FT : Europe’s renewables push slowed by waits for links to grid, operator warns

Europe’s renewables push slowed by waits for links to grid, operator warns
Speculative ventures are stopping vital projects from getting connections, major European grid operator says

The boss of one of Europe’s largest grid operators has warned that too many speculative and unprepared projects are holding up grid connections for critical energy projects and causing years-long queues.

Bernard Gustin, chief executive of Elia Group, which operates the Belgian and parts of the German grid, said that operators of network infrastructure should be able to allocate connections to projects that are ready, rather than those that applied first.

‘‘I think in Belgium we have 10 times more projects [than] needed until 2030,” he said, referring to battery storage projects. “If you change from first come, first served to first ready, first served, then you will focus on the ones who are really serious because they have everything [ready].”

Grid connections have become a huge issue for European countries. Many are trying to manage a rapid increase in demand for grid access as more industrial plants and households install wind and solar power that can go into the grid, as well as an increasing number of applications from data centres to use energy from it.

In some countries, such as the Netherlands, queues to be connected to the grid stretch more than seven years. In Slovakia, about 50 per cent of capacity reserved for connection remains unused, according to commission figures. In Germany, there are twice as many requests to add battery storage to the grid as is planned in the country’s grid development plan, an Elia Group report found.

The rollout of renewables in the EU has outpaced the infrastructure needed to support it, as countries race to meet renewable energy targets set by Brussels and move away from imported fossil fuels. The European Commission has estimated that €1.2tn needs to be spent on the EU’s grids by 2040 in order to support the transition.

Gustin said that grid operators are competing for funding to rapidly build out networks and upgrade infrastructure to balance the volatility of wind and solar energy.

After years of stagnant investment levels, “we all have huge capex plans, so big that you need to be able to finance them, which is a challenge”, he said.

Costs from grid congestion — where cheap electricity cannot flow to where demand is so people have to pay for higher cost sources — are rising. Acer, the EU energy regulator, has said that they reached €5.2bn in 2022 and could rise to €26bn by 2030.

In a document published in December, Brussels set out recommendations to prioritise connections to the grid. The commission also said that it would take a more top-down approach to energy infrastructure planning in order to accelerate the build-out and ensure costs were shared between EU countries.

“In Europe it’s a huge problem and we lose billions every year in lost value because of curtailment and bottlenecks,” EU energy commissioner Dan Jørgensen told the Financial Times.

In a report on energy storage, Elia Group found that the first 100GW of installed batteries in Europe would reduce the curtailment of renewable power by 13 per cent, meaning that 13 per cent more power would be available.

Elia plans to spend €31.6bn on grid upgrades until 2028, split roughly one-third to Belgium and two-thirds to its German arm. To deal with connection demands from batteries, data centres and renewable energy installations could cost an additional €10bn, Gustin estimated.

“These are not small amounts . . . you have a lot of people saying we don’t want tariffs to go up on energy, electricity is not competitive. And so we have a first challenge [which] is how do we make sure, given the amounts we need to raise, that we have a competitive return on equity?”

Gustin, who was formerly chief executive of Brussels Airlines, oversaw a €2.2bn capital raise earlier this year, bringing in investors such as BlackRock and the Canadian pension fund CPP.

Often the length of time it takes to grant permits for infrastructure projects is seen as a risk factor by investors, he said, with permitting times in Belgium running up to eight years.

“By [that] time inflation and the price have increased and some investors are telling you these were not the conditions we had at the start, we cannot continue,” he said.

The EU’s recent legislation aims to speed up permitting times by setting time limits for permit deliberations and proposing that energy projects should be seen as having an overriding interest.

FT : European office deals rebound as investors bet on supply crunch

European office deals rebound as investors bet on supply crunch
Total of 21 deals worth £100mn or more in central London in 2025 is almost double previous year’s figure

Investors sank money in big European office deals again last year, with values and the number of transactions rebounding as the prospect of a supply crunch breathed new life into a once moribund sector.

A total of 21 transactions worth £100mn or more had completed in central London as of mid-December, compared with 12 for all of 2024. Nine office buildings were sold for £200mn or more, compared with just one in 2024.

Big deals accounted for a greater share of the market. Office building sales in central London worth £100mn or more were 53 per cent of total sales volumes as of mid December, up from 27 per cent for the whole of 2024, according to data from real estate broker Savills.

“Investors are feeling more confident” about putting money back into this space, particularly domestic funds and institutions, said Oliver Bamber, director for central London investment at Savills. Bamber is advising on the sale of St Christopher’s Place, a mixed-use office, residential and leisure estate, and Stirling Square, an office building. Both are in the West End and expected to sell for more than £200mn.

As of mid-December, there were 12 office deals worth £100mn or more under way in continental Europe and the UK, with a total value of €2.7bn. That compares with nine deals worth €1.87bn at the same point in 2024, according to data from MSCI, and eight worth €1.65bn in 2023.

“Despite the noise around work from home, actually the cranes have stopped for a number of years in key markets, presenting in critical markets like London a supply crunch,” said Nick Deacon, head of offices for Europe at Nuveen Real Estate.

“Demand has stayed up, supply is looking really difficult, we’re all anticipating rental growth and that’s fundamentally what people are buying into,” he added.

Nuveen in December sold its “Can of Ham” skyscraper in London to Hayfin and Capreon for about £340mn. The average office deal size in Europe is about €35mn, according to MSCI.

US asset manager Invesco has appointed broker CBRE to sell its Capital 8 complex in Paris’s 8th arrondissement, which could fetch about €900mn, according to people familiar with the matter.

Invesco acquired the nearly 500,000 sq ft building in 2018 and spent two years and €100mn redeveloping it. It now has a rooftop bar and a “hotel-inspired lobby”, according to the firm. Invesco and CBRE declined to comment.

A price tag of €900mn would represent the largest European office building sale in three years and the largest in France in five years. It joins other high-end assets that are being sold, a sign the market is creeping back after valuations crashed in the wake of the pandemic and high interest rates.

JPMorgan Asset Management and Singapore sovereign-wealth fund GIC, for example, are selling OpernTurm, an office tower in Frankfurt known for its good location and steady tenant base. It could fetch €800mn, according to people familiar with the transaction. JPMorgan and GIC declined to comment.

Both real estate investment manager Hines and developer Art-Invest Real Estate have looked at OpernTurm, according to people familiar with the matter. They declined to comment.

Meanwhile, Blackstone in September snapped up the Centre d’Affaires Paris Trocadéro, a mixed-use property including office and retail in the 16th arrondissement, for about €700mn.

“There’s real evidence of rental growth: we are seeing some prime rents in the City of London can be well north of £100 a foot, north of €1,200 a metre in Paris,” said Samir Amichi, Blackstone’s head of real estate acquisitions for Europe. “These are rents we hadn’t seen before.”

The Trocadéro sale is a “bellwether” for supersize deals, said Tom Leahy, head of real estate research for Emea at MSCI. “It’s emblematic of a broader recovery.”

Still, investors remain selective, with bidders focused on well-located buildings with attractive amenities in the top global cities.

Lars Huber, head of Europe at Hines, said capital completely dried up over the previous two or three years and has only started coming back recently.

“Investors are drawn to Europe right now because the interest rate environment has improved, construction costs are moderating, there’s less supply of top-quality office space and Europe provides geopolitical stability compared to other places.”

Traditional lenders are also more keen to lend, which is adding liquidity, he said.

In the first half of 2025, new commercial real estate lending in the UK totalled £22.3bn, up 33 per cent from the year before, according to research from Bayes Business School.

For the Trocadéro transaction, Blackstone’s loan-to-value ratio was 60 per cent, said a person familiar with the matter. A year and a half ago, it would have been hard to get leverage above 50 per cent LTV, the person said.

FT : US to extend productivity lead on back of AI boom, say economists

US to extend productivity lead on back of AI boom, say economists
FT survey shows America’s dominance in areas such as technology is not expected to reverse soon

More than three-quarters of economists expect the US to maintain or widen its productivity lead over the rest of the world, because of artificial intelligence, deep capital markets and relatively low energy costs, a Financial Times survey has found.

In the global poll, 31 per cent of 183 respondents thought the US would retain its advantage in productivity, while another 48 per cent expected the country to increase its dominance.  

The economists were based in China, the Eurozone, the UK and the US.

Productivity growth — which measures progress in converting inputs such as hours worked into goods and services — ultimately allows companies to increase wages and profits, improving living standards.

US labour productivity rose 10 per cent between 2019 and 2024, thanks to rapid technological advances and the reallocation of workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. By contrast, it remained largely stagnant in the UK and Eurozone, according to OECD data.

Jumana Saleheen, head of Vanguard’s investment strategy group in Europe, said US productivity was set to “pull away from other developed market economies” thanks to the country’s dynamic capital markets, flexible labour force and lead in emerging technologies.

She added that Europe risked “falling further behind”, with research and development still heavily focused on traditional sectors such as automotive and pharmaceuticals.

Saleheen also noted structural challenges for the EU, including fragmented infrastructure, more rigid labour markets and less supportive capital markets.

The US economy is set for the strongest growth in the G7 this year, according to the OECD — buoyed by a tech-led investment boom and stock market gains that are bolstering wealth and spending among better-off households.

The gains have helped counter some of the economic damage done by US President Donald Trump’s trade wars but have also raised fears of an unsustainable AI-related bubble.

The FT survey, which was carried out in December, suggests economists do not expect the trends powering US outperformance to be reversed soon.

AI and related digital technologies were the new productivity frontier, said Nina Skero, chief executive of the Centre for Economics and Business Research, and the US’s “position as a leader in investment and development of these technologies will extend the US’s productivity lead”.


The trend is supported by a divergence in business investment. In the US, investment jumped 24 per cent in the second quarter of 2025 compared with the same period in 2019, before the pandemic. It contracted 7 per cent over that time in the Eurozone, according to Oxford Economics.

Some economists surveyed by the FT warned that the surge in AI investment could reflect a “bubble” — a term mentioned 25 times in responses — and cautioned that a sharp correction might weigh on US output and productivity.

A reversal in the stock market gains made by US tech could also have international repercussions via tighter financial conditions, softer external demand and rising risk aversion, some economists said.

But the majority of respondents to the poll, which represented the UK and Eurozone more heavily than China and the US, still expected America to maintain its productivity edge globally. Overall, the poll surveyed 207 economists, although not all responded to every question.


The US was starting from a “position of strength” in the productivity race, said Thomas Simons, chief US economist at Jefferies.

Respondents also pointed to the US’s structurally lower and more predictable energy costs, flexible labour market and large domestic economy.

The US benefits from “structurally lower and more predictable energy costs than Europe and many Asian economies, underpinned by an administration that treats energy policy as a driver of economic prosperity rather than a vehicle for moral posturing at the expense of growth and living standards,” said Martin Beck, chief economist at the consultancy WPI Strategy.


Europe is widely seen by economists as constrained by over-regulation, weaker investment, rigid labour markets and a business environment less favourable to cutting-edge technologies. The UK had the additional weight of the Brexit legacy to deal with, some economists contended.

“While the US and others have made major strides in AI, the UK has spent much of the last decade chasing the Brexit tail, diverting attention and resources from innovation,” said Evarist Stoja, professor of finance at the University of Bristol Business School.

Experts acknowledge that the US faces rising AI competition from Asia. “Other countries — particularly in Asia — will move to the frontier, meaning that the relative advantage of the US will erode somewhat but will not be eliminated,” said Jagjit S Chadha, professor of economics at the University of Cambridge. 

China has the second-largest cumulative venture capital investment in AI since 2012 after the US and over three times more than the EU, according to the OECD.

The US may be at the forefront of the AI wave, but “much of this may prove a misallocation of resources,” said David Owen, chief economist at Saltmarsh Economics. “Ultimately, much of the benefits will go to the users of the technology (elsewhere), not the early-stage innovators.”

Many economists also highlighted risks from US trade protectionism, restrictive immigration policies, fiscal imbalances and political instability that could eventually undermine productivity growth. 

US productivity gains from trade “have been traded away for chump change tariff revenues”, warned Robert Barbera, director of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Financial Economics.

Jonathan Portes, professor of economics and public policy at King’s College in London, warned that a “toxic combination” of tariffs, an erosion of the quality of US government administration and anti-immigration policy would “over time do significant damage to the US economy”.

WSJ : Chevron Is in Prime Position to Help Unlock Venezuela’s Vast Oil Reserves

Chevron Is in Prime Position to Help Unlock Venezuela’s Vast Oil Reserves
The country says its proved oil reserves top 300 billion barrels which, if true, would make its bounty the world’s largest

Chevron is positioned to rejuvenate Venezuela’s oil business, being the sole major U.S. company remaining in the country.
Venezuela’s government says its proved oil reserves top 300 billion barrels.
Chevron and its joint ventures employ approximately 3,000 people in Venezuela.

Chevron, as the only major U.S. company in Venezuela, finds itself in prime position to deliver on President Trump’s pledge Saturday to rejuvenate the Latin American country’s oil business.

The U.S. capture of strongman Nicolás Maduro has Chevron charting a new course as it clings to its position in some of the world’s most potent oil fields.

“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” Trump said at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago.

As the largest foreign investor in Venezuela, the oil giant has spent years navigating the country’s political and economic turmoil while its rivals pulled out—or were kicked out of the country by Venezuelan leaders.

Chevron said in a statement Saturday that it is focused on the safety of its employees and the integrity of its assets in the country.

The opportunity facing the company is huge. Venezuela’s government says its proved oil reserves top 300 billion barrels which, if true, would make its bounty the world’s largest.

Venezuela currently pumps just 900,000 barrels of oil a day following years of economic turmoil and little investment in maintaining infrastructure. Chevron is responsible for about one-third of that production.

Venezuela pumped as much as 3 million barrels a day in 2013, according to state-run company Petróleos de Venezuela, which is known as PdVSA.

Other big oil companies interested in re-entering Venezuela will almost certainly take time to evaluate the situation because the country’s government has a track record of appropriating oil assets, as it did in the 1970s and the 2000s, analysts said.

ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil pulled out of the country in 2007 after former President Hugo Chávez nationalized their assets. Conoco later sued the Venezuelan government for more than $20 billion; Exxon sued for $12 billion. The companies were awarded fractions of their losses in protracted arbitration proceedings.

Conoco and Exxon didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

“Oil companies always want oil, and Venezuela has a lot of it,” said José Ignacio Hernández, a law professor, consultant and public-debt expert at Aurora Macro Strategies. “But they need political stability, which requires more than just removing Maduro. The situation is still ongoing.”

Trump said the U.S. will “run the country” until his administration can “do a safe, proper and judicious transition.”

Chevron and its joint ventures employ about 3,000 people in Venezuela. The company pumps roughly 300,000 barrels of oil a day from three major projects across Venezuela’s Orinoco Belt in the east and one near Lake Maracaibo in the west.

The Houston company has continued to ship Venezuelan crude to the U.S. Gulf Coast even after Washington imposed a blockade on blacklisted oil tankers traveling mostly to China and Cuba.

Chevron extensively lobbied both the Biden and Trump administrations to hold on to its singular position as the only U.S. oil company operating in Venezuela.

“We are committed to the people of the country and would like to be there as part of rebuilding Venezuela’s economy in time when circumstances change,” Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said in November at the U.S.-Saudi investment summit in Washington.

Leaders of Venezuela’s democratic movement, led by María Corina Machado, have said the oil Chevron pumps there will play a big role in the country’s economic recovery.

The democratic movement is developing an economic plan that calls for Chevron and other major oil companies to raise Venezuela’s crude production by several million barrels a day in less than a decade, according to Rafael de la Cruz, director of the Washington office of Venezuela’s President-elect Edmundo González and Machado. The movement envisions PdVSA as an energy regulator refereeing a privatized oil sector.

“If Venezuela is going to grow as we think it is going to, it’s going to be basically because of massive private investment,” de la Cruz said in an interview in early December. “Chevron is going to be part of the oil industry in Venezuela, no doubt, along with many other companies that we would like to attract back to Venezuela.”

>>> Barron’s Weekend Summary

Cover:
-Barron’s maintains an equity bias for 2026, preferring stocks over bonds due to low bond yields, which only slightly exceed inflation. High-grade corporate bond yield differentials relative to Treasuries are at 25-year lows, while junk bonds offer limited advantages. The focus is on energy pipelines and REITs, which, despite being laggards in 2025, now present attractive options with dividends over 4% and potential total returns exceeding 10%, potentially outperforming the S&P 500 after its recent strong performance.

Interview:
-No update
Tech Trader:
-The AI trade, centered on investing in companies associated with artificial intelligence data centers, is approaching its fourth year, raising concerns about its sustainability. While demand for hardware from firms like Nvidia and Micron Technology remains strong through the first half of 2026, issues could arise due to potential capital expenditure cuts by major customers such as Amazon, Microsoft, and others, who may slow down their investments. Additionally, AI start-ups have garnered significant funding but are generally unprofitable, relying on continuous capital inflow to cover cloud costs. A shift in investor confidence could also impact this sector as financing primarily comes from private debt and equity.
The Trader:
-Oil prices currently reflect significant adverse factors, with oil stocks underperforming compared to the broader market, presenting a potential buying opportunity. Issues such as overproduction by US producers and OPEC+ nations, alongside increased strategic reserves in China indicating weak demand, contribute to the bleak outlook. Despite a steady GDP growth and a slowing US job market causing demand concerns, WTI Crude prices have fallen 19% this year to approximately $58, with Bank of America predicting an average price of $60 in 2026, down from $69 in 2025.
In contrast, oil stocks are showing resilience, with the State Street Energy Sector SPDR gaining 8.5% in 2025, though still trailing the S&P 500's 19% increase. Notably, Exxon Mobil, comprising 24% of the ETF, delivered a 17% return, supported by other refiners like Phillips 66 and Valero Energy. Looking ahead, oil prices may stabilize, as futures hover around $55, suggesting market expectations for improvement. Additionally, anticipated Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts could further bolster the sector, especially if they stimulate economic activity.
-Jefferies Financial Group (JEF) will report its earnings on January 7, after experiencing a significant drop in stock value due to concerns over its exposure to First Brands, which recently filed for bankruptcy. In the third quarter, although the earnings met expectations, the announcement that a fund managed by Jefferies held $715M in receivables from First Brands led to a selloff in financial stocks and a further decline in Jefferies' stock, which fell 31% between September 18 and October 16. After an investor day where management attempted to clarify the situation, the stock has since rebounded by 27%, reaching $61.97, but still has a way to go to recover its pre-decline levels. Analysts suggest that the company's upcoming earnings release could intensify the recovery, especially as no additional issues have arisen since the initial concerns, indicating that the potential damage to Jefferies' balance sheet may be limited to its own $113M investment, which is less than 1% of its total market value of $12.8B.
-Peptides are short amino acid chains that manage hormones and inflammation, prominently featured in GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy for weight loss. In Silicon Valley, various unregulated peptides such as BPC-157 and TB-500 are being explored for injury healing, oxytocin for enhancing social interactions, and epitalon for sleep enhancement. The demand for these compounds has surged, with US imports from China rising to $328M in early 2025, up from $164M a year prior, reflecting a growing interest in both regulated and gray-market peptide sources.
Features:
-South Korea experienced significant stock market growth in 2025, exemplified by the nearly doubling of the iShares MSCI South Korea ETF. While further gains are anticipated, a similar performance is unlikely. The market, currently trading at an average of 10X forward earnings, remains appealing compared to Taiwan's 17X, despite being influenced by poor corporate governance. The country's key players, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, dominate the global memory chip market, comprising over 40% of its capitalization. Recent interest from AI hyperscalers has driven DRAM prices up more than 20%. Forecasts suggest prices may continue to rise due to demand and capacity constraints among the leading firms.
-Charles Schwab's stock is now seen as a buy as it embraces its traditional strengths and expands its offerings, exemplified by the recent acquisition of Forge Global Holdings, aimed at democratizing private investments. CEO Rick Wurster emphasized the importance of independent financial advisors during a conference and the company's shift toward more aggressive growth strategies, including branching into cryptocurrencies. Analyst Michael Brown from UBS noted a clear transition from a defensive to an offensive strategy, boosting confidence in Schwab's ability to increase stock value. This comes after Schwab navigated challenges from rising interest rates that led to client outflows, but the company has managed to reduce short-term debt and position itself for future profitability.
Europe:
-In late 2025, the European Union confronted significant challenges, reflecting on its past while facing criticism about its viability. Since its inception in 1957, critics, notably propelled by the Trump administration, have warned of its potential downfall, with claims that it could face "civilizational erasure." This atmosphere underscored two key political events: a December 18 summit focused on aid for Ukraine amid a diminishing U.S. support, and a planned December 20 signing of a free-trade agreement with Mercosur countries of South America, intended as a strategic counter to U.S. antagonism. The EU ultimately demonstrated some support for Ukraine but failed to utilize a critical strategic asset—frozen Russian central bank assets amounting to 210 billion euros. Despite backing from prominent leaders like European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to use these funds for Ukraine, Belgium's Prime Minister Bart De Wever opposed the move, citing fears of legal repercussions from Russia. This situation highlighted the cumbersome requirement for unanimous consent among the EU's 27 member states, showing both the internal divisions and strategic limitations faced by the bloc.
Emerging Markets:
-No updates
Commodities:
-Silver prices sharply fell nearly 10% during volatile trading on Wednesday, with futures contracts in New York dropping 8.5% to around $71.20 and hitting a low of $70.23, marking a potential significant decline for the metal. Despite this drop, silver prices remain over 140% higher this year and close to record highs of above $82 reached recently. Investors are cautioned about participating in the silver rally, given its history of volatility and attracting retail investors during market frenzies, similar to events seen in 2021 with meme stocks like GameStop. However, fundamental factors contribute to silver's exceptional rise this year, including its status as a store of value and a hedge against a weakening dollar, alongside industrial demand driven by applications in solar panels, electric vehicles, and data centers related to artificial intelligence.
Streetwise:
-Seagate Technology, Western Digital, and Micron Technology, previously recognized by investors for their low valuation indicators, are now gaining attention for their roles in computer memory. As of January 1, 2025, Western Digital ranked as the 10th-lowest in the S&P 500 by price/earnings ratio at 8.2, followed by Micron at 11.2 and Seagate at 11.6. These companies specialize in producing nonvolatile memory, crucial for data centers, with Western Digital and Seagate focusing on long-term storage solutions such as hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state drives (SSDs). HDDs boast advantages in cost and capacity, while SSDs excel in performance characteristics. Since the introduction of the first one terabyte HDD in 2007, Seagate has advanced its technology to support HDD capacities exceeding 30 TB, with future generations expected to surpass 40 TB, emphasizing power and heat management.

TechCrunch : Nvidia’s AI empire: A look at its top startup investments

Nvidia’s AI empire: A look at its top startup investments

No company has capitalized on the AI revolution more dramatically than Nvidia. Its revenue, profitability, and cash reserves have skyrocketed since the introduction of ChatGPT over three years ago — and the many competitive generative AI services that have launched since. Its stock price has soared, making it a $4.6 trillion market cap company.

The world’s leading high-performance GPU maker has used its ballooning fortunes to significantly increase investments in startups, particularly in AI.

Nvidia has participated in nearly 67 venture capital deals in 2025, surpassing the 54 deals the company completed in all of 2024, according to PitchBook data. Note that these investments exclude those made by its formal corporate VC fund, NVentures, which also significantly increased its investment pace over that period. (PitchBook says NVentures engaged in 30 deals this year, compared to just one in 2022.)
Nvidia has stated that the goal of its corporate investing is to expand the AI ecosystem by backing startups it considers to be “game changers and market makers.”

Below is a list of startups that raised rounds exceeding $100 million since 2023 where Nvidia is a named participant, organized from the highest to lowest amount raised in the round.

This list shows just how far and wide Nvidia has spread its tentacles in the tech industry, beyond supplying its products.

The billion-dollar-round club

OpenAI: Nvidia backed the ChatGPT maker for the first time in October 2024, reportedly writing a $100 million check as part of a colossal $6.6 billion round that valued the company at $157 billion. The chipmaker’s investment was dwarfed by OpenAI’s other backers, notably Thrive, which invested $1.3 billion according to The New York Times. While PitchBook data indicates Nvidia did not participate in OpenAI’s $40 billion funding round that closed in March, the company announced in September that it would invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI over time, structured as a strategic partnership to deploy massive AI infrastructure. Nvidia later revealed in its quarterly filings that it might not follow through, stating, “There is no assurance that any investment will be completed on expected terms, if at all.”
Anthropic: In November 2025, Nvidia made its first direct investment in the AI lab, committing up to $10 billion as part of a strategic round that included a $5 billion check from Microsoft. In a “circular” spending agreement, Anthropic committed to spending $30 billion on Microsoft Azure compute capacity, as well as buy Nvidia’s future Grace Blackwell and Vera Rubin systems.
Cursor: In November, Nvidia made its first strategic investment in the AI-powered code assistant participating in a massive $2.3 billion Series D round co-led by Accel and Coatue. The deal valued Cursor at $29.3 billion, a nearly 15-fold increase since the start of the year. While Nvidia has long been an enterprise customer, the round marked its official entry as a shareholder alongside Google.
xAI: In 2024, OpenAI tried to persuade its investors not to invest in any of its rivals. But Nvidia participated in the $6 billion round of Elon Musk’s xAI last December anyway. Nvidia will also invest up to $2 billion in the equity portion of xAI’s planned $20 billion funding round, Bloomberg reported, a deal structured to help xAI purchase more Nvidia gear.

Mistral AI: Nvidia invested in Mistral for the third time when the French-based large language model (LLM) developer raised a €1.7 billion (about $2 billion) Series C at a €11.7billion ($13.5 billion) post-money valuation in September.
Reflection AI: In October, Nvidia was one of the most significant investors in Reflection AI, contributing to a $2 billion funding round that valued the one-year-old startup at $8 billion. Reflection AI is positioning itself as a U.S.-based competitor to Chinese DeepSeek, whose open source LLM offers a less-expensive alternative to closed source models from companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
Thinking Machines Lab: Nvidia was among a long list of investors who backed former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab’s $2 billion seed round. The funding, which was formally announced in July, valued the new AI startup at $12 billion.
Inflection: One of Nvidia’s first significant AI investments also had one of the more unusual (but increasingly common) outcomes. In June 2023, Nvidia was one of several lead investors in Inflection’s $1.3 billion round, a company co-founded by Mustafa Suleyman, the famed founder of DeepMind. Less than a year later, Microsoft hired Inflection’s founders, paying $620 million for a non-exclusive technology license, leaving the company with a significantly diminished workforce and a less defined future.
Crusoe: In October, the chipmaker participated in a $1.4 billion Series E round that valued the AI data center developer at $10 billion. Nvidia first backed the company in late 2024 during its Series D. Crusoe is a key infrastructure partner for the ‘Stargate’ project, building massive data center campuses in Texas and Wyoming to be leased to Oracle specifically to power OpenAI’s workloads.
Nscale: After the startup’s $1.1 billion round in September, Nvidia participated in Nscale’s $433 million SAFE funding in October. That’s a deal that secures future equity for investors. Nscale, which formed in 2023 after spinning out of Australian cryptocurrency mining company Arkon Energy, is building data centers in the U.K. and Norway for OpenAI’s Stargate project.
Wayve: In May 2024, Nvidia participated in a $1.05 billion round for the U.K.-based startup, which is developing a self-learning system for autonomous driving. Nvidia is expected to invest an additional $500 million in Wayve, the startup told TechCrunch in September. Wayve is testing its vehicles in the U.K. and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Figure AI: In September, Nvidia participated in Figure AI’s Series C funding round of over $1 billion, which valued the humanoid robotics startup at $39 billion. The chipmaker first invested in Figure in February 2024 when the company raised a $675 million Series B round at a $2.6 billion valuation.

Scale AI: In May 2024, Nvidia joined Accel and other tech giants Amazon and Meta to invest $1 billion in Scale AI, which provides data-labeling services to companies for training AI models. The round valued the San Francisco-based company at nearly $14 billion. In June, Meta invested $14.3 billion for a 49% stake of Scale and hired away the company’s co-founder and CEO Alexandr Wang, as well as several other key Scale employees.

The many-hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars club

Commonwealth Fusion: The chipmaker participated in the nuclear fusion-energy startup’s $863 million funding round in August. The deal, which also included investors like Google and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, valued the company at $3 billion.
Cohere: The chipmaker has invested in enterprise LLM provider Cohere across multiple funding rounds, including the $500 million Series D, which closed in August, valuing Cohere at $6.8 billion. Nvidia first backed the Toronto-based startup in 2023.

Perplexity: Nvidia first invested in Perplexity in November 2023 and has participated in most of the subsequent funding rounds of the AI search engine startup, including the $500 million round closed in December 2024. The chipmaker participated in the company’s July funding round, which valued Perplexity at $18 billion. However, Nvidia did not join the startup’s subsequent $200 million fundraise in September, which boosted the company’s valuation to $20 billion, according to PitchBook data.

Poolside: In October 2024, the AI coding assistant startup Poolside announced it raised $500 million led by Bain Capital Ventures. Nvidia participated in the round, which valued the AI startup at $3 billion.

Lambda: AI cloud provider Lambda, which provides services for model training, raised a $480 million Series D at a reported $2.5 billion valuation in February. The round was co-led by SGW and Andra Capital Lambda, and joined by Nvidia, ARK Invest, and others. A significant part of Lambda’s business involves renting servers powered by Nvidia’s GPUs.
Black Forest Labs: Nvidia participated in a $300 million Series B for the German startup behind the “Flux” image generation models in December. The round, which was co-led by Salesforce Ventures and Anjney Midha (AMP) valued the company at $3.25 billion.

CoreWeave: Although CoreWeave is no longer a startup, but a public company, Nvidia invested in GPU-cloud provider when it was still one, back in April 2023. That’s when CoreWeave raised $221 million in funding. Nvidia remains a significant shareholder.

Together AI: In February, Nvidia participated in the $305 million Series B of this company, which offers cloud-based infrastructure for building AI models. The round valued Together AI at $3.3 billion and was co-led by Prosperity7, a Saudi Arabian venture firm, and General Catalyst. Nvidia backed the company for the first time in 2023.

Firmus Technologies: In September, Firmus Technologies, the Singapore-based data center company, received an AU$330 million (approximately $215 million) in funding at an AU$1.85 billion ($1.2 billion) valuation from investors, including Nvidia. Firmus is developing an energy-efficient “AI factory” in Tasmania, an island state of Australia. The startup originally provided cooling technologies for Bitcoin mining.

Uniphore: In October, Nvidia joined fellow tech giants AMD, Snowflake, and Databricks to lead a $260 million Series F round into this Business AI company. Uniphore’s multimodal platform helps enterprises automate complex workflows and deploy “AI agents” across customer service, sales, and marketing.

Sakana AI: In September 2024, Nvidia invested in the Japan-based startup, which trains low-cost generative AI models using small datasets. The startup raised a massive Series A round of about $214 million at a valuation of $1.5 billion. Sakana raised another $135 million at a $2.65 billion valuation in November, but Nvidia didn’t participate in the round.
Nuro: In August, Nvidia participated in a $203 million funding round for the self-driving delivery startup. The deal valued Nuro at $6 billion, a significant 30% drop from its peak at $8.6 billion valuation in 2021.

Imbue: The AI research lab that claims to be developing AI systems that can reason and code raised a $200 million round in September 2023 from investors, including Nvidia, Astera Institute, and former Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt.

Waabi: In June 2024, the autonomous trucking startup raised a $200 million Series B round co-led by existing investors Uber and Khosla Ventures. Other investors included Nvidia, Volvo Group Venture Capital, and Porsche Automobil Holding SE.

Deals of over a $100 million

Ayar Labs: In December 2024, Nvidia invested in the $155 million round of Ayar Labs, a company developing optical interconnects to improve AI compute and power efficiency. This was the third time Nvidia backed the startup.

Kore.ai: The startup developing enterprise-focused AI chatbots raised $150 million in December of 2023. In addition to Nvidia, investors participating in the funding included FTV Capital, Vistara Growth, and Sweetwater Private Equity.

Sandbox AQ: In April, Nvidia, alongside Google, BNP Paribas, and others, invested $150 million in Sandbox AQ, a startup developing large quantitative models (LQMs) for handling complex numerical analysis and statistical calculations. The investment increased Sandbox AQ’s Series E round to $450 million and the company’s valuation to $5.75 billion.

Hippocratic AI: This startup, which is developing large language models for healthcare, announced in January that it raised a $141 million Series B at a valuation of $1.64 billion led by Kleiner Perkins. Nvidia participated in the round, along with returning investors Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, and others. The company claims that its AI solutions can handle non-diagnostic patient-facing tasks such as pre-operating procedures, remote patient monitoring, and appointment preparation. Hippocratic raised another $126 million at a valuation of $3.5 billion in November, but Nvidia didn’t participate in the round.

Weka: In May 2024, Nvidia invested in a $140 million round for AI-native data management platform Weka. The round valued the Silicon Valley company at $1.6 billion.

Runway: In April, Nvidia participated in Runway’s $308 million round, which was led by General Atlantic and valued the startup developing generative AI models for media production at $3.55 billion, according to PitchBook data. The chipmaker has been an investor in since 2023.
Bright Machines: In June 2024, Nvidia participated in a $126 million Series C of Bright Machines, a smart robotics and AI-driven software startup.

Enfabrica: In September 2023, Nvidia invested in networking chips designer Enfabrica’s $125 million Series B. The startup raised another $115 million in November 2024, but Nvidia didn’t participate in the round. In September, Nvidia reportedly spent over $900 million to hire Enfabrica’s CEO and staff while licensing its technology, in a deal structured as an “acquihire.”

Reka AI: In July, AI research lab Reka raised $110 million in a round that included Snowflake and Nvidia. The deal tripled the startup’s valuation to over $1 billion, according to Bloomberg.

NY Post : Saks owner races to raise $1B in financing as CEO steps down, possible

Saks owner races to raise $1B in financing as CEO steps down, possible bankruptcy looms: sources

The owner of Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman is in a race to land more than $1 billion in rescue financing from new and existing investors – even as the company announced its CEO is stepping down, The Post has learned.

The luxury giant needs a cash infusion to pay off a slew of debts that include a $100 million interest payment to bondholders that came due earlier this week. The company also owes millions to vendors, many of whom have not been paid in full for more than a year.

Saks is now in discussions with investors for a massive cash injection to stave off a possible bankruptcy filing, a source with knowledge of the situation told The Post. If those talks fail, the capital could take the form of debtor-in-possession financing in a Chapter 11 reorganization, the source said.

“The discussions will likely wrap up within a couple of weeks,” this source said. “It’s not resolved yet.”

Reports of a possible bankruptcy ramped up this week after the luxury retailer missed an interest payment to bondholders on Tuesday for the $2.7 billion it borrowed to acquire Neiman Marcus a year ago.

Saks Global appears to have bought itself a 30-day grace period for the interest payment, according to RetailStat, which provides credit data and analysis on retailers.

Meanwhile, Saks Global announced on Friday that CEO Marc Metrick is stepping down after a decade at the helm.

“After nearly three decades with Saks, I will be stepping down as chief executive officer,” Metrick said in a statement. “From building a world-class team to establishing Saks.com as a leading luxury e-commerce platform, I am proud of what we accomplished.”

He is succeeded by the company’s executive chairman, Richard Baker, a real estate mogul who was previously CEO before the Neiman Marcus acquisition.

The company said Metrick, who led Saks Fifth Avenue since 2015, is leaving to “pursue new opportunities.”

Saks Global’s revenues, which include Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Off 5th, dropped 13% in the company’s most recent quarter, which ended Aug. 2.

In May, the company closed a Saks Fifth Avenue store in San Francisco. This week, it sold the land beneath its Beverly Hills Neiman Marcus shop to Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. for an undisclosed amount. The store now has a long-term lease with the New York-based Ashkenazy.

In June, Saks Global said it raised $600 million in fresh capital from bondholders. It has also sought to sell a minority stake in Bergdorf to raise more funds.

The merger with Nieman Marcus coincided with a slump in demand for luxury goods.

There have been several rounds of layoffs this year at the company, which operates more than 70 department stores and is the largest luxury retailer in the world.

“Marc has been a valued leader at Saks for many years, helping to drive significant transformation and growth while solidifying the company’s enduring position in luxury,” Baker said in statement. “We thank Marc for his leadership and dedication and wish him continued success in his next chapter.”

NYT : Saks C.E.O. Steps Down as Company Struggles to Pay Down Debt

Saks C.E.O. Steps Down as Company Struggles to Pay Down Debt
Saks Global’s executive chairman, Richard Baker, is taking over the luxury retailer he created with the 2024 acquisition of Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman.

Saks Global said on Friday that its chief executive, Marc Metrick, had stepped down after the beleaguered luxury department store group missed a loan payment and as it weighed filing for bankruptcy protection.

Richard Baker, the executive chairman of Saks Global, has assumed the role of chief executive, according to a company statement. Mr. Baker, a former real estate executive, was the mastermind behind the creation of Saks Global, the would-be retail empire that includes Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman.

Saks missed an interest payment on its debt Tuesday and is now considering its options, including bankruptcy, a person with knowledge of the matter said.

The company accumulated lots of debt, in large part because of Saks’s $2.7 billion acquisition of Neiman Marcus Group in 2024. Saks has struggled to revive sales since the deal closed. In October, the retailer lowered its guidance for the full year and said revenue in the quarter that ended Aug. 2 had fallen more than 13 percent from a year earlier, to $1.6 billion.

A representative for Saks declined to comment.

The goal of the merger was to form a luxury powerhouse, providing cost savings, more leverage with brands and a better customer experience through shared loyalty programs. Neiman Marcus, which also owned Bergdorf Goodman, had filed for bankruptcy in 2020, in the early days of the pandemic.

Mr. Metrick, who had run Saks since 2015, was named chief executive of the new group, with Mr. Baker overseeing his progress. At the time, Mr. Baker, a businessman who previously ran Hudson’s Bay Company, said he had long envisioned bringing together the luxury icons under one banner. He said there were no plans to close any stores or reduce services.

“When selling luxury products, you need beautiful stores and salespeople customers trust,” Mr. Baker said in an interview after the agreement.

Under Mr. Metrick, who started at Saks in 1995 and worked in various executive roles before becoming the president of Saks Fifth Avenue a decade ago, the company planned to keep its brands separate while elevating the service for clientele and making more products available to them.

But the debt used to combine the companies, including a roughly $2.2 billion loan, became an albatross as interest payments constrained the company’s cash.

In August, Saks completed a debt structuring to take some pressure off its finances and strengthen its balance sheet. The credit ratings agency S&P Global said in September that Saks’s capital structure was “unsustainable,” given the cash it also needed to pay vendors and invest in the company. The agency said Saks would need to pay $400 million in interest over the next year, nearly double what it paid the year prior.

Last month, Saks signed a real estate deal to free up more cash. It sold its Neiman Marcus property in Beverly Hills, Calif., to an investment firm for an undisclosed sum.

Saks also had to cope with concerns about consumer spending on luxury goods in the United States as shoppers became pressured by inflation, trade tensions and slowing job growth. In June, Bain and Company warned that the global luxury industry was facing its biggest setbacks in at least 15 years. Yet consumers have been remarkably resilient and spurred a strong holiday shopping season.

Saks and Neiman Marcus began sharing inventory in 2025 and adding more exclusive offerings to lure shoppers.

The company has 70 full-line department stores in the United States under its Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman brands, plus off-price locations including Saks Off Fifth and Last Call. In an attempt to improves sales, Saks teamed up with Amazon last year to put a storefront on its marketplace.

“The last few years have been challenging, but I will look back with pride on everything the team accomplished,” Mr. Metrick said in a post on LinkedIn on Friday.

Efforts to improve the merchandise at Saks and Neiman Marcus were undermined by deteriorating relationships with vendors over the last year. The company accumulated a backlog in overdue payments, but told creditors in June that it was mending ties with the brands affected.

Now Saks’s creditors are closely watching its next steps. Gary Wassner, chief executive at Hilldun, a financial firm that has bought up some of Saks’s unpaid invoices, has instructed vendors to halt shipments to the company because of the payment delays and instability.

“It’s essential that they resolve the situation before they lose the entire spring season,” Mr. Wassner said in an interview on Friday. “As very few brands are shipping to them at this time, they cannot survive in any form without inventory.”

The Information : xAI Adds Grok Business Options as it Tries to Win Enterprise C

xAI Adds Grok Business Options as it Tries to Win Enterprise Customers

xAI has introduced two new subscription tiers of its Grok artificial intelligence chatbot aimed at business customers. The announcement is part of xAI’s effort to build an enterprise business to compete with the likes of Anthropic and OpenAI.

The new offerings include Grok for Business, which is aimed at small-to-medium-sized businesses and costs $30 per user per month, and Grok Enterprise, which does not have publicly posted pricing and is aimed at larger companies. Both versions of Grok work with tools like Google Drive and have secure logins and billing designed for companies, xAI said. The enterprise version has extra features such as additional audit and security tools.

xAI faces an uphill battle winning over enterprise customers because it doesn’t have a large sales team and has a limited record selling to companies, though it has some small deals with companies such as Morgan Stanley and Palantir, The Information has reported. Musk’s own companies have also become enterprise customers for Grok, including by adding the chatbot to Tesla vehicles and using it for Starlink customer service at SpaceX.

The Information : From Lululemon to Tracksmith, Sportswear Brands Face an Inflec

From Lululemon to Tracksmith, Sportswear Brands Face an Inflection Point

The Takeaway
  • The sportswear industry faces an inflection point in 2026, creating openings for upstarts.
  • Lululemon shares are down 44% in 2025 amid leadership fight.
  • Under Armour’s struggles could make it an M&A target.

For Christmas this holiday season, I bought my mom a navy blue 1980 Lake Placid Olympics sweater. It has special significance for her because, as a college student in upstate New York at the time, she got to attend the famous “Miracle on Ice” hockey game between the U.S. and Soviet Union in person. Now, almost half a century later, my mom finally has some merchandise to commemorate it.

The sweater itself isn’t vintage, but a brand-new garment that I purchased from, of all places, Abercrombie & Fitch. The fact that a retailer best known for being the “it” brand for preppy teens in the late 1990s is now selling high-quality Olympics merchandise for boomers illustrates how vast the marketplace is for sports apparel these days. Abercrombie—which also has a deal with the NFL—is getting into lifestyle sports apparel just as establishment brands Nike, Lululemon and Under Armour, best known for performance sportswear, each navigate varying stages of their own crises.

The result is a likely inflection point for the broader sportswear industry in 2026. Below, my predictions for the year ahead in running gear, soccer jerseys, and lifestyle merchandise.

Varsity Blues

Let’s start with the tumult at the top. Nike is the worldwide leader in sportswear by sales. The company is currently in the “middle innings” of a turnaround, CEO Elliott Hill said on the company’s December earnings call. Nike hit its nadir in summer 2024, thanks to a combination of pushing too aggressively into direct-to-consumer sales while demand for staple products like Jordans and Air Force 1s dropped. The Oregon-based brand saw its worst-ever single-day stock drop as a public company, and replaced its previous CEO with Hill that October.

It also began repairing relationships with wholesale retailers like Amazon, which Nike had previously jettisoned, and Foot Locker, where it had reduced inventory. Those steps have contributed to a rebound in sales in North America, which were up 9% for the three months ended in November, compared to the same period last year.


But Nike’s biggest challenge remains regaining its sense of cool. For that reason, its release of a signature basketball shoe from WNBA phenom Caitlin Clark—expected this year—will demonstrate whether the swoosh still has swag. If the WNBA avoids a player strike this year and the launch goes ahead, I predict the shoe will get Nike back in the cultural conversation.

A tougher challenge may be a comeback for Under Armour, once seen as a possible challenger to overtake Nike as the biggest sportswear company in the world, with quarter after quarter of 20% revenue growth during the 2010s. The Baltimore-based company ultimately spread itself too thin: Under Armour in 2021 paid $9 million to settle SEC charges it misled investors about revenue growth, and also withdrew from some expensive college sports marketing contracts with University of California, Berkeley and UCLA. Most concerning is the brand’s top departure of 2025: Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry, whose own signature sneaker failed to translate Curry’s generational talent to brand—and sales—cachet. With UA shares trading under $5 and a market cap of about $2 billion, the company could be an M&A target this year.

The Yoga Pants Wars

Meanwhile, in the land of yoga pants and other athleisure, Lululemon is in the heat of crisis. Founder and erstwhile Lululemon CEO Chip Wilson launched a proxy fight for control of the company last week, days after activist hedge fund Elliott Management began pushing to install new leadership after it accumulated a stake reportedly worth more than $1 billion. Current Lululemon CEO Calvin McDonald has already announced plans to step down this month. With shares of the company down 44% in 2025, something clearly has to give.

How did the Canadian brand end up in such a slump? At its zenith, Lulu was the inspiration for a wave of fellow direct-to-consumer yoga brands like Alo, Outdoor Voices, Vuori and Kim Kardashian’s Skims (now in partnership with Nike). During the pandemic, the legions of people working from home only accelerated customer demand for comfy pants. Almost six years on, companies are pushing staffers to return to the office and demand for stretchy pants has softened. Meanwhile, outside of the office, baggy jeans have come back into style, making Lulu’s signature skintight leggings passé.

The leadership struggle at Lulu is likely to warp the company’s ability to innovate and respond to trends in the near term. Into this void, I expect cult favorite running brands Bandit, Satisfy and Tracksmith to grow. Boston-based Tracksmith has catered to the New England-prep aesthetic for over a decade, while Bandit (based in Brooklyn) and Satisfy (from Paris) have become wealth and status signifiers among cosmopolitan run clubs on both sides of the Atlantic. While none are anywhere close to Lulu’s $10 billion in annual sales, they’re only gaining in consumer credibility.

The Fanatics Question

It’s been just over three years since Fanatics was valued at $31 billion. Since then, the company has expanded into sports betting and the fraught and frenetic world of prediction markets, complementing its existing businesses of selling sports jerseys and trading memorabilia. Fanatics founder and CEO Michael Rubin told Puck in October that the company is “in no rush” to go public, particularly as the sports betting arm is not yet profitable. The company secured $700 million in debt financing in September.

Meanwhile, Fanatics has competition in the licensed apparel division. Sports behemoths like the International Olympic Committee and the NFL are inking deals with Abercrombie & Fitch and Lululemon, while U.S. Ski & Snowboard announced a collaboration with J.Crew ahead of next month’s Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina. Those deals indicate that major sports institutions are thinking creatively about their customer base beyond the mesh jersey-wearing sports bar clientele.

All that said, I’m still betting 2026 will be the year of Fanatics’s long-awaited IPO. Its private equity backers are itching for an exit. And regardless of who wins the AI race, investors will be hungry to diversify.