Houston startup Persona AI inks agreement with world's largest shipbuilder for humanoid welding robots
A non-moving mockup of Persona AI's humanoid robot worker. The company signed its first agreement with subsidiaries of the Korean industrial powerhouse HD Hyundai Co. Ltd.
Jishnu Nair/HBJ
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Insider
4 hours ago
- Business Insider
Cameco price target raised to $78 from $65 at Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs analyst Brian Lee raised the firm's price target on Cameco (CCJ) to $78 from $65 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. The firm cites Westinghouse, in which Cameco owns a stake, and Korea Electric Power Corporation and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. to have a mutually beneficial framework agreement that allows the use of Westinghouse technology to be used in Korean reactor deployments, noting that this deal should provide material upside to Westinghouse revenue and EBITDA, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Confident Investing Starts Here:
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Yahoo
Miliband has got his nuclear plans wrong. Here's what we should do
Yesterday, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband announced a new 'golden age' of nuclear energy. But with the wrong technology, unfit regulation and no real delivery plan, his golden age already looks tarnished. He's pinning his hopes on an already out-dated large-scale nuclear technology that has been plagued by construction problems in Finland, France and the UK and whose developer EDF is already moving on to a newer version. And while his commitment to small modular reactors (SMRs) is commendable, they are at best a decade away with no examples in existence in the West. While it is tempting to think you could simply hoist a submarine reactor onto a dock and call it a power station, this is unrealistic. Military reactors are designed for stealth, speed and war, not for civilian safety, grid connectivity or cost-efficiency. So Rolls Royce has had to develop an entirely new concept. In fact the current market leaders in Western SMR-design are GE-Hitachi whose small boiling water reactors recently began construction in Canada. However, given the imminent retirement of all but one of our existing large nuclear reactors, bigger is better for the nuclear ambition, and in this, Miliband's plan is woefully inadequate. Luckily, there is a solution ready and waiting: the Korean APR1400 design which has been successfully completed in both South Korea and UAE with eight units now in operation, built in an average of 8.5 years, at an average cost of $5-6 billion. Far cheaper than the £40 billion some analysts expect Sizewell C to cost. Around £6 billion is thought to have been spent already. The Korean design has been approved by both US and European regulators and should be a no-brainer for the UK: build what works. But to do this we need to take an axe to our overgrown thicket of nuclear regulation. The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) bizarrely reports to the Department for Work and Pensions, not the Energy Secretary, and sits beyond any meaningful strategic oversight. This well-intentioned separation has resulted in a regulatory regime akin to requiring 57 seat belts in your car – technically thorough, but practically unhinged. One requirement is that each new reactor design must expose workers to even less radiation than its predecessor. That might sound like progress, until you realise that radiation levels inside a modern nuclear plant are already so low they're hard to detect at all. The plant manager at one of our old Advanced Gas Cooled reactors (AGRs) once told me that the only time his radiation detector registered anything other than zero was when he left it on his desk and the sun shone on it. Nuclear workers are typically exposed to more radiation on the street than inside the plant. At this point, further exposure reductions offer no safety benefit. They just add cost, complexity and delay. The environmental regulators are as bad. The Sizewell C design is exactly the same as Hinkley Point C and the site is almost identical to Sizewell A and B. So why on earth were 40,000 pages of environmental statements required? This regulatory excess is expensive and draws out the process of approving new reactors beyond what is remotely reasonable. Britain risks running out of electricity. We had a near miss blackout event in January that was likely a factor in the renewal of the controversial biomass subsidies. We are also likely to see further small extensions to our ageing AGRs which are nearing the ends of their lives. But with a third of our fleet of gas power stations dating back to the 1990s and expected to retire in the next five years, Britain can ill afford delays to new nuclear plants. Particularly not the sort of avoidable delays our overzealous regulators have created. If Miliband is serious both about his golden age of nuclear, and more particularly, keeping the lights on in a decarbonised world, he needs to be far more ambitious. A truly serious plan would involve a programme of 5-6 large-scale reactors, and since the Koreans have the best track record, we should sign them up. He needs to get tough on the regulators. Abolishing ONR altogether and creating a new regulator, as part of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, with staff who are experts in risk management as well as nuclear safety, and severely curtailing the power of environmental regulators. One of the biggest benefits of nuclear power is its high energy density: it uses very little land to create a lot of energy. That should be taken into account, with regulators forced to look at the national picture rather than taking a strictly site by site approach. And he needs to stop wasting time with incentives for investors. They are not interested in the risk of our shambolic regulatory landscape. He should face this reality, and commit public money for the construction of the first two new reactors, re-financing once construction is completed. This would be a profitable strategy: the Government can borrow more cheaply than the private sector, the Korean design (with suitable regulatory restraint) can be built faster than the Hinkley design, meaning lower financing costs, and nuclear reactors are very profitable to run so investors will be very interested once the risky construction phase is over. He could even offer shares to the public in a 21st Century version of 'Just tell Sid' which remains the most successful public share subscription in UK history, and would perfectly align with Chancellor Rachel Reeves' ambition for UK savers to deploy their capital in the interests of national infrastructure. We need more than romantic notions of golden ages if we're to keep the lights on. It's time for hard-headed decisions, and a concrete, realistic and funded plan for success. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Yahoo
Why Coupang Rallied 20% in May
Coupang reported first quarter earnings in early May. While its top-line missed expectations, profits beat, and there was a huge currency factor. Meanwhile, management projects strong growth through the end of this year. These 10 stocks could mint the next wave of millionaires › Shares of Korean e-commerce giant Coupang (NYSE: CPNG) rallied 20% in May, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence . Coupang reported first quarter earnings in the early part of the month, and while results may have looked mediocre on the surface, they were actually much better than advertised. Stocks in general also generally climbed in May, as April's trade tensions eased somewhat, adding an additional tailwind. In its first-quarter report, Coupang grew revenue 11%, which missed expectations, although earnings per share of $0.06 beat expectations by $0.01. Yet while that headline revenue figure "missed," that was likely due to a massive currency effect. In constant currency of largely the Korean won, Coupang's growth was actually 21%. Coupang's main products segment, largely reflecting its Korean e-commerce services, grew 6% to $6.9 billion and 16% in constant currency, with customers up 9% from last year. Meanwhile, Coupang's smaller Developing Offerings, which include international e-commerce, the Eats delivery platform, Play, Fintech, and luxury e-commerce platform Farfetch, grew 67% to $1.0 billion, or 78% in constant currency. Management also showed its confidence by authorizing a $1 billion share repurchase program. The two big positives were one, management's projection for 20% revenue growth in constant currency for the full year, which means it's optimistic the current growth cadence will continue despite economic uncertainty. Second, Coupang showed impressive margin expansion in the quarter. In Q1, gross margins expanded 2.1 percentage points, with product segment gross margins up 3.0 percentage points, while adjusted EBITDA margins expanded 0.88 percentage points and product EBITDA margins grew 0.81 percentage points. E-commerce stocks usually suffer from low margins, so that margin expansion was a big positive sign. After its recent run, Coupang's market cap has rallied to over $51 billion, or over 200 times earnings and 130 times this year's earnings estimates. While the company appears to be dominating the Korean e-commerce market, it looks like investors are anticipating some of its other developing offerings to become big businesses as well. That being said, this past quarter showed promising execution and margin expansion from Coupang's team. So, it's not a surprise to see the stock higher, as consumer-oriented stocks largely recovered from the April tariff-related malaise. Ever feel like you missed the boat in buying the most successful stocks? Then you'll want to hear this. On rare occasions, our expert team of analysts issues a 'Double Down' stock recommendation for companies that they think are about to pop. If you're worried you've already missed your chance to invest, now is the best time to buy before it's too late. And the numbers speak for themselves: Nvidia: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2009, you'd have $367,516!* Apple: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2008, you'd have $38,712!* Netflix: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2004, you'd have $669,517!* Right now, we're issuing 'Double Down' alerts for three incredible companies, available when you join , and there may not be another chance like this anytime soon.*Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025 Billy Duberstein and/or his clients have no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Coupang. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Why Coupang Rallied 20% in May was originally published by The Motley Fool Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
