The upcoming IPOs for SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic are bringing venture capital close to its biggest-ever returns. Forbes’ latest Midas List of top venture capital investors is fueled by these three firms, and then some. Vinod Khosla once again is the world’s top investor after writing the first institutional check for OpenAI back in 2019. But the list also features a record 25 newcomers, including Spark Capital partner Yasmin Razavi, who led a 2023 round for Anthropic. This is a published version of the Forbes Daily newsletter, you can sign-up to get Forbes Daily in your inbox here. First Up Micron Technology’s latest rally made CEO Sanjay Mehrotra a billionaire as demand for memory chips used in AI servers has exploded. Elon Musk is reportedly considering merging Tesla with SpaceX, and Wall Street expects the companies to combine after the aerospace giant’s upcoming IPO. Tensions between the U.S. and Iran spiked again late Wednesday after the U.S. launched new strikes on a drone launch site in the region, while the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed it had targeted an American airbase. Business + Finance Robinhood users will now be able to trade stocks using AI agents, the latest of many finance companies to push AI integration. The app will allow customers to open dedicated agentic trading accounts separate from their standard accounts, enabling their AI agents to autonomously buy and sell stocks with the funds they have access to. Tech + Innovation New York City-based startup Pace raised $46 million, giving it a $375 million valuation, to address the insurance industry’s very old “plumbing” problem: About 25 cents of every premium dollar goes to administrative processing. But Pace says its AI agents can handle the dull work that insurers typically outsource to massive offshore human call centers. Money + Politics President Donald Trump revealed in a series of filings this month that he made nearly 4,000 trades between January and March—including scores of individual companies. In an analysis of the president’s largest stock trades, Forbes found that all of his 10 best buys were tech company stocks, boosted by the unregulated AI boom that Trump has made a centerpiece of his economic policy. The Justice Department has reportedly opened a criminal investigation into writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of sexual assault in the past and later won an $83.3 million defamation judgment against him. The probe reportedly centers on Carroll’s 2022 deposition testimony about the funding behind her civil suit against Trump, and comes amid mounting criticism that the DOJ is targeting the president's political enemies and critics. Sports + Entertainment The CEO of a major shareholder in Universal Music Group threw cold water on billionaire Bill Ackman’s efforts to acquire the record label, saying Ackman’s price isn’t high enough and questioning “whether he is compatible” with the company. In his first public comments since Ackman’s offer, Cyrille Bolloré, chief executive of Bolloré Group, urged UMG’s management to reject the bid. DAILY COVER STORY AI And The End Of Recessions As We Know Them illustration by yunjia yuan for forbes If AI advances the way many predict, economists may have to reevaluate how we measure the health of the economy. Since the Great Depression, the main metric has been gross domestic product. When GDP rises, the economy is considered to be growing. When it shrinks for long enough, the thinking goes, the economy is probably in a recession or close to one. Technology has always destroyed some jobs. Farm equipment reduced the need for manual labor. ATMs reduced the number of bank tellers. Telephone operators disappeared. But there was usually somewhere else for those workers to go. Michael Madowitz, principal economist at the Roosevelt Institute, a Washington think tank focused on economic policy, says it’s time to throw out your Econ 101 textbooks because the old way of judging the economy may stop making sense. Roughly two-thirds of national income has historically gone to workers through paychecks, with owners taking much of the rest through profits. Many economic models simply assume that split because it has stayed fairly stable for so long. But that balance comes from history, not a law of nature. If AI allows companies to produce more with fewer workers, a larger share of the gains could flow to owners and a smaller share to employees. WHY IT MATTERS “For nearly a century, GDP has been the yardstick for measuring the health of the economy,” says Forbes senior reporter Brandon Kochkodin. “If it’s growing, the thinking goes, the country is doing well. But that assumes growth is, if not evenly distributed, at least not siloed. Even before AI, that relationship had already weakened as tech-driven growth increasingly benefited investors more than workers. AI could push that disconnect further by allowing companies to keep growing with even fewer employees, raising the possibility that an economy could look healthy on paper while millions of people no longer feel connected to the growth.” MORE Billionaire Jack Dorsey Thinks AI Will Kill Middle Management FACTS + COMMENTS Ahead of the 2026 World Cup, the attorneys general of New York and New Jersey have opened an investigation into FIFA’s ticketing practices. They claim the federation misled fans about seat locations and that its “variable pricing” methods contributed to “soaring” ticket prices: 34%: The increase in World Cup ticket prices since October, The Athletic reported last month $2.3 million: How much the most expensive tickets available on resale were listed for as of April ‘We have to apply market rates,’ FIFA head Gianni Infantino said earlier this month when defending the prices STRATEGY + SUCCESS While it may have been taboo in the past to discuss personal finance, Gen Z is turning that idea on its head: A new survey from Bank of America finds that 27% of Gen Z adults talk about their salary or income with friends. While many employers don’t encourage it, these conversations can lead to fairer pay and greater equity in the workplace, as long as the information is channeled into positive action. VIDEO QUIZ Spotify and Netflix struck a deal worth up to $100 million for rights to the video version of a popular podcast. Which podcast is it? A. “On Purpose” B. “The Diary Of A CEO” C. “The Joe Rogan Experience” D. “Crime Junkie” Check your answer.

Source: Forbes

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