👔 Who’s Buying Lunch?

The bill lands on the only guy not at the table.

A Free Lunch newsletter archive of July 15, 2026

Also available:🇫🇷 Édition française

🌍 All editions
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
🇺🇸 United States

Good morning!

OpenAI would like to give the American government roughly 5% of itself, some $42.6B, and has settled on calling this a gift. The model is the Alaska fund that pays residents a share of oil revenue. Alaska had oil. OpenAI has a company that has never posted an annual profit and a plan to feed part of it into a discretionary pool a president is already building by other means. Jensen Huang preferred the honest version and haggled in public: Nvidia talked the White House down from 20% to 15% on its China sales, a trillion-dollar firm bargaining over how much of its own revenue to surrender, before the levy climbed to 25% anyway. The company pronounced the outcome great for America.

Intel got the offer without the smile. Minutes prepared for its board record a Commerce official advising the directors not to mistake this for a negotiation, and to weigh the benefits of a friend in the administration. Intel surrendered 9.9% for $8.9B; the stock has since risen roughly fivefold, which tends to settle any lingering resentment. MP Materials gave up 15% and acquired the Pentagon as its largest shareholder. The portfolio now stands near $20.9B, the largest state grab of corporate equity since 1945. The tap runs both ways: Anthropic lost its federal contracts, in a ban a court later flagged as likely retaliatory, after balking at the Pentagon’s terms and pressing for limits on autonomous weapons, while OpenAI throttled its own flagship to a roster of government-approved buyers. Regulation is a valve, and the hand on it belongs to one man.

Sanders wants a 50% levy on AI revenue poured into a $7T sovereign fund; California’s Newsom wants a public equity vehicle; the instinct behind both is defensible. A technology trained on the collected writing of the species, built on publicly funded research and a grid the taxpayer keeps alive, might reasonably owe that public a return. That is a serious argument, and a handshake between a chief executive and a president is not it. The handshake produces a regulator who owns what he regulates, and beside it a quieter ledger: the president’s own brokerage account ran 3,642 trades in a single quarter, buying Intel, Nvidia and the defence contractors his own policy was busy lifting.

The workers this machine was built to render surplus were always the stated reason any of it had to be shared. They will get the announcement. The shares themselves disappear into a fund no citizen can audit, held by a government with every reason to shield the firms it co-owns and none to discipline them. What gets sold off, one meeting at a time, is the unglamorous idea that the law should fall the same way on everyone rather than lean toward whoever left the room a friend. That one never paid a dividend. It only ever cost.

👔 Who’s Buying Lunch?

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🗞️ Top Story

  • 🇬🇧 Night Mode. The UK government wants a midnight-to-6am social media curfew for 16 and 17-year-olds, but teens can opt out with a settings tweak. (Bbc)
  • 🇬🇧 Blaze Britannia. Wildfires continue to rage across the UK as fire chiefs warn crews are under extreme pressure from relentless heat and no rain in sight. (Bbc)
  • 🇬🇧 Target Audience. Police confirm Ann Widdecombe was killed in a targeted attack at her Devon home, with counter-terror officers probing possible motives and links to her Reform UK role. (Bbc)
  • 🇩🇪 Heat and Run. Germany saw a 32% spike in deaths during the late June heatwave, with 23,900 fatalities as record temperatures scorched the country. (Le Parisien)
  • 🇮🇹 Majority Minus One. Giorgia Meloni’s election law reform failed in parliament by a single vote, exposing cracks in her coalition and fueling calls for her resignation. (Spiegel)
  • 🇪🇸 Family Ties Cut. Spanish courts have banned David Sanchez, Pedro Sanchez’s brother, from holding any public post for 9 years over administrative misconduct. (Le Monde)
  • 🇪🇺 Control Freak. The European Parliament hurriedly adopted « Chat Control » to scan private messages for child abuse content, despite a previous rejection and a suspicious vote count. (Libé)
  • 🇪🇺 Queue Union. Ukraine clears another stage in its long bid to join the, as ministers approve new talks on security and foreign policy. (Le Parisien)
  • 🇪🇺 Fraud and Order. After new breaches by Rassemblement National, the European Parliament’s right and far right join forces to downplay the latest funding violations. (Le Monde)
  • 🇺🇸 Strait Shooter. Donald Trump declares the will « take over » the Strait of Hormuz, promising a blockade and tolls as tensions with Iran escalate. (New York Times)
  • 🇨🇴 Bus Stop. The ELN abducted 39 people, including a minor, from a bus in Choco, reminding Colombia that guerrilla kidnappings are far from a thing of the past. (Le Monde)
  • 🇨🇺 Current Affairs. Cuba suffered its third nationwide blackout in a week as its aging power grid collapsed again, leaving millions in the dark and the government blaming US sanctions. (Spiegel)
  • 🇴🇲 Blast from the Deep. The Norwegian tanker Stolt Magnesium 🇳🇴 was hit by an unidentified explosion off Oman, sparking a fire but leaving the crew unharmed. (Ouest-France)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
  • 🇬🇧 Barwell Out. Lord Barwell loses the Tory whip following his criticism of party direction, while Conservative leaders insist there is no purge of moderates. (The Guardian)
  • 🇬🇧 Safe House. Andy Burnham calls for a full review of MPs’ security after Ann Widdecombe’s killing, warning that political life in the UK has grown darker and more dangerous. (Bbc)
🇺🇸 United States
  • 🇺🇸 ICE Breaker. After an ICE agent fatally shot a Colombian man in Maine, Senator Susan Collins faces Democratic challengers blaming her for supporting Trump-era immigration policies. (New York Times)
  • 🇺🇸 Case Closed. E. Jean Carroll’s lawyers confirm she received $5.6M from Donald Trump, marking the end of his attempts to delay the court-ordered payment. (Cnbc)

🏛️ Economy

  • 🇬🇧 Click Baited. UK regulator Ofcom will require tech giants like Meta 🇺🇸 to crack down on scam ads, threatening hefty penalties for noncompliance. (FinExtra)
  • 🇬🇧 Gilt Trip. UK 10-year government bond yields jumped above 5% for the first time since May as surging oil prices and Middle East tensions spook investors ahead of Andy Burnham’s arrival as prime minister. (Financial Times)
  • 🇪🇺 Risky Business. Brussels is set to propose looser banking regulations, betting that less oversight will boost growth without inviting another crisis. (Financial Times)
  • 🇪🇺 Beta Blockers. The ECB picked 36 payment providers. Including Adyen 🇳🇱, Worldline 🇫🇷, BPCE 🇫🇷, and UniCredit 🇮🇹—to test-drive the digital euro in a year-long pilot starting 2027, with the private sector lining up for a first taste of virtual cash. (Boursier)
  • 🇪🇺 Label of Silence. The European Commission refuses to release documents explaining why Nutri-Score vanished from its agenda, prompting Access Info Europe to sue for transparency in court. (Le Temps)
  • 🇷🇺 Crude Awakening. Russia is struggling to find enough buyers for the oil it must export, as global demand and sanctions leave barrels piling up. (Bloomberg)
  • 🇺🇸 Up, Up and Away. The FAA announces a « major step » toward approving flying taxis, with BETA Technologies’ electric aircraft completing a real-world medical transport test. (Le Monde)
  • 🇺🇸 Gates Closed. Warren Buffett’s $6B charity stock donation skips the Gates Foundation entirely, redirecting his annual largesse to family foundations amid ongoing Epstein-related scrutiny. (Financial Times)
  • 🇺🇸 Price Fight. Kevin Warsh assures Congress that the Fed will restore price stability, but offers no hint of raising interest rates just yet. (New York Times)
  • 🇺🇸 Peak Performance. The four biggest banks shattered earnings records with $43B in quarterly profit, even as their CEOs caution that hidden dangers could shake the market. (New York Times)
  • 🇺🇸 Heir Supply. As baby boomers pass down trillions, the coming wealth transfer is set to make America’s richest families even richer, leaving inequality untouched. (Bloomberg)
  • 🇺🇸 Fore! Sale. Donald Trump’s company received $2M from South Korea’s Base Group, whose affiliate is fighting trade penalties, all under the guise of a « golf project. » (New York Times)
  • 🇨🇳 Car Go Boom. Chinese automakers exported more than 1M vehicles in June, with BYD, Chery, and Geely all posting massive gains as domestic demand stalls. (Le Figaro)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
  • 🇬🇧 Credit Checkpoint. The UK brings Buy Now Pay Later firms like Klarna and Clearpay under FCA rules, granting shoppers new refund rights while blocking riskier borrowers for the first time. (Bbc)
  • 🇬🇧 Buy Now, Regulate Later. The UK’s $13B BNPL sector finally faces FCA oversight, with new rules on transparency, affordability checks, and support for customers who fall behind. (FinExtra)
  • 🇬🇧 Liquid Assets. South East Water will pay a £30.5M penalty after repeated supply failures left thousands without water, with Ofwat demanding real fixes this time. (The Guardian)
  • 🇬🇧 Mask and Spender. A public inquiry found the UK wasted nearly £10B on pandemic PPE, with the “VIP lane” fast-tracking politically connected suppliers and undermining public trust. (Financial Times)
  • 🇬🇧 Compact Disc. The Financial Services Skills Commission launches a ‘Skills Compact’ with 22 banks and firms, spinning up new training for AI before the music stops. (FinExtra)
🇺🇸 United States
  • 🇺🇸 Check Please. Elon Musk is accused by Wisconsin’s elections board of likely breaking state law by handing $1M checks to voters before the 2025 Supreme Court race, with prosecutors now weighing criminal charges. (Cnbc)
  • 🇺🇸 Tax Gap. Ken Kies, the Treasury’s top tax policy official and acting IRS counsel, is leaving the Trump administration, deepening the leadership void at the heart of tax enforcement. (New York Times)
  • 🇺🇸 Chill Factor. consumer prices rose 3.5% in June, cooling from May’s 4.2% pace and surprising analysts who expected 3.8% inflation instead. (Wall Street Journal)
  • 🇺🇸 Not So Artificial. Despite the hype, productivity gains are coming from digitization and remote work, not from artificial intelligence according to economists. (New York Times)
  • 🇺🇸 Truce Tag. American consumers caught a break on prices last month, thanks to a war pause with Iran that briefly lowered inflation before hostilities resumed. (New York Times)

🏢 Real Estate

  • 🇺🇸 Cloud Cover. New York has temporarily banned new large-scale data centers, with Governor Hochul citing concerns over AI, energy, and water use as reasons for the unprecedented pause. (TechCrunch)
🇺🇸 United States
  • 🇺🇸 Watt’s Up. Data centers are pushing PJM to raise electricity costs by $6.3B over three years, affecting millions from Virginia to Chicago. (New York Times)

🔗 On-chain

  • 🇪🇺 Swipe Right. Kraken introduces a crypto debit card for UK and European users, promising real-time conversions and weekly Bitcoin or euro cashback for every tap. (FinExtra)
  • 🇺🇸 Stable Wars. Circle banned Malta-based Heka Funds, backed by rival Tether, over alleged market manipulation, sparking a $49M legal fight that Circle ultimately won. (Financial Times)

💱 Listed Markets

  • 🇬🇧 Float Deferred. Hopes for a London IPO comeback have been pushed back to 2027, leaving the City waiting for a market that never quite arrives. (Bloomberg)
  • 🇬🇧 Trading Places. BP 🇬🇧 bets on fresh oil trading gains as Iran tensions drive price swings, even while its actual oil production shrinks. (Wall Street Journal)
  • 🇳🇱 Buy Now, Sue Later. The Mass Damage & Consumer Foundation is taking Klarna 🇸🇪 to court, claiming its “loans” break Dutch lending laws and cost consumers €500M. (FinExtra)
  • 🇸🇪 Sound of Silence. Spotify suffered a global outage on July 14, leaving millions unable to stream music or access their playlists as the platform stayed quiet on the cause. (Le Parisien)
  • 🇺🇸 Page Against the Machine. Google faces a lawsuit from Hachette and fellow publishers who claim Gemini AI was trained on millions of their books without permission, turning copyright into just another dataset. (Le Figaro)
  • 🇺🇸 Big Blue Monday. IBM 🇺🇸 shares plunged 23% after a profit warning revealed clients are fleeing mainframes for newer AI-driven infrastructure, leaving the old guard behind. (Financial Times)
  • 🇺🇸 Rate Race. bond yields spike as traders pile into bets that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates sooner than expected, putting pressure on borrowers and markets. (Bloomberg)
  • 🇺🇸 Trading Places. JPMorgan Chase 🇺🇸 saw profits jump to $21.2B last quarter as blockbuster deals and wild market swings turned volatility into a goldmine. (Boursier)
  • 🇺🇸 Profit Margin Call. Citigroup 🇺🇸 posted a 45% jump in equities trading revenue to $2.3B for the quarter, with EPS at $3.15 and analysts left in the dust. (Bloomberg)
  • 🇺🇸 Standard Procedure. Google DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis urges the U.S. to lead a national AI standards body, warning that unchecked AI could pose security threats no one is ready to handle. (Cnbc)
  • 🇺🇸 Jet Set Go. Boeing notched its highest first-half deliveries since 2018 with 314 aircraft, yet remains behind Airbus, which managed 351. (Cnbc)
  • 🇺🇸 Going Public. After a report claimed Lucid 🇺🇸 might file for bankruptcy or go private, the EV maker called the rumors “completely false” as its stock tumbled. (Cnbc)
  • 🇺🇸 Byte Size. Apple is evaluating PrismML’s tech, which promises to compress massive AI models enough to fit on an iPhone, keeping more AI processing local and less in the cloud. (Cnbc)
  • 🌎 Yield of Dreams. Investors chasing higher returns are pouring into emerging market bonds, leaving US Treasuries in the dust as carry trades surge. (Bloomberg)
  • 🇨🇳 Crown Without Borders. BYD’s top executive claims the Chinese carmaker can overtake Toyota as the world’s biggest by sales without ever entering the US market, betting on rapid growth in Europe and beyond. (Financial Times)
  • 🇰🇷 Chip Shot. SK Hynix shares soared 11% as Asian tech stocks rallied, riding a rebound in US semiconductor names after Monday’s brutal sell-off. (Cnbc)
  • 🇸🇬 Singapore Circuit. UMC, Taiwan’s second-largest chipmaker, launches mass production of silicon photonics wafers in Singapore as Citi upgrades its forecast for the company. (Cnbc)
🇺🇸 United States
  • 🇺🇸 Dividend’s Day. The Chamber of Commerce and 40 business groups are fighting a Senate defense bill provision that would ban Pentagon contractors from stock buybacks and dividends without Pentagon approval, calling it unprecedented government overreach. (Cnbc)

🛎️ Big Deals (M&A)

  • Watches of Switzerland Group 🇬🇧 in talks to go private in a $2.3B deal.
  • Bridgepoint 🇬🇧 acquires a majority stake in UMag Solutions 🇩🇰 at a $286M valuation.
  • ABB 🇨🇭 invests a minority stake in Gridcog 🇬🇧’s digital platform, energy modelling/software sector.
  • Palm Beach Capital 🇺🇸 invests in NELSON Worldwide 🇺🇸 via its United Design Partners platform. Strategic investment adds NELSON’s 14 offices and expands the platform to 20 locations, with NELSON’s leadership and workforce remaining in place.
  • Odyssey Investment Partners 🇺🇸 invests in TransPak 🇺🇸, majority investment in a packaging engineering, logistics, testing and supply chain solutions provider serving data center, semiconductor, aerospace, defense and medical sectors.
  • Stripe 🇺🇸 and Advent International 🇺🇸 offer to buy PayPal 🇺🇸 for $60.50 per share, valuing it at >$53B, backed by ~$50B in committed financing.
  • Uber 🇺🇸 in advanced talks to acquire Delivery Hero 🇩🇪, valued at about €10B ($11.4B), food-delivery company
  • Apollo Global 🇺🇸 to acquire easyJet 🇬🇧 for £5.7B (Apollo’s £7.15/share bid), after easyJet gave conditional approval and rejected Castlelake’s £6.90/share offer.
  • KKR 🇺🇸 to acquire a stake in Thomson Reuters’ legal and tax business 🇨🇦.
  • Francisco Partners 🇺🇸 nears $1.3B deal to buy Command Alkon 🇺🇸, a construction software maker.
  • Reflection AI 🇺🇸 signs a $1B compute deal with Nebius 🇪🇺 to access Nvidia’s latest chips.
  • Blackstone 🇺🇸, Apollo 🇺🇸 and KKR 🇺🇸 acquire 49% non-controlling interest in five power plants from Williams 🇺🇸 for $5.35B.
  • First Hawaiian 🇺🇸 to acquire California-based TriCo Bancshares 🇺🇸 in a $2B all-stock deal.
  • Ferguson Enterprises 🇺🇸 acquires FloWorks 🇺🇸 from Wynnchurch Capital for $1.6B cash
  • TransDigm 🇺🇸 walks away from its $960M takeover of Stellant Systems 🇺🇸 after the DOJ threatened to block the deal.
  • Greenfire Resources 🇨🇦 agrees to acquire Connacher Oil and Gas Limited 🇨🇦 for $900M cash.
  • TCL Zhonghuan 🇨🇳 takes a majority stake in DAS Solar 🇨🇳, Chinese solar wafer maker acquiring smaller rival.
  • Nippon Paint 🇯🇵 offers $8.4B for Akzo Nobel 🇳🇱. Offer rejected.
  • Barito 🇮🇩 makes a $5B+ takeover bid for EDC 🇵🇭.
  • Grasim Industries 🇮🇳 acquires Sprng Energy 🇮🇳 from Shell for $1.8B, including debt.
  • Tata Capital 🇮🇳 acquires Yogakshemam Loans 🇮🇳 for $33M equity value, a gold loan lender.
  • Genesis Minerals 🇦🇺 bids $3.9B for Vault Minerals 🇦🇺; Regis Resources 🇦🇺 declines to match.

🧳 Private Markets & VC

  • 🇪🇸 Fund of Attraction. Spain ranks second in the EU for sovereign wealth fund investment in 2024-2025, pulling in €6.7B despite political gridlock and budget deadlock. (Les Echos)
  • 🇪🇺 Green Sheen. Socfin 🇱🇺, the palm oil giant part-owned by Vincent Bolloré, hired NGOs for independent audits to polish its eco-image, but the reports confirmed serious abuses instead. The company’s greenwashing campaign ended up highlighting exactly what it tried to hide. (Libé)
  • 🇺🇸 Script Change. Miles Wang exits OpenAI 🇺🇸 to start his own AI drug discovery venture, chasing a $2B valuation before the first prescription is written. (TechCrunch)

Fundraising

  • IM8 🇬🇧 (Beverages): $1B (General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund)
  • Neko Health 🇸🇪 (Healthcare): $700M
  • Chai Discovery 🇺🇸 (Biotech): $400M (Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, Dimension, Bain Capital Ventures, Battery Ventures, Baillie Gifford, BDT & MSD, Sapphire Ventures, Avra Capital, Thrive Capital, OpenAI, Oak HC/FT, Menlo Ventures, General Catalyst, Glade Brook, Avenir, Lachy Groom, Yosemite)
  • Oratomic 🇺🇸 (Quantum computing): $300M (ARCH Venture Partners, Spark Capital, Khosla Ventures, Bezos Expeditions, Index Ventures, General Catalyst, Lowercarbon Capital, Bain Capital, Formation, Nebular, David and Scott Aaronson, Les Kohn, Baiju Bhatt, Infleqtion, Genius Ventures, 7i Capital, Global Frontier Investments)
  • Prime Intellect 🇺🇸 (AI): $130M (Radical Ventures, NVIDIA Ventures, Intel Capital, Dell Technologies Capital, existing investors, John Schulman, Karim Atiyeh, Aaron Levie, Dwarkesh Patel, Milan Kovac, Winston Weinberg, Mike Knoop, Asher Spector, Jeff Wang, Rohan Anil, Matthew Prince, Brendan Foody, Devansh Pandey, Harrison Chase, Nic Ouporov)
  • BRINC 🇺🇸 (Public safety): $125M (Motorola Solutions, Index Ventures, Dylan Field)
  • Mighty Therapeutics 🇺🇸 (Biotech): up to $125M (K2 HealthVentures)
  • Norm Ai 🇺🇸 (AI): $120M (Khosla Ventures, Blackstone, Bain Capital Ventures (BCV), Craft Ventures, Coatue, Vanguard, New York Life, TIAA, Tony James, Jeff Hammes, Fenwick LLP)
  • TerraFirma 🇺🇸 (Construction): $115M (Kleiner Perkins, Bain Capital Ventures, angel investors tied to SpaceX, Anduril, Hadrian)
  • Venus Aerospace 🇺🇸 (Aerospace): $91M (Mercury Fund, Lockheed Martin Ventures, MESH, PEAK6, Draper Associates, Starboard Star Venture Capital, Green Sands Equity)
  • Singularity 🇺🇸 (Defense): $80M (Khosla Ventures, Felicis, AE Ventures, NEA, Long Journey, Harpoon, Menlo Ventures, Y Combinator, Decisive Point, New Vista, Sunflower, Soma)
  • Flex 🇺🇸 (Fintech): $70M (Halo Fund, Portage Ventures, Wellington, Crosslink Capital, 53 Stations, Titanium Ventures, Spice, Florida Funders, and others)
  • FORE Biotherapeutics 🇺🇸 (Biotech): $67.4M (SR One, Medicxi, SymBiosis, TaiAx, LG Technology Ventures, Primer Ventures, Axil, OrbiMed Advisors, HBM Healthcare Investments, Wellington Management, Cormorant Capital, Novartis Venture Fund, Windham Life Science Partners, Samsung, 3B Capital)
  • Draig Therapeutics 🇬🇧 (Biotech): $65M (Deep Track Capital, Janus Henderson Investors, Marshall Wace, British Business Bank, Jefferson Life Sciences)
  • THINK Surgical 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $65M (Symbiotic Capital)
  • InstaLILY AI 🇺🇸 (AI): $60M (Energize Capital, Insight Partners, Home Depot Ventures, United Rentals)
  • Quadric 🇺🇸 (AI): $46M (IFC)
  • TYLsemi 🇺🇸 (Semiconductors): $43M (Matter Venture Partners, Viola Ventures, GHOVC, Egis Technology)
  • Corner Health 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $32.5M (Oak HC/FT, First Round Capital, Homebrew, Zigg Capital, Pathlight Ventures, Wischoff Ventures, Go Global Ventures)
  • Hadrius 🇺🇸 (Fintech): $27M (CRV, Y Combinator, Pathlight Ventures, founders of Altruist, Jump AI, FINNY)
  • Thira 🇺🇸 (AI): $21M (Madrona, FUSE, prominent global advisors and CIOs)
  • Overtone 🇺🇸 (Dating): $18M (Match Group, FirstMark Capital, Pace Capital)
  • Sapphiros 🇺🇸 (Diagnostics): $12.4M (BARDA)
  • 410 Medical 🇺🇸 (Medtech): $12M (Orlando Health Ventures, Hatteras Venture Partners, Ballad Health, OSF Healthcare, Rex Health Ventures, CU Healthcare Innovations Fund, Sarnova, Catalyst by Wellstar, Tampa General, undisclosed strategic investor)
  • Nopan 🇳🇱 (Fintech): €7.2M
  • Ravee Optics 🇺🇸 (Space): $6M (BIG Capital, JobsOhio Ventures, CincyTech)
  • Piq Energy 🇺🇸 (Energy): $5M (Active Impact Investments, Cisco Foundation, Mobilize AI x Energy Ventures, New Climate Ventures, Ascent Energy Ventures, Umami Capital, CLAI Ventures, 9Zero)
  • Linker Finance 🇺🇸 (Fintech): $5M (Chingona Ventures, Ten One Ten Ventures, Audaz Capital, Angeles Investors, 22nd State Banking Company)
  • Guthrie AI 🇺🇸 (Construction): $4M (Chicago Ventures)
  • Auxilium Health 🇺🇸 (Medtech): $3.4M

Fund Watch

  • Warren Equity Partners 🇺🇸: $2.8B (Fund V, infrastructure solutions fund, closed at hard cap)
  • Citation Capital 🇺🇸: $1.2B (inaugural mid-market buyout fund for founder- and family-led businesses)
  • Goodfin 🇺🇸: Undisclosed (Goodfin QSBS Venture Fund, QSBS-optimized venture fund for YC-backed startups)

🔔IPO

  • SMAG Mobile Antenna Masts 🇩🇪 (Defense): fell 42% in its trading debut after raising $128M in a German IPO.
  • Saylor’s Strategy 🇺🇸 (Investment): raised $467M in a share sale to lift cash reserves to $3B.
  • Rivian 🇺🇸 (Autos): raised $1.3B in a share sale.
  • Mylan 🇺🇸 (Pharma): plans to raise $365M in a share sale of Indian drugmaker Biocon.
  • CXMT 🇨🇳 (Semiconductors): seeking to raise nearly $9.8B in a Shanghai IPO, the largest mainland China listing since 2010.
  • DeepSeek 🇨🇳 (AI): preparing an IPO that could file this year to debut in 2027, targeting a pre‑money valuation of at least ¥480bn (~$71B) and aiming to raise >$10B privately after a $7B round.
  • Samsung Electronics 🇰🇷 (Semiconductors): weighing a US ADR offering after SK Hynix’s $26.5B listing, no amount has been set.
  • Minor Food 🇹🇭 (Restaurants): plans to raise $310M in a Singapore IPO.
  • Maxivision Super Specialty Eye Hospitals 🇮🇳 (Healthcare): backed by Quadria Capital and planning a 2027 IPO.
  • Agro Processors & Atmospheric Gases 🇵🇰 (Cooking oil): seeking to raise $9M in a Pakistan IPO.
  • DigiCo Infrastructure REIT 🇦🇺 (Real Estate): set to list on the ASX in what Bloomberg called Australia’s biggest IPO in six years.
  • NourNet 🇸🇦 (Digital services): Investcorp-backed provider picked banks for a Saudi IPO.

🧳 Debt

  • Pinewood Group 🇬🇧: in talks for a bond sale.
  • Bosch 🇩🇪: secured $225M in U.S. Department of Commerce funding toward a $2B investment to expand SiC semiconductor production in Roseville, CA.
  • Brazzale 🇮🇹: raised $11.5M by selling cheese-backed securities.
  • Realty Income 🇺🇸: recast and expanded revolving credit facilities to $5.5B and commercial paper programs to $5.5B.
  • JLL 🇺🇸: secured $332M refinancing for NEMA Chicago.
  • Aquarion Water Authority 🇺🇸: planning a $2.4B muni sale to fund purchase of Eversource’s water business.
  • Robinhood 🇺🇸: looking to sell $400M of ABSs backed by credit card bills.
  • Honduras 🇭🇳: launching a bond buyback and exploring a sale of new global debt.
  • Kenya 🇰🇪: considering buyback of $500M of eurobonds to ease repayment pressures.

🎯 For a Few More Minutes…

  • 🇫🇷 Marching Orders. The Garde républicaine orchestra played the Avengers theme as French troops paraded down the Champs-Elysées for Bastille Day, giving military tradition a blockbuster soundtrack. (France Info)
  • 🇩🇪 Fit for Fools. Foodwatch names LaVita’s pricey micronutrient juice the “boldest ad lie” of the year, calling out its €100-per-liter health promises. (Die Zeit)
  • 🇺🇸 Phony-Proof. Salinger’s « The Catcher in the Rye » celebrates 75 years in print, dodging bans and cancellation attempts while racking up 80M sales globally. (New York Times)
  • 🇺🇸 Stool Pigeon. More than 3,000 Americans have been hit by a mysterious parasite causing explosive diarrhoea, as health agencies scramble to trace its elusive origins. (Bbc)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
  • 🇬🇧 Pay Cut. Scott Mills was the BBC’s highest-paid presenter at £745K before being sacked in March over historic sexual offence allegations, though no charges were filed. (Bbc)
🇺🇸 United States
  • 🇺🇸 Seat Belts. After being voted out, Avenal’s city council clings to power, proving that some chairs are harder to unfasten than others. (Wall Street Journal)

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