SoftBank's $47 Billion AI-Led Stock Rally Is at Risk of Stalling
Founder Masayoshi Son's aggressive investment in artificial intelligence, from its $500 billion data center project with OpenAI and Oracle Corp., to growing holdings in Nvidia Corp., drove stellar gains in the stock. However it failed to keep its momentum Tuesday, despite plans to invest $2 billion in Intel Corp., with investors taking profit after a 135% share price gain in just four months.
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Intel in talks with large investors for equity boost at discount, CNBC reports
(Reuters) -Intel (INTC) is in talks with other large investors to receive an equity infusion at a discounted price, CNBC reported on Wednesday, just days after the chipmaker got a $2 billion capital injection from SoftBank Group (9984.T). Intel stock fell more than 7% on Wednesday. This also follows Reuters report U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is looking into the government taking equity stakes in Intel and other chipmakers in exchange for grants under the CHIPS Act, which aims to spur factory-building in the U.S. Intel did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Silicon Valley pioneer Intel has been struggling from years of missteps in its manufacturing operation and missed opportunities around the artificial intelligence boom, culminating into one of the most difficult periods in the company's history. The company lost its competitive edge years ago to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, the globe's biggest contract manufacturer. Chip designer Nvidia is dominating in the AI chips market, while Intel is losing market share in PCs and datacenters to rival Advanced Micro Devices. Sign up for Yahoo Finance's Week in Tech By subscribing, you are agreeing to Yahoo's Terms and Privacy Policy
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Dex is an AI-powered camera device that helps children learn new languages
Three parents—Reni Cao, Xiao Zhang, and Susan Rosenthal—were worried about their children's screen time, so they left their tech jobs to create a product that encourages children to engage with the real world while also helping them learn a new language. Their move has paid off, as the company recently raised $4.8 million in funding. The newly launched gadget is called Dex and resembles a high-tech magnifying glass with a camera lens on one side and a touchscreen on the other. When kids use the device to take pictures of objects, the AI utilizes image recognition technology to identify the object and translates the word into the selected language. It also features interactive story lessons and games. While kid-focused language learning apps like Duolingo Kids exist, Dex argues that it takes a more engaging approach that emphasizes hands-on experiences, allowing children to immerse themselves in the language. 'We're trying to teach authentic language in the real world in a way that's interactive,' Cao told TechCrunch. 'The kids are not only listening or doing what they are told to do, but rather, they are actually thinking, creating, interacting, running around, and just being curious about things, and acquire the necessary language associated with those concepts and objects.' Dex is designed for kids ages 3 to 8 years old and currently supports Chinese, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish. It also offers support for 34 dialects, including Egyptian Arabic, Taiwanese Mandarin, and Mexican Spanish. In addition to object recognition, Dex features a library of interactive stories that encourage children to actively participate in the narrative. As the story unfolds, kids are prompted to respond, such as greeting characters in the language they are learning. The device comes with a dedicated app for parents to see a detailed overview of their child's progress, including the vocabulary words they've learned, the stories they've engaged with, and the number of consecutive days they've used Dex. Additionally, Dex is currently developing a feature that allows kids to ask an AI chatbot questions and engage in free-form conversations. This feature is already available to some testers, but the company admits it isn't ready for a wider rollout. Parents might also be cautious about introducing AI chatbots to their children. During our testing of Dex, we had concerns about the possibility of a child learning inappropriate words. Cao assured us that 'rigid safety prompts' are included whenever the large language model is used across vision, reasoning, and text-to-speech. He said, 'We have an always-on safety agent that evaluates conversations in real-time and filters conversations with a safe stop word list. The agent will suppress conversation if any of the stop words are mentioned, including but not limited to those related to sexuality, religion, politics, etc. Parents will soon be able to further add to personalized stop word lists.' Plus, it said that the AI is trained using vocabulary standards similar to those found in Britannica Kids and other children's encyclopedias. In our testing, the AI successfully ignored topics related to nudity. However, it did recognize and accurately translate the term 'gun,' something parents should consider when purchasing the device. In response to our findings, Cao told us, 'Regulation-wise, I'm not worried, but I do think this presents a concern, especially among [some] parents.' He added that these concerns have pushed the company to soon introduce an option in settings to filter out specific words, such as guns, cigarettes, vape pens, fireworks, marijuana, and beer bottles. Dex also has a zero data retention policy. While this means there's no risk of sensitive or personal images being stored, one downside could be that parents are left in the dark about the type of content their kids may be capturing. Dex is also actively working towards obtaining COPPA certification, which would make it compliant with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. The company secured funding from ClayVC, EmbeddingVC, Parable, and UpscaleX. Notable angel investors include Pinterest founder Ben Silbermann, Curated co-founder Eduardo Vivas, Lillian Weng, who is the former head of safety at OpenAI, and Richard Wong (ex-Coursera). The device is priced at $250, which feels steep for a product designed for children. However, Dex positions itself as a more affordable alternative to hiring a tutor, which can charge up to $80 per hour, or attending a language immersion school, which can cost several hundred to even thousands of dollars. Dex says that hundreds of families have already purchased the device.
Yahoo
19 minutes ago
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Why Target's new CEO won't have a honeymoon period: Opening Bid top takeaway
Complacent investors have been hit with a reality check on tech stocks this week. Momentum favorite Palantir (PLTR) getting drilled again today. Nvidia (NVDA) is seeing mixed action. Queue the tech stock correction chatter! "Investors worry the tech rally is due for a pullback/correction with the constant valuation arguments front and center," Wedbush analyst Dan Ives explained. "Adding to the agitation on the Street around the tech trade is a lot of moving parts around tariffs, chips into China, Intel/US Government stake, and what this all means for tech stocks looking ahead." Ives added, "We view tech sell-offs like yesterday as opportunities to own the core winners." That bullish thesis may be put further to the test in the coming sessions. Stock analysis: Tesla The Wall Street Journal reported today that billionaire Elon Musk is pulling back on his desire to create the America Party as he focuses on his many companies. That sent me snooping for some fresh analyst coverage on Tesla (TSLA). William Blair analyst Jed Dorsheimer apparently spent last week in Austin, Texas, riding around in Tesla's new robotaxis. He said the robotaxi offers "a glimpse into the future." He values the robotaxi business at $298 per share, based on its operating profit potential, and has a price target of $357 on the stock. Here is how Dorsheimer thinks through the valuation: "Our robotaxi model through 2040 assumes total rideshare miles of 1.1 trillion per year (one-third of total miles driven in the U.S. per year), with average price per mile reducing from $2.50 to $1.25, estimating a total addressable market (TAM) of $1.4 trillion. Tesla has the ability to leverage its lower cost structure and weaponize pricing — charging 50% less per mile, it can still achieve near 60% EBITDA margins. We expect Tesla to win 35% market share versus competitors Waymo at 15%, Uber (UBER) at 38%, and Lyft (LYFT) at 13%, generating almost $250 billion in revenue in 2040. After discounting the robotaxi EBITDA of $145 billion at 8.5% discount rate, we estimate an implied value of Tesla's robotaxi business at $298.61 per share, energy business at $30.73 per share, and auto business at $28.09 per share, totaling an implied fair value of $357.43 per share." Deep dive: Target Target (TGT) is tapping homegrown talent as its next CEO at one of the most pivotal moments in its 63-year history. The discounter announced that longtime CEO Brian Cornell's heavily groomed No. 2, Michael Fiddelke, will take over as CEO on Feb. 1, 2026. Cornell, who has been CEO of Target since August 2014, will slide into the executive chair position for an undetermined period of time. Fiddelke joined Target in 2003 as an intern and rose through the ranks to CFO and then COO. "I've had this conversation with the board for a number of years, and I've been in the role for 11 years. I'm going into my 12th now. I will actually turn 67 early next year, and I think it's time for me to step back, recharge, spend a lot more time with my family, a lot fewer nights in hotels, and be a great supporter of Michael and the team for the rest of my life," Cornell told me by video call while sitting next to Fiddelke at the company's Minneapolis headquarters. Fiddelke added, "I bleed Target red after 20 years here, and there's nothing more important to me than working with the incredible team that we have to chart the next chapter for Target. I mean, I've seen us in that 20 years at our best. I've seen us not at our best. When we're at our best, we are pretty darn tough to beat." Shares fell 7% in early trading after Target also reported a drop in earnings and sales. "The market had anticipated a CEO change, though we believe was hoping for an external CEO given the troubles Target has had driving sales and profits in recent yrs," Citi analyst Paul Lejuez said. But this decision isn't a surprise. For one, Fiddelke has been Cornell's right-hand man for several years. It has become quite apparent over the past year that he was grooming Fiddelke to take over while working to get board buy-in. I've gotten to know Fiddelke in recent years. Nice fella, and he has earned the opportunity to sit in the CEO seat. If this were any other time for Target, the decision would probably be celebrated. It's not often that an intern at a company becomes its CEO. The only comparable story I can think of is Walmart (WMT) CEO Doug McMillon going from truck loader to head honcho. But Fiddelke will unlikely have a honeymoon period, as he's been at Target during its past 24 months of struggles, including the weak second quarter. People I've talked to wanted an outsider as Target's next CEO, with fresh eyes to fix its issues (not unlike when Cornell was hired in 2014 — his career was mostly spent at Walmart and PepsiCo (PEP). Fiddelke will be seen as a continuation of a strategy that hasn't been working. I asked Fiddelke on the call how candid he plans to be in the early going on the strategy review. He sounded like he was ready to divert from Cornell's playbook and shake things up. He'll have to do just that, and quickly, to win over a likely skeptical Wall Street. Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor and a member of Yahoo Finance's editorial leadership team. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Tips on stories? Email Sign in to access your portfolio
