News
Each day, DailyAlts tracks major developments across the alternative investment world. Our content is procured from primary contacts in the industry and secondary sources across the web. Our goal is to give readers the most up-to-date news and engaging experience to open new doors and areas of knowledge. Our stories cover nine separate verticals of the alternative investment industry.
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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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Digital Assets: Grayscale Nabs $700M Of Inflows In A Day
On Friday, January 15, $700 million flowed into the asset manager’s various crypto products. “Yesterday, raised north of $700 million into its family of products…momentum from Q4 seems to be picking up speed into the new year,” tweeted Michael Sonnenshein, CEO of Grayscale, on Saturday.
Venture Capital: SoftBank And Hughes Invest $400M In Satellite Internet Operator OneWeb
A consortium of investors including India’s Bharti Global and the UK government acquired OneWeb in bankruptcy proceedings. The latest investment, comprising $350 million from SoftBank (TYO:9984) and Echostar (NASDAQ: SATS) owned Hughes Network Systems, will allow OneWeb to continue the deployment of its initial 648-satellite constellation.
FinTech: “Absolutely, We Should Be Scared S—less” – Jamie Dimon On Fintech Threat
On a conference call on Friday, JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon made no secret of his apprehensions about the threat from fast-growing fintechs and tech giants across the globe. He was responding to analysts who said that fintechs’ leap-frogging valuations showed their rising ascendancy over traditional banks.
Artificial Intelligence: AI Detects Illegal Roads In The Amazon Rainforest
An investigation in 2016 by Imazon showed that the actual length of roads in the Brazilian Amazon biome was nearly 13 times higher than what was shown in official maps. These unofficial roads, most of them illegal, threaten the existence of the Amazon ecosystems. The researchers spotted these unreported roads by tracing lines on satellite images.
FinTech: Goldman Sachs’ Twin Moves To Advance Consumer Banking Ambitions
Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) is continuing moves to boost its presence in consumer banking. The Wall Street giant is already the issuer for Apple Cards. Today it announced a multi-year partnership with General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) along with Mastercard (NYSE: MA) for co-branded reward-based credit cards.
Alternative Investments/ESG: Invesco Launches Five Global Fund-of-Funds As Its Summit Responsible Range
Invesco’s new Summit Responsible range of five global multi-asset funds aims to provide investors a cost-effective exposure to ESG considerations with specific risk levels. The funds’ assets will 100% be invested in line with certain ESG criteria.
Venture Capital: Tiger Global Is Raising Its Thirteenth $3.75B Venture Fund
According to an exclusive report by TechCrunch, Tiger Global Management is raising its thirteenth venture fund. The $3.75 billion fund is named Tiger Private Investment Partners XIV, however. TechCrunch cited the firm’s recent investor letter, though a Tiger spokesperson did not comment.
Digital Assets: Grayscale’s Blockbuster Q4 (And 2020) Stats Reflect Rising Adoption of Cryptos
Grayscale Investments’ Q4 report provides valuable insight into the rising adoption of digital assets.
Artificial Intelligence: Chinese Techs Filed Patents For AI That Detects Uighur Muslims (IPVM)
IPVM unearths a patent that shows Huawei used “explicitly racist technology.” IPVM, a world authority on video surveillance, said in an article Tuesday that Huawei, Megvii, and several other Chinese tech companies have filed patents in China for various devices and systems that include Uighur and ethnic minority detection. It published the article in conjunction…
Digital Assets: Grayscale To Liquidate XRP Trust
Grayscale Investments announced Wednesday its decision to liquidate its Grayscale XRP Trust. The asset manager said it was now proceeding to take steps to dissolve the Trust. On December 22, 2020, the SEC decided to file a federal court action against certain third parties asserting that XRP is a “security” under federal securities law.
FinTech: Warburg Pincus Invests $125M Preferred Equity In LendingPoint
Fintech and loan originating platform LendingPoint today announced an investment by Warburg Pincus of $125 million in preferred equity. With this financing, the fintech has raised over $325 million equity to date.
Alternative Investments/Digital: The Highly Successful BTCetc Bitcoin ETP Lists On SIX Switzerland
The SIX Swiss Exchange announced Wednesday the listing of the BTCetc Bitcoin ETP (Primary Ticker: BTCE) by ETC Group. This is the ETP’s second listing in Europe after its launch on Deutsche Börse’s Xetra platform in June 2020.
Artificial Intelligence: Crypto Traders Can Now Deploy Tickeron’s AI Trading Robot Tool
Tickeron has launched an AI-powered trading robot that can help traders navigate the volatile and highly risky waters of cryptocurrency trading. Dubbed the Crypto AI Robot, the tool is claimed to have made some very profitable predictions in the recent past.
Venture Capital: In Rich Week, Grab, Blend, MX, WeRide And Rapyd Each Score $300M Rounds
Venture capitalists were generous this week, investing $300 million amounts in as many as five startups across multiple geographies. The largesse flowed to Grab Financial, Blend, MX, WeRide, and Rapyd.
Artificial Intelligence: Abu Dhabi’s MBZUAI, The World’s First AI University, Welcomes Inaugural Students
The Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), the world’s first graduate-level, research-based artificial intelligence university in Abu Dhabi, opened its doors to its first batch of students. Studies will begin this week.
Digital Assets: ECB’s Lagarde Lashes Out At Bitcoin
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said Wednesday that a co-ordinated, global action was needed to regulate bitcoin. She drew attention to the roller-coaster moves in the leading cryptocurrency’s price and accused it of “funny business” and money-laundering.
Venture Capital: The Pandemic-Triggered Shift To Cloud Boosts Growth At Cockroach Labs
Cockroach Labs, which offers CockroachDB, the leading cloud-native distributed SQL database, says it more than doubled revenues and customers over the past year after the events of 2020 forced businesses to digitize and move to the cloud. Investors poured $160 million into the company’s Series E round, valuing it at an impressive $2 billion.
FinTech: Capitol Riot – Fintechs (And Techs) Hit Back At Trump
Fintechs took the lead in castigating President Trump for egging on a crowd of his supporters to attack and ransack the U.S. Capitol building last week. The horrific incident left five dead. Voices, and actions, from big tech followed with even Republican politicians welcoming the impeachment of Trump.
Liquid Alternatives: The Wilshire Liquid Alternative Index Gains 1.68% in December
The Wilshire Liquid Alternative Index was up 1.68% in December. The Wilshire index provides a representative baseline for the performance of the broader liquid alts space. This figure underperformed the 2.45% return from the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index in the month of December.
Alternative Investments/Digital: AUM At Global ESG ETFs Surged To Record In 2020 (TrackInsight)
Data from the global ETF analysis platform TrackInsight shows that ESG ETF assets across the world grew 223% year-on-year to scale a new record of US$189 billion in 2020. Nearly 200 new ESG ETFs were launched during the year, and total inflows into ESG ETFs were US$97 billion.
Venture Capital: Checkout.com Triples Its Valuation…Again
Fintech and online payments firm Checkout.com announced a Series C fundraising of $450 million led by Tiger Global Management. The valuation tag of $15 billion makes Checkout.com Europe’s most valuable fintech startup and the fourth most valuable globally.
Digital Assets: Crypto Volume On PayPal Scales Record High
Data revealed by crypto market aggregator Nomics showed that crypto-assets trading volume of $242 million on PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) on January 11 overshadowed its previous daily record of $129 million on January 6, 2021. The key question that arises is whether retail investors sold into bitcoin’s uptrend and booked profits.
FinTech: Walmart Will Partner With Ribbit Capital To Create New Fintech
Walmart (NYSE: WMT) announced Monday its launch of a new fintech startup to be created jointly with Ribbit Capital, the investment firm whose mantra is innovation in financial services. Ribbit is a backer of renowned fintechs such as Robinhood, Credit Karma, and Affirm. The new venture will deliver tech-driven financial experiences tailored to Walmart’s customers and associates.
Artificial Intelligence: Researchers Develop The AI Processor Of The Future
A research team led by Swinburne University of Technology Professor David Moss, Swinburne alum Dr. Xingyuan Xu, and Distinguished Professor Arnan Mitchell from RMIT University, has developed what is currently the world’s fastest, most powerful neuromorphic processor for AI. The optical neuromorphic processor operates a thousand times faster than previous ones.