Welcome to Markets Desk, here's what's moving.
Disney is leaning hard into artificial intelligence, pursuing a stake in Character dot A I through bankruptcy proceedings while already operating under a three-year deal with OpenAI's Sora platform signed in December of two thousand twenty five. The move signals that the house of mouse sees generative A I as a core distribution channel for its intellectual property going forward.
Shifting to private markets, A I infrastructure startup Modal just tripled its valuation to fifteen point seven five billion dollars after closing a seven hundred fifty million dollar Series D round. That's up from four point six five billion just five months ago following its Series C. The velocity of that rerating tells you everything about where institutional capital is flowing right now — compute infrastructure is the new gold rush.
And on the consumer side, Walmart is overhauling its employee benefits package effective two thousand twenty seven, covering more than two hundred fifty prescription drugs at no cost and expanding access to GLP-one medications. For a company employing roughly one point six million Americans, this is a meaningful signal about how large employers are absorbing healthcare cost pressure while competing for frontline labor.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
