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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Hedge Funds: Citi Wins Battle Against Hedge Fund and Creditors
Hedge Funds: Citi Wins Battle Against Hedge Fund and Creditors Citigroup won its battle to regain $900 million that it sent to cosmetic company Revlon creditors. Citi accidentally sent this money and intended to recover the funds as soon as possible. In addition, a U.S. judge blocked hedge fund Brigade Capital from doing anything…
Private Equity: Onex Corporation Promotes Le Blanc to President
Private Equity: Onex Corporation Promotes Le Blanc to President Private equity firm Onex has promoted Bobby Le Blanc to president. He will now oversee all business ventures and will serve as head of Onex Partners. Le Blanc will also be in charge of reporting to Chairman and CEO Gerry Schwartz. According to Schwartz, “Having joined…
Hedge Funds: Citibank Accidentally sends $175 Million to Brigade Capital
Lawsuit Follows Mistaken Payment. Citibank accidentally wired $175 million to Brigade Capital Management. The hedge fund has not returned the money, which led Citibank to file a lawsuit. The bank hopes to get the money back and argue that it was an “operational mistake.” In court documents, Citibank explained that its intention was to send…
Private Equity: Carlyle Group Orders Quarantine Requirement
Private Equity Giant Navigates Pandemic. Private equity firm Carlyle Group ordered all employees who have used public transportation such as trains and buses to a 14 day quarantine. The fund manager expects all of its employees at all offices to avoid public transportation. If they happen to use public transportation at all, they must work…
Venture Capital: Elon Musk’s SpaceX Breaks Funding and Launch Records
A filing dated Tuesday from billionaire Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp (aka SpaceX) showed the giant space start-up raised $ 1.9 billion out of an equity offering of $ 2.07 billion, its largest funding round ever. The funding round comes as Elon Musk becomes the fourth richest person in the world.
Digital Assets: Greenidge Gen, Once A Coal Plant, Is Now A Profitable Crypto Miner
Greenidge Generation, once a mothballed coal-fired power station located in the New York Finger Lake Region, has converted to a power plant-cum-mining hybrid business model that combines power generation with a blockchain mining facility. Greenidge commenced a large-scale cryptocurrency mining operation in January 2020 with a data center comprising 8,500 latest generation miners.
FinTech: Colibra Compensates You for Flight Delays, Now Also In Bitcoin
Colibra is a Bulgarian startup that aims to make compensations for flight delays accessible to any traveler in EU countries. Travelers using the app need to pay nothing upfront and can hope to get a fair and guaranteed chance at compensation if the flight is delayed by just an hour, even due to weather. The app has now extended the option for travelers to receive compensation in bitcoin.
Artificial Intelligence: Four Times Faster MRIs Using AI
Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) and NYU Langone Health collaborated on research to incorporate Artificial Intelligence (AI) into medical imaging technology. The objective: to speed up MRI scanning so that patients have to spend less time cooped up, completely still, inside an MRI machine for as long as an hour. The project, fastMRI, found AI can help make these agonizing scans up to four times faster.
Hedge Funds Short on Dollar for First Time Since 2018
Hedge Funds: Hedge Funds Short on Dollar for First Time Since 2018 Hedge funds have decreased in share prices for the first time since May 2018. A decrease in price for the world’s reserve currency will continue as the market remains unpredictable. Net futures held by funds against eight currencies dropped to minus 7,881 contracts. …
Private Equity: Private Equity Takes Away from Texas Retirement System
Private Equity Takes Away from Texas Retirement System The Employees’ Retirement System of Texas’s private equity portfolio has lost 2.14 percent as of June 30. The private equity portfolio is worth $4.4 billion, but it was the biggest detractor at a 1.9 percent loss. Before the Coronavirus pandemic, the private equity portfolio was strong at…
ESG: Insurers Take a Fancy To ESG & Sustainability ETFs (Invesco)
Invesco finds on analysis of recent asset allocation trends that some major institutional investors including insurers, have already realigned their portfolios in favor of ESG strategies. What’s more interesting is that these sophisticated investors are taking increasing recourse to ESG-focused ETFs to give effect to their strategies for sustainable investments.
Digital Assets: Big Investor Names Move Into Gold, Boosting Targets for Bitcoin
An analysis of Q2 SEC filings shows that Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) jettisoned stocks of Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) and Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS). On the other hand, he bought 20.9 million shares in Barrick Gold (NYSE: GOLD) – a safe haven bet worth about $563.6 million. Gold and crypto bugs are currently joined at the hip. So its no surprise that one analyst has predicted a price of $50,000 for bitcoin.
Venture Capital: Brazilian Games Maker Wildlife Studios Raises $120M
Wildlife Studios, a Sao Paolo-based games maker, garnered a valuation of $3 billion. That’s fast going. In December, Wildlife raised $60 million at a valuation of $1.3 billion. With the current $120 million round, the company doubled its fundraise and nearly tripled its valuation, all in a matter of fewer than eight months.
FinTech: Thomson Reuters Acquires Virtual Courts Platform CaseLines
Thomson Reuters (NYSE: TRI) has acquired CaseLines, a digitized, cloud-based judicial platform that manages evidence, court documents, and virtual hearings.
Artificial Intelligence: Chinese AI Behemoth SenseTime May Dual-List
SenseTime Group Ltd., the Chinese AI giant that deploys facial recognition technology on a massive scale, including for law enforcement, is weighing an IPO. The company, which is backed by investors such as SoftBank and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, is raising $1.5 billion of pre-IPO financing at a valuation of nearly $8.5 billion.
Hedge Funds: Bridgewater Associates Invests $400 Million in Gold
Hedge Funds: Bridgewater Associates Invests $400 Million in Gold Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates hedge fund has invested $400 million in gold during the second quarter. Based on Bridgewater’s 13F filings, the hedge fund bought 1.4 million shares of the SPDR Gold Trust. Additionally, the company acquired 4.1 million shares in the iShares Gold Trust. Bridgewater’s…
Private Equity: Hong Kong Private Equity Firm Proposes $1.4 Billion Counter Offer
Private Equity: Hong Kong Private Equity Firm Proposes $1.4 Billion Counter Offer Buyout private equity firm Baring Private Equity has recently made an offer to buy Japanese nursing home operator Nichiigakkan. Nichiigakkan has already agreed to Bain Capital’s $1.2 billion offer, but Baring claims to value the nursing home operator at 146 billion yen, or…
Digital Assets: Coinbase to Allow Loans Against Bitcoin Holdings
This should be another shot in the arm for bitcoin adoption. Liquidity of holding is a much-desired feature of any asset, and U.S. digital assets exchange Coinbase is pulling out the stops on that one. In a Thursday blog post, the exchange invited US customers to sign up to a waitlist for the option to borrow up to 30% of their bitcoin (BTC) holdings.
FinTech/ESG: Solar Financier Loanpal Ties Up With Blackstone for $300M of Solar Loans
Loanpal, the fintech that is a market leader in financing of residential solar installations, announced Thursday that Blackstone (NYSE: BX) had committed to invest $300 million in solar loans originating on its platform. The amount committed will enable 10,000 homeowners to finance their solar systems, thereby reducing their homes’ carbon footprint.
Alternative Investments: iCapital To Provide Alternative Investment Solutions to PGIM’s Retail Clientele
PGIM Investments is the retail distribution arm of PGIM, Inc, the $1.4 trillion investment management business of Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU). It has tied up with iCapital Network, a financial technology platform focused on alternative investing, for a customized technology solution to support PGIM’s high net worth clients and financial advisors. The latter will get access to PGIM’s real estate, private credit, and other private alternative investment solutions, hitherto only available to the firm’s institutional clients.
Venture Capital: Impossible Foods Raises $200M; Vegan Pork On The Way
Impossible Foods, the plant-based meat startup, announced Thursday its Series G round raise of $200 million. The investment round was led by new investor Coatue Management LLC. It saw participation by another new investor XN Capital, as well as existing investors Mirae Asset Global Investments and Temasek. While Coatue and XN are both hedge funds, Coatue is renowned for its affinity for tech investments.
Artificial Intelligence: Saudi General Hospital UAE to Deploy AI-Powered Software Bots
The Saudi German Hospitals UAE has announced a collaboration with Automation Anywhere for the installation of software bots to automate various business processes and thereby improve patient care standards.
Alternative Investments/Real Estate: The New Guardian i3 Global REIT ETF
The inaugural suite of five ETFs from Guardian Capital comprises two Directed Outcomes solutions that combine high conviction ideas with derivative overlays to seek high income and risk mitigation and three i3 funds that use artificial intelligence to deliver superior risk-adjusted returns. One of the ETFs in Guardian’s new suite is the Guardian i3 Global REIT ETF, an ETF focused on the global real estate market.
Venture Capital: Gong Secures Unicorn Status With $200M Series D
Gong, the startup which helps businesses glean “revenue intelligence” from customer interactions, achieved unicorn status when it raised $200 million at a valuation of $2.2 billion. Coatue led the Series D round, with participation from Index Ventures, Thrive Capital, and Salesforce Ventures. Existing investors NextWorld Capital, Battery Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Wing Venture Capital also invested.