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The Department of Justice has set up a $1.8 billion fund that will purportedly compensate victims of prosecutorial overreach under the Biden administration. View More

President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media as he arrives at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, May 20, 2026.Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters Congress will have the best chance in the courts to block a controversial $1.8 billion "lawfare" compensation fund set up by the Department of Justice to settle a lawsuit by President Donald Trump against the Internal Revenue Service, former federal prosecutors told CNBC on Wednesday.Those attorneys, both now in private practice, said members of Congress have good legal grounds to challenge the use of taxpayer money for the fund, which purportedly will pay people who were unfairly targeted by the DOJ under the Biden administration.Two days after Trump and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the fund's creation, skeptics from across the political spectrum emerged to figure out next steps to challenge its legality. Challenges could wind their way through the court system for the duration of Trump's presidency or longer and could wind up before the Supreme Court.Opponents have various avenues for lawsuits that could delay the "Anti-Weaponization Fund" from making payouts to claimants, or even potentially kill off the fund altogether, the lawyers said.On Wednesday, two police officers who had defended the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, from a mob of Trump supporters, sued Trump in federal court in Washington, seeking to block the fund from going into effect. It remains to be seen if the officers will be found to have legal standing to challenge the fund or if their theory of why it is illegal will prevail in court."This is among the most corrupt acts we've seen," said Chris Mattei, a trial attorney in Connecticut who was previously chief of the financial fraud and public corruption unit of the U.S. Attorney's Office in the state."Essentially, what you have is a president who used a frivolous lawsuit to create pretexts within a thoroughly corrupted Department of Justice to agree to create a fund to pay off the president's supporters and would immunize the president from any tax consequences," said Mattei, who practices at Koskoff, Koskoff and Bieder. He was referring to the settlement barring the IRS from audits or enforcement actions against Trump and his family members for tax filings prior to the settlement. Tourists walk past the U.S. Capitol and are reflected in the window of a parked ambulance on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 14, 2026.Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters Trump on Wednesday told reporters he was not involved in the settlement that created the fund, but defended its purpose, saying that "people were destroyed" by the weaponization of law against the Jan. 6 Capitol defendants and other people."They went to jail, their families were ruined, they committed suicide," Trump said. "You know, all the Biden administration and the Obama administration, both of them, I mean, the Obama administration started it.""The Biden administration was horrible in terms of what they've done to people," Trump said. "We're reimbursing those people for their legal fees and for their costs and for anybody involved."Another former federal prosecutor, Neama Rahmani, told CNBC, "I still think the best legal argument" against the fund "is Congress saying that it's a violation of the appropriations section of the Constitution."The Constitution's Appropriations Clause bars the U.S. Treasury from making payments that are not authorized by law as passed by Congress.The DOJ, in its statement announcing the fund on Monday, implicitly suggested it would not violate the Appropriations Clause because, "The Fund will receive $1.776 billion and [that] will come from the judgment fund, which is a perpetual appropriation allowing DOJ to settle and pay cases."The department also said there was a legal precedent for such a fund, pointing to the Obama administration's creation of a $760 million fund to address claims by Native American farmers who were discriminated against by the Agriculture Department.Rahmani, who practices law in Los Angeles, dismissed the idea that the Anti-Weaponization Fund can receive money from the DOJ's judgment fund."This isn't clear delegation by Congress,' he said. "There's no statutory, legislative authority for any of this, which means, legally, the courts are going to be very skeptical.""This isn't the 9/11 Fund," Rahmani said. "This is not something that is being authorized or set up by Congress."The Justice Department defended the new fund, with a spokesperson saying by email: "The only thing illegal and corrupt about this situation is the brazen weaponization of federal resources by previous administrations to retaliate against those with opposing political beliefs. This Department will continue to expose this lawfare and ensure those who experienced injustices are made whole." Various legal options to challenge new DOJ fund While individuals could sue to stop the fund by citing the Appropriations Clause, private citizens often have a hard time convincing federal courts that they have legal standing to challenge government actions.Members of Congress, who are responsible for voting on federal appropriations, are less likely to have a standing problem, both Rahmani and Mattei said.Some lawmakers on Wednesday expressed unhappiness with the fund.Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., said, "As far as I'm aware, it's a completely unprecedented arrangement where you effectively had, you know, the same party negotiating on both sides of the table over taxpayer funds that are now going to be apparently dispersed without any congressional involvement whatsoever. So this is extremely concerning." Read more CNBC politics coverageTrump’s face doesn’t belong on U.S. passport, senators tell RubioJan. 6 police officers sue Trump to block $1.8B ‘lawfare’ fundBreakthrough agreement in housing bill gives investors winsDemocrats make demands of U.S. trade representative ahead of U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement review "We've got to unpack what it is and then figure out what we can do within Article 1 authority to block it or unwind it," Fitzpatrick told reporters at the Capitol, referring to Congress' powers as enumerated under Article 1 of the Constitution.Fitzpatrick, in a letter to Blanche on Wednesday, wrote, "to express my urgent concern" about what he called "a massive discretionary fund, with no oversight or approval from Congress."He said in the letter that the fund "represents a dangerous backsliding in the transparency of our institutions and our commitment to the American taxpayer."Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have spoken out against the fund's creation on Wednesday.Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., told reporters, "The $1.8 billion slush fund is completely illegal and unconstitutional because Congress never appropriated the money.""The president doesn't get to appropriate money, and so it's lawless for that reason," Raskin said. "Secondly, even if Congress wanted to, which we never would, we couldn't do it, because the 14th Amendment says the United States shall not pay for any debts related to insurrection or rebellion against the union, and any such debts are null and void in the eyes of the law," Raskin said.Raskin, later Wednesday, introduced a bill that would bar federal money from being used by the DOJ for the fund. Legal challenge most likely to come from Congress Mattei, the Connecticut lawyer, said, "If there is going to be a legal challenge to the creation of the fund ... it is likely to come from members of Congress who will allege that the purpose of the fund is a misuse of congressionally authorized funding."Mattei also said it is possible that a private group will challenge the legality of the fund under the Administrative Procedures Act, which regulates the administrative functions of federal agencies. A pending legal challenge to the construction of Trump's $400 million White House ballroom by a private group alleges the project violates the APA.Mattei also speculated that attorneys general of individual states could sue to block the DOJ's fund by arguing it is giving purported victims of prosecutorial overreach a monetary recourse not available to individuals with claims related to other types of government wrongdoing.Mattei and Rahmani both said that in addition to the source of its money, the unusual structure of the fund provides multiple footholds for legal challenges that could delay or kill the fund.The fund is supposed to have five members, each of whom would be appointed by the U.S. attorney general, with one member chosen in consultation with congressional leadership. The president can remove any member of the panel.Mattei said he expected there would be a legal challenge filed under the APA related to the structure of the fund's membership, which was determined by the DOJ and not Congress."Then you would have all sorts of litigation around people being denied compensation ... and people like the police officers [who sued Wednesday] challenge the awarding of compensation," Mattei said.Mattei said he thinks the range of options available for legal challenges to the fund means that it could be prevented from operating for some time."I suspect that there will be, at some point, a lawsuit that will be allowed to proceed to the discovery phase, and that fund during the course of that litigation is likely to be stayed during that," he said. "I think that a plaintiff challenging the formation of this fund or the governance of this fund or the manner in which it is supervised will have a lot to work with," Mattei said.— Justin Papp contributed to this report. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Before SpaceX's upcoming IPO sets an expected record, Alibaba, Facebook and Visa raised historic sums in the U.S. View More

In this articleBABAENEL-ITENL-DEDTE-FFUBERVZCBRSVGMMETARIVNFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla and SpaceX CEO, Elon MuskManuel Orbegozo | Chip Somodevilla | Reuters When SpaceX finally debuts on the Nasdaq, under the ticker symbol SPCX, it will almost certainly set a record for the largest offering ever. By a long shot. Elon Musk's reusable rocket maker filed its long-awaited IPO prospectus on Wednesday. The company didn't say how much it plans to raise but is reportedly aiming to reel in around $75 billion. That's more than triple the size of the biggest U.S. IPO to date, which was Alibaba's $22 billion offering in 2014. The next largest U.S. IPOs were from Visa, which raised nearly $18 billion in 2008, Enel SpA's $16.5 billion deal in 1999, and Facebook's $16 billion 2012 debut.Investors are counting on SpaceX to breathe life into an IPO market that's seen muted activity since late 2021, as soaring inflation and rising interest rates pushed investors out of risk. The artificial intelligence boom that has followed lifted OpenAI and Anthropic to stratospheric valuations, but both companies remain private with ambitions to eventually go public, possibly this year. OpenAI could file confidentially as soon as this week. Cerebras gave Wall Street a chance to get in on AI hardware with its Nasdaq listing last week, the biggest tech offering since Uber's IPO in 2019. But for companies like Databricks and Stripe, seemingly endless private funding opportunities have incentivized them to steer clear of the public market.While SpaceX will be looking at numbers never before seen on Wall Street, there have been giant IPOs in the past, reaching into the double-digit billions. Here are the largest U.S. IPOs to date.Alibaba Alibaba co-founders Jack Ma and chairman Joe Tsai, in front of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., on Friday, Sept. 19, 2014.Scott Eels | Bloomberg | Getty Images The Chinese tech and e-commerce giant raised $21.8 billion when it debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014, the largest IPO in history at the time.More than a decade after its IPO, Alibaba remains a dominant force in its home country through online retail and cloud computing. But the stock has lost well over half its value since peaking in October 2020, during the height of the Covid pandemic. Alibaba is also among a growing crop of businesses downsizing with the help of AI. Last year, the company slashed about a third of its workforce as it sold off some retail operations. The company is investing in more semiconductor initiatives to support its AI aspirations. Visa Getty Images Visa hit the public market with a bang in 2008 despite the looming financial crisis. The payments company raised $17.8 billion, and the stock jumped as much as 38% out of the gate. It was a major win for many banking giants strained by the housing collapse, which was bleeding into the rest of the economy. Visa shares reached a closing high of $373.31 in June and are now trading at around $330.Enel SpAWhen it went public in November 1999, the Italian multinational utility raised nearly $16.5 billion and set the record for the largest IPO ever at the time. Enel SpA began privatizing with its IPO, but the government of Italy still owns close to a quarter of the company. It's now looking to expand its scope, with plans to invest tens of billions of dollars into growing renewables in the U.S. and Europe between 2026 and 2028. Shares are up close to 25% over the last year. Facebook Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks during the remote bell ringing ceremony for the opening of trading, May 18, 2012.Zef Nikolla | Facebook via Bloomberg | Getty Images More than a decade after its 2012 debut, Mark Zuckerberg's company still owns the title of largest offering for a U.S. tech company in history, for a bit longer anyway. Now known as Meta, the company raised about $16 billion, instantly setting its market value at about $100 billion. Facebook set the stage for a series of social media IPOs in the years that followed, including Twitter, Snap, Pinterest, and most recently Reddit. Twitter was taken private by Musk in 2022, before changing its name to X and then being acquired by xAI, which is now owned by SpaceX. Over the years, Meta has situated itself as one of the most valuable tech companies by market cap, now valued at about $1.5 trillion.In 2021, Facebook rebranded to Meta as it set its sights on virtual reality. Recently, the company has ramped up bets on AI, investing over $14 billon in Scale AI last year and bringing its CEO, Alexandr Wang, in-house.General Motors GM CEO Dan Akerson rings the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange as the automaker returns to the U.S. stock market on November 18, 2010Getty Images In the automaker's return to the public market in November 2010, General Motors raised $15.8 billion. About a year earlier, the company had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy due to its swelling debt load, and overhauled its business as the government delivered a massive bailout.In 2014, the company installed Mary Barra as CEO, the first time a female held the top position at one of the major U.S. automakers. It's been a rocky road, with the stock on several occasions falling below its IPO price as the company has grappled with slowing demand and failed electric vehicle initiatives.Still, the shares have rallied 52% over the past year. Deutsche TelekomEuropean telecom giant Deutsche Telekom raised more than $13 billion when it debuted on the NYSE in November 1996. It was one of the most famous examples of state-owned privatizations, alongside Spain's Telefónica and British Airways. The company, which owns a majority stake in U.S. wireless provider T-Mobile, is currently teaming up with Elon Musk and SpaceX's Starlink on satellite mobile services in 10 European countries, including Germany, Austria, Poland, Hungary and Greece. Rivian A Rivian R1T electric pickup truck during the company's IPO outside the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York, on Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021.Bing Guan | Bloomberg | Getty Images Rivian's IPO in late 2021 raised $11.9 billion and its initial pop made the EV maker worth more than Ford or GM at the time. But the shares have plummeted more than 90% since their high, due in part to rising competition overseas and slowing demand for EV.Rivian recently walked back its 2027 profitability goal as it ramps up spending on some of its autonomous tech and new vehicles. In March, Uber invested $1.25 billion in Rivian for up to 50,000 robotaxis over the next five years. AT&T WirelessAT&T's spinoff of its wireless business raked in $10.6 billion in its April 2000 offering. But the deal, led by Goldman Sachs, was only the beginning of a multistep journey.In 2004, Cingular, a joint venture between SBC Communications and BellSouth, bought AT&T Wireless. Then, SBC acquired the original AT&T and adopted its name. After the new entity bought BellSouth in 2007, AT&T Wireless was rebranded to AT&T Mobility, now a major subsidiary of AT&T, which is the third-largest wireless carrier in the U.S., behind Verizon and T-Mobile. WATCH: AI still a huge theme in its early innings watch nowVIDEO4:1404:14AI is still a huge theme in its early innings, says Gabelli Funds' John BeltonMoney Movers Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

The Port Authority said travelers should expect delays and cancellations, with thunderstorms expected also expected to roll in Wednesday. View More

In this articleLUVDALFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT Airplanes are seen on the runway at LaGuardia Airport amidst mass travel delays, on March 28, 2026 in New York, New York. Ryan Murphy | Getty Images A sinkhole at New York's LaGuardia Airport shut down a runway on Wednesday and is set to delay flights, local officials said.The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey said it was conducting a daily inspection  of the airfield earlier Wednesday when "crews identified a sinkhole near Runway 4/22." "The runway was immediately shut down, and emergency construction and engineering crews are onsite to determine the cause and complete necessary repairs as quickly and safely as possible," the Port Authority said in a statement. It said travelers should expect delays and cancellations, with thunderstorms expected also expected to roll in Wednesday. Air traffic controllers routinely slow down flights or halt departures altogether during bad weather.Weather was already delaying flights at all three major airports serving the New York City area and much of New Jersey, as well as in the Washington, D.C., area, the FAA said.The disruptions come ahead of the busy Memorial Day travel period, with the runway closure adding to headaches at one of the country's most congested airports.About 20 Southwest Airlines arrivals will be delayed Wednesday, though weather is also playing a role, a spokesman said. Delta Air Lines said it has a weather waiver in place for flights in and out of New York City-area airports. Customers can rebook flights for no later than Sunday. Other major carriers didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

It's a major win for Goldman's dealmaking division. View More

Goldman Sachs is soaring after securing a key role in SpaceX's historic IPO. Elon Musk 's rocket company has selected the bank for the record-setting public debut, according to a prospectus filed on Wednesday. The deal is a financial windfall that positions Goldman's dealmaking division to potentially win lead roles in other major IPOs expected in the near future, including OpenAI and Anthropic. "This is a huge win for Goldman Sachs and a verification that this Investing Club stock is in pole position for all the big ones," Jim Cramer said. Shares of Goldman rose nearly 6% on Wednesday. SpaceX's IPO is expected to be the largest ever, following a recent acquisition that valued the company at $1.25 trillion . In the highly coveted "lead left" position on the IPO prospectus, Goldman will likely spearhead the ultimate share allocation, pricing, and valuation — and reap the biggest share of the associated fees. Goldman Sachs declined CNBC's request for comment. "It's going to be a big source of revenue," said Jay Ritter, a University of Florida professor known as "Mr. IPO" for his extensive industry research, adding that Goldman will share the proceeds with the other syndicate members: Morgan Stanley , Bank of America , Citigroup , and JPMorgan . Executing a deal of this size can be tricky, according to Matt Kennedy, a senior IPO strategist at Renaissance Capital. "Pricing IPOs is often more art than science. The relationships that the bank has, the reputation of its equity research team, the ability to place the IPO with institutions, price the deal appropriately, and handle any post IPO trading," he said, adding: "It can be hard to do." It also stands to be very lucrative. SpaceX's IPO is expected to be at least double the size of Alibaba's $25 billion IPO in 2014, sources told CNBC's Leslie Picker. The Chinese e-commerce company paid $300.4 million in underwriting commissions to banks, roughly 1.2% of the total deal. Other massive IPOs, such as Facebook parent Meta Platforms in 2012 and Uber in 2019 , also charged slightly more than 1%. Applying the same math, the SpaceX IPO could generate more than $500 million in underwriting fees, split among the participating banks. For reference, Goldman posted total equity underwriting revenue of $535 million last quarter. GS YTD mountain Goldman Sachs (GS) year to date performance This kind of dealmaking is at the heart of our investment thesis in Goldman. We started a position in January of 2025 on the hope of a rebound in M & A and IPOs during President Donald Trump's second term. And so far, Goldman's dealmaking line has improved. Investment banking fees jumped 48% to $2.84 billion last quarter, roughly $340 million more than analysts' estimates. Some deal activity, however, stalled earlier in the year due to volatility caused by the U.S.-Iran war. But while "market conditions hampered execution for IPOs … activity levels will rebound once conditions stabilize," CEO David Solomon said during the company's April earnings. That could include two more monster IPOs. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that OpenAI is preparing to confidentially file a draft of its IPO prospectus as soon as Friday. Goldman and Morgan Stanley are reportedly working with the AI startup, sources familiar told CNBC. In March, OpenAI announced a record-breaking $122 billion funding round at a $852 billion post-money valuation. Anthropic secured a $30 billion raise in February, giving the Claude creator a post-money valuation of $380 billion. Echoing Jim's earlier remarks, Kennedy said that SpaceX could give Goldman an edge over rival investment banks. "If they can pull this off, that'll help their reputation for sure, especially if they're pitching for the OpenAI and Anthropic deals." (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long GS and META. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.

The Department of Justice agreed to create the fund to settle a $10 billion lawsuit by President Trump over the leak of his tax records by an IRS employee. View More

watch nowVIDEO1:0801:08Two Jan. 6 police officers sue President Trump to block $1.8 billion ‘lawfare’ fundSquawk on the Street Two police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot sued President Donald Trump on Wednesday, seeking to block the new $1.8 billion "lawfare" fund set up by the Department of Justice to compensate Trump allies who claim they were victims of prosecutorial overreach."In the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century, President Donald J. Trump has created a $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund to finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name," the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., says."The fund, styled the 'Anti-Weaponization Fund,' is illegal," the suit alleges. "No statute authorizes its creation, the settlement on which it is premised is a corrupt sham, and its design violates the Constitution and federal law."The suit came two days after the DOJ said that Trump had agreed to drop a $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax information by an IRS employee in exchange for the creation of the new fund.The two plaintiffs in the civil complaint are Harry Dunn, a former U.S. Capitol Police officer, and Daniel Hodges, an active officer of the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington. Dunn is running for a congressional seat from Maryland as a Democrat.In addition to Trump, the defendants in the suit are Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.Blanche, who authorized the creation of the fund, is Trump's former criminal defense lawyer. D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges, left, U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, right, and Michael Fanone, a former D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer, arrive for the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol hearing to present previously unseen material and hear witness testimony in Cannon Building on Thursday, June 9, 2022. Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images Dunn and Hodges were at the Capitol when it was stormed by a mob of Trump supporters, disrupting a joint session of Congress that was being held that day to confirm the electoral victory of Joe Biden over Trump in the 2020 presidential election.The new suit says that because money from the Anti-Weaponization Fund is likely to go to Jan. 6 rioters, it violates the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. That amendment, adopted on the heels of the Civil War, says that "neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States."The suit says the Jan. 6 rioters engaged in such an insurrection against the United States "by attacking the Capitol in an attempt to prevent the lawful certification of a presidential election.""Although Trump and his cronies have been secretive about the fund's ends, reporting leaves no doubt that it will be used, among other purposes, to pay the nearly 1,600 people charged with attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021," the complaint says.Their suit also says the new fund endangers their lives and safety by encouraging "those who enacted violence in the President's name to continue to do so.""Dunn and Hodges already face credible threats of death and violence on regular basis; the Fund substantially increases the danger," the suit says. "Second, if allowed to begin making payments, the Fund will directly finance the violent operations of rioters, paramilitaries, and their supporters who threatened Plaintiffs' lives that day, and continue to do so." Read more CNBC politics coverageTrump’s face doesn’t belong on U.S. passport, senators tell RubioJan. 6 police officers sue Trump to block $1.8B ‘lawfare’ fundBreakthrough agreement in housing bill gives investors winsDemocrats make demands of U.S. trade representative ahead of U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement review A DOJ spokeswoman, responding to the suit on Wednesday, said, "The only thing illegal and corrupt about this situation is the brazen weaponization of federal resources by previous administrations to retaliate against those with opposing political beliefs.""This Department will continue to expose this lawfare and ensure those who experienced injustices are made whole," the spokeswoman said.The DOJ on Monday said the fund will "provide a systematic process to hear and redress claims of others who suffered weaponization and lawfare.""Weaponization" and "lawfare" are commonly used terms by allies of Trump, including Jan. 6 riot criminal defendants, his lawyers and legal advisors, and others who were the subject of DOJ and state prosecutors' investigations in connection with Trump's false claims that Biden won the 2020 election by widespread ballot fraud."The Fund will have the power to issue formal apologies and monetary relief owed to claimants," the DOJ said in a statement on Monday. "Submission of a claim is voluntary. There are no partisan requirements to file a claim."Democrats in Congress have called the fund a corrupt "slush fund."Money from the fund will come from the DOJ's existing "Judgement Fund," which the department uses to settle legal claims against the federal government.On Tuesday, the DOJ posted on its website an addendum to the settlement, which said that under it federal tax returns filed by Trump, his family members, the Trump Organization, and related trusts and affiliates before this week are protected from being audited by the IRS or others.The lawsuit by the police officers says that no federal statute authorizes the creation of the Anti-Weaponization Fund, or the establishment of a five-member commission to administer it.The suit also says the transfer of "$1.776 billion into the Anti-Weaponization Fund to settle Trump v.IRS was patently not 'in the interest of the United States,' " but instead "was a misappropriation of taxpayer funds orchestrated by the President to reward his allies and the rioters who committed violence in his name." 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Amazon founder Jeff Bezos called for eliminating federal income taxes on the bottom half of earners as Mamdani pushes a luxury second-home tax in New York City. View More

Mayor Zohran Mamdani, left, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.Getty Images (L) | CNBC (R) New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani fired back on Wednesday at Jeff Bezos after the Amazon founder and executive chairman questioned whether raising taxes on billionaires would do anything to help working-class New Yorkers."You could double the taxes I pay, and it's not gonna help that teacher in Queens. I promise you," Bezos said in an interview on CNBC earlier Wednesday.Mamdani responded on X: "I know a few teachers in Queens who would beg to differ."Bezos, meanwhile, pushed for tax cuts for low-income Americans.He called for eliminating federal income taxes on the bottom half of earners, telling CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin on "Squawk Box" that the top 1% of taxpayers pay about 40% of all tax revenue, while the bottom half pay 3%."I don't think it should be 3%," Bezos said. "I think it should be zero."In 2023, the bottom half of taxpayers had an adjusted gross income of nearly $54,000 in 2023, according to the Tax Foundation, which is funded by conservative interests, citing the most recent IRS statistics. Households earning in the top 1% brought home at least $676,000 of income that year.As of September 2025, starting salaries for New York City teachers were $68,902 for those with a bachelor's degree and no prior teaching experience, and $77,455 for those with a master's degree, according to NYC Public Schools. Those salaries are set to rise in September 2026 to $71,314 and $80,166, respectively.The feud between Bezos and Mamdani puts a sharper edge on the mayor's tax-the-rich message, which has been central to his push to fund city services and address New York's affordability crisis.Mamdani and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, are backing a proposed pied-à-terre tax on luxury second homes worth $5 million or more, after the mayor dropped a broader proposal to raise property taxes on many homeowners.Mamdani has said the city's first-ever pied-à-terre tax would generate $500 million annually, but New York City's comptroller has warned the revenue could come in lower, around $340 million to $380 million annually, once property owners change their behavior."I think that the pied-à-terre tax is a fine thing for New York to do," Bezos said in the interview. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

SpaceX has filed for its initial public offering. The company aims for a trillion-dollar market debut. This listing could set a precedent for future IPOs from major tech firms. SpaceX's valuation could reach $1.75 trillion. View More

SpaceX took the wraps off its IPO filing on Wednesday, opening the books of the company that has already revolutionized rocket technology, with even larger ambitions to colonize Mars and build AI data centers in space. The listing is poised to become the first trillion-dollar U.S. market debut and could set the stage for a number of monumental IPOs in coming months, among them potentially technology giants OpenAI and Anthropic. The sale would immediately cement SpaceX as one of the world's most valuable publicly traded companies, the second in Elon Musk's sprawling business empire to surpass $1 trillion in market value. SpaceX has grown into the world's largest space business since its founding in 2002 by launching ‌thousands of Starlink internet ⁠satellites. Its ⁠pioneering use of reusable rockets has transformed the economics of space, forcing competitors like Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin to play catch-up. A successful sale could value the company at a record-setting $1.75 trillion, which would put its founder on track to become the first trillionaire in history, validating years of defying accepted logic through the development of rockets that can land and be flown again. The company's regulatory disclosure comes during a critical week for the rocket maker, which is preparing to launch a test flight of its next-generation Starship rocket. Live Events Musk's plans for lunar and Mars missions and to expand its Starlink satellite internet business depend on the new rocket. The test launch, originally scheduled for Tuesday, is now expected later this week. The board has given Musk control over the company, but ties much of his compensation to audacious ⁠targets of ‌establishing a permanent human colony on Mars and building space data centers with compute capacity powered by the equivalent of 100 terawatts, or 100,000 one-gigawatt nuclear reactors, Reuters previously reported. 'HALO EFFECT' Musk's CEO celebrity persona may matter more to some investors than SpaceX's underlying business fundamentals, analysts and ⁠academics said, because there are no other comparable companies against which to benchmark its valuation. "There is somewhat of a halo effect around Musk and his unconventional vision," said Reena Aggarwal, a finance professor at Georgetown University. "It is difficult to value companies like this because there is no peer group for comparison." The $1.75 trillion valuation target, if achieved, would eclipse Saudi Aramco's 2019 offering, which set a record for the world's biggest IPO when it debuted on Riyadh's exchange at a value of $1.7 trillion. SpaceX had planned to try to raise more than $75 billion in the offering, Reuters previously reported. The scale of the offering has drawn attention to the increasingly interconnected structure of Musk's business empire, often dubbed the "Muskonomy," which includes leading electric vehicle company Tesla, as well as his businesses in artificial intelligence and brain-chip implants. SpaceX merged with Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI in ‌a deal that valued the rocket company at $1 trillion and the developer of the Grok chatbot at $250 billion. Concerns about Musk's ability to juggle multiple companies with combined market values exceeding trillions could weigh on investor sentiment, analysts said. SPACE RACE The race to commercialize space has intensified as private companies led by SpaceX and Blue Origin compete ⁠to slash launch costs, deploy satellite networks and secure government contracts. Once dominated by state agencies such as NASA and Russia's Roscosmos, the sector is now drawing billions in private capital. SpaceX's revenue is driven by Starlink, the world's largest satellite operator. The network of about 10,000 satellites offers broadband internet to consumers, governments and enterprise customers. But the company's expanding footprint across aviation, maritime and enterprise markets is helping turn capital-intensive space projects into a recurring revenue engine. IPO PUSH AND PULL High-profile AI firms, including OpenAI and Anthropic, are also exploring potential public listings later in 2026. Demand for SpaceX's listing could influence the timing and appetite for other upcoming IPOs. SpaceX plans to earmark a significant portion of shares for retail investors and will host about 1,500 of them at an event in June following the IPO roadshow launch, Reuters reported in April. The company is expected to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol 'SPCX.' Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citigroup and J.P. Morgan are the bookrunners. .Pbanner{display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;background-color:#ec1c40;margin-top:20px;padding:5px 10px;border-radius:4px;color:#fff;line-height:10px;} .Pbannertext{display:flex;align-items:center;font-size:16px;font-weight:600;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannertext img{height:20px;margin:0 6px} .Pbannerbutton a{display:flex;align-items:center;background-color:#fff;color:#ec1c40;text-decoration:none;font-weight:600;padding:4px 8px;border-radius:6px;font-size:15px;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannerbutton img{height:20px;margin-right:6px} .Pbannerbutton a:hover{background-color:#f7f7f7} Add as a Reliable and Trusted News Source Add Now! (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel) (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel)

Lowe's beat Wall Street expectations for its fiscal first-quarter earnings and reaffirmed its full-year guidance. View More

In this articleLOWFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT Shoppers outside a Lowe's store in Concord, California, US, on Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images Lowe's on Wednesday reported quarterly results that beat expectations on the top and bottom lines and reaffirmed its full-year outlook.Revenue jumped about 10% compared with the previous year. Comparable sales increased 0.6% for the quarter, driven by what Lowe's said was its spring execution and a 15.5% growth in online sales. "Roughly 60% to 65% of our revenue is from the do-it-yourself customer, and this has been a really difficult do-it-yourself housing market, so for us to do four consecutive quarters of positive comps, we were pleased with that," CEO Marvin Ellison told CNBC.Here's how the company performed in its fiscal first quarter compared with Wall Street estimates, according to a survey of analysts by LSEG:Earnings per share: $3.03 adjusted vs. $2.97 expectedRevenue: $23.08 billion vs. $22.97 billion expectedShares of the company rose more than 1% on Wednesday.For the three-month period ended May 1, Lowe's reported net income of $1.63 billion, or $2.90 per share, down just slightly from $1.64 billion, or $2.92 per share, in the year-ago period. Excluding one-time factors like acquisition costs, the company reported adjusted earnings per share of $3.03. Lowe's said strength in appliances, home services and sales to home professionals like contractors also contributed to its performance."While DIY demand remains under pressure, we're continuing to grow market share in a challenging housing environment shaped by elevated interest rates, higher costs and low housing turnover," Ellison said on a call with analysts on Wednesday. "While we expect a broader market to remain flat in 2026, our focus remains on disciplined execution of our total home strategy, driving continued growth regardless of market conditions."Despite soaring gas prices taking a hit to consumer sentiment and discretionary spending, Ellison told CNBC that the Lowe's core homeowner customer is largely unaffected by high fuel prices. Still, the combination of gas prices with "broader macro concerns" is what's pushing their sentiment lower, he said."The year is playing out about where we forecast and when we gave our guidance, and we're just trying to work our way through it," he said.Ellison said on the analyst call that the company is seeing a K-shaped economy dynamic play out, where higher-income consumers are spending more and lower-income consumers are pulling back on their spending."We have a track record of performing well, managing expenses and finding ways to grow sales, irrespective of the macro, and we plan to take share this quarter," he said.The company also reaffirmed its full-year guidance, expecting total sales between $92 billion and $94 billion, an increase of between 7% and 9% compared with the prior year. It expects comparable sales to be flat to up 2% compared with last year.Lowe's said it expects adjusted earnings per share of between $12.25 and $12.75 for the full year.The earnings come against a backdrop of housing market struggles and consumer caution as gas prices soar."I think overall, this has been the most difficult housing markets that I've faced in this business since the financial crisis," Ellison said on the call.He told CNBC that he believes interest rates need to come down in order to allow for consumers to have more flexibility with their home improvement projects. "I think the key lever that we need to see is just rates come down, both 30-year fixed and short-term rates," he said. "When we see that happen, and I think what we're talking about is a sustained sub-6% rate environment, we think that will start to loosen up this segment."Lowe's executive vice president of merchandising, Bill Boltz, said on the Wednesday call that the company's core professional shopper "remains busy" with repair and maintenance projects.Company executives said on the call that high oil prices have also been putting pressure on the company. While the impact in the first quarter was minimal, they said the current quarter is seeing more challenges.In February, Lowe's cut roughly 600 corporate and support roles as the company said it wanted to focus more on its store employees and align its resources. Earlier this week, Lowe's rival Home Depot said its core shopper remains resilient as it reaffirmed its full-year guidance and beat Wall Street expectations. The retailer also said it has applied for tariff refunds, which it said could help offset rising fuel costs. Ellison told CNBC that Lowe's has not publicly disclosed whether it's applied for tariff refunds, but it is closely monitoring the situation as there's "still a lot to learn." Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Airbnb on Wednesday added new services and independent hotels to its platform in its latest expansion move in the travel industry. View More

In this articleABNBFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT Brian Chesky, chief executive officer of Airbnb Inc., during the Airbnb annual product event in San Francisco, US, on Wednesday, May 20, 2026. David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said the rental platform could become an Amazon for travel as the company adds hotels and new services in its latest push to become an everything app for vacationers."I imagine one day we'll have dozens, possibly even hundreds of categories, just like Amazon," CEO Brian Chesky told CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin. "I think we can build a little bit, like an Amazon for services, at least for traveling and living."Airbnb on Wednesday added independent hotels and services such as car rentals, grocery delivery and luggage storage to its app, in its latest expansion beyond home rentals. Guests can also book boutique hotels on Airbnb, and the company is incentivizing users with up to 15% back in platform credits.Chesky said the new additions build on the growing services needs in a "very fragmented" travel and living market. He told CNBC that the company would also consider adding equipment rentals for activities like surfing and skiing, and gym passes down the road. Courtesy: Airbnb Airbnb is in the middle of a multi-phase redesign after dialing back initial expansion plans during the Covid-19 pandemic. Last summer, the company launched a services business with 10 categories, in a major app design overhaul.Since then, Airbnb has brought social features to the platform and an updated artificial intelligence chatbot. The company's AI strategy is also getting another upgrade this year. Airbnb said its chatbot tool can now fix booking issues within the chat, and the company is adding an AI feature that summarizes guest reviews. Later this year, the company plans to bring AI voice assistant to its chatbot and AI-generated summaries for listings. Business chief Dave Stephenson said Airbnb is using a combination of tools from open-source and large language model makers for its AI features. "We're very judicious in using the right model for the right purpose, which is again why I say we end up using this mix," he said.Chesky said the market for AI is moving much faster than he expected, but there's a concentration of companies competing in the same market. He believes consumer AI is the "next frontier" as people change the way they live."I would caution everyone plowing all their money in right now, thinking there's just a couple winners," he said. "I think the biggest winners of AI may not have even emerged yet." Courtesy: Airbnb As the summer season gets underway, the travel industry is grappling with a spike in fuel prices, spurred by the ongoing war in Iran.Earlier this month, Airbnb said cancellations were "slightly elevated" in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia Pacific regions due to the war. The company also expects a 100-basis-point headwind to nights and seats booked during the current period.Chesky said Airbnb is one of the "most resilient" travel companies in the world because the company is exposed to many geographic areas and traveler groups, and is typically more affordable. "What we are seeing is when there's economic uncertainty, people plan their travel a little bit more last-minute," he said. Read more CNBC tech newsSpaceX picks Goldman Sachs for lead left position on record-breaking IPO, sources sayOpenAI announces new Guaranteed Capacity offering for customers to secure computeGoogle debuts new AI models, personal AI agents in effort to keep pace with OpenAI and AnthropicPentagon taps Shield AI for low-cost drone program as Iran war accelerates demand for cheap drones Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Carmen Mercedes Lineberger allegedy emailed herself a copy of Volume II of special counsel Jack Smith's report on Trump's criminal case. View More

This image contained in a court filing by the Department of Justice on Aug. 30, 2022, and partially redacted by the source, shows a photo of documents seized during the Aug. 8, 2022, FBI search of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.Department of Justice | AP A former federal prosecutor has been charged with stealing the sealed volume of the report prepared by then-special counsel Jack Smith about the defunct criminal case against President Donald Trump over his retention of classified government documents after leaving office in January 2021.Carmen Mercedes Lineberger is accused in a four-count indictment unsealed Wednesday of saving the sealed portion of Smith's report on her government-issued computer under the file name "Bundt_Cake_Recipe.pdf," and then emailing the report from her DOJ email account to her personal Gmail account on Dec. 1, 2025.At the time of the alleged conduct, the 62-year-old Lineberger was managing Assistant U.S. Attorney in Fort Pierce, Fla., according to the indictment in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Read more CNBC politics coverageTrump’s face doesn’t belong on U.S. passport, senators tell RubioJan. 6 police officers sue Trump to block $1.8B ‘lawfare’ fundBreakthrough agreement in housing bill gives investors winsDemocrats make demands of U.S. trade representative ahead of U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement review Lineberger is charged with theft of government property and counts related to the removal and altering of public records in the indictment. Judge Aileen Cannon on Jan. 21, 2025 issued an order prohibiting the DOJ, as well as its officers and employees, from "releasing, sharing, or transmitting" Volume II of Smith's report, which was filed in the court.Lineberger appeared in court in Fort Pierce on Wednesday and was released without having to post bond.CNBC has requested comment from Lineberger's criminal defense attorney and from the U.S. Attorney's Office.Cannon in July 2024 dismissed the DOJ's criminal case against Trump, which had alleged that he retained hundreds of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago club residence in Palm Beach, Fla., after the end of his first term, and that he obstructed government efforts to recover the documents.Cannon ruled that Smith's appointment to prosecute cases involving Trump violated the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Smith then appealed that dismissal. But the DOJ dropped that effort after Trump was elected in November 2024 to a second, non-consecutive term in the White House because of a department policy that bars federal prosecutions of sitting presidents. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.