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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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Alternative Investments/ESG: Gresham House Closes On $175M For Forestry Fund
Gresham House (AIM: GHE), a specialist alternative asset manager listed on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM), offers alternative investment solutions focusing on a sustainable future and ESG. The Gresham House Forest Growth & Sustainability Fund has raised this month an initial £127 million (US$175 million) and will generate returns from timber and carbon credits.
FinTech: Boku Launches World’s Largest Mobile Payments Network
Boku Inc (AIM: BOKU) has launched M1ST, a seemingly all-encompassing payments network covering 5.7 billion mobile payment accounts in 90 countries and connecting them with over 330 mobile payment methods.
Venture Capital: NZ-Based Dawn Aerospace Tests Suborbital Spaceplane
Dawn Aerospace is developing suborbital and orbital planes powered by rocket engines that take off and land, horizontally, from conventional airfields. The startup announced today the completion of five successful flights of its Mk-II Aurora suborbital spaceplane from the Glentanner Aerodrome in New Zealand’s South Island.
Alternative Investments/ESG: The Future Fund ETF For Exposure To World-Beating Innovation
SEC-registered investment advisor, The Future Fund LLC, launched this week The Future Fund Active ETF (FFND) under the stewardship of Gary Black, managing partner, and David Kalis, CFA, partner.
Digital Assets: Citi To Trade CME Bitcoin Futures
Citigroup (NYSE: C) has succumbed to clients’ demand for exposure to crypto-assets and is now working on obtaining the necessary approvals to trade CME bitcoin futures, according to Coindesk, which quoted anonymous sources.
Artificial Intelligence: Automated Kitchens Pioneer Spyce Acquired By Salad Chain Sweetgreen
Three college students launched sweetgreen to offer a solution to a very unpalatable dilemma – eat food that was slow, expensive, and fresh—or fast, cheap, and unhealthy. The result was a fast casual salad chain that used fresh, organic produce and has grown to over 130 restaurants. Sweetgreen announced Tuesday its acquisition of Spyce, a startup with a similar vision for serving healthy and fresh food – only more automated.
Digital Assets: Coinbase Integrates Solarisbank’s KYC Platform For German Customers
Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) has tied up with Solarisbank, a fintech owning a German banking license, for its fully digital KYC platform to enable customer identification in Germany. The German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) awarded Coinbase Germany a licence for crypto custody and trading in June.
Venture Capital: Indian Agtech Agnext Lands $21M Series ‘A’
AgNext has developed an integrated platform that can undertake objective portable quality assessments, analysing food in 30 secs, instant and on-Edge. Agnext, a deep-tech, Indian agtech startup has raised $21 million to advance its solutions for food quality assessment, monitoring, and management. It was the largest ever Series A round for an Indian agtech and…
Alternative Investments/Digital: Bloomberg Analysts Believe A Bitcoin Futures ETF Could Arrive October
Bloomberg analysts James Seyffart and Eric Balchunas have homed in on the sudden withdrawal of applications for futures-based Ethereum ETFs by VanEck and ProShares last week. Reading the tea leaves, the analysts say the withdrawals augur well for the SEC’s approval of a futures-based bitcoin ETF.
Artificial Intelligence: Margaret Mitchell, Former Head Of Google’s Ethical AI, To Join Hugging Face
Margaret Mitchell, the former head of Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Ethical AI research group, will join AI startup Hugging Face where she will develop tools to help companies eliminate bias from their AI algorithms. Initially suspended in January, Mitchell was fired by Google February ostensibly because of a paper she co-wrote that was critical of the company.
Venture Capital: 3D-Printed Homes Maker ICON Raises $207M Series B
Construction technology startup ICON has closed a $207 million Series B round of financing led by Norwest Venture Partners with investments by 8VC, BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, BOND, Citi, Crosstimbers, Ensemble, Fifth Wall, LENx, Moderne Ventures, and Oakhouse Partners.
Digital Assets: Perma-Bull Michael Saylor-Led MicroStrategy Adds $177M To Bitcoin Bet
MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), the business data company that pioneered parking corporate treasury reserves in bitcoin, has added another tranche of the cryptocurrency to its already massive hoard, according to a filing today (August 24, 2021).
FinTech: Fractional Trading Provider DriveWealth Snags $450M At $2.85B Valuation
DriveWealth last week raised $450 million in a Series D round co-led by New York-based global private equity and venture capital investors Insight Partners and Accel, with significant participation by Greyhound Capital, Softbank Vision Fund, and Series C lead Point72 Ventures. New investors including Base 10, FTX, and FlightDeck also participated. The round valued the fintech at a sizable $2.85 billion.
Artificial Intelligence: Researchers Use AI To Warn Of Wildlife Health Concerns
Wildlife rehabilitation centers on the California coast often receive ailing marine birds suffering from domoic acid poisoning, which is caused by harmful algal blooms. The neurological disease afflicts California brown pelicans, red-throated loons, and other species, but the problem remains – how to warn other rehab centers on the coastline of the emergence of the disease? Researchers at UC Davis have now devised an AI system for real-time detection
Alternative Investments/Private Equity: Record Returns At Some Large Pension Funds Driven By Private Equity
The past fiscal year has been notable for the record returns generated by some of the top public pension funds in the US and abroad. What’s interesting is that many of these superlative gains were propelled by private equity investments that put even public stock returns in the shade.
Venture Capital: Canada’s Conexus Raises $45M For Agtech Startups
Saskatchewan, Canada-based Conexus Venture Capital Inc. (CVC) has raised $45 million for its Emmertch Venture Capital Fund, which will focus on early-stage entrepreneurs in Canadian agtech, food-tech, and agribusiness sectors.
FinTech: Opay Nabs $400M; Turns Africa’s Fastest Unicorn
Opay, a mobile payments platform and POS device maker based in Africa, raised $400 million in a round led by Softbank Vision Fund 2 with participation by Sequoia Capital China and Redpoint China. Opay became a unicorn after the funding, the fastest startup in Africa to do so, after snagging a valuation of $2 billion.
Digital Assets: Bitcoin Is Back Above $50K
Bitcoin barreled through the $50,000 price level over the weekend, touching a high of $50,495.95, and putting on about 3% over the last 24 hours, according to Coindesk data. As at the time of writing, it is marginally off that high and is trading at $49,612.46.
Alternative Investments/ESG: Goldman Sachs To Acquire ESG-Focused NN Investment Partners
Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) has agreed to buy all of NN Investment Partners, a Netherlands-based asset manager with $355 billion in assets under management and about $70 billion in assets under advisement. NN Investment Partners is the money management arm of Dutch insurer NN Group NV (AEX: NN) and 75% of its assets under supervision are ESG integrated.
Artificial Intelligence: AI Will Predict If Clouds Are Likely To Loom Over Solar Panels
For all its benefits, solar energy has the major drawback of intermittency, or the sudden suspension of energy generation due to reasons such as clouds blocking out the sun, or when it is night. The UK’s National Grid ESO and non-profit Open Climate Fix have joined hands to develop an AI-powered tracking system that will track clouds and match them with solar installations in their path.
FinTech: Indian Fintech CRED Launches Mint, A Community Lending (P2P) Feature
Three year old, India-based fintech startup CRED has launched ‘CRED Mint,’ a community lending feature, allowing its high-credit-rated members to lend to one another at rates earning as high as 9% per annum. A prospective CRED member must have a minimum credit score of 750 to join the platform.
Digital Assets: $500M Of Cryptocurrencies (Or More) To Replace Fiat On Coinbase’s Balance Sheet
It’s a huge plug for the cryptoeconomy, which Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) envisions as a future where economic transactions would be based on crypto assets. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong revealed today that the company’s board had approved the investment of a massive $500 million in crypto. Armstrong also said that going forward the company, which is the largest digital exchange in the US by trade volume, would invest 10% of its quarterly profits in crypto.
Alternative Investments/Digital: Wells Fargo Offers Bitcoin Fund To Richer Clients
Wells Fargo’s (NYSE: WFC) Form D filing with the SEC on Thursday for a fund titled FS NYDIG Bitcoin Fund I, LP, a pooled investment fund the bank it will offer to its well-heeled clients for exposure to bitcoin.
Digital Assets: United Wholesale Mortgage Will Accept Payment In Bitcoin
United Wholesale Mortgage (NYSE: UWMC) has announced plans to accept cryptocurrencies in payment for home loans from the third quarter of this year, starting with bitcoin. Other cryptocurrencies, such as ether, are under evaluation, too. The move by UWMC is a first for the mortgage industry.