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Tag: software company

  • Alibaba’s $100M Investment Fuels X Square Robot’s Push For Embodied AI, Global Sales, And Next-Gen Humanoids

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    X Square Robot, a Shenzhen-based humanoid startup, secured approximately $100 million in funding led by Alibaba Group Holding (NYSE:BABA) through Alibaba Cloud in a deal that strengthens the company’s expansion in the robotics market.

    The latest investment brings the startup’s total funding to around $280 million across several financing rounds since launching in December 2023, X Square Robot Chief Operating Officer Yang Qian told CNBC earlier this week.

    HongShan, formerly Sequoia Capital China, joined the funding round alongside Meituan, Legend Star, Legend Capital, and INCE Capital. Qian confirmed the company is already generating revenue from sales to educational institutions, hospitality venues, and senior care facilities.

    Don’t Miss:

    Venture capitalists are pouring unprecedented amounts into humanoid robotics as the integration of generative artificial intelligence promises to revolutionize human-machine interactions. X Square Robot exemplifies this trend, having completed eight funding rounds in less than two years of operation.

    “Right now we need robots to operate and complete complex tasks autonomously,” Yang told CNBC. She emphasized that after decades of developing robots capable of only limited functions like grasping objects, the industry has recognized that AI is essential for expanding machine capabilities.

    The company on Monday announced WALL-OSS, an end-to-end embodied foundation model, with code linked via GitHub and Hugging Face. The project focuses on vision-language-action alignment for manipulation tasks in real-world settings. Embodied AI here means models that perceive, reason, and act through physical systems such as robots.

    Trending: ‘Scrolling To UBI’ — Deloitte’s #1 fastest-growing software company allows users to earn money on their phones. You can invest today for just $0.30/share.

    X Square Robot also unveiled its Quanta X2 robot, featuring 360-degree cleaning capabilities with attachable mop heads and advanced hands capable of perceiving subtle pressure changes. According to CNBC, this represents a significant step toward more human-like functionality in commercial robotics applications.

    Currently, the company’s humanoid robots carry an $80,000 price tag according to research firm Humanoid Guide. Competitor Unitree offers a humanoid model for $16,000, though the advanced capabilities of that unit remain unclear. X Square Robot acknowledged it does not yet have a product ready for mass market delivery, with specific pricing determined by individual use cases, CNBC reported.

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  • Stocks Rebound as Consumers Revise Inflation Path: Markets Wrap

    Stocks Rebound as Consumers Revise Inflation Path: Markets Wrap

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    (Bloomberg) — Stocks climbed after data showed American consumers tempered inflation expectations in late May, which bodes well for prospects of Federal Reserve rate cuts.

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    The S&P 500 headed toward its fifth straight week of gains — the longest bullish streak since February. When traders come back from the US holiday weekend, the so-called “T+1” rule will come into effect — making US stocks settle in one day rather than two. Treasuries barely budged after Fed Governor Christopher Waller said the factors that lowered the so-called neutral rate may reverse.

    Equities extended gains after University of Michigan data showed consumers expect prices will climb at a 3.3% annual rate over the next year, down from the 3.5% that was expected earlier in the month. In April, respondents expected year-ahead inflation of 3.2%.

    “After further review, the consumer is not as pessimistic about the inflation trajectory,” said Jeff Roach at LPL Financial. “What we learned from this final estimate from UofM is consumer spending could slow, easing up inflationary pressures from the demand side of the economy.”

    The S&P 500 topped 5,300. The Nasdaq 100 rose over 1% as Nvidia Corp. headed toward a fresh all-time high. Workday Inc. tumbled after the software company cut its subscription outlook.

    Treasury two-year yields were little changed at 4.93%. The US bond market was due to close early ahead of the Memorial Day holiday. The dollar retreated. Bitcoin rose. Oil and gold edged up. Copper headed for its biggest weekly loss since February.

    The stock market can keep soaring to all-time highs even if the Fed forgoes interest-rate reductions this year as the economy and earnings are growing, according to Deutsche Bank AG’s Binky Chadha.

    Minutes from the two-day Federal Open Market Committee gathering ending May 1 released Wednesday showed that, while participants assessed monetary policy was “well positioned,” various officials mentioned a willingness to tighten further if warranted.

    “It was another week dominated by ‘Fed anxiety’,” said Florian Ielpo at Lombard Odier Asset Management. “Let’s however remember that despite rising rates, company earnings appear resilient, subtly suggesting that the impact of what’s typically seen as positive economic news might be less straightforward.”

    The rally in global equity markets is at risk of overheating, according to Bank of America Corp. strategist Michael Hartnett.

    The bank’s so-called global breadth rule shows that about 71% of equity indexes are trading above both their 50- and 200-day moving averages. A reading above 88% would trigger a contrarian sell signal, he said.

    Corporate Highlights:

    • Elon Musk’s SpaceX has initiated discussions about selling existing shares at a price that could value the closely held company at roughly $200 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

    • Eli Lilly & Co. will spend $5.3 billion to boost production of a key ingredient in its weight-loss and diabetes shots after the treatments’ explosive popularity led to shortages.

    • Novo Nordisk A/S’s blockbuster diabetes drug Ozempic cut patients’ risk of dying in a kidney-disease study, the latest research pointing to the medicine’s usefulness in a constellation of disorders.

    • Intuit Inc. reported losing 1 million customers who use its TurboTax service for free, stoking concerns about demand for the software.

    • Lucid Group Inc. will eliminate about 400 jobs in the coming months, the latest move by an electric-vehicle maker to cut costs in a dramatically slowing market for plug-in cars.

    • CVS Health Corp. has been seeking a private equity partner to fund growth at Oak Street Health, the $10.6 billion primary care provider it bought a year ago, according to people familiar with the matter.

    • Bayer AG Chief Executive Officer Bill Anderson said the wave of lawsuits over its Roundup weedkiller is an “existential” threat to the company and farmers, ratcheting up the stakes as it considers a controversial legal maneuver.

    Some market moves:

    Stocks

    • The S&P 500 rose 0.8% as of 11:19 a.m. New York time

    • The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.2%

    • The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3%

    • The Stoxx Europe 600 fell 0.1%

    • The MSCI World Index rose 0.6%

    Currencies

    • The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.2%

    • The euro rose 0.3% to $1.0851

    • The British pound rose 0.4% to $1.2748

    • The Japanese yen was little changed at 156.95 per dollar

    Cryptocurrencies

    • Bitcoin rose 0.8% to $68,302.2

    • Ether fell 0.8% to $3,727.99

    Bonds

    • The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined one basis point to 4.47%

    • Germany’s 10-year yield declined one basis point to 2.58%

    • Britain’s 10-year yield was little changed at 4.26%

    Commodities

    • West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.5% to $77.28 a barrel

    • Spot gold rose 0.4% to $2,337.90 an ounce

    This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

    –With assistance from Alexandra Semenova and Sagarika Jaisinghani.

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    ©2024 Bloomberg L.P.

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  • Saylor’s MicroStrategy Posts Loss After Writing Down Bitcoin Holdings

    Saylor’s MicroStrategy Posts Loss After Writing Down Bitcoin Holdings

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    (Bloomberg) — MicroStrategy Inc., the enterprise-software maker that is the largest publicly-traded holder of Bitcoin, posted a third-quarter loss after taking a writedown because of a decline in the value of the cryptocurrency.

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    The Tysons Corner, Virginia-based company’s net loss widened to $143.4 million, or $10.09 a share, from $27 million, or $2.39, in the year-ago period. Revenue from the software business rose about 3% to $129.5 million, above the average forecast of $125.8 million of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

    MicroStrategy, which has been buying Bitcoin in bulk since 2020 as a hedge against inflation, has been forced to take massive writedowns over the years following downturns in the volatile digital currency. Bitcoin has increased about 30% since falling 11% in the three months ended Sept. 30.

    Co-founder Michael Saylor has turned the once struggling software company into a Bitcoin proxy for equity investors by accumulating more than $5.5 billion of the cryptocurrency. Saylor gave up his chief executive officer title last year, saying he would focus on the Bitcoin aspect of the company’s dual strategy.

    The $33.6 million impairment loss for the quarter brings the cumulative total to over $2.2 billion, meaning the company has written off almost half the Bitcoin purchases it has made, according to Bloomberg calculations. MicroStrategy as of Oct. 31 held more than 158,000 Bitcoin at a total cost of $4.69 billion, or $29,586 each, according to a statement.

    In a post-earnings conference call, Chief Financial Officer Andrew Kang said the company plans to purchase more Bitcoin.

    Investors and analysts are beginning to debate whether MicroStrategy’s shares will continue to command a Bitcoin-related premium, given that the US Securities and Exchange Commission seems likely to approve ETFs that invest directly in Bitcoin after a key court loss earlier this year.

    Since the middle of 2020, MicroStrategy shares have more than tripled as Bitcoin surged in value. The benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained about 40% during the same period.

    ETF Competition

    Saylor in the conference call pointed to advantages of investing in MicroStrategy stock instead of a US spot Bitcoin ETF.

    “There will be fees to invest in a spot ETF,” Saylor said. “The ability to get Bitcoin exposure and not get charged a fee is another plus for us.”

    Saylor said spot ETFs would “grow the market dramatically” and be “an onramp for capital on Wall Street to come into the Bitcoin ecosystem.”

    Since the quarter ended, MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin holdings have risen in value by around $1.2 billion, which was about the company’s market capitalization when it started buying crypto in 2020.

    Saylor said he will sell some of his MicroStrategy shares between January and April of next year in connection with expiring options.

    –With assistance from Tom Contiliano.

    (Updates with comments from executives from the sixth paragraph.)

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    ©2023 Bloomberg L.P.

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