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☆ OpenAI's latest funding round could be a bargain or a bust for investors
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-03 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . The high-profile startup announced the closing of a $6.6 billion funding round that valued it at $157 billion. And more exits could be coming since OpenAI is reportedly working on allowing its employees to sell their shares in the company . Win McNamee and Didem Mente/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images; Jenny Chang-Rodriguez/InsiderIt's important to remember OpenAI's eye-popping valuation is just that … a valuation. Which gets us back to $157 billion OpenAI.

Persons: —, Elon Musk's, Josh Kushner's, Cathy Wood's, Chase, Here's, Mira Murati, Kevin Weil, Rob Price, OpenAI, Sam Altman, Win McNamee, Didem, Jenny Chang, Rodriguez, Brad Gerstner, Dan DeFrancesco, Hallam Bullock, Jordan Parker Erb, Milan Sehmbi, Amanda Yen Organizations: Business, Service, Elon, Elon Musk's SpaceX, Venture, Microsoft, Nvidia, Anadolu Agency, Getty, Big Tech Locations: Silicon Valley, New York, London

Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is building an investor group to acquire ByteDance's TikTok, as a bipartisan piece of legislation winding its way through Congress threatens its continued existence in the U.S. "It's a great business and I'm going to put together a group to buy TikTok." There's no way that the Chinese would ever let a U.S. company own something like this in China," Mnuchin said. Last week, Mnuchin's Liberty Strategic Capital was a lead investor in a $1 billion capital raise to stabilize New York Community Bancorp. That administration also took an antagonistic stance toward TikTok, which ultimately resulted in ByteDance striking a data partnership with Oracle .

Persons: Steven Mnuchin, ByteDance's, ByteDance, Mnuchin, CNBC's, Masa, Joe Biden, Peter Thiel, Vinod Khosla, Keith Rabois, TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, Wang Wenbin, Bobby Kotick, Donald Trump, Trump Organizations: U.S, Liberty Strategic Capital, Vision Fund, Senate, Lawmakers, China Foreign Ministry, Financial Times, Street, Activision, Community Bancorp, Oracle Locations: Liberty, ByteDance, U.S, China, TikTok, New

☆ CNBC Daily Open: Banking troubles again roil markets
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-08 | by ( Sumathi Bala | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

This report is from today's CNBC Daily Open, our international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Nikkei ralliesAsia markets mostly rose Thursday, while Japan's Nikkei led gains and hit fresh 34-year highs. Russian oilIndia's energy minister claimed "the world is grateful to India for buying Russian oil," adding the move keeps global crude prices affordable. The country's refiners have been snapping up discounted Russian oil since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Persons: China's, VCs, Son's SoftBank, David Gibson Organizations: New York Community Bank, CNBC, Nikkei, Japan's Nikkei, Nasdaq, Dow Jones, Nintendo Analysts, Nintendo Locations: Hicksville , New York, Asia, India, Ukraine

☆ SoftBank nets $16 billion on Arm earnings pop, exceeding its total losses in WeWork
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-07 | by ( Rohan Goswami | In Rohangoswamicnbc | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Arm shares rocketed as much as 41% late Wednesday after the chip designer reported revenue and earnings that sailed past analysts' estimates. SoftBank took Arm public in September and still owns about 930 million shares, or roughly 90% of the chip designer's outstanding stock. Arm pared its initial gains, but SoftBank's stake still jumped by almost $16 billion — from close to $71.6 billion to $87.4 billion — after the earnings report. Softbank acquired Arm in 2016 for $32 billion, and its shares were worth just over $47 billion at the time of the IPO last year. The Vision Fund, SoftBank's venture arm, posted a $6.2 billion loss in the second quarter of 2023, tied to WeWork and other soured bets.

Persons: Son, Masayoshi Son's SoftBank, SoftBank, Softbank Organizations: Vision Locations: Tokyo, Arm's, WeWork, Alibaba

☆ WeWork, once valued at $47 billion, files for bankruptcy
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-07 | by ( Rohan Goswami | In Rohangoswamicnbc | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The WeWork logo is displayed outside of a shared commercial office space building in Los Angeles, California on August 8, 2023. The bankruptcy filing is limited to WeWork's locations in the U.S. and Canada, the company said in a press release. The company reported liabilities ranging from $10 billion to $50 billion, according to a bankruptcy filing. Valued in 2019 at $47 billion in a round led by Masayoshi Son's SoftBank, the company tried and failed to go public five years ago. The company leases millions of square feet of office space in 777 locations around the world, according to its regulatory filings.

Persons: WeWork, Patrick T, Fallon, PATRICK T, FALLON, David Tolley, Masayoshi Son's SoftBank, Adam Neumann, Neumann, Kirkland, Ellis, Cole Schotz, PJT, CNBC's Ari Levy Organizations: Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, Getty, New York Stock Exchange, CNBC, PJT Partners, C Street Advisory Group, Alvarez, Marsal Locations: Los Angeles , California, AFP, New Jersey, U.S, Canada

But a person who worked closely with Ramaswamy said, "He thinks people are put on this earth to serve him." Roivant attracted investors including Masayoshi Son's SoftBank Vision Fund, Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, and the hedge fund Viking Global Investors. Former Roivant employees said Ramaswamy worked hard and expected the same of others. McLaughlin called the employee's recollection "inaccurate," adding that Ramaswamy "has never once raised his voice or used bad language with employees." At Roivant, Ramaswamy kept his politics largely to himself, former employees said.

Persons: Vivek Ramaswamy, Ramaswamy, He's, Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Trump, George Soros, didn't, Taco Bell, he's, —, Vivek, Tricia McLaughlin, he'd, McLaughlin, takeout, Forbes, Vivek doesn't, they've, Roivant, Masayoshi, Peter Thiel's, Thiel, JD Vance, Bill Ackman, who'd, . Ramaswamy, Erik Gordon, Vance, John Phillips, Joyce Rosely, Phillips, Anson Frericks, they'd, Rosely, Frericks, They're, they're, Eric Balchunas, Todd Rosenbluth, Rosenbluth, Christopher Lenzo, Brandon Bell, Vivek Ramaswamy's, Katherine Long, Jack Newsham, Meghan Morris Organizations: pharma, Army Rangers, Biotech, Republican, nab, GOP, of Education, FBI, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Federal Reserve, Florida, Roivant Sciences, General Electric, Yale Law School, Army, Rangers, Harvard, Yale, Fund, Viking Global, Leerink Partners, GlaxoSmithKline, Forbes, Big Pharma, Japan's Sumitomo Pharma Co, ., University of Michigan, FDA, US, Yale Law, ESG, The, Texas, Indiana, BlackRock, Vanguard, Bloomberg Intelligence, Fair, SEC Locations: Mexico, FiveThirtyEight, Roivant, Patagonia, Iowa, New York, Ohio, The Lever

☆ WeWork plunges another 11% after announcing reverse stock split to try and keep NYSE listing
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-18 | by ( Ari Levy | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

WeWork , the office-sharing company once valued at $47 billion, said Friday it will undergo a 1-for-40 reverse stock split to try and keep its stock from being delisted. "The Reverse Stock Split is being effected to regain compliance with the $1.00 per share minimum closing price required to maintain continued listing on the New York Stock Exchange," WeWork said in a filing with the SEC. The reverse split will take effect after the close of trading on Sept. 1, the company said. The move will do nothing to improve the company's financials or valuation but, based on Friday's close, it would lift the stock price to $5.60. With or without a higher stock price, WeWork is in dire straits.

Persons: WeWork, Masayoshi Son's SoftBank, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Adam Neumann Organizations: New York Stock Exchange, SEC, NYSE

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationTOKYO, July 3 (Reuters) - Japan is leaning toward softer rules governing the use of artificial intelligence (AI) than the European Union, said an official close to deliberations, as it looks to the technology to boost economic growth and make it a leader in advanced chips. A softer Japanese approach could dull EU efforts to establish its rules as a global benchmark, with requirements such as companies disclosing copyrighted material used to train AI systems that generate content like text and graphics. EU industry chief Thierry Breton is visiting Tokyo this week to promote the bloc's approach to AI rule-making as well as to deepen cooperation in semiconductors. The government official did not elaborate on areas where Japan's rules were likely to differ from those of the EU. For Japan, AI could help cope with the population decline that is causing a labour shortage.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Thierry Breton, Yutaka Matsuo, Matsuo, Breton, Japan's, Sam Nussey, Tim Kelly, Christopher Cushing Organizations: REUTERS, European Union, EU, The University, Tokyo's, Learning, SoftBank, Microsoft, Japan, Thomson Locations: TOKYO, Japan, European, U.S, Tokyo, China

A softer Japanese approach could dull EU efforts to establish its rules as a global benchmark, with requirements such as companies disclosing copyrighted material used to train AI systems that generate content like text and graphics. EU industry chief Thierry Breton is visiting Tokyo this week to promote the bloc's approach to AI rule-making as well as to deepen cooperation in semiconductors. The government official did not elaborate on areas where Japan's rules were likely to differ from those of the EU. For Japan, AI could help cope with the population decline that is causing a labour shortage. "If you increased the GPUs in Japan by 10 times, it would probably still be less than what OpenAI has available," said Prof. Matsuo.

☆ 2023 is shaping up to be a big year for dealmaking in live sports. Here's why.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Big deals for the big (and little) screen. Next year is shaping up to be a big one for media deals. Like many other industries, media quickly turned quiet on the dealmaking front this year as the economy soured. However, a stabilization of interest rates, along with money burning a hole in investors' pockets, could lead to a big 2023, insiders say. The landscape for media deals is fascinating when you consider the two opposing forces, as Lucia pointed out to me.

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