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Alibaba (BABA) leads record $1 billion funding round for China's Moonshot AI. (00:24) Broadcom (AVGO) Halts His $1 Billion Sale of Carbon Black Business – Report. (01:43) Wendy's (WEN) may be the first in the fast food industry to test dynamic pricing. (02:20)
This is a summary transcript of the podcast.
Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) is betting big on generative AI, leading a $1 billion funding round in Chinese startup Moonshot AI, valuing the AI player at about $2.5 billion. This is an 8x increase compared to the first funding round.
According to the Alibaba-owned South China Morning Post, Moonshot's latest funding is the largest by a Chinese AI startup since OpenAI's ChatGPT launch in 2022.
Other investors include existing backers Monolith Management, the investment arm of food delivery giant Meituan, and Hongshan, formerly of Sequoia China.
Last year, Moonshot released the Kim chatbot, which is built on a proprietary large-scale language model and can handle as many as 200,000 Chinese characters in a context window. He also launched an open platform for developers to use this model to build his AI applications.
Moonshot raised $200 million in a seed funding round last year from HongShan and angel investor Zhen Fund, at a valuation of $300 million.
The investment highlights the growing interest in generative AI startups in mainland China. But tech experts say China is at least a year behind the U.S. in GenAI and could fall further behind, the New York Times previously reported.
Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) has paused the sale of its Carbon Black Security business after signs of interest fell short of the company's expectations.
The Carbon Black business, valued at about $1 billion, entered Broadcom (AVGO) with its acquisition of VMWare last year.
Broadcom may consider selling the business at a later date, Bloomberg reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
News of the stalled sales process comes as Broadcom (AVGO) confirmed on Monday that it has agreed to sell its end-user computing division to private equity firm KKR & Co. (KKR) in a deal worth up to $4 billion. It came out after that.
VMware acquired Carbon Black in 2019 for an enterprise value of $2.1 billion.
Broadcom (AVGO) is scheduled to report its first quarter results on March 7th.
The Wendy's Company plans to test a new dynamic pricing system in 2025. CEO Kirk Tanner said the new pricing approach relies on digital menu board technology. This is a $20 million investment for the company.
The concept of dynamic pricing (also known as surge pricing) means Wendy's (NASDAQ:WEN) can update prices in real time based on demand trends at no additional cost to restaurant operators. For investors, Wendy's (WEN) reacts to trends in real time, which could lead to higher sales and profits for the company.
Dynamic pricing has become standard in the airline and ride-hailing industries, but there are concerns that Wendy's (WEN) could face consumer backlash over the initiative.
“If people feel like they're being taken advantage of, they're not going to take kindly to this dynamic pricing strategy,” warned George Washington University professor Stephen Slanovich.
Wendy's (WEN)'s test of dynamic pricing includes fast-food rivals such as McDonald's (MCD), Restaurant Brands International (QSR), Yum Brands (YUM), Chipotle (CMG), and Shake Shack (SHAK). is paying attention.
Over the past 52 weeks, Wendy's (WEN) has fallen 19%, ranking 34th out of 52 publicly traded restaurant stocks.
Online travel company Expedia (NASDAQ:EXPE) announced it will cut 1,500 jobs, nearly 9% of its workforce, as it realigns resources to account for organizational and technological changes.
The restructuring is expected to cost between $80 million and $100 million, most of which will be earmarked for employee severance and compensation benefits in 2024.
Communication with the employees involved began on Monday, February 26th.
CEO Peter Kahn and Chief Financial Officer Julie Whalen pointed to the decline in total orders during the company's earnings call.
Since its fourth quarter results, the stock price has fallen about 15%.
Other notable articles on Seeking Alpha:
Palo Alto Networks soars after Nancy Pelosi's takeover revelations
Dollar Tree pays more than $41 million to resolve product contamination investigation
FAA committee says Boeing's efforts to improve quality are insufficient
In Catalyst Watch of the day,
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Nasdaq is scheduled to release an update on short positions.
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Investor events include Whirlpool (WHR) Investor Day, Cisco (CSCO) business update, and AMC Networks (AMCX) and Cinemark (CNK) fireside chats at JPMorgan conference. there is.
Although major market averages showed a negative bias on Monday, they remained close to unchanged throughout the trading session and ended in a slight deficit.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) closed down nearly 0.2%, the S&P 500 Index (SP500) fell 0.38%, and the Nasdaq Index (COMP.IND) closed down 0.1%.
From a sector perspective, only three of S&P's 11 segments closed in the green. The best performing sector was Energy (CL1:COM) amid the oil rally, with the sector rising 1.2%. On the other hand, utilities and telecommunications services performed the worst.
Now let's take a look at the market price as of 6am. Dow, S&P, and Nasdaq futures are in the green ahead of today's opening bell. The Dow rose 0.02%, the S&P 500 rose 0.1% and the Nasdaq rose 0.2%. Crude oil fell 0.4% to more than $77 per barrel. Bitcoin rose 10.7% to above $56,000.
In global markets, the FTSE 100 rose 0.03% and the DAX rose 0.4%.
The biggest pre-market mover of the day was Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ:ZM), which rose nearly 12% after reporting better-than-expected fourth-quarter results and offering a strong outlook. did.
Today's economic calendar:
