Banks have enjoyed a formidable moat built on customer relationships, regulatory privilege, and distribution networks for decades. – but that moat was breached in 2025. Embedded finance, the integration of payment, lending, insurance, and investing directly into non-financial platforms, became mainstream this year – shifting the locus of value creation away from banks and toward
Italy has become the latest European regulator to challenge how Big Tech is integrating artificial intelligence into widely used digital platforms. This week, the country’s antitrust authority ordered Meta Platforms to suspend certain WhatsApp contractual terms while it investigates whether the company abused its dominant position. The case centres on AI chatbots and whether recent
Harman International, owned by Samsung Electronics, is buying a key driver-assistance business from ZF Group in a €1.5 billion transaction that reflects mounting financial pressure across Europe’s auto-supplier sector. The purchase brings radar, smart camera, and automotive computing operations under Harman at a time when suppliers are reassessing capital-intensive portfolios. For Samsung, which bought Harman
AppLovin stock price has had a strong performance this year, continuing a bull run that started a few years ago when it was trading at $9.20. It has jumped to $720, giving it a market capitalization of over $243 billion, up sharply from less than $1 billion. So, will this advertising company continue its bull
China’s rapid embrace of robotics is reshaping everyday life and positioning the country as a global leader in advanced technologies. While the US remains focused on artificial intelligence (AI) chips only, China has already achieved dominance in robotics, clean-tech, and other strategic sectors, said Elizabeth Economy in a CNBC interview today. In fact, China is
TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, has signed binding agreements with three major investors to form a new joint venture that will operate TikTok’s US app, a move aimed at averting a long-threatened ban by the US government. The agreement marks a major step toward resolving years of regulatory and political uncertainty surrounding one of the most
Broadcom stock (NASDAQ: AVGO) has emerged as a rare consensus pick among major Wall Street houses for 2026. Bank of America, JPMorgan, and Jefferies all point to custom AI chips and high-speed networking as the company’s growth runway. The semiconductor giant sits at an inflection point as hyperscalers shift away from pure GPU dependence toward
Affirm stock price popped by over 10% on Tuesday as investors cheered the company’s presentation at its event. It jumped to a high of $73.40, up sharply from last month’s low of $60.40. It remains up by 135% from its lowest level this year, with its market capitalization rising to over $25 billion. Affirm reaffirmed
Two of Wall Street’s most influential technology analysts have laid out aggressive bull-case scenarios for Alphabet and Microsoft. They argued that accelerating artificial intelligence adoption could propel each company toward a $5 trillion market valuation by 2026. While both tech giants are already dominant mega-caps, these analysts contend that the market is still underestimating the
As investors stare down the start of 2026, one thing is clear: the playbook that worked over the last decade won’t cut it in the next. Between stubborn inflation fears, a ballooning US national debt and relentless innovation in digital finance, the lines between Wall Street, Washington and Web3 are blurring fast. That’s exactly the