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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Alternative Investments/ESG: Horizons Launches Lithium and Hydrogen ETFs for Exposure to Future Clean Energy Technologies
Horizons ETFs launches the Horizons Global Lithium Producers Index ETF (HLIT), and the Horizons Global Hydrogen Index ETF (HYDR) on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The new lithium and hydrogen ETFs are each a category-first in Canada.
Artificial Intelligence: AI Can Now Forecast Ozone Levels Upto Two Weeks Ahead
Researchers at the University of Houston’s Air Quality Forecasting and Modelling Lab have achieved a breakthrough in predicting the levels of ozone in the Earth’s troposphere, the lowest level of our atmosphere. Their new artificial intelligence system, which forecasts these ozone levels up to two weeks in advance is a huge improvement on current methods that can do so for only three days ahead.
Artificial Intelligence: Pitney Bowes To Deploy AI-Powered Robots From Ambi Robotics For Ecommerce
Pitney Bowes (NYSE: PBI), a technology company that powers billions of transactions across the world of e-commerce, shipping, and mailing, announced the deployment of AI-powered robots to speed parcel sortation to last-mile delivery providers on behalf of its e-commerce clients. These automated parcel sorting systems from Ambi Robotics use AI to efficiently sort hundreds of thousands of unique parcels.
Venture Capital: Andreessen Horowitz Floats Third Crypto Fund For $2.2B
Andreessen Horowitz, the Silicon Valley venture giant that took a trail-blazing bet on Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) and had already raised $815 million in two earlier funds, is scaling up its commitment to crypto and blockchain. It announced today a new $2.2 billion “Crypto Fund III” in the face of the dramatic volatility in bitcoin’s price, its increasingly sullied climatic image, and the role of crypto in criminal activities such ransom attacks.
FinTech: Visa To Acquire European Open Banking Platform Tink For $2.2B
Visa (NYSE: V) announced Thursday its deal to acquire European open banking platform Tink for €1.8 billion ($2.2 billion) as it moves to take advantage of European Union law – the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) – which facilitates open banking. The law requires banks to allow access to customer data by registered third-party providers to boost competition.
Digital Assets: Africrypt, The South African Crypto Platform, Is Missing $3.6B In Bitcoin
This is another instance when exchange founders have decamped with investors’ savings held on their platform as investments in crypto, this time in South Africa. Bloomberg reported that about 69,000 bitcoin worth $3.6 billion is missing from South African crypto investment platform Africrypt. Also untraceable are the Cajee brothers, who founded Africrypt in 2019.
Alternative Investments/Real Estate: Janus Henderson Launches Real Estate ETF
Janus Henderson Group plc (NYSE: JHG) announced Wednesday the launch of its Janus Henderson U.S. Real Estate ETF (NYSEARCA: JRE) that focuses on real estate opportunities in the U.S. and in Canada. The actively managed fund will target real estate securities driving the future of the sector, which may include cell towers, data centers, gaming REITs, cold storage and more, without bias toward style, property type or market cap.
FinTech: Dutch Fintech Mollie Scores $800M Raise In Round Led By Blackstone
Fast-growing Dutch payment service provider Mollie announced Tuesday its closing of a US$800 million in a Series C funding round led by Blackstone Growth. TCV who led the Series B investment in September 2020 also participated in the funding round along with EQT Growth, General Atlantic, HMI Capital and Alkeon Capital.
Alternative Investments/ESG: Engine No 1 Rides Momentum Of Exxon Win With ETF Launch
It’s been nearly a month since that seismic day when Engine No 1 won backing from key institutional investors in Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) and got three of its representatives to sit on the energy giant’s board. Engine demanded that Exxon needed to shift its operations and significantly reduce emissions in order to ensure long-term financial viability. Engine No 1 is making waves again, this time with its announcement of the launch of its first ETF.
Venture Capital: NATO To Launch Investment Fund And Accelerator For Startups With War Technologies
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a defence alliance comprising 30 European and North American countries, announced its intention to back startups for developing technologies that could give it an edge in defense and warfare. NATO will launch a a startup accelerator programme and a €1 billion investment fund targeted at high-technology startups.
Digital Assets: Stronghold Digital Mining Raises $105M To Mine Cryptos Using Waste Coal
Stronghold Digital Mining has raised $ 105 million through two private equity placements for its Scrubgrass Generation Plant power generation facility in Venango County, Pennsylvania. The utility converts waste coal from abandoned mines in the area to generate electricity on the scale of a large-scale hydropower plant. Stronghold uses this energy to mine cryptocurrencies including bitcoin.
Artificial Intelligence: AI Simulates Long Lost Portions of Rembrandt’s Masterpiece
Rembrandt’s famed masterpiece, “The Night Watch,” an icon of the Netherlands that hangs in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, is not the whole work as painted by the artist. In 1715, sections of varying widths were cut off from all sides of the painting to fit on a wall between two doors in the city’s Town Hall. The massive painting, now sized about 15 feet wide by 13 feet high, occupies pride of place in the Rijksmuseum. However, using AI, the public can now see the work nearly whole, and as intended by Rembrandt when he painted it in 1642.
Digital Assets: BTC.com, A Major Crypto Mining Pool, Relocates To Kazakhstan From China
BTC.com, a significant mining pool said to be the world’s fifth-largest, has shifted its first batch of 320 mining machines to Kazakhstan from their earlier location in western Sichuan province in China following a withdrawal of power supply by the grid.
Venture Capital: A Cybersecurity Solution Without Passwords Earns Transmit A $543M Round
Israeli cybersecurity startup Transmit Security, which promises to rid the world of clunky, usually-forgotten passwords, announced today its raise of $543 million in a Series A round led by Insight Partners and General Atlantic, with additional investment from Cyberstarts, Geodesic, SYN Ventures, Vintage, and Artisanal Ventures.
Liquid Alternatives: Franklin Templeton Launches Two New UCITS Trading Cat Bonds and Risk Premia
The Franklin K2 Cat Bond UCITS Fund and Franklin K2 Athena Risk Premia UCITS Fund make their debut in the face of growing demand for investment opportunities in the liquid alternatives space. The two strategies offer diversification benefits to European investors because of their substantially less correlation to the traditional asset classes.
FinTech: Revolut Reports Better Margins But A Higher Total Loss For 2020
Revolut, the London-based challenger bank led by Nikolay Storonsky, reported its numbers for the year ended December 31, 2020 on Monday. Though the financial superapp reported strong growth on various metrics including customer base, gross margins and revenue, it incurred a total loss of £168 million for the year, up 57% from 2019.
Artificial Intelligence: Ping An’s New Deep Learning Framework Uses Unlabelled Data For Training
Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (SSE: 601318) announced Monday that research by Ping An Healthcare Technology Research Institute and Tsinghua University was successful in the development of a deep learning framework for drug discovery that learns molecular representations from large volumes of unlabelled molecules.
Venture Capital: Crypto Financial Services Amber Scores $100M, Turns Unicorn
Amber Group, the Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency financial services startup, announced Sunday its Series B round of $100 million at a valuation of $1 billion. Led by private equity player China Renaissance, the round saw participation from new investors Tiger Brokers, Tiger Global Management, Arena Holdings, Tru Arrow Partners, Sky9 Capital, DCM Ventures, and Gobi Partners.
Digital Assets: Steve Cohen Is “Fully Converted” To Crypto; Burry Expects A Crash
Steve Cohen, the billionaire Chairman and CEO of Point72 Asset Management, the family office, came out swinging in favor of cryptos in an interview last week. “I’m not going to miss this,” he said. “I already feel like I missed the first part of it, but I still feel like it’s early.”
FinTech: Dutch Neobank bunq To Raise $190M, Acquire Lending Platform
Dutch digital banking challenger bunq, which offers a completely mobile-based, branch-free banking experience, is to raise €160 million ($190 million) at a €1.65 billion (nearly $2 billion) valuation. Pending regulatory approval, the transaction is an investment from an unnamed UK-based private equity company for 10% of Bunq’s equity. As part of the deal, bunq will also acquire a small business lender from the same investor.
Alternative Investments/ESG: Franklin Templeton Canada Launches New Sustainable Funds
The asset manager announced five ETFs and four mutual funds, all with a sustainability skew. Franklin Templeton Canada launches new sustainable funds managed by its boutique investment managers. New funds from Franklin Templeton Canada Type of Fund Investment Manager Investing target Features MUTUAL FUNDS Franklin ClearBridge Sustainable Global Infrastructure Income Fund ClearBridge Investments: Global Equity…
Artificial Intelligence: Autonomous Mayflower’s Transatlantic Voyage Cut Short After Glitch
The Mayflower, a crewless, captain-less trimaran, which embarked on a landmark, fully autonomous transatlantic crossing on June 15, has had to return to base after suffering a glitch, said to be minor. A collaboration between research organization Promare and IBM (NYSE: IBM), the Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS400) was to dock at Plymouth, Mass., the town where pilgrim travelers settled in 1620, after crossing the Atlantic.
Digital Assets: Miami Mayor Suarez Wooing Crypto Miners With Promise Of Cheap Nuclear Power
While the national average for the cost of electricity is $0.13 per kilowatt hour, it is just $0.10 in Miami. One reason is the Turkey Point Nuclear Plant (pictured above), which helps power Miami. In fact, in Florida, nuclear is the second biggest energy source after natural gas. Besides, nuclear energy is a very clean form of energy unlike other, fossil-based sources such as coal. Dirty energy and related emissions have accounted for a lot of the recent bitcoin-bashing in recent days. All reasons for Mayor Suarez to promote Miami as a hub for crypto mining.
Alternative Investments/ESG: Fidelity Expands ESG Funds Lineup With Mutual Funds, ETFs, And A Bond Fund
Fidelity Investments announced Wednesday the launch of five new actively managed Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) funds. These comprise two mutual funds, two ETFs, and one bond fund.