Ramp2026-10-18 07:03:50Ramp raises $1.85 billion at a $60 billion valuation as it expands from corporate cards into stablecoin paymentsRamp said on Oct. 15 that it raised $1.85 billion in fresh funding at a $60 billion valuation, lifting its total equity financing to about $5 billion. The round was led by Dragoneer, with Thrive Capital, Founders Fund, Sands Capital and Avenir Growth also leading, and Fidelity and GIC participating. The company, founded in 2019, started with corporate cards and expense management software and has since added procurement, travel, vendor payments and accounting automation. This year it also rolled out stablecoin accounts, stablecoin payments and AI cost management tools for business customers. Ramp said that as of Oct. 1, it served more than 85,000 customers, generated more than $2 billion in annualized revenue and processed more than $275 billion in annualized purchase volume, while remaining cash-flow positive. The company has not separately disclosed stablecoin balances, transaction volume or revenue contribution from those products.20
Dongbai Group2026-10-14 02:59:41Dongbai Group’s $316 million yuan chip deal draws scrutiny over valuation and balance-sheet strainDongbai Group, a listed company focused on commercial retail and warehousing logistics, has moved into the semiconductor sector with a 316 million yuan acquisition of a 52.6667% stake in Hangzhou Kuailing Optoelectronics. The target develops, produces and sells photodetector chips used in lidar and optical communications. The deal values Kuailing at 611.7 million yuan, or 764.35% above book net assets, even though the company remained loss-making in the first eight months of this year. The transaction comes as Dongbai’s core business shows limited growth. Revenue from 2023 to 2025 stayed broadly flat, while its retail segment, which contributes more than 80% of total revenue, posted a 1.04% year-on-year decline in 2025. As of the end of June 2026, Dongbai held 687 million yuan in cash against 2.922 billion yuan in short-term interest-bearing debt, leaving a cash-to-short-term-debt ratio of about 0.24. The company said the acquisition is meant to enter the high-end semiconductor market and build a new growth engine. Still, the deal includes a demanding profit commitment for 2027 to 2029, and the target’s future performance depends on customer validation, scaled delivery and broader client diversification in optical communication chips.150
South Korea2026-10-12 01:25:32Jeonbuk Bank launches KRW loans backed by Bitcoin for corporate clients in South KoreaJeonbuk Bank, a unit of JB Financial Group, has introduced a Korean won loan product linked to digital assets, described as the first such offering by a domestic bank in South Korea. The product is initially available only to corporate clients, with Bitcoin as the sole eligible collateral and loan proceeds restricted to business operating funds. The pledged Bitcoin will be held by a professional custody institution, while the bank will not directly hold or manage the assets. For pricing, Jeonbuk Bank uses a benchmark based on the weighted average index of prices across multiple global exchanges and the median of market volatility indicators. The update was cited by Techub News and attributed to Wu Blockchain.240
Nike2026-10-06 18:10:23Nike’s stock buybacks carry a $7.9 billion opportunity cost at current pricesNike has spent about $12.1 billion buying back its own stock since launching its repurchase program in June 2022, according to Protos. The company bought 124.4 million shares at an average price of $97.57 each. With Nike stock opening at $33.70 on October 6, those repurchases would now be worth roughly $4.2 billion, implying an opportunity cost of about $7.9 billion. Protos noted that Nike retired the shares it repurchased, so the company does not literally hold an unrealized or realized loss on those shares. Even so, the economic math is similar, and the purchases cannot be reversed. The report said Nike shares have fallen 71% since the buyback program began, leaving the stock trading 65% below the company’s average repurchase price. The report also said Nike’s market capitalization has dropped from $187 billion in June 2022 to $51 billion today. Nike spent $4.3 billion on buybacks in fiscal 2024 and another $3 billion in fiscal 2025, before cutting that figure to $122 million in fiscal 2026. The company still has $5.9 billion remaining under its $18 billion authorization, but Protos said Nike has not recently indicated that it plans to return to its earlier pace of repurchases.290
NVIDIA2026-10-06 05:46:58Nico Caprez takes a central role in NVIDIA’s neocloud push as succession talk surfaces internallyNico Caprez, the son-in-law of NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, has become a closely watched executive inside the company less than three years after joining, according to The Information. Caprez recently married Huang’s daughter, Madison Huang, in Hawaii, but the report says his rising profile is tied more directly to his work than to family ties. He now serves as vice president of AI Infrastructure Growth, overseeing relationships tied to AI infrastructure, neocloud providers, and financing partnerships. The report describes a broader shift in NVIDIA’s business model. Rather than simply selling GPUs, the company is increasingly investing in neocloud operators, helping them secure financing, and in some cases offering credit support so they can buy more NVIDIA hardware. Caprez is said to be involved in those efforts as well as other equity investments and the company’s AI infrastructure work with major Wall Street financial institutions, including a $500 billion project announced in August. One example cited in the report is NVIDIA’s June deal with Australian neocloud company Firmus, which planned to finance purchases of more than 170,000 current and next-generation NVIDIA GPUs and CPUs. The arrangement reportedly included credit support from NVIDIA and a structure that could also give the company a share of future cloud revenue. The report also notes internal speculation about whether Caprez and Madison Huang could eventually move into more senior leadership roles, though it says there is no evidence NVIDIA has put any family succession plan in place.270
ECB2026-10-02 09:10:09ECB says companies are expected to fund AI transition mainly with internal resourcesThe European Central Bank said in an official blog post that artificial intelligence has the potential to reshape the economy, while its analysis suggests companies are expected to rely mainly on their own resources to finance investment tied to AI transformation. The ECB said it examined the financing of AI investment through two blog posts, focusing on how companies expect to fund themselves during a period of technological transition. The note centers on funding expectations rather than external capital channels, and frames AI as a force with broad economic implications. The comments were published on the ECB’s official blog and were cited by Techub News.430
Shinhan Bank2026-10-01 20:21:53Shinhan Bank completes Solana-based stablecoin pilot for cross-border corporate remittancesShinhan Bank, South Korea’s second-largest bank, said it has completed a pilot project for cross-border corporate remittances built on Solana and stablecoins. The test was designed to connect crypto-based payment rails with the bank’s existing systems rather than run as a standalone blockchain experiment. According to the report cited by Techub News, the pilot focused on overseas remittance demand from corporate clients and used stablecoin issuance and transfers on the Solana blockchain to handle settlement. The stated goal was to enable real-time, lower-cost cross-border payments for businesses. The project also served as a practical test of whether traditional financial institutions can combine blockchain infrastructure with established banking workflows in enterprise finance settings. Techub News attributed the item to Crypto Briefing.450
ByteDance2026-09-14 09:47:11ByteDance Secures $29.6 Billion Loan Deal as It Pushes AI ExpansionByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has signed a $29.6 billion loan agreement with 28 banks, including HSBC and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, according to a report cited by ChainCatcher. The loan carries a three-year tenor, with an extension option of up to five years, and is priced 0.68 percentage points above the benchmark rate. It ranks as Asia’s second-largest loan this year, behind SoftBank’s $40 billion financing arranged in March. Bloomberg reported that ByteDance plans to use the proceeds for general corporate purposes as it advances its artificial intelligence goals. The company previously borrowed $10.8 billion from around 20 lenders in 2024, while the latest deal was initially marketed at $20 billion. ByteDance was valued at about $550 billion in February, and Bloomberg said in May that the company was weighing up to $70 billion in spending in 2026 on data centers and other AI infrastructure. The financing news came as Elon Musk, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called for a slowdown in the AI race and raised safety concerns. Separately, a Bitcoin Suisse report projected that spending by the largest U.S. hyperscale computing companies will top $800 billion this year and exceed $1 trillion in 2027.980
