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Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, aims to secure $1 billion in equity financing to compete with industry leaders such as OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google. The company, co-founded by Musk, has already garnered $135 million from investors, as revealed in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Digital Assets: Greek Police Launched Unsuccessful Operation To Nab Cryptoqueen Ruja Ignatova
Police in Greece attempted to arrest Ruja Ignatova, a Bulgarian wanted by Interpol, Europol, and the FBI, according to the Greek newspaper Kathimerini, which cited well-informed police sources.
In 2017, Ruja Ignatova, the “Queen of cryptocurrencies,” disappeared without a trace after boarding a flight from Sofia to Athens. She is wanted for stealing at least $4 billion from unsuspecting victims through a complex fraud with the fake cryptocurrency OneCoin.
Artificial Intelligence: Supercar Looks For Its Self-Driving EV? Apple Hires Lamborghini Top Executive
Apple is making strides toward the development of its self-driving vehicles, as it has reportedly hired Lamborghini veteran Luigi Taraborrelli as a senior manager on its electric vehicle team. At Lamborghini, Taraborrelli has worked on the Urus, Huracan, and Aventador in addition to limited-edition Huracan Sterrato off-road vehicle and Asterion concept cars.
Alternative Investments: As Single Stock ETFs Become The Flavor Of The Season, Innovator Launches The Hedged TSLA Strategy ETF (TSLH)
Innovator Capital Management, which pioneered Defined Outcome ETFs, listed the Innovator Hedged TSLA Strategy ETF (ticker: TSLH) on July 26th, on the Cboe. It is the first ETF to provide long exposure to a single stock, in this case Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), with an inbuilt system of risk management and protection against the volatility of the stock.
Venture Capital/ESG: Sustainable Lithium Extraction Startup EnergyX Lands IPO-Linked Funding Commitment Of $450M
Global Emerging Markets (GEM) has committed an investment of $450 million in lithium and battery technology startup Energy Exploration Technologies (EnergyX). The funds will be used to commercialize the latter’s direct lithium extraction and refining technologies. EnergyX’s LiTAS technology has been tested in the Lithium Triangle in South America and increases lithium production from 30% to 94% of what is normally recovered.
Venture Capital: IQM, European Maker Of Quantum Computers, Lands €128 million ($128m) In Series A2 Funding
IQM Quantum Computers, which is based in Espoo, Finland, and makes world-beating quantum computers for the benefit of mankind, announced its €128 million Series A2 funding round led by World Fund with the participation of Bayern Kapital, EIC Fund, OurCrowd, QCI SPV, Tofino and Varma along with its existing investors Maki.vc, Matadero QED, MIG Fonds, OpenOcean, Salvia GmbH, Santo Venture Capital GmbH, Tencent, Tesi, and Vsquared. Quantum computing is expected to improve drug discovery, transform encryption and data protection, and predict financial systems. For example, a problem that could take a supercomputer 10,000 years to solve would take a quantum computer only four minutes.
Digital Assets: Sam Bankman-Fried Throws Bankrupt Voyager Digital’s Customers A Lifeline
Crypto exchange FTX has thrown bankrupt crypto broker Voyager Digital (TSE: VOYG) a lifeline. Voyager halted user transactions on July 1, and entered bankruptcy proceedings soon after. FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is offering Voyager a plan that could help save a sinking ship – customers may be able to withdraw their tokens and get a refund if they have funds remaining in their wallets.
Liquid Alternatives: Alternative Investments Pick Up As The 60/40 Mantra Fades
Rising interest rates, runaway inflation, and geopolitical turmoil have combined to ruin the pitch for the go-to 60/40 portfolio allocation between bonds and equities. Result: Advisors are leaning increasingly towards alternative investments and portfolio allocations to such products have risen sharply this year, according to a study by Cerulli Associates.
Venture Capital: Meals Provider FreshRealm Raises $200M
FreshRealm announced its raise of $200 million led by a premier global cornerstone institutional investor. The funds will enable the company to further drive its growth in the meal industry, which it estimates as a $30 billion market opportunity with retail partners.
FinTech: UK Digital Bank Starling Clocks First Full Year Of Profitability
Starling Bank, the UK-based digital challenger bank, announced a maiden profit in its accounts for the financial year ended on March 31, 2022. Compared to a pre-tax loss of £31.5 million for the 16-month period to 31 March 2021, Starling earned a pre-tax profit of £32.1 million for the financial year ending 31 March 2022. Revenue for the latest year was £188 million, nearly doubling from the previous year.
Venture Capital/ESG: TAE Achieves 75 Million Degrees Celsius In Fusion Energy Reactor, Raises $250M From Marquee Investors
TAE Technologies, the fusion energy startup on track to commercialize its technology by the mid-2030s, has raised a $250 million Series G-2 round from investors including Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Chevron (NYSE: CVX), Sumitomo Corporation (TYO: 8053) of Americas, TIFF Investment Management, Reimagined Ventures, a large U.S. West coast based mutual fund manager, a big U.S. pension fund, and others. The round recognized TAE’s progress towards commercial fusion energy after Norman, the company’s fifth-generation fusion reactor, sustained stable plasma at more than 75 million degrees Celsius, 250% higher than its original goal.
Alternative Investments/ESG: ARK To Shutter Its Transparency ETF
Cathie Wood’s ARK Investment Management LLC announced the closure of its ARK Transparency ETF (BATS: CTRU) with effect from July 26, on which date it will stop trading on the CBOE. The investment manager said it decided to shutter the ETF because Transparency Global, the provider of the ETF’s index, will stop calculating the Transparency Index (TRANSPCY) effective July 31, 2022.
Artificial Intelligence: AI-Powered Prosthesis, The “Esper Hand” Nabs Design Award
The Esper Hand has transformed the dreary and medical-gadget appearance of a current day prosthesis into a well-designed, lifestyle and appearance-enhancing device. The AI-powered Hand is three times faster because it picks up signals from individual muscles. The hand is controlled via a non-invasive wearable brain-computer interface together with a cloud-based software solution. At 380g, it is also much lighter than other prosthetic hands.
Venture Capital: Christie’s, The 256-Year Old Art Auctioneer, Launches Venture Fund
The new Christie’s venture fund will support technology and fintech startups focused on the art market. Christie’s, the venerable art and luxury business and auction house with a global presence, announced Monday the launch of Christie’s Ventures, a fund that will invest in Emerging Technology and FinTech companies creating solutions to enhance the art market….
Liquid Alternatives: An ETF For Leveraged Exposure To Pre-Merger SPAC Securities
On July 12, the RiverNorth Enhanced Pre-Merger SPAC ETF (NYSEARCA: SPCZ) commenced trading on the NYSE. Launched by RiverNorth Capital Management, LLC and TrueMark Investments, the actively managed fund invests in pre-merger securities of SPACs (Special Purpose Acquisition Companies) whose business plan is to raise capital in an Initial Public Offering (IPO) and, within a specific period, engage in a merger or acquisition with one or more unidentified companies.
FinTech: Corporate Spend Management Platform Airbase Nabs $150M Credit Facility From Goldman Sachs
Airbase, a spend management platform catering to mid-market and enterprise companies, announced today the close of its $150 million debt financing round led by Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS). Airbase will apply the funding towards the expansion of its corporate charge card program, a component of the spend platform.
Artificial Intelligence: Setback For Tesla’s Autopilot Team As AI Head Andrej Karpathy Quits
A key piece in Tesla’s (NASDAQ: TSLA) Autopilot and Full Self Driving development, Andrej Karpathy, who was senior director in charge of AI and computer vision at the company, has resigned after a four-month sabbatical. The ostensible reason for the move: to pursue “long-term passions around technical work in AI, open source and education.” However, Karpathy said he still had no concrete plans for what’s next.
FinTech: Stripe Slashes Internal Company Valuation By 28% From $40 Per Share To $29
Stripe, the payments giant founded by the Collison brothers, has cut its internal valuation by 28% according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Stripe’s so-called 409A valuation is the fair market value of the common stock of a private company as valued by a third-party appraiser, and is used to grant employees stock options. According to WSJ’s sources, Stripe informed employees in an email Friday that this value was $29, compared with $40 in the most previous 409A assessment.
Alternative Investments: AXS Launches New ETFs That Allow Leveraged Bets Against Selected Single Stocks In The U.S.
Asset manager AXS Investments has launched a suite of eight new ETFs that offer investors the opportunity to take leveraged exposure to single, actively traded U.S. equities. Of these, five ETFS are “bear” or inverse, meaning investors would profit from a decline in the price of the stock represented by the particular ETF. These five ETFs are leveraged between 1X to 2X times.
FinTech: Klarna Raises $800M At Slashed Valuation To Pursue US Expansion
It’s a monster down round (one in which the startup is forced to accept a lower valuation than that in a previous round) for Klarna, showing how risk averse venture firms have become in an environment that punishes tech companies first and asks questions later. It is also a pointer to the slowing allure of buy-now-pay-later (BNPL), a fintech product that is Klarna’s bread and butter line. The fintech’s latest round received investment from existing investors including Sequoia, the founders, Bestseller, Silver Lake and Commonwealth Bank of Australia. New investors included the Mubadala Investment Company and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
Venture Capital/ESG: Blackstone Invests $400M In Carbon Platform Xpansiv
Blackstone announced that funds managed by Blackstone Energy Partners have invested $400 million in Xpansiv Limited, a market infrastructure platform for carbon and environmental commodities, as a strategic investment.
Venture Capital: Cyber Insurance Provider Coalition Lands $250M After Year Of Torrid Growth
Coalition, a provider of insurance against cyber risks, announced today it had closed a $250 million funding round in June. Allianz X, Valor Equity Partners, Kinetic Partners and other existing investors participated in the investment which valued Coalition at $5 billion.
Artificial Intelligence: After Fintechs And Crypto, Lay Off Contagion Hits Argo AI
A report in Tech Crunch says recession fears have led Argo AI, a startup focused on self-driving technology, to lay off as many as 150 people and take it easy on new hiring. Argo AI is backed by Ford (NYSE: F) and Volkswagen (ETR: VOW3).
Digital Assets: In Domino Effect, Voyager Digital Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
Crypto broker Voyager Digital (TSE: VOYG) filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 on Tuesday, according to an announcement by the company. The move follows after a bankruptcy filing by Three Arrows Capital, a crypto hedge fund that owes Voyager more than $650 million in loans. Voyager had previously halted withdrawals, trading, and deposits from customers following a default by Three Arrows Capital on loan repayment.
Digital Assets: Atlantic Equities Downgrades Coinbase Citing “Misinformation” Around the Company
Simon Cinch, an analyst at Atlantic Equities, has downgraded Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) to Neutral from Overweight, and flagged a potential downside of another 37% to the stock price, or $35 per share. Coinbase is currently trading at $52.62 per share. The analyst cited a slew of concerns for the downgrade, chiefly market developments that would possibly severely impact Coinbase’s revenue.