Economy

World's richest
Walmart trio among world's ten richest - Nvidia CEO teases

For the first time, Walmart's owner family has three members on the list of the world's ten richest people. This is shown by Bloomberg's billionaire index, notes TT.

Siblings Jim, Rob and Alice Walton hold the eighth, ninth and tenth places and are estimated to be worth $154-158 billion each, after the retail giant's shares have surged 20.2 percent this year to Friday's fresh all-time high.

Meanwhile, Nvidia founder Jensen Huang has slipped out of the top ten list after the chip giant's shares have fallen a couple of percent this year.

Volkswagen crisis
Data: VW wants to cut a fifth of costs - may close factories

Volkswagen plans to cut its costs by 20 percent by 2028, reports German Manager Magazin.

The newspaper refers to a “massive” savings program that was presented at a closed meeting with the company’s top executives in Berlin in mid-January. The measures are expected to affect all brands. Factory closures may also be considered.

Exactly where the savings will be made and how cooperation between the brands will be improved is still unclear, the newspaper writes.

Space X is expected to give small savers an unusually large allocation

SpaceX is expected to give small savers a larger allocation than the usual 10-15 percent at its IPO, investment bankers tell The Information. Elon Musk’s space company aims to raise around $50 billion – twice as much as the largest IPO to date – which requires broader investor participation.

– In upcoming megacap IPOs, a broader distribution will be needed, Gregor Feige at UBS tells The Information.

At the same time, OpenAI and Anthropic are also approaching the stock market and could compete for capital. Experience from the crypto exchanges Gemini and Bullish shows that small savers risk getting burned by unusually large allocations after shares have plummeted more than 50 percent from their introductory price. 

Swedish jobs
The forecast: 48,000 new jobs from defense investments

If Sweden increases defense spending to the equivalent of 3.5 percent of GDP, it could lead to up to 48,000 new jobs in Swedish business. At the same time, companies' annual revenues could increase by around SEK 110 billion per year until 2035. This is predicted by consulting giant EY.

According to the analysis, a significant part of the revenue increase will occur in sectors outside the direct defense industry, such as energy and supplies or the technology and construction sector.

In this case, it is important to ensure the supply of skills, states Fredrik Sjöström, head of national security and defense at EY Sweden.

“In order for defense investments to have full impact, both the state and the business community need to work more long-term to secure access to the right expertise,” he says in a comment on the analysis.