Crypto News: The Trillion Dollar Man

Good morning. How would you fancy a trillion dollar pay deal? Broadcom and OpenAI come for Nvidia. And we try pizza-flavored vodka. Bear with us, it's ridiculously tasty. Listen to the day's top stories.

— Angela Cullen

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Tesla dangled a new pay deal for Elon Musk that could potentially be valued at a staggering $1 trillion. The 10-year package sets a series of ambitious benchmarks that Musk must meet to earn the full payout, including expanding Tesla's robotaxi business and growing the company's market value to at least $8.5 trillion from around $1 trillion today. Here's a reminder of the scale of the challenge.

The AI chip race is on. Broadcom is helping OpenAI design and produce an AI accelerator that should hit the market next year and put the heat on Nvidia. That may also help allay any concerns about faltering momentum for the world's hottest chipmaker.

Photographer: Will Oliver/EPA

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was one of a group of tech execs pledging to boost AI spending in the US at the White House on Thursday. Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and Apple's Tim Cook also attended a dinner that highlighted Donald Trump's deepening relationship with Silicon Valley. The president warned that "fairly substantial" tariffs on chip imports are on the way, but hinted that Apple "would be in pretty good shape."

The New York City mayoral race is heating up. Trump said he'd like to see two candidates drop out to improve the chances of ending Democrat Zohran Mamdani's insurgent bid. Bill Ackman urged Eric Adams not to run for reelection, but the incumbent says he's staying in, "no matter what," and denied he'd been offered a job in the Trump administration, but—according to the New York Times—he's privately hinted he might pull out after a secret meeting in Florida.

NYC Mayor Adams on Trump and Running for Reelection 'No Matter What'

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Treasury traders are bracing for today's closely watched employment report, which could clear the way for an interest rate cut by the Federal reserve this month. The August report is expected to confirm the hiring slowdown suggested by other recent data. Homebuyers are watching, hoping for more declines after 30-year mortgage rates fell to 6.5%.

Deep Dive: War Games

Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg

Trump will sign an executive order today renaming the Department of Defense as the Department of War, reviving a moniker not used since the 1940s. The president has long mused about making the change, even as he boasts of his efforts to end conflicts abroad and argues that he's deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize.

At the same time, Trump is stepping up US military activity around the world. After bombing Iranian nuclear sites in June, the US is deploying warships in the southern Caribbean to target drug cartels, a move that's inflamed tensions with Venezuela.
The Pentagon said two Venezuelan jets buzzed an American vessel in international waters, days after the US struck a suspected drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean Sea it said was headed from Venezuela, killing all 11 people aboard.
Chile's foreign minister said Latin American nations are drafting a joint declaration calling for peace. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the US would be open to basing troops in Ecuador, more than 15 years after a previous president expelled them.
All this comes just weeks after Washington put a $50 million bounty on Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro's head, awakening some long dormant interventionist fantasies.

The Big Take

Dividends over day jobs. Work hard, invest cautiously and maybe—just maybe—you'll get a few good years at the end. That's the deal Americans have been sold for generations. But for jaded Gen Zers, it's a ripoff. They're piling into dividends as a way to escape the daily grind, and not just stalwarts like Coca-Cola and Exxon. Today's crowd is going for high-yield ETFs. Call it the "shiny object syndrome."

Opinion

Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum. Photographer: Stephania Corpi/Bloomberg

As odd political partnerships go, the rapport between Trump and Mexico's Claudia Sheinbaum is among the least expected, JP Spinetto writes. She's the one leftist the White House tolerates, for now.

More Opinions

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BMW, the Anti-Tesla, Is Playing the Long Game on EVs

Before You Go

ISCO pizza vodka Photographer: HoneyBuns

Pizza-flavored vodka anyone? It's surprisingly delicious, joining other boundary-pushing flavors in the category of "always order the weirdest drink on the menu"—like green tea and mushroom. Read more from Top Shelf, including a cocktail that promises prosperity. (But do keep a breath mint in your back pocket.)

A Couple More