Elon Musk’s xAI seeks $20 billion funding tied to Nvidia chip deal
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI is targeting a $20 billion capital raise linked to Nvidia hardware, Bloomberg News has reported....
The Federal Reserve is likely to begin cutting interest rates in June, following a mixed jobs report that highlights both robust job growth and emerging signs of labor market weakness.
The report, released by the U.S. Labor Department on Friday, showed that employers added 151,000 jobs in February—well above the 80,000 to 100,000 range that Fed Governor Christopher Waller considers healthy. However, the data also revealed early indicators of a softening labor market that could complicate the central bank’s efforts to curb inflation.
While the strong job gains initially suggest resilience, the report noted that the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.1%, and a surge in part-time employment—stemming from workers unable to secure full-time positions—pushed the broader U-6 underemployment rate to 8%, its highest level since October 2021. Analysts have pointed to these developments, along with planned federal workforce reductions and uncertainty surrounding U.S. tariff policies, as potential red flags for sustained economic strength.
“The February report showed some softening in labor conditions even before the impact of larger cuts to federal hiring takes effect,” said Julia Coronado, president of MacroPolicy Perspectives. “Reduced immigration, federal job losses, and tariff uncertainty could substantially slow hiring in the months ahead.”
Following the report, traders in short-term interest rate futures adjusted their expectations, shifting the anticipated start of Fed rate cuts from May to June. Current projections suggest a total of three rate cuts in 2025, with policymakers set to update their rate-path projections at the upcoming March 18-19 policy meeting. Fed Chair Jerome Powell is expected to provide further insight into the economic outlook and monetary policy later today.
The evolving labor market picture comes amid persistent inflation above the Fed’s 2% target and ongoing price pressures from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff policies. Several Fed officials have emphasized that a strong labor market allows the central bank to maintain its benchmark overnight rate in the 4.25%-4.50% range until there is more progress on reducing inflation. However, the emerging signs of underemployment and rising unemployment add complexity to the current policy debate.
As the Fed navigates these challenges, market participants and policymakers alike will be closely watching for further developments in the labor market and inflation data before deciding on the next steps.
Video from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) showed on Friday (19 September) the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupting and spewing lava.
At least eight people have died and more than 90 others were injured following a catastrophic gas tanker explosion on a major highway in Mexico City’s Iztapalapa district on Wednesday, authorities confirmed.
At least 69 people have died and almost 150 injured following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cebu City in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, officials said, making it one of the country’s deadliest disasters this year.
A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on 13 September with no tsunami threat, coming just weeks after the region endured a devastating 8.8-magnitude quake — the strongest since 1952.
Authorities in California have identified the dismembered body discovered in a Tesla registered to singer D4vd as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who had been missing from Lake Elsinore since April 2024.
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis for their groundbreaking discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in electric circuits.
United States chipmaker AMD will supply artificial intelligence chips to OpenAI in a multi-year agreement that could generate tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue and give the ChatGPT maker the option to acquire up to 10% of the company.
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2025 has been awarded jointly to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi for their ground breaking discoveries on peripheral immune tolerance.
Swiss researchers are developing biocomputers made from living cells, aiming to merge biology and computing in an energy-efficient system once confined to science fiction.
Snapchat will start charging users who store more than 5GB of photos and videos in its Memories feature, prompting backlash from long-time users.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment