A veteran dealmaker takes the helm as large-cap M&A shows signs of a selective recovery.
JPMorgan Chase, the global leader in investment banking revenue, has named Anu Aiyengar global chair of Investment Banking and M&A, signaling a renewed emphasis on dealmaking as a pillar of its investment banking strategy.
As part of a broader divisional shift, the bank also named Dorothee Blessing, Kevin Foley, and Jared Kaye as co-heads of Global Investment Banking, while Charles Bouckaert succeeds Aiyengar as global head of M&A.
The changes come as deal activity shows signs of recovery after nearly two years of sluggish momentum. Dealogic estimates that global deal announcements reached nearly $2 trillion by May 11. That’s a 33% increase from the same period last year.
Still, observers note that the current cycle is far from a repeat of the free-flowing deal market of 2021. Higher financing costs have made boards more disciplined about price and timing, while closer regulatory scrutiny from antitrust watchdogs in both the U.S. and Europe has raised the financial and reputational cost of getting large transactions wrong.
“This has not been a full-spectrum, feel-good rally. It has been a highly selective one, skewed toward strategic, large-cap deals,” said Marc Cooper, CEO of Solomon Partners. “Deals valued at $5 billion and up accounted for more than half of all volumes. That distinction matters.”
Against this backdrop, Aiyengar’s appointment suggests JPMorgan sees senior dealmaking expertise as a defining advantage in the current market. The firm expects the dealmaking veteran to work closely with senior clients as boards decide whether to move forward with transactions or wait for better conditions.
Since joining JPMorgan in 1999, Aiyengar has advised on more than $1 trillion in transactions. She became sole head of the bank’s global M&A franchise in 2023, making her the only woman leading M&A at a major Wall Street house at the time.
Her move also carries symbolic weight in an industry where senior dealmaking roles remain dominated by men. In 2025, Business Insider named her the top U.S. M&A banker on its Rainmakers list, making her the first woman to hold the No. 1 position.
This article appears in the June 2026 issue of Global Finance Magazine.
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Elon Musk’s space and AI firm secured first-time ratings from Moody’s, Fitch and S&P Global on Thursday, a milestone that places its debt firmly in investment-grade territory and could allow it to borrow more cheaply as it funds a vast expansion.
The endorsements arrive less than a week after the company’s record IPO, which raised around $85.7 billion (€73.8bn) in the largest initial public offering in history.
Moody’s assigned SpaceX a Baa1 long-term issuer rating with a stable outlook. In its report, the agency pointed to the firm’s “exceptional franchise strength” as the world’s leading orbital launch provider and operator of Starlink, the largest low Earth orbit satellite broadband network.
The rating is also slightly higher than Tesla’s Baa3. Reacting to the news in a reply on social media, Elon Musk wrote: “Tesla’s credit rating is ridiculously low to be honest.”
According to Moody’s, Starlink has become SpaceX’s primary cash flow generator, underpinning improving scale, wider margins and a gradual shift away from more cyclical launch revenue.
Moody’s also set out the risks. It said the rating was constrained by the heavy execution and financial demands of SpaceX’s large-scale AI buildout, marked by high capital intensity, sustained negative free cash flow and an uncertain range of returns.
The agency highlighted the company’s dependence on the next-generation Starship V3 vehicle, warning that technical setbacks or delays could pressure long-term growth.
It further pointed to elevated governance risks tied to SpaceX’s controlled structure and concentrated voting power, which it said limit independent board oversight and leave the firm heavily reliant on a single individual, Elon Musk.
However, Moody’s still projects strong revenue and earnings growth through 2028, driven chiefly by Starlink, which counted 12 million subscribers as of early June, alongside an expected turning point in the AI division.
The agency cited recent third-party compute deals with Anthropic and Google worth a combined $75 billion (€65bn) as evidence of that potential.
As for the other credit agencies, Fitch issued a BBB+ long-term issuer default rating, also with a stable outlook, citing the company’s commanding lead in commercial launch, where it has delivered more than 80% of global mass to orbit since 2023.
Meanwhile, S&P Global assigned a BBB rating with a stable outlook, weighing the strength of the launch and connectivity businesses against the risks of the nascent AI segment and the company’s substantial capital needs.
The ratings did little to steady the stock on Thursday.
SpaceX closed at $185, down more than 18% from the high of $225.6 it reached on Tuesday, when its valuation briefly topped $3 trillion (€2.6tn).
The shares fell as low as $172 during the session before paring losses, as investors weighed whether the company’s lofty valuation had run too far.
The retreat has reshuffled SpaceX’s standing among the world’s corporate giants. The company now ranks once again as the sixth most valuable listed firm by market capitalisation, having given back some of the ground it gained earlier in the week.
On Tuesday, it had overtaken Amazon to claim fifth place, and at its intraday peak, it briefly leapfrogged Microsoft into fourth before this week’s slide pushed it back down.
Even after surrendering some of those gains, SpaceX sits among the most valuable companies on the planet just a week into its life as a public firm, and the investment-grade verdict from all three major agencies marks a notable shift in how financial markets judge a business that spent years operating as a privately funded rocket maker.
A Swedish transport authority is recommending a vote against the Europe-wide rollout of Tesla’s (TSLA) supervised self-driving software, unless the U.S. EV maker disables its ability to exceed legal speed limits, Reuters reported, citing a regulatory letter.
In a previously unreported
Aura Minerals board approves up to $200M share and BDRs buyback program
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OpenAI, Anthropic—trillions in wealth are locked in private markets. Banks want in.
With valuations of nonpublic companies reaching record levels on the back of the AI boom, private-market access is increasingly becoming the defining battlefield for client acquisition in private banking.
Consider SpaceX’s public debut earlier this month. It was the largest initial public offering in history, adding $75 billion to its roughly $15.85 billion pre-IPO cash position and creating a market capitalization of over $1 trillion. Once OpenAI and Anthropic go public, the combined valuation of all three companies could be well over $3 trillion.
OpenAI filed an S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission June 8 for a confidential IPO. And Anthropic said Claude Code’s run-rate revenue has more than doubled since the beginning of 2026, underscoring how much wealth creation is taking place outside public markets.
“Much of the current innovation and growth is happening within private markets,” said David Frame, CEO of J.P. Morgan’s Global Private Bank. “Clients are increasingly seeking these opportunities,” he added.
According to a recent Titanbay/Campden Wealth report, the average ultra-high-net-worth investor (UHNWI) holds 20% of their portfolio in private equity, double the level two years earlier, and plans to raise that figure further.
Likewise, 86% of wealth advisers plan to increase private-market investments this year, with 47% raising allocations specifically to venture capital and growth, according to Hamilton Lane’s 2026 Global Private Wealth Survey.
The booming demand has led to a wave of new initiatives from banks and asset managers. In September 2025, Bank of America and Merrill launched the Alts Expanded Access Program for UHNWIs with a net worth of $50 million or more.
Morgan Stanley Investment Management launched its first-ever green private equity strategy, the North Haven Private Assets Fund, in May 2025. DBS Private Bank partnered with Hamilton Lane to launch PATH for Asian clients, while Goldman Sachs announced plans to invest $1 billion in T. Rowe Price to expand wealth-channel access.
But as interest in private equity rises, experts warn that private banks could be caught between long-term wealth building and growing demand for riskier assets. “There’s a dichotomy in the market,” George Walper, managing principal of CEG Insights, said. “Wealthy investors want more exposure to alternatives, to private markets—meaning more risk. At the same time, they want to be cautious and protect their assets.”
This article appears in the June 2026 issue of Global Finance Magazine.
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The Bank of England left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 3.75% on Thursday, extending a pause that began in December 2025, as policymakers weighed the inflationary fallout from the Iran war against signs of resilience elsewhere in the economy.
Governor Andrew Bailey and fellow Monetary Policy Committee members were widely expected to keep rates on hold and maintain a broadly neutral stance on future policy moves.
The decision came a day after official figures showed UK inflation holding steady. Consumer prices rose 2.8% year-on-year in May, unchanged from April and below economists’ expectations of 3.0%, leaving the headline rate at its lowest level since early 2025.
However, the stable reading masked diverging trends beneath the surface. Transport costs accelerated sharply to 6.8%, driven by higher fuel prices and rising air fares, while food inflation eased to 2.2% and housing costs continued to moderate.
Though inflation remains above the bank’s target of 2%, the figure raised hopes that the upward pressure on prices emanating from the spike in oil and gas prices after the start of the Iran war on 28 February may have been less than anticipated.
Andrew Bailey, the bank’s governor, said the recent fall in oil prices has been “encouraging” while noting they are still higher than before the war.
“Whatever happens in the future, the higher energy prices of the past four months mean there’s already some inflationary pressure in the pipeline,” he said. “The Bank’s job is to make sure that doesn’t turn into sustained inflation above our 2% target.”
Analysts also cautioned that inflation could still accelerate later this year, as higher household energy bills feed through to prices. Lindsay James, investment strategist at Quilter, said: “Whilst inflation was below expectations in May and currently under 3%, it is still likely to jump closer to 4% later in the year due to the coming impact of a higher energy price cap.”
James added that while oil prices have retreated from recent highs, they remain above last year’s levels, suggesting underlying inflation pressures have not fully disappeared.
The decision to hold the key interest rate was not unanimous, with two of the nine Monetary Policy Committee members voting for a quarter-point rate increase, reflecting concerns that higher energy costs could still feed through into broader inflation pressures.
Thursday’s labour market release painted a mixed picture.
The unemployment rate dipped unexpectedly to 4.9% in the three months to April, down from 5.0% in the first quarter, yet payrolled employee numbers fell over the period, pointing to an underlying loss of momentum even as the headline jobless rate improved.
Wage growth, a metric the Bank of England watches closely for signs of persistent price pressure, held firm, with regular pay excluding bonuses rising 3.4% on the year.
“The labour market is still continuing to lose momentum, with the latest figures showing a further cooling,” stated Richard Carter, head of fixed interest research at Quilter Cheviot.
Sanjay Raja, chief UK economist at Deutsche Bank, struck a similar note, cautioning that “it’s clear that the labour market is not out of the woods yet,” though he added that the mixed data buys the committee more time to wait and see how the economy evolves.
The combination of cooling headline inflation, a softening jobs market and still-robust pay growth underscores the bind facing the committee. Strong earnings keep alive the risk of so-called second-round effects, where higher wages feed back into prices, even as hiring loses steam.
Oil fell sharply in early trading after US President Donald Trump and his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkian, put their names to an initial accord to halt hostilities, a move expected to restore the flow of crude through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important shipping arteries.
At the time of writing on Thursday morning, the front-month contract on WTI, the US benchmark, was down by 2.3% to $75 a barrel, while Brent crude, the international gauge, traded 2% lower at around $78 a barrel.
Both remain above the roughly $70 level seen before the conflict, but they have fallen well below the peaks of more than $100 reached only weeks ago.
The deal sets a 60-day window for the two sides to negotiate a final settlement on Iran’s nuclear programme, with Tehran agreeing in the interim to dilute its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
Crucially for energy markets, it lifts US-backed sanctions, allowing Iran to resume selling its oil freely, and clears the way for tankers to move crude out of the Persian Gulf once more.
US President Donald Trump has said the strait will be fully open by Friday and operate without transit charges, a pledge that has encouraged traders to bet on easing supply pressures.
After signing the memorandum of understanding, Trump stated, “oil down, stocks up”, with hand motions.
The optimism arrives against a strained backdrop.
In its June Oil Market Report, the International Energy Agency said strategic oil reserves across advanced economies had slipped to their lowest level since 1990, with government stockpiles in OECD countries down by 163 million barrels since the conflict began as emergency releases accelerated.
The agency also trimmed its outlook for global demand, which it now expects to contract through 2026 as elevated fuel prices and supply disruptions bite, before recovering next year.
It cautioned that any rebound in supply may be gradual, citing the slow clearance of mines and continued disruption to shipping routes even with the interim deal in place.
Flows through the Strait of Hormuz had already begun to recover, rising from a May low to around 12 million barrels a day in early June.
Equities offered a patchier picture following Wednesday’s losses on Wall Street, where the S&P 500 fell 1.2% after fresh Fed projections showed nearly half of policymakers expect at least one interest rate hike this year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 1%, and the Nasdaq Composite slid 1.3%.
In his first press conference as Fed chair, Kevin Warsh declined to forecast where rates would end the year and signalled a rethink of how the central bank communicates, dropping the customary hints about future policy direction from its statement.
US President Donald Trump, who had long pressed Warsh’s predecessor to cut rates, was unusually relaxed about the outcome.
“It’s all right. Whatever,” Trump told reporters in France as he attended the G7 meeting.
Asked about the prospect of a hike, he said it was “hard to believe” but that, with Warsh now in place, he was “guided by what he wants.”
US stock futures pointed higher early on Thursday, with contracts on the S&P 500 up 0.9% and on the Nasdaq Composite around 1.4% higher.
In Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 and South Korea’s Kospi both jumped 2.3%, helped by hopes for an end to the Iran war and strong demand for technology shares.
European trading was more subdued, with the Euro Stoxx 50 rising 1% but the broader pan-European Stoxx 600 trading flat.
The UK’s FTSE 100, Germany’s DAX 30, Italy’s FTSE MIB, Spain’s IBEX 35, the Netherlands’ AEX, and Switzerland’s CH20 all traded between 0.4% and 0.8% higher than their Wednesday close.
France’s CAC 40 led the pack and jumped roughly 1.3%.
Additional sources • AP
A new report suggests tokenized securities offer a low-cost framework to rebuild the country’s oil sector.
Forced by hyperinflation and sanctions to embrace cryptocurrencies long before the rest of the world, Venezuela consistently ranks among the top countries for crypto adoption globally, according to a Chainalysis report.
But one digital assets firm believes that it lays the foundation for something big in the Latin American country.
“[Venezuela] has significant natural-resource assets, a large diaspora, and a population that is already familiar with digital assets and stablecoins due to years of economic volatility,” Jesse Knutson, head of operations at Bitfinex Securities, told Global Finance. “These factors could support adoption if the appropriate legal and regulatory foundations are established.”
Following President Nicolás Maduro’s apprehension by U.S. forces in January, a window may be opening.
According to a June 11 Bitfinex report, high issuance costs, protracted processes, and layers of intermediation are “hampering the green shoots of a recovery” already taking root in Venezuela. And while oil production surpassed one million barrels per day in 2025, its highest level in seven years, the nation remains far short of the 3.1 bpd it produced in the late 1990s. Bridging that gap will require foreign capital at scale.
Knutson said that tokenized securities infrastructure could dramatically lower the cost of attracting investors.
“Tokenization does not overcome those challenges, but it does allow the country to put in place a more efficient system with less friction, allowing the country to attract foreign capital more cheaply and a wider universe of investors to access Venezuela,” he said.
Years of hyperinflation and economic turmoil drove Venezuelans to adopt cryptocurrencies for payments, savings, and remittances at a rate unmatched elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere.
A UN report using 2021 data showed that around 10.3% of Venezuelans — roughly one in 10 — owned cryptocurrencies. It also warned that cryptocurrencies pose a threat to financial stability.
The Maduro regime, for example, undermined sanctions by leveraging digital assets to facilitate oil transactions. (It’s worth noting that the U.S. alleged “narco terrorism,” not a crypto-oil entanglement, in its indictment.)
Still, a grassroots familiarity with digital assets gives the country an edge, so long as there are “strong institutions, investor protections, disclosure standards, functioning legal systems, and trusted market participants,” Knutson added.
Knutson draws a parallel with El Salvador, which defied the International Monetary Fund when it became the first country in the world to make bitcoin legal tender.
Embracing digital assets helped El Salvador attract much-needed foreign investment. “Venezuela could achieve similar success by embracing blockchain technology in a way that provides regulatory clarity to issuers while offering robust investor protections,” Knutson said.
Bitfinex Securities itself operates regulated platforms in both El Salvador and Kazakhstan, with over half a billion dollars in real-world assets — ranging from tokenized treasury bills to community bank debt — currently trading on its platform.
Still, the firm stresses that tokenization’s success hinges on legal certainty, enforceable property rights and investor confidence.
“Those fundamentals remain critical in any jurisdiction,” Knutson said.
Contact the author: anoto@gfmag.com
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A former top officer of the Los Angeles Fire Department’s labor union was arrested Wednesday and charged with grand theft and forgery for allegedly stealing more than $82,000 from a charity for injured firefighters.
Prosecutors from the state attorney general’s office announced the charges against Adam Walker, former secretary of the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City, at a news conference.
Walker “abused a position of trust for personal gain,” Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said alongside Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman.
Walker opened a foundation bank account and transferred funds to his personal accounts, Bonta said, attempting to conceal those transfers with fake reimbursement records and forging receipts to mislead auditors. He used the funds for personal expenses, including online gambling, Bonta said.
Walker has been under scrutiny since 2024, when the local union’s parent organization, the International Assn. of Fire Fighters, suspended him from his union position and accused him of improperly depositing more than $75,000 of the charity’s funds into his personal accounts from December 2022 to January 2024. The IAFF accused him of using $5,000 for personal expenses.
Walker, who continued to work as a firefighter, told The Times last year that those allegations were false. He said the account he drew from was not for the charity, the UFLAC Fire Foundation, but was set up for two golf tournaments to raise money for a disabled former firefighter. He said all of the deposits were reimbursements for his legitimate out-of-pocket expenses for the tournaments.
“Not one penny of the money was foundation money,” he said. He said he understood that the deposits “look bad” but were a reflection of his “poor bookkeeping” and not any wrongdoing.
The Washington D.C.-based IAFF also suspended Walker from his positions as chairman and director of the foundation, which aids injured firefighters and their families, provides scholarships and is helping firefighters who lost their homes in the January fires.
Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s Christmas Day purchase of an exclusive Audemars Piguet watch has landed the billionaire boxer in court facing two felony charges alleging theft and intent to defraud, according to Clark County, Nev., court records.
Mayweather wrote a check for $200,000 to Las Vegas high-end consignment store Gold and Beyond for the timepiece on Dec. 25, 2024. Prosecutors filed a criminal complaint on April 27 of this year and the court ordered Mayweather to appear before a judge. His lawyer did so at a preliminary hearing Monday.
The charges are theft with a value of $100,000 or greater and passing a check of $1,200 or greater with intent to defraud. Mayweather did so “knowing that the check would not be paid when presented,” according to the complaint.
Mayweather, 49, could face a prison term of one to 20 years and $15,000 in fines if found guilty of felony theft. The fraud charge carries a sentence of one to four years in prison and a $5,000 fine plus restitution.
Audemars Piguet, which has operated in the quaint Swiss village of Le Brassus for 150 years, is considered a more luxurious and prestigious brand than Rolex, belonging to the “Holy Trinity” of Swiss watchmaking alongside Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin.
Luxury watch expert Prestige Time explains why a watch enthusiast would become enamored by the brand: “Buy an Audemars Piguet if you enjoy complications, the kind you find in a really high-end mechanical watch. We’re talking about tourbillons, perpetual calendars, moon phase, retrograde, minute repeaters, chronographs, dual time zone/GMT’s, and more mechanical features that offer more function than just to tell you the time.”
Now the man nicknamed “Money” is on the clock to resolve a high-dollar dispute that could result in a criminal conviction. Mayweather’s next court appearance is Sept. 17. Meanwhile, lawyers representing both sides made their cases in court filings and to the judge.
Mayweather has had a longstanding business relationship with Gold and Beyond, his attorney Adrian Lobo told ESPN in a statement on Tuesday night. Lobo appeared perturbed that the shop’s owner brought the claim to the Clark County District Attorney instead of filing a civil suit.
“This matter does not belong in the criminal courts,” Lobo wrote in the statement. “And Mr. Mayweather looks forward to being vindicated through the court proceedings.”
Gold and Beyond attorney Marc Cook said his client exhibited patience with Mayweather, giving him ample time to pay for the watch. The complaint was filed with the Clark County District Attorney’s office in February.
“The reason for the delay is that my guy trusted Mayweather and was trying to give him every opportunity to make good on that,” Cook said in a statement to ESPN. “And it got to the point where he wasn’t getting responses and wasn’t getting money for a watch that Mayweather had for well over a year.”
Given Mayweather’s reported wealth, bouncing a check might seem perplexing. He is considered the richest boxer of all time, with roughly $1.1 billion in career earnings and an estimated net worth of $400 million.
He owns three of the top-five largest payouts in boxing history, making $275 million for an exhibition with UFC fighter Conor McGregor in 2017, $250 million for the “Fight of the Century” against Manny Pacquiao in 2025, and a then-record $80 million payout for a bout with Canelo Alvarez in 2013.
Mayweather, whose career record is 50-0, reportedly has increased his net worth since last fighting nine years ago. He represents some of the world’s top boxers through Mayweather Promotions and owns roughly 75 gyms around the country along with real estate holdings.
However, Mayweather is reportedly beset by financial woes as well. He filed a $340 million lawsuit against former broadcast partner Showtime, alleging the television network concealed and diverted his earnings. Also pending is a $175 million lawsuit against former associates, claiming they defrauded him and misappropriated his funds, jewelry, and private jet.
Mayweather is scheduled to face kickboxer Mike Zambidis in a full-contact exhibition June 27 in Athens, Greece, and a rematch with Pacquiao is set for September in Las Vegas. However, an exhibition against Mike Tyson scheduled for last April was canceled because Mayweather was notified by the IRS that it intended to revoke his passport over a delinquent tax debt of $7.3 million, according to Ring Magazine.
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The era of Chair Warsh begins in earnest this Wednesday, as US President Donald Trump’s pick to run the Fed presides over his debut rate decision and steps before the cameras for his first press conference in the role.
Few economists anticipate dramatic action on day one, but the meeting carries unusual weight for what it might reveal about the months ahead.
Policymakers are expected to hold the benchmark rate steady at a target range of 3.50% to 3.75%, which would mark the fourth consecutive meeting without a move. The committee cut 25 basis points in December 2025.
The bigger question is the language, with officials potentially revising their post-meeting statement to drop any hint that the next step will be a reduction, signalling instead that rates may stay elevated for some time, or even rise should inflation prove sticky.
Warsh inherits a far less accommodating picture than the one he faced when he was widely seen as campaigning for the job last year.
At that time, he argued forcefully for lower rates, echoing US President Donald Trump’s demands, and pointed to AI as a force that could expand the economy’s productive capacity and tame prices over time.
Many economists doubted that thesis even then, noting that the surge of investment in semiconductors and computing equipment was adding to inflationary pressure rather than easing it.
Inflation has indeed accelerated since the outbreak of the Iran war in late February, climbing to a three-year high of 4.2%, driven largely by costlier petrol.
US President Donald Trump has announced a framework for a peace deal that could end the conflict, but it is unclear whether the truce will hold, and prices for fuel, groceries and airfares could take months to cool even if Middle Eastern oil flows freely again.
By the Fed’s preferred gauge, inflation has now run above its 2% target for more than five years. Hiring, meanwhile, has remained resilient.
May brought 172,000 new jobs, a third straight month of solid gains, removing much of the rationale for the two rate cuts the Fed had pencilled into its January projections.
Because the rate itself looks settled, attention turns to the Fed’s updated Summary of Economic Projections and its closely watched “dot plot”, the quarterly projection of future interest rates.
According to Bank of America economist Aditya Bhave, the new dot plot could show the Fed keeping rates on hold for the rest of 2026, with at least three of the committee’s 12 voting members potentially pencilling in rate hikes this year.
Communication is the other wildcard. Warsh has argued that the central bank should speak less often and keep a lower profile, on the view that publicly stated positions can trap policymakers into defending them well past their usefulness.
One option would be to thin out the calendar of press conferences, reverting to the every-other-meeting rhythm favoured by Ben Bernanke, who chaired the Fed from 2006 to 2014, when the format was introduced. Leaner guidance, however, risks unsettling markets long accustomed to clear direction.
Adding intrigue, predecessor Jerome Powell remains on the board as a governor, a seat he can hold until January 2028, and is expected to vote on Wednesday’s decision, denying the Trump administration an additional vacancy to fill.
Additional sources • AP
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Elon Musk’s space and AI conglomerate ended its third day of public trading worth roughly $2.65 trillion (€2.28tn), having displaced Amazon in the global market-capitalisation rankings.
The stock settled at $201.8 per share, in a debut week that has rewritten the upper reaches of the world’s equity leaderboard at remarkable speed.
The milestone caps an already extraordinary stretch for the company, which listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX only last Friday.
SpaceX priced 555.6 million Class A shares at $135 each, raising around $75 billion (€65bn) in what was the largest initial public offering in history, comfortably eclipsing the $29.4 billion (€25.3bn) that Saudi Aramco raised in 2019.
The company also increased the total capital raised to $85.7 billion (€73.8bn) after underwriters exercised the “greenshoe” option to purchase additional shares on Monday due to exceptional demand.
At Tuesday’s close, the stock was trading more than 50% above its IPO price.
During the trading session, share prices climbed as high as $225.6, briefly pushing SpaceX’s valuation above $3 trillion (€2.58tn) and, for a moment, ahead of Microsoft as the world’s fourth most valuable company.
The stock later pared those gains, closing below that threshold, but the intraday spike underscored the intensity of investor appetite for the listing.
Based on Tuesday’s closing prices, only Nvidia ($5tr), Alphabet ($4.5tr), Apple ($4.4tr) and Microsoft ($2.9tr) had larger market capitalisations than SpaceX. Eight of the world’s ten most valuable listed companies are tied to the technology and AI sector, a concentration that has defined markets throughout 2026.
Tuesday’s advance coincided with a significant strategic move.
Before the opening bell, SpaceX announced an all-stock agreement to acquire Anysphere, the developer behind the AI coding assistant Cursor, in a deal valuing the startup at $60 billion (€51.7bn).
According to a regulatory filing, a SpaceX subsidiary will merge into Anysphere, leaving Cursor as a wholly owned arm of the group, with completion expected in the third quarter, subject to regulatory approval.
The purchase deepens SpaceX’s push into enterprise AI, a market where rivals such as OpenAI and Anthropic have gained early commercial traction, and it follows the company’s merger with Musk’s xAI venture in February.
The acquisition stems from an option SpaceX secured in April, under which it agreed either to acquire Cursor for $60 billion (€51.7bn) later this year or pay $10 billion (€8.6bn) for a more limited partnership to access its computing technology.
However, despite all the positive news, the speed of the climb has drawn caution.
Sceptics argue that SpaceX remains overvalued, given that it has yet to turn a profit and only 3% to 4% of its total equity is publicly traded.
A fast-track route into major stock indices, which compels passive funds to buy the shares, is expected to further amplify demand for the limited supply of shares in the opening days of trading.
This article does not constitute financial advice, always do your own research and invest according to your specific circumstances.
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CFOs lag on the AI curve, risking the growth and value creation they want, EY warns.
CFOs are sitting on a goldmine of tech potential—but most aren’t ready to dig in. That’s the major takeaway from a new Ernst & Young survey titled the DNA of the CFO.
Finance chiefs want to make investment decisions and create value. Yet, the majority of these bosses remain constrained by skills gaps, limited AI readiness and outdated measurement frameworks.
The London-based accounting firm sourced responses from more than 1,600 CFOs and senior finance leaders across 28 countries and 22 industries. The consensus shows a widening gap between CFO ambition and actually getting the job done.
“While CFO ambitions are clear, there’s quite a gap when it comes to execution,” Myles Corson, EY Global Strategy and Markets Leader for Financial Accounting Advisory Services, told Global Finance.
Consider the numbers: 60% of CFOs wish to lead on value creation, but only about a quarter currently guide value-creation discussions or make key investment decisions.
Another finding from the EY CFO survey reinforces that disconnect: Only 27% of respondents say their organizations view finance as a key partner in value creation.
“Organizations that treat finance as a key partner have a common trait: their finance functions demonstrate insight beyond the ‘comfort zone’ of financial performance,” Corson said. “They are also more actively involved in decisions—and it’s this that builds their reputation as valuable business partners.”
A majority of respondents (68%) also say the definition of enterprise value needs to change. This reflects frustration with traditional metrics that fail to capture newer sources of growth. Nearly half (49%) say conventional measurement tools cannot adequately reflect value created by technology, data and long-term investments, while half (50%) cite difficulty in demonstrating upfront returns on investment.
The report also points to significant barriers in AI adoption across finance functions. Only 21% of CFOs say their organization’s AI readiness is “leading” or “advanced,” while fewer than 15% describe their teams as highly adaptable or confident using new technologies. Less than half of CFOs see strong AI potential in areas such as data analysis (49%), growth forecasting (45%), and dynamic pricing (41%).
However, confidence rises sharply among those further along the maturity curve: 71% of CFOs who describe their organizations as fully AI-ready say the technology can meaningfully support growth forecasting.
Finance teams continue to face structural hurdles in scaling AI, with 61% citing poor data quality, 51% struggling to articulate AI’s benefits clearly, and 50% reporting insufficient skills or capacity to use the technology fully.
The survey also highlights talent pool challenges within finance organizations. About 38% of CFOs say they are evolving faster than their wider finance leadership teams, and 68% of CFOs say they require new leadership styles and skills to remain effective.
Just 12% of CFOs say their transformation outcomes exceeded expectations. Organizations with highly adaptable teams are three times more likely to achieve successful transformation outcomes, so leaders who foster a culture of adaptability and continuous learning are more likely to drive differentiated outcomes.
“For finance leaders, one of the key questions is: What is the right balance between specialist and generalist roles?” Corson said.
In the current high-tech environment of continuous change, generalists with broad experience are increasingly important.
“Finance leaders need to assess how to consistently develop broader skills, whether through rotations or other structured programs, including the opportunity to develop collaboration skills across functions,” Corson added. “Future finance leaders will need to be more than simply stronger technicians: they will need to demonstrate the skills of a complete enterprise leader—financial discipline, strategic thinking, technological fluency, and the ability to lead change.”
Contact the author: anoto@gfmag.com
Dilok Klaisataporn
Japan’s trade deficit significantly decreased to JPY 378.7 billion in May 2026, down from JPY 662.5 billion a year earlier and performing better than the market’s expected JPY 564.6 billion shortfall, the contraction was driven by exports expanding faster than imports.
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Amazon.com (AMZN) is facing a possible lawsuit from the US Federal Trade Commission that may lead to billions of dollars in civil penalties, over claims the e-commerce giant misled advertisers, Bloomberg reported, citing sources.
The FTC, which enforces antitrust and consumer
A $60B tech acquisition marks the aggressive start of SpaceX’s post-IPO capital strategy.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. — more commonly known as SpaceX — is not letting proceeds from the largest initial public offering in history sit on the launchpad, and piquing the Street’s curiosity on its cash management strategy.
The day after its IPO trades settled, the company, which added approximately $75 billion to its roughly $15.85 billion pre-IPO cash position, announced plans to acquire AI coding company Cursor in a $60 billion all-stock deal that is expected to close in the third quarter, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
SpaceX first announced it had secured the right to buy Cursor in April but held off due to its upcoming IPO, Bloomberg News reported.
The company did not respond to a request for comment.
The rocket-launch, connectivity, artificial intelligence (AI), and social media company’s IPO placed it in the top 10 U.S.-listed companies by market capitalization, roughly $2.1 trillion. It also placed it fifth among the U.S. companies with the largest cash positions. It trails only behind Berkshire Hathaway Inc. ($397.38 billion), Amazon.com Inc. ($145.97 billion), Alphabet Inc. ($126.84 billion), and Interactive Brokers Group Inc. ($100.39 billion), according to TradingView data.
The company has not detailed whether it plans to use the newfound capital to fund growth, reduce risk, repay debt, or preserve option value. With a $2.1 trillion market cap and near-guarantee to be included in the marquee stock indices, does it truly matter?
“What SpaceX does with cash and its capital structure are rounding errors in its valuation,” Aswath Damodaran, of New York University’s Stern School of Business, told Global Finance.
However, the treasury still has an important part to play, said John Graham, finance professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
“There are examples of companies that grew too fast,” he said. “They were on a positive trajectory with their strategies, but did not manage their cash appropriately and went bankrupt.”
Graham noted that he was not privy to SpaceX’s capital allocation plans, but typically sees two typical uses for IPO proceeds, depending on the company’s maturity.
Startups often use their newfound cash to fuel their drive to profitability while keeping the lights on. Profitable companies tend to use their windfalls to let founders, early investors, and employees cash out a bit.
“Both of those are probably happening in this case, just on a larger scale,” he said.
Investors can view SpaceX as a mixture of mature and startup business lines. The company’s Starlink satellite-based Internet connectivity unit is currently the only unit generating profits on roughly $11.39 billion in revenue, according to its prospectus.
Whether that, combined with its IPO proceeds, is enough to subsidize its AI and other businesses remains to be seen, and raises a broader question about how SpaceX and the ‘Elon Premium’ will test the market’s logic.
“As things stand today, investors are essentially buying a company whose core business is launching satellites, which remains its largest source of revenue,” said Ismael García Puente, Deputy Director of Investment Strategy at Spanish investment manager Mapfre AM. “Its technology and AI-related businesses are still operating at a loss. We need to see how these segments evolve before we can assess their long-term profitability.”
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Analysts see upside for Yum China after Pizza Hut deal
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WASHINGTON — As Spencer Pratt fell behind in the Los Angeles mayoral primary, an unexpected group began claiming election fraud: people tracking the Republican’s success on prediction markets, the increasingly popular online exchanges on which people can make bets on almost anything.
“Crazy how much voter fraud can be done with mail in ballots,” one user following bets on the mayoral race wrote last week on Kalshi, one of the top trading platforms.
“Same old California fraud,” said another who had bet that Pratt would win.
Election fraud claims extended to social media, where a handful of influencers who post content for prediction market platforms questioned the ballot count. “It’s a dead heat on Kalshi,” one user wrote on social media. “Is CA cheating to get Spencer Pratt out?”
Kalshi told the influencers to delete the posts, which violated company guidelines. Polymarket, the other leading platform, directed them to remove the paid partnership label from those posts.
The amplification of election misinformation by users who had money staked on the mayoral race adds a new twist to evolving scrutiny of prediction markets, and scholars say the ability to bet on elections broadly raises questions about whether the exchanges could alter how Americans engage in democracy.
“Elections are not a game,” said Davina Hurt, director of government ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. “[If market] probabilities begin influencing donor decisions, media attention, the energy around [campaign] volunteers — at that point, markets aren’t just observing the election. They’re a part of it.”
Fans of the exchanges say they are powerful tools that can help decision makers, and company leaders have touted them as highly accurate predictors that can act as an antidote to misinformation and provide election insights.
“By shifting focus from ‘what people say’ to ‘where they put their money,’ and filtering out social media noise and pundit bias, we are providing a level of clarity and predictive power that cannot be matched,” said Kalshi spokesperson Dani Lever .
But these markets’ rapid rise has also raised a host of questions among members of Congress, state lawmakers and others — about betting on elections, wars and other political events, about potential insider trading, and about whether the platforms should be left to self-regulate. Some states are also in legal battles with the federal government over whether the activity amounts to gambling, which they seek to regulate.
“It’s like we’re in the 1930s with financial markets — we have some things that we want to regulate and restrict [as a country], and we’re sort of in the early stages of trying to lay out what the rules are,” said Koleman Strumpf, an economist at Wake Forest University.
The discourse around the Los Angeles mayoral race was the latest to raise questions at the intersection of prediction markets and politics. Earlier this year, an Army soldier was indicted after allegedly using his knowledge of the planned U.S. operation to capture former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro to make bets on it, winning more than $400,000. He has pleaded not guilty.
Around the same time, several anonymous users reportedly earned $2.4 million combined by making remarkably prescient bets on the Iran war, prompting concern in Congress about insider trading. And during the primary elections, Kalshi fined a few politicians for betting on themselves, while the Justice Department began investigating a former congressman on similar charges.
Kalshi co-founder Luana Lopes Lara speaks at a conference in Santa Monica, Calif., in April.
(Anna Webber / Inc.)
The episodes set off a debate in Washington. The Republican-led House Oversight Committee opened an investigation into potential insider trading, and a bipartisan group in Congress has introduced a flurry of bills seeking to put up guardrails. It remains unclear whether any will pass this session.
The chatter in Congress appeared to lead the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, which regulates prediction markets, to propose a new framework last week to govern issues raised by lawmakers, such as potential betting on wars. Commission Chair Mike Selig said the proposal would allow for scrutiny of suspicious activity “while letting legitimate markets move forward pursuant to the public interest.”
The markets commission under former President Biden was viewed as somewhat skeptical of prediction markets; the agency under President Trump — whose eldest son holds advisory positions at both Polymarket and Kalshi — has been seen as more favorable to the industry. The federal government has sued several states over their attempts to regulate the markets under state laws banning sports gambling and other measures.
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who has introduced legislation on the topic, said the agency’s framework would benefit the industry at the expense of the public interest.
The agency lacks “the leadership, will and investigative staff needed to confront the dangers of election misinformation, insider trading, and more,” Schiff said, “and seems content to allow the industry to police itself.”
As California’s primary neared, people staked their dollars on the state’s races in droves. On Kalshi, trading volume on one contract about who will win the L.A. mayoral race in November had reached more than $117 million as of Tuesday.
Prediction market users trade on the outcome of future events, making money if they’re correct and losing money if they’re wrong. Someone can purchase a contract on the prediction that L.A. Mayor Karen Bass will win in November, a yes contract, or on the prediction that she will lose, a no contract.
On Tuesday, Bass contracts on Kalshi were selling at 63 cents each for yes and 38 cents for no, meaning the market was forecasting a 63% chance of her winning. Users receive $1 per contract if their prediction is correct, creating a profit on their initial investment.
Prediction markets generally create more accurate forecasts than political polls, according to Strumpf, whose research has examined 30 years of prediction markets in various forms.
Many of the issues critics raise are theoretical and have not been seen in practice, Strumpf said. By his analysis, there is no evidence that the markets have ever influenced an election outcome. He said serious traders tend to do extensive research in order to make money, meaning their bets are educated.
Rep. Mike Levin (D-San Juan Capistrano), who has introduced legislation to prohibit event contracts involving terrorism, war, assassination and deaths, said the platforms may be useful in some cases but shouldn’t be left to police themselves. He said he’s concerned that the markets create “all the wrong incentives” for people, including political candidates and officials, to abuse inside knowledge.
“I don’t trust them to self-regulate at all,” Levin said of the companies. “The federal role should be guardrails that are reasonable and pragmatic.”
Skeptics’ concerns regarding elections largely center around the markets’ introduction of a new way for money to potentially influence politics.
They say the desire to elevate a candidate’s market odds could create an incentive for market manipulation, and they worry that the votes of Americans using the market could be influenced by their desire to profit.
“This has real impacts for the sanctity of our elections,” said Assemblymember Maggy Krell (D-Sacramento), who raised concerns about how prediction markets could impact the democratic process in a March letter to the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission. (California lawmakers are looking at the issue, a spokesperson for Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) said, though none of the bills introduced this year have yet moved forward.)
The platforms create a potential new channel “for dark money to flow into our elections,” Krell said. “Specifically, someone who’s opposing or supporting a candidate could potentially use sites like Kalshi to elevate that candidate and impact the entire pool.”
The industry has endeavored to “get out in front” of concerns by creating their own policies aimed at preventing insider trading, market manipulation and other issues, said attorney Ronak D. Desai, partner and head of the congressional practice at the Washington law firm Paul Hastings.
Kalshi has a ban on those practices and has banned markets tied directly to death and war, Lever said. It also screens all new users and, in the first quarter of this year, blocked more than 100 potential insider trades and referred more than 20 cases to law enforcement.
In the case of the military member who bet on the United States’ operation in Venezuela, for instance, Polymarket caught the activity and referred the case to the Justice Department, a spokesperson said. The company has referred nearly 100 cases of suspicious activity to law enforcement, he said.
Election markets are not offered on Polymarket’s U.S. exchange — though users in the U.S. and other countries that ban the company’s international exchange are widely reported to access it using online tools.
“Polymarket prohibits trading based on stolen information, illegal tips, or information obtained in breach of a duty of trust, confidentiality, or other legal obligation,” the Polymarket spokesperson said in a statement.
Aaron Klein, senior fellow in the Center on Regulation and Markets at the Brookings Institution, predicted that pressure for further regulation would continue to mount.
“The top goal of a society is to have free and fair elections,” Klein said. “At a time in our nation’s history where people are doubting the integrity of elections and foreign governments are stoking those flames, we ought to be pretty careful.”
Hong Kong’s first biodiversity loan backs Henderson Land’s ambitious green waterfront transformation.
Henderson Land Development secured Hong Kong’s first biodiversity loan from HSBC and Hang Seng Bank to develop the city’s quarter-mile-long waterfront property.
The Central Yards project is the company’s flagship mixed-use development on the harborfront in the Central Business District. Although the loan amount remains undisclosed, local reports estimate it at HK$100 million ($12.8 million).
In mid-May, the two banks said the loan would provide a “scalable blueprint” for companies to achieve their sustainability goals and enhance Hong Kong’s position as a leading international sustainable finance center, helping companies integrate ecological and urban development.
The move aligns with what a growing number of Asia-based businesses want. HSBC’s latest sustainability survey found that 60% of Asian businesses now regard climate transition as a primary strategic focus.
The funding would support smart systems to manage and maintain a newly created urban forest with more than 400 trees and 280 native plant species planted at several sites along the “New Central Harbourfront.” It would also cover surveys, assessments, and monitoring of the project’s urban biodiversity, Henderson said in a mid-May statement, along with HSBC and Hang Seng.
Central Yards boasts more than 300,000 square feet of open green space, including the district’s largest elevated garden, which spans more than 160,000 square feet. The first phase of the project should open in the second half of 2027, with the second phase tentatively scheduled for completion in 2032.
Jane Street Asia will be Central Yards’ anchor tenant. The quantitative trading firm signed a lease in June 2025 for 223,437 square feet in the building at HK$137 per square foot per month (HK$30.6 million per month), excluding fees. The deal ranks among the largest leasing transactions in Central in the decades since Hong Kong’s 1997 Handover and the resumption of mainland Chinese rule over the former British colony. Henderson paid a record-setting HK$50.8 billion for a 50-year land grant to the prime site in 2021.
Vacancy rates for premium Hong Kong office space marginally increased to 13.5% in March, up from 13.4% the month before.
This article appears in the June 2026 issue of Global Finance Magazine.
