Good afternoon,
If you thought the AI space was going to be a friendly race, think again. Over at the India AI summit, Sam Altman and Dario Amodei flat-out refused to join hands for a photo op. It is a hilarious, petty, but telling sign. The gloves are off, and nobody is pretending to play nice anymore.
Elsewhere, we are seeing friction across the board. The private credit market is sweating Blue Owl's recent stumbles, raising serious questions about retail exposure to alternative debt. Meanwhile on Wall Street, a highly anticipated lawsuit regarding grueling junior banker hours is officially heading to trial. This could fundamentally change how the big firms operate.
Getting started.
The Pulse
As of 02/19/2026 market close.
Markets
U.S. markets took a breather yesterday as private credit jitters and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East gave investors a reason to hit pause.
Prediction Markets
The threshold for conviction is high. (Polymarket)
Headline Hunt
JPMorgan claims that Jamie Dimon was fraudulently dragged into Trump's $5B lawsuit (BBG)
Despite all the new tariffs, the U.S. trade deficit barely budged over the past year (CNBC)
Blue Owl's current struggles are shining a harsh light on the dangers of private credit for everyday investors (BBG)
The AI boom is setting the stage for another record-breaking year for U.S. convertible bond sales (BBG)
Overseas investors ignored the "Sell America" narrative and pumped a massive $1.6T into U.S. assets last year (BBG)
Foreign capital is fleeing Indian IT stocks once again as AI disruption fears resurface (BBG)
Exchange-traded funds are testing SEC boundaries as they scramble to load up on private credit and equity (FT)
Amazon has officially dethroned Walmart to become the largest company in the world by total sales (BBG)
Meta is trimming employee stock awards for the second consecutive year (FT)
Bank of America is launching an art consulting service for high-net-worth clients as art-backed loan demand spikes (RT)
Morgan Stanley reportedly set up accounts for Jeffrey Epstein's trusts mere days before his arrest (RT)
Former Prince Andrew was arrested in connection with his ties to Epstein (BBG)
The Deal Room
M&A / Investments
Netflix might increase its massive $83B bid for Warner Bros. Discovery if rival suitor Paramount Skydance decides to sweeten its own hostile takeover offer.
Johnson & Johnson is laying the groundwork to offload its orthopedics division, DePuy Synthes, in a deal that could fetch $20B.
Visa is snapping up payment platforms Prisma and Newpay from the private equity group Advent.
Polymarket struck a deal to absorb the prediction market API firm Dome.
Venture Flow
OpenAI is finalizing an astronomical funding round aiming for over $100B, reportedly at a staggering $730M pre-money valuation, with backing from major tech players, sovereign wealth funds, and top VCs.
Freeform, a metal 3D-printing company, pulled in a $67M Series B with checks from Apandion, Founders Fund, Two Sigma Ventures, and others.
Stake, a digital real estate platform out of the UAE, closed a $31M Series B led by Emirates NBD.
The Debt Desk
Ares successfully priced a new European private credit CLO valued at $358M.
A $330M leveraged loan for Consolidated Energy is currently shopping at a steep discount of 88 cents on the dollar, the widest gap we have seen in two years.
Bankruptcy Watch
Global Counsel, the UK advisory shop run by Lord Peter Mandelson, is filing for administration after clients fled over the firm's ties to Epstein.
Fresh Capital
Bank of America is carving out a massive $25B commitment to fund a brand new private credit initiative.
HGGC, the private equity firm founded by Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young, successfully closed its fifth fund at $3.2B.
Crypto
Goldman Sachs chief David Solomon admitted he is holding bitcoin.
OpenAI just dropped a new artificial intelligence tool designed to beef up blockchain security.
Apex Group is testing out the World Liberty stablecoin to power its tokenized funds.
Analysts at Wells Fargo believe the YOLO trading mentality could push $150B into Bitcoin.
Shady illicit networks are reportedly responsible for a massive $141B in stablecoin transaction volume.
Top crypto executives just wrapped up their third official meeting at the White House.
Recommended Reading
Ben Carlson pointed out that the market is finally waking up to the outperformance of international stocks.
Today’s Meme Pick
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