Tag: billionaires

Billionaires Are Buying Into Psychedelic Companies

Putting aside my skepticism of SpaceX for a moment, there is something worth paying attention to in the latest report about the people who made fortunes backing the company: they are now putting serious money into psychedelics.

And while I can’t necessarily get behind backing Elon Musk’s idea of elephants performing Les Miserables on the moon, or whatever other “lofty” goals are in the SpaceX S-1, I can get behind these follow up investment ideas.

Back in January when absolutely no one was talking about the sector, I officially hung my balls out there and name it my “Best Idea” sector for 2026. I was writing about these stocks years ago ago, first in January 2025, calling the psychedelic names “stocks to watch” for the year. Then, in July 2025, urging patience in these positions.

In April, after the administration’s executive order supporting psychedelic research, I reiterated my bullish stance and argued that we were moving from the phase where these therapies were ignored into the phase where institutions would be forced to engage with them seriously. That transition appears to be underway.

So far, the group has wildly outperformed the market, with the AdvisorShares Psychedelic ETF (PSIL) beating the S&P 500 by about +32% this year. Other individual companies I pointed out at the beginning of this year are beating the market by about +79% and +171%.

That doesn’t mean every name is going to work, or that the easy money hasn’t already been made in some of them. But the broader thesis continues to get validation, and the latest evidence suggests that capital is still finding its way into the space.

The biggest validation came in July, when Eli Lilly agreed to acquire AtaiBeckley for approximately $2.8 billion upfront, with another $1 billion contingent on development and regulatory milestones.

That is not a small biotech taking a flyer on an experimental treatment. That is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world committing billions of dollars to a psychedelic-derived drug pipeline. Lilly’s interest is centered on BPL-003, a treatment being developed for treatment-resistant depression.

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NHTSA Opens Investigation into Elon Musk’s Tesla Cybercab

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened an investigation into Tesla’s Cybercab on Friday morning, just hours after the company put the first of the driverless vehicles on the streets of Austin, Texas.

TechCrunch reports that Elon Musk’s Cybercab has no steering wheel and no pedals. That runs headlong into federal vehicle safety rules requiring manual controls even in robotaxis. The Department of Transportation has proposed dropping those requirements for vehicles built to drive themselves, but the change hasn’t taken effect yet. Tesla told NHTSA it self-certified the Cybercab as compliant with all Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards anyway, which is the normal way automakers bring new vehicles to market.

NHTSA said it opened the investigation to “examine the process and technical data on which Tesla relied when certifying the Cybercab and related issues.”

This also happened to Amazon’s robotaxi company, Zoox. In 2022, Zoox self-certified its own vehicle, a cube-shaped robotaxi that also has no steering wheel or pedals. NHTSA hit back that year with a “special order” demanding information from Zoox, then formally launched an audit query in 2023, the same process now aimed at Tesla. Zoox was still deep in testing at the time, and the investigation stretched out its path to commercialization even as the company kept insisting its self-certification was sound.

The scrutiny didn’t stop there. In 2025, regulators granted Zoox an exemption to demonstrate its technology, though not to operate it commercially. Zoox had filed for a temporary Part 555 exemption from eight separate Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. That exemption got final approval in July 2026, clearing one of the last obstacles between Zoox and a commercial robotaxi launch, and letting the company add up to 2,500 vehicles a year to its fleet over the following two years. A few weeks later, Zoox opened commercial service and now charges for rides in Las Vegas

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COSMIC FLOP? Macron’s International Space Summit Not Going According to Plan After SpaceX and Blue Origin Pull Out of Event

A poorly coordinated event may become another Macron failure.

As we previously reported here on TGP, French President Emmanuel Macron’s failing international space summit is NOT going according to plan, with industry leaders like SpaceX and Blue Origin canceling their participation.

Yesterday, the French tried to downplay the American firms’ decision, but reports say the summit is a ‘poorly coordinated event with an unclear outcome’.

Politico reported:

“The U.S. snub is only one of several challenges facing the gathering on Wednesday and Thursday in the French capital. About 120 international delegations have been invited, with Chinese officials expected to attend.

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Leon Black Sues Congress To Avoid Epstein Testimony

Between 2012 and 2017 – after Jeffrey Epstein got out of prison – billionaire Leon Black paid him roughly $170 million. Black has not provided a credible explanation as to why he paid Epstein amounts vastly exceeding those paid to other professional advisors – and instead of sitting down to explain it to Congress on Thursday, he sued the House Oversight Committee.

Recall, Black:

  • Paid Epstein $158 million per Dechert, the law firm Apollo hired, or $170 million per Sen. Ron Wyden’s investigation.
  • Stepped down as Apollo CEO in 2021 after a Dechert review “cleared” him, which we called bullshit at the time.
  • Wrote the 2003 birthday book poem about “Blond, Red or Brunette, spread out geographically,” signed “Love and Kisses.”
  • Paid roughly $20 million to a dozen women, some via Epstein; at least three have accused him of assault.
  • Says he signed Guzel Ganieva’s 2015 NDA because she was extorting him; her rape suit was dismissed.
  • Paid $62.5 million to the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2023 to settle Epstein-related claims before any were made public.
  • Used Epstein to help structure his $106 million Picasso purchase through Narrows Holdings, as we reported in February.
  • Told Congress in June “I knew Jekyll. I didn’t know Hyde,” then walked out rather than discuss his NDAs.

The committee went ahead with a closed-door session anyway, with ranking Democrat Robert Garcia demanding an ‘immediate’ contempt vote against Black. Chairman James Comer (R) said that if it were up to him, “I would hold him in contempt right now,” but he wanted to discuss Black’s lawsuit with the committee’s lawyers first so as not to jeopardize the thing the committee actually wants: non-disclosure agreements that Black allegedly signed with several women. 

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington against the committee and Comer, argues that the two subpoenas issued June 26 (one for Black’s sworn testimony, one for “all the NDAs” he is party to) are “invalid to the extent they exceed” the committee’s “delegated authority in seeking private information that bears no legitimate connection” to its legislative purpose. Producing the agreements, the suit says, “would also expose women who value their privacy, who have no known or public connection to Epstein.” Black’s lawyer Susan Estrich called the probe “a fishing expedition” and said, “This is no longer about finding the truth about Epstein. It is about trying to destroy Mr. Black.”

Comer hit back – saying that Black is “hiding behind litigation rather than provide answers to the American people.”

Black is the first Epstein witness to sue the committee rather than show up. Jes Staley and Kathy Ruemmler both sat for questions this summer. Which makes the timing of Thursday’s other Leon Black story hard to improve on.

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“You hired me to produce a work of art”

A few hours before the empty chair, Bloomberg Law published a piece about a May 2016 email in which Epstein described the tax plan he sold Black as, literally, art.

“Leon, you hired me to produce a work of art. it was not inexpensive. the value far exceeds any other piece in your collection.- by FAR . It took me 30 years to be able to craft such a work. I understand your desire to modifiy my work, in doing so you have brad telling me , just a bit more red., here let me show you, you yourself pick up a brush a add some strokes… however Im aware that you own the work and you have the right to paint over it. tear it up , put it in the closet in the basement . its yours.”

And on the price:

“Unfortunatley for us both, the price for my works has not changed since day one. 40m per year, I m willing to discount it to 35 as I did give you a bad number when asked and should pay an embarassment fine.”

And a weird line:

“you recently seemed shy to discuss certain things. , please be assured I make no judgement on any of your activities , whether or not i agree with them . not my role I am always on your side on the table. I hope your personal life quiets. you’ve had a rough 15 months.”

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Elon Musk’s G20 Prediction: 1 Billion Humanoid Robots Will Outproduce All of Humanity in 10 Years

Elon Musk addressed a virtual session of the G20 yesterday, laying out predictions on AI, humanoid robots and regulation. According to Musk, within 10 years, 1 billion humanoid robots will outproduce all of humanity.

CNBC reports that Musk covered four topics: power constraints on AI, the technology’s economic potential, humanoid robotics, and how governments should regulate emerging tech.

Robotics is where Musk got more specific about mechanics. He described humanoid robot usefulness as the product of three factors: AI software, the onboard AI chip, and electromechanical dexterity, particularly in the hands. All three are improving exponentially, he said. Once robots start manufacturing other robots, growth turns recursive: slow at first, then explosive. He called his own ten-year forecast conservative, projecting well over a billion humanoid robots, each roughly five times as productive as a person. Combined, that fleet would outproduce all of humanity. This physical layer, he argued, not the digital economy, is where he expects overall economic output to grow by a factor of ten or more.

On power, Musk cited a consensus estimate that AI chips will face a shortfall of at least 15 gigawatts by 2027. AI chip production is climbing roughly 40 to 50 percent a year, he said, while power generation outside China grows only about 10 to 20 percent annually. That gap, in his view, is what actually limits the industry’s growth, not chip supply itself. Musk said Google, Anthropic and other companies are now leasing computing capacity from SpaceX, which built its own power plants to bring capacity online quickly. China has abundant electricity, he noted, but is blocked from importing the latest chips under GPU export bans. His advice to other countries: build out power generation, host AI data centers, then tax them or charge fees for the privilege.

Musk put a number on the economic upside too: a 20 to 30 percent boost to the global economy from digital AI alone, or roughly $20 trillion to $30 trillion a year. By the end of next year, he said, AI should handle any digital task that doesn’t require physically shaping atoms by hand. On software specifically, he predicted AI will reach “Stockfish-level” within about 12 to 18 months, invoking the chess engine as a benchmark and mentioning Magnus Carlsen, the five-time World Chess Champion, in the same breath. That same window, he said, applies more broadly to AI becoming extremely capable across engineering and other digital work. He also plugged X, the platform he owns, as the place where he said nearly all serious AI discourse happens.

On regulation, Musk’s position was that new technologies should be treated as legal by default rather than illegal by default. He pointed to the European Union as an example of heavy regulation that slows progress without stopping it. Using an image of young saplings against big trees in a forest, he compared startups to the saplings and incumbents to the established trees, arguing that most governments over-support the trees while starving the saplings. Large companies get access to political leaders that startups typically don’t, he said, and he thinks policy should be deliberately tilted toward young companies to correct that imbalance.

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Bezos-Owned Washington Post Publishes CLASSIFIED Pentagon Orders Book During Active Combat With Iran — Pentagon Calls It a Crime and a “Betrayal of the Force”

The far-left Washington Post just did what the legacy media always does when American troops are in harm’s way and a Republican is running the Pentagon.

They published material from a classified Secretary of Defense Orders Book, the document that maps warships, aircraft, weapons systems, and personnel worldwide, and dressed it up as a hit piece on Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

The Washington Post reported Sunday that several senior military leaders warned War Secretary Pete Hegseth that maintaining a force of more than 50,000 American troops in the Middle East is unsustainable and could weaken the United States’ ability to respond to threats elsewhere.

The newspaper acknowledged that its reporting was based on information contained in the classified Aug. 14 edition of the Secretary of Defense Orders Book, or SDOB.

The classified orders book reportedly details the worldwide availability and allocation of American warships, aircraft, weapons systems, and military personnel. It also contains sensitive assessments submitted by America’s senior commanders.

According to the Post, some troops deployed to the Middle East were ordered to remain through September, while others could remain into 2027.

Four senior commanders reportedly submitted formal “non-concurs” expressing disagreement with the proposed extensions:

  • Adm. Daryl Caudle, Chief of Naval Operations
  • Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, Commander of U.S. European Command
  • Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Commander of U.S. Southern Command
  • Adm. Samuel Paparo, Commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command

A “non-concur” does not mean that a commander is refusing to follow an order. It records a commander’s professional disagreement while acknowledging that the order will still be executed.

Washington Post military affairs reporter Dan Lamothe eagerly amplified the purported contents of the classified document.

“Four-stars all non-concurring with prolonging operations against Iran as they are into 2027, per this Washington Post exclusive,” Lamothe wrote, before listing the four commanders.

But DataRepublican, whose real name is Jennica Pounds and who began serving as a Special Government Employee at the Department of War in July, fired back with a brutal response.

DataRepublican argued that the commanders’ assessments were not the most alarming part of the story. The real scandal, she said, was that someone apparently handed information from one of the Pentagon’s most sensitive force-allocation documents to the Washington Post.

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Trump Admin Hands Bill Gates’ GAVI Vaccine Syndicate $600 Million

The U.S. Department of State and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last month revealed they “will immediately release all $600 million in Congressionally appropriated funds” for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, Bill Gates’ international vaccine syndicate, according to a State Department press release.

In June 2025, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had withdrawn American funding from Gavi, citing child deaths linked to the vaccines the organization dispenses worldwide.

But one year later, Secretary of ​State Marco Rubio promised that the United States would “re-engage” with Gavi, citing a purported Ebola outbreak as justification.

The new State Department press release emphasizes President Donald Trump gave the directive himself.

Per the release:

“Last year, President Trump directed Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to engage directly with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi), and secure meaningful reforms before the United States would consider future support. Those discussions resulted in significant commitments that strengthen vaccine safety, improve public health, and better align Gavi’s work with the principles of Gold Standard Science and transparency. Based on those commitments, the United States will immediately release all $600 million in Congressionally appropriated funds to Gavi for both FY25 and FY26.”

The agreement included “reducing reliance on mercury-containing vaccines, where suitable alternatives are available.”

The release didn’t specify which alternatives would be used nor cite any relevant safety studies.

But it did confirm vaccine manufacturers would benefit:

“Achieving these transitions will require manufacturers to expand production capacity, countries to adopt newer vaccine formulations, and Gavi’s governing Board to complete the necessary approvals. The United States recognizes these implementation challenges but welcomes Gavi’s commitment to work toward these goals through transparent governance and responsible stewardship.”

The Trump admin ultimately wants to “resume its place on the Gavi Board”:

“In addition, given the sizeable contribution the United States is making to improve access to vaccines, the United States expects to resume its place on the Gavi Board. In this role, the United States will continue to hold Gavi accountable for measurable progress toward these commitments. It will evaluate any future U.S. support based on demonstrated performance, accountability, and implementation of these reforms.”

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Tech Evangelist Bill Gates Suddenly Argues AI Needs to Slow Down to Protect Humanity

Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder and leftist billionaire who has spent years predicting that AI would free people from drudgery and speed cures for disease and climate change, published an essay Wednesday warning that without urgent government intervention, AI could cause more harm than good.

Bill Gates, who transformed himself from a software tycoon into a leftist icon of environmentalism and health philanthropy,  has now published an essay calling for an AI slowdown. This is a massive shift is a shift for a tech evangelist who has built his post-Microsoft career on faith in AI’s ability to fix hard problems. Gates said this is the first time in his life he wishes a new technology would advance more slowly.

“I’m surprised to feel this way,” Gates said. “I’ve never seen a problem that innovation can’t solve.”

Gates grouped his worries into three categories: safety threats such as AI-enabled hacking, biological weapons and fraud; job losses driven by AI and AI-powered robots; and risks to children, including stunted learning and damaged human relationships. Writing software code and enabling new kinds of cyberattacks are the two areas where he says AI has recently outpaced his own expectations. Asked about the latter, he used one word: “mind-blowing.”

Gates argued the AI industry cannot police itself and called on the U.S. government to take the lead in regulating it. He wants broad national and international frameworks to address AI’s risks to security, safety, jobs and other areas, built around collaboration between elected officials, subject-matter experts and ordinary citizens. The idea echoes a proposal from AI leader Demis Hassabis, who has called for international AI safety standards overseen by an expert body.

“My basic view is nobody’s shown up,” Gates said of the lack of government action so far. “So this is a shrill call, and I want this to be bipartisan.”

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Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Agrees to $18 Billion Settlement with 29 States to End Teen Social Media Addiction Lawsuit

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta agreed to pay roughly $18 billion to settle a lawsuit brought by 29 states over allegations that Facebook and Instagram harmed children through addictive design.

NBC News reports that the settlement, which still needs a judge’s approval, came one day after Instagram chief Adam Mosseri testified in a California courtroom. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had also been expected to take the stand before the deal was reached.

In a statement, Meta said “the agreement includes a payment of approximately $18 billion, which can be used to fund youth online safety initiatives, among other state priorities.” The company said the deal is part of a broader agreement with 52 attorneys general nationwide, extending well beyond the 29 states that sued in California.

Meta did not concede wrongdoing. A court filing states the company “denies the allegations against it and that it has any liability to the Plaintiffs.”

Attorneys general from California, Colorado, Kentucky, New Jersey and other states had accused Meta of designing addictive products that harmed children and of violating federal privacy and consumer protection laws. Meta pushed back, arguing the states were cherry-picking features while ignoring safety tools it already offers, including teen accounts that default to private, time-limit reminders, parental supervision options, and restrictions on who can contact minors and what content they see.

Under the settlement, Meta will build in daily limits and nighttime blocks for teenage users. The court filing says the company “commits to establishing daily limits and blocks on nighttime use for teenage users.” Teen accounts on Facebook and Instagram will default to a combined two-hour daily use limit, and teens will need parental permission to turn that limit off.

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Californians Are Prepared To Run Their State Into The Ground

According to recent polling, the California Voter ID initiative is in danger of losing this November, even though a supermajority of Americans across the political spectrum support Voter ID. Meanwhile, a 5% billionaire tax looks likely to win, even though the evidence against such proposals could not be clearer: higher taxes mean more rich people will flee to low-tax states, thus further depleting California’s already dwindling coffers.

What’s the matter with California voters? Why are they so addicted to failure? Why do they celebrate the continued demise of their once-great state?

The state of California remains the land of fruits and nuts, and all common-sense reforms are failing. This is a hard pill for many to swallow on the right in general, among Republicans in particular, and for the rest of the world watching, but Democrats don’t care. Power is the game, and the rest is chicken feed.

They dominate the voter rolls two-to-one.

They control every level of government.

They run the unions.

They have forced a hostile political takeover of big business, too. Chevron, pharmaceutical companies, and major financial firms are all trying to get a seat at the table to protect themselves.

Meanwhile, every major identity politics special interest runs riot in the state. From LGBT to Black Liberation, to everything in between, the left-wing smorgasbord of “give me money” hunkers down on Democratic lawmakers, demanding their piece of the increasingly receding budget.

The Democratic Socialists of America have been on a tear across California, taking over major city councils and pushing out weak Democratic lawmakers for the last ten years. The 2024 election witnessed a particular bloodbath for the party’s more establishment wing.

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