Plus: How AI Data Centers Could Save California’s High-Speed Rail Project |
Good morning,
Wall Street saw its latest IPO success Wednesday, as crypto exchange Bullish went public and surged as much as 160%. Bullish, which is backed by billionaire Peter Thiel, saw its market valuation surge to more than $13 billion shortly after trading opened. The New York Stock Exchange halted trading of the stock multiple times due to volatility, and the firm pared its gains by the end of the day, ending up 84%. The Bullish IPO comes on the heels of several sparkling debuts this year, including AI cloud-computing firm CoreWeave, Stablecoin issuer Circle and design startup Figma.
Let’s get into the headlines, |
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| Graduate programs have helped U.S. colleges grow for more than a decade, but they’re facing a painful adjustment thanks to President Donald Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress. Forbes identified 25 vulnerable large and mid-sized private schools from our list of America’s Top Colleges, as the Trump Administration has canceled research grants and placed restrictions on international students, while Congress’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act caps graduate student loans. Investors are increasingly hopeful the Federal Reserve will slash interest rates at its September meeting, on the heels of a better-than-predicted inflation report. Even as core inflation—which excludes the volatile food and energy categories—hit a six-month high, LPL Financial’s chief economist Jeffrey Roach wrote that the central bank is likely to cut rates amid the “weakening labor market,” as job growth has slowed over the last three months. |
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 | | A rendering of Fresno's high-speed rail station. California High-Speed Rail Authority |
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| With the clawing back of $4 billion in federal grants to support it, the Trump Administration seems hell bent on ensuring that California’s high-speed rail project ends up as precisely the “train to nowhere” the president has lambasted it as. Governor Gavin Newsom is suing to keep the money, but the train’s new CEO has some big ideas for saving the priciest U.S. infrastructure project. They include new long-term funding, private partnerships and even turning to one of California’s newest “natural” resources: the AI data center. Ian Choudri, who spent decades working on global mega-infrastructure projects for major engineering firms Bechtel, Alstom and Parsons before taking the high-speed rail job last September, is on a mission to convince skeptics that after years of slow progress, the Golden State’s bullet train from San Francisco to Los Angeles can be built—perhaps for less than its $128 billion price tag and even without federal support. In addition to future ride revenue, Choudri thinks the system can make money by letting tech firms build data centers on its land, powering them with solar farms that will also propel its trains. Other ideas include selling the rights to telecom companies to lay fiber optic cable along the train’s path, and promoting real-estate development projects on its route, particularly in the lower-priced Central Valley region. He’s submitting a revised plan this week that maps out steps to complete an initial 119-mile segment through California’s Central Valley by 2033, and then expand service north to San Francisco and San Jose and south to Palmdale in Southern California as soon as 2039, with Los Angeles to follow later. His focus is on sequencing construction phases to maximize revenue as quickly as possible, making the project less dependent on government money. |
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| “Despite claims by the Trump Administration, a considerable amount of construction work on California’s bullet train is underway—after years of delays,” says Forbes senior editor Alan Ohnsman. “If the state can find a funding mechanism, even with the loss of federal support, completing it would be remarkable, as there’s no precedent for a national government trying to kill an infrastructure project that’s beginning to show progress.” |
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| New York is suing online payment app Zelle, used by several major banks, alleging that fraudsters stole a total of $1 billion from consumers because developers failed to implement security features. The lawsuit from Attorney General Letitia James’ office mirrors similar legal action brought by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau before it was dropped under President Donald Trump’s efforts to halt the agency’s work. |
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| In an ambitious new project timed to the 250th anniversary of the U.S., Jigsaw, a think tank inside Google, is working with the founder of a major political polling outfit to use AI to transform polling, a notoriously fickle and imprecise discipline. The project, called We The People, Google exclusively told Forbes, will gather 5 to 10 people each from all 435 congressional districts in the U.S. to answer questions about what it means to be an American, the most urgent issues facing the country, and where the nation might go in the future. |
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| Donald Trump may be America’s first billionaire president, but even without his own net worth, he’s assembled the richest Cabinet in U.S. history: Forbes estimates that Trump’s top advisors are worth $7.5 billion, more than double the $3.2 billion combined fortunes of Trump’s 2019 Cabinet. Much of the Cabinet’s staggering wealth comes from its two billionaires, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Education Secretary Linda McMahon. Trump said he has narrowed his search to replace Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to “three or four” candidates, despite a report claiming as many as 11 successors were under consideration. The president has repeatedly critiqued Powell, whose term is up in May, for not lowering interest rates, and said he would name his replacement “a little bit earlier.” A senior Kremlin official outlined key details of Trump’s upcoming Friday summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, saying the two leaders will first hold a one-on-one meeting before joining wider delegation-level talks that will focus on the Ukraine war. The official also indicated that trade discussions could form a key part of the meeting, adding that “cooperation [between Russia and the U.S. in trade] has enormous potential, which, unfortunately, has not been tapped yet.” |
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| The number of adults in the U.S. who drink alcohol reached a record low in a new Gallup poll, as more people said drinking was unhealthy and the “sober curious” lifestyle is growing in popularity. Still, alcohol sales remain stable: |
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54% | The share of adults who said they consume alcohol, a 4% drop from 2024 | |
| $112.9 billion | Total alcohol sales in 2024, a less than 1% dip from the year prior | |
| 25% | The expected growth in the no- and low-alcohol drink industry between 2022 and 2026 |
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| Car shoppers flocked to dealers’ lots this spring to get ahead of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, but if you didn’t get the chance to purchase a vehicle, you’re in luck: According to auto-buying and research site CarGurus, the average list price of a new vehicle is actually lower than it was before the levies took effect. Automakers like Ford and General Motors took massive hits to their bottom lines in the last quarter, clearly choosing not to pass the costs on to consumers. Experts say the manufacturers likely want to keep sales moving, though there’s still uncertainty ahead. |
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| GAMES | | QUIZ | | Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo proposed to longtime partner Georgina Rodriguez with a ring thought to be larger than those given to celebrities Kim Kardashian and Lauren Sánchez. How many carats do appraisers estimate it could be? | | |
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