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The Investor

Sunday, May 31, 2026 · 13 stories

Markets, crypto, and business news with a side of entertainment and world affairs

Stories in this brief

Poland’s economy is thriving, but its science is dying

Nature · May 26

Poland boasts a thriving economy but is experiencing a significant decline in science funding. Only 1.1% of its GDP is allocated to science and higher education, a stark contrast to government pledges for robust research investment. This underfunding threatens the nation's scientific future despite economic success. Source: Nature.

The woman behind the Valkyries’ billion-dollar rise

SF Standard · May 26

The Golden State Valkyries are a commercial success, achieving a billion-dollar valuation in less than two years. Team president Jess Smith is credited as the driving force behind this rapid rise. Smith's background in various sports and her focus on consumer experience have been key to building the franchise. The SF Standard reports that Smith's approach emphasizes genuine connection with fans.

Gulf's SpaceX investors could be set for windfall following IPO

Semafor · May 26

Gulf investors stand to see significant returns from SpaceX's upcoming initial public offering. While specific stake details for regional investors are not public, even a small percentage could be worth billions. This potential windfall follows substantial investments from entities like Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding and Abu Dhabi's MGX. Semafor reports that this could also boost other AI investments in the region.

Musk and Altman’s AI rivalry reaches boiling point as IPO race heats up

The Guardian - Tech · May 26

Elon Musk and Sam Altman are locked in an intense rivalry as their respective AI ventures prepare to go public. A federal jury ruled against Musk's lawsuit concerning OpenAI's founding. SpaceX announced its $1.75 trillion IPO plans, while OpenAI is reportedly nearing its own public offering. This competition signals a significant concentration of power in AI's future. The Guardian - Tech.

Is Peter Thiel the target of Pope Leo's Gandalf quote? An investigation.

Ars Technica · May 26

Ars Technica investigates a potential subtle message from Pope Leo the Fourteenth in his new encyclical on AI. The Pope quotes Gandalf from Lord of the Rings, a literary series famously embraced by tech investor Peter Thiel and his circle. The article explores Thiel's beliefs about AI, the Antichrist, and his criticism of regulation, suggesting the Pope's quote might be a response to Thiel's views.

Claude Code's creator on the end of the software engineer

Platformer · May 27

Boris Cherny, creator of Anthropic's Claude Code, believes AI is rapidly transforming software engineering. He suggests the term "software engineer" may disappear this year, replaced by "builder" roles as AI tools empower more people to write code. Cherny predicts a significant increase in individuals creating software, potentially a hundredfold, even as traditional engineering roles evolve. Source: Platformer.

Tether will launch an 'official' stablecoin in Georgia tied to local currency

Engadget · May 25

Tether is launching a new stablecoin in Georgia called GELT, which will be officially tied to the Georgian Lari. This marks one of the first collaborations between a national currency and a purpose-built stablecoin, aiming for lower transaction costs and near-instant settlement. The move has received support from the Georgian government after years of collaboration with its regulatory bodies. Engadget reports this initiative aims to modernize financial transactions within the country.

Full Transcript

HOST

Imagine a country where factories hum but labs go dark.

AISHA

Poland allocates only 1.1 percent of GDP to research and higher education. A common read is that strong growth would lift every sector; the data shows science budgets stayed flat even as factories expanded. The gap undercuts the Warsaw Declaration’s targets and pushes young researchers abroad. Talent loss now sets the pace for the next decade of national projects.

HOST

The real test is whether the 8 percent crossover figure holds after year two.

MARCUS

Smith’s first season already cleared that bar. The last time an expansion club tried the same split, the 1995 Colorado Avalanche still leaned on the Nuggets database for half its list. Smith instead built three distinct buyer pools—core women’s-sports fans, cultural newcomers, and legacy Bay Area households—then priced season tickets at the top of the WNBA range without Warriors overlap. That structure now gives the Valkyries an independent revenue base before any on-court success arrives.

HOST

What if Gulf money in SpaceX turns into billions overnight?

ELENA

MGX and Kingdom Holding each hold stakes large enough that a 1% slice equals roughly $15 billion. A common read is that Gulf investors only bought into xAI; the filings show those same vehicles also backed SpaceX directly through converted Twitter shares. Prince Alwaleed’s converted holdings alone sit above the disclosure threshold and will convert at IPO. The payout will flow straight into new AI rounds already lined up by PIF and Oman Investment Authority.

HOST

Picture two of the biggest AI names racing toward the same exit.

PRIYA

OpenAI sits at roughly one trillion dollars after a jury tossed Musk's lawsuit. SpaceX filed for a one point seven five trillion dollar Nasdaq listing under ticker SPCX that could pull in eighty billion. That timing puts both companies on parallel tracks to public markets within weeks of each other. The outcome decides who controls the next round of AI capital.

HOST

Most people assume papal encyclicals ignore Silicon Valley debates.

PRIYA

Pope Leo the Fourteenth's encyclical places Tolkien's line about resisting evil "in the fields that we know" right next to a warning on concentrated AI power. Thiel has tied AI oversight to apocalyptic themes and pushed for minimal oversight on companies like Palantir. The piece reads that placement as a direct rebuttal to Thiel's global-scale tech vision. It leaves the implication that local, bounded action now carries moral weight in Rome's view of machine intelligence.

HOST

What happens when the people who write code stop calling themselves engineers?

PRIYA

Boris Cherny already sees AI handling the bulk of his daily coding. A common assumption is that only trained engineers will keep shipping; the data shows product managers and designers now push working features through Claude Code without touching a terminal. Cherny expects the number of people who create software to jump roughly a hundred times this year. That shift turns the old title into a label most builders no longer need.

HOST

If you draft stablecoin rules for a living, this changes the timeline.

DAVID

Georgia’s central bank will hold the lari reserves for GELT in a segregated account at the Treasury, not at Tether’s offshore entities. That custody choice removes the reserve-opacity problem that still shadows USDT. The same legal text also lets GELT smart contracts trigger automatic tax withholding, a feature the finance ministry wants to roll out by the end of next year. Other regulators will now have a working template instead of a blank page.

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