Sony-Honda EV dead, Amazon dumps OpenAI, Rivian delays R2

Sony and Honda have scrapped their Afeela EV joint venture, halting development of both the Afeela 1 sedan and a second model. The cancellation follows Honda's shift away from its U.S. electrification push, forcing the partners to scale down SHM and reassign staff. The move highlights the volatility of sub‑brand EV bets even from legacy automakers.

Amazon MGM Studios has abandoned Luca Guadagnino's near‑finished biopic "Artificial" about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, just months after the tech giant pledged a $50 billion investment in OpenAI. The studio says the film will be shopped to another distributor, underscoring the awkward optics of the partnership.

Rivian says the $45,000 base‑model R2 will arrive late 2027, while the first “Standard” version launches early 2027 at $48,490 with up to 345‑mile range. The delay reflects the loss of the federal EV tax credit and rising parts costs, tightening Rivian’s path to its 20‑25k unit sales goal.

Chairman Warsh stripped the June 2026 FOMC statement of its usual forward‑guidance and trimmed inflation language, signaling a sharper, more hawkish stance. The Fed kept rates at 3‑½% to 3‑¾% but signaled no further guidance, a notable pivot that could tighten market expectations. Investors should watch for tighter credit conditions as the Fed tightens the narrative.

The Fed is opening a rulemaking to force stablecoin issuers handling payments to implement bank‑level KYC. If adopted, the requirement would extend AML customer identification programs to the crypto stablecoin sector, tightening oversight and potentially reshaping how these tokens are used for payments. Comments are open for 60 days.

Noam Shazeer, Google’s VP of engineering and co‑lead of the Gemini model, announced he’s leaving to join OpenAI as it prepares for an IPO. His move underscores a rare talent shift from a public tech giant to a private competitor and could accelerate OpenAI’s race to dominate generative AI.

CME Group filed a federal lawsuit to overturn the CFTC’s May 29 approval that let Kalshi and Coinbase list bitcoin perpetual futures. The exchange argues the contracts are swaps, not futures, and that the regulator acted arbitrarily, citing competitive injury. The case spotlights a clash between incumbents and the crypto‑derivatives wave.

Oaktree Capital will satisfy 8.5% redemption requests from its private credit fund, fully meeting investor withdrawals. Brookfield is injecting roughly $80 million of its own cash to backstop liquidity, signaling that even large, liquid sponsors are stepping in as redemption pressure mounts.

Charles Schwab is set to roll out binary, all‑or‑nothing options on the S&P 500 through CboE, letting retail clients bet whether the index closes above or below a preset level. The product, dubbed a prediction‑market style contract, adds a new betting‑style layer to the broker’s suite and could broaden exposure to emerging prediction‑market platforms.

President Trump announced via Truth Social that Apple will work with Intel to design and build chips in the United States, a push to reshore semiconductor production. The deal gives Intel a steady high‑profile customer and could lift its shares while pressuring rivals to secure domestic supply chains.

Microsoft will shift Copilot Cowork to usage‑based billing and is testing a fine‑tuned DeepSeek V4 model as a cheaper alternative to Anthropic and OpenAI. The move frames a multi‑model strategy that could lower enterprise AI costs while keeping data on Azure, but may spark geopolitical scrutiny.