A car with autonomous driving system by Alibaba-backed DeepRoute.ai, drives on a street in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China July 27, 2022.
David Kirton | Reuters
BEIJING — Deeproute.ai, a Chinese startup developing autonomous driving systems, announced a $100 million funding round Tuesday from an undisclosed automaker, while emphasizing close ties with chipmaker Nvidia.
Pitchbook data showed Chinese company Great Wall Motor led the investment.
It’s been difficult to obtain financing, especially from a non-government source, Maxwell Zhou, CEO of DeepRoute.ai, told reporters Tuesday in Mandarin, translated by CNBC.
The startup is also in “deep cooperation” with Nvidia, Zhou said, noting “in-depth discussions” with the chipmaker’s CEO Jensen Huang.
Shenzhen-based Deeproute said it uses Nvidia’s Orin chip for its current driver-assist system.
The startup added it is part of the first batch of companies in China to obtain Nvidia’s newer Thor chip for cars and will release a new system using it next year that can use more visual cues to manage more complex driving scenarios.
“Lots of companies in China are competing on autonomous driving. It is actually a competition over AI,” Zhou said.
In terms of AI computing power, Deeproute said it has its own capacity, and can tap Alibaba‘s if needed. The e-commerce and cloud computing company led a $300 million investment round in Deeproute in 2021, giving it a valuation of more than $1 billion just two years after it was founded in 2019, according to the startup.
Nvidia is scheduled to release earnings for the quarter ended Oct. 27 on Nov. 20. For the quarter ended July 28, the chipmaker said its automotive segment saw revenue rise by 37% year-on-year to $345 million.
Eyes on Japan
Deeproute currently works with Chinese automakers selling in China. The company expects at least three car models using its driver-assist system will hit the road this year.
Already, Deeproute’s systems are running in more than 20,000 cars on the road, Zhou said. He expects that number to increase, potentially by ten-fold, next year.
The startup, which has an office in California, said it is looking to work with foreign automakers and plans to participate in Japan’s auto show next year.
Tesla competition
Deeproute has focused on using artificial intelligence to automatically drive cars, without relying on “high-definition maps.” That allows a vehicle to use driver assist tech on roads where those technical parameters haven’t been created.
It’s a trend car tech companies such as Xpeng and Huawei are pursuing — and Tesla‘s strategy for developing autonomous driving. Elon Musk’s car company has focused on using cameras and artificial intelligence to steer the vehicle, without heavy reliance on HD maps.
Those maps, used by autonomous driving companies such as Alphabet‘s Waymo, give a car a detailed picture of city streets. But they need to be created before a car runs on the road, a process that can drive up costs.
Zhou said the company is very eager for Tesla’s driver-assist product — called “Full Self-Driving” — to enter China. His reasoning is that Tesla’s product will encourage more consumers to become more interested in driver-assist features — and boost Deeproute’s prominence in the sector.
When asked about IPO plans, Zhou said the startup would keep to its own development pace, but it welcomed the latest public offerings of other industry players.
Chinese autonomous driving software developer WeRide went public on the Nasdaq last month, while robotaxi operator Pony.ai has filed for a U.S. IPO.
Industry focus on driver-assist
Companies in China’s autos industry are increasingly looking at driver-assist tech as a way to stay competitive in the market.
Tencent on Monday announced it extended its strategic cooperation with German autos supplier Bosch to work on autonomous driving and tech-enabled cockpits. The two companies first agreed to strategic cooperation in 2020.
Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect that Deeproute was part of the first batch of companies in China to obtain Nvidia’s new Thor chip for cars.
Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading: Elastic — Shares surged about 15% after the software company topped Wall Street’s expectations for its fiscal second-quarter results. Elastic posted adjusted earnings of 59 cents per share on revenue of $365 million. Meanwhile, analysts surveyed by LSEG expected it to earn 38 cents per share on revenue of $357 million. Reddit — The stock fell 6% after Bloomberg, citing a person familiar with the matter, reported that Advance Magazine Publishers is looking to establish a credit facility using as much as $1.2 billion of its stake in Reddit. Gap — The stock jumped more than 10% on the heels of the clothing retailer increasing its full-year outlook — its third time doing so this year. The company now anticipates sales will advance between 1.5% and 2%. Gap had said in its prior forecast that sales would be “up slightly.” Super Micro Computer — Shares moved more than 11% higher, extending its more than 15% gain in the previous session. The stock has been having a monster rally this week, with shares up more than 73% week to date, on the heels of the company naming BDO as its new auditor and providing plans to the Nasdaq about how it will remain in compliance with the exchange’s rules. Intuit — Shares of the financial software company fell 4% after the release of its fiscal first-quarter report. Intuit’s results beat Wall Street expectations on the top and bottom lines, according to LSEG, but the company said it expects a revenue decline in its consumer group during the second quarter. Intuit also reiterated its full-year guidance. Ross Stores — Shares moved 3% higher after the department store chain reported third-quarter earnings of $1.48 per share, topping the $1.40 expected from analysts polled by LSEG. Its revenue, however, fell short of the consensus estimate. Carpenter Technology — Shares advanced more than 5% after JPMorgan initiated coverage of the steelmaker with an overweight rating. The firm sees more than 21% upside ahead, citing robust demand for the company’s premium products. StoneCo — Shares jumped about 10% after the Brazilian payments company announced a share repurchase program of up to 2 billion reais . The program has no fixed expiration date, according to the company. Deckers Outdoor — The shoemaker added more than 5% and hit an all-time intraday high following Needham’s initiation at a buy rating. Needham called Deckers “one of the highest-quality companies in our coverage” and added the stock to its conviction list. MicroStrategy — Shares of the bitcoin development company rose more than 10%, reversing the more than 16% of losses seen in the previous session. The gains come as bitcoin moved closer toward $100,000 during Friday’s trading session after breaching $99,000 for the first time on Thursday. Texas Pacific Land — The stock jumped more than 12% on the heels of the announcement that the landowner will be joining the S & P 500 , replacing Marathon Oil following ConocoPhillips ‘ acquisition of that company. Its inclusion on the index will take effect Nov. 26 before the bell. — CNBC’s Alex Harring, Jesse Pound and Michelle Fox contributed reporting.
SlateStone Wealth chief market strategist Kenny Polcari discusses whether Nvidia can become a cash machine like Apple on ‘Making Money.’
Americans are retiring at a record-setting pace amid the aging of the baby boomer generation, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have become a popular way for retirees to invest in ways that align with their risk tolerance and diversification needs.
A recent report by the Alliance for Lifetime Income found that about 4.1 million Americans are projected to turn 65 on an annual basis from 2024 through 2025. That has pushed the number of Americans turning 65 each day from roughly 10,000 in the past decade to more than 11,200 this year.
ETFs can offer investors access to a variety of investment themes of interest to retirees, from equity ETFs optimized for dividend yields to bond ETFs yielding interest on government and corporate debt, as well as those modeled on broader indices like the S&P 500 or that have international exposure. Some can also include built-in hedging strategies to guard against downside risk.
“Investments are personal, and the ‘best’ ETFs for someone in or near retirement can vary widely, depending on their situation. Those in or near retirement should evaluate their situation in terms of their overall allocation, the time horizon for drawing down or growing their assets, and what level of risk they’re comfortable with,” said Lawrence Sprung, CFP and founder of Mitlin Financial.
Retirees can use ETFs to deliver income in retirement by targeting dividend or interest-paying ETFs, or use them to diversify their portfolios. (iStock / iStock)
“Investors that have a higher risk level and longer time horizon will be included to invest in more growth-oriented ETFs. On the other hand, investors who require income today from these assets with a lower risk tolerance will have their portfolios allocated more toward income-oriented investments,” Sprung added. “The ETFs that may be best for one investor may not be the best for another.”
ETFs can be broadly diversified or may be narrowly focused on a certain part of the market. (Angela Weiss / AFP for Getty Images / Getty Images)
Some ETFs offer retirees and future retirees some downside risk protection, said Faron Daugs, the CEO of Harrison Wallace Financial Group.
“Often, these are referred to as buffered ETFs. They are generally tied to a stock market index and have various downside percentage protection in the event of a downturn in the market,” he said. “This type of ETF allows you to participate in potential growth opportunities but offers individuals a little bit of a parachute in the event of a downturn.”
“Another option to consider would be an ETF that invests in dividend-producing stocks. Typically, having a portfolio can generate you a return via a dividend, regardless of the stock performance, can serve as an attractive way to gain some growth potential and offer potential for return in some form – even if the price of the stock declines,” Daugs added.
ETFs can help investors diversify their portfolios by targeting specific types of assets more efficiently. (iStock / iStock)
If a retiree needs income during their golden years, an ETF that pays dividends or interest can be a wise investment, said Ted Jenkin, co-founder and consultant at oXYGen Financial.
“SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 High Dividend ETF (SPYD), Vanguard Dividend Appreciation Index Fund ETF Shares (VIG) and iShares Select Dividend ETF (DVY) are just a few to look at,” he said.
Jared Levy, chief markets strategist at Peak American Financial, said that investors should be “extremely precise the closer they get to retirement” because they typically are shifting from “prioritizing growth to prioritizing protection.” Levy added that it’s “critical to have an all-weather portfolio that is not only balanced for your risk tolerance, but one that doesn’t become correlated if things start to fall apart.”
He said that one of his firm’s all-weather portfolios features the Protected S&P 500 ETF (BUFR) along with a mix of corporate and Treasury bond ETFs; bitcoin, gold and precious metal ETFs, a small-cap ETF based on the Russell 2000 and other investment instruments.
For 15 years, former Texas schoolteacher Kayla Morris put every dollar she could save into a home for her growing family.
When she and her husband sold the house last year, they stowed away the proceeds, $282,153.87, in what they thought of as a safe place — an account at the savings startup Yotta held at a real bank.
Morris, like thousands of other customers, was snared in the collapse of a behind-the-scenes fintech firm called Synapse and has been locked out of her account for six months as of November. She held out hope that her money was still secure. Then she learned how much Evolve Bank & Trust, the lender where her funds were supposed to be held, was prepared to return to her.
“We were informed last Monday that Evolve was only going to pay us $500 out of that $280,000,” Morris said during a court hearing last week, her voice wavering. “It’s just devastating.”
The crisis started in May when a dispute between Synapse and Evolve Bank over customer balances boiled over and the fintech middleman turned off access to a key system used to process transactions. Synapse helped fintech startups like Yotta and Juno, which are not banks, offer checking accounts and debit cards by hooking them up with small lenders like Evolve.
In the immediate aftermath of Synapse’s bankruptcy, which happened after an exodus of its fintech clients, a court-appointed trustee found that up to $96 million of customer funds was missing.
The mystery of where those funds are hasn’t been solved, despite six months of court-mediated efforts between the four banks involved. That’s mostly because the estate of Andreessen Horowitz-backed Synapse doesn’t have the money to hire an outside firm to perform a full reconciliation of its ledgers, according to Jelena McWilliams, the bankruptcy trustee.
But what is now clear is that regular Americans like Morris are bearing the brunt of that shortfall and will receive little or nothing from savings accountsthat they believed were backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.
The losses demonstrate the risks of a system where customers didn’t have direct relationships with banks, instead relying on startups to keep track of their funds, who offloaded that responsibility onto middlemen like Synapse.
Zach Jacobs, 37, of Tampa, Florida helped form a group called Fight For Our Funds after losing more than $94,000 that he had in a fintech savings account called Yotta.
Courtesy: Zach Jacobs
‘Reverse bank robbery’
There are thousands of others like Morris. While there’s not yet a full tally of those left shortchanged, at Yotta alone, 13,725 customers say they are being offered a combined $11.8 million despite putting in $64.9 million in deposits, according to figures shared by Yotta co-founder and CEO Adam Moelis.
CNBC spoke to a dozen customers caught in this predicament, people who are owed sums ranging from $7,000 to well over $200,000.
From FedEx drivers to small business owners, teachers to dentists, they described the loss of years of savings after turning to fintechs like Yotta for the higher interest rates on offer, for innovative features or because they were turned away from traditional banks.
One Yotta customer, Zach Jacobs, logged onto Evolve’s website on Nov. 4 to find he was getting back just $128.68 of the $94,468.92 he had deposited — and he decided to act.
Zach Jacobs decided to act after logging onto Evolve’s website on Nov. 4 to find he was getting just $128.68 of his $94,468.92 in deposits.
Courtesy: Zach Jacobs
The 37-year-old Tampa, Florida-based business owner began organizing with other victims online, creating a board of volunteers for a group called Fight For Our Funds. It’s his hope that they gain attention from press and politicians.
So far, 3,454 people have signed on, saying they’ve lost a combined $30.4 million.
“When you tell people about this, it’s like, ‘There’s no way this can happen,'” Jacobs said. “A bank just robbed us. This is the first reverse bank robbery in the history of America.”
Andrew Meloan, a chemical engineer from Chicago, said he had hoped to see the return of $200,000 he’d deposited with Yotta. Early this month, he received an unexpected PayPal remittance from Evolve for $5.
“When I signed up, they gave me an Evolve routing and account number,” Meloan said. “Now they’re saying they only have $5 of my money, and the rest is someplace else. I feel like I’ve been conned.”
A bank just robbed us. This is the first reverse bank robbery in the history of America.”
Zach Jacobs
Yotta customer
Cracks in the system
Unlike meme stocks or crypto bets, in which the user naturally assumes some risk, most customers viewed funds held in Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.-backed accounts as the safest place to keep their money. People relied on accounts powered by Synapse for everyday expenses like buying groceries and paying rent, or for saving for major life events like home purchases or surgeries.
Several people CNBC interviewed said signing up seemed like a good bet since Yotta and other fintechs advertised that deposits were FDIC-insured through Evolve.
“We were assured that this was just a savings account,” Morris said during last week’s hearing. “We are not risk-takers, we’re not gamblers.”
Abandoned by U.S. regulators who have so far declined to act, they are left with few clear options to recoup their money.
In June, the FDIC made it clear that its insurance fund doesn’t cover the failure of nonbanks like Synapse, and that in the event of such a firm’s failure, recovering funds through the courts wasn’t guaranteed.
Three months later, the FDIC proposed a new rule that would force banks to keep detailed records for customers of fintech apps, improving the chances that they qualify for coverage in a future calamity and cutting the risk that funds would go missing.
McWilliams, herself a former FDIC chair during the first Trump presidency, told the California judge handling the Synapse bankruptcy case last week she was “disheartened” that every financial regulator has decided not to help.
The FDIC and Federal Reserve declined to comment, and McWilliams didn’t respond to emails.
Jelena McWilliams, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, testifies during a House Financial Services Committee hearing in Rayburn Building titled “Oversight of Prudential Regulators: Ensuring the Safety, Soundness and Accountability of Megabanks and Other Depository Institutions,” on Thursday, May 16, 2019.
Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
Winners and losers
Things hadn’t always seemed so dire. Early in the proceedings, McWilliams suggested to Judge Martin Barash that customers be given a partial payment, essentially spreading the pain among everyone.
But that would’ve required more coordination between Evolve and the other lenders that held customer funds than what ultimately happened.
As the hearings dragged on, the three other institutions, AMG National Trust, Lineage Bank and American Bank, began disbursing the funds they had, while Evolve took months to perform what it initially said would be a comprehensive reconciliation.
Around the time Evolve completed its efforts in October, it said it could only figure out the user funds it held, not the location of the missing funds. That’s at least partly because of “very large bulk transfers” of funds without identification of who owned the money, a lawyer for Evolve testified last week.
As a result, the bankruptcy process has minted relative winners and losers.
Some end users recently received all their funds back, while others, like Indiana FedEx driver Natasha Craft, received none, she told CNBC.
Natasha Craft, a 25-year-old FedEx driver from Mishawaka, Indiana. She has been locked out of her Yotta banking account since May 11.
Courtesy: Natasha Craft
As of Nov. 12, the four banks released $193 million to customers, or more than 85% of what they held earlier in the year.
The Nov. 13 hearing has provided the only public venue for victims to register their distress; dozens of victims queued up in the hopes they could testify about receiving a tiny fraction of what they’re owed. The event went longer than three hours.
“You can’t imagine the panic when it said I was getting 81 cents,” said Andreatte Caliguire, who said she is owed $22,000. “I have no money, I have no path forward, I have nothing.”
‘Nothing optimistic’
Evolve says that “the vast majority” of funds held for Yotta and other customers were moved to other banks in October and November of 2023 on directions from Synapse, according to an Evolve spokesman.
“Where those end user funds went after that is an important question, but unfortunately not one Evolve can answer with the data it currently has,” the spokesman said.
Yotta says that Evolve has given fintech firms and the trustee no information about how it determined payouts, “despite acknowledging in court that a shortfall existed at Evolve prior to October 2023,” according to a spokesman for the startup, who noted that several executives have recently left the bank. “We hope regulators take notice and act.”
In statements released ahead of this month’s hearing, Evolve said that other banks refused to participate in its efforts to create a master ledger, while AMG and Lineage said that Evolve’s implication that they had the missing funds was “irresponsible and disingenuous.”
As the banks and other parties hurl accusations at each other and lawsuits pile up, including pending class-action efforts, the window for cooperation is rapidly closing, Barash said last week.
“As time goes by, my impression is that unless the banks that are involved can sort this out voluntarily, it may not get sorted out,” Barash said. “There’s nothing optimistic about what I’m telling you.”