Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving the needle.
Blue Origin is opening its doors to outside capital for the first time in its twenty-five year history, with Jeff Bezos seeking external investors after New Glenn's explosion last month. That's a significant strategic pivot for a company Bezos has funded entirely himself, and it signals growing pressure to compete as launch costs mount.
Shifting to labor markets, a Harvard Business School working paper finds that AI-native startups are structurally bypassing entry-level talent, favoring senior technical hires and running leaner, flatter organizations. The data reinforces what many early-career graduates are already feeling — the traditional on-ramp into the workforce is narrowing, and AI is a primary driver.
And in California, the fight over a proposed billionaire wealth tax is getting expensive. Google cofounder Sergey Brin has committed eighty-two million dollars to opposition efforts, with John Doerr adding another twelve million and Peter Thiel contributing three million to a separate group. The scale of that spending tells you everything about how seriously the state's wealthiest residents are taking this proposal.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
