miodrag ignjatovic/E+ via Getty Images AeroVironment ( AVAV ) on Monday was upgraded to Market Perform from Underperform by Raymond James, as analysts pointed to a meaningful reset in valuation after a steep pullback in the stock. Shares have declined about 35% over the past three months, compared with a roughly 5% drop in the S&P 500, while the company’s EBITDA multiple has compressed from about 34 times to 28 times. Brian Gesuale, research analyst at Raymond James, said a prior downgrade’s key concerns remain in place, including weaker earnings estimate revisions and execution risks tied to the BlueHalo acquisition. Still, he noted that the stock’s underperformance and multiple contraction have brought risk and reward into better balance. Backlog trends raise concerns A central issue in the report is AeroVironment’s ( AVAV ) backlog trajectory. Funded backlog has held near $1.1 billion since the BlueHalo deal closed, while total backlog has peaked near $4.2 billion and declined modestly in recent quarters. Raymond James estimates that funded backlog includes $400 million to $1.4 billion tied to the SCAR program and expects total backlog to settle between $2.7 billion and $2.8 billion over the next year. The firm said recent orders, including $135 million for Red Dragon and P550 systems, were not enough to materially lift backlog levels. Additional contributions from the Genesis program and Titan systems could support growth later this year. However, a $50 million placeholder tied to the ESAero acquisition may offset attrition tied to legacy programs. Production timing, integration risks The report highlights ongoing challenges in scaling production of BlueHalo products. Longer timelines to ramp manufacturing are weighing on margins and delaying revenue realization. Analysts also flagged uncertainty around the pace of new orders needed to sustain growth. Demand signals remain strong, particularly for loitering munitions, though visibility into conversion of that de...

Italian voters on Monday rejected a judicial reform backed by conservative Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, delivering a stinging setback to the right-wing government one year ahead of national elections. “Italian voters have decided and we respect their decision,” Meloni said in a video posted on Instagram. She pledged to complete her mandate, which runs into 2027. The “No” camp won around 54 per cent of the vote against the government-backed “Yes” campaign, which secured about 46 per cent, according to 94 per cent of the results released by the Interior Ministry. Advertisement Turnout over the two-day ballot, which began on Sunday, was considerably higher than expected at almost 59 per cent following a polarising campaign. It energised the centre-left opposition, which framed the reform as a threat to judicial independence, while simultaneously exposing divisions within Meloni’s right-wing coalition. Advertisement The proposed judicial reform had been billed by Meloni’s coalition as a key step towards streamlining Italy’s judicial system – long criticised as slow, bureaucratic and vulnerable to political influence. But critics argued that the measures risked concentrating too much power in the executive branch. Opposition parties, civil society groups and legal associations mounted a unified front, warning that the reform could undermine institutional checks and balances.

Travel-related stocks such as airlines and cruise companies rallied Monday after President Donald Trump postponed his deadline for more strikes in Iran, saying the two countries had held “very good and productive” talks — something Iranian media reports rebuffed.

Investing.com -- Amazon is expected to get boost from its cloud unit as artificial intelligence spending ramps up, says Barclays as it sees stronger outlook for the company. The brokerage said Amazon Web Services is poised for a more meaningful acceleration in growth, driven by demand for “agentic” AI workloads and rising spending from major AI developers. It expects AWS growth to reach about 34% in the third quarter of 2026, above consensus, before moderating. “AMZN shares haven't really done much over the past few years, and we are hopeful that the company's improving position in AI is a catalyst to unlock value,” says analysts. “Investors are grappling with things like fuel price impact on shipping costs and other near-term items, but we think AWS acceleration, IPOs from leading AI labs, and the growing momentum in agentic AI in enterprise could be the story looking ahead” A key driver is a long-term agreement with OpenAI, which Barclays estimates could bring roughly $138 billion in spending over seven to eight years. The bank expects a gradual ramp beginning in 2026, with a more visible contribution from the second quarter onward. Barclays also highlighted rapid growth at Anthropic, where annual recurring revenue has risen sharply in early 2026, supported by enterprise adoption of its AI tools. It expects Anthropic’s spending on AWS to scale significantly this year. The firm raised its 2027 AWS revenue forecast by 5% and expects cloud growth to remain above consensus through 2027. It estimates AWS AI-related revenue could more than double to over $10 billion by the end of 2026 and reach as much as $75 billion by 2028. Barclays said AWS is well positioned to gain share in AI infrastructure, supported by partnerships with leading AI labs and expanding compute capacity. It expects the company to roughly double its infrastructure capacity by 2027, largely to support AI workloads. Barclays said the longer-term narrative is shifting toward AI-driven growth. It added t...

In this screenshot taken from a congress.gov webcast, Impeachment Manager Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., speaks on the second day of President Donald Trump's second impeachment trial at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 10, 2021. congress.gov | Getty Images Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., has dropped his lawsuit against Bill Pulte which accused the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency of weaponizing mortgage fraud investigations to target critics of President Donald Trump . Swalwell — a California gubernatorial candidate — filed the lawsuit in November , arguing that Pulte unlawfully accessed and disclosed his private mortgage records in violation of federal privacy law and the First Amendment's "bedrock prohibition on viewpoint-based retaliation." "Director Pulte has combed through private records of political opponents. To silence them," Swalwell posted in a statement at the time on X. Swalwell, a seven-term congressman and House impeachment manager during Trump's second impeachment , has long been one of the most vocal critics of the president. Pulte had referred Swalwell to the Department of Justice over claims that the congressman may have made false or misleading statements in loan documents for a Washington home. Swalwell called the claims "patently false." Swalwell's decision to drop the suit comes as his gubernatorial opponents have raised questions about his eligibility to run for California's top post, with rival Democrat Tom Steyer accusing Swalwell of living in California " on paper only ." A separate lawsuit attempting to block Swalwell from appearing on the ballot brought by conservative filmmaker Joel Gilbert was tentatively rejected Friday, after a California judge found sufficient evidence that he had lived in the state for the required five years. Pulte did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Swalwell campaign also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never ...

一艘载有200万桶伊拉克原油的超大型油轮通过了霍尔木兹海峡。这是自伊朗战争导致该关键水道对商业航运几乎关闭以来，首次观测到有运输伊拉克原油的船只通过该水道。 油轮跟踪数据显示，过去几天，由日本商船三井株式会社运营的“Omega Trader”号发出的信号显示，该船已抵达孟买。在抵达这座印度港口城市前，该船上一次发出信号是十多天前在波斯湾内。 已进入第四周的伊朗战争已导致该水道的绝大部分航运活动陷入停滞，推升能源成本。全球约五分之一的石油和液化天然气经由该航道运输。 尽管冲突爆发以来仅有少数油轮通过，但这些航次有助于缓解国际能源署所称石油市场史上最大规模的供应中断。 Omega Trader号油轮的最新航迹 许多成功通过霍尔木兹海峡的船只都在印度卸货。 印度政府已与伊朗官员接洽，为拟向该国运输能源的船只寻求通行许可，一艘液化石油气运输船在伊朗海军引导下已通过霍尔木兹海峡。 根据Equasis海事数据库的数据，该船的技术管理方为日本商船三井株式会社。 责任编辑：李桐

Microsoft Stock (MSFT) Stalls on Melius Hold Rating amid Copilot Shake-Up TipRanks

Palantir Technologies (PLTR) Stock Trades Up, Here Is Why TradingView

What Happened? Shares of data analytics company Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ:PLTR) jumped 4.4% in the afternoon session after the Pentagon designated its Maven AI system as a 'program of record' and the company secured a new trial contract with the UK's Financial Conduct Authority. The 'program of record' designation was a significant step, moving the AI weapons-targeting platform from a pilot program to a permanent, budget-backed fixture across all U.S. military branches. This change formalized the long-term adoption of the system, ensuring dedicated funding and embedding Palantir's technology deeper into core defense operations. Further boosting investor confidence, the UK's Financial Conduct Authority awarded Palantir a three-month contract to apply its Foundry platform to improve fraud detection. The development reinforced the view that Palantir continued to widen its footprint with government customers. Positive commentary from Wedbush, which reiterated its 'outperform' rating, also contributed to the bullish sentiment. After the initial pop the shares cooled down to $157.17, up 4.3% from previous close. Is now the time to buy Palantir Technologies? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free. What Is The Market Telling Us Palantir Technologies’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 33 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business. The previous big move we wrote about was 21 days ago when the stock gained 6.9% on the news that investor appetite for defense-linked artificial intelligence companies grew amid escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. The conflict involving the U.S. and Iran turned attention toward companies with significant government and defense operations. As a key supplier of AI software to the U.S. government, Palantir was viewed as a potential beneficiary of increa...

Palantir Technologies (PLTR) Stock Trades Up, Here Is Why FinancialContent

Efforts to shore up energy supplies are not enough, Japan says Reuters

vzphotos / iStock Editorial via Getty Images (vzphotos / iStock Editorial via Getty Images) Quick Read Micron Technology (MU) reported Q1 revenue of $13.64B (up 57% year over year) and non-GAAP EPS of $4.78 beating estimates by 21%. Looking ahead, Micron set Q2 guidance at $18.70B revenue and $8.42 EPS, driven by sold-out HBM products commanding premium pricing and 68% non-GAAP gross margins. Middle East geopolitical tensions and profit taking are weighing on Micron stock despite record earnings and locked-in orders through 2026, as investors question whether capital-heavy growth can sustain 68% margins while scaling capacity. Have You read The New Report Shaking Up Retirement Plans? Americans are answering three questions and many are realizing they can retire earlier than expected. Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) stock is down roughly 4% in Monday morning trading, with shares sliding toward the key $400 level even as the broader market pushes higher. The NASDAQ 100 is in the green today, making Micron stock one of the session's more conspicuous counter-trend movers. The drop is particularly jarring given the backdrop. Escalating tensions in the Middle East are being cited as a key macroeconomic headwind weighing on the stock, even as the NASDAQ rises on news related to President Trump's comments on Iran. When the rest of the market is rallying and a stock is falling, that contrast demands an explanation. Have You read The New Report Shaking Up Retirement Plans? Americans are answering three questions and many are realizing they can retire earlier than expected. For context on why this feels wrong to so many investors, consider what Micron just reported. The numbers reflect a company accelerating across every major metric, and yet MU stock is trading lower. The disconnect between Micron's fundamentals and price action is exactly what's fueling the debate playing out in markets right now. The Earnings Story Is Hard to Argue With Micron's most recent quarter was, by al...

People gather outside the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 14, 2026. Will Dunham | Reuters Conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices signaled skepticism on Monday toward a Mississippi law challenged by Republicans that allows a five-day grace period for mail-in ballots received after Election Day to be counted in a case that could lead to stricter voting rules around the country. Republican President Donald Trump's administration argued in favor of the challenge to Mississippi's law, which permits mail-in ballots sent by certain voters to be counted if they were postmarked on or before Election Day but received up to five business days after a federal election. Absentee voting by mail is limited to a few categories of voters under the law including elderly people, the disabled and those living away from home. The Supreme Court heard arguments in Mississippi's appeal of a lower court's ruling that deemed its mail-in ballot law illegal. The dispute centered on whether federal laws setting Election Day for federal elections preempt state laws in various states that allow ballots to be received after that day. U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer, arguing on behalf of the Trump administration, criticized Mississippi's law as unduly "general and permissive." "Official receipt is at the definitional heart of 'election,'" Sauer said, referring to the receipt of ballots. The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority. Questions posed by some of the conservative justices during the arguments appeared to express concern over mail-in ballot practices more broadly, beyond grace periods, including who can receive a ballot, whether it must be postmarked and even whether states may allow mailed-in ballots to be recalled by the voter. Trump last year vowed to end the use of mail-in ballots nationwide before the 2026 U.S. midterm elections in November, a move that likely would disproportionately benefit his party given that Democratic voters traditional...

Foden has now collected 18 trophies since breaking through into the first-team as a teenager and was called up to the expanded England squad for the forthcoming friendlies against Uruguay and Japan. But there are question marks as to whether he will make the cut for this summer's World Cup, while he failed to make it off the bench in last week's Champions League last-16 second leg tie against Real Madrid, with City suffering a 5-1 loss on aggregate. Speaking on the BBC's Wayne Rooney Show, the former Manchester United forward said: "I felt sad for him but not sad because he is coming on in a cup final. "There was a game a few days ago when he didn't even get on the pitch. If that was Max Dowman coming on at the end, you would think good experience. But to see Phil Foden coming on in a cup final, it felt like a charity sub to get him on the pitch. "I don't know what has happened, he is a top player. It feels strange he can't get anywhere near the team. It feels like something has gone on there. "I thought Foden was in good form but all of a sudden we haven't seen him get any minutes. Firstly he will be pleased they won the cup but from a selfish point of view, he would have wanted to be out there and having an influence. "That will be a tough one for him."

Hirurg/iStock via Getty Images A bipartisan group of U.S. senators is set to introduce legislation on Monday that would bar CFTC‑regulated entities from offering contracts tied to sporting events, a move that would directly target prediction market platforms such as Kalshi ( KALSHI ) and Polymarket’s ( POLYMARKET ) U.S. operations, according to the Wall Street Journal. Against this backdrop of rising scrutiny on betting‑style products, casino and gaming equities remain in focus, and below is a list of the top 10 stocks in the space ranked by their Seeking Alpha Quant Ratings. Accel Entertainment ( ACEL ) leads the list with a Strong Buy rating of 4.58, making it the top-ranked stock in the sector. Rush Street Interactive ( RSI ) follows with a Buy rating of 4.18, while PENN Entertainment ( PENN ) and Las Vegas Sands ( LVS ) round out the top four with ratings of 3.51 and 3.50, respectively. The list spans a wide range of market capitalizations, from smaller companies like Accel Entertainment with a market cap under $1 billion to industry giants like Las Vegas Sands at over $35 billion. Notable names in the middle of the pack include MGM Resorts International ( MGM ) and Caesars Entertainment ( CZR ), while Boyd Gaming ( BYD ), Red Rock Resorts ( RRR ), and Light & Wonder ( LNWO ) appear in the lower portion of the rankings. Seeking Alpha’s Quant system ranks stocks based on their performance on critical quantitative measures, including valuation, growth, stock momentum, and profitability. Stocks are rated on a scale of 1 to 5, with any rating of 3.5 or above considered bullish and any rating of 2.5 or below considered bearish. Here is the list: Accel Entertainment ( ACEL ), Quant Rating: 4.58 Rush Street Interactive ( RSI ), Quant Rating: 4.18 PENN Entertainment ( PENN ), Quant Rating: 3.51 Las Vegas Sands ( LVS ), Quant Rating: 3.50 MGM Resorts International ( MGM ), Quant Rating: 3.01 Caesars Entertainment ( CZR ), Quant Rating: 3.00 Monarch Casino & Resort ( MCRI...

Prediction markets are facing fresh bipartisan scrutiny in the US Senate as companies such as Kalshi and Polymarket continue to battle state-led efforts to regulate online betting. A bill was introduced in the US Senate on Monday that would ban federally regulated platforms from allowing wagers on sporting events, what would be a huge blow to marketplaces where billions of dollars have been traded on major events like the Super Bowl and the NCAA’s March Madness. The bill follows several other state-level efforts to regulate marketplaces, which are overseen by a federal agency. On Friday, a Nevada judge temporarily banned most of Kalshi’s operations in the state for two weeks after the state filed a lawsuit against the company. Online prediction markets are currently regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Under the Trump administration, the agency has argued it has exclusive regulatory control over the companies. Adam Schiff, a Democratic senator from California who introduced the bill with John Curtis, a Republican senator from Utah, said in a statement that the CFTC is “greenlighting these markets and even promoting their growth”. “Sports prediction contracts are sports bets – just with a different name.” Schiff said in a statement. “It’s time for Congress to step in and eliminate this backdoor which violates state consumer protections, intrudes upon tribal sovereignty and offers no public revenue.” The bill also bans casino-style games such as virtual poker, slot machines and blackjack from being available on the platforms. Curtis said in a statement that “addictive sports betting and casino-style gaming contracts” belong “under state control, not under federal regulators”. In response to the bill, Kalshi said in a statement: “Banning sports on regulated prediction markets would just push this behavior offshore, where no regulation exists.” “It’s clear this bill is motivated by casino interests that are threatened by competition. They’re mor...

A new venture capital fund focused on prediction markets is launching with initial investments from a long list of prominent investors including two of the industry’s biggest players, Polymarket’s Shayne Coplan and Kalshi Inc.’s Tarek Mansour, according to an investment document viewed by Bloomberg News. The investment firm, 5c(c) Capital, is named for the section of the Commodity Exchange Act related to prediction markets. It appears to be the first fund focused on the nascent industry, and underscores the rapid growth of exchanges like Kalshi and Polymarket, which have opened up betting on a wide array of real-world events, such as elections and sports. “We want to capitalize on the second-, third-, and fourth-order effects of what we built ourselves,” the founders of the new fund, who both previously worked at Kalshi, wrote in the document. 5c(c) Capital is planning to raise up to $35 million with about 20 portfolio companies over the next two years, the document says. A spokesperson for Kalshi confirmed that Mansour is involved. Polymarket did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The joint participation of Mansour and Coplan is notable because the two have otherwise been fierce rivals. The pitch document lists more than twenty prominent investors offering early support, including a portfolio manager at Millennium Management, several crypto-focused venture capital funds, and the founders of other prediction market companies such as PredictIt. A representative for Millennium did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Marc Andreessen, the founder of Andreessen Horowitz, invested through a separate fund, Moneta Luna, along with the other leaders of that firm, Elena Silenok and Chris Dixon, Silenok confirmed. Other notable limited partners include Jeremy Levine, CEO of Underdog Fantasy, a gambling company, and Jacob Fortinsky, the CEO of Novig, a sports-focused prediction market, both of whom confirmed their involvement. One of the founders of...

The Dow Jones index rose after President Trump spoke on Iran talks. A pharma stock cleared an entry. Nvidia rose on the stock market today.

SLB N.V. (SLB +5.61%) stock, the artist formerly known as Schlumberger, soared on Monday after Citigroup recommended buying SLB "on weakness" this morning, as StreetInsider.com reports. SLB stock is up 6% as of 12:10 p.m. ET. Big trouble for big oil We don't have much detail on why Citi decided to recommend SLB, but I think we can guess. Priced below $47 at Friday's close, SLB stock was down 9% since before the Iran conflict began. SLB had fallen even further than that, and given how volatile oil prices have been lately, rising and falling on the latest headlines out of the Middle East, it makes sense to keep an eye out for weakness -- and good times to buy oil stocks. More than just that, though, consider this: As The Wall Street Journal just reported, oil infrastructure in the Persian Gulf is getting beaten up by Iranian attacks this month. One of two production lines at Shell's (SHEL 0.35%) Pearl gas-to-liquid plants -- which cost $20 billion to build -- has been "knocked out." Damage to ExxonMobil's (XOM +0.59%) natural gas facilities in Qatar could take five years to repair. Damage from a drone attack forced Occidental Petroleum (OXY 0.92%) to shut down operations at its Shah gas field in the U.A.E. Expand NYSE : SLB Slb Today's Change ( 5.61 %) $ 2.62 Current Price $ 49.24 Key Data Points Market Cap $70B Day's Range $ 47.08 - $ 49.85 52wk Range $ 31.11 - $ 52.45 Volume 12M Avg Vol 20M Gross Margin 16.85 % Dividend Yield 2.47 % What it means for SLB stock When oil and gas stop flowing, SLB suffers, too. Two weeks ago, the company lowered Q1 earnings guidance by $0.06 to $0.09. But here's the thing: This short-term pain for SLB stock could yield long-term gain, if oil companies and Mideast customers need to spend the next few years repairing the damage -- and paying SLB to help. Priced below 20x earnings and with tremendous free cash flow, SLB could enjoy years of growth after this conflict finally ends.

Key Points Oilfields are getting damaged by the Mideast war. SLB services oilfields. That's probably a good reason to own SLB stock. 10 stocks we like better than Slb › SLB N.V. (NYSE: SLB) stock, the artist formerly known as Schlumberger, soared on Monday after Citigroup recommended buying SLB "on weakness" this morning, as StreetInsider.com reports. SLB stock is up 6% as of 12:10 p.m. ET. Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue » Big trouble for big oil We don't have much detail on why Citi decided to recommend SLB, but I think we can guess. Priced below $47 at Friday's close, SLB stock was down 9% since before the Iran conflict began. SLB had fallen even further than that, and given how volatile oil prices have been lately, rising and falling on the latest headlines out of the Middle East, it makes sense to keep an eye out for weakness -- and good times to buy oil stocks. More than just that, though, consider this: As The Wall Street Journal just reported, oil infrastructure in the Persian Gulf is getting beaten up by Iranian attacks this month. One of two production lines at Shell's (NYSE: SHEL) Pearl gas-to-liquid plants -- which cost $20 billion to build -- has been "knocked out." Damage to ExxonMobil's (NYSE: XOM) natural gas facilities in Qatar could take five years to repair. Damage from a drone attack forced Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY) to shut down operations at its Shah gas field in the U.A.E. What it means for SLB stock When oil and gas stop flowing, SLB suffers, too. Two weeks ago, the company lowered Q1 earnings guidance by $0.06 to $0.09. But here's the thing: This short-term pain for SLB stock could yield long-term gain, if oil companies and Mideast customers need to spend the next few years repairing the damage -- and paying SLB to help. Priced below 20x earnings and wi...

AI may boost euro area productivity growth by 4% in 10 years, ECB says Reuters

Okta OKTA prospects benefit from an expanding clientele, driven by an innovative product pipeline and strong demand for Identity solutions. Customers with more than $100K in Annual Contract Value increased 6% year over year to 5,100. OKTA ended fiscal 2026 with more than 20,000 customers. Okta’s strong portfolio includes new offerings such as Okta Identity Governance, Okta Privileged Access, Okta Device Access, Identity Security Posture Management, Identity Threat Protection with Okta AI, Fine-Grained Authorization, Auth0 for AI Agents and Okta for AI Agents. These new solutions are helping OKTA gain market share and drive top-line growth. These new products represented 30% of the fiscal fourth-quarter bookings. Okta’s neutral and independent identity solution secures and governs the entire agentic life cycle. It gives customers the freedom to deploy on any agent platform without ecosystem lock-in. Auth0 and Okta for AI Agents treat AI agents with the same importance as humans, providing customers with everything they need to securely deploy agentic AI technology. The company recently introduced a security framework called the Blueprint for the Secure Agentic Enterprise, which is designed to secure enterprises in deploying agentic AI. Okta has highlighted that 88% of enterprises have already faced AI agent security incidents, while only 22% treat agents as identities. The newly introduced Blueprint works by detecting known and shadow AI agents and registering them as first-class identities. OKTA Faces Tough Competition In the security domain, Okta is facing stiff competition from the likes of SentinelOne S and Broadcom AVGO. While OKTA offers cloud-based identity solutions, SentinelOne focuses on endpoint security, cloud security and threat detection through its Singularity Platform, which leverages a unified security data lake and Purple AI, its Generative AI (GenAI) engine. Singularity, a complete AI-native platform, benefits from SentinelOne’s AI and automation-d...

Expanding Portfolio Drives Okta's Clientele: More Upside Ahead? TradingView

The boom in artificial intelligence risks widening inequality, with only a handful of companies and investors likely to reap its financial rewards, the BlackRock chief executive, Larry Fink, has warned. The boss of the $14tn (£10.4tn) asset manager used his annual letter to investors on Monday to highlight potential hazards around the exponential growth in AI, which has attracted rapid investment and become “central to strategic competition” between global powers such as the US and China. “The massive wealth created over the past several generations flowed mostly to people who already owned financial assets,” Fink said. “And now AI threatens to repeat that pattern at an even larger scale.” He warned that the AI boom risked accelerating a trend where leading companies pulled ahead while others struggled to keep pace. AI-focused tech stocks have made significant gains in recent years – the market leader, the chipmaker Nvidia, is now valued at $4.3ttn. Fink said that companies with the data, infrastructure and funding to deploy AI on a large scale “are positioned to benefit disproportionately”. That, Fink said, could end up exacerbating a gulf between the rich and the poor. View image in fullscreen Larry Fink says companies with the data, infrastructure and funding to deploy AI on a large scale ‘are positioned to benefit disproportionately’. Photograph: Kylie Cooper/Reuters “History suggests that transformative technologies create enormous value – and much of that value accrues to the companies that build and deploy them, and to the investors who own them,” Fink said. “That is not unusual, and none of this is inherently problematic,” he added, noting that the winds had often shifted with technological change. However, “the broader question is who participates in the gains,” Fink warned. “When market capitalisation rises but ownership remains narrow, prosperity can feel increasingly distant to those on the outside.” Fink’s comments come weeks before the company is expec...