ANC in serious financial trouble: The ANC is facing a default judgment after allegedly failing to defend a high court claim. Bidvest Services is seeking to recover R900,000 for unpaid cleaning, hygiene, and pest control services at Luthuli House. [BusinessDay]
AI chip stocks fall: Shares of investor darlings Western Digital and Sandisk fell after they reported quarterly results late on Tuesday. Investors dumped the stocks in the companies as their guidance came in below analyst estimates. Western Digital fell 13%, and Sandisk dropped 7%. [Wall Street Journal]
Top banking CEO has a warning for the world: JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon warned that high demand for capital to fund the AI buildout could keep inflation elevated, resulting in higher-for-longer interest rates. Huge infrastructure requirements, global deficits, and wars will add inflationary pressure and push up bond yields. Dimon also noted that leverage is “pretty high” around the world. [Yahoo Finance]
Free lunch is over: Chinese tech giant Alibaba plans to ask major users of its next Qwen open-source AI model for a share of the revenue they make from using it. Open source is commonly thought of as free, but as demand ramps up, companies are beginning to look for ways to generate revenue from it. Other Chinese AI labs require any user generating more than $20 million in sales to secure a commercial agreement with the lab. [Reuters/Yahoo Finance]
Parliament to investigate PIC: SCOPA chairperson Songezo Zibi said the committee will consider conducting an inquiry into maladministration and mismanagement at the PIC. The asset manager is the largest in Africa, sitting on R3.5 trillion in assets, largely from the Government Employees Pension Fund. [EWN]
- The ANC is going to investigate the ANC again, bet the outcome will be that there is nothing to see here folks, right up until the government workers find out their pension fund is gone. PIC has spent years financing cadre stone throwers and then never being able to recover any of the funds again. (Also tells you why the ANc has been so desperate to get it's hands on the private pension funds in this country as well.
