Apollo, HSG, Jane Street Join Kraken’s $500 Million Fundraising Round Valued at $15 Billion

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Major financial players Apollo Global Management, Oppenheimer, Jane Street, and HSG — formerly Sequoia Capital China — have invested in crypto exchange Kraken’s September funding round that valued the company at $15 billion, according to two people familiar with the deal.

The $500 million fundraising, first reported by Fortune, marks one of the largest private rounds in the crypto sector this year. Reuters has now confirmed the participation of these heavyweight investors, signaling rising institutional confidence in digital assets amid a friendlier U.S. regulatory climate under President Donald Trump’s administration.

Other participants included Qube Research & Technologies, Kraken’s co-CEO Arjun Sethi, and Tribe Capital, a venture capital firm co-founded by Sethi. The round is seen as a precursor to Kraken’s initial public offering (IPO), expected to be filed confidentially with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) before year-end, with a potential listing in the first quarter of next year — though the timeline could be affected by the ongoing government shutdown.

The funding highlights the growing institutional embrace of crypto. Kraken, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has been expanding aggressively through acquisitions: it bought NinjaTrader, a retail futures trading platform, for $1.5 billion in May, and recently acquired Small Exchange from IG Group for $100 million, strengthening its U.S.-based derivatives business.

The move comes amid a wave of crypto IPOs this year from firms like Circle, Gemini, and Bullish, which have capitalized on renewed optimism in the digital asset market.

Institutional enthusiasm has also helped lift crypto prices, with Bitcoin up over 20% this year, reaching a record high above $126,000 in October.

The involvement of Wall Street and Asia’s top investors in Kraken’s latest round underlines a broader shift: crypto is no longer a fringe asset — it’s becoming part of the mainstream financial ecosystem.

Intel’s Results to Reveal If Multibillion-Dollar Rescue Plan Is Working

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All eyes are on Intel’s third-quarter earnings report this Thursday, as investors look for signs that a wave of multibillion-dollar investments from Nvidia, SoftBank, and the U.S. government is stabilizing the struggling chipmaker under its new CEO Lip-Bu Tan.

The fresh funding has lifted Intel’s shares nearly 100% this year, outperforming even AI titan Nvidia, though expectations are high. Analysts expect a 1% drop in quarterly revenue to $13.14 billion, according to LSEG data, and a per-share loss of $0.22. Shares fell 4.5% on Wednesday, ahead of the results.

Investors are eager for clarity on whether the cash infusions are enough to revive Intel’s finances after years of costly manufacturing missteps under former CEO Pat Gelsinger. “The big question is: what does Intel’s big picture look like now, and what does their cash position look like?” said Joe Tigay, portfolio manager at Rational Equity Armor Fund.

The deals have handed Intel a crucial cash lifeline:
– Nvidia invested $5 billion, acquiring about a 4% stake.
– SoftBank added another $2 billion.
– The U.S. government took a 10% stake worth $8.9 billion, after tensions over Tan’s China ties sparked political backlash.

While these moves strengthen liquidity, they also dilute Intel’s earnings per share, analysts warn. “Share dilution is the least of Intel shareholders’ worries,” said Ryuta Makino of Gabelli Funds, noting that investors are focused on the company’s long-term strategy.

Despite new funding, Intel continues to lose ground to AMD and Arm-based rivals in CPUs, while remaining a minor player in the AI chip market dominated by Nvidia. However, the company is seeing renewed strength in PCs, with shipments rising 8% globally, and its PC division revenue expected to jump 11% to $8.12 billion.

Intel’s Panther Lake processor, built on its new 18A manufacturing node, is expected to begin shipping by late 2025 — a key test for Tan’s revised strategy, which scaled back Gelsinger’s aggressive factory expansion.

Revenue in Intel’s data center unit is projected to grow 18% to $3.95 billion, fueled by booming demand for server CPUs that pair with AI GPUs. The manufacturing segment, however, is expected to stay flat at $4.37 billion.

“The markets are giving Intel a lot of patience,” said Tigay. “These investments buy them time — but soon, the products will need to speak for themselves.”

UK Data Centre Spending to Hit £10 Billion Annually by 2029 Amid AI Boom

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Spending on new UK data centres is set to surge to £10 billion a year by 2029, more than five times higher than in 2024, according to new analysis from construction data firm Barbour ABI.

The report found that £1.75 billion was spent on data centre construction in 2023, with that figure projected to rise to £2.38 billion in 2025 as demand for AI-driven computing power continues to accelerate. Over the next five years, tech giants including Microsoft, Nvidia, and Google are expected to invest a combined £25 billion in the UK’s data infrastructure, with nearly 100 new projects already in the pipeline.

Barbour ABI said the expansion reflects both global AI adoption and UK government initiatives, such as the AI Growth Zones, designed to speed up planning approvals for digital infrastructure.

While London and its surrounding regions remain the country’s data centre hub, development is now spreading nationwide, driven by rising demand for low-latency connectivity and renewable energy sources to power data-intensive AI systems.

The largest upcoming project is a $13 billion hyperscale data centre planned in North East England, led by U.S. private equity group Blackstone—a sign that international investors view the UK as a strategic AI infrastructure hub.

The rise in data centre construction comes amid a global race to expand digital capacity following the release of ChatGPT in late 2022, which sparked an explosion in AI model training, cloud computing, and enterprise automation.

Barbour ABI said the shift marks one of the fastest-growing infrastructure trends in the country’s history. “AI has completely reshaped data demands,” the report noted. “We’re now entering a decade defined by hyperscale expansion.”