Author: GT

Financial technology and crypto firms are applying for state or national bank charters, aiming to expand their business under the more crypto-friendly Trump administration as industry executives report a notable uptick in charter discussions and applications, Reuters reports. “We have seen a lot more interest. We are working on several applications now,” Alexandra Steinberg Barrage, a partner at law firm Troutman Pepper Locke, told Reuters. However, firms are being “cautiously optimistic” as regulatory agency leadership changes unfold. Becoming a bank brings stricter regulatory oversight, but it can reduce borrowing costs and enhance legitimacy. Bank charters allow firms to lower their…

Onstage at Nvidia’s GTC 2025 conference in San Jose on Tuesday, CEO Jensen Huang announced a slew of new GPUs coming down the company’s product pipeline over the next few months. Perhaps the most significant is Vera Rubin. Vera Rubin, which is set to be released in the second half of 2026, will feature tens of gigabytes of memory and a custom Nvidia-designed CPU called Vera. Vera Rubin delivers substantial performance uplifts compared to its predecessor, Grace Blackwell, Nvidia claims, particularly on AI inferencing and training tasks. When paired with Vera, Rubin — which is two GPUs in one, technically…

On March 18, Michael Saylor announced that MicroStrategy, now operating as Strategy (Nasdaq: MSTR; STRK), planned to issue 5 million shares of its Series A Perpetual Strife Preferred Stock (STRF) to raise $500 million in order to acquire additional Bitcoin. Instead of granting voting rights like common stock, the STRF stock pays fixed dividends — in this case, 10% annually, with quarterly payments in cash. This model allows Strategy to raise capital without diluting voting power for common shareholders. Strategy under the leadership of Saylor has been on a Bitcoin acquisition spree for years now and has invited criticism. The…

Tuesday’s big news that Google is acquiring security startup Wiz for a record-breaking $32 billion comes with a very big qualifier. Google says it will position Wiz as a “multicloud” offering, meaning Wiz will not be a Google-only shop.  The reality is that Google had no choice but to do this, and a closer look at the reasons behind the decision also highlights Google’s weak spots in the months ahead. Customer retention Wiz brings a massive customer list to Google. As of today, the startup has already reached an annual revenue rate of $700 million. Before the news broke on…

The volatility we’ve seen become pervasive among risk assets has more than bled through into the cryptocurrency sector. Three of the most-watched (and most valuable) tokens today are Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) and Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE). These digital assets have lost 2.9%, 2.8%, and 5.7%, respectively, over the past 24 hours as of 3 p.m. ET. These moves have coincided with a broader pause in other risk assets ahead of what should be a very influential Federal Reserve decision tomorrow. But as is always the case with these high-flying assets, there’s more to the story. Let’s dive into…

The Wiz logo on a smartphone arranged in New York, US, on Tuesday, July 16, 2024.Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesSeven months ago, Alphabet lost a marquee case against the Biden administration’s Justice Department, which accused the company of maintaining an illegal monopoly in search. Weeks earlier, Google’s pursuit of cybersecurity vendor Wiz, in what would have been its largest deal ever, fizzled in part because of antitrust concerns.With Donald Trump’s return to the White House, Alphabet is back on the offensive.Alphabet on Tuesday agreed to buy Wiz for $32 billion in cash, almost $10 billion more than the…

Nvidia is releasing what it’s calling an AI foundation model for humanoid robotics. Announced at GTC 2025 in San Jose, the model, dubbed Groot N1, is a “generalist” model, trained on both synthetic and real data. Nvidia claims that Groot N1 features a “dual system architecture” for “thinking fast and slow,” inspired by human cognitive processes. Groot N1 is an evolution of Nvidia’s Project Groot, which the company launched at its GTC conference last year. Project Groot was geared toward on industrial use cases, but Groot N1 broadens the focus to humanoid robots in a range of different form factors.…

Bernstein analysts think that Coinbase stock could surmount 69% and hit a minimum of $310, reported TheBlock. Analysts also think that the crypto market is still nascent and that the U.S. has a growing role in digital assets that can benefit Coinbase in the long run. The team, led by analyst Gautam Chhugani, said in a note on Tuesday that while competition and declining fees were “overhyped,” Coinbase could keep growing. Analysts believe this is because more people in the U.S. will adopt cryptocurrencies, calling it the “great American homecoming,” inspired by efforts from the Trump administration to make the…

General Motors is turning to Nvidia to help bring AI to the physical world in an expanded collaboration designed to touch every aspect of the automaker’s business, including factories, robots, and self-driving cars.  Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang, who announced the partnership Tuesday during his keynote at the company’s GTC conference in San Jose, said the time for autonomous vehicles has arrived. “We’re looking forward to building with GM AI in all three areas,” he said on stage. “AI for manufacturing, so they can revolutionize the way they manufacture; AI for enterprise, so they can revolutionize the way they…

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google has struck a deal to buy cybersecurity firm Wiz for $32 billion in what would be the tech giant’s biggest-ever acquisition at the same time it’s facing a potential breakup of its internet empire. The proposed takeover announced Tuesday is part of Google’s aggressive expansion into cloud computing during an artificial intelligence boom. The frenzy is driving demand for data centers that provide the computing power for AI technology and intensifying the competition in that space among Google and two other tech powerhouses, Microsoft and Amazon. If the all-cash transaction is approved by regulators, Wiz…