Private equity is ramping up for this summer's federal tax fight, and carried interest isn't the only break on the block.

Why it matters: The future of Wall Street economics may be decided on K Street.

Driving the news: The American Investment Council is launching a 7-figure ad campaign that sounds a lot like PE image rehab, Axios' Hans Nichols reports.

• Its primary interest is maintaining the status quo on carry, over the objections of President Trump. Just as it did back in 2017, albeit with a much bigger GOP House majority.

Zoom in: The industry also wants limitations on corporate tax deductions for interest to be calculated via EBITDA rather than via EBIT — adding depreciation and amortization to the formula — given how many of private equity's portfolio companies are leveraged.

• This change was made in 2017, but then it sunset at the end of 2022.
• AIC has partnered with several other trade groups to ensure that the new tax bill reverts to the base text of 2017, which was supported by Trump, although it could be a heavy lift given all the other new tax breaks that are being proposed (tips, overtime, Social Security, SALT, etc.).

State of play, per Axios' Stef Kight: The Senate will vote soon on the updated budget resolution, and then kick it back to the House. Their goal is to get done before they take their two-week recess around Easter. And then the real haggling begins in earnest

• The recent CBO report saying the debt ceiling must be dealt with by August or September is probably a helpful forcing mechanism.

The bottom line: Private equity usually wins these battles, but these may be the most contentious tax negotiations since the industry became ubiquitous.

CoreWeave, a cloud computing platform that rents out GPUs via data centers, raised $1.5 billion in its IPO.

Why it's the BFD: It's the largest tech IPO in years, yet still a major disappointment.

• CoreWeave raised around 40% less than it had anticipated — cutting both shares and price — which already represented a lower valuation than it secured in the private market.
• Plus, it needed partner Nvidia to provide a $250 million anchor at $40 per share (original range was $47-$55).
• Pick your poison here. Market volatility. Heavy debt load. Fierce competition. The broader correction on Nvidia stock.

By the numbers: The IPO gives Roseland, N.J.-based CoreWeave a $22.8 billion fully diluted market value, which is just above where it last raised private market capital but below some secondary trades.

• Major pre-IPO backers included Magnetar Capital and Fidelity.

The bottom line: All that matters now is the aftermarket performance, although money-losing CoreWeave could have used that extra billion.

• If strong, AI evangelists will claim validation. If weak, expect to see arguments about how CoreWeave wasn't really a litmus test.

🚑 Solace, a Redwood City, Calif.-based startup connecting patients with health-care advocates, is raising $40m in Series B funding led by Menlo Ventures at a valuation north of $300m, per BI. axios.link/3RsASlu

⚡ Marvel Fusion, a German nuclear fusion startup, raised €50m in Series B extension funding from EQT Ventures, Siemens Energy Ventures and EIC Fund, and insiders Tengelmann Ventures and Bayern Kapital. axios.link/3Y9Gk0v

⚡ GridPoint, a Reston, Va., commercial building decarbonization startup, raised $45m. Marunouchi Innovation Partners led, joined by Goldman Sachs, I Squared Capital, Shell Ventures, TOMS Capital, Fortress Investment Group, Olympia Group, and QVT Financial. gridpoint.com

• Mendel, a Mexico City-based enterprise spend management platform, raised $35m in Series B funding. Base10 Partners led, and was joined by PayPal Ventures and insiders Infinity Ventures, Industry Ventures, Hi.vc, and Endeavor Catalyst. axios.link/42m2z5K

• Allen Control Systems, an Austin, Texas-based developer of autonomous robotic gun turrets, raised $30m in Series A funding. Craft Ventures led, and joined by insiders Inspired Capital and Rally Ventures. axios.link/4hKNsY9

• Playback, an SF-based "Twitch for sports," raised $22m in seed and Series A funding from Khosla Ventures, Seven Seven Six, and NBA Investments. axios.link/426tAZU

🚑 Layer Health, a Brookline, Mass.-based clinical note analysis startup, raised $21m in Series A funding. Define Ventures led, joined by Flare Capital Partners, GV and MultiCare Capital Partners. axios.link/42lvaZ2

• Yutori, an SF-based provider of personal AI assistants, raised $15m in seed funding. Radical Ventures led, joined by Felicis. yutori.com

• Lucky Energy, an Austin, Texas-based energy drink brand, raised $14.2m in Series A extension funding. Maveron led, joined by DMG Ventures and Second Sight Ventures. luckybevco.com

• Abound, a cross-border remittance platform, raised $14m in seed funding. NEAR Foundation led, joined by Circle Ventures and former parent company Times Internet. axios.link/4l5ki95

• Certiverse, a Chicago-based certification platform, raised $11m in Series A funding led by Cherryrock Capital. axios.link/3XYFtQr

• BuildVision, a Charleston, S.C.-based commercial construction procurement platform, raised $10m in Series A funding. Norwest Venture Partners led, joined by Crosslink Capital. buildvision.io

• Crstl, an SF-based B2B commerce network, raised over $10m from Mosaic General Partnership, Cohen Circle Fintech Ventures, and Shopify Ventures. crstl.ai

• Warlock Labs, an SF-based crypto infrastructure startup, raised $8m in seed funding. Polychain Capital led, joined by Greenfield Capital, Reciprocal Ventures, Symbolic Capital, Ambush Capital, and TRGC. axios.link/4j9Z0oZ

• WunderGraph, an open-source GraphQL startup, raised $7.5m in Series A funding from eBay Ventures, Karma Ventures, and Aspenwood Ventures. axios.link/426pdxE

• Chord, a customer data platform for brands, raised $5.5m in seed funding, per Axios Pro. M13 led, joined by Act One Ventures and GRO Ventures. axios.link/3Rp4f8m

• Taxo, an SF-based data extraction and reasoning engine for health-care admins, raised $5m in seed funding from YC, General Catalyst, and Character. taxo.ai

🚑 Intelliseq, a Polish bioinformatics startup, raised €4.5m, led by Vinci HiTech. axios.link/3Y9GPrl

🚑 Marit Health, a salary transparency platform for medicine, raised $3.2m in seed funding led by Define Ventures. marithealth.com

• All Gravy, an app for Gen Z frontline workers, raised $2.9m co-led by Scale Capital and Moonfire Ventures. axios.link/4j7dQwo

• Experial, a German market research platform, raised €2m in pre-seed funding led by Capnamic Ventures. axios.link/4iS5g5e

• Angeion Group and Case Works, both litigation-focused portfolio companies of Renovus Capital Partners, are merging. axios.link/3E7FH0B

Atlantic Street Capital invested in Dynamic Campus, an Austin, Texas-based provider of managed services for higher ed. dynamiccampus.com

🌎 Earth Systems, a Palm Beach Capital portfolio company, acquired Spangler Environmental, an environmental and risk management consultant in the Carolinas and Florida. earthsys.net

• Incline Equity Partners acquired Command Investigations, a Lake Mary, Fla., provider of insurance investigation services. gocommand.com

🚑 KKR and Japan Investment Partners agreed to buy Japanese medical gear maker Topcon (Tokyo: 7732) for $2.31b. axios.link/3DZa4X8

• Modella Capital agreed to buy WH Smith's (LSE: SMWH) high street business, comprising 480 stores, for £76m. axios.link/428WW9Y

• Omaha Productions, founded by Peyton Manning, sold around a 10% stake at a $750m valuation to a Silver Lake-backed fund led by former Endeavor CEO Patrick Whitesell. axios.link/4iKDCqx

• Seven2 agreed to buy German wealth manager HRK Lunis from JC Flowers. axios.link/4c4dmos

• SureWerx, a PPE and safety gear provider owned by Partners Group, acquired Reliance Fall Protection, a maker of fall protection safety products. surewerx.com

• Blackstone is weighing a sale of ISN Software, a Dallas-based compliance software firm that could fetch at least $6b, per Bloomberg. axios.link/3RmNcUr

⚡ I Squared Capital is seeking to sell Irish power producer Energia Group, which could fetch around €2b, per Bloomberg. axios.link/4iGFBvZ

⚡ Morgan Stanley is seeking to sell its 50.1% stake in listed German renewable project developer PNE, which has a market cap north of €1b, per Reuters. axios.link/4hTq4Yp

The South China Morning Post reports that CK Hutchison won't sign its Panama ports sale to BlackRock by next Wednesday, as originally expected, due to growing pressure from Beijing.

• A source familiar with the situation tells me that diligence and negotiations remain active and with high confidence, but that the signing date could slip by weeks or even months.
• As we wrote recently, this deal is not a sure bet. It's also possible that China is using this as a bargaining chip in tariff discussions with the U.S., much like the TikTok divestiture.

• Bobo's, a Loveland, Colo.-based maker of oat bars, hired William Blair to find a buyer, per Axios Pro. axios.link/41LkP8z

• Todd Boehly is weighing a takeover bid for U.K. media company National World (LSE: NWOR). axios.link/41MBOr5

• Coty (NYSE: COTY) sold its 20% stake in Skkn by Kim to Skims, the VC-backed shapewear maker founded by Kim Kardashian. axios.link/4jc2RC9

• Krafton of South Korea paid $14m in cash for a control stake in Indian gaming studio Nautilus Mobile. axios.link/41LVvzg

• Pappas Restaurants of Houston is expected to buy bankrupt On The Border Mexican Grill & Cantina, per Bloomberg. axios.link/3FJdYUB

• Ubisoft (Paris: UBI) is carving out a unit that includes Assassin's Creed at a €4b enterprise value, with Tencent investing €1.16b for a 25% stake. axios.link/4j5hQxx

⚡ Woodside Energy (ASX: WDS) agreed to sell some Trinidad and Tobago assets to Perenco for US$206m. axios.link/3FFdDSW

• BC Partners is targeting $1.4b for its third private credit fund, per Bloomberg. axios.link/3DUww3D

• Churchill Asset Management raised $750m for its third collateralized fund obligation fund. churchillam.com

• EQT raised €21.5b for its sixth infrastructure fund. axios.link/3XBURSu

• Maven 11 Capital, a European crypto VC firm, raised $107m for its third fund. axios.link/41LHphl

• Waterfall Asset Management named Keerthi Raghavan as co-CIO and said that current co-CIO Patrick Lo has resigned. waterfallam.com