America's babies are becoming investors, each to receive $1,000 seed accounts via the reconciliation bill signed last week by President Trump.

Why it matters: This could expand financial flexibility and literacy for future generations, given the power of compound interest, albeit on the dime of current taxpayers.

Catch up quick: We first discussed this idea 18 months ago, as the brainchild of venture capitalist Brad Gerstner (with inspiration from past concepts, like Cory Booker's "baby bonds").

• It sounded more aspirational than attainable, but had a legislative opening due to sunset provisions in the 2017 tax bill.
• "There can be value in taking comically big swings on things that matter instead of aiming for safer, incremental changes," says Matt Lira, a veteran Republican operative who Gerstner hired to lead a nonpartisan lobbying effort.

How it works: The bill creates a new class of investment account in the tax code.

• Every American born between 2025 and 2028 automatically receives an account with $1,000 from the U.S. Treasury, which will be invested in a low-cost index fund.
• It would be the property of the child, held in a custodial trust, and money cannot be touched until the child turns 18. At that point it automatically becomes a traditional IRA, although money can be pulled out for uses like education, starting a business, or buying a first home.
• Americans under 18 but born before 2025 also are eligible for the accounts, although not the $1,000.
• Every account can take up to $5,000 in additional contributions per year, including up to $2,500 on a tax-free basis by a parent's employer.
• "My dream scenario is people use a decent percentage of it to get a head start in life, and the remainder for long-term planning," Lira says.

Zoom in: There also is a chance that these accounts will unlock new forms of philanthropy.

• Michael Dell, who helped champion the Invest America Accounts (since renamed Trump Accounts, natch), tells me that he could envision wealthy individuals choosing to make major gifts to entire ZIP codes or other geographies, via a mechanism that the Treasury Department has been charged with developing.
• He declined to get specific, but it didn't sound like he was just spitballing.

Look ahead: It's one thing to write the rules and quite another to implement them.

• The Treasury Department needs to launch RFPs, build apps, etc. And maybe create educational lesson plans or cirriculum.
• Lira says that he appreciates healthy skepticism of gov-built tech, but has confidence that the private sector will be able to provide easy-to-use apps and that Treasury will be able to build the API gateway (much as it did for TurboTax and the like).
• He notes that Robinhood built a viable test app for these accounts in just 36 hours.

The bottom line: The program will need to be renewed, reformed, or renounced after 2028. And, depending on who's in charge, renamed.

TPG completed its $7.6 billion purchase of the 70% stake it didn't already hold in DirecTV from AT&T (NYSE: T).

Why it's the BFD: AT&T is officially out of the media game, focused instead on connectivity.

Catch up quick: TPG agreed to the deal last fall, concurrent to an announcement that DirecTV would buy Dish Network to form the country's largest pay-TV provider.

• But TPG's deal wasn't contingent on the Dish deal, which soon collapsed due to a failed debt swap.

The bottom line: AT&T in 2015 spent $49 billion to buy DirecTV and three years later spent $85 billion for Time Warner. It no longer owns any of it.

• As my former colleague Kia Kokalitcheva noted back in 2021, buying a media company in the name of vertical synergies rarely ends well.

• CarOnSale, a German B2B marketplace for used cars, raised €70m in Series C funding. Northzone led, joined by HV Capital, Insight Partners, Stripes, and Creandum. axios.link/4eVn7qN

• GetWhy, a market research startup that derives insights from video interviews, raised $20m in Series A extension funding led by insider PeakSpan Capital. axios.link/4lCid3N

⚡ Solarock, a French maker of solar panels, raised €7m from Pale Blue Dot, Noa, Ring Capital, and Kima Ventures. axios.link/46ohbnK

• Parter, a New York-based hardware manufacturing data startup, raised $5.5 million in seed funding, per Axios Pro. StageOne Ventures led, joined by Zenda Capital and Mercer Ventures. axios.link/4ktdNLz

⚡ Crosstown, a Swiss startup that helps existing gas turbines run on renewables, raised $3m in seed funding from 2100Ventures, Climate Insiders, Unruly Capital and SDAC, CiRi, Voyagers and the Swiss Federal Office of Energy. axios.link/45TKpe7

• Apollo acquired a 30% stake in TradeInn, a Spanish online sporting goods retailer, from Suma Capital. axios.link/403hz7l

🚑 GIC and Linden Capital Partners agreed to buy a minority stake in Canadian health-care marketing firm Klick Health from GTCR at a US$2.5b valuation. axios.link/4nI22UH

• I Squared Capital is among the bidders for Goodpack, a Singaporean supply chain and logistics firm owned by KKR, per the WSJ. A sale could fetch up to $1.5b. axios.link/4klY9l9

• MarcyPen and Brand Velocity Group agreed to acquire stakes in GLD, a jewelry and lifestyle brand, from H.I.G. Capital. axios.link/3Idrq4p

• Warburg Pincus and Bharti Airtel founder Sunil Mittal reportedly made a $720m bid for a 49% stake in the Indian arm of Chinese electronics maker Haier. axios.link/400CasY

⚡ Emmvee, an Indian solar panel maker, filed draft papers for a $351m domestic IPO. axios.link/4kug5KG

• FineToday, a Japanese personal care products maker that's owned by CVC Capital Partners, may revive a Tokyo IPO that it previously postponed, per Bloomberg. axios.link/4nxyPLZ

✈️ Air France-KLM (Paris: AF) agreed to increase its stake in Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) to 60.5% from 19.9% via purchases from Castlelake and Lind Invest. axios.link/44PQ2c8

• Carlyle is in talks to cede Italian sportswear company Dainese to creditors HPS Investment Partners and Arcmont Asset Management, per Bloomberg. axios.link/44irNTR

⚡ Octopus Energy, a London-based group whose backers include Generation Investment Management and CPP Investments, is weighing a spinoff and stake sale in its Kraken Technologies unit, which could be valued at £10b, per Sky News. axios.link/3IbUPM7

• BlackRock agreed to acquire ElmTree Funds, a net-lease real estate investment firm with $7.3b in AUM. axios.link/4lhC48Q

• BPER (Milan) sweetened its bid for rival Italian lender Popolare di Sondrio (M: BPSI) to €5.44b. axios.link/44D26wb

• Briarcliffe Credit Partners, a New York-based private credit firm, acquired London-based Branch Advisory. axios.link/40ArUHY

• Capgemini (Paris: CAPP) agreed to buy tech outsourcer WNS Holdings (NYSE: WNS) for $3.3b in cash, or $76.50 per share (17% premium to Thursday's close). axios.link/3Id97w9

• CoreWeave (Nzsdaq: CRWV) agreed to buy crypto miner Core Scientific (Nasdaq: CORZ) for around $9b in stock. axios.link/4lKOoON

• LNC Partners of Arlington, Va., is raising up to $150m for its third lower midmarket PE fund, per an SEC filing.

• Red Dot Capital Partners, an Israeli early-stage VC firm, raised $320m for its third flagship fund. axios.link/4eAv8kx

• Sweetwater Private Equity of Encinitas, Calif., is raising up to $100m for a select growth fund, per an SEC filing.

• Partech promoted Alison Imbert and Simone Riva to partners, and Moritz Steinbrecher to principal. partechpartners.com