alternative investments

Inexpensive Chinese AI models are rapidly gaining popularity worldwide, prompting concern in Washington. Commentators note that US markets, including the NASDAQ and large parts of private credit, are heavily invested in American AI hyperscalers whose frontier models rely on future profits, and low-cost Chinese alternatives could threaten that business case and intensify US-China technology rivalry.

A team of undergraduate students at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business has launched tash, a startup that lets users invest in trading cards as an asset class. The venture treats collectible cards like a financial market, and it is drawing attention as part of a broader wave of student-founded startups bringing alternative assets to retail investors.

Chip startup EVAS has raised $295 million to expand its work on RISC-V-based AI architecture. The funding will support development of open-standard processor designs aimed at artificial intelligence workloads, a growing alternative to proprietary architectures. The announcement is drawing attention from the semiconductor and AI hardware communities tracking investment in open-source chip technology.