Investments
Types of investments
Top Story
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.
Get Daily Updates
Subscribe to DailyAlts Today to get Alternative Investment news, insight, and commentary delivered straight to your inbox every day.
More Stories on Investments
Artificial Intelligence: AI Helps More Accurately Count The Number Of Sea Lice On Salmon
Last week it was reported that a recent study that looked at the state of sea lice in the Pacific Ocean and found that the parasite is increasingly becoming resistant to a pesticide known as SLICE, or emamectin benzoate, one of the main tools that the salmon farming industry uses to combat the menace. An assessment usually involves manually counting the sea lice on salmon, a process that is often erroneous and sometimes accompanied by deliberate under-reporting. However, Benchmark Genetics, Norway, has collaborated with the Danish Technological Institute on a new, AI-enabled process that uses imaging technology and artificial intelligence to analyse the number of sea lice in real time.
Digital Assets: Nomura To Launch Digital Asset Company To Cater To Institutional Clients
Nomura Holdings Inc (NYSE: NMR) announced this week its plans to launch a new digital asset company that would serve institutional clients and other investors with products and services linked to cryptocurrencies, stable coins, decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other tokens.
FinTech: WhatsApp Adds ‘Pay’ Button To Contacts List For Quick And Easy Payments To Loved Ones
An exclusive report by PYMNTS reveals that WhatsApp, the messaging platform owned by Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: FB), has added a new “Pay” button for facilitating payments to persons in a user’s contacts list such as friends, relatives and family.
Alternative Investments/Digital: Fidelity Canada Launches Total Metaverse Index ETF
idelity Investments Canada launched today the Fidelity Total Metaverse Index ETF on the NEO Exchange under the ticker symbol FMTV. The metaverse is a term used to describe a potential future state of the Internet characterized by a network of augmented reality and virtual worlds that can be experienced persistently and in a shared environment by large numbers of users. The metaverse allows people to engage in various online experiences in a more immersive way, using devices such as virtual reality (VR) and/or augmented reality (AR) headsets. The potential market opportunity of the metaverse is estimated at over $1 trillion in yearly revenues.
Venture Capital: Al Gore-Led Generation Investment Launches $1.7B Sustainability Fund
ESG-focused Generation Investment, which has $36 billion of assets under management, on Wednesday launched a $1.7 billion fund titled Sustainable Solutions Fund IV. This fund, the largest so far from Generation, plans to “invest $50 million to $150 million as active minority investors in high-growth companies that are shifting industries toward sustainability.”
Artificial Intelligence: Argo AI’s Autonomous Vehicles On Driverless Testing In Miami And Austin
In a new milestone in its path towards commercialization of driverless vehicles, Argo AI, which is backed by Ford and Volkswagen, has launched on-road testing of these cars without accompanying safety drivers. These trials will commence in Miami and Austin and be initially available only to Argo AI employees via an app.
Alternative Investments: As 60:40 Crumbles, Simplify Launches Macro Strategy ETF
Simplify Asset Management has launched the Simplify Macro Strategy ETF (NYSEARCA: FIG) offering it to investors as a total portfolio solution through exposure to a diversified set of risk drivers. By utilizing a combination of equity futures, put options, and call options, the new ETF aims to provide core equity exposure that is hedged and positively convex.
FinTech: UK Payments And BNPL Platform Zilch Launches In The US
Zilch set a solid growth trajectory in the UK, amassing over two million customers within 18 months of launch in the UK, and winning a valuation of over $2 billion in a Series C funding round that raised $400 million in debt and equity from investors including Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS). Zilch has now entered the US, and is partnering with Experian, the credit reporting agency.
Digital Assets: Web3 And dapps Now Accessible Inside The Coinbase App
oinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) has launched new features that allow users to access Web3 and dapps directly from the Coinbase app. The new dapp wallet and dapp browser power this functionality in the app, and effective today, some lucky users can buy NFTs on marketplaces like Coinbase NFT and OpenSea, trade on Decentralized Exchanges like Uniswap and Sushiswap, and borrow, lend, or swap through DeFi platforms like Compound and Curve.
Venture Capital: Revolut Co-Founder Nik Storonsky Takes Aim At “Clubby” Venture Capitalism With Own VC Fund
Nikolai Storonsky, the billionaire co-founder of fintech and challenger bank Revolut, is building his own AI-powered venture fund to remove the element of “crowd mentality” in current day venture financing. It’s a clubby world driven by relationships, and a sitting target for disruption, in his view.
Artificial Intelligence: Israel Testing AI-Controlled Floating Solar Panels
Israel’s Finance Ministry and the Israel Innovation Authority (IIA) said in a joint statement Sunday that they planned to test a floating solar system that would generate electricity by tracking the sun. According to the statement, XFloat, an Israeli company that developed the system, would jointly conduct the pilot trials with the Mekorot national water company.
Liquid Alternatives: Picton Mahoney Launches Liquid Alternative Fund In Mutual Fund And ETF Formats
Picton Mahoney Asset Management launched the new Picton Mahoney Fortified Alpha Alternative Fund earlier this month. A liquid alternative fund, it is available in five classes of units, namely, Class A, Class F, Class FT, Class I and ETF units, and aims to provide consistent long-term capital appreciation to unitholders with an attractive risk-adjusted rate of return.
Digital Assets: Grayscale Launches Its First ETF in Europe
Grayscale Investments’ first European ETF, the Grayscale Future of Finance UCITS ETF, will list on European bourses and offer investors exposure to companies that are at the intersection of finance, technology, and digital assets and building the digital economy.
Venture Capital: Inflection, The AI Lab Founded Just This Year, Raises $225M
Inflection AI was founded earlier this year by DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and Karen Simonyan, a British computer scientist and researcher also from Google DeepMind. The company’s AI intends to make it possible to communicate with computers using the same natural, conversational language that we use to converse with people. Inflection raised $225 million from unnamed investors. The valuation was not disclosed either.
Alternative Investments/ESG: A New ETF From KraneShares Provides Exposure To Carbon Offsets
Asset management firm Krane Funds Advisors launched the KraneShares Global Carbon Offset Strategy ETF (NYSEARCA: KSET) on the New York Stock Exchange on April 27. The ETF provides investors with exposure to the voluntary carbon market by tracking carbon offset futures contracts traded on the CME, the largest derivative exchange in the world.
Artificial Intelligence: AI Can Tell A Person’s Race From X-Rays And CT Scans
A study by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Medical School found that an AI model trained to read X-rays and CT scans could predict a person’s race with 90% accuracy. Scientists were surprised enough by this development to initially deem it a “mistake.” More so, because a doctor cannot tell a person’s race by looking at their X-ray.
Digital Assets: NASA, Epic Games And Buendea Partner To Develop Martian Metaverse Via Game Challenge
NASA, Fortnite creator Epic Games, and virtual reality specialists Buendea have together launched a competition challenge to create a new Virtual Reality (XR) research, development, and testing environment to help prepare for the experiences and situations that will be encountered on Mars. This simulated Martian metaverse will call on developers to use Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5 to create new virtual assets and scenarios for the Mars XR Operations Support System (XOSS) environment.
Alternative Investments/Digital: Crypto Funds Launching Overseas
Three Crypto ETFs are finally expected to debut in Australia after a delay of two weeks pending resolution of “downstream issues.” Separately, three new crypto ETPs from CoinShares providing directly backed exposure to FTT, LINK, and UNI, the native tokens underpinning the FTX, Chainlink, and Uniswap networks, have already begun trading on the Deutsche Börse Xetra.
Artificial Intelligence: Deal-Making In AI
Deals across the Clearview facial recognition system, discovery of battery metals in Australia, revenue communications, and data analytics Deloitte buys Intellify Deloitte Australia has acquired Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Databricks specialist Intellify to add to its consulting arm. Founded in 2017, Intellify has more than 40 certified AI/ML developers. It operates in Australia across…
Venture Capital: Brightseed Raises $68M For AI-Researched Health-Benefiting Compounds
San Francisco based Brightseed has raised $68 million in a Series B round led by Singapore sovereign fund Temasek with participation by existing investors Lewis & Clark AgriFood, Seed 2 Growth (now S2G) Ventures, CGC Ventures, Germin8 and AgFunder. Brightseed uses an AI platform dubbed ‘Forager’ to identify the hidden compounds in plants that can impact our health beneficially. The funding brings up the total money raised by Brightseed to $120 million.
Digital Assets: Bitcoin Looking Weak At $32,670; May Test $29K
Bitcoin continued its bearish trajectory today after the last Fed meeting hiked rates by 0.5%, the largest increase since 2000. The crypto, at the time of writing, is trading at $32,189, down nearly 7%, and in tandem with a massive fall in the mainline US indices: Dow (-1.76%); S&P500 (-2.66%); and Nasdaq (-3.55%). Global equity indices had also fallen today, slammed by a sweeping ‘risk-off’ mindset taking hold among investors.
Venture Capital: Healthcare BNPL Provider Walnut Raises $110M
Yash Joshi, CTO, (left) and Roshan Patel, CEO, (right) founded Walnut in 2020 to make healthcare more affordable for patients by breaking up large medical bills into small, monthly payments without fees or interest. The startup fintech announced its $110 million Series A led by Gradient Ventures with strong participation from new and existing investors including Newark Ventures, Afore Capital, 2048 Ventures, CityRock Ventures, AngelList, Weekend Fund, Company Ventures, Banana Capital, Goodwater Capital, and Muse Capital. Founders and executives from Teachable, Clearbit, and Afterpay also participated.
FinTech: UK Households Resort To BNPL To Cover Surging Energy Bills
A survey in April by the Office for National Statistics in Great Britain showed that about four in 10 British households are finding it difficult to pay for gas and electricity and a similar proportion are buying less food. The survey reflected the impact of the change in the energy bill cap set by the UK regulator and the deepening cost of living crisis in the country. Furthermore, consumer groups are warning that households’ finances are stretched enough for them to resort to buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) schemes to pay energy bills.
Alternative Investments/ESG: State Street Global Advisors Introduces Paris Aligned Climate ETFs Supported By Early Investor UCLA
State Street Global Advisors have launched the SPDR MSCI USA Climate Paris Aligned ETF (NZUS) and SPDR MSCI ACWI Climate Paris Aligned ETF (NZAC) that are intended to help investors achieve thier climate ambitions. The ETFs are geared toward the growing number of investors interested in addressing climate change in their portfolios, both to mitigate climate risk and to invest in climate solutions.