Daily Brew // Morning Brew // Update

May 19, 2026

Greetings earthling. If you felt a looming presence above you, it wasn’t your co-worker who’s always peeping at your screen. According to NASA, the recently discovered asteroid 2026JH2 passed close to Earth yesterday. While it was never near enough to threaten us with the fate of the dinosaurs, it did get within 24% of the average distance between the Earth and the moon—which is pretty darn close in celestial object terms. Missed it? 2026JH2 is expected to do another drive by in 2060, though it’ll be farther away then.

—Sam Klebanov, Dave Lozo, Molly Liebergall, Matty Merritt, Neal Freyman, Abby Rubenstein

In today’s newsletter, we’ll get into:

Musk v. Altman ending in defeat for Musk
The DOJ’s new $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund
TSA trying out screening outside airports

MARKETS

Nasdaq

26,090.73

-0.51%

S&P

7,403.05

-0.07%

Dow

49,686.12

+0.32%

10-Year

4.623%

+3.0 bps

Bitcoin

$76,953.64

-1.79%

Seagate

$740.84

-6.87%

Data is provided by

*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 6:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean.

Markets: Stocks were mixed yesterday amid climbing oil prices and inflation fears. The Nasdaq slipped as recently soaring chip stocks fell after Seagate said new factories would “take too long.” But investors are still waiting for the week’s big event: Nvidia’s earnings tomorrow.

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CHARITY CASE CLOSED

Elon Musk loses case over OpenAI’s future

Morning Brew Inc, Photos: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto, YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

Yesterday was the biggest win for Team ChatGPT since a clueless professor neglected to run final papers through an AI detector. In a snap conclusion to a three-week trial, the jury tossed Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, that asserted Altman “stole a charity” by converting OpenAI from a nonprofit lab to a for-profit entity.

The jury decided that Musk had missed the three-year statute of limitations to file the case since OpenAI became for-profit in 2019, and Musk sued in 2024. The judge accepted the jury’s finding and immediately dismissed the case.

In a post on X, Musk vowed to appeal, calling the decision a “calendar technicality.” Meanwhile, an attorney for OpenAI told reporters outside the courthouse, “It’s not a technical decision, it’s a substantive one.”

Dirty laundry

Musk, who helped found OpenAI, claimed he was swindled out of his $38 million early investment in OpenAI because his co-founders later shed its nonprofit status and enriched themselves as its valuation ballooned. The suit also named OpenAI’s biggest corporate backer, Microsoft, as a co-defendant.

Altman’s defense argued that Musk wasn’t deceived, since he was part of discussions about converting OpenAI into a for-profit entity in 2017, shortly before he left the lab because his bid to get “total control” of it failed. The defense claimed Musk went to court only after founding his own competing AI startup, xAI.

While the verdict was a decisive win for Altman, revelations from the trial made both sides blush:

OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever told the company’s board Altman “exhibits a consistent pattern of lying,” according to his testimony to the court.
Musk obtained the secret diary of OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, in which Brockman wrote that Altman gave him an equity stake in his family office behind Musk’s back—which Musk suspected was a way to buy loyalty.
Altman testified that Musk proposed folding OpenAI into Tesla and separately floated passing control of it to his children.
Former OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis, who testified in the case, is the mother of four of Musk’s children and was accused by OpenAI of passing information to him.

They’ll soon compete on Wall St…with OpenAI reportedly prepping to IPO by 2027, while Musk’s xAI is set to go public as part of the massive SpaceX IPO planned for as early as next month.—SK

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WORLD

Tour de headlines

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

DOJ creates unprecedented $1.8b “anti-weaponization” fund. As part of a deal to resolve President Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over a former contractor’s leak of his tax returns, the Department of Justice set up a $1.776 billion fund to compensate people who claim they were targeted by the department under President Biden. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche called the new fund “a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress.” Democrats and other critics decried it as a slush fund that would hand taxpayer dollars to Trump’s allies, including people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

Three killed in shooting at San Diego’s largest mosque. Three men, including a security guard who prevented the attack from being “much worse,” were killed when two teenage gunmen attacked the Islamic Center of San Diego yesterday, authorities said. The two suspected shooters also killed themselves, police said. San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said the shooting was being investigated as a hate crime and that one of the teen’s mothers had found a note containing “hate rhetoric.” The mother had reported to police earlier in the day that her son was missing along with multiple weapons. The mosque houses a school, but Wahl said all the children were safe.

Trump says he called off an attack on Iran. President Trump said on Truth Social that he’d postponed a military attack on Iran that was planned for today at the request of the leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. He said that “serious negotiations are now taking place” for a deal that will mean no nuclear weapons for Iran. Still, the president said he also instructed the military “to be prepared to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran, on a moment’s notice,” if no deal is reached.—AR

SCREEN TIME

TSA is moving security checks away from the airport

Joseph Prezioso/Getty Images

What if you could skip the security lines at the airport by getting a pat-down and bag check at a remote location? That’s what some travelers flying out of Logan Airport in Boston will be able to do starting on June 1 as the TSA attempts to relieve congestion inside the terminal and at drop-off points.

The initiative could expand—eight airports have been approved for TSA’s “straight to gate” pilot program. But for now, it’s just being tested at a location in Framingham, MA, that’s ~25 miles from Logan and less than a mile from three Dunkin’ spots. And initially, it will only be for Delta or JetBlue passengers departing Logan between 5:30am and 4pm. Here’s how it will work:

Once you check in and clear security, a $9 shuttle will take you to the airport. The last 45-minute shuttle (or longer in rush hour) is at 11am. Parking at the off-site facility is $7 per day.
You and your checked bags will be dropped beyond all the suckers who are still on line at security and can’t yet get their hands on an Auntie Anne’s pretzel.

Is this the future? David Sunde, the CEO of Landline, the company that runs the shuttles, sure thinks so. He told The Points Guy that with airports running out of room to build, off-site screening is becoming more necessary.—DL

READER POLL

Would you prefer to go through TSA away from the airport?

Yes, anything to spend less time in line.
No, I always get to the airport with time to spare.
Maybe, let’s see how it goes in Boston.

Basketball trivia

Canadian basketball star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won his second straight NBA MVP award, meaning there have been no US-born MVPs in the last eight years.

Who was the last American to win the NBA MVP all the way back in 2018?

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☕️ Elon loses it