Top stories today:

1. U.S. long-term yields top 5% after Moody’s downgrade
2. Anthropic secures $2.5B, 5-year revolving credit line to boost AI efforts
3. NVIDIA opens up AI systems to other chipmakers
4. OpenAI launches Codex, AI coding agent, in ChatGPT
5. More Americans eye Europe to escape U.S. turmoil

0. Data and calendar

Listen to our AI-generated podcast summarizing today’s newsletter (beware of hallucinations):

1. U.S. long-term yields top 5%, highest since Nov. 2023, after Moody’s downgrade

• +0.13 percentage points in U.S. 30-year Treasury yield to 5.03% on Mon. after Moody’s downgrade U.S. credit rating to Aa1 from AAA.

• Florida, North Carolina, and Texas are likely to keep top Moody’s ratings due to stronger finances than the federal government.

• 2011: S&P downgraded the U.S. to AA+, while Fitch did the same in Aug. 2023.

• China has asked the U.S. to maintain stability of the international financial system after Moody's downgrade.

• A “lagging indicator,” Treasury Secy. Scott Bessent called Moody’s Ratings after the agency downgraded the U.S. ratings.

Separately, Bessent said Walmart’s CEO told him the giant would “eat some tariffs,” backing Trump’s push

3. Anthropic secures $2.5B, 5-year revolving credit line to boost AI efforts

• Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan, among others, have participated in the credit facility.

• Mar.: Anthropic closed its last funding round at $61.5B valuation.

• The credit facility provides “significant flexibility to support our continued exponential growth,” Anthropic CFO Krishna Rao said.

5. NVIDIA unveils NVLink Fusion to open up AI systems to other chipmakers

• Mon.: NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang announced NVLink Fusion at Computex 2025 in Taiwan.

• NVLink Fusion lets customers use compatible CPUs from 3rd parties with NVIDIA’s AI chips.

• MediaTek, Marvell, and AIchip will be among the 1st to use the NVLink Fusion system.

• Fujitsu and Qualcomm are also in plans to build custom CPUs to work with NVIDIA’s GPUs.

• An “opportunity for hyperscalers to build custom silicon” with NVIDIA’s NVLink built in, analysts said.

• NVIDIA will also develop Taiwan’s 1st AI supercomputer in partnership with Foxconn and TSMC.

6. OpenAI launches Codex, AI coding agent, in ChatGPT

• Powered by codex-1, an o3 AI reasoning model version specifically optimized for software engineering.

• Can handle multiple coding tasks simultaneously.

• Runs in a sandboxed virtual machine.

• Preloads code repositories when connected with GitHub.

• Takes 1-30 minutes to write simple features, fix bugs, and answer questions about a given codebase.

7. More Americans eye Europe to escape U.S. turmoil, but face visa hurdles

Americans hired by European companies +16% between Jan. and Apr., with over 53% in mid-level roles, per Deel:

• Nomad and retiree visas and citizenship-by-ancestry programs are explored by many Americans.

• Golden visas are also attracting wealthy Americans to acquire residency in Europe.

Job searches in Ireland and Portugal have surged, according to Glassdoor

8. China’s retail sales growth slowed to 5.1% in Apr., industrial output +6.1% YoY amid tariffs

9. Tesla tops EV rivals with $16.1B in cumulative free cash flow since inception

• Ford, a top legacy EV player, is now the 2nd-biggest cash burner after Rivian, overtaking Lucid.

• The data excluded BYD, Chinese EV giant, due to absence of enough data.

10. Interesting videos, posts, and memes

11. Other headlines

AI

• OpenAI, Oracle to help UAE develop massive data center.

• Siri upgrades “unlikely to be discussed much” at WWDC in Jun.: report.

• xAI posts Grok’s behind-the-scenes prompts.

• NVIDIA CEO says next chip after H20 for China won't be from Hopper series.

• Google I/O 2025 keynote on Tue. to announce new AI updates.

• Apple’s AI hype meets reality as questions mount over delivery.

Tech

• NVIDIA denies sending GPU designs to China despite Shanghai reports.

• Xiaomi aims to spend $7B on building own chip this decade.

• Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital opens trading on Nasdaq at $23.50 per share.

• NVIDIA in talks to invest in quantum startup PsiQuantum: report.

Tech & Law

• Epic Games asks judge to force Apple to approve Fortnite.

• Telegram CEO says France sought ban on conservative Romanians.

Biotech

• Novavax COVID-19 vaccine approved by FDA, but with unusual restrictions.

• Somite AI raises $47M to leverage AI for “human regeneration and repair”.

• Longevity Investors Conference returns to Gstaad in Sep.

Business

• Buffett to forgo stage appearance at 2026 Berkshire meeting: report.

• Qatar Airways annual net profit +28% to record $2.1B.

Crypto

• Trump gala invitees dump memecoins that won their seats.

• Novogratz’s Galaxy talking with SEC about tokenizing shares.

• Binance, Kraken said to have been targets of hacks.

• Fireblocks survey shows 90% of institutions “taking action” on stablecoins.

• Alabama man sentenced to 14 months for hacking SEC account.

• Crypto millionaires hire bodyguards to avoid kidnappers.

U.S. politics

• Biden diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer.

• Trump tax bill passes key panel to advance in US Congress.

• Biden heard struggling with words, dates in counsel interview recordings.

World

• Zelensky meets Vance, Rubio ahead of Trump-Putin call.

• Trump to speak to Putin on end to war in Ukraine.

• Israel’s economy +3.4% in Q1 as war against Hamas weighs.

• Hamas document shows Oct. 7 attack aimed at derailing Saudi.

• Russia launches war’s largest drone attack ahead of Putin-Trump call.

• UK, EU agree post-Brexit reset after “breakthrough” in talks.

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