Cathie Wood, chief executive officer and chief investment officer, Ark Invest, gestures as she speaks during the Bitcoin 2022 Conference at Miami Beach Convention Center on April 7, 2022 in Miami, Florida.
Marco Bello | Getty Images
LISBON, Portugal — Ark Invest founder Cathie Wood thinks Elon Musk might be onto something with his vision for Twitter.
“He’s thinking about a super app like WeChat Pay,” Wood said at the Web Summit technology conference in Lisbon, Portugal, Wednesday.
Wood was referring to the digital payments service of Chinese messaging app WeChat. It is used often in China for things like instant messaging, social media and payments.
WeChat has been touted as the archetype of a phenomenon known as “super apps.” These apps act as all-in-one platforms that serve a range of user needs spanning instant messaging, banking and travel.
“Remember [Musk] started in the payments industry … he sold his company to PayPal,” Wood said. “He and [Twitter co-founder] Jack Dorsey working together, I think, could turn this into a super app.”
Twitter could in future look more like a digital wallet, Wood said: “So you do all your banking there, maybe there’s something they’re doing with Cash App,” the online payments app developed by Dorsey’s fintech firm Square.
“You do all your shopping there, you get your loans there — it’s your bank branch in a pocket,” she added. “I think they can get this done.”
Wood, a noted Tesla bull, said Ark has invested in Twitter as part of Musk’s $44 billion deal to take the company private.
“[Musk] truly believes in vertical integration,” she said, adding Twitter “would be a magnificent vertical integration.”
“He already has designed and is manufacturing the ultimate mobile device, the internet on wheels — it’s called Tesla cars,” she added.
Still, Musk’s takeover of the firm is the subject of significant scrutiny by regulators and civil rights activists who fear he may allow harmful content to proliferate.
Addressing these concerns, Wood said the “darkness” of Twitter was in its “opacity” around content moderation decisions. “We didn’t see the algorithms and how they were working,” she said.
She added she thinks Musk could turn Twitter into open-source software, where the code can be reviewed, modified and shared by the public.
The photo illustration shows the Bitcoin cryptocurrency on November 12, 2024 in Shanghai, China.
Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images
The price of bitcoin leapt back above $100,000 to start the first full trading week of the new year.
The flagship cryptocurrency was last higher by about 4% at $102,234, according to Coin Metrics. The broader crypto market, as measured by the CoinDesk 20 index, gained more than 3%. Bitcoin and ether are coming off their best weeks since Dec. 6, while Solana had its best week since Nov. 22.
“Overall, we are in a bullish environment and traders appear to be risk-on as we head into the new year,” Mario Jurina, CEO at crypto swaps platform Jumper.Exchange. “With Trump’s election set to be certified today, and January often being a bullish month — six of the past 10 years saw positive price action — it’s no wonder markets are moving upward.”
Crypto stocks Coinbase and MicroStrategy advanced nearly 6% and 5%, respectively. MicroStrategy Monday morning reported it has purchased another 1,070 bitcoins for about $101 million, bringing its total bitcoin holdings to 447,470.
Activity is coming back into the crypto market after a post-election rally that was driven by promises of a more supportive regulatory environment. The optimism sent prices rocketing for weeks before cooling at the end of the year. The price of bitcoin is expected to roughly double under the new administration this year, with some price predictions, like Fundstrat’s Tom Lee’s, being as high as $250,000.
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Ring security cameras are displayed on a shelf at a Target store on June 01, 2023 in Novato, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
Amazon‘s Ring is partnering with fire safety product maker Kidde to launch a connected smoke alarm, the company announced Monday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
The companies plan to launch Kidde smoke and carbon monoxide alarms that integrate Ring’s home security technology and can deliver alerts to the Ring mobile app. The Kidde Smart Smoke Alarm with Ring will cost $54.97, while the Kidde Smart Smoke and CO Alarm with Ring will cost $74.97. Both products will ship in April.
As part of the launch, Ring will also roll out a $5-per-month subscription service that gives users access to round-the-clock professional monitoring and emergency dispatchers.
Amazon acquired Ring in 2015 for a reported $1 billion. The home security company is primarily known for its video doorbell devices, which allow users to record activity in front of their homes, though it has expanded to include a portfolio of products ranging from camera-equipped floodlights to flying security camera drones.
Amazon doesn’t disclose unit sales for its Ring division, but Ring and rival home security company SimpliSafe comprise one-fifth of the U.S. market for professional monitoring systems, according to data from market research firm Parks Associates. Ring CEO Liz Hamren, who took the helm from founder Jamie Siminoff in March 2023, told Bloomberg last May that the company “recently” became profitable.
Users aren’t required to subscribe to Ring Home, the company’s program that enables video recording storage and other security features, in order to access the new smoke alarm service.
Global semiconductor stocks climbed on Monday after contract electronics giant Foxconn announced record fourth-quarter revenues, suggesting the artificial intelligence boom has far more room to run.
Hon Hai Precision Industry, which does business as Foxconn internationally, said in a Sunday statement that the company’s fourth-quarter revenue totaled 2.1 trillion New Taiwan dollars ($63.9 billion), growing 15% year-over-year.
Foxconn — which is a supplier to Apple — also set a record, posting the highest fourth-quarter revenue ever in company history, according to the statement.
The firm’s bumper revenue performance was driven by growth in its cloud and networking products — which includes AI servers like those designed by the likes of chipmaker Nvidia — and components and other products segments.
Computing products and smart consumer electronics — which numbers iPhone and other smartphones — saw “slight declines,” Foxconn said.
Shares of several semiconductor firms across Asia, Europe and the U.S. rose, as a result.
In Asia, TSMC hit a record high Monday and closed 1.9% higher in Taiwan.
The largest semiconductor manufacturer globally, TSMC produces chips for the likes of AMD and Nvidia.
Other Asian chip firms also logged share price gains — South Korea’s SK Hynix and Samsung rose nearly 10% and 4%, respectively.
In Europe, globally critical semiconductor equipment firm ASML saw its shares jump almost 6%, while fellow Dutch chip company ASMI’s stock rose almost 5%. Germany’s Infineon surged more than 6%.
Paris-listed shares of European contract chipmaker STMicroelectronics rose nearly 6%.
Stateside, Nvidia got a boost from the Foxconn numbers, climbing 2% in U.S. premarket trading.