Axios

The Justice Department has approved Paramount Skydance's $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, as expected.

Why it matters: It's a major win for Paramount, which still awaits approval from regulators in Europe.

Elon Musk's almost inconceivable fortune has expanded the Overton window of wealth.

Why it matters: Big, round numbers have a remarkable way of focusing minds and setting narratives.

• The first trillionaire — much less a trillionaire known for erratic personal behavior, online trolling and support for global right-wing politics — will likely reignite discussion of the diverging fortunes of wage earners and those with market-based wealth, as well as their growing political power.

SpaceX and lead IPO banker Goldman Sachs began meeting with prospective IPO investors back in January, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: This preemptive playbook is likely to be replicated for Anthropic and OpenAI — both of which plan to go public later this year -- given how smoothly SpaceX stock launched on Friday.

A decade of shocks has left much of the developing world weakened just as AI begins reshaping the global economy, World Bank economists conclude in a new report.

Why it matters: A series of shocks — the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ukraine war and now the Iran war — have buffeted the world's poorest countries particularly hard. These countries risk being poorly positioned to benefit from an AI-driven productivity and spending super-cycle.

• The globe's poorest countries will enter this period burdened by debt, weak investment and years of stalled development, with little capacity to build the infrastructure and skills needed to share in those gains.

SpaceX shares are set to start trading Friday, and what to expect is anyone's guess: There's no such thing as a typical Day 1 for an initial public offering.

Why it matters: This one will be the biggest IPO of all time, raising $75 billion and minting thousands of new millionaire SpaceX employees — and potentially the world's first trillionaire in Elon Musk.

SpaceX's debut Friday is one of the biggest waves yet in a deluge of new stock that's starting to hit the market.

Why it matters: A jump in stock issuance could tilt supply-demand dynamics that have quietly supported the market for much of the past two decades.

The first major deadlines in President Trump's new AI executive order are approaching, and it's already clear that AI safety isn't the centerpiece.

Why it matters: The fast-moving timeline, the agencies involved and the lack of formal requirements for developers make clear that Trump's current AI policy is one squarely focused on cybersecurity and national security rather than broader AI safety concerns.

As Europe pursues tech sovereignty, European Commission tech chief Henna Virkkunen is trying to boost competitiveness while upholding some of the world's toughest tech regulations.

Why it matters: The EU wants to move faster on AI and emerging tech without weakening the regulations at the heart of its digital strategy.

Building data centers in space is more complicated than proponents might portray, but experts say it's increasingly doable.

Why it matters: With data center protests growing on earth, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and others have been eyeing the vastness of outer space as the next frontier.

SpaceX's projected $1.77 trillion market cap would nearly equal the combined value of the 29 largest U.S. IPOs since 2000, adjusted for inflation, which together are worth $1.76 trillion in today's dollars.

Why it matters: The bar is already incredibly high for what's on track to be the largest IPO in history, which could become a critical test of investor demand ahead of an expected wave of AI IPOs.