🚀 Virgin has liftoff

Welcome to the Hotel Starry-fornia... such a lovely space. Virgin Galactic stock soared 28% yesterday, following the space tourism company's successful spaceflight test over the weekend. ICYMI: Virgin's trying to vacation-ify space travel. Think: restaurant bookings on the International Space Station (we're thinking spaghetti Apollo-gnese).

• Milestone #1: The launch was the first of four remaining spaceflight tests before Virgin starts flying commercial customers — aka: space tourists.
• Milestone #2: New Mexico became the third US state to launch humans into space. Virgin owner Richard Branson shared the love with NM.

One small step for man... One giant leap for Virgin's "Future Astronauts," as it calls prospective customers. The flight was a critical step for Virgin's space tourism program, which aims to launch early next year. Virgin's mission is to become the "Spaceline for Earth." It hates that only 600 humans have left Earth’s atmosphere, and wants to "open space to everybody." But Richard Branson has some intergalactic competition from other famous billionaire entrepreneurs (it's a theme with space companies)....

• SpaceX: Last year, Elon Musk's rocket company sent NASA astronauts into orbit with a private spacecraft for the first time. In April, SpaceX won a $2.9B NASA contract to build a lunar landing system, beating Blue Origin.
• Blue Origin: This week, a bid to be the first passenger with Jeff Bezos' spacecraft company hit a whopping $2.8M. The 11-minute crewed flight is set to launch on July 20.

Exactly one year ago... George Floyd was murdered, leading to protests for racial justice across the US —  and a nation-wide reckoning over race and policing. For corporate America, silence was no longer an option. From Apple's Tim Cook to Goldman's David Solomon, CEOs spoke about the need to better address racial disparities, both in society and in their own companies. Mentions of “systemic racism” at company events spiked to 300+ last quarter, up from nearly zero the year before. Now, we're looking at what companies have actually done.

Pledge vs. reality... Since Floyd’s death, American companies have pledged $50B to racial equity initiatives — Chase alone pledged $30B. Update: only ~$250M has so far been spent or committed to specific initiatives, according to Creative Investment Research. Pledges included donations to civil rights orgs, investments in communities of color, and internal diversity initiatives.

• Goldman started sharing detailed demographic data in January, revealing that just 49 of its 1.5K senior execs and managers are Black. Black Americans hold only 3% of senior roles in companies with 100+ employees.
• Lyft, Levi's, and Verizon conducted pay equity audits, saying they found no systemic pay differences between ethnicities. Only 31 of the 100 largest US companies are analyzing how equitably they pay employees of different races and ethnicities.
• Chase and other major banks will reportedly give credit cards to people with no credit score, as part of a gov-backed initiative to increase credit access to underserved communities. The plan was launched after Floyd's death.
• Peloton recently announced its portfolio of partners for its four-year, $100M investment pledge to fight racial injustice.

• Fortnite: After three weeks, the heated Apple-Epic trial is over — but we may have to wait a few months for the ruling.
• Taxed: G7 countries are reportedly close to agreeing on the taxation of multinational companies, paving the way for a global corporate tax rate.
• Grounded: Belarus' president forced a plane that was carrying a dissident journalist to land, and then arrested him. Now the country faces an EU flight ban.
• Recharge: Electric truck startup Lordstown Motors says it needs to raise cash and is slashing its production forecast for 2021.
• Currency: Fed Reserve Governor Lael Brainard is pushing for a digital dollar, citing possible benefits of a cryptocurrency backed by the central bank.

• Earnings expected from Nordstrom, Intuit, AutoZone, Urban Outfitters, and Zscaler

ID: 1661427

Correction: In yesterday's letter, we said that the "Big Tech 5" earnings happened this month – we meant "over the past month."