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Good Morning,
A hacker used Claude to steal Mexican government data, Anthropic dropped its flagship safety pledge, the global AI data center boom is hitting delays, Trump wants Big Tech firms to build their own power plants, Rothschild will 'monitor the situation' on their CEO's Epstein ties, and Nvidia continued to defy bubble fears with another earnings beat.
Plaid's latest webinar dives deep into how banks are rethinking fraud in the age of AI. There's some highly insightful perspectives. Watch it here.
Let's dive in.
Before The Bell
As of 2/25/2026 market close.
Learn more about the Litquidity portfolios and subscribe to the strategies on Autopilot.*
Markets
US stocks rallied yesterday as investors digested Trump's SOTU speech and braced for bellwether AI and software earnings from Nvidia and Salesforce
S&P and Nasdaq hit two-week highs
Europe's Stoxx 600 hit a fresh ATH
UK's FTSE 100 hit a fresh ATH
Japan's Nikkei 225 surged to a fresh ATH to take YTD gains past 13%
Korea's KOSPI surged 2% to a fresh ATH to take YTD gains past 44%
Korea overtook France as the world's ninth-biggest stock market amid a historic $2.2T rally
Aussie dollar, Kiwi dollar, and Norwegian krone are up ~5% YTD as rate hike cycles begin
Crypto currencies rallied as analysts noted a pause in '10am dumps' amid Jane Street's lawsuit
Earnings
Nvidia beat Q4 estimates and issued strong guidance as data center sales surged 75% to push FY revenue above $200B for the first time (WSJ)
Salesforce beat Q4 earnings and revenue estimates but issued a mixed outlook while highlighting AI as a tailwind to agentic adoption and dismissing 'SaaSpocalypse' fears (CNBC)
Snowflake beat Q4 estimates and issued strong guidance as enterprise demand for AI drove clients to its cloud-based data analytics platform (RT)
Lowe's beat Q4 earnings and revenue estimates but issued a soft outlook amid a persistently weak housing market (CNBC)
Circle topped Q4 earnings and revenue estimates as a surge in stablecoin demand defies the crash in Bitcoin and other crypto assets (WSJ)
TJX beat Q4 earnings and revenue estimates on strong holiday spending but issued conservative guidance as a boost from price-conscious shoppers shows signs of fading (BBG)
Paramount Skydance beat Q4 earnings and revenue on strength in its TV business amid a high-stakes bidding war for WBD (BBG)
What we're watching this week:
Today: CoreWeave, Dell, Warner Bros. Discovery, Celsius, Vistra, Duolingo
Full calendar here
Prediction Markets
David Ellison beginning to look a whole lot like David Goggins. He won't give this up
Trade event contracts on Polymarket, the world's largest prediction market
Headline Roundup
China warned against more tariffs after meeting US trade obligations (RT)
Global debt surged by a record $29T to a $348T on AI and defense (FT)
Trump told Big Tech companies to build their own power plants (CNBC)
Global AI data center boom is hitting delays (AX)
Record US Q1 earnings fails to reflect in stock market (BBG)
US corporate bond market competition is at a record high (BBG)
EM private credit investments surged to a record (RT)
Boaz Weinstein warns 'wheels coming off' private credit funds (BBG)
Big Short's Moses says private credit retail push echoes 2008 (BBG)
PE heads for correction even without AI gloom (WSJ)
The AI bears are waking up (WSJ)
Ardian may rule out some software credit investments on AI risks (BBG)
Wall Street favors Venezuela bonds with more unpaid interest (BBG)
Foreign investors bought the most Taiwan stocks in two decades (BBG)
Hong Kong will tap dollar peg defense fund for first time in 40 years (BBG)
Hong Kong seeks to attract more yuan borrowers in yuan push (BBG)
Deutsche Bank and Goldman look to AI to flag trader misconduct (BBG)
CFTC says it has power to police prediction market misconduct (RT)
Anthropic dropped its flagship safety pledge (TM)
A hacker used Claude to steal Mexican government data (BBG)
DeepSeek is withholding its latest AI model from US chipmakers (RT)
A court dismissed xAI's trade-secrets lawsuit against OpenAI (RT)
US will allow Cuba's private sector to import Venezuelan oil (FT)
CME temporary halted gas and metals trading due to a technical glitch (BBG)
Edmond de Rothschild will 'monitor the situation' on CEO's Epstein ties (BBG)
A Message from Plaid
AI bank fraud is on the rise
Sophisticated tools, combined with outdated fraud prevention platforms, are giving bad actors more opportunities than ever to exploit vulnerabilities. That's a growing challenge for banks.
The good news is, Plaid and MANTL have your back in their latest webinar with American Banker.
In this session, you'll learn how to:
Understand how AI is scaling fraud
Overcome blind spots from fragmented tools
Detect risk earlier across the lifecycle
Build a holistic fraud risk strategy
…And ultimately learn how banks are able to understand, detect, and fight fraud without adding friction for customers.
Deal Flow
M&A / Strategic
French utility Engie agreed to buy the UK's largest power-distribution network UK Power Networks for $14.2B
Australian steel manufacturer BlueScope said a revised $11B cash bid from SGH and US-based Steel Dynamics undervalues the company, but is open to a better offer
KKR is in advanced talks to take-private Japanese chemical manufacturer Taiyo at a potential $4.3B valuation
Singaporean insurtech Bolttech is in talks to acquire Thiel-backed Asian personal finance fintech MoneyHero; the firm was last valued at $2.1B in a 2025 Series C raise
Blackstone and Centerbridge expressed interest in acquiring yacht retailer MarineMax, joining a bidding war against Donerail Group's $1.1B all-cash offer
UK pharma giant GSK agreed to buy biotech 35Pharma for $950M cash
Wynnchurch Capital agreed to acquire Arcosa Marine Products from construction solutions firm Arcosa for $450M cash
Hedge fund One River agreed to acquire the quant unit of European family office LGT Capital Partners in a deal that could add $3B to AUM
Owner Lawrence Stroll is not considering sale of luxury carmaker Aston Martin
VC
General Atlantic is selling an equity stake in Chinese tech giant ByteDance at a $550B valuation
UK AI self-driving startup Wayve raised a $1.2 Series D at an $8.6B valuation from Eclipse, Balderton, SoftBank, Microsoft, Nvidia, Uber, Mercedes, Stellantis, and more
OpenAI raised $1B at a $285B valuation from Thrive Capital amid talks to raise funds at an $850B valuation
Whop, a marketplace for digital creator services, raised a $200M strategic investment from Tether
Profound, a marketing platform for AI Search, raised a $96M Series C led by Lightspeed
Rowspace, an AI platform for institutional financial data, raised a $50M seed and Series A co-led by Sequoia and Emergence Capital
Guidde, an AI digital adoption platform startup, raised a $50M Series B led by PSG Equity
SolveAI, an AI-powered no-code enterprise app builder, raised a $45M Series A led by GV and a $5M pre-seed led by Accel
Chariot Defense, a developer of battlefield power systems, raised a $34M Series A led by a16z
Croissant, a shopper-rewards and embedded-finance platform for retailers, raised a $28M round led by Portage, Third Prime, and George Roberts
Government sales intelligence startup NationGraph raised an $18M Series A round led by Menlo Ventures
Cicada, an electronic LatAm bond trading platform, raised a $13.5M Series A led by Citi
BeyondMath, a UK generative physics AI startup, raised a $10M seed extension led by Cambridge Innovation Capital
Get real-time updates on any startup, VC, or sector on Fundable.
IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades
Blackstone-backed Bagmane Prime Office REIT plans to launch an India IPO at a $3.9B valuation
Brookfield-owned Oaktree is weighing an IPO or sale of UK-based annuities firm Utmost at a $2.7B valuation
Canada's Fairfax Financial-backed AGT Food and Ingredients is seeking to raise $336M in a Canada IPO
Tencent-backed AI startup StepFun is considering raising $500M in a Hong Kong IPO
LG Energy Solution, a unit of Korean conglomerate LG, is selling its 7.5% stake worth $300M stake in Australian lithium producer Liontown in a block trade
AMD will take a $150M stake in enterprise cloud platform designer Nutanix as part of a new partnership
Angola's state oil company Sonangol is preparing to IPO amid a privatization push
Activist Elliott is not pushing for a spin-off or New York listing shift of $53B-listed London Stock Exchange Group
SPAC / SPV
Uranium exploration firm Eagle Nuclear Energy merged with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp II.
Debt
Energy utility Southern Co. raised a $26.5B loan package from US
Romania raised $5.5B in a dollar and euro bond sale
Mass media giant Omnicom raised $2.4B in its first Europe and US bond sale since 2024
University of California sold $2B of munis amid a fresh DOJ civil rights lawsuit
Africa's only distressed market Senegal and IMF failed to strike lending deal as debt mounts
Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed
Investors in Jefferies' Point Bonita Capital trade-finance fund sued over losses tied to holdings in bankrupt auto parts supplier First Brands
Turkish consumer electronics maker Vestel Elektronik is in talks with banks to restructure over $500M of debt
Funds / Secondaries
Canadian MM PE firm Novacap raised $3.8B for its seventh tech-focused fund
Healthcare-focused PE firm Ascend raised $790M for its second fund
FOF GCM Grosvenor raised $625M for a structured credit strategy
A New Mountain Capital BDC sold $477M of private credit assets at 94¢ to EQT-owned secondaries specialist Coller Capital
VC Thrive Capital's 2011 vintage is valued at a 6x MOIC
Crypto Sum Snapshot
$1T Bitcoin collapse has Wall Street money HODLing
Social marketplace Whop partnered with Tether in $200M deal to integrate stablecoin payments and support global expansion
Jane Street was generating $80M / day trading crypto markets
Crypto Sum compiles the most important stories on everything crypto. Read it here.
Exec’s Picks
Your K-1 is a target for the IRS' AI audit flags. If you have K-1s, trusts, or multi-state income, you're more likely to trigger a 21 month manual review delay. Upgrade to OLarry, a Private Client Tax Advisory built for this tax complexity at a flat transparent fee and avoid delays. Book a free consult with code Execsum.
WSJ published an interesting article on the fundraising tactic AI startups are using to juice valuations.
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