Latest news with #ERNIE
The Herald Scotland
2 days ago
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Dorset Premium Bonds winners announced for June 2025
People from across the county have come out as winners in this month's June draw, with people earning between £1,000 and £100,000. The draw is held by National Savings and Investments (NS&I), with the winners being created randomly. With that said, here are the bondholders from Dorset named in this month's draw. What is a Premium Bond? Dorset Premium Bond winners in June 2025 Every month, only two winners take home £1 million, but there are still plenty of other prizes available from the bonds. No one from Dorset won a £1 million prize, but four people won £100,000. Individuals with the bond numbers 510VN090490, 280TR568549, 595SF218145 and 208YP885009 got this amount. These had £50,000, £40,000, £41,001 and £50,000 invested respectively. The prize money won was split up in the county like so: £100,000 - 4 £50,000 - 4 £25,000 - 3 £10,000 - 11 £5,000 - 35 £1,000 - 374 The overall total won by Dorset residents in June 2025 was £1,334,000. How to see if you've won on Premium Bonds You can check your account via the NS&I website. Prize draws are conducted every month and prizes up to £1,000,000 are given away. To find out if you have ever won a Premium Bonds prize, you will need to dig out your holder's information and head over to the prize checker. You will need your holder's number, which you can find on your bond record or in the app. You can also use your NS&I number, which you should be able to find on any communication about your bonds. How are Premium Bonds winners decided? According to the NS&I website, they use a system called ERNIE (Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment) to decide the winners. Recommended reading: It is "powered by quantum technology, which uses light" which helps it produce enough random numbers for a monthly prize draw in around 20 minutes. The website adds: "Using light, ERNIE 5 generates random numbers that are matched against eligible Bond numbers to determine the lucky winners. "And because it's random, every Bond number, whether it has 8, 9, 10 or 11 digits, has a separate and equal chance of winning a prize."
Edinburgh Live
2 days ago
- Business
- Edinburgh Live
Lucky Edinburgh resident wins £1m jackpot as Premium Bond winners announced
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info An Edinburgh resident hit the jackpot today when Premium Bond results for June 2025 were released, revealing a capital local had won the coveted £1 million prize. Two winners earned the £1 million jackpot with one in Edinburgh along with another lucky bond holder in Stockport. The Premium Bond holder living in the capital held the bond number 352AC359547. This person also holds £50,000 in Premium Bonds and they bought their winning bond in February 2019. June's second big winner from Stockport held the maximum of £50,000 in Premium Bonds. Their winning bond 103FE583469 was purchased in November 2005. There were 131,438,233,006 bond numbers eligible for the draw, reports the Mirror. A total of 5,974,465 prizes worth £416,221,075 will be paid out in the June 2025 prize draw. Andrew Westhead, NS&I Retail Director, said: "A huge congratulations to our winners in Edinburgh and Stockport. It's particularly exciting to see Edinburgh celebrate its first jackpot win in eight years, while Stockport marks its second jackpot winner in Premium Bonds history. 'It's not just about the jackpot winners though. This month, ERNIE awarded over 5.9 million prizes worth more than £416 million, giving many Premium Bonds holders across the country an exciting summer boost.' Premium Bonds are a savings product run by National Savings & Investment (NS&I) but instead of getting interest on your money, you're entered into a monthly prize draw. The prizes start at £25 and go up to £1million - but some months, you may not win anything at all. You get a unique bond number for every £1 invested, and the maximum you can have saved in Premium Bonds is £50,000. The odds of a bond winning each month are 22,000 to 1 for every £1 bond - but most prizes are for smaller amounts. The prize fund rate - which is described as the the nearest thing Premium Bonds has to an interest rate - is currently 3.80% You can use the NS&I online prize checker tool, or the Premium Bonds prize checker app, to see if you've won. If you're a winner, you can have the money paid into their bank account, or reinvest it into new Premium Bonds. You should be emailed or sent a text message from NS&I if you win. Premium Bonds are held by around 22.7 million people. The below shows how much of each Premium Bond prize was distributed to winners in June 2025. £1,000,000 - 2 £100,000 - 79 £50,000 - 159 £25,000 - 317 £10,000 - 792 £5,000 - 1,585 £1,000 - 16,649 £500 - 49,947 £100 - 1,853,552 £50 - 1,853,552 £25 - 2,197,831
Scotsman
2 days ago
- Business
- Scotsman
Premium Bonds checker: winners scoop millions in June 2025
Modest investments have turned into million-pound fortunes 🎉 Sign up to the weekly Cost Of Living newsletter. Saving tips, deals and money hacks. Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Lucky winners from Stockport and Edinburgh each bagged £1 million in June's Premium Bonds draw Both winners hold £5,000 in Premium Bonds, with winning bonds bought in 2005 and 2019 Premium Bonds offer tax-free prizes instead of interest, with jackpots up to £1 million Over 19,000 high-value prizes awarded this month, including 79 payouts of £100,000 Fully backed by the UK Government, Premium Bonds are a secure and fun way to save Two lucky UK savers are celebrating a £1 million windfall after winning big in the June 2025 Premium Bonds prize draw. Premium Bonds, issued by National Savings & Investments (NS&I), offer a unique way to save: instead of earning interest, each bond is entered into a monthly prize draw. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Prizes range from £25 all the way up to a £1 million jackpot. While there's no guaranteed return, your initial investment is always secure. You can purchase Premium Bonds from just £25, up to a maximum of £50,000. They're available online through the NS&I website or by post with an application form and cheque. (Photos: Pexels/Getty Images) | Pexels/Getty Images Winners are drawn at random each month by ERNIE (Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment), the trusted system that's been powering draws since 1957. Fully backed by the UK Government, Premium Bonds offer a safe way to save – with the added excitement of possibly winning a life-changing prize. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Who are the big winners this month? This month's first £1 million winner is from Stockport and holds £5,000 in Premium Bonds. Their winning bond, 103FE583469, was purchased nearly 20 years ago in November 2005. The second jackpot winner, from Edinburgh, also has £5,000 invested. Their winning bond, 352AC359547, was bought in February 2019. While the million-pound prizes grab the headlines, 79 people won £100,000 each in June's draw, with NS&I awarding 19,581 'high value' prizes in total. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The full list of winners can be found on NS&I's website. To see if your Premium Bonds have won a prize, use their official prize checker.
CNBC
26-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Chinese tech giants reveal how they're dealing with U.S. chip curbs to stay in the AI race
Tencent and Baidu, two of China's largest technology companies, revealed how they're keeping in the global artificial intelligence race even as the U.S. tightens some curbs on key semiconductors. The business' methods include stockpiling chips, making AI models more efficient and even using homegrown semiconductors. While the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump scrapped one controversial Biden-era chip rule, it still tightened exports of some semiconductors from companies including Nvidia and AMD in April. Big names in the sector addressed the issue during their latest earnings conference calls. Martin Lau, president of Tencent — the operator of China's biggest messaging app WeChat — said his company has a "pretty strong stockpile" of chips that it has previously purchased. He was referring to graphics processing units (GPUs), a type of semiconductor that has become the gold standard for training huge AI models. These models require powerful computing power supplied by GPUs to process high volumes of data. But, Lau said, contrary to American companies' belief that GPU clusters need to expand to create more advanced AI, Tencent is able to achieve good training results with a smaller group of such chips. "That actually sort of helped us to look at our existing inventory of high-end chips and say, we should have enough high-end chips to continue our training of models for a few more generations going forward," Lau said. Regarding inferencing — the process of actually carrying out an AI task rather than just training — Lau said Tencent is using "software optimization" to improve efficiency, in order to deploy the same amount of GPUs to execute a particular function. Lau added the company is also looking into using smaller models that don't require such large computing power. Tencent also said it can make use of custom-designed chips and semiconductors currently available in China. "I think there are a lot of ways [in] which we can fulfill the expanding and growing inference needs, and we just need to sort of keep exploring these venues and spend probably more time on the software side, rather than just brute force buying GPUs," Lau said. Baidu, China's biggest search company, touted what it calls its "full-stack" capabilities — the combination of its cloud computing infrastructure, AI models and the actual applications based on those models, such as its ERNIE chatbot. "Even without access to the most advanced chips, our unique full stack AI capabilities enable us to build strong applications and deliver meaningful value," Dou Shen, president of Baidu's AI cloud business, said on the company's earnings call this week. Baidu also touted software optimization and the ability to bring down the cost of running its models, because it owns much of the technology in that stack. Baidu management also spoke about efficiencies that allow it to get more out of the GPUs it possesses. "With foundation models driving up the need for a massive computing power, the abilities to build and manage large scale GPU clusters and to utilize GPUs effectively has become key competitive advantages," Shen said. The Baidu executive also touted the progress made by domestic Chinese technology firms in AI semiconductors, a move he said would help mitigate the impact of U.S. chip curbs. "Domestically developed self-sufficient chips, along with [an] increasingly efficient home-grown software stack, will jointly form a strong foundation for long-term innovation in China's AI ecosystem," Shen said. China has been ramping up development of chips designed and manufactured on its home soil for the last few years. Most experts agree that Beijing remains overall behind the U.S. in the realm of GPUs and AI chips, but there have been some advances. Gaurav Gupta, an analyst covering semiconductors at Gartner, said stockpiling is one way Chinese companies are dealing with export restrictions. Additionally, there has been some progress made in semiconductor technology in China, even if it remains behind the U.S., Gupta added. "China has also been developing its own domestic semiconductor ecosystem, all the way from materials to equipment to chips and packaging. Different segments have made varying levels of progress, but China has been surprisingly extremely consistent and ambitious in this goal, and one must admit that they have achieved decent success," Gupta told CNBC by email. "This provides an avenue for them to procure AI chips, which perhaps can't compete with those from the U.S chip leaders but continue to make progress." Many U.S. executives have urged Washington to scrap export restrictions in light of China's progress. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called the curbs a "failure" this week, saying they are doing more damage to American businesses than to China.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Baidu (NasdaqGS:BIDU) Reports Revenue Increase To CNY 32,452 Million In Q1 2025
Baidu recently announced a strong financial performance for the first quarter of 2025, with revenue up nearly 3% and net income surging by 42% compared to the previous year. In addition, the launch of innovative AI products at the Baidu Create 2025 conference underscores the company's commitment to technological advancement. These factors likely added to the positive investor sentiment, contributing to Baidu's stock appreciating by 8% over the past month. While market indices like the Nasdaq Composite gained modestly, Baidu's financial growth and innovative announcements lend significant support to its upward movement. Buy, Hold or Sell Baidu? View our complete analysis and fair value estimate and you decide. Find companies with promising cash flow potential yet trading below their fair value. The recent announcement regarding Baidu's robust Q1 2025 financial performance and innovative AI product launches has implications for future revenue and earnings forecasts. The reported increase in net income and revenue sets a positive tone, suggesting potential for augmented revenue growth driven by their AI cloud advancements and the expansion of ERNIE and Apollo Go. However, analysts have projected a moderate annual revenue growth rate of 4.8% and anticipate a slight decline in profit margins over the next three years. These projections present a cautiously optimistic view of Baidu's future earnings trajectory in light of its current developments. Despite the recent surge in Baidu's share price by 8% following the news, the company's total returns over the last year show a 15.03% decline, highlighting a challenging period for the stock. Relative to its industry, Baidu underperformed over the past year compared to the US Interactive Media and Services industry's 6.6% return, as well as the broader US market, which returned 11.1%. This longer-term performance underscores the volatility and competitive pressures Baidu faces in optimizing its core marketing and AI business lines. In terms of price movement, Baidu's current share price of US$91.23 is trading at a significant discount to the consensus analyst price target of US$110.95, suggesting an upside potential of 17.8%. This discrepancy indicates that while the market may require further justification for this optimistic outlook, the recent financial results and progressive AI initiatives could provide catalysts for future price recovery and alignment with the analyst target. Investors might consider monitoring both the execution of Baidu's strategic initiatives and broader market conditions as they assess future investment opportunities. Gain insights into Baidu's past trends and performance with our report on the company's historical track record. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Companies discussed in this article include NasdaqGS:BIDU. This article was originally published by Simply Wall St. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@ Sign in to access your portfolio
