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Robinhood will underwrite is first IPO, another billionaire founder is in for a no-prenup divorce, Berkshire's new CEO is looking to join the AI hype train, US job growth surged exclusively on the back of women, and Jensen Huang declared "AGI has arrived" following OpenAI's release of Astra.

Welcome back from the long weekend folks. While you took some time off from the grind, my intern stayed active to bring you all the developments from Friday, filled wth divorce gossip to AI milestones to noteworthy market developments. Seems like the long weekend did nothing to slow down the summer drama…

Plaid released their latest report on lending and a future that sees little role for credit scores. Read it here.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

As of 9/4/2026 market close.

Learn more about the Litquidity portfolios and subscribe to the strategies on Autopilot.*

Markets

  • US markets remained closed yesterday for Labor Day

  • US stocks slipped on Friday as investors digested a hot jobs report and rising oil prices amid fresh US-Iran strikes 

    • Markets are pricing split 50-50 odds of a Fed rate hike next week

  • US 2Y yield rose to 4.375% to its highest since January 2025

  • Oil rose to a six-week high 

  • Copper hit an ATH after gaining 17% YTD and 47% YoY

  • EM FX rose for a tenth-straight week for its longest win streak since 2007

  • Yen surged to a six-month high 

Earnings

  • What we're watching this week:  

    • Wednesday: Jersey Mike's

    • Thursday: Oracle, Adobe, Macy's

  • Full calendar here

Prediction Markets

  • Markets are now evenly split on whether the Fed will hike rates next week after a strong jobs report

  • Meanwhile, Trump is threatening to ban trade with countries that run trade surpluses with US unless the Fed cuts rates lmao

  • Deposit $10 and get a $20 bonus with code LIT on signup, only on the Polymarket US app

Headline Roundup

  • Knicks stars move wealth to Goldman Sachs to reunite with ex-Villanova teammate Matt Kennedy as their financial advisor (BR)

  • Nathan Fielder released a surprise Elizabeth Holmes documentary (NYT)

  • lululemon founder Chip Wilson filed for divorce with no prenup in place (NYP)

  • Jensen Huang says "AGI has arrived" following OpenAI's release of Astra (SA)

  • New Berkshire CEO looks to data centers to cash in on AI (CNBC)

  • LeBron James partnered with Polymarket (FOS)

  • Musk's Boring Co. asks VC backers for recruiting and business help (WSJ)

  • Hedge fund titan Chris Rokos joins billionaires quitting UK (BBG)

  • US and Iran traded strikes over the long weekend (CNBC)

  • US job growth surged in August driven exclusively by women (CNBC)

  • Trump threatened to ban trading with nations if Fed doesn't cut rates (CNBC)

  • Asset management giants are rebuilding gold positions (BBG)

  • Bond selloff is likely amplified by obscure economic rate (RT)

  • Bond traders brace for more swings access the curve (BBG)

  • BlackRock and JPMorgan bet on EM as turmoil seizes global bonds (BBG)

  • Big university endowments are outperforming the S&P 500 (FT)

  • Traders flock to bullish Chinese stock bets for AI alternative (BBG)

  • European wealth managers are turning their backs on the stock rally (BBG)

  • Mercuria and Gunvor profits more than double on war volatility (BBG)

  • Insurance emerges as next big opportunity in data centers (WSJ)

  • US and China gear up for mid-September AI safety talks (RT)

  • Xi will bring a large CEO delegation on US visit (RT)

A Message from Plaid

Can credit scores keep up?

The economy is evolving, and fast – and while that's good news for us (hooray, gig work and BNPL!), it's bad news for traditional benchmarks like credit scores.

That's because credit scores struggle to take into account new risk factors, leaving your business with unclear data and ineffective models… and it's exactly why lenders are switching to cash flow data instead. This free report from Plaid and Datos breaks down how you can use cash flow to avoid traditional credit data misses: 

  • 35% of lenders report rising delinquencies 

  • 24.5% of US adults earn "gig" income which Bureau reports do not include

  • 80% of lenders report better portfolio performance through using alternative data

The numbers speak for themselves. Learn how cash flow data is the future of lending.

Download the whole Plaid report for free right here!

Deal Flow

M&A / Strategic

  • Ken Griffin's Citadel is seeking to buy US shale oil production assets

  • PE-backed Florida-based EverBank Financial will merge with PWN-based WaFd to create a lender with $75B in assets

  • Blackstone is looking to buy the 15.2% stake in $3B-listed Indian shadow lender IIFL Finance from Canada's Fairfax Financial Holdings

  • EQT agreed to acquire a majority stake in UK insurance broker McGill and Partners from Warburg Pincus for $2B

  • Dutch PE ​firm Waterland plans to make a higher ‌offer for UK telecoms firm Gamma Communications than the $1.4B bid from ​UK PE firm Epiris

  • Australian developer Ingenia Communities rejected a $1.4B takeover bid from Warburg Pincus despite a 30% premium 

  • Hedge fund Toscafund will take-private UK's biggest private hospital operator Spire for over $1.4B

  • Sweden will buy Lockheed Martin's Himars ​artillery rocket system in a $730M deal

  • LVMH-linked PE firm L Catterton is close to buying a controlling stake in fitness competition brand Hyrox from Switzerland-based Infront Sports & Media at a $700M valuation

  • Angola plans to raise $230M from a 34% stake sale in Standard Bank de Angola previously held by a convicted insurance tycoon

  • Abu Dhabi AI firm G42 is exploring selling a majority stake to American firms to safeguard access to US chips

  • Abu Dhabi's ADNOC is in talks with Thai refiner PTT and African conglomerate Dangote for stakes in their refineries

  • Spanish banking group BCC-Grupo Cooperativo Cajamar ended talks over a potential acquisition of Portuguese bank Banco CTT from CTT - Correios de Portugal 

  • Australian energy firm Santos acquired ​an additional 3.3% stake in the Papua ‌LNG project from France's TotalEnergies for $190M to raise its stake to 21% after TotalEnergies transferred operatorship to ExxonMobil and cut its stake to 20% to focus on other JVs

  • P*rn tycoon David Sullivan raised his stake in UK soccer club West Ham United to 40% despite sex abuse allegations while Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky became the biggest shareholder with a 46% stake after acquiring shares from Vanessa Gold

  • Polish anti-drone company Advanced Protection Systems is exploring a sale

  • South Africa's Industrial Development Corp. plans to sell its 10.5% stake in Namibia's Rossing Uranium to cut ties with Iranian and Russian entities

  • Portugal asked Air France-KLM and Lufthansa to submit improved offers for a 49.9% stake in the privatization of flag carrier TAP

VC

  • Google-backed Indian space tech startup Pixxel raised a $100M Series C led by SWF Temasek and Seraphim 

  • Nua, a women's wellness brand, raised a $50M Series C led by Peak XV Partners and Filter Capital

  • Gimlet Labs, an applied AI research and product company, raised a $300M Series B at a $3B valuation led by a16z

Access the complete VC deal flow and data on Fundable

IPOs / Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

  • Anthropic will launch its $100B IPO in mid-October with Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs set to lead the offering

  • China's Moonshot AI is considering raising $5B in a Hong Kong IPO this year

  • Jio Platforms, the telecoms unit of Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries, is set to market its record $4B India IPO this week; the listing could fetch a $150B valuation

  • Nigeria's Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals is seeking to raise $1.6B at a $49B valuation in Africa's biggest IPO ever

  • SHEIN shares are down 19% from their IPO price to become Hong Kong's worst IPO in years after raising $1.75B at a $26.5B valuation 

  • KKR-backed South Korean fashion retailer Musinsa plans to IPO at a $7.5B valuation in Korea's biggest IPO in years

  • Blue Owl Capital is seeking to launch a $6.5B-listed data center REIT

  • Swedish smart ring maker Oura Health named Robinhood as an underwriter in its first ever IPO mandate

  • RNA-focused Adarx Pharmaceuticals filed for an IPO

  • Indonesian miner Merdeka Battery Materials is considering a Hong Kong share sale

  • South Africa is seeking to spinoff Eskom Transmission into a fully independent transmission system operator

  • Japanese unicorn chip startup Preferred Networks plans to IPO this decade 

Debt 

  • China's ByteDance secured ​a $29.6B loan from 30 banks for its AI push

  • UK AI cloud firm Nscale is seeking to sell $1.5B of convertibles and secure $2B in financing from Nvidia ahead of its $3B US IPO

  • Africa's largest mobile network operator MTN Group is exploring its first international bond sale in a decade to fund its $2.2B buyout of the remaining 30% shares of IHS Towers 

  • Chinese University of Hong Kong is seeking a $510M bank loan to refinance a facility supporting its private hospital

  • Blue Owl Technology Finance Corp., the software-focused private credit fund of Blue Owl, raised $150M in a private placement its its third financing since June

Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed

  • A slice of EQT-backed French medical diagnostics firm Cerba Healthcare's revolving credit facility is up for sale as the firm moves toward a court-supervised restructuring to tackle $5.8B in debt

  • Struggling Ukrainian iron ore miner Ferrexpo raised $100M from investors to stave off insolvency

Funds / Secondaries

  • Millennium AUM is nearing $100B amid a $22B fundraising haul

  • Saudi's leading AI firm HUMAIN plans to launch a large $10B VC fund

  • UK venture debt firm Claret Capital raised $670M for its fourth European growth debt fund to back 'less sexy' startups 

  • A group of Nordic companies and investors are seeking to create an investment fund to close a funding gap for firms who seek capital outside the region

Crypto Sum Snapshot

  • Hunter Biden will launch a $LAPTOP memecoin

  • Bitcoin-based Liquid Network says $320M was withdrawn in a hack

Crypto Sum compiles the most important stories on everything crypto. Read it here.

Exec’s Picks

  • ICYMI: Every memo, model, and deck out of F2 carries a citation chain, every number traced from claim to formula to source page. Deliverables your IC can interrogate. Private Markets run on F2. Try a demo.

  • Ben Carlson shared an interesting take on why your investment strategy should change over time. Check it out.

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*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.

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