 |
|
|
|||||
Wealthfront Corp. is looking to rake in the wealth after going public on Friday. The Palo Alto-based automated digital wealth platform raised $486 million after selling 43.6 million shares, putting the companys valuation at roughly $2 billion. Wealthfront shares began trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker WLTH. The company made more than 34.6 million shares of common stock available for the IPO for $14an offering that expires on Monday, December 15. The stock was up around 4% by mid-afternoon on Friday afternoon after trading began. To mark the occasion, the companys leadershipincluding CEO David Fortunato, cofounder and chairman Andy Rachleff, and cofounder Dan Carrollrang the opening bell at Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square. Courting Gen Z and millennial investors The listing has been a long time coming. Wealthfront was founded in 2008 under the name KaChing. In 2011, it was reborn as Wealthfront, and over the past decade or so, has become known for its automated investment products and servicessomething young investors have found particularly alluring. Wealthfront refers to these consumers as “digital natives,” defining them as people born after 1980. The fintech also offers other financial products, such as high-yield savings accounts, and will soon start offering home lending services. Its filing documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) show that the company has $88 billion in assets under management. For the six months ended July 31, it had net income of nearly $61 million on revenue of almost $176 million. In an interview with Yahoo Finance on Friday, Fortunato said that the company will remain competitive in a tight market for a key reason: Wealthfront can offer many of the same services as traditional banks but at lower costs. [Customers] are going to be able to invest, save, and borrow from Wealthfront at a better cost than they would otherwise, he said. He added that attracting customers early and sticking with them for the long haul has helped position Wealthfront for growth. Our goal is to compound with our clients for decades,” he said. Wealthfront joins other large fintech companies in going public this year, including Chime Financial and Klarna Group. Since its IPO in June, Chime shares are down more than 23%, and Klarna, which went public in September, has seen its shares fall by almost 28%.
Category:
E-Commerce
Time magazine has named the Architects of AI as its 2025 Person of the Year, a decision that has sparked significant backlash from gamblers who lost out on semantics. The companies behind AI tools and infrastructure arent AI in the literal sense, so prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket ruled that anyone betting on AI doesnt win. As author Parker Molloy pointed out on Bluesky, gamblers on the site are not pleased. Someone please explain to me how this is not a trick? one user complained after betting on billionaire Elon Musk on Kalshi. Person of the year is a singular title ThE aRcHiTeCtS oF AI, another user wrote. Fuck you pay me. Others remained insistent that the platform owes them a payout. This pretty clearly shouldve resolved to yes, one user wrote. If you bought AI, reach out to Kalshi support because AI is literally on the cover and in the title Architects of AI.’ On Kalshi, anyone who bet on any of the Architects of AIincluding Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, Dario Amodei, Mark Zuckerberg, Lisa Su, and Demis Hassabisstill won the bet. Those who bet their products, however, did not. People who bet on this on Kalshi are not pleased. Lol— Parker Molloy (@parkermolloy.com) 2025-12-11T16:19:54.852Z Polymarket explained the decision in a note. This market is about the person/thing named as TIME’s Person of the Year for 2025, not what is depicted on the cover. Per the rules, If the Person of the Year is Donald Trump and the MAGA movement, this would qualify to resolve this market to Trump. However if the Person of the Year is The MAGA movement, this would not qualify to resolve this market to Trump regardless of whether Trump is depicted on the cover, it said. Accordingly, a Time cover which lists Architects of AI as the person of the year will not qualify for AI even if the letters AI are depicted on the cover, as AI itself is not specifically named. People spent more than $19 million betting on the Time Person of the Year on Kalshi and more than $55 million betting on the Time Person of the Year on Polymarket. I cant believe an unregulated gambling market let people bet frivolously and then took all their money, one Bluesky user mused.
Category:
E-Commerce
President Donald Trump was sued on Friday by preservationists asking a federal court to halt his White House ballroom project until it goes through multiple independent reviews and wins approval from Congress. The National Trust for Historic Preservation is asking the U.S. District Court to block Trumps White House ballroom project, which already has involved razing the East Wing, until it goes through comprehensive design reviews, environmental assessments, public comments, and congressional debate and ratification. The National Trust, a privately funded organization, argues that Trump, by fast-tracking the project, has committed multiple violations of the Administrative Procedures Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, while also exceeding his constitutional authority by not seeking congressional approval for a project of such scale. No president is legally allowed to tear down portions of the White House without any review whatsoevernot President Trump, not President Biden, and not anyone else, the lawsuit states. And no president is legally allowed to construct a ballroom on public property without giving the public the opportunity to weigh in. No more work should be done, the Trust argues, until administration officials complete the required reviewsreviews that should have taken place before the Defendants demolished the East Wing, and before they began construction of the Ballroomand secure the necessary approvals. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt did not immediately respond to Associated Press questions about the lawsuit and the project, including whether the president had any intention of consulting Congress. Trump has emphasized since announcing his plans that hes doing it with private funding, including his own money. But that would not necessarily change how federal laws and procedures apply to what is still a U.S. government project. Trump, a Republican, already has bypassed the federal governments usual building practices and historical reviews with the East Wing demolition. He recently added another architectural firm for a ballroom that itself would be nearly twice the size of the White House before the East Wings demolition. Trump has said a ballroom is overdue for the White House, previously complaining that events were held outside under a tent because the East Room and the State Dining Room could not accommodate bigger crowds. Trump, among other complaints, said guests get their feet wet if it rains during such events. The White House is expected to submit plans for Trumps new ballroom to a federal planning commission before the year ends, about three months after construction began. Will Scharf, who was named by Trump as chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission, said at the panels monthly meeting last week that he was told by colleagues at the White House that the long-awaited plans would be filed in December. Once plans are submitted, thats really when the role of this commission, and its professional staff, will begin, said Scharf, who also is one of the Republican presidents top White House aides. He said the review process would happen at a normal and deliberative pace.” By Bill Barrow, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||