Can Poland Follow The US Bitcoin Experience?
Although Bitcoin has become an election issue, whether Poland will join the Bitcoin bandwagon remains to be seen. Poland is not part of the European Union and uses a separate currency, the zloty.
Also, Mentzen’s party boasts far-right policies but has limited influence in Polish politics. The Konfederacja party alliance nominated Mentzen for next year’s presidential elections, but it’s unlikely that he’ll win with limited support from a small party.
However, as a presidential candidate and a member of the Polish Sejma, one of the two chambers in the country’s parliament, many believe the Bitcoin proposal will get some attention.
In August, Nvidia said it expected about "several billion" in Blackwell sales during the January quarter.
"Our base case is for NVDA to ship ~100K Blackwell GPUs in 4Q, which we believe is near the low-end of investor expectations," Raymond James analyst Srini Pajjuri wrote in a note last week. He has a strong buy rating on the stock.
Mentzen’s Support Of Bitcoin Gets Traction
Mentzen’s social media post immediately garnered attention among observers and analysts. The politician even reposted his tweet and added another post sharing that he will ensure a friendly regulatory environment for cryptocurrency once he becomes the country’s president.
Today, election observers and market analysts are examining the possible role of Bitcoin in Mentzen’s campaign. Some are already asking if his pro-BTC stance can help sway public opinion and votes, even if he’s with a small party.
Since Nvidia's last earnings report, the stock is up nearly 19%, capping off a stunning run that has seen the share price rise eightfold since ChatGPT was released in late 2022. Alongside the stock's rise has been a fierce increase in sales and margin, and its forward price to earnings ratio has expanded to just under 50, according to FactSet.
Growth is slowing, but that is partially because Nvidia's top line is so much larger than before. Nvidia reported 122% growth in sales in the most-recent quarter. That was lower than the 262% year-over-year growth it reported in the April quarter and the 265% growth in the January quarter.
For example, pension funds in Europe face barriers to investing in venture capital funds and therefore aren't gaining much exposure to the continent's fast-growing startup ecosystem, Wehmeier said.
European pension funds allocate just 0.01% of the $9 trillion worth of assets they manage into venture capital funds based in the continent, according to Atomico's report.
The 2024 publication marks the 10th anniversary since Atomico began compiling its annual report, which is produced in partnership with data firm Dealroom.
Analysts polled by LSEG are expecting around $33.12 billion in revenue, which would be nearly 83% growth compared to a year ago. The company is also expected to post 75 cents in earnings per share, according to LSEG consensus estimates.
Nvidia's data center business accounted for nearly 88% of sales in the most-recent quarter, taking the focus off the company's legacy computer games business.
Europe's first $1 trillion tech firm?
According to Atomico there are signs that the sector is improving. In the U.K., for example, Finance Minister Rachel Reeves last week laid out plans to consolidate 86 separate local government pension pots into eight "megafunds" to boost investment in domestic assets.
The company makes the chip for the Nintendo Switch, for example, which the Japanese video game company says is seeing major sales declines as the game console ages. Nvidia's gaming business is expected to grow about 6% to $3.03 billion, according to a FactSet estimate. Its automotive business, making chips for electric cars, is still small, even though analysts expect it to grow 38% to about $360 million in sales.
But none of that will matter as long as Nvidia's data center business continues to grow at a rate that is nearly doubling on an annual basis and Huang signals to investors that the party won't end.
British tech advocacy group techUK said the reforms "should address barriers to greater availability of pension fund capital and encourage a vision that sees more investment into UK tech science start-ups and scale-ups."
Reforms to pension schemes are either underway or being discussed in several other countries across Europe.
"These changes could result in billions more being made available to European scale-ups — and that's something that could be the difference between the best and brightest companies scaling from here in Europe, versus being forced to relocate," Wehmeier told CNBC.
'Stars aligning' for fintech IPOs
One thing's for sure, though — analysts are much more optimistic about the outlook for fintech IPOs now than they were before.
Atomico said it's optimistic about the next decade in European tech. The VC firm, which was established by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström, is predicting the entire European tech ecosystem combined could be valued at $8 trillion by 2034, up from around $3 trillion currently.
Atomico also predicts that Europe will mint its first-ever trillion-dollar tech company in a decade's time.
"We outlined five handles to open the [IPO] window, and I think those stars are aligning in terms of the macro, interest rates, politics, the elections are out the way, volatility," Navina Rajan, senior research analyst at private market data firm PitchBook, told CNBC.
"It's definitely in a better place, but at the end of the day, we don't know what's going to happen, there's a new president in the U.S.," Rajan continued. "It will be interesting to see the timing of the IPO and also the valuation."
Fintech companies have raised around 6.2 billion euros ($6.6 billion) in venture capital from the beginning of the year through Oct. 30, according to PitchBook data.
Jaidev Janardana, CEO and co-founder of British digital bank Zopa, told CNBC that an IPO is not an immediate priority for his firm.
"To be honest, it's not the top of mind for me," Janardana told CNBC. "I think we continue to be lucky to have supportive and long-term shareholders who support future growth as well."
While Europe is home to several so-called "decacorns" valued at $10 billion and above, including Arm, Adyen, Spotify and Revolut, it has so far failed to produce a company valued at $1 trillion.
That's unlike the United States, where several of the so-called "Magnificent Seven" technology companies are now worth over $1 trillion. They include Google parent company Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook-owner Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla.
He implied private markets are currently still the most accommodative place to be able to build a technology business that's focused on investing in growth.
However, Zopa's CEO added that he's seeing signs pointing toward a more favorable IPO market in the next couple of years, with the U.S. likely opening up in 2025.
That should mean that Europe becomes more open to IPOs happening the following year, according to Janardana. He didn't disclose where Zopa is looking to go public.
"If we can unlock capital at scale, keep the brightest minds in Europe, maintain that focus on solving really hard problems for society and the economy, that's how we go and unlock the first trillion-dollar company," Wehmeier said.
On Monday, Super Micro announced that it was selling products featuring Nvidia's next-generation AI chip called Blackwell. The company competes with vendors like Dell and Hewlett Packard Enterprise in packaging up Nvidia AI chips for other companies to access.
Super Micro was added to the S&P 500 in March, reflecting its rapidly growing business and then-soaring stock price. Less than two weeks after the index changes were announced, Super Micro reached its closing high of $118.81.
The troubles began within months. In August, Super Micro said it wouldn't file its annual report with the SEC on time. Noted short seller Hindenburg Research then disclosed a short position in the company, and said in a report that it identified "fresh evidence of accounting manipulation." The Wall Street Journal later reported that the Department of Justice was at the early stages of a probe into the company.
The month after announcing its report delay, Super Micro said it had received a notification from the Nasdaq, indicating that the delay in the filing of its annual report meant the company wasn't in compliance with the exchange's listing rules. Super Micro said the Nasdaq's rules allowed the company 60 days to file its report or submit a plan to regain compliance. Based on that timeframe, the deadline was Monday.
Steckelberg announced her departure from Zoom in August after seven years at the company. Last month, former Microsoft executive Michelle Chang replaced Steckelberg as Zoom's CFO.
Canva's previous finance chief Damien Singh resigned in February after the company said it was conducting an internal investigation surrounding inappropriate behavior.
The reported acquisition moves show Trump further developing his business interests in the cryptocurrency realm, even as he is set to enter the White House on Jan. 20, 2025.
Just three weeks before the Nov. 5 presidential election, Trump hyped the launch of a token pegged to a new crypto venture dubbed World Liberty Financial. As part of the deal with WLF, Trump and his family are poised to rake in 75% of its net coin revenue while assuming no liability.
Bakkt was founded in 2018 to offer tech services for crypto investors. The Alpharetta, Georgia-based company in its latest fiscal quarter reported total revenue of $328.4 million and an operating loss of $27.4 million, a 48% improvement from the prior year.
In that quarterly report, Bakkt flagged that the company "may not be able to continue as a going concern."
While Bakkt's management has concluded that it has "sufficient capital to continue as a going concern for at least 12 months from the date of this Report," the report acknowledged, "that determination may change in the future."
"If we cannot continue as a viable entity, our stockholders will likely lose most or all of their investment in us," the company said.
In March, Bakkt revealed that the New York Stock Exchange had warned the company that it was at risk of being delisted because its common stock was trading at an average below the exchange's $1 per share minimum for at least 30 consecutive trading days.
In April, Bakkt carried out a reverse stock split at a 1-for-25 ratio.
In graphically demanding titles like Elden Ring, Spider-Man 2, and F1 24 running at top quality settings, the PS5 Pro's power usage hovered around 228-240 watts. That's not too shabby considering the standard PS5 consumed 200-218 watts in the same games. The Slim model was the real power-hungry anomaly, consuming almost as much electricity as the Pro despite using the same silicon as the base PS5.
Of course, no two silicon chips are created equal. The Slim model's higher power consumption can be attributed to the quality of its chip. Maybe Digital Foundry's test unit was powered by whatever the opposite of a silicon lottery is.
That said, the modest power increases on the PS5 Pro translated to notably higher frame rates. Digital Foundry recorded a staggering 30-35% performance uplift in Elden Ring's quality mode on the Pro versus the base PS5. The game maintained frame rates comfortably above 50fps on the Pro compared to dips into the 30s on the standard console. This is even more impressive considering Elden Ring isn't an explicitly Pro-optimized title.
The Pro widens the gap further in games built to harness its capabilities. Alan Wake 2 and F1 24 both leverage advanced ray tracing features like reflections and ambient occlusion – visual candy that the base PS5 simply can't replicate as impressively.
News of the potential takeover has sent Kadokawa's shares up 23%. The company's current market cap stands at $3.4 billion.
In early 2021, Kadokawa announced a capital alliance with Sony, which included Sony acquiring a 2% stake in the conglomerate. In return, Sony pledged to develop and promote Kadokawa properties globally.
As demonstrated by its acquisition of Bungie in 2022, Sony's purchase of Kadokawa is highly unlikely to result in games being made by the included studios suddenly becoming PlayStation exclusives.
Kadokawa has had a rough time over the past couple of years. A cyberattack on the company in June led to a data leak and disruptied its business activities.
In September 2022, Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, then chairman of Kadokawa, was arrested on suspicion of authorizing payments of around $480,000 to a consulting firm linked to Haruyuki Takahashi, a former executive board member of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee. These payments were allegedly made to secure Kadokawa's selection as an official sponsor for the Games, granting the company rights to publish official programs and guidebooks.
Through Chrome, Google is also able to direct users toward its other products and tools, including its own AI chatbot, Gemini.
To address Google’s monopoly in the search engine market, the Justice Department said in a court filing last month that it’s looking for remedies that would prevent and restrain any present and future maintenance of its dominance.
Actions being considered included “behavioral and structural remedies that would prevent Google from using products such as Chrome, Play, and Android to advantage Google search and Google search-related products and features.”
Shares of Google parent Alphabet were down 0.35% in pre-market trading Tuesday.
Analysts at Jefferies said in a research note last month that another “very likely” outcome could be that the Justice Department will opt to ban Google from paying Apple to be the exclusive search engine on iPhones. Judge Amit Mehta said in his August decision that Google’s exclusive agreements with companies like Apple allowed it to hike prices for advertisers without any blowback.
Repair vessels are being deployed to address the damaged cables. However, the repair process can take several weeks, depending on weather conditions and the extent of the damage.
Heightened Tensions
These incidents come at a time of heightened tensions between Russia and the West, particularly following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO. Concerns about Russian aggression and hybrid warfare tactics have intensified, with undersea cables becoming a potential target.
These new interactive ad formats build upon FuboTV’s previous ad innovations, including The Triple Play and The Marquee, which were launched earlier this year. The company continues to invest in developing creative and effective advertising solutions to meet the evolving needs of advertisers in the streaming landscape.
!summarize
Can Poland Follow The US Bitcoin Experience?
Although Bitcoin has become an election issue, whether Poland will join the Bitcoin bandwagon remains to be seen. Poland is not part of the European Union and uses a separate currency, the zloty.
Also, Mentzen’s party boasts far-right policies but has limited influence in Polish politics. The Konfederacja party alliance nominated Mentzen for next year’s presidential elections, but it’s unlikely that he’ll win with limited support from a small party.
However, as a presidential candidate and a member of the Polish Sejma, one of the two chambers in the country’s parliament, many believe the Bitcoin proposal will get some attention.
In August, Nvidia said it expected about "several billion" in Blackwell sales during the January quarter.
"Our base case is for NVDA to ship ~100K Blackwell GPUs in 4Q, which we believe is near the low-end of investor expectations," Raymond James analyst Srini Pajjuri wrote in a note last week. He has a strong buy rating on the stock.
Mentzen’s Support Of Bitcoin Gets Traction
Mentzen’s social media post immediately garnered attention among observers and analysts. The politician even reposted his tweet and added another post sharing that he will ensure a friendly regulatory environment for cryptocurrency once he becomes the country’s president.
Today, election observers and market analysts are examining the possible role of Bitcoin in Mentzen’s campaign. Some are already asking if his pro-BTC stance can help sway public opinion and votes, even if he’s with a small party.
Since Nvidia's last earnings report, the stock is up nearly 19%, capping off a stunning run that has seen the share price rise eightfold since ChatGPT was released in late 2022. Alongside the stock's rise has been a fierce increase in sales and margin, and its forward price to earnings ratio has expanded to just under 50, according to FactSet.
Growth is slowing, but that is partially because Nvidia's top line is so much larger than before. Nvidia reported 122% growth in sales in the most-recent quarter. That was lower than the 262% year-over-year growth it reported in the April quarter and the 265% growth in the January quarter.
For example, pension funds in Europe face barriers to investing in venture capital funds and therefore aren't gaining much exposure to the continent's fast-growing startup ecosystem, Wehmeier said.
European pension funds allocate just 0.01% of the $9 trillion worth of assets they manage into venture capital funds based in the continent, according to Atomico's report.
The 2024 publication marks the 10th anniversary since Atomico began compiling its annual report, which is produced in partnership with data firm Dealroom.
Analysts polled by LSEG are expecting around $33.12 billion in revenue, which would be nearly 83% growth compared to a year ago. The company is also expected to post 75 cents in earnings per share, according to LSEG consensus estimates.
Nvidia's data center business accounted for nearly 88% of sales in the most-recent quarter, taking the focus off the company's legacy computer games business.
Europe's first $1 trillion tech firm?
According to Atomico there are signs that the sector is improving. In the U.K., for example, Finance Minister Rachel Reeves last week laid out plans to consolidate 86 separate local government pension pots into eight "megafunds" to boost investment in domestic assets.
The company makes the chip for the Nintendo Switch, for example, which the Japanese video game company says is seeing major sales declines as the game console ages. Nvidia's gaming business is expected to grow about 6% to $3.03 billion, according to a FactSet estimate. Its automotive business, making chips for electric cars, is still small, even though analysts expect it to grow 38% to about $360 million in sales.
But none of that will matter as long as Nvidia's data center business continues to grow at a rate that is nearly doubling on an annual basis and Huang signals to investors that the party won't end.
British tech advocacy group techUK said the reforms "should address barriers to greater availability of pension fund capital and encourage a vision that sees more investment into UK tech science start-ups and scale-ups."
Reforms to pension schemes are either underway or being discussed in several other countries across Europe.
"These changes could result in billions more being made available to European scale-ups — and that's something that could be the difference between the best and brightest companies scaling from here in Europe, versus being forced to relocate," Wehmeier told CNBC.
!summarize
'Stars aligning' for fintech IPOs
One thing's for sure, though — analysts are much more optimistic about the outlook for fintech IPOs now than they were before.
Atomico said it's optimistic about the next decade in European tech. The VC firm, which was established by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström, is predicting the entire European tech ecosystem combined could be valued at $8 trillion by 2034, up from around $3 trillion currently.
Atomico also predicts that Europe will mint its first-ever trillion-dollar tech company in a decade's time.
"We outlined five handles to open the [IPO] window, and I think those stars are aligning in terms of the macro, interest rates, politics, the elections are out the way, volatility," Navina Rajan, senior research analyst at private market data firm PitchBook, told CNBC.
"It's definitely in a better place, but at the end of the day, we don't know what's going to happen, there's a new president in the U.S.," Rajan continued. "It will be interesting to see the timing of the IPO and also the valuation."
Fintech companies have raised around 6.2 billion euros ($6.6 billion) in venture capital from the beginning of the year through Oct. 30, according to PitchBook data.
Jaidev Janardana, CEO and co-founder of British digital bank Zopa, told CNBC that an IPO is not an immediate priority for his firm.
"To be honest, it's not the top of mind for me," Janardana told CNBC. "I think we continue to be lucky to have supportive and long-term shareholders who support future growth as well."
While Europe is home to several so-called "decacorns" valued at $10 billion and above, including Arm, Adyen, Spotify and Revolut, it has so far failed to produce a company valued at $1 trillion.
That's unlike the United States, where several of the so-called "Magnificent Seven" technology companies are now worth over $1 trillion. They include Google parent company Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook-owner Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla.
He implied private markets are currently still the most accommodative place to be able to build a technology business that's focused on investing in growth.
However, Zopa's CEO added that he's seeing signs pointing toward a more favorable IPO market in the next couple of years, with the U.S. likely opening up in 2025.
That should mean that Europe becomes more open to IPOs happening the following year, according to Janardana. He didn't disclose where Zopa is looking to go public.
"If we can unlock capital at scale, keep the brightest minds in Europe, maintain that focus on solving really hard problems for society and the economy, that's how we go and unlock the first trillion-dollar company," Wehmeier said.
!summarize
On Monday, Super Micro announced that it was selling products featuring Nvidia's next-generation AI chip called Blackwell. The company competes with vendors like Dell and Hewlett Packard Enterprise in packaging up Nvidia AI chips for other companies to access.
Super Micro was added to the S&P 500 in March, reflecting its rapidly growing business and then-soaring stock price. Less than two weeks after the index changes were announced, Super Micro reached its closing high of $118.81.
!summarize
The troubles began within months. In August, Super Micro said it wouldn't file its annual report with the SEC on time. Noted short seller Hindenburg Research then disclosed a short position in the company, and said in a report that it identified "fresh evidence of accounting manipulation." The Wall Street Journal later reported that the Department of Justice was at the early stages of a probe into the company.
!summarize
The month after announcing its report delay, Super Micro said it had received a notification from the Nasdaq, indicating that the delay in the filing of its annual report meant the company wasn't in compliance with the exchange's listing rules. Super Micro said the Nasdaq's rules allowed the company 60 days to file its report or submit a plan to regain compliance. Based on that timeframe, the deadline was Monday.
!summarize
Steckelberg announced her departure from Zoom in August after seven years at the company. Last month, former Microsoft executive Michelle Chang replaced Steckelberg as Zoom's CFO.
Canva's previous finance chief Damien Singh resigned in February after the company said it was conducting an internal investigation surrounding inappropriate behavior.
!summarize
Investors include Battery Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Iconiq and TPG. Iconiq on its own controlled 24% of the company's Class A shares.
Competitors include Salesforce and SAP, along with specialty companies such as HouseCall Pro, Jobber and Workwave.
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and Citigroup are among the company's IPO underwriters.
!summarize
The reported acquisition moves show Trump further developing his business interests in the cryptocurrency realm, even as he is set to enter the White House on Jan. 20, 2025.
Just three weeks before the Nov. 5 presidential election, Trump hyped the launch of a token pegged to a new crypto venture dubbed World Liberty Financial. As part of the deal with WLF, Trump and his family are poised to rake in 75% of its net coin revenue while assuming no liability.
!summarize
Bakkt was founded in 2018 to offer tech services for crypto investors. The Alpharetta, Georgia-based company in its latest fiscal quarter reported total revenue of $328.4 million and an operating loss of $27.4 million, a 48% improvement from the prior year.
In that quarterly report, Bakkt flagged that the company "may not be able to continue as a going concern."
While Bakkt's management has concluded that it has "sufficient capital to continue as a going concern for at least 12 months from the date of this Report," the report acknowledged, "that determination may change in the future."
"If we cannot continue as a viable entity, our stockholders will likely lose most or all of their investment in us," the company said.
In March, Bakkt revealed that the New York Stock Exchange had warned the company that it was at risk of being delisted because its common stock was trading at an average below the exchange's $1 per share minimum for at least 30 consecutive trading days.
In April, Bakkt carried out a reverse stock split at a 1-for-25 ratio.
!summarize
In graphically demanding titles like Elden Ring, Spider-Man 2, and F1 24 running at top quality settings, the PS5 Pro's power usage hovered around 228-240 watts. That's not too shabby considering the standard PS5 consumed 200-218 watts in the same games. The Slim model was the real power-hungry anomaly, consuming almost as much electricity as the Pro despite using the same silicon as the base PS5.
Of course, no two silicon chips are created equal. The Slim model's higher power consumption can be attributed to the quality of its chip. Maybe Digital Foundry's test unit was powered by whatever the opposite of a silicon lottery is.
!summarize
That said, the modest power increases on the PS5 Pro translated to notably higher frame rates. Digital Foundry recorded a staggering 30-35% performance uplift in Elden Ring's quality mode on the Pro versus the base PS5. The game maintained frame rates comfortably above 50fps on the Pro compared to dips into the 30s on the standard console. This is even more impressive considering Elden Ring isn't an explicitly Pro-optimized title.
The Pro widens the gap further in games built to harness its capabilities. Alan Wake 2 and F1 24 both leverage advanced ray tracing features like reflections and ambient occlusion – visual candy that the base PS5 simply can't replicate as impressively.
!summarize
News of the potential takeover has sent Kadokawa's shares up 23%. The company's current market cap stands at $3.4 billion.
In early 2021, Kadokawa announced a capital alliance with Sony, which included Sony acquiring a 2% stake in the conglomerate. In return, Sony pledged to develop and promote Kadokawa properties globally.
As demonstrated by its acquisition of Bungie in 2022, Sony's purchase of Kadokawa is highly unlikely to result in games being made by the included studios suddenly becoming PlayStation exclusives.
!summarize
!summarize
Kadokawa has had a rough time over the past couple of years. A cyberattack on the company in June led to a data leak and disruptied its business activities.
In September 2022, Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, then chairman of Kadokawa, was arrested on suspicion of authorizing payments of around $480,000 to a consulting firm linked to Haruyuki Takahashi, a former executive board member of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee. These payments were allegedly made to secure Kadokawa's selection as an official sponsor for the Games, granting the company rights to publish official programs and guidebooks.
!summarize
Through Chrome, Google is also able to direct users toward its other products and tools, including its own AI chatbot, Gemini.
To address Google’s monopoly in the search engine market, the Justice Department said in a court filing last month that it’s looking for remedies that would prevent and restrain any present and future maintenance of its dominance.
Actions being considered included “behavioral and structural remedies that would prevent Google from using products such as Chrome, Play, and Android to advantage Google search and Google search-related products and features.”
Shares of Google parent Alphabet were down 0.35% in pre-market trading Tuesday.
!summarize
Analysts at Jefferies said in a research note last month that another “very likely” outcome could be that the Justice Department will opt to ban Google from paying Apple to be the exclusive search engine on iPhones. Judge Amit Mehta said in his August decision that Google’s exclusive agreements with companies like Apple allowed it to hike prices for advertisers without any blowback.
Repair Efforts Underway
Repair vessels are being deployed to address the damaged cables. However, the repair process can take several weeks, depending on weather conditions and the extent of the damage.
Heightened Tensions
These incidents come at a time of heightened tensions between Russia and the West, particularly following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO. Concerns about Russian aggression and hybrid warfare tactics have intensified, with undersea cables becoming a potential target.
!summarize
These new interactive ad formats build upon FuboTV’s previous ad innovations, including The Triple Play and The Marquee, which were launched earlier this year. The company continues to invest in developing creative and effective advertising solutions to meet the evolving needs of advertisers in the streaming landscape.