Clearing out the notebook before breaking out the shovels...

⏱️ Done deal: It's time to officially stop the TikTok clock — more than five years after President Trump tried to ban the app, nearly two years after President Biden signed a divest-or-die law, and more than one year after President Trump flouted that law as he worked toward a deal.

• ByteDance has officially divested TikTok U.S. to a group of investors headlined by Silver Lake, Oracle, and MGX. Some new names include Michael Dell's family office, venture firm Revolution, and growth equity shop Alpha Wave.
• If you're feeling a bit of hollowness, don't fret: We can start a new waiting game for the TikTok U.S. IPO.

📈 Trend alert: This week we saw a pair of open-source AI projects — vLLM and SGLang — form commercial parent companies that raised giant funding rounds from brand-name VC firms.

• Expect to see a ton more of this as investors mine for de-risked AI opportunities.

🍿 Movie drama: The battle for Warner Bros. Discovery is beginning to feel more personal than financial.

• WBD yesterday referred to Paramount's bid as a "scheme," after Paramount extended its tender offer and filed preliminary proxy materials.
• This comes as WBD's arguments against Paramount keep getting weaker.
• First it complained that the equity wasn't guaranteed. When Larry Ellison provided a formal backstop, it complained about the debt. Then Netflix increased its own debt tranche when converting its bid to all-cash. Meanwhile, shares of Versant Media — Comcast's cable spinoff, which is the best comp for WBD's proposed cable stub — keep falling, down another 5% so far this week.

💰 Wealth channel: In discussing EQT's deal for Coller Capital, I noted that secondaries are becoming table stakes for alts firms that want to expand into the 401(k) market.

• Some readers asked for clarification, so: Secondaries businesses can help provide liquidity if/when needed, which would calm concerns of some 401(k) plan administrators. It also makes alts more appealing to individual investors.

🦄 Post-unicorn: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has been speaking with Middle East investors about raising at least $50 billion at a valuation of up to $830 billion, per Bloomberg.

• I feel like we've become a bit numb to these numbers, but it's remarkable how quickly we've done from unicorns to decacorns to dragons to whatever the hell we want to call this.
• It's entirely possible that, by this time next year, we'll have OpenAI valued at $1 trillion by the private markets and SpaceX valued at $1 trillion by IPO buyers. And, yes, the heads of those two companies will soon be battling each other in court. It's worth taking a step back to marvel at.

❄️ Stay warm. Go Pats!

Capital One Financial (NYSE: COF) agreed to acquire corporate spend fintech Brex for $5.15 billion in cash and stock.

Why it's the BFD: It's a major loss for some ZIRP-era investors in Brex, which raised money at a $12 billion valuation in early 2022 and at a $7.8 billion valuation in 2021. There were down-round discussions last year, but they fizzled out.

By the numbers: Brex raised around nearly $1.7 billion since a 2017 Series A round led by Ribbit Capital at a $15 million pre-money.

• Other backers included Y Combinator, Greenoaks, DST Global, Kleiner Perkins, and Tiger Global — some of whom will profit handsomely on their pre-2021 investments.

Behind the scenes: Capital One approached Brex, which wasn't running an auction process, per a source familiar.

The bottom line: Brex was founded as an alternative to traditional corporate cards, particularly for startups. Now it becomes part of a credit card giant, albeit one known better for consumer offerings.

🚑 Corxel, a Berkeley Heights, N.J.-based cardiometabolic biotech, raised $287m in Series D1 funding from RTW Investments, SR One, TCG Crossover, RA Capital Management, HBM Healthcare Investments, and SymBiosis. axios.link/4sUi2p3

• Mews, an NYC-based operating system for hospitality, raised $300m in Series D funding at a $2.5b valuation. EQT Growth led, joined by Atomico, HarbourVest Partners, Kinnevik, Battery Ventures, and Tiger Global. axios.link/3ZyQesJ

• Claroty, an Israeli cyber-physical systems protection company, raised $150m in Series F funding at a $3b valuation led by Golub Growth. axios.link/3YSgNZO

• Inferact, a startup led by the team behind open-source AI software vLLM, raised $150m in seed funding at an $800m valuation led by a16z and Lightspeed. axios.link/4qArSe4

• Neurophos, an Austin, Texas-based photonic AI chip tech company, raised $110m in Series A funding. Gates Frontier led, joined by M12, Carbon Direct Capital, Aramco Ventures, Bosch Ventures, Tectonic Ventures, and Space Capital. axios.link/3M1LuZB

• LiveKit, an SF-based developer platform for AI agents, raised $100m in Series C funding at a $1b valuation. Index Ventures led, joined by Salesforce Ventures and insiders Altimeter, Redpoint Ventures, and Hanabi Capital. axios.link/3M1L45v

• Railway, an SF-based cloud platform for software deployment, raised $100m in Series B funding, per Axios Pro. TQ Ventures led, joined by FPV Ventures, Redpoint, and Unusual Ventures. axios.link/4r5Y4G2

• Superstate, a tokenization and onchain issuance firm, raised $82.5m in Series B funding. Bain Capital Crypto and Distributed Global led, joined by Haun Ventures, Brevan Howard Digital, Galaxy Digital, Sentinel Global, Bullish, Hypersphere Capital, Flowdesk, 1kx, Intersection, ParaFi and Road Capital participating. axios.link/4jXvp3K

• Cubby, a property management platform for self-storage operators, raised $63m in Series A funding led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives. axios.link/4jTg2Jr

🚑 PAQ Therapeutics, a Burlington, Mass.-based oncology biotech, raised $38m in Series B extension funding. Bayland Capital and MRL Ventures Fund led, joined by J&J Innovation, LAV Fund, BioTrack Capital, and Sherpa Health Partners. axios.link/4sVm6W8

• Cambio, an SF-based commercial real estate operations SaaS, raised $18m in Series A funding. Maverick Ventures led, joined by YC, Adverb Ventures, and Peterson Ventures. axios.link/4qAAXDW

• Artie, an SF-based real-time data streaming startup, raised $12m in Series A funding, per Axios Pro. Standard Capital led, joined by YC and Pathlight Ventures. axios.link/4r7fLoT

🌎 Klir, a Reno, Nev.-based provider of operations software for water utilities, raised $10m in Series B funding led by insider Insight Partners. axios.link/49QSvUY

🚑 Salvo Health, an NYC-based virtual gastrointestinal care company, raised $8.5m in Series A funding. ManchesterStory, City Light Capital, and Threshold Ventures led, joined by The Artemis Fund and Contour Venture Partners. axios.link/4a9Mggj

• River, a DeFi protocol developer, raised $8m from Justin Sun. axios.link/4sVQdga

• Agileday, a Finnish operating platform for professional services, raised €6.4m in Series A funding. Newion led, joined by Specialist VC, Vendep Capital, and Business Finland. axios.link/4r1vo14

• Innocent Meat, a German cultivated meat developer, raised €6m from Genius Venture Capital. axios.link/3Nxp9DL

• Blockit, a calendar-scheduling startup led by Kais Khimji (ex-Sequoia Capital), raised $5m in seed funding led by Sequoia. axios.link/4qBtlRo

• Audax Strategic Capital made a structured equity investment in Strickland Brothers, a Winston-Salem, N.C.-based operator and franchisor of oil change centers that's owned by Princeton Equity Group. axios.link/4qzggIl

• Castlelake is in talks to buy bankrupt discount airline Spirit Airlines, per CNBC. axios.link/4sUvtFA

• Lone Star Funds agreed to acquire Alliance Ground International, a Miami-based airport services provider, from Greenbriar Equity Group and Audax Private Equity. axios.link/49Krxyk

• OuterBox, a WILsquare Capital portfolio company, acquired GRO, a Tuscaloosa, Ala.-based digital marketing firm focused on senior, student and multi-family housing. axios.link/4qAfpXM

• Ridgeline, a roofing firm owned by Bertram Capital, acquired Maple Grove, Minn.-based Bold North Roofing and Contracting. axios.link/3NHyybL

• Vector, backed by BVP Forge, acquired YardView, a shipyard management and dock visibility company. axios.link/460IIur

• CSG, the Prague-based defense contractor that in 2024 acquired Remington owner Vista Outdoors, raised €3.3b in its IPO at a €25b valuation and then saw its shares jump 30%. axios.link/4qBVjMS

• EquipmentShare, a Columbia, Md.-based construction equipment rental company, raised $747m in its IPO. It priced in the middle of its $23.50-$25.50 range, for a $6.7b fully diluted valuation, and will list on the Nasdaq (EQPT). The company raised over $500m from firms like Insight Partners, BDT & MSD Partners, and Romulus Capital. axios.link/3Ls27gY

• Aldabra 4 Liquidity Opportunity Vehicle, a SPAC led by Terrapin Partners execs, raised $261m in its IPO. axios.link/44WcqAq

• Columbus Circle Capital II, a a SPAC formed by Cohen & Co., filed for a $200m IPO. axios.link/3NFb2fx

• Legato Merger IV, a SPAC led by blank-check vets David Sgro and Eric Rosenfeld, raised $200m in its IPO. axios.link/48ZSyyR

• Openmarkets, a Chicago-based trading and wealth management tech firm, agreed to go public at an implied $300m valuation via a merger with Lake Superior Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: LKSPU), a SPAC led by blank-check vet Edward Cong Wang. axios.link/3YUTRco

⚡ Spring Valley Acquisition IV, a power infrastructure and decarbonization SPAC, filed for a $200m IPO. This comes just days after Spring Valley Acquisition III agreed to merge with General Fusion.

• Andela, a global tech staffing platform, acquired Woven, an Indianapolis-based technical assessment company. Andela has raised over $370m from firms like SoftBank, while Woven raised around $11m from firms like High Alpha and Elevate Venture. axios.link/4acUzqP

• Keyrus (Paris: ALKEY) acquired Vuealta, a London-based digital transformation consultancy, from YFM Equity Partners. axios.link/4pQsgnx

• Clorox (NYSE: CLX) agreed to acquire GOJO Industries, the Akron, Ohio-based maker of Purell, for $2.25 billion in cash. axios.link/4r3xVYr

• Adar Poonawalla, the billionaire CEO of Serum Institute of India, said he plans to bid on Indian cricket club Royal Challengers Bengaluru, which is being sold by Diageo for up to $2b. axios.link/4bH5qvi

• ClearScore, a London fintech that's raised over $200m from firms like Invus, Lead Edge Capital, and QED Investors, acquired British mortgage fintech Acre. axios.link/4pTokCw

🚑 Hillhouse Investment is in talks to acquire around a 17% stake in dental prosthetics maker Modern Dental (HK: 3600), per Bloomberg. axios.link/49EsSba

• Janus Henderson agreed to acquire Richard Bernstein Advisors, a macro multi-asset investment manager with around $20b in client assets. axios.link/4pR2wrr

• Nestlé (Swiss: NESN) wants first-round bids for a stake in its water business, including Perrier and S.Pellegrino, by the end of January, per Bloomberg. It could fetch. axios.link/49Qxqdf

• Richemont (Swiss: CFR) agreed to sell Swiss watchmaker Baume & Mercier to Italy's Damiani Group. axios.link/45jNIdu

• Booz Allen Hamilton said it committed $400m into the latest set of a16z funds, the first time the defense contractor has backed venture capital funds. axios.link/49Cl2yT

• Goldman Sachs Alternatives raised $2.8b for its fourth private equity co-investment fund. gs.com

🚑 Healthier Capital, a VC firm led by former One Medical CEO Amir Dan Rubin, raised $220m for its inaugural fund. axios.link/4sQQEbu

• Pinegrove Opportunity Partners raised $2.2b for its debut venture secondaries fund. axios.link/45WEZhs

• British Columbia Investment Management Corp. promoted Jon Salon to EVP and global head of private equity, succeeding the departing Jim Pittman. axios.link/4qBBENf

• Alex Rubalcava (ex-Stage Venture Partners) joined Amplify LA as a general partner. The firm also promoted Connor Sundberg to partner. amplify.la

The chart above illustrates what wonks call the K-shaped economy, where the rich keep doing better, and the rest fall behind, Axios' Emily Peck writes.

• Consumer spending drives growth — so America's economy becomes more fragile as it relies on a smaller number of people to keep things afloat.