 | Oct 17, 2024 | | | | Supported by  | | | | | Happy Thursday! Founders Fund is in talks to lead a funding round for data center startup Crusoe Energy. Stripe is in advanced talks to acquire Bridge, a San Francisco-based stablecoin infrastructure company. Uber has consulted advisers about a potential acquisition of Expedia.
| | | | Data center startup Crusoe Energy is raising an equity financing, coinciding with a $3.4 billion deal announced on Tuesday to finance construction of a data center in Texas. Founders Fund, an existing Crusoe and OpenAI shareholder, is in talks to lead the equity investment, while Felicis, an existing investor in Crusoe, is considering participating, said a person involved in the funding effort. The company was last valued at $1.4 billion around April 2022. The new proposed valuation couldn't be learned, but it would likely be higher than $2 billion, according to the same person. Anissa Gardizy contributed reporting. | | | | Payments giant Stripe is in advanced talks to acquire Bridge, a San Francisco-based stablecoin infrastructure company founded by Coinbase and Square alumni, according to Bloomberg. Stripe declined to comment. Bridge did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Founded in 2022, Bridge helps companies convert dollars or euros into blockchain-based stablecoins and works with clients such as SpaceX. The company has raised around $58 million from investors including Ribbit Capital, Index Ventures and Sequoia Capital. Sequoia is also a big Stripe investor and recently completed a $861 million purchase of Stripe shares from some of its own limited partners, according to someone with direct knowledge of the financing. The acquisition, if completed, would be yet another example of Stripe deepening its support for crypto products, after ending support for bitcoin payments in 2018. Stripe has spent the past six months working on adding crypto options for merchant payments; and last week, Stripe announced its own feature that would allow merchants to accept stablecoins for payments. | | | | Uber has sought input from advisers on a potential acquisition of travel booking site Expedia, according to a report from the Financial Times on Wednesday that cited unnamed sources. Expedia's shares surged roughly 7% immediately following the report, and Uber's dropped by almost 3%. Uber has done multibillion-dollar deals before, but only in ground transportation and food delivery. A takeover of Expedia, which has a market capitalization of nearly $20 billion, would be Uber's largest and would move it into new terrain, though Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi knows it well: he ran Expedia for more than a decade before joining Uber and still sits on the Expedia board. Uber had $4.5 billion in cash on its balance sheet as of June 30, compared with almost $28 billion in total liabilities, suggesting it would likely need to secure outside financing or use its own stock to fund such a deal. A spokesperson for Uber did not respond to a request for comment. The ride-hailing app reported $1.9 billion in net income in 2023, its first-ever annual profit. The company's Uber Eats food-delivery business helped it buck a pandemic-era slump in ride demand and now generates about a third of its revenue. Uber shares have risen 40% since January, giving it a $172 billion market capitalization, while Expedia shares have been nearly flat. | | | | Amazon announced three nuclear energy projects on Wednesday, including two deals with utilities and an investment in a nuclear developer, marking the latest example of a big tech company backing clean energy projects to power data centers. Amazon has signed agreements with utilities in Virginia and Washington state centered on the development of so-called small modular reactors, which are a newer kind of nuclear power facility. In Washington, Amazon will help fund the development of small modular reactors and will have the option of purchasing electricity from them, according to a joint announcement with the public utility Energy Northwest. In Virginia, Amazon has signed an agreement with the utility company Dominion Energy to explore the development of a small modular reactor, the companies said. Meanwhile X-energy, a nuclear developer, said Amazon was an anchor investor in a $500 million fundraising round that also included Citadel's Ken Griffin and Ares Management. Small modular reactors designed by X-energy will be used in the Washington state project Amazon is funding, according to the companies. In September, Microsoft announced a deal to reopen the Three Mile Island nuclear facility to power its data centers. | | | | Morgan Stanley joined its rivals reporting resurgent investment banking activity on Wednesday, adding to signs Wall Street is enjoying a healthier environment for dealmaking and trading. Morgan Stanley's third-quarter profit rose 32% to $3.2 billion in what chief executive Ted Pick described as a "constructive" environment across the bank's global footprint, adding to a chorus of rebounding investment banking activity reported over the last week by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Bank of America. Overall revenue for the third quarter at Morgan Stanley rose 39% to $15.4 billion. Investment banking revenue rose 56% to $1.46 billion compared to the same period a year ago, thanks to more mergers and acquisitions advisory work, higher underwriting fees as the IPO market reopened, and an increase in fixed income fees. | | | | ASML shares fell for the second straight day after the Dutch maker of equipment for manufacturing computer chips released its financial results Tuesday. The company said net sales for the third quarter rose 12% year-over-year to $8.1 billion, topping its own forecasts. But it slashed its sales outlook for next year, sparking a sell-off in its own shares and other chip stocks. ASML's stock price fell 6% on Wednesday after dropping 16% on Tuesday. Shares of TSMC, which uses ASML's equipment to make chips, and Nvidia, which designs chips, stumbled on Tuesday but began to recover on Wednesday. ASML President and CEO Christophe Fouquet said weak growth in areas other than artificial intelligence "is expected to continue in 2025, which is leading to customer cautiousness." The company now projects 2025 net sales of $32.7 billion to $38.1 billion, the lower half of its previous range. Bookings for the third quarter edged up to $2.8 billion but were less than half of analyst estimates, according to Bloomberg. ASML said it posted its results one day ahead of schedule "due to a technical error." | | | | | Popular articles By Stephanie Palazzolo and Erin Woo
By Kate Clark and Stephanie Palazzolo
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