The global securities and investment landscape is rapidly being reshaped. Among the challenging market conditions of recent years, institutional investors have turned to resilience-building as their central driver of growth. “The way our clients seek to build resilience varies across businesses, segments, and markets,” says Ee Fong Soh, Group Head of Financial Institutions, Securities & Fiduciary Services, Global Transaction Services, DBS Bank. “Yet we see a common dual objective across the board: the pursuit of diversification paired with an increased focus on asset safety.”
This objective – coupled with technological and regulatory advancements – is driving a monumental shift towards the coexistence and convergence of digital and traditional asset ecosystems. The parallel demand for both asset classes is particularly pronounced in Asia. “Huge leaps in digital asset product optionality are being made alongside growing demand for more traditionally perceived safe asset classes,” explains Soh.
This analogous demand has quickly raised expectations for custodians serving the region. In a recent survey of global financial institutions, 83.8% of respondents in APAC named custody as an institutional priority for digital asset use cases in the next 24 months1. This made custody the leading digital-asset priority in APAC – compared to only the third-ranked priority at the global level.
While digital asset adoption is growing rapidly in Asia, traditional asset classes remain the dominant contributor to institutional portfolios. As such, the best custodians must innovate in both the traditional and digital spaces. Soh notes that DBS has in recent years been working on maintaining a balance of progress in both.
“By pioneering solutions in both digital and traditional asset custody, we’ve empowered clients to create new operational efficiencies and growth possibilities.”
Ee Fong Soh, Group Head of Financial Institutions, Securities & Fiduciary Services, Global Transaction Services, DBS Bank
In traditional assets, infrastructure enhancements across Asia are enabling investors to diversify market access. For DBS, being at the forefront of the relevant advancements has enabled the bank to provide its clients with first-mover advantages. For example, in 2025 it became the first foreign bank to be approved as an RMB clearing bank, and to operate in China’s OTC bond market. Combined with offshore custody services capabilities, DBS’ institutional clients now benefit from a broader and more diverse range of market opportunities.
Beyond opportunity expansion, unlocking efficiency gains for clients has been a long-time priority for DBS. One example in 2025 was the introduction of its ‘One Bank’ model for asset managers, combining both banking and custody solutions in one place.
In digital assets, partnerships have been a critical enabler of opportunities. “Our strategic alliance with Franklin Templeton and Ripple last year set a milestone in expanding optionality to serve clients’ diversification needs,” says Soh. Together, these institutions are introducing innovative trading and lending solutions powered by tokenised money market funds.
Elsewhere, DBS recently became the first Asian bank to offer collateral agent services for crypto trading, enabling both crypto exchanges and their members to boost trading capacity and volumes. It also issued its first tokenised structured notes on a public blockchain, with distribution across multiple digital platforms.
With rising demand at both ends of the asset spectrum, and given the ongoing technological and regulatory changes, custodians must continue to evolve at pace.
Soh sees countless possibilities that could further elevate custodial services in Asia. “One exciting initiative underway at DBS is the establishment and expansion of an ecosystem for physical gold, with both custody and tokenisation,” she explains. In a first for the Singapore market, DBS will tokenise, distribute, and manage physical gold tokens entirely in-house. The bank also has plans to list the token on its DBS Digital Exchange (DDEx) and later expand the service to Hong Kong.
Irrespective of the opportunities and advancements ahead, safety must remain a priority. This should be driven by custodians themselves, with asset safeguarding upheld as a central promise in both the day-to-day and across innovation processes. Trust is a critical foundation, and investors are likely to place greater scrutiny on the track records of custodian partners.
“Prioritising trust and safety will ultimately provide the bedrock that enables resilience building in the blended world of digital and traditional investing,” concludes Soh.
Earnings Call Insights: ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. (ZTO) Q2 2026
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TORONTO — Sherritt International Corporation (“Sherritt” or the “Corporation”) (TSX:S) today responded to the latest tactics of Kyma Capital Limited (“Kyma”) and its purported calling of a special meeting of the shareholders of the Corporation for September 29, 2026.
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Kyma is not entitled to call a meeting of the Corporation’s shareholders and its assertion of setting a September meeting date is inappropriate and invalid given that the Corporation has already set a meeting date of December 15, 2026 for a combined annual and requisitioned special meeting. Sherritt is evaluating all appropriate action to be taken in response to today’s announcement by Kyma.
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Furthermore, Kyma is seeking to initiate court proceedings against the Corporation to try and force a meeting date in September, with an initial case conference set for August 19, yet has proceeded with announcing a September meeting date in total disregard for the court’s process.
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As previously announced, and as communicated to Kyma, the determination of the December 15, 2026 meeting date was informed by, among other considerations, the Corporation’s ongoing discussions regarding the potential transaction contemplated by the non-binding term sheet with Gillon Capital, LLC and the Corporation’s ongoing efforts to engage and present an auditor for appointment at the meeting.
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The ongoing and increasingly aggressive public attacks by Kyma against the Corporation have the potential to jeopardize the very important initiatives underway to navigate the significant challenges that Sherritt is currently facing.
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About Sherritt
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Sherritt is a world leader in using hydrometallurgical processes to mine and refine nickel and cobalt – metals deemed critical for the energy transition. Leveraging its technical expertise and decades of experience in critical minerals processing, Sherritt is committed to expanding domestic refining capacity and reducing reliance on foreign sources. The Corporation operates a strategically important refinery in Alberta, Canada, recognized as the only significant cobalt refinery and one of just three nickel refineries in North America.
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Sherritt’s common shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol “S”.
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Forward-Looking Statements
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Certain statements and other information included in this press release may constitute “forward -looking information” or “forward-looking statements” (collectively, “forward-looking statements”) under applicable securities laws (such statements are often accompanied by words such as “anticipate”, “forecast”, “expect”, “believe”, “may”, “will”, “should”, “estimate”, “intend” or other similar words).
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All statements in this press release, other than those relating to historical information, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, without limitation, statements regarding the actions the Corporation may take in respect of the requisitioned special meeting, the Corporation’s ongoing discussions regarding the potential transaction contemplated by the non-binding term sheet with Gillon Capital, LLC, the Corporation’s efforts to present an auditor for appointment at the combined annual and requisitioned special meeting, the timing of the Corporation’s combined annual and requisitioned special meeting, and the Corporation’s initiatives to address the challenges currently facing the Corporation.
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The Corporation cautions readers of this press release not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statement as a number of factors could cause actual future results, conditions, actions or events to differ materially from the targets, expectations, estimates or intentions expressed in the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, without limitation, continued risks related to Sherritt’s operations in Cuba and future actions taken by the U.S. government toward Cuba, including with respect to the U.S. administration’s May 1, 2026 Executive Order expanding sanctions against Cuba; level of liquidity of Sherritt, including access to capital and financing; the Corporation’s ability to negotiate and finalize a definitive agreement in respect of a recapitalization transaction, including the completion and timing thereof, the terms on which it may be completed and the receipt of all required approvals; the Corporation’s ability to restart its business and restore normal operations, including the ability to obtain restart financing; the risk to or loss of Sherritt’s entitlements to future distributions (including pursuant to the Cobalt Swap) from the Moa JV; the inability of the Corporation to comply with debt restrictions and covenants; the inability of the Corporation to comply with the listing requirements of the Toronto Stock Exchange or another recognized stock exchange; uncertainty in the ability of the Corporation to enforce legal rights in foreign jurisdictions; uncertainty regarding the interpretation and/or application of the applicable laws in foreign jurisdictions; tax risks; political, economic and other risks of foreign operations; security market fluctuations and price volatility; risks related to environmental liabilities including liability for reclamation costs, tailings facility failures and toxic gas releases; compliance with applicable environment, health and safety legislation and other associated matters; risks associated with governmental regulations regarding climate change and greenhouse gas emissions; risks relating to community relations; maintaining social license to grow and operate; risks associated with the operation of large projects generally; the ability to replace depleted mineral reserves; risks associated with the Corporation’s joint venture partners; risks associated with mining, processing and refining activities; reliance on key personnel and skilled workers; risks related to the Corporation’s corporate structure; foreign exchange and pricing risks; credit risks; future market access; interest rate changes; risks in obtaining insurance; uncertainties in labour relations; legal contingencies; risks related to the Corporation’s accounting policies; uncertainty in the ability of the Corporation to obtain government permits; failure to comply with, or changes to, applicable government regulations. The key risks and uncertainties should be considered in conjunction with the risk factors described in the Corporation’s other documents filed with the Canadian securities authorities, including without limitation the “Managing Risk” section of the Management’s Discussion and Analysis for the three months ended March 31, 2026, the “Managing Risk” section of the Management’s Discussion and Analysis for the three months and year ended December 31, 2025 and the Annual Information Form of the Corporation dated March 23, 2026 for the period ending December 31, 2025, each of which is available on SEDAR+ at
Deepening political, social, and cultural ties opens a fertile financial market.
Africa’s position as a corridor for capital, trade, and investment is capturing the attention of Middle Eastern banks.
For decades, the continent was a preserve of Western lenders. Today, most have exited due to stringent regulatory requirements in their home markets, leaving Africa’s homegrown banks to fill the void. But the dynamics are changing again as Gulf banks venture into Africa to exploit deepening ties cutting across political, socio-economic, cultural, and religious spheres.
The influx into Africa is striking. In August, Emirates NBD Bank PJSC made a statement of its determination to control the United Arab Emirates-Egypt corridor by acquiring HSBC Egypt’s retail business. Emirates NBD Group CEO Shayne Nelson called the acquisition an important milestone in the execution of the bank’s regional growth strategy.
“The transaction strengthens our presence and supports our ambition to continue growing our customer franchise,” he said.
Emirates NBD, which boasted $317 billion in assets in 2025, is not the only Middle East bank that is bullish on Africa. First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC (FAB), the biggest in the Middle East-North Africa region by assets at $382.2 billion with a presence in 20 markets including Egypt and Libya, announced earlier this year that it would open its first sub-Saharan representative office in Lagos, and in July said it would be applying for a banking license in South Africa.
Other lenders are strengthening their footing in Africa through targeted investments and collaborative ventures. Among them is Qatar National Bank QPSC (QNB), which controls a 20.1% stake in Ecobank, the leading pan-African bank with a presence in 35 markets. Ecobank posted a $423 million profit before tax in the first half of this year.
Bahrain’s Al Baraka, the UAE’s Mashreq Bank, and Dubai-based Soren Investment Co., which last year purchased a controlling stake of 42.8% in Kenya’s Gulf African Bank, to are also making forays into the continent.
The scramble by Gulf lenders is not a fluke. They see a market awash with opportunities cutting across Islamic banking, international payments, capital flows due to growing trade, foreign direct investment (FDI), and remittances and labor ties.
Bilateral trade between the Middle East and Africa stood most recently at $260 billion, while FDI exceeded $100 billion over the decade from 2012 to 2022. The Gulf Cooperation Council states are also a major source of remittances to Africa. Last year, these amounted to $28.3 billion, dwarfing the $1.1 billion the continent received from the GCC in development assistance.
Another area of opportunity is Islamic finance, cutting across Shariah-compliant banking, bonds, insurance (Takaful), Islamic fintechs, among other businesses. While Africa is home to 600 million Muslims, its contribution to the global pool of Islamic financial services was just $30.7 billion in 2025, or a mere 0.7% of the global total of $4.4 trillion. Even in Senegal, where 94% of the population is Muslim, Islamic banking assets accounted for a mere 8.3% of total banking assets in 2024.
“Islamic finance offers a compelling blueprint for strengthening regional financial resilience and economic integration,” said Suleiman Walhad, president of the Horn of Africa States research group.
John Njiraini is a contributing writer based in Kenya.
Home 
Awards Award Winners Best Treasury and Cash Management Banks 2026 | Middle East
Cloud-native platforms, AI-driven automation, and robust cross-border payment ecosystems are among the innovations transforming the region.
As financial architectures across the Middle East evolve, leading institutions are transforming transaction banking through digital innovation. By integrating AI-driven automation, strong cross-border payment ecosystems, and cloud-native platforms, these banks are enabling corporate treasurers to streamline operations, optimize liquidity, and transition from reactive functionaries to strategic value drivers in an increasingly complex global market.
Best Bank for Transaction Banking
Best Bank for Payments
Best Bank for Collections
FIRST ABU DHABI BANK (FAB)
FABeAccess is a cloud-native, multi-channel hub that uses API banking to embed services into client systems. Through its treasury management services, FAB provides turnkey infrastructure, while its FABePay and eDDS tools automate receivables. FAB’s banking-as-a-service (BaaS) model offers white-labeled solutions for smaller institutions. By integrating blockchain, AI, and data analytics, FAB delivers a secure, high-performance environment with digital tools such as the Sofi AI chatbot and Haifin-UAE Trade Connect for trade finance. Real-time transfers, automated clearing, and dynamic compliance monitoring drive efficiency. The platform’s open banking architecture enables seamless integration, while FABeSCF and DTSCF, its supply chain finance portals, optimize working capital. “As a premier global institution, FAB connects the GCC with European, Asian, and African markets, enabling clients to optimize working capital and maintain a truly integrated global treasury center,” a FAB spokesperson says.
Best Bank for Financial Institutions
KUWAIT FINANCE HOUSE (KFH)
KFH maintains one of the largest lending and placement portfolios among Kuwaiti financial institutions, underpinned by a self-funded model that ensures balance-sheet stability. The bank operates at the intersection of Islamic finance and global correspondent banking, providing expert services to both Islamic and conventional clients. Through a network of about 145 global partners, KFH supports efficient multicurrency clearing and trade settlement across the GCC, MENA, Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Additionally, it is at the forefront of digital payment compliance and connectivity. The bank implemented the Central Bank of Kuwait’s Purpose of Payment requirements early and is actively expanding initiatives to enable faster crossborder payments in corridors such as Egypt and India.
Best Bank for Cash Management
Best Bank for Long-Term Liquidity Management
Best Corporate Cross-Border Payments Solutions
BANK ABC
ABC X, Bank ABC’s unified digital transaction banking platform, “has fundamentally transformed the experience of corporate treasurers,” says Karim Labadi, group head of transaction banking at the Bahrain-headquartered institution. “Historically, treasurers often navigated multiple systems for payments, collections, liquidity management, trade finance, and reporting, resulting in fragmented workflows, duplicated data entry, and increased operational risk.” With a single-window platform supported by single sign-on, ABC X provides treasurers with a consolidated view of cash positions, trade transactions, payment status, and liquidity across entities, geographies, and currencies. “This significantly improves visibility, control, and decisionmaking,” says Labadi, who sees a shift across MENA and Turkey toward a “continuous treasury” model.
Best Provider of Short-Term
Investments/Money Market Funds
BANQUE MISR
Launched in 2004, Banque Misr’s Yom B Yom (everyday) EGP Money Market Fund has become Egypt’s premier shortterm investment vehicle, commanding a 22% market share and holding EGP 36.5 billion (about $730 million) in assets as of March. The fund uses sophisticated digital infrastructure to maintain precise daily net asset values, employing automated, real-time synchronization and error-correction protocols. Underpinned by strong performance, the fund posted a 12-month annualized return of 21% through March, significantly outpacing industry benchmarks and driving a 34% increase in assets under management in 2025.
Related: Q&A With OCBC Bank, World’s Best Consumer Bank
Published on •Updated
Government borrowing costs are surging on both sides of the Atlantic.
Long-term bond yields across Europe’s biggest economies hit multi-year highs on Tuesday, while the yield on 30-year US Treasuries rose to its highest level in nearly two decades.
The sell-off came as hopes of a swift resolution to the Iran conflict faded, pushing oil prices higher and renewing concerns about persistent inflation. International benchmark Brent crude traded at nearly $91 a barrel on Tuesday morning amid heightened tensions in the Middle East.
“The breakdown in US-Iran peace talks has increased the risk that energy prices remain elevated for the rest of the year, which could keep inflation higher than expected and increase the chance of central banks raising rates,” Richard Carter, head of fixed interest research at Quilter Cheviot, told Euronews Business.
Investors are increasingly betting on tighter monetary policy in the eurozone, with the ECB deposit rate expected to reach 2.76% by March 2027, up from 2.25% currently.
According to Trading Economics, investors see a 90% probability of a September rate hike by the European Central Bank (ECB).
At the same time, in the US, the 30-year Treasury yield reached 5.33%, a level not seen since 2007. In the UK, the 30-year gilt traded at 5.85% — its highest level since May 2026.
As government bonds came under renewed selling pressure globally, France’s 10-year bond yield rose to 4.10% on Tuesday morning, its highest level since June 2009.
Germany’s 10-year Bund yield, the benchmark for the eurozone, climbed above 3.25%, reaching its highest level since March 2011.
France’s 30-year bond yield reached its highest level since 2008, amid a global bond sell-off and growing concern about the country’s 2027 budget negotiations and next year’s presidential election. Germany’s 30-year bond yield rose to 3.78%, its highest level in 15 years.
Rising long-dated bond yields are not driven solely by expectations of higher interest rates and inflation fears.
“Investors are concerned about the scale of borrowing in major economies including the UK, France and Japan,” Carter continued, adding that “significant volumes of AI-related bond issuance have also added to supply, creating further pressure on prices and pushing yields higher.
Higher borrowing costs put pressure on economies and raise financing costs across a range of investments.
As government debt offices constantly raise money through bond markets, the effect of the jump in yields will gradually feed into their borrowing costs as they refinance maturing debt.
Italy is expected to refinance maturing debt equivalent to 17% of GDP in 2026, according to S&P Global Ratings, compared with 12% for France and 7% each for Germany and the UK.
For now, bond markets are likely to remain sensitive to developments in both geopolitics and economic data,” Carter said.
He added that bonds remain attractive to investors because yields are historically high and comfortably exceed inflation, offering a positive return after price rises are taken into account.
Published on
The Nasdaq announced it will begin trading US stocks for nearly 23 hours a day from Sunday 6 December onwards.
The move, still subject to SEC approval, means Nasdaq’s trading day will stretch from Sunday evening to Friday evening with barely a pause.
For European investors, the new window of 9pm to 4am ET will be 3am to 10am CET, meaning Europeans could be trading Nasdaq-listed stocks for almost an entire session before London opens.
Nasdaq already runs extended sessions from 4am to 9:30am, called pre-market session, and 4pm to 8pm ET, named after-hours session, around its core 9:30am to 4pm hours, but access to that early and late trading has largely been exclusive to institutional investors with direct market connections.
Nasdaq president Tal Cohen has framed the expansion as a way to “broaden investor access and expand wealth-building opportunities” for everyone else.
The pitch is also backed by numbers as foreign holdings of US equities reached $17 trillion (€14.6tn) by mid-2024, up 97% since 2019, a surge Nasdaq wants to capture directly rather than cede to platforms already open around the clock.
Traditional exchanges have been under mounting pressure to broaden access and increase available hours.
Geopolitical shocks under the Trump administration have repeatedly landed when Wall Street was shut, most notably when US and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites were announced on a Saturday morning in February, forcing traders onto crypto exchanges and decentralised platforms to price oil, gold and silver in real time.
Those venues, along with newer tools such as tokenised real-world assets, which are digital tokens representing ownership of stocks, bonds or commodities, and perpetual futures contracts that let investors bet on an asset’s price with no expiry date, have shown that demand for round-the-clock trading does not wait for exchanges to open.
Nasdaq is also not moving alone.
Rival NYSE has already won SEC approval for a 22-hour day running from 1:30am to 11:30pm ET, while Cboe, the largest exchange for options contracts in the US, has outlined similar ambitions.
Nasdaq first signalled its own intent to go nearly continuous back in March with this week’s announcement filling in the details.
The new evening session serves as the first concrete building block, opening the market for nearly 23 hours in a five-day trading week, as the exchange ultimately wants to offer 24/7 trading.
The central bank poured cold water on the claim that stablecoin can make cross-border remittances cheaper.
A new study from Italy’s central bank challenges one of the crypto industry’s biggest selling points: that stablecoins can make cross-border remittances cheaper and faster than traditional payment networks.
Banca d’Italia’s research examined remittance corridors involving Italy, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, and Japan, comparing USDC transfers against established money transfer services. Its conclusion was sobering.
Stablecoin transfers showed no systematic cost advantage, with total costs ranging between 0.3% and nearly 9%, meaning digital-dollar transfers were sometimes more expensive than conventional remittance providers.
Payment industry veterans addressed the findings, highlighting a critical distinction often overlooked in discussions about digital money: the difference between low-cost blockchain settlement and the expensive legacy networks surrounding it.
“The [central bank’s] test was fundamentally flawed,” said Daniela Sozzi, founder of London-based fintech strategy firm DNYC.
Why? Because of the relatively small transaction size used by the study’s authors ($200). In an email to Global Finance, Sozzi explained that the use of stablecoins is economically advantageous only for sums of at least $100,000. These are still relatively small compared to “traditional” wholesale transactions using traditional correspondent banking services, such as $1 million and above, she pointed out.
“So, stablecoins are cheaper for certain types of transactions, not universally cheaper,” said Sozzi.
But that $200 threshold isn’t arbitrary — it’s the standard transaction size the World Bank uses to benchmark its Remittance Prices Worldwide index, which put the global average cost of sending money through traditional channels at 6.36% in the third quarter of 2025.
The index of major international money-transfer operators, such as Western Union, came in at 5.52% — squarely inside the 0.3% to 9% range the Italian central bank found for stablecoins, underscoring Sozzi’s point that at this size, the two systems are comparable.
Still, Banca d’Italia’s findings track with a broader body of research on stablecoin remittances. A BIS paper published in March scrutinized how cross-border payments, “particularly remittances and retail transactions, remain more costly, slower, less accessible, and less transparent than domestic payments.”
Rather than viewing the report as a rejection of digital money, payment industry experts say the findings point to a broader structural issue: while settlement on the blockchain is fast and cheap, moving money into and out of legacy networks remains costly.
These expensive friction points stem from legacy bank networks, explained Alexander Taskey, CEO of global settlements platform Frame.
“Much of the cost around stablecoins comes from on- and off-ramping, since that requires moving in and out of legacy payments infrastructure,” Taskey wrote in an email to Global Finance.
London-based Frame operates as a programmable settlement layer, enabling financial institutions to orchestrate and route funds across both legacy banking rails and on-chain networks.
“Once funds are on blockchain rails, the cost of transacting collapses to near zero,” Taskey added.
Pankaj Bengani, founder and CEO of payments infrastructure company Meld, said that the friction lies at the edges. “The cost on the blockchain is not the issue. Once the fiat — whether it’s euro or U.S. dollar — is on the blockchain, the costs are very, very low. All the cost is baked into the on- and off-ramps.”
Because of this, both executives agree that judging stablecoins solely on current consumer remittance pricing misses the broader trajectory of payment rails.
Bengani likens today’s stablecoin ecosystem to the early days of global container shipping, where efficiency gains only materialized after shipping ports and logistics networks matured. Similarly, Frame’s Taskey said that end-user priorities will ultimately drive how these backend systems evolve.
“Ultimately, customers don’t care which rails are being used,” Taskey added. “They simply want payments that are cheaper, faster, and more secure.”
While consumer remittances in developed corridors like Europe and the U.S. remain highly optimized via traditional rails, stablecoins are finding immediate traction where traditional systems fall short — such as high-fee corridors or markets with volatile local currencies where businesses and consumers prefer holding USD balances.
Looking five years ahead, industry leaders see stablecoins operating not as a total replacement for traditional banking, but as one part of a larger, hybrid settlement architecture.
“Five years from now, I expect stablecoins to coexist alongside legacy fiat rails as one option among many,” said Taskey. “The challenge for banks will be tying it all together and consolidating fragmentation into a single, interoperable platform.”
For now, the Banca d’Italia’s findings serve as a reminder that while blockchain technology offers near-frictionless settlement, the global financial infrastructure built around it still has significant ground to cover.
Anthony Noto covers corporate finance and private credit. Contact him at anoto@gfmag.com.
Earnings Call Insights: Fabrinet (FN) Q4 fiscal 2026
Seeking Alpha’s Disclaimer: This article was automatically generated by an AI tool based on content available on the Seeking Alpha website, and has not been curated or reviewed by humans. Due to inherent limitations in using AI-based tools, the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of such articles cannot be guaranteed. This article is intended for informational purposes only. Seeking Alpha does not take account of your objectives or your financial situation and does not offer any personalized investment advice. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank.
How Luca Ferrari’s permanent-capital model is transforming distressed digital brands.
Is it a private equity group with a twist? An “emergency room for critically injured tech companies,” as it was described by the Financial Times? Or is it simply a modern tech conglomerate?
How do you categorize a company that buys aging technology and digital brands—brand names like AOL, Vimeo, Eventbrite, WeTransfer, and more recently, Airtable—far below their peak value, overhauls and radically transforms them with a drastic turnaround, and then keeps them under the same umbrella to invest their profits in new acquisitions?
What it is, is a buy-and-hold investment and management company.
Bending Spoons SpA, an Italian company created in 2013 and recently listed on the Nasdaq, raised $1.68 billion with a total valuation of $18.4 billion and a current market value of $23 billion, and marked a 40% pop on its trading debut. For the second quarter, it reported $704 million in revenue and $177 million in net income, up 126% and 171%, respectively, from the second quarter of 2025.
It follows a highly unusual business model: buying distressed tech companies—or tattered internet businesses—at relatively low valuations, fixing them up through layoffs and reorganization, and then holding them rather than spinning them off or selling them separately to the market, as private equity groups typically do.
Bending Spoons has executed this strategy some 50 times since its creation. Funding for its activities comes from debt and from the profits of the acquired companies: the same ones it bought at low valuations, with seemingly no competition to acquire the brand.
All this was achieved as revenues increased fourfold from $387 million in 2023 to $1.3 billion last year, during which period it made 70% of its acquisitions. Ownership’s financial goal is an annualized return of 25% on invested capital, built on operational earnings alone rather than divestments, synergies between different acquisitions, or headcount reductions.
Meanwhile, debt, which financed 70% of the acquisitions that Bending Spoons made in the first quarter of this year, continues to pile up. In the last reported quarter, total debt was more than four times annualized EBITDA: hovering, in other words, between $4.3 billion and $4.4 billion, with a net debt of nearly $3.7 billion. The Canadian company Constellation Software Inc. has a similar business model, but carries less debt on its books, while Barry Diller’s People Inc.—formerly IAC Inc.—has followed a similar business model.
Luca Ferrari, CEO and one of four co-founders of Bending Spoons, described the model as a “deep transformation” because the acquired brands do not just go through layoffs but undergo radical structural reconstruction. The company’s name, an homage to the movie The Matrix, reflects the founders’ belief that mindset can transform reality, fueling their goal to achieve milestones that others might deem impossible.
In the prospectus for its Nasdaq listing, Bending Spoons mentions 1,000 potential targets. Its latest acquisition, announced this month, is Airtable, a “collaborative work management” software company, for $1.29 billion in cash. That represents a nearly 90% discount over Airtable’s highest valuation in 2021.
“The thesis of what we do,” Ferrari said, “is to integrate these companies very deeply onto our platform and rebuild them almost from the ground up: the technology, the product, the monetization, and big parts of the team. If we don’t see that we can make a big difference, we don’t expect to be able to make an appealing offer.”
Bending Spoons is not really a tech company, said Chelsea Michelle, founder of Elevated Business Advisors, who advises founders and family offices on capital strategy and acquisitions: “It is a permanent-capital operator wearing a tech wrapper, and the refusal to sell is the most important line in the model.
“Traditional private equity must manage every acquisition toward an exit multiple, which means dressing assets up for the next buyer. When you never plan to sell, you can optimize purely for cash generation and ignore the story entirely. That is a structural advantage, not a stylistic one.
“The model works because aging digital brands are systematically mispriced; sellers value them on declining top-line while a buyer at Bending Spoons’ scale values durable user bases that cost almost nothing to serve. The real risk is not the buying; it is the integrating. Most acquisitions fail to deliver expected value, and a serial acquirer that holds everything forever has nowhere to hide a bad integration. The integration discipline, not their deal flow, is what investors should watch after the Nasdaq listing.”
In a recent article in Barron’s, Henry Ellenbogen, CIO and managing partner of Durable Capital Partners and an investor in Bending Spoons before the IPO, pointed out an interesting angle on the company’s performance.
“When we first invested, Bending Spoons was making under $500,000 of EBITDA per Spooner, or employee,” he wrote. “Today, EBITDA is more than $1 million per Spooner. That speaks to the investment the company is making in the technology businesses it buys.
“Bending Spoons is centralized. Evernote [a company it acquired in 2023] has fewer than 20 people at the application level. We believe Bending Spoons’ revenue and EBITDA per employee will continue to compound, allowing the company to drive better organic growth and strong operating leverage. The market’s concern about software companies should allow management to buy higher-quality companies that fit its model at attractive prices.”
Currently, only 9% of shares in the company are available for trading, and the owners control the rest with a dual-class share mechanism.
On Wall Street these days, Bending Spoons’ stock gets four hold recommendations from analysts, one overweight, and six buy, but most of the banks it works with were involved in the IPO. Job applications are also strong; 99.9% of the 800,000 applicants for jobs as Spooners—the people running the acquired companies—were rejected.
Beyond the optimism about the stock’s performance and the company’s unusual business model, the future of Bending Spoons is tied to its long-term performance rather than its short- and medium-term performance, and whether its business model can and will be replicated. Time will tell.
Andrea Fiano is the editor-at-large. Contact him at afiano@gfmag.com.
Home Awards Award Winners Best Treasury and Cash Management Banks 2026 | North America
The latest technology is helping North America’s top banks set the standard for treasury and cash management performance.
As treasury markets evolve, leading financial institutions are reshaping how corporate clients manage liquidity and payments. From integrating programmable digital ledgers and AI-enhanced receivables processing to developing sophisticated cross-border payment ecosystems, banks are providing treasurers unprecedented visibility, automation, and control. Through strategic advancements and core competencies, leading North American banks are setting the standard for treasury and cash management performance.
Best Bank for Transaction Banking
BMO
Moving commercial bank funds onto a programmable digital ledger could make intraday liquidity management more responsive, transparent, and precise for corporate clients, says Derek Vernon, head of North American Treasury and Payment Solutions at BMO. “The idea is that liquidity and payment instructions become more connected and automated,” he says, “giving clients the ability to move and manage liquidity as their obligations arise.” This allows them to operate in line with business needs, unconstrained by traditional business hours and settlement windows. “For BMO, building out our tokenization capabilities is an opportunity to continue evolving and modernizing our treasury and cash management services for clients in a world where markets are becoming more always-on, continuous, and data-driven.”
Best Bank for Cash Management
Best Bank for Collections
WELLS FARGO
By unifying collections, reporting, and reconciliation support, Wells Fargo enables clients to optimize working capital performance while strengthening governance and controls. “As treasurers face growing pressure to improve liquidity, working capital, and cash visibility,” says Ather Williams III, head of Global Payments & Liquidity and Wholesale Digital, “we’re focused on leveraging AI and machine learning in practical ways that simplify complex workflows and deliver measurable value for clients. Through integrated receivables, Wells Fargo uses AI and machine learning to capture and reassociate payment and remittance data, match payments to invoices, and automate cash application, helping clients accelerate the payment-to-posting cycle.”
Best Bank for Financial Institutions
Best Bank for Payments
Best Provider of Short-Term
Investments/Money Market Funds
BNY
As clients modernize their payments infrastructure, many want access to new capabilities without having to replace existing systems, notes Isabel Schmidt, executive platform owner at BNY’s Payments Enablement Platform. “BNY’s shared infrastructure model, built on a modern technology stack and enabled through open APIs, helps make that transition easier by allowing clients to connect to real-time payment rails while continuing to leverage their legacy environments,” she says. Because BNY’s platform is designed to integrate flexibly across a range of legacy and emerging payment infrastructures, clients can adopt innovation in a more modular way.
Best Bank for Long-Term Liquidity Management
BANK OF AMERICA
Bank of America’s CashPro Forecasting transforms manual treasury tasks into faster, more collaborative processes. The tool features long-term liquidity dashboards that allow treasurers to monitor yields, credit-rating concentrations, and ESG-aligned investment compliance across global subsidiaries via a single interface. For long-term surplus cash that requires customized mandate restrictions, such as investing strictly in short-term U.S. Treasuries, high-grade commercial paper, or specific corporate bonds, BofA Securities structures premium separately managed accounts tailored to the corporate client’s board-approved investment policy statements.
Best Corporate Cross-Border Payments Solutions
CITI SERVICES
With clearing systems in more than 90 countries, Citi minimizes reliance on correspondent bank chains. When executing crossborder payments, the bank routes transactions through its local branch network to mitigate third-party risk.
Home Awards Award Winners Best Treasury and Cash Management Banks 2026 | Western Europe
Unified digital interfaces and sophisticated cross-border architectures are making silos a thing of the past.
European financial institutions are changing to meet corporate demands for AI-driven automation and real-time liquidity management. By deploying unified digital interfaces and sophisticated cross-border architectures, banks are dismantling silos to provide treasurers with centralized, insight-led control hubs. Today’s Western European leaders are driving this transformation through streamlined, resilient, client-centric operations.
Best Bank for Transaction Banking
Best Bank for Cash Management
Best Bank for Financial Institutions
SOCIETE GENERALE
SG Markets, Societe Generale’s suite of electronic market, financing, and cash management services, is the bank’s answer to the growing corporate demand for a central control tower to manage transaction banking. “We have seen the emergence in recent years of a clear expectation among corporate treasurers for a true ‘cockpit’ that enables them to steer all their transaction banking activities from a single place,” says Benoite Armand-Pieyre, global head of payments and cash management at Societe Generale. SG Markets eliminates silos between cash management, trade, and foreign exchange.
Best Bank for Long-Term Liquidity Management
BNP PARIBAS
As the eurozone’s largest banking group, BNP Paribas is a primary anchor for multientity, long-term liquidity concentration across Europe. The bank provides sophisticated, multijurisdictional liquidity architectures and specializes in implementing complex corporate in-house banking models and multicurrency notional pooling platforms. BNP Paribas excels at enabling multinational corporations to structurally aggregate cash within Western Europe’s fragmented regulatory landscape without physical fund transfers, thereby reducing cross-border friction and intercompany tax liabilities.
Best Bank for Payments
Best Bank for Collections
ING
Cash forecasting is the most logical use case for AI and hyper-automation in corporate treasury, argues Annelinda Koldewe, global head, payments and cash management at ING. “Applying these technologies,” she says, “treasurers and treasury processes could move from statistical forecasts toward more continuous, dynamic forecasts based on incoming transactions, market signals, and behavioral patterns.”
Best Corporate Cross-Border Payments Solutions
HSBC
HSBC Global Payments Solutions (GPS) enables CFOs to manage multicurrency cash flows across Asia, the Americas, and Europe as a single, connected liquidity position on a single, globally consistent platform. According to Ouannessa Aissaoui, head of GPS for HSBC Continental Europe, “Our platform provides real-time visibility into balances and intraday movements across entities and markets, supports cross-border and multicurrency payments with standardized approval workflows—entitlements, controls, and audit trails—and provides tools to centralize cash globally to reduce fragmentation and trapped balances.”
Best Provider of Short-Term
Investments/Money Market Funds
AMUNDI ASSET MANAGEMENT
Paris-based Amundi is Europe’s largest native asset manager and a top brand for fund selectors in core continental European markets such as France and Italy, offering a domestic alternative to the U.S. giants. Amundi’s large independent internal credit risk team operates separately from its portfolio managers. The unit conducts thorough baseline assessments of European commercial paper, bank certificates of deposit, and sovereign bills before any capital is deployed.
IT’S easy to spend a crazy amount of money on holidays. But it doesn’t have to be that way – you just have to know where to look.
Luckily, we’ve done all the hard work for you. Forget paying hundreds of pounds just to fight over sunbeds in overpriced resorts like Ibiza and Mykonos – THIS is where to go instead.
We’ve found holiday destinations that give you the same glorious sunshine, golden sand beaches and gorgeous hotels for much, much less.
Think 86p beers, £3 cocktails, flights under 15 quid and entire holidays for the cost of a family meal out.
From dirt-cheap Portugal holidays to five-star Turkish getaways, here’s the foreign holiday destinations where your cash stretches the furthest.
Brits looking for maximum bang for their buck this summer should set their sights on The Algarve.
This golden section of Portuguese coastline was crowned Europe’s best-value beach destination in the 2026 Post Office Family Holiday report.
The report compared a list of common holiday costs in 22 European destinations, looking at the price of things like meals out, drinks and everyday holiday items – and The Algarve came out on top.
This cheap holiday hotspot boasts affordable family-friendly hotels plus plenty of cheap flights from airports across the UK.
You can book a flight to Faro for only £14.99 each way with Ryanair, from airports such as Liverpool, Edinburgh and London Stansted.
And according to Wise’s Cost of Living report, a meal out for two here can cost as little as £8.55, while a beer can cost you as little as 86p.
The destination boasts dramatic cliff-backed beaches perfect for exploring by kayak or paddle-board, such as Praia da Marinha with its famous limestone arches, and Benagil Beach with a circular ‘hole in the roof’ cave.
Whether you’re planning to hit the strip in bustling Albufeira or sip cheap coffees in charming coastal towns, your spending money will stretch miles further in this Portuguese region.
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Golden Club Cabanas in Tavira has a giant outdoor pool lined by palm trees that looks like a tropical oasis.
Here you’re close to the Ria Formosa natural park, where you can go kayaking, bird-watching over the salt marshes, or simply find a beach bar to enjoy a cocktail with a view.
We found a seven night self-catering stay from September 19, with return flights from London Stansted, for £195pp.
Holidays to Turkey are looking remarkably cheap this summer, hitting rock-bottom prices that almost look too good to be true.
The good news is, they’re not – and there’s good reason as to why holidays to Turkey are currently so cheap.
The Sun’s Head of Travel, Lisa Minot, said: “There’s never been a better time to grab a bargain break to Turkey.
“With uncertainty over the Middle East conflict, holidaymakers have been looking at the Western Med over the Eastern Mediterranean destinations like Turkey, Cyprus and Egypt.
“But everything is operating normally in all three countries – Foreign Office travel advice has not changed and it is perfectly safe to visit.
“But the reticence of some has led to a fall in demand and with that, prices have started tumbling too.
“On the ground, everything remains the same – only the prices you’ll pay are very attractive as hoteliers and tour operators tempt us to travel.
“With beautiful Mediterranean coastal resorts offering great value, now is the time to grab yourself a sunshine bargain.”
Key spots on the Turkish Riviera that balance bargain prices with beautiful views include Marmaris, with its long seafront promenade, and Bodrum, often dubbed the St Tropez of Turkey.
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The Solivia Hotel is a sprawling five-star property in Antalya, with a Blue Flag private beach and four swimming pools.
The food and drink is all inclusive done right. There’s an extensive buffet in the main restaurant, plus a beach snack bar, pool bar, unlimited ice cream hour and Turkish coffee on tap.
Book a seven-night, all-inclusive stay at the five-star Solivia Hotel, with return flights from London Luton, from £555pp.
89p beers, £279 all inclusive holidays and flights under £15 – how could you go wrong?
Bulgaria is one of the most budget-friendly holiday options out there for Brits, and the Bourgas Area was even named the cheapest all inclusive holiday destination in 2026 by Travel Supermarket.
Furthermore, the country continues to appear year after year as a top affordable destination for families in the Post Office Family Holiday Report.
Plus, according to data from Wise, a meal out at an inexpensive restaurant averages £8.82, a cappuccino just 88p, and a beer as little as 89p.
You can even find cheap flights to spots like Plovdiv, Sofia and Burgas from £18 each way on Skyscanner.
Now you know just how cheap this holiday hotspot is – where abouts should you actually stay?
Sunny Beach continues to reign as one of the most affordable spots, with bargain waterparks and hotels, plus a nightlife scene where prices have barely budged.
But there’s a lot more to Bulgaria than Sunny Beach.
If you want a quieter beach break, Sozopol’s golden sands and wooden townhouses offer a far more relaxed feel than Sunny Beach – without bumping up the price tag.
Just 15 minutes outside of Sunny Beach, Nessebar boasts a UNESCO-protected old town with cobbled streets and ancient ruins, plus romantic cliffside dining where meals cost a fraction of Mediterranean prices.
Prefer a city break? Sofia and Plovdiv are excellent choices. Sofia boasts dirt-cheap metro rides, grand architecture, and bargain nightlife, while Plovdiv’s trendy Kapana district lets you sip 88p coffees surrounded by ancient Roman ruins.
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The Sunny Day Club hotel is an ideal spot for families, sitting in a quieter, northern patch of Sunny Beach.
The buzzy bars, shops and restaurants of Sunny Beach are just a short bus ride away, with a convenient bus stop directly outside the hotel.
Book a seven-night, room-only stay at Sunny Day Club from September 17, with return flights from London Luton, from £179pp.
If you’re craving vibey beach clubs, cheap cocktails, white sands and glimmering turquoise waters – Albania‘s your best bet.
This underrated holiday destination has jaw-dropping coastlines, dirt-cheap drinks, and a five-star feel without the price tag.
And it’s worth booking yourself a holiday here before too many people catch on, too.
Ksamil has even been called the “Maldives of Europe” thanks to its powdery white sands, crystal-clear lagoons, and plush beach clubs.
Another affordable spot is Durres, which is packed with boujee beach clubs and bars.
Head to Sunset Bar for front-row seats to the Adriatic coast and cocktails for a dirt-cheap 300 LEK (£2.75).
Here you can kick back on plush striped sofas, sip a cocktail, and soak in the legendary local sunsets.
Another cheap cocktail bar that actually feels high-end is Illyrian Garden, which has a 360-degree rooftop garden serving drinks from 500 LEK (£4.60).
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The 5-star Royal G Max hotel has a private stretch of soft sand beach, a large spa with a sauna and hot tub, plus several swimming pools.
If you like a sun lounger holiday where you can lazily drift between the pool and the sea in a glamorous setting, this is it.
Book a seven-night, all-inclusive stay at Royal G Max from October 13, with return flights from London Luton, from £449pp.
Agadir bagged the top spot as the cheapest destination for a seven-night summer holiday in 2026, according to research from Loveholidays.
The holiday booking site analysed package deals running between June 1 and August 31, with the Moroccan hotspot coming out on top.
According to their booking data, week-long holidays here averaged just £230 per person for a week away.
Agadir is a sunshine-drenched resort guaranteeing year-round heat, plus a six-mile stretch of beach and a vibrant old town bustling with colourful souks.
It’ s an extraordinarily cheap option thanks to plenty of budget airline routes and affordable package holiday deals from sites like Loveholidays and On the Beach.
Plus you can book a flight to Agadir from as little as £20.99 each way with Ryanair.
On top of wallet-friendly flights and accommodation, Morocco’s low local cost of living means dining out, watersports, and day trips can cost a fraction of the price compared to traditional European hotspots.
The average price of a meal out at an inexpensive restaurant here, according to Wise, is only £3.99.
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For a stress-free family getaway, stay in an apartment at the Appart Hotel Igoudar.
Enjoy a spacious apartment with a well-stocked kitchenette and private terrace, and spend days soaking up the sun on a lounger and taking dips in the outdoor pool.
The building is a beautiful example of Moorish architecture and makes for both a relaxing and authentic Moroccan stay.
Loveholidays offer a five-night, room-only stay at the Appart Hotel Igoudar from September 27, including return flights from London Stansted, for £129pp.
Spain‘s Costa Blanca remains a reliably cheap option for a sunny holiday abroad – plus the quick and easy 2.5 hour flight goes by in a flash.
Spots like Torrevieja and Guardamar del Segura are traditional Spanish towns where costs stay low.
Guardamar has a 6.8 mile-long, white sand beach, while Torrevieja is home to bubblegum-pink salt lakes like the Laguna Rosa and Blue Flag beaches like the palm-lined stretch of Los Naufragos.
But it wouldn’t be the Costa Blanca without Benidorm, which continues to reign as the final boss of budget breaks.
Holiday Expert Rob Brooks ranks Benidorm among the top destinations for Brits to bag a cheap holiday – and a cheap beer, too.
He said: “If there’s one destination refusing to let the £1 pint disappear quietly, it’s Benidorm.
“People love to moan that the strip isn’t as cheap as it used to be, and to be fair, they’re almost right.
“But every time I go looking for a proper value holiday, Benidorm still cleans up – and there’s one legendary venue everyone mentions: Uncle Ron’s.
“They’re famously flying the flag for the €1 pint long after everyone else moved on, making it the ultimate first pitstop to prove the old-school Benidorm spirit is alive and kicking.”
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What kid would say no to a pirate island-themed mega resort in sunny Spain?
The Magic Pirates Island Resort in Benidorm has a mega kids pool called Battleship Lagoon, with play boats and jets, plus more relaxed pools for grown-ups with hot tubs and Balinese beds.
Best of all, a stay here gives you free unlimited entry to the Aqua Natura waterpark right next door, as well as free access to Terra Natura Zoo.
Book a five night stay with breakfast from October 10, including return flights from London Luton, for £287pp. (Kids stay free – restrictions apply).
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Two pieces of data collided in Tokyo within hours of each other.
Bond investors pushed the 10-year Japanese government bond yield to a three-decade high before the government reported that growth had come in at barely half the pace economists had forecast, a pairing that says a great deal about what is really driving Japan’s markets right now.
The economy expanded at an annualised rate of 1.1% in the second quarter, Cabinet Office data showed, well below the 2.0% forecast and down from a downwardly revised 1.9% pace in the first quarter.
Quarter on quarter, GDP rose just 0.3% against a forecast of 0.5%, marking a third consecutive expansion. Private consumption was flat, and capital expenditure fell 1.2%, while net exports, helped by the weak yen, added 0.5 percentage points to growth.
The 10-year JGB yield touched 2.93% earlier in the day, its highest level since September 1996, before easing slightly once the GDP figures landed.
The gap between weak growth and rising bond yields helps explain what is moving Japanese bonds now: not growth, but inflation and the currency.
The GDP deflator rose 2.6% year on year, and traders are increasingly betting that the Bank of Japan will raise its policy rate, currently at 1% and already a three-decade high, as soon as September to contain inflation and support the yen.
The yen slid to 163.73 per US dollar in late July, its weakest level in roughly four decades, prompting Japan and the US to carry out their first joint currency intervention since 2011.
Japan deployed an estimated $85 billion (€73.3bn) in the first two days alone, while the US intervention was much smaller, according to Goldman Sachs.
The operation pushed the yen back to around 159 per US dollar.
There is currently a wide gap between Japanese and US interest rates, with the Federal Reserve’s benchmark rate still at 3.50% to 3.75%. The Bank of Japan’s September meeting is being watched as the next test of whether the currency’s recovery can hold.
Japan’s bond market matters well beyond Tokyo because of the yen carry trade, in which investors borrow cheaply in yen to fund purchases of higher-yielding assets abroad, from US Treasuries to emerging-market debt.
Rising Japanese yields erode that trade’s profitability and can force rapid unwinding, as it happened in August 2024, when a Bank of Japan rate rise combined with weak US jobs data sent the Nikkei down more than 12% in a single session and knocked roughly 3% off the S&P 500.
With JGB yields at three-decade highs and further tightening still expected, analysts say the conditions for a similar shock have not disappeared.
Nvidia has recruited Wall Street to bankroll its own customers.
The US chipmaker said last week it had signed memorandums of understanding with Wall Street’s largest asset managers, including Apollo Global Management, Blackstone, BlackRock, Brookfield Asset Management, Goldman Sachs and KKR to raise upwards of half a trillion dollars for AI companies to borrow against, money that will buy its chips and build the servers that run them.
The six firms will set up what Nvidia calls “compute financing platforms,” drawing on institutional money, insurance funds and private credit. Borrowers can use the proceeds for the chips as well as servers, networking equipment, buildings and power supply.
Nvidia has the option to guarantee up to a quarter of any given deal, which lowers the interest rate its customers pay while leaving most of the credit risk with the lenders.
CEO Jensen Huang said he approached only these six companies and none refused.
Keeping that spending off their own books is precisely the point, and the fact that such a structure is needed at all tells investors a great deal about where the constraints in the AI boom now lie.
The financial engineering rests on a single reclassification. Graphics processing units (GPUs) have always been treated as equipment that loses value quickly, superseded whenever a faster generation arrives.
Nvidia is effectively asking lenders to treat them instead as long-lived infrastructure, closer to a toll road or a power plant, that can be borrowed against for years.
“These are revenue-generating assets now,” Huang said, describing them as productive, long-lived and transferable between customers.
The timing reflects a squeeze that has been building all year.
Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and other hyperscalers whose cloud platforms host most of the world’s AI workloads have together guided roughly $720 billion (€624bn) to $745 billion (€646bn) of capital spending in 2026, an increase of about 77% on last year.
What analysts expect the hyperscalers to spend in 2027 alone has more than doubled in the space of a year, from a consensus of $480 billion (€416bn) in August 2025 to $1.08 trillion (€943bn) this month, a rise of about 127%, according to Bank of America.
The pattern has repeated at every stage.
Analysts who already considered last year’s investment unsustainable then watched the hyperscalers guide higher at the start of 2026, revise those figures upward again through the year, and pencil in larger sums still for next year and 2028.
Moody’s has warned that spending on this scale is eating into free cash flow and pushing tech groups into heavier borrowing. Alphabet recorded negative free cash flow of $5.9 billion (€5.1bn) in a quarter when it spent $44.9 billion (€38.9bn) on projects.
That is the pressure the structure of Nvidia’s Wall Street deal relieves.
Debt raised through these “compute financing platforms” sits with the financing vehicles rather than on a hyperscaler’s own accounts and also has Nvidia’s backing, which protects credit ratings and leaves room for conventional borrowing elsewhere.
For smaller operators the effect is larger still as companies such as CoreWeave and Nebius, which lack investment-grade ratings and pay dearly for credit, gain access to capital on terms previously reserved for the giants.
The reaction was more ambivalent than the headline number suggests, and came weeks after a July selloff driven by doubts over whether AI spending will pay for itself.
Essentially, equity investors saw a bottleneck being cleared while credit investors saw something else: the cost of insuring Nvidia’s own debt against default rose after the news and has roughly doubled since late May.
Their doubt concentrates on the reclassification previously mentioned.
“Chips depreciate fast and lose value the moment a newer generation arrives,” warned Nigel Green of financial advisory firm deVere Group, noting that lending against them only works if the collateral holds its value.
Critics also point out that Nvidia is helping finance purchases of its own products, deepening the circularity that already worries the sector.
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon called it “a pivotal moment of a historic AI investment cycle.”
Whether it proves pivotal in the direction Solomon means depends on a question nobody can yet answer: what will the value of a current GPU be in five years?
US draft letter warns allies against joining China's AI framework: report
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Minerva Studio/iStock via Getty Images
U.S. shipments of central air conditioners and air-source heat pumps surged in June, although slower growth for the first half of the year suggested the monthly increase followed uneven demand earlier in 2026.
Manufacturers shipped a combined 1.02 million central
Nvidia's neocloud funding structure might unlock significant revenue stream: Morgan Stanley
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