🫵People have the power

Power up, pay up—AI's not picking up the tab.

A Free Lunch newsletter archive of June 22, 2026

Also available:🇫🇷 Édition française


🌍 All editions
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
🇺🇸 United States

Good morning!

The artificial intelligence revolution has shipped its first verifiable mass-market product, and it is an electricity bill. Residential power prices climbed 6.9% across the US last year, more than double general inflation, and the typical household bill is up close to 10% over the year. In Maryland the jump hit 37% in a single stroke, courtesy of a regional grid whose capacity auctions absorbed $9.3B in surcharges traceable to data centres. None of this featured in the brochure. No pensioner in Dayton was warned that a model’s knack for generating cats in medieval armour would cost an extra $16 a month, indefinitely.

Data centres swallowed 4% of national electricity before any of this began, and forecasts run them to 12% by the end of the decade, feeding 5,400 server sheds already in the ground, with more every month. Utilities filed for a record $31B in rate increases last year, more than twice the 2024 figure, while the largest operators plan to spend roughly $700B on the buildout in 2026 alone. The dividends from that spend will land in Redmond, Menlo Park and a scatter of brokerage accounts. The bill lands in Baltimore, and lands hardest on the households for whom power is the largest line in the budget.

Faced with a genuine political revolt, with bills tabled from Maryland to New York, the industry reached for its most reliable instrument: the solemn promise. Seven of the largest names signed a non-binding pledge at the White House to fund their own power needs, and Anthropic, OpenAI and Microsoft each vowed to cover 100% of the grid upgrades their facilities require. The vow arrives with a carve-out wide enough to drive a substation through. It covers the data centres a company owns outright and quietly omits the capacity it leases, which, in a business built on rented compute, is most of it. A promise that shields ratepayers from the buildings a firm holds the deed to while murmuring « exploring further ways » about the ones it rents carries the binding force of a « fragile » sticker on a Shein parcel.

The whole wager rests on a single article of faith: that the productivity miracle will turn up and settle the meter it ran on the way in. Kevin Warsh built much of his case for the Federal Reserve on exactly that, the conviction that AI would prove so disinflationary that rates could fall and keep falling. He took the chair last month, into a seat that now watches AI spending shove bond yields up and electricity shove core inflation up, the miracle keeping its options open. Perhaps it arrives, and the gains lift every boat in Ohio. Until then the experiment is bankrolled by people who never signed up for it, will not collect on it, and cannot, when the bill lands, simply cancel. A chatbot is optional. The thing that keeps the lights on is not.

🫵People have the power

🗞️ Top Story

  • 🇬🇧 Crown Receipts. Buckingham Palace announces King Charles III will reveal his tax filings for 2024-2025, a move billed as a gesture of openness never seen from a British sovereign. (France Info)
  • 🇬🇧 Exit Poll. Keir Starmer is expected to announce his resignation as prime minister today, with Labour MPs rallying behind Andy Burnham as his likely successor. (The Guardian)
  • 🇬🇧 Current Affairs. Scotland’s anti-terror police are investigating after five men, several of them Muslim, were violently attacked in Edinburgh on Friday night. A 36-year-old white Scottish man has been arrested as authorities probe possible anti-Muslim motives. (Le Parisien)
  • 🇬🇧 Track Record. Two passenger trains collided near Bedford, leaving at least one dead and dozens injured, as emergency services scrambled to respond. (New York Times)
  • 🇮🇹 General Admission. Roberto Vannacci, a controversial ex-general, founds Futuro Nazionale and overtakes Salvini’s League in polls, threatening Meloni’s grip on Italy’s right. (El Pais)
  • 🇮🇹 Photo Finish. Giorgia Meloni calls Donald Trump’s claim that she begged for a G7 photo « totally invented, » prompting Italy’s foreign minister to cancel a US visit in protest. (Le Monde)
  • 🇪🇸 Passport Control. A Spanish court orders Begoña Gómez, wife of PM Pedro Sánchez, to stand trial for corruption and bars her from leaving the country, as the scandal threatens his coalition. (Le Temps)
  • 🇨🇭 Strait to the Point. US and Iranian officials begin direct talks in Switzerland as Tehran claims it has closed the Strait of Hormuz over Lebanon clashes, while the US insists oil traffic is still moving. (BBC)
  • 🇨🇴 Right Turn. Colombia elects Abelardo de la Espriella, a Trump-backed lawyer and political novice, as president in a narrow runoff, signaling a sharp shift away from Petro’s leftist policies. (Le Monde)
  • 🇧🇴 State of Block. Bolivia’s President Rodrigo Paz Pereira declares a state of emergency after 7 weeks of road blockades cripple the country and leave at least 14 dead. (Spiegel)
  • 🇯🇵 Crown Control. Prime Minister Takaichi proposes bringing back prewar aristocratic bloodlines to avoid a woman taking the imperial throne, as Japan runs out of eligible princes. (Spiegel)
  • 🇮🇷 Straight Outta Hormuz. Iran claims it has closed the Strait of Hormuz, according to Tasnim, threatening a key global oil chokepoint with one announcement. (Bloomberg)
  • 🇶🇦 Gas Leak. An explosion at a domestic gas plant in Qatar has left 18 people missing, raising urgent questions about safety and oversight in the sector. (Bloomberg)
  • 🇪🇹 Majority Rules. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s Prosperity Party wins 90% of Ethiopia’s parliamentary seats, leaving little suspense about who will lead next. (Le Figaro)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
  • 🇬🇧 Amber Alert. Southern England and south-east Wales brace for highs up to 34C after the Met Office triggers a rare extreme heat warning. (The Guardian)
🇺🇸 United States
  • 🇺🇸 Toxic Assets. The saw 131 serious chemical accidents in 2025, up 20% from last year, with fatalities nearly doubling to 48 and injuries reaching 142. (Wall Street Journal)
  • 🇺🇸 Cult Following. Senator Raphael Warnock accuses the Republican Party of abandoning principles for Trump loyalty, calling it a cult on Bloomberg This Weekend. (Bloomberg)
  • 🇺🇸 Special Treatment. The Trump administration puts Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in charge of special education, sparking outrage from disability advocates who fear his views will undermine students’ rights. (New York Times)

🏛️ Economy

  • 🇬🇧 Exit Wounds. UK GDP is down as much as 6% since Brexit, investment and productivity have dropped, and even the most optimistic Brexiteers now struggle to name a single economic victory. (Les Echos)
  • 🇬🇧 Gen Wage. New research finds UK Gen Z employees out-earning their millennial predecessors at age 24, enjoying a rare pay bump not seen in decades. (The Guardian)
  • 🇩🇪 Stream Team. The AfD pushes to restart Nord Stream, cozying up to Gazprom in Moscow and drawing fire from Germany’s mainstream parties for playing Moscow’s game. (Les Echos)
  • 🇪🇺 Return Policy. A new ECFR survey finds 66% of citizens would welcome the UK back, with even Eurosceptics warming to closer ties after Brexit’s fallout. (The Guardian)
  • 🇪🇺 Swords to Green Shares. Once shunned by sustainable investors, Europe’s defense sector is being recast as a guardian of democracy and the environment, with a €7.2T fund pool in sight. (Le Monde)
  • 🇪🇺 Budget Blockers. leaders agree on a flexible new budget framework for 2028-2034 but cannot settle on funding amounts or who pays what, keeping the real fight for later. (Les Echos)
  • 🇷🇺 Fuel’s Gold. Russian-installed authorities in Crimea have banned all civilian and business fuel sales after Ukrainian drone attacks cut off supply routes, reserving gasoline for the military only. (El Pais)
  • 🇺🇸 Crude Awakening. Oil prices dropped over 1% after US-Iran talks showed “major progress” on Lebanon, cooling fears of further Middle East escalation. (New York Times)
  • 🇺🇸 Rich Lite. wealth managers are turning away from the so-called « mass affluent » as AI tools make it easier to focus on truly high-net-worth clients. (Bloomberg)
  • 🇨🇺 Castro-Nomics. The Cuban government approves 176 liberalizing measures, opening the door to large private firms, while Washington calls it all a smokescreen. (Les Echos)
  • 🇨🇳 List for List. China hits back at the US by blacklisting dozens of American firms, including Lockheed Martin 🇺🇸 and Boeing 🇺🇸, after Washington’s latest military company ban. (Le Figaro)
  • 🇦🇺 Pump Relief. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will extend Australia’s halved fuel tax for another month, hoping cheaper petrol can ease drivers’ pain and political pressure. (Le Figaro)
  • 🌍 Gray Area. The Financial Action Task Force removes Algeria and Namibia from its gray list but adds Bosnia-Herzegovina and Iraq, proving progress is always relative. (Le Monde)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
  • 🇬🇧 Rain Cheque. UK retail sales jumped 1.2% in May after a soggy April, as sunny weather and discounts lured shoppers back to the high street. (Boursier)
🇺🇸 United States
  • 🇺🇸 Fed Velvet. Kevin Warsh launches a sweeping review of Federal Reserve policy with five task forces, promising a quiet but comprehensive overhaul of how the central bank operates. (Cnbc)
  • 🇺🇸 Affluenza. Economic anxiety is climbing the income ladder as even the wealthiest Americans admit to financial worries and pessimism about what lies ahead. (Wall Street Journal)

🏢 Real Estate

  • 🇪🇸 Class Action. Barcelona’s city hall is using its tourist tax windfall to fund air conditioning in public schools, ensuring local kids get a break from the heat. (Ouest-France)
  • 🇨🇭 Alpine Accord. The latest round of US-Iran negotiations begins at the Bürgenstock Resort, where luxury meets geopolitics high above Lake Lucerne. (New York Times)
  • 🇦🇱 Resort to Protest. Jared Kushner’s $1B luxury resort plan on Albania’s coast faces mass protests and calls for the prime minister’s resignation as locals defend the Narta Lagoon’s wildlife. (Die Zeit)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
  • 🇬🇧 White City Blackout. A blaze in White City claimed the lives of three men on Saturday evening, as investigators search for answers amid the ashes. (The Guardian)
🇺🇸 United States
  • 🇦🇱 Kushner’s Island. Protests erupt in Albania over a $4B coastal project backed by Jared Kushner and Gulf investors, with locals rejecting foreign narratives and focusing on government cronyism. (New York Times)
  • 🇺🇸 Home Unimprovement. For many Americans, the cost of owning a home now far outpaces what buyers could expect just a few years ago, making the dream look more like a math problem. (Wall Street Journal)

🔗 On-chain

  • 🇸🇪 Crown Control. AllUnity launches SEKAU, the first fully reserved stablecoin pegged to the Swedish krona, promising instant, borderless payments with MiCAR compliance. (Boursier)
  • 🇺🇸 Run for Your Peg. lawmakers hope new rules will prevent a stablecoin panic, but if institutional holders bolt, even “safe” reserves may not stop the stampede. (Financial Times)
  • 🇺🇸 Betflix Originals. Polymarket 🇺🇸 paid online creators to post staged videos of fake bets and winnings, then boosted them with a social media campaign, according to the Wall Street Journal. (TechCrunch)
  • 🇺🇸 Winter Is App-ing. Despite bitcoin dropping 50% from its peak, CoinDesk claims the digital asset is as transformative as the smartphone, not just a passing freeze. (Cnbc)
🇺🇸 United States
  • 🇺🇸 GOP Wallets. Crypto ownership among Republicans has surged since Trump’s second term, widening the partisan divide to 5 percentage points, Pew reports. (Cnbc)

💱 Listed Markets

  • 🇫🇷 Gone with the Shares. The mysterious disappearance of 6M Hermès shares leads to Eric Freymond’s lavish Philippine projects, sparking a Paris probe into fraud and betrayal at the top. (Libé)
  • 🇪🇺 Euro Rebound. Strategists at Deutsche Bank and Barclays drop their bearish calls on European equities, betting that peace and policy support will narrow the US lead. (Financial Times)
  • 🇺🇸 Star Crossed. SpaceX received the lowest possible ESG rating from MSCI just before its $75B IPO, putting Elon Musk’s rocket company on par with Russia’s post-invasion governance score. (Financial Times)
  • 🇺🇸 Audit Pop. Coca-Cola 🇺🇸 faces off against the IRS in a $20B tax dispute, with a federal appeals court set to decide if its profits fizzled away overseas. (Wall Street Journal)
  • 🇺🇸 Prime Directive. Amazon abruptly drops its $40M film “Artificial” about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, despite investing $50B in the real company this year. (New York Times)
  • 🇯🇵 Board Games. Renault is pushing back against Nissan’s board nominations, specifically targeting Japan’s Mizuho as a creditor with too much sway in the process. (Bloomberg)

🛎️ Big Deals (M&A)

  • Pollen Street Capital 🇬🇧 acquires Finastra’s Universal Banking (UB) global core banking business 🇬🇧, a core-banking platform serving 150+ customers across 100+ countries.
  • Flexstone Partners 🇫🇷 acquires Glouston Capital Partners 🇬🇧 to form a $15B AUM platform
  • RWE 🇩🇪 acquires stakes in Amprion 🇩🇪 from Swiss Life and a German pension fund, valuing the grid at about €10B ($11.5B).
  • Mutares 🇩🇪 explores a sale or IPO of Efacec 🇵🇹 at $350M–$500M.
  • Leonardo 🇮🇹 and EDGE 🇦🇪 detail plans for a $5B joint venture in aerospace and defense.
  • Jazz Pharmaceuticals 🇮🇪 signs an $875M research collaboration and licensing agreement with AbCellera 🇨🇦.
  • Accenture 🇮🇪 acquires the Alfahealth and Industries eXcellence units of Engineering 🇮🇹 for $1B, deal covers digital services units.
  • Russian government 🇷🇺 sells seized top gold miner 🇷🇺 for $1.3B after multiple attempts and at about half the originally sought price.
  • AbbVie 🇺🇸 acquires Apogee Therapeutics 🇺🇸 in a nearly $11B ($10.9B cash) deal for the inflammatory‑disease biotech.
  • Monarch Alternative Capital 🇺🇸 and Arini 🇫🇷 acquire Kem One 🇫🇷 from Apollo 🇺🇸; €100M recapitalization and €720M net debt reduction, wiping 80% of the debt.
  • Uber 🇺🇸 acquires Getir’s 🇹🇷 delivery business. Cleared final regulatory hurdle with approval by the Competition Board.
  • TOMS Capital 🇺🇸 pushes Devon 🇺🇸, a $50B-listed shale producer, to quicken asset sales or sell itself.
  • Lone Star Funds 🇺🇸 is the frontrunner to acquire ContiTech 🇩🇪, Continental’s industrial unit, which could fetch $4B.
  • Mill Pond Capital 🇺🇸 urges a full sale of Rayonier Advanced Materials 🇺🇸, $600M-listed fiber producer.
  • Bass Pro Shops 🇺🇸 acquires Cheeca Lodge & Spa 🇺🇸 in Islamorada (Florida Keys) from Northwood Investors for over $300M.
  • Arcline 🇺🇸 acquires AstroNova 🇺🇸 for $272M at an 80% premium, data visualization and printing tech company.
  • LongRange Capital 🇺🇸 acquires Pizza Hut (U.S. & international outside China) 🇺🇸 for $1.5B, restaurant chain sale.
  • Brookfield Asset Management 🇨🇦 leads bidding to acquire a controlling stake in XpFibre 🇫🇷, the fiber optic company owned by Patrick Drahi.
  • MDA Space Ltd. 🇨🇦 acquires Blue Canyon Technologies LLC 🇺🇸 for $620M, all-cash, defense sector.
  • Putman Investments 🇨🇦 seeks to buy assets of Toys ‘R’ Us Canada 🇨🇦, hopes to extend its licence to use the Toys ‘R’ Us name or possibly rebrand the business.
  • Keyera Corp 🇨🇦 acquires KAPS LNG pipeline (remaining 50% stake from Stonepeak) 🇺🇸 for $860M
  • Saudi Aramco 🇸🇦 is considering a $7B stake sale in its sulphur business.

🧳 Private Markets & VC

  • 🇩🇪 Haven or Hazard. Germany’s Schuldschein debt market, once considered a safe refuge for lenders, now faces doubts as creditor chaos and insolvency fears mount. (Bloomberg)
  • 🇪🇺 License to Fund. Eric Slesinger, former CIA and now solo GP, is plotting a second European defence fund after last year’s $22M debut. (Sifted)
  • 🇺🇸 AI of the Storm. Trump reverses course and declares Anthropic no longer a national security risk, citing their prompt compliance with White House demands. (Cnbc)
  • 🇺🇸 Fold Change. John Jumper, fresh off a Nobel Prize for AlphaFold, exits DeepMind 🇬🇧 for Anthropic 🇺🇸, making the AI talent wars even more literal. (TechCrunch)
  • 🇺🇸 King of the Hill? Vanguard 🇺🇸 faces the prospect of being dethroned as the world’s largest asset manager, with a $2.8T empire on the line. (Bloomberg)
  • 🇺🇸 Loan Wolves. Blackstone’s takeover of Medallia shows how private credit lenders are forced into running companies, not just collecting interest, after a $5B equity wipeout. (Financial Times)
  • 🇰🇷 Limit Break. CSOP removes restrictions on options for its SK Hynix fund, inviting a new wave of risk-taking in the chip sector. (Bloomberg)

Fundraising

  • Kling AI 🇨🇳 (Video AI): $2B+
  • CuspAI 🇺🇸 (AI): $400M (Bezos Expeditions, Kleiner Perkins, and others)
  • Odyssey 🇺🇸 (AI): $310M
  • Dream (Cybersecurity): $260M (Bicycle Capital, Group 11, Bain Capital Ventures)
  • Karta 🇺🇸 (Fintech): $140M (Galaxy Ventures, Community Investment Management)
  • Chronograph 🇺🇸 (Fintech): $140M
  • Twenty 🇺🇸 (Cybersecurity): $100M
  • HyperLight 🇺🇸 (Photonics): $80M
  • Solar Foods 🇫🇮 (Foodtech): €77.8M
  • XDOF 🇺🇸 (Robotics): $70M (Thrive Capital, Spark Capital, a16z, Lux, WndrCo)
  • Triveni Bio 🇺🇸 (Biotech): $65M (Ascenta Capital, Janus Henderson Investors, Deep Track Capital)
  • Gradial 🇺🇸 (Marketing): $65M
  • Bland 🇺🇸 (Voice AI): $50M
  • Everlab 🇦🇺 (Healthcare): $46M
  • Convey (Enterprise AI): $38M (a16z)
  • Trace Finance 🇺🇸 (Fintech): $32M
  • Pramaana Labs 🇺🇸 (AI): $27M
  • Copia Automation 🇺🇸 (Industrial): $26M
  • Festina Finance 🇩🇰 (Fintech): €25M+
  • Traysar (Unknown): $25M
  • Solius (Healthcare): $23M
  • Aether AI 🇺🇸 (AI): $20M
  • NeuralTrust 🇺🇸 (AI security): $20M
  • Flagright 🇩🇪 (Regtech): $12.5M
  • Seacure 🇫🇷 (Environmental): €7.4M (Truffle Capital)
  • HighGround 🇺🇸 (Defense & Aerospace): $6.5M
  • GATE Space 🇦🇹 (Space): €6.3M
  • Optiak 🇪🇸 (AI): €4M (Market One Capital, Next Tier Ventures, EA Ventures, Plug and Play, EMEA Fund, Mission, investors linked to SpaceX, Amazon, Stripe, Crowdstrike, Databricks)
  • Seqana 🇩🇪 (Agtech): €3.2M (Pymwymic, HTGF, Counteract)
  • SOMAREALITY 🇦🇹 (Neurotech): €3M+ (Catalyst Romania, MT-Lab, RDY Ventures, Moondust Ventures, Gateway Ventures)
  • Houdini Bio 🇬🇧 (Biotech): £1.5M
  • Node.ai 🇪🇸 (Fintech): €1.5M
  • Adomate 🇧🇪 (Martech): €1.4M (Angelwise, RDY Ventures, Seeder Fund, Jo Deblaere, Jeroen De Wit, Willem Dumon, Johnny Kegels)

Fund Watch

  • Clearlake 🇺🇸: $14.8B (8th flagship private equity fund)
  • EigenQ 🇺🇸: $3B (merger with Silicon Valley Acquisition, quantum tech firm)
  • KKR 🇺🇸: $1.4B
  • Go Capital 🇫🇷: €8M (InvESS’t NA, regional impact fund for ESS in Nouvelle‑Aquitaine; €20M target)

🔔IPO

  • Bénéteau 🇫🇷 (Boatbuilder): launching a buyback of up to 400K shares at max €25 each, totaling up to €140M to fund a free-share allocation.
  • Csquare 🇨🇦 (Data centers): filed for an IPO backed by Brookfield.
  • Lingyi iTech 🇨🇳 (Electronics): taking orders for a $1.1B Hong Kong IPO at a 44% discount to its China trading.
  • Mynt 🇵🇭 (Fintech): will file for the Philippines’ biggest IPO, targeting an $8B valuation.
  • Jio Platforms 🇮🇳 (Telecom): filed draft papers for what could be India’s biggest-ever IPO.
  • National Stock Exchange of India 🇮🇳 (Exchange): seeking to sell 6% of existing shares for $2.5B an India IPO.
  • Manipal Health Enterprises 🇮🇳 (Hospitals): backed by Temasek, set to launch a $1B IPO at a $10B valuation.

🧳 Debt

  • Paprec 🇫🇷: raised €400M via a private placement of two bond tranches to finance external growth.
  • Hoffmann 🇫🇷: raised €5M in a private placement.
  • Iliad 🇫🇷: secured €10B (€6.5B for the SFR acquisition and €3.5B refinancing of two bank lines).
  • Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio 🇮🇹: exploring private debt to help finance his $11.6B deal to increase his stake in family holding Delfin.
  • Iberdrola 🇪🇸: sold $1.75B of senior green bonds.
  • TAP Air Portugal 🇵🇹: selling $350M of junk bonds ahead of privatizing a 49.9% stake.
  • Athens International Airport 🇬🇷: raised $580M in a debut euro bond sale.
  • HDFC Bank 🇮🇳: secured its tightest-ever spread on a $750M dollar bond sale.

❌ Failures

  • Maisons du Monde 🇫🇷: in conciliation, a refinancing would give a consortium ~95% of capital, diluting current shareholders to ≤4.78%. Without it the group risks judicial restructuring and equity value near €0.
  • Leuna-Polyamid 🇩🇪: declared insolvent, leaving more than 400 employees facing job uncertainty.
  • Stellantis 🇳🇱: is in talks with two partners to cooperate on its struggling luxury brand Maserati.
  • Bain Capital 🇺🇸: a tranche of a European CLO managed by Bain Capital failed to repay investors in full, the first such European default since the post‑2008 overhaul.
  • China Evergrande 🇭🇰: Hong Kong’s regulator will compensate minority shareholders $130M, brushing aside a legal challenge by liquidators.

🎯 For a Few More Minutes…

  • 🇬🇧 Queen of Owes. Julie Meyer, once hailed as London’s dotcom star, leaves behind a trail of unpaid bills and shattered startup dreams across Europe. (The Guardian)
  • 🇬🇧 Burn Rate. The UK’s appetite for alfresco dining is fueling a boom in expensive barbecues, with some grills costing as much as a used car. (The Guardian)
  • 🇬🇧 Coinfidential Leak. Former Hattons of London staff orchestrated a plot to extract client data and set up a competing firm, a judge found, with the evidence described as “overwhelming.” (Financial Times)
  • 🇫🇷 High Art. French police discovered an authentic Picasso painting during a drug raid near Paris, launching a fresh investigation into art theft and trafficking. (Le Monde)
  • 🇦🇫 License to Ill. Over 10,000 Afghan women now hold business licenses under Taliban rule, but every enterprise comes with a list of restrictions longer than the receipts. Dreams of law or medicine have been swapped for survival in cosmetics and crafts. (New York Times)

Enjoyed this article? Subscribe to get the next ones.