Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on the stories moving money and markets.
Jeff Bezos is making noise in the tax debate, telling CNBC that lower-income Americans should pay zero federal income tax. Using the image of a nurse in Queens, the Amazon founder argued there is something uniquely powerful about zero as a threshold. It is a populist position from one of the wealthiest men on earth, and it lands squarely in an active congressional conversation about extending and reshaping the tax code.
Shifting to the venture capital space, Circle cofounder Sean Neville has closed thirty million dollars in Series A funding for Catena Labs, his so-called AI-native bank. The round was led by Acrew Capital and a sixteen z crypto. Catena builds infrastructure allowing AI agents to conduct financial transactions safely, a niche that sits at the intersection of two of the most capital-hungry themes in markets right now.
And speaking of AI capital flows, the Defiance AI and Power Infrastructure ETF is drawing fresh attention as investors hunt for picks-and-shovels plays on artificial intelligence. Power infrastructure has emerged as one of the clearest bottlenecks in the AI buildout, and funds positioned at that intersection are seeing sustained inflows as the energy demand story continues to sharpen.
That is the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
