Good morning. This is interesting…Texas lawmakers are considering a bill, championed by natives Taylor Sheridan, Woody Harrelson, and Matthew McConaughey, that would offer $1.5 billion in incentives to attract TV, film, and video game production to the state. But there are strings attached—any work that’s made in Texas under the incentive scheme wouldn’t be able to portray Texas negatively.
“There’s a murderer on the loose in Texas [looks at camera], where violent crime rates have been falling since 1991.”
—Mollly Liebergall, Dave Lozo, Matty Merritt, Abby Rubenstein, Neal Freyman
Markets: Sometimes it’s all about the after-party: Stocks slid yesterday as investors anxiously awaited Nvidia’s earnings after the bell (the chipmaker delivered strong results). Meanwhile, Abercrombie & Fitch retained its coolest-kid-at-the-mall status as investors sent its stock soaring after it reported better-than-expected earnings, looking past the $50 million hit the clothing chain expects from tariffs.
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Publicly traded companies are stockpiling bitcoin as if it’s toilet paper in the year 2020, except they’re betting big money that the digital asset won’t go down the drain.
The latest businesses to go for it are GameStop, which announced its first bitcoin purchase, worth ~$500 million, yesterday, and Truth Social’s parent company, Trump Media ($DJT), which said on Tuesday that it’s raising $2.5 billion to create its own bitcoin treasury.
Corporate crypto ownership has risen alongside bitcoin’s price recently:
There are now 114 publicly listed companies that own bitcoin, up from 89 at the beginning of April, according to BitcoinTreasuries.net.
Bitcoin’s price jumped nearly 50% from a low of ~$75,000 to an all-time high of nearly $112,000 over roughly the same period.
Follow the leader
Public companies are trying to copy bitcoin’s largest corporate holder, a company aptly named Strategy (previously MicroStrategy).
Strategy bought up 580,000+ bitcoins (current value $62+ billion) over the past few years, transforming itself from a software business with Bitcoin holdings into a bitcoin holding company with a side of software.
Strategy has made itself an attractive investment for traders who want a stake in bitcoin but may not want to buy crypto directly.
So far, this tactic has done wonders for investors—Strategy’s stock skyrocketed 500% last year as bitcoin jumped 130%.
But…Strategy now trades at ~1.6x the value of its bitcoin holdings, stoking concerns that the whole operation could come crashing down if the winds change. Still, enthusiasts say the cryptocurrency’s limited supply means bitcoin will become more valuable once it’s all been mined.
Crypto has friends in high places. “The White House embrace of crypto is alive,” Fox Business reported yesterday from the Bitcoin Conference 2025 in Las Vegas. Addressing the crowd, Vice President JD Vance said the administration is intent on stripping federal crypto regulations and passing laws allowing stablecoin-trading, which has made some lawmakers uneasy, because the Trump family majority-owns a stablecoin called USD1.—ML
Spencer Rascoff co-founded Zillow, scaling it into a $16b real estate giant. But everyday investors couldn’t invest until after the IPO, missing early gains.
“I wish we had done a round accessible to retail investors prior to Zillow’s IPO,” Spencer later said.
A federal trade court blocked Trump’s tariffs. You may not have heard of the Court of International Trade before, but you’re about to hear about it a lot: A three-judge panel knocked down most of President Trump’s tariffs yesterday, saying the emergency law he invoked to impose them (the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977) didn’t give him the power to do so. The panel said Congress couldn’t delegate “unbounded tariff power” to the president and that the US trade deficit didn’t meet the law’s definition of an extraordinary threat. The president used the law to impose the so-called reciprocal tariffs on almost all trading partners, as well as additional tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China. The Trump administration filed a notice saying it plans to appeal, and final say is likely to rest with the Supreme Court.
Nvidia’s sales still ripping despite lack of access to China market. Looks like CEO Jensen Huang isn’t going to regret his logo tattoo after all, since business is good at Nvidia. Yesterday, the chipmaker reported a profit of $18.8 billion, a 26% YoY increase, and $44.1 billion in revenue, a 69% jump. And it expects to keep the good times rolling next quarter, forecasting $45 billion in revenue, despite US restrictions that keep it from sending chips to China, one of the world’s biggest markets. Noting that “half of the world’s AI researchers” are based there, Huang told analysts that “shielding Chinese chip makers from US competition only strengthens them abroad.”
Elon Musk is “disappointed” by the Republican tax bill. Though President Trump has championed the megabill laying out taxes and spending that’s being considered by the Senate after passing the House, his confidant Musk isn’t sold on it because it adds to the deficit and “undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing.” Musk added in an interview clip released by CBS on Tuesday that he thinks “a bill can be big or it could be beautiful, but I don’t know if it could be both.” Then yesterday, Musk announced he was leaving his government role. When asked about Musk’s criticism of the bill, the president noted that negotiations are ongoing, and that compromises had to be made given the lack of support from Democrats and the GOP’s narrow House majority.—AR
Less than a week after President Trump suggested he was endorsing a deal to resolve the saga of Nippon Steel’s $14.1 billion takeover of US Steel (previously blocked as a security risk by President Biden’s administration), Nikkei reported that the US government could receive a “golden share” as a condition for approving the “partnership.”
What is a golden share, other than a play a coach might call in an Air Bud movie?
It’s a class of stock with special voting rights that would essentially give the US government veto power over big decisions for the company, although Bloomberg reports the specifics aren’t public yet.
This exceeds what’s typically needed to get approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which reviews deals for potential national security risks. It’s rare for the US to hold a golden share in public companies, except when they require bailouts, like GM and Chrysler did in 2008.
Other conditions: Pennsylvania Sen. Dave McCormick told CNBC that the agreement would give Pittsburgh-based US Steel an American CEO along with a majority US board.
Potential drawbacks: Other countries could reciprocate by imposing similar measures on American companies within their borders. And, as the New York Times notes, there’s potential for a highly ideological administration to push politically driven decisions that go against shareholder interests.—DL
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Don’t call them layoffs, just call them a strategic decrease in everyday attendance. McKinsey & Company’s headcount has dropped by more than 10% in the past 18 months—the largest in the consulting firm’s history. Following mass layoffs at Deloitte and Booz Allen Hamilton, the job eliminations at McKinsey are the latest upheaval in an industry that raced to hire during the pandemic.
At the end of 2023, McKinsey had about 45,100 employees, up from 34,000 in 2020. Now, that number has reportedly dropped to about 40,000. The company says the decrease is due to normal attrition and performance review firings, but:
McKinsey is still navigating its $1.6 billion worth of legal challenges over its work with opioid manufacturers.
Indian tech entrepreneur Vijay Shekhar Sharma suggested that the rise of AI and ChatGPT is to blame for the headcount reduction.
Big picture: McKinsey has been relatively unscathed by federal budget cuts—largely because it was already pushed out of government contracts due to the aforementioned opioid lawsuits—and has said it would still hire thousands more staff this year. But its peers haven’t been so lucky: As a result of DOGE’s crackdown on government spending (including ending contracts with consulting firms), Deloitte said last month it would have to cut its workforce, while last week Booz Allen announced it was cutting 2,500 consulting jobs, or 7% of its workforce.—MM
It’s unclear whether other US cities will follow New York’s lead and ape its first-in-the-nation congestion pricing, but other locales watching with interest might consider that if it can make it here, it’ll make it anywhere. And so far, it looks like the controversial fees introduced in January to curb traffic are making it. According to Bloomberg, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which runs the program, reports:
The toll raised $215.7 million through April, putting it nearly at the $217 million that was estimated for those first four months and positioning it to rake in $500 million for the year after expenses.
Over that same period, the city’s central business district had ~8.1 million fewer vehicles drive through it compared to the historical average—an average daily decline of 11%.
But, like the question of whether NYC’s best lox comes from Russ & Daughters or Barney Greengrass, the congestion pricing policy is divisive. President Trump has vowed to kill it, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy revoked the federal government’s approval of it, saying the toll harms small businesses and working-class families. However, this week, the federal judge overseeing the MTA’s lawsuit challenging Duffy’s move temporarily blocked the federal government from cutting off funds if NYC didn’t end the program.—AR
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President Trump denied that he was “chickening out” by announcing high tariffs and then lowering them, after a reporter asked for his reaction to the so-called “TACO” trade (for Trump Always Chickens Out).
Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces have killed Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar. The prime minister’s remarks came a day after the chaotic opening of an aid distribution center in Gaza run by a controversial new group backed by Israel and the US, during which the UN Human Rights Office believes 47 people were injured, mostly due to gunshots from Israel’s army.
E.l.f. Beauty is acquiring Hailey Bieber’s skincare brand, Rhode, for $1 billion.
A federal judge rejected President Trump’s executive order targeting Robert Mueller’s former law firm WilmerHale, deeming it unconstitutional. That puts the orders targeting law firms 3–0 in court, although some firms struck deals with the president to avoid getting hit with them.
President Trump pardoned reality TV stars Julie and Todd Chrisley, who were serving federal prison sentences after being convicted of bank fraud and tax evasion.
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Today’s Word of the Day is: confidant, meaning “one to whom secrets are entrusted.” Thanks to Marcia from Chicago for the friendly suggestion. Submit another Word of the Day here.
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A federal trade court blocked Trump’s tariffs. You may not have heard of the Court of International Trade before, but you’re about to hear about it a lot: A three-judge panel 
Nvidia’s sales still ripping despite lack of access to China market. Looks like CEO Jensen Huang isn’t going to regret his logo tattoo after all, since 
Elon Musk is “disappointed” by the Republican tax bill. Though President Trump has championed the megabill laying out taxes and spending that’s being considered by the Senate after passing the House, his confidant Musk isn’t sold on it because it 
Illuminate: A motion-detecting 
