—— Anthropic Secures $4 Billion Investment from Amazon; iPhone 15 Delivery Times Quadruple; $2.7 Billion Drug Partnership Signed; U.S. Bond Yields Hit Decade-High; Deutsche Bank’s DWS Fined $25 Million; Genstar to Sell TekniPlex; Getty Launches AI Image Generator
1. Anthropic Secures $4 Billion Investment from Amazon
Amazon.com and AI startup Anthropic announced today that Amazon will provide up to $4 billion in investment to Anthropic, aiming to become a major competitor in the booming generative AI market.
According to the funding details, Amazon will acquire a minority stake in Anthropic. Anthropic will move most of its software operations to Amazon’s AWS data centers and utilize Amazon’s proprietary chips and cloud computing to train its AI models.
Additionally, Anthropic will gain the essential funding to test massive AI models. The $4 billion deal is expected to become the largest investment in AWS history.
Amazon also disclosed that most of its engineers will gain access to Anthropic’s models.
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2. iPhone 15 Delivery Times Quadruple
According to data from Counterpoint Research, delivery times for the base model of this year’s iPhone 15 have reached 10 days—six days longer than the entry-level iPhone 14.
Delivery times for the high-end iPhone 15 Pro Max also hit a record high, with hardware and software upgrades once again attracting strong consumer interest.
However, while the entry-level and top-tier versions are popular, delivery times for the mid-tier iPhone 15 Plus and iPhone 15 Pro have decreased, suggesting weaker demand for those models.
Counterpoint’s Ivan Lam noted that Apple’s trade-in program has reduced the financial pressure for many buyers.
In China, Apple’s largest overseas market, delivery times for the base iPhone 15 have quadrupled.
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3. $2.7 Billion Drug Partnership Signed
Novo Nordisk A/S has entered into a collaboration agreement with U.S. tech company Valo Health, with Novo leveraging Valo’s AI technology to discover new drugs. Valo could receive up to $2.7 billion in funding.
According to the joint statement released today, Valo will receive $60 million in upfront payments. If all 11 joint projects achieve significant breakthroughs, Valo will receive additional milestone payments.
Novo has agreed to use Valo’s AI drug discovery platform for three drug development projects, focusing on cardiovascular and metabolic conditions.
Novo’s weight-loss drug Wegovy has helped it become Europe’s most valuable company, giving it substantial capital for investment.
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4. U.S. Bond Yields Hit Decade-High
Today, yields on long-term U.S. Treasury bonds surged to multi-year highs as investors feared that elevated interest rates may persist for an extended period, causing global stock markets to fall broadly.
The 10-year Treasury yield rose 9 basis points to 4.53%, the highest level in 16 years; the 30-year yield climbed 11 basis points to 4.64%, a high not seen since 2011.
Over the past few days, global bonds have faced selling pressure following the Federal Reserve’s announcement that rate cuts may be delayed and another hike remains possible.
Rising yields negatively affect risk assets like stocks, leading to sharp market declines today.
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5. Deutsche Bank’s DWS Fined $25 Million
Today, Deutsche Bank’s asset management arm DWS agreed to pay $25 million in fines to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
In a statement, the SEC said DWS used highly misleading language in describing how ESG was integrated into research and investment recommendations. Additionally, DWS failed to establish an AML mutual fund. The fines amount to $19 million and $6 million, respectively.
Back in July, DWS stated it had set aside $28.7 million in Q2 to cover potential fines.
While DWS has paid the fine, it neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s findings.
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6. Genstar to Sell TekniPlex
Sources revealed that San Francisco-based private equity firm Genstar Capital is considering selling manufacturing company TekniPlex, with the potential deal exceeding $4 billion.
Genstar is working with advisory firms to prepare the sale process. Potential buyers include industrial companies and other private equity firms.
Founded in 1967, TekniPlex currently employs 7,000 people worldwide and owns brands such as Tri-Seal and Dolco.
Genstar acquired TekniPlex from American Securities in 2017.
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7. Getty Launches AI Image Generator
Image licensing giant Getty Images announced it is launching its own AI image generation tool.
Getty holds the copyright to millions of images and recently sued Stability AI, alleging that the latter’s Stable Diffusion tool scraped Getty’s photos without permission.
The new AI tool was developed in collaboration with Nvidia and will be trained using Getty’s proprietary image library and database.
CEO Craig Peters stated the new tool will not utilize news photo libraries, but rather creative image collections to avoid generating deepfakes.
Getty’s major advantage is that its tool avoids the copyright issues faced by competitors like Stability AI.
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This content is sourced from Financial Times, Bloomberg, and The Real Deal, among other financial news outlets.