Guardian Acquires Select Dental; AI Stocks Rout on Kimi K3

Two DSO roll-up deals headline a busy week for dental group M&A, with private-equity-backed platforms adding scale across the Northeast and Midwest.

Guardian Dentistry Partners acquires Select Dental Management. Guardian Dentistry Partners announced a majority acquisition of Select Dental Management in a move that significantly expands its Northeast footprint. The transaction adds 38 locations, 130 dentists, and more than 30 partners spread across eight states and Washington, D.C. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal positions Guardian among the larger DSO platforms operating along the Eastern Seaboard and reflects continued appetite among DSO acquirers for multi-state group practices with established partner structures.

Rising Tide Dental Partners adds six Ohio practices. Rising Tide Dental Partners announced the acquisition and integration of six new dental practices in Ohio, a move the company says increases its total revenue by 15% and expands its geographic footprint by 22%. The company simultaneously announced a new Chief Operating Officer to support the enlarged network. Deal terms were not disclosed. The transaction is a classic DSO “add-on” strategy — bolting on geographically clustered practices to achieve operational scale — and signals continued dealmaking activity in the Midwest dental market even as broader financing conditions remain uncertain.

A turbulent week for risk assets was defined by a fresh AI-competitiveness shock, escalating Middle East military action, and persistent pressure on rate expectations.

Chinese AI model Kimi K3 jolts chip stocks. The release of Kimi K3 by Beijing-based Moonshot AI sent semiconductor shares sharply lower Friday, with Bloomberg reporting the chipmaker group — which has led this year’s equity rally — veering toward bear-market territory. Axios reported that Kimi immediately reached the top tier of global AI benchmarks, outperforming several leading U.S. models in front-end coding evaluations while costing roughly 40% less. Moonshot plans to release Kimi as an open-weight model, meaning companies and governments can run and customize it independently — a development that pressures the pricing power of U.S. AI labs and the investment thesis underpinning massive data-center spending. Emerging-market equities also fell broadly on the AI valuation concerns, with a key gauge moving toward technical correction territory, according to Bloomberg.

Hormuz conflict escalates, lifting geopolitical risk premium. U.S. military strikes against Iranian targets in and around the Strait of Hormuz entered a fifth consecutive day, with forces bombing at least seven bridges near Bandar Abbas, a hub for Iranian Revolutionary Guard operations, according to Axios. The Trump administration is also reported to be considering a broader offensive, including strikes on Iranian infrastructure and nuclear sites, and is sending additional refueling aircraft to Israel. Iran escalated attacks on U.S. bases across the region. The Financial Times noted that oil markets are absorbing the Hormuz shock so far, but the sustainability of that buffer remains an open question. Gold trimmed a weekly loss on dip-buying, even as rising war-driven interest-rate-hike bets weighed on the metal, Bloomberg reported.

UnitedHealth posts $5.5 billion Q2 profit, raises guidance. On the earnings front, UnitedHealth Group reported second-quarter profit of $5.5 billion, topping investor expectations and prompting the company to raise its full-year outlook, according to Healthcare Dive and Fierce Healthcare. The result — driven by recovery in its insurance and value-based care delivery businesses — offered one of the week’s few unambiguously positive corporate data points amid broader market volatility.

Latigo Biotherapeutics files for IPO. Blue Owl-backed Latigo Biotherapeutics filed for an initial public offering, Bloomberg reported, adding to a growing pipeline of biotech companies eyeing public markets as soon as this quarter. The filing reflects ongoing investor appetite for biotech listings even as the broader tech-and-growth trade faced pressure from the AI selloff.