Earnings Call Insights: Best Buy (BBY) Q1 fiscal 2027
“Today, we are pleased to report better-than-expected results for the first quarter” (CEO & Director Corie Barry). Barry said Q1 included “positive comps across the majority of our major product categories” and that the company “also drove
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Strong first-quarter earnings across corporate America are reinforcing the case for maintaining exposure to U.S. large-cap equities, according to a recent investor note from Citi.
The firm said S&P 500 (SP500) companies delivered 27% year-over-year earnings growth during the quarter, significantly
On Wednesday, the US Department of War confirmed it had awarded Dell Federal Systems, the government-focused unit of Dell Technologies, a five-year, $9.7 billion (€8.3bn) contract to supply the Pentagon.
As part of the Core Enterprise Technology Agreement (CETA), a Pentagon-wide Microsoft licensing and software procurement framework, the company will provide and manage Microsoft software licences, cloud subscriptions and on-premises software licensing across the US military, intelligence agencies and the US Coast Guard.
Dell Technologies’ shares were up around 5% in pre-market to $320 due to the announcement after closing Wednesday’s session at roughly $305.
The company is set to report its earnings for the first quarter of this year on Thursday, with analysts from Zacks Investment Research forecasting revenues of approximately $35 billion (€30bn), representing annual growth of about 50%.
According to US DoW Chief Information Officer Kirsten Davies, who briefed reporters at the Pentagon, the CETA is expected to save the department roughly $422 million (€360.9mn) annually by consolidating fragmented technology budgets from across the military services into a single purchasing structure.
The contract was granted less than three weeks after US President Donald Trump stood at a White House event and urged Americans to “go out and buy a Dell. They’re great.”
Davies and acting US Navy Chief Information Officer Barry Tanner were both clear that the award followed a competitive process.
“The vendors were all evaluated based on competition, comparison to GSA schedule pricing and overall chain of value to the department,” Tanner noted.
Dell holds a long-standing commercial partnership with Microsoft and is one of its major buyers of Windows licences. Nonetheless, the contract arrives at the culmination of a period of visible alignment between CEO Michael Dell and the Trump administration.
In December 2025, Dell and his wife Susan appeared alongside Trump at the White House to announce a $6.25 billion (€5.3bn) donation to “Trump Accounts,” a tax-advantaged investment programme for children created under the “One Big Beautiful Bill”.
The pledge will provide $250 (€214) to roughly 25 million American children aged 10 and under from households with a median income below $150,000 (€129,000) and was described by Invest America, the nonprofit organisation spearheading the initiative, as the largest ever private commitment devoted to American children.
Michael Dell also sits on Trump’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, informing public policy regarding the economy, public health, national security, energy and emerging technologies.
The convergence of public presidential endorsements and subsequent federal contract awards is attracting scrutiny beyond Dell.
Financial disclosures released this month by the US Office of Government Ethics showed that investment accounts associated with President Donald Trump held Dell Technologies shares during the first quarter of 2026. The disclosures indicate some purchases were made before Trump publicly praised the company at a White House event.
The Trump Organisation has said the accounts are managed independently by third-party financial institutions and that neither Trump nor his family directs individual trades.
Last week, responding to questions about Trump’s financial disclosures at a White House briefing, Vice President JD Vance said the president’s investments are handled by independent wealth advisers and rejected suggestions that Trump personally directs individual stock trades. “He’s not making these stock trades himself,” Vance said.
Commentators and ethics critics have also pointed to trading activity involving companies such as Intel and Palantir, whose shares have at times moved sharply following public comments by Trump or announcements linked to government technology spending.
The Pentagon has said Dell’s selection followed a competitive procurement process.
Even so, the timing of the award alongside Trump’s public praise of the company and financial disclosures showing investments linked to Dell is likely to draw renewed scrutiny from ethics observers and political critics.
A massive $166 billion in corporate tariff refunds sounds nice, but could take years to process.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling invalidating the Trump administration’s tariffs was a positive outcome for companies, but refunds may take years to materialize.
The Supreme Court decided in February that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency illegally collected $166 billion from 300,000 importers. Logically, companies should get refunds, but lawyers don’t expect a smooth process. Importers should be prepared to wait for one year, even 18 months, according to TD Securities.
The federal agency set up an online portal called the Automated Commercial Environment to handle refunds. Once the agency accepts a company’s claim, it issues refunds within 60 to 90 days.
That’s the short-term optimistic resolution, but history shows a lot of things could go wrong. In 1998, the Supreme Court announced that the government had to return $750 million in fees collected between 1993 and 1998. It took years to get done.
The CBP is set up to collect money quickly—but it doesn’t easily send it back. Companies must document a proper claim on the new portal. Some small business owners don’t understand the complex customs terminology, while others can’t even log in to the new portal due to technical glitches. Let’s say that the agency and the company don’t agree about the amount of the refund. The importer must submit new documentation and begin a second review process. Companies could even be forced to go to court.
CFOs should be ready for a long, fastidious process. The financial expert should set up a cross-functional task force—including tax, accounting, procurement, and supply chain experts—to review the data and audit all the company’s entries. When the time comes, the task force will be able to answer any CBP question.
The online portal created by the CBP agency focuses on importers, but they are not alone. Consumers could also say that they were overcharged because of the tariffs. The federal government ignores them, but some states don’t. Taking matters into his own hands, Illinois Democrat Governor JB Pritzker, in a letter to the Trump administration posted on soicial media, demanded an $8.7 billion refund—that’s $1,700 for each Illinois household affected.
The EU’s new car market maintained steady growth through the first four months of 2026, with nearly 3.8 million vehicles registered, up 4.2% from the same period in 2025. This is according to data published on Wednesday by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA).
The figures show a market increasingly dominated by electric and hybrid vehicles, helped by government incentives in major economies and growing competition from Chinese carmakers.
According to ACEA, between January and April 2026, battery-electric cars accounted for 19.7% of the EU market, up from 15.3% a year earlier. Growth was mainly driven by the bloc’s four largest markets, with Italy (+25.5%), Spain (+19.7%), Germany (+6.6%) and France (+2.3%) all recording gains.
In April alone, sales of battery electric vehicles were up by 37.7% in the EU from the same month last year, lifting their market share to 20.6% for the month.
Hybrid-electric vehicles remained the most popular single powertrain choice in April, up 12%, accounting for roughly 36.9% of the month’s sales.
Plug-in hybrids added 16.4%, capturing roughly a 9.8% share in April registrations.
On the other side of the ledger, petrol car registrations fell 16.3% to fewer than 218,500 units, while diesel dropped 17.1% to around 74,000.
Together, petrol and diesel cars accounted for less than 30% of vehicles sold across the EU in April.
Volkswagen Group retained its position as the bloc’s largest carmaker in the first four months of 2026, accounting for 26.7% of all new registrations, with just over one million units sold, up 2.9% year-on-year.
However, performance varied across the group. Skoda registrations rose 15.5%, and Audi gained 8.6%, while the core Volkswagen brand slipped 3.2%, losing ground across multiple segments.
Stellantis ranked second with a 17.1% market share and over 648,000 units, up a robust 7.8%, driven by a recovery at Fiat of over 32%, and strong gains at Opel and Vauxhall, which together rose 22% in registrations.
Renault Group was the weakest performer in the top three, declining 7.4% to around 384,250 units and accounting for a 10.1% market share, with Dacia registering a particularly sharp fall of more than 15%.
BMW Group and Mercedes-Benz posted gains of 3.9% and 3.8%, respectively, while Toyota and Hyundai Group both recorded modest declines of between 2.5% and 3.1%.
The most significant trend in April’s data was the continued rise of Chinese carmakers.
According to ACEA figures, BYD’s EU registrations more than doubled year-on-year in the first four months of 2026, surging 152.9% to more than 71,850 units.
Chery Automobile, through its Omoda, Jaecoo and Jetour brands, grew 267.1% to more than 48,350 units, while Leapmotor, distributing through its joint venture with Stellantis, soared 558.8% to over 28,700 units.
SAIC Motor, owner of the MG brand and the largest Chinese group by EU volume, added a further 10.4% to reach more than 77,000 units.
Combined, Chinese brands accounted for around 6% of EU car registrations between January and April 2026, compared with 3.2% in the same period a year earlier. Across the wider European market, including the UK and EFTA countries, Chinese brands accounted for a combined market share of roughly 7.3% over the same period, up from 3.7% a year earlier.
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One week after EU diplomats and lawmakers agreed to eliminate EU duties on most US industrial goods under the EU-US trade agreement, EU ambassadors on Wednesday greenlit a deal with the European Parliament, paving the way for the full agreement’s formal adoption by the EU Council.
The procedural step comes as the US pressures Europeans to implement the EU-US deal clinched last summer by US President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen after weeks of renewed trade tensions.
Trump has threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on EU cars if the deal is not enforced by the EU by 4 July.
On their side, MEPs still have to formally endorse the agreement reached on the EU side, with a tentative vote scheduled during the plenary session between 15 and 18 June.
“The agreement we reached with the European Parliament marks an important step in delivering on the EU’s commitments,” said a spokesperson for the Cypriot Presidency, which negotiated with MEPs on behalf of EU member states.
The spokesperson added that “robust safeguards” had been included in the agreement “to protect the interests of European businesses and economic operators”.
The deal, considered lopsided by many MEPs, states that the EU would face 15 percent US tariffs while eliminating its own duties on US goods.
However, after Trump repeatedly threatened to impose new tariffs in breach of the deal, EU lawmakers pushed member states to include conditions such as a “sunset” clause that would terminate the agreement on 31 December 2029 unless renewed.
Under the agreement reached last week, the Commission would also be able to suspend the trade deal at the request of either Parliament or a member state if the US fails to lift tariffs on European steel and aluminium products by the end of 2026.
BING-JHEN HONG/iStock Editorial via Getty Images
Nvidia’s (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang said the company plans to invest about $150B a year in Taiwan while announcing a new expanded campus in Taipei.
“Four years ago, five years ago, Nvidia was spending about 10, 15 billion dollars a year in Taiwan. Now
It’s been a big year for Seth Rogen’s Point Grey Pictures.
The 15-year-old production company founded by Rogen, his childhood friend and longtime collaborator Evan Goldberg and producer James Weaver is coming off a huge awards season for its comedy, “The Studio.”
The Apple TV series, which simultaneously pokes fun at the institutions of Hollywood while also peeling back some of the industry’s mystery, is now the most-awarded new comedy in TV history.
“The Studio” has won 13 Emmys, a BAFTA TV award in the international category, two Golden Globes and three Critics Choice awards. It’s currently filming its second season, with most details still under wraps.
I spoke with Rogen, Goldberg and Weaver about the success of the show, which primarily films on the Warner Bros. lot, and what’s next for Point Grey.
“We’ve never, literally, won any awards before this, so I by no means expected this,” Rogen said, with a chuckle. “I hoped people would creatively recognize that we were really swinging for the fences, but awards were not really something that I was thinking that much about.”
In the show, the Canadian actor and comedian plays beleaguered movie studio head Matt Remick, who must balance the art of filmmaking with the economics of the business. In a nod to Hollywood’s pull toward intellectual property, one storyline focuses on the studio embarking on a movie about the Kool-Aid Man, which Rogen’s character only reluctantly agrees to pursue.
“To me, what is interesting, and what people don’t seem to think about Hollywood, is that the people involved in it actually care about movies, even the ones who make bad ones, even the ones who make choices that stop good ones from being made,” Rogen said. “If you really just wanted to make money, there are much easier ways to make money where you don’t have to deal with people like me.”
He also noted that there’s a role for movies such as the fictional Kool-Aid flick.
“You could argue it’s the Kool-Aids of the world that keep theaters open,” Rogen said. “It’s our fake Kool-Aid movie that allows smaller movies to exist and allows theaters to take risks on smaller movies.”
“The Studio” also stemmed from a desire to make a pure comedy, despite the tough time comedies have had recently in the marketplace.
“We just all agreed that we wanted to make something that was just funny,” Goldberg told me. “It just felt like the world stopped making those, and we just wanted to make something that when you tuned in, was just absolutely hilarious.”
Los Angeles-based Point Grey, which has 15 employees, is named for the Canadian school where Rogen and Goldberg met (the first project they wrote together, which became 2007’s “Superbad,” was based on their experiences there). Despite their comedic reputations, the more serious-sounding company name was deliberate so it could be used with any kind of project.
In fact, the company got its start with the Joseph Gordon-Levitt-led dramedy “50/50” about a 20-something who learns he has cancer. Over the years, Point Grey’s projects have spanned genres, including supernatural series “Preacher,” 2016’s “Sausage Party,” the satirical superhero show “The Boys” and biographical mini-series “Pam and Tommy.”
A Point Grey project is “genuinely original” and “daring,” said Weaver, Rogen’s former assistant who now serves as president of the company, which has a first-look film deal with Universal Pictures and a first-look TV deal with Lionsgate. He declined to discuss financials but said the company is profitable.
“We’ve managed to be really productive in terms of the amount of things that we’ve made, and we try to be smart about how we run our financials,” Weaver said. “The company is doing quite well.”
Point Grey is in production on “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem”; just wrapped a romantic comedy for Amazon MGM Studios starring Cameron Diaz and Stephen Merchant; and recently screened an animated film at Cannes called “Tangles” that’s based on a graphic novel about Alzheimer’s.
The production company may eventually expand into video games (“We love video games,” Goldberg told me), and plan to continue to navigate the changes in Hollywood, which is reeling from a continued drought in local production that my colleague Stacy Perman and I wrote about recently.
“Personally, I feel like people are very fatalistic about the trajectory of the industry, but it’s not like the industry is going down, the industry is just changing,” Goldberg said. “We just are very flexible and embrace the change, and hopefully in doing so, we don’t get left behind.”
After 1,810 episodes as the host of “The Late Show,” Stephen Colbert signed off for the final time Thursday.
CBS has said it canceled Colbert because the show was losing $40 million a year as viewers have increasingly migrated away from late-night viewing in the streaming era.
But many in the TV business are skeptical of the claim and believe Skydance wanted to silence Colbert, a frequent Trump critic, to pave the way for its deal last year to acquire parent network Paramount. (The Federal Communications Commission’s approval of the transaction came days after the show’s cancellation was announced.)
My colleague, Stephen Battaglio, has written about what the future of late-night TV talk shows will now look like.
I watched the “Survivor 50” finale Wednesday with some friends, despite only watching two episodes this season (or ever). It was fun seeing the drama unfold, though I was, like everyone else, shocked at that “last twist” of Jeff Probst accidentally spoiling who lost in the final fire-making challenge.
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Australia’s annual consumer price inflation slowed more sharply than anticipated in April, cooling to 4.2% from March’s 4.6% print and beating market expectations for a milder drop to 4.4%.
According to data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the headline
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.
German Trade Minister Katherina Reiche is travelling to China from Tuesday to Friday as Berlin’s trade deficit with Beijing continues to deepen.
The trip comes two days after several of the EU’s largest economies – France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, as well as Lithuania – issued a non-paper urging the EU to crack down on Chinese overcapacity and unfair trade practices.
Berlin, however, did not endorse their call.
Germany remains the main chokepoint in the EU’s strategy towards China. While Euronews previously reported that the publication late last year of Germany’s trade deficit with Beijing marked a turning point for the EU executive, which is trying to sharpen its trade defence tools, Germany continues to favour cooperation with the Chinese.
In March, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called for a trade agreement with Beijing. Brussels pushed back against the idea.
“There are a number of concerns and real challenges that the European Union has consistently expressed to China that we need to see them meaningfully address before we can even talk about any future agreements or anything like that,” the Commission’s deputy chief spokesperson, Olof Gill, said at the time.
Even with a record €87 billion trade deficit with China, Berlin hopes Beijing will keep its market open to German industry, despite the obstacles faced by EU businesses in China and the Asian giant’s strategy of reducing its dependence on foreign products.
The main objective of Reiche’s visit this week is to discuss potential economic cooperation. According to the German government, the strategy is to explore future opportunities for collaboration while maintaining dialogue with the Chinese leadership.
Despite a steadily growing trade deficit, China remained Germany’s most important trading partner in 2025. According to the Federal Statistical Office, bilateral trade volume reached €250 billion. Around 5,200 German companies operate in China, making the country one of the most important foreign markets for Germany’s automotive, mechanical engineering and electrical industries.
During the trip, Reiche is expected to hold political talks, attend a business forum and visit local companies. She will be accompanied by a business delegation representing around 40 companies. Discussions are also set to focus on the development of energy technologies.
“We hope the visit will help to transfer the insights gained on the ground into the political discussion in Berlin and to further develop bilateral exchange,” said Oliver Oehms, Executive Director of the German Chamber of Commerce in China.
In a survey published in May by the chamber, 51% of German companies operating in China supported policies favouring partnerships with Chinese companies, while 42% backed the “strategic” use of knowledge gained through such partnerships.
But these sectors are also increasingly under pressure, as Chinese competitors benefit from extensive state subsidies.
According to a report published in May by the EU think tank Centre for European Reform, the growing concentration of global car, machinery and chemicals production in China could weaken innovation in traditional manufacturing hubs and increase Beijing’s leverage over Berlin through the threat of supply disruptions, similar to its blockade of rare earth exports in 2025.
The report added that demand generated by Germany’s fiscal stimulus after easing its debt brake could end up boosting Chinese imports rather than supporting Berlin’s domestic industry.
German exports to China fell by 9.7% year-on-year, while imports of Chinese goods such as electronics, electric vehicles and components rose significantly by 8.8%.
“China has already eaten much of German industry’s lunch and is preparing to start on dinner,” the report said.
17:16, 03 Feb 2025Updated 15:26, 26 May 2026
Skin Rocks is the skincare brand founded by influencer Caroline Hirons(Image: Laura Mulley)
Octopus one even moderately interested in beauty will know about skincare super-influencer and author Caroline Hirons – as well as her expanding range of products, Skin Rocks. Shunning gimmicks and trends and instead focusing on brilliant formulas with clinically proven results, as well as with no-nonsense instructions, Skin Rocks has quickly become popular with beauty fans – including myself.
As Reach’s Beauty and Wellness Editor, I and my team have been lucky enough to try every product from Skin Rocks, often before they hit the shelves, from cleansers and moisturisers, through to the latest launch, The Strong Acid, so we know which are really worth shouting about. Spoiler alert: I’ve never used a Skin Rocks product I didn’t like – they’re expertly formulated, never irritate my skin, and are well packaged – but here are the products that I would genuinely rebuy when I get to the bottom…
READ MORE: Caroline Hirons on ‘utter filth’ beauty trend and the one product teens should avoid
Caroline has been a vocal advocate for double cleansing since the beginning (before Skin Rocks, she created the two-in-one Double Cleanse with PIXI).
If double cleansing to you still sounds like too much time and effort, here’s why it’s probably worth you doing:
The Cleansing Balm, £58 here
Though it’s probably your first step in a routine, this is the latest cleanser Caroline has released – and it’ll come as no surprise to learn that it’s truly one of the best I’ve ever tried. It melts into the skin, breaks down make-up and SPF easily, and emulsifies away quickly with water and a flannel, leaving skin feeling conditioned but absolutely no oily residue left behind.
There are also a few high street cleansing balms that I love and are cheaper, namely Versed Day Dissolve Cleansing Balm, £16.50, and e.l.f. SKIN Holy Hydration! Makeup Melting Cleansing Balm, £11. However, if you love luxe offerings such as Elemis Pro-Collagen Cleansing Balm (I’ve reviewed the newest cherry scented one here), I encourage you to try this Skin Rocks one next.
Side note: the Skin Rocks flannels are the biggest – and best – I’ve found.
Skin Rocks The Cream Cleanser, from £35 here
Skin Rocks’ first cleanser, and it’s a real goodie. As I’ve already covered, it’s not completely effective on layered up waterproof mascara, but for everyday make-up and daily grime, especially if your skin is on the drier side, it’s perfect. If I was only going to use one cleanser from Caroline’s range it would be the next one, but my colleague Octavia, with her dryer skin, would pick this one.
Due to popular demand, this and The Gel Cleanser (below) are now available in supersize 250ml tubes.
Skin Rocks The Gel Cleanser, from £39 here
This is nothing like the typical foaming, drying gel cleansers you’re probably used to. The formula is so unique – thick, nourishing and rich in moisture-locking glycerin – yet washes completely away as a milky liquid, that it would suit all skin types: young or old, dry or oily, sensitive or not. I squeezed out every drop of this and loved it, and would buy it again.
Exfoliating acid toners can brighten, renew and refine skin – though they are easy to overdo if you pick the wrong one for your skin type, age or routine – something I’m definitely guilty of. Caroline’s collection of three, covers all skin types and she’s really clear that the Strong is what is says in the bottle – so it’s not for everyone.
Retinoid 1, £70 here and Retinoid 2, £80 here
Retinoid 1 and 2 were Skin Rocks’ first products, and are a brilliantly formulated – and foolproof – way to introduce skin-renewing and anti-ageing ingredient vitamin A into your skincare routine: start with Retinoid 1, then move on to Retinoid 2. I find that I can use Retinoid 1 every night without any irritation, peeling or flaking; a rarity for me when using this potent ingredient.
Skin Rocks Retinoid 3, £90 here
Designed for more experienced users, Skin Rocks has launched its most advanced retinoid formula to date, created to deliver powerful results when targeting visible signs of skin ageing. The formula combines the brand’s highest concentration of vitamin A with 0.21% retinal and 0.5% Adapinoid — a third-generation retinoid known for helping to reduce breakouts while also addressing fine lines, texture, and overall skin ageing concerns.
According to Skin Rocks’ clinical studies, Retinoid 3 helped reduce the depth of deep wrinkles, minimise the appearance of UV pigmentation, and improve overall skin texture after four weeks of use. The studies also reported improvements in skin firmness, elasticity, and brightness. In consumer trials, 81% of users said their skin felt firmer after two weeks, while 91% felt their skin looked more youthful after eight weeks. The accompanying before-and-after images and customer feedback are equally impressive.
I’m fussy about eye creams – lots either irritate my skin, aren’t moisturising enough, or are too rich – but this one is absolutely perfect – immediately silky, smoothing and plumping. I’d happily use this one forever if I could.
Keeping things as simple as possible, there are only three moisturises in the range – light, normal and rich, with each available fragranced or unfragranced. As someone with combination and occasionally blemish-prone skin, I go for the lighter Moisturiser, and it’s as close to a perfect face cream as you can get. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why it’s so good, but it layers well with other products, leaves my skin looking and feeling much healthier and, crucially, doesn’t cause breakouts.
My colleague Octavia on the other hand, can’t get enough of the the rich version: ‘My skin is normal-to-dry, but generally dehydrated (probably because I’m better at drinking coffee than water) so I love, love, love The Rich Moisturiser, which I’ll happily use all year round. I love the instant drink feeling it has and how well it dried down to a make-up base with no pilling. It’s just silky. It’s not my only moisturiser, I change things up, but it’s a core part of my repertoire.’
This is definitely one I would invest in, beaten only ever so slightly in price by my other ‘near perfect’ moisturiser.
I don’t mess about when it comes to eye cream – I’m very particular! Many either irritate my skin, aren’t hydrating enough, or are too heavy – but this is instantly silky, smoothing and plumping. I’d happily use this one forever if I could afford to.
Admittedly the one Skin Rocks product I haven’t thoroughly tested, mainly because of the aforementioned stripping of my skincare routine down to basics in a bid to repair its barrier, but I has tried it a few times, and it feels so nice on the skin and gives an instant subtle glow, and I love how it contains more antioxidants than just vitamin C.
Another I can’t give a full review to as hyperpigmentation or melasma isn’t a big skin concern of mine, but as I’m naturally freckly I used this regularly in summer to try and reduce some of the unwanted post-summer pigmentation. If the clinical studies and incredible before-and-after photos of this new serum are anything to go by, this is the product I’d trust to help to tackle serious hyperpigmentation. I’ve also recommended it to others on numerous occasions and the feedback I’ve had was excellent.
Like all of Caroline’s products, it’s foolproof to use – it doesn’t pill, irritate or need introducing slowly into your routine, and feels wonderfully hydrating on the skin – and the results speak for themselves.
Another newbie on the Skin Rocks roster: a supercharged essence that does more than just hydrate skin – it’s clinically proven to make your other skincare products work more effectively, too, plus it increases moisture and skin firmness, and minimising the look of pores.
I’ve been using this liquid after cleansing and before serums for a couple of weeks now, and it’s an excellent way to add another light layer of hydration to my skin, especially at this time of year when the weather’s getting colder. I haven’t noticed a dramatic difference, but skin does feel smoother, softer and more hydrated afterwards.
I find this one quite difficult, because it’s a literal extra step in your skincare regime that I’d hope was already covered in other areas. But at the same time, it takes every one of your skincare products and makes it work harder, which in turn makes them better value for money. So overall, I wouldn’t say it’s the most essential product to have in your routine (I’d always prioritise a good cleanser, SPF and targeted serum), but if you can afford this additional step, it’s definitely a nice-to-have – a luxurious extra boost.
Overall, it’s difficult to find fault with any of the Skin Rocks products. They’re a brand I completely trust, and I genuinely feel my skin would thrive using nothing but their range. That said, if I had to narrow it down to a few standout favourites, I’d choose the Retinoids, The Moisturiser, and whichever cleanser best matches your skin type and cleansing preferences.
If you’re beginning to notice new signs of ageing and want to introduce something effective into your skincare routine with visible results, I’d especially recommend The Acids. There are three options to choose from, so you can pick the one that best suits your skin’s needs and where you are in your skincare journey.
For more of Caroline’s practical, no-nonsense skincare advice, you can also pick up her books, Skincare: The New Edit, £17, and her latest one, Teen Skincare, £16.99.
Brent crude edged 2.5% higher on Tuesday and seems to have steadied around $100 per barrel at the time of writing, as US-Iran negotiations stall.
On the other hand, WTI dropped over 4% and is trading around $92.6 per barrel.
Overall, oil prices were declining since last Wednesday as the framework for a peace deal, or at least a longer and more encompassing ceasefire, between the US and Iran was seemingly on the verge of being agreed.
However, Iran accused the US of breaching the current ceasefire after Washington carried out what it described as defensive strikes in the southern part of the country.
Iran’s foreign ministry stated that the US attacks in the Hormozgan province, where Iranian media reported hearing explosions early Tuesday, amounted to a “serious violation” of the fragile ceasefire that has been in effect for almost seven weeks.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said negotiations aimed at ending the conflict could require “a few days” to reach an agreement.
On Monday, US President Donald Trump also reiterated nuclear demands in a social media post, as tensions continue to surround the fundamental aspects of a possible agreement.
Investors appear to have mixed reactions to the developments with some markets seeming to price in a decrease in the probability that a deal is imminent.
In Europe, the Euro Stoxx 50 has fallen more than 0.7% while the broader pan-European Stoxx 600 is trading around 1% lower as we approach the close of Tuesday’s session.
The UK’s FTSE 100, Germany’s DAX 30, France’s CAC 40, Italy’s FTSE MIB, the Netherlands’ AEX and Switzerland’s CH20 have all dropped between 0.1% and 0.7%.
Over in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 and Taiwan’s TAIEX closed flat, but South Korea’s KOSPI jumped 2.5% primarily driven by a continuous demand for AI-related equities.
However, US markets appear completely decoupled from other indices and the broader situation. Not only have WTI prices continued to fall on Tuesday but the S&P 500 also opened 0.6% higher.
Both the US and Iran had signalled headway toward a memorandum of understanding that could end the conflict and resume maritime traffic through the blocked Strait of Hormuz, while allowing negotiators a 60-day window to tackle more complicated matters such as Iran’s nuclear activities and supplies.
In his latest remarks, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the Strait of Hormuz must remain accessible “one way or the other” as traffic through the chokepoint has dropped sharply, with only a few dozen ships currently using the route each day, compared with the usual 125 to 140 vessels.
Iran has continued to permit limited shipping, prioritising vessels connected to allied or friendly nations and arranging passage through state-to-state agreements.
Continuous reports of attacks in the Strait of Hormuz underscore how far from the normalisation of energy flows and other supplies the global economy still is.
On Tuesday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported that a tanker experienced an external blast near the waterline on its port side.
According to the agency, the vessel was located about 60 nautical miles from Muscat, the capital of Oman.
UKMTO said the tanker and all crew members were unharmed, although a quantity of bunker fuel spilled into the sea.
This is the most recent reported incident near the Strait of Hormuz at the time of writing.
Africa’s Payments landscape is undergoing a significant transformation, fueled by advanced technologies and a surge in Cross-Border Trade. With AI and modular financial solutions taking root, African markets are quickly adopting faster, more secure, and seamless Payment experiences. But this shift isn’t just about digitisation—it’s about building a more resilient and inclusive financial ecosystem that empowers both businesses and individuals.
Africa’s Payments ecosystem isn’t a single, uniform market—it’s a complex tapestry of 54 countries, each with unique currencies, regulatory standards, and varying financial infrastructures. For corporates and financial institutions, this diversity presents challenges, but it also creates fertile ground for innovation.
The very intricacies that complicate Cross-Border Payments also encourage creative, technology-driven solutions that are tailored to local needs. This dynamic landscape invites forward-thinking approaches, making Africa a proving ground for Payment innovations with the potential to transform how value moves across the continent and beyond.
Africa’s diverse regulatory landscape demands adaptability in Cross-Border Payments. With each nation enforcing unique licensing, settlement, and risk rules, achieving a unified platform remains a significant challenge. Adding to the complexity is the growing insistence on local data storage to meet data sovereignty requirements, making compliance and technology integration even more intricate.
Instead of allowing regulatory hurdles to impede progress, industry leaders are using these complexities to build more adaptable and resilient systems. They’re advancing modular, “plug-and-play” platforms with strong governance, clear data separation, and flexible hybrid cloud infrastructure. This approach turns obstacles into opportunities for real innovation and growth.
This drive toward modularity has accelerated the adoption of Banking as a Service (BaaS), recasting Payments from a cost center into a strategic growth lever. Where corporates once saw Cross-Border Payment infrastructure as a burdensome expense, BaaS now allows secure, compliant Payment capabilities to be embedded directly into business platforms.
With a single integration, companies can navigate regulatory complexity, unlocking new revenue streams and harnessing Payment data to refine operations, understand customers, and deliver tailored services. Payments have become more than transactions—they’re a source of insight and innovation, fueling growth and competitive advantage.
Artificial Intelligence is transforming Transaction Banking in Africa, acting as a catalyst that enhances human expertise to improve efficiency and transparency. Rather than relying on the traditional first-in, first-out approach, AI now enables financial institutions to sort and route queries by urgency and complexity, streamlining exceptions and prioritising immediate needs. This reduces manual intervention and turnaround times, freeing teams to focus on deeper client relationships and higher-value tasks that improve service quality and satisfaction.
But AI’s impact goes far beyond boosting efficiency—it is transforming security and fraud detection across Africa’s digital Payments. As digital adoption rises, so does financial crime. AI uses real-time, behavior-based analytics to monitor transactions and learn each client’s typical patterns. This allows quick detection of anomalies and proactive fraud prevention, improving accuracy and reducing unnecessary disruptions while safeguarding customer trust.
As financial institutions adopt advanced AI systems, strong governance becomes critical. Without careful oversight, AI models built on limited or skewed data can unintentionally reinforce biases—delaying Payments or impacting service for certain groups. To maintain trust and fairness, banks must ensure they have strong accountability, transparent training of AI models and proactive monitoring so algorithms serve all customers equitably and uphold the highest industry standards.
Intra-African trade is experiencing unprecedented growth. As more businesses look beyond national borders, the demand for fast, accessible, and reliable Payment systems has never been greater. This surge in regional commerce is prompting the development of innovative Payment infrastructures that make Cross-Border transactions more seamless and inclusive.
Moving beyond the confines of Domestic Mobile Money networks, Telecom companies are developing Payment rails to enable real-time Payments that cross African borders with ease. This shift is especially transformative for small and medium-sized enterprises, opening fresh opportunities for growth and Cross-Border collaboration. By promoting interoperability and removing costly intermediaries, these regional networks make Payments faster, more affordable, and increasingly accessible.
As these Telecom-driven platforms continue to expand, they are enabling Africa’s Multi-Rail Payments ecosystem. Their ability to foster resilience, scalability, and efficiency is setting the stage for a future where regional Trade is not just possible, but practical for businesses of all sizes. This wave of innovation is redefining the landscape, ensuring that regional Payment Rails support and propel Africa’s economic growth for years to come.
Africa’s Cross-Border Trade is being reshaped by ongoing US dollar shortages and shifting macroeconomic forces. For import-dependent markets, these scarcities delay settlements, increase transaction costs, and tie up vital working capital. This environment demands new solutions and is pushing businesses to seek more efficient, reliable ways to move value across borders.
Concurrently, the region is experiencing rising Trade flows with Asia, and African businesses are rapidly adopting alternative Payment infrastructures. Platforms like the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) and greater use of the Chinese Renminbi offer new settlement options and critical flexibility. This shift reduces reliance on established networks such as Swift, giving companies more robust and diversified Payment infrastructure. As a result, importers and exporters can count on greater predictability, faster settlements, and lower intermediary costs—ultimately accelerating and scaling Cross-Border Trade across Africa.
Africa’s financial future is emerging as an ecosystem that is intelligent, instant, and seamlessly connected. Thriving in this landscape will require more than just advanced technology. It demands a clear understanding of local realities and global shifts. The leaders will be those who turn Africa’s complexity into intuitive, secure, and streamlined client experiences—setting new standards for growth, resilience, and trust in the continent’s rapidly evolving Payments Sector.
Corporations, labor unions, tech titans, Native American tribes and other special interests have donated a record-shattering $79.6 million to independent committees focused on swaying the volatile California governor’s race ahead of the June 2 primary.
Many of the largest backers to these committees will have significant business interests in front of the state’s next governor and state agencies, with hopes of either strengthening a candidate aligned with their political priorities or undercutting those who oppose them.
“This is the first time I’ve ever seen IEs [or independent expenditures] have this kind of an impact on a governor’s race,” said veteran GOP strategist Martin Wilson, who has worked on every California gubernatorial contest since 1978 and worked on an outside effort backing San José Mayor Matt Mahan’s 2026 bid for governor. “It’s totally unprecedented.”
Election laws bar independent expenditure committees from communicating or coordinating with campaigns, allowing candidates to emphasize that they have no control over the money that pours into these outside groups. The wall between the two has long been viewed as performative and penetrable.
The greatest amount of outside spending has been directed at attacking billionaire hedge fund founder turned environmental warrior Tom Steyer, a leading Democrat in the race.
Nearly $32.3 million had been donated to opposing his candidacy as of Monday, according to the California Target Book, a nonpartisan political almanac, which tracks independent expenditure committees. Among the major donors are utility giant PG&E, a political action committee sponsored by the California Chamber of Commerce and the California Assn. of Realtors’ independent expenditure committee, which combined have utility, business, property tax and building issues affected by lawmakers and regulators in the state capital.
Independent expenditures supporting Steyer’s bid for governor have been minimal compared with the record-breaking $212 million Steyer has donated to his own campaign as of Monday, according to the California secretary of state’s office. Still, more than $1.4 million of outside money has been spent supporting his bid, largely by the California Nurses Assn., which shares his goal of creating single-payer healthcare.
Expenditure committees linked to Uber, the California Medical Assn., the kidney dialysis company DaVita and the California Dental Assn. contributed nearly $7.3 million to independent efforts backing former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin) before he dropped out of the gubernatorial race in April because of sexual assault and misconduct allegations.
Several of those donors then coalesced behind former Biden Cabinet member Xavier Becerra, who was struggling to connect with California voters before he surged to become a front-runner, recent opininon polls show. More than $13 million has been contributed to outside groups backing the former U.S. Health and Human Services secretary.
The outside money has led to flashpoints in the race. Steyer points to corporations backing Becerra, such as a $500,000 Chevron donation to a group supporting him that was reported to state election officials on Thursday.
“The Becerra campaign was running out of gas until the latest half-million dollar influx from Chevron,” said Steyer spokesman Anthony York.
The message echoes a Steyer theme on the campaign trail — that candidates ought to be judged by who is supporting them and who is opposing them.
Becerra accused Steyer of misleading voters because the $500,000 from Chevron went to an independent expenditure committee supporting him that he has no control over. However, Becerra did receive a direct $39,200 contribution from the oil company to his campaign committee in June 2025.
“For him to say that I took the [$500,000] … that’s just an outright lie,” he said in a television interview this weekend. “It pains me to see that candidates for office believe that they have to descend to telling lies in order to gain favor with voters. If that’s what you do as a candidate, what will you do when you’re in the office?”
Steyer’s campaign, which used the Memorial Day weekend to attack Becerra with billboards highlighting high gas prices in Los Angeles and Fresno, said it was disingenuous for Becerra to feign ignorance of how the political system works.
“Chevron is charging Californians record gas prices on one hand and turning right around to spend $500,000 to elect Xavier Becerra with the other,” said Steyer spokesperson Danni Wang. “Now Becerra is playing semantic gymnastics trying to pretend voters are too stupid to understand how dark money in politics works. Californians aren’t buying it.”
Becerra’s campaign argued that such comments are the height of hypocrisy coming from a billionaire whose campaign is funded by his profits from a hedge fund that made investments that are opposed by many voters. Becerra said he continually took on oil companies when he served as California’s attorney general.
“Tom Steyer made his billions off fossil fuels and private prisons, then decided that qualified him to run California,” said Becerra spokesman Jonathan Underland. “He’s now attacking the only candidate in this race who actually held Big Oil’s feet to the fire and beat [President] Trump 100 times as [state attorney general]. The irony would be funny if Tom’s checkbook weren’t so thick.”
Mahan, a moderate Democrat, has benefited from $21.7 million in spending by outside groups backing him, while $570,000 has been spent by independent committees opposing him, according to the Target Book. The donors who supported his bid are a who’s who of Silicon Valley, including venture capitalists Michael Moritz and L. John Doerr, Stripe Chief Executive Patrick Collinson and Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla. Other notable donors include billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso, who unsuccessfully ran for Los Angeles mayor in 2022, as well as Griff Harsh V, the son of billionaire Meg Whitman, the unsuccessful 2010 GOP gubernatorial nominee turned Democrat who once led EBay.
Despite that generous support, Mahan remains mired in the single digits in the polls. On Wednesday, billionaire Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings received a refund of $1 million he had donated to one of the independent expenditure committees supporting Mahan’s bid.
Hastings said he had not requested the money to be returned to him.
“I’m voting for Matt Mahan. I didn’t ask for any refund and they shouldn’t have done it,” he posted on X on Saturday. “Go Matt.”
Matt Rodriguez, a spokesman for the Back to Basics committee backing Mahan, said that he believes Mahan’s standing in the race is a reflection of a number of factors — an underwhelming contest as well as Mahan’s January entry into it and the fact that he was not well known statewide.
“He got in a little bit late and it was a big climb … with an apathetic electorate,” Rodriguez said. “Politics is all about money and timing — both the amount of time and being there at the right time.”
Mahan’s priorities, such as housing and homelessness improvements he oversaw in San José, had an impact on the campaign, the Democratic strategist said.
“Democrats have to perform, and if we are going to perform, we have to have results,” he said.
The only other candidate who saw seven figures in independent expenditure spending was Republican Steve Hilton, a former Fox News commentator who has been endorsed by Trump and is the leading GOP candidate in the race. More than $1.8 million has been spent opposing Hilton and $13,750 was spent supporting him.
SEIU California donated $250,000 to opposing gubernatorial candidates. Oscar Lopez, the union’s political director, said it has opposed Hilton, Mahan and Republican Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.
“Each of these candidates represents a serious threat to the wages, rights and dignity of California’s working people,” Lopez said.
Hilton said the spending against him represents Democratic recognition of him as a threat.
“They know that they’re vulnerable. The Democratic machine understands they’ve got weak candidates and a terrible record,” he said in an interview. “They see me as outsider and change agent. The only argument they have — if you can call it an argument — is to endlessly repeat the words Trump and MAGA.”
Outside spending has grown exponentially after a voter-approved 2000 California ballot measure limited how much donors can contribute directly to candidates. For the current election, it’s $78,400 for the primary and the general election in the governor’s race.
But donors can contribute unlimited amounts to outside groups, which are formally called independent expenditure committees. Though such donations were already legal in California, they greatly increased in the state and across the nation after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision that said limits on independent political spending by corporations, unions and other entities violated 1st Amendment free speech protections.
“It has been a steady increase in the amount of money going to outside groups,” said Rick Hasen, a professor of law and political science at UCLA.
In California, independent expenditure groups set a record in 2010 when they spent about $25 million supporting then-gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown. Largely union money, it was spent in the summer after the primary and was viewed as critical to stalling self-funding Republican billionaire Meg Whitman’s campaign. Brown ultimately won the race by 13 percentage points.
In the 2018 gubernatorial primary, records were once again broken by more than $26 million of outside spending, with former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa being the biggest beneficiary. Charter school backers spent nearly $16 million on unsuccessful efforts to boost his campaign.
In addition to an enormous financial advantage over campaign committees, outside groups have the ability to trumpet highly provocative adversarial attacks without the candidate they support being blamed for the often controversial messaging.
“IEs are as free to go as negative as they want without that negativity boomeranging back to hurt the candidate,” said Thad Kousser, a political science professor at UC San Diego.
While communication between candidate campaigns and independent committees is forbidden, these rules are commonly circumvented using legal but obvious methods. One called “red boxing,” which Becerra employed earlier this year, literally puts messages inside red-lined boxes on candidate websites that their campaign strategists would like to see outside groups highlight.
“There are technical rules that prevent certain types of communication, but it’s easy enough to communicate in public and be on the same page on messaging,” Hasen said.
Among the major donors in the 2026 campaign are the California Chamber of Commerce, PG&E, the California Assn. of Realtors, the Laborers Pacific Southwest Regional Organizing Coalition PAC, the Pechanga Band of Indians, the California Nurses Assn., and corporations and leaders or founders of companies such as Meta, Google and Uber.
Californians for the People, an outside committee that has spent nearly $32.3 million opposing Steyer, is the most well-funded independent expenditure committee this year. Among it’s largest donors is JOBSPAC, a group sponsored by the California Chamber of Commerce, that has donated nearly $11.8 million to the effort.
“CalChamber is participating in an independent expenditure campaign because voters deserve to know more about Mr. Steyer,” said John Myers, a spokesman for the chamber. “His policy promises will cost billions, driving investment out of California and worsening the state’s affordability crisis.”
The Pechanga Band of Indians has spent $1.5 million on pro-Becerra efforts.
“Secretary Becerra has stood with Indian Country for decades and understands Tribal sovereignty,” said Pechanga Chairman Mark Macarro. “When tribal healthcare was on the line, he was there. This experience comes from a lifetime of public service, not a checkbook.”
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The Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM), Italy’s antitrust authority, announced on Tuesday that it opened a formal probe into easyJet Airline Company Limited over alleged unfair commercial practices.
The case centres on how the carrier structures and presents baggage fees on its website and mobile app, with the regulator alleging that passengers were routinely given a distorted picture of what they were actually paying.
According to the AGCM, easyJet’s platform set bundled checked baggage and sports equipment for round trips as the automatic default, presenting only an overall average price for the service, even when customers had no intention of purchasing it for both legs of their journey.
The regulator contends that anyone wishing to add luggage for one leg only was forced to interrupt the booking process to override this setting, a step most consumers would be unlikely to notice or navigate.
The investigation will assess whether easyJet’s booking system created unclear pricing conditions and limited consumers’ ability to make fully informed choices.
At the time of writing, easyJet has not publicly commented on the case.
This is not the first time easyJet has appeared before Italian authorities.
In May 2021, the AGCM imposed a €2.8 million fine on the airline alongside Ryanair and Volotea, after all three failed to offer cash reimbursements for flights cancelled when Italy lifted its COVID-19 travel restrictions, issuing vouchers instead.
EasyJet appealed, but the Lazio Regional Administrative Court in Rome rejected the challenge in February 2025.
The AGCM has shown no hesitation in pursuing the sector more broadly.
In December 2025, it fined Ryanair €255 million for abusing its dominant position in air travel to and from Italy.
The Italian authority concluded the carrier had deployed an “elaborate strategy” to obstruct travel agencies from purchasing its flights, including through facial-recognition checks, payment blocks and mass account deletions, a ruling Ryanair immediately vowed to appeal.
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FinVolution Group (FINV) has announced a new share repurchase program, effective from May 30, 2026, that allows the company to buy back up to $150 million in shares, including American Depositary Shares (ADSs), from May 30, 2026, to May 29, 2028.
The U.S. dollar edged lower, as investors tracked shifting developments around a potential Iran deal and the resulting moves in oil prices, which influenced inflation expectations and safe-haven demand.
The dollar index (DXY), which measures the greenback against a
An acquisition is the easiest way for the titan to get a leg up with digital nomads and international customers.
At first glance, it seems an absurd idea: JPMorgan Chase & Co., with its roughly $850 billion market cap, acquiring European unicorn Revolut, a private neobank valued at $75 billion.
Seemingly absurd, yes, but also worth considering, because it underscores the challenge that upstart fintechs pose to traditional banks. JPMorgan has already tested the practicality of building a digital-first banking experience internally. It launched Finn in 2017 as a standalone mobile banking brand aimed at younger users, then shut it down in 2019 after it failed to gain traction.
But the Finn experiment was not a clean rebuttal; it looked more like a legacy institution’s attempt to market around a shifting banking relationship than a fundamental rethink. A Revolut acquisition would give JPMorgan an established entry point into a dynamic new field.
I’m old enough to remember when BlackBerry’s CEO scoffed at Steve Jobs, saying, “You don’t need an app for the web.” We know how that played out. It’s easy to dismiss what doesn’t seem to fit your current moment, and just as easy to miss the next shift when you have the means to act.
JPMorgan doesn’t need Revolut. But the point isn’t survival; it’s trajectory. If banking is moving toward super apps as primary accounts, the question is whether JPMorgan can realistically build that future internally, or whether buying it may be the faster path.
Here are four reasons it could actually make sense:
Ask a senior engineer at Revolut whether JPMorgan could replicate its platform quickly, and you’re likely to get a laugh. Ask JPMorgan’s technology leadership, and you’re likely to hear the opposite.
Both can be true.
By the time JPMorgan was experimenting with the future, Revolut was writing it. The fintech hit 100,000 customers within a year of its funding and scaled to 50 million by the end of 2024. It’s redefining what consumers expect from banking in Europe, and its sights are now set on the U.S. as well. In March, it applied to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation for a U.S. national bank charter.
JPMorgan has the resources to succeed in the era of super-apps. But building a globally integrated, mobile-first platform is as much about organizational culture as it is about technology. Revolut was built for speed, iteration, and cross-border functionality from day one. JPMorgan was built for scale, stability, and regulatory complexity.
As Finn illustrates, those traits are not easily interchangeable.
JPMorgan could buy smaller firms in payments, investing, foreign exchange, or onboarding to assemble its own version of a super app. But stitching together components is not the same as acquiring a scaled, integrated platform with tens of millions of users, unified technology, and talent that lives and breathes a culture built around speed and innovation.
Realistically, an acquisition would require a significant premium over Revolut’s most recent private valuation. But that cuts both ways; JPMorgan would be paying for a scaled operating system, not a collection of disconnected parts.
The difference between the two banks shows up in their approach to competing in Europe. JPMorgan is already expanding its digital retail presence and building out its footprint beyond the U.S. But the approach is incremental.
Revolut is anything but incremental. The company has grown to more than 70 million customers, adding roughly 1 million every 17 days. It provides immediate scale in markets where JPMorgan is still building.
Banks like Banco Santander have spent decades building global retail networks, market by market. For JPMorgan, acquiring Revolut would dramatically shorten that timeline, turning a multi-year expansion into near-instant relevance.
Traditional banking still assumes a static customer: one address, one jurisdiction, one primary market. While that remains true for many customers, it doesn’t justify treating digital nomads and international customers as undeserving, which is exactly what many U.S. banks do.
A growing segment — freelancers, remote workers, and globally mobile professionals — lives across borders. They earn in one currency, spend in another, and expect their financial lives to follow them. Revolut was built specifically for this customer.
JPMorgan, for all its scale, still largely adheres to a domestic model. Acquiring Revolut would instantly position it at the center of a shift already underway: one that legacy banking structures are not designed to support.
Of course, a deal this large would face serious scrutiny in the U.S. and the U.K. Regulators would question systemic risk, governance, the impact on competition, and whether one of the world’s largest banks should absorb one of fintech’s fastest-growing global challengers.
But “difficult” and “impossible” are not synonyms, especially in modern finance, where every few years brings a deal that once seemed unthinkable. If JPMorgan believed the strategic gap was large enough, regulatory friction would become part of the negotiation, not the automatic death of the deal.
It would also send a signal to regulators and policymakers — intentionally or not — that U.S. banking structures may need to loosen if domestic institutions are to compete more effectively on the global stage. Even floating a deal like a JPMorgan/Revolut tie-up would force a conversation the industry needs to have.
No, JPMorgan doesn’t need Revolut. But at some point, it may have to decide whether to write the future of banking or keep refining the version it already dominates.
Cathie Wood’s ARK Investment Management executed a highly active rebalancing strategy for the week ending May 22, 2026. The latest trading data reveals a distinct shift away from certain legacy chipmakers and streaming tech, rotating capital heavily into digital asset infrastructure, next-gen aviation, AI hardware, and
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Ahead of Memorial Day, we want to express appreciation to the brave men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. Seeking Alpha wishes all our subscribers a beautiful holiday weekend and let us remember those who courageously gave
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Oura, the Finnish company that created the ring-shaped health tracker worn by millions worldwide, has confidentially submitted draft paperwork to the US Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed IPO, according to several reports.
While the number of shares and the expected price range remain undisclosed, the company had a recent funding round in the fall of 2025 that valued the business at around $11 billion (€9.5bn), more than double the $5 billion (€4.3bn) valuation it earned in a previous round in 2024.
According to CEO Tom Hale, more than 5.5 million Oura rings had been sold up to the end of last year’s third quarter.
At the time, Hale also projected that the company would reach $2 billion (€1.7bn) in annual revenue in 2026 compared with $500 million (€430mn) just two years ago.
The move towards an IPO puts a European wearable brand on Wall Street’s radar at a time when investor appetite for consumer health technology appears to be returning.
Oura has become a standout name in the fast-growing smart ring category, competing against smartwatch giants such as Apple, Garmin and Samsung, while carving out a niche with a distinct piece of hardware that some consumers find less obtrusive.
Over the past two years, the company has expanded aggressively into software, subscriptions and AI-powered health analysis. Its wearable platform now focuses on long-term health signals including sleep, readiness, heart rate, stress and recovery.
More recently, Oura has pushed further into women’s health and AI-based personal coaching, including tools designed to interpret physiological data and provide tailored wellness recommendations.
Analysts see that transition from device maker to subscripton-based health platform as central to its IPO pitch as the firm is currently on pace to surpass 5 million paid members.
The IPO filing marks a significant moment for one of Europe’s most prominent health tech success stories.
Founded in Finland and developed around research into sleep, recovery and biometric monitoring, Oura has grown from a Nordic hardware start-up into a global player in the wearable market.
However, for Europe’s start-up ecosystem, Oura’s planned listing carries broader significance.
While its roots and design philosophy are deeply tied to Finland, the company recently transitioned to a US-based parent company, named Oura Inc. and headquartered in San Francisco, to access American venture capital while keeping its European operations.
Its decision to prepare for a US listing rather than a European one reflects a wider pattern among high-growth European tech firms seeking deeper capital markets and greater visibility among global investors.
The planned flotation arrives during renewed debate over whether Europe is losing some of its most successful technology companies to US exchanges.
Oura joins a growing list of European-founded businesses choosing Wall Street as their route to public markets, drawn by scale, liquidity and stronger investor familiarity with consumer technology.
The company’s IPO will also be seen as a test of investor sentiment towards wearable technology after a mixed few years for the sector.
Unlike smartwatches, smart rings remain a relatively young category, though interest has accelerated rapidly.
Oura is widely viewed as the segment’s category leader and its public debut could offer a clearer benchmark for how markets value next-generation health hardware combined with software subscriptions and AI services.