Tag Archives: Finance

Google plans to invest even more money into Anthropic

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Google plans to invest up to $40 billion into Anthropic in what could be viewed as a circular deal with the AI startup (and frequent competitor), Bloomberg reports. The search giant has invested in Anthropic at multiple points in the past, but this new investment comes after an announcement that the AI startup had signed a joint agreement with Google and Broadcom for "multiple gigawatts of next-generation TPU capacity."

According to Anthropic, Google is committing $10 billion now at the company's current valuation, with an additional $30 billion on offer if Anthropic meets specific performance milestones. Through Anthropic's existing commitment to use Google's TPUs (tensor processing units) and servers, Anthropic says Google will also provide 5 gigawatts of computing capacity in 2027.

If the structure of the deal and business relationship between Google and Anthropic sounds familiar, it might be because the AI startup recently announced something similar with Amazon. Earlier in April, Amazon announced that it would invest $5 billion in Anthropic, with an additional $20 billion in payments available if certain milestones were met. Anthropic also agreed to use Amazon's Trainium chips for its AI models.

The deals are another example of Anthropic's ability to burn through money — the company only just raised $30 billion in its most recent round of funding. They could also serve as an example of the AI industry's love of circular deals. Anthropic agreeing to use Google and Amazon's silicon and servers, receiving investment from both companies and then presumably spending some of that investment on more silicon and servers, is a pattern seen in the relationship between OpenAI, Nvidia, Microsoft and plenty of other players in the AI race.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-plans-to-invest-even-more-money-into-anthropic-185000776.html?src=rss

Google plans to invest even more money into Anthropic

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Google plans to invest up to $40 billion into Anthropic in what could be viewed as a circular deal with the AI startup (and frequent competitor), Bloomberg reports. The search giant has invested in Anthropic at multiple points in the past, but this new investment comes after an announcement that the AI startup had signed a joint agreement with Google and Broadcom for "multiple gigawatts of next-generation TPU capacity."

According to Anthropic, Google is committing $10 billion now at the company's current valuation, with an additional $30 billion on offer if Anthropic meets specific performance milestones. Through Anthropic's existing commitment to use Google's TPUs (tensor processing units) and servers, Anthropic says Google will also provide 5 gigawatts of computing capacity in 2027.

If the structure of the deal and business relationship between Google and Anthropic sounds familiar, it might be because the AI startup recently announced something similar with Amazon. Earlier in April, Amazon announced that it would invest $5 billion in Anthropic, with an additional $20 billion in payments available if certain milestones were met. Anthropic also agreed to use Amazon's Trainium chips for its AI models.

The deals are another example of Anthropic's ability to burn through money — the company only just raised $30 billion in its most recent round of funding. They could also serve as an example of the AI industry's love of circular deals. Anthropic agreeing to use Google and Amazon's silicon and servers, receiving investment from both companies and then presumably spending some of that investment on more silicon and servers, is a pattern seen in the relationship between OpenAI, Nvidia, Microsoft and plenty of other players in the AI race.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-plans-to-invest-even-more-money-into-anthropic-185000776.html?src=rss

Cash App now supports accounts for kids 6-12

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Cash App, the banking and payments app run by Block, has added support for parent-managed kids accounts. The new accounts include key benefits from the service's normal account, with an eye towards teaching financial literacy to younger users ages 6 to 12. Cash App first allowed teenage users on its platform in 2021.

As part of the "expanded Cash App Families experience," eligible legal guardians and parents can create managed accounts that offer "a dedicated place on the platform to send allowances, set aside savings, and track spending for their child, kickstarting their path to financial independence," Cash App says. Adults managing these accounts will be able to set up recurring transfers, see how their child is spending and do things like lock their child's account to prevent transactions. Kids will get a custom debit card and the ability to receive payments from up to five trusted accounts, though notably they won't be able to access Cash App itself.

Cash App says managed accounts are designed for kids 6 through 12. Once those kids turn 13, Cash App says parents will be able to choose to convert their account to a "sponsored account" to unlock more features, like the ability to send and receive payments, invest in stocks or trade crypto. Those sponsored accounts are technically still monitored and controlled by a parent or legal guardian, but they do give 13-year-olds more control over how they use their money.

A parent-managed account for kids is not a new idea in the fintech space, though Cash App is trying to reach a younger audience than some of its competitors. Venmo rolled out access to its payment platform to teens between the ages of 13 to 17 in 2023. Separately, both Apple and Google also offer their own kids accounts in Google Wallet and Apple Cash Family.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/cash-app-now-supports-accounts-for-kids-6-12-210651025.html?src=rss

Reed Hastings is leaving Netflix after 29 years

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Netflix co-founder and current chairman Reed Hastings is leaving the streaming company’s board in June to focus on "his philanthropy and other pursuits," according to a shareholder letter released alongside Netflix's Q1 earnings. Hastings has served as chairman of Netflix's board since 2023, a role he assumed after stepping down as co-CEO and promoting Greg Peters in his place.

"Netflix changed my life in so many ways, and my all‑time favorite memory was January 2016, when we enabled nearly the entire planet to enjoy our service," Hastings said in a statement. "My real contribution at Netflix wasn’t a single decision; it was a focus on member joy, building a culture that others could inherit and improve, and building a company that could be both beloved by members and wildly successful for generations to come. A special thanks to Greg and Ted, whose commitment to Netflix’s greatness is so strong that I can now focus on new things."

Hastings founded Netflix in 1997 as a DVD-by-mail rental service with his co-founder and the company's first CEO Marc Randolph. In 1999, Hastings became CEO, and eventually led the company through its transformation into a streaming service in 2007. Netflix started producing its own television series and movies in 2013, and in 2020, the company's board named Ted Sarandos as Hasting's co-CEO, in part to oversee its growing production business. Hastings stepped down as co-CEO in 2023 to become Netflix’s executive chairman, as then COO Greg Peters was promoted to co-CEO. Among his other contributions, Hasting is also the architect of Netflix's infamous "culture memo," which codified the company's high-performance culture.

While he'll no longer be on Netflix's board, Hastings still has a seat on the board of AI startup Anthropic and media and financial software company Bloomberg. Netflix, for its part, is continuing to expand outside of the television and film business Hastings helped build, by offering a selection of curated party games, a growing library of video podcasts and live sports.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/reed-hastings-is-leaving-netflix-after-29-years-213136444.html?src=rss

Shoe company Allbirds pivots to AI compute in sign of a totally normal and healthy economy

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The shoe company Allbirds, famous for its wool trainers, is pivoting to AI. You read that right. The San Francisco company has plans "to pivot its business to AI compute infrastructure, with a long-term vision to become a fully integrated GPU-as-a-Service and AI-native cloud solutions provider." It's also changing its name to NewBird AI.

This is subject to shareholder approval, with a vote scheduled for May 18. Once approved, the company will raise $50 million from an unnamed investor to assist with this enterprise. This money will be used for the "acquisition and monetization of graphics processing units, related high-performance computing infrastructure capable to support high workloads and other related assets." In other words, all of the things one would need to start an AI compute company.

Allbirds has always been known as an eco-friendly shoe company and, well, there's no real way to do AI while protecting the environment. The company plans on getting rid of any eco-friendly branding, with stockholders being asked to approve a charter amendment proposal to "remove references to the company being operated for the environmental conservation public benefit."

Investors absolutely love AI, despite rising public sentiment against the technology. To that end, the announcement that Allbirds was transitioning from shoes, a product category it has a decade of experience in, to AI compute, a product category it has no experience in, shot the stock up by over 400 percent. Financial Times has suggested this uptick will be short-lived and that retail investors should stay away.

This pivot to AI cloud compute is surprising and, frankly, bizarre, but something drastic was bound to happen to Allbirds at some point. The shoe company was once riding high, with a valuation of around $4 billion as recently as 2021. It sold its shoe business and branding to an investment firm earlier this month for just $39 million.

Allbirds isn't the only company pivoting to compute in an effort to feed the hungry goblin called AI. Boom Supersonic is a startup trying to build the world's fastest airliner but has begun selling gas turbines to AI companies to power data centers. Many Bitcoin mining centers have pivoted to AI and it's worth remembering that NVIDIA's GPUs were once used primarily for PC gaming.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/shoe-company-pivots-to-ai-compute-in-sign-of-a-totally-normal-and-healthy-economy-161449196.html?src=rss

OpenAI buys its second startup in a month

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OpenAI has acquired Hiro Finance, a startup that offers AI-powered financial planning tools. As first reported by TechCrunch, fiscal terms of the deal, which was announced on Monday, were not disclosed by OpenAI. However, all signs point this to being an acquhire, with Hiro founder Ethan Bloch writing on LinkedIn that the company's product would stop working on April 20. Users have until May 13 to migrate their data off of Hiro's servers before everything is deleted.  

It's unclear if OpenAI plans to offer a dedicated financial planning tool in the mold of Hiro. At the start of the year, the company released Prism, a Claude Code-like app for scientific research that built on its acquisition of the startup behind Crixet. At the very least, it sounds like some of the expertise Hiro has built will make its way to OpenAI's chatbot. "For decades, personalized financial guidance has been too expensive, too generic, or too hard to access. ChatGPT is finally changing that," Bloch wrote on LinkedIn. 

The deal is the second acquisition in only two weeks to be announced by OpenAI. At the start of the month, the company bought Technology Business Programming Network (TBPN), a media company known for its daily tech podcast. For a company that has by all indications a long and tough road ahead to profitability, it sure does seem OpenAI is spending a lot of time and money on startups that might not end being central to its core business, which in recent months has seen it target the coding market to edge out Anthropic.   

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-buys-its-second-startup-in-a-month-140550769.html?src=rss

OpenAI buys its second startup in a month

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OpenAI has acquired Hiro Finance, a startup that offers AI-powered financial planning tools. As first reported by TechCrunch, fiscal terms of the deal, which was announced on Monday, were not disclosed by OpenAI. However, all signs point this to being an acquhire, with Hiro founder Ethan Bloch writing on LinkedIn that the company's product would stop working on April 20. Users have until May 13 to migrate their data off of Hiro's servers before everything is deleted.  

It's unclear if OpenAI plans to offer a dedicated financial planning tool in the mold of Hiro. At the start of the year, the company released Prism, a Claude Code-like app for scientific research that built on its acquisition of the startup behind Crixet. At the very least, it sounds like some of the expertise Hiro has built will make its way to OpenAI's chatbot. "For decades, personalized financial guidance has been too expensive, too generic, or too hard to access. ChatGPT is finally changing that," Bloch wrote on LinkedIn. 

The deal is the second acquisition in only two weeks to be announced by OpenAI. At the start of the month, the company bought Technology Business Programming Network (TBPN), a media company known for its daily tech podcast. For a company that has by all indications a long and tough road ahead to profitability, it sure does seem OpenAI is spending a lot of time and money on startups that might not end being central to its core business, which in recent months has seen it target the coding market to edge out Anthropic.   

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-buys-its-second-startup-in-a-month-140550769.html?src=rss

Banks working on the SpaceX IPO reportedly have to subscribe to Grok

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Cutthroat capitalism sure does bring out the best in humanity. Take, for example, Elon Musk. He reportedly set a condition for banks, law firms, auditors and advisors who want to work on the SpaceX IPO. They're required to subscribe to the bastion of nonconsensual deepfakes and occasional Hitler praise known as Grok.

Surely the best and brightest banks our nation has to offer would refuse such a pay-to-play demand, right? Well, no. The New York Times reports that some of them have agreed to spend tens of millions of dollars on Grok. Those financial institutions are said to already be integrating the chatbot into their IT systems.

The Times' sources say this wasn't a no-strings request. Rather, Musk insisted they subscribe to Grok as part of the privilege of working on SpaceX's IPO. He also reportedly asked the banks to advertise on X, but was less firm about that. See? He's a flexible, easy-going guy at heart.

Five banks are expected to work on the IPO: Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley. Meanwhile, the law firms Gibson Dunn and Davis Polk are said to be advising. We can probably assume that all of them are currently installing Grok on their internal systems. Good times.

SpaceX's IPO, filed confidentially earlier this week, is expected to raise over $50 billion and value the company at over $1 trillion. With banks set to rake in over $500 million from their work on the deal, perhaps paying for Grok, despite its myriad issues, seemed a small price to pay. See? Just outstanding people doing upstanding things in the good ol' US of A.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/banks-working-on-the-spacex-ipo-reportedly-have-to-subscribe-to-grok-200213071.html?src=rss

CFTC sues three states for trying to regulate prediction markets

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The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission is suing Illinois, Arizona and Connecticut for attempting to outlaw or regulate prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket. The CFTC believes it has sole jurisdiction to regulate these platforms, and that states attempting to classify them as illegal gambling are overstepping their authority.

CFTC defines prediction markets as “designated contract markets” where futures contracts are traded, essentially letting people bet on the outcome of events (for example, who will be the Democratic nominee for president in 2028). And because futures contracts are financial instruments distinct from traditional bets, they arguably fall under the supervision of the CFTC rather than the sports gambling authorities of individual states.

Multiple states, including the three the CFTC is suing, have challenged that interpretation of what prediction markets are and how they operate. Nevada sued Kalshi in February for operating a sports gambling market without proper licenses, a lawsuit made possible because a federal appeals court declined to prevent Nevada from pursuing its case. Arizona's attorney general filed a lawsuit against Kalshi in March along similar illegal sports gambling lines, and because the platform let people bet on Arizona elections, which violates state law. Both Illinois and Connecticut have also sent Kalshi and other prediction markets cease-and-desist letters, ordering them to stop advertising and offering their services in their respective states.

"The CFTC will continue to safeguard its exclusive regulatory authority over these markets and defend market participants against overzealous state regulators," CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig said in a statement. "This is not the first time states have tried to impose inconsistent and contrary obligations on market participants, but Congress specifically rejected such a fragmented patchwork of state regulations because it resulted in poorer consumer protection and increased risk of fraud and manipulation."

Attempts to regulate, or in this case, stave off regulation of predication markets are complicated by the fact that President Donald Trump's family has ties to the industry. Donald Trump Jr. is a paid advisor for Kalshi and investor in Polymarket. Major transactions made before recent US military actions in Iran have also suggested that people close to the government might be trading on prediction markets with insider knowledge. Some prediction markets have implemented new rules to prevent insider trading, but given the circumstances, it makes sense that states wouldn't be satisfied with companies policing themselves.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/cftc-sues-three-states-for-trying-to-regulate-prediction-markets-190152226.html?src=rss

SpaceX has reportedly filed for the biggest IPO in history

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SpaceX has reportedly taken the step many onlookers have long expected: filing paperwork to hold an initial public offering (IPO) on the stock market and become a publicly traded company. Rumors had long pointed toward the IPO taking place by July.

The company filed draft IPO registration paperwork with the US Securities and Exchange Commission confidentially, according to Bloomberg. As such, the public won’t get a chance to closely scrutinize SpaceX’s finances just yet. Taking the confidential approach means SpaceX can obtain feedback from the SEC before making the details public and announcing key factors like the price range and number of shares it’s planning to sell at the outset.

SpaceX is said to have designs on holding the largest IPO in history. It’s reportedly looking to raise $75 billion in the offering, which would far exceed the current record held by Saudi Aramco, which pulled in $24 billion in its 2019 IPO.

It’s expected that SpaceX will seek an IPO valuation of $1.75 trillion. When the Elon Musk-led business swallowed up the Elon Musk-led xAI earlier this year (which means SpaceX is now the parent of X and Grok), the entire company was valued at $1.25 trillion.

SpaceX is reportedly planning to use the funds it brings in from its IPO to turbocharge its various ambitions, including its struggling Starship program. The company also has designs on building a base on the moon, going to Mars and putting AI data centers in orbit.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/spacex-has-reportedly-filed-for-the-biggest-ipo-in-history-154547537.html?src=rss