Emptying out the notebook, as I recover from chauffeuring teenagers to and from a stadium concert...

🤖 It's official: Meta last night announced its deal with Scale AI, which values the startup at over $29 billion and results in Scale CEO Alexandr Wang joining Meta.

• Sources confirm earlier reports that Meta will pay over $14 billion for a 49% stake, which is the most Meta has paid for any company outside of WhatsApp.
• It's all in cash, most of which goes to Scale's VC backers (who retain positions). Meta took non-voting stock, and eschewed such rights as veto or drag-along — ostensibly to discourage the deal from being blocked by antitrust regulators. Meta also isn't expected to have board representation, besides Wang.
• The bull case for Scale AI moving forward is that it will get to benefit from increased spend by Meta, which could eventually total in the billions. Particularly given that Scale's new interim CEO was previously running its apps business.
• The bear case is that Scale AI could grow so close to Meta that it concerns certain customers, who then flee to rivals.

⌚ Chime time: Chime shares popped 37% on their first day of trading, continuing fintech's recent IPO winning streak. A source tells me that the neobank decided last year that it would go public in 2025, so long as it first accomplished two goals:

1. Successfully launch its earned-wage access product (i.e., payday loan product).
2. Finish building its internal core processing stack.

🔑 President Trump yesterday confirmed that the U.S. would get a "golden share" in U.S. Steel, as part of approving its acquisition by Nippon Steel, but there's still no word on that official approval or if Nippon has signed off on such an arrangement.

• Trump also said the golden share would give him "total control."
• The merger's closing date remains June 18, and shares continue to trade despite the lack of corporate disclosures.

💼 One to watch: Apollo and General Atlantic this week told recent college grads that the private equity firms will delay recruiting for positions that would begin in 2027.

• This is partially an olive branch to investment bank CEOs like Jamie Dimon, who recently told new analysts that they'd be canned if they took a future-dated job within their first 18 months at JPMorgan.
• It's also partially an effort to stem a hiring timeline tide that's been pushing further and further out, although some firms like Blackstone ended the practice several years ago. In short, it's asking people to make decisions before they have enough experience to really know what they want.
• The big question now is how many other firms make similar pronouncements, or if some view the ceded ground as fertile for recruiting opportunity.

Omnicom Group (NYSE: OMC) and Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG) reportedly may be required to abstain from media platform boycotts, in order to gain FTC approval for their $13.3 billion ad agency merger.

Why it's the BFD: This would be an unusual antitrust condition, seemingly as much about partisan politics as business collusion that limits competition.

• It's also a reminder that while Elon Musk has receded into the D.C. background, issues related to his companies remain in the forefront.

Catch up quick: House Republicans last year sent letters to both Omnicom and Interpublic, as part of an investigation into whether ad agencies had colluded to discourage clients from doing business with conservative media and social media platforms like X.

• Ad agencies have argued that the boycotts are about protecting clients from having their brands associated with content that may be offensive, inaccurate, or divisive.
• The probe later moved to the FTC, as reported by Axios' Sara Fischer, although the overlap between that process and the merger talks are unclear.

The bottom line: "The restrictions being discussed by the FTC as part of its merger review are part of an effort by the Trump administration to use federal agencies to root out what it considers political bias in corporate America against conservative voices and causes." — The New York Times

• Canary Technologies, a provider of hotel guest management software, raised $80m in Series D funding at around a $600m valuation. Brighton Park Capital led, joined by insiders Insight Partners, F-Prime Capital, Thayer Ventures, YC, and Commerce Ventures. axios.link/4e7qYk8

• Nominal, an Austin, Texas-based industrial software startup, raised $75m in Series B funding. Sequoia Capital led, joined by Lightspeed, Lux Capital, General Catalyst, and Founders Fund. axios.link/4mZhISR

🚀 Look Up Space, a French space traffic safety platform, raised €50m. ETF Partners led, joined by Leadwind, KFund, EIC Fund, MIG Capital, Karista, and Expansion. axios.link/3ZrlY3z

🚑 Ellipsis Health, an SF-based provider of patient engagement tools for health systems, raised $45m in Series A funding. Salesforce, Khosla Ventures, and CVS Health Ventures co-led, joined by Mitsui Global Investment, Collier, E12, and AME Cloud Venture. axios.link/3ZYGitg

• Yupp, a crypto-incentivized AI model evaluation startup, raised $33m in seed funding led by a16z. axios.link/4jQmdN4

• Knowunity, a German AI companion for students, raised €27M in Series B funding. XAnge led, joined by Project A, Redalpine, Educapital, Portfolion, Ring Capital, and Isomer Capital. axios.link/4dYhh7f

🚑 Commons Clinic, an LA-based specialty care provider, raised $26m in Series B financing led by RA Capital, with participation from Floating Point, SteelSky Ventures, Time BioVentures, Courtside Ventures, and Commons Clinic physicians. axios.link/4n0GeDi

• Antimetal, a New York-based cloud infrastructure management startup, raised $20m in Series A funding led by Sound Ventures. axios.link/3HD8ls4

• Conveyor, a customer trust automation startup, raised $20m in Series A funding. SignalFire led, joined by Oregon Venture Fund and Cervin Ventures. axios.link/442ILUU

• Warp, an LA-based middle-mile logistics startup, raised $10m in Series A funding co-led by UpPartners and Blue Bear Capital. wearewarp.com

• Sunrise Robotics, a Slovenian factory automation startup, raised $8.5m. Plural led, joined by Tapestry, Seedcamp, Tiny.vc and Prototype Capital. axios.link/43XXMax

• Cove Hill Partners invested in Swiftly, a Millbrae, Calif.-based transit data platform backed by JMI Equity. swiftly.com

• Datavant, a portfolio company of New Mountain Capital and Ardan Equity, acquired Ontellus, a Houston-based provider of health records retrieval and claims intelligence, from Aquiline and Capstreet. datavant.com

• Gemspring Capital Management invested in Residence, a creative services provider. residence.co

• LevelBlue, a Dallas-based portfolio company of WillJam Ventures, agreed to acquire Aon's (NYSE: AON) cybersecurity and IP litigation consulting groups. axios.link/4l3qfT8

⚡ LS Power acquired the U.S. services business of France's Engie (Paris: ENGI), and renapped it Opterra. axios.link/4jKJ2BC

🚑 Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE: TMO) is seeking to sell part of its diagnostics business for around $4b, and has approached private equity firms, per the FT. axios.link/4kXTbfc

• Blue Acquisition, a SPAC targeting manufacturing and data centers, raised $150m in its IPO. axios.link/3ZhKh3K

• GemLife, an operator of resorts for older guests, raised A$750m in an Australian IPO. axios.link/4n1dgD4

• Jefferson Capital, a Minneapolis-based consumer debt collector owned by J.C. Flowers, set IPO terms to 10m shares at $15-$17. It would have a initial market cap of just over $1b, were it to price in the middle, and plans to list on the Nasdaq (JCAP). axios.link/3SPKnfu

• Apax Partners agreed to sell Almaviva, an Italian provider of digital transformation solutions, to Brazil's TIVIT. axios.link/3ZvrCBJ

• Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com and Tumblr, acquired relationship management app Clay, which had raised $9m from General Catalyst and Forerunner Ventures. axios.link/4e3wC6H

🚑 Capital Rx, a pharmacy benefit manager valued by VCs at $1.5b, acquired SF-based care navigation company Amino Health, whose backers included Transformation Capital, Stone Point Capital, First Round Capital, and Acrew Capital. axios.link/45Z3cV4

• MBK Partners is seeking to sell troubled South Korean retailer Homeplus, to avoid liquidation. axios.link/43Y0qwH

🚑 TA Associates is exploring a sale of Texas-based Healix Infusion Care, which generates around $20m in EBITDA, per Axios Pro. axios.link/3HCe8hr

• Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel bought out investors in their media company, Tucker Carlson Network, including 1789 Capital, per Axios' Sara Fischer. axios.link/4ebqn0D

• Dundee Precious Metals (TSX: DPM) of Canada agreed to buy Brtish miner Adriatic Metals (LSE: ADT1) for $1.25b in cash and stock. axios.link/3HHC8Qd

⚡EDF Group agreed to buy British EV charging company Pod Point (LSE: PODP) for £10m, in partership with Legal & General Capital. axios.link/43XIgv3

⚽ Woody Johnson, owner of the NFL's New York Jets, is in talks to invest £200m into Premier League club Crystal Palace, per ESPN. axios.link/4kwf1Xo

⚡ Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners of Houston named Brian Restall as global CEO, Giulia Siccardo (ex-DoE) as managing director of North America, and Kathryn Lin as senior director of digital infrastructure strategies. quinbrook.com

Oil prices are spiking after Israel's attack on Iran, which Iran is calling a "declaration of war."

• It doesn't appear that Israel targeted Iran's oil exporting infrastructure, but that hasn't tempered trader worries.
• "Traders are responding to risk that the conflict could spread in ways that affect regional oil production and transport," writes Axios energy reporter Ben Geman.