TheChek News Flow

AI infrastructure dominated the largest venture rounds this week, with two multibillion-dollar deals in the sector taking the top spots. Data center and cloud provider Crusoe led with a massive $3 billion financing, followed by Fluidstack’s $1.5 billion raise. Further down the list, AI inference startup Gimlet Labs landed $300 million, joining a diverse group of big fundings spanning cybersecurity, robotics, food, HR software, payments and healthcare.

1. Crusoe, $3B, AI infrastructure: Denver-based Crusoe raised a $3 billion Series F co-led by Atreides Management and Valor Equity Partners, with Mubadala Capital also participating. Originally founded to use stranded natural gas to power cryptocurrency mining, Crusoe has transformed into a major AI cloud and data center provider serving customers including OpenAI, Microsoft and Meta. The company has raised nearly $7.2 billion to date, and the latest financing values it at $30 billion — triple its valuation less than a year ago — according to Crunchbase.

2. Fluidstack, $1.5B, AI infrastructure: New York-based Fluidstack raised $1.5 billion in a private equity round led by Jane Street Capital, bringing the AI infrastructure company’s total funding to just over $2.6 billion. Fluidstack provides large-scale GPU and data center infrastructure for demanding AI workloads and has emerged as one of a growing group of companies spending heavily to meet soaring compute demand for AI. The financing values the company at $18 billion.

3. (tied) Gimlet Labs, $300M, AI infrastructure: San Francisco-based Gimlet Labs raised a $300 million Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz, with investors including Sapphire Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Arm Holdings and M12 – Microsoft’s Venture Fund. Gimlet is building an AI inference cloud that distributes workloads across different types of chips, an approach aimed at making the increasingly compute-intensive process of running AI models faster and more efficient. The company has raised $392 million to date and was valued at $3 billion in the latest round, per Crunchbase.

3. (tied) Upwind Security, $300M, cybersecurity: San Francisco-based Upwind Security raised $300 million in new funding co-led by Bessemer Venture Partners and TCV. Other investors included Salesforce Ventures , Greylock, Craft Ventures and Cyberstarts. The company’s platform uses real-time cloud runtime data to identify threats and vulnerabilities, putting it at the intersection of two particularly well-funded areas: cloud security and AI. Upwind has raised $730 million to date and was valued at $3.8 billion in this latest deal.

5. David, $250M, food and nutrition: New York-based high-protein food company David raised a $250 million Series B co-led by Greenoaks and Valor Equity Partners. Iconiq Capital, Imaginary Ventures and company co-founder Peter Rahal also participated. Best known for its high-protein, low-calorie bars, David has expanded into other protein-focused foods as consumers continue gravitating toward products marketed around protein and metabolic health. The company has raised $335 million and was valued at $2.25 billion in the latest round.

6. HiBob, $166M, HR software: New York-based HiBob raised $166 million in a round led by Salesforce, with Farallon Capital Management also participating. HiBob’s Bob platform combines HR, payroll, benefits and employee-management tools, and the company is increasingly positioning its workforce data as a foundation for enterprise AI applications. The latest deal brings its total funding to $740 million and values the company at $3.2 billion.

7. Lyte AI, $165M, robotics and physical AI: Sunnyvale, California-based Lyte AI raised a $165 million Series C led by Maverick Silicon, with participation from Fidelity Management And Research Company, Atreides Management, Key 1 Capital and Ora Global. Founded by former Apple engineers, Lyte develops custom silicon, sensors and AI software that help robots perceive and understand their surroundings, the kind of technology that underpins the fast-growing physical AI sector. Lyte has now raised $272 million to date, per Crunchbase, and was valued at $1.6 billion in the Series C.

8. TabaPay, $155M, fintech and payments: Mountain View, California-based TabaPay secured $155 million in growth financing led by FTV Capital. The company provides money-movement infrastructure that helps banks and fintech companies instantly disburse, collect and transfer funds. The company announced the latest funding as it also pursues an acquisition of federally chartered Transact Bank, a move that could deepen its role in payments infrastructure. TabaPay’s new round follows a Series A of an undisclosed amount back in 2022.

9. Thyme Care, $125M, health care and oncology: Nashville, Tennessee-based Thyme Care raised a $125 million Series E led by Morgan Health, the healthcare investment arm of JPMorgan Chase. Other backers included CVS Health Ventures, Humana and Andreessen Horowitz, among others. Thyme Care works with health plans, employers and providers to coordinate cancer treatment and manage oncology care, part of a broader shift toward value-based specialty care. The company has now raised $399 million in total and was valued at $2 billion in the latest round.

10. HiddenLayer, $100M, AI cybersecurity: Austin-based HiddenLayer raised a $100 million Series B led by Delta-v Capital. Ten Eleven Ventures, M12, Booz Allen Ventures and Morgan Stanley also participated. HiddenLayer builds security tools designed specifically to protect AI models, agents and workflows from attacks and vulnerabilities, a category gaining urgency as enterprises move AI systems into production. The company has raised $156.2 million to date, per Crunchbase.

Man Group’s Kristina Hooper expects European markets to benefit from higher defense spending and industrial activity. Why she favors Canada and India, too.

From the artificial-intelligence boom to the effects of the Iran war, global investors face myriad opportunities and risks. Kristina Hooper, chief market strategist at Man Group, studies the possibilities, advising portfolio managers and clients of the global alternative investment management firm how to navigate macroeconomic shifts. She also draws a bead on which markets are poised to outperform.

Before joining Man Group in 2025, Hooper was chief global market strategist at Invesco, and worked at Allianz Global Investors. Man Group is headquartered in London, with offices around the world. Hooper is based in New York.

Barron’s spoke with Hooper in late August and early September about the long-term growth drivers for global equities, particularly markets in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. An edited version of the discussions follows.

Kristina Hooper: I worry that U.S. equity valuations have gotten frothy. Although some stocks have reasonable valuations, many technology names are trading at sky-high price/earnings ratios. I worry about the vulnerabilities created by what has been an extremely strong multiyear rally.

Rising bond yields are at or near the top of my list because they are a reflection of several different risks. One is the alarming U.S. debt trajectory. Geopolitical concerns can factor in, as well. It could be that investors, especially foreign investors, are concerned about an overexposure to the U.S. because policy is more unpredictable today.

I also have concerns about whether the U.S. will be able to keep inflation under control, and whether the economy is entering a stagflationary environment. Add to that the potential crowding out of some buyers of Treasuries because there has been so much corporate-debt issuance, especially coming from the artificial-intelligence-related arena, specifically the hyperscalers.

If markets have priced them in, they have assigned a pretty low value to them relative to the value they have assigned to earnings growth, although that could change. We could see a scenario in which earnings growth weakens and the headwinds suddenly become more important.

Rising yields on long-dated bonds have often had a negative impact on equities, in particular on long-duration assets like tech stocks. We are starting to see the beginnings of that now.

I certainly wouldn’t avoid the U.S. The overarching theme right now is uncertainty. We’re at multiple crossroads. There is the potential for AI-related capital spending to continue and for U.S. stocks to do well. It’s just that the probabilities have increased for other outcomes. This is a time to be well diversified. Have exposure to the U.S. because the strength we have seen could continue, but have exposure elsewhere because other scenarios could unfold.

We expect to see the European economy gain momentum and European stocks to perform well. It isn’t a coincidence that European equities performed well last year and are still popular this year, after a few months of investor hesitation around the Iran war.

Many investors in the U.S. are underexposed to international equities, in general, and European stocks, in particular. But their low expectations for Europe can be met and surpassed. Valuations in Europe are lower than in the U.S., so the vulnerabilities are lower, as well.

That said, valuations are rarely predictive in the shorter term. There has to be some kind of catalyst, and it has to be powerful. Europe has a number of catalysts that could lead to higher stock prices. One is increased defense spending. There is a commitment on the part of almost every European nation and NATO to lift defense spending to 5% of gross domestic product by 2035, and there is an incentive to get there even sooner. Russia is very close, and it’s a growing threat. To me, there is little that can derail the defense-spending juggernaut and hasn’t been fully priced in.

Also, while investors have focused on massive AI-related capex [capital expenditure] in the U.S., they have overlooked the fact that many purchases made with this money are benefiting countries outside the U.S., such as South Korea. In Europe, we are much more likely to see spending remain within the euro zone economy or Ukraine, because of rules tied to the loans.

We concentrate largely on the defense and industrial areas in the European economy. But we are also focused on the consumer because of the multiplier effect created by defense and especially infrastructure spending, which benefits the consumer. We have a few other catalysts, including a commitment to regulatory reform on behalf of the euro zone. For instance, the European Commission has committed to reduce administrative burdens by at least 25% for all businesses, aiming to improve European competitiveness and attract greater investment. It could be successful and move the needle for the economy.

An active management approach makes sense in this environment. In general, European equities are an attractive complement to U.S. equities. In the U.S., the S&P 500 index continues to grow its exposure to technology. European indexes have relatively low exposure to tech and heavy exposure to old-economy stocks such as industrials and energy. That, too, can offer diversification, and many of these companies have higher dividend yields.

Among the key factors are price/earnings ratios and dividend yields. I favor relatively low P/E ratios and relatively high dividend yields, plus a catalyst, since valuations are rarely predictive in the short term. Also, higher-valuation stocks, which tend to be “longer duration” in that investors have to wait longer for the earnings, have typically been more vulnerable to higher yields. Dividend-paying stocks typically hold up better in stock market downturns.

Beyond that, there is some investor enthusiasm for companies with stock buyback programs, as buybacks can be a short-term catalyst for gains. Buyback yields have improved not only among European companies but United Kingdom companies, as well. We also consider business models and industries. We expect energy stocks to continue doing well, given elevated oil prices.

We are somewhat excited by the continued fiscal stimulus, but there are challenges, too. I have less conviction in Japanese equities than I did previously, but I remain positive.

The Japanese stock market has benefited from AI capex, but there are questions about whether spending will continue at the current pace. We are also conflicted because while the fiscal side has been stimulative, the central bank wants to “normalize” monetary policy [raise interest rates]. Plus, the yen has depreciated in value, and that could encourage the Bank of Japan to tighten policy more, which would put it at even greater cross-purposes with the government’s fiscal agenda.

I see greater opportunity in Canada. Prime Minister Mark Carney has talked about the rise of the middle powers [the increasing cooperation of countries such as Canada, Australia, and those in the European Union]. Europe is front and center, and the U.K. is included, but I would also add Canada. Canada is benefiting from the makeup of its economy. The oil-and-gas industry and the mining industry have benefited from the significant increase in energy prices since the Iran war began and the rise in metals prices that we have seen for some time now. Manufacturing has also been doing well.

Admittedly, the additional tariffs are likely to place pressure on the Canadian economy, but they haven’t done much to change my positive view on Canadian equities. However, it means one needs to be active and selective when investing in Canadian stocks, recognizing that specific industries have been materially impacted by the tariffs.

They aren’t as attractive as in Europe, but they are still attractive, and more so than in the U.S. I think it’s part of greater diversification, especially if we see shifting alliances. I think of Canadian stocks as cousins to European equities, and another complement to U.S. exposure. The Canadian market has different sector allocations than the U.S., and isn’t as exposed to tech or AI.

I recommend having more exposure to Canadian and German government bonds, in addition to Treasuries, for those who have a government sleeve in their fixed-income portfolio.

I’m positive on emerging markets, as well. Having adequate exposure to emerging markets is part of the diversification story. We are likely to see less impact from Federal Reserve tightening on emerging markets now than in the past. Their economies have become more mature and resilient, with reduced dollar-denominated debt, improved foreign currency reserves, and greater central bank credibility. They also have more fiscal discipline, with lower overall public debt-to-gross-domestic-product levels than developed economies. All of this means they are likely to be more insulated from Fed tightening.

My bigger message on emerging markets is to not treat them as one entity. This is a rich and diverse group of countries and stocks. For instance, so long as the war in the Middle East lasts, we’re likely to see a number of the Latin American companies exposed to commodities, especially oil, benefit from that environment. Some of the Asian emerging markets have pretty significant exposure to AI capex.

Also, valuations are more attractive in emerging markets than in the U.S., and dividends are more attractive. There are many diversification benefits here.

Perhaps the biggest issue is demographics. The U.S. had benefited from having a different demographic profile than, say, Japan. Now, with reduced immigration, it is almost as though the U.S. has decided that it doesn’t want that demographic advantage it had held over many other developed countries. Long-term investors have to consider that, and it could be an argument for greater exposure to emerging markets, especially those countries with a growing population of middle-class consumers. That can be a powerful driver of economic growth.

Much depends on the time horizon. There are a number of Asian markets benefiting from the AI theme. Longer term, I like India; it has an enormous and growing middle class. If we think about the post–World War II boom in the U.S., something similar is happening in India on a much larger scale. The country has a highly educated workforce. We are seeing many of the advantages that benefited the U.S. economy in the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s.

Many Southeast Asian countries have attractive demographics, but that is a longer-term story. A more medium-term story is the emerging European countries, such as Poland and Hungary, because they are likely to benefit from the defense spending and infrastructure theme.

If we think about the near term, I would favor a number of Latin American countries with exposure to energy and mining.

For a dominant company, Nvidia acts a lot like an underdog. The latest sign comes from its $13 billion deal to buy Hugging Face. Nvidia sees a fast-changing landscape for artificial intelligence, and it’s wisely using its resources to stay on top.

Hugging Face is the main repository for “open weight” AI models, which are alternatives to the pricey proprietary models from OpenAI and Anthropic. In making the deal, Nvidia is looking for ways to keep the cost of AI models low, thus keeping demand for its chips white hot.

There are three basic ingredients to AI. The first is the hardware infrastructure—primarily servers and networking—where Nvidia is the pioneer and leader with projected data-center sales of $650 billion next year. Then there are the AI models, which are trained, and eventually run, on the infrastructure. Finally, there is software like chatbots and automated agents, which turn the outputs of models into conversations and actions.

Nvidia makes its money from the first ingredient, so it’s in its interest that the other two are as inexpensive as possible. Cheaper AI will lead to more demand and more chip sales for Nvidia.

OpenAI and Anthropic leapt out to the forefront early on in the AI model race. Their proprietary models have constantly been the best, according to various benchmark ratings, and were the obvious choice for enterprises that were integrating AI into their workflows.

But as AI usage accelerated this winter, enterprises experienced sticker shock as they discovered that the costs of these closed models quickly added up. Customers are looking for ways to tame their AI spending even as usage skyrockets.

Enter open-weight models. Though some come with restrictions in commercial use, open-weight models are designed to be freely used by anyone, anywhere. Once the models themselves are free, the cost of AI comes down to the other two ingredients: the hardware infrastructure—Nvidia’s moneymaker—and software.

While they still trail the top options from OpenAI and Anthropic, open- weight models have closed the performance gap considerably in recent months. Most of these free models come from government-subsidized Chinese companies, which adds a geopolitical twist to the story. In the U.S., Meta Platforms has released several generations of open-weight models.

Since 2023, Nvidia has been making its own open-weight models called Nemotron, but they have never matched the quality of the proprietary models from OpenAI and Anthropic. The good news is Nvidia has decades of experience building software ecosystems around its chips. It provides the software free of charge to sell more chips.

Now, Nvidia is thinking about free AI models to sell—you guessed it—more chips. In a July letter to policymakers, CEO Jensen Huang said that open-weight AI models “can expand opportunity, strengthen competition, extend American technological leadership, mitigate risk, and ensure that the benefits of this extraordinary technology are shared broadly across our economy.”

They weren’t empty words. The next month, Nvidia cut a deal with Poolside, an AI lab trying to compete with OpenAI and Anthropic that was running short on funding. According to The Wall Street Journal, Nvidia invested $1 billion in the start-up and added $6 billion to license Poolside’s technology and hire over 100 of its employees. Nvidia is now sinking real money into the next version of Nemotron in an effort to bring it at least up to the level of the Chinese open-weight models.

Neither Nvidia nor Poolside have confirmed the deal.

Now it’s adding Hugging Face in a deal that’s scheduled to close next year if it gets past regulators. Hugging Face is the dominant distribution platform for open-weight models the way Microsoft’s GitHub is for open software. Along with coming improved Nemotron models, the acquisition would give Nvidia the opportunity to invest in a broad ecosystem of free models that can run on its hardware infrastructure.

“As the opportunity for open models accelerates, Hugging Face can serve the global AI community at unprecedented scale,” Huang said in a blog post this week. “Nvidia’s infrastructure, engineering, and global reach can help improve platform reliability, safety, model evaluation, inference and deployment capabilities, while preserving the open ecosystem that made Hugging Face foundational.”

Everyone benefits from cheaper intelligence, with two notable exceptions: OpenAI and Anthropic. As open alternatives proliferate and improve, the AI labs’ proprietary models are coming under increasing pressure. OpenAI reduced prices across its GPT-5.6 model family in July and August, though Anthropic has yet to follow.

The interesting wrinkle is that the two model makers are big Nvidia customers. They are both growing at astounding rates, and Anthropic may soon go public with a market value of $2 trillion. Much of Nvidia’s heralded revenue guide for next year—which reignited the stock—is predicated on these two companies. Nvidia also invested $30 billion into OpenAI this year.

But Nvidia isn’t interested in becoming a junior partner to its biggest customers. Ultimately, Nvidia has one mission: increasing AI usage, thereby selling more chips and servers. The company is making the right moves to that end. It’s one more reason to be bullish on the stock—and to worry about the future of OpenAI and Anthropic.

Amadeus has grown revenue and earnings despite several headwinds.

Shortly after recovering from any lingering New Year’s hangovers, investors this January were hit with another headache: the so-called SaaSpocalypse, when concerns about artificial intelligence led software stocks to drop. Amadeus, a provider of specialized software to the airline and hospitality industry, was no exception. Now, after recovering 23% from its post-AI turbulence, the stock is set up for further gains.

The Madrid-based company has grown revenue 5% in constant currency in the first half of 2026, to 3.3 billion euros, compared with the same period last year. (“Constant currency” converts foreign currencies in the current year at the prior year’s exchange rates, providing investors with comparable measurements by smoothing out foreign exchange fluctuations). Adjusted diluted earnings per share soared 7.3% at annualized constant currency levels, to €1.75. This in the face of threats from the U.S. war against Iran, rising energy prices, and the International Air Transport Association cutting its 2026 global passenger traffic forecast.

The company’s diversified revenue stream across its Air Distribution, Hospitality, and Air IT Solutions segments; its acquisition of Idemia Public Security; and the launch of a travel advertising platform could propel Amadeus’ stock skyward by 40% above current levels.

“Travel inventory is the most perishable,” says Sergei Pliutsinski, consumer analyst at Harding Loevner, which holds four million shares of Amadeus, worth about $257 million. “Seats not sold today vanish forever. Airlines must fill them—and need a system that will do this reliably.” Adds Anthony Hene, portfolio manager at GMO Asset Management: “No airline can build a system with the same capabilities at a sensible price, so client loyalty tends to be strong.”

The Air Distribution segment distributes pricing, seating, and booking information across multiple platforms, processing 100,000 transactions per second. Its search functionality is on par with Google’s, with about 2.8 billion search queries a day. The slower pace of bookings in the first half of 2026 didn’t delay the arrival of increased revenue per booking, which landed at 5.1% year-over-year growth in constant currency. GOL Linhas Aéreas, flydubai, and FitsAir were among airline clients expanding their distribution with Amadeus during the first half of 2026, while Kanoo Travel, ITL World, and Tourvest came onboard with new travel seller agreements.

“Hosting customer data and managing transactions give Amadeus insight into areas that need improvement,” says Iain McNaught, Global Equity Analyst for Morgan Stanley Investment Management, which owns the stock. “New entrants struggle in an industry with low tolerance for error, and conservatism driven by stringent regulation and a safety-first culture.”

Amadeus also facilitates bookings for hotels. Travelers helped hike Amadeus’ hospitality revenue by 9.2% in the first half of 2026 in constant currency over the same period last year, to €543 million. New business relationships include 1,700 Marriott International properties, Primestar, Caribbean Tourism, and JUFA Hotels.

The company’s relationship with travelers continues at the airport, where they may use self-service kiosks to receive boarding passes, check baggage, and pass through security. Amadeus saw 8.7% Y/Y revenue growth in its Air IT Solutions segment in the first half of 2026, to €1.2 billion in constant currency. Scandinavian Airlines, British Airways, and Lisbon Airport were among this segment’s new relationships in the first six months of this year.

Amadeus’ €1.2 billion cash acquisition of Idemia Public Security, a biometrics security company, is expected to close mid-2027. Forecast to provide €50 million in cost synergies, it will be immediately accretive to earnings per share and contribute about €800 million in revenue. IPS increases Amadeus’ exposure to the total addressable biometrics market to €50 billion.

“When software companies were considered worthless because of AI, Amadeus made a countercyclical acquisition,” says Sujo Akoni, investment manager for Edinburgh, Scotland-based Baillie Gifford, which holds shares. “It was the right time to do it.”

In May, the company launched the Amadeus Travel Advertising Platform, a partnership with Accenture to supply hotels, airlines, and destinations with customer travel demand data gleaned from Amadeus’ travel data and other sources. Such forward-looking travel data will enable travel brands to design more-accurate advertising decisions. “This allows them to get the best possible business performance from their data using AI tools,” says Morgan Stanley Investment Management’s McNaught. “It’s very early in implementation and seems generally well received so far.”

Should the wars in Iran and Ukraine escalate beyond current levels, energy prices and flight reductions could crimp Amadeus’ results. Similarly, as-yet-unknown technologies or airlines undertaking their own information-technology endeavors and increasing their direct-to-consumer channels could also interrupt its five-year compounded annual growth rate of 18%.

Amadeus has about one times net debt to earnings before interest, taxes depreciation, and amortization, or Ebitda—less than the 7.5 times of its competitor Sabre. Shares offer a free-cash-flow yield of 8.4% and a dividend yield of 2%. The stock trades at 16 times forward EPS, below the 21 times for which it traded a year ago. A discounted cash flow valuation with a terminal value of $31.5 billion, a working average cost of capital of 7.94%, and flat free-cash-flow growth results in a target price of $111. A return to last summer’s multiple, layered over a conservative estimated 2026 $3.70 EPS, results in a target price of $77. The average of these methods yields a 12-month target of $94—about 40% above current levels.

Investors should book their next journey with Amadeus.

Venture capital funding for consumer tech has stalled as funds shift to artificial intelligence. That makes the story of Nothing, a start-up maker of phones and audio gear, all the more surprising.

Artificial intelligence has upended Wall Street, Main Street, and every road in between. In Silicon Valley, venture capital dollars are rushing to find AI targets, with total venture funding surging to $256 billion in the first quarter of 2026, according to PitchBook, surpassing the 2025 total.

As with public markets, those AI dollars have crowded out other investments, including the once red-hot area of consumer tech. After peaking near 3,000 in 2021, the number of VC deals for consumer tech was cut in half by last year, PitchBook data show, and the figure continues to slide in 2026.

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Blame the decline on the do-everything smartphone, which serves as a camera, GPS, digital assistant, calculator, and all sorts of other products that once filled the aisles of an electronics shop.

Jeff Barrington, managing director at Windsor Drake, tells Barron’s that building a consumer tech start-up is incredibly challenging. Margins are low, supply challenges are vast, and competition is fierce. “The other thing, too, is that the big Apples, Amazons, and Googles tend to copy or absorb the consumer tech products,” he says.

That history makes it all the more surprising that one of this year’s hottest consumer tech start-ups is taking on the establishment with…a phone.

Nothing, founded in 2020, began as an earbud maker before moving into smartphones and smartwatches. The products have a clean and modern aesthetic that has attracted a young audience looking to break away from tech giants Apple and Samsung Electronics. Its prices often undercut the competition. The Nothing 4a Pro phone with 256GB of storage starts at $599, compared with a comparable iPhone 17 for $799.

Tech site Droidlife called the Nothing 4 phone a budget phone where “almost everything about it punches above its price.”

The company, which didn’t make executives available for interview, crossed $1 billion in lifetime sales in 2024.

Nothing has garnered a lot of social-media attention, with Google trends for “Nothing Phone” and “Nothing headphones” both up 500% versus the previous five years.

The company is a regular presence on TikTok, where users gloat about their choice of a non-Apple device.

“I’m so sick of Apple because obviously, I’m filming this on my iPhone, but every time the new phone comes out and my phone crashes, I literally cannot afford spending, like, $2,000 on a phone with a lot of storage,” says one video that has gotten more than 23 million views.

Nothing, itself, isn’t shy about taking on the tech behemoth.

“This is a message to Apple,” CEO Carl Pei said in a video posted to his TikTok account in June. “My name is Carl. I make phones in London. And I’m gonna steal your customers. One bored iPhone user at a time.”

In a fairly commoditized world of smartphones, Nothing has tried to stand out with at least one unusual feature: a rear display through which users can deliver notifications with various symbols and animations. The idea is to keep the phone face down, limiting overall screen time.

Nothing has raised $456 million, per PitchBook, including a Series C funding round that brought in $200 million last year, giving the company a valuation of $1.3 billion.

It’s rare air for consumer tech firms. According to PitchBook, of more than 31,000 VC-funded consumer tech companies, just 0.4% have generated a $1 billion-plus exit. Even for those, it’s often a tough go.

Fitbit, the wearable fitness-tracking device firm founded in 2007, raised about $66 million in VC funding before going public in 2015 with a $4.1 billion market value. Six years later, the firm sold itself to Alphabet ’s Google for half that amount.

Meanwhile, this past week marked the end of a long saga for GoPro, the maker of cameras for outdoor enthusiasts founded in 2002. GoPro went public in 2014 with a market value of $3 billion, just in time for the smartphone camera to begin eating into its sales. For months, GoPro shares have traded below $1. On Tuesday, the company said it was being acquired by Starman Optical in a $285 million deal that would expand the business into the “AI data center, government, defense, and aerospace markets.”

Venture capitalists are nothing if not optimists, though.

Mark Vena, CEO and principal analyst at SmartTech Research, tells Barron’s that VC investors are currently looking for the next big consumer hardware AI play. He believes the next consumer tech winner will be an AI-powered wearable device that can potentially listen to a person’s day-to-day happenings, and help with anything from scheduling appointments, messaging loved ones, or sending a reminder about picking up groceries on the way home after work.

“When you combine AI in terms of some interesting wearable hardware devices…it’s a different deal,” Vena says. “And the multiplier you get from a revenue opportunity standpoint becomes enormous.”

The challenge for Nothing will be merging its plain hardware aesthetic—the inspiration for its brand name—with the complications and baggage of AI. According to an August study from the Pew Research Center, 55% of adults under age 30 now say they’re more concerned than excited about AI.

Nothing is betting that audience just needs a different device. “For AI to reach its full potential, consumer hardware must reinvent itself,” the company says on its website.

BMW Stock Has Rarely Been Cheaper Amid Pressure in Chinese Market

The German luxury-car maker has an impeccable balance sheet and a great new electric-vehicle platform. Its profit margins should rebound.

BMW European shares have fallen 35%, to 60 euros, this year amid shrinking profit margins and a weakening Chinese car market.

BMW is cutting costs, including 8,000 layoffs in Europe, and expects capital expenditure to fall to about €4.5 billion this year.

The company’s Chinese auto sales fell 30% in the second quarter as domestic manufacturers like BYD gained market share.

BMW s one of the best-run auto makers in the world, and its depressed stock looks like a bargain despite shrinking profit margins and a weakening Chinese car market.

The German luxury-car maker is a leader in electric-vehicle technology with its Neue Klasse platform. A new all-electric iX3 sport-utility vehicle with about 400 miles of range is hitting U.S. dealerships this summer with a price tag as low as $61,000.

BMW’s European shares have been hammered this year, falling 35%, to 61 euros. The stock is below where it stood 10 years ago. BMW’s U.S.-listed shares (each equivalent to a third of a European share) with the ticker BMWKY trade over the counter for about $24.

There’s reason for the tumble. In June, BMW issued a profit warning for 2026 keyed off weakness in the Chinese auto market, where domestic manufacturers like BYD are taking share from European luxury-car makers. BMW’s Chinese auto sales were down 30% in the second quarter.

The apparent fear is that BMW won’t recover. That’s too dire a scenario.

Investors aren’t giving the company credit for its strong position in the U.S. and Europe auto markets and an impeccable balance sheet.

CEO Milan Nedeljkovic said on BMW’s second-quarter earnings call on July 30 that BMW is taking “immediate, decisive action to drive necessary change” and better financial results.

The company is cutting costs—including 8,000 layoffs in Europe. It has passed the peak investment phase for its new EV platform, and is benefiting from declining capital expenditure.

A positive catalyst for the stock could come at BMW’s annual capital market day in late September.

The Munich-based company could announce greater capital returns to shareholders—including a boost in its targeted dividend payout ratio from the current 30% to 40% to the 40% to 50% range.

BMW is buying back more than €1 billion of stock annually—nearly 3% of the market value—but it has the wherewithal to get more aggressive in the way that General Motors has done. Lower capex would help enable that.

“The stock is incredibly cheap, and it’s particularly interesting given how well financed and well managed the company is,” says Matthew Fine, manager of the Third Avenue Value Fund, which owns the shares.

“There’s existential risk priced into the stock. But BMW’s automotive business should produce $2.5 billion of free cash flow this year in one of its worst years in the past 20.”

The company is now valued at just $42 billion, less than either General Motors or Ford Motor.

“BMW combines a credible BEV [battery electric vehicle] strategy, disciplined capital allocation, and attractive shareholder returns,” wrote Deutsche Bank analyst Tim Rokossa in a client note this past week. He has a Buy rating and price target of €90, up almost 50% from the current price.

Electric vehicles represent about 20% of BMW’s total vehicle sales of more than two million annually but are closer to 10% in the U.S., one of its best markets. BMW’s sporty sedans and spiffy X3 and X5 sport-utility vehicles powered by internal combustion engines remain popular with U.S. buyers.

BMW is valued cheaply at 40% of book value, less than a third of annual sales of $140 billion and nine times depressed earnings per share projected for this year of about €6.5.

This year’s profits probably will be the bottom—down 40% from 2025 levels. The company earnings are expected to rise to €8 a share in 2027.

BMW’s core automotive business is sitting on about €16 billion ($18 billion) of net cash, or about €25 per share. The automotive unit has other financial assets, including funds at BMW’s automotive lending unit, of another €45 per share. The finance unit has a book value of about €28 per share. That all totals about €100 per share, against a stock price of €61.

So, why does BMW stock trade so badly? For starters, auto makers have some of the lowest valuations in the global stock market. This reflects the industry’s high capital requirements, overcapacity in many markets, low margins, tough competition, and high labor costs.

Tesla, the major outlier in the industry with a $1.4 trillion market value, excites investors more for robots, autonomous driving, and robo-taxis than its core car business. Tesla will earn little more than BMW this year and has 30 times its market value.

BMW’s automotive profit margin is expected to be a near generational low of 1% to 3% this year, down from 5% in 2025 and its target of 8% to 10%.

Getting back to that target may not happen until after 2030, but margins should improve over the next few years supported by a strong U.S. market.

The company pays a variable dividend annually. Based on its payout ratio of about 35%, that could mean a dividend of €2.5 for 2026 payable in the first half of 2027 for a 4% yield. The dividend was €4.4 a share for 2025 and paid this year.

BMW is the best-positioned major European auto maker, and its balance sheet offers a margin of safety. Many investors don’t like to touch auto stocks, but BMW should be the exception.

Sept 4 - Anthropic is expected to begin marketing its initial public offering in mid-October at ​the earliest and complete the listing days before the U.S. midterm elections in November, ‌people familiar with the matter said on Friday.

The artificial intelligence company had been expected to make its IPO prospectus public as early as next week, two of the people said, a crucial ​step that would kick off the final stages of the offering. Now that ​is not expected until late September, the people added, cautioning that ⁠the plans, including the timing, are subject to change.

The shift pushes back what some ​investors have said could be a $2 trillion listing, one of the largest IPOs ever ​attempted and a major test of public-market appetite for the rapidly growing artificial intelligence industry.

Companies frequently adjust their IPO schedules as they work through market conditions, regulatory reviews and other preparations, so such ​changes are not unusual.

As part of the IPO process, Anthropic is looking to ​finalize a $15 billion revolving credit facility, after which analysts, including those at banks involved in the ‌financing, are ⁠expected to meet with the company, one of the people said. Bloomberg News earlier reported that Anthropic was in talks to expand the facility to $15 billion.

Companies typically leave a few weeks between analyst meetings and making the IPO prospectus public, although Anthropic ​is expected to ​have a tighter window ⁠because analysts already know the company well, the person said.

Anthropic declined to comment.

The offering is expected to be one of the ​most closely anticipated IPOs ever, as investors look to public markets ​for exposure ⁠to the rapidly growing artificial intelligence industry. It could come alongside potential listings from other AI companies, including OpenAI. Elon Musk's SpaceX (SPCX.O), opens new tab went public in June at a record $1.77 trillion valuation.

Morgan Stanley, ⁠Goldman Sachs, ​JPMorgan and Citi are among the banks working with ​Anthropic on the IPO, according to people familiar with the matter.

The banks declined to comment.

Apple paying 400% more for iPhone 18 Pro memory, says TrendForce | Render shows the upcoming model overlaid on a Liquid Glass '18' graphic

A new market intelligence report suggests that Apple will be paying four times more for iPhone 18 Pro memory than it did for last year’s model.

TrendForce says that Apple won’t be passing on the full impact to customers, and will be increasingly looking to Services revenue to offset higher hardware manufacturing costs …

Apple announced significant price increases across most of its products back in June, stating that it had done everything possible to delay this but no longer had any choice.

The company did not raise the prices of its existing iPhones at the time, but that’s expected to change next week. TrendForce pointed to dramatically increased memory costs for the new models.

For the 256GB Pro model, memory costs in 3Q26 are expected to be nearly 400% higher than a year earlier. Despite Apple’s efforts to negotiate lower prices for other components, these savings are unlikely to offset the resulting pressure on overall BOM costs. An increase in retail prices appears increasingly unavoidable while hardware costs remain elevated.

Apple is not expected to pass on the full increase in memory costs in iPhone pricing. Current expectations are for an increase of around $100 over the iPhone 17 Pro.

That’s because substantial price increases lead to even the biggest Apple fans upgrading their products less frequently. TrendForce says Apple will not want to sacrifice continued growth, also pointing to a weak macroeconomic environment leading to more cautious consumer spending.

The company predicts that the iPhone Ultra, Apple’s first folding model, could start at anything up to $2,299 with the top-end configuration exceeding $3,000.

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