TheChek News Flow

Healthcare companies set for deals spree as drug patents expire

A gathering of pharmaceutical executives comes as the sector has rebounded from uncertainty over Trump’s policies

Healthcare executives gather for their big annual conference in San Francisco on Monday as the sector is flush with cash and set for a deals spree as patents on drugs worth almost 12 per cent of the industry’s revenues expire in the years ahead.

The JPMorgan healthcare conference takes place as uncertainty recedes over President Donald Trump’s trade wars, drug pricing policy and the leadership of key regulators such as the US Food and Drug Administration. In response, the S&P biotech index, known as the XBI, has surged to a four-year high, outperforming the wider index.

In addition, drugs that contribute about $180bn of revenue a year are set to go off patent in 2027 and 2028, representing almost 12 per cent of the global market, according to research firm Evaluate Pharma. More than $40bn of sales are expected to lose patent protection this year, Evaluate has estimated.

“The need to take big swings becomes more pressing,” said Jeremy Meilman, head of healthcare investment banking at JPMorgan. “Several of the large-cap pharmaceutical companies are shopping around for strong assets and a number have taken action but still have more firepower. This contributes to our optimism for 2026.”

Several large drugmakers have performed well, and weight-loss drug giant Eli Lilly in recent months became the first pharmaceutical group to pass a $1tn market capitalisation, joining a gilded rank historically reserved only for Big Tech.

Merck, which is facing loss of patent exclusivity on its $30bn-a-year mega-blockbuster Keytruda, is in talks to buy early-stage cancer drugmaker Revolution Medicines, the FT revealed this week. If a deal materialises, Revolution Medicines could come with a price tag of at least $28bn, making it the biggest pre-commercial biotech deal ever and largest healthcare deal in at least two years.

Earlier this week, Eli Lilly struck a $1.2bn deal to buy autoimmune disease-focused biotech Ventyx Biosciences.

Patent expirations are catching up with pharma groups across the board. A popular blood-thinner made by Pfizer and Bristol Myers Squibb is losing patent coverage in major European markets in the second half of this year and in the US in 2028. BMS could lose up to 11.5 per cent of its revenue from 2026 to 2030 due to patent expirations, JPMorgan has estimated.

“We are moving closer to the cliffs for the guys with the highest need,” said Rod Wong, chief investment officer at RTW Investments. For M&A in 2026, “I would expect it to be more competitive,” he added.

The tail-end of last year brought several intense battles between pharma groups over coveted biotech assets. Pfizer and Novo Nordisk squared off in a public bidding war for weight loss biotech Metsera, with Pfizer prevailing by agreeing to pay more than $10bn.

Before selling to Merck in November for $9.2bn, flu-prevention biotech Cidara Therapeutics received bids from three other companies, according to regulatory filings.

“Everybody needs to transact in a meaningful way,” said Siddhart Nahata, global head of healthcare investment banking at Morgan Stanley. “There’s enough interesting biotechs out there that we could get past the M&A volumes of last year.”

Spying an opportunity, investment banks are redoubling their efforts to fight for advisory roles in healthcare M&A. Goldman Sachs this year vaulted to the top of the ranking for the total dollar value of healthcare deals. Goldman has started to chip away at boutique bank Centerview Partners’ dominance in winning lucrative roles selling biotechs. But Centerview retained its crown as the bank with the highest fees generated from the healthcare sector, according to LSEG data.

A turning point for the sector arrived in September when Pfizer became the first drug company to strike a drug pricing agreement with the Trump administration. Pfizer agreed to cut certain drug prices between 50 per cent and 85 per cent.

More than a dozen other pharmaceutical companies followed Pfizer in announcing deals with Trump by the end of last year. Now, bankers have said the pharma giants have certainty about US drug pricing policy that did not exist in early 2025. This certainty could further unlock M&A activity in the months ahead, they said.

A more favourable antitrust environment also means Big Pharma could turn up the dial on bigger takeovers, after last year produced four deals worth more than $10bn.

“Under the previous administration, Big Pharma doing a big deal provoked knee-jerk scrutiny,” said Jenny Hochenberg, a partner at Freshfields. “People are a lot less anxious about scrutiny over big deals.”

All the talk of bigger deals has even increased speculation that the first Big Pharma consolidation wave in more than a decade could be just around the corner.

“In the past, large-cap consolidation happened during periods of growth challenges, pricing shocks and constraints to the ability to fund R&D,” said David Gluckman, global head of healthcare at Lazard.

“We’ll need to see how the policy environment unfolds.”

Gilded department store chain is grappling with heavy debt and angry suppliers

In December 2024, some of the biggest names in business backed an audacious multibillion-dollar deal to combine two gilded US department store chains, Saks and Neiman Marcus.

The likes of Amazon and Salesforce believed they were writing a new chapter for a beleaguered sector, relying on technology hype, merchandising savvy and prestige branding. Driving the vision was Richard Baker, an American billionaire real estate investor.

Thirteen months later, that once gleaming edifice known as Saks Global — which includes dozens of Saks and Neiman Marcus stores scattered across America as well as two marquee Bergdorf Goodman locations near Central Park — is on the brink of collapse. 

The group is expected to file for bankruptcy as soon as this weekend under a crushing debt load and facing the wrath of vendors who are awaiting payment for cashmere sweaters and shearling coats already shipped to stores. Just last June, Saks had raised $600mn in fresh capital. It has burned through that sum in six months.

At the moment, large debt funds and opportunistic investors including the likes of Pimco, Pentwater Capital and Bracebridge Capital, are competing to provide a bankruptcy loan that may exceed $1bn. Still, some parties involved warn that even with an infusion that big, it may not be enough to prevent a Saks reorganisation from falling into an outright liquidation — destroying venerated brands and a shopping empire that represent the crown jewels of American luxury retail.   

Regardless of who funds the bankruptcy loan, billions of dollars of investor capital is expected to be wiped out in one of the most shocking and rapid corporate blow-ups in recent memory, to the embarrassment of some of the most successful businesspeople in the world.

Baker’s Hudson’s Bay, the Canadian department store chain, bought Saks in 2013 for $2.9bn, a takeover widely viewed as a bargain as the flagship Saks store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan was shortly thereafter appraised at nearly $4bn by itself.

Neiman Marcus had less luck. The Dallas-based chain was acquired by private equity firm Ares Management and the Canadian pension plan CPPIB for $6bn in 2016 but filed for bankruptcy in 2020. It eventually passed to its creditors, which included Pimco.

When Saks called Neiman Marcus with an all-cash buyout, funded by selling more than $2bn in bonds, it seemed like a bold bet on physical retail at a time when online speciality merchants had become supreme.

“With data and innovation at our core and a portfolio of prime real estate, we aim to redefine the luxury shopping experience,” Baker said at the time.

Amazon and Salesforce were supposed to help with AI-enabled “cutting-edge personalisation”. Other equity backers included Authentic Brands Group, Rhone, Insight Partners, Abu Dhabi Investment Council and G-III Apparel Group.

Yet soon after the deal closed in early 2025, Saks was having trouble with the basics. One lender who reviewed the financing said Saks was tight enough on initial liquidity that it was quickly forced to stretch payments owed to its vendors. 

“They ended up in a position where they did not have enough inventory or the right inventory and so they were burning cash all the way through,” a second major investor said.

By spring there were worries that Saks would not be able to make the first interest payment on the bond issued the previous December. The company instead executed a complex “uptier” financing that relied on a partial group of existing bondholders to put in another $600mn of cash in a senior position, which dealt creditors not invited to join the deal painful losses. 

The $600mn was meant to be enough for Saks to replenish its bank accounts, giving it enough money to pay off existing vendors and place new orders for the approaching holiday season.

The company brushed off suggestions that it had any financial difficulty at the time, though its chief executive Marc Metrick acknowledged Saks’ newfound “bolstered liquidity position” and “financial flexibility”. 

Even with the fresh money, Saks remained on the back foot with suppliers, unable to fully pay down past-due bills and keeping others on payment plans that it had said would stretch for months. Some suppliers, nervous about Saks’ finances, wanted to be paid when delivering goods — constricting the company’s liquidity. Others stopped shipping to Saks altogether, with one lender describing its store racks as “sparse” and “dangly”. 

Sales continued to weaken. Revenues fell 13 per cent in its financial second quarter, which runs from May to August, according to rating agency S&P Global. That followed declines of 15 per cent and 11 per cent in the previous two fiscal years.

In December, as the company was once again out trying to raise fresh capital from its creditors, it skipped an interest payment on its outstanding debt. Days later, Metrick resigned as CEO after a 30-year run at the group. Richard Baker, the Saks executive chair, has taken over as interim chief. Saks quickly discovered that any new money would probably have to come in the form of a bankruptcy loan.

Traditionally in a bankruptcy, a company’s senior-most lenders will step in to provide a so-called debtor-in-possession loan, which takes priority over all other claims creditors might have against a business. However, with Saks’ prospects weakening, several senior lenders — a group that includes the asset managers MacKay Shields and BlackRock — feared they would be throwing good money after bad, and refused to participate.

“The people who put the new money in [in June] got so smoked,” said one investor who had invested in Saks debt. The new senior bonds issued last summer are now trading below 30 cents on the dollar. 

“Some of the biggest creditors don’t have new money to put in.”

The fight over the bankruptcy loan in recent days has led to a showdown between a couple of groups.

Two funds that led the company’s June refinancing, Bracebridge and Pentwater, stepped in with their own offer for a bankruptcy loan, including about $1bn of new debt and are willing to fund $500mn more when Saks exits bankruptcy, according to people briefed on the matter. 

Other lenders have offered to provide $250mn of liquidity to Saks as part of that package, which together is seen by some as enough to put Saks back on a proper footing.

However, some creditors believe $1bn will not be enough to prop up the Saks business. Saks will also be required to meet certain operating and financial hurdles before the funding is disbursed, which is likely to weigh on suppliers.

Investment group Pimco, which was previously an investor in Neiman Marcus until Saks bought the business, put forth its own competing plan for bankruptcy financing. The firm has offered a $1.5bn loan in the hope that the higher cash amount will win over Saks’ owners. 

However, Pimco is not a current senior creditor and bankruptcy courts typically do not approve bankruptcy loans from outsiders that would jump in priority over existing senior creditors.

Any Saks bankruptcy is expected to be chaotic, given the immediate fight over bankruptcy financing as well as the sharp drop in business and Saks’ complicated capital structure, with both traditional debt and separate property-backed debt.

One person involved in the process said that external lawyers for Amazon had been calling around in recent weeks to quietly gather information about what restructuring options might be on the table for Saks.

Whatever the outcome, investor losses are expected to reach into the billions of dollars with most existing Saks debt and equity investors fully wiped out.

“My clients are sick to their stomach,” said one lawyer involved in the Saks situation.

CONSEILS - Bonnes résolutions obligent, voici une sélection des meilleurs conseils de spécialistes quand on souhaite se (re)mettre au sport ou entamer une perte de poids.

1. Se surentraîner. C’est le risque principal quand on décide de se (re)mettre au sport : se sentir pousser des ailes et y aller (trop) fort, galvanisé par la motivation de début d’année. «Un entraînement trop intensif risque d’entraîner des courbatures, parfois sévères, ou des blessures comme des déchirures musculaires ou des traumatismes aux articulations», mettait en garde Chloé Lanthier, spécialiste en biomécanique et performance humaine, dans un précédent article (1). On risque également de s’user et de perdre en motivation. Le bon format ? Commencer par deux séances par semaine puis augmenter progressivement si le corps répond correctement. Dans le cas d’une reprise de l’activité physique, le coach sportif Jean-Christophe Blin recommandait dans un précédent article de reprendre les exercices à la salle à hauteur de 70% de ce que l’on faisait avant, et d’augmenter de dix minutes chaque exercice à la séance suivante, jusqu’à retrouver ses performances.

2. Ne pas dormir suffisamment. Pour obtenir des résultats durables sur le corps, il ne suffit pas seulement d’être rigoureux dans ses entraînements. «C’est un ensemble, soulignait dans un précédent article la coach en endurance et en fitnesse Florie Chanoz. Il ne faut pas oublier qu’il est primordial de dormir suffisamment, pour que le muscle se repose, et de s’alimenter de façon équilibrée, en consommant beaucoup de protéines, qu’elles soient animales ou végétales.» Dans le cas inverse, on sera plus fatigué et moins attentif à son corps. On risque ainsi de mal se placer durant les exercices et de se blesser.

3. Être impatient. Le corps est une machine qu’il faut remettre en route. Patience, donc, avant de voir apparaître les premiers résultats. «On met deux à quatre semaines pour avoir une bonne conscience de ses mouvements ; c’est uniquement au bout de ce laps de temps que l’on pourra voir les effets sur le corps», soulignait Mehdi Dergaoui, coach sportif, dans un précédent article.

4. Ne faire que du cardio pour maigrir. Parce que vous souhaitez fondre rapidement ou parce que vous avez toujours entendu que le cardio était la clé pour perdre du poids, vos séances en salle se résument à courir sur le tapis de course. Erreur. «Le cardio permet de brûler des calories mais n’entretient pas assez la masse musculaire, nous informait Romain Moreau, coach sportif, dans un précédent article. C’est pourtant elle qui brûle les calories. Sans muscle entretenu sur le long terme, on finira par ne plus perdre de poids et l’on stagnera.» La solution ? Associer cardio et musculation. Lors du travail d’endurance, optez plutôt pour du fractionné qui offre un effort plus intense et plus efficace : «On alterne une minute de course et une minute de marche, à répéter 10 fois et à mixer avec des mouvements de musculation. On peut aussi se contenter du fractionné durant une séance et ne faire que des mouvements de musculation lors de la prochaine séance», ajoutait le spécialiste.

5. Toujours effectuer les mêmes exercices. La conséquence ? Stagner dans sa pratique et se blesser, en sollicitant toujours les articulations de la même façon. Bon à savoir aussi, insistait le coach Romain Moreau, pensez toujours à travailler les muscles opposés (le biceps quand on sollicite le triceps, par exemple). Dans le cas contraire, «on crée un décalage de force entre l’avant et l’arrière et l’on risque de se blesser», expliquait le professionnel.

6. Éliminer les féculents le soir. Le pain, les céréales (riz, blé, orge, avoine, seigle…) et les légumineuses (lentilles, fèves, pois chiches, haricots secs…) font partie de cette famille des féculents bannie des assiettes du dîner par certains, de peur de prendre du poids. Ces aliments apportent des sucres complexes assimilés lentement par l’organisme et lui donnent l’énergie dont il a besoin. Le soir, cette énergie se transformerait en graisse si elle n’est pas dépensée. «Oui, on va stocker si on en mange beaucoup, mais les éliminer totalement n’est pas non plus une bonne idée», insistait la médecin nutritionniste Corinne Chicheportiche-Ayache dans un précédent article. Et pour cause, ils sont essentiels à la sensation de satiété et doivent être présents à tous les repas. En revanche, il convient de veiller à la quantité ingérée et de faire en fonction de son activité physique de la journée.

7. Se coucher tard. L’habitude est délétère quand on veut perdre du poids. «Quand on ne dort pas suffisamment, on mange beaucoup plus», indiquait le médecin Jimmy Mohamed dans une publication sur son compte Instagram l’année dernière. Et pour cause, «les hormones de la satiété sont bloquées et l’hormone de la faim est activée». Perturbé, le système hormonal bouscule alors nos comportements et dicte nos choix alimentaires. En se couchant tard le soir, certains auront en effet tendance à ingérer des quantités plus importantes que celles dont ils auront réellement besoin. Si l’on a envie de grignoter à minuit, alors qu’on était rassasié quelques heures avant, ce n’est pas qu’on a besoin de manger, «c’est que notre cerveau est en train de nous tromper», informait le médecin.

8. Exclure la musculation. Lors d’un grand entretien accordé à Madame Figaro en janvier, le dr Christophe de Jaeger, pionnier français de la médecine de la longévité, directeur de l’Institut de médecine et physiologie de la longévité le rappelait : l’exercice cardiovasculaire est certes, bon pour notre santé - il consomme des calories, travaille le cœur, les poumons, lutte contre l’hypertension artérielle en assouplissant nos artères, favorise le fonctionnement du cerveau - mais il ne muscle pas tant que cela. Or, «nous ne pouvons pas espérer être en bonne santé si nous n’entretenons pas nos muscles avec du renforcement musculaire contre résistance. Ils ne sont pas seulement créateurs de mouvements, ils ont des fonctions physiologiques importantes, ce sont des réserves protéiques, ils consomment du sucre et participent à lutter contre ses méfaits en le régulant», poursuivait-il.

9. Recourir au 0%. Dans une démarche de perte de poids, c’est parfois le premier réflexe adopté par certains. Or, convertir son alimentation au 0% est contre-productif. «Dans un aliment allégé, on ajoute des saveurs et des additifs pour compenser la perte de goût, informait Virginie Parée, conseil en nutrition, dans un précédent article. Au final, ils sont moins bons sur le plan nutritionnel.»

10. En matière de renforcement musculaire, ne travailler qu’un groupe musculaire. Pour avoir un corps harmonieux, il faut tout travailler, sinon on crée un déséquilibre. Prenons l’exemple des jambes. «Travailler le haut du corps transmet une force générale à tout le corps. En ayant le groupe des deltoïdes, les triceps, biceps et trapèzes suffisamment musclés, on peut enlever 35% de l’effort demandé aux jambes, expliquait Chloé Lanthier, spécialiste en biomécanique et performance humaine, dans un précédent article. Les muscles du haut du corps aident également à la stabilité et à la posture, très importantes lors de la course notamment.»

11. Supprimer tous les sucres de son alimentation. Quand on souhaite perdre du poids ou mieux se nourrir de manière générale, mieux vaut distinguer bons et mauvais sucres plutôt que de tout éradiquer. «Ceux nécessaires à l’organisme doivent avoir un indice glycémique bas, nous informait Virginie Parée, conseil en nutrition, dans un précédent article. On les trouve pour la plupart dans les végétaux, les fruits et les légumes. Ce sont les sucres dits “raffinés” qui font grossir». La leçon à retenir ? Fuir les pâtisseries industrielles, les sodas et éviter les sucres cachés, comme dans les pâtes, le pain blanc et le riz blanc.

12. Ne pas utiliser de poids pour éviter de «gonfler». En matière de musculation, de nombreuses femmes craignent de faire «gonfler» leurs muscles. Mais «pour “gonfler”, il faut vraiment manger toutes les trois heures et avoir une alimentation très précise», précisait la coach Florie Chanoz dans un précédent article. D’autant plus que l’hormone qui aide au développement musculaire, la testostérone, est produite en grande quantité chez l’homme mais en très petite chez la femme. En pratique, Florie Chanoz recommande de travailler avec des charges adaptées à sa morphologie et à son niveau. «Enchaîner 100 répétitions d’un mouvement sans porter de charge revient presque à travailler dans le vide», ajoutait-elle.

13. Manger trop vite. En engloutissant son assiette rapidement, la satiété tardera à se faire sentir et on continuera de manger au-delà de nos besoins, prévenait le médecin Jimmy Mohamed dans une vidéo publiée sur son compte Instagram en 2024. «Il faut 20 à 25 minutes pour que l’estomac envoie un message au cerveau» signalant qu’il n’est plus nécessaire de s’alimenter, précisait-il. Si l’on se précipite, ce délai ne sera pas respecté, et la satiété perçue sera due à une incapacité de l’estomac à recevoir plus d’aliments. Une fois cette dilatation maximale de l’estomac atteinte, «il est déjà trop tard», indiquait le médecin.

14. Être «confortable» lors de sa séance de sport, sans souffrance. Une séance ne sera efficace qu’à la condition d’avoir fourni un effort. En janvier, le Dr de Jaeger, ponte de la longévité, insistait : «Beaucoup pensent être assez actifs parce qu’ils pratiquent une heure de gym par semaine ou qu’ils marchent tous les jours, mais cette heure est psychologiquement déculpabilisante, rien de plus. Quant à la marche, bien sûr qu’il vaut mieux marcher que de rester toute la journée sur son canapé, mais elle est un faux ami. Pour qu’elle soit utile, elle doit être continue, active et durer environ une heure».

15. Ne pas adapter son alimentation à sa pratique sportive. La nourriture est pourtant le carburant de l’organisme. «Quand on fait du sport, nos besoins changent, soulignait le coach sportif Romain Moreau dans un précédent article. Si l’on conserve l’alimentation que l’on avait lorsque l’on était sédentaire, on ne progressera pas sur la perte de poids, ni sur la prise de muscle.» En clair, veillez à avoir une alimentation la plus équilibrée possible et à surveiller votre apport en macronutriments, protéines, glucides, lipides.

Inside Ukraine’s Quest to Build a Missile to Strike Deep in Russian Territory

The company that built one of the country’s most potent drones is trying to replicate its success with a cruise missile

Inside a sprawling, brightly lit factory in central Ukraine, a pair of launchers held up two massive cruise missiles with an unusual nickname: “the Flamingo.”

Longer than a city bus and weighing nearly 7 tons, the Flamingo is at the center of Ukraine’s quest to build missiles domestically that can strike deep inside Russian territory. Doing so successfully would lessen the country’s reliance on its Western backers for its most powerful weapons.

On a recent afternoon, engineers were testing the Flamingo’s adjustable flaps and securing a small booster rocket to the missile, which would soon be fired from a secret launch site in Ukraine toward targets inside Russia. Fire Point, the company that makes the missile, gave The Wall Street Journal rare access to one of its secretive facilities last month.

Fire Point already has developed Ukraine’s FP-1 drone. With a range of up to 870 miles, the drone has become the workhorse of Kyiv’s campaign to hobble Russia’s oil industry. Ukraine has carried out more than 100 strikes on Russian energy facilities since August, causing billions of dollars in damage and, at one point, knocking out as much as one-fifth of Russia’s oil-refining capacity.

The problem is that Russia can often quickly patch up refineries hit by the drones’ 230-pound warhead—sometimes in less than a week. To cause real damage, Ukraine needs something that packs a much bigger punch. Fire Point believes the Flamingo, with a 2,500-pound warhead, is the solution.

The large fuel tank of the Flamingo—officially called the FP-5 missile—allows it to travel more than 1,800 miles, according to Fire Point. That would be much farther than the reach of Ukraine’s existing arsenal of Western-made missiles, such as the U.S.-made Army Tactical Missile Systems or the Storm Shadows supplied by the U.K. The Flamingo’s range would be comparable to Russia’s Kalibr and Kh-101, which have slammed into cities throughout Ukraine.

While defense experts say the Flamingo holds promise for Ukraine’s military, they say the missile hasn’t yet proven it can achieve the ranges it is designed to reach. They argue that the missile’s size and weight slow it down and make it easier to spot and intercept.

Fire Point said there have been fewer than 100 launches since inception, but it is learning from each one and continually improving the missile’s design. Because Flamingo was designed on a budget, it lacks many of the sophisticated stealth elements or complex visual guidance systems installed on Western missiles. Fire Point is seeking to acquire these for the Flamingo.

It has been forced to cut costs wherever possible. Fire Point engineers tested various flight controllers when building the missile, up to models costing $500,000, but settled on an open-source version that is freely available online. The jet-powered engines are sourced from old Soviet aircraft. They were taken out of service and, in some cases, kept in storage across Ukraine for decades before Fire Point located them. Iryna Terekh, the company’s 33-year-old technical director, compares their reliability to that of the Kalashnikov, a trusty rifle lauded for its ruggedness and simplicity.

“Our strategy is to economize on the less important stuff but never save money on the stuff that really matters,” said Terekh, who used to run a company manufacturing furniture for Ukraine’s middle class. “I’d love to make something that looks beautiful and leaves you short of breath, but I understand that this is not what our times call for.”

Terekh’s partner at Fire Point is Denys Shtilerman, a burly entrepreneur from Odesa who founded the defense company in November 2022, nine months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He started the company after growing frustrated with the cost of drones he was buying for the Ukrainian military through a charity he ran.

Shtilerman graduated from Moscow’s top physics institute in 1991 and later worked for Russia’s Defense Ministry, where he developed automatic guidance systems to help coordinate different branches of its armed forces. He has since cut all ties with Russia, which he said stripped him of citizenship in 2016.

Fire Point began with 18 employees and was focused on making long-range drones that are cheap and reliable. It now has more than 2,000 people working at more than 40 facilities across Ukraine, Shtilerman said, and is valued at more than $1 billion. The company is also working to develop a ballistic missile and Ukraine’s analog to Russia’s S-400 air-defense system to protect the country’s skies.

Its rate of expansion has made the company a target for Russia, which has twice struck its facilities. To ensure continuity of operations in the event of an attack, each of Fire Point’s factories has at least one exact copy, Shtilerman said, with the same equipment on standby in case a key link in the production chain is destroyed.

This reporter and a photographer were blindfolded and driven for about 45 minutes before being taken into one facility doing work on the Flamingo. Enormous machines wrapped layers of carbon around 40-foot-long cylinders, producing carbon tubes that can encase burning rocket fuel. The cylinders were then transferred to industrial dryers, where they rotated like rotisserie chickens.

Garage-sized ovens heated molds of the Flamingo’s carbon wings. Missiles at various stages of completion dotted the factory floor. On one wall was a poster showing a Flamingo bird embracing an ace of spades—a reference to President Trump’s statement in February that Ukrainians “don’t have the cards.”

Terekh, the technical director, said parts of the giant facility are made of concrete 5 feet deep to withstand the force generated by the equipment. The company doesn’t reveal its rate of output but says it plans to increase production capacity to seven Flamingos a day. Every missile is produced to order for the Ukrainian armed forces, Terekh said, and is fired within two days of completion.

Fire Point has sought to tap all existing knowledge inside Ukraine. Terekh pores over Soviet missile construction manuals that are freely accessible online. She said she has read three dozen of them. One of Fire Point’s consultants is a 92-year-old who was involved in the Soviet missile program.

For Terekh, the challenge of perfecting the Flamingo hinges on amassing enough firepower to take out a Russian refinery while ensuring enough precision and stealth to reach it. And doing all this while protecting the company’s facilities from Russian attacks.

“It’s like repairing a car that is traveling at 130 miles per hour, while being shot at,” she said. “Ukrainians are developing the ability to do that.”

The prototypes of the FP-5 missile were painted in various colors to make their debris easier to locate after test launches. When one of the prototypes was made pink, a worker coined a nickname that stuck: Flamingo.

Ukraine’s first declared use of the Flamingo was in August, against a Russian naval base in Crimea. Of the three missiles launched, only one directly struck the target, said Fabian Hoffmann, an expert on nuclear weapons and missile technology at the University of Oslo, citing satellite imagery. Fire Point disputed that characterization.

Even though the Flamingo is still a work in progress, Hoffmann said the advent of a homegrown defense industry in Ukraine capable of producing long-range weapons is already a major development. Its challenge in 2026 will be to pick its winner—identify its most successful homegrown long-range weapon and sharply scale up its production, he said.

“They cannot guarantee those hits, but what they can guarantee is that there is a threat to those targets, and that threat alone does something to your adversary,” he said. A powerful long-range missile that is difficult to intercept would reduce a key Russian advantage in the war: its vast territory. “You take away the Russian sanctuary of its homeland,” Hoffmann said.

Fire Point is now receiving funding from several Western countries, including the U.K. and Germany, and is in the process of building a new factory in Denmark to produce rocket propellant. In November, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo joined Fire Point’s advisory board.

Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau said Fire Point is among several Ukrainian defense contractors it is investigating as part of a probe into corruption. The company hasn’t been charged and denies wrongdoing.

Fire Point’s goal is to achieve self-sufficiency, ensuring that every component of its weapons is made inside Ukraine. For Terekh, it is part of a broader mission to build a defense sector that is able to stand on its own.

“As a country we can’t, and probably never will, achieve a parity of resources with Russia,” she said. “What’s important is not the amount of resources you have, but how you use them.”

Public Sénat diffusera le 31 janvier une enquête intitulée «Les Glucksmann, une histoire de famille», qui raconte une lignée de trois hommes habités par la politique.

Chaque famille a ses secrets. Celui charrié par les Glucksmann dénote toute l’ironie de l’histoire, avec un grand H. Un documentaire inédit consacré à cette «famille française pas comme les autres» révèle que le grand-père de Raphaël Glucksmann, eurodéputé de centre gauche et candidat putatif à l’élection présidentielle, était un espion au service du Komintern, l’internationale communiste fondée par Lénine après la révolution russe de 1917.

L’enquête, diffusée sur Public Sénat le 31 janvier et conduite par le journaliste Steve Jourdin, lève le voile sur l’itinéraire extraordinaire de Rubin Glucksmann, père du philosophe André Glucksmann qui enfanta lui-même celui qui est aujourd’hui devenu une figure de la gauche française. Ces révélations proviennent d’un historien allemand qui s’est penché par hasard sur cet agent soviétique qui, «pour les beaux yeux de Staline, va traverser l’Autriche, la Palestine, l’Allemagne, la France et l’Angleterre» afin d’«exporter la révolution bolchevique partout sur la planète».

L’information ne manque pas de sel au regard des engagements que prendront les descendants de Rubin Glucksmann. Son fils André, qui n’a que trois ans lorsque son père meurt noyé au large de la Grande-Bretagne en 1940, a consacré la majeure partie de sa vie intellectuelle à condamner les dérives totalitaires du communisme, en URSS comme ailleurs. Le petit-fils se revendique lui aussi de la gauche antitotalitaire. Son engagement politique a débuté en Géorgie, aux côtés du président Mikhaïl Saakachvili, en lutte contre l’influence de la Russie post-soviétique.

«Ce n’est pas un jeu la politique»

Né juif dans l’actuelle Ukraine, à la fin des années 1880, le grand-père Glucksmann se convertit très vite au marxisme. Comme beaucoup à cette époque, il embrasse tour à tour l’idéologie sioniste, avec l’idée de développer un État socialiste en terre de Palestine, puis le marxisme-léninisme, en fondant un parti communiste au Proche-Orient, suivant les instructions de Lénine au lendemain de la révolution d’octobre.

Le Komintern finira par recruter cet utopiste polyglotte dans les années 1920. Rubin deviendra un soldat fervent de cette armée secrète du bolchevisme, écumant l’Europe occidentale. Démasqué par les autorités britanniques en 1940, il finira expulsé par bateau jusqu’au Canada. Le navire ne dépassera pas le large de l’Irlande, torpillé par les Allemands, engloutissant ses passagers dans les abîmes de l’Atlantique nord. «Ainsi se termine le mystère Rubin Glucksmann», conclut le documentaire produit par Caméra Subjective.

Cette intrigue, digne d’un roman d’espionnage, n’est que le premier chapitre d’une histoire familiale qui se poursuivra avec la drôle de vie d’André Glucksmann, communiste repenti qui finira aux côtés de Nicolas Sarkozy en 2007. Cette fresque du XXe siècle est commentée par le dernier survivant de la lignée, Raphaël Glucksmann, qui se confie comme jamais sur cette ascendance dont il tire, à la fin, un enseignement majeur : «Ce n’est pas un jeu la politique. Je crois que la politique reste profondément tragique.»

Longtemps marquées par l’échec des Google Glass, elles sont désormais portées par l’IA et des avancées décisives en matière de design. Les industriels, start-up et géants de la tech américains et chinois se livrent une bataille féroce pour imposer leurs modèles.

« Je sais enfin ce que tu fais dans la vie maintenant. » Il aura fallu une consécration par le magazine Time pour que le père d’Alex Hirel comprenne enfin le métier de son fils. Vice-président de Meta en charge des objets connectés, le dirigeant travaille pourtant sur les lunettes de réalité augmentée depuis plus de sept ans, bien avant le Covid. Mais c’est l’inscription des Meta Ray-Ban Display au palmarès des meilleures innovations 2025 du célèbre média américain qui a provoqué cette épiphanie familiale. L’anecdote, racontée par le dirigeant dans un restaurant huppé de Las Vegas en marge du CES 2026 cette semaine, en dit long sur le purgatoire qu’ont traversé les défenseurs de cette technologie après l’échec retentissant des Google Glass en 2013.

Dans le désert du Nevada, le plus grand salon mondial des technologies avait cette année des airs d’oasis pour une industrie en plein renouveau. Sur les stands de centaines d’exposants comme sur le visage de nombreux participants, les lunettes de réalité augmentée étaient omniprésentes. « On commence à sentir une vraie adoption de la part des consommateurs », se félicite Will Wang, directeur général et cofondateur d’Even Realities. La start-up, basée entre la Chine et l’Europe, présentait au salon la deuxième génération de ses lunettes à écran, les G2. « Nous l’avons lancée il y a deux mois, les ventes sont déjà dix fois meilleures que la première génération », indique cet ancien ingénieur d’Apple.

Aux États-Unis, les ventes de lunettes intelligentes ont doublé l’an passé. Mardi soir, Meta a même annoncé la suspension des livraisons dans toutes ses zones géographiques à l’exception du marché nord-américain. « La demande a été inédite et supérieure à nos attentes », insiste Ankit Brahmbhatt, directeur produit chez Meta en charge des lunettes d’IA. « Ce sont des produits très complexes à produire, notamment sur la partie optique. Nous voulons être sûrs de pouvoir déjà répondre à la demande des États-Unis. » Les analystes, eux, sont euphoriques. D’ici 2030, McKinsey estime que le marché mondial des lunettes connectées pourrait atteindre 30 milliards de dollars.

L’heure de la maturité

Comment expliquer une telle accélération pour des produits encore jugés moribonds il y a peu ? « On arrive à une certaine maturité. La taille des lunettes devient acceptable, les technologies sont bien intégrées et permettent aux consommateurs de se projeter dans les usages », analyse Christophe Yerolymos, vice-président du géant chinois TCL pour l’Europe et le Moyen-Orient. Chez Meta, l’accent est mis sur le design. « Il s’agit avant tout de lunettes. Elles doivent être esthétiques et confortables avant d’être des produits technologiques », rappelle Ankit Brahmbhatt. Une conviction partagée par Will Wang. « Il y a eu par le passé, et il y a encore aujourd’hui, beaucoup de lunettes intelligentes qui ne sont pas de bonnes paires de lunettes », alerte l’entrepreneur chinois.

La G2 d’Even Realities, avec sa monture fine et son poids de 36 grammes, mise sur un design épuré et minimaliste, malgré ses quatre microphones, sa batterie et son électronique embarquée. Une fois posée sur le nez, la dimension intelligente se révèle : un écran flottant aux caractères verts apparaît dans le champ de vision, sans entraver la vue. Et les usages sont nombreux : traduction en temps réel lors d’une conversation, affichage des notifications, navigation avec Google Maps, consultation de l’agenda. Une fonction de téléprompteur a récemment été ajoutée au système d’exploitation. Côté intelligence artificielle, Gemini, ChatGPT ou Perplexity peuvent répondre aux questions posées à l’oral. Le prix, lui, s’affiche à 699 euros en Europe, auquel on peut ajouter la bague connectée à 269 euros pour naviguer plus simplement sans toucher sans cesse la monture.

Un tarif qui flirte avec celui d’un smartphone très haut de gamme. Le jeu en vaut-il la chandelle ? « Si vous ne disposez pas de lunettes équipées d’une intelligence artificielle ou d’un moyen d’interagir avec l’IA, vous serez probablement désavantagé sur le plan cognitif », martelait il y a quelques semaines Mark Zuckerberg. Le PDG de Meta est devenu le VRP en chef d’une industrie dans laquelle son groupe a investi des dizaines de milliards de dollars via Reality Labs, son partenariat avec Ray-Ban, ou encore les lunettes Orion. Le groupe fait clairement la course en tête, qu’il s’agisse d’expérience utilisateur ou de technologie.

Contrôler la lunette en tapotant des doigts

Sur les Meta Ray-Ban Display, l’une des innovations les plus commentées est le Neural Band. Ce bracelet porté au poignet permet de contrôler la lunette en tapotant l’index ou le majeur contre le pouce. Il est même possible d’écrire des messages en dessinant des lettres avec les doigts. Dopé à l’IA, le Neural Band déchiffre le signal envoyé par le cerveau aux muscles pour commander la lunette. Les caméras intégrées à la monture permettent de prendre photos et vidéos mais aussi de solliciter l’IA de Meta pour obtenir des informations sur ce que l’utilisateur a sous les yeux.

Face à cette force de frappe, la concurrence s’organise, notamment en Chine. Pionnier du secteur, Rokid a lancé au CES une paire sans écran de 36 grammes. L’IA y est omniprésente via des chatbots comme ChatGPT, DeepSeek ou Qwen, ainsi que des applications telles que Google Maps ou Microsoft AI Translation, toutes pilotables à la voix. L’entreprise dispose également de modèles avec écrans et caméras. TCL a aussi marqué les esprits avec sa filiale RayNeo. Le groupe présentait deux innovations majeures : les RayNeo Air 4 Pro, des lunettes de réalité mixte orientées multimédia et gaming grâce à leurs écrans OLED et à la technologie HDR. « C’est une télé de 140 pouces dans la poche », sourit Christophe Yerolymos. L’autre produit, la X3 Pro Project eSIM, embarque une connexion 4G intégrée, permettant de naviguer sur internet ou de passer des appels sans smartphone. De quoi se passer définitivement du téléphone ? Interrogés, la plupart sembler miser sur une approche complémentaire entre les deux produits.

Les opérateurs télécoms, qui voient un potentiel de monétisation, sont aussi sur le coup. En Chine, China Mobile et China Unicom ont participé à la levée de fonds récente de RayNeo. « Les opérateurs vont être un acteur majeur de l’explosion de ce marché comme ils l’avaient été sur le smartphone, assure Christophe Yerolymos. Ils sont capables de proposer une offre avec le matériel et la connectivité. Ils ont aussi la capacité à distribuer la technologie de manière assez importante. »

Bataille sino-américaine

D’autres géants préparent leur offensive. Snapchat, pionnier de la catégorie au milieu des années 2010, prévoit un retour de ses Spectacles en 2026. Samsung travaille depuis plusieurs années avec Google sur un projet de Galaxy Glasses. Lenovo a, de son côté, dévoilé à Las Vegas un concept de lunettes intelligentes commandées à la voix. Tous les regards se tournent également désormais vers Apple qui, après l’échec de son casque Vision Pro, aurait recentré ses efforts internes sur des lunettes connectées. Ankit Brahmbhatt s’en réjouit : « Cela apporte plus de visibilité à la catégorie. »

Une nouvelle bataille sino-américaine se profile, au moins sur la conception. Car pour la production et l’assemblage, la Chine restera incontournable. « Les Américains voudront dérisquer leur chaîne d’approvisionnement par rapport à la Chine. Mais cela sera difficile sur l’écran et le guide d’onde (qui projette l’image dans le champ de vision de l’œil) », prévient Steve Babureck, vice-président de Soitec, en charge de la stratégie du groupe de substrats pour semi-conducteurs. Les acteurs de ce secteur, à l’image du groupe français mais aussi un acteur comme Qualcomm - qui a lancé l’été dernier un processeur dédié aux lunettes connectées -, sont déjà à l’affût pour capter une part du gâteau.

À lire aussi Samsung et Google lancent un casque pour concurrencer Meta et Apple dans la réalité mixte

En aval, l’écosystème de développeurs se met lui aussi en ordre de marche. Google cherche à imposer Android XR comme système d’exploitation de référence, à l’image d’Android sur le smartphone, ainsi que son modèle d’iA Gemini. Bien que ses annonces aient eu lieu début décembre, le géant de Mountain View était bien présent à Las Vegas, allant jusqu’à s’offrir un affichage publicitaire géant sur la Sphère, l’immense salle de spectacle tapissée de LED. Moins visibles que les géants de la tech, de nombreux développeurs travaillent dans l’ombre à imaginer les usages de demain. C’est le cas de Jason Marsh, fondateur de Flow Immersive, qui développe des solutions de visualisation de données immersives, principalement pour les professionnels. « L’IA nous permet de passer un cap en termes de fonctionnalité et de facilité d’utilisation », explique-t-il.

Ergonomie et coût

Certains obstacles se dressent encore sur le chemin des fabricants. S’ils assurent tous qu’il est possible de porter ces lunettes pendant de longues heures, la fatigue se ressent sans doute assez rapidement lorsque l’affichage est permanent. De même que les capacités d’interactions sociales, même si elles sont largement plus riches que dans le cas de la réalité virtuelle. « Il faut s’assurer que ces dispositifs peuvent remplir leur fonction première en matière de correction oculaire », ajoute Steve Babureck, de Soitec. Le dirigeant insiste aussi sur le fait que l’ajout d’une myriade de futures fonctionnalités d’IA provoquera des arbitrages car étant plus puissantes, les lunettes embarqueront nécessairement une batterie et des composants plus imposants. Donc moins ergonomiques. « Enfin, il y a un enjeu de coût qui n’est pas neutre, notamment au regard de l’explosion à venir du prix des composants mémoire », indique l’expert.

Reste enfin à savoir si le décollage viendra d’abord du marché professionnel ou du grand public. À ce stade, les acteurs du secteur semblent tâtonner quant à leur approche du mode de distribution. Le chinois Even Realities par exemple, mise au-delà du canal en ligne sur la distribution chez les opticiens, notamment car il veut pouvoir proposer des verres adaptés à la vue de ses clients, quand un groupe comme TCL vend auprès de la distribution spécialisée ou certains opérateurs télécoms. « Tous les canaux sont pertinents. Mais nous sommes convaincus que c’est un produit qui nécessite une aide pour la prise en main », conclut Ankit Brahmbhatt, de Meta.

Testing the world’s first battery-powered skis

A Swiss start-up aims to do for ski-touring what e-bikes did for cycling. James Stewart gets an exclusive preview

There’s a school of thought among certain skiers that leans towards the puritanical. The pleasure of a descent, it argues, is earned through the penance of a manual ascent — walking uphill using textured skins stuck to the base of the skis, so that they slide forwards but not back. No ski lifts for these ski-touring idealists. You have to “earn your turns”.

Each to their own, I think. In front of me rises a slope unblemished by footprints, let alone ski tracks. It’s steep — under normal circumstances you’d find an alternative route or traverse rather than slog straight up. Instead, I squeeze triggers on each ski pole. Lights on my skis switch from red to green and, with the next step, I swish uphill with little more effort than sliding across the flats. Earn my turns? Maybe next time.

I’m in Verbier for an exclusive preview of E-Skimo, the world’s first powered skis, just launched after five years’ research and development. It was bound to happen eventually. With e-bikes ubiquitous and even hikers strapping on powered exoskeletons, it was only a matter of time before someone developed e-skis for touring. His name is Nicola Colombo.

It’s tempting to see Colombo as an eccentric — motorised skis have a Wallace and Gromit wackiness about them. Then you learn that he has a successful background as a software and technology entrepreneur, as well as co-founding Italian Volt electric motorbikes, building the prototype himself and setting a distance record riding it from Shanghai to Milan in 2013.

In 2020, while many of us tinkered with sourdough recipes during pandemic lockdowns, Colombo finessed a design for electrically powered skis. “There was a spike in ski touring because resorts were closed,” he explains. “My friends came out with me for the first time and found it too intense. They complained it took forever to get up, then only two minutes to descend. That’s when the idea sparked.”

On a rudimentary level, E-Skimo is a pair of freeride skis, each with a battery at the front and motor at the back. (For readers of a technical bent, each motor delivers up to 850W, while the lithium batteries are each rated 246Wh.) A “traction skin” feeds around the motor’s drive wheel, stretches along the top of the ski (beneath the boot) then passes through a hole at the front, running back along the base and returning to the motor through another hole at the rear. It thus forms a sort of looped conveyor belt, roughly in the middle two-thirds of the ski, which pushes the ski forwards.

There’s also a more conventional adhesive skin, known as the “ascent skin”, which users stick to the base first. Its tip has the usual textured fibres stopping the ski slipping backwards but the mid-section is smooth, to sit beneath the rotating traction skin and stop it polishing all the wax off the base of the ski.

When you reach the top of your climb, you unclip the batteries and motors (and stow them in a backpack), snap in plugs for the holes, and E-Skimo transforms into standard downhill skis. Sound straightforward? It really isn’t.

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The idea is not to stand motionless, as on an escalator, while the skis carry you uphill. Rather, they are designed to assist the normal rhythm and motion of ski touring — so sensors note when you lift your heel, and the motors begin to apply power, adjusting it over the course of each stride. As with e-bikes, there are various modes, Eco, Climb and Boost, which change power levels from 30 to 60 then 100 per cent respectively. When I say I’m happiest on blue pistes and flattering reds, Colombo advises I stick to Eco. Fair call. He adds: “I’m thinking of changing the mode names to Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced.”

Modes are changed via buttons on the poles but you’re unlikely to switch. An accelerometer and gyroscope monitor terrain — the steeper things get, the shorter the skis’ movement forward. In addition, clever software engineering allows the skis to communicate via Bluetooth while AI assesses snow conditions. “The same route done 30 minutes apart may require totally different traction,” Colombo explains. “Power settings change according to a slip factor calculation. The amount of data involved is crazy.”

Do we really want e-skis, though, I wonder as we soar over snow-dusted pines in a gondola from Verbier. To this occasional skier, touring’s appeal is its blend of escapism and cardio workout. E-Skimo seems to negate both.

Colombo points out that his heartbeat is 125bpm whether touring normally or using E-Skimo. The difference is that he can ascend 700 metres per hour under power instead of 300. The website promises climbs can be four times faster for a third less effort, so you can “conquer every ascent . . . keep your energy focused on the thrill ahead . . . and turn every descent into an unforgettable rush of adventure”.

La Chaux, a high pasture in the Verbier ski area, doesn’t feel especially adventurous on the beautiful Sunday morning of our test. On the snow-covered road where we begin, couples amble with their dogs. A group taking a cross-country ski lesson glides past, the instructor tutting as we attach the motors. “C’est grave,” he says with impressive disdain. “To ski with motors is not organically human.”

I clip into the bindings while Colombo fiddles with poles. Ten minutes later, he’s still fiddling. A flat pole battery. The motors have a run-time of about three hours or roughly 1,500 metres of vertical gain on one charge (though it depends on factors including temperature, type of snow and weight of user). The pole batteries last for four hours. But no pole power means no motors.

While Colombo returns to Verbier for charged poles, the FT photographer marches me unmotorised across surrounding slopes. The Corbassière glacier winks silver-blue across the valley and the Mont Blanc massif is a crown of white peaks beneath a cobalt sky. I imagine how enjoyable the experience might be were I not dragging 2.8kg of battery and motor on each ski. Still, the view’s beautiful when I get my breath.

Colombo returns with semi-recharged poles. Except now the motors aren’t firing. It turns out the problem is my boots — they are calibrated for Colombo’s, and the sensors don’t recognise when my soles lift. The app to change this is on his phone and, inevitably, his phone is in Verbier. We swap boots — same size, fortunately — and I finally step forwards.

It’s an unnerving thing to feel a ski move without your input. As each heel lifts, there’s a thrum of motors and rotating skins and the skis slide forwards around 80cm. All the effort is outsourced. When the photographer asks if I can attempt that steep slope, passers-by stop to watch. If not entirely effort-free, it’s literally no sweat. I am a ski-touring Terminator, undaunted, unstoppable. At least until the batteries drain.

I climb at a decent clip beneath drinkers on a mountain restaurant terrace. After a short ascent up the edge of the piste, we cut away on to another track, which loops towards an amphitheatre of jagged peaks. The Bec des Rosses, venue for the Xtreme Verbier freeride event, rises like a monstrous pyramid.

It’s an impressive sight but I’m distracted by the motors — their whirr feels intrusive compared with the crunch of snow and creak of boots. I expect that will disappear with time, and the satisfaction of finding a rhythm on an ascent remains unchanged. It’s certainly easier. While I had laboured up this incline on skins the day before, we breeze up to a celebrated mountain refuge, the Cabane Mont Fort.

Inside its wooden cocoon, Colombo enthuses about E-Skimo’s potential. It’s for “the friend of a ski tourer who is not as fast, the chalet owner who has to go up and down, ski tourers who want to go further or older people who want to get back to skiing”. Also, I suspect, for skiers who like gadgets.

Regular app updates will tweak the algorithm as real-world data floods in, Colombo continues. Users will be able to create bespoke power modes. There’ll be an E-Skimo community: “I’ll go for a spin with customers. We’re all different in how we use technology.”

Terrific, but what about those batteries? Colombo argues that two hours’ touring is enough for most people. But what if you fancy a full day on the slopes? The short answer is to find an accommodating lodge for lunch — pole batteries recharge in 45 minutes, motor batteries in two hours. The long answer is a potential update that will allow recharges via a powerbank. Failing that, I guess you could always clip on old-fashioned skins.

We detach the motors and batteries, snap in the infills and ski down to La Chaux in minutes. This so-so skier can’t tell the difference from standard skis. With batteries low, I take a ski lift up to a longer piste to be sure. Nope, identical.

Can E-Skimo ever win over advanced skiers? Tom Crothall, sales manager at Mountain Air, a specialist Verbier ski shop, thinks “hardcore skiers” will resist just as cycle purists were hostile to the first e-bikes (one writer on Cyclist magazine called them a “betrayal”). E-Skimo is a similar “breakthrough product”, Crothall says. “I’m a pure touring guy, but like e-bikes this enables people to get out in nature and go places they wouldn’t otherwise go.” Colombo thinks “haters” see E-Skimo as a threat: “It means more people. When we ski, we pretend the mountain is our own.”

I’m torn. After the battery issues on this test, I can understand why purists might rail against motorised skis. Equally, E-Skimo let me pack far more into an afternoon than I would usually manage. The mountains belong to everyone, Colombo had said at one point, the thing was to enjoy them responsibly. You’d hope both purists and battery-assisted tourers could agree on that.

Bringing Venezuela’s output under U.S. control has the potential to upend the power balance in the world market

President Trump plans to rehabilitate Venezuela’s oil fields, aiming to increase output and give the U.S. control over a significant oil supply.

Analysts predict that increased Venezuelan oil production could exacerbate global oversupply, potentially pushing oil prices further down.

OPEC, along with allies including Russia, is already struggling to come up with a strategy to manage Trump’s push for low oil prices.

OPEC members struggling to preserve their market share amid a sinking price for oil now have an unexpected new variable to contend with: President Trump’s move to dominate Venezuela’s oil supply and push the market in a direction that would benefit American consumers.

Trump, who has long championed increased oil production and a target price of $50 a barrel, is planning a sweeping initiative to rehabilitate Venezuela’s oil fields and market its output, people familiar with the matter said. That would reshape the global oil map—putting the U.S. in charge of the output of one of the founding members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and, along with America’s own prodigious production, give it a potentially disruptive role in a market already struggling with oversupply.

While analysts expect that reviving Venezuela’s dilapidated oil industry will take huge investments and a lot of time, they say even a small near-term output increase—followed by a larger rise over the longer run—could exacerbate the global imbalance and push prices further down.

OPEC members now face the difficult question of whether to try to prop up prices by cutting supply at the risk of hurting their revenue and market share—and potentially their relationships with the unpredictable U.S. president.

“The onus is on everyone to manage their own interests but at the same time not poke the bear,” said David Oxley, chief climate and commodities economist at Capital Economics. “That’s an inherent tension weighing on the global market.”

Some members believe if the Venezuelan administration changes regulations to make the oil industry attractive to American investors, the country could pump an extra 2 million barrels a day within one to three years, up from less than 1 million barrels a day now, Gulf OPEC delegates said.

Saudi Arabia for now is waiting it out, people familiar with the matter said. Its reasoning is it will take years to restore production in Venezuela, where American companies will want a legal framework and potential U.S. government guarantees that would bind future administrations before investing the necessary billions of dollars needed to repair Venezuela’s run-down infrastructure, the people said.

While Venezuela has vast oil reserves, its crude is a heavy, high-sulfur variety that is considered low quality and commercially unattractive.

Other Gulf members of OPEC believe Trump’s plans could have a silver lining. If he disrupts the flow of Venezuelan crude to China, it would force that giant consumer to turn to the Gulf for more supplies, Gulf delegates said.

Even so, the U.S. play for Venezuela will complicate the group’s effort to manage the market as vast reserves fall under U.S. control and out of OPEC’s orbit, the delegates said.

According to analysts at JPMorgan, the combined oil reserves of Guyana, where large U.S. companies dominate the industry, Venezuela and American producers could give the U.S. sway over about 30% of the global total.

“This shift could give the U.S. greater influence over oil markets, potentially keeping oil prices within historically lower ranges, enhance energy security, and reshape the balance of power in international energy markets,” the bank said in a recent report.

OPEC, along with allies including Russia, is already struggling to come up with a strategy to manage Trump’s push for low oil prices. While the president has repeatedly called on the cartel to increase oil production, its members worry prices are already too low. At a meeting Sunday, OPEC along with Russia and other producers agreed to hit pause on any oil output increases for the first three months of this year.

Crude slumped last year due to increased output around the world and fears about the state of the global economy. A barrel of Brent, the global oil yardstick, is currently changing hands for around $63. Benchmark U.S. crude is hovering around $59 a barrel, both down around a fifth from a year ago.

Analysts have been reducing their oil price forecasts for this year in recent weeks, with JPMorgan predicting that Brent will average $58 this year while the U.S. benchmark will average $54. The bank expects even lower prices next year. Saudi Arabia this week lowered the price of its crude for Asian buyers for the third consecutive month.

Whatever happens with Venezuela’s output, analysts agree that low oil prices will persist, straining the bottom lines and budgets of global producers.

A sustained drop below $50 a barrel—the profitability threshold for many companies—could cripple the U.S. shale industry, which has strongly supported Trump. Many U.S. drillers already are ignoring the president’s exhortations to boost output, choosing instead to adhere to Wall Street’s demands for strict capital discipline.

Saudi Arabia can pump crude oil at a cost of less than $10 a barrel, analysts estimate. But according to Capital Economics, the kingdom needs prices above $100 to bring its fiscal deficit down to zero.

Riyadh is facing a vast set of domestic spending commitments that have left the world’s biggest oil exporter with a growing budget deficit and increased need to borrow money. The kingdom’s Vision 2030 plan is meant to diversify its economy away from oil by sparking growth in sectors such as tourism, entertainment and sports.

“The low prices definitely exert more pressure on Saudi Arabia and also restrict its ability to strategically deploy overseas capital, which is important as Gulf countries vie for access to the Trump administration by making large investment pledges,” said Steffen Hertog, a professor at the London School of Economics who has written extensively about Saudi politics.

More Venezuelan barrels would add to the pressure on Russia’s oil industry, which is being battered by sanctions, Ukrainian attacks and a longer-term structural decline driven by aging fields and insufficient resources to explore complex reserves.

OPEC’s influence is already being eroded by surging production in the U.S., Brazil and Guyana.

“They have seen their pockets being picked by other producers around the world,” Oxley said. “There is a lot of oil coming through, and OPEC just hasn’t got as much clout as they once did.”

The stablecoin served as a tool to avoid sanctions and a lifeline for everyday citizens

Nicolás Maduro helped make tether the world’s dominant stablecoin. And with the former Venezuelan leader now sitting in a Brooklyn jail, the cryptocurrency’s central role in his nation’s economy is back in the spotlight.

Tether emerged as a vital tool for the state-run oil company to sidestep sanctions, serving as the currency for settling oil transactions. It also has offered a financial lifeline to everyday Venezuelans racked by the tumbling value of their home currency, the bolivar. Like most popular stablecoins, tether maintains a one-to-one peg to the U.S. dollar.

Maduro’s arrest and removal as Venezuela’s president is unlikely to diminish tether’s presence in Venezuela, where hyperinflation remains a problem, according to crypto analysts. Tether’s financial ties to Venezuela put the cryptocurrency company in prime position to aid U.S. authorities as they seek to track down what happened to funds allegedly stolen by the Maduro regime.

“Crypto use in Venezuela will persist and likely expand in the short term,” said Adam Zarazinski, chief executive officer of the crypto-intelligence firm Inca Digital. “For everyday users, it’s a coping mechanism for economic dysfunction and failing institutions. But those same governance failures also enable sanctions evasion, an outcome that won’t change without credible improvements in governance.”

Maduro pleaded not guilty to narcotrafficking charges during his arraignment this past week in U.S. federal court.

The new phase comes as the cryptocurrency company Tether and its eponymous token, once maligned as the stablecoin choice of outlaws, seek to gain acceptance in the U.S. Last year legislation was passed that paved the way for greater use of stablecoins, and Tether has announced plans to issue a stablecoin available to U.S. investors. Doing so would put the company on equal footing with such rivals as Circle Internet Group and Paxos. Without such a move, Tether risks being sidelined in the U.S. market.

This past week Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the U.S. would sell blockaded Venezuelan oil indefinitely. Proceeds from the sales, Wright said, would be deposited into accounts controlled by the U.S. government and eventually moved to the Latin American country to “benefit the Venezuelan people.” A senior Trump administration official told The Wall Street Journal that the government was selectively rolling back sanctions to enable the transport and sale of crude oil and oil products to the global market.

Faced with escalating U.S. sanctions in 2020, Venezuela’s state-run oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, or PdVSA, began demanding payments in tether to bypass the traditional banking system. Oil-export payments were settled through direct tether transfers to a certain wallet address or through intermediaries swapping cash proceeds for tether.

The shift was transformative for the country’s oil economy. By one estimate, almost 80% of Venezuela’s oil revenue is collected in stablecoins like tether, a local economist, Asdrúbal Oliveros, said on a recent podcast.

Tether has since cooperated with U.S. authorities to freeze dozens of wallets identified as being involved in the Venezuelan oil trade.

A spokeswoman for Tether said the company complies with all applicable U.S. and international sanctions and works closely with U.S. authorities, including the Office of Foreign Assets Control. “We do not issue USDT directly to sanctioned governments or sanctioned individuals, and we regularly assist law enforcement by freezing addresses linked to illicit activity or sanctions violations in response to valid requests,” she said.

Not long after the sanctions took effect, tether, whose ticker is USDT, became a viable alternative currency to many Venezuelans, who used the stablecoin to send money across borders, secure savings and pay for daily transactions.

“The Venezuelan bolivar lost 99.8% in the last 10 years against the U.S. dollar, the Turkish lira lost 80%, the Argentina peso around 94.5%,” said Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino at a recent crypto conference. “That is, in one simple chart, the reason why USDT is successful.”

Mauricio Di Bartolomeo, a crypto entrepreneur born and raised in Venezuela, said his 71-year-old aunt called him two months ago because she needed to get tether to pay for the homeowners-association fees for her condo.

“It’s how you pay your landscaper and how you pay for your haircut. You can use tether basically for anything,” said Di Bartolomeo, the co-founder of the crypto lender Ledn. “Stablecoin adoption has gone so far into Venezuela that even without having regulated venues where you can buy and sell them, people still choose to go for stablecoins as opposed to using the local banks.”

Researchers said tether’s role in Venezuela is inevitable owing to the people’s lack of trust in the domestic banking system and strict capital controls that limit access to physical dollars. A case in point: The Venezuelan government’s attempt to introduce an oil-backed cryptocurrency called Petro in 2018 failed because of a lack of public trust and international acceptance.

“The issue isn’t tether itself, but the dual-use reality of stablecoins,” said Ari Redbord, global head of policy at TRM Labs, which has a partnership with Tether to track illicit activity involving the use of the stablecoin on the Tron blockchain. “They can be a civilian lifeline and, under sanctions pressure, a tool for evasion.”

Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto funds have continued to produce better returns and distribute more cash than the firm’s general venture funds, according to new returns data published Friday.

The firm’s second crypto fund, a $541 million vehicle raised in 2020, had a total value to paid-in capital of 4.1 times as of September 2025 and distributed 1.8 times its paid-in capital to investors, according to an edition of Paddy McCormick’s “Not Boring” newsletter published the day the VC firm revealed it had raised $15 billion in new funds. That 2020 fund’s performance improved on its performance from the year earlier, according to returns previously reported by The Information.

The 2020 crypto fund also performed twice as well by those measures as its flagship $1.4 billion venture fund launched the same year. The VC fund’s total value to invested capital was 1.7 and it distributed no cash to investors, the newsletter said.

Andreessen’s crypto funds benefited from the rally in Solana and other crypto tokens, though their prices have fallen sharply since September.

The firm’s third crypto fund, a $2.4 billion vehicle raised in 2021, had a total value of 1.5 times paid in capital and had distributed 0.2 times its capital, the newsletter said. By both measures, the crypto fund bested the late-stage general fund Andreessen raised the same year, which had a total value of 1.2 times its invested capital and hadn’t returned any cash.

Its largest fund to date, a $5.1 billion late-stage fund raised in 2022, was worth 1.4 times its invested capital and had returned 0.1 of its invested money. That performance was enough to put it in the first quartile for all VC funds of that vintage, according to PitchBook benchmarks from the second quarter.

Reflecting a still-sluggish IPO market, all but three of the firm’s 17 funds raised since 2020 hadn’t returned any cash to investors.