Prosus considering 2025 listing of fintech unit PayU: TechCrunch
Prosus, which just made a handsome return on its investment in Swiggy at the food delivery startup’s IPO, is planning a 2025 listing of PayU, its payments and fintech company in India, TechCrunch reported on November 13.
The listing could happen at a valuation in the range of $5 billion to $7 billion, according to the report, citing Prosus’s president and chief investment officer Ervin Tu.
UBS recently raised PayU"s valuation to $4.2 billion from $3.7 billion, citing stronger trading multiples in the global payments industry, according to TechCrunch. Prosus, part of South Africa’s Naspers, is listed in Amsterdam and widely seen as one of the world’s biggest long-term technology investors.
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Prosus is best known for the blockbuster success of its investment in China’s Tencent. Swiggy ended its first day on the stock exchanges in Mumbai 17 percent higher. “It’s our goal to find the next Tencent, it’s not easy but we think we are making progress," Prosus CIO Tu told Bloomberg in an interview on November 13.
Softbank to get Nvidia’s first Blackwell chips for a supercomputer
SoftBank Group’s telecom unit will receive the first chips based on Nvidia’s new Blackwell architecture, for its supercomputer, as the Japanese tech giant’s CEO Masayoshi Son seeks to capitalise on the AI boom, Reuters reported from an AI summit Nvidia held in Tokyo, on November 13.
SoftBank is also planning to use Nvidia’s Grace Blackwell chips for another supercomputing project, the companies announced during the event. Son, who sat down with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang for a fireside chat at the event, is increasingly focused on AI, expanding his conglomerate"s exposure through investments in OpenAI and chip startup Graphcore, Reuters noted.
During the event, Son and Huang shared a light-hearted moment, recalling a past offer where Son had proposed lending money for Huang to buy all of Nvidia. The partnership with Nvidia also includes a pilot network for 5G and AI services, Softbank said in a press release.
AMD, in AI push, to cut 4 percent of its workforce affecting 1,000
AMD announced plans to cut 4 percent of its global workforce as part of a strategic shift to focus on the growing artificial intelligence (AI) chip market. The move, which will affect around 1,040 employees based on the company’s 26,000-strong workforce, is aimed at realigning resources with key growth opportunities, CNBC reported on November 13.
AI is seen as a major growth area for AMD, which is the second-largest producer of GPUs, trailing Nvidia. Despite offering AI accelerators like the MI300X, AMD lags Nvidia, which dominates the AI chip space with an 80 percent market share. AMD forecasts $5 billion in AI chip sales for 2024. In comparison Nvidia is set to generate $125.9 billion in revenue this year. AMD’s gaming business, once a key driver, is also struggling, with a projected 59 percent decline in 2024 revenue from gaming GPUs.
India’s Defence Space Agency conducts warfare readiness exercise
India"s Defence Space Agency successfully conducted a three-day Space Table Top Exercise ‘Antariksha Abhyas-2024’, marking a key step in enhancing the strategic readiness of the Indian Armed Forces for space warfare, according to a press release from the agency on November 13.
The exercise focused on emerging space technologies, situational awareness, and space security, with discussions on protecting critical assets and navigating the increasingly contested space environment. Experts from government, military, science, and academia participated in scenario-based sessions, addressing challenges in space defence operations, safety, and international laws.
The event strengthened tri-service integration, refined operational strategies, and outlined a roadmap for advancing India"s space capabilities in line with national security objectives.
Sahamati Account Aggregator alliance names first hackathon winners
Sahamati, an alliance helping to build India’s Account Aggregator (AA) ecosystem, has announced the winners of its inaugural ‘BuildAAthon’ 2024, held during the annual SamvAAd community event. The competition attracted 630 teams focused on developing innovative solutions within the AA framework to transform financial services in India.
The three core themes were: Democratising insurance and investment advisory, empowering customers to leverage their digital footprints for broader financial access, and creating risk management solutions to tackle digital fraud.
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The AA framework enables real-time, consent-based access to customer financial data, already touching 8 percent of India’s population. The winning teams, selected by 12 industry experts, will present their solutions at SamvAAd on November 19.
As of October, the Account Aggregator ecosystem had 168 FIPs (Financial Information Providers) from banking, insurance, investment, pension and tax, and 522 FIUs (Financial Information Users).
I'm the Technology Editor at Forbes India and I love writing about all things tech. Explaining the big picture, where tech meets business and society, is what drives me. I don't get to do that every d
