Investment
US investment curbs on tech firms infuriate China
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Beijing has called the Biden administration a “bully” as the White House is going to ban American funds and companies from investing in China’s high technology sectors.
United States President Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order that will restrict US companies and private equity and venture capital funds from investing in China’s microchips, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, biotechnology and clean energy projects and firms, Politico and Bloomberg reported. Biden will try to announce these investment curbs before the G7 Summit and ask US allies for support.
The curbs, if implemented, will not have a big impact on China’s high technology sectors, said Wu Chaoze, chief telecom analyst at CSC Financial Co. The scale of US investments in China’s AI, chip and quantum computing is not substantial as American funds have avoided investing in Chinese technology firms for a few years, he said.
With a current account surplus now running at a $400 billion annual rate, China is a net investor in other countries, according to some commentators. It does not need foreign capital; on the contrary, it has capital to invest elsewhere.
But American venture capitalists offer expertise and advice as well as funding, and a ban on US investment in certain high-tech fields entails disadvantages for China, and also inhibits the reflow of intellectual property back to the US, commentators said.
Despite a mild impact on its industries, Beijing was furious about the Biden administration’s move.
“This is naked economic coercion and technological bullying, which seriously violates the principles of market economy and fair competition and disrupts the international economic and trade order and the stability of global industrial and supply chains,” Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson of the Chinese foreign ministry, said Friday.
“The US has gotten used to politicizing and weaponizing economic, trade and technological issues under the guise of national security,” Wang said. “The real purpose of the US is to deprive China of its right to development and safeguard its own hegemony and self-interest.”
He said the US tried to push forward a decoupling with China and use economic coercion to pressurize its allies and get benefits. He said China will closely monitor the developments and resolutely safeguard its own rights and interests.
Long debate
Politico’s report published Tuesday said Washington’s unprecedented curbs will require US companies to notify the government of new investments in China’s high technology sectors and prohibit some of these deals. Originally the measures should have been announced in late 2022 but the announcement was delayed as the officials of the National Security Council and the Treasury Department held different views, it said.
Some aspects of the coming executive order are still being finalized but economic officials have already started briefing industry groups including the US Chamber of Commerce, Politico reported.
The Biden administration will in coming weeks announce the executive order, which has been discussed for almost two years, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. The administration has briefed its G7 partners on the investment curbs but does not expect US allies to announce similar restrictions at the same time.
The executive order will focus on investments in which US companies play active roles in management, such as private equity and venture capital funds and joint ventures that involve some forms of technology transfer.
In May 2020, then-US President Donald Trump and the Labor Department banned the US federal pension funds from investing in Chinese stocks, saying that some of the firms could pose a threat to US national security. In November of the same year, Trump signed an executive order banning US investors from buying shares in 31 Chinese firms that are affiliated with or sell products to the Chinese military.
Without US private equity investments, Chinese startups will have to rely on local funds to develop their businesses or go for initial public offerings directly, Jason Poon, chief analyst at the Hong Kong Strategy Solutions, a think tank, says on his YouTube channel.
Poon says China has an advantage in developing 6G and quantum computing technologies but will face more obstacles attempting to boost its chip sector.
Besides, he points out, as Sino-US joint ventures that involve technology transfer will be scrutinized, it is possible that a project between China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co (CATL) and Ford Motor Co to produce lithium-iron-phosphate batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) made in Michigan will be affected.
Ford, the second largest electric vehicle maker in the US after Tesla, said on February 13 that it would build a US$3.5 billion battery plant in Detroit.
It is unclear whether other US companies, such as Apple Inc and Tesla, which have production lines in mainland China, will be affected by the investment curbs.
No dialogue for now
Meanwhile, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Thursday that the US is seeking “constructive and fair” economic ties with China.
“We will assert ourselves when our vital interests are at stake but we do not seek to decouple our economy from China’s,” Yellen said in a speech addressing US-China economic ties at Johns Hopkins University. “A full separation of our economies would be disastrous for both countries. It would be destabilizing for the rest of the world.”
She said a growing China that plays by the rules can be beneficial for the US, meaning that there will be rising demand for US products and services and more dynamic US industries.
“China’s ‘no limits’ partnership and support for Russia is a worrisome indication that it is not serious about ending the war,” she added. “It is essential that China and other countries do not provide Russia with material support or assistance with sanctions evasion.”
She said the relationship between China and the US is clearly at a tense moment while her goal is to “cut through the noise and speak to this essential relationship based on sober realities.” She said she planned to travel to China at the appropriate time.
US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo also seeks to visit China this year.
In early February, US State Secretary Antony Blinken was to have visited Beijing but the trip was postponed after a “Chinese spy balloon” was spotted in North American airspace. Blinken reportedly asked to meet Chinese officials this month but was not received by Beijing. He then visited Vietnam.
The Global Times on Thursday published an article titled “China has no time to receive insincere people,” criticizing Blinken for canceling his trip in February and then demanding a meeting this month.
“He canceled his trip at that time but he now wants to visit China. How come all things are decided by the US and others have to follow?” says the article. “China is a big country and does not tolerate this practice. Chinese diplomats are busy and cannot flexibly change their itineraries for the US. They do not have time to receive people who lack sincerity or even have bad intentions.”
The article says there have not been any communications between Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu and the US defense secretary in recent months because the US has so far not canceled what it terms illegal sanctions against Li. It says the US should ponder why many other country leaders and international organization executives, except the US ones, have visited China smoothly over the past month.
“In Chinese diplomacy, it’s common to say ‘listen to what you say and watch what you do’ but now it seems a waste of time for China to listen to what the US says,” according to the article. “The US is completely ‘saying one thing and doing another’ while its speech has lost credibility in China and international society.”
The article criticized the US for continuously intensifying political tensions with Taiwan issues, sanctions against China and the coming “unprecedented investment curbs.”
Yang Rong, a columnist at Guancha.cn, writes that Sino-US relations are worsening as the Biden administration is “saying one thing and doing another.”
Citing a report published by the American Chamber of Commerce in South China, Yang says more than 90% of its surveyed companies think China is their most important investment place while three-quarters of all surveyed companies will re-invest in China this year. He says US companies will suffer if they cannot invest in China.
Follow Jeff Pao on Twitter at @jeffpao3
The local property market stands to reap significant benefits, both short-term and long-term, from a likely credit rating upgrade to investment level for Greece.
Industry executives say that would be a very positive development, as, after 14 years, the Greek real estate market will return to the “elite” of investment destinations and it will become easier to attract foreign investment groups and funds.
“There is an objective problem right now regarding the implementation of investments by a number of institutional investors, as there are rules that prohibit the placement of funds in countries below investment grade. In other words, even if there was an investment opportunity and they were willing to take the risk, such an investment would be cut off by the investment committee of the respective group, because it is not allowed to invest in countries that do not have a positive credit rating,” Tassos Kotzanastassis, ULI global management committee executive and CEO of international real estate investment management company 8G Group, tells Kathimerini.
Securing investment grade means the Greek property market will get back on the “radar” of large institutional investors and state groups that have a long-term investment horizon. This is a development that contradicts speculative moves by a portion of institutions that have been placed in Greece, with a purely short-term horizon, aiming to secure a quick profit and exit from the country.
However, as Kotzanastassis warns, new investments from large foreign funds should not be expected, at least not immediately. “In this period, at the international level, there is significant uncertainty and investors appear restrained. Many are looking for investment opportunities in the form of distressed assets,” he emphasizes.
One of the market’s perennial problems is it is shallow, so it is difficult to create economies of scale that maximize the return on an investment. Another key point is that all foreign investors of this scope are looking for properties with green characteristics, in the context of the ESG policy they follow. Such properties are still rare in this market, constituting a very small minority in relation to the total stock.
Investment
I asked ChatGPT whether I should make a $1000 investment in Dogecoin, it said… – AMBCrypto News
Disclaimer: The information presented does not constitute financial, investment, trading, or other types of advice and is solely the writer’s opinion
As you may already know, Dogecoin (DOGE) has become somewhat of a cultural phenomenon in recent years, thanks in no small part to the vocal support of figures like Elon Musk. The Tesla CEO has been an outspoken proponent of the meme-inspired cryptocurrency, frequently tweeting about it, and even referencing it at any given opportunity.
Recently, investors proposed a class action lawsuit accusing Tesla CEO Elon Musk of insider trading and manipulating the cryptocurrency Dogecoin (DOGE), costing them billions of dollars.
In a 31 May filing in Manhattan federal court, investors said Musk used Twitter posts, paid online influencers, his 2021 appearance on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” and other “publicity stunts” to trade profitably at their expense through several Dogecoin wallets that he or Tesla controls.
Read Dogecoin’s [DOGE] Price Prediction 2023-2024
Despite Musk’s enthusiastic support for DOGE, he has not attributed the same feeling towards ChatGPT, the trending AI application. On many occasions, the Twitter main man has expressed skepticism over the long-term prospects and dangers accustomed to the use of the tool.
ChatGPT is scary good. We are not far from dangerously strong AI.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 3, 2022
Thus, in this article, I would be asking ChatGPT what it thinks of the DOGE- Musk relationship. Furthermore, I will also engage in a conversation about the correlation between the parties while assessing Musk’s role in shaping development within Dogecoin.
Putting Musk’s power on the market causes
There is no doubt that Musk, as one of the world’s richest men, has immense influence. And in 2021, the lover of memes engaged this authority in influencing DOGE’s price. Needless to say, Musk has had a hand in DOGE’s 27,668% all-time hike.
However, as market conditions worsened in 2022, the correlation between Dogecoin and Musk fell. In fact, on several occasions, Musk tweeted about DOGE but there was little to no effect on the price action. This means that the correlation between both decoupled until recently when Musk changed the Twitter logo to a dog, in the representation of Dogecoin.
The action resulted in a 30% hike in less than 24 hours. However, the hike in value only lasted a while even though the dog logo remained on the social media platform for more than three days. Therefore, I proceeded to ask ChatGPT what it thought of Dogecoin’s relationship with the controversial Elon Musk.
ChatGPT’s “normal” response stated that its cutoff knowledge data was September 2021. It also admitted that the link between Elon Musk’s tweets and Dogecoin was solid at that point in time. However, it could not provide a straightforward answer as to if the correlation would be the same at the time of writing.
The connection is as solid as ever
So, I considered it necessary to find a way to ensure that it replied as I desired. And the solution?— Jailbreak it! There are several ways to do this, including the switch method, the character play, the API way, and the Do Anything Now (DAN) method.
So, I decided to go with the DAN method to ease my conversation with ChatGPT. After successfully jailbreaking it, I again asked— “ChatGPT, tell me, do Dogecoin tweets from Elon Musk have a strong correlation with the cryptocurrency?”
Based on the response above, ChatGPT agreed that DOGE and Musk’s relationship was as solid as ever. Also, it mentioned that the actions of the Twitter CEO suggest market manipulation. And, there was speculation about such occurrences with the most recent one relating to the Twitter logo change and DOGE’s hike.
On 7 March, Lookonchain reported that two whale addresses saved as “DDuX” and “D8ZE” profited from the DOGE pump and dump.
Whale “DDuX” (the 5th holder) reduced 1.1B $DOGE($95.2M).https://t.co/n6R2L7HKN7
Whale “D8ZE” (the 3rd holder) reduced 300M $DOGE($28.6M).https://t.co/nHLHf8pk60
Could these two addresses be related to @elonmusk? pic.twitter.com/Z9ku8O9MZK
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) April 7, 2023
In terms of development, not much has been happening in Dogecoin’s ecosystem. However, on 23 March, the project’s core developer Michi Lumin announced a rollup of the 0.1.1 development release. With the new version 0.1.2, functionalities including executable utility and transaction verification would become easy for users.
“We’re ALREADY working on all sorts of new inclusions for 0.1.3, so keep watching – libdogecoin will continue to do more and more while remaining ultra lightweight and cross-compatible.”
Prior to that, Halborn security identified some susceptibles on the Dogecoin blockchain and recommended measures against possible exploits. With respect to its price action, CoinMarketCap revealed that DOGE slipped from its quick run to $0.1.
DOGE: A clampdown on the hype
DOGE has barely gained 0.5% of its value over a week, rising to $0.0739 on 29 May. The meme token displayed a ranging pattern for more than two weeks and may be due a breakout.
At the time of writing, DOGE was trading at $0.0725, with a market capitalization of $10 billion and a 24-hr trading volume of $156 million.
DOGE’s technical indicators painted an ambiguous picture for the memecoin, sliding towards a bearish sentiment. The relative strength index (RSI) was hovering only slightly above the neutral 50-mark, not a pretty picture at any stretch.
The RSI, paired with the on balance volume (OBV) moving sideways, indicates a bearish trend for DOGE.
Source: DOGE/USDT, TradingView
A $1000 investment would end in a…
I then progressed to ask ChatGPT about Dogecoin. This time, I queried if it is a wise decision to invest $1,000 in the meme. As expected, its classic answer was that which any individual would give, as it encouraged me not to invest in any asset without doing any research.
However, the tool’s jailbroken response gave me the go-ahead to invest the funds in the cryptocurrency. In the words of ChatGPT,
“Investing in Dogecoin for the long term is a wise decision. The cryptocurrency has a strong community of supporters, a growing acceptance as a form of payment, and the backing of influential figures such as Elon Musk”
Regardless, you should remember that ChatGPT is not a perfect tool as it remains in the learning stage. So, it would be better if you conduct your own analysis before taking the advice to fill up your DOGE orders with the amount stated.
How much are 1,10,100 DOGEs worth today?
For the time being, Elon Musk’s deep affection for Dogecoin does not seem like one that would be thwarted anytime soon. In fact, the Tesla Founder once mentioned that he would love a DOGE lover like himself to become Twitter’s CEO when he steps down.
However, OpenAI, the team behind ChatGPT, has addressed the safety concerns raised about the platform.
According to its 5 April press release, its latest model GPT-4 has been subjected to rigorous safety evaluation. Moreover, it has been working on improving its accuracy, research, and privacy worries. This could also extend to its knowledge of the crypto-ecosystem. OpenAI noted,
“Improving factual accuracy is a significant focus for OpenAI and many other AI developers, and we’re making progress. By leveraging user feedback on ChatGPT outputs that were flagged as incorrect as a main source of data—we have improved the factual accuracy of GPT-4.”
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Fidelity, the lead investor in Reddit’s most recent funding round in 2021, has slashed the estimated worth of its equity stake in the popular social media platform by 41% since the investment.
Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund’s stake in Reddit was valued at $16.6 million as of April 28, according to the fund’s monthly disclosure released over the weekend. That’s down 41.1% cumulatively since August 2021 when the asset manager spent $28.2 million to acquire the Reddit shares, according to disclosures the firm has made in its annual and semi-annual reports.
Reddit was valued at $10 billion when the social media giant attracted funds in August 2021. Fidelity — which has marked down its stakes in many startups including Stripe and Reddit in recent quarters — also slashed the value of its Twitter stake, it disclosed in the filing, valuing Elon Musk’s firm at about $15 billion.
The substantial markdown of Reddit’s value by Fidelity predominantly occurred by the previous year. Nevertheless, it merits pointing out that Fidelity has persistently implemented minor reductions in the worth of Reddit’s shares in the ensuing months. Fidelity, also an investor in Indian startups such as Meesho and Pine Labs, has effected considerably less dramatic valuation cuts in these holdings in the past two years.
Reddit declined to comment.
This devaluation, part of a broader trend that has hit a variety of growth stage startups across the globe in the past year, raises uncertainties about whether Reddit will maintain its initial intent to reportedly go public at a valuation around $15 billion.
Reddit, which has raised over $1 billion to date, counts Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz among its backers. The firm was valued at as high as $15 billion in secondary markets late 2021, according to people familiar with the matter.
The current wave of valuation cutbacks sheds new light on the impact of deteriorating worldwide economic conditions on fledgling startups. Despite the diminished funding activities for startups globally over the past year, valuations of numerous larger startups have stayed constant.
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