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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Artificial Intelligence: A New AI Sleep App Could Help Us Junk Sleeping Pills
Sleepio, a digital app, uses an AI algorithm to provide users with customized cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I). Cognitive interventions aim to improve the way a person thinks about sleep and the behavioural interventions aim to promote a healthy sleep routine. The app costs £45 (excluding VAT) and can work through wearable devices like the Apple watch.
Alternative Investments: A New ETF Invests Tactically Based On “Relative Sentiment”
Relative Sentiment Technologies LLC has launched the Relative Sentiment Tactical Allocation ETF (NYSEARCA: MOOD) on the New York Stock Exchange. The ETF seeks to generate long term capital appreciation by tactically investing in other ETFs that invest in equity, bond, and gold based on “relative sentiment” factors. Relative sentiment measures the difference in sentiment between institutional and retail investors.
Alternative Investments/Real Estate: The Principal Real Estate Active Opportunities ETF Starts Trading Today
Principal Global Investors has launched today its first semi-transparent ETF focusing on the non-traditional property sectors of the publicly traded U.S. real estate market: The Principal Real Estate Active Opportunities ETF (NYSEARCA: BYRE) is an actively managed fund seeking total return.
Venture Capital: Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Launches $600M Venture Fund For The ‘Future Of Games’
Andreessen Horowitz (a.k.a. a16z) has launched a $600 million venture fund focused on the games industry and the next generation of games builders. “Long term, we believe games infrastructure and technologies will be key building blocks of the Metaverse, an opportunity that dwarfs the current $300 billion game industry itself,” the firm said.
FinTech: Block’s Square Acquires GoParrot For Its Restaurant Platform
GoParrot is an all-in-one digital ordering and marketing platform for restaurants. In a Wednesday blog post, Square, which is part of global fintech Block, Inc. (NYSE: SQ), announced its acquisition of GoParrot, a digital ordering and marketing platform. GoParrot’s advanced marketing software and platform enable restaurants to easily connect and interact with their customers. However,…
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…