Lord advocate Dorothy Bain informed first minister of embezzlement charges against former SNP chief executive a year before they were made public Serious doubts have been raised about the dual role of Scotland’s top law officer after it emerged that the first minister was informed of criminal charges against Peter Murrell nearly a year before they were made public. The lord advocate, Dorothy Bain,...
Lord advocate Dorothy Bain informed first minister of embezzlement charges against former SNP chief executive a year before they were made public Serious doubts have been raised about the dual role of Scotland’s top law officer after it emerged that the first minister was informed of criminal charges against Peter Murrell nearly a year before they were made public. The lord advocate, Dorothy Bain, who acts as Scotland’s chief prosecutor as well as the government’s principal legal adviser in cabinet, has faced calls to resign but the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service maintains she was acting in line with her duties. Continue reading...
Hong Kong will establish the first national manufacturing innovation centre outside mainland China and a high-level steering committee to spearhead AI development, the finance chief has said, as the city seeks to align with the country’s 15th five-year plan. Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po also unveiled a citywide artificial intelligence (AI) literacy drive in Wednesday’s budget, earmarking fu...
Hong Kong will establish the first national manufacturing innovation centre outside mainland China and a high-level steering committee to spearhead AI development, the finance chief has said, as the city seeks to align with the country’s 15th five-year plan. Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po also unveiled a citywide artificial intelligence (AI) literacy drive in Wednesday’s budget, earmarking funds for various organisations to set up courses on the technology. “We must embrace the 15th...
Sundry Photography/iStock Editorial via Getty Images There’s a big difference between an AI story and an AI business, and SoundHound AI, Inc. ( SOUN ) has crossed the line from the former to the latter. The company has real revenue and is expanding its deployments across industries like automotive, financial services, healthcare, insurance, hospitality, and telecommunications. It also has an enter...
Sundry Photography/iStock Editorial via Getty Images There’s a big difference between an AI story and an AI business, and SoundHound AI, Inc. ( SOUN ) has crossed the line from the former to the latter. The company has real revenue and is expanding its deployments across industries like automotive, financial services, healthcare, insurance, hospitality, and telecommunications. It also has an enterprise AI agent platform that is starting to get some good traction. In my view, the question now is whether the stock’s current price matches its business reality. I will touch on its financials in more detail later, but the company has gone from around $13 million in sales in Q3 FY to $42 million in Q3 FY25, a 220% jump in two years. Its gross margins are less impressive over the same period, but it is making some progress on an operating margin basis. I think this is what a scaling platform should look like, so let me break down what SoundHound is actually doing now. Seeking Alpha What Does SoundHound Do? SoundHound describes itself as a “global leader in conversational intelligence, offering independent Voice AI solutions that enable businesses to deliver high-quality conversational experiences to their customers.” But it’s not always been that, and in fact, it was founded in 2005 as Melodis Corporation. At the time, it was developing a music identification search engine and app. But it got into the Voice AI game around 2009, and today, it sells voice, chat, and generative AI solutions to businesses in all major industries, some of which I mentioned in the intro. SoundHound Investor Presentation - November 2025 It also has over 300 patents to its name and employs under 900 people, which is a big jump from where it was a few years ago. In terms of its business model, the company makes money from: Subscriptions Royalties Monetization. The first two are the main bread and butter for now, but management is confident that the latter will start contributing more to the topline...
Investing.com -- Advanced Micro Devices’ new multi-year supply agreement with Meta could prove transformational for the chipmaker, with Piper Sandler arguing the deal positions the company for “roughly another hundred billion dollars of revenues over the next five years.”
Investing.com -- Advanced Micro Devices’ new multi-year supply agreement with Meta could prove transformational for the chipmaker, with Piper Sandler arguing the deal positions the company for “roughly another hundred billion dollars of revenues over the next five years.”
In this article AXON Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Rick Smith, CEO of Axon Enterprises. Adam Jeffery | CNBC Axon Enterprise 's stock surged more than 18% after the maker of Tasers, body cameras and drones topped Wall Street's fourth-quarter estimates as artificial intelligence accelerated demand for its software products The company reported adjusted earnings of $2.15 per share o...
In this article AXON Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Rick Smith, CEO of Axon Enterprises. Adam Jeffery | CNBC Axon Enterprise 's stock surged more than 18% after the maker of Tasers, body cameras and drones topped Wall Street's fourth-quarter estimates as artificial intelligence accelerated demand for its software products The company reported adjusted earnings of $2.15 per share on $797 million in revenue, surpassing the $1.60 per share and $755 million in revenue expected by analysts surveyed by LSEG. Axon also issued upbeat revenue guidance for 2026, calling for growth between 27% and 30%, compared to a 25.8% estimate. CEO Rick Smith said that since starting the company in 1993, AI has brought a "moment unlike anything" he has seen. "If we deploy AI more aggressively and more thoughtfully than anyone else in this space, while honoring the responsibility that comes with the operating environment we operate in, we will create value that our customers simply cannot replicate," he told analysts on an earnings call Tuesday. Read more CNBC tech news Waymo opens robotaxi service to 'select riders' in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Orlando Meta strikes AI chip deal with AMD days after committing to deploy millions of Nvidia GPUs Uber acquiring parking app SpotHero as it moves beyond ride-hailing and food delivery Tesla sues California DMV to reverse ruling that company engaged in false advertising on FSD Axon said AI capabilities accounted for about 10%, or $750 million, of total bookings last year as it infused more tech into its tools. Some of those AI features include automatic license plate recognition and a voice-activated companion built into a body camera. The tool, known as Axon Assistant, attracted more than 500 customers. Finance chief Brittany Bagley said Axon expects its software business, which grew 40% during the quarter to $343 million, to soon outpace hardware growth due to AI tailwinds. Revenue grew 39% from a year ago. Net income total...
European Union nations are just weeks away from a decision on where to host the bloc’s new customs agency, in what could be an initial flash point in the race to pick the next European Central Bank chief. A home for the EU Customs Authority will be chosen on March 25, the Council of the EU said in a statement on Wednesday. France, Italy, Poland and Spain are among nine countries fielding candidate...
European Union nations are just weeks away from a decision on where to host the bloc’s new customs agency, in what could be an initial flash point in the race to pick the next European Central Bank chief. A home for the EU Customs Authority will be chosen on March 25, the Council of the EU said in a statement on Wednesday. France, Italy, Poland and Spain are among nine countries fielding candidate cities. A shortlist of two locations will be crafted by the EU Council, comprised of the bloc’s heads of government. The European Parliament will make its own picks separately before each then reveal their choices. “If one candidate appears on both shortlists, that candidate will be automatically declared as selected, and no further voting will be required,” according to the statement. “If there is no overlap, the co-legislators will proceed to a series of voting rounds to select a candidate.” While picking a city for an EU institution is a fairly routine procedure, this selection will take place at a sensitive time for horse-trading within the bloc. Half of the members on the ECB’s Executive Board, including a successor to President Christine Lagarde , will need to be picked before the end of 2027. Beyond the ECB itself, both European Council President Antonio Costa and European Parliament President Roberta Metsola are up for re-election when their 2-1/2-year terms expire — Costa’s in May 2027 and Metsola’s in January. That means the selection of EUCA could be used as a pawn to garner favor in one of those contests. Two years ago, the appointment of Spain’s Nadia Calvino as European Investment Bank chief was speculated by some to have been part of a quid-pro-quo that ensured Germany’s victory in the race to host the EU’s Anti-Money Laundering Authority in Frankfurt. This time round, Brussels observers consider Lille in France and the Polish capital, Warsaw, to be strong contenders to host ECAS. Italy is lobbying hard however for Rome to get the prize.
peterschreiber.media/iStock via Getty Images Southern Co. ( SO ) said Wednesday its Georgia Power and Alabama Power subsidiaries received a loan package of up to $26.5B from the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Dominance Financing, which is expected to result in ~$7B in savings for its customers over the ~30-year term of the loans. Under the new loans, Southern's ( SO ) subsidiaries wi...
peterschreiber.media/iStock via Getty Images Southern Co. ( SO ) said Wednesday its Georgia Power and Alabama Power subsidiaries received a loan package of up to $26.5B from the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Dominance Financing, which is expected to result in ~$7B in savings for its customers over the ~30-year term of the loans. Under the new loans, Southern's ( SO ) subsidiaries will be among the first to take advantage of the funding provided by President Trump's Energy Dominance Financing Program and will finance a portfolio of projects across the company's southeastern service territory. " These loans will help lower the cost of investments in our grid that will enhance reliability and resilience for the benefit of our customers," Southern ( SO ) Chairman, President and CEO Chris Womack said. The energy infrastructure investments include power from natural gas, nuclear uprates and license extensions, hydropower and battery energy storage, as well as transmission system improvements and grid enhancements, the company said. More on Southern Company Southern Company: A Buy Even If You Don't Believe The AI Hype; Dividend Aristocrat Status Near Southern Company: Hold Because Of Overvaluation In Utilities Southern Company: Steady Growth But Priced Right, 3.2% Yield (Downgrade)
Tom Werner/DigitalVision via Getty Images Introduction BioNTech SE ( BNTX ) used its COVID-19 vaccine success to build a strong balance sheet. But can they leverage that cash to launch and sustain a durable oncology franchise? – That is the 17-billion-dollar question. The market still looks at BioNTech as a COVID-19 vaccine story, but that framing is outdated. At $110 per share, BNTX has a market ...
Tom Werner/DigitalVision via Getty Images Introduction BioNTech SE ( BNTX ) used its COVID-19 vaccine success to build a strong balance sheet. But can they leverage that cash to launch and sustain a durable oncology franchise? – That is the 17-billion-dollar question. The market still looks at BioNTech as a COVID-19 vaccine story, but that framing is outdated. At $110 per share, BNTX has a market cap of ~$27.6 billion. If you take out the cash, though, the market appears to be valuing the entire operating business at just around $11 billion in enterprise value. That business includes its late-stage oncology pipeline, still revenue-generating vaccine franchise, ADC portfolio, bispecifics, and personalized mRNA. Even if you ignore the rest of it but still believe that the oncology pipeline has a real chance of commercial success, the question becomes simple: is $11 billion a reasonable number to put against a phase 3 oncology strategy with global partners and a fortress-like balance sheet? Let’s run the math. Implied Valuation Per Share Given a total debt of $288 million and an enterprise value of $10.88 billion, and taking shares outstanding as ~250.93 million, we get an operating business value per share of $43.37. Cash per share is $68, so, cross-checking, we get implied operating value per share as $42, which matches the operating business value per share if we consider the $1.15 debt per share. So the market is effectively saying BioNTech’s oncology + vaccine business is worth $42 per share. What are you getting for that $10.88 billion? For that enterprise value, what BNTX is offering: Multi-Phase III Pumitamig (PD-L1 × VEGF-A) across SCLC, NSCLC, TNBC Multiple ADC assets (HER2, TROP2, B7-H3, HER3) Personalized mRNA cancer vaccines (Genentech partnership) Cell therapy programs Residual COVID/respiratory franchise Let us take just one asset, the late-stage Pumitamig. BioNTech does not provide peak-sales guidance for Pumitamig. I therefore built a quick bottom-up g...