Together with
Good Morning,
Thrive Capital's 2022 vintage is up 7x, Anthropic quarterly revenue surged 14x to $11.5B in Q2, stock-picking funds are performing as poorly as ever, convenience stores are emerging as the hottest AI-proof stocks, and Jane Street took a huge hit in July tied to Situational Awareness in its first down month in a decade.
Stuut, the a16z-backed AI coworker for order-to-cash, is helping finance teams at Honeywell, ZoomInfo, and NCR Voyix to increase cash flow 40% on average. Your firm should check it out!
Let's dive in.
Before The Bell
As of 8/14/2026 market close.
Learn more about the Litquidity portfolios and subscribe to the strategies on Autopilot.*
Markets
US stocks slipped on Friday as traders digested AI optimism against light retail sales economic data
S&P rose for a third-straight week
Japan 10Y yield is at a three-decade high near 3%
Dollar dropped to its lowest since May
Earnings
What we're watching this week:
Tuesday: Klarna, Home Depot
Wednesday: Target, TJX
Thursday: Walmart, Alibaba
Full calendar here
Prediction Markets
Weak retail sales data further lowered odds of a dreadful September rate hike
Deposit $10 and get a $20 bonus with code LIT on signup, only on the Polymarket US app
Headline Roundup
Bonds face bigger threat than Fed as global rates climb (BBG)
Stock-market calm masks fast shifting investor sentiment (BBG)
Stock-picking funds are performing as poorly as ever (WSJ)
Hunt for AI-proof trades turns convenience stores into hot stocks (BBG)
'FOMO insurance' drives options buying spree as stocks rally on (BBG)
Leveraged ETFs snap back as casino crowd mints $50B (BBG)
Bond traders fret over $70B of phantom liabilities (BBG)
Bonds become 'really difficult to trade' as correlations unwind (BBG)
Hyperscaler AI borrowing binge shakes up foreign credit markets (FT)
Japanese firms logged the buybacks ever last week (BBG)
German pension system is set for historic reform (BBG)
Jane Street took a $15B hit tied to Situational Awareness (WSJ)
Open-weight AI won't crimp demand for picks and shovels (WSJ)
Thrive Capital's 2022 vintage is up 7x to $3.7B on AI bets (BBG)
Musk disclosed a 48.4% stake worth $900B in SpaceX (BBG)
Google's SpaceX stake is up 100x to $94B (BBG)
Tiger Global cut stakes in Big Tech but bought into SpaceX (RT)
Anthropic revenue surged 14x to $11.5B in Q2 (RT)
Anthropic IPO valuation hinges on $200B 2028 revenue forecast (RT)
Merger arbitrage funds bet on Paramount-Warner deal success (BBG)
Argentina eased post-2001 dollar loan curbs to boost economy (BBG)
DOJ and CFTC are investigating iron ore trader Radiant World (BBG)
A Message from Stuut
Your cash is sitting in someone else's bank account.
Every day an invoice goes unpaid, you're financing your customer's business for free. Stuut is the AI coworker that runs the entire order-to-cash process, from credit to collections to cash application to payments, working your receivables over email, SMS, and voice.
Finance teams at Honeywell, ZoomInfo, Verifone, NCR Voyix, and PerkinElmer use Stuut to:
Cut DSO by over 47%
Eliminate 70% of manual AR tasks
It plugs into SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics, Sage, QuickBooks and more. Live in 3 days, cash flowing in 7.
Deal Flow
M&A / Strategic
Volkswagen is preparing to reduce its 87.5% stake worth $19B in truckmaker Traton to 75% as part of its restructuring program
Payments fintech Stripe agreed to acquire LLM API startup OpenRouter for over $7B
Diana Shipping dropped its bid to acquire $1.2B-listed rival Genco Shipping & Trading at a 57% premium on valuation disagreements
The Jeff Bezos and Eduardo Saverin-backed consortium of Amit Bhatia, the son-in-law of steel giant ArcelorMittal's founder, agreed to acquire a 30% stake in Liverpool FC from Fenway Sports Groups at a $6B valuation
A consortium of BlackRock's GIP, miner Vale, and steelmaker Gerdau and I Squared Capital offered to acquire a Brazilian port from commodities giant Trafigura and Abu Dhabi SWF Mubadala for $3B and $3.5B respectively
Nvidia is in talks to invest $3B in SB Energy, a SoftBank subsidiary developing an Ohio data center project for OpenAI
Asian PE firm Trustar Capital agreed to acquire Alibaba's gaming unit Lingxi Games for $1.5B
Carlyle and CVC are exploring a joint takeover of security systems provider Bauwatch from German family office Franz Haniel & Cie for $1.2B
US rocket company Astra Space is seeking to raise $250M at a $1B valuation in a fresh funding haul
STG Group will acquire an aluminium stockpile from fraud-accused metals trader Radiant World for $150M
Italian sweet foods giant Ferrero will acquire better-for-you breakfast brand Purely Elizabeth
Automaker Stellantis is considering closing and selling an assembly plant in Toronto
VC
AI video generation startup Higgsfield raised a $450M round at a $5.4B valuation from DST Global, Goldman Sachs, Intel, and others
Vals AI, a model-evaluation startup, raised a $40M Series A at a $400M valuation led by a16z
Aligned Marketplace, an advanced primary care marketplace, raised a $20M Series A led by Venrock
Princeton Critical Minerals, a clean technology startup accelerating lithium production from brine sources, raised an $11M Series A led by SOSV HAX
Access the complete VC deal flow and data on Fundable
IPOs / Listings / Issuances / Block Trades
Carlyle-backed engineering services firm Quest Global Services hired banks for a $1B India IPO
Portugal's SWF Parpública will buy a 13.7% stake worth $375M in power-grid operator REN from Pontegadea Inversiones, the family office of Zara founder Amancio Ortega
Dangote Sugar Refinery, a unit of Africa's largest conglomerate, raised $355M in a share sale to trim debt
Peter Thiel took a 1% stake in Argentina's largest oil company Vista worth $76M
Activist Jana Partners cut its stake in payments company Fiserv by 17%
Hong Kong stablecoin infrastructure provider RedotPay delayed plans for a US IPO amid legal issues
SPAC / SPV
Wireless-service provider MobileX will merge with CONX at a $200M valuation
Debt
Goldman Sachs is in talks to participate in Nvidia's $500B AI financing initiative
Nvidia halved its OpenAI data center backing from $250B to $120B
Kenya plans to raise $815M in a eurobond sale as part of a $5.4B external financing plan which includes a $300M panda bond, a $500M Sukuk, a $1B debt-for-food swap, and a LME to retire $500M of high-cost external debt
EQT's data center subsidiary EdgeConneX is asking banks to guarantee $2.5B in power costs through a letter of credit facility
India's ICICI Bank launched a $1.5B syndicated offshore loan led by Bank of America
Alphabet is preparing a debut Aussie bond sale
Crypto Sum Snapshot
Crypto's $1T rout hits funds built for day-trader crowd
Mark Cuban says computer chips "will be the new crypto"
Trump family-backed crypto firm World Liberty gets conditional bank charter approval
Crypto Sum compiles the most important stories on everything crypto. Subscribe here.
Exec’s Picks
Human-only dealmaking is now the risk. Datasite's new report with FT Longitude reveals why 62% of senior dealmakers say human-only decision-making is no longer defensible in complex deals and how AI is helping teams move faster without replacing human judgment. Read the report.
Thrive Capital CEO Josh Kushner published his first-ever formal letter to investors just days after he announced a record $12B deal for the Lakers. There's some highly interesting perspectives. You can read it here.
Also, it seems like the degenerate economy is only getting more degenerate. For better of for worse…
Financial Services Recruiting 💼
If you're a junior banker looking for your next career move, check out Litney Partners, a recruiting firm established by Litquidity and Whitney Partners (the oldest purely financial services executive search and consulting firm).
We aim to place strong candidates across private equity, hedge funds, venture capital, growth equity, credit, and investment banking.
We're currently seeking talent for some incredible roles. Head over to Litney Partners to drop your resume / create your profile and we'd love to get in touch!
Meme Cleanser
🛒 Merch Store: Visit our merch store to shop our latest apparel, shoes, bags, accessories and more.
💵 Litquidity Ventures: Accredited investors & qualified purchasers within the Litquidity community can gain access to alternative investments such as venture, late-stage growth, and private equity through Litquidity Ventures. Interested? Fill out this form.
☎️ Book a call with Lit: Want to pick Litquidity's brain on business advice, insights, or just chat to say what's up? Buy his time here.
📧 Launch your own newsletter: Have great content ideas and looking to launch your own publication? We highly recommend beehiiv to get started.
*DISCLAIMER: Investment advice provided by Autopilot Advisers, LLC ("Autopilot"), an SEC-registered investment adviser. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investing carries risks, including loss of principal. As always, be smart out there. Litquidity is compensated to promote AutoPilot. Compensation details available upon request.