Business

Russia’s fallen giant Gazprom selling off luxury properties as group swings to reported $12.9 billion loss

Published

9 hours ago

March 18, 2025

Gazprom is looking at every avenue to cut costs, including its portfolio of luxury hotels, after the group fell to its second successive year of losses as Russia’s war with Ukraine continues to hammer energy exports.

The group’s net losses on Russian Accounting Standards (RAS) hit 1.076 trillion roubles ($12.89 billion) last year, largely attributable to a decline in the market value of shares in Gazprom’s oil division, Gazprom Neft, according to Interfax, Reuters reported.

The same RAS figure in 2023, which doesn’t include the results of subsidiaries, gave Gazprom a profit of 695.6 billion roubles ($7.51 billion).

Gazprom Group fell to its first loss in 24 years in 2023 as EU sanctions took their toll on the group, with gas exports to the EU plunging 55% compared with 2022.

An internal Gazprom report obtained by the Financial Times last year suggested the group may not recover its pre-war export revenues until 2035 as it struggles to find alternatives to the lucrative European market.

The company has started to cut costs as a result of continued losses, reeling back years of exuberant purchases as the company basked in outsized energy revenues. In January, Gazprom confirmed it was considering laying off administrative staff amid reports headcount could fall by up to 40%.

Last year, Gazprom said it was selling off some of its luxury property assets, including a range of Gazprom-owned hotels, which it used to reward employees with holidays and to host conferences.

According to a report by Reuters, Gazprom is now considering selling off its palazzo-style export headquarters in St Petersburg, a direct result of falling demand to the West.

Indeed, Reuters’ report suggests Gazprom Export has reduced its number of employees from 600 prior to the invasion of Ukraine to a few dozen.

A representative for Gazprom didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

As revenues for the once-crucial energy sector dry up and Russia’s war with Ukraine moves into its fourth year, hopes are increasing for a peace deal to prevent a financial crash as Russia’s non-war related sectors come under strain.

Russia has attempted to offset the loss of its vital European energy export business by increasing trade with China. However, it hasn’t been able to replace the quantity of exports it enjoyed in Europe, while China has had more leverage to negotiate prices as Russia struggles to find buyers for its energy.

Vladimir Putin is due to speak with Donald Trump over the phone on Tuesday to continue peace talks over the war in Ukraine. Trump’s election has increased the likelihood of a peace deal as the U.S. threatens to pull military support for Ukraine. A ceasefire could open the door to the lifting of sanctions.

However, analysts are skeptical that Europe would return to become a willing buyer of Russian energy in the event that sanctions are lifted, with new suppliers being identified and alternative forms of energy receiving more funding since 2022.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Source link

Business

Trump-backed World Liberty Financial raises $550 million in WLFI token sales

Published

14 minutes ago

March 18, 2025

Jace Porter

World Liberty Financial, the decentralized finance platform backed by President Donald Trump, announced this week that it has raised a total of $550 million in a series of token sales.

“This milestone proves that those who truly understand crypto and finance recognize what we’re building—and that WLFI is on track to supercharge DeFi as it transforms global finance in the coming years,” Zach Witkoff, cofounder of World Liberty Financial, said in a statement earlier this week.

The company sold $300 and $250 million worth of Ethereum, Bitcoin, Tron, Ondo, Sui, and other cryptocurrencies. The purchases are part of its strategic token reserve which “helps strengthen leading cryptocurrency projects while providing stability to its treasury through diversification before ultimate disposition,” the company said in a statement.

World Liberty Financial also says it has “established key relationships” with major players in the crypto space including other decentralized finance platforms like ONDO Finance, Sui, and Aave. Justin Sun, the founder of Tron blockchain, has invested $75 million in World Liberty Financial since Trump’s election in November.

“The token sales are just the beginning,” Witkoff said in a statement this week. “We’re gearing up to launch a wave of disruptive technology that will redefine the boundaries of what’s possible with digital assets.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Source link

Business

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called GTC a Super Bowl where there are no losers — then he tackled concerns about China’s DeepSeek

Published

45 minutes ago

March 18, 2025

Jace Porter

Jensen Huang reaffirmed Nvidia’s starring role in the AI industry during a keynote address at Nvidia’s annual GTC conference on Tuesday. Through its new open-source software, Huang showed how Nvidia can ramp up DeepSeek R1’s efficiency 30-fold. Yet, while he spoke, Nvidia’s stock price dropped more than 3%—after the company announced its GPU timelines.

Clad in his signature black leather, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang took center stage at Nvidia GTC on Tuesday, defending the chip maker’s dominance in the industry and touting the impact it could have on DeepSeek.

The event drew more than 25,000 people to the SAP Center’s National Hockey League arena, and Huang opened the keynote by launching t-shirts into the crowd and coronating this year’s GTC the “Super Bowl of AI.”

“The only difference is everybody wins at this Super Bowl, everybody’s a winner,” he joked. And like the Super Bowl, there were GTC watch parties and packed crowds to get a glimpse of Huang on stage.

With his address, Huang sought to dispel any uneasiness around AI investment, and said discussion about lower spending does not concern Nvidia. In January, apprehension engulfed the chip maker after it lost $589 billion in market cap in a single day after Chinese AI reasoning model Deepseek R1 claimed to operate at a fraction of the cost.

While large language models offer foundational knowledge, reasoning models offer more complex, analytical responses. Using the company’s new open source software Nvidia Dynamo, Huang said the tech giant’s Blackwell chips will be able to make DeepSeek R1 30 times faster. He then played a video demonstrating for the crowd how it could be done.

“Dynamo can capture that benefit and deliver 30 times more performance in the same number of GPUs in the same architecture for reasoning models like DeepSeek,” said Ian Buck, vice president and general manager of Nvidia’s hyperscale and HPC computing business.

From there, Huang’s keynote covered everything from the chip maker’s plans to roll out its newest chips— Blackwell Ultra later this year, Vera Rubin in 2026, and Feynman in 2027.

“We have an annual rhythm of roadmaps that has been laid out for you,” Huang said.

While Nvidia’s announced its strategic runway for years to come, that wasn’t enough to stop the stock’s slide. The chip maker’s share price tumbled 3.4% Tuesday.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Source link

Business

Cathie Wood says most memecoins will end up ‘worthless’

Published

1 hour ago

March 18, 2025

Jace Porter

Most of the so-called memecoins that are flooding the $2.6 trillion cryptocurrency space will probably end up “worthless,” according to Cathie Wood.

The combination of blockchain technology and artificial intelligence is creating “millions” of meme cryptocurrencies that “are not going to be worth very much,” the ARK Investment Managment LLC founder and CEO told Bloomberg Television on Tuesday, adding that her private funds are not putting money into these coins.

Memecoins are a type of digital asset often inspired by jokes, current events or trends in popular culture. In February, the US Securities and Exchange Commission said memecoins are not considered securities so they will remain unregulated.

“If I have one message for those listening who are buying memecoins: buyer beware,” said Wood. “There’s nothing like losing money for people to learn, and they’ll learn that the SEC and regulators are not taking responsibility for these memecoins.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Source link