BBVA is giving almost all of its staff access to OpenAI’s artificial intelligence tools after expanding its partnership with the technology firm. The Spanish banking group said its more than 120,000 workers will be able to use ChatGPT Enterprise, following a pilot with 11,000 staff that found it saved three hours per week on routine […]
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OpenAI’s artificial intelligence products are saving workers an average of about 40 to 60 minutes a day on professional tasks, according to a large survey conducted by the ChatGPT maker amid lingering skepticism of the economic benefits of AI. Employees in industries such as data science, engineering and communications, as well as certain roles like accounting, […]
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Revolut Ltd. garnered a $75 billion valuation in its latest share sale after months of courting investors, a steep increase from the $45 billion price tag it received last year. The round was led by Coatue, Greenoaks, Dragoneer and Fidelity Management & Research Company, according to a statement. Nvidia Corp.’s venture capital arm NVentures, Andreessen […]
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GoTo Group appointed a new chief executive officer to replace Patrick Walujo, a move that’s expected to speed the takeover of Indonesia’s largest internet company by Grab Holdings Ltd.
Chief operating officer Hans Patuwo will take the helm from Walujo, the company said Monday. His appointment—which requires shareholder approval—comes after GoTo co-founders and prominent investors including SoftBank Group Corp. pushed for Walujo’s ouster over a dismal stock performance.
The change-up marks an about-face for GoTo, which in January said Walujo, 50, would run the company for years to come. The former investment banker helped usher the Indonesian ride-hailing and delivery giant to its first profit over a two-and-a-half-year tenure as CEO. But the company lost more than 40% of its value over the same period, and he also opposed a takeover by Singapore’s Grab.
Shares of GoTo climbed as much as 6.3% in Jakarta Monday, giving the company a market value of about $5 billion. Grab, traded in New York, has a market capitalization of $20 billion.
“The transition could signal a pivot towards operational focus and revive the long-stalled proposed Grab-GoTo merger,” Citigroup Inc. analysts Ferry Wong and Ryan Davis wrote.
Patuwo, 49, is now set to steer a company mired in a persistent funk, grappling with a global shift towards artificial intelligence and preparing to revive talks with Grab. The likelihood of a takeover—after years of on-and-off discussions—is increasing after Indonesia’s government said it’s talking to the two companies about a deal.
The country’s sovereign wealth fund, Danantara, is set to get involved in a plan to combine the companies. The fund began exploring a minority stake in a combined entity early this year, people familiar with the matter said in June.
Its involvement could smooth concerns that consumers will lose out in a marriage of the country’s two biggest ride-hailing providers. “Danantara’s possible minority stake in a potential combined entity would serve as both a symbolic and structural safeguard of national interest,” and would assuage monopoly concerns, the Citigroup analysts wrote.
Patuwo joined the company more than seven years ago from an Indonesian conglomerate, according to his LinkedIn profile. He started at the ride-hailing arm Gojek, building relationships with drivers and merchants and expanding its network across the country. Patuwo then moved to head payments and financial services.
Among other leadership changes, GoTo said it’s appointing co-founder Andre Soelistyo to the board of commissioners. In Indonesia, company commissioners typically function as a separate body from directors, serving as a sort of steering committee on matters including corporate governance.
Soelistyo, who headed the company before he was replaced by Walujo, helped carry out the merger of Gojek and e-commerce firm Tokopedia that created Indonesia’s biggest internet company. Previously, he was an executive director at Northstar Group, Walujo’s former private equity firm.
GoTo shareholders will vote on matters including the leadership shift in an extraordinary general meeting on Dec. 17.
Olivia Poh, Bloomberg
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Block Inc. expects profit growth to accelerate over the next three years as Jack Dorsey’s payments firm anticipates launching products at a faster clip while doubling down on efforts to integrate its consumer-focused Cash App and merchant payment service Square. In 2026, Block forecasts 17% gross profit growth year-over-year to $11.98 billion. The outlook marks […]
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Nu Holdings Ltd. said artificial intelligence features it started to deploy in Brazil helped the fintech increase credit-card limits for some clients, boosting third-quarter revenue and profit. Nubank, as the company is known, said its portfolio rose 42% to $30.4 billion through September, according to financial statements Thursday. Chief Financial Officer Guilherme Lago said AI […]
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Japan’s largest bank announced a tie up with OpenAI to accelerate its use of artificial intelligence, including in a new digital lender that’s set to open next fiscal year. Activities like account openings will be supported through AI chat and other methods, according to Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. The firms will also create a […]
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Federal Reserve Governor Michael Barr said there needs to be clear guardrails to prevent risks as the financial sector looks to adopt artificial intelligence in its core functions. Regulators need to get the balance right between innovation and stability to ensure that AI boosts growth and productivity over the long-term, Barr said at the Singapore […]
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Lloyds Banking Group Plc is using thousands of its staff as guinea pigs for an AI financial assistant it’s designed to help customers manage their spending, saving and investments. The British bank said the tool will roll out next year to coach customers through their finances, with extra features added gradually to cover the lender’s […]
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Starbucks Corp. agreed to sell a majority stake in its China business to private equity firm Boyu Capital at a $4 billion enterprise value in a bid to improve the coffee chain’s flagging fortunes in the country.
Boyu Capital will hold up to a 60% interest in Starbucks’ retail operations in China through a new joint venture with the coffee seller, the companies said in a statement. Starbucks will hold the remaining 40% and continue to license the brand and intellectual property to the joint venture.
The agreement marks the end of a search for a partner to help chart Starbucks’ next chapter in China, where it has about 8,000 stores after opening its first outlet in Beijing in 1999. However, Starbucks has struggled in recent years, along with other Western companies that have lost ground to local rivals amid rising nationalism and reluctance to pay premiums for foreign brands.
Xiamen-based Luckin Coffee Inc. dethroned Starbucks as China’s biggest coffee chain two years ago by selling coffee at one-third of its price. And while Starbucks’ store format is expensive to upkeep, customers have become less willing to pay higher prices for its drinks since the COVID pandemic and ongoing economic downturn.
“Starbucks’ store expansion has been restrained amid fierce competition from local rivals, and the deal is expected to accelerate growth with sufficient funds and Boyu’s retail experience,” said Jason Yu, Shanghai-based managing director of CTR Market Research. “Boyu needs to balance Starbucks’ brand positioning and its participation in price competition, otherwise it will harm its long-term profitability in China.”
Bloomberg previously reported that Boyu had emerged as the front-runner, and that others including internet companies could join as limited partners to help co-finance a deal.
The private equity firm is also in talks with banks for a loan of around $1.4 billion-equivalent to support its investment in Starbucks’ China business, according to people familiar with the matter.
Starbucks is the latest foreign retail business to enlist a local partner to turn around their ailing fortunes in China as a persistent property slump sours consumer appetite for everything from premium luxury goods to ice creams. General Mills, which owns Häagen-Dazs, is also working on a potential sale of its more than 250 stores in China. Restaurant Brands International Inc. is also said to be mulling a sale of a controlling stake in Burger King’s China business to local private equity firms.
McDonald’s Corp. and Yum! Brands Inc.’s KFC, have brought in local investors for their China businesses years ago, helping the fast food chains become successful in staying competitive over the years.
Boyu’s links in China is likely to have been a winning factor in Starbucks’s view. Its expertise in commercial real estate and property management—it recently bought a controlling stake in an operator of China’s top luxury malls SKP and also controls property management services provider Jinke Smart Services Group—could help the coffee chain refine and expand its store network.
“We see a path to grow from today’s 8,000 Starbucks coffeehouses to more than 20,000 over time,” Starbucks Chief Executive Officer Brian Niccol said in a blog post.
As part of its efforts to lure back customers in China, Starbucks earlier this year opened free “study rooms” in some of its stores there. Under new China chief Molly Liu, the chain has also expanded its drinks menu to include more sugar-free options and teas catering to local tastes, slashed prices on a slew of beverages and upped its options for customizing orders. That’s in contrast to recent moves in the US, where the menu has been simplified to boost operational efficiency.
These incremental steps have helped the coffee chain stem a sales decline in China since earlier this year, with comparable sales returning to growth in the past two quarters. Niccol expressed confidence in the brand’s long term growth potential during an earnings call last month and expected the business to enter next year “on stronger footing.”
Starbucks expects the total value of its China retail business to exceed $13 billion, including the value of licenses, according to the statement.
The coffee seller’s shares rose less than 1% at 6:17 p.m. in after-hours trading in New York. The stock has declined about 11% this year, trailing a nearly 17% advance by the S&P 500 Index.
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Amazon.com Inc.’s cloud unit has signed a $38 billion deal to supply a slice of OpenAI’s bottomless demand for computing power. Amazon shares surged. Amazon Web Services will provide the ChatGPT maker with access to hundreds of thousands of Nvidia Corp. graphics processing units as part of a seven-year deal, the companies announced on Monday. […]
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After what started as a disappointing week, the Coinbase stock (Ticker: COIN) seems to be back on a recovery path. COIN briefly touched the $350 level on Friday, October 31st, rallying on the positive earnings report and new developments from this week.
According to a new report, Coinbase has also entered into late-stage talks to purchase stablecoin infrastructure BVNK in an estimated $2 billion deal. This move represents a play in a much larger stablecoin industry push by the largest US-based cryptocurrency exchange.
On Friday, Bloomberg reported that Coinbase is looking to complete a $2-billion acquisition of the London-based BVNK, pending due diligence. The San Francisco-based cryptocurrency company expects to close this deal before the year’s end or early next year, according to one of the sources close to the matter.
According to the report, the company’s venture capital arm, Coinbase Ventures, is an investor in BVNK. One of the cited sources also revealed that while the deal is already in late-stage talks, terms may change, and the deal is still at risk of collapsing.
A Coinbase spokesperson told Bloomberg in a statement:
We don’t comment on rumors or speculation. Driven by our mission to expand economic freedom globally, we actively explore various opportunities—whether through building, acquiring, partnering, or investing – to advance our mission.
This latest Bloomberg report somewhat adds credence to the Fortune report—from earlier this week—that disclosed that Coinbase holds exclusivity with BVNK for takeover talks after winning the bidding war. Mastercard was reportedly also engaged in talks with the stablecoin infrastructure before setting its sights on Zerohash, another crypto startup, for over $1.5 billion.
Hence, this BVNK purchase by Coinbase, if completed, would represent the latest one in a growing list of stablecoin-related deals in recent months. These developments come on the back of the introduction of the first crypto regulation (the GENIUS Stablecoin Act) in the United States.
While Coinbase’s Q3 earnings call trended for an unusual reason, after CEO Brian Armstrong dropped a list of crypto buzzwords relevant to the Mentions Market, the crypto company delivered strong profits in the last quarter.
The US-based crypto company reported about $1.9 billion in revenue and a bottom line of approximately $432.6 million in 2025’s third quarter, representing a 55% year-over-year increase. Meanwhile, the firm’s Bitcoin holdings have also jumped by 2,772 BTC to 14,458.
As of this writing, the Coinbase stock (COIN) is valued at about $343.78, reflecting a 4.6% jump in the past 24 hours.
Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView
Opeyemi Sule
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Cloudflare Inc. shares surged to a record after posting better-than-expected sales figures that topped quarterly and annual estimates, following a reorganization and the addition of more large enterprise customers. The cybersecurity firm projected sales of $589 million in the fourth quarter, exceeding analysts’ estimates of $580.9 million on average. Cloudflare’s revenue totaled $562 million last […]
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The largest technology companies are betting on an AI future powered by gigantic data centers filled with humming servers. Now that the staggering cost of this push is coming into sharper focus, it’s testing nerves on Wall Street. Three bellwethers from different corners of the technology world – Alphabet Inc., Meta Platforms Inc. and Microsoft […]
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Visa Inc. reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings that topped estimates as consumers continued to swipe, tap and insert their credit cards to transact globally. Adjusted net income totaled $5.8 billion, or $2.98 a share, up 7% from a year earlier. That slightly exceeded analysts’ estimates of $2.97 a share. Visa said in July that it expected earnings per […]
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Fiserv Inc. plunged by the most ever after the fintech slashed its outlook for full-year earnings and announced a broad overhaul of its board and top leadership committee. The company, one of the largest providers of technology to banks, cut its estimate for this year’s adjusted earnings per share to $8.50 to $8.60 from the […]
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Sequoia Capital is making a bet on the future of Wall Street, leading an investment in Rogo Technologies Inc., a startup developing artificial intelligence tools to make bankers more efficient, according to people familiar with the matter. The deal would value New York-based Rogo at $750 million, the people said. Rogo builds software that helps investment […]
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China’s new five-year plan — an overarching policy proposal for the next term of Chinese Communist Party leadership — is focused on making the nation technologically self-reliant and less vulnerable to foreign pressure, Bloomberg reports. The plan has yet to be officially adopted, but is being released ahead of a summit between President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping in South Korea.
The main focus of the proposal is to make China’s tech and science industries self-reliant and less dependent on products created by international companies. Bloomberg writes that the proposal is particularly interested in developing “fields such as semiconductors and artificial intelligence” which are currently driven in part by products from US companies like Nvidia and OpenAI. China also hopes to “bolster domestic consumption” and make the country less dependent on exporting, a business that’s been thrown into chaos by a fluctuating tariff regime set by the Trump administration.
Per the AP, this new five-year plan mostly builds on the previous five-year plan China set during Trump’s first-term, which focused on investing in technology as part of the country’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, the new plan aims to continue the growth of China’s wind and solar industries and “accelerate the all-out green transformation of economic and social development.”
In the context of the US and China’s back and forth over international trade and access to resources, the new plan, as reported by Bloomberg and the AP, seems like a response to the growing tensions between the two countries. One that could make China less burdened by the US moving forward.
The financial-technology firm Plaid Inc. is launching a credit-score service to provide banks and fintechs more detailed and timely information on consumers’ financial health. Plaid — whose services connect banks and fintechs — is launching LendScore, a rating that will range from 1-99 with a particular focus on helping lenders serving subprime and near-prime consumers, […]
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Douglas Lebda, the founder and chief executive officer of LendingTree Inc., died Sunday following an all-terrain vehicle accident. He was 55. “We are deeply saddened by the sudden passing of Doug,” LendingTree’s board of directors said in a statement. The accident occurred on his family farm in North Carolina. He is survived by his wife, […]
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