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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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Alternative Investments/ESG: The World’s First “Return On Character” ETF Makes Its Debut
ROC Investments, a California-based investment company that aims to be the market leader in measuring the character habits of public company senior leadership, has launched the ROC (Return On Character) ETF (BATS: ROCI).
Venture Capital: Katie Haun Raises $1.5B, Sets New Record For Initial Fund By Female Founder
Haun Ventures, a venture firm established by Katie Haun, who previously was at Andreessen Horowitz, has raised a $1.5 billion war chest to deploy in web3-facing startups. Haun announced the fund will invest through two platforms: a $500 million early stage fund and a $1 billion acceleration fund.
Artificial Intelligence: AI Could Simulate 40,000 Hypothetical Bioweapons In A Mere Six Hours
A team of researchers from Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc received an invitation to an international security conference that reviews developments in chemistry, biology and enabling technologies that may have implications for chemical and bioweapons. Their brief: To play devil’s advocate to the impression that AI technology for drug discovery could only be used benevolently. Their finding: AI designed 40,000 molecules that had toxic and chemical warfare implications in just six hours.
Digital Assets: Stronghold Digital Uses Energy From Coal Waste To Mine Bitcoin
Millions of tons of coal waste litter across Pennsylvania at coal mining sites that were abandoned after their useful coal was mined and sold to steel mills and power plants. Stronghold Digital Mining (NASDAQ: SDIG) has devised a method to turn these waste mountains into energy that can be used to mine bitcoin.
Artificial Intelligence: Nvidia Unveils H100 GPU For AI Applications
NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) founder and CEO Jensen Huang announced the H100 GPU, an AI chip described as the “new engine of the world’s infrastructure.” This massive 80 billion transistor chip uses TSMC’s 4N process and is three times faster than its previous-generation A100 at FP16, FP32, and FP64 compute, and six times faster at 8-bit floating point math.
Digital Assets/Alternative Investments: Grayscale Launches Smart Contract Platform Fund
Grayscale Investments has launched the Grayscale Smart Contract Platform Ex-Ethereum Fund in response to a perceived demand for diversified exposure to crypto protocols leveraging decentralized smart contract technology.
Artificial Intelligence: Yokogawa And JSR Use AI To Autonomously Run A Chemical Plant For 35 Days
Yokogawa Electric Corporation (TYO: 6841) and JSR Corporation (TYO: 4185) have successfully run a chemical plant autonomously for 35 days using AI. In fact, the production output of the plant, since shipped, met rigorous quality parameters. As a result, because off-spec products were not produced, losses of fuel, labor, and time were also avoided.
Alternative Investments/ESG: Global X Launches Four China ETFS, Including Clean Energy And EVs, In Europe
Global X has launched in Europe four new thematic, China-focused ETFs that address the clean energy, electric vehicles and batteries, cloud computing , and biotech megatrends. The new ETFs follow Global X’s recent thematic launches focusing on solar, agtech and food innovation, hydrogen and wind energy. The firm also introduced bitcoin and ether ETPs earlier this month.
Alternative Investments/Digital: ETC Group Launches Metaverse ETF On London Stock Exchange
This is claimed to the Europe’s first metaverse-themed ETF. The ETC Group Global Metaverse UCITS ETF made its debut on the London Stock Exchange on March 17. It will be passported for sale across Europe, making it Europe’s first Metaverse ETF, and giving investors the opportunity to get exposure to a new, wide-scale, and long-term…
Digital Assets: Mike Novogratz Sees Bitcoin At $500K In Five Years
Speaking on a Bloomberg interview on Tuesday, bitcoin permabull and founder of Galaxy Digital (TSE: GLXY) Mike Novogratz said though bitcoin was likely to touch $500,000 five years out, the current outlook is that the leading crypto will remain rangebound. Factors like the Ukraine war and a hawkish Fed are likely to keep a lid on rallies in bitcoin.
FinTech: Robinhood Would Allow Users To Loan Stocks, Earn Passive Income
Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD), the pioneer in commission-free mobile stock trading, is likely to roll out a stock lending feature in the coming months, Bloomberg reported. Dubbed the Stock Loan Income Program (SLIP), the new feature would compete with other legacy brokers when it rolls out in coming months.
Artificial Intelligence: Clearview’s AI Surveillance Finds Application In The Ukraine War
Clearview AI, the controversial facial recognition company that calls itself the world’s largest facial network, is helping to uncover Russian assailants, combat misinformation and identify the dead in war-torn Ukraine.
Venture Capital: TPG Rise Climate Invests In A Renewable Natural Gas JV
TPG Rise Climate comes on board Monarch Bioenergy, a joint venture between Roeslein Alternative Energy and Smithfield Foods as an equal partner with an undisclosed investment. Monarch uses Roeslein’s technology and Smithfield’s farming practices to convert methane emissions from animal farming into renewable natural gas (RNG) that can power homes, businesses and cars.
Venture Capital: Getir, The Turkish Startup Promising Groceries In Minutes, To Raise $800M
After bagging a $250 million check from lead investor Mubadala Investment Co., Turkish speedy-delivery startup Getir is eyeing a total haul of about $800 million as investors including Rick Gerson’s firm Alpha Wave Global (previously known as Falcon Edge Capital), Abu Dhabi’s state holding company ADQ, Sequoia and Tiger Global pile in with funds.
Alternative Investments/ESG: VegTech Invest Launches Plant-Based Innovation & Climate ETF
VegTech Invest advisory has launched the VegTech Plant-based Innovation & Climate ETF (Ticker: EATV), its first financial product. The ETF offers exposure to publicly traded companies actively innovating with plants and plant-derived ingredients and producing primary products that are animal-free. These companies also have a beneficial impact on the environment and solve certain pressing global problems.
Alternative Investments/Digital: Russia’s Sberbank Launches Blockchain ETF
Sberbank, a leading Russian bank has launched an ETF titled “Sber-Blockchain Economy,” that offers exposure to the top crypto companies across the globe including Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) and Galaxy Digital (TSE: GLXY). The ETF tracks the Sber Blockchain Economy Index developed by inhouse company SberCIB, and is the first product of its kind in Russia.
Digital Assets: DGC And Jamestown Partner To Recreate One Times Square And New Year’s Eve In The Metaverse
Digital Currency Group and Jamestown have partnered to recreate One Times Square virtually in the Decentraland metaverse. The iconic location, known the world over for its New Year’s Eve celebrations and ball drop, will launch in Decentraland on New Year’s Eve with the MetaFest 2022 global party featuring music and entertainment acts, rooftop VIP lounges, cryptoart galleries, and immersive games.
Artificial Intelligence: Japanese Corporates Play Cupid With An AI Dating App For WFH Employees
Faced with declining birth rates, and employees working from home with no time for searching out love, Japanese companies have hit on a new method to get romance back into their lives. About 800 Japanese organizations have signed up for Aill goen, an AI-powered app that promises to play matchmaker. Result: Happier, more productive employees.
Venture Capital: Swedish Battery Maker Northvolt Rolls Out Its Inaugural Li-Ion Cell
On December 28, the first lithium-ion cell to have been fully designed, developed and assembled at a gigafactory by a homegrown European battery company marked Northvolt Ett’s commencement of production at its Skellefteå facility in northern Sweden. The company is a rival to Tesla’s (NASDAQ: TSLA) battery division.
Digital Assets: Bahrain, Canada Approve Binance As Crypto Asset Service Provider
Binance has secured regulatory nods for providing crypto services in the Canada and the Kingdom of Bahrain. The approvals, an in-principle one from Bahrain’s central bank and the other from Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, have been granted to Binance affiliates.
Alternative Investments/Digital: New Year Message From Mexican Billionaire Salinas – “Buy Bitcoin”
Ricardo Salinas Pliego: Billionaire and Mexico’s third richest person. In a Christmas video, Mexican billionaire Salinas exhorted people to avoid fiat money and to invest in bitcoin. The long-time bitcoin aficionado ranks the crypto as one of his “best investments ever,” having first bought it at $500 in 2013 through Grayscale. Like El Salvador president…
Venture Capital: Israel’s Future Meat Raises $347M To Build US Facility
In what is claimed to be the largest investment round for a cultured meat startup till date, Israel-based Future Meat announced the close of its $347 million Series B round co-led by ADM Ventures, the venture investing arm of ADM (NYSE: ADM), the Menora Mivtachim pension and insurance fund which manages over $85 billion in assets, and S2G Ventures.
Artificial Intelligence: MIT Researcher Develops Mirai – An AI To Accurately Predict Breast Cancer
Regina Barzilay, an AI expert at MIT and a breast cancer patient, decided to bring her skills in an AI specialty known as natural language processing to the prediction of cancer. Along with a student protege and a Mass General doctor, she built Mirai – an AI that can predict with unprecedented accuracy the chances of a healthy person developing breast cancer.
Digital Assets: Dubai World Trade Centre To Be Key Zone And Regulator For Crypto; Binance Signs Cooperation Agreement
The Government of Dubai on Monday designated the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) as a comprehensive zone and regulator for virtual assets and crypto including digital assets, products, operators and exchanges. Seen as one of the most crypto-friendly administrations the world over, the Dubai government is looking to create new economic sectors, and sees digital assets as “progressive.”