It’s Friday, and all eyes will be on SpaceX’s stock to see how Elon Musk’s company fares on its first day of trade after raising a record $75 billion from investors Thursday: Will the shares achieve escape velocity, or fizzle on the launchpad?

Kicking off this morning’s newsletter, our own Chris Cumming looks at the recent performance of California Public Employees’ Retirement System’s private-equity portfolio, which has inspired the pension manager to expand the investment remit of the man who helped drive that performance, Anton Orlich.

Meanwhile, our Journal colleague Mark Mauer reports on KKR’s recent investment in accounting and financial advisory firm Crowe in a deal valued at $3 billion.

Read on for more details and have a great weekend …

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System revived its private-equity program by swimming against the stream—raising its bets on the asset class as other investors were pulling back. Now the $598 billion pension system hopes the manager who led that turnaround can get the same results in other private-asset classes, Chris Cumming writes for WSJ Pro. On Thursday, Calpers promoted Anton Orlich to deputy chief investment officer for private markets, succeeding Daniel Booth, who stepped down in October 2025.

Buyout firm KKR & Co. is acquiring a stake in accounting services provider Crowe valued at nearly $3 billion, Mark Mauer writes for the Journal, citing people familiar with the matter. The deal represents the latest transaction in a wave of private-equity investments across the industry as firms seek capital to speed up their artificial intelligence adoption and expansion efforts. KKR and co-investors will collectively take a majority stake in the Chicago-based firm through an investment in its non-audit unit, with Crowe partners retaining a minority stake.

Prometheus, an AI startup co-led by Amazon’s billionaire founder Jeff Bezos, has raised $12 billion from investors, valuing the company at $41 billion, the Journal reports. Investors that have backed the company include Bezos, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and BlackRock. Prometheus aims to use artificial intelligence to design and manufacture complex physical products, such as jet engines.

Stonepeak and Energy Equation Partners are acquiring Polish fuel distributor Anwim. The deal furthers a European retail fuel joint venture between the two firms following their acquisition of a majority stake in German and Austrian fuel retailer JET Tankstellen Deutschland GmbH.

Backing from three Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds has drawn scrutiny from European Union regulators to the Paramount-Warner Bros. deal, NBC News reported, citing a public filing. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Abu Dhabi’s L’IMAD Holding and the Qatar Investment Authority have all committed capital to support the deal. European regulators are expected to decide by Sunday whether to convene a formal inquiry into the merger's implications for competition.

Apollo Global Management and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority participated in a $355 million growth investment in Canton creator Digital Asset, which was led by Andreessen Horowitz. The New York-based company's Canton system lets users of blockchain technology share infrastructure while remaining compliant with privacy and other rules and retaining control, according to Digital Asset.

Lead Edge Capital in New York is backing consulting business Advancing Analytics with a strategic growth investment to advance the company's data insights and artificial intelligence capabilities. The London-based company works with financial institutions and consumer groups to help them organize their data into more useful forms.

Motive Partners in New York has acquired Mobius, which provides investment services to institutions and wealth advisers in the U.K., from Phoenix Equity Partners. The U.K. company has more than £30 billion, or about $40.1 billion, in assets under administration. Phoenix backed Mobius in 2019.

Peter Thiel's Founders Fund led a $54 million growth investment in renewable developer Endurance Energy, joined by others including Construct Capital, according to a LinkedIn post on the company's page. Seattle-based Endurance is building hardware to tap undersea geothermal energy sources such as volcanoes and generate gigawatts of power that can be sent to land-based users, with zero emissions.

An $85 million growth investment led by CRV, formerly Charles River Ventures, also attracted luxury brands company LVMH Group and electronics giant Samsung to back artificial intelligence technology developer Theker Robotics, according to a post on X.com by the Barcelona, Spain-based company. The startup said it already has deployed its robotic systems into production environments.

Lower midmarket firm Rox Capital Partners is buying Interstate Threaded Products, a Dallas-based manufacturer of specialty threaded fasteners for customers in infrastructure sectors that include power generation, construction, telecommunications, industrial manufacturing, agriculture and other mission-critical industries.

Lower midmarket firm Red Dog Equity has acquired U.S.-based engineering talent company Entegee from a unit of Adecco Group. Entegee generates around $180 million in annual revenue.

Consumer-focused firm L Catterton has led an early-stage investment in skincare brand Remedy Science with support from other investors that include existing backer Norwest and new investor Sonoma Brands Capital.

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

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is preparing to stage the largest public offering ever, selling $75 billion worth of shares in one fell swoop. Investors are showing up. As the Journal reports, BlackRock put in an order to buy at least $5 billion worth of SpaceX shares, according to people familiar with the matter, and other large asset managers submitted similarly eye-popping orders. While such firms often buy large stakes in IPOs, orders of this size are multiples of those seen in traditional offerings.

SpaceX’s initial public offering could make Elon Musk a trillionaire. The second-biggest payday will go to Antonio Gracias, his close friend and longtime investor who has made a career out of backing Musk, the Journal reports. When SpaceX goes public on Friday priced at $135 a share, Gracias and his firm Valor Equity Partners aren't selling and will still hold about 503.4 million Class A shares, or 6.7% of the outstanding amount, keeping Gracias the second-largest SpaceX shareholder after Musk, according to the company’s IPO prospectus. The deal will make Valor's stake worth roughly $67.96 billion.

Software- and technology-focused private-equity firm Francisco Partners is gearing up to close two new funds with more than $18 billion, despite the shadow that AI threats are casting over the software sector, Bloomberg News reports, citing people familiar with the effort. The firm has already surpassed the $14 billion target for Francisco Partners VIII, its latest main private-equity fund, and the $4 billion goal for Agility Fund IV, Bloomberg reports. The Agility strategy targets smaller deals than the main fund, typically equity checks of up to $200 million, according to an investment memo presented earlier this year to the Nebraska Investment Council, which backed both funds.

J.F. Lehman & Co., a midmarket firm focused on investments in the aerospace, defense, maritime and government sectors, has raised at least $993 million so far for JFL Equity Investors VII, according to a regulatory filing. Investors that have disclosed commitments to the new fund include Connecticut Retirement Plans & Trust Funds and the New York State Teachers Retirement System. The fund is targeting $2.75 billion, according to meeting materials presented to the Connecticut State Treasurer’s investment advisory council.

Partners Group has raised more than $650 million of the $1.5 billion it is seeking for its fifth real estate secondary fund. The firm has seeded the new fund with a secondary deal involving limited partner commitments to three global real estate funds.

Credit-focused infrastructure investor Rgreen Invest in Paris has appointed Ronald Gaultier as senior investment director, according to an emailed news release. He joined the firm from Sienna Investment Managers.

Credit-focused Beach Point Capital Management has appointed Louis DiFranco as global head of insurance solutions as it strives to expand in the sector. Josh Baumgarten, the Santa Monica, Calif., firm's president and chief investment officer, cited "the insurance industry's growth in invested assets and need for higher-yielding investment opportunities" in announcing DiFranco's appointment. He was previously with insurer Prudential Financial's asset-management business PGIM, where he was head of insurance, Americas.

Smash Capital, a growth-equity firm focused on technology, has added David Urban as an operating partner. Urban also serves as managing director at BGR Group, a strategic communications and lobbying firm, along with roles at other organizations. Smash Capital was founded in 2021 by former Disney executives Kevin Mayer, Eric Garland, Evan Richter and long-time technology investor Brad Twohig.

Buyout firm KKR & Co. has set up Helix Digital Infrastructure to finance the development of artificial-intelligence data centers, the Journal reports. The firm has lined up capital commitments of about $10 billion from investors including chipmaker Nvidia, the Kuwait Investment Authority and power company Vistra. Adam Selipsky, a former chief executive of Amazon Web Services, leads Helix.

Citigroup is establishing a way for its wealthy and institutional clients to trade shares of private companies through a blockchain, a venture it hopes will be adopted by other banks across Wall Street. As the Journal reports, the bank said it is in discussions with some of the largest private companies to get involved.

Clearlake Capital Group’s credit unit is taking over management of a portfolio of 31 collateralized loan obligations, or CLOs, from LCM Asset Management. The 31 CLOs represent some $5 billion in assets and expand Clearlake Credit’s assets under management to around $39 billion.

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