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Investors sued Selena Gomez for fraud, OpenAI lost another C-suite exec, Citadel is mandating two-year non-competes even for analysts, Anthropic is looking to IPO at a $2T valuation, wealth managers are racing to secure business from AI millionaires, and no bankers were involved in the $12B Los Angeles Lakers sale.
By popular demand, Wharton Online and Wall Street are back with their Restructuring & Distressed Investing Certificate Program, the best and most-recognized certificate in RX & distressed investing on Wall Street. Enroll by September and save $500 with our LITQUIDITY discount.
Let's dive in.
Before The Bell
As of 8/13/2026 market close.
Learn more about the Litquidity portfolios and subscribe to the strategies on Autopilot.*
Markets
US stocks continued to rise as traders digested a soft inflation reading and falling oil prices
S&P hit a new ATH
US Treasury sold 30Y bonds at a 5.216% yield, the highest since 2001
EM stocks hit a one-month high as the AI trade roars back
CXMT overtook Tencent as China's most valuable company with a $525B market cap
Earnings
Applied Materials beat Q3 earnings and revenue estimates as unabated demand for advanced AI chips will continue to fuel robust spending on its semiconductor manufacturing equipment (RT)
JD.com beat Q2 earnings and revenue estimates but posted its first quarterly revenue decline in a decade on stagnant China consumer spending (RT)
Full calendar here
Prediction Markets
Anthropic is expected to pursue a $2T valuation in an IPO by end of Q3. That would easily surpass SpaceX's record IPO valuation. What a year of ECM…
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Headline Roundup
Anthropic CEO's wife tried raising money for a feminist p0rn site from Epstein while dating Google's CEO (WSJ)
No bankers were involved in the $12B Lakers sale (BBG)
Investors sued Selena Gomez for fraud over mental-health startup (BBG)
S&P 500 CEO pay jumps to record as Musk-type pay packages spread (RT)
The jobless boom has arrived (WSJ)
Norway's SWF warned of erosion in shareholder rights (RT)
Foreign investors dumped Brazil stocks at the fastest pace since 2021 (BBG)
Wealth managers expand in Bay Area in rush for AI millionaire wealth (FT)
Citadel is mandating two-year non-competes even for analysts (BBG)
Goldman doubled down on hunger for 'boomer candy' with ETF deal (WSJ)
Bank of America pledged $250B for US infrastructure financing (RT)
US will impose tariffs on drone imports (RT)
US PPI inflation rose 4.7% YoY (CNBC)
FBI seized phone of Guggenheim's president in fraud investigation (FT)
SEC rejected Egan-Jones' bid to expand ratings business (BBG)
SpaceX passed first lockup expiry test with $500B rally (BBG)
Reddit will join the S&P 500 (BBG)
Microsoft is retreating from China (RT)
OpenAI CRO Denise Dresser quit after just eight months (CNBC)
OpenAI's revenue run rate topped $40B (BBG)
Google unveiled a new model for coding and agents (RT)
Chip factory workers are suddenly dominating the Korean dating scene (WSJ)
Median Manhattan rent rose past $5,200 to a new record (BBG)
Luigi Mangione is expected to plead guilty in federal court (WSJ)
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Deal Flow
M&A / Strategic
PE firm Silver Lake is in talks to LBO $50B-listed HR software firm Workday
Candle Lake, the family office of Solo Cup billionaire Kenneth Dart, made a mandatory $13.8B cash takeover offer for Swedish betting firm Evolution
EQT offered to LBO Australia's Cleanaway Waste Management for $4.9B at a 32% premium
Thoma Bravo will LBO insurance marketplace Accelerant for $4B at a 50% premium
KKR offered to take an 8% stake in power producer First Gen from parent First Philippine Holdings as well as the entire 11.6% public float; a mandatory offer from KKR could fetch a $2.7B valuation
Diversified Energy is in advanced talks to acquire Elliott-backed Birch Resources for $1.7B in cash
Luggage giant Samsonite will buy an 85% stake in US lifestyle brand Béis for $178M in cash
Polymarket acqui-hired sports prediction startup Turf
VC
Databricks raised a $5B Series M at a $190B valuation led by Coatue
Kalshi in talks to raise a $750M round at a $40B valuation led by Sequoia and Wellington
Swedish AI vibe-coding startup Lovable raised a $400M round at a $13.3B valuation led by Menlo Ventures and the Scaleup Europe Fund
Swedish legal AI start-up Legora is seeking to raise a round at a $1B valuation
Aligned Marketplace, a healthcare marketplace for independent advanced and direct primary care, raised a $20M Series A led by Venrock
AGent Energy, an AI-driven distributed power plants developer, raised an $11M seed round co-led by Spero Ventures and MassMutual Ventures
Riven Systems, an early-stage critical minerals processing startup, raised $7.9M led by Cerberus Ventures
Access the complete VC deal flow and data on Fundable
IPOs / Listings / Issuances / Block Trades
Anthropic investors expect the startup to IPO at a $2T valuation
Vantage Data Centers is exploring an IPO or sale at a $100B valuation
Chinese chip designer Kiwimoore confidentially filed for a Hong Kong IPO targeting a $2B valuation
Thai hotel giant Minor International delayed a $1B Singapore-listing of a new hotel REIT
Malaysian tech-driven coffee chain ZUS Coffee is considering raising $245M at a $1B valuation in a Malaysia IPO of its Malaysia business
Indian fintech startup Navi is preparing to raise $315M in an India IPO
Advent-backed Indian non-bank lender Svatantra Microfin filed for a $315M Indian IPO
Robinhood raised $225M for its second listed VC fund which will invest in Y Combinator-backed startups
Bill Ackman's hedge fund Pershing Square unveiled new investments in Netflix, Visa, Mastercard, Alcon, ICE, and S&P Global in a portfolio overhaul
Debt
AMD is seeking to raise $4B-$5B in a bond sale
Canadian satellite operator Telesat raised a $120M term loan this month as it prepares to deal with $2B of debt coming due
Mark Walter offered to pledge his stake in Guggenheim to secure loans for his insurance companies, which are now under federal investigation
Deutsche Bank's asset manager DWS Group will back life insurance consolidator Frankfurter Leben's acquisition of the German unit of Apollo's insurance subsidiary Athora as part of a deal to access the insurance firms' capital pools
Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed
Australia bailed out a Rio Tinto-controlled aluminum smelter with a 1.8B package
UK retailer Frasers Group acquired luxury department store chain Harvey Nichols out of insolvency, beating out rival retailer Next
Funds / Secondaries
Blackstone is considering abandoning a $3B collateralized fund obligation backed by stakes in a secondaries fund
Layer Global, the VC firm of ex-General Atlantic president Anton Levy, raised $1.1B for its debut fund
Indian final services firm Edelweiss raised $700M for a targeted $1B fourth special opportunities fund
Bill Ackman's hedge fund Pershing Square is preparing an evergreen VC fund to hold pre-IPO startup stakes
Crypto Sum Snapshot
Fintech Chime is exploring stablecoin services
White House will meet with top crypto execs next week
Crypto Sum compiles the most important stories on everything crypto. Read it here.
Exec’s Picks
SpaceX is public (and ripping) with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Databricks lined up right behind it for the deepest IPO pipeline in years. Outcomes like these mint the funds that spotted them early, so getting in front of the next one is everything. At Litquidity Ventures, Fundable is how we do it, with custom alerts that flag startups fitting our thesis the second they launch, announce or raise. tryfunable.ai
AI might just be the Achilles heel of the Indian economy. Check out what FT has to say.
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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.