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[ad_1] CNN  —  Chances are very good that your 401(k) does not currently offer you access to private equity investments, which, as the name implies, are investments in companies that are not publicly traded. The question is, will that change in the next few years? And, if it does, is it worth it for you to invest? Large company pension plans and university endowments — both of which have very long time horizons — have invested for years in private equity and private debt funds. But 401(k)s typically haven’t offered those options to plan participants. In November 2024, only 2.4%…

[ad_1] A version of this story appeared in CNN Business’ Nightcap newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here. New York CNN  —  Elon Musk has two key strengths: a bottomless well of money and an unmatched ability to hypnotize Wall Street with promises of a whizz-bang technological future. He’s starting to run into the limits of both. On the hypnosis front, Musk is busy hyping the tentative launch on June 22 of Tesla’s long-awaited robotaxi pilot program in Austin, Texas. Tentative, Musk said, because the company is being “super paranoid about safety.” When even Musk…

[ad_1] Barbie might get an AI upgrade.Mattel, the maker of Barbie, Hot Wheels, and Uno, has teamed up with OpenAI to bring artificial intelligence to its iconic toy brands, the companies announced on Thursday.By using OpenAI’s technology, Mattel will “bring the magic of AI to age-appropriate play experiences with an emphasis on innovation, privacy, and safety,” the California-based toy manufacturer said in a press release on Thursday.While details are still under wraps, the first AI-powered product is expected to drop later this year.Mattel isn’t handing over its intellectual property in the deal. The company retains full control over the products…

[ad_1] Instagram said it is rolling out a slate of new features catering to shy, low-key users who want to post without announcing everything to their entire followers’ list. Adam Mosseri, the head of the Meta-run social media platform, said in a Thursday news release that users will soon be able to make posts without informing their followers, and rearrange existing posts on their grid.”We know creative expression can feel intimidating, especially when posting something to feed. To address this directly, we’re exploring a way to let you quietly post to your profile without broadcasting it to everyone’s feeds,” Mosseri…

[ad_1] Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Back in 1857, the Bank of Austria loaded 10mn ounces of silver on to a train and dispatched it to Hamburg. The reason? The city’s banks were about to collapse, having run out of reserves.So Austria sent that “silver train” to provide liquidity. And 30 years later the French central bank did the same with a boat of gold, during Britain’s Barings crisis.Might such aid be needed again, in a 21st-century dollar form? It is a question now being quietly mulled…

[ad_1] Hong Kong/New York CNN  —  Global oil prices have had their largest single-day percentage increases in years, reflecting fears that a wider conflict in the Middle East could lead to serious energy supply disruptions. Brent crude, the global benchmark, was last up 4.3% at $72.4 a barrel on Friday. West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, jumped 5% to $71.4 a barrel. According to Reuters, they are the biggest intraday gains for each benchmark since March 2022, a month after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The surge in the Brent price illustrates “both immediate supply concerns and a…

[ad_1] Mark Zuckerberg is making a 28-year-old CEO the lynchpin of Meta’s investment in the AI race.On Thursday, Meta confirmed that it’s buying a 49% stake in Scale AI, giving the company a valuation of over $29 billion. The tech giant is spending about $15 billion for the stake.Scale’s founder and CEO, Alexandr Wang, is joining Meta to work on the tech giant’s AI efforts.Here are five key things to know about Wang.1. He’s an MIT dropout.After his freshman year, Wang dropped out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He and cofounder Lucy Guo had launched Scale AI three years…

[ad_1] Meta has rolled out a new internal AI assistant for coding that is powered by multiple AI models, including those from rivals like Anthropic’s Claude.The tool, called Devmate, became available to employees in March and is increasingly being used for more complex coding tasks that another internal AI assistant called Metamate often struggles with, two employees, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution from Meta, told Business Insider.The addition of Claude and other models shows that despite investing tens of billions of dollars into building its own AI models, Meta remains willing to use competitor models when they perform…

[ad_1] Stocks @ Night is a daily newsletter delivered after hours, giving you a first look at tomorrow and last look at today. Sign up for free to receive it directly in your inbox. Here’s what CNBC TV’s producers were watching as the three major averages posted modest gains Thursday, and what’s on the radar for the next session. Oracle The stock will kick off Friday after posting its best day in a year. Oracle was up 13% on Thursday. The move came a day after the company posted an earnings beat . Thanks to CNBC data man Nick Wells…

[ad_1] Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The writer is a faculty member at Yale, formerly chair of Morgan Stanley Asia, and is the author of ‘Accidental Conflict: America, China, and the Clash of False Narratives’Controversy swirls over the future of Hong Kong. I played a small role in sparking the recent debate, writing 16 months ago: “It pains me to say Hong Kong is over.” Since then, part of the story has become different even if much of the longer-term trend remains intact.Significantly Hong Kong bears little…