Together with
Good Morning,
Jamie Dimon is seeing pre-2008 parallels in credit markets, US DOD is threatening Anthropic to remove its guardrails, US retail investors are fueling a surge in leveraged ETF trading, Bernard Arnault clinched majority ownership of LVMH, a German dentist pension fund blew up, and Anthropic released new Claude tools focused on banking and other finance fields.
Mizuho published an insightful analysis on AI exposure, and the sub-sectors most likely to capture value in a layered field. Read more below.
Let's dive in.
Before The Bell
As of 2/24/2026 market close.
Learn more about the Litquidity portfolios and subscribe to the strategies on Autopilot.*
Markets
US stocks rebounded yesterday on easing AI disruption fears
Korea's KOSPI index surged to a fresh ATH to take YTD gains to 42% after gaining 75% last year
US 10Y yield hit its lowest since November
Bitcoin is headed for its worst month since the June 2022 crypto collapse
Earnings
Home Depot beat Q4 earnings and revenue estimates for the first time in a year despite falling sales and modest price increases from tariffs as demand for projects remains muted (CNBC)
Cava issued a Q4 beat-and-raise after posting $1B in FY revenue for the first time on recovering younger foot traffic and strong menu prices (CNBC)
Workday beat Q4 earnings and revenue estimates but provided weak guidance amid increased worries about AI disruption (CNBC)
HP beat Q4 earnings and revenue estimates driven by growth in AI PCs but issued week guidance due to heightened memory prices (BBG)
AMC beat Q4 earnings and revenue estimates on a strong year for film despite a decline in attendance (BW)
What we're watching this week:
Today: Nvidia, Salesforce, Circle, TJX
Thursday: CoreWeave, Dell, Warner Bros. Discovery, Celsius, Vistra, Duolingo
Full calendar here
Prediction Markets
No mention of GTA VI in Trump's SOTU speech
Trade event contracts on Polymarket, the world's largest prediction market
Headline Roundup
Private credit hiring defies gloom with $2.5M pay packages (BBG)
New US global tariff will start at 10% with 5% hike on deck (RT)
China's $112B cargo gap shows record US tariff evasion (BBG)
AI-induced tech selloff spoils the IPO parade (WSJ)
Hedge funds creep back into tech stocks after weeks of selling (RT)
US retail investors fuel surge in leveraged ETF trading (RT)
Europe banks posted best trading results in a decade last year (FT)
JPMorgan says UAE is too rich to be an emerging market (BBG)
Jamie Dimon sees pre-2008 parallels as rivals do 'dumb things' (BBG)
Jamie Dimon will remain as JPMorgan CEO for a 'few years' (RT)
Dan Loeb says 'lost art of short selling' is making a comeback (BBG)
AI can predict 71% of active fund trades (BBG)
Anthropic released new Claude tools for IB, ER, PE, WM, and more (BBG)
US DOD threatened Anthropic over AI terms (BBG)
China's DeepSeek trained AI model on Nvidia's best chip despite US ban (RT)
Nvidia has sold zero H200 chips to China despite lifted ban (BBG)
WiseTech will cut 2k jobs on AI transformation (BBG)
PwC clashes with boutique consultancy founded by former exec (FT)
US universities lean on endowments amid rising costs and funding cuts (FT)
US private school tuition is nearing a record $50k (BBG)
German dentist pension fund blew up after overexposure to privates (BBG)
Epstein lurked at JPMorgan for years after bank kicked him out (BBG)
Citrini founder was shocked to see his AI prediction spur stocks selloff (BBG)
A Message from Mizuho
Artificial intelligence is no longer a standalone theme layered onto markets – it's becoming an operating condition that reshapes demand across sectors. But as AI adoption accelerates into 2026 and worldwide spending reaches a projected $2.5 trillion, not all exposure will be equal, and investor outcomes will increasingly depend on where capital ultimately accrues. The primary winners are often not the most visible AI brands, but the companies closest to infrastructure, efficiency, and enablement – those that power, distribute, or monetize AI activity at scale.
In 2026, the most direct AI beneficiaries are those positioned at emerging bottlenecks created by the rapid deployment of AI. As models shift from episodic training to persistent use, spending is increasingly concentrated in inference, memory, networking, and utilization — segments where constrained supply and rising intensity drive outsized value capture.
Deal Flow
M&A / Strategic
Warner Bros. Discovery is favoring Paramount Skydance's sweetened $112B takeover proposal over Netflix's
Meta agreed to a $60B chips deal with $350B-listed AMD which will allow Meta to take a 10% stake in company
Payments fintech Stripe is considering an acquisition of all or parts of $40B-listed PayPal
Activist Elliott is offering to buy Toyota Industries shares from investors who agreed to tender their stakes in Toyota Group's ongoing $37B take-private bid in efforts to block the bid
Blackstone and BlackRock are seeking to invest in or acquire gas-powered microgrid maker VoltaGrid at a $10B valuation
BlackRock, Brookfield, EIG, KKR, China Silk Road Fund, China Merchants Capital, I Squared Capital, and Macquarie are in early talks to acquire a $7B stake in Kuwait Petroleum Corporation's crude oil pipelines, with $1.5B financed through equity
Filtration company CECO Environmental agreed to acquire thermal solutions provider Thermon in a $2.2B cash-and-stock deal at a 20% premium
Bain Capital and Lone Star Funds are in advanced talks to acquire Mitsubishi Electric's automotive equipment business for ~$1.9B
Europe's second-largest insurer Zurich Insurance agreed to acquire Australian life insurer ClearView Wealth for $288M
Security company ADT acquired AI security startup Origin Wireless for $170M
Professional services giant Marsh is exploring a sale of its financial risk manager and life insurance broker PCS, which could be valued at several hundred million dollars
Cyprus-based investment firm Yoda agreed to acquire San Francisco's Transamerica Pyramid building from developer SHVO and real estate investor Deutsche Finance America
Brookfield acquired AI cloud-computing firm Ori Industries and merged it into Radiant, a new company of Brookfield to provide on-demand access to AI chips
VC
Payments fintech Stripe sold secondary shares at a $159B valuation
LLM-specific chip startup MatX raised a $500M round led by Jane Street and Situational Awareness
AI infrastructure startup SambaNova raised a $350M Series E led by Vista Equity Partners and Cambium Capital
Edge-AI chipmaker Axelera AI raised an over $250M funding round led by Innovation Industries
Allica Bank, a UK challenger bank, raised a $155M Series D led by Ventura Capital
Accounting-focused AI agent startup Basis raised a $100M Series B led by Accel
AI web-data platform Nimble raised a $47M million Series B led by Norwest
Letter AI, an AI revenue-enablement startup, raised a $40M Series B led by Battery Ventures
Hospitality voice AI startup Slang AI raised a $36M Series B led by USVP
Subject, an AI-powered K-12 digital curriculum startup, raised a $28M growth round led by Vistara Growth
Koah, an AI-native advertising monetization platform, raised a $20.5M Series A round led by Theory Ventures
Based, a Web3 crypto trading and spending platform, raised an $11.5M Series A led by Pantera
Geospatial risk-intelligence startup Neural Earth raised a $9.3M seed round
Get real-time updates on any startup, VC, or sector on Fundable.
IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades
Hong Kong-based stablecoin company RedotPay is considering raising over $1B at a $4B valuation in a US IPO
Medtronic-backed diabetes management firm MiniMed is seeking to raise $785M at a $7.9B valuation in an IPO
Sify Infinit Spaces, the data center unit of US-listed Indian ICT firm Sify Technologies, is seeking to raise $407M at a $4.2B valuation in an India IPO
AI data platform DDN named a new CFO ahead of a potential IPO
CEO Bernard Arnault raised his stake in $330B-listed luxury goods giant LVMH to 50.01%, gaining near supermajority voting rights
Activist Irenic Capital built a 2% stake in $5B-listed precision technology maker Ralliant
Debt
AI cloud computing firm CoreWeave is seeking to raise an $8.5B bank loan backed by a Meta contract
Japan's Nippon Steel is seeking $3.8B in an upsized sale of convertible bond sale to repay loans for its acquisition of U.S. Steel
Indian power provider Jindal Power is seeking to raise $1B in offshore loans
CVC-owned German packaging machine maker Syntegon boosted its debt pile by 40% to fund a $650M dividend recap after a sale process was put on ice
Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed
380+ brands including Burberry, LVMH, and Kering resumed shipments to bankrupt luxury retailer Saks Global, with ~$1.2B in merchandise expected in the coming months as it attempts to emerge from bankruptcy
Spirit Airlines struck a deal with note holders to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Q2/Q3, trimming $5.3B in debt and reducing fleet costs
Trade finance firm Raistone Capital filed to liquidate under Chapter 7 bankruptcy following the collapse of auto parts supplier First Brands
Funds / Secondaries
Sweden awarded $22B in pension mandates to 12 managers, with asset managers Swedbank Robur and Waystone each securing two mandates for actively managed global equity funds
French infrastructure investment specialist Meridiam raised $2.6B for a long-hold European infrastructure fund
Peak XV (formerly Sequoia India/SEA) raised $1.3B across new India and Asia-focused funds
Jada Fund of Funds, a unit of Saudi SWF PIF, plans to plow more into private credit after investing in Indian venture debt firm Stride Ventures
Consumer-focused European PE firm Vendis Capital raised over $118M for a targeted $175M small-cap fund
Crypto Sum Snapshot
45% of Bitcoin in circulation is now worth less than what it was bought for
Coinbase adds stock and ETF trading as it expands beyond crypto
Meta is planning a stablecoin comeback
White House says Trump will not pardon SBF
Wealthy spouses are hiding crypto assets in divorce cases
Crypto Sum compiles the most important stories on everything crypto. Read it here.
Exec’s Picks
If you work on the buy side and you're scoping out AI tools to automate some workflows, check out F2.ai. Their vertical AI platform for private markets turns messy deal docs into structured, Excel-native analysis that are fully source-linked, traceable, and actually defensible in IC. Plenty of leading deal teams already use their platform. You can demo F2 here.
Bloomberg published an interesting article on how South Korea's president Lee Jae Myung turned Korea's stock market into the world's best. Notable for the lessons he's using from his days as a stock trader…
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.