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Exclusive: Blackstone emerges as frontrunner to buy Enverus, sources say

Exclusive: Blackstone emerges as frontrunner to buy Enverus, sources say

Reuters3 days ago
NEW YORK, July 31 (Reuters) - Blackstone Inc (BX.N), opens new tab has emerged as the frontrunner to buy energy-focused data provider Enverus, which is currently owned by a rival private equity firm, sources said.
Sources said Blackstone might be ready to pay as much as $6 billion for the asset.
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Trump, Carney to speak in coming days, Canadian official says
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Trump, Carney to speak in coming days, Canadian official says

US President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will likely talk "over the next number of days" after the U.S. imposed a 35 per cent tariff on goods not covered by the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, a Canadian official said on Sunday. Dominic LeBlanc, the federal cabinet minister in charge of U.S.-Canada trade, also told CBS News' "Face the Nation" that he was "encouraged" by recent discussions and believed a deal to bring down tariffs remained an option. Advertisement "We're encouraged by the conversations with Secretary Lutnick and Ambassador Greer, but we're not yet where we need to go to get the deal that's in the best interest of the two economies," LeBlanc said, referring to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. The trade minister said he expected Carney and Trump to speak "over the next number of days." "We think there is an option of striking a deal that will bring down some of these tariffs provide greater certainty to investment," LeBlanc said. Washington linked Friday's tariff announcement in part to what it said was Canada's failure to stop fentanyl smuggling. It was the latest blow in a months-long tariff war which Trump initiated shortly after returning to power this year. Carney says Canada accounts for just 1 per cent of U.S. fentanyl imports and has been working intensively to further reduce the volumes.

Musk open to merger between his company xAI and Apple
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Daily Mail​

time13 minutes ago

  • Daily Mail​

Musk open to merger between his company xAI and Apple

Elon Musk has been openly hinting at a historic merger in the business world, suggesting that his company xAI should partner with tech giant Apple. Musk's company is the corporate face of his popular AI chatbot Grok, which functions similarly to competitors like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Copilot. Meanwhile, Apple has struggled to bring its own AI programs to consumers, notably delaying improvements to the Siri voice assistant until 2026. Venture capitalists started openly speculating this month that Musk and Apple make the perfect power couple in the AI world, with xAI bringing Grok to even more people using iPhones through this proposed partnership. On the All-In Podcast, investor Gavin Baker called xAI's Grok4 'the best product' in terms of AI chatbots right now, but added that 'the best product doesn't always win in technology.' 'I think there is solid industrial logic for a partnership. You could have Apple Grok, Safe Grok, whatever you want to call it,' said Baker, the Chief Investment Officer of Atreides Management LP, in a video posted to X on July 19. Musk quickly replied to the comments, saying 'Interesting idea.' The billionaire then added 'I hope so!' while responding to another post suggesting that Apple partnering with xAI was a better option than competitors like Anthropic. A partnership between the two companies could integrate xAI's Grok chatbot into Apple's devices, such as iPhones, iPads, and Macs, potentially replacing or augmenting Siri. A relationship between Musk's AI team and the $3.1 trillion Apple could also lead to smarter, more accurate AI assistants, addressing Apple's ongoing issues with AI development. Grok launched in 2023 as Musk's alternative to other chatbot which had sparked controversy for provided allegedly biased answers and citing information that had been made up. xAI has said that Grok is "designed to answer questions with a bit of wit," and the program has generally drawn widespread praise for its quick and accurate answers to prompts. Just just weeks ago, however, Grok 4 was engulfed in controversy for repeating far-right hate speech and white nationalist talking points about politics, race, and recent news events. Multiple users reported on July 8 and July 9 that Grok echoed anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, including claims that Jewish people controlled Hollywood, promoted hatred toward White people, and should be imprisoned in camps. In a post on X, xAI replied to these concerns: 'We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts. Since being made aware of the content, xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X,' the company added. Baker added that the deal Musk has been infatuated with would benefit xAI's reach significantly as well, since OpenAI's ChatGPT is currently used by nearly 800 million weekly active users, according to Demandsage. 'There's been a lot of news about Apple thinking about buying Perplexity or Mistral, but that's just a Band-Aid. Those companies don't get Apple what they need,' Baker said. To the investor's point, Perplexity AI is a search-engine-style AI company known for information retrieval and fact-finding tasks. It's currently valued at $18 billion. Mistral AI is a French AI firm valued at roughly $6.2 billion that's focused on easy-to-use, open-source language models. They've worked with partners like Cisco to help with tasks like research and automation. On the other hand, xAI and its Grok chatbot stand out with a current valuation of up to $200 billion and a distribution reaching 35.1 million monthly active users. Baker explained that 'xAI and Apple are natural partners,' especially after OpenAI made a multi-billion-dollar deal to create new devices that use their AI technology without relying on the iPhone. In May, OpenAI bought former Apple designer Jony Ive's hardware startup for a reported $6.5 billion. That deal brought Ive on as the AI company's new creative head, with the vision of building specialized gadgets that can use generative AI and ChatGPT without needing a smartphone or computer. While a deal between xAI and Apple is still only speculation, Musk recently turned heads by announcing that xAI was working on a new project called 'Baby Grok' which would be a new app designed to provide 'kid-friendly content.'

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Daily Mail​

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The ultra-wealthy are ditching their second homes in London and buying up luxury properties in glamorous Miami, Florida, a new report has found. Ultra high net worth (UHNW) individuals, people with a net worth of more than $30 million, make up an exclusive group with a population of around 480,000. Members of this elite group own an average of three properties per individual, and a report from the information services firm Altrata found that Miami is the leading city for them to purchase luxury second homes. 'Miami is the most popular second-home location in the US, and globally, with a total of 13,211 UHNW second-home owners,' according to Altrata's report, Residential Real Estate 2025: Spotlight on the World's Leading Markets for the Wealthy. Notably, the Billionaire Buyers in London mid-year 2025 survey conducted by Beauchamp Estates found that over 70 percent of wealthy sellers are ditching their second homes in the UK capital and heading to cities such as Miami. 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Batra explained that his international clients are looking for properties on the water with ritzy amenities. 'Condo buyers are drawn to the stunning water views, prime locations, and vibrant lifestyle that Miami and Miami Beach offer, paired with the convenience of being steps from the beach,' he said. Miami at been at the epicenter of a condo crisis after the 2021 collapse of a condo building in Surfside led to a new law that requires condo buildings to undergo structural inspections and shore up reserves. This has meant that many HOAs have been hiking fees and doling out hefty special assessments to comply with the new rules, which has reduced demand for condos. 'In Brickell, the allure lies in luxurious high-rises with breathtaking views and top-tier amenities like pools, gyms, and more - all within close proximity to workplaces.' He added that buyers searching for houses rather than condos tend to look for properties with a type of longevity. 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