Sports-focused private equity firm 154 Partners, backed by Blackstone Inc. veteran David Blitzer, wrapped up fundraising for its debut vehicle with $400 million.

The firm hit its hard fundraising cap, according to a statement Wednesday from 154 Partners, which makes investments on the lower end of the middle market.
Blitzer, who previously led Blackstone’s Tactical Opportunities unit, is a member of 154 Partners’ investment committee along with co-founders Isaac Harrouche and Mike Berlin, who both worked with him at Tac Opps. Harrouche and Berlin launched 154 Partners last year to back smaller, family- or operator-owned companies in sports, live events, residential services and business services.

154 Partners co-founders Isaac Harrouche and Mike Berlin join to discuss the round of funding and where in the sports space they're looking to invest. They speak with hosts Tim Stenovec and Emily Graffeo, in for Carol Massar.

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Featuring some of our favorite conversations of the week from our daily radio show "Bloomberg Businessweek Daily."
Hosted by Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec

Hear the show live at 2PM ET on WBBR 1130 AM New York, Bloomberg 92.9 FM Boston, WDCH 99.1 FM in Washington D.C. Metro, Sirius/XM channel 121, on the Bloomberg Business App, Radio.com, the iHeartRadio app and at Bloomberg.com/audio.

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The people, companies and trends shaping the global economy.

Watch Carol and Tim LIVE every day on YouTube: http://bit.ly/3vTiACF.

President Donald Trump ramped up pressure on Iran as Vice President JD Vance traveled to Pakistan for talks to end the war, with Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon and the Strait of Hormuz’s effective closure looming over diplomatic efforts.

Trump posted on social media Friday that Tehran’s only leverage is “short term extortion of the world by using International Waterways” — a reference to Hormuz, a critical shipping lane for oil and natural gas that remains largely shut, raising global energy prices. Trump declared that the “Iranians don’t seem to realize they have no cards.”

While the two-week ceasefire was broadly holding across the Middle East, the situation with the strait and continued fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon threatened to complicate negotiations due to begin over the weekend in Islamabad.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf insisted in a social media post that a ceasefire in Lebanon is one measure that “must be fulfilled before negotiations begin.” The other is the “release of Iran’s blocked assets,” he added, without being more specific.

This episode features:

• Jeff Mason, Bloomberg News Washington and White House Correspondent
• Humayun Tai, McKinsey Global Energy & Materials Practice Senior Partner & Leader
• Todd Gillespie, Bloomberg News Banking Reporter on Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell convening an urgent meeting with Wall Street leaders on the latest AI model from Anthropic
• Drive to the Close with Jed Ellerbroek, Argent Capital Management Portfolio Manager

Hosted by Tim Stenovec and Emily Graffeo, in for Carol Massar

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Of all the prevailing media narratives around Gavin Newsom, the one that is most conspicuous by its absence is how under its two-term governor California became the top performing economy not just among its 49 siblings but also any developed nation. No wonder Elon Musk quietly sought Newsom’s help when the world’s richest man sought to move a bunch of Tesla Inc. engineers back to the state after relocating them to Texas. Amid the thousands of headlines referencing California failings with wildfires, droughts, floods, mass transportation, aging roads, education, homelessness, unaffordable housing, widening inequality and poverty along with the exodus of billionaires, corporate headquarters and longtime residents -- never mind the “slick” label whenever the betting favorite for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination is mentioned in the press – the Golden State (population 39 million people), just supplanted Japan (123 million) as the fourth-largest economy.

Matthew Winkler, Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief Emirtus discusses how California's economy has grown faster than either China or Germany... And picking up steam.

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The people, companies and trends shaping the global economy.
Watch Carol and Tim LIVE every day on YouTube: http://bit.ly/3vTiACF.

Intel Corp., trying to promote the use of its technology in data centers, said Alphabet Inc.’s Google has committed to using future generations of its Xeon processors and other chips.

As part of the multiyear agreement, announced Thursday, the search engine giant will customize Intel’s IPUs, or infrastructure processing units. These chips handle functions such as networking, security and storage. The companies didn’t disclose financial details or purchase commitments.
The deal is part of a push by Intel to better capitalize on the build-out of artificial intelligence infrastructure. Getting a bigger slice of data center spending is critical to a comeback bid under Chief Executive Officer Lip-Bu Tan.Intel’s stock rose as much as 3.6% in New York trading, adding to a rally of about 20% this week. The shares have also benefited from an announcement that the chipmaker will help Elon Musk’s long-shot effort to develop semiconductors for Tesla Inc., SpaceX and xAI.

Xeon once commanded a market share of more than 99%, making it the chief source of profit for what was then the world’s largest semiconductor maker. In the last few years, Intel has lost ground to rivals such as Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and in-house efforts by customers — including Google.

One trend is working in Intel’s favor: Central processing units, its hallmark product, are increasingly seen as critical to artificial intelligence computing. Though Nvidia Corp.’s AI processors are still the workhorses of this infrastructure, there’s growing demand for general-purpose CPUs to help everything run smoothly.

Today's show features:

• Ian King, Bloomberg News US Semiconductor Reporter
• Ed Fishman, Columbia University Senior Research Scholar and Professor
• Jeff Mason, Bloomberg News Washington and White House Correspondent
• Michael McKee, Bloomberg TV and Radio International Economics & Policy Correspondent
• Sarah Hunt, Alpine Saxon Woods Chief Market Strategist

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Following Bloomberg Intelligence's list of 50 Companies to Watch in January, Tim Craighead, Bloomberg Intelligence Senior European Strategist and Director of Research-Content discusses 10 names you should know—for better or worse—in the second quarter. Bloomberg Intelligence analysts have identified the most interesting names from their group of high-confidence Focus Ideas. Spanning sectors and regions, each scenario outlines a catalyst in the next few months that supports our case.

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The people, companies and trends shaping the global economy.
Watch Carol and Tim LIVE every day on YouTube: http://bit.ly/3vTiACF.

A growing number of Federal Reserve officials worried the Iran war could further stoke inflation and wanted to make clear following their March meeting that the central bank may have to consider raising interest rates.

Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee’s March 17-18 meeting, released Wednesday in Washington, showed policymakers wrestled with starkly differing scenarios for the US economy following the outbreak of the Iran war, and the policy reactions that might follow.
Most officials worried a protracted war could hurt the labor market and warrant lower interest rates. At the same time, many policymakers highlighted the risk to inflation that might ultimately warrant rate increases.

Officials in the latter camp appeared to become more strident, urging their colleagues to consider adding language to their post-meeting statement that raised the scenario of hiking rates under certain conditions.

“Some participants judged that there was a strong case for a two-sided description of the committee’s future interest-rate decisions in the post-meeting statement, reflecting the possibility that upward adjustments to the target range for the federal funds rate could be appropriate if inflation were to remain at above-target levels,” the minutes said.
Echoing those concerns, the minutes noted the “vast majority” of officials thought it may take longer to return inflation to the Fed’s 2% goal.

At the meeting, officials held the Fed’s benchmark policy rate in a range of 3.5% to 3.75% at that gathering.

Today's show features:

• Michael McKee, Bloomberg International Economics and Policy Correspondent, breaks Fed Minutes
• Matthew Luzzetti, Deutsche Bank Chief US Economist and Head of US Economic Research
• Dr. Ed Husain, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations
• Michelle Gass, Levi's President & CEO on Levi Boosts Outlook as Direct-to-Consumer Strategy Pays Off

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DraftKings and FanDuel are thriving—but lax regulations, understaffed “responsible gambling” departments, and lack of resources for gambling addicts can make sports betting platforms uniquely insidious. For many users, this new 'vice' has cost them thousands, sometimes millions, while other profit. Danny Funt, Sports Journalist and author of 'Everybody Loses: The Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Gambling' discusses the unsettling truth about America's sports betting boom and how it can cost people everything they have.

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