Latest / Key Markets & Headlines / Key Markets & Headlines — Friday, May 29, 2026
Transcript
- Key markets and headlines for today. The most market-moving story this morning is Anthropic’s record-breaking funding round, which has pushed the artificial intelligence company’s valuation to new heights and triggered a wave of activity across the AI and technology sectors. Anthropic raised sixty-five billion dollars in a round that values the company at nine hundred sixty-five billion dollars, surpassing rival OpenAI for the first time. The funding was led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, and Sequoia Capital, with each of those investors putting in more than two billion dollars. Major chipmakers like Micron Technology, Samsung Electronics, and SK Hynix also contributed, helping the round soar well above Anthropic’s initial thirty billion dollar target. The round includes fifteen billion dollars of previously committed investments from large cloud providers, including five billion from Amazon. Notably, this surge in valuation and capital comes as Anthropic continues to compete fiercely in the generative AI space, and it’s a clear sign that investors see enormous potential in the company’s technology and business model. In a related move, Apollo Global Management and Blackstone are working to assemble additional investors for a massive thirty-six billion dollar debt financing deal to help Anthropic build out its AI infrastructure. The funds will be used to purchase Google’s custom tensor processing units, or TPUs, which Anthropic will then lease. Broadcom, which helps Google develop these chips, is backstopping payments on the largest portions of the transaction. This would be one of the largest private credit deals ever, and the biggest chip-financing debt transaction to date. By leveraging Broadcom’s credit quality, the deal aims to provide Anthropic with the computing power it needs to stay ahead in the AI race, especially now that it’s valued higher than OpenAI. Turning to the broader technology sector, Apple is making headlines with its much-anticipated Siri overhaul, which will become the centerpiece of its next iPhone, iPad, and Mac software updates. The Siri revamp, the biggest in the assistant’s nearly fifteen-year history, is expected to reach consumers as early as September. It will include delayed features first announced in twenty twenty-four, such as the ability to understand personal data and analyze on-screen content. The new Siri will use Google Gemini technology, offer AI-powered web search, and introduce a dedicated Siri app designed to compete more directly with ChatGPT and other AI assistants. Apple is also testing ways to open up iOS twenty-seven to third-party AI agents installed through the App Store, allowing users to route queries directly to outside AI services from the Search or Ask interface. The success of these new AI features will be a key factor in consumer reaction to this fall’s iPhone eighteen Pro lineup and Apple’s first foldable iPhone. Amazon Web Services is also making moves in the AI space. AWS is in talks to add SpaceX’s latest Grok models to its Bedrock AI platform, according to people familiar with the matter. This would deepen AWS’s effort to make Bedrock the central hub for top AI models, while giving SpaceX access to a large base of enterprise cloud customers ahead of its planned initial public offering. Bedrock already offers models from Anthropic, Meta, Cohere, and OpenAI. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has said AWS is building Bedrock to be the biggest inference engine in the world. SpaceX has already shipped its Grok models to AWS, suggesting the rollout could happen soon. In its investor prospectus last week, SpaceX said it plans to grow its enterprise AI business with dedicated sales teams and engineers who work directly with customers to implement Grok-based products. Amazon is also advancing its efforts to reduce transportation emissions and congestion. The company has launched its second U.S. pilot project for electric cargo bikes, this time in Washington, D.C. The ten-month program will assess how e-bikes can support package delivery operations in the nation’s capital. Amazon began testing a new e-bike model in Brooklyn in twenty twenty-four and introduced more than two hundred fifty of these bikes in Manhattan in May last year. Globally, Amazon employs several micromobility options, including e-cargo mopeds and pushcarts. In twenty twenty-four, Amazon and its delivery partners delivered one hundred seventy million packages via such transportation modes, up from one hundred twenty-five million in twenty twenty-three. Amazon also announced plans to buy thousands of pedal-assist vehicles from Rivian spinoff Also. In other AI-related corporate news, Asana has completed the acquisition of StackAI, a no-code AI workflow platform that enables companies to design, test, deploy, and govern custom AI agents and intelligent automation of business-critical workflows. The acquisition brings together StackAI’s cross-system execution capabilities with Asana’s platform, where teams already plan and run their work. CEO Dan Rogers said the move accelerates Asana’s roadmap and marks the next phase of human-agent work, allowing customers to automate complex business processes end-to-end across every system and tool their business uses. StackAI’s platform connects workflows, data, and actions across enterprise systems such as ERP, CRM, and ITSM to automate operational processes. StackAI co-founders Tony Rosinol and Bernard Aceituno are joining Asana as part of the deal. Meta is also stepping up its enterprise AI ambitions. The company is creating an Enterprise Solutions unit that will embed engineers and product managers directly with large corporate customers to accelerate adoption and deployment of its AI tools. This move is designed to help Meta compete more aggressively in the rapidly evolving enterprise AI landscape. Google announced Nano Banana two, its latest AI image generation model, which combines the advanced features of Nano Banana Pro with the speed of Gemini Flash. According to Google Cloud, Nano Banana two delivers pro-level image generation and editing at the speed users expect from Flash, making complex generations faster, cheaper, and more accessible. The model includes improved reasoning, text fidelity, subject consistency, and real-time web knowledge to more accurately render specific subjects. Nano Banana two is rolling out across Google products, including the Gemini app, Search, Google Lens, Vertex AI, and the Gemini API, while Nano Banana Pro remains available for specialized high-fidelity tasks. Google is also expanding SynthID and C2PA Content Credentials to help identify AI-generated content. In another move, Google’s Waymo is launching a new autonomous vehicle called the Ojai, designed in partnership with Chinese EV maker Zeekr. The Ojai was developed specifically as a self-driving taxi, featuring elevator-style sliding doors, a low step, and a completely flat floor. The new vehicles will initially be available to select riders in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles, with expansion planned to Denver, Las Vegas, and San Diego in the coming months before a broader public rollout later this year. The Ojai uses Waymo’s sixth-generation driver hardware, including custom sensors, cameras, and radar. Perplexity, an AI startup, is facing legal trouble as CNN has filed a lawsuit claiming that Perplexity’s AI tools generate verbatim copies of its work and provide users with information locked behind CNN’s subscription paywall. CNN alleges that Perplexity ignored its efforts to block unidentified crawlers from scraping its content and that a previous deal to offer content through Perplexity’s Comet Plus subscription did not result in a final agreement. CNN is seeking damages and a permanent block on Perplexity’s allegedly unlawful conduct. Perplexity’s spokesperson responded, “You can’t copyright facts.” In the software sector, Autodesk has agreed to buy MaintainX, a firm focused on maintenance tools, in an all-cash deal valuing MaintainX at three point six billion dollars. Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost said the acquisition expands Autodesk’s reach beyond design and manufacturing to operations, ensuring data and insights flow seamlessly in a continuous lifecycle. Elastic shares fell after the company issued an adjusted earnings outlook for the first quarter that missed Wall Street estimates. Shares of the enterprise search and cybersecurity company dropped nine percent after hours to fifty-two dollars and twenty-five cents. For the first quarter of fiscal twenty twenty-seven, Elastic expects adjusted earnings per share between fifty-seven and fifty-nine cents, below analyst expectations of sixty-three cents. The company expects revenue between four hundred sixty-nine and four hundred seventy million dollars, roughly in line with estimates. For the full year, Elastic expects revenue between one point nine nine and two billion dollars, and full-year adjusted earnings per share of three dollars twenty-one to three dollars twenty-nine, both above analyst expectations. MongoDB swung to a profit in the first quarter and raised its fiscal-year guidance as it sees strong demand for its software from businesses. The company reported a profit of four point four million dollars, or five cents a share, compared with a loss of thirty-seven point six million dollars, or forty-six cents a share, the year prior. Adjusted earnings were one dollar thirty-two cents a share, ahead of analyst expectations. Revenue rose twenty-five percent to six hundred eighty-seven point six million dollars, also beating Wall Street’s forecast. MongoDB raised its fiscal-year revenue guidance to between two point nine two and two point nine six billion dollars, up from a previous forecast of two point eight six to two point nine billion. It also boosted its adjusted earnings outlook to five dollars ninety-five to six dollars fourteen cents a share. The company guided for second-quarter revenue of seven hundred twenty-nine to seven hundred thirty-four million dollars and adjusted earnings of one dollar fifty-eight to one dollar sixty-one cents a share, both above analyst expectations. MongoDB said it is seeing strong end-market demand for its platform across enterprise use cases and emerging AI opportunities. Okta reported first-quarter fiscal twenty twenty-seven revenue of seven hundred sixty-five million dollars, up eleven percent year over year and above analyst expectations. Adjusted earnings per share of ninety-one cents also beat consensus estimates. CEO Todd McKinnon said the company’s new-product portfolio drove thirty-five percent of bookings during the quarter and described identity products for AI agents as a future growth driver, as enterprises seek to manage and secure autonomous nonhuman actors. Okta guided for full fiscal twenty twenty-seven revenue of three point one nine to three point two one billion dollars, above analyst expectations. The company also repurchased two hundred forty-eight million dollars of stock during the quarter as part of its one billion dollar buyback program. Wix is laying off around twenty percent of its staff, or roughly one thousand roles, as the company adapts to the fast evolution of AI capabilities. CEO Avishai Abrahami said Wix needs to become a faster, leaner, and flatter organization. He also cited the strengthening of the Israeli shekel against the U.S. dollar in recent quarters, which creates structural pressure on Wix’s ability to operate. Abrahami mentioned two new roles at the company designed around AI-native work: Xengineer and Creators. Figma shareholder Findell Capital Management is pushing the company to rationalize costs and examine its relationship with Anthropic following the launch of Claude Design. Findell said Figma is significantly undervalued and called for cost cuts in line with peers. The shareholder also urged Figma to focus its product suite on Design, Dev Mode, FigJam, and Make, and to sunset or repackage remaining products. Findell called for an independent investigation to evaluate whether Anthropic benefitted from any improper use of Figma’s confidential information and suggested a board refresh may be appropriate given potential conflicts. In the e-commerce sector, GameStop has increased its holding in eBay to seven point seven eight percent, up from the six point five five percent stake disclosed earlier this month. Shares of eBay have gained two point six percent since GameStop’s initial filing, compared with a five percent rise in the S&P five hundred index. Etsy has signed a letter agreement with eBay tied to the planned one point two billion dollar sale of Depop, allowing continued investment in the business before the deal closes. Under the revised terms, eBay could owe Etsy up to an additional one hundred thirty-six million dollar termination fee if the deal is terminated after July thirty-first, excluding certain cases involving misconduct by Etsy. The companies now expect the deal to close by the end of the third quarter, compared with an earlier target of the second quarter. Blue Origin suffered a major setback when its New Glenn rocket exploded in a massive fireball during a test on a Florida launchpad Thursday evening. The vehicle was being prepared for its fourth launch, which was slated to deploy a batch of satellites for Amazon’s Leo, a rival satellite network to SpaceX’s Starlink. None of the satellites were on the rocket when it exploded, according to Amazon. New Glenn is key to Blue Origin’s plans for space exploration and is years behind schedule, with longer-than-expected waiting periods between flights. The explosion is the latest blow to Blue Origin’s reputation as a reliable alternative to SpaceX’s Falcon nine. The rocket is also set to serve a key role in NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to send humans back to the moon. Earlier this week, NASA awarded Blue Origin a lucrative contract to land rovers on the moon. Dell has raised its fiscal twenty twenty-seven revenue outlook to about one hundred sixty-seven billion dollars, including sixty billion from AI server sales. That’s up from a prior forecast of roughly one hundred forty billion and well above analyst expectations. Chief Operating Officer Jeff Clarke said the company booked twenty-four point four billion dollars in AI orders and generated sixteen point one billion in AI server sales in the quarter ended May first, adding that the AI opportunity shows no signs of slowing. Dell reported first-quarter revenue of forty-three point eight billion dollars, up eighty-eight percent year over year and ahead of analyst estimates. Adjusted earnings per share of four dollars eighty-six cents also exceeded expectations. The company ended the quarter with a backlog of fifty-one point three billion dollars in AI server orders. CFO David Kennedy said the shift from AI model training to AI deployment creates opportunities beyond servers and makes it a more broad-based, durable growth story over the long term. Paramount Skydance’s CBS News has named Nick Bilton executive producer of its 60 Minutes program, marking another shakeup at the long-running news magazine. Bilton will be the fifth executive producer in the show’s history and the first to come into the role without prior broadcast experience. He previously covered technology at the New York Times, contributed to Vanity Fair, and is also an author and filmmaker. Rivian is under scrutiny as U.S. auto safety regulators have opened an investigation into the company over the potential failure of a part that could lead drivers to lose control of their electric vehicles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration received two complaints from Rivian owners describing separation of the rear toe link, a suspension rod that connects the wheel hub to the vehicle chassis. Both incidents caused the electric vehicles to swerve across multiple lanes of traffic, with one resulting in a collision. The probe covers about one hundred fifteen thousand of Rivian’s R1 electric pickups and SUVs. Rivian said it’s cooperating with the investigation but that its own data indicates the toe link joints are operating as intended. Uber Technologies received a credit rating upgrade from S&P Global Ratings to triple B plus, reflecting expectations for strong cash flow growth and continued deleveraging. S&P assigned a positive outlook, indicating the potential for a further upgrade if Uber sustains its operating performance and balance sheet improvement. The ratings agency cited Uber’s expanding profitability, improving free cash flow generation, and strengthening credit metrics. In the world of sports and media, Nationwide Mutual Insurance has reached an agreement to buy a thirty-seven percent stake in Major League Soccer’s Columbus Crew at a nine hundred million dollar valuation. The deal is expected to close in the coming weeks, pending approval by the MLS board of governors. Last month, Haslam Sports Group, which owns the Crew, secured the eighteenth National Women’s Soccer League team for Columbus. The women’s expansion team ownership group also includes Nationwide and the Edwards family, who are part of the Crew’s cap table. Turning to macroeconomic developments, Chinese-made electric vehicles are beginning to arrive in Canada under a new arrangement that Prime Minister Mark Carney agreed to in January during a visit with China’s President Xi Jinping. The cars will be the first imported by Canada under a deal that allows as many as forty-nine thousand Chinese EVs in a twelve-month period at a tariff rate of around six percent. Prior to this year, Canada had a tariff of more than one hundred percent on those products, effectively shutting them out. In the eurozone, inflation jumped in France, Italy, and Spain, strengthening the case for the European Central Bank to raise interest rates for the first time since twenty twenty-three. Driven by a surge in energy costs linked to the ongoing war, consumer prices rose two point eight percent in France, three point three percent in Italy, and three point six percent in Spain in May, compared to a year ago. The readings in Italy and Spain were in line with expectations, while France’s was slightly below. Inflation across the eurozone remains well above the ECB’s two percent target, and next week’s figure for the twenty-one-nation bloc is expected to push further beyond the three percent level reached in April. Markets are almost certain that the ECB will raise the deposit rate to two point two five percent from two percent on June eleventh, with another move likely by year-end as inflation concerns outweigh worries about economic pain. On the policy front, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari said it’s too early to conclude that interest rates need to rise, while emphasizing that the central bank should keep all options on the table. Speaking at an event in Seoul, Kashkari said, “I think it’s premature for me to conclude we need to be raising rates right away. We need to keep watching the data and watching how the conflict in the Middle East unfolds before I want to make any adjustments.” Kashkari, like many of his colleagues at the Fed, has noted that the war in Iran has increased uncertainty about the outlook for the U.S. economy. He expressed caution about inflation, which has picked up in recent months since the war broke out and boosted energy prices, prolonging what’s already been five years of elevated cost of living. Kashkari reiterated that in both best- and worst-case scenarios, inflation could run significantly higher for an extended period, and he’s paying close attention to that risk as well as the possibility that inflation expectations could become unanchored. In geopolitics, the U.S. and Iran have reached a tentative deal to extend a ceasefire by sixty days and launch further talks on Tehran’s nuclear program, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. This raises hopes that the three-month conflict could be nearing a resolution. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed an earlier report from Axios. President Donald Trump has yet to agree to the terms. Both countries have previously hailed progress, with Trump repeatedly indicating the U.S. was close to securing an agreement, only for the standoff to drag on. Vice President JD Vance told reporters Thursday that the U.S. and Iran are “going back and forth on a couple of language points,” including over issues relating to Tehran’s nuclear capabilities. He said Iran appears to be negotiating in good faith and that progress is being made. Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said in a post that the text of the possible memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran had not been finalized. In event-driven news, activist investor Jana Partners is pushing Alkami Technology to restart a sales process, according to a person familiar with the matter. Alkami, a financial technology company based in Plano, Texas, had previously tapped advisers to explore strategic options. Jana, which has a stake in the company, believes Alkami is an attractive takeover candidate for private equity or a public company. Jana Managing Partner Scott Ostfeld said in December that Alkami is undervalued and should explore a sale. The following month, Bloomberg reported the company was working with a financial adviser to gauge interest from potential suitors. Caesars Entertainment has agreed to be acquired by Fertitta Entertainment in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately five point seven billion dollars. Caesars shareholders will receive thirty-one dollars per share, a forty-nine percent premium to the stock’s February twenty-fifth closing price. The deal marks the culmination of Tilman Fertitta’s nearly decade-long pursuit of Caesars and would combine the casino operator with Fertitta’s existing portfolio, which includes the Golden Nugget casino chain, restaurant brands, and the Houston Rockets. The transaction includes about eleven point nine billion dollars of Caesars debt and a go-shop period through July eleventh, during which Caesars can evaluate alternative bids. Caesars owns a major online gambling business and more than fifty resorts, but had been the weakest-performing large casino operator before Fertitta’s offer. Regulators are expected to scrutinize the transaction because Golden Nugget and Caesars overlap in six gaming markets, potentially requiring divestitures of certain properties. International Flavors & Fragrances, or IFF, is nearing a deal to sell its food ingredients business to CVC Capital Partners for more than four billion dollars including debt, according to people familiar with the matter. IFF could announce the deal in the coming days, assuming talks don’t fall apart. The business makes a wide variety of products, from scents for perfumes to ingredients used in food that aid digestion. It has a market value close to twenty billion dollars. The food ingredients division is IFF’s biggest by revenue, generating sales of almost three point two eight billion dollars last year, though sales fell year-over-year in twenty twenty-five and the company recently wrote down the value of the unit. Pfizer and China’s Innovent Biologics have signed a global agreement worth as much as ten point five billion dollars to develop cancer drugs, highlighting surging demand for Chinese drugs despite ongoing geopolitical pressures. The agreement includes a six hundred fifty million dollar upfront payment and up to nine point eight five billion dollars in potential milestones. Innovent’s shares climbed as much as ten percent in Hong Kong following the announcement. The collaboration spans a portfolio of twelve oncology programs, including eight Innovent-originated early-stage assets and four Pfizer-proposed discovery programs. Pfizer’s chief oncology officer, Jeff Legos, said the partnership combines Innovent’s discovery and early clinical development with Pfizer’s global research and development and commercialization capabilities, offering an opportunity to strengthen Pfizer’s pipeline and accelerate the delivery of breakthrough therapies. Looking at key market levels and retail activity, retail trading is on pace to finish nearly ten percent above the previous record set during the meme-stock era in January twenty twenty-one, according to Citadel. This surge in retail participation is notable as it comes amid a backdrop of strong consumer spending and robust equity market performance. In the United States, the personal savings rate dropped to two point six percent in April, a four-year low. This decline in savings is showing up in consumer spending data, which continues to be strong despite a rise in gas prices. The continued growth in spending is supporting the broader economy, even as households dip into their savings to maintain consumption levels. That’s a wrap on today’s key markets and headlines. Thanks for listening.