Category: Semafor

The News The financial problems that arose at subprime auto lender Tricolor Holdings and auto parts manufacturer First Brands were “easy to spot” ahead of time, Todd Boehly, the co-founder and chief executive officer of Eldridge Industries, said on Monday. Eldridge considered investing in debt issued by the Texas-based Tricolor ...

AI can now design and run biological experiments, racing ahead of regulatory systems and raising the risk of bioterrorism, a leading scientist warned. OpenAI’s GPT-5 autonomously operated 36,000 experiments via a robotic lab, cutting the cost of creating a target protein by 40%. AI is making biological engineering more accessible, ...

African startups raised $705 million in the first three months of 2026, a 26.5% increase on the same period last year, according to new analysis. The sum covers 59 deals in 14 countries, African Business reported, pointing to data compiled by Condia and TechCabal Insights. Egypt was in pole position, ...

Heineken completed its withdrawal from DR Congo, ending more than a century of operations in the country after a turbulent two-year period marked by conflict that severed supply routes and raised security costs. The Dutch brewer’s exit unfolded in two steps. Last year, Heineken offloaded its Bukavu brewery in eastern ...

South Africa and Nigeria ranked among the top 20 countries worldwide where cybercrime complaints were filed last year, research by the US FBI found. Global cybercrime losses surged to a record $20.8 billion in 2025, a 26% increase from 2024, with more than 1 million complaints filed. While sub-Saharan Africa’s ...

Oil prices surged above $100 a barrel ahead of a US shipping blockade on Iranian ports after weekend peace talks between the US and Iran collapsed, threatening to pile pressure on several African currencies that have depreciated as a result of the crisis. South Africa’s rand weakened and was nearly ...

Winston Ma’s view At the Future Investment Initiative summit in Miami in late March, geopolitics and technology investing collided in a single, blunt warning, when US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff said the region faced a “risk premium” from the threat of infrastructure such as data centers being “blown up.” To ...

Economists warned that US wholesale prices could rise rapidly, suggesting further pain for consumers down the line. The projected rise in the producer price index at an annualized 4.6% in March, up from 3.4% in February, would come after March’s consumer price inflation was already the highest rate in two ...

Chinese EV exports jumped by 124% in the first quarter of the year, and analysts forecast that the war in the Middle East could further boost their fortunes as gasoline prices soar globally. While much of East Asia has been roiled by higher oil prices, China’s rollout of green energy ...

Wael’s view In March 2012, Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi gathered a small number of journalists in Doha to deliver what he intended as reassurance. Iran was threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz. “If you believe Hormuz will be closed,” he told the group, myself included, “I will sell ...