A Digital Investor

  Coinbase’s commercial on YouTube portrays a Britain with runaway inflation. Next image  › Are these stablecoins that will be linked to national currencies like the dollar going to eventually be used by Governments to replace their existing non digitally based currencies with ones that use the digital blockchain processing capabilities. Read The Times article below.  Those travelling on the London Underground recently will not have missed the advertising campaign mounted on the network by Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange. They will, though, need to visit YouTube to watch the TV commercial supposed to have led it. That is because the two-minute slot, an Oliver!-style song and dance routine portraying a litter and ratplagued Britain, with runaway inflation and sacked office workers becoming takeaway delivery drivers, did not comply with the UK code of broadcast advertising. This was not because of the political content in the advert, approvingly circulated by Nigel Fa...

  ‘Spac king’ plans listing A venture capital investor, nicknamed Wall Street’s “Spac king” for his highprofile blank-cheque deals, is set to take his latest special purpose acquisition vehicle public. American Exceptionalism Acquisition Corp, chaired by Chamath Palihapitiya, will list on the New York Stock Exchange and plans to raise $250 million to target companies in artificial intelligence, energy, decentralised finance and defence sectors. Spacs are shell companies that raise money through a stock market flotation to merge with a private business and take it public, offering businesses an alternative route to the market.

  SoftBank backs Intel as Trump eyes stake Martin Strydom - Business News Editor, Louisa Clarence-Smith - US Business Editor The Japanese technology investor Soft- Bank is taking a $2 billion stake in Intel in a vote of confidence in attempts to turn around the struggling American chipmaker. The investment follows reports that Intel is in talks with the Trump administration about the US government taking a stake as well. SoftBank is paying $23 a share for the stake of just under 2 percent, making it the company’s sixth-largest investor — a slight discount to Intel’s $24.92-ashare closing price on Monday night. Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive of SoftBank, said: “Semiconductors are the foundation of every industry. For more than 50 years, Intel has been a trusted leader in innovation. This strategic investment reflects our belief that advanced semiconductor manufacturing and supply will further expand in the United States, with Intel playing a critical role.” Lip-Bu Tan, ...

  AI could add billions to S&P 500, says Morgan Stanley Mehreen Khan - Economics Editor The widespread adoption of artificial intelligence could add up to $16 trillion to the value of the US stock market, according to a leading Wall Street investment bank. Morgan Stanley said in a major study that it was “fundamentally bullish” about the economic gains from widescale adoption of AI technology and its impact on employment, productivity and market valuation of firms. The bank estimated that AI had the potential to add almost 30 per cent to the long-term valuation of the S&P 500 — a benchmark of America’s largest companies — worth about $13 billion to $16 billion. “Corporate adoption of AI has the capacity to reshape the future of work. Our analysis suggests S&P 500 companies could accrue annual net benefits totalling some $920 billion,” Stephen Byrd, equity strategist at Morgan Stanley, said. “AI is more than a tool for efficiency. It’s a transformative force that could u...

  Next image  › Private credit has become a favoured asset class for many investors looking to ferret out better returns at what appears moderate risk. But it’s also an activity increasingly putting regulators on edge as they scan the horizon for potential financial crises of the future. Private credit is a blancmange of an investment category — an amorphous, opaque and hard-to-define bucket where the numbers are uncertain, though everyone agrees they are growing at breakneck pace. Yet the clue is in the word: private. In essence private credit simply describes the new generation of unlisted investment funds that stump up loans to back leveraged company buyouts and other ventures by private equity funds. It grew out of the banking crisis as conventional banks withdrew from the sector because of more onerous capital rules. That left a void rapidly filled by investment funds that raise money from institutional investors such as pension funds and sovereign wealth funds. Before 20...