News linked to this event type.
According to TechFlow Research, a Bank of America research report on August 10 pointed out that NVIDIA signed a memorandum of understanding with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs, and KKR to mobilize over $500 billion in third-party capital through an independent platform. Previously, NVIDIA invested approximately $70 billion in equity in ecosystem partners such as OpenAI and Anthropic, accounting for only 15% of the expected free cash flow of $470 billion from 2026 to 2027, without affecting the commitment to return 50% of free cash flow to shareholders. Bank of America believes the financing structure shifts the capital burden from NVIDIA to the consortium. GPU computing power can be transferred across operators, and CUDA extends the service life, with the asset quality itself resisting depreciation. The $500 billion fund pool allows non-investment grade buyers to acquire GPUs at preferential rates, transforming AI computing power acquisition from capital-intensive purchases to financial leasing, supporting the $1.7 trillion AI system TAM by 2030. Bank of America maintains a Buy rating with a target price of $350, corresponding to 26 times the expected earnings per share in 2027. The upcoming earnings conference call is the next important catalyst.
NVIDIA announced partnerships with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs, and KKR to establish an independent financing platform. The platform aims to mobilize over $500 billion in third-party capital over the long term to support AI infrastructure development.
Odaily News: GPU market data infrastructure company Silicon Data has announced the first closing of its $30.5 million Series A funding round, led by Valor Atreides AI Fund, with participation from CME Ventures, DRW, Samsung Next, VanEck, Jump Trading, Wintermute, and others. The funds will be used for GPU benchmark pricing, performance measurement, institutional and alternative data, as well as risk infrastructure for derivatives, insurance, and credit markets.Silicon Data currently collects data from approximately 100 GPU rental platforms across more than 40 countries worldwide, processing over 150,000 verified price records daily. CME Group plans to adopt Silicon Data's benchmarks as the reference price for its proposed cash-settled GPU futures contracts, pending regulatory approval.
Odaily News: Global venture capital firm Accel has announced that it has raised $3.5 billion in new funds for early-stage investments worldwide. A total of four funds were raised, including a global expansion fund of $1.35 billion for larger early-stage rounds and follow-on investments; a U.S. fund and a Europe and Israel fund, each sized at $800 million; and an India fund of $550 million.Accel partner Harry Nelis said that companies are raising more capital earlier in their lifecycle than ever before, creating opportunities for investors, while the scale of risk remains.Accel has invested in AI companies such as Anthropic, Cursor, and Perplexity. (bloomberg)
Odaily News: Connecticut Federal District Court Judge Vernon D. Oliver denied Kalshi's motion for a preliminary injunction, ruling that its sports event contracts do not constitute swaps under the Commodity Exchange Act. The CFTC therefore does not hold exclusive jurisdiction. The ruling noted that sports event contracts account for 80% to 90% of Kalshi's listed contracts and revenue, and the CFTC has never reviewed any of these contracts under relevant special rules. Oliver held that event outcomes fall under the category of event results, not separate events. Coinbase Financial Markets suffered a similar defeat on the same grounds, having offered Kalshi contracts through its platform since January as a futures commission merchant rather than a designated contract market, and Connecticut had not previously issued a cease-and-desist order against it. Kalshi was valued at approximately $11 billion at the time of its February hearing, with around 24,000 users in the state. (Bitcoin.com News)
Empery Digital sold 1,635 Bitcoin between July 1 and August 6, raising $102.2 million, with holdings reduced to 1,279 BTC. Of these, 954 BTC have been pledged as collateral for a $35 million debt, leaving only 325 BTC unrestricted, a notable decrease from 1,375 BTC on June 30. In the first half of this year, Empery Digital also sold 1,167 Bitcoin, generating $80.1 million, while spending $54 million to repurchase shares, repay $50 million under a repurchase financing facility, and another $10 million loan. The company repaid $20 million in debt after June 30, with the lender returning 585 Bitcoin, reducing the collateralized amount from 1,539 BTC to 954 BTC. Empery Digital has invested $2.9 million in EMHU, an independent real estate project managed by Texstack, and may need to contribute an additional $62.1 million if the acquisition is completed. The company has also completed a $20 million investment in Cardinal Data Power, acquiring approximately 8% equity; as of June 30, the company held $3.7 million in cash including restricted cash, with a working capital deficit of $5.7 million. (Bitcoin.com News)
Odaily News: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will hold a public meeting on August 14 to consider proposing a "Regulation Crypto" rule framework that would allow certain crypto projects to raise funds without completing full securities registration. If public comment is initiated, this would mark the SEC's first formal, long-term crypto industry rulemaking. The framework is expected to establish a pathway for exiting SEC oversight: after project developers raise funds, if they no longer actively manage the project and the project achieves decentralization, it may fall outside SEC jurisdiction. SEC Chair Paul Atkins has previously stated that the exemption period could last up to four years, though the announcement did not disclose funding amount thresholds. The U.S. Senate did not advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act before entering its August recess. The final rule will still take several months to complete, and the meeting will be held at 10:00 a.m. ET on August 14. (Decrypt)
Odaily News: Itaú, the largest bank in Latin America by asset size, is partnering with OpenAssets to participate in an industry-led pilot of tokenized fixed income and investment funds. Brazil has become a testing ground for placing bonds, credit, and other financial assets on blockchain under a regulatory framework. (CoinDesk)
Odaily News: Brad Lightcap, Special Projects Lead and former Chief Operating Officer (COO) at OpenAI, is set to leave the company. Over the past year, Lightcap's responsibilities at OpenAI have been adjusted multiple times, with his most recent role being in charge of "special projects."Lightcap has long been a core member of OpenAI's management team. Earlier in 2026, during a company executive reshuffle, he transitioned from the COO position to lead special projects, overseeing cross-company matters including complex deals and strategic investments, reporting directly to CEO Sam Altman. His departure comes at a time when OpenAI is continuously expanding its commercialization efforts, advancing enterprise business, and pursuing strategic partnerships. Previously, the company had undergone multiple rounds of organizational restructuring, including transferring some COO responsibilities to other executives.Brad Lightcap joined OpenAI in 2018, having previously worked at Y Combinator and JPMorgan. He has been one of the key operations and business leaders during OpenAI's transformation from a research institution into a commercial AI company. (The Information)
: Retail bearish sentiment has hit a new multi-year record, while institutional positioning lags even further behind. As U.S. equities face an unprecedented disconnect between fundamentals and capital flows, analysts predict a rare "Wall Street expectation gap" is now underway. Last week, the S&P 500 index posted a cumulative gain of 22% since late March and broke through the 7,700-point mark for the first time in history. As investors digested the latest batch of earnings reports, the benchmark index closed roughly flat on Monday.Strategists at 22V Research have observed a notable divergence between the AAII Bull-Bear Spread and the firm's proprietary economic data index, which tracks a range of U.S. macro data releases. According to the firm's model, the current valuation deviation implies that the S&P 500 will rise by 1.6%, 5.1%, and 7.8% over the next one, three, and six months, respectively.Dennis DeBusschere, President and Chief Market Strategist at 22V Research, wrote in a note to clients: "The current reading of investor sentiment relative to economic data suggests market returns will be above normal levels."Alastair Pinder, Global Equity Strategist at HSBC, also noted that the many macro concerns that have emerged over the past few weeks have indeed given investors ample reason to question the current stock market rally.
Odaily News: Crypto-friendly bank Erebor Bank is in talks to raise $1.5 billion at a target valuation of $9.5 billion. The funds will be used to meet the 12% mandatory leverage ratio requirement and support loan business expansion, including a $200 million credit facility to Valar Atomics. Erebor Bank's total deposits grew from $1.1 billion in March to $4.6 billion in July, with customer growth primarily coming from the crypto, AI, and defense sectors. (CoinDesk)
Odaily News Tether-backed bitcoin treasury company Twenty One Capital (NYSE: XXI) has released its financial results for the second quarter of 2026, reporting a net loss of $413.5 million, primarily driven by a decline in the value of its bitcoin holdings.According to the financial report, approximately $401.5 million of Twenty One Capital's second-quarter loss was attributable to a decrease in the book value of its bitcoin assets. As the company uses bitcoin as its core asset allocation, fluctuations in BTC prices directly impact its financial performance.New CEO Raphael Zagury stated that Twenty One Capital can no longer exist solely as a "Bitcoin treasury" company, but needs to transform into a broader financial services platform. Zagury outlined that the company's next phase of plans will focus on three key directions, including: expanding its business footprint through mergers and acquisitions; enhancing financing capabilities through capital market instruments; and exploring bitcoin-collateralized lending businesses. (The Block)
According to The Information, AI infrastructure startup Trajectory announced it has completed a $40 million funding round at a post-money valuation of $300 million, with participation from Sequoia Capital. The company primarily provides open-source model customization services for enterprises and optimizes the software toolchain supporting AI agent operations.
: AI infrastructure startup Trajectory announced the completion of a $40 million funding round, with a post-investment valuation of $300 million, featuring participation from Sequoia Capital. The specific funding round and other investors have not yet been disclosed. Trajectory was founded by researchers from former tech companies such as Google and Apple, and primarily helps enterprises customize open-source AI models for specific business needs, while optimizing the software toolchain that supports AI Agent operations (i.e., the "Agent Harness").As the cost of using closed-source large language models continues to rise, more enterprises are seeking alternatives: on one hand, they reduce costs by fine-tuning and customizing open-source models; on the other hand, they improve Agent execution frameworks to enable AI models to call tools and execute tasks more effectively. This trend is driving a new wave of entrepreneurship centered around model adaptation and Agent infrastructure.Trajectory aims to address key challenges enterprises face when deploying AI Agents, including model performance optimization, task execution reliability, and adaptation to enterprise scenarios. The company hopes to help enterprises build more efficient and cost-effective AI applications by providing model customization and Agent operation infrastructure.Investors believe that as AI evolves from simple chatbots to Agents capable of autonomously executing complex tasks, a new infrastructure layer centered around model optimization and Agent engineering will become a significant market. Sequoia has also been continuously increasing its investment in the AI infrastructure field in recent years, including investments in AI Agents and enterprise AI applications. (The Information)
Odaily News: Prediction market platform Polymarket is undergoing an organizational upgrade in preparation for the upcoming fall trading peak, bringing in several new executives, restructuring its marketing system, and strengthening its compliance team in preparation for U.S. market expansion. Polymarket recently hired Travis VanderZanden, founder of shared e-scooter company Bird and former Uber and Lyft executive, as Chief Growth Officer, responsible for the company's growth strategy and marketing system development. VanderZanden stated that the prediction market is at a critical stage of rapid development, and the company needs to further improve its management team to support long-term growth.This adjustment comes as Polymarket faces regulatory scrutiny. Previously, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) had launched an investigation into its business model, related to the platform's marketing activities and promotional partnership policies. Sources say Polymarket has restructured its marketing department, updated rules for promotional partners, and provided relevant training to employees, while also hiring consulting firm AlixPartners to oversee whether content published by partners complies with the new standards.Meanwhile, Polymarket continues to strengthen its compliance and risk management capabilities for its U.S. operations. The company's U.S. trading platform has added several new executives in regulatory and risk roles, including former Robinhood executive Megan McGrath as Chief Compliance Officer for the U.S. platform, former Coinbase executive Natalie Oblazny overseeing U.S. regulatory affairs, former FBI and Coinbase employee Shana Bautista as Head of Global Investigations and Intelligence, and former Nasdaq executive Paul Jordan as Chief Risk Officer for the U.S. platform.Polymarket's U.S. trading platform went live in May this year and operates independently from its international business. With the NFL new season kicking off in September and the U.S. midterm elections approaching in November, the market expects a new wave of growth in prediction market trading activity.Previously, Polymarket had already become one of the representative platforms in the prediction market space and continues to seek expanded fundraising. According to reports, the company is currently seeking a new funding round at a valuation exceeding $20 billion. As institutional investors and professional traders gradually enter the prediction market, Polymarket is attempting to transform from a retail-facing, betting-style prediction platform into a more mature financial market infrastructure. (CNBC)
: Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, has launched a U.S. investment-grade bond offering, just two weeks after the company announced its approximately $6 billion acquisition of the electronic bond trading platform MarketAxess.According to sources familiar with the matter, ICE's bond issuance is planned in up to five tranches, with maturities ranging from 3 to 10 years. The initial pricing guidance for the longest-dated bonds is approximately 1.15 percentage points above U.S. Treasury yields.ICE previously announced that it would acquire MarketAxess Holdings for approximately $6 billion to further expand its footprint in the fixed-income trading market. MarketAxess is one of the world's leading electronic bond trading platforms, primarily serving institutional investors and providing trading services for fixed-income products such as corporate bonds and government bonds.This acquisition is seen as a significant move by ICE to strengthen its bond market infrastructure. ICE currently owns the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), futures exchanges, clearing houses, and data services businesses, while MarketAxess's electronic bond trading network will help ICE further expand its fixed-income asset trading ecosystem.Market participants noted that as bond trading becomes increasingly electronic, traditional exchange operators are competing for institutional investment market share through acquisitions of trading platforms and data companies. This financing also reflects the trend of major financial infrastructure companies supporting strategic mergers and acquisitions through the debt market. (Bloomberg)
Odaily News – River Markets, a startup building trading infrastructure for prediction markets, has announced the completion of an $8.5 million seed funding round, led by Haun Ventures with participation from Y Combinator, Coinbase Ventures, and Qube Research Technologies, among others. The new capital will primarily be used to expand the engineering team, enhance trading system speed and security, and grow institutional clientele, while also developing new tools to support large-scale capital management and cross-platform trading.In recent years, prediction markets have drawn attention from institutional investors. Data from industry platforms shows that institutional trading demand is growing rapidly. For example, prediction market platform Kalshi previously stated that its institutional trading volume increased by approximately 800% within six months. Meanwhile, market participants have begun using prediction markets for risk hedging, including building trading positions around real-world economic variables such as carbon emission allowances and GPU rental prices. (Fortune)
Odaily News: Erebor Bank, co-founded by Palmer Luckey and Joe Lonsdale, is seeking a $1.5 billion funding round, expected to be completed within a few weeks, with a pre-money valuation target of $8 billion. a16z and other institutions are listed as potential investors. The project's main business is to provide crypto-friendly banking services. Erebor Bank completed a $350 million funding round in December 2025, when it was valued at $435 million.
Odaily News According to Gate Ventures' latest weekly report, global risk assets have shown a clear recovery over the past week, with major US stock indices collectively hitting new all-time highs. The S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite, and Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 3.58%, 5.19%, and 2.96%, respectively. The crypto market also rebounded in tandem, with BTC up 2.1% on the week and ETH up 1.4%, bringing the total cryptocurrency market cap up 1.4%. On the capital flows front, BTC spot ETFs recorded net inflows of $853 million for the week, while ETH spot ETFs saw net inflows of $244.9 million, indicating further improvement in institutional demand.In terms of industry developments, the integration of traditional finance and blockchain continues to advance. BlackRock has appointed JPMorgan to push forward the tokenization of a European money market fund, exploring 24/7 transfer of blockchain-based fund shares. Grayscale has filed an S-1 registration statement for the first US Worldcoin ETF, further deepening the connection between digital assets and traditional financial markets. Stablecoin infrastructure also remained active, with Yellow Card completing a $40 million strategic funding round and planning to expand its stablecoin account and payment infrastructure into Latin America and the Asia-Pacific markets.On the investment and financing front, eight deals were completed last week, with total disclosed funding reaching $90.64 million, focused on the infrastructure track. Overall, market risk appetite has seen some recovery, with institutional-grade blockchain infrastructure, stablecoins, and asset tokenization remaining key areas of continued industry focus.
Odaily News: In an interview with CNBC's "Squawk Box," former White House Senior Advisor for Artificial Intelligence Policy, Sriram Krishnan, stated that a wave of cybersecurity startups leveraging AI to fight AI will emerge in the future.As AI model capabilities rapidly advance, especially with the increasing risk of "rogue AI models" capable of autonomous operation, the cybersecurity landscape will require new defense systems, including using AI technology to identify, monitor, and block AI-driven attacks in real time.Sriram Krishnan believes that the future of cybersecurity competition will evolve into an "AI offensive-defensive battle." Attackers may use AI to automatically discover vulnerabilities and launch attacks, while defenders must also rely on AI to enhance threat detection and response capabilities. This will create opportunities for a new generation of cybersecurity startups.During the interview, Krishnan also discussed topics such as the competitive landscape of the AI industry, Nvidia's $500 billion financing plan, and the global AI arms race. He pointed out that as investment in AI infrastructure continues to expand, computing power, model security, and network protection will become key components of the AI ecosystem.