This week we looked at the AI capital black hole—three companies with a combined $3 trillion in prospective market cap preparing to go public while public R&D budgets get gutted and the rest of the economy gets starved of investment. Then we checked in on consumer sentiment, which has basically fallen off a cliff, because when gas hits $5 a gallon and inflation keeps eating your paycheck, reality has a way of setting in.

Chapters

Intro: 00:00:38

Quick Takes: 00:01:33

Max Notes: 00:04:47

Killer Left Take of the Week: 00:18:17

Chart of the Week: 00:20:03

Headlines: 00:21:38

Outro: 00:22:57

Resources

Remarkably Bright Creatures

The Vanguard: Jillian Michaels ROASTED by Her OWN AUDIENCE After Sam Seder SMACKDOWN (Plus She Calls US Out???)

CNBC International Live: Jeff Currie on potential U.S.-Iran peace deal: Sell the tweet, buy the molecule

National Science Foundation: Trends in U.S. R&D Performance and Funding

Goldman Sachs: Tracking Trillions: The Assumptions Shaping the Scale of the AI Build-Out

CNBC: Tech AI spending may approach $700 billion this year, but the blow to cash raises red flags

McKinsey: The cost of compute: A $7 trillion race to scale data centers

IG: SpaceX, OpenAI, Anthropic: upcoming IPOs to watch in 2026

New York Times: OpenAI Prepares to File to Go Public in Coming Weeks

Reuters: OpenAI lays groundwork for juggernaut IPO at up to $1 trillion valuation

Bankrate: The 10 Largest American IPOs Of All Time

WIPO: Global Innovation Index 2025 - Global Innovation Tracker

Nature: US science after a year of Trump: what has been lost and what remains

Scroll Deep: Why are they people-shaped?

ITIF: How Reducing Federal R&D Reduces GDP Growth

University of Michigan: Final Results for May 2026

WSWS: The Ebola epidemic, imperialism and the political economy of social murder

Truthout: The Justice Department Just Shut Disabled People Out of Essential Online Services for Another Year

The Lever: The Pro-Israel Lobby’s Quiet Cash Shuffle

UNFTR Resources

Video: On The Record 5/26/26 (Will SpaceX and OpenAI Starve the Market?)

Essay: The AI Black Hole.

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