Sometimes you can win despite losses.

Driving the news: Donald Trump this week received around 36 million more shares in the parent company of Truth Social, thanks to a generous earnout provision.

• That gives him around 115 million total shares, or a 65% ownership stake, which was valued at $4.1 billion as of Wednesday's market close.
• The new shares remain subject to a lockup provision.

By the numbers: Trump Media & Technology Group shares have lost around half their value since the company completed its SPAC merger in late March, but easily remained above the levels Trump needed for his earnout.

• Specifically, he received the full allotment because the stock price remained above $17.50 for 20 of 30 consecutive trading days.
• He also could have received smaller earnouts had shares remained above $12.50 or $15 for the same amount of time during the company's first two years of trading.

Zoom in: It did briefly look like the former president might have to sweat it out, as shares dropped precipitously, but they've recently rebounded a bit.

• Including yesterday, when they climbed after CEO Devin Nunes asked Congress to investigate the possibility of "naked" short selling.

The big picture: This company remains a meme stock, trading at farcical multiples, and must be sweating out next month's next quarterly earnings release. But so far its share prices have remained much more buoyant than have its financials, and Trump had reason to believe that could last through the lockup.

The bottom line: Trump may earn more from being kicked off Twitter than Elon Musk will ever earn from buying Twitter.

BHP Group (ASX: BHP) offered to buy London-based mining giant Anglo American (LSE: AAL) for nearly $39 billion in stock.

Why it's the BFD: It would create the world's largest copper miner, at a time when copper demand is surging due to its use in energy transition technologies.

• Copper prices are near an all-time high, and have risen more than 17% so far this year.

Details: The unsolicited offer is conditioned on Anglo spinning off its South African iron ore and platinum units to shareholders.

The bottom line: "Anglo American has long been viewed as a potential target among the largest miners, particularly because it owns big South American copper operations at a time when most of the industry is eager to add reserves and production. However, suitors have been put off by its complicated structure and mix of commodities, and especially its deep exposure to South Africa." — Bloomberg

• Augment, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based AI coding assistance startup, raised $252m in Series B funding at a $977m post-money valuation from Sutter Hill Ventures, Index Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Meritech Capital. axios.link/3W9xGPv

• QI Tech, a Brazilian banking-as-a-service company, raised $210m in Series B funding led by General Atlantic at a valuation north of $1b, per Axios Pro. axios.link/44cP5c7

• ThreatLocker, an Orlando, Fla.-based endpoint security company, raised $115m in Series D funding. General Atlantic led, and was joined by StepStone Group, and D.E. Shaw. threatlocker.com

🚑 Cerevance, a Boston-based developer of Parkinson's disease therapies, raised $47m in Series B extension funding from Agent Capital, Bioluminescence Ventures, and Double Point Ventures. cerevance.com

• Markt-Pilot, a German pricing optimization SaaS for manufacturers, raised $43m in Series A funding. Insight Partners led, and was joined by insider Capnamic. markt-pilot.com

🚑 PinkDx, a Daly City, Calif.-based women's health startup initially focused on diagnosing gynecological cancer, raised $40m in Series A funding. Catalio Capital Management and The Production Board co-led, and were joined by Mountain Group Partners, Byers Capital, and Mayo Clinic. pinkdx.com

⚡ Chemix, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AI EV battery startup, has raised $20m in Series A funding led by Ibex Investors. axios.link/4aMF1sR

🚑 Neurocare, a German digital therapy platform, raised €16m from TVM Capital Healthcare. axios.link/3UdQ4Eb

• Nooks, an Oakton, Va.-based prospecting platform for outbound sales teams, raised $15m in Series A funding. Lachy Groom led, and was joined by Tola Capital. nooks.ai

🌎 Treefera, a London-based data management platform for sustainability asset reporting, raised $12m in Series A funding led by AlbionVC. axios.link/4daxLsd

• Dripos, an Acton, Mass.-based food-ordering platform, raised $11m in Series A funding led by Base10 Partners. axios.link/49Tq470

• Carv, a data monetization platform for web3 gaming companies, raised $10m in Series A funding co-led by Tribe Capital and IOSG Ventures. axios.link/4dozQRA

🚑 Transcripta Bio (fka Rarebase), a small-molecule drug discovery startup, raised $10m from insiders Jazz Venture Partners and BlueYard Capital.

⚡ Terra One, a German battery storage startup, raised $7.5m in seed funding led by PT1. axios.link/3UtF3jr

• Log10, an SF-based platform for building LLM-powered apps, raised $7.2m in seed funding. TQ Ventures and Quiet Capital co-led, and were joined by Essence VC. log10.io

• Anon, an automated authentication layer, raised $6.5m in seed funding from USV, Abstract Ventures, Impatient Ventures, and ex-ante. axios.link/3wihn8i

• UserHub, a New York-based billing platform for B2B SaaS, raised $3.2m in pre-seed funding led by 468 Capital. userhub.com

• Growcer, a Canadian vertical farming startup, raised C$3m in Series A funding led by Modern Niagara. axios.link/3QgYpWA

• Camion, a London-based EV charging analytics platform, raised €2.7m in pre-seed funding. EQT Ventures led, and was joined by First Look Capital and RitMir Ventures. axios.link/3Ub7wJD

• Edonia, a French developer of alt ground meat, raised €2m led by Asterion Ventures. axios.link/4dgUYcr

• Fundpath, a London-based provider of fund-buying software, raised £2m led by Fuel Ventures. axios.link/44eIPR5

• Trace, a Columbus, Ohio-based startup seeking to be the "Canva of AR," raised $2m co-led by Rev1 Ventures and Impellent Ventures. trace3d.app

• TaxBit, a New York-based provider of tax and accounting compliance software, raised funding from In-Q-Tel at a $1b valuation. taxbit.com

• Channel Corp., a South Korean customer support startup, is raising $30m in Series C extension funding, per Axios Pro. axios.link/49QYqHF

• Blackstone agreed to buy restaurant chain Tropical Smoothie Café for around $2b from Levine Leichtman Capital Partners. axios.link/3UcAzMH

🎵 Concord, the music rights investment firm backed by Apollo, increased its takeover bid for Hipgnosis Songs Fund (LSE: SONG) to $1.51 billion. This tops a rival offer from Blackstone, which itself topped Concord's original agreement with Hipgnosis. axios.link/44dM238

• Granite Creek Capital Partners and Boathouse Capital invested in The District Communications Group, a Washington, D.C.-based provider of market research and communications services to federal government clients. dcgcommunications.com

• GTCR agreed to buy AssetMark (NYSE: AMK), a wealth management technology platform for financial advisors, for $2.7b, or $35.25 per share. axios.link/3w893YR

• KKR agreed to buy Dutch eyewear group Nexeye from 3i Group. nexeye.com

• KKR agreed to buy a student housing portfolio, which includes 19 properties and over 10,000 beds, from Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust for around $1.64b.

🚑 KKR is in talks to buy Healthium Medtech, an Indian medical device maker owned by Apax Partners, per Bloomberg. It could fetch up to $1b. axios.link/4bcpGBF

• Sigma Defense Systems, a Perry, Ga.-based portfolio company of Sagewind Capital, acquired EWA, a Herndon, Va.-based developer of electronic warfare tech. axios.link/4d5wy5o

• Triple Private Equity acquired a majority stake in SmartSearch, a British provider of compliance and anti-money software. axios.link/4aP4t0F

• Rubrik, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based data management company, raised $752m in its IPO. It priced at $32 (above $28-$31 range), for a $6.6b fully diluted market value, and will list on the NYSE (RBRK). Rubrik reports a $354m net loss on $628m in revenue for the year ending Jan. 31, 2024, and had raised around $1b in VC funding from firms like Lightspeed, Greylock, Microsoft, Bain Capital Ventures, IVP, and Khosla Ventures. axios.link/3UBm8U8

• Bain Capital is seeking to sell the China unit of Maryland-based Apex Tool Group, which could fetch between $300m-$500m, per Bloomberg. axios.link/4b8u18T

• EQT agreed to sell a 50% stake in fiber-to-the-home provider Lumos to T-Mobile (Nasdaq: TMUS) for an initial $950m. lumosfiber.com

• Falfurrias Capital Partners is seeking to sell Sauer Brands, a Richmond, Va.-based condiments and spices maker that could fetch more than $1b, per Reuters. axios.link/4aRzGjM

• KKR abandoned a sale process for Upfield, the Dutch maker of Country Crock spread for which it was seeking around $10b, after talks with ADQ fell apart over price, per Bloomberg. axios.link/3UwIOVf

• Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) agreed to buy 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. Calcalist pegs the price at $700m. axios.link/3w9oVdE

• E.W. Scripps (Nasdaq: SSP) is listening to offers for Bounce TV, its Black-culture broadcast network. axios.link/3UfRcY9

• IBM (NYSE: IBM) agreed to buy HashiCorp (NYSE: HCP), an SF-based multi-cloud automation software provider, for $6.4b in cash, or $35 per share. axios.link/3xSmzAo

🚑 Labcorp (NYSE: LH) agreed to buy the assets of Invitae, a bankrupt maker of genetics tests, for $239m in cash. axios.link/44j5rA2

🌎 Decarbonization Partners, formed by BlackRock and Temasek, raised $1.4b for its debut late-stage VC and growth equity fund, as first reported by Axios Pro. axios.link/3W9y6W5

• Eniac Ventures raised $160m for its sixth seed fund and $60m for a new select fund. axios.link/4d5XulL

• Mercer raised $3.9b for its seventh private markets fund. axios.link/3vYDuRj

• Norwest Venture Partners raised $3b for its 17th fund. axios.link/4b9zrAy

• Chin Chou is retiring as CEO of Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia. Jun Xu will lead China activities, while Nirav Mehta and Arjun Saigal will serve as co-heads of non-China investing. axios.link/3Uf9R6n

• Haidee Lee and Carsten Woehrn left JPMorgan to join Goldman Sachs' financial sponsors group, per Axios. axios.link/3QioMv7

• Stephanie Marcantonio joined law firm Sheppard Mullin as a health care-focused partner. She previously was with Crowell & Moring. sheppardmullin.com

• Investcorp Corsair named John Porcari as managing director of public policy and partnerships. He had been an operating partner with the firm, and served in both the Biden and Obama administrations. axios.link/4d8CQ4d