—— China Lowers Key Policy Rates; AI Startup Valued at $5.5bn in Recent Fundraising; Delta Cancels Over 800 Flights Amid Outage; Amazon and Warner Bros to Bid for NBA TV Rights; Head of US Secret Service Angrily Interrogated; SAP Cloud Revenue Grows 25%; Iconiq Raises $5.75bn for 7th Fund
1. China Lowers Key Policy Rates
On Monday, the People’s Bank of China reduced the seven-day reverse repo rate, a significant short-term policy rate, marking the first cut in nearly a year. Shortly after, Chinese banks followed suit by lowering their primary benchmark lending rates, making mortgages and other loans more affordable.
Though modest, these coordinated actions highlight the authorities’ urgency to stimulate an economy that is growing at its slowest rate in over a year. This comes just a day after the party released a comprehensive document endorsing President Xi Jinping’s strategy to prioritize technology in China’s economic future, even if it means slower growth in the short term. “It’s a positive indication that the government is attempting to support the economy, though the overall impact may be limited,” commented Vey-Sern Ling, a managing director at Union Bancaire Privee.
In response, China’s CSI 300 Index of onshore shares fell by as much as 1.1%. The yuan declined 0.1% against the dollar in offshore trading, while the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of Hong Kong-listed stocks rose 0.8% after initially dropping 0.6%.
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2. AI Startup Valued at $5.5bn in Recent Fundraising
Artificial intelligence startup Cohere Inc. has emerged as one of the world’s most valuable AI companies and one of the largest startups in Canada. Unlike some of its flashier Silicon Valley competitors, Cohere maintains a low profile.
In its latest funding round, Cohere was valued at $5.5 billion, positioning it among the top global startups. Remarkably, it achieved this without a consumer app for writing poems, drawing pictures, or assisting with homework.
Based in Toronto, Cohere specializes in developing large language models—software trained on vast amounts of internet data to analyze and generate text—which it customizes for businesses. This technology has attracted hundreds of customers, including Notion Labs Inc. and Oracle Inc. (also an investor). These companies use Cohere’s software for tasks such as writing website copy, communicating with users, and incorporating generative AI into their products.
Cohere has also drawn significant investor interest. The company plans to announce on Monday that it has raised $500 million in a Series D funding round. This round was led by Canadian pension investment manager PSP Investments and included new investors such as Cisco Systems Inc., Japan’s Fujitsu, AMD Ventures (the investment arm of chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc.), and Canada’s export credit agency EDC.
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3. Delta Cancels Over 800 Flights Amid Outage
Delta Air Lines Inc. anticipates more flight cancellations this week as it continues to recover from a severe technology outage, according to a company spokesman.
On Monday, the airline canceled over 800 flights, accounting for more than half of all grounded flights across the U.S. industry. This disruption marks the fourth day of efforts to restore a crucial system that connects pilots and flight attendants to aircraft, leaving travelers stranded during one of the busiest travel seasons of the year.
Delta’s shares dropped by 2.6% as of 2:56 p.m. in New York. The cancellations, affecting 21% of the Atlanta-based airline’s scheduled flights, extended into a fourth day.
Meanwhile, rival carriers American Airlines Group Inc., United Airlines Holdings Inc., and Southwest Airlines Co. collectively parked 72 planes by mid-afternoon New York time, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware.
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4. Amazon and Warner Bros to Bid for NBA TV Rights
Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. has offered to match Amazon.com Inc.’s bid for National Basketball Association (NBA) TV rights, utilizing a clause in its expiring contract with the league.
In a statement, Warner Bros. expressed its disappointment: “Regrettably, the league notified us of its intention to accept other offers for the games in our current rights package, leaving us to proceed under the matching rights provision, which is an integral part of our current agreement and the rights we have paid for under it.”
The company submitted the necessary paperwork to the league on Monday, indicating its intent to match the offer. The NBA is close to finalizing a new $76 billion, 11-year deal with current broadcaster ESPN and two new partners: Comcast Corp.’s NBC and Amazon, the latter agreeing to pay approximately $1.8 billion annually.
Warner Bros., owner of the TNT and TBS networks, has been broadcasting NBA games for decades. “Inside the NBA,” featuring basketball legend Charles Barkley, remains one of its most popular shows.
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5. Head of US Secret Service Angrily Interrogated
The assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally last week has been deemed the “most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades,” according to the agency’s director, Kimberly Cheatle. She made this statement on Monday during a tense Congressional committee hearing.
In her Capitol Hill testimony, Cheatle accepted “full responsibility for any security lapse” and acknowledged that there was a clear “breakdown and a failure” at the Butler rally site nine days ago. The incident resulted in Trump being injured and one spectator killed.
Despite bipartisan demands for her immediate resignation, Cheatle resisted, confirming that the shooter, Thomas Crooks, had been identified as “suspicious” by law enforcement just minutes before Trump took the stage. However, he was not considered a threat, even though he was in possession of a rifle rangefinder, which Cheatle noted is “not a prohibited item.”
“An individual with a rangefinder is not a threat,” Cheatle stated, adding that teams were dispatched to “identify and interview” Crooks, though she lacked “details on the timeline” of when this occurred.
Cheatle, who has nearly three decades of experience with the Secret Service and took the top job after a brief stint at PepsiCo, repeatedly refused to divulge specifics of the operational failures, promising to provide more information once internal investigations are complete.
Source: Financial Times – US Secret Service chief says Donald Trump shooting worst ‘failure’ in decades
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6. SAP Cloud Revenue Grows 25%
SAP SE reported a 25% increase in cloud revenue for the second quarter, meeting expectations, driven by a rising demand for services that support artificial intelligence applications. This led more clients to subscribe to the German company’s software.
Adjusted cloud revenue for the quarter grew 25% at constant currencies from the previous year, reaching €4.15 billion ($4.52 billion), as stated by the Walldorf-based company on Monday. This was close to analysts’ average estimate of €4.16 billion, according to a Bloomberg survey.
SAP’s strategy to shift customers from on-premise licenses to a cloud subscription model has helped shield it from the broader software industry’s struggles. Competitors like Salesforce Inc. and Workday Inc. have provided lackluster forecasts this year, as the AI surge has predominantly benefited hardware and chip companies.
“Our cloud growth momentum remained strong,” said Chief Executive Officer Christian Klein. “Given our progress and strong pipeline, we are confident in achieving accelerating topline growth through 2027.”
The company reaffirmed its 2024 outlook and slightly improved its 2025 outlook. SAP now anticipates a non-international financial reporting standards operating profit of about €10.2 billion, up from the previous €10 billion estimate.
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7. Iconiq Raises $5.75bn for 7th Fund
Iconiq Capital, an investment firm renowned for managing the wealth of Silicon Valley’s elite, announced it has raised $5.75 billion for a new venture-focused fund. This significant fundraising effort highlights the ongoing concentration of capital among a select few large venture capital firms.
This new fund marks Iconiq’s seventh growth fund and reflects a substantial increase from the $3.75 billion target for its previous fund in 2021. Iconiq did not disclose the final amount raised for Iconiq Growth VI.
This year, investors have allocated significant capital to several major fundraising efforts, including over $7 billion to Andreessen Horowitz and $3 billion to Norwest Venture Partners.
Iconiq has seen considerable success with several initial public offerings of its portfolio companies in recent years, including Snowflake Inc. and Airbnb Inc. Its current portfolio features companies like Canva Inc. and Pigment.
Founded in 2011, Iconiq is relatively new to the scene, having launched its first growth fund in 2013.
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本文内容来自《Financial Times》、《Bloomberg》，以及《The Real Deal》等多家财经新闻媒体。