AI has been embraced as a godsend for drug discovery. But startup Formation Bio is betting it can transform what CEO Benjamine Liu sees as the biggest bottleneck to getting new medicines to market: clinical trials.

There’s been nearly a twofold increase in drug candidates in the past decade, but the number of drugs approved by the FDA each year has remained mostly the same, says Liu. Formation Bio has raised about $615 million from top investors to acquire stalled early-stage drug candidates and use AI to help them get back on track.

“It has the potential—the potential—of being one of these enormously significant companies in an industry whose apple cart has not been upset all that much by a young company,” says Michael Moritz, billionaire venture capitalist and former Sequoia chairman.

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Iran rejected a second round of peace talks negotiations with the U.S., saying it considers the American blockade of the Strait of Hormuz to be a violation of the ceasefire.

President Donald Trump said Sunday a U.S. military vessel had attacked and taken over an Iranian-flagged cargo ship that attempted to sail through the U.S. blockade.

Iran’s announcement that it would reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping sent stock indexes on a tear Friday, but global crude oil prices shot up Monday amid the renewed tensions.

TARIFF REFUNDS UNLIKELY TO REACH CONSUMERS

Businesses are gearing up to reclaim some of the tariffs they paid as the government is set to launch its refund portal today. But consumers are unlikely to see much relief.

Nearly 90% of the economic burden of President Donald Trump’s sweeping levies fell on U.S. companies and consumers, according to a recent study from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s February ruling that Trump’s tariffs were unlawful, over a thousand companies have sued to recoup their losses, including major brands like FedEx and Costco.

The government’s new refund portal, known as the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries, or “CAPE,” is designed to streamline the processing of $127 billion in tariff refund claims.

It also places the burden on importers to seek reimbursement, which may be difficult for small businesses whose records aren’t as digitized, says Nicole DeHoratius, a professor of practice at Columbia Business School. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said last week only about 20% of importers eligible for tariff refunds have finished a necessary step to receive their money back.

Consumers can’t use the portal at all, and aren’t expected to see an immediate benefit from tariff refunds, though some are fighting back with class action lawsuits.

“I don’t think that they’re automatically going to be passed down to the consumer because there’s still so much cost in all of this,” DeHoratius says, noting the labor costs required to navigate a brand-new claims process.

WEALTH + ENTREPRENEURSHIP

U.S. Senator and former West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice has owned a historic resort in the Mountain State since 2009, but is now embroiled in a legal dispute with the Rowlings, a Texas family that owns a national hotel chain. Billionaire Robert Rowling appears prepared to foreclose on Justice, who has missed multiple payments, though the Justice family claims in a separate suit that the Rowlings conspired with his lender.

OnlyFans is reportedly in discussions to sell a minority stake to San Francisco-based Architect Capital, a deal that would value the company at more than $3 billion. The transaction could close just weeks after secretive owner Leonid Radvinsky, the Ukrainian-born entrepreneur who purchased the company in 2018 and transformed it into a booming business for adult entertainers, died of cancer.

Iranian officials warned that the U.S. blockade of its ports will come at “significant costs” for the global economy and soaring fuel prices can only be resolved if the blockade ends. The global benchmark Brent Crude Futures surged past $96 per barrel on Monday, reversing most of the decline it saw on Friday.

As AI threatens to cause large-scale unemployment, Elon Musk again touted the idea of universal basic income, which his rival OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has also supported. The world’s richest man suggested that AI and robotics will trigger an “increase in the money supply” that could fund the so-called “universal high income.”

Inside The Pawn Shop For The Ultra-Rich

Ultra-wealthy borrowers are forgoing banks and pledging their luxury assets, from rare Rolexes to Birkin bags, as collateral.

Denver-based Luxury Asset Capital started in 2016, reaching profitability within its first year and over the last decade has lent well north of $1 billion across its portfolio of brands. The firm runs its operation with the basic mechanics of a neighborhood pawn shop and the discretion of a Swiss bank. Borrowers pledge their watches, jewelry, handbags and fine art in exchange for short-term, nonrecourse loans. If they don’t repay, the lender keeps the item and sells it—often through auction houses like Christie’s or Sotheby’s.

“It’s amazing how many people come to us and say, ‘I didn’t know I could do this,’” says Dewey Burke, founder and CEO.

One borrower who worked with another firm and manages a large hedge fund hocked his wife’s eight-carat diamond ring—worth upwards of $600,000—after receiving a large margin call (the loan was eventually repaid and the ring was returned). Another client once brought in an Emmy award as collateral.

Flexibility is a big part of the appeal. While traditional banks typically lend against securities portfolios or real estate, luxury asset lenders are willing to finance a broader range of items that stretch the bounds of alternative assets for traditional financial institutions.

WHY IT MATTERS Luxury asset lending sits at the intersection of wealth management and urgency. Cash poor, but asset-rich borrowers pledge high-end possessions in exchange for fast cash, rather than selling them outright or navigating the paperwork and personal guarantees of traditional bank loans.

MORE Meet The Billionaire Financial Advisor Who Embraced Psychedelics And Found Bliss

At a time of intense political divisions, new research shows the vast majority of Americans supported NASA’s Artemis II crew as the Orion capsule landed off the coast of San Diego last week:

65%: The share of Americans who said following the mission felt different from their usual online experience, with nearly one-third describing it as a unifying moment

About $90 billion: The cost of the mission

$5.6 billion: How much the White House is proposing to cut from NASA’s discretionary budget, 23% less than the year prior

Many job seekers at this point use AI to help create a “perfect” resume—it also means that employers wind up with a stack of applications that look exactly the same. It’s important to be honest about your career journey, reflecting how you’ve grown along the way. And if you’re including skills like AI on your resume, don’t just list them for keyword stuffing, be sure to demonstrate how you used them in your work.

After taking off on TikTok, the No. 1 song on the iTunes chart in the U.S. last Friday was AI-generated. What is it called?

A. “Livin’ on Borrowed Time”

C. “Dust and Silence”

Thanks for reading! This edition of Forbes Daily was edited by Sarah Whitmire and Chris Dobstaff.

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