Key Points Pershing Square first bought Alphabet stock in early 2023, and held onto most of its position until the first quarter of this year. In Q1, Bill Ackman booked most of his gains from Alphabet and rotated the capital into Microsoft. Microsoft stock plummeted earlier this year due to concerns about slowing growth in its cloud business and its accelerating spending on AI infrastructure. 10 s...
Key Points Pershing Square first bought Alphabet stock in early 2023, and held onto most of its position until the first quarter of this year. In Q1, Bill Ackman booked most of his gains from Alphabet and rotated the capital into Microsoft. Microsoft stock plummeted earlier this year due to concerns about slowing growth in its cloud business and its accelerating spending on AI infrastructure. 10 stocks we like better than Microsoft › The first-quarter Form 13F that Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management filed recently revealed a notable portfolio shift that has attracted some attention from retail and institutional investors alike. The billionaire activist investor sold nearly all of his fund's $1.9 billion or so stake in Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) and redirected the proceeds into a new position in Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). This move reflected Ackman's investment philosophy -- patient ownership of high-quality compounders bought at reasonable prices, followed by decisive profit-taking when better risk-reward setups form elsewhere. Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue » When did Pershing Square invest in Alphabet? Pershing Square initiated its position in Alphabet in early 2023, acquiring 2.2 million Class A shares and 8.1 million Class C shares. Back then, Alphabet traded between $90 and $100 per share. At the time, the stock appeared undervalued relative to its dominant position in search, its budding cloud business, and its emerging capabilities in artificial intelligence (AI). Pershing Square's Alphabet stake eventually grew into one of its largest holdings. Ackman held onto the position through Alphabet's AI-driven rally, watching shares more than triple as the company's advertising engine remained resilient and its investments in YouTube, Google Cloud, and gene...
One of Berlin’s rising-star, early stage startups, Peec AI, just crossed $10 million in annualized revenue, according to internal dashboard data seen and verified by TechCrunch. Peec AI raised its $21 million Series A six months ago. While CEO Marius Meiners wouldn’t disclose its valuation to me at that time (only revealing that it was above $100 million), he did say the startup had grown its reve...
One of Berlin’s rising-star, early stage startups, Peec AI, just crossed $10 million in annualized revenue, according to internal dashboard data seen and verified by TechCrunch. Peec AI raised its $21 million Series A six months ago. While CEO Marius Meiners wouldn’t disclose its valuation to me at that time (only revealing that it was above $100 million), he did say the startup had grown its revenue to more than $4 million in the 10 months since its launch. So, it has more than doubled its revenue trajectory, and at a faster pace. Peec helps brands track and improve their visibility in AI searches. While based in Berlin, it recently opened an office in New York. It’s also serving as proof of one of the key market shifts happening in Europe’s tech scene. “Founders these days track revenue much more closely,” Antler partner Christoph Klink was telling me just a couple of days ago. Sitting in a hotel lobby bar during an event-laden week for the tech ecosystem, the Berlin-based VC had offhand mentioned Peec AI as one of the most successful companies in his portfolio, alongside Lovable and others. My next question was how he defined success, which led to a discussion of recent market cycles. Compared to six years ago, he said, the big change is that success is now defined by growth, not valuation. Having learned lessons from 2021’s frothiness and subsequent painful return to reality, investors now know that revenue can’t be an afterthought. The corollary is that it isn’t something you can just check on every couple of weeks, Klink told me. Startups now tend to keep running dashboards on revenue progress, sometimes — as is the case at Peec — visible to all employees. For some founders, this has required some adjusting; but others were born just for this new cycle. Peec AI’s product takes the same approach as SEO dashboards, except it helps brands track generative engine optimization (GEO) — visualizing whether they show up when users type a certain set of prompts into Ch...
A fraudster who tried to sell fake ancient statues to Sotheby’s was foiled when his bogus accompanying paperwork was found to be written with printing methods that were 25 years too modern, a court has heard. View image in fullscreen Andrew Crowley, 46, of Longwell Green, Gloucestershire Andrew Crowley, 46, asked the auctioneers to value three Cycladic figures and one Anatolian stargazer statuette...
A fraudster who tried to sell fake ancient statues to Sotheby’s was foiled when his bogus accompanying paperwork was found to be written with printing methods that were 25 years too modern, a court has heard. View image in fullscreen Andrew Crowley, 46, of Longwell Green, Gloucestershire Andrew Crowley, 46, asked the auctioneers to value three Cycladic figures and one Anatolian stargazer statuette that he had inherited from his grandfather, Southwark crown court in London was told on Friday. Prosecutors alleged that, if real, the items collectively would have been worth about £680,000 based on previous sales. However, Judge Rimmer said that estimate hinged on multiple hypotheticals and therefore reduced the value to £340,000. Crowley, of Longwell Green, Gloucestershire, had presented spurious invoices for the statues that purported to be written in 1976, using a typewriter on paper embossed with an antique’s dealers logo and a nine-pence stamp. However, his forgery was discovered after forensic scientists found they were made using printing methods invented in 2001. Sotheby’s experts also spotted spelling mistakes, including in the supplier’s title. View image in fullscreen Letter shown in the trial of Andrew Crowley. Photograph: Metropolitan Police/PA Handing Crowley a two-year suspended sentence, the judge said: “It was a crude attempt because Sotheby’s rumbled, to use the vernacular, or spotted, these documents as bogus fairly early on.” The judge accepted that Crowley inherited the statues from his grandfather and did not at any point believe they were counterfeits. The Cycladic statues were each about 30cm (12in) tall weighing about 1kg, police said. Legitimate Cycladics were made in the Cyclades islands in Greece during the bronze age, about 3,000 years ago. Therefore, “the offending and dishonesty in this case must turn around the paperwork”, the judge said. View image in fullscreen Fake ancient statue Andrew Crowley tried to sell to Sotheby’s Photograph: Met...
Rachel Reeves has launched a rearguard action to save her job as chancellor, telling friends she would like to stay in the post even under a new prime minister. The chancellor’s supporters have been urging MPs to back her if Keir Starmer is replaced later this year, saying she is the only candidate who can safeguard the country’s finances. The backbench lobbying push comes amid a broader tussle am...
Rachel Reeves has launched a rearguard action to save her job as chancellor, telling friends she would like to stay in the post even under a new prime minister. The chancellor’s supporters have been urging MPs to back her if Keir Starmer is replaced later this year, saying she is the only candidate who can safeguard the country’s finances. The backbench lobbying push comes amid a broader tussle among Labour MPs for position as they prepare for what happens if Andy Burnham wins the Makerfield byelection and replaces Starmer as prime minister. Reports have suggested Burnham is considering appointing Ed Miliband as chancellor if he makes it to No 10. But Reeves’ allies are warning that the energy secretary would not be trusted by the bond markets, which set the government’s borrowing costs. One Labour MP who is close to the chancellor said: “I am concerned that we may lose everything if a new leader sacrifices the chancellor for promises and new alliances they are currently forging with MPs who fancy the job for themselves. The biggest fear for the bond markets and the unions is Ed Miliband.” Another said: “Rachel has been very candid with us about the need to carry on. A double change is not the right thing to do. “With her credibility in the markets, if Rachel is given a clearer and slightly different direction she could provide the necessary assuredness to the markets. Ed Miliband wouldn’t be able to do that.” Spokespeople for Reeves and Miliband declined to comment. Against the backdrop of tumult in the Labour party, with Burnham having launched his campaign for Makerfield on a pledge to challenge Starmer’s leadership, Reeves has had one of her better weeks in office. On Monday the International Monetary Fund increased its forecast for UK growth, predicting the economy would grow 1% this year rather than 0.8%. Then on Wednesday, figures showed inflation falling to 2.8%, faster than economists had expected. On the same day, the prime minister announced that the gove...
Bernardo Silva is more than a footballer. He’s a time-travelling, shapeshifting superhero. He even looks like a superhero – a nine-volt battery of a man doing battle with feral giants on the pitch. In 55 years of watching football I’ve never seen anybody or anything like him. For the past decade I’ve been lucky enough to watch him turning out week in, week out for my club, Manchester City. And now...
Bernardo Silva is more than a footballer. He’s a time-travelling, shapeshifting superhero. He even looks like a superhero – a nine-volt battery of a man doing battle with feral giants on the pitch. In 55 years of watching football I’ve never seen anybody or anything like him. For the past decade I’ve been lucky enough to watch him turning out week in, week out for my club, Manchester City. And now it’s time to say goodbye. Some footballers are famous for having played in virtually every position on the field. James Milner, John O’Shea and Phil Neville come to mind. They tend to be solid, stolid types, as reliable as they are unimaginative. Silva is in a sphere of his own, though, when it comes to versatility. Not only is he supremely skilful, he often plays in every position in a single match. Occasionally he even plays in every position in a single move. He’ll collect the ball from the keeper, the Lisbon Beckenbauer and the most unlikely libero on earth. As the ball is recycled in defence, he’ll pop up at right-back. More recycling, and he’s now the playmaker extraordinaire, turning on a sixpence for the eye-of-a-needle, defence-splitting pass. More recycling. Then he pops up on the wing to curl an inswinging cross into the back post. By the time the ball gets half-cleared to the edge of the penalty area, Bernardo will be there to blast a shot high and wide into the crowd. To be fair there have been great goals – the curler into the top corner against Arsenal, the screamer against United, the astonishing volley against Birmingham in the FA Cup where he can-cans the ball into the net (it’s such a one-off that fans debate whether it’s a volley, half-volley or a shot that transcends language). Then there are the hugely important goals – none more so than the two against Real Madrid in the 2023 Champions League semi-final. And the surprising number of headers for a man of his height (he is a head-tennis genius). View image in fullscreen In Manchester City’s 2-1 win aga...
1 Roughed up by Ramos It was surely the worst moment of Mohamed Salah’s Liverpool career, yet the reaction said everything about his impact on the English game; the respect he had earned in his first season at Anfield. It was not just the Liverpool support who were upset to see Salah so upset, leaving the pitch at Kyiv’s Olimpiyskiy Stadium in tears, utterly inconsolable, having been levered out o...
1 Roughed up by Ramos It was surely the worst moment of Mohamed Salah’s Liverpool career, yet the reaction said everything about his impact on the English game; the respect he had earned in his first season at Anfield. It was not just the Liverpool support who were upset to see Salah so upset, leaving the pitch at Kyiv’s Olimpiyskiy Stadium in tears, utterly inconsolable, having been levered out of the biggest game of his life by Real Madrid’s pantomime villain, Sergio Ramos. It was fans of all stripes. After the season Salah had enjoyed, what he did and how he carried himself, everyone knew he did not deserve this. There was the sense that Salah’s humility as much as his brilliance transcended tribal divides. Liverpool had high hopes for Salah when they signed him from Roma in the summer of 2017. He soared beyond them; his debut season underpinned by an intoxicating certainty. He did not think he was going to score whenever he stepped on to the pitch; he knew it. There were 44 goals in all competitions; 16 assists into the bargain. He was voted the Professional Footballers’ Associations’s player of the year and the Champions League final was to be the crowning glory. Ramos had other ideas, his subtle yet brutal hold-and-twist move damaging Salah’s shoulder ligaments. When he went off in the 30th minute, it was 0-0. Madrid won 3-1. The episode advertised something else – Salah’s steeliness, his obsession with using tough moments as fuel. There was a redemption story to be written in the Champions League. Salah would write it. DH 2 Persistence pays off against Spurs in 2019 In the final nine matches of the 2018-19 season, all of them won by the two title rivals, the latest Manchester City took an ultimately decisive lead was in the 70th minute of their penultimate game, through Vincent Kompany’s famous strike against Leicester. Mohamed Salah and his Liverpool teammates put themselves and the fans through the wringer time and again to stay on City’s shoulders. Three o...
Italian is overwhelming favourite in the men’s draw while women’s event has several genuine contenders Daniil Medvedev sighed deeply. He had been asked in his pre-French Open press conference to provide some of the intel he gleaned from his spectacular last battle, yet for once he did not have much to say. Medvedev had produced a brilliant performance in the semi-finals of the Italian Open last we...
Italian is overwhelming favourite in the men’s draw while women’s event has several genuine contenders Daniil Medvedev sighed deeply. He had been asked in his pre-French Open press conference to provide some of the intel he gleaned from his spectacular last battle, yet for once he did not have much to say. Medvedev had produced a brilliant performance in the semi-finals of the Italian Open last week, eviscerating the ball off both sides and dragging his opponent off the baseline, scarcely making an error despite their incredibly physical, attritional battle. It was the best level any player had shown against Jannik Sinner, the current undisputed No 1, since the Australian Open in January. He still left the court with only one set. “It’s super tough,” said Medvedev on the challenge of facing Sinner. “Actually, any match that we saw even this year, because I think he lost only two, the only way to beat him, you need to be at your best for all four, five sets. You need to run, be strong, to serve well, to return well. Everything needs to be on the top level, because him, his game is everything at the top level.” Continue reading...
On the eve of the most controversial sports event of the 21st century so far, one swimmer is explaining how it felt to take banned drugs for the first time. “I was anxious, to be honest,” says Andriy Govorov, the 50m butterfly world record-holder. “Because there’s no way back.” The 34-year-old Ukrainian points to his backside. That is where the first needle carrying performance-enhancing drugs wen...
On the eve of the most controversial sports event of the 21st century so far, one swimmer is explaining how it felt to take banned drugs for the first time. “I was anxious, to be honest,” says Andriy Govorov, the 50m butterfly world record-holder. “Because there’s no way back.” The 34-year-old Ukrainian points to his backside. That is where the first needle carrying performance-enhancing drugs went into his body. Then to his stomach. That one hurt less. “I don’t like needles being stuck in me,” Govorov says. “When I was younger, I would pass out when I had blood tests.” But Govorov is being mightily rewarded for signing up for the Enhanced Games in Las Vegas this Sunday. The event has been called the Steroid Olympics, because it allows athletes to use anabolic steroids, testosterone and human growth hormone, which are outlawed in elite sport. But the rewards are great for those involved. If all goes well, Govorov could end up around $1m richer. Yet he is far from alone in chasing riches in the desert. There are 42 athletes competing in the Enhanced Games, in swimming, athletics and weightlifting, of whom around half are Olympians. They include Britain’s Ben Proud, who won a 50m freestyle swimming silver medal at the Paris Games, and Fred Kerley, the 2022 world 100m champion and Paris 2024 bronze medallist. Proud is on a mid-six-figure salary with Enhanced. If he were to win the 50m and 100m freestyle, and swim faster than the current world records, he could walk away with another $2.5m. Not bad money for a swimmer who was struggling to get by on lottery funding when he was training for the Paris Olympics. View image in fullscreen The Ukrainian swimmer Andriy Govorov, who holds the world record in the 50m butterfly, at the Enhanced Games pool at Resorts World in Las Vegas. Photograph: Sean Ingle/The Guardian Yet the idea of an event that trumpets the use of banned drugs has appalled traditional sports and the bodies that regulate them. The World Anti-Doping Agency, f...
Arsenal In this age of the managerial revolving door, I’m enormously proud that the Premier League champions (man, does that sound sweet!) stand as the antithesis to that. Admittedly, “trusting the process” aged a lot of us massively, but the agony of the past three campaigns evaporated with the final whistle at the Vitality. Sure, it would’ve been great to have enjoyed the sort of free-flowing fo...
Arsenal In this age of the managerial revolving door, I’m enormously proud that the Premier League champions (man, does that sound sweet!) stand as the antithesis to that. Admittedly, “trusting the process” aged a lot of us massively, but the agony of the past three campaigns evaporated with the final whistle at the Vitality. Sure, it would’ve been great to have enjoyed the sort of free-flowing football that the Cherries produced, but you won’t find a Gooner anywhere who gives a monkey’s how Mikel got us over the line. 19 great clean sheets. In the words of Fergie, attack wins games, but defence wins titles. Season rating: 10/10 Stars/flops Raya, Gabriel, Saliba and Rice were so consistent. But Martinelli managed only one league goal, Madueke lacked composure in front of goal and, while Eze’s one-man demolition of Spurs guarantees him cult status, he’s often struggled to influence proceedings. What we need in the summer To shed some of the deadwood (Nørgaard, Vieira), and add dynamism to our attack (Barcola, Gibbs-White, Anderson, Tonali?) Best/worst away fans Atlético Madrid’s staunch support in the face of defeat was impressive. Spurs fans are always worst. Moment that made me smile The exposure of Hincapié’s backside against Burnley. But the biggest ear-to-ear grin came from the unbridled joy of Tuesday night’s celebrations in the streets around my Highbury home. And I’m hoping there’s more to come. My first question to the oncologist when I was diagnosed with cancer in 2013 was whether I’d live long enough to witness Arsenal winning the Champions League. Her response might have been: “Will any of us?” but having schlepped the length and breadth of Europe these past 30-odd years in search of that elusive trophy and, having felt like we were robbed by Barça in Paris in 2006, if we can triumph against PSG in Budapest then I’ll be able to shuffle off this mortal coil a contented man! View image in fullscreen Unbridled joy: Arsenal fans outside the Emirates. Photogra...
When I joined the cast of Love Island in 2021, I already semi-knew that reality TV wasn’t “real”. I grew up with parents who constantly reminded me not to believe everything I saw on TV or online. But I was not fully prepared for just how constructed reality TV actually is: producers shape narratives, conflict drives engagement and contestants ultimately become part of a product designed for enter...
When I joined the cast of Love Island in 2021, I already semi-knew that reality TV wasn’t “real”. I grew up with parents who constantly reminded me not to believe everything I saw on TV or online. But I was not fully prepared for just how constructed reality TV actually is: producers shape narratives, conflict drives engagement and contestants ultimately become part of a product designed for entertainment, rather than simply living their “reality” in the moment. After watching the BBC Panorama investigation into Channel 4’s Married at First Sight, I found myself asking a much bigger question: at what point does “good TV” come at the expense of basic human safety? The allegations raised in the documentary are deeply serious. Two women made allegations that they were raped by their on-screen husbands on the show, while another described an alleged non-consensual sex act. The allegations are disputed by those accused; Channel 4’s CEO said the broadcaster believed that when welfare concerns were raised, it had acted “quickly, appropriately, sensitively and with wellbeing front and centre”, while the production company, CPL, defended its welfare systems as “industry-leading”. But the documentary exposed something many former reality-TV contestants already know: welfare in reality TV is often reactive, not preventive. The public perception of reality TV is that contestants are heavily protected. There is a psychologist. There are welfare check-ins. There are producers everywhere. But safeguarding still relies heavily on disclosure. Someone has to say they feel unsafe before intervention happens. The problem is that trauma, coercion and manipulation do not always announce themselves clearly in real time, especially when you are in an environment completely detached from normal life. View image in fullscreen The BBC Panorama documentary on Married at First Sight aired earlier this week. Photograph: BBC I have always described participating in Love Island as feeling a bit li...
Philippine Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio has twice in recent weeks urged the country’s armed forces to defend its sovereignty, in a carefully calibrated attempt to sound more assertive on the South China Sea issue without directly challenging Beijing, according to analysts. While Duterte-Carpio did not name China, her repeated calls marked a tonal shift from her earlier approach, when she eit...
Philippine Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio has twice in recent weeks urged the country’s armed forces to defend its sovereignty, in a carefully calibrated attempt to sound more assertive on the South China Sea issue without directly challenging Beijing, according to analysts. While Duterte-Carpio did not name China, her repeated calls marked a tonal shift from her earlier approach, when she either avoided the issue or warned against letting it define Manila’s broader relationship with Beijing. Duterte-Carpio is widely seen as the current front runner for the 2028 presidential race, raising questions over whether she would continue the China-friendly approach of her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte , or adjust it at a time of growing public concern over maritime sovereignty. Advertisement In a video message marking the Philippine Navy’s 128th anniversary on Wednesday, Duterte-Carpio praised naval personnel for their “steadfast commitment to defending our sovereignty and the integrity of our maritime territory”. A Philippine soldier peers through a telescope from a viewing deck in Philippine-occupied Thitu Island in the disputed South China Sea on February 21. Photo: Reuters “Amid the challenges in our seas, you serve as the nation’s first line of defence. Your duty is no small task – protecting our territory means safeguarding the future of the next generation of Filipinos,” she said.
On May 20, Nvidia (NVDA 1.86%) released its financial results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2027, which ended on April 26. Despite what the market's reaction suggests -- shares were trending slightly down following the chipmaker's update -- Nvidia's results were strong. The company's revenue of $81.6 billion soared by 85% year over year, beating its own projection and analyst estimates. The...
On May 20, Nvidia (NVDA 1.86%) released its financial results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2027, which ended on April 26. Despite what the market's reaction suggests -- shares were trending slightly down following the chipmaker's update -- Nvidia's results were strong. The company's revenue of $81.6 billion soared by 85% year over year, beating its own projection and analyst estimates. The tech leader's adjusted net earnings per share came in at $1.87, 140% higher than the year-ago period. Further, Nvidia's second-quarter guidance was strong. Beyond Nvidia's results, management made several comments that suggest the company's medium-term outlook remains bright. Let's look into one of them and discuss what it means for investors. Tapping into a new opportunity Nvidia remains the undisputed leader in the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) space, with a market share of more than 90%, according to some estimates. GPUs are especially well-suited for training artificial intelligence (AI) models because they can perform many calculations in parallel. That's why demand for Nvidia's AI chips has been relentless in recent years, driving outstanding revenue and earnings growth. However, we are moving into a new era in the AI revolution: Agentic AI. In this new world order of AI agents, or autonomous systems that can plan and execute actions toward a goal with little human supervision, CPUs (Central Processing Units) will become increasingly important. The inference phase of AI, where trained models perform what they were designed to do (agents are firmly in this phase), runs on CPUs. Expand NASDAQ : NVDA Nvidia Today's Change ( -1.86 %) $ -4.09 Current Price $ 215.42 Key Data Points Market Cap $5.2T Day's Range $ 214.84 - $ 221.07 52wk Range $ 132.92 - $ 236.54 Volume 5.8M Avg Vol 171.3M Gross Margin 74.15 % Dividend Yield 0.02 % It is to that end that Nvidia developed its Vera CPU that can be used as a stand-alone chip or bundled with the Rubin GPU. Vera CPU was specifica...