Database provider ClickHouse has crossed $250 million in annualized revenue run rate, tripling its business from last year, Yury Izrailevsky, co-founder and president of product and technology, told TechCrunch. Israilevsky expects the revenue figure to reach the high nine figures by the end of the year. ClickHouse was valued at $15 billion in January following a $400 million Series D funding round...
Database provider ClickHouse has crossed $250 million in annualized revenue run rate, tripling its business from last year, Yury Izrailevsky, co-founder and president of product and technology, told TechCrunch. Israilevsky expects the revenue figure to reach the high nine figures by the end of the year. ClickHouse was valued at $15 billion in January following a $400 million Series D funding round led by Dragoneer Investment Group. The latest valuation implies a steep multiple of over 60 times annualized revenue. The fast revenue growth and premium valuation position the less-than-five-year-old company for an IPO within the next few years, according to Izrailevsky (pictured left). ClickHouse joins a small, but growing list of tech startups signaling plans to go public as the IPO window is expected to be flung wide open by SpaceX’s historic June debut, followed by highly anticipated listings from OpenAI and Anthropic later this year. Last fall, the startup hired Jimmy Sexton, who previously ran investor relations at Snowflake, one of ClickHouse’s main competitors, as chief financial officer. Bringing on a CFO is often viewed as a signal that a company is preparing for public markets. The company has already acquired six startups, including Langfuse, which helps developers track and evaluate AI agent performance. Izrailevsky indicated that ClickHouse plans to remain acquisitive, looking to scoop up “relatively young, but showing very promising technology” startups, typically open-source, that complement its core product suite. The technology behind ClickHouse was originally developed inside Russian search giant Yandex 17 years ago, but spun out as an independent startup in 2021. ClickHouse has over 4,000 customers, including Anthropic, Meta, Capital One, and Decagon. The startup’s open-source database is designed to process the massive datasets required by AI agents. ClickHouse generates revenue by selling managed cloud services. Izrailevsky claimed that this commerci...
Database provider ClickHouse has crossed $250 million in annualized revenue run rate, tripling its business from last year, Yury Izrailevsky, co-founder and president of product and technology, told TechCrunch. Izrailevsky expects the revenue figure to reach the high-nine digits by the end of the year. ClickHouse was valued at $15 billion in January following a $400 million Series D funding round ...
Database provider ClickHouse has crossed $250 million in annualized revenue run rate, tripling its business from last year, Yury Izrailevsky, co-founder and president of product and technology, told TechCrunch. Izrailevsky expects the revenue figure to reach the high-nine digits by the end of the year. ClickHouse was valued at $15 billion in January following a $400 million Series D funding round led by Dragoneer Investment Group. The latest valuation implies a steep multiple of over 60 times annualized revenue. The fast revenue growth and premium valuation position the less-than-five-year-old company for an IPO within the next few years, according to Izrailevsky (pictured left). ClickHouse joins a small, but growing list of tech startups signaling plans to go public as the IPO window is expected to be flung wide open by SpaceX’s historic June debut, followed by highly anticipated listings from OpenAI and Anthropic later this year. Last fall, the startup hired Jimmy Sexton, who previously ran investor relations at Snowflake, one of ClickHouse’s main competitors, as chief financial officer. Bringing on a CFO is often viewed as a signal that a company is preparing for public markets. The company has already acquired six startups, including Langfuse, which helps developers track and evaluate AI agent performance. Izrailevsky indicated that ClickHouse plans to remain acquisitive, looking to scoop up “relatively young, but showing very promising technology” startups, typically open-source, that complement its core product suite. The technology behind ClickHouse was originally developed inside Russian search giant Yandex 17 years ago, but spun out as an independent startup in 2021. ClickHouse has over 4,000 customers, including Anthropic, Meta, Capital One, and Decagon. The startup’s open-source database is designed to process the massive datasets required by AI agents. ClickHouse generates revenue by selling managed cloud services. Izrailevsky claimed that this commercia...
Lawmakers in Hungary have voted overwhelmingly for the country to remain a member of the international criminal court, reversing a decision made by the previous government of Viktor Orbán. Wednesday’s vote came days before the country was poised to become the only EU member state not to recognise the jurisdiction of the global tribunal, which aims to prosecute those accused of war crimes, genocide...
Lawmakers in Hungary have voted overwhelmingly for the country to remain a member of the international criminal court, reversing a decision made by the previous government of Viktor Orbán. Wednesday’s vote came days before the country was poised to become the only EU member state not to recognise the jurisdiction of the global tribunal, which aims to prosecute those accused of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. In April last year, Orbán announced that Hungary would begin the process of pulling out of what he decried as a “political court.” He made the comments while hosting his Israeli counterpart and longtime ally, Benjamin Netanyahu – the subject of an ICC arrest warrant – in Budapest. After he was elected in a landslide victory last month, the country’s new leader, Péter Magyar, repeatedly vowed that his government would reverse the withdrawal before it took effect on 2 June. On Monday, his government submitted a bill to the parliament, setting in motion a fast-tracked procedure that resulted in 133 of 199 lawmakers voting to back the bill. The legislation must now be signed into law by the president, Tamás Sulyok, an Orbán-era appointee whom Magyar has repeatedly called on to resign. Earlier this week, the ICC’s legislative body hailed Hungary’s plan to reverse the withdrawal, describing it as “essential” to ensuring accountability for the world’s gravest crimes. The U-turn marks a bright moment for the beleaguered institution. Since Donald Trump’s return to power last year, his administration has worked steadily to hobble the Hague-based court, imposing sanctions on 11 of the court’s officials. Several of the judges and the chief prosecutor have been left grappling with the fallout, from cancelled credit cards to disappearing Amazon and Google accounts, in what one judge described as a “direct and flagrant attack” on one of the world’s most prominent courts. For weeks, Magyar had made it clear that his Tisza party would work to ensure that Hungar...
Zhanna Hapanovich/iStock via Getty Images DigitalBridge Group ( DBRG ) is set to acquire the specialist power and electric infrastructure investor, ArcLight Capital Partners, for up to $1.05B. The consideration includes a base purchase price of $650M and up to $400M of contingent consideration. The transaction is subject to completion of the previously-announced acquisition of DigitalBridge by an ...
Zhanna Hapanovich/iStock via Getty Images DigitalBridge Group ( DBRG ) is set to acquire the specialist power and electric infrastructure investor, ArcLight Capital Partners, for up to $1.05B. The consideration includes a base purchase price of $650M and up to $400M of contingent consideration. The transaction is subject to completion of the previously-announced acquisition of DigitalBridge by an affiliate of SoftBank Group ( SFTBY ) ( SFTBF ). In December last year, SoftBank agreed to acquire the alternative asset manager for an enterprise value of ~$4.0B. The combined entity is expected to have more than $150B in assets. More on DigitalBridge, SoftBank Group Corp. SoftBank Group Corp. (SFTB:CA) Q4 2026 Earnings Call Transcript SoftBank Group Corp. 2026 Q4 - Results - Earnings Call Presentation SoftBank Group: Positives And Negatives Offset Each Other SoftBank Group GAAP EPS of ¥872.47, revenue of ¥7798.65B SoftBank launches large-scale battery business in Japan to build AI-era power infrastructure
TSMC Fab 16 in China. Photo from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Source . This Bismarck Brief will contribute to our exclusive upcoming AI 2026 Bismarck Strategic Report, which will feature in-depth analysis of the state of the artificial intelligence sector and technology, together with a comprehensive profile of key players. Upgrade or subscribe now to receive full access and never ...
TSMC Fab 16 in China. Photo from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Source . This Bismarck Brief will contribute to our exclusive upcoming AI 2026 Bismarck Strategic Report, which will feature in-depth analysis of the state of the artificial intelligence sector and technology, together with a comprehensive profile of key players. Upgrade or subscribe now to receive full access and never miss a report. With a market capitalization of over $2 trillion (TSM), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is the most valuable semiconductor manufacturing company in the world as of May 2026. The company is considered a chip “foundry” that does not design any computer chips but only manufactures them on contract for other companies, including “fabless” semiconductor companies like Nvidia and AMD. TSMC singlehandedly dominates global production of the world’s most advanced and computationally powerful computer chips and its dominance has not just held but grown in recent years: its share of global foundry revenue has grown from 59% in 2020 to 72% as of late 2025—with second-ranked Samsung dwarfed in comparison with a market share of just 7%—and its market share reaching even higher with greater chip sophistication. At present, the entire leading edge of artificial intelligence technology is dependent on TSMC’s manufacturing capabilities as well as its ability to scale up production quickly, and by extension so are the fortunes of many of the world’s most valuable companies including Nvidia and Apple.
Devrimb/iStock via Getty Images I have been investing long enough to know that it is stupid to try to call a top in the market, but in my 34th year as a professional investor, I am having a scary déjà vu back to the good old days of 1999. That said, I don't know whether today is more like 1997, 1998, or 1999, but it clearly feels like the seventh-inning stretch for this business cycle, given histo...
Devrimb/iStock via Getty Images I have been investing long enough to know that it is stupid to try to call a top in the market, but in my 34th year as a professional investor, I am having a scary déjà vu back to the good old days of 1999. That said, I don't know whether today is more like 1997, 1998, or 1999, but it clearly feels like the seventh-inning stretch for this business cycle, given historically high valuations and extreme levels of speculation. More recently, I have been seeing investors pile into any stock that issues an AI-related headline, regardless of how small or impactful it is on their core business. Finviz The AI euphoria is now spreading into space-related stocks, which are surging irrespective of fundamentals in advance of the largest IPO in history—SpaceX. Companies like Rocket Lab ( RKT ) and AST SpaceMobile ( ASTS ) trade at 75 and 100 times sales, respectively, with no prospects for profits expected for this year or next. This is what happened in the late 1990s, which is hard to appreciate unless you were trading dot-com stocks during that period of unbridled enthusiasm for everything internet-related. The Federal Reserve began to raise short-term interest rates at the beginning of 1999 to battle inflation caused by the robust capital spending cycle intended to build out internet infrastructure. Excessive borrowing and spending led to stellar economic growth but also overcapacity, and it took three quarter-point rate hikes by the end of that year to bring the party to an end. Stocks rise to record (Bloomberg) While history may not repeat, they say it often rhymes, and I see a lot of rhyming today. We may have a different cast of characters, but the storyline is the same. Valuations, speculation, and blind faith in new and unproven technologies are the main similarities. A key difference is that there is yet to be any meaningful overcapacity, as the demand for chips and memory and data centers can't be met. Yet there are examples of circular ...
Getty Images Introduction The last time I covered Diamondback Energy ( FANG ), I reiterated their Strong Buy rating, highlighting their robust execution before the Middle East conflict began, adapting to the environment and continuing to trade at attractive valuations while projecting production per share growth. Although FANG reported a strong quarter and improved its guidance, now that the stock...
Getty Images Introduction The last time I covered Diamondback Energy ( FANG ), I reiterated their Strong Buy rating, highlighting their robust execution before the Middle East conflict began, adapting to the environment and continuing to trade at attractive valuations while projecting production per share growth. Although FANG reported a strong quarter and improved its guidance, now that the stock has jumped considerably since covering them while the downside risks are also rising, I will downgrade them to a Buy, as the valuation continues to be attractive, yet the opportunity is no longer as strong. Strong Quarter, Improved Guidance Diamondback Energy IR FANG reported a strong start of the year, with significant beats on EPS and revenue and delivering ~$1.74 billion in Adj. FCF, despite LOE (Lease Operating Expenses) and other costs increasing QoQ due to one-time charges associated with production recovery efforts following the winter storm. Diamondback Energy IR FANG also hiked its guidance, with the net production expected above 972 MBOE/d (from 926 to 962), while also highlighting their accelerated debt reduction through the lowered interest expenses guidance and boosting the CAPEX to $3.9 billion this year (from the previous $3.75) to account for the expected production boost. Diamondback Energy IR Financially, based on FANG’s latest report , we continue to see a strong position despite the fact that their current assets don't cover their current liabilities, with the debt being spread very well into the future (weighted average maturity of about 12 years now) and no single significant maturity they couldn’t deal with. As mentioned, FANG is also taking rapid steps towards their target to hit $10 billion in net debt, and we saw them recently announce a tender offer for their 4.40% and 4.25% notes due 2051 and 2052, respectively, as well as repaying the $550 million remaining under their 2027 term loan, while the Iran boost can help accelerate this, with the CFO ...
Welcome to Next Africa, a daily newsletter on where the continent stands now — and where it’s headed. Sign up here to have it delivered to your email. In today’s edition, we look at what further delays could mean for Mozambique’s giant gas project. And: The Iran war will curb economic growth this year Nations start taking strict measures to curb Ebola threat Climate change is making Salmonella mor...
Welcome to Next Africa, a daily newsletter on where the continent stands now — and where it’s headed. Sign up here to have it delivered to your email. In today’s edition, we look at what further delays could mean for Mozambique’s giant gas project. And: The Iran war will curb economic growth this year Nations start taking strict measures to curb Ebola threat Climate change is making Salmonella more dangerous A Fresh Snag It’s been a rough ride for a project that promised to transform Mozambique’s economy. TotalEnergies’ giant gas development, halted for five years, now faces further delays because of a dispute over costs . The company in January announced the full resumption of the $20 billion facility that was derailed by an Islamic State-linked insurgency in 2021. Already more than 6,000 workers are back on site at what was once touted as Africa’s biggest private investment. The problem is the Mozambican government has yet to approve the amended Plan of Development — a legal requirement. The state is disputing 40% of the extra $5 billion in costs that TotalEnergies and its partners claim they incurred. That risks even more delays. The government desperately needs to generate tax from the project, so it won’t want to drag out talks. Yet agreeing to the additional costs to allow work to continue will mean less revenue down the line for one of the world’s poorest nations. Natural gas buyers in Europe and Asia view Mozambique as an increasingly strategic alternative supplier. The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has amplified this, as well as pushed up prices. TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné last month referred to Mozambique becoming the “Qatar of Africa” because of its massive gas deposits . So far, it’s only been able to exploit a small portion of the resources from an offshore production platform. The tens of billions of dollars in revenues that the government anticipates from the much bigger projects that TotalEnergies and Exxon Mobil plan have remaine...
imaginima/iStock via Getty Images FirstEnergy's ( FE ) Ohio electric utilities—Ohio Edison, Toledo Edison, and The Illuminating Company—said late Tuesday they filed a three-year rate plan with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio that would fund ~$800M annually in infrastructure upgrades while gradually raising customer bills. Under the proposal, the company would spend an average of $800M/year...
imaginima/iStock via Getty Images FirstEnergy's ( FE ) Ohio electric utilities—Ohio Edison, Toledo Edison, and The Illuminating Company—said late Tuesday they filed a three-year rate plan with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio that would fund ~$800M annually in infrastructure upgrades while gradually raising customer bills. Under the proposal, the company would spend an average of $800M/year on neighborhood poles, wires, and grid technology designed to reduce outages and speed restoration times, while another $83M/year would s upport more tree trimming and vegetation management to address one of Ohio's leading causes of outages. FirstEnergy ( FE ) said its proposal is aimed at making customer bill increases more gradual and predictable; residential customers using ~1,000 kWh/month would see average annual bill increases in the 2.2%-2.8% range, or $4.26-$5.30/month, over the three-year period, depending on the utility territory. The plan includes expanded customer assistance initiatives, including the creation of a new $4M energy assistance fund through the consolidation of existing programs. PUCO will review the filing and provide opportunities for public input before announcing a decision. More on FirstEnergy FirstEnergy: A Fairly Valued Utility Waiting On Regulatory Proof FirstEnergy: Well Positioned To Profit From AI-Driven Electric Demand Growth FirstEnergy Q1 2026 Earnings Call Presentation
Key Points State Street SPDR S&P Bank ETF offers a significantly lower expense ratio and a higher trailing-12-month dividend yield than First Trust Nasdaq Bank ETF. First Trust Nasdaq Bank ETF is more concentrated in its top holdings and focuses on large-cap banks, while State Street SPDR S&P Bank ETF provides more diversified exposure across 101 holdings. While First Trust Nasdaq Bank ETF showed ...
Key Points State Street SPDR S&P Bank ETF offers a significantly lower expense ratio and a higher trailing-12-month dividend yield than First Trust Nasdaq Bank ETF. First Trust Nasdaq Bank ETF is more concentrated in its top holdings and focuses on large-cap banks, while State Street SPDR S&P Bank ETF provides more diversified exposure across 101 holdings. While First Trust Nasdaq Bank ETF showed higher returns over the last 12 months, State Street SPDR S&P Bank ETF delivered slightly higher growth for a $1,000 investment over the past five years. 10 stocks we like better than SPDR Series Trust - State Street SPDR S&P Bank ETF › Investors choosing between State Street SPDR S&P Bank ETF (NYSEMKT:KBE) and First Trust Nasdaq Bank ETF (NASDAQ:FTXO) could weigh the State Street fund's lower costs and broader diversification against the First Trust fund's recent momentum and concentrated focus on megacap financial institutions. Both ETFs provide targeted exposure to the U.S. banking sector, but they take fundamentally different paths to reach that goal. The State Street fund casts a wider net across the industry, whereas the First Trust fund uses a smart-beta approach to select and weight its portfolio based on specific fundamental metrics. Snapshot (cost & size) Metric FTXO KBE Issuer First Trust SPDR Expense ratio 0.60% 0.35% 1-yr return (as of May 20, 2026) 28.7% 25.0% Dividend yield 1.80% 2.30% Beta 0.92 0.91 AUM $286.5 million $1.3 billion Beta measures price volatility relative to the S&P 500; beta is calculated from five-year monthly returns. The 1-yr return represents total return over the trailing 12 months. Dividend yield is the trailing-12-month distribution yield. The State Street fund is notably more affordable with a 0.35% expense ratio, saving investors $2.50 annually for every $1,000 invested compared to the First Trust fund. Additionally, KBE offers a higher payout with a 2.30% yield. Performance & risk comparison Metric FTXO KBE Max drawdown (5 yr) (46.6...
laddawan punna/iStock via Getty Images Objective Use for Morningstar category Long-term growth of capital International diversification Diversified Emerging Markets Click to enlarge Highlights The fund's benchmark—the MSCI Emerging Markets Index—closed the first quarter just below the break-even mark. The fund slightly underperformed the benchmark. Positioning in India was the largest detractor. M...
laddawan punna/iStock via Getty Images Objective Use for Morningstar category Long-term growth of capital International diversification Diversified Emerging Markets Click to enlarge Highlights The fund's benchmark—the MSCI Emerging Markets Index—closed the first quarter just below the break-even mark. The fund slightly underperformed the benchmark. Positioning in India was the largest detractor. Market review and outlook Although emerging-market equities finished roughly flat, they in fact performed quite well over the first two months of the quarter on expectations for continued global growth and accommodative central bank policies. However, stocks gave up all of their previous gains in March as the conflict in the Middle East began. The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz and ensuing damage to energy infrastructure led to significant increases in the prices of oil, gas, and nitrogen fertilizer. The potential inflationary impact of these developments caused investors to reduce their expectations for interest rate cuts, weighing on stock prices. We believe a protracted conflict in the Middle East poses an obvious risk to what would otherwise be a highly constructive backdrop for emerging-market equities. In addition to potentially boosting the dollar and affecting consumer spending, a prolonged conflict could lead to food-price inflation and disrupt the semiconductor industry. In this environment, opportunities remain selective rather than broad based. We continue to focus on high-quality growth companies with sustainable competitive advantages and the ability to benefit from structural themes such as AI, digital adoption, and electrification. We remain vigilant with respect to the possible risks, but we continue to see a constructive outlook for emerging-market stocks and are encouraged by the category's outperformance relative to the developed markets in the first quarter. At the close of the period, the fund was overweight in Mexico, Greece, and Indonesia, ...
Broadcom Inc. PALO ALTO, Calif., May 27, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ: AVGO), a global technology leader that designs, develops, and supplies semiconductor and infrastructure software solutions, today announced its collaboration with Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. on a new, broadband-optimized reference platform for the global fixed wireless access (FWA) market, integrating Broadc...
Broadcom Inc. PALO ALTO, Calif., May 27, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ: AVGO), a global technology leader that designs, develops, and supplies semiconductor and infrastructure software solutions, today announced its collaboration with Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. on a new, broadband-optimized reference platform for the global fixed wireless access (FWA) market, integrating Broadcom's BCM6776 Wi-Fi 8 System-on-Chip (SoC) with Samsung's B1320 5G Modem. This industry-first platform unifies 3GPP Release 17 connectivity with the emerging Wi-Fi 8 (IEEE 802.11bn) standard. As global broadband demand shifts toward higher performance standards, Broadcom’s latest SoC and Samsung's modem focus on delivering high reliability and consistent throughput. Designed for mass-market scalability, the platform provides a high-performance, cost-competitive blueprint that allows mobile operators to offer fiber-level broadband to accelerate service innovation and ecosystem growth. Technical Leadership: 5G Meets Wi-Fi 8 The Broadcom BCM6776 is a highly-optimized tri-band Wi-Fi 8 SoC targeting high-volume retail and mass-market access points. It includes a quad-core Arm network processor and supports 2-stream 40 MHz channels in the 2.4 GHz band and 4-stream 160 MHz channels in the 5 and 6 GHz bands, delivering a complete Wi-Fi 8 platform in a single chip. By unifying the CPU and Wi-Fi 8 radio, Broadcom enables OEMs to significantly reduce bill of materials (BOM) costs, simplify board design, and achieve a 50% reduction in active power consumption compared to previous generations. The Samsung B1320 is a highly-integrated and power-efficient 5nm chipset solution that supports 3GPP Release 17. It is capable of achieving 5G downlink speeds of 3.43 Gbps and uplink speeds of 1.17 Gbps. Combining Samsung’s 5G modem with a quad-core Arm CPU and the BCM6776’s network processor, the platform can support full Wi-Fi to 5G throughput. The platform also includes a Power Class 1.5 RF tr...