Plus: AI power-up | Monday, May 18, 2026
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| Axios Closer |
| By Nathan Bomey · May 18, 2026 |
Monday ✅. Today's newsletter is 757 words, a 3-minute read. π The dashboard: The S&P 500 closed down 0.1%.
- Stocks bounced back in the final hour of trading after President Trump said he would delay a planned attack on Iran to allow more time for negotiations.
π₯Ά Today's stock spotlight: Seagate Technology (-6.9%) CEO Dave Mosley said the storage disk maker can't fully meet surging AI data center demand, arguing that new factory build-outs would take too long and risk future overcapacity. |
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| 1 big thing: Musk loses OpenAI court battle |
| By Ina Fried and Madison Mills |
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| Photo illustration: AΓ―da Amer/Axios. Photos: Jim Lo Scalzo/Bloomberg and Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images |
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OpenAI survived Elon Musk's lawsuit unscathed today — a staggering defeat for the Tesla chief in his showdown with Sam Altman, Axios' Ina Fried and Madison Mills report. Why it matters: Musk had sought up to $134 billion in damages and Altman's ouster from OpenAI, arguing the company abandoned its founding nonprofit mission in pursuit of profit.
- Musk now appears unlikely to get either.
⚖️ Driving the news: A federal jury, needing just a few hours to deliberate, unanimously ruled today that Musk waited too long to bring his lawsuit.
- The judge accepted the advisory verdict, saying there was a "substantial amount of evidence" to support its findings.
π₯ Between the lines: Musk and Altman have had repeated spats since Musk stepped down from OpenAI's board in 2018, as both men vied for leadership in AI.
- OpenAI attorneys during the trial framed Musk's lawsuit as an attack from a competitor, as Musk has his own artificial intelligence company, xAI, which is now part of SpaceX and on the verge of an IPO.
- Musk's lawyers argued OpenAI misused the millions of dollars Musk donated in the entity's early days, and that its executives violated their duty to uphold OpenAI's founding ethos.
π The impact: "OpenAI now faces a clear path to a public listing," WSJ noted. What we're watching: Musk said on X that he'll appeal "because creating a precedent to loot charities is incredibly destructive to charitable giving in America." |
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| 2. ⚡️ Powering up for AI |
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| Photo illustration: Cheng Xin/Getty Images. Photo: Luke Johnson/Bloomberg via Getty Images |
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Two big announcements today illustrated how quickly the energy landscape is evolving as AI drives explosive demand.
- ⚡️ U.S. power giants NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy announced plans to merge in the largest electricity deal — by far — since the mainstreaming of AI.
- π Ford announced a deal to provide up to 20 gigawatt-hours of battery energy storage capability over five years to EDF power solutions North America.
Zoom in: The NextEra-Dominion deal "creates the world's largest regulated electric utility business by market capitalization and one of the world's largest energy infrastructure companies," the companies said.
- Dominion powers the world's largest data center market in northern Virginia, CNBC noted.
- The combined company would be the world's largest player in renewables and battery storage and would lead the U.S. in total power generation, Axios' Ben Geman reports.
Meanwhile, the Ford Energy announcement marks a big win for the Blue Oval automaker as it vies to compete in the same space as Tesla, which has been making battery storage systems for years. |
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| 3. Regrets, he's had a few |
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"I said, 'Shit, I should have asked for more.'"
— President Donald Trump, in a Fortune interview, recalling the conversation with Intel's CEO where he got a 10% government stake in the company in exchange for chips funding. The position is now worth more than $50 billion.
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A MESSAGE FROM AXIOS HQ |
| Comms training is strengthening business performance |
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Orgs investing in comms training and tools outperform peers by ~40 percentage points — in revenue, market share, retention, and more, according to research from Axios HQ.
- Our Smart Brevity training has helped 100s of orgs build communication habits that scale.
Learn more about training your team |
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| 4. Other happenings |
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| Photo: Tasos Katopodis/for The Washington Post via Getty Images |
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⛳️ LIV Golf is hoping to raise up to $250 million from investors after losing the support of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. (Axios) ⚖️ The liquidators winding down the estate of Chinese property developer China Evergrande sued PwC for $8.4 billion over the accounting firm's alleged negligence in its downfall. (AP) |
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| 5. Starbucks' latest merch drop |
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| Starbucks' new collaboration with Miffy launches May 19. Photo: Courtesy of Starbucks |
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Starbucks is tapping Miffy mania with a limited-edition merch drop that could fuel the next collector craze, Axios' Kelly Tyko writes. Why it matters: Starbucks tumbler drops — including last November's Bearista cup launch — already generate fast sellouts and resale buzz. Adding Miffy's global fandom and social-media appeal could supercharge demand.
- The collection launches tomorrow in the U.S. and Canada and includes tumblers, mugs, plush toys, cold cups and gift cards inspired by the rabbit character created by Dutch artist Dick Bruna.
The intrigue: Starbucks described the collection as limited edition and available "while supplies last." The company declined to share inventory details or projected demand. Go deeper |
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A MESSAGE FROM AXIOS HQ |
| Comms training is strengthening business performance |
| |
|
| |
Orgs investing in comms training and tools outperform peers by ~40 percentage points — in revenue, market share, retention, and more, according to research from Axios HQ.
- Our Smart Brevity training has helped 100s of orgs build communication habits that scale.
Learn more about training your team |
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π️ On this day in 2001, "Shrek" debuted in theaters — DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg's not-so-subtle revenge project against his former bosses at Disney. The film won the first-ever Oscar for best animated feature and launched a franchise worth more than $4 billion. Today's newsletter was edited by Pete Gannon and copy edited by Sheryl Miller.
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Why stop here? Let's go Pro.
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Former Sun Microsystems' Scott McNealy on a Stock Price of 10X Sales
"At 10 times revenues, to give you a 10-year payback, I have to pay you 100% of revenues for 10 straight years in dividends. That assumes I have zero cost of goods sold, which is very hard for a computer company.
That assumes zero expenses, which is really hard with 39,000 employees. That assumes I pay no taxes which is very hard. And that assumes you pay no taxes on your dividends which is kind of illegal. And that assumes with zero R&D for the next 10 years, I can maintain the current revenue run rate.
Now, having done that, would any of you like to buy my stock at $64? Do you realize how ridiculous those basic assumptions are? You don’t need any transparency. You don’t need any footnotes. What were you thinking?"
Tim Draper On Bitcoin
“This is bigger than the Internet. It’s bigger than the Iron Age, the Renaissance,” Draper gushed. “It’s bigger than the Industrial Revolution. This affects the entire world and it’s going to be affected in a faster and more prevalent way than you ever imagined.”
JFK, 1962
THE PRESIDENT. If the United States refused to cash in dollars for gold, then everyone would go to the gold standard and the United States, which is the reserve currency of the whole free world – we would all be dependent upon the available supply of gold, which is quite limited.
Obviously, it isn’t enough to finance the great movements of trade today and it would be the most backward step that the United States has taken since the end of the Second World War. We have substantially improved our position this quarter, the second quarter over the first quarter. Our loss is down to almost a third of what it was in the first quarter. Our loss, based on the first and second quarter of this year, is about half of what it was last year, and about a third of what it was the year before. We hope that we can bring our balance of payments into balance by the end of next year.
We are not going to devalue. There is no possible use in the United States devaluing. Every other currency in a sense is tied to the dollar; if we devalued, all other currencies would devalue and so that those who speculate against the dollar are going to lose. The United States will not devalue its dollar. And the fact of the matter is the United States can balance its balance of payments any day it wants if it wishes to withdraw its support of our defense expenditures overseas and our foreign aid.
