California Continues to Dominate

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Good Morning,

SEC is investigating Situational Awareness, the man behind Forbes 30u30 was fired, the owner of San Francisco 49ers was arrested for $140 prostitution in an Ohio trailer park, and the AI boom has led California to draw in more startup investment than all other 49 states combined.

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Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

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Markets

• US stocks ended lower yesterday as traders weighed fresh US economic pressure against Iran

• Dollar had its best day versus Canadian loonie since June after trade talks failed

Earnings

• What we're watching this week:

  • Today: DICK'S, Zoom

  • Wednesday: Nvidia, Salesforce, CrowdStrike, Kohl's

  • Thursday: Marvell Technology, Workday, Best Buy, Dollar General, Ulta Beauty

• Full calendar here

Prediction Markets

• The president of the United States is day trading SpaceX stock from the Oval Office and you're bearish on Musk??

• Deposit $10 and get a $20 bonus with code LIT on signup, only on the Polymarket US app

Headline Roundup

• California sees more VC funding than all other 49 states combined (WSJ)

• Forbes 30u30 founder Randall Lane was fired for wrongful $6M gift (WSJ)

• SEC is investigating Situational Awareness (NYT)

• US unveils economic D-Day plan to cripple Iran's economy (NYT)

• Lutnick's intervention in Canada talks draws praise and blame (BBG)

• Kevin Warsh seeks to reassure investors as economic strains worsen (FT)

• PE turns to "structured equity" to ride out cash crunch (BBG)

• Hedge funds ramp up dollar shorts ahead of Bessent's fiscal plan (BBG)

• US widens investment gap with Europe by 3x on back of AI (FT)

• US plans nuclear-powered merchant fleet to challenge China shipbuilding (FT)

• India ECM is set for its best month ever with $10B in deals (BBG)

• Trump disclosed 1,000 stock trades in June (WSJ)

• Trump bought $50k in SpaceX shares in June (RT)

• Tesla stops selling solar roofs a decade after launch (RT)

• 49ers owner Jed York arrested for $140 prostitution in Ohio trailer park (NYP)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Strategic

• AI developer platform Hugging Face is exploring a sale at a potential $13B valuation just weeks after the OpenAI hack

• Germany's Siemens Energy is pursuing a potential $12B sale of its steam turbine business with PE firms CVC, EQT, and Bain Capital as potential bidders

• ExxonMobil, LyondellBasell Industries, Apollo, and the chemicals arm of Kuwait Petroleum Corp. are interested in acquiring the US chemicals unit of Shell, which could fetch $8B

• Arcus Infrastructure Partners is considering a $2.7B sale of UK water treatment company Workdry International

• nVent Electric will acquire data center equipment maker ​Maverick Power for $1.75B

• Adhesives manufacturing firm H.B. Fuller rejected activist Ancora Holdings' $1.2B bid for its building adhesives unit

• Australian Retirement Trust will acquire a 50% stake in Queensland shopping center ‌Westfield Mt Gravatt from Scentre Group for $632M

• India's Tata Consultancy Services will acquire MHP Management- und IT-Beratung, the consultancy unit of Porsche, for $375M and will also partner on a $1.5B AI deployment deal

• Japanese insurer Tokio Marine Holdings is close to finalizing Australia's Suncorp Group as an acquisition target after reviewing Suncorp, Insurance Australia Group and Canada's Intact Financial Corp.

• South Korea denied a report that the US had proposed Korea acquire a stake in nuclear firm Westinghouse Electric

VC

• Nvidia-backed AI cloud-computing provider Lambda is in talks to raise a $3B pre-IPO round

• XPENG Robotics, the robot unit of Chinese auto maker XPENG, raised $900M in its first funding round at $6.3B post-money valuation led by IDG Capital

• General Intuition, a physical AI/robotics model startup, is in talks to raise funding at a $6B valuation from Valor Equity Partners, Point72 Ventures, and Seven Seven Six

• Generalist AI, an AI robotics startup applying general AI models to robots, raised a $200M round at an over $3B valuation led by 8VC

• Third Wave Coffee, an Indian coffee retail chain, raised a $43M funding round at a $210M valuation led by WestBridge Capital

• Gainode, an intelligent automation platform focused on short-duration arbitrage, raised a $40M seed round led by Sequoia Capital

• Quintessent, a provider of AI data center optical interconnect products, raised a $40M Series A led by Cycle Capital

• PayRewards, a rewards-first payments platform for small businesses, raised a $28M Series E

• Arintra, an autonomous medical coding startup, raised a $25M Series B led by Define Ventures

• Mundo AI, a perceptual-intelligence data layer company, raised a $20M Series A led by GreatPointVC

• Standard Metrics, an AI-driven portfolio management platform for VC and PE, raised a $20M Series B led by 8VC

• Mantel, a carbon-capture company for heavy industry, raised an $18 million strategic investment led by Constellation Technology Ventures and Azimut Investments

• idler, a frontier data research lab and AI evaluation platform, raised a $9M seed round led by Paradigm

• Light Links, an optical wireless communication company, raised a $6M pre-seed round led by Outlander

Access the complete VC deal flow and data on Fundable

IPOs / Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• SHEIN will pay existing investors up to $3.5B, twice the capital it is seeking in ​its Hong Kong IPO, to help compensate for its post-2021 valuation slide

• Swedish smart ring maker Oura Health is seeking to raise $3B at a $16B valuation in its US IPO

• Vox Telecom and Frogfoot Networks, the telecom units of South African conglomerate Vivica Group, raised $900M in equity and debt to expand broadband services

• Avaada Electro, the Brookfield-backed solar manufacturing arm of Indian clean energy conglomerate Avaada Group, plans to publicly file for a $800M India IPO

• TDR Capital and I Squared Capital-backed UK power equipment rental firm Aggreko filed for a US IPO

Debt

• SoftBank plans to raise a record $6.3B in a retail bond sale

• World Bank raised $4B in a sustainable bond sale

• India's ICICI Bank plans to raise $1B in a private placement of dollar bonds, its fourth dollar bond sale in a month

• Partners Group will exit its minority and $200M private credit investment in global boba tea chain Gong cha after Bain Capital acquired the firm from TA Associates

• Mexico plans to sell Samurai bonds for the first time in two years

Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed

• Brazilian petrochemicals giant Braskem reached an agreement with its main creditors for an $11B out-of-court restructuring

• A federal judge rejected the bankruptcy-payout plan of collapsed auto parts supplier First Brands, which would raise money by suing insiders, and ordered a liquidation

Funds / Secondaries

• Temasek-backed Singapore PE firm Azalea raised over $1B across three PE funds

• Aussie VC Blackbird raised $715M for a targeted $900M sixth fund

• BlackRock is sounding out buyers for all $670M of loans held by its troubled TCP Capital Corp private credit fund

• VC secondaries specialist Saints raised $250M for its first dedicated secondaries fund

Crypto Sum Snapshot

• Trade.xyz tops $500B in trading volume as markets go 24/7

• Coinbase-backed crypto advocacy group endorsed 32 midterm candidates

Crypto Sum compiles the most important stories on everything crypto. Read it here.

Exec's Picks

• ICYMI: F2 was built by former bankers, investors, and AI experts. Every engagement includes forward deployed engineers who have structured deals and sat on ICs. Credit-native AI trusted by firms managing $400B. Try a demo.

• Hedge fund legend Stanley Druckenmiller came out against his protege Scott Bessent's bond market intervention at the US Treasury. Read his opinion piece here.

• Bloomberg published a super interesting read on how Nvidia's dominance is slowly being diminished by Big Tech rivals and startups alike.

• Bloomberg also published an interesting piece on the Trump's family entry into the race to start new banks. Worth noting that government is chartering new banks at the fastest pace in 20 years…

• Also, a floating SpaceX rocket is suddenly the only topic of conversation on the remote Christmas Island off Australia.

Financial Services Recruiting

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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!

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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.