Daily Brew // Morning Brew // Update

May 21, 2026

Hello there. What’s a mention of AI that’s even less welcome than praising the tech at a college commencement? Saying that your company’s layoffs of thousands of people will replace “lower-value human capital” with AI, as Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters recently learned. Winters urged employees in a memo yesterday not to be unsettled by “a quote taken out of context.” But it’s hard to imagine a context that makes this one better besides “say something that’s sure to make everyone mad.”

—Holly Van Leuven, Matty Merritt, Dave Lozo, Molly Liebergall, Abby Rubenstein

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

SpaceX filing publicly for its IPO
A lawsuit that has Wall Street talking
Stephen Colbert’s last night in the host chair

MARKETS

Nasdaq

26,270.36

+1.55%

S&P

7,432.97

+1.08%

Dow

50,009.35

+1.31%

10-Year

4.572%

-9.0 bps

Bitcoin

$77,320.92

+0.89%

Target

$122.33

-3.86%

Data is provided by

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

Markets: Investors were as confident that the sun will come out tomorrow as Little Orphan Annie, sending stocks up as oil prices fell yesterday after President Trump said that the US was “in the final stages” of making a deal with Iran and everyone waited for Nvidia’s earnings (more on that in a bit).
Stock spotlight: Target fell (after an initial boost), even though it looks like the retail chain’s turnaround plan is working. The company reported that sales grew last quarter—and doubled its annual growth forecast—but cautioned that consumers are stretched.

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NEW S-1 JUST DROPPED

SpaceX shows its finances and future in IPO filing

SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch on April 29. Nurphoto/Getty Images

SpaceX filed its first comprehensive prospectus yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, giving investors a peek at its finances, as it prepares to list on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker SPCX.

The company aims to raise up to $80 billion at a valuation that could reach $2 trillion. It’s expected to surpass Saudi Aramco for the title of largest IPO in history. Elon Musk, SpaceX’s CEO, CTO, and chairman, will hold 85% of the company’s voting control. The listing will likely propel Musk to become the world’s first trillionaire.

So, how’s business?

SpaceX reported a net loss of $4.3 billion for Q1 2026, despite taking in $4.69 billion in revenue.

The company breaks its business down into three units: Space (rockets), Connectivity (Starlink satellite internet), and AI (xAI, the Grok chatbot, Colossus data centers). The Connectivity unit made $1.19 billion in the first quarter. By comparison, the Space unit lost $619 million, and the AI unit lost $2.5 billion.

Here are some other interesting factoids revealed by the filing:

For the 1 billion performance-based restricted shares that Musk received in January to vest, the company must establish a permanent human colony on Mars with at least 1 million inhabitants, “subject to Mr. Musk’s continued employment with us through the date on which achievement is certified by our board.”
SpaceX stock will be available to retail traders upon its debut via Robinhood, Schwab, Fidelity, E*Trade, and SoFi. Most appropriate company ever for hodlers to send to the moon?
The company spent $15 billion developing its updated version of the Starship megarocket.
SpaceX called the creation of trillion-dollar market opportunities one aspect of its “repeatable business model.” It sees a total addressable market of $28.5 trillion.

Zoom out: SpaceX’s IPO is likely to be the first of three massive public offerings this year, followed by OpenAI and Anthropic. But Musk won’t be done with big business deals—Wedbush analyst Dan Ives predicts that SpaceX and Tesla will merge in 2027.—HVL

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WORLD

Tour de headlines

Yamil Lage/Getty Images

US charges Cuban President Raúl Castro with murder. US prosecutors unveiled a criminal indictment against the former Cuban leader yesterday for his alleged role in the killing of four people by downing a pair of civilian planes operated by the Cuban exile group Brothers to the Rescue in 1996. The charges come as the White House has ratcheted up pressure on Cuba’s communist government, including through a fuel blockade that has hobbled the nation’s economy. It follows the US’ arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a staunch ally of Cuba. Cuba is unlikely to allow Castro, now 94, whose late brother Fidel Castro led the country’s 1959 revolution, to be extradited.—AR

Nvidia earnings exceeded expectations, but stock still dropped. What does an overachiever need to do to get some respect in this economy? Unclear, as CNBC said that analyst expectations for Nvidia “may have hit unattainable highs.” The company brought in $81.62 billion for the quarter, beating an expected $78.86 billion. CEO Jensen Huang said on the earnings call, “Demand has gone parabolic….Agentic AI has arrived.” He also said that Nvidia chips power every hyperscaler, and that the Nvidia platform is the only one running “every frontier AI model”—Anthropic, OpenAI, Google’s Gemini, SpaceXAI, and Meta. But its stock still dipped 1.26% in after-hours trading, so perhaps it could take up a handicraft?—HVL

Harvard votes to limit A grades. To crack down on grade inflation, the number of undergraduate A grades that Harvard University instructors can dole out will be limited to 20% of students in each course, plus an allowance for up to four additional students, beginning in fall 2027. While getting straight A’s will be tougher, there’ll be no limit on A-minus grades. Nearly 70% of Harvard faculty voted to approve the measure, according to results announced yesterday, though it’s overwhelmingly unpopular among students. For context, about two-thirds of letter grades given to Harvard undergraduates during the 2024–25 school year were A’s, up from roughly one-third in 2012–13. The new cap could inspire other prestigious universities to follow suit.—ML

ANOTHER LAYER

JPMorgan banker countersues in viral sexual harassment case

Spencer Jones/Getty Images

The JPMorgan Chase banker at the center of a viral sexual harassment case countersued on Tuesday, claiming defamation. In her countersuit, Lorna Hajdini claims her former colleague Chirayu Rana made false allegations against her that have made her life a “living nightmare.”

ICYMI: Last month, Rana filed a lawsuit claiming that Hajdini sexually harassed and assaulted him. His suit included graphic allegations that she forced him to be a “sex slave” and used racist language—details that caught the internet’s attention:

AI-generated videos of the two together and memes featuring the allegations have flooded social media.
Media personalities, like Joe Rogan and Megyn Kelly, have weighed in on the case.

Hajdini has denied the allegations, and her lawyers say there was no sexual relationship. Her countersuit accuses Rana of attacking previous employers with similar allegations. Meanwhile, Rana’s lawyer has said the pushback for his client boils down to his being a man accusing a woman of harassment and that his claims will be proven true in court.

What do we know for sure? Last May, Rana filed an internal complaint with the bank over his allegations, seeking $22 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. After an internal investigation that the bank said found no merit to the claims, JPMorgan offered Rana a $1 million settlement, per the WSJ. Rana filed suit instead, and a preliminary hearing is set for next week.—MM

Three Headlines and a Lie

Three of these headlines are real and one is faker than a sub-$10 breakfast. Can you spot the odd one out?

The Amish are falling in love with AI
What is junk journaling? Susan B. Anthony’s hologram explains
Huge, hungry whales are San Francisco’s latest traffic headache
Score! World Cup fans get free soccer-themed condoms to help them play the field

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ANSWER

We made up the one about Susan B. Anthony’s hologram.

Word of the Day

Today’s Word of the Day is: apocalyptic, meaning “of, relating to, or resembling an apocalypse.” Thanks to a reader named Reid for the intense suggestion. Submit another Word of the Day here.

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☕️ SpaceX IPO ready for blastoff