Latest News
Top Story
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.
Get Daily Updates
Subscribe to DailyAlts Today to get Alternative Investment news, insight, and commentary delivered straight to your inbox every day.
More Stories on Latest News
FinTech: Apple Announces New Fintech-Like Features For Its Wallet App Including BNPL
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) announced new features that will soon be offered in its new iOS16 software, including one that takes the battle right into fintechs’ turf : Apple Pay Later, a buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) product. A new payments system will also launch later this month that transfers money by tapping two iPhones.
Alternative Investments: AXS Investments Named As Finalist In Several Categories Of The ‘With Intelligence ETF and Mutual Fund Awards’
AXS Investments , an asset manager specializing in alternative investments, has been named as a finalist in several categories in the 2022 With Intelligence ETF and Mutual Fund Awards. The firm has made it possible for investors to get access to alternative investment opportunities that were earlier the sole preserve of institutional and high net worth investors.
Digital Assets: Crypto Adoption Reaching New Heights In Dubai
Crypto firms are flocking to Dubai after the emirate passed the Virtual Assets Law on 28 February 2022. This innovative law, plus Dubai’s efforts to come clean after it was added to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), are proving to be a magnet for crypto firms looking to establish a foothold, or HQ, in a crypto-friendly jurisdiction. A few big names: Binance, FTX, Crypto.com, and Bybit.
Digital Assets: CFTC Hauls Winklevoss-Owned Crypto Exchange Gemini To Court Alleging “Misleading” Statements in 2017
In a press release issued Thursday, June 2, 2022, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) revealed it had taken Gemini to court for “making false or misleading statements of material facts or omitting to state material facts to the CFTC in connection with the self-certification of a bitcoin futures product.”
Digital Assets: Gemini, The Crypto Exchange Founded By The Winklevoss Twins, Lays Off 10% Of Staff
Gemini blamed the crypto winter as well as the macroeconomic and geopolitical turmoil for the decision. In a note to employees this morning, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, CEO and President, Gemini, communicated their “difficult but necessary decision to part ways with approximately 10% of our workforce.” Gemini will close all of its physical offices today…
Digital Assets: Binance Debuts Its Own Web3 VC Fund, Raises $500M
The fund was raised by Binance Labs, a venture and incubation arm of Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange. Binance Labs announced today in a blog post a $500 million raise for its debut venture finance fund. The amount was subscribed by leading global institutional investors such as DST Global Partners and Breyer Capital. Other…
FinTech: B2B Fintech Mondu Scores $43M Series A Led By Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures
Mondu, a Berlin-based fintech startup eyeing a BNPL product for businesses, has raised $43 million in a Series A round led by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures. Other participants in the funding included existing investors Cherry Ventures and FinTech Collective alongside angels from leadership at Klarna, Zalando and SumUp.
Artificial Intelligence: China Launches Zhu Hai Yun, A “Revolutionary” Ocean-Going Drone Ship For Maritime Research
China has announced a fully autonomous ship that can carry a large number of drones, submersibles and other equipment for the conduct of marine research. The ship, named Zhu Hai Yun, can be controlled remotely and is able to navigate the open seas. On a somewhat somber note, the ship can also “quickly intercept, besiege and expel invasive targets.” (SCMP)
Artificial Intelligence: Crewless 750-Ton Commercial Cargo Ship Completes A 500-Mile Voyage Successfully
In what is said to be a world-first, the Suzaka commercial cargo ship, owned by Japanese shipping group NYK, sailed autonomously from Tokyo Bay and completed successfully a 40-hour, 790 km voyage with near-zero human intervention. The ship was equipped with Orca AI’s Automatic Ship Target Recognition System, a safety system for autonomous ships.
Venture Capital/Digital: Andreessen Horowitz Wraps Up $4.5B For Crypto Fund IV
Silicon Valley-based, storied, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz announced a new $4.5 billion fund to back startups in the crypto, or web3 space. Computing is now entering the golden era of web3, the firm feels, akin to the golden era of 2009-11, when companies like Uber, Venmo, Snap, and Instagram were started. “That’s why we decided to go big,” wrote Founder and Managing Partner Chris Dixon in the fund announcement.
Artificial Intelligence: Underwater, Autonomous Glider Tracks CO2 Levels In Alaska’s Resurrection Bay
CO2 concentrations are a valuable quantifier of ocean acidification, the result of greenhouse gases emitted by human activities. Hitherto, CO2 concentrations in our oceans were monitored by ships, buoys and moorings tethered to the ocean floor. In a new method, an autonomous glider fitted with a large CO2 sensor was deployed overnight in the Gulf of Alaska by the Nanuq, a University of Alaska Fairbanks research vessel.
Venture Capital/ESG: Adam Neumann Co-Founded Flowcarbon Raises $70M Via VC Funding And Token Sale
Flowcarbon, co-founded by Adam Neumann, known for WeWork, is a climate technology company seeking to formalize the market for carbon offsets on the blockchain. The startup announced Tuesday its $70 million fundraise comprising token sales and a $32 million Series A round led by a16z crypto and including General Catalyst, Samsung Next, Invesco Private Capital, 166 2nd, Sam and Ashley Levinson, Kevin Turen, RSE Ventures, and Allegory Labs. Notable names that participated in the token sale included Fifth Wall, Box Group, and the Celo Foundation.
Digital Assets: The Terra (LUNA) Implosion – Sidelights
One hapless investor lost about 3 billion won ($2.4 million) in the LUNA and UST implosion earlier this month. A Korean social media personality going by the name of “Chancers” took it upon himself to knock on the door to Kwon’s condo in Seoul after Do Kwon allegedly went incommunicado subsequent to the meltdown in the LUNA crypto and UST stablecoin. Unfortunately, Chancers was unaware of the law prohibiting such an action and was arrested by the authorities.
FinTech: Klarna, Last Valued At $46B, Cuts Workforce By 10%
On Monday, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Klarna’s CEO and co-founder, told all his employees to work from home this week. The reason: to soften the blow, and “in consideration of the privacy of the people affected” by the fintech’s decision to lay off 10% of the workforce. The fintech, famous for “buy-now-pay-later,” said it was the “hardest” decision it ever made.
FinTech: Sam Bankman-Fried Led FTX.US Makes Inroads Into Stock Trading
FTX Stocks is an equity trading platform offered through the FTX US trading application. FTX US announced Thursday a private beta phase trading on the platform for US customers selected from a waitlist. These customers would get access to hundreds of US exchange-listed securities, including common stocks and ETFs, alongside the cryptos already available in the FTX US app.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Venture Capital: Brightseed Raises $68M For AI-Researched Health-Benefiting Compounds
San Francisco based Brightseed has raised $68 million in a Series B round led by Singapore sovereign fund Temasek with participation by existing investors Lewis & Clark AgriFood, Seed 2 Growth (now S2G) Ventures, CGC Ventures, Germin8 and AgFunder. Brightseed uses an AI platform dubbed ‘Forager’ to identify the hidden compounds in plants that can impact our health beneficially. The funding brings up the total money raised by Brightseed to $120 million.
Artificial Intelligence: AI-Powered MAGIC Goggles To Assist Field Personnel Perform Medical Procedures
DARPA has picked Raytheon (NYSE: RTX) BBN to develop goggles that are equipped with Augmented Reality (AR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities to serve as a virtual medical assistant to combat medics on the field. The device would provide real-time, hands-free guidance for 50-different medical procedures.
Digital Assets: Gucci To Soon Accept More Than 10 Cryptocurrencies At Five Select US Stores
By the end of this month, Gucci will start to accept cryptocurrency payments in a few US stores, and later extend the pilot to all of its directly operated stores in the US this summer. More than 10 currencies, including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Wrapped Bitcoin, Litecoin, Shiba Inu, and five stablecoins pegged to the US dollar, will be accepted by the iconic brand. The Gucci stores at Wooster Street in New York, Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles, Miami Design District, Phipps Plaza in Atlanta, and The Shops at Crystals in Las Vegas will be the first to take crypto payments.
Alternative Investments/Fintech: AXS Investments Launches Leveraged Innovation ETF
Alternative investment asset manager AXS Investments launched the AXS 2X Innovation ETF (NASDAQ: TARK), a 2X leveraged product focused on companies involved in transformational industries, such as fintech, autonomous vehicles, genomics and next-gen internet.
Alternative Investments/Real Estate: Merk Investments Launches First Stagflation-Themed ETF
Merk Investments announced the Merk Stagflation ETF (NYSEARCA: STGF) which focuses on investments that would benefit from stagflation, or a situation comprising high and persistent inflation amidst weak economic growth. These investments are a dynamic basket of inflation hedges in the sectors of real estate, oil, bullion, and Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS).