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Driven by the profit surge from the AI boom and the impact of U.S. tariff policies, South Korean companies are launching their largest wave of U.S. investment and M&A in recent years. According to data from the South Korean Ministry of Economy and Finance, the actual foreign direct investment (FDI) by South Korean companies in the U.S. in the first quarter of this year more than doubled year-on-year to $10.2 billion, hitting a five-year high. Companies benefiting from the AI infrastructure boom, such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, are accelerating their布局 in the U.S. AI supply chain. Samsung has already participated in funding rounds for ZutaCore, a company specializing in AI data center liquid cooling, and Groq, an AI chip company. Meanwhile, SK Hynix plans to invest $10 billion in U.S. innovative enterprises. Investment bankers believe that with Chinese buyers exiting the M&A market for large-scale U.S. tech assets, South Korean companies are entering a "golden period" for U.S. M&A. (Financial Times)
according to sources familiar with the matter, AI robotics startup Genesis AI is in talks with investors for a new funding round, planning to raise approximately $500 million, corresponding to a pre-money valuation of around $3 billion. Existing investor Premji Invest is in discussions to lead the round, while HSG (formerly Sequoia China) and Northzone Ventures are also discussing additional investments.In June this year, Genesis AI launched an AI industrial robot named Eno. The company stated that Eno is capable of reasoning "beyond predefined tasks" and adapting based on different outcomes. (Bloomberg)
据 Decrypt 报道，巴西巴拉那州 Fazenda Engenho Velho 农场以 10 头奶牛为抵押，完成首笔在巴西证券交易所（B3）正式登记的代币化牲畜融资交易，贷款金额为 10 万雷亚尔（约 1.94 万美元）。每头奶牛通过农业科技公司 Cowmed 的 AI 传感器项圈采集健康、行为及位置数据，生成唯一加密数字身份，并以哈希方式写入信贷合约，全程无需实地农场核查。 该模式旨在解决银行对牲畜抵押普遍打折高达 60%的问题。背景方面，巴西农业破产申请 2025 年达 1990 件，较 2023 年的 534 件增长近四倍，农业信贷危机持续加剧。Cowmed 目前监控六国逾 10 万头奶牛，预计两年内将其中 20%（约 7760 万美元）纳入代币化抵押体系，并计划在 2026 年底前通过该模式撬动约 97 万美元信贷规模。
the whale "First Set Ten Big Goals" posted on platform X, stating that after closing their short position, they quickly re-established a long position because their medium-to-long-term outlook has not changed. They believe the key demarcation zone of the previous bull market was around $60,000, and currently, the mainstream mining cost for Bitcoin is roughly concentrated in the $50,000 to $60,000 range. Last month, Bitcoin quickly recovered after dipping to a low of $58,000, validating the support level in this area. They believe that, barring systemic risks or major fundamental changes, the risk-reward ratio of continuing to short at the current level is not favorable. After Bitcoin completed its consolidation and hand-changing in the $58,000 to $63,000 range, it finished its correction and firmly re-established support around $66,000. The market now has the conditions for further upward movement, and they do not rule out the possibility of a strong bullish candle pushing Bitcoin past $72,000.They also stated that the current valuation of the US stock market, especially the AI-related sectors, is relatively high, which could lead to increased volatility in the future. Furthermore, the correlation between Bitcoin and US stocks has significantly decreased compared to previous cycles. With continued institutional capital inflows and the strengthening of Bitcoin's asset attributes, Bitcoin is gradually forging its own independent market trend..
citing sources familiar with the matter, that Stripe is in talks to acquire OpenRouter. OpenRouter is a popular startup that helps developers choose between various AI models. According to insiders, a deal could be announced soon, but there is also the possibility that negotiations could collapse or other bidders could emerge. The specific price under discussion is not yet clear, but sources suggest the company may be valued at around $10 billion in a sale. The sources added that several other major tech companies have previously explored opportunities to acquire OpenRouter. Founded in 2023, OpenRouter sells software that allows clients to easily access AI models developed by OpenAI and Anthropic, as well as "open-weight" models that anyone can download and run for free. Acquiring OpenRouter would enable Stripe to capture a hot growth area in the AI market. (Jin Shi)
Zhibao Technology, a Nasdaq-listed digital insurance products company, announced it has signed a non-binding term sheet with Joyertech and Information OPC. The company plans to sell shares through a PIPE financing, receiving approximately 3,500 Bitcoins as consideration, valued at around $220 million at current prices. The transaction remains subject to final valuation, custody arrangements, audit verification, regulatory review, Nasdaq compliance, and the signing of a definitive agreement. According to the term sheet, upon the closing of the PIPE financing, the buyer is expected to designate a majority of the members of Zhibao's Board of Directors, while the existing management team will continue to be responsible for day-to-day operations. On July 15, Zhibao disclosed that it had received a deficiency notice from Nasdaq because its stock price had fallen below $1.00 per share. The company has 180 calendar days, until January 6, 2027, to regain compliance with Nasdaq's minimum bid price requirement of $1.00 per share.
AI chip startup Etched announced the completion of a $300 million Series C funding round, valuing the company at $10.3 billion. The round was led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), SK Hynix, Jane Street, and Diffusion Capital.Founded in 2022 by three Harvard dropouts, Etched was valued at approximately $5 billion when it raised $500 million in December 2025, meaning its valuation has doubled in just about seven months. Etched stated that it focuses on building specialized chip systems for AI model inference. The company has recently completed mass production of its self-developed chips and begun having customers test the first complete systems, while also securing approximately $1 billion in orders. (TechCrunch)
AI chip startup Etched announced the completion of a $300 million Series C funding round led by Sequoia Capital, with a valuation reaching $10.3 billion, doubling from last December. The company, founded by three Harvard dropouts, has successfully manufactured its self-developed chip and secured $1 billion in orders. Reportedly, its system can run any AI model, including DeepSeek and Qwen, demonstrating strong compatibility and market potential.
According to Bitget market data, during US stock market trading, Nasdaq 100 components showed mixed performance, with semiconductor equipment, industrial, and storage sectors leading gains, while tech giants, internet, and new energy vehicle sectors came under pressure and corrected. In terms of gains, Honeywell rose 6.59%, a global leader in industrial automation and aerospace systems, surging significantly boosted by better-than-expected earnings; Applied Materials rose 3.21%, a global leader in semiconductor equipment, benefiting from continued expansion of AI-driven fab capital expenditure; Micron rose 3.88%, a global leading memory chip manufacturer, supported by strong demand for HBM in AI servers; Lumentum rose 3.55%, focusing on photonics and laser technology solutions, deeply benefiting from the explosion in optical interconnect demand for AI data centers; Nebius NV rose 3.48%, a European AI cloud computing infrastructure platform, continuously benefiting from the expansion of AI computing power demand. In terms of declines, Tesla fell 13.42%, a global leader in new energy vehicles and AI robots, with earnings under pressure compounded by Musk admitting mass production challenges for robots, triggering significant market sell-off; Alphabet fell 7.02%, the world's largest search and cloud computing giant, with intensified AI competition landscape suppressing valuation; Amazon fell 4.31%,
: Bitcoin financial product platform Lombard Finance has announced the launch of the Bitcoin Onchain Credit Strategy, with global trading firm Flow Traders as the first pilot partner. Under this solution, Flow Traders can borrow stablecoins for market making without providing on-chain collateral. Its collateral security is provided by Bitcoin deposited in the Lombard Bitcoin Earn yield product, and underwriting is completed through the Cap private credit platform. (The Block)
Odaily NASDAQ-listed bitcoin treasury company Empery Digital has announced the completion of a $20 million strategic investment in preferred shares of AI data center developer Cardinal Data Power (CDP), acquiring approximately 8% equity in CDP upon transaction closing. This investment is a key component of CDP’s $70 million Series A funding round, with all proceeds allocated to the development of its first AI data center campus in West Texas, USA. (Businesswire)
: DeAgentAI, a decentralized AI infrastructure project on the SUI and BNB ecosystems, announced that its total buyback program of $5 million worth of AIA tokens has been fully executed. The first batch, involving the burning of 1 million AIA tokens, was completed earlier. This second batch burn of 10 million AIA tokens has now been completed, bringing the cumulative total burned to 11 million tokens, accounting for 23.1% of the total repurchased amount. All tokens have been sent to a black hole address for permanent destruction.Furthermore, DeAgentAI announced the official launch of a quarterly burning mechanism. Going forward, the AIA burn plan will be executed on a quarterly basis, marking the deflation mechanism's entry into a normalized phase. The funds for the buyback come from the project's protocol revenue and profits from its proprietary AI trading models, and are unrelated to external financing or token inflation.
According to PRNewswire, stablecoin operator Notabene announced it has received strategic investment from Ripple; the specific investment amount has not been disclosed yet. The two parties will collaborate on enterprise-level stablecoin payments, including integrating Ripple's USD stablecoin RLUSD into the Notabene Flow B2B stablecoin payment platform. Both parties also plan to further expand the application of RLUSD in institutional payment networks to accelerate the adoption of compliant stablecoin infrastructure by banks, payment institutions, and fintech companies.
stablecoin issuer Mandela Digital has announced the completion of a $5 million funding round, with Datavault AI participating. The new funds will be used for stablecoin infrastructure development, compliance, exchange integration, liquidity and marketing, as well as accelerating the launch of its 1:1 USD-pegged stablecoin, Mandela Dollar (MUSD). It is reported that MUSD aims to promote financial inclusion, cross-border remittances, and digital payments in the Global South. Datavault AI will also provide technical support for MUSD, including its AI platform, blockchain tokenization, SanQtum quantum-resistant cryptography, and Real World Asset (RWA) frameworks. (Globenewswire)
According to Korean media Daum, Korea Exchange data shows that from July 20 to 23, foreign investors made net purchases in the Korean stock market for 4 consecutive trading days, with cumulative net purchases of 5.574 trillion won, marking the first consecutive four-day net inflow since April. Among them, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix became the main targets of fund flows, receiving net purchases of 1.73 trillion won and 2.76 trillion won respectively, totaling 4.48 trillion won, accounting for over 80% of the total foreign net purchases during the same period. The market believes that tech giants such as Google continue to raise AI capital expenditure expectations, driving improved demand prospects for HBM and server DRAM, coupled with increased attractiveness of the two companies' valuations following prior adjustments, prompting foreign investors to concentrate on allocating to Korea's storage chip leaders.
sources familiar with the matter revealed Galaxy Digital Inc. plans to issue approximately $3.5 billion in high-yield bonds for the first time, aiming to fund data center projects associated with CoreWeave Inc. According to the sources, Galaxy Digital is marketing the bond issuance to investors at a yield of around 9%. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are acting as underwriters for this issuance, with pricing expected to be finalized on Thursday. The sources requested anonymity as the information has not yet been made public.
According to TechFlow Research, Goldman Sachs' July 20 Top of Mind report pointed out that U.S. IPO proceeds in 2026 have already exceeded $125 billion, breaking the full-year record of 2021, and are expected to exceed $200 billion for the full year. But the number of IPOs is only about 60, far lower than the 400 in 1999 and 250 in 2021 during bubble periods, mainly driven by a few mega-tech companies. Goldman Sachs Chief U.S. Equity Strategist Snider believes late-cycle warning signals have not yet appeared, the household sector has become net buyers, annualized IPO proceeds account for only about 1% of the S&P 500 market cap, and market absorption capacity is underestimated. University of Florida Professor Ritter pointed out that high issuance volume predicts low returns, but the signal accuracy is only slightly higher than random (about 52%). Acadian Fund Manager Lamont warned that the issuance wave is one of the "Four Horsemen" of bubbles, but may mark the beginning rather than the end of a bubble; currently, first-day gains do not show extreme speculation signals. All three experts believe that IPO volume is moderate, valuations have not reached bubble levels, first-day gains are not out of control, and true danger signals have not yet appeared. Snider expects company buybacks in 2026 to be about $1.3 trillion, enough to offset new supply. If the AI narrative or corporate earnings undergo a significant shift, market and IPO prospects will change accordingly.
According to official announcements, the Sui ecosystem Bitcoin financial platform Hashi testnet has officially launched. Hashi first debuted in March, aiming to provide a brand new way for BTC: unlocking value on Sui without leaving the Bitcoin network. Hashi transforms dormant BTC into secure, programmable collateral assets for institutional-grade lending, financing, and credit services, with all actions verifiable on-chain. Developers can now access the Hashi testnet to build and stress-test financial applications collateralized by Bitcoin,
Japan is expected to launch a Bitcoin ETF as early as 2028. With the revised Financial Instruments and Exchange Act bringing crypto assets under the regulatory scope of financial products, Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) plans to adjust rules related to investment trusts, allowing funds and ETFs to hold crypto assets as primary investment targets. Multiple asset management institutions have already expressed interest in participating. Japanese institutional investors' interest in crypto assets is on the rise. A survey by Nomura Holdings and Laser Digital shows that approximately 79% of institutional investors and family offices plan to invest in crypto assets within the next three years.However, unlike the US Bitcoin ETF, which is primarily driven by institutional funds, Japan's institutional investor base is relatively limited, and a high proportion of household financial assets are held in cash. Therefore, individual investor funds are likely to become the main source of inflows. Some analysts believe that Japan's Bitcoin ETF could attract up to 3 trillion yen in inflows by FY2028. (Nikkei)
Odaily Equity Research raised its target price for Hut 8 to $195 from $165 on Wednesday, citing the full commercialization of the company's Beacon Point AI data center campus in Texas.This is the second time Benchmark has raised its target price for Hut 8 this month. Last week, analyst Mark Palmer had already incorporated the first phase of the Beacon Point project into his valuation, raising the target from $85 to $165. The new target implies approximately 75% upside from Hut 8's stock price of around $111 on Wednesday.Hut 8 has now signed contracts for 949 megawatts of AI data center capacity, indicating its business is further pivoting from traditional Bitcoin mining towards AI infrastructure and power-driven data center models. Benchmark believes the company is evolving into a "power-first data center REIT," an infrastructure platform centered around power resources and data center assets.Hut 8's stock rose about 2% on Wednesday, bringing its year-to-date gains to nearly 120%. As demand for AI computing power continues to grow, the market is reassessing the value of the substantial power and data center resources held by Bitcoin mining companies.