Christine Leong

#NVDA THE GAME OF THRONES Wall Street’s largest financial institutions have loaned more than $11bn to a niche group of tech companies based on their possession of the world’s hottest commodity: NVIDIA’s artificial intelligence chips. Blackstone, PIMCO, The Carlyle Group and BlackRock are among those that have created a lucrative new debt market over the past year by lending to “neocloud” companies, which provide cloud computing to tech groups building AI products. Neocloud groups such as CoreWeave Crusoe and Lambda Labs have acquired tens of thousands of Nvidia’s high-performance computer chips, known as GPUs, that are crucial for developing generative AI models. Those Nvidia chips are now also being used as collateral for huge loans. The frenzied dealmaking has shone a light on a rampant GPU economy in Silicon Valley that is increasingly being supported by deep-pocketed financiers in New York. However, its rapid growth has raised concerns about the potential for more risky lending, circular financing and Nvidia’s chokehold on the AI market. The $3tn tech group’s allocation of chips to neocloud groups has given confidence to Wall Street lenders to lend billions of dollars to the companies that are then used to buy more Nvidia chips. Nvidia is itself an investor in neocloud companies that in turn are among its largest customers. Critics have questioned the ongoing value of the collateralised chips as new advanced versions come to market — or if the current high spending on AI begins to retract. “The lenders all coming in push the story that you can borrow against these chips and add to the frenzy that you need to get in now,” said Nate Koppikar, a short seller at hedge fund Orso Partners. “But chips are a depreciating, not appreciating, asset.” The CoreWeave connection New Jersey-based CoreWeave, the largest neocloud company, began amassing chips when it launched in 2017 to mine cryptocurrency but pivoted to AI two years later. The company now claims to be the largest private operator of Nvidia GPUs in North America, with more than 45,000 chips. “CoreWeave’s initial success was securing GPU capacity from Nvidia at exactly the moment when ChatGPT and AI hit its Cambrian explosion,” said an executive at one of its largest investors. Backed by venture capitalists and Nvidia, its valuation has soared from $2bn to $19bn in the past 18 months. The company is planning an initial public offering in the first half of 2025 that could value it even higher, said several people close to the company. CoreWeave has raised more than $10bn in debt in the past 12 months from lenders including Blackstone, Carlyle and Illinois-based hedge fund Magnetar Capital. It announced a further $650mn credit line from Wall Street banks including J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley this month. #INVESTMENTBANKING #HEDGEFUNDS #CEOS #ECONOMY #EUROPE #ASIAPACIFIC #MARKETS #PRIVATEEQUITY #MONEY #VENTURECAPITAL #INVESTING #FINANCE #TRADING #STOCKS #ENERGY

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Selini you pulled off a quality event with some of the leading funds and builders in AI and blockchain space. Fun to see some old friends from crypto's early days Marc Weinstein Natalia Karayaneva Reeve Collins Patrick O'Kain etc and be on a dynamic panel with Jordi Alexander Viktor Fischer Vanessa Grellet Anatoly Kondiyakov and Oliver Blakey. The signal I got is: This summer is "all hands on deck" and very little beach. My prediction: Within next 4 years we'll see an unprecedented pace of innovation through AI x blockchain projects impacting both industrial and consumer. The key phrase: focus & delivery.

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https://lnkd.in/gMNUNJ_G The OFAC has ruined ETH. I can no longer view ETH as a real crypto due to blocks being censored by the OFAC. It is no longer distributed in nature but centralized. Remember Ethereum's original pitch – as a network where "code is law," where software replaces middlemen, and where "decentralized" networks can operate outside constraints from "centralized" companies and governments.

🎭 Deepfakes in KYC More customers than ever are reaching out to us about deepfake capabilities. There's a sharp uptick in this particular fraud vector particularly in the Americas. 3 reasons why this top of mind of every Fraud Analyst: 👩‍💻 Broadening Accessibility of Deepfake Technology: With open source projects like https://lnkd.in/dGcm53CQ, almost any fraudster can get their hands on this very sophisticated technology. 📈 Increased Sophistication of Deepfakes: The technology now actually works. It can create selfies with close to zero defects. 🤐 KYC Vendors are Approving Deepfakes: Unfortunately, major KYC vendors do not have the tech yet to stop these attacks. How can AiPrise Inc. help you? 🚀 We just launched our Deepfake detection to a select few customers and are already seeing great results. When I look at these attacks, the sophistication is astonishing. Super proud of the team which delivered this in record time. #kyc #deepfake #fraudprevention

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Missing the governance aspect in the list, which I personally consider being the most challenging one. How to organize blockchain as a shared platform in a credibility neutral, compliant, transparent and resilient way? SWIFT has shown a way once how to organize interbank message transfer in a cooperative, next level for the financial industry would be to do the same for a decentral transaction platform (aka blockchain/DLT).

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BBC finally confirm "global cyber travel and banking data systems crash". Bank of England (Ripple partner) then confirm CHAPS (Clearing House Automated Payments System) has also failed. Major UK supermarkets today cannot receive digital payments. Trump and JD Vance (Silicon Valley stalwart) due to discuss "Crypto" at the NRC later today and in an unprecedented move, Elon Musk is now due to speak also at this convention! Is this the start of the "global financial reset (Black Swan) and the rise of Ripple's global dominance using the XRP digital asset as the new cross border payments system? #Setp242024 #articsalmond #xrpath #ripple #BRICS

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Falcon keys, one of the methods to ensure post-quantum security, are used in Algorand's state proofs, ensuring that the chain's history is quantum secure. This is one more example of Algorand being institutional-grade.

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"BlackRock and Citadel plan to launch a new national stock exchange in Texas to compete with the New York Stock Exchange!" So, there's no planned backwards compatibility to plug #WallStreet equities and investments into new value storage and value movement networks (#DLTs, #blockchains, #DeFi); but, #bankers assume #banking institutions will be dealt into the future of #streaming #money; and that it will have something to do with the #electronic #dollar? Ok ... sure. Uh, might be a good idea to dive into an educational seminar with DaLand LLC on digital assets, #crypto, and #tokenization, and how they ARE and WILL impact your #local #bank or #creditunion institution. https://lnkd.in/esrJ-GmC #bitcoin #ethereum #eth #btc #investments #tokenizedeconomy #bitcoinbanking

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The UK is drafting legislation to support activities of the #cryptocurrency industry including: ✅ Fiat-backed #stablecoins issuance ✅ #Crypto staking ✅ Exchange activities ✅ #DigitalAsset Custodial services #institutional #defi #liquidstaking #derivatives #restaking #eth #stablecoin

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97% of your transactions are...fraudulent? Successful transaction fraud in most industries ends up at less than 1% of the total volume. I'm partial to flipping the view of that and saying "99% of your transactions are valid", because fixating on the negativity of the 1% isn't always a solid growth plan. There are limited situations where having a fraud rate significantly higher than 1% make sense, but getting up to a 97% work visa fraud rate the way the Campania region of Italy has is mind-boggling. The whole country is at roughly a 75% fraud rate, so better than Campania but not by much. It sounds like $16K will get you a work visa that never gets followed up on, leading to rampant fraud. I don't know anything about the political climate in Italy so there may be more to this story, but out of context it sounds like what happens in transaction fraud when there are either no controls or the controls that were implemented were the wrong ones. Italy's Meloni blames organised crime for 'alarming' migrant visa fraud (https://lnkd.in/gNzhfTfb) #fraud #fraudmanagement #fraudprevention #fraudstrategy #identity #italy #visa #workvisa #controlframework

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The various hoops - and supported use cases - for using contactless on an iPhone outside of Apple Wallet have been published by Apple (h/t Tom Noyes) Let the 3rd party #wallet wars begin (again)… My gut feel is that given the number of hoops involved, the cost and marginal benefit available for creating and managing your own wallet, only very large companies will attempt this, and most will fail. Why? 1. Where investments have already been made in optical readers (eg retailers, event ticketing etc) - #QR / bar codes already suffice 2. Where contactless was needed (eg hotel keys) - #Bluetooth low energy filled the gap 3. #Tokenised credentials (which is what SE + NFC is great at) *outside of the Apple Wallet* strikes me as a niche requirement. The best example I can think of is for a large supermarket chain (eg Tesco, Walmart) to attempt to bypass card #payments via an #OpenBanking payment (provided Apple will allow this - and anticipating they’ll still take a cut). 📱 Hardware / software: iPhone XS running iOS 18.1 (or later models/versions). 🌎 Countries: US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and Japan. ⚖️ Legal: Have various agreements in place and and be compliant with various standards / regulations / laws. Use cases supported: 🏦 In-store #NFC payments for financial institutions 🚗 Car keys for automotive manufacturers 🚎 Closed-loop transit for transport operators 🏢 Corporate badge access for building operators 🏡 Home access for lock manufacturers 🏨 Hotel access for hotel operators 👩‍🎓 Student ID for university/ schools 🛍️ Merchant Loyalty/Reward for program operators ⚽️ Event tickets for stadium operators 🇺🇳 Government ID #fintech #digitalID

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🚀 New GovTech/AI Investment! Our BarronKent Ventures team is thrilled to announce our investment in TrackLight, an #ai-based fraud detection platform. Their goal is to detect and prevent financial fraud in government sectors. We’re excited to work with co-founders and fraud detection experts, Greg Loos and Linda Miller, and their team to safeguard public funds. See the article below. Go TrackLight! BarronKent Ventures BarronKent Family Office #GovTech #ai #government #frauddetection

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Great perspective on the futility of legacy #money tech and processors attempting to keep up with security and decentralization abilities. Can centralized data centers avoid obsolescence in the face of such quantum leaps and exponents of advantage for new money? I imagine #VISA , #Mastercard, #JPMorgan , #BofA, #FED, etc., know this ... which is why they're investing in next-gen #digitalcurrency networks. If your #bank or #creditunion is still ONLY sinking budget into legacy networks and the #electronic #dollar, it's time to develop a strategy for #digitalassets and #distributed money. The team at DaLand LLC can help from strategy formation and execution to solutions implementation, to keep you plugged into the future of money: https://lnkd.in/eN_NriHW #bitcoin #dollar #evolution #disruption #displacement #dedollarization #CBDC #DLT #blockchain

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The 9 Future of Identity panels/keynotes I'm most looking forward to watching next week: 1) KYC - Predicting trends for the next 5 years and how can we futureproof it? With Mark Haine 💯 (OpenID Foundation), Marcella Verdessi (N26), Sadeque Ahmed (JP Morgan Chase), Ali Cooper (HSBC), Zahra Gill, Dip AML (MICA)(Starling Bank) 2) Battling bias: The quest for fair digital identity. With Danielle Dodoo (Independent), Becks Brindley (NatWest), Russ Cohn (IDVerse), Vijay Mitra(Nationwide Building Society), Hannah Saunders (Face Equality International). 3) Quantum leap: Digital identity in the post-classical era. With James Monaghan (MISSION), Azy Shojaeian BA (Hons) Prof PgDip (GRC), LLM (GRC)(Pockit), Steve Suarez (Mitsubishi Corporation), Santosh Pandit(Bank of England, Prudential Regulation Authority) 4) Introducing UK BankID: What is it & Why is it a Game-Changer? With Robert Kotlarz (OnelD), David Birch (OnelD). 5) Al agents unleashed: The new frontiers of digital identity. With David Palmer (Vodafone), Willem Wellinghoff (ECOMMPAY), Marius B. (UK Finance), Bhavin P. (Al Security Financial Services). 6) European digital identity frameworks: The quest for interoperability. With Madeleine Boys (Global Digital Finance), Caroline Copley, Bryn Robinson-Morgan (Moresburg Ltd), Kay Chopard (Kantara Initiative), Adam Preis, MCIM (Ping Identity), Peter Burke (Lloyds Banking Group). 7) Redefining customer experience for digital identity systems. With Abol Froushan, FRSA, PhD (Former No7 Beauty), Hannah Jeffreys (Lloyds Banking Group), Dastan S. (Safuaro), Siggy Simon (Decathlon), Matthew Bell l (Telesign). 8) Finding the "Goldilocks" zone: Convenience vs. security in digital customer onboarding. With Masha Cilliers (Payment Options Ltd), Paul Munson (Rippling), Sadeque Ahmed (JP Morgan Chase), Mitul Malde (Ghana International Bank), Poornima Sethu (Persona). 9) Al & digital identity: Unleash the power, tame the beast! With Richard Maton (Aperio Strategy), Paola Cristina Nuñez Ameri (Citigroup Inc), Fabian Eberle (Keyless), Nish Ranatunga (HSBC), Ramit Sharma (NatWest). – Picture by Paul Stuart

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Wiz, the cybersecurity startup, has turned down a $23 billion acquisition offer from Alphabet, higher than its last valuation of $12 billion. Key Highlights: - Alphabet Inc. was reportedly in advanced talks to acquire the cloud security company for a staggering $23 billion, making it potentially Alphabet's biggest acquisition ever. - Wiz raised $1 billion earlier this year, bringing its valuation to $12 billion. - Co-founders Assaf Rappaport, Yinon Costica, Roy Reznik, and Ami Luttwak, are steering the company towards $1 billion in ARR and an IPO. For the latest secondary coverage and trading SaxonWeber | ShareWell #secondaries #saxonweber

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Integrating digital tokenisation as a fundamental component of AI incident reporting frameworks can enhance overall security, privacy, and regulatory compliance. It positions tokenisation as a frontrunner technology in ensuring the responsible and secure deployment of AI systems across various sectors. https://lnkd.in/eCiNn8N9

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As previously forecast, 2025 is going to be the year of the #Bitcoin balance sheet blitz. If your a leader of a local financial institution, the team at DaLand LLC can help you ensure you stay plugged into the future of money! #money #banking #dollar #bitcoin #accounting #treasury #inflation #btc #election

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