President Biden is on the clock, needing to decide by Tuesday whether or not to stop Nippon Steel from buying U.S. Steel.

Why it matters: This could have ramifications for economic relations between the two longtime allies, including how U.S. acquirers are received in Japan.

Catch up quick: Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel agreed to be acquired by Nippon last December, believing the regulatory hurdles would be lower than if it went with a rival bid from Ohio's Cleveland-Cliffs.

• CFIUS, the U.S. government body that investigates foreign acquisitions, had never before blocked a Japanese acquirer.
• But this deal quickly turned political, given U.S. Steel's importance to the battleground state of Pennsylvania, and both Biden and Donald Trump came out in rhetorical opposition.
• CFIUS proved unable to reach consensus, and instead sent a referral to Biden that requires him to make the final call by Jan. 7.

Behind the scenes: Nippon has spent the past week trying the placate Biden, pushing back the merger's closing date and reportedly offering to give the U.S. government "veto power over any potential cuts to U.S. Steel's production capacity."

• Biden has yet to block a deal submitted to CFIUS for review, although in May did unwind a Chinese investor's purchase of real estate near a U.S. military base (which CFIUS learned about after the fact, via a tip).

The bottom line: U.S. presidents have only blocked deals eight times on national security grounds since CFIUS was formed in 1975.

• Half of those came during President Trump's first term, and he could inherit this situation were Biden to act and Nippon to respond with litigation.

Volocopter, a German air taxi maker that raised over $600 million, has filed for insolvency.

Why it's the BFD: It's a reminder that while eVTOL developers don't burn fuel, they do burn tons of cash.

• German rival Lilium filed for insolvency in October, although just received a lifeline from new investors.
• American eVTOL makers Archer Aviation and Joby Aviation are expected to have lost more than $1 billion combined in 2024.

Investors include Neom, GLy Capital Management, WP Investment, Geely Group, Daimler, DB Schenker, Sumitomo, b2 Venture, Blackrock, Team Global, Mercedes-Benz, Micron Ventures, Avala Capital, Atlantia, Continental AG, NTT, and Tokyo Century.

The bottom line: This is a race between financing and regulatory certification for Volocopter, which says it will maintain operations and develop a restructuring plan by the end of February.

⚡ KoBold Metals, a Berkeley, Calif.-based EV battery mineral exploration company, raised $537m in Series C funding at a $2.96b post-money valuation co-led by Durable Capital Partners and insider T. Rowe Price. axios.link/3BUWXVU

🚑 AusperBio, an Chinese biotech focused on chronic hepatitis B, raised $73m in Series B funding. HanKang Capital led, and was joined by Sherpa Capital, CDH Investments, Qiming Venture Partners, InnoPinnacle Fund, and YuanBio Venture Capital. axios.link/4iPQADQ

• Calo, a Bahrain-based ready-to-eat meals service, raised $25m in Series B funding. Nuwa Capital led, and was joined by fellow insiders Khwarizmi Ventures and STV. axios.link/4gBQdLx

🚑 Apheris, a German federated computing company focused on the life sciences sector, raised $20.8m in Series A funding. OTB Ventures and eCapital co-led, and were joined by insiders Octopus Ventures and Heal Capital. apheris.com

• Avalon Labs, a Bitcoin-backed stablecoin issuer, raised $10m in Series A funding led by Framework Ventures. axios.link/4gvEONo

• Accountable, an onchain credit analytics startup, raised $2.3m in seed funding co-led by MitonC and Zee Prime Capital. axios.link/40d5lcy

• Balmoral Funds acquired Sheppard, a Hanover, Pa.-based provider of truck-steering technologies, from a subsidiary of Germany's Knorr-Bremse. axios.link/41Pv1xg

🚑 Birch Hill Equity Partners completed its purchase of the Rexall and Well.ca pharmacy businesses from McKesson (NYSE: MCK). axios.link/3TgJ89K

🍷 Butterfly Equity completed its $1.95b purchase of winery owner Duckhorn Portfolio. axios.link/4eShaJP

• DCP Capital agreed to buy Chinese hypermarket chain Sun Art Retail from Alibaba for up to $1.6b. axios.link/49Z6FTI

• MetLife Investment Management agreed to buy asset manager PineBridge from Pacific Century Group for upwards of $1.2b (including $800m upfront). axios.link/4gYV0qu

• Mobvista (HK: 1860) is weighing a sale of mobile advertising platform Mintegral, after receiving takeover interest from Bain Capital, per Bloomberg. axios.link/4iWo2si

🚑 New Enterprise Associates is leading a $1.3b take-private buyout of Minneapolis-based health-care provider NeueHealth (NYSE: NEUE). axios.link/41X5JgO

• One Equity Partners acquired a majority stake in Comau, an Italian industrial automation and robotics company that had been owned by Stellantis (which retains a minority position). axios.link/3VZ0LfD

• OEP also acquired EthosEnergy, a Houston-based provider of rotating equipment for the energy industry. ethosenergy.com

⚡ Permira agreed to buy a majority stake in Westbridge, a European energy and sustainability advisory for institutional real estate clients. axios.link/4fGAeKY

• Truelink Capital completed its $535m purchase of the GES events business of Viad Corp. (NYSE: VVI), which will be renamed Pursuit Attractions and Hospitality. axios.link/4iVA8lv

🚑 Ascentage Pharma, a Chinese biotech listed in Hong Kong (6855), filed for a $100m float on the Nasdaq (AAPG). axios.link/4fCJPT3

• Maywood Acquisition, a SPAC led by Zikang Wu (First Cover), filed for a $75m IPO. axios.link/4a0IILQ

• Lionel Messi listed his real estate assets via a digital Spanish bourse. axios.link/40fTnyN

⚡ China Three Gorges acquired Spanish solar facility NCP Mula Solar from Northleaf Capital Partners and Qualitas Energy. axios.link/4iVImu2

• FalconX, a digital asset trading platform valued by VCs at $8b, is in talks to buy crypto derivatives startup Arbelos Markets for an undisclosed amount of cash and stock, per Bloomberg. Arbelos raised $28m in seed funding led by Dragonfly Capital, with FalconX among the other backers. axios.link/4gElL3y

• Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) completed its $700m purchase of Run.ai, an Israeli AI optimization startup that had raised over $100m from firms like Tiger Global, Insight Partners, TLV Partners, and S Capital VC. axios.link/3PgqDj8

• Thomson Reuters (NYSE: TRI) acquired SafeSend, an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based provider of e-sign and workflow automation software for CPAs and tax preparers, for $600m in cash. SafeSend backers included Lead Edge Capital. safesend.com

• Xerox (Nasdaq: XRX) agreed to acquire printer-maker Lexmark for $1.5b from Ninestar Corp., PAG Asia Capital, and Shanghai Shouda Investment Centre. axios.link/3BPx5e1

• Zebra Technologies (Nasdaq: ZBRA) acquired Photoneo, a Slovakian provider of robotic vision sensors and intelligence software that had raised $47m from firms like EBRD VC, Taiwania Capital, IPM Group, and Credo Ventures. axios.link/4fF4MNd

⚡ A2A (Milan: A2) completed its €1.22b acquisition of Duereti, an electricity distribution operating in Italy's Lombardy region, from Enel (Milan: ENEI). axios.link/3BTc8in

⚡ JSW Energy of India will pay around $1.5b in cash to buy clean energy projects from O2 Power, whose main backers are EQT and Temasek. axios.link/4018uet

• Nidec (Tokyo: 6594) will launch an unsolicited $1.6b takeover effort for Makino Milling Machine (Tokyo: 6135). axios.link/4a2mnxC

• Samsung Electronics invested around $181m to become the largest shareholder of listed South Korean robotics firm Rainbow Robotics, increasing its stake to 35%. axios.link/41Vc0cz

• Taiwanese antitrust regulators blocked Uber (NYSE: UBER) from buying the Taiwan unit of Foodpanda from Delivery Hero for $950m in cash. axios.link/49WqtXX

🚑 UnitedHealth (NYSE: UNH) extended the deadline for completing its $3.3b purchase of Amedisys (Nasdaq: AMED), which is being challenged by the DOJ. axios.link/4fGTx79  

• Vivid Seats (Nasdaq: SEAT) is exploring a sale after receiving takeover interest, per Bloomberg. The online ticketing marketplace went public in 2021 at a $1.95b valuation, but now has a market cap below $600m. axios.link/4gZ7Ox1

• World Wide Technology of Missouri agreed to buy Canadian IT solutions firm Softchoice (TSX: SFTC) for C$1.8b, or C$24.50 per share. axios.link/4gVWf9z

• Accel raised $650m for its eight India-focused VC fund. axios.link/3W2HcTF

• Founders Fund is raising around $3b for its third growth equity fund, per Axios. axios.link/49XRZ7q

• Voima Ventures raised over €100m for its third fund focused on deep-tech startups in the Nordics and Baltics. axios.link/3BR8XHR

• President-elect Trump will nominate Scott Kupor, managing partner of Andreessen Horowitz, to lead the Office of Personnel Management. The VC firm doesn't plan to replace Kupor, if confirmed, with a spokesperson saying he'd be "on loan" to the White House.

• Sriram Krishnan, who spent the past three years as a general partner at a16z, will join the White House as a senior adviser on artificial intelligence.

• Kim Kardashian is no longer co-managing partner of SKKY Partners, the consumer-focused PE firm she co-founded in 2022 with Carlyle vet Jay Sammons. She's now listed as a senior operating adviser. axios.link/3BTZrnp

• Jeffrey Moy, a longtime private markets investor, joined Fidelity Charitable as director of alternative investments. axios.link/40grJ4I

• Tae Jin Park, JPMorgan's top banker in South Korea, is leaving the firm after 23 years. axios.link/4fE65vJ

Stocks surged in 2024, but all major U.S. indices underperformed 2023.

• The S&P 500 was up 24% in 2024, compared to a 24.2% rise in 2023. It was the strongest two-year performance since the late 1990s.
• The tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 30.8%, versus 43.4% last year.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 12.8%, compared to 28.4% in 2023.
• The Russell 2000, an index of small-cap stocks, gained 10.9%, compared to 2023's 15.1%.

What to watch: If the past week's Santa Slump continues into 2025.