Japan’s quest for rare earth self-sufficiency and its drive to decouple from Chinese supply chains have prompted the government to consider building a dedicated deep-sea mining vessel to recover minerals from the Pacific Ocean floor. Local media reported that the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s special committee on ocean development will soon present a draft proposal to the Takaichi administrati...
Japan’s quest for rare earth self-sufficiency and its drive to decouple from Chinese supply chains have prompted the government to consider building a dedicated deep-sea mining vessel to recover minerals from the Pacific Ocean floor. Local media reported that the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s special committee on ocean development will soon present a draft proposal to the Takaichi administration, calling for unspecified project funding. While the initiative will face technological and...
Earnings Call Insights: Rumble (RUM) Q1 2026 Management view "This should be the last call before Rumble meaningfully enters into the Cloud and Agentic AI era" (Founder, Chairman & CEO Christopher Pavlovski), adding that "as the transaction with Northern Data is set to close in June, Rumble will undergo a major transformation" and that "Cloud will become a pillar alongside video." "Rumble has secu...
Earnings Call Insights: Rumble (RUM) Q1 2026 Management view "This should be the last call before Rumble meaningfully enters into the Cloud and Agentic AI era" (Founder, Chairman & CEO Christopher Pavlovski), adding that "as the transaction with Northern Data is set to close in June, Rumble will undergo a major transformation" and that "Cloud will become a pillar alongside video." "Rumble has secured approximately 81% of Northern Data's outstanding shares, and we've received all required regulatory approvals for the business combination" (Founder, Chairman & CEO Pavlovski), and he said Northern Data "reported... record revenue of roughly EUR 43 million" in Q1 and "confirmed its full year 2026 revenue outlook of between EUR 130 million and EUR 150 million." "We are currently in negotiations with multiple customers for GPU-as-a-Service" (Founder, Chairman & CEO Pavlovski), who also said Rumble has "several non-dilutive GPU financing offers in hand" and highlighted "one-click OpenClaw deployment on Rumble Cloud" as part of its CPU-as-a-Service efforts. "Anchorage Digital... has selected Rumble Cloud as an infrastructure partner" (Founder, Chairman & CEO Pavlovski), calling it "a clear signal that Rumble Cloud is gaining traction with high-value, mission-critical workloads." "Our MAUs hit 56 million monthly active users" (Founder, Chairman & CEO Pavlovski), who attributed the increase to "our marketing efforts with international expansion and Rumble Shorts" and said Shorts reached "roughly 2 million unique video views in a single day" in May; he added, "since Shorts is not yet monetized, its growth had a negative impact on our ARPU" and "we are planning to roll out monetization of Shorts in the second half of this year." "The growth of [Rumble Wallet] will be heavily fueled by the $100 million advertising commitment from Tether" (Founder, Chairman & CEO Pavlovski), who said the commitment "has begun to slowly scale" in Q2 and that Rumble plans to "materially scale in th...
Earnings Call Insights: Pixelworks (PXLW) Q1 2026 Management view "As previewed on the previous conference call in February, Q1 was a transformational quarter for Pixelworks." (President, CEO & Chairman Todd DeBonis) "After closing the sale of our Shanghai-based semiconductor subsidiary and receiving the net cash proceeds from the transaction in early January, we completed a series of planned rest...
Earnings Call Insights: Pixelworks (PXLW) Q1 2026 Management view "As previewed on the previous conference call in February, Q1 was a transformational quarter for Pixelworks." (President, CEO & Chairman Todd DeBonis) "After closing the sale of our Shanghai-based semiconductor subsidiary and receiving the net cash proceeds from the transaction in early January, we completed a series of planned restructuring actions to streamline the remaining organization and cost structure." (President, CEO & Chairman DeBonis) "We ended the first quarter with cash balance of $58 million and $0 debt." (President, CEO & Chairman DeBonis) "We exited the first quarter as a repositioned, well-capitalized and focused company with our entire team supporting the go-forward strategy of building a global technology licensing business." (President, CEO & Chairman DeBonis) "We continue to have ownership of salient intellectual property, including over 60 issued and pending patents anchored by our industry-leading TrueCut Motion platform and motion grading services." (President, CEO & Chairman DeBonis) "We recently completed work on one of our most complex motion grading projects to date" for "Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft - The Tour Live in 3D." (President, CEO & Chairman DeBonis) "At the Annual CinemaCon Conference held in April, the atmosphere was observably upbeat with year-to-date box office sales tracking approximately 20% higher over the same period in 2025." (President, CEO & Chairman DeBonis) "We recently added another published endorsement with Vue, the largest privately owned cinema operator in Europe to bring our advanced TrueCut Motion grading technology to their premium theaters." (President, CEO & Chairman DeBonis) "On March 30, the Board of Directors authorized a newly established stock repurchase program in the amount of $5 million." (Chief Financial Officer Haley Green) Outlook "Although we are not providing quarterly financial guidance" management reiterated that "starti...
African governments are increasingly turning to unconventional borrowing strategies, as high global interest rates and volatile currencies keep many shut out of traditional dollar funding markets, according to Citigroup Inc. Sovereigns and even some corporates are “looking to borrow in lower-yielding currencies, lower-interest rate currencies, not just in Eastern currencies, but also things like S...
African governments are increasingly turning to unconventional borrowing strategies, as high global interest rates and volatile currencies keep many shut out of traditional dollar funding markets, according to Citigroup Inc. Sovereigns and even some corporates are “looking to borrow in lower-yielding currencies, lower-interest rate currencies, not just in Eastern currencies, but also things like Swiss franc, even the euro to a certain extent,” Akin Dawodu , Citigroup’s head of sub-Saharan Africa, said in an interview on the sidelines of the Africa CEO Forum in Kigali. They are doing so “with a view to lowering borrowing costs and debt service costs,” he said. The shift underscores how African governments are beginning to explore financing tools once considered too complex or out of reach for lower-rated economies, as they grapple with rising debt-service costs, weakening currencies and tighter access to international capital markets. It also reflects growing strain on public finances, prompting issuers to think more creatively about managing debt obligations, Dawodu said. Nigeria said last month it plans to raise $5 billion from the United Arab Emirates, joining Angola and Senegal in turning to swaps for funding. Kenya is eyeing a $1 billion debt-for-food swap and plans to issue a $350 million Samurai bond before the end of June, while South Africa central bank chief Lesetja Kganyago has said it would be open to tapping euro liquidity lines. Elsewhere, Egypt has pursued yuan financing and diversified bond sales as it deepens ties with China. “There’s lots of interest in African issuers and African debt,” because of the continent’s growth potential and natural resources,” Dawodu said. Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to be the world’s second-fastest-growing region this year, expanding 4.3%, behind only emerging and developing Asia, according to the International Monetary Fund . But these more sophisticated instruments also carry new risks, particularly for governments ...
CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Cuban officials including Raúl Castro's grandson during a high-level visit to the island Thursday, Cuban and U.S. officials said. (Image credit: Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Cuban officials including Raúl Castro's grandson during a high-level visit to the island Thursday, Cuban and U.S. officials said. (Image credit: Julia Demaree Nikhinson)