Rusty Glover , an Alabama Republican state senate candidate accustomed to bare-bones political campaigns, this year is facing an onslaught of advertisements on video streaming services attacking him as a greedy “career politician.” A group funded by sports gambling companies FanDuel and DraftKings poured more than $2.2 million into ads to defeat Glover, a gambling opponent, in a suburban Mobile di...
Rusty Glover , an Alabama Republican state senate candidate accustomed to bare-bones political campaigns, this year is facing an onslaught of advertisements on video streaming services attacking him as a greedy “career politician.” A group funded by sports gambling companies FanDuel and DraftKings poured more than $2.2 million into ads to defeat Glover, a gambling opponent, in a suburban Mobile district with fewer than 150,000 residents, according to ad analytics company AdImpact. The same group also barraged the district with more than a dozen mailers and a wave of anti-Glover phone calls. US corporations, faced with a legislative logjam in Washington, are increasingly bringing their financial power to bear on state-level election campaigns through super political action committees targeting those contests as they seek to shape regulations. “This represents a new frontier of the super PAC game,” said Michael Beckel , a money in politics expert at bipartisan ethics group Issue One. “More and more companies are putting money into state legislative races, where they can see almost immediate return on investment.” Meta Platforms Inc. earlier this year gave $45 million to a super PAC targeting state races. Leading the Future, a pro-artificial intelligence super PAC backed by AI billionaires Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz which plans to spend a combined $125 million this year on state and federal elections, announced in April it would intervene in state contests across Florida, Michigan, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Texas. The companies behind the sports gambling platforms FanDuel, DraftKings and Fanatics Sportsbook poured $41 million into a new super PAC to spend on state-level candidates across the country. During the last midterm elections four years ago, the largest corporate-funded spender on state races was the National Association of Realtors , which put $16 million into state and local races, according to OpenSecrets . The $2.24 million the sports gambling com...
After three years of explosions, redesigns and technical upgrades, SpaceX ’s mission-critical Starship is scheduled to launch its dozenth test flight as soon as this week. With its mega-IPO fast approaching, the company really needs the rocket to work as advertised. SpaceX has laid out many lofty goals before its initial public offering , and almost all hinge on its behemoth Starship being able to...
After three years of explosions, redesigns and technical upgrades, SpaceX ’s mission-critical Starship is scheduled to launch its dozenth test flight as soon as this week. With its mega-IPO fast approaching, the company really needs the rocket to work as advertised. SpaceX has laid out many lofty goals before its initial public offering , and almost all hinge on its behemoth Starship being able to transport a whole lot of heavy stuff into space all at once. The rocket is supposed to deploy a larger fleet of Starlink satellites, start a human base on the moon and set in motion Elon Musk ’s latest grand vision: a system of more than 1 million data center satellites to support artificial intelligence. Starship, built and launched out of SpaceX’s Starbase facility in South Texas, is also meant to unlock the company’s ultimate goal of starting a human settlement on Mars. Musk and SpaceX have long proclaimed that Starship — which the company calls “the world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever developed” — will be able to deliver 100 to 150 metric tons of cargo to low-Earth orbit, or LEO. Last year, however, SpaceX admitted that the Starship prototypes it had been launching so far were only capable of getting roughly 35 tons to LEO; that’s less than the capability of the company’s Falcon Heavy rocket and barely more than its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, the least powerful of its fleet. For comparison, NASA’s massive moon rocket, the Space Launch System , which just lofted a crew of four astronauts around the moon for the Artemis II mission , can carry 95 metric tons to LEO. A representative for SpaceX didn’t respond to a request for comment. But Musk has vowed that the latest version of Starship, called Version 3 or V3 , will make up for this shortfall. Sporting redesigned Raptor main engines, the vehicle is a “ gigantic upgrade ,” he said on the All-In podcast in September. “Version 3 might have some initial teething pains because it’s such a radical redesign,” he said. “B...
undefined China’s retail sales barely grew in April, posting the weakest expansion since December 2022 as reduced stimulus support weighed on consumer spending. Retail sales rose 0.2% year-on-year last month, slowing 1.5 percentage points from March , according to data released Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics. That missed the 1.9% average forecast in a Caixin survey of economists.
undefined China’s retail sales barely grew in April, posting the weakest expansion since December 2022 as reduced stimulus support weighed on consumer spending. Retail sales rose 0.2% year-on-year last month, slowing 1.5 percentage points from March , according to data released Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics. That missed the 1.9% average forecast in a Caixin survey of economists.
Seeking Alpha Seeking Alpha Seeking Alpha Seeking Alpha Seeking Alpha Seeking Alpha More on Baidu Baidu Q1 Earnings Preview: Kunlunxin IPO Makes BIDU's Valuation Math Irrational Baidu: Q4 Results Continue To Re-Affirm Structural Slowdown Baidu: Pivoting To AI Infrastructure, Robotaxis, And Embodied Robotics At A Discount Baidu Non-GAAP EPADS of $1.75 beats by $0.07, revenue of $4.65B in-line Baidu...
Seeking Alpha Seeking Alpha Seeking Alpha Seeking Alpha Seeking Alpha Seeking Alpha More on Baidu Baidu Q1 Earnings Preview: Kunlunxin IPO Makes BIDU's Valuation Math Irrational Baidu: Q4 Results Continue To Re-Affirm Structural Slowdown Baidu: Pivoting To AI Infrastructure, Robotaxis, And Embodied Robotics At A Discount Baidu Non-GAAP EPADS of $1.75 beats by $0.07, revenue of $4.65B in-line Baidu Q1 preview: AI cloud growth, Kunlunxin IPO to be in focus
Chinese electric vehicle maker Xpeng said on Monday it had begun mass production of its first robotaxi at its Guangzhou headquarters, targeting fully driverless operations by early 2027. The Tesla rival is accelerating its shift toward driverless vehicles and humanoid robotics as competition intensifies in the world’s largest auto market. The new robotaxi, built on Xpeng's GX platform, is...
Chinese electric vehicle maker Xpeng said on Monday it had begun mass production of its first robotaxi at its Guangzhou headquarters, targeting fully driverless operations by early 2027. The Tesla rival is accelerating its shift toward driverless vehicles and humanoid robotics as competition intensifies in the world’s largest auto market. The new robotaxi, built on Xpeng's GX platform, is China’s first "production-ready, pre-assembled robotaxi model developed entirely with in-house technologies," the company said.
Key PointsWarren Buffett's retirement as CEO on Dec. 31 means Greg Abel has the final say on Berkshire's day-to-day operations and its mammoth investment portfolio.
Key PointsWarren Buffett's retirement as CEO on Dec. 31 means Greg Abel has the final say on Berkshire's day-to-day operations and its mammoth investment portfolio.
The US and the Philippines are moving “very, very quickly” on a planned artificial intelligence and supply chain hub in the Southeast Asian nation, a top US official said, as Washington seeks long-term protection for American investors. “Investors who are going to spend billions of dollars to build out very expensive capex need to make sure that those investments need to outlive administrations in...
The US and the Philippines are moving “very, very quickly” on a planned artificial intelligence and supply chain hub in the Southeast Asian nation, a top US official said, as Washington seeks long-term protection for American investors. “Investors who are going to spend billions of dollars to build out very expensive capex need to make sure that those investments need to outlive administrations in both of our countries and there needs to be an element of durability and certainty,” Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg said on Monday, referring to capital expenditure. Helberg visited the proposed 4,000-acre site in New Clark City, north of Manila, and brought with him over a dozen American companies. There will be detailed discussions on how to provide investor protection and ensure “that our approach also makes sense for the Philippines.” Asked about media reports that Americans based in the site will have diplomatic immunity once it’s operational, the Philippines’ Bases Conversion and Development Authority Chief Executive Officer Joshua Bingcang said: “That’s their request but we did not agree to that.” Plans for the industrial hub were announced last month as the Philippines joined Pax Silica, a Washington-led supply-chain alliance that also includes Australia, India, Israel, Japan and the UK. The Philippines became the 13th country to join the grouping under the State Department’s flagship effort on AI and supply chain security. The site in Clark will be Pax Silica’s first AI-native industrial acceleration hub, envisioned to support emerging industries in AI, digital infrastructure, advanced manufacturing and future-ready technologies, according to the BCDA.
Robert Way/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Introduction It has been quite some time since I last covered Robinhood Markets, Inc. ( HOOD ). Last year, I rated the stock a Hold three different times in a row, as my core thesis did not change. At the time, I believed current investors could take advantage of the trend by holding, but I found the stock too expensive for a new position and expected a...
Robert Way/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Introduction It has been quite some time since I last covered Robinhood Markets, Inc. ( HOOD ). Last year, I rated the stock a Hold three different times in a row, as my core thesis did not change. At the time, I believed current investors could take advantage of the trend by holding, but I found the stock too expensive for a new position and expected a better opportunity to arise later. The second article implied that I expected a better opportunity to arise later this year. Seeking Alpha In fact, HOOD has already lost quite a bit of its market value, as investors are starting to digest its slowdown combined with their extended valuation, bringing HOOD's stock performance roughly in line with the S&P 500 index ( SPX ), which it previously surpassed by a significant margin. Data by YCharts In my view, HOOD remains a Hold at today’s levels. The stock has corrected quite a bit already, making a Sell unnecessary, and holding the stock is likely the better course of action for current investors, as innovation remains fast. However, I still view valuation as high and see a few very short-term headwinds that could compress the multiple further. I believe there could be an asymmetric opportunity to buy the stock this year, so I will maintain coverage. Let’s dive in. Update On The Bearish Part Of My Thesis At the beginning, a meaningful part of my bear case was HOOD’s revenue mix. Net interest revenue represented a large part of total revenue while rate-cut expectations were still prominent. In that environment, I believed HOOD could face pressure if the Fed moved into a more aggressive cutting cycle. Net interest revenue remains a significant share of total revenues, now at around 26% for the last twelve months. This is declining from levels of over 30%, however. That concern has become less relevant for now. The FedWatch tool currently implies a 30% chance of a cut in June and only one cut for the next twelve months. While stil...