
The Bougie Restaurant That Disappointed Us Again and Again Has Closed
La Neta came in hot from Las Vegas, joining an ill-fated group of restaurants at the Epic in February 2023 with a promise to serve what it called 'unapologetically Mexican' food to Dallas. I visited a few times, and although it was always full, the restaurant never seemed to be able to resolve its issues with both the front and back of house. During an interview with Eater Dallas in the summer of 2024, CEO and founder Ryan Labbe said that a sharp downturn in customers prompted a menu revamp, including hiring a new chef and almost entirely new front of house employees. That was not enough to get things going again, apparently. The restaurant closed early this month with little fanfare. UnaVida
Chef Matt McCallister made the shift away from running kitchens day to day in 2023 to become executive chef of new concept development for the hospitality group Local Favorite, which owns El Fenix, Snuffers, Meso Maya, Twisted Root Burger Co., and more. In the last handful of years, the group has closed Jalisco Norte and Tulum, its two fine dining Mexican restaurants in Dallas. Now, it has shuttered UnaVida, its debut collaboration with McCallister, which will be replaced with another restaurant it owns, the Chinese food place WokStar. Local Favorite founder Mike Karns told the Dallas Morning News that McCallister will stay with the company, but did not comment on why UnaVida is flipping. Hong Kong Restaurant
Hong Kong was more than a Chinese food restaurant on Garland Road; it was the city's longest-running Chinese restaurant, in business for more than 60 years. It was opened in 1962 by co-founder Bill Pon, who, WFAA reports, immigrated to the U.S. in 1928, and went through several owners over the years. No reason was provided publicly for the closure. Hypnotic Donuts
One of the region's best doughnut shops closed at the end of May, after 12 years. It was well-known for its over-the-top doughnuts, including the signature Canadian Maple, which offered a full, crispy stick of bacon on top of an iced and glazed doughnut. The shop also served chicken and biscuits. In an Instagram post, the owners noted that it was 'time to retire.' Jia Asian Bistro
This sister restaurant to Jia Modern Chinese in the Pari Cities has closed and been replaced with Mei Asian Cuisine, which serves Chinese and Thai food, plus sushi. According to the website, the restaurant has been renamed; it is unclear if there are new owners. Jia opened in 2022. Hugos Invitados
There is no more Mexican food coming from the kitchen of this restaurant in Las Colinas after it was unexpectedly locked out by the building's landlord, according to a report in CultureMap Dallas. Spokesperson Matt Whiteley said the restaurant was in negotiations with the property owners when the owners opted to terminate the lease and lock the doors just before Mother's Day. This was the original Hugos location. It will not be reopening. Bangkok at Greenville
After 30 years, the owners of this spot have decided to close. In a press release, they attributed the decision to 'rising operational costs and a desire to spend more time with their aging parents.' Its last day of service will be on June 30, so there is still time for one last visit for drunken noodles and coconut soup. Cru Food and Wine Bar
The Allen outpost of this local mini-chain closed after 16 years. It was founded by
Patrick Colombo, CEO of Restaurant Works, which also owns Nick and Sam's and Princi Italia. Speaking to CultureMap Dallas, Colombo attributed the decision to close to an inability to come to terms on a new lease with the landlord at its Watters Creek location. Rahr Brewing
Another brewery bites the dust: This Fort Worth beer maker closed after 20 years in business on May 17. In an Instagram post, the brewery noted, 'This space has seen our growth, our challenges, our triumphs, and everything in between.' It will seek a new base of operations. Vida Cafe
Vegan food spot Vida Cafe closed after two years. Chef-owner Belen Hernandez announced the closure of the Fort Worth cafe on Facebook. 'It's time for us to step into a new door and conquer all the new opportunities coming our way,' Hernandez wrote. Lili's Bistro
This beloved bistro on Magnolia Avenue in Fort Worth will close its doors on May 31. Owner Vince Martin has shared several posts about the closure on Facebook, including an announcement that he made the decision so he can retire. He also revealed that he is in talks to sell the restaurant to potential buyers who may or may not operate it under the same name. No decisions had been announced at press time. Fitzgerald
Chef Ben Merritt announced on Facebook that this Fort Worth restaurant is closed after three years. Merritt 'will be stepping away from the restaurant industry for a bit to take a well-earned break and spend more time with his family.' The final day of service will be on June 7. Rocks and Brews
Backing from Kiss band members Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley wasn't enough to keep the location of their chain restaurant at the Grandscape in The Colony alive. It will close on June 1, per a report in CultureMap Dallas. Fans can still get their fix at the location in Grapevine.
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SoftBank founder Son makes his biggest bet by staking the Japanese giant's future on AI
Masayoshi Son is making his biggest bet yet: that his brainchild SoftBank will be the center of a revolution driven by artificial intelligence. Son says artificial superintelligence (ASI) — AI that is 10,000 times smarter than humans — will be here in 10 years. It's a bold call — but perhaps not surprising. He's made a career out of big plays; notably, one was a $20 million investment into Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba in 2000 that has made billions for SoftBank. Now, the billionaire is hoping to replicate that success with a series of investments and acquisitions in AI firms that will put SoftBank at the center of a fundamental technological shift. While Son has been outspoken about his vision over the last year, his thinking precedes much of his recent bullishness, according to two former executives at SoftBank. "I vividly remember the first time he invited me to his home for dinner and sitting on his porch over a glass of wine, he started talking to me about singularity – the point at which machine intelligence overtakes human intelligence," Alok Sama, a former finance chief at SoftBank until 2016 and and president until 2019, told CNBC. For Son, AI seems personal. "SoftBank was founded for what purpose? For what purpose was Masa Son born? It may sound strange, but I think I was born to realize ASI," Son said last year. That may go some way to explain what has been an aggressive drive over the past few years — but especially the last two — to put SoftBank at the center of the AI story. In 2016, SoftBank acquired chip designer Arm in a deal worth about $32 billion at the time. Today, Arm is valued at more than $145 billion. While Arm blueprints form the basis of the designs for nearly all the world's smartphones, these days, the company is looking to position itself as a key player in AI infrastructure. Arm-based chips are part of Nvidia's systems that go into data centers. In March, SoftBank also announced plans to acquire another chip designer, Ampere Computing, for $6.5 billion. ChatGPT maker OpenAI is another marquee investment for SoftBank, with the Japanese giant saying recently that planned investments in the company will reach about 4.8 trillion Japanese yen ($32.7 billion). SoftBank has also invested in a number of other companies related to AI across its portfolio. "SoftBank's AI strategy is comprehensive, spanning the entire AI stack from foundational semiconductors, software, infrastructure, and robotics to cutting-edge cloud services and end applications across critical verticals such as enterprise, education, health, and autonomous systems," Neil Shah, co-founder at Counterpoint Research, told CNBC. "Mr. Son's vision is to cohesively connect and deeply integrate these components, thereby establishing a powerful AI ecosystem designed to maximize long-term value for our shareholders." There is a common theme behind SoftBank's investments in AI companies that comes directly from Son — namely, that these firms should be using advanced intelligence to be more competitive, successful, to make their product better and their customers happy, a person familiar with the company told CNBC. They could only comment anonymously because of the sensitivity of the matter. As SoftBank launched "SoftBank's Next 30-Year Vision" in 2010, Son spoke about "brain computers" during a presentation. He described these computers as systems that could learn and program themselves eventually. And then came robots. Major tech figures like Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Tesla boss Elon Musk are now talking about robotics as a key application of AI — but Son was thinking about this more than a decade ago. In 2012, SoftBank took a majority stake in a French company called Aldebaran. Two years later, the two companies launched a humanoid robot called Pepper, which they billed as "the world's first personal robot that can read emotions." Later, Son said: "In 30 years, I hope robots will become one of the core businesses in generating profits for the SoftBank group." SoftBank's bet on Pepper ultimately flopped for the company. SoftBank slashed jobs at its robotics unit and stopped producing Pepper in 2020. In 2022, German firm United Robotics Group agreed to acquire Aldebaran from SoftBank. But Son's very early interest in robots underscored his curiosity for AI applications of the future. "He was in very early and he has been thinking about this obsessively for a long time," Sama, who is author of "The Money Trap," said. In the background, Son was cooking up something bigger: a tech fund that would make waves in the investing world. He founded the Vision Fund in 2017 with a massive $100 billion in deployable capital. SoftBank aggressively invested in companies across the world with some of the biggest bets on ride hailing players like Uber and Chinese firm Didi. But investments in Chinese technology companies and some bad bets on firms like WeWork soured sentiment for the Vision Fund as it racked up billions of dollars of losses by 2023. The market questioned some of Son's investments in companies like Uber and Didi, which were burning through cash at the time and had unclear unit economics. But even those investments spoke to Son's AI view, according to the former partner at the SoftBank Vision Fund. "His thought back then was the first advent of AI would be self-driving cars," the source told CNBC. Again this could be seen as a case of being too early. Uber created a driverless car unit only to sell it off. Instead, the company has focused on other self-driving car companies to bring them onto the Uber platform. Even now, driverless cars are not widespread on roads, though commercial services like those of Waymo are available. SoftBank still has investments in driverless car companies, such as British startup Wayve. Timing clearly wasn't on Son's side. After record losses at the Vision Fund in 2022, Son declared SoftBank would go into "defense" mode, significantly reducing investments and being more prudent. It was at this time that companies like OpenAI were beginning to gain steam, but still before the launch of ChatGPT that would put the company on the map. "When those companies came to head in 2021, 2022, Masa would have been in a perfect place but he had used all his ammunition on other companies," the former Vision Fund exec said. "When they came to age in 21, 22, the Vision Fund had invested in five or six hundred different companies and he was not in a position to invest in AI and he missed that." Son himself said this year that SoftBank wanted to invest in OpenAI as early as 2019, but it was Microsoft that ended up becoming the key investor. Fast forward to 2025, the Vision Fund — of which there are now two — has a portfolio stacked full of AI focused companies. But that period was tough for investors across the board. The Covid-19 pandemic, booming inflation and rising rates hit public and private markets across the board after years of loose monetary policy and a tech bull run. SoftBank didn't see that time as a missed opportunity to invest in AI, a person familiar with the company said. Instead, the the company is of the view that it is still very early in the AI investing cycle, the source added. AI technology is fast-moving, from the chips that run the software to the models that underpin popular applications. Tech giants in the U.S. and China are battling it out to produce ever-advancing AI models with the aim of reaching artificial general intelligence (AGI) — a term with different definitions depending on who you speak to, but one that broadly refers to AI that is smarter than humans. With billions of dollars of investment going into the technology, the risk is high, and the rewards could be even higher. But disruption can come out of no where. This year, Chinese firm DeepSeek made waves after releasing a so-called reasoning model that appeared to be developed more cheaply than its U.S. rivals. The fact that a Chinese company managed the feat, despite all the export restrictions for advanced tech in place, rocked global financial markets that were betting the U.S. had an unassailable AI lead. While markets have since recovered, the potential of surprise advances in technology at such an early stage in AI remains a big risk for the likes of SoftBank. "As with most technology investments the key challenge is to invest in the winning technologies. Many of the investments SoftBank has made are in the current leaders but AI is still in its relative infancy so other challengers could still rear up from nowhere," Dan Baker, senior equity analyst at Morningstar, told CNBC. Still, Son has made it clear he wants to set SoftBank up with DNA that will see it survive and thrive for 300 years, according to the company's website. That may go some way to explain the big risks that Son takes, and his conviction when it comes to particular themes and companies — and the valuations he's willing to pay. "He (Son) made some mistakes, but directionally he is going in the same driection, which is — he wants to be sure that he is a real player in AI and he is making it happen," the former Vision Fund exec said.


CNBC
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CNBC Daily Open: Chipping away at semiconductor revenues
U.S. markets continue to ride the artificial intelligence wave, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite closing at fresh all-time highs Friday and other major indexes also rising. The seismic shifts from the AI wave can be felt everywhere — from fueling the rise of new billionaires at a record pace to drastically changing the cybersecurity and defense landscape and how governments are looking to gain from the boom. No wonder semiconductors powering AI have become an important piece on the trade chess board. In fact, the U.S. government is trying to profit from allowing chip companies access to the large Chinese market. On Wednesday, reportedly Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang met with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House and agreed to give the federal government a 15% cut of its sales in China. Another chipmaker, AMD, agreed to the same deal. Nvidia, meanwhile, has been fending off allegations from Chinese state media that its H20 AI chips pose a national security risk for China as it looks to resume sales to the country. While investors appear to be cheering on AI stocks — Nvidia gained over 1% Friday — they are also bracing for a data-heavy week ahead. The consumer price index, out Tuesday, will be particularly in focus as it could offer clarity on the Federal Reserve's rate path. Nvidia refutes security risk allegations. The chip giant pushed back Sunday after an account affiliated with the Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said its chips were not safe and had a "remote shutdown" function. U.S. stocks post a winning week. On Friday, the Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.98% to a fresh record high. The S&P 500 also gained to close just a few points shy from a new record. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index gained 0.19%. Nvidia and AMD agree to pay 15% of China chip sales to the U.S. The chipmakers will receive export licenses in exchange, in an unprecedented arrangement with the White House, according to the Financial Times. Loud luxury makes a comeback. High-end brands are pivoting to visible opulence in a bid to woo shoppers as they grapple with multiple headwinds, including trade tariffs and soft consumer sentiment. [PRO] Data-heavy week for Wall Street. The latest consumer price index is set to release Tuesday, and the producer price index is due out Thursday. Investors also await other economic data such as retail sales, as they assess whether the Federal Reserve will cut rates in September. From lipsticks and Labubu dolls to concerts, the 'treatonomics' trend is booming in uncertain times "Treatonomics" — a consumer trend that covers spending on "everyday luxuries" to larger, life-affirming experiences — is booming as people look for a mood boost in times of economic uncertainty. The volatility we are experiencing is not likely to dissipate for the next five to eight years, retail analysis firm Kantar predicts. "This gives us a strong indication that treatonomics will persist for at least another three to five years," Kantar's Senior Director Meredith Smith said.


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WOOF IMPORTANT DEADLINE: ROSEN, RECOGNIZED INVESTOR COUNSEL, Encourages Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. Investors with Losses in Excess of $100K to Secure Counsel Before Important Deadline in Securities Class Action
NEW YORK, Aug. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of securities of Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: WOOF) between January 14, 2021 and June 5, 2025, both dates inclusive (the 'Class Period'), of the important August 29, 2025 lead plaintiff deadline. SO WHAT: If you purchased Petco securities during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement. WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the Petco class action, go to or call Phillip Kim, Esq. at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] for more information. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than August 29, 2025. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources, or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually litigate securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company at the time. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers. DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, throughout the Class Period, defendants made false and misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Petco's pandemic-related tailwinds were unsustainable, as was its business model of selling primarily premium and/or high-grade pet food; (2) accordingly, the strength of Petco's differentiated product strategy was overstated; (3) defendants downplayed the true scope and severity of the foregoing issues, the magnitude of changes needed to rectify those issues, and the likely negative impacts of their mitigation strategy on Petco's comparable sales metric; (4) accordingly, defendants overstated Petco's ability to deliver sustainable, profitable growth; and (5) as a result, defendants' public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages. To join the Petco class action, go to or call Phillip Kim, Esq. at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] for more information. No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff. Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: on Twitter: or on Facebook: Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. ——————————- Contact Information: Laurence Rosen, Esq. Phillip Kim, Esq. The Rosen Law Firm, P.A. 275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor New York, NY 10016 Tel: (212) 686-1060 Toll Free: (866) 767-3653 Fax: (212) 202-3827 [email protected]