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New Delhi, Homegrown quick-grocery delivery provider <keyword id="3275685" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Dunzo" source="Orion">Dunzo</keyword>, set to raise $35 million in funding from existing backers like Reliance Industries and Google as well as new investors, is reportedly laying off at least "150-200" more employees amid severe cash crunch. According to multiple reports, <keyword id="3275685" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Dunzo" source="Orion">Dunzo</keyword> is likely to trim its workforce further by around 30-40 per cent. The company has reportedly informed impacted employees that they would receive their full and final settlements in January. The employees were officially informed of the latest layoffs in a short meeting. The startup has already sacked nearly 400 employees so far this year in two job cut rounds. Earlier this month, Dunzo further delayed the salaries of its employees for the months of June and July, this time to November, amid an ongoing fund crunch. The startup may also vacate its office in Bengaluru to cut costs, according to its co-founder and CEO, Kabeer Biswas. Biswas reportedly told employees that their pending payouts for June and July will now be cleared in November. Dunzo earlier delayed salaries to the first week of October after being unable to raise funds. It had also promised employees to pay an interest of 12 per cent per annum on the salary component that it held back from June. The company has raised nearly $500 million to date, with approximately $300 million coming in since early 2022.

Dunzo laying off 150-200 more employees amid fresh funding news: Reports

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Starboard Value has taken a $1 billion stake in drugmaker Pfizer.</li><li>The hedge fund, headed by Jeff Smith, has become one of the most feared activist investors.</li></ul>Pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer got a wake up call Sunday evening when one of Wall Street's most feared activist investors revealed a stake in the company.Starboard Value <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/starboard-activist-significant-stake-in-drugmaker-pfizer-2024-10">informed the drugmaker</a> it had taken a position in the firm valued at $1 billion.An activist's aims, whether that's pushing for breakup, M&amp;A, or cost reductions, vary depending on the target. Starboard's turnaround strategy is not yet clear, but Pfizer's share price and revenues have tumbled from the record highs achieved during the pandemic's heights, and Starboard, led by its 52-year-old cofounder Jeff Smith, has a long history of wielding minority stakes to extract board seats and profits from name-brand companies.Over the past decade, Smith has more than doubled the hedge fund's assets under management to $8.5 billion by taking on targets including Salesforce, Starbucks, and the owner of Olive Garden. In that time Starboard has gained a reputation for making life uncomfortable for — and sometimes jettisoning — executives and directors who resist his overtures for change.Pfizer, with a market cap north of $160 billion, is among the largest companies Starboard's Smith has ever targeted. Still, investors seemed to applaud news of its investments on Monday, sending Pfizer's stock up about 3% in morning trading, adding nearly $5 billion to the company's market cap.Moreover, Starboard has reportedly secured support from <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wsj.com/health/pharma/activist-starboard-value-takes-1-billion-stake-in-pfizer-89591cb6?mod=hp_lead_pos4">former Pfizer executives</a> Ian Read and Frank D'Amelio for its campaign.Starboard has experience across the spectrum but is especially good at instilling discipline at the board level and "improving margins and cutting costs at companies that are bloated," said Ken Squire, the founder and president of 13D Monitor, a research firm specializing in shareholder activism.Starboard declined to comment.<h2 id="44e54273-f674-45fa-9c95-4d5153293525">Who is Jeff Smith?</h2>Investor activism has exploded in recent years. The 147 new campaigns globally in the first half of 2024 is a record, building on the all-time high 252 campaigns reached in 2023, according to a July report from investment bank Lazard.Starboard has become one of the most formidable names in the business, even if Smith hasn't yet reached the name recognition of activist investors like Paul Singer (Elliott Management), Carl Icahn (Icahn Enterprises), and Dan Loeb (Third Point Capital).Smith launched Starboard in 2011, spinning it out of a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cowen.com/news/ramius-announces-spin-off-of-value-and-opportunity-business/">small unit at Cowen Group</a> along with a couple of partners, including Peter Feld. Early targets included AOL, where Starboard lost a proxy battle but agitated for changes that boosted the company's stock by 250%, and Office Depot, where Starboard won three board seats, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://fortune.com/2014/12/03/starboard-capitals-jeff-smith-activist-investor-darden-restaurants/">a 2014 story in Fortune</a>.Starboard put corporate America on notice with its campaign in 2013 against Darden Restaurants, the owner of Olive Garden and Longhorn Steakhouse, among other dining chains. With less than a 10% stake Smith replaced the entire 12-person board and assumed the role of chairman. By the time Smith stepped down in 2016, Darden <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/activists-reap-olive-garden-bounty-1459902161">stock had gained nearly 50%</a> and Starboard had accrued more than $500 million in profits.One of the hedge fund's greatest claims to fame involved its <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/activists-reap-olive-garden-bounty-1459902161">improvements to Olive Garden's breadsticks</a>, which Starboard predicted could save the company up to $5 million a year, according to a Wall Street Journal report from 2015.In 2022, Starboard took a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-profit-margins-starboard-value-turnaround-2023-8">stake in software giant Salesforce</a>, urging the company to cut costs and improve margins. The company's shares have nearly doubled in the two years since.<div type="image" title="Photo of Marc Benioff of Salesforce speaking on stage." height="1333" width="2000" msid="114027436" hostid="261" sizebytes="41886"></div>Starboard's record isn't without blemishes. Its campaign against meat <a target="_blank" href="https://archive.nytimes.com/dealbook.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/a-primer-on-starboard-the-activist-that-pushed-for-a-staples-office-depot-merger/">processor Smithfield Foods</a> in 2013 fizzled. The hedge fund <a target="_blank" href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/09/box-wins-proxy-board-battle-with-activist-">lost a proxy battle</a> with software maker Box in 2021. And in 2019 it dropped a bid to have Bristol-Myers Squibb scrap its merger with Celgene after failing to win over <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/29/starboard-drops-out-of-celgene-fight-as-proxy-firms-back-bristol-myers-bid.html">two major proxy advisory firms</a>.In total, Starboard has initiated 151 activist campaigns, which have generated an average return of 25%, according to data from 13D Monitor.<h2 id="fc0d4b73-d1a3-4a74-a386-7908a74761a7">Ignore at your peril</h2>More recently, the hedge fund has taken positions in dating app owner Match Group, software company Autodesk, and Starbucks.Squire said Smith has a reputation as intense but intelligent and candid. Starboard "can be friendly, but if they're ignored they can also be feared — and they can get tough."In August, Starbucks replaced its CEO amid a campaign from Starboard and Elliott Management.Given Smith's record of winning corporate concessions — or prying them away by force — Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla may be next in the hot seat. Bourla took over in 2019 and guided the drugmaker through the pandemic, boosting annual revenues to $100 billion in 2022 thanks to sales of its COVID-19 vaccine and the antiviral treatment Paxlovid.But missteps ensued. Pfizer misjudged future demand for COVID remedies, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wsj.com/health/pharma/pfizer-drug-company-cost-cutting-2da7524d?mod=article_inline">according to a WSJ report</a>, and revenues cratered. It has since undertaken multibillion-dollar cost cutting campaigns.For its next act, Pfizer executives wagered heavily on cancer treatments. It shelled out $43 billion last year to acquire Seagen, a Washington-based biotech company focused on developing novel cancer medicines. It expects Seagen's products to yield $3.1 billion in revenue this year and $10 billion in annual revenues by 2030.Still, its share price has fallen more than 50% since reaching an all-time high in December 2021.Starboard's targets cut across industries, including 23 campaigns in the healthcare sector, according to 13D Monitor. Besides Bristol-Myers Squibb, other prior targets include CVS and medical records and technology company Cerner.Pfizer did not respond to a request for comment. <h4 id="cbcdd8ad-013b-426e-8431-6c2b54c6859d">Greatest hits</h4><ul><li>2012: Starboard is credited with spurring AOL CEO Tim Armstrong to sell assets, including the sale of 800 patents to Microsoft for $1.1 billion.</li><li>2013: Starboard secured three seats on the board of Office Depot, which later agreed to merge with Staples before the Federal Trade Commission blocked the merger, citing antitrust reasons.</li><li>2014: Starboard replaced the entire board of Darden Restaurants, owner of Olive Garden. By 2015, Starboard was widely credited with turning Darden Restaurants around in part by rethinking how Olive Garden served its iconic breadsticks.</li><li>2019: Jeff Smith is named chairman of the board of pizza chain Papa John's. He immediately expanded the board by bringing in two new independent directors.</li><li>2022: Starboard urged software giant Salesforce to cut costs and improve its margins. The stock has nearly doubled since Starboard acquired a stake.</li><li>2024: After facing pressure from Elliott Management and Starboard, Starbucks replaced its CEO.</li></ul>

Meet Jeff Smith, the hedge-fund investor taking on Pfizer

<ul class="summary-list"><li>This is an excerpt from the Insider Today newsletter.</li></ul>OpenAI is viewed as one of the most important startups in Silicon Valley. It now has a price tag to match.The high-profile startup announced the closing of a $6.6 billion funding round that valued it at $157 billion. It marks the largest VC round of all time and makes OpenAI one of the most valuable startups in the world, alongside Elon Musk's SpaceX and ByteDance, TikTok's parent company.So, who invested?Josh Kushner's Thrive Capital is leading the round. Repeat investors include Cathy Wood's Ark Venture Fund, Chase Coleman's Tiger Global, and OG OpenAI backer Microsoft. New faces include chip giant Nvidia and Masayoshi Son's SoftBank. Here's a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-investors-latest-funding-round-2024-10">complete rundown of the backers</a>.The big news comes amid wider turmoil at the startup. Last week, Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati became the latest executive to depart the firm. That was coupled with news of OpenAI's plans to become a for-profit corporation.(OpenAI exec Kevin Weil told Business Insider's Rob Price the startup <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-kevin-weil-mira-murati-great-bench-cto-abrupt-departure-2024-10">still has a "great bench</a>," so there's that.)In the meantime, OpenAI's rivals like Anthropic and Perplexity <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-rivals-anthropic-perplexity-on-prowl-after-wave-exec-departures-2024-10">are pitching themselves as being about mission over profits</a>. And more exits could be coming since OpenAI is reportedly working on allowing its employees <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-chatgpt-stock-sale-artificial-intelligence-fundraising-valuation-sam-altman-2024-10">to sell their shares in the company</a>.<div type="image" title="Photo illustration of Sam Altman" height="2250" width="3000" msid="113912126" hostid="261" sizebytes="213128"></div>It's important to remember OpenAI's eye-popping valuation is just that … a valuation.Silicon Valley has a long list of high-flying startups that raised money on massive valuations that have proved difficult to maintain.Take the fintech Stripe, which was valued at almost $100 billion at its height in 2021 only to see its valuation get cut down amid a downturn in the industry. Even as it claws its way back, one of its backers has reportedly offered to buy its own investors' shares in the startup <a target="_blank" href="https://www.axios.com/2024/07/15/sequoia-capital-stripe">who want liquidity</a>.Which gets us back to $157 billion OpenAI. At that size, and with the current regulatory environment around AI and Big Tech, an acquisition is almost certainly out of the question. That leaves the public markets, another daunting task.If OpenAI were to IPO tomorrow at that value, it would be the second-largest American IPO by initial valuation, trailing only Alibaba, which went public in September 2014 at a $169.4 billion price tag."I hope and expect that the next step for OpenAI would be to go public," Altimeter Capital's Brad Gerstner, who is an OpenAI investor, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.geekwire.com/2024/openai-investor-says-the-next-step-for-the-chatgpt-maker-should-be-to-go-public/">said at a conference Wednesday</a>.But even if the IPO market can shake its current drought, questions remain if <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-impact-overblown-investment-tech-stocks-billions-daron-acemoglu-mit-2024-10">AI is just a bubble waiting to pop</a>. At the very least, turning a profit from the tech, which is costly to build and maintain, is proving difficult for just about everyone. OpenAI will reportedly lose as much <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-implosion-investors-vcs-2024-9">as $5 billion this year</a>.On the other hand, if OpenAI can maintain its position as the go-to AI app, and the wider industry is as transformational as some believe it is, getting in at a $157 billion valuation might be a bargain.The Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Hallam Bullock, senior editor, in London. Jordan Parker Erb, editor, in New York. Milan Sehmbi, fellow, in London. Amanda Yen, fellow, in New York.

OpenAI's latest funding round could be a bargain or a bust for investors     

<ul class="summary-list"><li>News Corp. has accused AI startup Perplexity of copyright infringement in a new lawsuit.</li><li>Perplexity is eyeing a massive funding round this year, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-startup-perplexity-in-funding-talks-to-more-than-double-valuation-to-8-billion-54d36787?mod=article_inline">The Wall Street Journal had reported</a>.</li></ul>Perplexity, the hot AI startup aiming to compete with Google that has earned the ire of several prominent media organizations, is eyeing a massive funding round — which could mark its fourth raise this year.The AI-fueled search engine is in talks to raise $500 million at an $8 billion valuation, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-startup-perplexity-in-funding-talks-to-more-than-double-valuation-to-8-billion-54d36787">The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday</a>, a big jump from the company's $3 billion valuation this summer.Perplexity has been raising buckets of cash while it <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/perplexity-ai-forbes-wired-explained-2024-6">clashes with top publications</a>, which have accused the company of improperly accessing and using their content.On Monday, the Journal and New York Post filed a lawsuit against the company, becoming the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25244804-news-corp-vs-perplexity?responsive=1&amp;title=1">latest to level accusations against Perplexity</a> and highlighting the ongoing tensions as media companies grapple with AI's ascent.Perplexity did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.Here's everything you need to know about the company's rise and the allegations it's facing.<h2 id="7d8d5158-6833-4037-a9c1-2f89e8f3d37d">Big-name investors</h2>Perplexity was cofounded in 2022 by Aravind Srinivas, Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho, and Andy Konwinski. Srinivas — a former research scientist at OpenAI — <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/perplexity-ceo-advice-startup-founders-2024-6">serves as its chief executive</a>.Perplexity is an AI-fueled search engine that monetizes by selling subscriptions; it will soon start selling ads, according to The Journal. The company has annualized revenue of $50 million, according to The Journal, and fields 15 million searches every day.Perplexity has attracted the backing of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/jeff-bezos-bets-on-a-google-challenger-using-ai-to-try-to-upend-internet-search-0859bda6">tech mogul Jeff Bezos</a> as well as multitrillion-dollar chip firm Nvidia.In January, the company raised roughly $74 million at a $520 million valuation; by its next funding round in the spring, the company was valued at $1 billion and later valued at $3 billion after SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 invested.<h2 id="1bef7e0c-8ab9-4b5d-a281-cd01043e47b1">Allegations of 'ripping off' news outlets</h2>Perplexity has clashed in recent months with a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/perplexity-ai-forbes-wired-explained-2024-6">number of media organizations</a>, including Forbes and Wired.In June, Forbes' executive editor <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/JohnPaczkowski/status/1799135156051255799">accused Perplexity</a> of "ripping off" an investigation without proper attribution. Srinivas <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/AravSrinivas/status/1799159732126794017">said</a> he agreed the sourcing should've been more prominent.That same month, Wired made similar claims in an <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.wired.com/story/perplexity-is-a-bullshit-machine/">investigation</a> that found Perplexity summarized certain articles inaccurately and without attribution. It also alleged Perplexity was likely scraping content that websites had intended to be off limits.Perplexity pushed back in a statement to the outlet, though Wired reported that it didn't deny the allegations."The questions from WIRED reflect a deep and fundamental misunderstanding of how Perplexity and the internet work," Srinivas told Wired.<h2 id="037c51ec-2645-47c9-8696-257c1e980b10">Legal trouble from The New York Times and News Corp.</h2>Perplexity has more recently found itself in the legal crosshairs of The New York Times and News Corp.Last week, the Times — which <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nyt-sues-open-ai-microsoft-alleging-trained-chatgpt-off-content-2023-12">previously sued OpenAI and Microsoft</a> — sent Perplexity a cease-and-desist letter demanding it stop using Times content in its results, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/nyt-sends-ai-startup-perplexity-cease-desist-notice-over-content-use-wsj-reports-2024-10-15/?utm_source=reddit.com">Reuters reported</a>.The Times alleged that Perplexity was violating copyright laws by using its content to create news summaries, according to Reuters.In a statement to Reuters, Srinivas said: "We are very much interested in working with every single publisher, including The New York Times. We have no interest in being anyone's antagonist here."On Monday, the Journal and New York Post owner News Corp. filed a lawsuit against Perplexity, also alleging copyright infringement."This suit is brought by news publishers who seek redress for Perplexity's brazen scheme to compete for readers while simultaneously freeriding on the valuable content the publishers produce," the lawsuit states.The lawsuit alleges Perplexity built its user base "through theft of a massive volume of copyrighted material" and threatened a "reckoning" for the company in court.While Perplexity has dealt with criticism from media outlets, its rival OpenAI has struck deals with publishers to use their content.In May, OpenAI announced a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://openai.com/index/news-corp-and-openai-sign-landmark-multi-year-global-partnership/">multi-year deal</a> with News Corp. to give the AI firm access to content from the conglomerate's media properties. That deal came months after OpenAI and Axel Springer <a target="_blank" rel=" nofollow" href="https://www.axelspringer.com/en/ax-press-release/axel-springer-and-openai-partner-to-deepen-beneficial-use-of-ai-in-journalism">unveiled</a> a multi-year content licensing deal that gives ChatGPT access to select content from Axel Springer publications — including Politico, Business Insider, and European properties like BILD and WELT.

What to know about Perplexity, the buzzy — and controversial — AI startup targeting a big funding round

<ul class="summary-list"><li>This post originally appeared in the Insider Today newsletter.</li></ul>Hello! Vice President Kamala Harris has secured the support of enough Democratic delegates to become the party's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kamala-harris-secured-enough-delegates-to-win-democratic-presidential-nomination-2024-7">nominee for president</a>. Harris said she was looking forward to formally accepting the nomination at the Democratic Party Convention next month.But for now, we're examining how <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/death-hedge-fund-superstars-wall-street-stock-market-titans-gone-2024-7">the hedge fund superstar has gone extinct</a>.What's on deck:<ul><li>Markets: What Wall Street is expecting <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/tesla-q2-earnings-report-preview-expectations-tsla-stock-price-robotaxi-2024-7">ahead of Tesla's earnings</a>.</li><li>Tech: Google u-turns on its plans to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-ditches-plan-to-kill-third-party-cookies-after-pushback-2024-7">kill the third-party cookie</a>.</li><li>Business: Duolingo's trick for teaching you a language? <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/duolingo-meanest-app-nagging-notifications-melting-icon-gen-z-marketing-2024-7">Being mean</a>.</li></ul>But first, the stars aren't shining as bright anymore.If this was forwarded to you, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/subscription/newsletter/insider-today">sign up here.</a><h3 id="7f7b11e5-16f3-49fc-92f8-20a90c248b07">The big story</h3><h2 id="a974392f-73c2-4c4e-b1ec-1a6bea702ebf">So long, superstar</h2><div type="image" title="The Wall Street Bull crying over a funeral casket surrounded by white carnations" height="900" width="1200" msid="111965401" hostid="261" sizebytes="100002"></div>Where have all the hedge fund superstars gone?An industry built on big names drawing even bigger money has faced a marked shift. The days of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/death-hedge-fund-superstars-wall-street-stock-market-titans-gone-2024-7">investors trusting a star hedge-fund manager with their cash</a> are in the rearview mirror, writes Business Insider's Linette Lopez.In years past, even rubbing shoulders with a legendary hedge fund manager was enough for aspiring fund managers to raise capital. The late Julian Robertson and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/billionaire-julian-robertsons-tiger-network-spans-hundreds-of-funds-2019-11">his empire of so-called "Tiger Cubs"</a> prove that.But, unlike years ago, hedge funds are no longer the only game in town for institutions or the ultra-wealthy looking to park their cash somewhere. Venture capital, private credit, and private equity have grown considerably over the past decade.Meanwhile, the hedge fund industry has also evolved. The number of quantitative funds, where the stars are the models rather than an individual's mind, has grown.And the big names that remain in the industry are starting to resemble Wall Street banks in their size and complexity. Ken Griffin's Citadel and Izzy Englander's Millennium Management have filled their ranks with Goldman Sachs alumni <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-alumni-being-hired-by-top-hedge-funds-2023-3">to help oversee their ever-growing operations</a>.<div type="image" title="Bobby Jain" height="1500" width="2000" msid="111965403" hostid="261" sizebytes="260932"></div>Megafunds like Citadel and Millennium <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hedge-fund-allocators-due-diligence-multi-strategy-firms-2024-2">sucking up all the oxygen</a> are also making it harder for new funds to raise money.Bobby Jain had two decades of experience at Credit Suisse and was the co-chief investment officer of Millennium when he decided to set up his own shop.His fund, Jain Global, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-bobby-jain-has-hired-jain-capital-hedge-fund-launch-2023-12">went live this month</a> with a reported $5.3 billion in assets. As eye-popping as that number is, it's well short of his initial target of $8 billion to $10 billion.Jain's high hopes were motivated by being the largest hedge fund launch in history, a title held by ExodusPoint, which launched with more than $8 billion in capital. But ExodusPoint, which also counts two Millennium alums as its cofounders, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/exoduspoint-2022-performance-vs-millennium-as-assets-headcount-decline-2023-1">has had its own struggles</a> in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/exoduspoint-closes-paris-office-following-expansion-effort-2024-2">recent years</a>.But as the old saying goes, it's always darkest before dawn. All Wall Street needs is a couple of breakout stars to flip the script, and the potential is out there.Aaron Weiner, a 31-year-old from Coatue, got a multibillion-dollar check from Millennium <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coatue-star-gets-multibillion-dollar-commitment-from-millennium-2024-6">for his to-be-launched hedge fund</a>. And Jonathan Xiong's Arrowpoint Investment Partners <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asia-based-arrowpoint-investment-partners-launches-with-1-billion-2024-6">launched with $1 billion</a> thanks to backing from Blackstone and Canada's largest pension fund.<h2 id="58db3aa0-c214-454b-a45c-e67393aaa840">3 things in markets</h2><div type="image" title="Collage featuring Elon Musk, Tesla Motors dealership facade with logo, and a downward trending arrow" height="600" width="1200" msid="111965407" hostid="261" sizebytes="100990"></div><ol><li>Tesla's time to shine. The EV maker reports earnings after the bell today. Wall Street is bullish on Elon Musk's company after a rough start to the year, and is excited for updates on <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/tesla-q2-earnings-report-preview-expectations-tsla-stock-price-robotaxi-2024-7">Tesla's plans for Robotaxi and full self-driving</a>.</li><li>Are mega-cap tech stocks' best days behind them? Smaller stocks have been on an incredible run this month. But Big Tech has a chance to remind investors why it's been the market's top pick for years <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/stock-market-outlook-mega-cap-tech-rally-hinges-q2-earnings-2024-7">with a slew of earnings reports</a>.</li><li>Small-cap stocks may not stay high forever, though. Wall Street is split on whether small-cap stocks will continue their recent winning streak. Bank of America identified <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/small-caps-tech-stock-rotation-russell-sp500-treasury-yields-pmi-2024-7">two key metrics to watch</a> to determine if the wins will continue.</li></ol><h2 id="146bcf05-3865-452c-9d9a-a30b4e904a14">3 things in tech</h2><div type="image" title="An hourglass timer connected to a rocket" height="1500" width="2000" msid="111965404" hostid="261" sizebytes="58762"></div><ol><li>Founders claim a startup incubator left a trail of broken promises. AI Forge promised participants in Miami and London cash up front and help with launching their startups. But several founders told BI they <a target="_blank" href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ai-forge-startup-incubator-founders-funding-2024-7">had trouble getting paid and were underwhelmed</a> with what they got. AI Forge's cofounder said participants expected too much.</li><li>Apple aims to slim streaming service. AppleTV+ has a reputation for spending a lot on its movies and shows. The problem is that not a lot of people watch them. Now, Apple wants to cut back, but it's not clear how it plans to do that — or <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-tv-plus-streaming-cutbacks-eddy-cue-2024-7/">why it's running a streaming service in the first place</a>.</li><li>Google is scrapping its plan to kill off third-party cookies. After spending years preparing for their demise, Google announced <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-ditches-plan-to-kill-third-party-cookies-after-pushback-2024-7">it won't be killing cookies in Chrome</a>. Instead, it will let users opt into having the trackers in their browser.</li></ol><h2 id="e2544a9f-17ed-428e-801f-0b3a167fa796">3 things in business</h2><div type="image" title="Store clerk handing over a luxury golden shopping bag to a shopper" height="1500" width="2000" msid="111965400" hostid="261" sizebytes="286294"></div><ol><li>E-commerce eats everything, except luxury goods. Though e-commerce has revolutionized retail, we still like to buy the nicest, most expensive items IRL. That's because part of buying luxury is the experience of being pampered, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/luxury-retail-ecommerce-online-sales-stores-wealth-the-realreal-2024-7">we like to feel fancy when we buy fancy</a>.</li><li>Meanness and meme-ness are Duolingo's bread and butter. The bratty green Duolingo owl is something of a social media influencer, with a sassy personality that users can't get enough of. Its online presence and relentless nagging have <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/duolingo-meanest-app-nagging-notifications-melting-icon-gen-z-marketing-2024-7">driven the company to record profits and growth</a>.</li><li>The results of Sam Altman's basic-income study are in. For three years, low-income participants received $1,000 a month, no strings attached. They put the bulk of their extra money towards basic needs like rent and food, but researchers found it didn't directly improve their mental or physical health. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-basic-income-study-results-2024-7">Here's everything the study found</a>.</li></ol><h2 id="acda8db7-985b-464a-9752-f9d16b6dd6e3">In other news</h2><ul><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/joe-biden-boosts-elon-musk-x-digital-town-square-2024-7">Joe Biden's bombshell revives Elon Musk's ambitions to make X the world's digital town square</a>.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/secret-service-director-admits-trump-shooting-worst-failure-decades-2024-7">Secret Service director admits Trump shooting was agency's 'most significant failure' in decades</a>.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/quit-jobs-to-become-social-media-influencer-survey-income-brands-2024-7">The appeal of being an influencer is so strong that half of US adults would quit their jobs if they could make a living from social media</a>.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-chatbots-bad-customer-service-botshit-inaccurate-information-airlines-accountability-2024-7">'Botshit' is an example of how AI is making customer service worse</a>.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/andy-beshear-kamala-harris-vice-president-jd-vance-audition-2024-7">The race is already on to be Kamala Harris' VP</a>.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-glasses-photo-2024-7">Mark Zuckerberg posted this pic in February. Someone just spotted an interesting object in the background</a>.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moviepass-cofounder-hamet-watt-share-ventures-studio-longevity-2024-7">The cofounder of MoviePass is raising $20 million from Amazon and Alphabet for a longevity-focused venture studio</a>.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/startup-job-listing-catches-ai-applications-with-prompt-injection-2024-7">I'm a tech startup founder. We weed out job applications written with ChatGPT by hiding a prompt just for AI in our listings</a>.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kamala-harris-coconut-pilled-brat-memes-charli-xcx-cringe-2024-7">The one thing Kamala Harris must not do is embrace the memes</a>.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/joe-biden-twitter-ezra-klein-elon-musk-2024-7/">Twitter's not back. But it's not going anywhere, either. Ask Ezra Klein</a>.</li></ul><h2 id="b648cd67-11f4-4e57-9f3f-4ab9ae6dd53b">What's happening today</h2><ul><li>Tesla, Alphabet, Capital One, Visa, Coca-Cola, General Motors, and <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/earnings-calendar">other companies</a> are reporting.</li></ul>The Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Jordan Parker Erb, editor, in New York. Hallam Bullock, senior editor, in London. Annie Smith, associate producer, in London. Amanda Yen, fellow, in New York.

How the hedge fund superstar went extinct

US short-seller <keyword id="20016892" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Hindenburg-Research" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Hindenburg Research" meta.hostid="153" meta.entityid="Hindenburg Research">Hindenburg Research</keyword> alleged that it suspects <keyword id="19901201" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sebi" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Sebi" meta.hostid="153" meta.entityid="Sebi">SEBI</keyword>'s unwillingness to act against <keyword id="19955648" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Adani-Group" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Adani Group" meta.hostid="153" meta.entityid="Adani Group">Adani group</keyword> may be because its head Madhabi Puri Buch had stakes in <keyword id="20311680" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="offshore-funds" source="keywords">offshore funds</keyword> linked to the conglomerate - an allegation slammed by the SEBI head as "baseless" while Adani group said it never had any commercial relations with Buch. Hindenburg alleged that Buch and her husband had undisclosed investments in obscure offshore funds in Bermuda and Mauritius, the same entities allegedly used by <keyword id="20283220" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Vinod-Adani" source="keywords">Vinod Adani</keyword> - the elder brother of group chairman Gautam Adani - to round-trip funds and inflate stock prices. SEBI, in October 2020, began a probe into the shareholding structure of Adani group companies after red flags were raised over the high concentration of foreign holdings in the conglomerate's listed companies. An investigation was launched to determine if the foreign investors were genuine public shareholders or acting as fronts for the promoters. SEBI, last year had told a Supreme Court-appointed panel that it was investigating 13 opaque offshore entities that held between 14-20% across five publicly traded stocks of the conglomerate. It hasn't stated if the two probes have since been completed, something which Hindenburg used to attack the market regulator. Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch in a joint statement strongly denied the "baseless allegations and insinuations made in the report". The same, they said, "are devoid of any truth". "Our life and finances are an open book," they said. "It is unfortunate that Hindenburg Research against whom SEBI has taken an enforcement action and issued a show cause notice, has chosen to attempt character assassination in response to the same." Buchs further said they have no hesitation in disclosing any financial documents, including those that relate to the period when we were strictly private citizens, to any and every authority that may seek them. While the statement did not talk about the questions Hindenburg raised over SEBI probe, the duo promised to come out with a detailed response. Separately, Adani group in a regulatory filing called the allegations by Hindenburg as "malicious, mischievous and manipulative selections of publicly available information to arrive at predetermined conclusions for personal profiteering with wanton disregard for facts and the law." "The Adani Group has absolutely no commercial relationship with the individuals or matters mentioned in this calculated deliberate effort to malign our standing," it said. "We remain steadfastly committed to transparency and compliance with all legal and regulatory requirements". Rejecting the allegations, it said they were nothing but a "recycling of discredited claims that have been thoroughly investigated, proven to be baseless, and already dismissed by the Supreme Court in March 2023." "It is reiterated that our overseas holding structure is fully transparent, with all relevant details disclosed regularly in numerous public documents," Adani group said, adding Anil Ahuja was a nominee director of 3i investment fund in Adani Power (2007-2008) and, later, a director of Adani Enterprises until 2017. "For a discredited short-seller under the scanner for several violations of Indian securities laws, Hindenburg's allegations are no more than red herrings thrown by a desperate entity with total contempt for Indian laws," it added. Hindenburg on Saturday stated that the SEBI chairperson and her husband invested in offshore entities that were allegedly part of a fund structure managed by India Infoline, and in which Vinod Adani also had investments. These investments reportedly date back to 2015, well before her appointment as a full-time member of SEBI in 2017 and the subsequent elevation as chairperson in March 2022. It said the Bermuda-based Global Opportunities Fund, which allegedly was used by entities connected to Adani Group to trade in shares of group companies, had sub-funds. Buch and her husband were investors in one of these sub-funds in 2015. Citing "whistleblower documents", Hindenburg said, "<keyword id="22743118" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Madhabi-Buch" source="keywords">Madhabi Buch</keyword>, the current chairperson of SEBI, and her husband had stakes in both obscure offshore funds used in the Adani <keyword id="22743230" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="money-siphoning" source="keywords">money siphoning</keyword> scandal." SEBI, it claimed, has "shown a surprising lack of interest in Adani's alleged undisclosed web of Mauritius and offshore shell entities." Buch and her husband may have first opened their account with IPE Plus Fund 1 on June 5, 2015, in Singapore. IPE fund is a small offshore Mauritius fund set up by Vinod Adani director through India Infoline (IIFL), a wealth management firm with ties to the Wirecard embezzlement scandal. "Vinod Adani, brother of Gautam Adani, used this structure to invest in Indian markets with funds allegedly siphoned from over-invoicing of power equipment to Adani Group," claimed Hindenburg. Latching on to the Hindenburg allegations, Congress said the revelations only reinforced its demand for setting up a "joint parliamentary committee to investigate the full scope of the Adani mega scam" while the Trinamool Congress said the SEBI chairperson must resign. "This raises fresh questions about Gautam Adani's two 2022 meetings in quick succession with Ms Buch shortly after she became SEBI chairperson. Recall that SEBI was supposedly investigating Adani transactions at the time," Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said. In January last year, Hindenburg Research, which in the past has shorted - or bet against - companies like electric truck maker Nikola Corp and Twitter, accused Adani Group of pulling "the largest con in corporate history" by using a web of companies in tax havens to inflate its revenue and manipulate stock prices, even as debt piled up. Though the conglomerate vehemently denied all allegations, the damning report sent the group's shares into a free fall, wiping out over USD 150 billion in market value of the 10 listed entities at their lowest point. Most of the 10 listed companies have since recouped the losses. After the Hindenburg report, the Supreme Court asked market regulator SEBI to complete its investigation and set up a separate expert panel to look into regulatory lapses. The panel did not give any adverse report on Adani and the apex court too stated that no other probe other than one being done by SEBI was required. On June 26 this year, SEBI in a show cause notice charged Hindenburg of "deliberately sensationalizing and distorting certain facts" as well as working with a New York hedge fund to make its bet. Hindenburg had responded to that saying it made just USD 4.1 million from its declared positions on Adani stocks and criticized the regulator for not focusing its investigation into the January 2023 report "providing evidence" of the conglomerate creating "a vast network of offshore shell entities" and moving billions of dollars "surreptitiously" into and out of Adani public and private entities. The group led by billionaire Gautam Adani, who was the world's third-richest man before Hindenburg, in an epic comeback strategy raised USD 15 billion in equity and debt, sold some assets, repaid loans that were raised pledging shares, reined in expenses, repaid some debt and refocused energies on core business. Adani is now ranked 12th richest in the world, one notch and USD 6 billion shy of rival billionaire Mukesh Ambani. The group has also made some acquisitions, buying cement company Sanghi Industries and the news agency IANS. Adani has insisted the Hindenburg report has not changed operations at his companies, which include ports, airports, renewable parks generating electricity from sunlight and wind energy, gas distribution, cement processors, data centers, and even apple farms. 360 One Wam Ltd, formerly known as IIFL Wealth Management Ltd, separately said IPE-Plus Fund 1, a fully compliant and regulated fund, was launched in October 2013 and operated until October 2019. "Throughout the fund's tenure, IPE-Plus Fund 1 made zero investments in any shares of the Adani Group either directly or indirectly through any fund," it said. "At its peak, the fund's Assets Under Management (AUM) reached approximately USD 48 million, with over 90% of the fund consistently invested in bonds." The fund, it said, was managed as a discretionary fund by the Investment Manager. "No investor had any involvement in the fund's operations or investment decisions. Mrs. Madhabi Buch &amp; Mr. Dhaval Buch's holdings in the fund were less than 1.5% of the total inflow into the fund." Hindenburg on Saturday alleged that just weeks before Buch's appointment to SEBI, her husband requested the transfer of their investments into his sole control, potentially to avoid any scrutiny related to her new regulatory role. The couple's investments were reportedly funneled through a complex, multi-layered offshore structure, raising questions about their legitimacy and purpose. On March 22, 2017, just weeks ahead of Buch's appointment as SEBI Wholetime Member, her husband, Dhaval Buch, wrote to Mauritius fund administrator Trident Trust. That communication was regarding his and his wife's investment in the Global Dynamic Opportunities Fund (GDOF), the US firm alleged. "In the letter, Dhaval Buch requested to"be the sole person authorized to operate the accounts", seemingly moving the assets out of his wife's name ahead of the politically sensitive appointment," Hindenburg alleged. Dhaval Buch is currently a senior advisor at Blackstone and at Alvarez &amp; Marsal. He also serves as a non-executive director on the Board of Gildan. "In a later account statement dated February 26, 2018, addressed to Madhabi Buch's private email, the full details of the structure are revealed: "GDOF Cell 90 (IPEplus Fund 1)". Again, this is the same Mauritius-registered "cell" of the fund, found several layers deep in a convoluted structure, reportedly used by Vinod Adani," Hindenburg alleged. From April 2017 to March 2022, while Buch was a Wholetime member and Chairperson at SEBI, she had a 100 % interest in an offshore Singaporean consulting firm, called Agora Partners, it alleged adding On March 16, 2022, two weeks after she was appointed SEBI Chairperson, she quietly transferred the shares to her husband. To date, SEBI has taken no action against these funds, it claimed. "If SEBI wanted to find the offshore fund holders, perhaps the SEBI Chairperson could have started by looking in the mirror," Hindenburg said. In response to requests from the Supreme Court to investigate the Adani matter, SEBI is said to have hit a wall unveiling the holders of the offshore funds. The Supreme Court said that while SEBI seemingly agreed with its concerns over who funded Adani's offshore shareholders, "it is evident that SEBI has drawn a blank in this investigation", the firm alleged.

Hindenburg target SEBI chief, she calls charges baseless, Adani says no commercial relationship with SEBI head

US short-seller <keyword id="20016892" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Hindenburg-Research" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Hindenburg Research" meta.hostid="153" meta.entityid="Hindenburg Research">Hindenburg Research</keyword> has alleged that it suspects <keyword id="19901201" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sebi" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Sebi" meta.hostid="153" meta.entityid="Sebi">SEBI</keyword>'s unwillingness to act against <keyword id="19955648" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Adani-Group" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Adani Group" meta.hostid="153" meta.entityid="Adani Group">Adani Group</keyword> may be because of its head Madhabi Puri Buch had stakes in <keyword id="20311680" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="offshore-funds" source="keywords">offshore funds</keyword> linked to the conglomerate - an allegation that the SEBI head called "baseless" and an attempt of "character assassination". Hindenburg alleged that Buch and her husband had undisclosed investments in <keyword id="22746661" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="obscure-offshore" source="keywords">obscure offshore</keyword> funds in Bermuda and Mauritius, the same entities allegedly used by <keyword id="20283220" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Vinod-Adani" source="keywords">Vinod Adani</keyword> - the elder brother of group chairman Gautam Adani - to round-trip funds and inflate stock prices. SEBI in October 2020 began a probe into the shareholding structure of Adani Group companies after red flags were raised over high concentration of foreign holdings in the conglomerate's listed companies. Investigation was launched to determine if the foreign investors are genuine public shareholders or acting as fronts for the promoters. SEBI last year had told a Supreme Court-appointed panel that it was investigating 13 opaque offshore entities that held between 14 per cent and 20 per cent across five publicly traded stocks of the conglomerate. It hasn't stated if the two incomplete probes have since been completed, something which Hindenburg used to attack the market regulator. Madhabi and her husband Dhaval Buch in a joint statement strongly denied the "baseless allegations and insinuations made in the report". The same, they said, "are devoid of any truth". "Our life and finances are an open book," they said. "It is unfortunate that Hindenburg Research against whom SEBI has taken an enforcement action and issued a show cause notice has chosen to attempt character assassination in response to the same." While the statement did not talk on the questions Hindenburg raised over SEBI probe, the duo promised to come out with a detailed response. Hindenburg on Saturday stated that the Madhabi and her husband invested in offshore entities that were allegedly part of a fund structure managed by India Infoline and in which Vinod Adani also had investments. These investments reportedly date back to 2015, well before her appointment as a whole-time member of SEBI in 2017 and the subsequent elevation as chairperson in March 2022. It said Bermuda-based Global Opportunities Fund, which allegedly was used by entities connected to Adani Group to trade in shares of group companies, had sub-funds. Buch and her husband were investors in one of these sub-funds in 2015. Citing "whistleblower documents", Hindenburg said, "<keyword id="22743118" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Madhabi-Buch" source="keywords">Madhabi Buch</keyword>, the current chairperson of SEBI, and her husband had stakes in both obscure offshore funds used in the Adani <keyword id="22743230" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="money-siphoning" source="keywords">money siphoning</keyword> scandal." SEBI, it claimed, has "shown a surprising lack of interest in Adani's alleged undisclosed web of Mauritius and offshore shell entities." The Buchs may have first opened their account with IPE Plus Fund 1 on June 5, 2015 in Singapore. IPE fund is a small offshore Mauritius fund set up by Vinod Adani through India Infoline (IIFL), a wealth management firm with ties to the Wirecard embezzlement scandal. "Vinod...used this structure to invest in Indian markets with funds allegedly siphoned from over invoicing of power equipment to Adani Group," claimed Hindenburg. Latching on to the Hindenburg allegations, Congress said the revelations only reinforced its demand for setting up a "joint parliamentary committee to investigate the full scope of the Adani mega scam" while the Trinamool Congress said the SEBI chairperson must resign. In January last year, Hindenburg accused Adani Group of pulling "the largest con in corporate history" by using a web of companies in tax havens to inflate its revenue and manipulate stock prices, even as debt piled up. After the Hindenburg report, the SC asked SEBI to complete its investigation and set up a separate expert panel to look into regulatory lapses. The panel did not give any adverse report on Adani and the apex court too stated that no other probe other than one being done by SEBI was required. On June 26 this year, SEBI in a show cause notice charged Hindenburg of "deliberately sensationalising and distorting certain facts" as well as working with a New York hedge fund to make its bet. Hindenburg had responded to that saying it made just USD 4.1 million from its declared positions on Adani stocks and criticised the regulator for not focusing its investigation into the January 2023 report "providing evidence" of the group creating "a vast network of offshore shell entities" and moving billions of dollars "surreptitiously" into and out of Adani public and private entities. Gautam Adani, who was the world's third-richest man before Hindenburg, in an epic comeback strategy raised USD 15 billion in equity and debt, sold some assets, repaid loans that was raised pledging shares, reined in expenses and refocused energies on core business. Adani is now ranked 12th richest in the world. The group has also made some acquisitions, buying cement company Sanghi Industries and the news agency IANS. Hindenburg on Saturday alleged that just weeks before Buch's appointment to SEBI, her husband requested the transfer of their investments into his sole control, potentially to avoid any scrutiny related to her new regulatory role. The couple's investments were reportedly funnelled through a complex, multi-layered offshore structure, raising questions about their legitimacy and purpose. On March 22, 2017, just weeks ahead of Buch's appointment as SEBI whole-time member, Dhaval wrote to Mauritius fund administrator Trident Trust. That communication was regarding his and his wife's investment in the Global Dynamic Opportunities Fund (GDOF), the US firm alleged. "In the letter, Dhaval requested to "be the sole person authorised to operate the Accounts", seemingly moving the assets out of his wife's name ahead of the politically sensitive appointment," Hindenburg alleged. Dhaval is a senior advisor at Blackstone and at Alvarez &amp; Marsal. He also serves as a non-executive director on the Board of Gildan.

After Adani, Hindenburg targets SEBI chief, she calls allegations baseless, character assassination

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A Chinese takeover of Taiwan risks investments there and far beyond.</li><li>A hedge fund turned to a tabletop wargame to see how the crisis could play out.</li></ul>As China's fleets and bombers stalk the narrow strait and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-showed-how-easily-no-notice-it-can-surround-taiwan-2024-6">threaten Taiwan's</a> seven decades of de facto self-rule, a British hedge fund commissioned a wargame to answer an increasingly pressing question: What is the optimum strategy for investors if China invades?Taiwan is the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/16/2-charts-show-how-much-the-world-depends-on-taiwan-for-semiconductors.html">world's leading supplier</a> of the semiconductor chips essential to electronics of all kinds, from fighter jets and supercomputers to dishwashers, and a Chinese takeover of Taiwan's industry would immediately buzzcut exposed investors. But the wargame makes clear that would be the first wave in an economic tsunami."The conclusion was that most investing entities would take a huge hit and keep being hit for months to follow, with many likely collapsing," Finley Grimble, president of Knightsbridge Strategic Group, the British consultancy that designed and ran the game, told Business Insider. "Opportunities could follow a bit later though for those who survive."Wargaming is a common technique in government and military circles to explore issues and assess potential responses. But it also is becoming popular in business as a way to prepare for crises like this that would send tremors through the world's economy and short-circuit tech stocks.In the case of the British hedge fund, which Knightsbridge did not identify, the tabletop game began with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-taiwan-china-chip-war-2024-6">China invading Taiwan</a> on May 2, 2025 — two years before a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-missing-how-china-could-seize-taiwan-without-invading-experts-2024-5">reported Chinese mandate</a> to be ready. The hedge fund players (played by actual officials of the hedge fund in question) responded by "liquidating as many of its investments as possible in all adjacent countries to the South China Sea, and rapidly reducing its exposure to investments reliant on South China Sea freedom of navigation," according to KSG's summary report.But this still left the fund with substantial exposure to its global investment, including those in the US and Europe. The next step was to shift investments toward US government bonds, buying US dollars, and investing in South America. "The major short- to medium-term decision taken was to pull out of high-tech companies given semiconductor chip shortages were likely on the horizon, which would harm the share price of tech giants," KSG noted.In the second phase of the game, soon after the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/red-flags-tell-us-when-chinas-ready-to-invade-taiwan-2024-4">Chinese invasion began</a>, US forces were said to have engaged and stopped the Chinese amphibious assault, though China continued to bombard Taiwan.In the economic sphere, the EU, as well as the US, Japan, South Korea and Australia imposed sanctions on China.<div type="image" title="Taiwanese soldiers fired artillery as part of August drills to defend their coast." height="1333" width="2000" msid="113147893" hostid="261" sizebytes="358550"></div>This caught the hedge fund players by surprise: they had assumed EU sanctions were unlikely because of the depth of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/xi-europe-tour-eu-companies-china-economy-investor-confidence-low-2024-5">China-Europe trade</a>, which reached $815 billion annually in 2023. The hedge fund "agreed that any room for avoiding a total divestment from China and the South China Sea was now completely lost, and market re-entry was probably many years away."The final phase of the wargame began a month into the war. Global trade was said to be in crisis, the US had imposed a blockade on goods headed toward China, and there was a global rush to buy gold as a safe haven, along with US Treasury bills and high-quality US dollar assets. There was also stress on the global financial systems, including more and larger stock margin calls, more hedging, stiffer demands for collateral, higher credit spreads and deteriorating credit quality."Experts in finance assessed that this scenario did not look so dissimilar to the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis, the impact of Covid-19, the First Gulf War, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine," KSG noted. To be sure, China's economy is nearly nine times the size of Russia's as estimated by GDP.The hedge fund responded by choosing to invest heavily in semiconductors manufactured in regions not affected by the war. The fund also boosted investments in the defense industry and, on the assumption that the war would drive up energy prices, also invested in oil and alternative energy.A post-game analysis by former British government economists and security experts, as well as a former investment banker, concluded that a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-taiwan-war-us-no-allies-2024-7">Chinese invasion of Taiwan</a> would devastate the world economy far more than even the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/investing/recession-vs-depression">2008 meltdown</a>.Governments would pump liquidity into their economies for years to come, including investing in semiconductor manufacturing. If an invasion of Taiwan resulted in sanctions on China, this might be a boon to Western manufacturers who would no longer have Chinese competition (though consumers might be unhappy as lack of competition drives up prices).An interesting side effect would be that Chinese investment in the so-called Global South — which includes Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia — would probably be slashed, leaving space for other lenders to step in. "This would provide potential opportunities for new players to emerge in the Global South, particularly if loans can be collateralized," Knightsbridge noted. "A major example of this would be mining in Zimbabwe."In the end, the value of business wargames is that they give companies and investors a chance to go beyond theory and explore the consequences of making various choices."It's easy to think about consequences in your own head, or in a regular meeting," Grimble said. "But a wargame allows for consequences to be examined, and that is vital for entities looking to invest enormous sums of money and compare options, or prepare mitigations and alternatives in a time of urgency."Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine, and other publications. He holds an MA in political science from Rutgers Univ. Follow him on <a target="_blank" href="https://www.twitter.com/@mipeck1">Twitter</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mipeck/">LinkedIn</a>.

Hedge fund turned to a wargame to plan for a Chinese invasion of Taiwan 

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The Biden administration appears to be exploring the possibility of a sovereign wealth fund.</li><li>Last week, Donald Trump proposed a similar idea.</li></ul>Bipartisanship in the United States is unusual, especially during election time.So it is noteworthy that Democratic and Republican leaders both appear to want to establish a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sovereign-wealth-funds-buying-up-the-world-2012-10">sovereign wealth fund</a> to help the United States pay for stuff.Top aides to President Joe Biden, including National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and his deputy, Daleep Singh, have been quietly developing plans for a sovereign wealth fund over the past several months, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-09-06/biden-aides-working-on-proposal-for-us-sovereign-wealth-fund?embedded-checkout=true">Bloomberg</a> reported.The details, including the structure, funding, and investment strategy, remain unclear, but planning documents are making the rounds through the White House and Biden hopes to make it happen before he leaves office.News of Biden's effort came not long after <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-donald-trump-bio-age-family-key-positions-2019-4">former president Donald Trump</a> called for a similar state-owned investment fund to finance "great national endeavors" during a campaign stop at the Economic Club of New York last week.Sovereign wealth funds are an old idea that many other countries — particularly ones that generate vast wealth from their natural resources, like Saudi Arabia or Norway — have long used to pay for big things. Countries park their cash reserves in the state-owned fund so it can grow.Norway's $1.6 trillion <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/norways-wealth-fund-vote-against-elon-musks-55bn-tesla-paycheck-2024-6">Government Pension Fund Global</a>, the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, for instance, reported in January that it made $213 billion in profit last year driven by returns on investments in tech stocks, Reuters reported. The Norges Bank Investment Management, the branch of Norway's central bank that oversees the fund, said the fund is supported by investment returns on equities, fixed income, real estate, renewable energy infrastructure, and revenue from oil and gas production.Saudi Arabia's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/saudi-arabia-public-investment-fund-global-investment-spree-2024-8">Public Investment Fund</a>, which manages about $925 billion in assets, reported a $36.8 billion profit for 2023, according to Reuters. The PIF says it is funded through four avenues — capital injections from the government, government assets transferred to PIF, loans and debt instruments, and retained earnings from investments. That money is being used to invest in everything from Uber and Blackstone to Heathrow and LIV Golf. It's also using it to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/neom-vision2030-saudi-arabia-mbs-crown-prince-tough-conversations-2024-5#:~:text=Vision%202030%20aims%20to%20transform,revenues%20and%20pivoting%20toward%20tech.">finance Vision 2030</a>, a huge initiative to transform the country's economy and reduce its reliance on oil.It is unclear how an American fund would be, well, funded, or how it would operate. But people familiar with the Biden administration's plans told Bloomberg that if the United States launched a fund, it could invest in national security interests like technology, energy, and supply chain initiatives.This isn't the first time Washington has toyed with the idea of a sovereign wealth fund. Last March, a group of bipartisan lawmakers led by Sen. Angus King and Sen. Bill Cassidy began <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sovereign-wealth-fund-biden-sanders-romney-warren-social-security-medicare-2023-3">discussing a sovereign wealth fund</a> to pay for Social Security. At the time, Sen. Mitt Romney, who attended the talks, said the fund would allow the United States "to be able to borrow at low interest rates and invest in the growth of our economy, and perhaps economies of other nations as well."The number of potential uses for the fund, if — again — it can ever be funded, is nearly unlimited, which excites lawmakers.The White House's interest in a sovereign wealth fund stems partly from its desire to compete with China, which has multiple state-owned funds itself. White House aides suggested an American fund could bolster national interests through things like "bridge financing" for companies competing with China, according to Bloomberg.Others have suggested the fund could support technologies with high entry barriers, like geothermal and nuclear fusion projects or quantum cryptography. Or it could create synthetic reserves of critical minerals by purchasing futures contracts.Or, hey, maybe it could even be used to pay down the national debt."It would great to see America join this party and instead of having debt, have savings," billionaire John Paulson said last week in an interview with Bloomberg Television. "It would be, over time, larger than any of the existing funds."It sounds nice, but it all hinges on government cash to fund it and sound investments to grow it.Former Treasury Secretary <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/federal-reserves-rate-cuts-itchy-fingers-rush-inflation-larry-summers-2024-3">Larry Summers</a> said in an interview with Bloomberg Television last week that it was "hard to believe that setting aside lots of funds for unspecified investments made in unspecified ways, where you don't even know what it's going to be called, is a particularly responsible, kind of proposal."

Trump and Biden agree: The US should finally start a sovereign wealth fund

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Car companies are cutting costs heading into the end of the year.</li><li>A price war in China poses a threat to profitability.</li></ul>It's been a busy few days for auto companies.Ford and Volkswagen each pulled back vehicle production plans this week. After the last shift on Friday, November 15, Ford will <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ford-pauses-electric-f-150-lightning-production-cuts-manager-bonuses-2024-10">pause F-150 Lightning production</a> until next year, while VW said it is considering historic plant closures in Germany that would lay off hundreds of workers.Meanwhile, Tesla fell behind China's BYD in quarterly revenue for the first time, and GM CEO Mary Barra warned of an unsustainable price war in the Chinese EV market.Amid the flurry of news, two themes stand out: the China threat and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/electric-vehicle-misconceptions-about-the-ev-transition-market-sales-2024-5">EV slowdown</a> loom large for automakers.<h2 id="26021238-9d8a-4010-bec4-f6bfd9ac81e2">Another EV price war threatens profitability</h2>In China, the world's largest auto market, EV leaders <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-byd-is-beating-tesla-ev-rivals-china-2024-11">BYD</a> and Tesla are engaged in a bitter price war that initially weighed heavily on BYD's bottom line.But by August, BYD (which also sells hybrid cars) reported its best-ever passenger car sales, driving up revenue 24% in the third quarter to $28.24 billion, topping Tesla for the first time. It's the latest sign that after nearly two years of deflating the value of its cars, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-sales-miss-ev-slowdown-new-wave-customers-2024-4">Tesla is finally starting to feel the pinch</a> of a slowdown in the EV market.The Chinese EV market is more competitive than ever, according the GM's Barra, who <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/general-motors-gm-ceo-mary-barra-ev-china-not-sustainable-2024-10">questioned the sustainability</a> of a broader price war in the region driven by an uptick in Chinese EV startups selling inexpensive vehicles.Inexpensive Chinese EVs have long threatened the US EV market. They aren't just well-priced; many are also good-looking and well-equipped. Ford CEO Mark Ford said last week that he's been driving the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-ev-xiaomi-su7-driven-by-fords-ceo-faster-model-2024-10">Chinese-made Xiaomi SU7</a> for six months and doesn't want to give it up.Some car companies already sell <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cars-imported-from-china-us-ev-tariffs-buick-lincoln-volvo-2024-5">China-built EVs</a> in the US, but Biden Administration bans on Chinese vehicles keep competitors like BYD from entering the market. Europe is also slapping tariffs on Chinese EVs as these cars upend their retail market.<h2 id="8dfa0b70-314e-4d64-b16a-ce59212e9bed">Companies will have to build fewer cars for now</h2>As <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/germany-auto-giants-volkswagen-bmw-mercedes-struggle-sales-china-evs-2024-10">Volkswagen loses ground</a> to BYD in Europe, the automotive giant is considering massive production pull-backs, including closing three German factories for the first time in its history.In the US, Ford announced its own EV production pull-backs this week, stopping assembly of its electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck until next year in a bid to improve profitability for its money-losing EV segment.Both companies are coupling these production rationalizations with other cost-cutting measures. At Ford, managerial bonuses tied to quality and manufacturing costs will be slashed to 65% of last year's levels. VW has said it plans to lay off workers and may cut wages.Over-production isn't just <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ev-pile-up-dealer-lots-deals-discounts-leasing-2024-8">a problem for EVs</a>, though. Overall vehicle inventory levels remained elevated at the end of October, driving up manufacturer-funded discounts, according to JD Power. Dealers ended October with about 2 million units in stock, a 4% increase from September and a 25% increase from the previous year.Some companies are more affected by inventory bloat than others. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stellantis-jeep-ceo-falling-sales-shrinking-profit-margins-dealers-strike-2024-10">Stellantis</a>, which is navigating the toughest year in its short history, is specifically focused on reducing inventory levels in the US, and reported some progress on that effort in the third quarter.

The China threat and the EV slowdown— 2 takeaways from a busy few weeks in auto news

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas addressed the lawsuits the company is facing from news publishers.</li><li>At a WSJ conference appearance, Srinivas said Perplexity was previously in conversations with Dow Jones.</li></ul>The simmering tensions between news publishers and search engines built with artificial intelligence spilled into public view Wednesday on a beachside conference stage."Let's talk about the elephant in the room," Aravind Srinivas, cofounder and CEO of Perplexity, opened his interview at Wall Street Journal's Tech Live conference.Rupert Murdoch's Dow Jones, publisher of the Journal, and the New York Post <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/perplexity-ai-startup-lawsuit-allegations-targets-funding-2024-10">filed a lawsuit</a> in New York on Monday accusing Perplexity of "freeriding" on the journalism they produce. Perplexity's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/perplexity-ai-forbes-wired-explained-2024-6">app allows users to get instant answers to questions</a> with sources and citations from trusted blogs, news outlets, and academic papers.The two-year-old startup <a target="_blank" rel="" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/perplexity-raising-new-funding-generative-ai-2024">takes in cash like oxygen,</a> having raised <a target="_blank" rel="" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-startups-rapid-funding-rounds-2024-9">back-to-back funding rounds</a> just months apart, and is <a target="_blank" rel=" nofollow" class="" href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-startup-perplexity-in-funding-talks-to-more-than-double-valuation-to-8-billion-54d36787">said to be in talks</a> to raise a fourth round that would value the startup at $8 billion.The lawsuit alleges that Perplexity is scraping copyrighted work to feed its search engine and, in doing so, is routing would-be readers and customers away from their websites."Nobody's coming to Perplexity to ingest their news. People are directly going to [The] New York Times, The Wall Street Journal," Srinivas said. He explained Perplexity's goal as helping users digest the news. "People come to Perplexity for understanding the news in the context of what they already know. 'How does this news affect me?'""We are not interested in taking the exact content and resurfacing it. We are not trying to be the news alternative," he later added. "So, we are going to try our best to engage and communicate what the goals of our product are and how they can be symbiotic with the existing news outlets."The company has <a target="_blank" href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/nyt-sends-ai-startup-perplexity-cease-desist-notice-over-content-use-wsj-reports-2024-10-15/">said</a> it does not scrape data for training large language models; rather, it scours the internet, creating an index of web pages for its models to reference.The entrepreneur stayed coolheaded as WSJ reporter Deepa Seetharaman lobbed questions about Perplexity's cash flow and claims by news outlets that it doesn't make citations clear. Srinivas acknowledged the tech is "not perfect.""We are still working with a piece of technology that is constantly improving," he responded to a question about plagiarism. "Even yesterday, Anthropic released another version of their models, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/anthropic-claude-computer-use-ai-explainer-2024-10">Claude 3.5</a>. It's getting better and better every few months. So whatever issues exist today are a new set of issues that did not exist one or two years ago."In his interview, Srinivas defended the company's modus operandi, saying it had a conversation with the Journal's publisher in June about potentially striking up a contract that would allow Perplexity to share future ad revenues with the publisher. He didn't specify the contract's contents but said the conversation went dark."We certainly were very surprised about the lawsuit because we actually wanted a conversation," Srinivas said.This month, the company will start selling ads against popular searches, Srinivas said. So, for example, a user can ask Perplexity about a shoe company that has just gone public on Wall Street. The search engine will return a summary of the shoemaker's stock debut with sources and citations. If a shoe brand pays to advertise in the results, Perplexity will share a cut of the money it makes with publishers whose content it used to answer the query."We can only exist if we make money of our own, too, not just keep fundraising," Srinivas said. "Then when we start making money of our own, that will certainly benefit all the publishers and ensure they also continue to flourish."Just last week, The New York Times sent Perplexity a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nyt-sues-open-ai-microsoft-alleging-trained-chatgpt-off-content-2023-12">cease-and-desist letter</a> seeking to end the practice of using its stories to train chatbots. The news outlet is also suing OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement.Perplexity hopes to turn profitable in the span of three to five years from selling subscriptions and advertisements, according to Srinivas. He acknowledged that while Perplexity isn't training large language models and doesn't need to raise as much capital as an OpenAI or Anthropic, the influx of investor cash allows it to move more quickly."Fundraising obviously helps us to stay focused on the product and keep improving the product but not be overly worried about the financials," Srinivas said.

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