, exhausting and usually a broken week.

Roadway Moving does it right: crews that show up on time, COIs and elevator reservations sorted before anyone touches a box, and you're done in an afternoon.

They're the official moving partner of the New York Yankees for a reason.
Short Squeez readers get 10% off local moves and 5% off long-distance.

Check them out and use code overheard10.

DAILY ACUMEN

Regret Minimize

Faced with a genuinely hard, high-stakes decision, most people default to weighing the immediate pros and cons: cost, comfort, what feels safer right now. A more useful frame, one associated with Jeff Bezos's decision to leave a stable finance job to start Amazon, is to instead project yourself to 80 years old and ask which choice you would regret not having made.

This reframing does real work because it filters out a specific kind of noise: the short-term discomfort that dominates most decisions but rarely matters on a longer horizon. The awkward conversation, the temporary pay cut, the risk of looking foolish if it doesn't work, all of these carry enormous weight in the moment and almost none from thirty years out.

It is not a framework for every decision, and using it on trivial choices just adds unnecessary drama to picking a restaurant. It earns its keep specifically on the rare, largely irreversible decisions, the ones where the actual question was never whether it's comfortable, but whether you could live with never having tried.

ENLIGHTENMENT

Short Squeez Picks

• Why willpower alone won't get you there

• Why letting your best people leave might be smart

• The management habits quietly killing engagement

• Just how gross nail-biting really is

• Stop asking whether you're good enough

MEME-A-PALOOZA

Memes of the Day

📣 Partner With Us: Get in front of an audience of over 1 million finance professionals, business leaders, and policy influencers. Submit a partnership inquiry.

📊 Wall Street Comp & Culture Data: Get the most detailed comp, carry, and culture insights across 1000+ Wall Street firms. Explore the data.

📈 Grow With Us: Work directly with the Overheard on Wall Street team to scale your finance brand. Schedule your free consult.

🧢 Wall Street Shop: Explore our collection of finance-themed apparel and merchandise. Visit the shop.

📬 Deals Newsletter – Buysiders: A curated roundup of major M&A, private equity, and VC activity. Plus access to private deal flow. Subscribe here.