OpenAI hits back

Good morning. OpenAI hits back at missed goals talk. AI trading bots are becoming a thing. And Bolivia seeks a $3 billion tourism boost to revive its crumbling economy. Listen to the day’s top stories.

— Angela Cullen

OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar hit back at talk the company is missing internal sales and user targets. The AI giant sees a “vertical wall of demand,” she said, after a WSJ report about missed internal goals pressured AI-linked stocks earlier this week. Heading into week’s end, US equity futures are signaling a pause in the rally that’s powered Wall Street gauges to record highs on strong Big Tech earnings.

Oil was set for a second weekly gain as President Donald Trump said he was sticking with a naval blockade of Iranian ports and was briefed on further military options. Trump wants Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions but the examples of North Korea and Pakistan may actually be strengthening Tehran’s incentives to build a bomb.

Payday. Elon Musk’s first compensation figure after Tesla shareholders approved his moonshot pay package is in, and it’s a doozy: $158 billion. Not quite Musk-level, but Jane Street’s journey to the top of Wall Street has also been a lucrative ride for its workforce. The firm doled out $9.38 billion in compensation last year, more than double the 2024 amount, people familiar said. That equates to $2.68 million per employee—almost seven times as much as Goldman Sachs paid.

Creaking debt. The US credit rating is under pressure from a widening deficit, with debt “far above” its peers, Fitch warned. It expects further fiscal deterioration in 2026, driven by tax cuts, but plus-points include the dollar’s role as the global reserve currency, a large and dynamic economy and the depth and liquidity of capital markets.

Wall Street executives and New York’s elite are uniting behind Ken Griffin after Mayor Zohran Mamdani singled out the Citadel CEO’s property in his push for a new tax on pricey second homes, even billionaires sympathetic to Democrats. Galaxy Digital founder Mike Novogratz, who supports progressive causes, said the rich should pay more tax but targeting Griffin was “snarky.” “When you demonize the rich, they’re a whole lot less willing and desiring to help.”

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Deep Dive: The Lure of AI Trading Bots

Photographer: Rachel Wisniewski/Bloomberg

Across equities, crypto and prediction markets, a growing legion of retail traders are training AI agents to buy and sell assets on their behalf. It’s the logical next step for a generation who came of age on apps like Robinhood.

• The tools to set up the bots have never been more accessible. Open-source platforms like OpenClaw allow wannabe stock-pickers to talk to their AI agents through messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram. But there are risks, hacking being just one of them.
• There’s also the hype. Remember the meme stock mania of 2021, when social media was both a marketplace for trading ideas and an amplifier for invented gains? It’s a familiar cycle.
• Still, the rising demand means trading platforms are opening their arms. Crypto-powered exchanges like Polymarket, OKX, Bybit and Kraken have all rolled out interfaces that make it easier for AI agents to place trades.
• But what AI has yet to make easier is actually earning any money. Jake Nesler spent weeks teaching his bot, then set it loose with $100,000 in fake capital. “It’s totally possible to make money with it,” he says. “It doesn’t mean they’re not going to lose that money also.”

The Big Take

Photographs by George Etheredge and Clark Hodgin

J&J has turned ketamine into a $1.7 billion depression drug, paving the way for a new generation of psychedelic therapy. Rivals like AbbVie are waiting in the wings.

Big Take Podcast

The Tariff Refund Process Begins

Opinion

Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Central bankers should avoid explicit predictions on stocks or credit, as such remarks often misfire, Marcus Ashworth writes. They should remember Alan Greenspan’s famous warning about “irrational exuberance”—which was followed by another three years of markets continuing to surge.

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Before You Go

Bolivia is turning its natural riches into a tourism draw—and a way to attract hard currency. Beyond the dazzling Salar de Uyuni, there’s historic Potosí and elegant Sucre, not to mention the Tarija wine region, La Paz’s dramatic canyon setting, nearby Lake Titicaca, and Rurrenabaque, the gateway to the Amazon and Madidi National Park. The challenge is getting there.

A Few More

The Paradox at the Top of the World

Now Might Be the Time to Bet on a Kentucky Derby Longshot

Losing $300 Million Clouds MLS Club’s Future in Vancouver

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