Nigeria’s economy is picking up pace, Apple is entering a new era, and AI is reshaping the fortunes of established companies. Nigeria’s GDP growth accelerated to 4.43% in Q2 as the Federal Government renews its push for a $1 trillion economy by 2030, while John Ternus takes over as Apple CEO after Tim Cook’s 15-year tenure. Meanwhile, Anthropic has released new AI models designed to be cheaper and less restrictive, as GoPro moves toward an AI-focused future in a reported $285

Nigeria’s economy is picking up pace, Apple is entering a new era, and AI is reshaping the fortunes of established companies. Nigeria’s GDP growth accelerated to 4.43% in Q2 as the Federal Government renews its push for a $1 trillion economy by 2030, while John Ternus takes over as Apple CEO after Tim Cook’s 15-year tenure. Meanwhile, Anthropic has released new AI models designed to be cheaper and less restrictive, as GoPro moves toward an AI-focused future in a reported $285

Venture Capital (VC) News Quaise Energy Raises $180M Series B VC Daily Deep Cogito Receives $43M Series A Round VC Daily Light Nabs $46M Series A Round VC Daily Salesforce leads $160M round in HiBob at $3.2B valuation Dealroom Saudi Arabia's LEAP opens with $15B in tech deals and an Arabic AI model Dealroom Polymarket raising $1B at $21B valuation, led by 1789 Capital Dealroom Owner, an AI platform for local businesses, raised a $240M Series D at a $2.3B valua

Mergers & Acquisitions News (M&A) EQT and German insurance giant Allianz are exploring a $6.8B takeover of UK roadside recovery business The AA Litquidity Astorg Partners and Montagu Private Equity are exploring a $3.5B sale of GLP-1 pen maker Nemera Litquidity Authentic Brands Group acquired a 51% majority stake in the IP of Drake's lifestyle brand OVO at a ~$235M valuation Yahoo Finance Airbus is considering a sale of its US small-satellite manufacturing business

The rivalry between Sam Altman and Elon Musk is spilling further into the AI industry, while Nigeria’s dollar inflows are reaching new highs and investors are turning their attention to an unexpected corner of healthcare. OpenAI plans to end its partnership with Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceX, while Nigeria recorded $947 million in formal remittances in July. Meanwhile, a new wave of baldness treatments is drawing investor interest, and Nigerian defence-tech compa

Mergers & Acquisitions News (M&A) Chinese Chipmaker Longsys Seeks $800 Million in HK Listing Bloomberg Avaada Is Said to Plan Public Filing for $800million India IPO Bloomberg Aon nears $17 billion deal to buy insurance broker USI from KKR CNBC Sweden’s Boliden to Buy Majority Stake in Zinc Producer Nexa Resources for $1.3 Billion WSJ Victory Capital to Buy First Eagle for $7 Billion WSJ PayPal Shares Dive Premarket on Report of Advent, Stripe Abandoning Takeov

Venture Capital (VC) News Onos Health Raises $17M Series A Round VC daily Soctera Nabs $4M Seed Round VC daily Mara Snares $7M Funding VC daily Legato Emerges from Stealth with $12 Million VC daily Newsletter startup Puck is in advanced talks to raise an investment from RedBird Capital Partners at a $250M valuation Reuters Deep Cogito, a post-training and reinforcement-learning research platform for frontier AI, raised a $43M Series A led by TQ Ventures Yahoo Finan

Mergers & Acquisitions News (M&A) A consortium led by Indonesian conglomerate Jhonlin Group is in talks to acquire a majority stake in $28B-listed Indonesian coal producer Bayan Resources Bloomberg Med tech giant McKesson agreed to acquire Precision Medicine Group in a $2.25B deal DBJ France's BNP Paribas and South Korea's KB Kookmin Bank are in separate talks to acquire a 15% ‌stake in Vietnam's $8.5B-listed Techcombank Reuters Vanguard will acquire wealth manag

AI demand is sending Nvidia’s value soaring, OPay could be bringing its fintech empire to Nigeria’s stock market, and Nigeria is getting another shot at global investor attention. Nvidia beat expectations with $96.2 billion in quarterly revenue, adding about $440 billion to its market value, while OPay is reportedly preparing for an NGX listing. At the same time, Meta has agreed to pay up to $18 billion to settle U.S. lawsuits over claims that its platforms contributed to soc

AI is becoming an even bigger part of how companies build products, invest capital and expand their businesses. Apple has unveiled a new Mac mini with up to four times faster AI performance, while Moniepoint is winding down its UK remittance business to refocus on Africa. Meanwhile, Ventures Platform has raised $84 million for its second fund, and MTN plans to develop 150MW of AI data-centre capacity across Nigeria and South Africa. All this and more in today’s Read It And Ea

Venture Capital (VC) News Velaura AI lands $110Million Series A VC Daily Moun Space Inks $250M Series C VC Daily Hike Medical pulls in $22.5M Seed and Series A VC Daily Nvidia-backed AI cloud-computing provider Lambda is in talks to raise a $3B pre-IPO round Yahoo Finance XPENG Robotics, the robot unit of Chinese auto maker XPENG, raised $900M in its first funding round at $6.3B post-money valuation led by IDG Capital Yahoo Finance General Intuition, a physical AI/

Mergers & Acquisitions News (M&A) Italian bank (Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena) has offered to buy rival Italian lenders Banco BPM and Banca Generali for a combined $40 billion Axios Stripe to buy start-up OpenRouter in $8bn deal Financial Times ExxonMobil, LyondellBasell Industries, Apollo, and the chemicals arm of Kuwait Petroleum Corp. are interested in acquiring the US chemicals unit of Shell, which could fetch $8B Reuters nVent Electric will acquire data ce

Big fines, tighter rules and billion-dollar valuations are making headlines across the business world. Uber is facing a nearly $1 billion fine over automated driver suspensions, while Nigeria’s SEC is proposing limits on how much retail investors can put into crypto offerings. Meanwhile, AI startup Hugging Face is reportedly exploring a sale at a valuation of $13 billion, and smart-ring maker Oura is facing a lawsuit over claims about its sleep-tracking accuracy. All this and

Venture Capital (VC) News Satellite startup Muon Space raised a $250 Series C led Eclipse Capital Yahoo Finance Rillet nabs $100M Series C Financing VC daily Starcloud announces $250M Series A extension VC daily Apollo Atomics, an MIT spinoff building next-gen pressurized water reactors, raised a $31M seed round led by FCVC Dealroom Astromech, an evolutionary biology AI company, raised $20M at a $3.8B valuation led by biotech investor Bob Nelsen Dealroom Twin1, a s

Mergers & Acquisitions News (M&A) DoiT acquires Israeli startup Attribute for an estimated $65 million Axios Exponent invests in Irish firm OFS in €70m deal Irishtimes Arctos agrees to buy 10% of Atlanta Falcons at $10.6 billion valuation CNBC Charlesbank is in talks for a $700m stake in U.S. law firm WSHB Financial Times Singapore state-owned CapitaLand Investment and Malaysian developer IOI Properties are nearing a deal to buy iconic Singaporean office complex

The latest earnings reports are highlighting both strong growth and fresh pressure across major businesses. Heirs Insurance saw premiums surge despite a decline in profit, Applied Materials is benefiting from relentless AI chip demand, while eTranzact posted double-digit revenue growth. Meanwhile, Klarna is cutting its outlook as weaker consumer spending weighs on its business. Here’s what the latest numbers are saying about the companies shaping the market. All this and more

From a robot maker’s blockbuster debut in Shanghai to a breakthrough in cancer treatment and major moves in Nigeria’s capital markets, the business landscape is buzzing with big developments. Unitree Robotics soared more than 500% on its first day of trading, while Moderna shares surged after promising cancer vaccine results. In Nigeria, Dangote Refinery secured $1 billion in underwriting ahead of what could become Africa’s biggest IPO, even as Geregu Power settles a N6 billi

Venture Capital (VC) News InfiniG nabs $5.2M Seed Financing Round VCnewsdaily Vals AI, a model-evaluation startup, raised a $40M Series A at a $400M valuation led by a16z Tech Times Aligned Marketplace, an advanced primary care marketplace, raised a $20M Series A led by Venrock Dealroom CAMO Hospitality lands $4M seed round VCnewsdaily Happy Health nabs $75M series a round VCnewsdaily Groq raises $350M to fuel is pivot from AI Chips to neocloud TechCrunch

Mergers & Acquisitions News (M&A) Volkswagen is preparing to reduce its 87.5% stake worth $19B in truckmaker Traton to 75% as part of its restructuring program heise.online Chelsea Coowners Boehly and Walter explore selling stakes BBC UK retailer Frasers raises stakes in Hugo Boss to nearly 48% Reuters Goldman Sachs to buy LCN Capital Partners in up to &410 million deal Reuters Diana Shipping dropped its bid to acquire $1.2B-listed rival Genco Shipping & Trading

The business world is seeing major shifts across Wall Street, AI, and Nigeria’s economy. Jane Street suffered its first down month in a decade after losing $15 billion in July, while Anthropic’s revenue surged past $11.5 billion as demand for its AI products accelerates. In Nigeria, consumers are shifting toward Neighbourhood stores for everyday spending even as the NGX postpones its new equity pricing rules just a day before their scheduled rollout. From Wall Street and AI’s