Author: Henry Kanapi

AI firms Databricks and Cognition have vaulted into the highest tier of artificial intelligence startups, pulling in billions from top venture firms as investor appetite shows no signs of cooling. Databricks closed a $1 billion round that values the San Francisco software company above $100 billion, while Cognition secured $400 million at a $10.2 billion valuation, reports Bloomberg. The combined tally tops $110 billion, underscoring the scale of money pouring into AI’s infrastructure and applications. Databricks makes software that helps companies organize massive piles of information and then use it to train and run AI. The firm is now moving…

Rebecca Patterson, the former chief investment strategist at Bridgewater Associates, says corporate CFOs are preparing for layoffs as companies face pressure to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) without increasing budgets. In an interview with Risk Reversal Media, Patterson describes a discussion she held with US corporate CFOs under Chatham House rules. She says the responses revealed a striking bias toward job cuts next year. “But the big risk I’m worried about is jobs. If you don’t have a job, you’re not consuming. If you’re not consuming, earnings expectations get hit. What triggered this idea for me was a discussion about three…

One of the investors who made massive returns after shorting the housing market during the 2008 Global Financial Crisis is unveiling a bear-case scenario for the artificial intelligence trade. In a new episode of The Real Eisman Playbook, Steve Eisman says that tech titans, including Google, Meta, and Amazon, are sinking hundreds of billions of dollars into AI models and infrastructure. The investor draws a line back to 1999, noting that overinvestment in the Dot-Com rush helped trigger the 2001 recession and that tech underperformed for years afterward, a potential analogue to today’s tech capital expenditures (CapEx). “My answer is…

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says artificial intelligence (AI) has unlocked the ability to call back more than 100 million customers, forcing the company to expand its sales team to meet rising demand. In an interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer, Benioff frames the rise of the “agentic enterprise” as a structural shift in how Salesforce operates. He argues that AI is not displacing staff but enabling new opportunities that require more human sales capacity. The company has been working to pair human employees with AI sales agents capable of proactively contacting prospects, booking appointments, and closing deals. “We’ve had more than…

Senator Rand Paul says artificial intelligence (AI) could one day grant Americans enough leisure to choose work freely, framing labor as a reward rather than a punishment. In a new All-In Podcast interview, the Kentucky senator draws on historical examples of productivity leaps to highlight how technology reshapes human effort. He points to a classic calculation from a Yale economist who measured the hours required in different eras to secure light for reading. “It was like in the 19th century, because you had to have candles, and it was like 10,000 hours of work, or maybe it’s 1,000 hours of…

Goldman Sachs is warning that the S&P 500 could tumble into bear market territory if Big Tech’s record AI spending spree starts to slow. In a new research note, analysts at the banking titan estimate that hyperscaler investment has already reached $368 billion this year, with Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta, and Oracle driving the boom, Forbes reports. Goldman projects that AI companies will drive $1 trillion in total sales growth across the S&P 500 companies next year. But the prediction will not come to fruition if the firehose of AI money tapers off. In an extreme scenario, Goldman envisions hyperscalers…

The New York Fed says artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping hiring plans in ways that could squeeze job opportunities for recent college graduates. In a new study, the Fed says that businesses reported that they’ve sharply increased AI use over the past year. The central bank finds that the job market is already shifting with AI already driving workforce decisions among businesses. The data show that 13% of service firms anticipate AI-driven layoffs over the next six months, while nearly a quarter of companies planning to deploy AI expect to hire fewer workers as a result. The slowdown in hiring…

A cybersecurity firm valued at $2 billion is warning that the escalation of AI attacks represents not just a financial problem but a threat to US national security. Citing data from the Government Accountability Office, ID.me says that fraudsters drained up to $521 billion annually from the US government. Meanwhile, criminal networks in Russia, China, and Nigeria siphoned billions from pandemic relief programs, as North Korean actors increasingly target American companies using stolen identities. “Fraud is now both a financial and national security crisis… Fraudsters are now weaponizing AI tools like deepfakes to exploit vulnerabilities faster than ever. Defeating them…

A top dealmaker at Barclays says the artificial intelligence (AI) arms race is setting the stage for an unprecedented takeover cycle. In an interview, Andrew Woeber, global head of mergers and acquisitions at the British universal bank, says he expects the biggest tech firms in the world to ink a massive 12-figure deal within a year, reports Bloomberg. “There will be transactions that defy our imagination within the broader AI spectrum. Don’t be surprised to see a $100 billion plus deal within the next year. Big platforms are going to make big bets.” If a $100-billion deal comes to life,…

New developments have breathed new life into Apple’s (AAPL) struggling artificial intelligence pivot, and Bank of America (BofA) believes it could generate tens of billions of dollars for the tech giant. In a landmark court ruling, a federal judge allowed Apple to maintain its lucrative default search arrangement with Google. BofA estimates that the agreement generates about $20 billion a year, roughly a fifth of Apple’s services revenue, and its survival gave investors immediate relief. Wamsi Mohan, senior equity research analyst at BofA, says Apple is now in a solid position to surprise everyone in the AI arms race. “So…