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☆ Vivek Ramaswamy's 'anti-woke' investment firm now manages assets worth more than $1 billion
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-06 | by ( Joseph Wilkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is the cofounder of an "anti-woke" ETF firm. The company was set up last year and now manages assets worth more than $1 billion. Ramaswamy's firm is a riposte to the ESG-centric policies of some big investment firms. Last month he said the "big three" investment firms – BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard – represented "arguably the most powerful cartel in human history." Ramaswamy is vying with Florida governor Ron DeSantis for second place in opinion polls, but both lag some distance behind former President Donald Trump in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

Persons: Vivek Ramaswamy, Ramaswamy, Eric Balchunas, Anson Frericks, It's, Vanguard –, Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump Organizations: Service, GOP, Bloomberg Intelligence, US Energy ETF, Energy ETF, Bloomberg, – BlackRock, Vanguard, Republican Locations: Wall, Silicon, BlackRock, ESG, Florida

It is likely to be the biggest of three funds launched by the China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, also known as the Big Fund. Its target of 300 billion yuan ($41 billion) outdoes similar funds in 2014 and 2019, which according to government reports, raised 138.7 billion yuan and 200 billion yuan respectively. China's finance ministry is planning to contribute 60 billion yuan, said one person. Backers of the Big Fund's previous two funds include the finance ministry and deep-pocketed state-owned entities such as China Development Bank Capital, China National Tobacco Corporation and China Telecom. INVESTMENT MANAGERSThe Big Fund is considering hiring at least two institutions to invest the new fund's capital, said the three people.

Persons: Xi Jinping, Florence Lo, China's, Julie Zhu, Kevin Huang, Yelin Mo, Roxanne Liu, Sumeet Chatterjee, Edwina Gibbs Organizations: U.S, China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, Big Fund, Washington, Information Office, Ministry of Industry, Information Technology, REUTERS, China Development Bank Capital, China National Tobacco Corporation, China Telecom, Big, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, HK, Hua Hong Semiconductor, Memory Technologies, IC, China Aerospace Investment, China Aerospace Science, Technology Corporation, Thomson Locations: HONG KONG, BEIJING, China, Beijing, U.S, Japan, Netherlands

☆ China is reportedly spending big to boost its production of chips for AI and smartphones after the US cracked down on exports
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-05 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

China is planning a $41 billion fund to boost its semiconductor industry, per Reuters. AdvertisementAdvertisementChina is planning a huge state-backed fund to boost its production of semiconductors after the US cracked down on exporting chips to the country, Reuters reported. It will be launched by China's "Big Fund" — officially known as the China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund. AdvertisementAdvertisementBut even before then, the US was clamping down on exporting semiconductors to China. A huge new state-backed fund would bolster that aim in the face of sanctions.

Persons: China's, —, they've, Xi Jinping Organizations: Morning, Reuters, China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, Semiconductors, Department of Commerce, Guardian Locations: China, Taiwan, Phoenix , Arizona

☆ Dropoff in venture capital funding triggers uptick in pre-emptive deals with investors desperate to back the hottest startups
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Venture capital funding was cut in half in the first six months of 2023, according to Crunchbase. The dropoff has triggered an uptick in pre-empted deals, where investors back the most exciting startups. Payrails, Cello, and ElevenLabs are among the startups to close pre-emptive deals this year. Venture capital funding to startups has continued to collapse in 2023. The slowdown has led to something of an uptick in pre-empted funding rounds, where investors come forward with deal terms to exciting early-stage businesses before they even begin fundraising.

Persons: VCs, Tom Mendoza Organizations: Venture, Crunchbase, Energy, EQT Ventures Locations: London, Berlin

BRUSSELS, July 19 (Reuters) - European Union foreign ministers are expected to discuss a proposal on Thursday to spend up to 20 billion euros ($22.4 billion) on weapons, ammunition and other military aid for Ukraine over four years. The fund has already allocated more than 5 billion euros in support for Ukraine since February last year. An EU official said the aim was to provide more military aid to Ukraine "on a more predictable and sustainable basis". The Peace Facility is used to reimburse EU countries for at least part of the cost of weapons, ammunition and other military aid they give to nations outside the bloc. Diplomats said they expect EU governments to consider the plan alongside a proposal from the European Commission, the bloc's executive, to provide 50 billion euros in economic aid to Ukraine over the same four-year period.

Persons: Josep Borrell, Borrell, Andrew Gray, Jan Strupczewski, Daniel Wallis Organizations: Union, Kyiv, NATO, Peace, Ukraine, EU, Ukraine Defence Fund, Diplomats, European Commission, Thomson Locations: BRUSSELS, Ukraine, Vilnius, EU, Kyiv, Spain

☆ DeSantis donors privately worry about campaign as Florida governor lags in 2024 polls
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( Brian Schwartz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Presidential candidate and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis waves to a crowd at a campaign event on June 2, 2023 in Gilbert, South Carolina. "He has a tremendous record as governor of Florida, and our country would be well-served by him as president," Griffin said then. Braman's company, Braman Motors, contributed $100,000 to the state-based DeSantis PAC, as well, according to the records. Andrew Romeo, a spokesman for the DeSantis campaign, did not deny any element of this story. "You could wallpaper the governor's residence with the amount of premature political obituaries written about Ron DeSantis.

Persons: Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump, Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch, They're, Trump, DeSantis, Ken Griffin, Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, Chris Christie, Sen, Tim Scott of, Nothing's, Zia Ahmed, Griffin, Semafor, Norman Braman, Clive Fields, Robert Bigelow, Braman, Marco Rubio, Fields, Griffin's, Andrew Romeo, Joe Biden, Romeo Organizations: Florida, Florida Gov, Fox Corp, News Corp, Trump, Citadel, GOP, South Carolina Gov, New, New Jersey Gov, Politico, New York Times, Republican, Philadelphia Eagles, Braman Motors, PAC, CNBC Locations: Gilbert , South Carolina, Florida, New Jersey, Tim Scott of South Carolina

We asked investors at European venture capital funds to pick out rising stars in the industry. Venture capital is in a state of flux right now. Insider has set out to identify some of the rising stars in Europe's venture capital ecosystem who are taking on that challenge. It is London-dominated, with the UK capital once again taking the most VC funding in Europe last year. Read on to see 2023's rising stars of venture capital in Europe, in no particular order.

Persons: Read Organizations: Venture Locations: London, Berlin, Paris, Europe, Stockholm

Thin liquidity and big playersCrypto "market depth" has been sitting at very low levels this year. Market depth is a measure of liquidity in a market. According to data firm Kaiko, bitcoin's market depth has fallen 20% since the start of this year. Low liquidity, which has been a feature of the crypto market all year, is also partly behind bitcoin's 80% year-to-date rally. "I think trading volumes and price volatility are two of the most telling indicators of crypto market activity.

Persons: Andriy Onufriyenko, Bitcoin, Kaiko, Jamie Sly, Sly, bitcoin, Clara Medalie, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Carol Alexander, Alexander, you've, Vijay Ayyar, Ayyar, CCData's Sly Organizations: BlackRock, CNBC, BTC, Securities, Exchange Commission, Retail, University of Sussex, Citadel, Fidelity Locations: U.S, CoinGecko, Invesco, Blackrock

OAKLAND, California, June 13(Reuters) - Silicon Valley-based AI chip startup SiMa.ai on Tuesday said it raised an additional $13 million from investors including a key fund in Taiwan called VentureTech Alliance, which has a strong strategic partnership with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (2330.TW). This is at least the third investment in U.S. chip startups by VentureTech Alliance in the past month. British AI chip unicorn Graphcore's struggles have been widely reported. Rangasayee also pointed to one recent benchmark testing result by SiMa.ai that beat AI chip giant Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O) in performance and power of chips used on devices like cameras, drones and robots. The testing data is published by MLCommons, an engineering consortium that maintains testing benchmarks widely used in the AI chip industry.

Persons: VentureTech, Ethernovia, SiMa.ai, Navin Chaddha, Mayfield, Chaddha, they're, Moshe Gavrielov, Krishna Rangasayee, MLCommons, it's, David, Goliath, Jane Lanhee Lee, Lisa Shumaker Organizations: VentureTech, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, VentureTech Alliance, Ayar Labs, Nvidia Corp, Nvidia, Thomson Locations: OAKLAND, California, Taiwan, British

☆ The FOMO is real for venture capitalists paying big premiums to invest in AI startups right now
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Callum Burroughs | Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Investors plowed about $25 billion into AI companies in the first three months of 2023. Other US generative AI startups including Adept, Inflection AI, Pinecone and Runway have all raised major rounds in the last few months. AI is minting unicorn-valued companies even in the tech downturnFunding into AI startups was down slightly for the full-year in 2022, matching a broader downturn in tech funding. And VC funding to generative AI startups specifically, many of which are very early-stage businesses, topped $1.7 billion in Q1 2023, per Pitchbook. "No one wants to invest in AI that's going to wipe out humanity," said AlbionVC's Grimm.

Persons: Warren Buffett, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Imran Ghory, Meta, Little, ChatGPT, David Grimm, Nathan Benaich, Benaich, VCs, Geoffrey Hinton, AlbionVC's Grimm Organizations: Blossom, Google, Facebook, Air Street Capital, Investors, EU, Stanford University, Venture Locations: OpenAI, London, Europe, French

☆ Goldman’s new strategy gets baptism of fire
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Jeffrey Goldfarb | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

NEW YORK, March 15 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank is providing a slightly awkward showcase for Goldman Sachs’ (GS.N) manifold talents. It’s true to the new unified “One Goldman Sachs” strategy expounded by Chief Executive David Solomon, dampened by the client not living to tell the tale. The investment bank Solomon now leads scrambled throughout the financial crisis to help panicked clients shore up their finances. SVB’s financial models had to be revised on the fly and approved by its board as the situation deteriorated. There also was no soothing imprimatur from Buffett, or a rich Silicon Valley grandee such as Larry Ellison, Steve Ballmer or Larry Page.

☆ Factbox: Chinese chipmaking equipment manufacturers filling void left by U.S. export restrictions
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Naura's most advanced etching machine supports 55 nm and 28 nm chipmaking technology, well behind the leading edge of chip manufacturing. The firm also makes deposition machines, which apply chemicals and gases to silicon wafers throughout the chipmaking process. It produces machines that can service the 14 nm to 28 nm process nodes of its deposition machines. ADVANCED MICRO-FABRICATION EQUIPMENT INC CHINA (AMEC) (688012.SS)AMEC makes etching equipment used to remove excess material from the surface of silicon wafers. BEIJING E-TOWN SEMICONDUCTOR TECHNOLOGY CO LTD (BEST)BEST produces degumming equipment used to remove photoresist chemicals during the lithography process.

Sturgeon, in office since 2014, unexpectedly announced last week she was resigning as first minister of Scotland’s semi-autonomous government, saying she had become too divisive. The frontrunner to succeed her and become the next leader of her Scottish National Party (SNP) is Humza Yousaf, a Sturgeon loyalist who faces criticism for his record in government. The campaign so far has been dominated by a debate about views on social issues such as gay marriage, transgender rights and abortion. "The big fundamental question of facing the party... is how it's going to acquire majority support in Scotland for independence: That question has not been addressed." Reporting by Alistair Smout, Andrew MacAskill and Elizabeth Piper; editing by John StonestreetOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ How Wall Street firms lift the velvet rope on funding deals for buzzy startups like Stripe for their wealthiest clients
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Hayley Cuccinello | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Goldman Sachs has invited wealth management clients to invest in fintech unicorn Stripe, as reported by Bloomberg. The message was a rare peek into how the richest bank clients can access investments normally off-limits to individual investors. Insider redacted the wealth management vice president's name and email address to protect their privacy. Citi and JPMorgan, for instance, both have teams dedicated to direct private investments for private bank clients. Private wealth is a real power alley for us, and those continue to be good sources of funding," said Salisbury at a conference in September.

☆ BNP Paribas is the first commercial bank to be sued over its fossil-fuel financing
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Catherine Boudreau | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Climate activists say BNP Paribas is violating a French law meant to reduce environmental risks. BNP Paribas defended its plan to exit the fossil-fuel sector and have a net-zero portfolio by 2050. BNP Paribas has pledged to achieve net zero carbon emissions across its portfolio by 2050. Ripoll said BNP Paribas should adopt a policy requiring fossil-fuel companies to stop developing new projects. If they fail to do so in a certain time frame, BNP Paribas should divest from these companies, she said.

HONG KONG/SHANGHAI, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Chinese chip design company Unisoc (Shanghai) Technologies Co is seeking to raise 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) in a new funding round that will value the firm at about 70 billion yuan ($10.3 billion), three people with knowledge of the deal told Reuters. Unisoc has approached several state-backed investment funds for the round, tapping increased local investor interest in China's domestic chip industry, which is gearing up to be more self-sufficient in the face of U.S. pressure, the people said. Unisoc is controlled by private equity firm Wise Road Capital, which took over the company in 2022 after Tsinghua Unigroup, its former parent company, faced bankruptcy. In its statement from Feb. 8, it added it had reached revenue of 14 billion yuan in 2022. A statement in July 2022 said it had revenue of 11.7 billion yuan in 2021.

☆ Private equity giants are still racing to fill 2024 associate seats. See 8 firms — from Carlyle to Bain Capital — that have been recruiting first-year investment bankers for jobs that won't start for
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Emmalyse Brownstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Last year's on-cycle recruiting kicked off earlier than ever, and many junior bankers weren't ready. In an effort to win the war for talent that was raging last year, private equity firms pushed their recruiting efforts earlier than in ever— to late summer. To be sure, not all private equity firms kicked off on-cycle recruiting in August. It usually involves an intense week-long period (although sometimes shorter or longer) where private equity firms rush in to snag the top talent. The bottom line shows the month and year analysts started their roles, and the yellow line indicated when on-cycle recruiting began that season.

HONG KONG/MUMBAI, Jan 30 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Gautam Adani’s financing options are narrowing fast. That leaves it dependent on a safety net provided by Indian banks. Those concerns exploded after Hindenburg Research last week declared the Indian group was making extensive use of tax havens and “pulling the largest con in corporate history” – allegations Adani dismissed as “misinformation” and “stale, baseless and discredited”. Lending more to the group would protect the capital that banks already have at risk in projects under construction. Shares of Gautam Adani’s listed companies have lost a combined $48 billion in market capitalisation since Jan. 25.

☆ The private equity industry is racing to fill 2024 associate roles after last year's hyper competitive hiring tactics backfired
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Emmalyse Brownstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

☆ China zero-Covid: Local governments reveal billions spent on fighting the pandemic
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Last week, local governments across China began to convene for annual legislative sessions laying out their respective policy goals for the year. Economists estimated the entire year’s deficit could hit a record 10 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion) in 2022. Beijing, the nation’s capital, said Sunday that it had spent nearly 30 billion yuan ($4.5 billion) last year on preventing and controlling Covid. The city didn’t reveal its 2021 Covid spending. During the past three years, the bills amounted to 30.5 billion yuan ($4.6 billion.)

☆ Republicans seek to sabotage year-end spending bill
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Stephen Collinson | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

An omnibus spending bill that would avert the closure of the federal government would be one of the last acts of unified Democratic political control of Washington. Democrats, meanwhile, understand that the government spending bill likely represents their last chance to enact Biden’s ambitious domestic plans until the next presidential election. If lawmakers cannot agree on a deal, they will face the possibility of either passing a short-term spending bill to carry the debate into the new Congress or a longer-term continuing resolution that would extend current spending levels. But in a sign of the consuming nature of the spending showdown, Republicans emerged from the meeting complaining that the two secretaries spent time lobbying for an omnibus spending bill over a continuing resolution. He said that Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had asked Blinken and Austin to explain why the new spending bill was so necessary.

☆ Rivian’s CEO created buzzy, outdoorsy EVs. Now big automakers are coming after it
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Peter Valdes-Dapena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

Even now, as the company’s assembly lines have started churning out its electric vehicles, success still isn’t assured. The 39-year-old is running the car company he founded, building electric vehicles he helped engineer and design. Jamie Kelter Davis/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesEver since he was a child growing up in Melbourne, Florida, Scaringe wanted to start his own car company. At the time, the idea of starting a car company seemed very farfetched. Robert Joseph "RJ" Scaringe, Rivian's founder and CEO, said he had wanted to start a car company since he was a child.

☆ Rivian’s founder had an early advantage with his electric truck. Now rivals GM and Ford are closing in
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Peter Valdes-Dapena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

Even now, as the company’s assembly lines have started churning out its electric vehicles, success still isn’t assured. The 39-year-old is running the car company he founded, building electric vehicles he helped engineer and design. A Rivian R1T pickup truck at the company's manufacturing facility in Normal, Illinois. Robert Joseph "RJ" Scaringe, Rivian's founder and CEO, said he had wanted to start a car company since he was a child. In 2021, Ford revealed the F-150 Lightning electric truck, which went into production this year.

The "Voting Choice" program announced last year by the $8 trillion asset manager could reshape corporate elections both by making shareholders more involved and by diminishing the political criticism BlackRock faces from U.S. liberals and conservatives alike. BlackRock said in a statement that at the end of September clients with around $1.8 trillion in equity index assets managed by the company were eligible for voting choices and that clients with $452 billion were doing so. Last month for instance Charles Schwab Corp's (SCHW.N) asset-management arm said it would start polling shareholders of certain funds about their voting preferences. "Our clients have diverse perspectives, and a growing number would like the option to weigh in on how their index funds vote," Vanguard said in a statement. In addition, BlackRock said it would offer voting choice to more investment strategies and work with investor communications platform Proxymity to extend choice to retail investors in some British mutual funds.

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