Lithium Rush

TPG creates a super-management firm, researchers find a trove of lithium in Arkansas, and Morgan Wallen gets festive

Tuesday time, TFP fam. And for all our LA peeps, it’s been a good weekend of celebrating. The Dodgers are officially set to face off against the New York Yankees this Friday for the first game of the World Series. Both teams are armed with the best home-run hitters in the game right now — Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers and Aaron Judge of the Yankees — so prepare for some fireworks.

DAILY TOP TRENDS

Consolidation Comes For Hollywood Management

Roll-up roster // Illustration by Kate Walker

Private equity giant TPG has acquired top-shelf management firm Grandview, with plans of combining it with Untitled Entertainment to form a new representation giant.

The Big Picture: Now that the Hollywood agencies have been consolidated or sold off (TPG sold CAA to Kering owner Francois-Henri Pinault last year), private equity is turning its attention to the largely untapped — and unregulated — waters of management.

Behind The Scenes: TPG is ready to roll up Hollywood again.

  • It will combine literary-focused firm Grandview (which counts clients like Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski and Rebel Ridge filmmaker Jeremy Saulnier) with actor-focused firm Untitled (clients include Sam Rockwell and Kate Hudson).

  • The new company will be named Initial Group and will be led by Grandview’s Jeff Silver and Matt Rosen and Untitled’s Jason Weinberg and Stephanie Simon.

  • TPG will likely follow the CAA playbook and look for more acquisitions that could scale Initial, per Deadline.

The Future: Hollywood agencies went through a major period of consolidation over the past few years, driven by private equity cash and a desire to scale. That pushed several representatives to leave for the less restrictive pastures of management, where they can collect commissions on deals, produce projects, and launch brands with talent. Now, private equity sees the dollar signs all over again. With more and more top talent opting to only have a manager instead of an agent, the gold rush could be signaling a shift in representative power.

Go Deeper: Agencies aren’t too happy with this move to management, recently filing a wide-ranging lawsuit against the firm Range Media Partners that alleges it acts as an unlicensed agency.

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Arkansas Is Sitting On A Lithium Goldmine

The Electric State // Illustration by Kate Walker

Arkansas looks to be home to enough lithium — the raw material used to make electric batteries — to meet the entire world’s demand. Now, energy companies are swooping in.

Why It Hits: Lithium is a super in-demand material as the world hopes to switch to electric and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. Establishing lithium mining as a major US industry could remake the industry.

Behind The Curtain: According to researchers at the United States Geological Survey and the government of Arkansas, “There be lithium in them hills!”

  • Anywhere between five million and 19 tons of lithium are located in an underground brine reservoir in the Smackover Formation area, where a lot of oil and gas are already mined.

  • Companies like Exxon Mobil are now preparing to produce lithium, which needs to be extracted from the brine (groundwater with high concentrations of salt and metals). It could even be extracted from the waste of previous mining projects.

  • Exxon hopes to start lithium production by 2027 and produce enough of the metal to power a million electric cars by 2030.

The Future: According to NYT, most lithium is produced in Australia and South America and then processed in China, with the latter becoming a headache for the increasingly frosty relations that Washington has with Beijing. By producing lithium in the US (in Arkansas, as well as the Salton Sea in California) that sustains American and worldwide demand, the balance of power in electrification could shift… and generate thousands of jobs.

DEEP DIVES

Do you think the lithium boom will remake Arkansas?

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69% of you voted No in yesterday’s poll: Do you watch Hallmark content?

“Not usually, but I’ve really enjoyed the series The Way Home. I think they have too much Christmas content too early in the season.”

“My grandma has them on all the time, and frankly, I’ve seen enough. I just really don’t like how cookie-cutter they are.”

“In the 70s, the Hallmark Hall of Fame shows were absolute classics. Now, they’re bland.”

“Sometimes it’s the only way to spend time with my wife.”

“Love me a good Hallmark Christmas movie.”

Let’s keep the conversation going. Join our Poll Of The Day newsletter so your opinions can shine. Discover how your views line up with your peers’, check out cool insights, and have some fun. It’s data with personality.

QUICK HITS

→ Entertainment / Media

💸 Netflix’s stock hit an all-time high of $763.89 — up 11% — after blowing away Wall Street expectations last week.

🧐 Disney named former Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman as Board Chairman and will announce a CEO successor to Bob Iger in early 2026.

🎵 Morgan Wallen set up his own music festival in Alabama and has recruited artists like Post Malone, T-Pain, and The War on Drugs to join the inaugural lineup.

→ Fashion / E-commerce

😭 Goldman Sachs says that the decade of wildly high returns on the S&P 500 is officially over, returning to a normal return rate of 3%.

👻 Convenience stores like Walgreens and 7-Eleven are slowly disappearing.

🏈 The NFL wants to outfit women via a new team-up with designer Veronica Beard.

→ Creator Economy

🤳 TikTok is connecting creators with manufacturers to make products to be sold on TikTok Shop.

🎲 Critical Role, the digital creators famous for their Dungeons & Dragons campaigns, are taking the show on the road for their 10th anniversary.

🍻 Jake Paul is becoming the franchise owner of 25 Dog Haus locations.

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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Copy edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.

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