Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - AI’s big winner

Nvidia shares rallied back from last week’s selloff as some of the chip giant’s biggest clients doubled down on artificial intelligence. The Santa Clara, California-based company’s stock jumped 15% this week, adding more than $290 billion in market capitalization and posting its best weekly performance since last May. The surge comes after firms like Meta, Alphabet and Microsoft pledged billions of dollars in AI investments. “The future is AI,” said Paul Marino, chief revenue officer at GraniteShares. “And if the largest companies in the world are pouring tens of billions of dollars each into this, I think Nvidia has to be the big winner.” Here’s your markets wrap. —David E. Rovella

Elliott Investment Management has built a roughly $1 billion stake in  Anglo American Plc, the UK-listed miner that’s received an unsolicited takeover approach from Australia’s BHP Group Ltd. The activist hedge fund led by Paul Singer has exposure to almost 33.6 million Anglo American shares via derivatives, according to a UK regulatory filing Friday. The firm is said to have amassed the 2.5% holding over recent months, making it one of Anglo American’s 10 biggest shareholders. Anglo American shares jumped as much as 6.3% in London after Bloomberg News reported the stake. BHP has proposed an acquisition that values its smaller rival at $38.9 billion and would create the world’s top copper producer. Anglo American said the proposal significantly undervalues the company.

BHP’s proposed takeover of Anglo American is all about securing plenty of copper supplies—so now, the potential deal is throwing uncertainty over the future for Anglo’s massive fertilizer mine in England. That’s largely because BHP is already building its own giant fertilizer project in Canada, called Jansen, to which it’s committed more than $10 billion. With an accelerated expansion planned, BHP is unlikely to be interested in also going big on Anglo’s UK site.

Anglo American’s Collahuasi copper mine in Chile Source: Anglo American Plc

Russian forces pressed forward in eastern Ukraine and in some areas accelerated their advance as Kyiv’s depleted troops await badly needed US weaponry that was blocked for months by Congressional Republicans. Kremlin forces are moving against defensive lines west of the Russian-occupied city of Bakhmut in the embattled Donetsk region, according to White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby. Farther south, Russian troops are accelerating an advance west of Avdiivka, a stronghold they captured in February, UK military intelligence said. “It’s slow progress, but they’re pushing back on the Ukrainian lines, the first, the second and even pushing on the third,” Kirby said on NBC on Friday. “And that’s dangerous.”

South African stocks touched their highest levels since January, eurobonds rose and the rand surged by the most this year after publication of an opinion poll was seen boosting the odds of a market-friendly coalition emerging from national elections next month.

A little-known company run by a distant relative of the Abu Dhabi royal family agreed to lend $12.9 billion to South Sudan in exchange for repayment in oil, making it one of the largest ever oil-for-cash deals and the latest such intervention in a struggling African country. The deal amounts to almost double the GDP of South Sudan, which has been ravaged by famine and conflict, with 70% of the funds earmarked for infrastructure. 

Spent munitions at an abandoned oil facility in Unity State, South Sudan.  Photographer: Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images.

Apparently the folks over at Goldman Sachs are big fans of the Olympics. To those employees of the Wall Street bank looking to set up meetings in Paris as part of a sneaky bid to catch the 2024 Games—the bank is on to you. Goldman told staff that any trips to the French capital between July 24 and Aug. 14 must first get approval from the finance department.  

Billionaire Lawrence Stroll is said to be in early talks to sell another minority stake in his Aston Martin Formula One team, a bid to capitalize on the growing popularity of the sport. Stroll, who owns the F1 team separately from his stake in luxury-car maker Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings, is said to be willing to sell as much as 25% in the racing business. The Canadian billionaire is hoping to improve on the $1.3 billion valuation of last November’s deal to sell a minority stake to US private equity firm Arctos Partners.

Lance Stroll, son of Lawrence Stroll, driving the Aston Martin AMR24 Mercedes at Bahrain International Circuit on Feb. 22. Photographer: Clive Mason/Getty Images Europe

• Ex-Trump assistant testifies Stormy Daniels  visited Trump Tower.
• Saudi Arabia’s capital is pulling back on its population goals.
• Tech fund that invested in SpaceX, OpenAI sinks after 1,000% jump.
• Apollo, KKR, Stonepeak weigh investing billions in Intel chip venture.
• Air China orders homegrown C919s in challenge to jet duopoly.
• Whirlpool bets Starbucks drinkers will pay $2,000 for espresso maker.
• The long, slow death of urban nightlife.

Grammy-winning rapper and producer Swizz Beatz has spent millions of dollars on camels since setting out in 2020 to become the first American to own a racing team in Saudi Arabia. Now, he’s hoping the bet will pay off as he takes the Saudi Bronx, as his herd is called, to one of the world’s richest camel races in pursuit of a $21 million prize pot. Having worked with artists like DMX, Jay-Z, Kanye West and his wife, Alicia Keys, Beatz has been engaging with a different crowd in recent years: desert Bedouins, who domesticated camels thousands of years ago. As for the races, he says “it’s a very good investment if your teams are winning.”

AlUla 2023 Camel Cup Source: Royal Commission for Al-Ula

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