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Good morning.
To the relief of motorheads worldwide, Rolls-Royce axed plans in March to go all-electric by 2030. The allure of its powerful signature V12 engines continued to draw significant customer demand. That, combined with the broader decline in EV sales, made the strategy appear untenable. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t still a pocket of demand for an EV that would make Jay-Z or David Beckham do a jealous double-take.
On Tuesday, Rolls-Royce revealed an Art Deco-style, all-electric luxury coupe called the Nightingale. Inspired by two prototypes from the 1920s, it’s named for a house in the French Riviera once owned by cofounder Henry Royce and comes in a breezy Côte d’Azur blue. Only 100 will be made, each equipped with an electric powertrain and hand-built in West Sussex, UK. Rolls-Royce doesn’t publicize its prices, but the company said the Nightingale will fall between its Private Commission and Coachbuild lines, which fetch up to $675,000 and $27 million, respectively. We’d tell you more, but our bus is coming.
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Three banks, three dovetailing and diverging narratives. JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup, three of America’s biggest lenders, reported first-quarter results Tuesday, with a resilient US economy boosting profits across the board. One stood out for all the right reasons.
A Tale of Three Lenders
First, there’s the perfectly solid. Revenue at JPMorgan Chase, the largest US bank, rose 10% year-over-year to $49.8 billion, and net profit rose 13% to $16.5 billion, both beating analysts’ expectations. JPMorgan’s traders were the stars of the show, posting a 20% gain in stock-trading results for a record quarterly haul of $11.6 billion.
Next, there’s the equivocal. Revenue at Wells Fargo, the fourth-largest US bank, grew 6% from a year ago to $21.45 billion, while profit climbed 7% to $5.25 billion. Unfortunately, that revenue figure amounted to an outright miss, sending the bank’s shares tumbling 5.5%. On the plus side, Wells Fargo beefed up its loan book by 11%, pushing it over the $1 trillion mark for the first time since 2020, in a sign that executives are positioning the bank for growth after it was freed from seven years of a regulator-imposed, $1.95 trillion asset cap last year. Wells’ traders also had a party of a quarter, raking in $2.2 billion for a 19% year-over-year gain.
Finally, there’s the showstopper. The most dramatic earnings report Tuesday was from Citigroup, where net income soared 42% to $5.8 billion in the first quarter. Revenue at the third-largest lender climbed 14% to $24.6 billion, not too shabby either. Both beat estimates, and yes, the traders did great, like everywhere else. Citi’s fixed-income unit earned $5.2 billion, up 13% from last year, and in the equities business, revenue climbed $39% to $2.1 billion for the best quarter since the financial crisis.
Citi’s breakout, meanwhile, has its own unique backdrop:
- The bank is emerging from a period of adversity: For years, it has trailed JPMorgan in profitability and efficiency. Regulators fined the bank $400 million in 2020 for poor risk management and data governance, and another $135 million in 2024 for not fixing the issues fast enough.
- But CEO Jane Fraser, who took over in 2021, won plaudits for pushing through a multi-year reordering that simplified the bank’s once-sprawling global structure into five core businesses. Tuesday’s results suggest it’s working.
  Raider Rewards: A turnaround takes talent, of course, in addition to reordering. Fraser has arguably been Wall Street’s most persuasive poacher in the past two years. Citi has lured more than a dozen senior managing directors from rivals including JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, among them Viswas Raghavan, who joined from JPMorgan in 2024 to lead investment banking.
Written by Sean Craig
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Photo via Fisher Investments
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It isn’t just about saving enough — it’s also about making sure your savings last. Over time, the steady effects of inflation can significantly reduce your purchasing power, especially as costs for essentials like healthcare continue to rise.
What seems like a comfortable nest egg today could fall short tomorrow without a forward-looking strategy.
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Find out what most retirement plans miss.
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Anyone who moved to Hollywood with superstar dreams will sympathize. Now that its career as a movie-maker has stalled, OpenAI is pivoting to pharmaceuticals.
Weeks after shuttering Sora, its consumer AI video generator, and amid a broader shift away from “side quests” and toward revenue-generating enterprise markets, OpenAI on Tuesday announced a partnership with Novo Nordisk to help the Wegovy-maker use AI to accelerate drug discovery. It’s a sign everyone’s favorite little AI firm is growing up … and feeling the heat from fast-charging rival Anthropic.
License to Earn
Between Claude Code and cybersecurity tool Mythos, Anthropic has made a big splash this year in addressing critical (and practical) needs for enterprise firms. Meanwhile, OpenAI’s massive lead in the consumer chatbot market is beginning to slip; according to the most recent data from Apptopia, ChatGPT’s US mobile chatbot market share fell for the fourth straight month in March, and now sits below 40%. Which is why it’s seeking more lucrative career paths.
Its Novo partnership comes after previous agreements with Moderna, Sanofi and Formation Bio to help accelerate drug development. Novo on Tuesday said the partnership will begin with programs integrating AI into R&D, manufacturing and commercial operations, though it will eventually involve full AI integration.
Expect many more deals as OpenAI charts its long path to profitability:
- In a January episode of “The OpenAI Podcast,” the company’s in-house show, OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar floated a “licensing model” in which OpenAI would receive a portion of the sales from drugs developed in part by its AI. Neither Novo Nordisk nor OpenAI responded to a request for comment on whether the deal announced Tuesday followed this structure.
- Earlier this month, OpenAI said that enterprise now accounts for 40% of its total revenue and expects it to achieve parity with consumer revenue by the end of the year.
Defensive Position: OpenAI also launched GPT‑5.4‑Cyber on Tuesday, its answer to Anthropic’s Claude Mythos cybersecurity tool. In a matter of days since the launch of its pilot program, Mythos is already reshaping the cyber industry. Major Wall Street firms are employing a preview mode of the tool to inspect their cyber vulnerabilities, while Bloomberg reported Tuesday that the US Treasury Department is now seeking access, too (never mind the US Defense Department blacklisting). It’s easy to see why OpenAI leaped into the arena. And take it from this Angeleno: As far as backup plans for when big Hollywood dreams inevitably go awry, drug development and cybersecurity sound pretty good.
Written by Brian Boyle
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Photo via Betterment
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One of the largest airlines in the world may be testing the flight path for a megamerger.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby floated the idea of combining his company with American Airlines to President Donald Trump in February, Bloomberg reported this week. The news outlet said it’s unclear whether there has been any actual movement toward exploring a deal, and representatives for both airlines declined to comment.
American, United, Delta and Southwest account for a whopping 75% of the US aviation market, according to aviation data firm OAG. A merger between any of them would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines gave a union a shot under the Biden administration but called it quits in 2024 after a judge ruled a merger could drive up costs for consumers and hurt competition in an already concentrated industry.
Brace for Impact
Today’s airline industry is the product of years of strategic combinations, such as American’s acquisition of US Airways in 2013 and United’s tie-up with Continental. Despite those deals, the same old problems persist, including high costs, price competition and fluctuating customer demand. Getting even bigger through mergers (and eating up the competition) is one possible solution.
Even under the Trump administration, which has adopted a lax approach to antitrust enforcement, a deal of this magnitude would have a hard time taking off. But it’s not impossible:
- US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told CNBC last week there’s room for more aviation mergers, though combinations might require asset sales. He also said President Trump “loves to see big deals happen.”
- Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon wrote in a letter to shareholders last month that despite disruption from the war in Iran, he expects dealmaking activity to accelerate in 2026.
Bumpy Ride: In the meantime, the dealmaking rumor mill is working overtime as airlines wrestle with high jet fuel prices due to the conflict in the Middle East. Last week, Delta said in an earnings report that its fuel bill for the current quarter will surge by $2 billion from a year ago.
Written by Mallika Mitra
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- Vetting Season: Kevin Warsh, whose confirmation hearings for Fed chair are next week, has disclosed a fortune of at least $131 million, positioning him to be the wealthiest person to lead the central bank.
- Speed Run: Amazon launched an AI tool for accelerating early-stage drug discovery designed to help researchers by letting them run complex computations without needing to code.
- Mindstream Is Your Daily AI Advantage in a Rapidly Evolving Landscape. Join 200,000+ industry leaders, innovators and professionals who rely on their concise newsletter for the AI insights that matter. Subscribe today.**
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