| | Good morning. And the 101st Academy Awards go to … YouTube! And no, this isn't a case of Warren Beatty misreading the contents of an envelope again. On Wednesday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced it had agreed to a deal granting "exclusive global rights to the Oscars" to the Google-owned video platform, starting in 2029 and running through 2033. The news marks the end of an era for the ceremony, which has aired on ABC since 1976 (Disney will still own the rights through 2028). That era, however, has been tarnished in recent years by massive ratings declines corresponding with a flight from linear TV, sinking to an all-time low of 10 million viewers in 2021 after the ceremonies regularly reached 40 million viewers through the 2000s and into the 2010s. Still, the show must go on, even if it means turning to Silicon Valley (and YouTube's massive 2 billion worldwide user base) in the process. | | | | | | | | Artificial intelligence, for better or for worse, is going to rapidly transform the world and the global economy in the next few years. How the world's AI superpower, the United States, should regulate the technology, given the balance of risks and intense competition from emergent China, is a hotter topic in Washington than whether the ghost of Ulysses S. Grant really does haunt the Willard Hotel. Andreessen Horowitz, Silicon Valley's most prestigious venture capital firm, offered lawmakers a handful of ideas on Wednesday. States of the Nation President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week pressuring states to drop efforts to regulate AI on their own. The order threatens to withhold federal funding from states that don't comply and directs the attorney general to sue to overturn any state legislation that threatens America's "global AI dominance." Trump prefers a single federal regulatory framework, which his administration argues will avoid a patchwork of laws and preserve America's competitive edge against China. That strategy, however, has faced pushback from both sides of the aisle. Nearly 300 state lawmakers from across the country signed a letter penned by South Carolina Republican state Representative Brandon Guffey opposing efforts to curtail state AI laws. Florida's Republican Governor Ron DeSantis said he plans to move ahead with proposed consumer AI protections in his state, telling a Florida State University roundtable, "We have a right to do this." California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, signed a law in September that will compel developers of highly advanced AI models to issue transparency and safety reports. That tension is what made the "roadmap for federal AI legislation" put forward by Andreessen Horowitz on Wednesday notable. The VC has arguably more insight into Silicon Valley thinking than any other firm and counts tech-friendly Democrats and Republicans as allies. Unsurprisingly, it's calling for investment galore in AI infrastructure, talent and research, but it also contains other suggestions that may gain traction: - Three key safety proposals include protecting children (barring kids under 13 from AI without parental go-ahead and introducing limits for teens), ensuring criminal law is extended to things done with AI ("if a person uses an AI system to commit fraud, they have still committed fraud"), and national security (launching a federal office that studies AI security capabilities and changing regulations to allow the financial system to bolster its AI defenses with new technologies).
- Notably, Andreessen Horowitz breaks with the idea of exclusive national oversight, writing that "states should have the ability to enforce their own criminal and civil laws to prohibit harmful uses of AI in areas like consumer protection, civil rights, children's safety and mental health."
  Soft Focus: Industry concerns about over-regulation have already resonated at the state level, however. In Colorado, where AI regulation due to be implemented next year has drawn Trump's ire, Democratic Governor Jared Polis has convened a working group to propose softening its more onerous terms. Newsom has also rejected stricter AI legislation over innovation concerns, and New York Governor Kathy Hochul has urged lawmakers to soften a bill recently sent to her desk. Written by Sean Craig | | | | | | | | | | | If 21st-century markets were an episode of The Andy Griffith Show, this news might have cued Gomer Pyle's trademark line, "Surprise, surprise, surprise." The biggest IPO of 2025 has no connection to artificial intelligence, semiconductors or data centers. It's for a company that makes hospital gowns. On Wednesday, shares of medical supply company Medline jumped 40% in their Nasdaq debut, closing at $40 a pop after being priced at $29 in an IPO valued at $6.3 billion. Walk the Medline The IPO market had already experienced a welcome rebound thanks to successful debuts such as crypto-trading platform Circle, fintech firm Klarna and cloud-computing company CoreWeave, and Medline's triumph may be merely an appetizer for a 2026 IPO menu potentially packed with blockbusters from mega-private firms like OpenAI, SpaceX and Databricks. While the uptick is likely being enjoyed by Wall Street's investment bankers, it may be even better news for private equity, which is desperate for IPO momentum: - Back in 2021, Blackstone, Carlyle Group and Hellman & Friedman sealed a $34 billion deal to acquire a majority stake in Medline in what was one of the largest leveraged buyouts in history. According to a source who spoke with the Financial Times, the trio would have roughly doubled their combined $17 billion equity stake in the company if shares had priced at just the midpoint of their marketed range; none of them planned to sell their stock as part of the IPO.
- Through December 3, this year had delivered just 137 private equity-backed IPOs, according to PitchBook data seen earlier this month by Bloomberg, among the fewest for any year since 2010. The slow flow may pick up next year, though, with major private equity-backed IPOs already penciled in, such as the Blackstone-owned industrials firm Copeland, the Hg Capital-backed software firm Visma and KKR-backed Indian wireless carrier Jio Platforms.
Penny For Your Thoughts: For now, the market seems to be enjoying a company whose success is predicated on rock-solid fundamentals rather than sky-high aspirations (for more evidence, just look at Wall Street's recent rotation out of the AI trade). "This is a very different profile than the typical growth IPO — Medline is profitable, cash-generative and well understood, which resonates in the current market," Jeff Zell, senior research analyst at IPO Boutique, told Reuters on Wednesday. When speaking to Reuters, Medline CEO Jim Boyle (no relation to this author) put it more succinctly: "We make things that cost pennies, not thousands of dollars." Written by Brian Boyle | | | | | | | | | | | | | | It's time to get the fleece-lined leggings out: Heating costs will probably spike more than 9% this winter, the National Energy Assistance Directors Association found in its latest report. That gain outpaces inflation, which hit 3% in September and is expected to remain roughly the same for November when it's reported Thursday (after a government-shutdown-induced lag). NEADA said households will spend just short of $1,000 on heating this winter. The affordability crisis, which has become a go-to debate topic on the campaign trail, could get worse before it gets better. In the meantime, power companies are reaping the profits, and utility bills are getting tougher to open. At Least Data Centers Are Keeping Warm NEADA found the average monthly electric bill has surged 29% since 2021, and natural gas has jumped 50% over the past year. Funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, meanwhile, has dropped from $6.1 billion in 2023 to $4 billion. Among the drivers of higher electricity costs is growing demand from AI data centers: - A power market auction by the nation's largest grid operator, PJM Interconnection LLC, resulted in a record-breaking deal worth more than $16 billion yesterday. The total has shattered records for the past three years as demand for energy to fuel AI data centers skyrockets.
- Data center demand made up 45% of last year's price tag, PJM's official watchdog found. That spike in demand has added billions to household bills, Bloomberg reports. Shares of power companies including Constellation Energy and Vistra have risen alongside AI demand.
Yes, Everything's Expensive: Americans are facing heftier bills across the board, ranging from insurance premiums to groceries and housing, and paychecks have failed to keep up. Middle-income households' paychecks grew 2.3% over the past year, while low-income households' rose 1.4% — less than half of inflation. It could get worse before it gets better: JPMorgan expects companies to pass more of the cost of tariffs on to consumers starting next year, after previously eating about 80% of the costs themselves. Written by Jamie Wilde | | | | | - Hostile Rejection: The board of Warner Bros. Discovery advised shareholders to reject Paramount Skydance's $108 billion hostile takeover bid, calling it "inferior" to a merger agreement with Netflix.
- Tag Team: Google is working with Meta to make the search giant's artificial intelligence chips better at running the world's most popular AI software framework PyTorch — a Meta creation — in order to weaken Nvidia's semiconductor market share.
- Want Even More Market Insights and Charts? Our friends at Opening Bell Daily send a free data newsletter each morning unpacking the visuals and numbers moving markets. Subscribe today.**
** Partner | | | | Disclaimer *Important Disclosures *For full fund disclosure, please visit: SPDR® Galaxy Digital Asset ETFs. Investing involves risk including the risk of loss of principal. Distributor: State Street Global Advisors Funds Distributors, LLC, member FINRA, SIPC, an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of State Street Corporation. References to State Street may include State Street Corporation and its affiliates. Certain State Street affiliates provide services and receive fees from the SPDR ETFs. State Street Global Advisors Funds Distributors, LLC is the distributor for certain registered products on behalf of the advisor. SSGA Funds Management has retained Galaxy Digital Capital Management LP as the sub-adviser. State Street Global Advisors Funds Distributors, LLC is not affiliated with Galaxy Digital. Before investing, consider the funds' investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. To obtain a prospectus or summary prospectus which contains this and other information, call 866.787.2257 or visit ssga.com. Read it carefully. Not FDIC Insured * No Bank Guarantee * May Lose Value © 2025 State Street Corporation - All Rights Reserved. Adtrax: 8581342.1.1.AM.RTL Expiration date: 12/31/26 | | |
|
|
|
0 comentários:
Postar um comentário