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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FinTech: The 2022 Finovate Awards Winners
At a glittering event in New York City made up of cocktails, dinner, and entertainment, Finovate celebrated the winning companies and individuals in each category, listed in alphabetical order.
Digital Assets: Michael Saylor Takes Up The Cudgels For Bitcoin On Energy And Climate Change
A report published last week by the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy claimed that electricity usage from digital assets was contributing to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Michael Saylor, Executive Chairman, MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) has issued a blog post titled “Bitcoin Mining and the Environment,” presumably in response to the White House report, and drew attention to his riposte on Twitter.
Digital Assets: Do Kwon May Soon Be Forced To Return To Face The Law In South Korea
South Korean authorities have requested the country’s Foreign Ministry to revoke the passport of Do Kwon, the founder of the collapsed Terraform Labs crypto ecosystem, says a Bloomberg report, quoting the prosecutor’s office.
Venture Capital: SaaS Pricing And Financing Platform Ratio Raises $411M After Emerging From Stealth
Ratio, a fintech platform focused on management of SaaS subscriptions, emerged from stealth and secured $411 million in financing, comprising $11 million of venture funding and a $400 million credit facility for customer financing. Ratio’s investors include Streamlined Ventures, Cervin Ventures, 8-Bit Capital, HoneyStone Ventures, multi-billion-dollar asset managers and a range of tech CEOs from both large and small companies.
Artificial Intelligence: LG Ties With Parsons School Of Design To Leverage EXAONE, LG’s Super-Giant AI
LG AI Research, the AI research hub of LG Group (KRX: 003550), the South Korean conglomerate, announced a collaboration with the New York-based Parsons School Of Design for research of advanced AI and creative technologies as applicable to fashion, design and media.
Digital Assets: Ethereum Completes “The Merge,” Transits To Proof-Of-Stake Consensus, Cuts Energy Use By ~99.95%
In an event described as historic in the digital assets space, the Ethereum blockchain has completed its “Merge” on September 15, 2022. The Merge refers to the original Ethereum Mainnet merging with a separate ‘proof-of-stake’ blockchain called the Beacon Chain, now existing as one chain.
Venture Capital: Massive Payday For Figma Founders As Adobe Makes $20B Offer For The Design Startup
Adobe, (NASDAQ: ADBE) announced it will pay about $ 20 billion in cash and stock to acquire Figma, a collaborative design start-up that was valued at $ 10 billion in its last funding round in 2021. Figma creates cloud-based design software that is a competitor to Adobe’s XD program. The payment consideration of $ 20 billion comprises approximately half cash and half stock subject to usual adjustments.
FinTech: Walmart To Foray Into Banking Via Fintech Startup One
Walmart (NYSE: WMT) the retailer with 1.6 million employees at 5,335 store locations across the U.S. and 150 million weekly customers, is finally making serious inroads into banking. One, a fintech startup that is majority owned by the retail giant, will be the vehicle for the new venture, which envisages, in a beta phase, offering checking accounts to its employees and some of its online customers, says a report by Bloomberg.
Alternative Investments/Digital: New, Post-Hard-Fork Ethereum ETP Launched By ETC
ETC Group is launching a new physically backed Ethereum ETP, the ETHWetc–ETC Group Physical EthereumPoW (ZETW GY) on the Deutsche Börse Xetra on 16 September, shortly after the hard fork occurs.
After the fork, the PoS chain will continue with ether (ETH) as its native chain, while the PoW chain will have a new token titled ETHW.
Artificial Intelligence: The 2nd Global AI Summit Is On In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
On Tuesday, September 13, the Global AI Summit opened in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with more than 200 speakers from 90 countries and 10,000 participants in the three-day event. Hosted by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), the summit would be attended by private sector leaders, government officials, and renowned academic professionals from across the globe.
Venture Capital: TeraWatt Raises Over $1B To Scale Charging Networks For Electrified Fleets
TeraWatt Infrastructure has raised over $ 1 billion of institutional funds scale up its network of fleet-focused charging centres and operations. The company’s mission is to accelerate the decarbonisation of transport with a proprietary platform that combines an EV charging-focused property portfolio, asset financing capabilities, project development, and charging and energy management expertise.
FinTech: India’s Cashfree Payments Empowers Marketing Platform DASH With Android-Based POS
Indian fintech Cashfree Payments’ POS solution softPOS allows delivery partners, sales agents and field service professionals to collect payments from the customer’s doorstep. DASH, a tech-driven marketing company that helps brands in the FMCG and food commodities segment via its network in the country’s Tier-3 (semi-urban) towns, has deployed softPOS to collect payments using Android phones doubling as POS terminals.
Artificial Intelligence: Pilot AI Project Assessing Distracted Driving in Edmonton, Canada
The University of Alberta is leading a three-week pilot project that will use artificial intelligence to detect automobile drivers at the wheel with a cell phone in their hand. The project will assess the extent of such distracted driving in the city of Edmonton and also whether AI deployed to nab offenders. Sensors will be installed at strategic Edmonton locations to capture images of these drivers, even through windshields. The technology has been provided by Australian-based company Acusensus which said it had been used in Australia and several locations in the United States.
Alternative Investments/ESG: New ETF For Exposure To Global Compliance Carbon Markets
Carbon Fund Advisors has launched the Carbon Strategy ETF (NYSE:KARB) designed for investors to obtain exposure to the global compliance carbon markets that comprise emissions trading systems established by various authorities for deriving a price on greenhouse gas emissions. These markets have surged from $ 220 billion in $ 2018 to $ 899 billion in 2021.
Artificial Intelligence: US National Institutes Of Health Budgets $14M On “Voice as a Biomarker of Health” Project
The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) plans to spend $ 14 million over four years to create a training database of people’s voices that can be used to train AI and machine learning applications for the detection of various diseases and neurological disorders by speech analysis.
Digital Assets: South Korean Court Issues Arrest Warrant For Terraform Founder Do Kwon
A Reuters report said a South Korean court has issued an arrest warrant for Do Kwon, the founder of Terraform Labs, which promoted the UST stablecoin. A text message from the Financial Crimes Unit of the Supreme Prosecutors Office (cited by Bloomberg) said the warrant included five additional persons. The accused allegedly violated the Capital Markets Act.
Artificial Intelligence: Researchers At Taiwan University Develop AI System To Detect Pancreatic Cancer
A team of researchers at the National Taiwan University has trained an AI system on hundreds of examples of tumours in the pancreas to teach it to recognise pancreatic cancer, one of the most deadly types of the disease after lung and colorectal cancers. According to the American Cancer Society, pancreatic cancer could kill over 49,000 people in 2022. Significantly, annually, only about a fifth of patients live for a year after diagnosis.
Alternative Investments/Digital: WisdomTree Offers Blockchain UCITS ETF
The WisdomTree Blockchain UCITS ETF (WBLK), which tracks the WisdomTree Blockchain index, offers exposure to companies with a primary focus on blockchain and crypto technologies. Launched in Europe, the ETF trades on the Deutsche Boerse and Borsa Italiana and will also list on the London Stock Exchange on 14 September.
Alternative Investments/ESG: Thematic ETF From Global X Targets Disruptive Materials
Global X ETFs has launched the Global X Disruptive Materials UCITS ETF, which will invest in companies with operations linked to any of the following ten disruptive materials categories: Carbon fiber, cobalt, copper, graphene & graphite, lithium, manganese, nickel, platinum & palladium, rare earth elements, and zinc.
Alternative Investments/ESG: Invesco Launches ETFs For Exposure To Wind Energy And Hydrogen
Invesco has launched the Invesco Wind Energy UCITS ETF and Invesco Hydrogen Economy UCITS ETF in advancement of the thesis that the sharp rise in fossil-sourced energy costs adds to the rationale for renewable energy, even beyond environmental concerns.
Digital Assets: Starbucks Unveils ‘Odyssey,’ A New Web3 Application, With Polygon
Starbucks Odyssey is a rewards program that will combine the digital technologies of the blockchain, NFTs, and Web3. Global coffee chain Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) and Polygon “will offer Starbucks Rewards members and Starbucks partners (employees) in the United States the opportunity to earn and purchase digital collectible assets that will unlock access to new benefits and immersive coffee experiences,” said an announcement.
Artificial Intelligence: Pentagon Using AI And Sea Drones (USVs) To Patrol Gulf Waters
The Pentagon has, for the past year, used unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) or sea drones and artificial intelligence (AI) in the seas around the Arabian peninsula, to collect data and images that are transmitted for analysis to data collection centres in the Gulf.
FinTech: JPMorgan Acquires Payments Fintech Renovite
J.P. Morgan (NYSE: JPM) has taken another step towards further enhancing its payments technology and to build out its next-generation merchant acquiring platform. The banking giant announced the acquisition of Renovite, a payments fintech offering a high-tech suite of payment solutions, for an undisclosed amount.
Alternative Investments/ESG: JP Morgan Launches New Active, Thematic, Sustainable ETFs
JPMorgan Asset Management has launched the JPMorgan Sustainable Consumption ETF (CIRC), JPMorgan Social Advancement ETF (UPWD), and JPMorgan Sustainable Infrastructure ETF (BLLD), expanding its offering of active sustainable thematic ETFs. The three new PDFs address major trends developing in the future, offering clients access to alpha opportunities across a range of themes.