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Chipmaker AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) has unveiled a range of innovative AI solutions spanning from data centers to personal computers. The AMD Instinct MI300 Series features data center AI accelerators, while the ROCm 6 open software stack introduces new features supporting Large Language Models (LLMs). Additionally, the Ryzen 8040 Series processors come equipped with Ryzen AI capabilities.
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Venture Capital: Apeel Sciences Scores $250M Funding to Combat Food Waste
Apeel Sciences scores $250M funding to combat food waste. The company has pioneered a high technology solution to reduce food waste. It created an edible spray-on coating made from plant materials that can be applied to perishable food such as avocados, lemons, and limes to double or triple their life.
Artificial Intelligence: Daphne Koller Raises $143M For Insitro, Her AI-Bio Startup
Daphne Koller raises $143M for Insitro, her AI-Bio startup. Insitro combines cutting-edge biopharma with machine learning.
Artificial Intelligence: Marty the Robot Hunts for Spills in Supermarket Aisles
Marty the supermarket robot is rather smart. Armed with three high-resolution cameras, computer vision, navigation systems, numerous sensors, and smart AI software, Marty is able to sidestep shoppers and pinpoint spills. Marty is a social robot and the first of its kind to be deployed in a live customer environment in supermarkets.
Venture Capital: The U.S. IPO Drought May be About to End
As this is being written, the Dow is up nearly 600 points and the S&P 500 is above the psychological 3,000 mark. The markets are up as investors cheer the reopening of the economy and look forward to a vaccine that could mark an end to the suffering from the virus. Favorable and positive sentiments in the capital markets augur well for new capital issues, of which there are quite a few in the pipeline. These had been put on a forced hold amidst the market plunge and lockdowns from the coronavirus outbreak.
FinTech: Swiss Banking Giant UBS Homes in on Fintech Investing
Swiss banking giant UBS Group AG (NYSE: UBS) is planning to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in upstart fintechs through a proposed corporate venture capital fund. According to a Bloomberg report, the bank is seeking to jump-start its digitization by investing in high tech startups that are threatening banking incumbents.
Digital Assets: In India, RBI Confirms No Ban on Crypto; CoinDCX Raises $2.5M; Crypto Volumes Fly
The Reserve Bank of India, the Indian central bank, confirmed that there currently exists no banking ban on the crypto industry in India. CoinDCX, India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, gained a strategic investment of $2.5 million that was led by Polychain Capital with participation from Coinbase Ventures. Meanwhile, Indian crypto exchanges have benefited from the lockdowns imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The crypto sector benefiting from a huge surge in interest, trading volumes, and new user signups during the lockdowns.
DailyAlts Playbook: Hertz Goes Under, The Vaccine Gold Rush, and Just How Rich is Mark Zuckerberg
THE DAILYALTS PLAYBOOK May 26, 2020 DailyAlts Playbook: Hertz Goes Under, The Vaccine Gold Rush, and Just How Rich is Mark Zuckerberg PRIME OVERVIEW Good morning, I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend, despite the ongoing circumstances. While efforts to reopen parts of the U.S. continued over the weekend, I wasn’t surprised to…
Artificial Intelligence: AI-Simulated, 3D TV News Anchor, Now Live
Here’s the world’s first 3D news anchor powered by AI. Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency, has launched a 3D AI news anchor named Xin Xiaowei, a lookalike of Zhao Wanwei, a real-life, human news presenter at the agency.
Alternative Investments: Asset Managers Need To Up Their Game (BCG Report)
According to a new report from Boston Consulting Group, there is likely to be fierce competition for limited capital in 2020 after the coronavirus crisis. Asset managers will have to deal with these new market realities by taking recourse to technology and gaining an edge through expertise and scale.
Liquid Alternatives: RIP 60:40. Liquid Alts Solve the New Equation
Volatile equity markets and declining fixed income yields have turned the traditional 60:40 portfolio allocation between stocks and bonds on its head. According to one study, an investor would today need to allocate 83% to equity, 15% to real estate, and only 2% to bonds to earn a similar rate of return as a couple of decades ago. Unfortunately, such a high component of equity would push up the portfolio’s volatility and risk to unacceptable levels. Liquid alts can be the solution to this dilemma.
Digital Assets: The Texas Grid Pays Thiel-backed Layer1 to not Mine Cryptos in August
Layer1, the bitcoin miner backed by the likes of top-flight VC Peter Thiel and early-stage investor Shasta Ventures, based its operations in west Texas to take advantage of cheap power. Wind energy and natural gas combine to make the cost of power here the cheapest in the world. But for Layer1, there’s icing on this cake. It gets paid $17 million annually to not draw power when the grid needs it most.
Venture Capital: Beijing-based start-up Missfresh May Soon Nab $500M
The Covid-19 has boosted the fortunes of online grocery delivery start-up Missfresh. Locked-in families have stepped up their demand for groceries and fresh foods to be delivered at home amidst shelter-in-place restrictions. The online grocery sector, somewhat of an also-ran in the burgeoning e-commerce space, has now come into its own. According to a Bloomberg report, fundraising of $500 million by Missfresh is imminent.
Fintech: Visa Enters an Investment and Strategic Partnership with GoodData
Global analytics firm GoodData announced it had received an investment from Visa Ventures, the corporate venture investment division of payments giant Visa (NYSE: V). GoodData also said the two companies entered a collaboration to offer Visa’s customers and partners better access to data and analysis.
Real Estate: Green Street Advisors Issues Report on COVID-19
Green Street Advisors has released a new report titled U.S. Commercial Real Estate Cross-Sector Overview Amid Covid-19. The real estate advisory and research firm takes a look at which segments of the commercial real estate and Real Estate Investment markets have experienced the most damage from the economic shutdown caused by halt the coronavirus spread.
Private Equity – Dyal Capital Partners Targets Stakes in NBA Teams
Barron’s is reporting that Dyal Capital Partners, a unit of Neuberger Berman, wants to raise $2 billion to buy minority interests of National Basketball Association teams. The NBA selected Dyal in April to form a fund to buy up minority stakes. Dyal Capital Partners has approval so far by the NBA ownership. All 30 team…
Liquid Alternatives: Insurance-Linked Securities Attractive Amid Covid-19 Economy
S&P Global Ratings said in a recent report that the COVID-19 pandemic had “showcased” the value of publicly traded catastrophe bonds (cat bonds) to investors. The bonds formed a liquid asset class that was not correlated with the current volatile financial markets.
Artificial Intelligence: Microsoft’s Massive New Supercomputer for AI
In 2019, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) entered a multi-year partnership with OpenAI to build a platform that OpenAI will use to create new AI technologies and deliver on the promise of artificial general intelligence. As part of the agreement, Microsoft agreed to invest $1 billion in the project. At its ‘Build 2020’ developers’ conference, the tech giant unveiled “one of the top five publicly disclosed supercomputers in the world, making new infrastructure available in Azure to train extremely large artificial intelligence models.”
FinTech: Saudi Fintech Geidea Launches Beta Testing of End-to-End Solutions for SMEs
Geidea achieved the distinction of being the first fintech company to obtain a payment license from the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority. As a payments processor, it can now operate in the Saudi banking market as a non-banking financial company and commands a 70% market share in POS terminals sold through banks. Geidea announced the launch of BETA testing of a complete range of products and solutions designed for the SME sector in Saudi Arabia.
Venture Capital: Brex, the Credit Card Provider for Startups, Raises $150M
Brex, the fintech which sells credit cards to startups, eCommerce companies, and life sciences companies, raised $150 million from Lone Pine Capital and a group of existing investors led by DST.
Venture Capital: British Startup Offers Travel Jaunts on the Never-Never
British fintech startup Fly No Pay Later’s innovative and quite literally “grab your bags and go” product allows travelers to pay for their trip over up to 12 months. Once travel restrictions ease, travelers eyeing mouth-watering flight and hotel offers, therefore, have no excuse. Unsurprisingly, Fly Now Pay Later found investors out there who were willing to bet $43 million on its product for the virus-battered, given-up-for-dead travel industry.
Private Equity: Apollo Buys Stake in Albertsons Companies
Apollo Global Management (NYSE: APO) announced certain affiliate-led funds drove the purchase of $1.75 billion of convertible preferred stock in Albertsons Companies. The target is one of the largest food and drug retailers in the United States. The investment will represent approximately 17.5% pro forma equity ownership of Albertsons on an as-converted basis.
Digital Assets: Crypto Adoption Growing Apace – CoinPayments Ties Up with Shopify
Canadian e-commerce giant Shopify (NYSE: SHOP) has added another crypto payment processor to its retinue of digital platforms facilitating crypto payments. It entered a strategic partnership with CoinPayments, the world’s largest cryptocurrency payments processor.
FinTech: Berlin-based Raisin Launches “Savings-as-a-Service” in the U.S.
Banks and credit unions in the U.S., eyeing the sharp rise in the deposits market following stock market turmoil, can use Raisin’s Savings-as-a-Service. The software is a tailored business solution that can bring “private banking like experience” to retail deposits. Banks can boost their deposits, all the while keeping costs within their control.
Digital Assets: Now Buy Prepaid Tezos Cryptocards at 10,000 French Retail Shops
After Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple’s XRP, Litecoin, and Dash, French startup Digycode has added Tezos (XTZ) to its lineup of cryptocurrency prepaid vouchers purchasable at tobacco shops across France. Digycode has partnered for this purpose with Nomadic Labs, which contributes to the development of the Tezos core software.