South Korean Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economy Koo Yun Cheol and representatives of government agencies, policy-finance institutions and major shipbuilders attend a signing ceremony for a Korea-U.S. shipbuilding cooperation investment agreement at the Export-Import Bank of Korea in Seoul on Thursday. Photo from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources, used under KOGL Type 1.
June 25 (Asia Today) — South Korea launched a policy-finance framework Thursday to support $150 billion in shipbuilding cooperation with the United States, seeking to share early-stage investment risks with domestic companies expanding into the U.S. market.
The Korea-U.S. Strategic Investment Corporation, four state-backed financial institutions and three major South Korean shipbuilders signed a memorandum of understanding at the Export-Import Bank of Korea headquarters in Seoul.
The agreement is the first institutional step toward implementing the $150 billion shipbuilding cooperation package included in a bilateral strategic investment memorandum signed in November 2025.
The participating financial institutions are the Export-Import Bank of Korea, Korea Development Bank, Korea Trade Insurance Corp. and Korea Ocean Business Corp.
The three shipbuilders are HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries and Hanwha Ocean.
Under the agreement, the participants will establish a Korea-U.S. Shipbuilding Cooperation Investment Council to identify U.S. investment projects, coordinate policy financing and jointly monitor their implementation.
The Export-Import Bank of Korea will serve as the council’s secretariat, coordinating communication among the institutions and overseeing the progress of individual projects.
South Korean Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economy Koo Yun Cheol said shipbuilding cooperation is one of the two main pillars of strategic investment between South Korea and the United States.
Koo urged the investment corporation and policy lenders to develop financing measures that can provide companies with sufficient funding when it is needed.
“The government and policy-finance institutions must actively seek ways to share the risks and uncertainty of initial investments that individual companies cannot bear alone,” Koo said.
He said the initiative should help South Korean shipbuilders support the rebuilding of the U.S. shipbuilding industry while creating new contracts and markets across South Korea’s domestic shipbuilding supply chain.
The benefits should extend beyond large shipbuilders to small and midsize shipyards and marine equipment suppliers, he said.
“We must create a path for small and midsize shipbuilders and equipment suppliers to participate together as Team Korea,” Koo said.
The government plans to use the council to develop financing for investments in U.S. shipyards, naval vessel construction, maintenance, repair and overhaul services and commercial shipbuilding.
The policy-finance structure is intended to help companies manage the large capital requirements and financial risks associated with entering the U.S. market.
Financial Services Commission Vice Chairman Kwon Dae-young described the initiative as an opportunity for South Korea’s shipbuilding industry to demonstrate its capabilities in the global market.
“We will actively support the necessary financing through close cooperation among the newly established Korea-U.S. Strategic Investment Corporation, policy-finance institutions and private financial companies,” Kwon said.
Park Dong-il, deputy minister for industrial policy at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources, said the Make American Shipbuilding Great Again initiative, or MASGA, represents the first strategic overseas expansion project in the history of South Korea’s shipbuilding industry.
Park said encouraging signs were emerging in the United States, including potential orders for South Korean companies.
He called on policy lenders to coordinate closely so shipbuilders can enter the U.S. market without delays.
“The signing ceremony is expected to provide initial momentum for the MASGA project and create a new opportunity for South Korea’s shipbuilding industry to advance,” Park said.
Shipbuilding companies also pledged to identify commercially viable projects with government financial support.
HD Hyundai Heavy Industries CEO Lee Sang-kyun said producing tangible results from the bilateral cooperation was the most important objective.
“This cooperation should develop into a system that simultaneously supports the growth of South Korea’s shipbuilding industry and the rebuilding of the U.S. shipbuilding base,” Lee said.
South Korean shipbuilders will identify investment opportunities that offer profitability and can be carried out effectively using their advanced technology, he said.
Lee also urged the government to prepare a broad range of support measures to help create a turning point in bilateral shipbuilding cooperation.
The government said it will use the agreement to begin full cooperation among the investment corporation, policy-finance institutions and shipbuilders.
It also plans to expand the Team Korea framework so small and midsize shipyards and marine equipment suppliers can participate in projects entering the U.S. market.
— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI
© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.
Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260625010008910
Sony Pictures will invest $100 million and take a minority stake in virtual reality venue operator Cosm, as the studio continues to build a business in communal experiences.
As part of the investment, Sony Pictures Chief Executive Ravi Ahuja will also join Cosm’s board of directors, the studio said Wednesday. The size of Sony’s minority stake was not disclosed.
The El Segundo-based Cosm currently operates three venues — one at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, and the others in Dallas and Atlanta. The company plans to open additional venues in Detroit and Cleveland.
Cosm bills itself as a “shared reality venue,” and its facilities center around a massive, wraparound screen that is intended to envelop viewers with additional digital effects. The company has largely focused on sports, though it has also shown Cirque du Soleil shows and done several collaborations with Warner Bros., including recent screenings of 2001’s “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” in honor of the film’s 25th anniversary.
“Cosm sits at the intersection of several trends shaping the future of entertainment,” Ahuja said in a statement. “We’ve followed Cosm since before launch and have been impressed with the quality of the experience and the enthusiasm it’s generating with audiences.”
The investment is Sony’s latest venture into experiential entertainment. In 2024, the Culver City-based studio acquired dine-in theater chain Alamo Drafthouse Cinema.
June 24 (UPI) — Investment from the United States in Latin America and the Caribbean fell 11% in 2025, although the country remained the region’s leading source of foreign direct investment, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, or ECLAC, reported.
The organization presented its annual report, Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean 2026: Navigating the New Global Context, in Santiago, Chile, on Tuesday. The report showed that the region received $194.233 billion in foreign direct investment in 2025, up 1.7% from the previous year.
ECLAC attributed the modest growth to an international environment marked by geopolitical tensions, technological rivalry among major powers and changes in U.S. trade policy.
The United States accounted for 35% of foreign investment with an identifiable origin entering the region, while Europe represented 32%.
ECLAC said the decline in U.S. investment flows and the increase in European investment significantly narrowed the gap between the two players.
The organization warned that recent changes in U.S. tariff policy could affect Latin American countries unevenly depending on their productive structures and their level of integration into regional value chains.
“In the current global context of weaponized interdependence, it is essential to understand the relationship between trade and foreign direct investment in order to design policies that allow us to advance toward more productive, inclusive and sustainable development,” ECLAC Executive Secretary José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs said.
During the presentation of the report, Salazar-Xirinachs also said the world had moved from a period in which economic interdependence was viewed as a source of efficiency and even a guarantee of peace to one in which it is increasingly perceived as a source of vulnerability, according to statements reported by Xinhua.
Brazil remained the region’s leading destination for foreign investment, attracting $77.676 billion, equivalent to 40% of the regional total. Mexico received $43.221 billion, or 22% of the total, although it recorded a year-over-year decline. Together, the two countries accounted for 62% of all foreign investment received by Latin America and the Caribbean in 2025, according to ECLAC.
They were followed by Chile with 7% of regional flows, Peru and Colombia with 6% each, Guyana with 5%, and Costa Rica and Dominican Republic with 3%.
The sectoral composition also showed changes. Services attracted 53% of foreign investment received by the region and increased 19.5% from the previous year. Natural resources rose 7% and accounted for 16% of the total, while manufacturing declined 17.2% and represented 31% of investment flows.
The report also showed signs of caution among investors. During 2025, 1,326 new investment projects were announced with a combined value of $114.1 billion, a decline of 10.2% in the number of projects and 34.3% in value compared with 2024.
In response to this scenario, ECLAC recommended diversifying export markets and sources of investment, strengthening coordination between trade and investment policies, and expanding regional cooperation to reduce dependence on individual markets and increase economic resilience.
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One of Europe’s largest military equipment producers, KNDS, rolled out long-awaited details of its initial public offering (IPO), aiming for a dual listing in Paris and Frankfurt in the coming weeks.
The IPO could value KNDS, the maker of Leopard and Leclerc tanks, at between €12bn and €15bn, according to the Financial Times, potentially making it one of Europe’s largest defence listings in recent years.
The listing comes at a time when European military budgets are surging, driven by the war in Ukraine and doubts over the reliability of the US as a security guarantor.
The company declined to comment on the precise date, but CEO Jean-Paul Alary told reporters the offering was expected within weeks.
According to Alary, the move comes as the continent enters what he called a new era of defence and security, with armed forces modernising rapidly and rebuilding the land-warfare capabilities run down during decades of lower spending.
According to Reuters, the firm has now formally launched the IPO process, which is expected to take place in mid-July.
The announcement comes days after Germany unveiled plans to acquire a 40% stake in KNDS, saying the move would secure long-term influence over a company it considers strategically important to European security and defence.
France, which currently owns 50% of KNDS, is expected to reduce its stake to 40%.
The remaining 20% of the company is set to be floated on the stock market, with France and Germany each retaining 40% stakes following the transaction.
According to the Financial Times, the shares are expected to be marketed primarily to institutional investors amid strong demand for European defence stocks.
Once the listing is completed, KNDS shares will begin trading on Euronext Paris and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, giving investors direct exposure to one of Europe’s largest land-defence manufacturers.
KNDS was created in 2015 through the merger of Germany’s Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and France’s Nexter.
The rapid emergence of the rival adds to the pressure on Rheinmetall, Europe’s largest ammunition maker and KNDS’s main competitor in subsectors such as land systems.
The Düsseldorf-based group, whose shares have shed roughly a quarter of their value this year, had itself reportedly hoped to buy into KNDS, only to be shut out by the governments’ intervention.
To make matters worse, Berlin announced it would scrap Rheinmetall’s multi-billion-euro F126 frigate programme, which would have been Germany’s largest warship order since the Second World War, in favour of smaller vessels from rival builder TKMS.
Rheinmetall, which had been poised to take over the project, fell 13% in early trading on Wednesday due to the news.
The squeeze also coincides with regulatory scrutiny at home.
Germany’s Monopolies Commission has warned that defence procurement is concentrated among a small number of suppliers, potentially weakening competition and driving up costs.
Calling for reforms to procurement rules, commission chairman Tomaso Duso said competition was “the fundamental pillar of Europe’s economic order” and should play a greater role in the defence sector.
A listed KNDS will give investors a direct yardstick against which to measure Rheinmetall’s order momentum and margins.
Additional sources • AFP
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The German government announced on Monday that it intends to acquire 40% of the defence contractor KNDS, a move designed to bolster European arms production in partnership with its NATO and EU ally France.
The decision deepens state involvement in a company whose hardware has become central to Europe’s rearmament efforts.
KNDS was created in 2015 through the merger of Germany’s Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and France’s Nexter. The French state holds a 50% stake, while the other half belongs to the German family behind Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, whose planned exit has opened the door for Berlin to step in.
Based in Amsterdam, the group reported revenue of €4.4 billion last year and employs more than 11,000 people.
The timing reflects a broader scramble across Europe to expand military spending and manufacturing capacity, as governments weigh the continued threat from Russia’s war in Ukraine against growing doubts about the reliability of the US as a security guarantor.
Berlin framed the investment in explicitly strategic terms, saying it would secure lasting influence over a business it considers vital to European security and defence.
The German government added that the stake would reinforce domestic industrial output, technological independence and the safeguarding of key national security interests and technologies.
In a joint statement, Germany and France said they had agreed on the future strategy and governance of KNDS, which they intend to co-own through arrangements aimed at giving both countries equal shareholdings.
Neither government specified a timeline or the final level at which their holdings would settle, but they stated the agreement opens the way for a possible flotation of KNDS in the near future.
According to people familiar with the matter cited by the Associated Press, the two states plan to trim their stakes to around 30% within two to three years of any listing, while retaining equal voting rights regardless of the size of each holding.
The two governments cast the deal as a joint commitment to building up Europe’s defence industry and armed forces, and to securing the continent’s strategic independence well into the future.
State participation in the firm was first floated by German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius in 2025 as a way to protect strategic expertise and jobs.
Beyond its tanks, KNDS also manufactures the Puma infantry fighting vehicle and the Boxer and Dingo armoured personnel carriers, equipment which is in growing demand as European armies replenish stocks depleted by years of underinvestment and donations to Ukraine’s defence.
Additional sources • AP
A veteran dealmaker takes the helm as large-cap M&A shows signs of a selective recovery.
JPMorgan Chase, the global leader in investment banking revenue, has named Anu Aiyengar global chair of Investment Banking and M&A, signaling a renewed emphasis on dealmaking as a pillar of its investment banking strategy.
As part of a broader divisional shift, the bank also named Dorothee Blessing, Kevin Foley, and Jared Kaye as co-heads of Global Investment Banking, while Charles Bouckaert succeeds Aiyengar as global head of M&A.
The changes come as deal activity shows signs of recovery after nearly two years of sluggish momentum. Dealogic estimates that global deal announcements reached nearly $2 trillion by May 11. That’s a 33% increase from the same period last year.
Still, observers note that the current cycle is far from a repeat of the free-flowing deal market of 2021. Higher financing costs have made boards more disciplined about price and timing, while closer regulatory scrutiny from antitrust watchdogs in both the U.S. and Europe has raised the financial and reputational cost of getting large transactions wrong.
“This has not been a full-spectrum, feel-good rally. It has been a highly selective one, skewed toward strategic, large-cap deals,” said Marc Cooper, CEO of Solomon Partners. “Deals valued at $5 billion and up accounted for more than half of all volumes. That distinction matters.”
Against this backdrop, Aiyengar’s appointment suggests JPMorgan sees senior dealmaking expertise as a defining advantage in the current market. The firm expects the dealmaking veteran to work closely with senior clients as boards decide whether to move forward with transactions or wait for better conditions.
Since joining JPMorgan in 1999, Aiyengar has advised on more than $1 trillion in transactions. She became sole head of the bank’s global M&A franchise in 2023, making her the only woman leading M&A at a major Wall Street house at the time.
Her move also carries symbolic weight in an industry where senior dealmaking roles remain dominated by men. In 2025, Business Insider named her the top U.S. M&A banker on its Rainmakers list, making her the first woman to hold the No. 1 position.
This article appears in the June 2026 issue of Global Finance Magazine.
The US-Iran memorandum of understanding expected to be formally signed in Switzerland on Friday could allow for the establishment of a $300bn investment fund for Iran, as part of a broader settlement to end the war that triggered a global energy crisis and upended markets worldwide.
US Vice President JD Vance told CBS News on Monday that the incentives would be connected to Iran’s “performance” in adhering to the deal, which was digitally signed by both sides on Sunday.
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The scale of the financial incentives grabbed the headlines due to US President Donald Trump’s longstanding criticism of a 2015 nuclear accord that he claimed delivered economic benefits to Tehran.
In a bid to manage perceptions around this politically sensitive issue, Trump took to his Truth Social platform to claim that “the story that the US is paying Iran 300 million Dollars is Fake News,” while Vance told CBS News that the money would not be a US payout in exchange for Iran’s enriched uranium.
“When people say that billions of dollars of assets will be released, that’s not true,” the vice president told the CBS Morning programme. “What is true is that Iran will have a much better and much more prosperous future if they meet the obligations they make in this agreement.”
Vance said the deal “fundamentally extends a hand to Iran and says, ‘Look, if you guys are willing to honour your obligations, if you’re willing to allow real inspections of your nuclear programme, then we will welcome you back into the world economy.’
“That’s the sort of thing they could have access to, funded by the Gulf Coast coalition, so long as they honour their end of the obligation,” Vance told CBS. He also claimed that while US money would not be injected, economic opportunities could arise once Iran repositions itself in the global economy.
The New York Times quoted sources saying the fund would not come from governments but be created for companies eager to invest in Iran.
Muhanad Seloom, a non-resident senior fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, said the setup was a no-lose solution for Washington. “If Iran reforms, the administration owns the peace; if it doesn’t, the US loses nothing and the Gulf carries the risk,” he told Al Jazeera.
Seloom said the idea of an investment fund was built precisely to escape the optics of releasing Iran’s frozen funds. While the exact amount of Iran’s frozen assets is unclear, official Iranian reports and experts have set the total amount at more than $100bn.
Iran’s economy has been crippled due to years of sanctions imposed on the country by the United States and other nations following the Islamic revolution in 1979, and then amplified over Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missiles programmes. These measures have restricted Tehran’s ability to access its own assets, such as revenues from oil sales, which have been frozen in foreign banks.
Tehran was granted sanctions relief in the wake of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal signed under President Barack Obama, but Trump tore it up in 2018 during his first term. The 2015 deal had put limits on Iran’s nuclear enrichment in exchange for sanctions relief.
Iran’s state-affiliated Mehr News agency reported on Sunday that the 14-point draft memorandum of understanding provided for the release of $24bn in frozen Iranian assets.
Pressed by CBS News on the possibility of releasing frozen funds, Vance said the $24bn figure “just doesn’t appear anywhere in any of the texts that we’ve talked about with the Iranians”.
“What we have said is that we’re willing to talk about unfreezing assets, but a much, much bigger deal is unsanctioning their economy – so long as they make the long-term commitments on the nuclear programme,” the vice president added.
For Iran, where the war inflicted an estimated $29bn damage and the population is struggling with the highest inflation rate since 1942, the investment fund may constitute a much-needed lifeline.
But the optics will not be as favourable, raising a “dignity problem”, Seloom said. “Tehran reads this as supervised, conditional money rather than sovereign relief,” the analyst told Al Jazeera.
One of the US’s main declared objectives has been to assuage concerns surrounding Iran’s nuclear programme, including a stockpile of more than 440kg (970lbs) of enriched uranium.
The memorandum extends an existing ceasefire arrangement for another 60 days, during which the two sides are expected to hold further negotiations on issues including the disposal of the enriched uranium.
Vance said Tehran had agreed to surrender its stockpile, undergo regular inspections and refrain from producing or buying nuclear weapons, but the full text of the memorandum of understanding has yet to be disclosed.
The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, which has been subject to competing blockades by the US and Iran, has also been a point of contention. Trump suggested an agreement to reopen the waterway had been reached when he announced a deal on Sunday with the words: “Let the oil flow!”
Speaking to CNBC, however, Vance acknowledged that not all sticking points surrounding the passageway had been resolved. “Well, our expectation is that the strait is gonna be opened in a toll-free way for the long term, and that’s the sort of thing that we’re gonna figure out in these technical negotiations,” he said.
Israel’s ongoing aggression on Lebanon is also expected to create friction, as Iran has insisted any ceasefire deal must include the allied nation. Israel has so far rejected any arrangement that would limit its ability to strike what it says are Hezbollah targets. Defence Minister Israel Katz on Friday said the military would continue operating in Lebanon regardless of any agreement with Tehran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the memorandum of understanding would reap economic benefits for Iran but stressed that Tehran would not rely on those benefits for all of its needs.
“We have a history of broken promises, non-compliance, and the tearing up of agreements,” Araghchi said on Monday, according to Press TV. He said discussions about the lifting of US sanctions and Iran’s nuclear programme would be held during a 60-day period of negotiations following the official signature on Friday.
Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has yet to comment. Some Iranian observers objected to the timing of the announcement, which coincided with Trump’s birthday. Referring to the assassination of former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the beginning of the US-Iran war, conservative journalist Parisa Nasr wrote on X: “Was giving a birthday gift to the killer of the martyred Leader also one of the unwritten conditions of the deal?”
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran’s Supreme National Security Council had approved the deal so that “America’s genuine commitment to respecting the rights of the Iranian nation could be tested in practice.”
Speaking at the G7 summit in France on Tuesday, Trump described the deal with Iran as “fair”, “good”, and under which Iran “can’t have a nuclear weapon” or “they get blown up.”
Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who is also attending the summit, said the Iran-US agreement will result in positive outcomes for the region.
“This is a very important deal, there’s still a lot of work to be done, but with this momentum – if we continue like that, Mr President – I think we can achieve and do great things in the region,” Sheikh Tamim said.
US Democratic lawmakers welcomed a deal to halt the war with Iran but stressed that its terms must be made public. Senator Gregory Meeks said “any final agreement must be durable, enforceable, transparent” and more than “vague announcements or political spin”.
US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham on Sunday said he was “pleased” about the deal but also “somewhat concerned that Iran’s view of the agreement seems different than what the American negotiating team is claiming”.
Seloom, at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, said the different narratives underlined that the two sides were “not really talking to each other”. “They’re talking past each other, to domestic audiences,” he said. “Each side has to sell this as a victory it cannot sell honestly.”
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The world’s most valuable company, the chipmaker Nvidia, priced a $25 billion (€21.5bn) bond offering on Monday, marking its first issuance since 2021 and one of the largest by a technology company this year.
The deal was originally pencilled in at around $20 billion (€17.2bn) but was enlarged after demand ran more than three times the size of the bond, according to a person familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg.
Investor appetite was the headline of the sale.
Orders reached as high as $85 billion (€73.2bn), allowing Nvidia to upsize the transaction and tighten its borrowing costs in the process.
The timing was also favourable.
The announcement of a US-Iran framework deal to end the conflict in the Middle East steadied credit markets, pushing investment-grade spreads to their narrowest levels since early February, before the Iran war began.
That backdrop helped Nvidia lock in relatively cheap long-term financing.
According to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Robert Schiffman, inexpensive long-dated debt lowers Nvidia’s weighted average cost of capital and helps bankroll its AI investments without threatening its AA credit rating.
A company spokesperson stated that the proceeds would be used for general corporate purposes, including repaying and refinancing existing notes.
Nvidia last tapped the investment-grade market in June 2021, when it sold $5 billion (€4.3bn) of notes across four maturities, according to a regulatory filing.
The contrast in scale underscores how quickly its financing needs have grown alongside the data centre build-out and increased demand from hyperscalers.
Nvidia joins a queue of technology giants raising vast sums to fund AI infrastructure.
Meta and Oracle have each issued $25 billion (€21.5bn) in bonds this year, while Amazon completed a single $37 billion (€31.8bn) deal, the largest US investment-grade offering of this year before Nvidia’s issuance on Monday.
For Nvidia, the raise also keeps share dilution off the table, giving it greater flexibility as capital commitments mount. The firm has invested $5 billion (€4.3bn) in Intel, pledged up to $10 billion (€8.6bn) to Anthropic and contributed $30 billion (€25.8bn) to OpenAI’s latest funding round.
Nvidia shares closed up 3.5% at $212.45 after the deal, valuing the company at about $5.14 trillion (€4.42tn).
On the other hand, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, opted for equity instead, pricing an upsized $84.75 billion (€73bn) capital raise earlier this month, after originally seeking around $80 billion (€68.9bn), according to a company filing.
The transaction, which includes a $10 billion (€8.6bn) private placement from Berkshire Hathaway, ranks as the largest equity capital raise on record and is intended to fund the group’s AI compute expansion.
Management has guided 2026 capital expenditure to between $180 billion (€155.1bn) and $190 billion (€163.7bn).
However, the equity move came on top of an already heavy borrowing run. According to its own filing, Alphabet raised more than $85 billion (€73.2bn) of debt across six major currencies and markets in the first quarter of 2026, taking its total debt balance above $100 billion (€86.1bn).
That included a US dollar bond round early in the year, leaving Google relying on both debt and equity financing to bankroll its AI ambitions.
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The moment that Wall Street had anticipated all year arrived on Friday as SpaceX, the AI and aerospace company controlled by Elon Musk, began trading publicly on the Nasdaq in the largest initial public offering (IPO) in the history of financial markets.
In a speech before the New York session opened for trading, Musk stated that SpaceX’s goal is to “take the fiction out of science fiction.”
SPCX opened at $150, over 10% above its $135 IPO price, and it was already at more than $160 after the first few minutes of live trading.
The company confirmed on Thursday that it had priced 555.6 million Class A shares at $135 each, valuing the firm at roughly $1.78 trillion (€1.54trn) and targeting a raise of $75 billion (€64.5bn) that instantly eclipsed Saudi Aramco’s $29.4 billion (€25.4bn) listing, which had stood as the global record for almost seven years.
Only around 3% to 4% of SpaceX shares are currently available for public trading.
The company earmarked as much as 30% of its offering for retail investors, including 10% dedicated to European buyers, but the final amount was set at 20%. As for options contracts on SPCX, they are scheduled to begin trading next week.
The IPO has also brought Elon Musk closer to becoming the world’s first trillionaire.
Forbes valued his pre-IPO SpaceX stake, estimated at around 42% of the company, at about $500bn (€435bn). At the IPO valuation, those holdings are worth roughly $690bn (€600bn), adding nearly $190bn (€165bn) to his fortune and pushing his net worth closer to the $1tn (€870bn) milestone.
Along with Musk, thousands of SpaceX employees are benefitting from the IPO and becoming millionaires.
The listing will give millions of savers indirect exposure to SpaceX as the company is expected to qualify for major stock market indexes shortly after its debut, meaning its shares could be automatically purchased by index-tracking funds.
SpaceX is estimated to be fast-tracked into the Nasdaq-100 in less than a month, as opposed to a typical wait of as much as a year.
Nasdaq’s new fast-entry rule, introduced in May, now sees it evaluating newly listed stocks for potential entry by ranking their market capitalisation on the seventh trading day and assessing whether they would rank within the top 40 index members.
SpaceX is already in the top 10.
Among other changes announced, the rule that requires companies to float a minimum of 10% of their shares was also scrapped.
Analysts estimate that funds tracking the Nasdaq-100 will be required to purchase at least $7bn (€6bn) worth of SpaceX shares around the inclusion date, creating a wave of mechanical demand.
SpaceX has also already become eligible for inclusion in both the Russell US Equity Indexes and the FTSE Global Equity Index Series under the newly announced fast-entry rules from the index provider FTSE Russell.
The S&P 500, however, will not adopt a similar fast-track approach.
S&P Dow Jones Indices confirmed in early June that it would maintain its 12-month seasoning requirement and GAAP profitability test, meaning SpaceX will not join the index before mid-2027.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
This article does not constitute financial advice, always do your own research and invest according to your specific circumstances.
WASHINGTON — The House Appropriations Committee has approved $875 million to fund public transportation for the 2028 Olympic Games, a positive sign for LA28 after the exclusion of Olympics transit funding from President Trump’s fiscal year 2027 budget request this spring.
The funding must be passed by Congress in a future spending bill — part of a lengthy 2027 budgeting process that is underway now — but its approval in committee last week is a crucial signal of investment from Washington after weeks of uncertainty.
“We are encouraged by the House Appropriations Committee’s action,” spokesperson Maya Pogoda of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority said in a statement, “and we look forward to continuing to work with the Senate and the White House to make America’s Games the best ever in history.”
LA Metro has sought $2 billion in federal funding for the planned transit service for the Games, which includes leasing buses, hiring drivers and building temporary depots. With the clock ticking to start projects that require significant lead time to be completed before the Games, the absence of any funding in Trump’s budget request in April had raised concerns among lawmakers and other stakeholders.
In recent weeks, the transit authority, the city and LA28 had publicly pressed for federal funding; LA28 Chief Executive Casey Wasserman reportedly met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill in April.
“The House Appropriations Committee’s most recent transportation bill is another positive signal of the continued bipartisan support in Congress to provide federal transit money for the Games,” LA28 spokesperson Jacie Prieto Lopez told The Times.
The inclusion of the funding in the bill conveyed bipartisan support for the Games, an event that Trump — who places an outsize importance on displays of patriotism — is likely to want to see go well during his tenure.
“This is on the American stage,” said former Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who was on the City Council during the 1984 Olympic Games. “The success of the Games are the success of the country.”
The Olympics item was included in the fiscal year 2027 transportation funding bill approved by the House Appropriations Committee last week. In its report, the committee noted that the funding is intended for all host cities, including those outside California.
“The 2028 games will put our nation on center stage, and this investment will help ensure that we are prepared to meet the moment and showcase why the United States is the best country in the world,” Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), who chairs the subcommittee that put forth the bill, said in a statement.
The Games in Los Angeles are expected to draw massive crowds and will be the first Summer Olympics held in the United States since Atlanta hosted in 1996. More than 4 million tickets were sold during LA28’s first ticket release; a second ticket drop is coming in August.
The massive event requires federal involvement not just on funding but also on issues including athlete visas and the import of Olympic horses.
LA Metro has planned to lease 1,700 buses from transit agencies across the country, build three temporary transit depots and create dedicated traffic lanes for athletes, officials and others as required by the International Olympic Committee. Metro estimates that 1 million additional trips per day will be taken during the 16-day Games.
It’s crucial for federal funding to come through in a timely manner, Yaroslavsky said, particularly given the scope of the security and transportation considerations for the sprawling Games.
“The city and the LA28 committee need to know that this money is going to be made available,” Yaroslavsky said. “This has to be in place long before the Games start.”
SpaceX is set for the largest stock market debut ever.
Elon Musk’s rocket company begins trading on the Nasdaq on Friday under the ticker SPCX. The company priced its shares at $135 each, raising $75 billion (€64.5bn) and valuing the business at $1.75 trillion (€1.5trn) in the biggest stock market flotation on record.
The deal would comfortably eclipse Saudi Aramco’s previous record of $29.4bn, set in 2019 and later increased through an overallotment option.
SpaceX made an unusually strong push to attract retail investors, including those in Europe. According to Bloomberg, individual investors placed roughly $100bn (€86.6bn) in orders through trading platforms including Robinhood, Fidelity and SoFi during the IPO process.
That demand alone exceeded the company’s $75bn (€64.5bn) fundraising target, underscoring the level of interest from smaller investors ahead of the stock market debut.
Yet beneath the hype, several warning lights are flashing. Here are five risks investors should weigh before the SpaceX IPO goes live.
At a valuation of $1.75tn (€1.5trn), investors would be valuing SpaceX at roughly 94 times its annual revenue, which was $18.7bn (€16.1bn) in 2025. By comparison, Nvidia — one of the market’s most highly valued technology companies — trades at less than a quarter of that level.
The investment research firm Morningstar, which values the company at $780bn (€675bn), called it “significantly overvalued” while Goldman Sachs data suggests sustaining the share price would require revenues above $100bn (€86.6bn) by 2030, implying a compound annual growth of more than 40%.
History offers a note of caution. Research by University of Florida professor Jay Ritter, often referred to as “Mr IPO”, found that while IPOs between 2012 and 2021 rose an average of 23.6% on their first day of trading, they returned just 10.6% over the following three years.
SpaceX’s expected inclusion in major stock indexes has become a point of controversy. Investment officials from four large US states have urged Nasdaq and FTSE Russell to explain recent rule changes that could accelerate the company’s entry into widely tracked benchmarks.
Critics argue the move could expose passive investors to a highly valued stock sooner than expected, while the index providers say the changes reflect broader market developments.
The debate matters because relatively few SpaceX shares will initially be available for trading. Although SpaceX is valued at $1.75tr (€1.5trn), only around 3% to 4% of its shares will initially be available for public trading.
That means the company’s market value will be determined by trading in a relatively small portion of its equity. Reports suggest more than 75% of the $75bn (€64.5bn) offering has already been allocated to existing investors and insiders, leaving fewer shares available on the open market.
According to Morningstar, the limited float and strong demand for artificial intelligence-related stocks could help support the share price in the early stages of trading, even if the company is valued above what the research firm considers fair value. The firm argues that a clearer picture of investor demand may emerge once lock-up restrictions expire and more shares become available for trading.
Some analysts, however, believe the limited float could continue to support the stock. Estimates suggest between $22 billion (€19bn) and $27 billion (€23.4bn) of passive investment could flow into SpaceX once it joins the Nasdaq 100, creating additional demand from index-tracking funds.
SpaceX’s financial results may also give investors pause.
The prospectus shows that the company is growing rapidly but still losing money.
The company owns the Starlink satellite internet service, which generates most of its revenue and is its only profitable business. It also owns the artificial intelligence company xAI, which merged with SpaceX in February.
According to the filing, SpaceX carried an accumulated deficit of $41.3bn (€35.76bn) as of 31 March and reported a net loss of $4.27bn (€3.7bn) in the first quarter of 2026.
This compares with $528mn (€457mn) in the same period a year earlier.
Much of the recent loss stems from xAI. According to SpaceX’s IPO filing, the AI business recorded an operating loss of about $6.4 billion (€5.5bn) in 2025. The filing also showed xAI spent heavily in the opening months of 2026 as it expanded its AI infrastructure.
Morningstar argues the AI unit “poses a material threat of value destruction”, noting that Grok has yet to win meaningful market share against rival chatbots.
Supporters counter that the losses are a choice, not a structural flaw.
Revenue climbed 33% to $18.7bn (€16.2bn) in 2025, up from $14.1 billion (€12.2bn) a year earlier. The underlying launch and satellite business was profitable as recently as 2024. The deficits largely reflect heavy investment in AI infrastructure, spending that supporters say is already beginning to be offset by new compute contracts.
Supporters argue investors are paying for future growth rather than current profits.
Starlink remains the company’s main source of revenue, while its artificial intelligence business is expected to play a larger role in the years ahead.
Bulls also point to SpaceX’s dominant position in rocket launches and satellite communications, arguing the company is uniquely placed to benefit from growing demand for connectivity, computing power and AI infrastructure.
SpaceX conducts more rocket launches annually than the rest of the world combined and counts over nine million Starlink subscribers, but its newest growth driver is the AI data-centre business acquired through the xAI merger.
Last Friday, Google agreed to pay SpaceX $920 million (€796.6mn) per month for compute capacity at xAI data centres, in a 32-month deal running from October 2026 through June 2029, and covering access to roughly 110,000 Nvidia GPUs.
That followed a May agreement under which Anthropic pays $1.25 billion (€1.08bn) a month to rent the entire output of the Colossus 1 data centre until May 2029, putting combined annualised compute revenue at around $26 billion (€22.5bn).
Bulls argue this contracted income, won in under four months, shows how quickly the company can monetise its infrastructure. Sceptics note that both contracts carry 90-day termination clauses after December 2026, and that Google itself has framed the arrangement as “bridge capacity” rather than a permanent commitment.
SpaceX’s success is closely tied to Elon Musk, whose profile and track record have helped attract investors, customers and business partners. That creates what investors call “key-person risk” — concerns about how the company would fare if he were no longer leading it.
The company’s governance structure reinforces that dependence. Musk’s super-voting Class B shares give him around 85% of voting power, leaving outside shareholders with little influence over major corporate decisions. In practice, that means no one but Musk himself can determine whether he remains chief executive.
Critics also point to SpaceX’s incorporation in Texas, where only investors holding at least 3% of shares can bring derivative lawsuits. The Danish academic pension fund AkademikerPension has blacklisted the stock, describing the governance structure as “catastrophic”.
Supporters argue that dual-class share structures are common among US technology firms, including Meta and Alphabet. They say concentrated voting control allows founders to pursue long-term goals without pressure from short-term investors.
Musk’s prominence also brings political risk. US Senator Elizabeth Warren has urged the Securities and Exchange Commission to scrutinise the listing, warning that future index inclusion could expose millions of passive investors to the stock without them actively choosing it.
Others note that the SEC completed its review faster than expected, allowing the IPO process to move ahead without delay and suggesting regulators see no immediate obstacle to the listing.
Disclaimer: This information does not constitute financial advice, always do your own research on top to ensure it’s right for your specific circumstances. Also remember, we are a journalistic website and aim to provide the best guides, tips and advice from experts. If you rely on the information here, then you do so entirely at your own risk.
SpaceX’s long-anticipated IPO is hours away from reshaping the fortunes of thousands of employees.
The listing, set for this Friday, is expected to mint millionaires not only among senior engineers and executives, but also among blue-collar workers, including cooks and welders, who received equity as part of their compensation packages.
The windfall is heavily concentrated around Brownsville, Texas, one of the poorest cities in the US, where SpaceX employs more than 3,000 people at its Starbase facility.
What makes this IPO unusual, even by Silicon Valley standards, is how far down the organisational chart the equity grants appear to have reached.
Some estimates cited by media reports put the total number of newly minted millionaires across the entire company at around 4,000. However, the figures could not be independently verified.
Michael Limas, a financial planner based in Brownsville, told Bloomberg that several of the company’s non-technical workers received stock options as part of their pay.
“SpaceX has been very friendly with options at various levels, from top to bottom. It’s something that’s unique to this area,” Limas stated.
One example cited by the investment research platform Moby illustrates the scale rather starkly. A welder’s initial equity grant of $10,000 (€8,650) is now reportedly valued at close to $880,000 (€762,000) ahead of the listing.
These individual figures reflect a broader picture of generous equity compensation that has been reported consistently across multiple outlets.
The IPO itself features a staggered lockup structure rather than the standard 180-day cliff that most companies employ.
According to the prospectus, it includes multiple early release windows, among them a performance-linked mechanism that would activate if the stock trades 30% above its IPO price on five out of ten consecutive trading days. That would allow some employees to access their new wealth within weeks of the debut.
SpaceX’s impact on the region has already been striking, and the financial gains generated by the IPO are likely to amplify it.
Brownsville has long ranked among the most economically deprived cities in the US, with a median family income roughly a third below the national average, according to government data.
SpaceX arrived about a decade ago, establishing its Starbase launch facility on the Gulf of Mexico shore around 40 kilometres from the city centre.
The transformation since then has reportedly been marked by an influx of professionals from California and elsewhere. Rising housing costs have followed, as they often do when wealth becomes concentrated in a particular area.
According to several realtors and economists, the median housing prices in the broader Brownsville-Harlingen metro area have risen roughly 25% since 2020, from around $185,000 (€160,000) to $233,000 (€201,000).
Long-time residents, many of them on modest incomes, are feeling the pressure.
For many employees, the transition from holding shares they could not easily sell to having access to cash brings its own complications.
According to Bloomberg, wealth managers in the region describe a climate of considerable anxiety among staff, given the sense that this may be their single opportunity to build generational wealth and that getting the timing and tax planning wrong could be costly.
More than 100 SpaceX employees in the region reportedly pooled together to negotiate wealth-management terms collectively with the advisory firm Choreo, a move that helped them secure lower management fees by bringing between $1 billion (€865mn) and $5 billion (€4.33bn) in potential assets to the table.
Brownsville’s mayor, John Cowen, a sixth-generation resident of the area, has sought to frame the transformation in positive terms, arguing to US media that it is great for the city to be known as a place for investment.
Beyond SpaceX itself, other industrial projects have followed in the company’s wake, including building a liquefied natural gas export terminal near the Port of Brownsville.
Back in March, US President Donald Trump also announced the construction of a $300 billion (€260bn) oil refinery at the port, which could reportedly bring 500 full-time jobs.
Whether the IPO ultimately delivers on its promise, and how equitably its benefits filter through a city that has known far more hardship than prosperity, remains to be seen.
Delcy Rodríguez was hosted by Narendra Modi in New Delhi. (EFE)
Mérida, June 8, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez concluded a four-day high-profile diplomatic tour of India on Sunday, having held meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indian cabinet members, and major business conglomerates.
Rodríguez, who assumed the acting presidency after the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro in a US military operation on January 3, led a large ministerial delegation including the foreign affairs, science, and transport ministers. The visit was Rodríguez’s sixth trip to India.
Caracas’ main stated goal was to deepen long-term energy ties with the Asian giant and expand crude exports. The Trump administration has publicly backed India to increase purchases of Venezuelan crude as part of efforts to move its Asian partner away from Russian energy imports.
One of Rodríguez’s first meetings was with Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, who stated that Indian companies are looking to “build upon” existing investments in the Caribbean nation.
“Indian companies are additionally looking for newer opportunities for fruitful collaborations which will provide momentum to our quest towards energy security,” Singh Puri wrote on social media.
For her part, Venezuela’s acting president described India as a “reliable partner” and invited Indian corporations to explore new investment opportunities in the country’s energy sector. Rodríguez highlighted the “energy complementarities” between the two nations.
Venezuela’s oil exports reached 1.25 million barrels per day (bpd) in May, with India reportedly receiving 427,000 bpd, making it the second-largest destination after the US. In recent years, under wide-reaching US sanctions, Venezuela had repeatedly sought to increase exports to India, only to see efforts blocked by US threats of secondary sanctions.
The meeting with Singh Puri likewise featured executives from several Indian public energy companies, including ONGC, Indian Oil Corporation (IOLC), Oil India, and ONGC Videsh (OVL). The companies own multiple minority stakes in the San Cristóbal and Petrocarabobo heavy crude projects in the Orinoco Oil Belt.
Indian authorities stressed addressing an outstanding US $500 million debt in unpaid dividends to ONGC Videsh as a priority before new investments are to be considered.
Rodríguez went on to tour the Jamnagar refinery complex, owned by Reliance Industries, in Gujarat state. The refinery is the world’s largest, with a daily capacity to process 1.4 million bpd. In recent months, Reliance has emerged as a top buyer of Venezuelan crude, purchasing cargoes directly from state-owned PDVSA as well as from traders Vitol and Trafigura.
The Venezuelan delegation held further meetings with top Indian business conglomerates. On June 6, it toured Tata Group facilities in Mumbai. According to Venezuela’s embassy in India, the discussions centered on renewable energy, ecological projects, and urban transport. Venezuelan Transport Minister Jacqueline Faría highlighted Tata’s cutting-edge electric public transportation vehicles.
Rodríguez’s agenda also included talks with Indian dairy giant Amul. Venezuelan state media emphasized interest in Amul’s massive production of buffalo milk. Venezuela currently holds the largest buffalo herd in South America and officials have touted buffalo dairy as a priority export venture.
Likewise in Mumbai, the Venezuelan officials visited multinational conglomerate Essar, with discussions reportedly focusing on infrastructure and electricity. Venezuela’s National Assembly is presently advancing legislation to open electricity, from generation to distribution, to private sector investment and participation.
Rodríguez’s visit featured a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. In a social media message, Modi praised Venezuela as a “valued partner” and disclosed that discussions had centered on “expanding cooperation in energy, critical minerals, technology, agriculture, health, and people-to-people ties.”
The Venezuelan delegation was also hosted by External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, who praised Rodríguez’s “longstanding commitment” to deepening Venezuela-India ties.
In a press briefing, Rudrendran Tandon, Secretary (East) in the Ministry of External Affairs, emphasized discussions on pharmaceutical cooperation and increasing supplies of low-cost generic drugs for Venezuela’s public healthcare system. Tandon also brought up a $700-800 million debt to Indian pharmaceutical manufacturers but said the Venezuelan side was “very sensitive” to the issue.
While no formal agreements were announced, Venezuela’s acting president offered a positive balance of a visit that “consolidated the friendship and cooperation between the two nations.” She went on to thank Modi for the hospitality.
Rodríguez’s last day in India included a visit to the Prasanthi Nilayam ashram in Andhra Pradesh, a spiritual center founded by Indian religious guru Sathya Sai Baba (1926-2011). In a social media message, Rodríguez expressed her “deep belief” in Sai Baba’s “love all, serve all” motto.
The Venezuelan leader’s tour featured a stop in Istanbul on Tuesday before the return to Caracas. Rodríguez met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to discuss bilateral trade and diplomacy between Venezuela and Türkiye.
Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.
Laurie Pinto works on some of the biggest deals across the sports landscape, and the investor strategies he encounters are game-changing.
With the 2026 World Cup around the corner, the sports finance sector is heating up — and few advisers are at the center of more high-stakes talks than Laurie Pinto.
From cross-border M&A and private equity-style ownership structures to discreet football club deals, Pinto has spent decades navigating the intersection of finance and sport.
Through his eponymous firm, Pinto Capital LLP, he has advised everyone from Premier League clubs to emerging teams seeking new capital and international growth opportunities.
Pinto took part in this month’s Global Salon series, where he discussed the surging influence of American investors in European football and why sports franchises are increasingly viewed as scalable global assets.
He also weighs in on the future of cricket, the limits of SPAC-driven sports deals, and how geopolitical instability — from capital scrutiny to regional conflict — is reshaping the economics of today’s athletic events.
Global Finance: Set the stage for us. We’re just weeks away from the World Cup, and the atmosphere feels volatile. Fans are frustrated by skyrocketing ticket prices and logistical hurdles, and U.S. Soccer’s sporting director recently resigned. Is this one of the more chaotic build-ups you’ve seen in modern sports finance?
Laurie Pinto: It’s fast-moving, and tickets are incredibly expensive—the cheapest for the final is $5,000. Are things chaotic? Yes, fans are coming from 42 countries with vastly different expectations. Big football events always face skepticism. Qatar’s alcohol and LGBTQ restrictions sparked fears, but the tournament ran smoothly. Russia and Germany had logistical challenges, too. So I see this as part of the normal practice from naysayers. What’s different here is scale for the U.S.: This is a pivotal moment for soccer, especially for kids. Prices for tickets, flights, and hotels are eye-wateringly high, but that’s normal for major events.
GF: Has “Welcome to Wrexham” changed investor behavior?
Pinto: Ryan Reynolds has had a huge impact on English football, but American investors were already noticing the documentary “Sunderland ’Til I Die,” which drew 66 million viewers and I think was the second most-watched sports documentary on Netflix, after “The Last Dance” [about Michael Jordan and the Bulls]. That opened the eyes of American investors to the fact that these clubs have 100 years of history, amazingly sticky fan bases, great pedigree, and are affordable. If you want to buy into an American sport, name any franchise you can buy for under $8 billion. It’s hard, and there aren’t that many people who can stroke checks for $8 billion.
Americans also understand marketing and the creator economy. They say, “We can help manage these businesses better, both on the pitch and off the pitch.” American sports are an asset class and are incredibly professionally managed compared to the UK and Europe. And if you can transplant some of that expertise, you can take some of these loss-making clubs and make them profitable, and then the valuation goes up dramatically.
GF: With your cross-border experience, how do geopolitical factors like regulation and capital controls affect sports deals?
Pinto: What they do is, there’s an immense amount of KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering). It’s not just a matter of “who is the buyer?” It’s more about “what is your source of funds?” and “who is the ultimate beneficial owner or UBO?” You see deals for clubs where their GP/LP structures are like private equity, and the LPs are the ultimate beneficial owners.
Private equity guys structure their investments that way, and they take a carry on the performance. They help manage the investment. And that’s a very commonplace thing in American sport and is becoming increasingly common in the UK and Europe. There’s no capital control, but there is a deep sense to make sure there isn’t money laundering going on. And can the people really afford it? And is it really their money? Because if people don’t disclose where their money comes from, generally, it’s not for a good reason.
GF: Have you seen a major shift in how clubs are valued in recent years? Is there a pre- and post-Ryan Reynolds era?
Pinto: About 10 years ago, there was no valuation methodology. Now, clubs are valued at multiples of revenue, even if they are loss-making. Intangible assets are better monetized through apps, second-screen connectivity, surge pricing, AI—more personalized user experiences, scalable and multilingual, enhancing valuation.
The lifetime value (LTV) of a fan is important. Consulting groups estimate £100–£2,000 per fan. Manchester United has a billion fans, worth roughly $10 billion. At smaller clubs, the value of a fan is even higher; in Sunderland, stadiums are always full, rain or shine. Loyalty is much higher, affecting valuation metrics. Swansea City AFC, pre-Luka Modric and Snoop Dog, had 500,000 fans; now they claim connections to over 100 million.
GF: Do you expect U.S. entities buying into top UK divisions to change the product, and if so, how?
Pinto: It’s already changing. The off-pitch professionalism is increasing—how clubs monetize non-match days, preseason tours, overseas fans, etc. Americanization brings deeper expertise. Big clubs benefit, and even smaller clubs in League One or League Two can become profitable quickly. Private equity investing in sport isn’t an issue; U.S. investors are comfortable with leverage, more so than Europeans.
GF: In recent years, we’ve seen several sports teams list on stock exchanges, often with mixed results and significant volatility. At the same time, SPACs emerged in the U.S. with ambitions to buy football clubs, including lower-tier European teams. What’s your take?
Pinto: A SPAC will pursue any deal that makes economic sense for its sponsors, but it’s very difficult for a SPAC to buy a UK or European soccer club because it takes so long for them to get to the vote, and the vote might not even happen, and the soccer club will give away all the optionality. John Textor’s Eagle Football would’ve been the best SPAC, with holdings including Lyon, Botafogo and Crystal Palace. They looked at it with James Dinan of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks and York Capital, but that didn’t get over the line. SPACs just take so long to get done.
GF: What new sports investing trends are you noticing?
Pinto: What we are starting to see are new platforms that try to create exposure without traditional ownership. Some firms are building instruments that resemble CFDs or synthetic shares in clubs, and I’ve been working with a platform called Vestible, which is exploring sports investment access in a different way.
The idea is to give investors economic exposure to performance without requiring full ownership obligations—things like governance, operational responsibilities, or capital calls. There’s also growing interest in fractional ownership and tokenized models, often linked to fan engagement or loyalty programs. These concepts are interesting, and they have a place, but they haven’t yet broken into mainstream investor behavior.
GF: Cricket is hugely popular in countries like India but hasn’t really taken off here. Given its unique global footprint, how easy is it for a sport like that to expand in the U.S.?
Pinto: I am super positive on cricket, which is the second-biggest sport on Earth. It’s the fastest-growing women’s sport on Earth. It’s also the most in-game bet on sport on Earth. When they had the World Cup in New York in 2024, I believe it was a big success. Winning a game meant it went from the back pages to the front page of the Wall Street Journal. Suddenly, one’s looking at the economics of cricket. We’ve been very active in cricket. It has largely been an Indian subcontinent game, but it’s exciting, it’s fun, and I see cricket growing in the States.
Major League cricket has few full storms, but I think it’s coming. San Francisco Unicorns, the guys you want to watch in terms of how to get it right, but you’re seeing a lot of money going into cricket right now from NFL owners. Two of the richest guys in America tried, but failed, to buy into Indian cricket less than a month ago—the Walton family and the Ford family, the owners of the Denver Broncos and Detroit Lions. The Glazers, who own Tampa Bay, have been buying into cricket, and I can assure you other owners have been talking to us about it, too.
GF: Do you know why?
Pinto: Because they see exactly the same demographics you see in the NFL. It’s a very big domestic fan base, with very few games. But each game is a huge occasion, with massive television deals and a huge moat around it, which means it can’t get challenged. Go to any park in New York on a weekend, and you will see people playing some version of either 20/20 or over 50. The challenge is for a game to really catch on; it needs to start with the kids, and this is why the NBA is so successful: you don’t need any equipment to play basketball. You just need a ball. And you can play it at any level and still enjoy it. Culturally, at the moment, cricket is nowhere near that in America.
GF: We have a lot of basketball talent here, with college programs, NIL deals, and players going overseas. When will European basketball reach the same competitive level as the NBA—or U.S. soccer could match European clubs in popularity?
Pinto: Will NBA Europe be successful? They just finished the first round of franchise bidding, but it’s been slow. Timing was terrible—the war in Iran disrupted three of the major bidders, all Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds. It’s hard to spend aggressively overseas when people back home are in bomb shelters. Give me the war’s end date, and I’ll tell you when that money comes back.
That said, European basketball is bigger than many realize. Many European players are thriving in the NBA. I went to the Paris Games last year—amazing, electric atmosphere. There are lots of talented French and Australian players making an impact. Do I think Europe will ever match the NBA in scale? No. Soccer dominates there. NBA Europe is growing, but it still has a long way to go.
Though ROI is relatively low for finance organizations, many have cracked the code for higher returns.
A recent Bain & Company survey reveals that less than half (48%) of senior financial executives have seen improvements in speed and cycle time since investing in artificial intelligence (AI) within their treasury organizations, and around a third (34%) have seen headcount efficiencies and cost reductions.
Over the past 12 months, most enterprises have discussed AI use cases in corporate treasuries for accounts receivable, treasury, and accounts payable, and have experimented extensively with AI. “They have approached it more from the concept ‘Here’s an intelligence, let’s see how we can incorporate it into our business,’” said Rami Chahine, Chief Product and Technology Officer, at treasury-automation vendor Serrala.
“This is making the office of CFO more of an AI lab than anything,” he continued. “We are not seeing real adoption of active use cases deployed within our customer base. We see a lot of our enterprise customers bringing technology or spending, in some cases, a lot of money on technology, but haven’t really turned on agentic AI to truly realize their return-on-investment in terms of speed of delivery and the speed of work.”
According to the Bain study authors, that is a common situation within finance departments. Of the survey respondents, roughly 12% of finance organizations have deployed machine learning into financial planning and analysis (FP&A) forecasting in production.
“Yet in many cases, the underlying process hasn’t changed,” wrote the authors. “Finance teams run AI-generated forecasts alongside existing bottom-up planning cycles: two processes running in parallel, neither fully trusted.”
As a result, these finance organizations do not realize the expected benefits of faster cycle times, fewer people-hours, or greater accuracy.
According to the authors, it isn’t a technology problem. “It’s what happens when AI is layered on top of existing ways of working rather than providing the impetus to change them. If this workflow debt isn’t addressed, AI and automation can multiply complexity instead of productivity,” they wrote.
Other issues that act as headwinds to AI investment include concerns about trust, data sovereignty, and the ability of firms to audit AI’s data usage.
AIs are built to learn, but CFOs are concerned that only their instance of the AI is using their proprietary data to answer only their questions, rather than teaching other AI instances to answer someone else’s questions, said Chahine.
“Everyone believes in the capability,” he said. “Everyone understands the power of agentic AI and its ability to take over some of these manual tasks in the process of financial automation and treasury. But the biggest concern that will make a true impact on adoption is whether we can trust it.”
Despite these issues, CFOs remain bullish about AI investment in their organizations.
More than half (56%) of the surveyed CFOs are increasing AI investment by more than 15% this year. That figure rises to 83% when the window is extended to two years, with 42% of respondents expecting to increase AI spending to above 30% over the same period.
Lupa Systems, the media and tech holding company owned by James Murdoch, is set to acquire nearly half of Vox Media.
As part of the deal, Murdoch’s company will own Vox Media’s podcast network, Vox.com and New York Magazine, once an asset of his father, industry giant Rupert Murdoch. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the price tag was reportedly over $300 million, the New York Times reported citing people familiar with the deal. The goal of the investment is to bring “influential journalists, top-rated podcasts, and digital brands with large social footprints” to Lupa and help grow its media portfolio, the company announced Wednesday.
“This acquisition aligns well with our existing holdings and investments and reflects both our interest in the forward edge of culture and our deep commitment to ambitious journalism and agenda-setting conversations,” Murdoch said in a statement.
The three new assets will function as a subsidiary of Lupa Systems and will keep the name Vox Media. The deal includes New York Magazine’s popular verticals like The Cut, Vulture and Intelligencer, as well as Vox’s most successful podcasts like “Today, Explained” and “Pivot with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway.” Jim Bankoff, Vox Media’s current CEO, will continue to lead the company.
The other Vox Media properties, which Murdoch did not purchase, include websites like Eater, The Dodo and The Verge. These platforms will be run under an unnamed new company by the current president of Vox Media, Ryan Pauley.
This investment strengthens Lupa Systems’ position in the evolving media landscape. The business has other holdings including the parent company of Tribeca Film Festival, the owner of Art Basel, Robert DeNiro and Jane Rosenthal’s entertainment company Tribeca Enterprises, and Bodhi Tree Systems, an investment platform behind a popular Indian streaming service.
This is one of the largest deals Murdoch has closed since he and his family resolved a $3.3-billion dispute last year. The conflict centered on the future of the family’s media empire, which includes Fox News, The New York Post and The Wall Street Journal. In the settlement, James Murdoch received roughly $1 billion and his elder brother, Lachlan, assumed power over the family’s assets.
Before the legal blowout, Murdoch previously served as the chief executive of major global media companies like 21st Century Fox and Europe’s Sky Group.
The billionaire told the New York Times that, with this new acquisition, he didn’t want a “daily news business.” He wanted “longer-form, thoughtful journalism that can really speak to the culture.”
The acting Rodríguez administration received a World Bank delegation and will hold talks with the IMF later this month. (Presidential Press)
Caracas, May 19, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez held a meeting with a World Bank delegation at Miraflores Palace on Friday.
In a statement, Caracas described the summit as “cordial and constructive,” with both parties “exploring possible collaboration in matters of technical assistance.”
“The Venezuelan government and the World Bank agreed on the need to deepen dialogue and agreed to work together to establish concrete areas for technical collaboration for the benefit of the Venezuelan people,” the communiqué read.
Rodríguez was flanked by Economy Vice President Calixto Ortega and Finance Minister Anabel Pereira. The World Bank delegation was led by Susana Cordeiro Guerra, the US-based organization’s vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Rodríguez administration recently reestablished ties with both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund following a seven-year hiatus due to Washington’s non-recognition of Venezuelan authorities. However, relations with the two institutions had been frozen several years prior. Former President Hugo Chávez disengaged Venezuela from the multilateral bodies in 2007, calling them “weapons of US imperialism,” though the country remained a formal member.
Since the January 3 US attacks and kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro, Caracas has fast-tracked diplomatic rapprochement with the Trump administration, which recognized Rodríguez as Venezuela’s “sole leader” in March. The Venezuelan government has launched a series of pro-business reforms and struck agreements with Western energy and mining corporations.
On May 13, Venezuela’s acting president announced the launch of a debt restructuring process as part of efforts to return the Caribbean nation to global financial markets. Venezuelan authorities plan to present a macroeconomic framework and debt sustainability analysis to stakeholders next month.
Venezuela’s foreign debt is estimated as high as US $170 billion, from a combination of defaulted bonds and loans with accrued interest, as well as international arbitration awards. US financial sanctions from 2017 severely exacerbated Venezuela’s economic crisis and blocked the country from fulfilling its debt obligations.
The acting Rodríguez administration has vowed that the country’s priority is to access $5 billion in IMF Special Drawing Rights and that there are “no plans” to contract IMF loans. Venezuela’s Central Bank President Luis Pérez recently announced that a delegation will head to Washington to meet with IMF officials by the end of May.
Caracas’ opening to Western conglomerates has seen multiple Trump officials visit the country alongside business executives to discuss investment opportunities.
Erebor Bank, backed by far-right tech mogul and close Trump ally Peter Thiel, has reportedly pitched its services to Venezuelan officials to restore the country’s access to the US financial system. According to Bloomberg, Erebor co-founder Jacob Hirshman has made several trips to Caracas in recent weeks and met with Central Bank authorities and private bank executives.
Hirshman reportedly told Venezuelan authorities that he counts on US government support. For its part, Erebor confirmed that it held “preliminary conversations about correspondent banking and related financial services” with Venezuelan counterparts.
Erebor is a digital-only bank registered in Ohio that received its US banking charter in February.
The lure of lucrative investment prospects has also attracted smaller players such as Yorkville Advisors, a New Jersey-based financial firm with ties to Trump’s family, which plans to raise $200 million for acquiring assets in Venezuela.
The company created a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) and stated that businesses in Venezuela will require “substantial capital investment […] to capitalize on improving macroeconomic conditions.”
In April, Acting President Rodríguez installed a commission to evaluate the “strategic” value of Venezuelan state assets and their possible privatization. Venezuelan private sector companies have begun raising funds ahead of potential sell-offs.
Caracas’ pro-business overtures have also caught the eye of US billionaire investor Fred Ehrsam. The co-founder of crypto exchange Coinbase has likewise made multiple visits to Venezuela in recent weeks to explore “investments ranging from oil and gas to fintech and digital payments,” according to Bloomberg.
Ehrsam held discussions with Venezuelan government officials and reportedly argued that the present moment was ripe for investment as Venezuelan assets remained “deeply undervalued.”
Edited by Lucas Koerner in Caracas.
Choi Joo-seon, chief of Samsung SDI Co., South Korea’s second-biggest battery maker, speaks to reporters before he attends InterBattery 2025, the country’s premier battery industry exhibition, at the COEX exhibition center in Seoul, South Korea. File. Photo by YONHAP / EPA
May 17 (Asia Today) — Samsung SDI invested more than 1 trillion won in facilities and research during the first quarter despite a slowdown in the global electric vehicle battery market.
The company spent 1.0243 trillion won ($733 million) on capital expenditures and research and development in the January-March period, according to its first-quarter report.
That was down from 1.1314 trillion won ($809 million) a year earlier, reflecting tighter spending controls amid weak battery demand.
Samsung SDI reported an operating loss of 155.6 billion won ($111 million) in the first quarter, though it reduced the deficit by 64%.
Research and development spending rose sharply to 434.8 billion won ($311 million), up 21.8% from 357 billion won ($255 million) a year earlier. R&D accounted for 12.2% of revenue.
Capital expenditures fell to 589.4 billion won ($421 million), down 23.9% from 774.4 billion won ($554 million) in the same period last year.
Battery industry analysts say Samsung SDI appears to be shifting its strategy from aggressive capacity expansion toward advanced technology development, including solid-state batteries and 46-millimeter cylindrical cells.
The book value of Samsung SDI’s assets under construction stood at 7.5205 trillion won ($5.38 billion) at the end of the first quarter, up about 330 billion won ($236 million) from the end of last year.
Samsung SDI is pursuing major overseas projects including a joint battery plant with General Motors in Indiana and a second joint plant with Stellantis.
A battery industry official said aggressive facility expansion during a downturn could increase fixed-cost pressure.
“Samsung SDI appears to be adjusting the speed of investment while focusing on high-value products and supply chain stability,” the official said.
— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI
© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.
Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260517010004588
Harare, Zimbabwe – Zimbabwe’s real estate and farming sectors are seeing a surge in diaspora-driven investment, with two young content creators quietly emerging as unexpected influencers shaping the trend.
Kundai Chitima, 31, and Kelvin Birioti, 20, each running their own social media channel, have built followings that seem to influence a growing number of Zimbabweans abroad considering return or investment.
On YouTube and Instagram, they share short videos and posts highlighting opportunities in Zimbabwe. Their popular content ranges from property tours and agricultural tips to market trend analysis.
For some in the diaspora, decisions about returning or investing increasingly appear to be shaped less by official narratives and more by social media content offering on-the-ground perspectives of life in Zimbabwe.
One of those influenced is Catherine Mutisi, who spent 17 years living in the United Kingdom working as an accountant. During that time, she had already begun investing in Zimbabwe, building two houses, buying a small plot and starting a business.
She said her thinking shifted after coming across Birioti’s content during construction.
“Gradually, my mind and plans shifted from just visiting Zimbabwe towards wanting to permanently relocate,” she said.
Mutisi said earlier narratives about Zimbabwe had made her cautious, but online content presented a different perspective.
“Previously, I was just building my houses for my family to get some money. But after watching the videos, my eyes opened,” she told Al Jazeera.
Her experience is not isolated. Both Chitima and Birioti say they hear similar accounts from the Zimbabwean diaspora reassessing their long-term plans.
UK-based Zimbabwean Nyashadzashe Nguwo, an Africa market entry and global expansion adviser, said many people like Mutisi are relocating to Zimbabwe due to what he described as a combination of emotional and lifestyle-driven factors.
“There’s a strong desire among many in the diaspora to reconnect with their roots and contribute meaningfully to national development. For some, the lower cost of living and the opportunity to build something impactful at home outweigh concerns about economic instability,” Nguwo told Al Jazeera.
After growing up in Chinhoyi, a town in northern Zimbabwe about 120km (75 miles) northwest of the capital, Harare, Birioti sought a new start and enrolled at Zimbabwe Ezekiel Guti University (ZEGU) in Bindura. He dropped out, however, due to financial challenges and decided to move to Harare.
There, he met Chitima and began learning content creation. From the outset, he said he avoided entertainment-style content, instead focusing on what he saw as an information gap.
“I saw a gap: the diaspora community was being scammed.”
He built his platform about real estate, rural development and farming projects, often working with diaspora Zimbabweans who granted access to their properties for documentation.
![Kundai Chitima worked as a teacher in South Africa before returning to Zimbabwe in 2015 [Al Jazeera]](https://i0.wp.com/occasionaldigest.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Kundai-Chitima-showcasing-a-modern-house-and-projects-in-rural-Zimbabwe-1778849291.jpeg?w=640&ssl=1)
On the other hand, Chitima worked as a teacher in South Africa before returning to Zimbabwe in 2015.
He said workplace inequality influenced his choice: “We were earning lower than my South African colleagues. I thought of my dignity and made a decision to return home.”
Chitima returned to Zimbabwe with limited resources and a pregnant wife, entering a very different economic environment from the one he had left.
Before his time in South Africa, he had worked as a civil servant. After returning, he gradually moved into content creation, beginning in 2015 and later training younger creators who went on to build large audiences.
Today, he reflects on his platform as both educational and protective for diaspora audiences.
“I receive calls from people crying … they have been scammed.”
He says his content aims to replace uncertainty with grounded information about the realities and opportunities in Zimbabwe.
While no official figures are publicly available on the exact number of Zimbabweans leaving the country or their reasons for doing so, reports from the International Organization for Migration and independent migration studies indicate consistent migration.
The Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat) reported a 21.8 percent unemployment rate in the third quarter of 2024, based on strict International Labour Organization definitions.
Between 76 percent and 80 percent of workers are in the informal sector, relying on subsistence or unregulated employment. Youth unemployment is particularly acute: a 2025 World Bank report estimates it at 76.8 percent.
For many young people, stable employment is increasingly difficult to secure.
Susan Sibanda, 26, describes moving between short-term and informal work.
“I have been switching from one casual job to the next,” Sibanda said.
Her experience reflects a wider labour market where formal employment continues to shrink. In recent years, several big retailers, including Choppies, Truworths, OK Zimbabwe, and N Richards, have downsized or closed operations.
Against that backdrop, migration still features heavily in the decisions of young Zimbabweans.
Sibanda said she now considers that “leaving Zimbabwe is in my best interest”.
Economist Tashinga Kajiva said the story of emigration from Zimbabwe has largely remained high, driven by a combination of push and pull factors that encourage people to seek what they see as greener pastures.
“Zimbabwe’s economy is marked by complex and, some would say, difficult dynamics. For ordinary citizens, disposable income remains low while the cost of living continues to rise. The marginal propensity to save among working-class citizens is also low, as many are living hand to mouth,” he told Al Jazeera.
Zimbabwe’s diaspora is concentrated in South Africa, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States, according to government figures.
The economic link between Zimbabwe and its diaspora remains strong.
According to real estate agents, diaspora buyers now account for a significant share
They state that up to 50 percent of high-end residential properties sold were purchased by Zimbabweans living abroad in recent years. In some regions, land prices have risen by 20–30 percent year-on-year, a surge partly attributed to diaspora buyers.
Diaspora investment is also noticeable in agriculture. Reports from the Zimbabwe Farmers Union indicate that about 10-15 percent of new farm leases over the past two to three years involve diaspora investors, with activity concentrated in Mashonaland Central and Matabeleland regions.
Remittances reached $1.7bn in 2023 and continue to rise. In 2025, Zimbabweans abroad sent $2.45bn home, with the UK and South Africa the largest sources, according to government data. A significant portion of these funds is reportedly invested in real estate, agriculture, and small businesses.
This reflects both practical necessity and emotional attachment to home, as well as a preference for investing in familiar environments, according to economists.
Still, return seems to generate mixed reactions.
Some diaspora Zimbabweans appear cautious, citing political developments and recent protests abroad over governance concerns.
For them, financial ties to Zimbabwe are still strong, but physical return remains uncertain.
With social media reshaping perceptions of life in Zimbabwe, many in the diaspora remain caught between investment opportunities and the country’s economic realities.
As content creators like Chitima and Birioti reshape how some see opportunity in Zimbabwe, domestic economic pressures appear to be pushing others away, leaving the country’s relationship with its diaspora open-ended and still evolving.
“For many Zimbabweans living abroad, investing back home is not just about profit – it’s about staying connected to their roots and shaping the future of their communities,” said Chitima.
On a recent weekday morning inside a studio in the heart of Hollywood, Rachel Lindsay and Van Lathan, co-hosts of The Ringer’s “Higher Learning,” were getting ready to roll.
By the time the podcasters came into the Spotify Sycamore Studios for their show, which covers all things in Black culture and politics, the overhead lights were set, and the cameras were precisely angled. Decorative books were propped up between their seats and a big red “Higher Learning” logo stood behind them.
As soon as everyone silenced their phones, the hosts began to banter like two old friends. Lindsay complimented Lathan on his recent foray into stand-up comedy at the Netflix is Joke Fest at the Laugh Factory.
“I just have to say … basically a star is born,” said Lindsay, grinning. “I have to talk about it. Now I never doubted you.”
The pair helms one of the many shows on The Ringer podcast network, known for its roster of A-list celebrity hosts and sports and culture commentators that recently moved into Spotify’s newest podcasting studios.
The 11,000 square-foot space on Sycamore Avenue was designed as both a home base for The Ringer’s production and a video podcasting hub for select Spotify creators.
Since its opening earlier this year, the space has welcomed more than 25 podcasters and shows, on top of the dozens of shows that still record at Spotify’s Mateo studios in the Arts District.
The company estimates that over the last five years it has contributed more than $10 billion to the podcasting industry, including payouts to creators and investments in new content.
Podcasts are just one arm of Spotify’s business, as the audio giant has over 100 million songs and 700,000 audiobooks on its platform. But video podcasts have become an increasingly important way for the company to keep listeners tuned in — and paying for subscriptions amid growing competition from Apple Music and YouTube Music. Despite a surge in profits in the first quarter, Spotify’s share price has fallen 25% this year as investors worry about a slowdown in subscriber growth.
Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay record their podcast, “Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay,” at Spotify’s Sycamore Studios in Hollywood on May 7. The podcast is distributed on Spotify through The Ringer.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
One of the main drivers behind opening the Sycamore studios was to create a central hub for The Ringer, a media company Spotify acquired for $250 million in 2020.
Geoff Chow, Spotify‘s head of podcast studios and The Ringer’s managing director, said the investment is already paying off “in terms of the productivity and the quality of the content we’re able to produce from here.”
The Ringer is one of the streamer’s most popular assets. Spotify includes nine Ringer shows in its list of the top U.S. podcasts.
“They’re pouring into this space and their creators,” Lathan said, before recording a new “Higher Learning” episode. “We really have the freedom to do so much.”
He and Lindsay said the studio has elevated their show by switching up their workflow and increasing in-person work.
Thanks in part to its centralized location, tucked between the offices of SiriusXM and music and sports entertainment company Roc Nation, they say guests are more eager to visit and record in person. Lathan joked that even while walking down the street, he’ll run into radio personalities like Sway Calloway, who hosts his own successful “Sway in the Morning” show on SiriusXM, and convince them to come up for a tour of the space.
Sycamore has already seen guest appearances from Snoop Dogg on “Game Over with Max Kellerman and Rich Paul,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on “Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay” and “Project Hail Mary” author Andy Weir on “House of R.”
“This street is so cool,” Lindsay added. “It’s just a different energy here.”
The duo first started recording at Spotify’s Arts District campus, which is more focused on audio-driven programs. But as the podcasting landscape evolves and video becomes a more important element, “Higher Learning” is now able to maximize on the new studio’s video-first capabilities.
Chris Thomas, studio operator, works in the control room on the podcast, “Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay.”
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Spotify also employs a combination of full-time employees and freelancers that staff each show, including sound engineers, lighting specialists and set designers who help keep the place running.
The Ringer, founded by media mogul Bill Simmons, exists online as a website, a podcast network and video production house, anchored in sports, pop culture and politics coverage. Some of its most popular programs include “The Bill Simmons Podcast,” “The Rewatchables” and the inaugural Golden Globe winner “Good Hang with Amy Poehler.”
Many of the hosts overlap within The Ringer’s podcasting ecosystem. Just between Lathan and Lindsay, they host and appear as regular guests on as many as five shows, so they work from the studio three to five times a week. By being in close quarters together, a greater sense of collaboration has enveloped The Ringer’s team. Chow said there are some days when Simmons will walk onto four shows a day, just to share his thoughts on a topic.
“This is my dream of what The Ringer is. We’re all here talking, we’re all existing together,” Lathan said. “We’re all popping in and out of different rooms all the time.”
Exterior view of the building that houses Spotify’s new Sycamore Studios. The company takes up one floor of the facility.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
The Ringer was first founded in 2016. At the time, Simmons had recently been ousted from ESPN due to a strained relationship with higher-ups. Simmons had spearheaded the network’s Grantland sports blog, which focused on cultural commentary that is similar to what The Ringer does today. The Ringer soon established itself as one of the fastest-growing independent podcast networks.
The brand still keeps its roots in fandom — whether it’s through football or “Game of Thrones,” said Chow. So, to have a space that reflects the diversity of its programming often makes recording more fruitful, especially during key moments like the NFL draft or awards season.
As The Ringer continues to expand its roots in Hollywood, the network remains focused on maximizing its content.
In January, The Ringer started airing select podcasts on Netflix to reach a wider audience. Chow said the partnership is off to a promising start. Each of the five recording studios at the Sycamore site is fully equipped with live-streaming technology — making the weekly Netflix live shows possible.
“Podcasts have become like a cultural hub and curator of things that are happening in the world,” Chow said. “We always want to innovate and test. That’s something that was exciting to us to think about bringing our audience new content in different places.”
Justin Sullivan
PayPal (PYPL) will waive about $30M in transaction processing fees to settle a Department of Justice probe into what the agency called a “DEI Investment Program” that was created to support minority-owned businesses.
The waiver will apply to eligible small
Argentina’s incentive program designed to attract large-scale investments is a key pillar of President Javier Milei economic agenda, File Photo by Juan Ignacio Roncoroni/EPA
BUENOS AIRES, April 27 (UPI) — Argentina’s incentive program designed to attract large-scale investments, a key pillar of President Javier Milei economic agenda, is showing early signs of success through increased foreign currency flowing into the country.
In an economy in which hard currency shortages often shape government policy and financial stability, early results from the Large Investment Incentive Regime, known by its Spanish acronym RIGI, are being closely watched by government officials and financial markets.
According to figures from Argentina’s central bank, projects approved under the program generated a net inflow of $762 million through March. The funds entered the country directly and helped provide some stability to the exchange rate.
Gonzalo Brest, a legal partner at KPMG Argentina, told UPI the progress of the investment regime sends a positive signal for the country’s economy.
“In concrete terms, this could translate into more private-sector jobs, especially in areas such as construction, transportation, metalworking, logistics, energy and mining, along with greater economic activity in the provinces where the investments are established,” Brest said.
He added that the program’s impact could extend beyond employment and affect Argentina’s external accounts.
“If these projects move forward, Argentina could increase exports and generate greater foreign currency inflows — something that is critical for an economy that has historically faced external constraints and balance-of-payments pressures,” he said.
Brest said the RIGI program is also intended to address Argentina’s long-standing difficulty in attracting large-scale investment in capital-intensive industries that require stable rules over long periods.
“In the government’s view, the regime functions as a kind of ‘island of stability’ aimed at accelerating investment decisions that, without a special framework, would likely be postponed or relocated to other countries,” he said.
The program is primarily focused on sectors such as oil and gas, mining, renewable energy, ports and heavy industry, all with strong export potential. Brest said the initiative’s main goals are to boost exports, increase foreign currency inflows and create jobs.
Many of the proposed projects are tied to lithium, copper, gold, silver, liquefied natural gas and oil development in Vaca Muerta, one of Argentina’s largest shale oil and gas formations.
“These are sectors where Argentina has abundant resources, but needed greater certainty to turn them into production and exports,” Brest said.
He cautioned, however, that the program’s long-term success will depend on factors beyond the design of the regime itself, including macroeconomic stability, infrastructure, access to financing and public support for large-scale projects.
“Even so, the RIGI is already functioning as a strong signal to international markets that Argentina wants to compete for major investment capital,” he said.
The program has received more than 35 project proposals totaling more than $80 billion. Of those, 13 projects have received government approval, representing combined investments of more than $18 billion.
Among the latest proposals under review is the “Fértil Pampa” project led by Pampa Energía. The initiative calls for a nearly $2.4 billion investment to produce fertilizers in the industrial hub of Bahía Blanca in Buenos Aires province.
With these developments, the RIGI program is moving beyond its initial phase of announcements and expectations.
The next challenge will be determining whether the promised investments can be sustained over time and translated into real economic activity, jobs and a stable flow of foreign currency for a country seeking relief from one of its most persistent economic constraints.