TL;DR

401(k)s gain private-market access; China injects $8.5B into AI startups; Pentagon awards $800M to top AI firms.

Highlights

• Trump to sign executive order enabling U.S. 401(k) plans to allocate to private-market assets, expanding access to private equity and venture capital 1.
• China pledges $8.5B in direct funding for early-stage AI startups as part of industrial policy to close the gap with the U.S. 3.
• Pentagon awards up to $200M each to OpenAI, Google (GOOGL ), Anthropic, and xAI for agentic AI tools; xAI also cleared to sell Grok chatbot to federal agencies 4.
• AWS (AMZN ) launches Bedrock AgentCore, AI agent marketplace, S3 vector support, and commits $100M to GenAI Innovation Centers, expanding AI infrastructure and developer tools 7.
• Musk’s xAI in talks for multi-GW data-center capacity in Saudi Arabia; launches Grok 4, now leading OpenRouter usage 28.
• Scale AI cuts 14% of staff and 500 contractors following Meta’s $14.3B investment and shifting demand for GenAI services 6.
• OpenAI’s ChatGPT hit by second global outage in a month, raising reliability concerns for enterprise and developer customers 9.
• U.S. allows Nvidia (NVDA ) to resume H20 AI chip sales to China, reversing an April ban amid ongoing trade negotiations 12.
• Tether mints $2B USDT , pushing supply past $160B; Circle also expands USDC as stablecoin demand and crypto trading volumes rise 15.
• Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund acquires 9.1% of BitMine Immersion, driving shares higher and highlighting institutional crypto treasury interest 5.
• Robinhood and Goldman Sachs highlight 400% YoY growth in tokenized U.S. Treasuries; BlackRock’s $2.88B BUIDL fund leads adoption 10.
• Elliott Management builds 8.2% stake in Global Payments after $4T Worldpay deal, boosting shares and spotlighting fintech M&A 11.
• SpaceX launches 24 Amazon (AMZN ) Kuiper satellites, accelerating Amazon’s $10B+ LEO broadband rollout ahead of 2026 FCC deadline 13.
• Trump administration announces $92B in new private-sector commitments for U.S. energy and data-center projects, with further investment packages and trade deals pending 14.

Commentary

The pending executive order to allow 401(k) plans to access private-market assets could significantly increase the capital pool available to private equity and venture funds, directly impacting fundraising dynamics and potentially boosting valuations across the private markets 1. This regulatory development, combined with $92B in new commitments for U.S. energy and data-center projects 14, signals a policy environment that favors large-scale infrastructure and alternative asset growth—key areas for both early- and growth-stage investors.

AI remains a central focus, with China’s $8.5B pledge for young AI startups intensifying global competition and potentially accelerating the pace of innovation and funding in the sector 3. The Pentagon’s $800M in contracts to leading AI firms, including xAI, OpenAI, Google , and Anthropic, expands the U.S. government pipeline for advanced AI solutions and sets a precedent for public-sector adoption of commercial AI 4. AWS 's new agentic AI products and marketplace further reinforce the trend toward scalable AI infrastructure 7, while xAI’s aggressive data-center expansion 2 and Grok 4’s rapid uptake indicate sustained demand for large-scale compute and differentiated LLMs 8.

Despite the strong capital flows, operational risk and market volatility persist. Scale AI’s layoffs following Meta’s investment 6 and OpenAI’s recurring outages 9 highlight the need for operational discipline and reliability, especially as enterprise adoption of AI tools accelerates. The reversal of the Nvidia H20 chip ban for China, tied to broader trade negotiations, also underscores the ongoing complexity of global supply chains and the importance of regulatory clarity for venture-backed hardware and AI startups 12.

In fintech and crypto, institutional activity is rising. Thiel’s stake in BitMine Immersion 5, the surge in tokenized U.S. Treasuries led by BlackRock’s BUIDL fund 10, and expanding stablecoin issuance from Tether and Circle 15 all point to growing VC and strategic interest in digital asset infrastructure and tokenization. Elliott Management’s increased position in Global Payments after the Worldpay deal further signals active M&A and activist interest in fintech infrastructure 11, while the Amazon (AMZN ) Kuiper satellite launch demonstrates continued capital deployment in space-based connectivity 13.

VCs should monitor regulatory changes, public-sector demand, and the intersection of traditional and digital finance as drivers of deal flow and exit opportunities, while remaining attentive to operational risks and evolving global supply chain dynamics.