Together with

Good Morning,

Jefferies is arranging SpaceX shorts after being snubbed from its IPO, BofA is sticking with entry-level hires despite AI fears, ASML became Europe's most valuable company, Google upsized its record-breaking equity offering, and Jamie Dimon will personally pitch ultra-rich clients on SpaceX's IPO.

Columbia Business School Exec Ed and Wall Street Prep launched a comprehensive online program on AI for Business & Finance, covering everything from GenAI foundations to advanced ML, all while offering access to a global network of industry veterans. Learn more below.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

As of 6/3/2026 market close.

Learn more about the Litquidity portfolios and subscribe to the strategies on Autopilot.*

Markets

  • US stocks slipped from ATHs yesterday as traders digested stretched out US-Iran negotiations

    • S&P snapped a nine-day win streak

Earnings

  • Broadcom beat Q2 earnings estimates but missed on revenue despite a 48% surge on demand for custom AI chips, including Google's TPUs (CNBC)

  • CrowdStrike issued a Q1 beat-and-raise as 'the worlds of cybersecurity and frontier AI collide' (CNBC)

  • Macy's issued a beat-and-raise on its strongest Q1 growth in four years amid turnaround efforts (CNBC)

  • GameStop posted record quarterly profit on a 65% surge in its collectibles business as it adapts to consumers buying video games digitally (WSJ)

  • What we're watching this week:  

    • Today: lululemon

  • Full calendar here

Prediction Markets

  • Anthropic also picked Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to lead its historic IPO

  • Trade event contracts on Polymarket, the world's largest prediction market

Headline Roundup

  • Iran war may end in interim deal (RT)

  • Gulf states are in talks for an oil pipelines to bypass Hormuz (FT)

  • Private payrolls grew by the most since January 2025 (CNBC)

  • Quant traders generated combined $114B in revenues last year (FT)

  • Bank of America will hire 4k interns and analysts despite AI threat (RT)

  • Jamie Dimon will pitch JPMorgan's ultra-rich clients on SpaceX IPO (BBG)

  • Jefferies becomes go-to arranger of SpaceX shorts after IPO snub (BBG)

  • Greg Abel puts stamp on Berkshire Hathaway with pair of megadeals (WSJ)

  • Holly Kim says private credit reckoning is written in 'laws of physics' (BBG)

  • Vanguard's S&P 500 ETF hit $1T AUM (BBG)

  • ASML became Europe's most valuable company (BBG)

  • Trade groups urge US to boost memory chip supply (BBG)

  • Meta is selling AI agents to businesses in AI monetization push (BBG)

  • Saudi's PIF replaces foreign CEOs with locals (FT)

  • Wealthy Russians see empires crumble as Putin seizes assets (BBG)

  • Germany, France, and UK sketch plan to engage Putin in Ukraine talks (BBG)

A Message from Wall Street Prep

Finance professionals are using AI. Most don't know what they're actually doing with it.

The 8-week AI for Business & Finance Certificate Program from Columbia Business School Exec Ed + Wall Street Prep is built for non-technical roles and helps you cut through buzzwords, apply AI to your work, and lead adoption in your org.

  • Apply AI directly to financial analysis, reporting, and decision-making workflows

  • Collaborate in LIVE weekly office hours with Columbia faculty

  • Earn a Columbia certificate and join a 5,000+ network of finance and business professionals

Use code LITQUIDITY and enroll before June 15 to save $500. Get the program brochure here.

Get the brochure

Deal Flow

M&A / Strategic

  • Nippon Paint and Sherwin-Williams ended their $14.5B effort to buy Netherlands-based Akzo Nobel, allowing it to proceed with its $25B merger with Axalta Coating Systems

  • BlackRock and Temasek are considering a $10B sale of AI data center parts maker Xnrgy Climate Systems

  • Yamada Holdings and Edion Corp plan to merge in an over $5B deal

  • China Southern Power Grid Co. abandoned efforts to gain control of Chile's top power transmission company Transelec from Canadian pensions at a $4B valuation

  • Sixth Street agreed to acquire a minority stake in ​commodities data and analytics firm Kpler from Insight Partners and Rothschild-owned Five Arrows at an over $3.7B valuation

  • Triton Partners agreed to acquire German drive technology maker Flender from Carlyle at a reported $3.5B valuation

  • Country music star Garth Brooks is considering a $2B sale of his catalog

  • SoftBank is among bidders for Blackstone's $625M sale of Japanese payments services provider SP.LINKS

  • Investment firm Aequita will acquire the automotive unit of German industrials giant Rheinmetall for $405M to make Rheinmetall a pure defense company

  • Danish digital-experience software company Sitecore acquired AI customer-experience platform Scrunch in a $225M deal

  • Foods giant Nestle will take full control of German ready-to-drink meal maker yfood Labs at a $522M valuation three years after buying a 49% stake 

  • Russia authorized France's TotalEnergies to sell its 10% stake in a $21B US-sanctioned Arctic LNG project

VC

  • Chinese OpenAI rival DeepSeek is set to raise a debut $7.5B funding round at a $55B valuation from investors including Tencent

  • AI research startup Lila Sciences is in talks to raise a $2B Series B at an $8.5B valuation anchored by CalPERS and NVentures

  • Self-driving startup Nuro raised $500M from Uber

  • AI music startup Suno raised a $400M Series D at a $5.4B valuation led by Bond Capital

  • AI market research platform AlphaSense raised a $350M round at a $7.5B valuation from Vitruvian Partners, JPMorgan Asset Management, Goldman Sachs Alternatives, D.E. Shaw Ventures, and others 

  • Oxford Quantum Circuits, an Oxford University spinout developing quantum computing hardware and software, raised a $350M Series C led by Bullhound Capital 

  • Coralogix, a software monitoring startup, raised a $200M Series F at a $1.6B post-money valuation led by Advent and Canada's CPPIB 

  • Forage, a mission-driven financial infrastructure platform for low-income families and retailers, raised a $40M Series B led by Mouro Capital

  • Lassie, an autonomous systems startup for small businesses, raised $35M in a Series A led by a16z 

  • Terra AI, an artificial intelligence platform for subsurface exploration, raised a $20M Series A led by Khosla Ventures

  • Arpio, a cloud recovery and resilience platform for cloud environments, raised a $15M Series A co-led by S3 Ventures and Paladin Capital Group 

Access the complete VC deal flow and data on Fundable

IPOs / Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

  • Google raised its record-breaking equity offering from $80B to $85B 

  • SpaceX is seeking to raise $75B at a $1.8T valuation in a fixed-price all-primary IPO

  • Anthropic picked Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to lead its IPO

  • French media giant Canal+ was valued at $3.4B in its South Africa  secondary listing to complete its $3B acquisition of African pay-TV giant MultiChoice

  • Honeywell-backed quantum computing company Quantinuum raised $1.7B in an upsized IPO priced above an increased marketed range

  • Bill Ackman's hedge fund Pershing Square will exit its $1.7B stake in Europe-listed Universal Music Group after it rejected a takeover bid

  • Canadian power producer TransAlta will acquire two natural gas-fired plants near Denver from Blackstone for $1B

  • Vedanta Resources' US-domiciled integrated Zambian ​copper and cobalt producer CopperTech Metals is seeking to raise over $670M in a US IPO

  • Greenbriar-backed Applied Aerospace & Defense raised $650M for a $3.55B valuation in an IPO priced at the top of a marketed range

  • Aussie data center operator NEXTDC recently raised $2.5B in equity and debt to fund expansion

  • Chinese humanoid robots firm PaXini Tech is considering a Hong Kong IPO; the firm is valued at $1.5B

  • Aussie connectivity firm Megaport is seeking to raise $600M at a 14% discount to fund creation of an AI inference cloud

  • Dubai-based fashion and lifestyle retailer Apparel Group is considering an India IPO of its India unit

SPAC / SPV

  • SPAC Lionheart Capital is raising $2.25B, with $1.5B of backing from brokerage fintech Clear Street, to purchase Venezuelan oil fields for $150M-$400M,

Debt

  • JPMorgan is preparing to sell $1.85B of debt back Belden's $1.85B acquisition of Ruckus Network from Vistance Networks

  • Citigroup, Santander, and JPMorgan are working on a $1B debt package for a $3B shale project by Argentine natural gas firm TGS

  • Hong Kong conglomerate Jardine Matheson is seeking a $1.1B loan to fund its $2.4B takeover of Aussie medical diagnostic imaging provider I-MED Radiology Network from UK PE firm Permira

  • Bahrain sold $1B of dollar bonds at a 7.125% YTM just hours after Iran's missile attack

  • Alphabet will participate in a $1B California munis deal to finance acquisition of a discounted long-term electricity supply for Pioneer Community Energy

  • Indonesia SWF Danantara hired banks for a dollar bond sale 

  • Coastal GasLink, a pipeline project in Western Canada, is seeking to sell $720M of high-grade bonds

Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed

  • Zambia is set for talks with creditors after a group of bondholders blocked its bid to buy back a $1.36B bond before a costly coupon increase

  • Ares is owed over $550M following the collapse of John Textor's Eagle Football Group, with recovery dependent  on the sale of the group's principal assets, including ownership of Olympique Lyonnais and an interest in Botafogo

  • Clover Private Credit Opportunities Origination, a former UBS private credit fund, sued law firm Pillsbury Winthrop for helping fintech Aspiration Partners defraud it of $145M

Funds / Secondaries

  • Investment firm Crescent Capital raised $10.8B for its fourth private credit fund

  • Swiss investment firm Partners Group limited redemptions from an $8.6B flagship private markets fund 

  • Investment firm Kayne Anderson's real estate arm raised $5.1B for its biggest-ever fund

  • Joshua Kushner's VC ThriveCapital launched Current, a $1B vehicle to acquire local accounting firms and rebuild them around AI.

  • UK investment firm Fasanara Capital launched a $500M private credit strategy to finance and flip Ferraris

  • UK financial services-focused PE firm AnaCap raised $370M for its second buyout fund

  • Wingman Growth Partners raised $215M for its debut fund

  • Midwest VC R1 Capital spun out from Rev1 Ventures with $150M to back founders across enterprise AI/software, deep tech, and life sciences

Crypto Sum Snapshot

  • Strategy's Bitcoin investment is currently at a $8.5B unrealized loss

  • Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe will launch a crypto stablecoin platform

  • Binance will shut down its NFT marketplace

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

Exec’s Picks

Meme Cleanser

🛒 Merch Store: Visit our merch store to shop our latest apparel, shoes, bags, accessories and more. 

💵 Litquidity Ventures: Accredited investors & qualified purchasers within the Litquidity community can gain access to alternative investments such as venture, late-stage growth, and private equity through Litquidity Ventures. Interested? Fill out this form.

☎️ Book a call with Lit: Want to pick Litquidity's brain on business advice, insights, or just chat to say what's up? Buy his time here.

📧 Launch your own newsletter: Have great content ideas and looking to launch your own publication? We highly recommend beehiiv to get started.

*DISCLAIMER: Investment advice provided by Autopilot Advisers, LLC ("Autopilot"), an SEC-registered investment adviser. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investing carries risks, including loss of principal. As always, be smart out there. Litquidity is compensated to promote AutoPilot. Compensation details available upon request.