Key global financial headlines from overnight include:
1. U.S. Secretary of State Rubio reports progress in Iran talks, while Iranian Foreign Ministry suggests a deal remains distant. 2. Kevin Warsh sworn in as Federal Reserve Chair, with former President Trump expressing hope for his "complete independence." 3. Anthropic nearing a funding round exceeding $30 billion as soon as next week. 4. Qualcomm leads AI chip stocks higher as a CPU "super cycle" reshapes computing investment. 5. Fed Governor Waller supports removing "easing bias" language, stating rate cuts and hikes are equally probable. 6. BofA strategist warns on mega-IPOs like SpaceX, suggesting market concentration could surpass bubble-era levels.
U.S. Secretary of State Rubio stated on Friday that negotiations with Iran have made some progress but require further effort. Concurrently, a spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry indicated that deep and significant disagreements persist between the sides. To bolster diplomatic efforts aimed at ending the conflict, Pakistan's military chief arrived in Tehran on Friday to continue mediation work. Iranian media reported that Iran's Foreign Minister met with Pakistan's Interior Minister in Tehran. Qatar has also dispatched a negotiation team to the Iranian capital, coordinating with the U.S. in an attempt to resolve key differences. A fragile ceasefire has now held for six weeks.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump emphasized his desire for Kevin Warsh to lead the Federal Reserve independently, seeking to downplay investor concerns that he might pressure the new central bank chief on policy decisions. Warsh was sworn in as the 17th Chair of the Federal Reserve in a ceremony at the White House on Friday, having previously pledged to enact the most significant reforms at the Fed in decades. "I want Kevin to be totally independent. I want him to be independent, just do the job. Don't look at me, don't look at anybody, do your own thing, do the job," Trump said during Warsh's swearing-in ceremony.
According to people familiar with the matter, Anthropic PBC is set to complete its latest funding round as soon as next week, potentially raising over $30 billion at a valuation exceeding $900 billion. This would surpass rival OpenAI to become the world's most valuable AI startup. The people said Sequoia Capital, Dragoneer Investment Group, Altimeter Capital, and Greenoaks Capital Partners are expected to jointly lead the round, with each firm planning to invest approximately $2 billion. Several other existing investors in Anthropic, including Peter Thiel's Founders Fund and General Catalyst, also plan to participate, the people added.
Driven by robust expectations of a surge in CPU demand fueled by the AI agent wave, most U.S.-listed AI chip stocks advanced on May 22. Qualcomm rose nearly 9%, AMD gained over 3%, NXP Semiconductors and IBM climbed more than 2%, and Intel increased over 1%. This rally signals a shift in semiconductor investment focus from GPU-centric computing power competition to full-stack AI infrastructure. Qualcomm's stock extended gains to 9%-10% after the company confirmed its return to the data center CPU market and its collaboration with Nvidia on AI cluster solutions. AMD also saw significant gains, with CEO Lisa Su stating that global CPU demand, driven by AI inference and agent AI proliferation, is far exceeding expectations, leading to ongoing supply constraints.
As energy shocks from the Iran conflict push prices higher, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller stated he supports clearly indicating that the Fed's next move is as likely to be a rate hike as a cut. Waller said his current stance is to patiently hold rates steady until the effects of the war become clearer. However, he warned on Friday that he would not rule out future rate increases if inflation does not begin to slow soon. "Inflation is not moving in the right direction," he said during a speech titled "Policy Risks Have Changed" at a conference in Frankfurt. "I support removing the 'easing bias' language from our policy statement to clearly signal that the probability of future rate cuts is no higher than that of rate hikes."
Bank of America strategist Michael Hartnett warned that mega-IPOs planned by SpaceX and OpenAI could drive the weight of technology stocks in equity benchmarks to levels exceeding market concentration seen during bubble periods. SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, has outlined plans for what would be the world's largest initial public offering, while ChatGPT developer OpenAI aims to go public ahead of rival Anthropic. These massive share sales would fuel optimism around tech and AI stocks, which has already driven one of the narrowest rallies in decades. "Strong price action, retail mania, falling volatility... smells like a bubble," Hartnett said in a report. "Adding mega-IPOs to the AI giants, market concentration could easily surpass (~48%) the Roaring '20s, the Nifty Fifty of the '70s, 1980s Japan, and the TMT bubble of the '90s."
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