There are multiple opportunities for tokenization, digitization, blockchain adoption in the Middle East, particularly in the banking sector, said Bob Diamond, CEO at Atlas Merchant Capital and former top boss at Barclays. "There's nowhere better than this center to have a second center of trading of tokenized assets to have the financial services industry here, and particularly the banks in Abu Dh...
There are multiple opportunities for tokenization, digitization, blockchain adoption in the Middle East, particularly in the banking sector, said Bob Diamond, CEO at Atlas Merchant Capital and former top boss at Barclays. "There's nowhere better than this center to have a second center of trading of tokenized assets to have the financial services industry here, and particularly the banks in Abu Dhabi and Dubai and Doha, really using blockchain as the underlying technology of their financial institutions," Diamond told CNBC's " Access Middle East ." Middle Eastern banks are at an advantage as they are more agile with less worries about legacy systems, according to Diamond. Diamond said digital platforms offering 24/7 trading, instant settlement, auditable records and lower costs compared to traditional exchanges could add depth to capital markets, especially as major private companies such as SpaceX move toward IPOs. "One of the real advantages in Abu Dhabi, where they're attracting a lot of the tokenization efforts here, is the ability to attract talent, the ability to attract capital, but also a very, very strong regulatory environment and a very, very strong infrastructure, so we're going to see continued developments," he said. Tokenized finance refers to using blockchain-style technology to represent financial assets as digital tokens. Diamond also sees resilience in the U.S., particularly among middle-market companies, citing tailwinds as government agencies cut regulation. "U.S. corporates are performing extremely well in this environment, and I think a lot of the reason is removing regulation, you know, as an obstacle in giving them an opportunity to really drive execution," Diamond said, adding support from the Treasury, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. "One of the things that's always stood out to me in the US in terms of that economy staying strong in times of great volatility is the depth of the capital ...
Online publishers are getting more control over whether their websites appear in Google's AI Search features, thanks to a UK regulatory ruling. The new conduct rule imposed by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) requires Google to let website owners keep their content out of features like AI Overviews, and prevent it from being used for the "fine-tuning" of Google's AI models. "In a world ...
Online publishers are getting more control over whether their websites appear in Google's AI Search features, thanks to a UK regulatory ruling. The new conduct rule imposed by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) requires Google to let website owners keep their content out of features like AI Overviews, and prevent it from being used for the "fine-tuning" of Google's AI models. "In a world first, publishers will now have effective tools to prevent their content being used to power AI features in search, such as AI Overviews," the CMA announced. "This will put publishers, like news organizations, in a stronger position to negotiate c … Read the full story at The Verge.
Private infrastructure and real estate capital are expected to play a larger role in financing the AI-driven data-center boom, as companies move beyond traditional forms of funding, Goldman Sachs said in a note on Tuesday. Goldman increased its combined capex forecast for the four largest hyperscalers - Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet - to $5.3 trillion between fiscal years 2025 and 2030....
Private infrastructure and real estate capital are expected to play a larger role in financing the AI-driven data-center boom, as companies move beyond traditional forms of funding, Goldman Sachs said in a note on Tuesday. Goldman increased its combined capex forecast for the four largest hyperscalers - Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet - to $5.3 trillion between fiscal years 2025 and 2030. Prior to the start of first-quarter earnings, the Wall Street brokerage forecast capex at $4.5 trillion for the same period.
Jonathan Kitchen/DigitalVision via Getty Images Every recent article on Seeking Alpha about Capricor ( CAPR ) is a Buy or a Hold - except that one Sell article from December. So I checked out the article, and I found the argument was not lazy. It raised the right issues that are needed to assess a late-stage biotech heading into an FDA decision. Did Hope-3 actually support deramiocel in Duchenne m...
Jonathan Kitchen/DigitalVision via Getty Images Every recent article on Seeking Alpha about Capricor ( CAPR ) is a Buy or a Hold - except that one Sell article from December. So I checked out the article, and I found the argument was not lazy. It raised the right issues that are needed to assess a late-stage biotech heading into an FDA decision. Did Hope-3 actually support deramiocel in Duchenne muscular dystrophy? Given the earlier CRL, this was a pertinent question and needed to be addressed by the bulls. That CRL was not a trivial one—the FDA was concerned about the prior Hope-2 and OLE data and whether they adequately proved deramiocel in DMD. So when Hope-3 read out positively, it was necessary to check whether it addressed the FDA’s concerns. This article did that. Later disclosures from the company have weakened the strongest part of the Sell thesis. Several risks still exist, and new ones have appeared. However, the trial risks have mostly disappeared, and what really remains are commercial disputes with NS Pharma/Nippon Shinyaku and a few others. Overall, however, I see this now as a speculative Buy. The Sell Thesis: Fair, But Dated The author Sage Advisor’s key argument was that the Hope-3 presentation was too complicated. Here are the key arguments: Author Taken together, these were serious arguments and clearly weakened the buy thesis. Plus, it also fit the history. Capricor had framed Hope-2 data in a certain way—and the FDA had not accepted that framing. The FDA has historically been flexible with DMD and similar diseases. However, first, the flexibility wanes as more drugs get approved, and two, flexibility does not mean the agency stops caring about prespecified endpoints, Type I error control, missing data, or whether the clinical benefit is clearly shown. Later HOPE-3 Disclosures Weaken The Primary Endpoint Objection 7 days after that sell article, Capricor presented a discussion of the trial data that gave a cleaner answer to the PUL 2.0 primary e...