US stocks slid yesterday as investors digested surging oil prices and yields and calls from AI execs to slow down AI development

US 10Y yield rose past 5% for the first time since 2023

What we're watching this week:  

Full calendar here

Tight odds. But where's Mitch McConnell?

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AI bosses clash with Trump on calls to slow AI development (WSJ)

Europe faced unprecedented risk of being cut off from AI (RT)

MM PE firms move down market in search of value (PB)

Junk firms plot $13B in refinancings as rate hikes loom (BBG)

Bankers who once chased Middle East IPOs look elsewhere (BBG)

Defense and space firms turn to SPACs as investor appetite soars (RT)

AI scare threatens fund flows beating rest of market 13-to-1 (BBG)

European investment in LatAm stocks hit a 15-year high (FT)

TXSE lands fifth company from NYC in a week (BBG)

Anthropic launched a new Claude tool for financial advisors (RT)

Musk resolved antitrust lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI (RT)

Oracle initiated a new round of layoffs (NYP)

Revolut handed nearly 700 customers' data to scammers (FT)

Graduating in AI era is like 'large recession' for starting pay (BBG)

Chasing down the latest EBITDA figure buried in a shared drive

Endless email threads between investment, finance, and IR to finalize valuation marks

Copy-and-paste gymnastics of KPIs across spreadsheets

"In two years, our quarterly reporting workload has scaled 60%. Despite this growth in operational needs, with Chronograph, we can release our reports faster than we could two years ago. The overall quality has improved significantly."

"Chronograph has gotten us out of the weeds of manual workflows, allowing us to be higher-level with our data and focus on the analysis and strategic discussions that keep us at the forefront of the industry and help us deliver maximum value to our LPs."

Italian lender BMPS's two buyout offers for peer Banco BPM and wealth manger Banca Generali to thwart a $40B takeover by rival Intesa Sanpaolo can't be revoked even if Intesa succeeds in its bid

Vista Equity Partners is exploring a $12B sale of financial software company Finastra, with Blackstone as a potential bidder

Michael Dell's family office DFO Management and tech-focused Sequence Holdings will acquire insurance brokerage The Baldwin Insurance Group for $7.7B at a 90% premium

Spanish fragrance company Puig Brands will by the 50% of skincare brand Isdin it didn't already own for $1.4B to take full control

Solar Industries India agreed to acquire South African industrial-explosives and fertilizer firm Omnia Holdings for $1.4B at a 15% premium

Carlyle will acquire Canadian O&G company Parallax from Carnelian Energy Capital for $720M 

Pentagon will take a 20% stake in tungsten producer Elmet Group for $450M to counter China

Spirits company Sazerac completed its $404M acquisition of UK-based spirits maker Au Vodka

OpenAI acquired AI smart camera startup Glass Imaging for $300M

French automotive supplier Forvia is considering selling its Japanese unit Clarion Electronics to cut debt 

UK's Essar Energy Transition Fuels's retail unit agreed to acquire UK fuel retailer SGN Retail

Exchange operator Euronext is open to a merger with Deutsche Boerse

Temporal Technologies, an open-source durable execution platform provider, raised $550M in Series E at a $12.55B valuation led by Lightspeed, Wellington Management, Goldman Sachs Alternatives, and Tiger Global

Saudi BNPL fintech Tabby raised a $233M round at a $6.5B valuation led by Alibaba-linked family office Blue Pool Capital

Mal, an AI-native Islamic digital bank, raised a $230M seed round led by BlueFive Capital

Cornelis Networks, a developer of congestion-free AI and HPC network systems, raised a $205M funding round led by IAG Capital Partners

Buildots, a construction intelligence platform, raised a $130M funding round led by O.G. Venture Partners 

Crypto data provider Kaiko raised a $110M Series B extension led by S&P Global

Model ML, an AI startup developing software for investment banks and other financial institutions, is in talks to raise $100M+ at a ~$1B valuation

Nuance Labs, an emotional-intelligence AI startup, raised a $50M Series A led by Lightspeed

Impossible Objects, a manufacturing technology company, raised a $40M Series B led by Inflection Equity 

Synapse Analytics, an AI company that builds agentic decisioning infrastructure for regulated financial institutions, raised a $13M Series A led by Partech

$180B-listed Japanese memory firm Kioxia is considering raising $10B in a US listing

Aussie data center company Firmus Technologies is looking to raise $5B in an Australia IPO

CVC-owned home insurance company Bamboo Insurance Services is seeking to raise $700M at a $3.2B valuation in an IPO

Chinese AI computing networks maker Ligent Technologies is seeking to raise $727M in a Hong Kong IPO

KKR sold its entire stake in Philippine power ​producer First Gen for $410M weeks after it rejected KKR's attempt to ​expand its holding

Specialty home insurer Orion180 Insurance is seeking to raise $340M at a $1.7B valuation in an IPO

Immunology biotech Electra Therapeutics is seeking to raise $350M at a $1B valuation in an IPO

CVC-backed Authentic Brands Group is exploring an IPO as it expands into the creator economy 

Humanoid robot maker Boston Dynamics is unlikely to IPO next year

Aon saw $65B in demand for its $13.5B bond sale meant to fund its planned $17B acquisition of insurance brokerage USI Insurance Services from KKR

China's largest express-delivery firm SF Holding plans to raise $1.5B in a debut offshore yuan bond sale

Food distributor Sysco is seeking to raise $1B in a share sale to help fund its $29B acquisition of Jetro Restaurant Depot

Kentucky Derby operator Churchill Downs is seeking to raise $500M in junk loans to refinance debt 

World's richest museum J. Paul Getty Trust plans to sell $270M of munis to refinance debt

Canadian insurer Sagen is seeking to raise $215M in a bond sale

Apollo-owned crafts retailer Michaels used a $170M tariff refund to cut debt by $100M

Latvian carrier Air Baltic for filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy with $400M in DIP financing to restructure its debt 

Ardian-backed investor Hy24 will acquire Germany's nationalized energy company Uniper's 20% stake in the Opal gas pipeline to comply with bailout terms 

PSG Equity raised $5.1B for its third fund targeting European software 

VC investor Pinegrove Venture Partners raised $1.5B for its twelfth FOF

Airbnb launched a $250M fund to invest in housing construction

In two weeks, Tesla Robotaxi market share increased from 7.7% to 34.1% on an increased fleet size and the 9/4 launch of Cybercab

The robotaxi market is nascent and product launches can swing things dramatically

Trump agreed to ethics requirements in Clarity Act

Justin Sun paid Hollywood actor Jing Tian $4.5M to marry him, only to sue her for the money once their relationship fell through

NinjaTrader is now offering CME single stock futures on Nvidia, Tesla, Apple, Amazon, and more. Into derivatives but not a pro? You can learn to trade them risk-free on the NinjaTrader SIM platform.*

Bloomberg explored the rise of an interesting new problem of the AI boom: Sudden Wealth Syndrome.

Bloomberg also finally caught up to what my intern noticed a few weeks ago: Magic Johnson's problematic business deals with under-investigation Guggenheim CEO Mark Walter.

Seems like the whole "pace the frontier" hype lasted exactly one weekend. @dedene posted a hilarious video to recap what's happening.