Latest news with #Forbes2000
Miami Herald
31-07-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Figma IPO raises its market share to $19.3B
July 31 (UPI) -- Collaborative design firm Figma Inc. raised $1.2 billion with an initial public offering on Thursday, with shares trading for $33, which increased its market share to $19.3 billion. The IPO is one of the most closely watched by Wall Street analysts, who say it is a predictor of how much value investors place on tech firms. The shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the FIG symbol. The IPO followed a failed Adobe and Figma merger effort that ended when U.S. antitrust regulators denied the merger at the end of 2023. Adobe had offered to pay $20 billion to acquire Figma. If the Figma shares price to rise by 4%, the IPO will give Figma more market value than it would have received from Adobe. Dylan Field and Evan Wallace founded Figma in 2012 to create online design tools that are easy to use with a web browser. Field is Figma's chief executive officer and in a prospectus said artificial intelligence is in its infancy and will enable Figma to continue its growth by supporting designers well into the future. "We're already investing heavily in AI, and we plan to double down even more in this area," Field said in the prospectus. "AI spend will potentially be a drag on our efficiency for several years," Field said, "but AI is also core to how design workflows will evolve going forward." He said there are "many possibilities for how AI can help designers and bring more people into the design process," and "the impact of AI will extend far beyond the Figma platform." "Design is bigger than design," Field added, "and the world needs more designers in charge." He told investors that Figma will acquire other firms and continually improve internally through more investment. Figma's collaborative design tools are used by 78% of Forbes 2000 companies and more than 95% of Fortune 500 firms, according to its registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Figma reported more $228 million in revenue during the first quarter of 2025 and $749 million in 2024. It claims more than 13 million active users every month, about two-thirds of whom are not designers. Copyright 2025 UPI News Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
UPI
31-07-2025
- Business
- UPI
Figma IPO raises its market share to $19.3B
1 of 5 | Figma co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Dylan Field and company representatives ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street on Thursday. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo July 31 (UPI) -- Collaborative design firm Figma Inc. raised $1.2 billion with an initial public offering on Thursday, with shares trading for $33, which increased its market share to $19.3 billion. The IPO is one of the most closely watched by Wall Street analysts, who say it is a predictor of how much value investors place on tech firms. The shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the FIG symbol. The IPO followed a failed Adobe and Figma merger effort that ended when U.S. antitrust regulators denied the merger at the end of 2023. Adobe had offered to pay $20 billion to acquire Figma. If the Figma shares price to rise by 4%, the IPO will give Figma more market value than it would have received from Adobe. Dylan Field and Evan Wallace founded Figma in 2012 to create online design tools that are easy to use with a web browser. Field is Figma's chief executive officer and in a prospectus said artificial intelligence is in its infancy and will enable Figma to continue its growth by supporting designers well into the future. "We're already investing heavily in AI, and we plan to double down even more in this area," Field said in the prospectus. "AI spend will potentially be a drag on our efficiency for several years," Field said, "but AI is also core to how design workflows will evolve going forward." He said there are "many possibilities for how AI can help designers and bring more people into the design process," and "the impact of AI will extend far beyond the Figma platform." "Design is bigger than design," Field added, "and the world needs more designers in charge." He told investors that Figma will acquire other firms and continually improve internally through more investment. Figma's collaborative design tools are used by 78% of Forbes 2000 companies and more than 95% of Fortune 500 firms, according to its registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Figma reported more $228 million in revenue during the first quarter of 2025 and $749 million in 2024. It claims more than 13 million active users every month, about two-thirds of whom are not designers.
Forbes
11-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The Hidden Power Of Questions In The Age Of AI
Bob Pearson , Chair, The Next Practices Group. getty When a child learns to speak, they pepper us with questions—an instinct rooted in survival. In 2013, a British study of 1,000 mothers found that children asked their parents more than 300 questions per day at an hourly rate that rivals the pace of the Prime Minister's Questions time. Questions help us navigate life and our roles within organizations—clarifying expectations, accelerating learning, building relationships and managing risk. To understand how questions help cut through complexity, consider Shannon's Theorem, which was created by Claude Shannon, the father of information theory. The theorem offers an equation for how much data can be sent across a communications channel in the presence of noise. Shannon was working at Bell Labs, so he was mainly focused on channels like a telephone line or a radio band. At organizations today, however, we still need to understand how to eliminate the noise that distracts us as we toil away on our projects. This is the role of questions: to help us focus. Understanding which questions to ask at a given time point helps reduce uncertainty, which is fundamental to how we utilize machine learning, decision trees and the field of data science. This ability to ask the right question—especially as AI becomes central—isn't just a technical skill but a foundational one. The Value Of Questions Within Organizations If we know which questions to ask at each key point for a given task, we can increase knowledge and reduce uncertainty. Relevant questions help us shape workflow, meet customer needs, teach teams and build trust. Of course, being human can also be our biggest obstacle. Too often, we stifle questions, prioritizing output over whether work is done optimally or scalably. So, what is the importance of questions within organizations, and why do we need to improve how we use them? To start, questions can lead to new information, frame a problem or check our own bias. Questions can just as easily unlock innovation as they work their magic to keep us on track, so we scale workflow efficiently. Imagine two scenarios. In the first, you are leading an SAP transformation project for a Forbes 2000 company that will exceed $300 million in cost and occur over three years. Your job is to make it happen on time and on budget. If you break down your project, you have 12 workstreams and 100 individual tasks per workstream. That is 1,200 different time points where you want to ensure your team understands what to do, how to handle unforeseen issues and accomplish each task. Email, teams and spreadsheets are not enough. Now, imagine your friend leads the development of a new drug in BioPharma. She said she has 60 key decision points in discovery/preclinical, 20 for an Investigational New Drug submission and 40 for Phase 1 trials. Getting a new drug into the clinic has 120 key decision points. In each case, we can proactively identify the top five questions that align with each decision. As your team gets ready for each decision point, they look at the five questions to ask themselves and their team. Did they address a certain problem? Did they categorize the expense associated with this action? Do they have a reason to believe this action could be improved? This process of structured questioning is incredibly powerful, but also time-consuming. That's where AI enters the picture. How AI Can Shape Question Asking The subject matter experts of the world are the heroes here. They have been there, done that and know what questions to ask at each point. AI can then supplement their knowledge to create a detailed list of questions for every decision point. As the user touches any point on the SAP transformation, the key questions to address will appear. Those questions will be linked to background information, and questions answered by other project members will become available, as they apply to that particular task. Now, questions are a quality check and a way to contribute to the enterprise workflow. It's a team sport. AI is ensuring that knowledge gained anywhere in the world is being shared precisely to the right time points in a project in real time. AI platforms can learn, in real time, what questions are most effective, what answers are most important and what type of backup information helps teach, educate and answer our questions. Questions and content can be translated into any language, enabling ideas to emerge from anywhere. To achieve this vision, we need to adjust a fundamental habit that drives us today. Ever since Google first set sail in 1998, we have been conditioned to write a few keywords or phrases, so our questioning ability is rusty. Now, with generative AI, we must flex our 'question muscles,' as we realize that the value of information we receive is dependent on our ability to ask the optimal question. This emerging skill—known as prompt engineering—is critical for tapping into AI's full potential. Keep in mind that our effective use of generative AI will help us mirror our own intelligence. Conclusion We start life as curious humans. We should never let that trait dissipate. Our job, with AI, is to remain as curious and disciplined as we were as toddlers. We are just now applying this approach to major global projects. A map of questions for each decision point. An AI back end to share answers and related content. The ability of any team member to contribute to the knowledge of the enterprise. Exploring the effective use of AI is more important than lamenting on what jobs will go away. What is required? Pretty simple. We need to change our habits and approach as we embrace the advances of AI. The 'curious companies' will complete that SAP transformation for $200 million and a year earlier, or they will create a more effective clinical trial design of a new treatment, based on a new style of learning and scaling. The question we are left with is, when do we make this a reality? Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
Arabian Post
02-07-2025
- Business
- Arabian Post
Figma Joins IPO Wave with $70 Million Bitcoin Treasury Move
Figma has filed its S‑1 registration to go public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker 'FIG', and disclosed holdings of approximately $69.5 million in a spot Bitcoin ETF as of 31 March 2025. The filing also confirms that the board approved allocating $30 million in USDC for later conversion into Bitcoin, signalling a strategic embrace of digital assets. Financial disclosures reveal robust growth for the design‑collaboration platform, with Q1 2025 revenue surging to $228.2 million—marking a 46 per cent increase year‑on‑year—and net income tripling to $44.9 million. For the full year 2024, revenue reached $749 million, although a net loss of $732 million was recorded, compared to a $738 million net income in 2023. The company attributes the swing to one‑off charges and substantial investments in artificial intelligence, areas identified as core to its long‑term strategy. The Bitcoin holdings stem from a board‑approved $55 million investment in a Bitwise Bitcoin ETF on 3 March 2024, which has appreciated roughly 27 per cent to $69.5 million. The additional $30 million USDC allocation was approved on 8 May 2025 to facilitate further Bitcoin purchases, highlighting a phased approach to crypto acquisition. Figma's investment approach positions Bitcoin alongside money‑market instruments, Treasuries and corporate bonds, comprising around 4 per cent of its $1.07 billion cash and equivalents as of 31 March 2025. ADVERTISEMENT The IPO comes more than a year after regulators in the UK and EU blocked Adobe's proposed $20 billion acquisition of Figma in late 2023. That deal's collapse redirected the company toward strengthening its independent market position. Referral to Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Allen & Co as lead underwriters underscores the prominence of the offering. Figma's embrace of Bitcoin reflects a growing trend among public and pre‑public tech firms deploying crypto assets as part of corporate treasury strategies. Firms such as Coinbase, Circle and MicroStrategy have drawn attention for similar moves, with some recording sharp stock gains driven by their crypto exposure. Analysts caution that such positions expose companies to the volatility of digital assets, though fairness accounting treatment under US GAAP ensures unrealised ETF gains flow through other comprehensive income, not immediate profit and loss. AI remains a central strategic pillar. CEO Dylan Field underscored in the filing that Figma intends to double down on AI investments, even if it affects short‑term efficiency, describing such outlays as essential to evolving design workflows. The platform, used by 95 per cent of Fortune 500 companies and 78 per cent of the Forbes 2000, has expanded its offerings—from website‑building and digital illustration to AI‑assisted coding and enhanced marketing tools. The IPO filing indicates Figma will use proceeds to repay debt, fund working capital needs and pursue acquisitions—while retaining dual‑class share structures aimed at preserving founder control. This structure assigns Class A one‑vote shares to public investors, while Class B and C shares—with greater voting power—remain with the founders through proxy agreements, ensuring strategic continuity. Figma's dual‑track strategy—combining IPO ambitions with a diversified digital‑asset treasury—positions it at the intersection of mainstream tech capital markets and crypto innovation. The move may draw investor interest from those seeking exposure to design‑tech growth and blockchain‑linked assets under a unified corporate strategy.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Can Advanced Micro Devices EPYC Drive Data Center Revenue Growth?
Advanced Micro Devices AMD is benefiting from its strong presence in the data center market, which is driven by the widespread adoption of its EPYC processors. In the first quarter of 2025, data center revenues surged 57.2% year over year to $3.674 billion, accounting for 49.4% of total revenues. The company's strong adoption of fifth-gen EPYC Turin processors and expanding Instinct AI accelerator deployments across hyperscalers and enterprises have also been major growth drivers for its success. Hyperscalers like AWS, Google, and Oracle launched more than 30 new EPYC-powered cloud instances, while enterprise adoption doubled among Forbes 2000 customers in the first quarter of processors are now deployed by all top 10 telecom, aerospace, and semiconductor companies. These processors are also gaining momentum in automotive, manufacturing, and energy sectors. AMD's expanding EPYC portfolio has been a key catalyst. The company recently announced that Nokia has adopted its fifth-gen EPYC 9005 Series processors for the Nokia Cloud Platform. These processors will enhance performance per watt for containerized workloads, which are important to 5G Core, edge, and enterprise applications. This integration supports telecom networks in meeting rising data demands while improving energy efficiency and reducing environmental impact. AMD faces stiff competition in the data center market from industry giants like Intel Corporation INTC and NVIDIA NVDA. Intel is heavily investing in technologies like its Xeon processors and AI accelerators to compete more effectively with AMD's EPYC server processors. Recently, Intel has expanded its AI and data center portfolio with the introduction of the Intel Xeon 5 processor. In the first quarter of 2025, Datacenter and AI Group revenues improved 8% year over year to $4.13 billion, driven by a solid demand for host CPUs for AI servers and storage is benefiting from the growing demand for generative AI and large language models using graphic processing units (GPUs) based on NVIDIA's Hopper and Blackwell architectures, which are aiding data center revenues. In the first quarter of fiscal 2026, data center jumped 73.3% year over year and 9.9% from the previous quarter to $39.1 billion. Advanced Micro Device shares have gained 1.4% year to date (YTD), underperforming the broader Zacks Computer & Technology sector's return of 2.4% and the Zacks Computer - Integrated Systems industry's increase of 16.7%. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research AMD stock is trading at a premium, with a forward 12-month Price/Sales of 5.86X compared with the industry's 3.59X. AMD has a Value Score of D. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter 2025 earnings is pegged at 56 cents per share, which has declined 13.6% over the past 30 days, indicating an 18.84% decline year over year. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Quote The consensus mark for 2025 earnings is pegged at $3.97 per share, which declined 2.9% over the past 30 days, suggesting 19.94% year-over-year currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Intel Corporation (INTC) : Free Stock Analysis Report Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) : Free Stock Analysis Report NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
