Axios

The Democratic Party's blue wave in Tuesday's midterm elections washed over Wall Street Wednesday, sending stocks sharply higher.

Here are five key takeaways for investors:

Efforts to keep the LIV Golf league alive have collapsed.

Why it matters: LIV filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September after its Saudi investors confirmed plans to withdraw funding after the 2026 season.

Oil prices fell sharply Wednesday as traders weigh signs — including a widely circulated post by Vice President JD Vance — that the midterm election will add pressure on the White House to find an offramp from the Iran conflict.

Why it matters: Elections have consequences.

Meta has acquired Conductor, an AI coding startup that lets software engineers manage multiple coding agents simultaneously, sources familiar with the deal tell Axios exclusively.

Why it matters: Meta is joining OpenAI and other AI giants in a race to own the tools developers use, as coding has become a crucial pathway to AI adoption and capturing enterprise spending.

Your next car could know almost as much about your personal life as your spouse or best friend — thanks to new embedded AI assistants that promise to make driving easier and more convenient.

Why it matters: Automakers are racing to turn vehicles into intelligent personal assistants that can anticipate drivers' needs, manage their schedules and eventually handle errands on their behalf.

Ford says drivers who don't want their cars collecting and sharing personal information can go "full '80s mode" by turning off connectivity altogether.

Why it matters: Earning consumers' trust on data privacy is becoming critical for automakers racing to turn vehicles into intelligent personal assistants, prompting new assurances that customers' personal information is safe.

Drone delivery companies are scrambling to turn down the volume as neighborhood opposition threatens to ground their expansion plans.

Why it matters: Getting regulatory approval to fly is one thing. Convincing homeowners to tolerate buzzing drones overhead is another.

2027 Kia Seltos

• MSRP: Starts at $24,990; As tested: $35,755 (plus delivery) for the X-Line SX all-wheel-drive model, including a long list of optional equipment.
• Under the hood: choice of 147-hp base engine, 190-hp turbocharged engine or a new hybrid powertrain coming soon.
• Manufacturing site: Korea.

What's new: Kia took its popular family-sized Telluride and shrunk it for more price-conscious buyers.

• Besides the similar styling cues, lots of other features trickle down from Telluride, including more tech features, with optional streaming services, and extra crash-avoidance technologies.
• Premium features include larger touchscreens, an available panoramic sunroof and surround-view cameras.

Venture capitalists love to talk about pivoting. Good. They're gonna have to.

The big picture: This isn't about personal politics, although there are certainly some venture frontrunners who will hope that folks memory-hole the past two years.

• It's about how the investment math may have just changed for AI — which now dominates venture investments and returns.

CVS Health on Wednesday announced plans to split its health and pharmacy services businesses into two, independent public companies.

Why it matters: This is the dismantling of an integrated health empire that CVS has spent decades building, often through large acquisitions.

Elon Musk's SpaceX is moving ahead with plans to build a nationwide cellular network, selecting Qualcomm to provide key technology for tens of thousands of cell sites that it plans to begin deploying next year.

Why it matters: SpaceX's move threatens to upend the established wireless industry, though its ultimate ambition may be bigger than simply stealing smartphone subscribers from Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile.

We are waking up to a lot more clarity about the election than anyone, even Democrats with the wildest imaginations, had anticipated Tuesday.

Why it matters: For investors, less uncertainty could mean better returns, per an intriguing analysis from equities analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence.

Zoom in: They looked at 20 midterm cycles, back to 1946, and found that returns for the S&P 500 have been historically subdued leading into the midterms and higher once they were over.

By the numbers: The average gain on the S&P 500 in the three months heading into an election was about 1.8% on average.

• In the three months after, it's 7.5%. (These gains don't include dividends.)
• The analysts didn't include S&P returns this year, but a quick glance reveals that they indeed have been slumpy. Coming into Tuesday, the index was down 0.8% since August.

Yes, but: It doesn't happen every time. Three-month returns after a midterm exceeded pre-midterm returns 15 out of 20 times.

The latest: Though U.S. stock futures were in the green early Wednesday morning, under the hood some assets were faring less well.

• Shares of Republican mega-donor Elon Musk's companies Tesla and SpaceX were both down more than 4% in pre-market trading.

The other side: Billionaires do appear on track for at least one win: In California, a measure that would have enacted a 5% wealth tax on individuals and trusts with more than $1 billion in assets appeared headed for defeat after facing heavy opposition from Silicon Valley.

What to watch: The AI trade is under the lens. In a race investors were watching closely, Texas elected Democrat Gina Hinojosa governor. She has suggested a moratorium on new data centers until tougher regulations can be put in place.

• The state accounts for 41% of new U.S. capacity expected in 2028, according to the research firm SemiAnalysis.
• Out of 41 data center measures on the ballot across 10 states, about two dozen proposals intended to restrict or block development appeared to have passed based on initial returns, Axios' Maria Curi reports.
• "Data centers in space look pretty appealing right now," Musk posted late Tuesday night.

Zoom out: "We expect Democrats to use fiscal deadlines to seek to limit the war with Iran, roll back selected tariffs, and reverse spending cuts enacted last year," Goldman Sachs economists wrote Wednesday morning. They don't expect changes to AI regulation at a national level.

Between the lines: With a Democratic majority assured in both chambers of Congress and a Republican in the White House, we're probably in for two years of political gridlock.

• Markets typically like that, says Christopher Cain, global head of equity strategy at Bloomberg Intelligence.
• "The question for markets was whether such a large margin of victory would be contested by the administration or accepted," writes investor Bob Elliott Wednesday morning. "Before midnight it had been accepted, and the uncertainty of a prolonged conflict appeared to be off the table," he writes, calling the gains in the futures market a "relief rally."

The bottom line: While we can't be certain what happens next in markets, we do know that we'll be seeing fewer political ads — and that is enough to brighten any mood.

Palantir Technologies, the AI-driven analytics platform known for its work for the military, reported better-than-expected quarterly sales and earnings and raised its full-year sales guidance, yet still its stock slumped.

Why it matters: Such a lackluster response to an erstwhile favorite of retail traders underscores how investor psychology has shifted from the FOMO-fueled run-up between 2023 and 2025 to today's gnawing concerns about the durability of the AI boom.

The big picture: In recent years, the AI software company had been one of the top gainers in the S&P 500, which Palantir joined in September 2024.

• Its shares rose roughly 340% in 2024 and 135% last year, riding a combination of retail enthusiasm, AI-related optimism, interest in military technology and its perceived advantages of connections to the Trump administration. (The company's co-founder, chairman and top individual shareholder is billionaire Republican megadonor Peter Thiel.)

Yes, but: Palantir's roughly 2,000% increase in its stock price over the last four years vastly outpaced the company's actual fundamentals, resulting in valuation metrics that ranged from the extreme to the arguably lunatic.

• Palantir's forward price-to-earnings ratio peaked at 255 times in November 2025 and was over 100 times well into this year.
• A fairly valued company is traditionally considered around 15 times. The S&P 500 is currently about 18.5 times.

Palantir's forward price-to-sales multiple, meanwhile, topped out at more than 90 times in November 2025.

• For those not accustomed to these kinds of measures, that is mind-blowing.
• As a point of comparison, the S&P 500 currently has a forward-price-to-sales ratio of 3.1 times.

Between the lines: Then a funny thing happened. Palantir really started delivering the goods, financially speaking.

• Earnings per share jumped 64% in 2024, 83% in 2025, and they're expected to rise 122% when 2026 is done and dusted.
• Sales accelerated too, rising 29% in 2024 and 56% in 2025. They are expected to jump 89% this year.
• There's more. Margins expanded, as did backlogs. Costs stayed in check. Palantir's U.S. commercial division, focused on selling software to help companies use AI more productively, saw sales soar.

Zoom in: Analysts say one blemish on Palantir's third-quarter numbers — which it released Monday after the close — was that its order backlogs were largely flat quarter over quarter.

• That might seem a small nit to pick. But it touched a nerve for investors increasingly concerned about the sustainability of the AI trade.

What they're saying: "Over the past three months, tech investors have placed greater scrutiny on the results of companies across the AI ecosystem," wrote Louie DiPalma, who covers Palantir for the brokerage firm William Blair.

• "The valuations for many AI supply chain providers have been cut in half on concerns that recent growth is unsustainable."
• Likewise, Brent Thill, who covers Palantir for Jefferies, noted that "the debate is increasingly about sustaining acceleration against a larger base, rather than whether underlying demand remains strong."

The bottom line: None of this means that Palantir is troubled. In fact, just the opposite: The company has done so well that it has become harder and harder to wow the market, or as Thill puts it, "comps keep getting tougher."

• But it also suggests a subtle shift among the investing public toward caring about the realities of the present, rather than seeing only limitless AI upside ahead.

OpenAI will acquire Pierre Computer, a developer tools startup whose technology is already embedded in Codex, the company told Axios exclusively.

Why it matters: OpenAI is joining a slew of companies challenging Microsoft's GitHub as AI agents take on more coding work. The platform has acted as a central repository and nerve center for software development for many years.

Voters showed deep distrust of the AI race Tuesday, approving dozens of data center moratoriums and electing a raft of candidates who favor slowing a $10 trillion buildout, including in Texas — the epicenter of the boom.

Why it matters: In an election that hinged on an affordability crisis for many Americans, voters made it clear they view Silicon Valley's AI ambitions not as a technological miracle, but as a resource-draining threat to their wallets and communities.

• The results were a warning shot to some of the nation's wealthiest and most powerful executives, many of whom are already working on ways to build a more palatable version of the revolution they are dead set on winning.

Elon Musk cracked jokes early Wednesday morning after the Republican candidates he spent record sums supporting got drubbed in historic midterm elections.

Why it matters: No one has ever spent as much as Musk for so little payoff — especially in Texas, which ended up with a massive blue wave.

President Trump lashed out at Fox News on election night, attacking the network's personalities, polling and coverage as voters awaited midterm election results.

Why it matters: Trump, who has repeatedly dined with Fox News patriarch Rupert Murdoch and hired talent from the network, has come to expect favorable coverage. But Fox's editorial decisions this election cycle suggest it isn't always willing to oblige.

OpenAI's massive data dump of more than 300 solved math problems triggered a wave of despair about the end of human supremacy. But one mathematician has found reasons to push back against the doom loop.

Why it matters: As AI capabilities continue to advance across disciplines, beating humans at one task after another, every new feat requires important contemplation. What problems remain to be solved? Where can humans still have an impact? What does it all mean?

• For Vanderbilt University's Dan Margalit, the answer within mathematics is that the machines aren't replacing human intellect. They are deeply reliant on it.
• He sees AI as a tireless finisher of human-led ideas and imagines a future where mathematicians can thrive in the age of AI.