9fin Ltd. , the debt intelligence provider founded by two former investment banking analysts, has raised fresh funds at a $1.3 billion valuation as part of a push to capture a bigger share of the hotly contested market for credit research. London-headquartered 9fin has secured $170 million in a Series C round led by HarbourVest , the company is set to announce Tuesday. Canada Pension Plan Investme...
9fin Ltd. , the debt intelligence provider founded by two former investment banking analysts, has raised fresh funds at a $1.3 billion valuation as part of a push to capture a bigger share of the hotly contested market for credit research. London-headquartered 9fin has secured $170 million in a Series C round led by HarbourVest , the company is set to announce Tuesday. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and earlier investors Redalpine, Highland Europe, Spark Capital and Seedcamp are also participating. The latest round means 9fin, which offers what it calls an “AI-native platform” to help credit traders, investors and advisers to originate new business more efficiently, has now raised more than $250 million since its founding in 2016. The financing comes at a time when capital markets infrastructure and work flows are being reshaped by artificial intelligence. 9fin had been seeking to raise funds at a valuation of as much as $1 billion, Bloomberg News reported in February. “This was an opportunistic raise, we didn’t need to raise the capital,” 9fin co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Steven Hunter said in an interview. Hunter said it “speaks to the quality” of 9fin’s business that it was able to raise funds “right in the middle” of a bout of market volatility that has seen AI displacement concerns and the conflict in the Middle East weigh on investor sentiment. Firms like 9fin have become a hot commodity as bankers and traders use the intelligence and data to try to gain a competitive edge against their peers. 9fin rival Octus Intelligence Inc. , formerly known as Reorg Research Inc., was acquired for about $1.3 billion by Permira from Warburg Pincus in 2022. 9fin, which Hunter refers to as a technology company as opposed to a data or software business, was founded after his time spent as a debt markets investment banker at JPMorgan Chase & Co. Hunter, whose co-founder Huss El-Sheikh previously worked at Deutsche Bank AG, said the company is benefiting from the...
US Must Boost Domestic Uranium Enrichment To Counter Proliferation Risks The Export-Import Bank of the United States recently issued letters of interest supporting up to $4.2 billion in financing for enriched uranium sales by General Matter to utilities in Japan and South Korea. This includes up to $2.4 billion for Japanese operators and $1.8 billion for South Korean ones over the coming decade. A...
US Must Boost Domestic Uranium Enrichment To Counter Proliferation Risks The Export-Import Bank of the United States recently issued letters of interest supporting up to $4.2 billion in financing for enriched uranium sales by General Matter to utilities in Japan and South Korea. This includes up to $2.4 billion for Japanese operators and $1.8 billion for South Korean ones over the coming decade. As we reported, the deal advances American energy dominance and reduces allied dependence on adversarial fuel suppliers. This transaction arrives as the United States, and much of the world, pursues a nuclear renaissance. Surging electricity demand from data centers and industry, combined with policy support for clean baseload power, requires reliable domestic fuel supplies. With Russian enriched uranium imports facing a full ban by 2028, expanding US enrichment capacity is essential to avoid bottlenecks for both existing reactors and new advanced designs. Yet the strategic case extends beyond energy security . Nuclear proliferation remains a core concern. Nuclear proliferation is the spread of nuclear weapons, fissile material, and weapons-related nuclear technology and information to additional states. A civilian nuclear power program, though intended for electricity generation, can serve as a foundation for weapons development . Uranium enrichment technology used to produce low-enriched uranium at 3 to 5 percent U-235 for reactor fuel employs the same centrifuges and processes that can be adjusted to achieve highly enriched uranium above 90 percent , the level needed for nuclear weapons. A facility sized to fuel one reactor can produce material for roughly 20 bombs per year. Once a nation masters enrichment at commercial scale, the leap to weapons-grade material becomes significantly shorter and less detectable . These risks apply even to close US allies, not just adversarial states. Saudi Arabia has pushed for domestic enrichment rights in ongoing nuclear cooperation tal...
Sundry Photography/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Ciena Corporation ( CIEN ) has had an eye-watering rally in the past year with a return of 552% (~72% YTD) as it underwent a fundamental business transformation—from a telco vendor to a primary optical networking backbone for AI infrastructure. Having digested a prolonged inventory cycle in FY2024, the company has since entered a stage of steep ...
Sundry Photography/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Ciena Corporation ( CIEN ) has had an eye-watering rally in the past year with a return of 552% (~72% YTD) as it underwent a fundamental business transformation—from a telco vendor to a primary optical networking backbone for AI infrastructure. Having digested a prolonged inventory cycle in FY2024, the company has since entered a stage of steep revenue acceleration, posting a 33% Y/Y revenue growth in 1QFY26 while exiting the quarter with a $7B order backlog. As such, the company increased its FY2026 guidance, raising its revenue target to $5.9B-$6.3B, which implies a 28% Y/Y growth at the midpoint. On March 30, Samsung Electronics is formally entering the silicon photonics foundry business, driving mid-to-high single-digit percentage losses in Ciena Corporation (CIEN) -9.1%, Lumentum Holdings Inc. ( LITE ) -6.8%, and Coherent Corp. ( COHR ) -9.8%. Through this vertical integration within Samsung Electronics, it could threaten the commoditization of photonics and the long-term margins of CIEN, LITE, and COHR. However, the ramp could take years, possibly until 2030, while the supply crunch is a present problem. We eye the current pullback, which has been caused by general market weakness—the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict and oil crisis—and the knee-jerk reaction to the Samsung report, as an opportunity to buy CIEN. Data by YCharts Led by the AI optical infrastructure supercycle AI workloads have set up an unimaginable level of demand pull for high-bandwidth optical networking. GPU clusters used in AI training are interconnected with an optical fiber network to fulfill the need for massive bandwidth. The company expects its revenue to hit $5.9B to $6.3B in FY2026 with a 28% Y/Y growth rate and qualitatively states that “ long-term growth in core business plus new higher-growth addressable markets provide an opportunity to outpace [its] traditional revenue CAGR over the coming years” in its latest investor deck . W...
European Central Bank Governing Council member Madis Muller said he can’t exclude an increase in borrowing costs at next month’s policy meeting should the Iran war keep oil and natural gas prices elevated. “It’s very hard to say what state we might be in by the end of April,” the Estonian official said Tuesday in an interview in Tallinn. “We certainly can’t rule out changes in interest rates alrea...
European Central Bank Governing Council member Madis Muller said he can’t exclude an increase in borrowing costs at next month’s policy meeting should the Iran war keep oil and natural gas prices elevated. “It’s very hard to say what state we might be in by the end of April,” the Estonian official said Tuesday in an interview in Tallinn. “We certainly can’t rule out changes in interest rates already in April if energy prices remain at a high level for a long time.” While most ECB policymakers are calling for time to assess how big of an inflationary hit there’ll be to inflation in Europe, some are already leaning toward action. Traders are pricing in as many as three quarter-point hikes by the ECB this year as the fighting in the Middle East constricts energy supplies from the Gulf region. The ECB will next set monetary policy on April 30. Muller said he’d closely monitor wages and the labor market as key indicators of broader inflation pressures , while drawing a distinction between goods and services where energy is an important input, such as airlines. “To maintain purchasing power, people would need to start raising wages more,” he said, adding that policymakers must also keep in mind long-term inflation expectations in the market and among consumers . Euro-Zone Inflation Jumps Most Since 2022 as War Drives Energy Panetta Says ECB Must Avoid Wage-Price Spiral Spurred by War European Consumers’ Inflation Expectations Surge on Iran War
联想集团31日正式发布YOGA AI Mini与Think AI Tiny两款AI原生智能终端，其中面向个人消费市场的YOGA AI Mini精准对标当下被众多用户用于运行OpenClaw的Mac mini。官方信息显示，联想YOGA AI Mini主打一键部署、原生养虾适配、系统级安全防护等核心优势，解决了Mac mini在“养虾”过程中存在的部署复杂、硬件适配不足、安全防护缺失等痛点，成为专为...
联想集团31日正式发布YOGA AI Mini与Think AI Tiny两款AI原生智能终端，其中面向个人消费市场的YOGA AI Mini精准对标当下被众多用户用于运行OpenClaw的Mac mini。官方信息显示，联想YOGA AI Mini主打一键部署、原生养虾适配、系统级安全防护等核心优势，解决了Mac mini在“养虾”过程中存在的部署复杂、硬件适配不足、安全防护缺失等痛点，成为专为OpenClaw打造的“养虾”专用迷你终端，而Think AI Tiny则切入企业办公场景，完成联想在AI智能体终端ToC+ToB的全市场布局。联想将这两款新品定位为“专门给AI使用的电脑”。(国是直通车)