Musk’s New Bot: Better than OpenAI’s?
Just days after his takeover bid for OpenAI was rejected, Elon Musk’s xAI unveiled its Grok-3 artificial intelligence (AI) model, Bloomberg detailed, claiming it outperforms OpenAI’s GPT-4o, Alphabet’s [GOOGL] Gemini, DeepSeek’s V3 and Anthropic’s Claude. OpenAI, meanwhile, is deliberating whether to grant special voting rights to its non-profit board, according to the Financial Times, with a view to maintaining the power of its directors.
A Golden Opportunity
Gold has outperformed other major asset classes in recent weeks, becoming the top-performing “Trump trade”. The precious metal has seen a rise each week this year, hitting a new record of $2,942.70 per troy ounce. In contrast, the S&P 500 logged a more modest increase of less than 2%. “The more tariffs that go on, the more this is going to disrupt world trade, and the better it will be for gold,” James Steel, precious metals analyst at HSBC, told the Financial Times.
Cloud Revenue Spike for Baidu
Baidu [BIDU] yesterday reported a smaller-than-expected 2% drop in revenue for Q4, totaling RMB34.1bn, beating the estimated RMB33.4bn. Net income grew, partly due to a one-time gain from foreign currency and accounting adjustments. The company saw a 26% quarterly jump in cloud revenue, driven by AI services, but concerns linger about weakness in its core business, Bloomberg detailed.
Data: Crypto Proxy Short Interest
Bitcoin’s surge past $100,000 to a record $109,340.21 in January saw mixed short interest in crypto-linked stocks, recent data from Seeking Alpha has shown. Strategy [MSTR], CleanSpark [CLSK], Bitfarms [BITF] and HIVE Digital Technologies [HIVE] saw rising short interest, while Coinbase Global [COIN], Mara Holdings [MARA], Core Scientific [CORZ] and Stronghold Digital Mining [SDIG] saw declines. Read OPTO’s comparison of COIN, RIOT and MSTR.
Starlink in Vietnam
Vietnam is set to allow Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service to operate within its borders, according to Reuters, representing a key step in the country’s push for digitalization. This decision, viewed as a diplomatic move amid concerns over US tariff threats, is also seen as a strategy to foster innovation and attract foreign investment. Elsewhere, Musk’s SpaceX plans to invest $1.5bn in the country.
Lime Accelerates Towards IPO
The electric bike and scooter operator, backed by Uber [UBER], aims to maintain double-digit bookings growth after record trips in 2024, paving the way for a long-anticipated IPO. The firm reported its second year of positive free cash flow and over 30% growth in gross bookings. CEO Wayne Ting emphasized the focus on profitability before a public market debut, although no timeline is yet confirmed.
Can These 3 Chinese Tech Stocks Beat DeepSeek?
The emergence of DeepSeek in January triggered a broad selloff in US-listed stocks with exposure to the AI theme, but Chinese equities have shaken off any such concern. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite is up 4.92% in the past month; by contrast, the Hang Seng Tech index, which holds the 30 largest Hong Kong-listed companies including Alibaba [BABA], Baidu [BIDU] and Tencent [TCEHY], has surged 27%. OPTO weighs the investment case for each.
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