Good Morning! A Delaware judge ruled JPMorgan must keep paying Charlie Javice's legal bills after failing to show her $74 million in fees were excessive. Ken Griffin was revealed as the mystery buyer who spent $125 million to acquire all 138 condos at Miami's Solaris building as part of Citadel's new HQ campus. And Blackstone-backed Jersey Mike's filed for an IPO seeking to raise over $1 billion at a $12 billion valuation.

Bowlers have finally snapped over Wall Street's takeover of the sport. Private equity sold Care Bears to Authentic Brands Group. And Millennium is targeting at least $10 billion in its latest fundraising.

Plus: Blue Owl investors asked to withdraw $4.7 billion from flagship funds, Microsoft is standing up a 6,000-person organization to help businesses deploy AI, and the US added 1,200 new millionaires a day last year.

It’s the Fourth of July tomorrow. Celebrate your freedom by popping a few fireworks and FRE pouches. Get yours today.

SQUEEZ OF THE DAY

Sovereign Wealth Never Sleeps

Wall Street banks thought U.S. strikes against Iran might freeze the Middle East deal machine. Reasonable assumption. Missiles, regional tension, clients hiding under desks or relocating out of Dubai usually is not great for M&A.

Instead, the Gulf kept writing checks. Deals involving Gulf entities jumped almost 200% in the first half of the year to roughly $300 billion. M&A fees in the region rose 55%, and total Middle East investment banking revenue hit $619 million, up 5% despite an active conflict nearby. Some banks that had already written off their annual targets in Q1 are now scrambling to hire. Turns out governments with giant sovereign wealth funds do not always wait for “visibility” before deploying capital.

The driver is simple: AI money met Gulf money at scale. Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds committed a record $53.9 billion in the first half, with about half going to the U.S. and technology ranking as the most popular sector. Mubadala alone invested $15.2 billion at the group level. Gulf funds piled into OpenAI, Anthropic and the SpaceX IPO. The region is not just buying trophy assets anymore. It is trying to buy a seat at the AI, infrastructure and energy-transition table.

The conflict has actually accelerated some spending. Governments are fast-tracking infrastructure and defense investment. The UAE is building out eastern ports to reduce reliance on the Strait of Hormuz. Saudi Aramco is pursuing its most ambitious privatization plan ever, targeting up to $35 billion. BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners and Brookfield are competing for a $7.5 billion stake in Kuwait’s state oil pipeline network. In normal markets, uncertainty slows decisions. In the Gulf, uncertainty appears to have become part of the investment memo.

Banks are following the money. Barclays moved energy banker George Tanner from London to Dubai. JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered and Rothschild are adding staff. The recruiting pitch is just more complicated now. Low taxes, lifestyle and deal flow still work, but incoming missile barrages are a tougher sell. Recruiters say candidates are making a “physical security choice,” which is a polite way of saying the comp package needs to do more heavy lifting when the job comes with geopolitical push alerts.

The nuance is real. IPOs have been delayed or canceled. Construction, retail and hospitality deals have slowed. U.S.-Iran negotiations keep getting interrupted by tit-for-tat attacks. But strategic sectors like food security, power, infrastructure, logistics and defense are not just holding up. They are accelerating with what one dealmaker called “increased urgency.”

Takeaway: The Middle East is running the most counterintuitive playbook in global finance. Active regional conflict, unstable ceasefires and missile risk would normally send bankers into wait-and-see mode. Instead, Gulf wealth funds are committing record capital, governments are accelerating privatizations, and Wall Street is hiring into the region. The Gulf did not go risk-off. It went shopping.

PRESENTED BY FRE

Let FREedom Ring!

The US is celebrating 250 years as the greatest country on the planet. And, we are doing it in style, with men’s (and women’s) hockey golds, a Gaethje victory over a European in front of the White House, and now a World Cup run to the Round of 16. There is nothing more American than a USA victory with the odds stacked against us. “America is back, baby!”

This Independence Day, add FRE to the celebration. It’s the pouch partnered with the UFC, Ironman, and World’s Strongest Man to push the limits of performance and focus. And, it embodies American freedom itself: a choice of both flavors and strength profiles (3-15mg).

Embrace FREedom. Get FRE today.

HEADLINES

Top Reads

• JPMorgan ordered to keep paying Charlie Javice’s legal bills, topping $70M (NYP)

• Miami condo building is bought out entirely by billionaire Ken Griffin (BB)

• Jersey Mike's publicly files registration statement for proposed IPO (Yahoo Finance)

• Bowlers have finally snapped over Wall Street's takeover of the sport (WSJ)

• Private equity firms sell Care Bears to Authentic Brands Group (WSJ)

• Millennium targets at least $10 billion in latest fundraising (BB)

• Blue Owl investors ask to withdraw $4.7 billion from flagship funds (WSJ)

• Microsoft mobilizes 6,000 workers to help customers adopt AI (BB)

• The U.S. added 1,200 new millionaires a day last year (WSJ)

• Anthropic drives strongest month for Blackstone fund for wealthy (BB)

• SpaceX is junk. That's what the bond market says. (BB)

• M&A is 'on fire' as large-cap firms simplify, Citi UK CEO says (CNBC)

• SpaceX as ultimate blueprint for new wave of mega-cap IPOs (CNBC)

• Jamie Dimon says JPMorgan is investing heavily in defense (WSJ)

• AI and crypto wealth driving private jet boom, says Flexjet (FT)

• Jeff Bezos' family office backed five AI startups in June (CNBC)

• Alcoa buys South32 aluminum assets in up to $5.6 billion deal (WSJ)

CAPITAL PULSE

Markets Rundown

Market Update

• U.S. equities finished mixed after the June employment report, with the Dow gaining more than 1% while the Nasdaq fell 0.8%.

• Utilities, health care, and consumer staples outperformed, while technology and communication services lagged.

• Short-term Treasury yields moved modestly lower following the jobs report, while long-term yields were little changed.

• Overseas, European markets advanced, while Asian markets were mostly lower, led by weakness in South Korea.

Employment

• Nonfarm payrolls increased by 57,000 in June, below expectations for more than 100,000, while the unemployment rate edged down to 4.2%.

• Private payrolls rose by 49,000, while government employment increased by 8,000.

• Payrolls for the prior two months were revised lower by a combined 74,000, though three-month average job growth remains 111,000 per month.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) AeroVironment ($AVAV) +11%  after winning a $500M U.S. Army counter-drone contract, and a fresh Wedbush Outperform initiation at $250.

• (+) Rivian ($RIVN) +8% because Q2 deliveries of 12,194 vehicles beat expectations and the company raised its full-year 2026 delivery guidance.

• (–) Tesla ($TSLA) -8% after a sell-the-news reaction to a blowout Q2 delivery report as investors focused on a 421x P/E and a 20% sales decline.

Prediction Markets

• Last week, predictions were over 26M GTA VI pre-orders…

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

Private Dealmaking

• Quantum Systems, a German drone maker, raised $1.2 billion

• Celea Therapeutics, a biotech focused on idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, raised $180 million

• Shortical, a scripted micro-series platform, raised $100 million

• Lycia Therapeutics, a biotech targeting disease-causing extracellular proteins, raised $75 million

• Venice AI, a privacy-focused AI platform, raised $65 million

• Patronus, an AI agent stress-testing startup, raised $50 million

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

BOOK OF THE DAY

The Intelligence Trap

Description:
A fascinating exploration from David Robson of why intelligence alone is not enough to make good decisions. Drawing on psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral economics, the book explains how highly intelligent people are often more susceptible to cognitive biases, overconfidence, and flawed reasoning. It offers practical strategies for improving judgment, thinking more clearly under uncertainty, and developing the intellectual humility needed to make consistently better decisions.

Book Length: 336 pages
Release Date: August 29, 2019

Ideal For:
Leaders, investors, entrepreneurs, and anyone looking to improve critical thinking, decision-making, and avoid the mental traps that can undermine even the smartest people.

The greatest obstacle to wise thinking is not a lack of intelligence, but the belief that intelligence alone is enough.

DAILY VISUAL

The Case for Value Over Growth Is Building

PRESENTED BY PRIMER

ChatGPT Just Scored a 43% on Its Analyst Exam

A leading analyst training firm put the top AI tools through a classic first-year assignment, a fully integrated three-statement model for Apple, and graded them like trainees. ChatGPT scored 43%, Claude managed 48%, and Shortcut topped the field at 50%. All of them failed. Yet, most investors still paste tickers into these chatbots and trust their modeling (and research).

Tier 1 Hedge funds run their work through Primer instead, which took the same test and scored 81%, a full 31 points clear of Shortcut.* Built by former analysts, Primer builds your investment thesis, flows assumptions through the statements, and scorecards companies before capital gets committed. Until now, access was reserved for institutions. Today it's open to everyone.

Get your own hedge fund analyst.

DAILY ACUMEN

Regret Asymmetry

At the end of things, people almost never regret the risks that failed. They regret the risks they never took. The failed attempt at least gave them an answer, a story, a closed door they can stop wondering about. The chance not taken stays open forever, quietly asking what might have happened, and that unanswered question turns out to be far heavier than any failure.

This is worth knowing now, while the choices are still in front of you, because in the moment the math feels reversed. The risk looks terrifying and inaction looks safe. But the accounting that matters is the one you will do years from now, and by that measure the expensive mistakes are almost always the things you wanted and talked yourself out of.

When you are genuinely torn, weight the decision toward the version you will not have to wonder about. The pain of failing fades. The ache of never knowing does not.

ENLIGHTENMENT

Short Squeez Picks

• The dating apps that want you to meet at the gym

• America is headed towards the infinite workweek 

• The science behind tossing and turning at night

• 10 leadership qualities linked to high-performing companies

• Is protein powder bad for your long-term health?

MEME-A-PALOOZA

Memes of the Day

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