Category: Finance

Gaborone, Botswana — In a landmark move to bolster economic diversification and address pressing national challenges, Botswana has signed a $12 billion investment agreement with Qatar-based Al Mansour Holdings. The deal, announced on 21 August 2025 by President Duma Boko, marks one of the largest foreign direct investment commitments in the country’s history. The agreement […]

Denver, CO — August 20, 2025Vantage Data Centers is reportedly close to securing $22 billion in financing from JPMorgan Chase and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) to support the development of its $25 billion hyperscale data center campus in Shackelford County, Texas. The funding package, one of the largest ever arranged for a single data […]

When more than 1,300 people at the U.S. State Department lost their jobs in a mass firing this summer, most headlines focused on what it meant for American diplomacy. But the layoffs are about more than embassies and foreign policy – they could also make it harder for U.S. companies to compete in global markets. […]

New York, NY — Retail fintech investment displayed a bifurcated performance in the second quarter of the year, with venture capital (VC) funding rising modestly but still falling short of previous benchmarks. According to recent Emerging Tech Research, total VC investment in the sector reached $2.2 billion, marking a 17% increase from the previous quarter. […]

A New York philanthropist and personal assistant to billionaires, Matthew Christopher Pietras, allegedly stole millions from his employers and donated large sums to prominent charities to maintain a facade of status, wealth and generosity. Those schemes came to light when the Metropolitan Opera became aware that a US$10 million donation Pietras made in his own […]

During the 2024 election campaign, the Republican Party’s historically fraught relationship with organized labor appeared to be changing. Several influential Republicans reached out to unions, seeking to cement the loyalties of the growing ranks of working-class Americans who have been backing Donald Trump’s presidential runs and voting for other members of his party. During Trump’s […]

San Francisco, CA — August 20, 2025Databricks, the data and AI software company, is set to raise a new round of funding led by Thrive Capital that could value the firm at over $100 billion, according to company statements and investor sources. The Series K round marks a significant milestone for the privately held company, […]

Consumers don’t mind when companies use misspelled words – think Lyft for “lift” or Froot Loops for “fruit loops” – as their brand names, as long as the alterations aren’t too extreme and the misspelling makes sense. Those are the main findings of a new peer-reviewed paper I published with fellow marketing scholar Leah Warfield […]

Two big assumptions underlie President Donald Trump’s attack on diversity, equity and inclusion policies. The first is that discrimination against people of color is a thing of the past. The second is that DEI policies and practices discriminate against white people – especially white men – in what’s sometimes called “reverse discrimination.” I’m a sociologist […]

TOKYO / SANTA CLARA — August 18, 2025 — Japanese investment conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp. announced Monday that it will make a $2 billion equity investment in Intel Corporation, marking a significant vote of confidence in the U.S. chipmaker as it seeks to regain ground in the global semiconductor race. The agreement, signed by both […]