*as of 8/26; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, GOLD

The last few weeks seen an unprecedented number of major sports franchises being sold, led by the record $12.5 billion sale of the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers. The NFL’s Seattle Seahawks sold for a league-record $9.6 billion, while the Atlanta Falcons received a minority investment from the PE firm Arctos at a valuation of $10.6 billion. Baseball’s premier franchise, the New York Yankees, took an investment from alternative investing firm Apollo at a valuation of close to $10 billion, and the San Diego Padres sold for a MLB-record $3.9 billion. Stakes of the NBA and WNBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx also sold together at a $4.5 billion valuation.

➨ TAKEAWAY: With private equity jumping in enthusiastically, it is clear that major sports franchises have evolved into a legitimate alternative asset class, and institutional money is going to keep flooding in. With a natural scarcity of assets, valuable media rights, and the rise of sports betting, franchises are seen as a strong long-term investment, and valuations are starting to reflect that.

📊 Inflation comes in hot: The Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index, the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation, was up 0.2% monthly and 3.7% annually in July, slightly higher than expectations. The Core PCE index, which strips out food and energy costs, was also up 0.2% monthly and 3.3% annually, also above expectations. The CME FedWatch tool now puts the odds of a rate hike next month at 36%.

🤖 Nvidia to buy Hugging Face: As many suspected, the mystery buyer of the open-source AI startup Hugging Face has been revealed to be none other than Nvidia, the most valuable company in the world. The deal is for $12.9 billion, a huge step up from the $7 billion figure quoted earlier this year when Hugging Face turned down an investment from Nvidia.

🪙 Coinbase launches tokenized stocks: The crypto trading platform is now officially offering tokenized shares companies such as Nvidia, Apple, and Alphabet on its Base blockchain network. For now, only eligible non-U.S. users can hold and trade these digital tokens which feature 24/7 trading and integration with DeFi platforms.

🚀 Spacetech thriving: The subject of our latest investor briefing, spacetech startups, raised $11.3 billion of VC funding in the first half of 2026, surpassing the total raised in all of 2025. The number of deals is also already higher than last year’s total, as the industry grows in both breadth and depth.

🏡 New construction data: The majority of demand for newly built homes is coming from out-of-metro buyers, with the listings that attract more attention tending to be in more affordable areas and carrying price cuts.

🏢 Office vacancy falling: U.S. office vacancy fell to 15.8% in Q2, 140 basis points below its 2024 high, as net absorption was positive for the ninth consecutive quarter. This is the result of both steadily increasing demand and a record-low amount of new construction.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is sounding the alarm on AI, warning that it poses a sever danger to society in the form of mass job loss and displacement, as well as the increased risk of catastrophic cyber attacks. Gates proposes that governments increase regulations and taxes on AI. As if to illustrate Gates’ point, reports came out that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg secretly tried to replace up to 60% of some internal teams with autonomous AI agents. In a short-term win for humans, Zuckerberg’s plan failed due to both widespread employee revolt and the overall ineffectiveness of AI agents. However, as AI agents improve, this will not be the last time a major CEO is tempted by the idea of cutting a large amount of their workforce, and Gates’ concerns should not be taken lightly.