Tthe Robinhood logo is displayed on a smartphone screen.
Rafael Henrique | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
LONDON — Robinhood said Monday that it’s rolling out margin investing — the ability for investors to borrow cash to augment their trades — in the U.K.
The U.S. online investment platform said that the option would allow users in the U.K. to leverage their existing asset holdings as collateral to purchase additional securities.
The launch of margin trading follows the recent approval of the product, after Robinhood held conversations with Britain’s financial regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Margin trading is a rarity in the U.K., where regulators see it as more controversial because of the risks involved to users. Some platforms in the country limit margin trading for only high-net-worth individuals or businesses. Other firms that offer margin investing in the U.K. include Interactive Brokers, IG and CMC Markets.
The stock trading app touted “competitive” interest rates with its margin loans offering. Rates offered by the platform range from 6.25% for margin loans of up to $50,000 to 5.2% for loans of $50 million and above.
Jordan Sinclair, president of Robinhood U.K., said that many customers feel they can’t access more advanced products like margin trading in Britain, as they’re typically reserved for a select few professional traders investing with the likes of heavyweight banks JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and UBS.
“There’s so many barriers to entry,” Sinclair told CNBC in an interview. “Ultimately, that’s what we want to break down all those stigmas and barriers to just basic investing tools.”
He added, “For the right customer this is a great way to diversify and expand their portfolio.”
A risky business
Investing on borrowed cash can be a risky trading strategy. In the case of margin trading, investors can use borrowed money to increase the size of their trades.
Say you wanted to make a $10,000 investment in Tesla. Usually, you’d have to fork out $10,000 of your own cash to buy that stock. But by using a margin account, you can “leverage” your trade. With 10x leverage, you’d only need to have $1,000 upfront to make the trade, instead of $10,000.
That can be a lucrative strategy for professional traders, who can make even larger returns than on usual trades, if the value of the purchased asset rises significantly.
It’s a riskier path for retail traders. If the value of the asset you’re buying on borrowed cash drops significantly, your losses will be dramatic, too.
Robinhood announced it was launching in the U.K last November, opening up its app to Brits in March. At the time of launch, Robinhood was unable to offer U.K. users the option of margin trading, pending discussions with the FCA.
“I think with the regulator, it was just about getting them comfortable with our approach, giving them a history of our product in the U.S., what we’ve developed, and the eligibility,” Robinhood’s Sinclair told CNBC.
Sinclair said that Robinhood implemented robust guardrails to ensure that customers don’t invest more cash than they can afford to lose when margin investing.
The platform requires users seeking to trade on margin to have a minimum of $2,000 of cash deposited in their accounts. Customers also have to opt in to use the product — they’re not just automatically enrolled for a margin account.
“There are eligibility criteria. There is a way to review appropriateness of this product for the right customer,” Sinclair added. “Fundamentally, that’s a really important part of this product. We recognize it isn’t for the novice investor that’s just getting started on our customer.”
Robinhood says that its customers’ uninvested cash is protected to the tune of $2.5 million with the U.S.’ Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which the firm says adds another layer of protection for users.
Dario Amodei, Anthropic CEO, speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box outside the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 21st, 2025.
Gerry Miller | CNBC
Anthropic is in talks to raise a $3.5 billion funding round, significantly more than the amount previously expected, CNBC has confirmed.
The round would roughly triple the artificial intelligence startup’s valuation to $61.5 billion, according to two sources familiar with the deal, who asked not to be named because the details aren’t public. Lightspeed Ventures is leading the funding, with participation from General Catalyst and others, the sources said.
The financing, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, signals continued investor demand for top-tier AI companies, even in the face of potential disruption from China’s DeepSeek. Anthropic is backed by Amazon and Google, and had initially set out to raise $2 billion, according to a source.
Anthropic declined to comment.
The company’s last private market valuation was $18 billion. Amazon has poured $8 billion into the startup.
Anthropic was founded by early OpenAI employees and is the creator of the popular chatbot Claude. Earlier Monday, Anthropic released what it says is it’s “most intelligent AI model yet. Its so-called hybrid model combines an ability to reason — or stopping to think about complex answers — with a traditional model that spits out answers in real time.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon on Monday said the U.S. government is inefficient and in need of work as the Trump administration terminates thousands of federal employees and works to dismantle agencies including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Dimon was asked by CNBC’s Leslie Picker whether he supported efforts by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. He declined to give what he called a “binary” response, but made comments that supported the overall effort.
“The government is inefficient, not very competent, and needs a lot of work,” Dimon told Picker. “It’s not just waste and fraud, its outcomes.”
The Trump administration’s effort to rein in spending and scrutinize federal agencies “needs to be done,” Dimon added.
“Why are we spending the money on these things? Are we getting what we deserve? What should we change?” Dimon said. “It’s not just about the deficit, its about building the right policies and procedures and the government we deserve.”
Dimon said if DOGE overreaches with its cost-cutting efforts or engages in activity that’s not legal, “the courts will stop it.”
“I’m hoping it’s quite successful,” he said.
In the wide-ranging interview, Dimon also addressed his company’s push to have most workers in office five days a week, as well as his views on the Ukraine conflict, tariffs and the U.S. consumer.
Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading: Berkshire Hathaway — Class A shares of Warren Buffett’s conglomerate jumped nearly 4% following a strong earnings report . The conglomerate said its operating profit skyrocketed 71% to $14.5 billion in the fourth quarter, led by a 302% jump in insurance underwriting. Auto insurer Geico had the most positive effect on Berkshire’s insurance results. Meta Platforms — The Facebook parent company slipped more than 1% and was on pace for a fifth straight down day. Meta has dipped roughly 10% over the past five sessions, which marks its longest losing streak since August. Palantir — Shares tumbled 8.7% on Monday, on track for its fourth straight down day. The retail investor favorite has recently shown signs of fizzling , with shares down more than 24% compared with where they traded five sessions ago. Domino’s Pizza — The pizza chain pulled back 2% after fourth-quarter results missed analysts’ expectations. Domino’s reported earnings of $4.89 per share on revenue of $1.44 billion, while analysts polled by FactSet were looking for $4.90 per share on revenue of $1.48 billion. Same-store sales, a key metric for restaurants, also grew less than anticipated. Alibaba — The Chinese e-commerce giant plummeted 9%, reversing some of the 15.3% gain it saw last week following a better-than-expected earnings report . The move lower comes despite Morgan Stanley upgrading the stock to overweight from equal weight this week, with the firm citing accelerating cloud revenue growth as a catalyst. Robinhood — The brokerage stock fell more than 2% on Monday, putting it on track for its fifth straight losing session. Last week, Robinhood was downgraded by Wolfe Research to peer perform from outperform, and two corporate insiders disclosed recent stock sales. Nike — The clothing and footwear stock gained more than 4% after Jefferies upgraded Nike to buy from hold, and said the company is turning “back on its innovation engine.” Freshpet — The pet food stock advanced more than 8% after an upgrade to buy from hold from Jefferies, with the firm asserting that shares are “worth 50% above” where they are trading currently. The firm added that it expects Freshpet can grow sales 23% by 2027. Rivian — Shares tumbled nearly 8% after Bank of America downgraded the electric vehicle maker to underperform from neutral. Analyst John Murphy pointed to mounting competitive pressures, a softer-than-expected 2025 outlook and slowing EV demand alongside a potential pullback in U.S. EV incentives as reasons for the downgrade. Energy stocks — Power company stocks were lower on the heels of the a TD Cowen report last week concerning data centers and Microsoft. Analyst Michael Elias said Microsoft had “cancelled leases in the U.S. totaling ‘a couple of hundred MWs’ with at least two private data center operators.” Talen Energy and GE Vernova pulled back 2% each, while Vistra dropped nearly 4%. Constellation Energy shed about 7%. — CNBC’s Yun Li, Alex Harring, Lisa Kailai Han, Jesse Pound and Sean Conlon contributed reporting.