Judith Murphy

Judith Murphy is a financial journalist and market analyst covering AI, technology stocks, and emerging market trends. She has contributed to multiple financial publications and brings a data-driven approach to her coverage of the technology sector and its impact on global markets.

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Judith Murphy · Jul 1, 2026 · 2:42 AM

Former DeepMind researchers who beat professional poker players raise a $500 million Series A to trade stocks and crypto

EquiLibre Technologies, founded by the three former DeepMind researchers behind DeepStack, has raised a Series A at a $500 million valuation led by Creandum, the firm's largest single investment ever. The Prague startup is applying the same reinforcement learning architecture that beat professional poker players to trade stocks and crypto for quant hedge funds, claiming zero negative months since going live on crypto markets in 2025 and subsequently on equities. The round marks a sharp jump from

Judith Murphy · Jun 30, 2026 · 11:06 PM

How to Build a Startup Financial Model That Doesn't Lie

Startup financial models built on top-down market percentages give investors nothing to work with. Here's how to construct a bottom-up model from real unit economics that survives the questions every seed investor will ask.

Judith Murphy · Jun 30, 2026 · 10:17 PM

Schneider Electric pays $3.1 billion for Cognite and bets the industrial AI race is won at the data layer

Schneider Electric's $3.1 billion acquisition of Norwegian industrial AI firm Cognite, the largest software exit in Norway's history, gives the French automation giant ownership of the data platform layer connecting factory and energy infrastructure to AI analytics. The deal signals that industrial AI consolidation is accelerating, with incumbents buying the picks-and-shovels AI stack rather than building it, and puts Siemens and Honeywell on notice.

Judith Murphy · Jun 30, 2026 · 5:50 PM

The Bank of England is warning that AI trading agents could trigger the next market crisis

Bank of England Deputy Governor Sarah Breeden has flagged a specific systemic threat: AI agents trading autonomously could herd into identical decisions at machine speed, amplifying market stress faster than any human intervention can respond. The warning lands as the BIS separately identifies AI financing structures as a top global stability risk.

Judith Murphy · Jun 30, 2026 · 12:46 PM

Companies spending most on AI are hiring faster, not cutting headcount, a billion-job study finds

Judith Murphy · Jun 30, 2026 · 8:20 AM

Base44 built its own AI model and the vibe coding arms race just got a lot more expensive

Base44 launched Base 1, its first proprietary AI model, on June 29, becoming the first app-creation platform to own its model stack. At $150 million in annual recurring revenue and growing, the move is both a margin play and a competitive signal in an increasingly crowded vibe coding market.

Judith Murphy · Jun 30, 2026 · 3:55 AM

Kalshi is suing Illinois to decide who actually controls the prediction market industry

Kalshi filed a federal lawsuit against Illinois on June 25, challenging a new law that classifies its CFTC-regulated event contracts as sports wagers and imposes taxes and licensing fees set to take effect July 1. The case forces a long-deferred confrontation over whether federal or state law governs the prediction market industry, with Kalshi's $22 billion valuation resting on the outcome.

Judith Murphy · Jun 30, 2026 · 1:30 AM

Build a SaaS Customer Feedback Loop That Actually Moves Your Roadmap

A SaaS customer feedback loop that works isn't about collecting more feedback. It's about building a real system with triage, roadmap links, and clear ownership. Here's the operational playbook that takes feedback from inbox to shipped feature.

Judith Murphy · Jun 29, 2026 · 11:28 PM

Cursor's mobile app signals that coding has become a job you supervise, not a desk you sit at

Cursor launched an iOS app and PWA for Android today that lets developers prompt and supervise AI coding agents from their phones, the latest signal that software development is becoming an asynchronous, always-on workflow rather than a desk-bound activity. The launch, part of a broader set of announcements including a new Git platform and a 1.5-trillion-parameter in-house AI model, reflects a competitive shift in AI dev tools from features to cross-device workflow integration.

Judith Murphy · Jun 29, 2026 · 7:40 PM

Indian households are selling gold as prices fall and the math could weigh on bullion through 2026

Indian households sold nearly 50 tonnes of gold back into the market in the April-June quarter of 2026, a 43% jump year-over-year, as a 22% price correction from January's all-time high of $5,589 per ounce turns Asia's most devoted retail gold holders into net sellers. With Indian households sitting on an estimated 30,000 tonnes of gold and recycling volumes potentially reaching 200-250 tonnes this year, the structural supply pressure could complicate gold's recovery even as central banks remain

Judith Murphy · Jun 29, 2026 · 5:48 PM

Rocket Lab is buying Iridium for $8 billion to build the vertically integrated space company Starlink forced everyone to consider

Rocket Lab announced June 29 it will acquire Iridium Communications in an $8 billion cash-and-stock deal at $54 per share, creating a vertically integrated space company that designs, builds, launches, and operates its own satellite constellations. The deal gives Rocket Lab Iridium's 66-satellite LEO network, global spectrum rights, a $738.5 million U.S. Space Force contract, and a 500-plus partner IoT ecosystem. The transaction, funded partly by a $3.6 billion bridge loan from Deutsche Bank and

Judith Murphy · Jun 29, 2026 · 1:59 PM

Your SaaS Product Roadmap Is Failing Both the People Who Read It

A SaaS product roadmap that tries to serve both engineers and investors without distinguishing between them will fail at both jobs. Engineers need specificity and stability on a six-to-eight week horizon; investors need a coherent strategic argument over twelve to eighteen months. Here's how non-technical founders can build both, from a single product thesis.

Judith Murphy · Jun 29, 2026 · 1:20 PM

SpaceX drew $89 billion in demand for its debut bond offering but the stock tells a more complicated story

SpaceX's debut $25 billion bond offering drew $89 billion in institutional orders, but the deal exists because of a $20 billion bridge loan taken out to finance the xAI merger, a company that lost $6.4 billion last year. With SPCX stock down more than 30% from its post-IPO high, the record oversubscription is only half the story.

Judith Murphy · Jun 29, 2026 · 8:54 AM

South Korea bets $651 billion on AI and chips to challenge the global semiconductor order

South Korea is unveiling over $651 billion in AI and semiconductor investment today, with Samsung pledging $648 billion over a decade and SK Hynix adding its own targets. The plan, anchored by a new chip cluster in the underdeveloped southwest around Gwangju, is the largest coordinated government-industry AI commitment outside the US and China, and puts direct pressure on TSMC's hold over advanced packaging.

Judith Murphy · Jun 29, 2026 · 7:38 AM

Momenta's Hong Kong IPO prices at HK$295.60 as Chinese autonomous driving bets on software margins over profits

Momenta Global launched its Hong Kong IPO today at HK$295.60 per share, targeting $751 million as trading opens July 8. The autonomous driving software company posted 71.6% gross margins in 2025 alongside 3.46 billion yuan in losses, making its case that a software licensing model serving Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, BYD, and GM can eventually outrun its R&D burn.

Judith Murphy · Jun 29, 2026 · 12:39 AM

AI coding agents are turning code review into the next startup risk

Business Insider reported that Cursor data shows more AI-generated code reaching production without manual review over the past six months. The shift gives startups faster shipping and lower payroll pressure, but it also moves risk into review, governance and investor diligence.