RiverNorthPhotography/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images Flagstar Bank's ( FLG ) rally could be set to continue on the back of a second consecutive quarter of positive non-GAAP profits, a credit rating upgrade from Fitch, and a growing deposit base. FLG reported fiscal 2026 first-quarter revenue of $498 million , up 1.6% over its year-ago comp but a miss by $54.83 million on consensus estimates. C...
RiverNorthPhotography/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images Flagstar Bank's ( FLG ) rally could be set to continue on the back of a second consecutive quarter of positive non-GAAP profits, a credit rating upgrade from Fitch, and a growing deposit base. FLG reported fiscal 2026 first-quarter revenue of $498 million , up 1.6% over its year-ago comp but a miss by $54.83 million on consensus estimates. Critically, the bank reported non-GAAP EPS of $0.04 that was in line with analyst consensus. This profit print was the main headline, as it was the second consecutive quarter of positive non-GAAP EPS. This has helped drive the commons up by 25% over the last 1 year. FLG is now trading at a roughly 11% discount to its tangible book value of $15.70 per share at the end of its first quarter and is materially lower than the all-time high before new management took over the bank in 2024 after a series of FDIC-insured bank failures. Flagstar Bank Fiscal 2026 First Quarter Presentation Fitch Ratings FLG is focused on delivering across four areas as it continues to push to reduce its exposure to rent-stabilized apartments in New York City against the specter of a rent freeze. Delivery across these four verticals drove a credit upgrade to " BB " from Fitch Ratings, a single-notch upgrade and just one below an investment grade rating. The bank grew total deposits by $832 million during the first quarter, an expansion of around 1.3% sequentially to bring its total to $66.8 billion. Crucially, FLG has a well-diversified deposit base from a mix of products. The growth seen during the first quarter was driven by Commercial and Private Bank deposits of $461 million, with insured deposits forming 80% of total deposits, higher than its peer group average of 56%. Fitch Ratings CRE Loan Exposure, EPS, and De-Risking FLG's total commercial real estate ("CRE") portfolio had a balance of $34.3 billion as of the end of the first quarter. There has been a 28% reduction in this total since the end o...
Compute Costs More Than Talent In AI For leading AI companies, the biggest expense is not talent. It is compute. This chart from Visual Capitalist’s AI Week , sponsored by Terzo , uses Epoch AI data to compare spending at Anthropic, Minimax, and Z.ai across R&D compute, inference compute, and staff plus other costs. In every case, compute accounts for the majority of total spending, underscoring h...
Compute Costs More Than Talent In AI For leading AI companies, the biggest expense is not talent. It is compute. This chart from Visual Capitalist’s AI Week , sponsored by Terzo , uses Epoch AI data to compare spending at Anthropic, Minimax, and Z.ai across R&D compute, inference compute, and staff plus other costs. In every case, compute accounts for the majority of total spending, underscoring how capital-intensive it has become to build and serve frontier AI models. How AI Company Costs Break Down Despite differences in scale, all three companies allocate the largest share of their budgets to a single category: compute. The data below compares spending composition across Anthropic, Minimax, and Z.ai. Anthropic’s figures are for 2025, while Minimax’s are from Q1 to Q3 of 2025 and Z.ai’s are for H1 2025. Across all three AI companies , compute is the main cost center. Epoch AI estimates that R&D compute and inference compute together account for 57% to 70% of total spending, making infrastructure more expensive than staff and other costs in every case. Among the three, Z.ai has the most R&D-heavy profile, with 58% of spending tied to compute powering model development and training. Anthropic stands out for sheer scale. Epoch AI estimates the company spent $9.7 billion in 2025, including $6.8 billion on compute alone across training and inference. Its costs are significantly higher than Minimax’s and Z.ai’s, even if the two Chinese AI companies’ figures were annualized to match Anthropic’s full-year period. Both Chinese companies release many of their models as open source , meaning the model weights are freely available for anyone to download, modify, and run. This strategy helps them compete with better-funded U.S. labs by building developer adoption at a fraction of the cost. AI Talent Costs Less Than Chips and Compute One of the clearest takeaways is that talent costs less than compute in this comparison. Even though top AI labs pay some of the highest salaries ...
South Korea's stock markets are showing strong gains in the Asia session, with the COSPI index up about 1%, led by technology companies such as Samsung and SK Hynix, which constitute around 40% of the index. The COSPI has surged over 150% in the past year, outperforming many global markets, particularly due to the AI boom. South Korea's trade minister, Yeo Han-Koo, discussed the country's robust e...
South Korea's stock markets are showing strong gains in the Asia session, with the COSPI index up about 1%, led by technology companies such as Samsung and SK Hynix, which constitute around 40% of the index. The COSPI has surged over 150% in the past year, outperforming many global markets, particularly due to the AI boom. South Korea's trade minister, Yeo Han-Koo, discussed the country's robust export performance despite global headwinds including rising protectionism, energy supply disruptions, and geopolitical tensions such as the ongoing war in Iran. The minister highlighted the pivotal role of AI-driven exports in sustaining South Korea's economic growth while emphasizing the need to diversify markets and supply chains to mitigate risks. Original filename: 20260427_014301_South_Korea_s_AI_Driven_Export_Boom_Fuels_Market_Gains_Amid_.mp4 (Source: Bloomberg)