Stanford University professor James Zou is raising money at a roughly $1 billion valuation to build artificial intelligence models to improve research about the human body, according to sources familiar with the efforts. The company, called Human Intelligence, will build on Zou’s research on physiology and AI. It’s aiming to raise about $100 million, one of the people said. Zou didn’t respond to r...
Stanford University professor James Zou is raising money at a roughly $1 billion valuation to build artificial intelligence models to improve research about the human body, according to sources familiar with the efforts. The company, called Human Intelligence, will build on Zou’s research on physiology and AI. It’s aiming to raise about $100 million, one of the people said. Zou didn’t respond to requests for comment. Zou has spent nearly 10 years at Stanford as an associate professor of biomedical data science, computer science and electrical engineering. His lab published research earlier this year on what would be Human Intelligence’s first physiology foundation model, which claims to predict disease based on a single night of sleep — years before symptoms may arise. Human Intelligence, which is positioning itself as a frontier lab, also plans to partner with Bryan Johnson’s neurotech company Kernel , which has developed a wearable headset to measure and record neural activity. A growing number of AI startups are raising heaps of cash after spinning out of top universities and tech companies. Engramme , an AI memory lab started by a Harvard Medical School professor, has been involved in investor discussions to raise about $100 million, Bloomberg reported earlier this month. Such “neolab” funding rounds can get pricey. Periodic Labs , a startup focused on making scientific breakthroughs in materials science, has been in talks with investors to raise hundreds of millions of dollars at a roughly $7 billion valuation.
Bloomberg’s Ed Ludlow discusses his conversation with Intel CEO Lip Bu Tan following the company’s strong earnings that sent its stock blasting past its dot-com era peak. Plus, Google plans to invest up to $40 billion into rival Anthropic. And tech job cuts ramp up, with Meta and Microsoft planning layoffs or announcing buyouts as AI spending surges. (Source: Bloomberg)
Bloomberg’s Ed Ludlow discusses his conversation with Intel CEO Lip Bu Tan following the company’s strong earnings that sent its stock blasting past its dot-com era peak. Plus, Google plans to invest up to $40 billion into rival Anthropic. And tech job cuts ramp up, with Meta and Microsoft planning layoffs or announcing buyouts as AI spending surges. (Source: Bloomberg)
bymuratdeniz/iStock via Getty Images Although insurance may not commonly be thought of as a cyclical market, the reality is that it is, with the market swinging between “hard” markets where insurers enjoy strong pricing power relative to expected losses and “soft” markets where there is excess capital chasing less attractive underwriting opportunities. After years of hard markets, most insurance m...
bymuratdeniz/iStock via Getty Images Although insurance may not commonly be thought of as a cyclical market, the reality is that it is, with the market swinging between “hard” markets where insurers enjoy strong pricing power relative to expected losses and “soft” markets where there is excess capital chasing less attractive underwriting opportunities. After years of hard markets, most insurance markets have since softened, and coupled with some company-specific underwriting and reserve issues, this has made for a more challenging environment for Selective Insurance Group ( SIGI ). It’s been quite a while since I’ve written on Selective , and in the time since, the company has meaningfully lagged the market—rising only about 29% (before dividends) against 100% or better appreciation for comparables like Cincinnati Financial ( CINF ), The Hartford ( HIG ), and W.R. Berkley ( WRB ), and the broader insurance sector. The five-year, three-year, and one-year comps are likewise lackluster, with erratic performance undermining what has otherwise been a decent long-term growth trend in book value and core earnings. At this point I’m still not all that positive on Selective. I don’t think the adverse reverse charges seen in 2025 are likely to reoccur, but I can’t rule out that risk. Likewise, social inflation remains an ongoing issue, and larger rivals continue to try to push into the smaller business category where Selective has built its business. I can argue for double-digit undervaluation today, but absent renewed growth in premiums and consistent underwriting margin improvement, rerating will take some time. A Rough Q1 On A Headline Basis, But Core Results Weren’t So Bad It’s tempting to look at the 18% miss in underwriting income and 11% miss in EPS in the first quarter and walk away thinking that Selective had a poor quarter. While it wasn’t a great quarter, I think those easy takeaways don’t tell the full story. Net written premiums fell 1%, missing by about 5%, and ...
(Check out Carter's worthcharting.com for actionable recommendations and live nightly videos.) The worst performing sector year to date is healthcare, and there is every indication there is more downside ahead. The 2-panel chart below tells the tale. The top panel is the Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLV) itself, and it is a bad technical setup. The ETF is toying with the prospect of breakin...
(Check out Carter's worthcharting.com for actionable recommendations and live nightly videos.) The worst performing sector year to date is healthcare, and there is every indication there is more downside ahead. The 2-panel chart below tells the tale. The top panel is the Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLV) itself, and it is a bad technical setup. The ETF is toying with the prospect of breaking the trend line in effect since the 2025 tariff lows of a year ago, all in the context of a two-year double top formation, and a head & shoulders top formation of the past 6 months. The bottom panel depicts XLV's relative performance to the S & P 500 Index. It is the very definition of no alpha. In fact, healthcare is making 10 year relative lows to the market. If one is long or overweight the sector, take measures. DISCLOSURES: None. All opinions expressed by the CNBC Pro contributors are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC, or its parent company or affiliates, and may have been previously disseminated by them on television, radio, internet or another medium. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE FINANCIAL, INVESTMENT, TAX OR LEGAL ADVICE OR A RECOMMENDATION TO BUY ANY SECURITY OR OTHER FINANCIAL ASSET. THE CONTENT IS GENERAL IN NATURE AND DOES NOT REFLECT ANY INDIVIDUAL'S UNIQUE PERSONAL CIRCUMSTANCES. THE ABOVE CONTENT MIGHT NOT BE SUITABLE FOR YOUR PARTICULAR CIRCUMSTANCES. BEFORE MAKING ANY FINANCIAL DECISIONS, YOU SHOULD STRONGLY CONSIDER SEEKING ADVICE FROM YOUR OWN FINANCIAL OR INVESTMENT ADVISOR. Click here for the full disclaimer.
SLB and Halliburton both said this week they expect crude prices to remain higher for longer. That will have immediate implications for a host of products — none as scrutinized as gasoline.
SLB and Halliburton both said this week they expect crude prices to remain higher for longer. That will have immediate implications for a host of products — none as scrutinized as gasoline.
watch now VIDEO 12:28 12:28 How AI is transforming filmmaking Tech At a time when Hollywood is torn between fear of artificial intelligence stealing jobs and the pressure to cut costs, a new kind of hybrid production studio is launching with the latest AI tools. Innovative Dreams is a new production services company, backed by Amazon Web Services and Luma, a generative AI startup, that combines ca...
watch now VIDEO 12:28 12:28 How AI is transforming filmmaking Tech At a time when Hollywood is torn between fear of artificial intelligence stealing jobs and the pressure to cut costs, a new kind of hybrid production studio is launching with the latest AI tools. Innovative Dreams is a new production services company, backed by Amazon Web Services and Luma, a generative AI startup, that combines cameras and a giant LED wall on a soundstage with tools to apply AI from pre-production, to shooting, into post-production. By combining virtual production, motion capture, and a variety of AI tools including Luma, Google's Nano Banana, and Bytedance's SeeDream, Innovative Dreams says it can significantly cut down both on costs and time. "We visually design and explore the world, then we take the footage that we filmed and start mapping that performance capture to these digital assets," CEO Jon Erwin explained. "You're fusing a performance with a piece of [digital] wardrobe that you like. The cool thing is the actor's performance, the camera, the lens choice– that's all getting through." Erwin says this approach merges a traditional filmmaking process into a digital world, rather than replacing cameras and actors with prompts. Innovative Dreams was born of Erwin's production studio, Wonder Project, after he used AI to produce historical scenes in far-flung locales for its biggest show, “House of David.” (The show is available via Amazon Prime Video.) With Innovative Dreams, Erwin is going all-in on the potential for AI and virtual production to create films and shows with massive scale, without ever leaving a sound stage — and he aims to keep production in Southern California. "It was a game-changer in House of David, so we came back from that experience thinking that other people must have been doing the same thing," Erwin said. "We quickly realized that people weren't." Director and founder of Innovative Dreams Jon Erwin films CNBC correspondent Julia Boorstin on a soundsta...
Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) expanded its partnership with Google, integrating as the security layer for Google Distributed Cloud air-gapped environments. The company introduced native Prometheus metrics ingestion and PromQL support in Kibana to simplify observability workflows. Elastic launched agent-native MCP Apps for Security, Observability, and Search, embedding Elastic workflows into popular AI and c...
Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) expanded its partnership with Google, integrating as the security layer for Google Distributed Cloud air-gapped environments. The company introduced native Prometheus metrics ingestion and PromQL support in Kibana to simplify observability workflows. Elastic launched agent-native MCP Apps for Security, Observability, and Search, embedding Elastic workflows into popular AI and coding platforms. Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) operates at the intersection of search, security, and...
Joby Aviation (NYSE: JOBY) has confirmed that it will be moving ahead with the launch of electric vertical takeoff and landing ( eVTOL ) taxi services this year, and Uber (NYSE: UBER) is on board as a partner to help launch and expand the service. Joby's plan to launch its flying taxi services in Dubai this year suggests the business could soon begin recording sales on commercial flights. In addit...
Joby Aviation (NYSE: JOBY) has confirmed that it will be moving ahead with the launch of electric vertical takeoff and landing ( eVTOL ) taxi services this year, and Uber (NYSE: UBER) is on board as a partner to help launch and expand the service. Joby's plan to launch its flying taxi services in Dubai this year suggests the business could soon begin recording sales on commercial flights. In addition, the company may also capitalize on opportunities to win contracts with defense customers. But even though these opportunities exist, some big questions remain. Image source: Joby Aviation. Continue reading
In this article SMH Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Intel Xeon 6 processors are shown to CNBC at Intel's advanced packaging facility in Chandler, Arizona, on November 17, 2025. Tony Puyol Semiconductors are a runaway train — up 17 of the past 18 sessions — and options traders are buying increasingly expensive call options to chase the rally higher. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH...
In this article SMH Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Intel Xeon 6 processors are shown to CNBC at Intel's advanced packaging facility in Chandler, Arizona, on November 17, 2025. Tony Puyol Semiconductors are a runaway train — up 17 of the past 18 sessions — and options traders are buying increasingly expensive call options to chase the rally higher. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) tracking the sector is up more than 30% this month after a 5% pop Friday, and implied volatility is rising alongside the price, meaning it's getting more expensive to trade options around the group. The latest catalyst was Intel earnings overnight, which sent shares of the stock up 23%, a rally that almost triples the expected move implied by the options market on Thursday. Intel's market value suprassed $400 billion for the first time since the Dotcom Bubble in 2000. Advanced Micro Devices , one of Intel's longtime competitors, surged in unison, adding 15%. Stock Chart Icon Stock chart icon Intel, YTD Options signals look notably bullish in memory stocks like Micron and Sandisk , which posted enormous gains over the past year due to demand from AI data centers. Calls outnumber puts near 2:1 in those stocks, and total call premiums paid in those stocks are at least four times bigger than in puts. One notable exception is the biggest of the group - Nvidia . Implied vol in Jensen Huang's AI leader is lower than in the SMH ETF, probably because the stock has been much slower moving, sitting about $3 below all-time highs made in October. Stock Chart Icon Stock chart icon Nvidia, 6 months At least one sizable trader took advantage of those relatively cheaper options, buying 7,500 $230-strike calls expiring May 15 – a $413,000 transaction betting on a 13% ramp from here. Call volumes in NVDA are about three times that of puts. The company is set to report earnings on May 20. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in bus...