Welcome back. If this week’s Google I/O 2026 keynote made one thing clear, it’s that the company is fully anchoring its future to artificial intelligence. The volume of capital being funneled into the sector is staggering, and it's hitting home in more ways than one.

On a personal note, as a Pixel user, I’ve had a front-row seat to Gemini's evolution. I recently chatted with the assistant out loud, and its responses were so fluid that someone else in the room genuinely thought I was on a speakerphone call with a human. And that realism was before today’s massive upgrades.

Speaking of AI bets, Blackstone and Google plan to create an artificial-intelligence cloud company to rival the likes of CoreWeave using Google's specialized tensor processing chips, as our Journal colleagues report. 

And WSJ Pro's Luis Garcia examines how the internal rate of return is being eclipsed as a metric for private-equity performance.

Now on to the news...

The internal rate of return, or IRR, has long reigned as private equity’s most popular performance measure, despite critics who fault its malleable nature. But the gauge is being eclipsed by another metric, not so much because of purported flaws but as a result of changes overtaking the industry, Luis Garcia writes for WSJ Pro.

Blackstone and Alphabet's Google plan to create an artificial-intelligence cloud company to rival the likes of CoreWeave using Google's specialized tensor processing chips, The Wall Street Journal reports. The duo aim to set up the unnamed U.S. company with $5 billion in equity capital supplied by Blackstone, which will be the majority owner, according to people familiar with the matter. The new company aims in 2027 to bring 500 megawatts of capacity online—roughly the same amount of electric power required to serve a midsize city—and substantially increase capacity over time, Google and Blackstone said.

Singapore-based firm iGlobe Partners has backed a roughly $17 million investment for Japanese medical startup Sound Wave Innovation, which aims to cure Alzheimer’s disease with ultrasound therapy, the Journal reports.

Midmarket buyout firm H.I.G. Capital's special situations arm in Europe, H.I.G. Bayside Capital Europe, is providing a £90 million, or $120.5 million, loan to Lifeways Group, whose backers include Barings and Fidera Group. The financing will be used by the U.K. company, which provides services to people with physical and learning disabilities as well as mental health conditions, to help refinance existing debt.

Stonepeak's credit arm and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec have set up a $250 million debt facility for dark fiber infrastructure provider BIG Fiber, along with an additional $100 million accordion feature. The financing from Stonepeak Credit and La Caisse will help the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company expand, including adding to its Atlanta-area network.

Investment firm Hull Street Energy is acquiring the hydroelectric power assets of FirstLight USA as well as three operational solar and battery facilities in the Northeast from the Public Sector Pension Investment Board in Ottawa. The assets being acquired by the Bethesda, Md., firm include the nearly 1.17-gigawatt Northfield Mountain energy reservoir in Massachusetts and 14 other hydro projects in that state as well as Connecticut and Pennsylvania. PSP acquired FirstLight in 2016.

Gideon Strategic Partners and Nimble Partners led a $170 million growth investment in retail inventory intelligence business Radar, joined by Align Ventures. The deal valued the company at $1 billion. Merchants use Radar's systems to manage product supplies in brick-and-mortar stores.

Leonard Green & Partners has completed its acquisition of publicly traded Mister Car Wash in an all-cash transaction that values the company at $3.1 billion. The private-equity firm bought all of the company’s outstanding shares for $7 each.

Menlo Ventures led a $100 million investment in Nourish, a metabolic health clinic operator. Other investors in the deal include Thrive Capital, Index Ventures, JP Morgan Growth Equity Partners and Operator Partners. The latest investment brings the total capital that the company has raised so far to $215 million.

Advent International in Boston is acquiring a significant minority stake in Indian frozen-potato products supplier Iscon Balaji Foods for $150 million as part of a larger $215 million growth investment that includes Indian asset manager 360 ONE. The company plans to increase its production capacity to provide frozen french fries and other products to restaurants and food services businesses across Southeast Asia, Australia and India.

Buyout firm Eurazeo in Paris is acquiring a majority interest in German cybersecurity software provider Nextron Systems, investing through its Elevate strategy. The Frankfurt-based company specializes in threat intelligence and forensic detection products.

Sagard's financial technology investment unit Portage led a $35 million growth investment in private funds operations systems provider Bunch, joined by Illuminate Financial and existing investors including Motive Partners. The fresh capital is expected to aid the German company's expansion in Europe, where it offers a digital system to manage private-equity and venture-capital funds.

Brenton Point Capital Partners has formed Continental Fuel Group to acquire and grow commercial fuel distributors across the Midwest, mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions of the U.S.

Ardian in Paris is buying a 132-megawatt wind energy project in Germany, marking the firm's first investment in the country with its Ardian Clean Energy Evergreen Fund. Ardian closed the fund with €1 billion, or roughly $1.17 billion, in 2023. Construction of the first leg of the project, in partnership with wind-energy developer 3Energy, is expected to begin this year and all the assets are under 20-year supply contracts.

Our add-on deal interactive tool allows you to sort and analyze volumes of add-on deal data compiled by WSJ Pro. View more.

Solestial, a solar energy company whose backers include AE Industrial Partners, is being acquired by New York-listed York Space Systems, which AE Industrial took public earlier this year and still lists it as a portfolio company on its website. Tempe, Ariz.-based Solestial develops silicon-based solar cells for use in orbital environments. The Boca Raton, Fla.-based firm's AE Ventures arm led a $17 million growth investment in the company last year.

Mammoth Scientific-backed medical device developer MiRus has sold a 34% interest in the company to strategic investor Boston Scientific in a deal that includes an exclusive option to acquire the Marietta, Ga.-based startup's Sigel heart valve replacement system, subject to additional payments by the Marlborough, Mass.-based medical device maker. Mammoth and family offices backed MiRus through a $65 million growth investment in 2021.

Buyout firm KKR & Co. is selling nearly 24.7 million shares of Tokyo-listed Kokusai Electric, which represents almost 11% of the voting rights in the semiconductor manufacturing equipment supplier and made the New York firm the company's principal shareholder. At Tuesday's closing price of ¥6,600, the stake in the former Hitachi unit would be worth about $1.03 billion. The sale will leave KKR with no further holdings in the business, according to a regulatory filing. KKR took Kokusai private in 2018, then relisted it in October 2023 and by late that year had earned about 15-times its investment, according to the firm.

Stellus Capital Management, which recently agreed to be acquired by publicly traded Ridgepost Capital, has closed Stellus Credit Fund IV with $1.5 billion of investible capital. One investor that disclosed a commitment is the Montana Board of Investment, according WSJ Pro’s LP Commitments database. Stellus has already invested the new fund across 44 portfolio companies.

Healthcare technology-focused Lauxera Capital Partners has closed on €520 million, or $603.5 million, for its Lauxera Growth II fund, surpassing its upper limit and nearly twice as much as the firm raised for its inaugural capital pool. The firm invests in Europe with an eye toward backing businesses that aim to expand into the U.S. The firm has made two investments from the fund so far and intends to back 12 to 15 as it fully deploys the fund.

Albaron Partners has raised $185 million in a first and final closing of Albaron Healthcare Opportunities I to back investments in North American healthcare and healthcare services companies with between $1 million and $10 million of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization. The fund drew support from endowments, funds of funds and family offices.

Houston-based Veriten has raised $105 million for an initial close of its energy-focused venture fund with support from energy companies that include Halliburton and Phillips 66. Veriten did not specify a fund target, but a regulatory filing from March indicates a $250 million offering amount for Veriten Venture Fund II.

Three former dealmakers with FSN Capital have started Ginestra, a Europe-focused buyout shop, and aim to raise €500 million for their debut fund, Sebastian McCarthy reports for sister publication Private Equity News in London, citing people familiar with the matter. Thomas Broe-Andersen, Lars Denkov and Nikolai Doepel aim to make control buyouts in Denmark and the broader Nordic region from their Copenhagen-based shop.

Weatherford Capital has added Todd Marcy as a partner at the firm to expand the firm’s investment strategy in the sports sector, including deal sourcing, evaluation and execution, as well as portfolio management. Marcy previously was a senior managing director at Avenue Capital Group, where he helped manage that firm’s $1 billion Avenue Sports Fund.

Evercore has added Clay McCoy as a senior managing director to the bank’s private capital advisory business. McCoy joins Evercore from Campbell Lutyens, where he was a managing director who led the firm’s North American infrastructure secondary advisory business.

NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy have agreed to combine in a blockbuster utilities deal. Now comes the hard part: a regulatory marathon, the Journal reports. The companies must convince a web of state and federal regulators that combining two of the U.S.’s largest utilities will benefit customers and avoid increasing electricity bills at a time of heightened scrutiny on consumer costs and grid reliability.

Three former executives of Landon Capital Partners have formally launched Griffin’s Wharf Partners after settling litigation that dated back to 2024 with their former employer over wrongful termination. Landon Capital has agreed to make a financial payment to Griffin’s Wharf and acknowledged that it wrongfully terminated the firm’s investment professionals Managing Partner Chris Sullivan and Partners Jamie Kennedy and Rob McMenimon. Griffin’s Wharf targets control investments in U.S.-based companies with enterprise values below $150 million and at least $5 million or more of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization.

One of the co-founders of private-credit behemoth Blue Owl Capital recently sold the last of his stake in the NFL’s Washington Commanders football team, the Journal reports. Doug Ostrover was among the individuals who cashed out their investments in the Commanders in recent weeks, according to people familiar with the matter. Ostrover started selling much of his stake in 2025 and is currently liquidating the remaining piece, one of the people said.

Värde Partners has closed a $1 billion managed commercial real-estate collateralized loan obligation, the 13th CLO in the series and the firm's largest so far. The underlying loans represented in the vehicle, VMC 2026- FL6, were all originated by Värde, backed by U.S. properties.

So called “hard” industries such as utilities, energy, chemicals and machinery accounted for 46% of leveraged buyout value worldwide during this year’s first quarter, up from only 13% in the first three months of last year, according to Carlyle Group, citing data from Dealogic, WSJ Pro's Luis Garcia reports for Dow Jones Newswires. Meanwhile, information industries’ share of such deals dropped to 11% from 27%.

Private-credit specialist Monroe Capital has closed its latest term debt collateralized loan obligation with $426.6 million, backed by lower- and mid-market senior secured credits. Overall, the Chicago firm manages assets of over $24 billion.

The $4.3 trillion asset-management arm of banking giant JPMorgan Chase & Co. is “rapidly integrating generative" artificial intelligence technology in its operations, a move that could widen investment opportunities and triple the number of companies its analysts cover over the next decade, David Ricketts reports for sister publication Financial News in London, citing Chief Executive George Gatch. “The machine does the digging and the human does the decision making and applies judgement to the process,” Gatch said of the technology's impact on his equity research analysts.

Sky Peak Capital has combined three companies to form precision manufacturing platform Excelus Holdings. The companies include Excelus Manufacturing Solutions, which Sky Peak previously backed in 2022, D&G Machine Products, and Millennium Precision.

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Maria Armental; Ted Bunker; Chris Cumming; Luis Garcia; Laura Kreutzer; Isaac Taylor; Chitra Vemuri.