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Good morning and happy Monday.
Lukas Walton, one of the heirs to the vast Walmart fortune, and his wife, Samantha, have taken a minority stake in the NBA’s Chicago Bulls, the team announced Friday. He paid an undisclosed amount to buy existing stakes from limited partners.
The Bulls, who have struggled for much of this century after a dominant 1990s run led by Michael Jordan, remain under the control of Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf. He bought the franchise for $16.2 million in 1985, and the asset is now worth $6 billion, according to Forbes. Reinsdorf said his family will maintain a controlling interest in the Bulls and is “steadfast in its long-term commitment to the team,” seemingly closing the door to Walton one day obtaining controlling ownership. It goes to show that, even if you’re a 39-year-old worth an estimated $46.5 billion because of an inheritance, nothing is a slam dunk.
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They don’t call it the Bible Belt for nothing: A Texas-based startup is working with the federal government to create a “modern-day Noah’s Ark” containing the genetic material of roughly 2,300 endangered plant and animal species.
The project, essentially a cryo-preserved “genetic backup” of flora and fauna protected under the Endangered Species Act, will be developed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the self-described “de-extinction” company Colossal Biosciences.
From Mammoths to Tom Brady
Dallas-based Colossal has received reams of media attention (guilty as charged) for its attempts to bring back extinct animals like the woolly mammoth. Last year, it said it engineered mice to have “mammoth-like traits” (namely, the thick hair) and claimed it resurrected the long-extinct dire wolf by breeding three pups, which many scientists disputed by noting they’re technically genetically modified grey wolf hybrids. The company also cloned the late pet dog of NFL great Tom Brady, a Colossal investor.
Preserving genetic material isn’t new in the conservation world, and it has clear practical uses. In 2024, for example, scientists successfully cloned two black-footed ferrets from tissue samples from San Diego’s Frozen Zoo as part of an ongoing effort to boost the genetic diversity of the endangered species. As part of the Colossal partnership, the federal government will own the samples, and the genetic data will be made freely available to conservationists and researchers, according to a statement. The government isn’t paying Colossal either; it’s just providing the service’s cooperation and sharing its expertise in collecting samples.
None of this, of course, answers the question of how Colossal plans to make money. There is an answer for that, and it’s more to do with the journey than the destination:
- The genetic material will be housed in a global network of so-called BioVaults that Colossal is developing. The first is slated for Dubai after the United Arab Emirates invested $60 million in the company earlier this year, following a $200 million fundraising round last year that valued Colossal at $10 billion.
- But the real moneymaking opportunity, according to Colossal CEO Ben Lamm, is in spinning out and licensing technologies developed in the course of its genetic research and development. “It’s very much like the Apollo program: When you go to the moon, you develop all these tools and technologies,” he said during a podcast last year, referencing the NASA program that led to innovations in water filtration, freeze-dried food, cardiovascular equipment, firefighting materials and kidney dialysis machines.
  Three’s Company: Colossal has already spun off three companies: predictive biology startup Astromech, which was valued at $2 billion earlier this year; computational biology platform Form Bio; and Breaking, a company using microorganisms to break down plastic waste.
Written by Sean Craig
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A California-based rocket maker that runs the entire space stack in-house: designing, manufacturing, launching and monitoring. The Motley Fool calls it one of its highest-conviction picks, and most investors cannot even name it.
And while Wall Street piled into the newly public SpaceX, this one stayed off the radar. It is roughly 1/100th the size of Nvidia, in a market headed for $1.8 trillion by 2035. According to the Fool, the founder-CEO has more than $2.6 billion of his own fortune riding on it.
The last time the Fool was this convinced, the stock was Nvidia in 2009. If you took a $5,000 stake in it then, it would be worth more than $2.5 million now.
See the stock.
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Meta may have given up on the metaverse, but it’s bent on making smart glasses happen. And its new, more affordable specs could help the tech move into the mainstream.
Retailing for just under $300, they cost $80 less than the tech’s previous generation and $500 less than the more advanced Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses. But less isn’t necessarily more: Snap’s ~$2,200 Specs, released this month, and Meta’s most expensive frames come with built-in screens for that Minority Report feel and advanced features that let users secretly stream Love Island during boring conversations.
Meta seems to have its sights set on a less advanced but more beginner-friendly future for now.
The AI Hardware Push
Meta’s new glasses come with speakers and a camera, skipping a built-in display. Users can ask the glasses to live-translate more than 20 languages, provide turn-by-turn walking directions, take calls, play music, snap pictures, and answer questions.
The new generation of glasses is the first to be powered by Meta’s new AI model Muse Spark. The model is its attempt to catch up to competing offerings from OpenAI and Anthropic after CEO Mark Zuckerberg was reportedly underwhelmed with the progress of its previous model. The company’s all in on AI, raising its spending forecast for the year from $125 billion to $145 billion, but so far it’s had little to show for it.
AI accessories could change that by giving the company a toehold to climb above its rivals:
- AI devices haven’t been a hit so far, with people opting to use AI on devices they already own. The main flop, Humane’s AI pin, struggled to justify its $700 price with its glitchy, user-unfriendly features. The industry is still betting the market will grow, however.
- OpenAI plans to ship its first AI device later this year, possibly a pair of smart earbuds, and Apple is working on an AirTag-sized AI pin that would work with AI phones using cameras and speakers to act as “eyes and ears.” Meta, however, has a head start in selling an extra device to AI users: Its smart glasses made up 76% of last year’s shipments, according to International Data Corp.
The Kylie Effect: While smart glasses may appeal to tech’s first adopters, they’ve struggled to become a must-have, despite Zuck’s personal glow-up. The $800 Ray-Bans, for one, came with infamously chunky black frames. Zuck’s counting on Kylie Jenner to up AI-powered glasses’ cool factor. The company’s cat-eyed collab with the celeb could help capture Gen Z buyers while other designs appeal to their parents.
Written by Jamie Wilde
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Everything’s bigger in Texas. Including, increasingly, Wall Street’s presence.
The latest big bank to consider planting deeper roots in the fertile Texas soil is Morgan Stanley, which is weighing a $1.3 billion operational hub in Dallas. Of course, it won’t be alone in the Lone Star state, as it’s more than just the brisket that is luring the financial industry to Y’all Street.
Hook ’Em Horns
The advantages of Texas are hard to overlook for the financial sector: lower taxes, a more stable (and, critically, looser) regulatory landscape, attractively affordable cost of living for employees, at least compared with Manhattan. The latter reason is in part why Apollo Global Management said it chose Austin, Texas, as the location for its second headquarters earlier this month; the $1 trillion asset management firm told the Financial Times it will be a hub for new hires.
Goldman Sachs is in the process of building a $500 million Dallas-based campus, not far from where Bank of America is also planning to set up shop in an under-development skyscraper set to house 1,000 employees. Last year, the financial industry had 9% more job postings in Texas than New York, according to non-profit business advocacy group Partnership for New York City. JPMorgan’s Texas headcount surpassed its New York headcount in 2024.
For Morgan Stanley, the move would come with a few bonus points:
- Last week, the Dallas City Council approved an economic incentive package that would grant the bank up to $18.5 million in economic development grants, as well as up to a 90% tax abatement over 10 years on business personal property for the 709,000-square-foot tower it is considering.
- If Morgan Stanley moves forward, the bank says the location would support 3,500 jobs through 2035 and 1,000 more by 2039.
Exchange Rate: By that point, the long-planned Texas Stock Exchange will presumably be entering into maturity. The planned exchange, which aims to provide a lower-cost on-ramp to going public among other goals, is set to launch later this summer, with corporate listings expected as soon as October.
Written by Brian Boyle
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- Tax At Your Peril: President Trump threatened to impose 100% tariffs on countries that place digital services taxes on US tech companies; Canada withdrew a proposal last year while the EU is considering one.
- Seen Better Jetta Days: Struggling automaker Volkswagen is considering closing four factories and slashing 100,000 jobs, or 15% of its workforce, in what would be the biggest layoffs in history.
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