Fundamental Equities - Research Analyst, Income & Value Investment Team

BlackRock has launched the iShares Future Robotics and Related Technologies Active ETF (RBTX), expanded its model portfolio presence through 55ip's unified managed account (UMA) platform, and seen its subsidiary Preqin forecast sizeable growth in global private capital assets under management by 2031. The moves show BlackRock leaning into alternatives, technology, and tax-aware products to diversify its fee base. Advisors can use RBTX within UMA structures to express views on automation and AI. Analysts expect BlackRock to reach $38.3 billion in revenue and $10.7 billion in earnings by 2029, up from $6.9 billion in earnings today. That implies 10.3% yearly revenue growth. The main risk is that cooling client flows or fee pressure could offset gains in these areas.

AMD is putting $1 billion into Meta's own stock sale. Nvidia is putting in $3 billion of its own alongside AMD's stake, as Meta runs a roughly $95 billion equity raise to fund AI capex guided as high as $145 billion for 2026. One billion dollars puts AMD on the other side of its Meta relationship. The chipmaker, already selling Meta chips, is buying a slice of the stock sale that funds Meta's AI spending, a move that sent AMD shares up more than 5% in a single session. $1 billion. That's what Advanced Micro Devices said on October 27 it would invest in Meta Platforms' latest equity offering, a raise Meta is running at roughly $95 billion to bankroll its AI infrastructure buildout. Nvidia is putting in $3 billion of its own, according to CNBC. AMD shares closed up 5.45% at $560.26 on the news, a notable jump for a stock already trading near record territory. Here's what makes this different from the usual AI-capex story. Normally the arrow points one way: a cloud giant like Meta writes a cheque to a chipmaker, the chipmaker books the revenue, and investors cheer. This time AMD is also writing a cheque back into Meta. It is buying into the same stock offering that will help pay for the servers Meta is going to fill with AMD's own chips. AMD's fortunes are now tied not just to shipping Instinct GPUs, but to whether Meta's AI bet pays off well enough to justify the capital it's raising to fund it. It's the kind of financial loop that's become familiar in this AI cycle, just run through a different pair of companies. Nvidia and CoreWeave have spent two years tangled in a similar arrangement: Nvidia backs the cloud provider that buys its GPUs, and critics have called it circular financing dressed up as demand. Now AMD and Nvidia have both bought into Meta's capital raise on the same day. That pushes the same dynamic one level up the stack. Instead of a chipmaker propping up a smaller cloud customer, two of the industry's biggest chip suppliers are propping up one of their largest buyers - directly, on its balance sheet. Meta has guided to 2026 capital expenditures as high as $145 billion, a figure that keeps climbing as Mark Zuckerberg chases parity with OpenAI, Google and Anthropic in frontier AI. Raising $95 billion through an equity sale is Meta's way of funding that spending without blowing a hole in free cash flow. For AMD, a $1 billion stake is a rounding error against that total. But it buys something harder to put a price on: a direct financial interest in Meta actually following through on its infrastructure plans. Those are the plans that are supposed to fill AMD's order book for years. BlackRock is selling more than $12 billion in bonds to finance a Meta data center campus in El Paso, Texas, through Project Sopaipilla Holdings, a venture where BlackRock holds an 80% stake. The deal is the latest piece of BlackRock's broader push into AI infrastructure financing, which also includes a roughly $40 billion consortium deal for... - blackrock funds meta ai data center - meta texas data center financing deal That book is already substantial. Earlier this year AMD and Meta struck an expanded deal covering roughly 6 gigawatts of AMD Instinct GPUs. The Wall Street Journal reported the commitment could be worth more than $100 billion over its life. As part of that arrangement, AMD issued Meta a performance-based warrant for up to 160 million AMD shares. It vests as Meta hits shipment milestones on AMD's MI450-based Instinct GPUs and sixth-generation EPYC CPUs, codenamed Venice. The first AMD Helios rack-scale systems built for that rollout are now installed at Meta and undergoing testing, according to Digitimes. Shipments are expected to ramp in the back half of 2026. So the warrant and the new $1 billion stake point in opposite directions on the same relationship. Meta can end up owning a chunk of AMD if the GPU deployment goes well. AMD now owns a chunk of Meta's capital raise regardless. Two companies that used to just invoice each other are now each other's shareholders. That's a strange place for a buyer-supplier relationship to land. Frankly, the stock move says more about sentiment than fundamentals. A billion dollars doesn't change AMD's balance sheet in a way that justifies a 5% rally on its own. What it signals is conviction. Wall Street reads this as AMD doubling down on its belief that Meta's AI spending is real and durable, not a bubble that unwinds the moment capex guidance gets trimmed. Whether that conviction is rewarded depends on something neither company controls. Meta is building AI products on top of all that Instinct silicon, from ad-ranking models to its push into AI agents. Will they generate enough revenue to make a $145 billion spending year look smart rather than reckless? For now, the two companies have simply made each other's stock price part of each other's business plan. That's a bigger commitment than a supply contract. And it's far harder to unwind if the AI spending cycle turns. Join the discussion. No replies yet. Start the discussion. Ron Patel tracks and reports on the fast-moving world of agentic platforms and artificial intelligence for SF. He covers how AI systems and autonomous agents are changing the way businesses build and operate, following the tools and platforms reshaping the space. He also keeps an eye on crypto and blockchain, covering the market moves and projects worth watching.

Jiko and BlackRock Cachematrix introduce direct t-bill ownership. Collaboration will bring investors direct t-bill access, giving treasurers safety, liquidity, and yield simultaneously. October 28, 2026 09:00 ET | Source: Jiko SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 28, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - Jiko is bringing access to its 24/7 liquid T-bill offering to BlackRock Cachematrix, one of the world's leading cash management portals, used by institutional investors across 7,000 accounts to manage and allocate operating and reserve cash. BlackRock Cachematrix users will have the ability to access the Jiko platform and earn the "risk-free" rate in real time with direct U.S. Treasury bill ownership, giving them a way to hold cash that is liquid and earning yield at the same time, with individual ownership easily available from the workflow they already use. "Treasurers have always had to trade off safety, liquidity, and yield when managing cash, and today's markets are making that trade-off harder to accept," said Stephane Lintner, CEO of Jiko. "There's no reason operational cash and excess cash should be treated differently. With Jiko, every dollar is safe, liquid, and earning yield at once. Now, Cachematrix clients will access Jiko from the same platform they already use to manage their cash every day." Jiko will be one of several offerings within the BlackRock ecosystem, as Cachematrix expands its marketplace in response to client demand for low-risk, short-term investments. "BlackRock Cachematrix has always been about giving institutional cash managers the best possible toolkit for short-term liquidity," said Jon Steel, Head of Global Product and Platform, BlackRock Cash Management. "Offering connection to Jiko reflects what we're hearing from clients: they want direct access to additional investment choices, with the transparency and simplicity that direct T-bill ownership provides." A New Option for Operating Short-Term Liquidity Direct T-bill ownership has always required real operational lift: manually selecting maturities, rolling positions, and managing reinvestment cycles. Jiko automates holding cash in T-bills, resolving those traditional frictions. Through BlackRock Cachematrix, users will quickly connect to Jiko and purchase T-bills directly. Jiko's proprietary technology auto-selects, auto-rolls, and continuously reinvests, keeping cash fully invested in T-bills at all times at the "risk-free" rate, with instant 24/7 payment and settlement capabilities. No manual sweeps, reinvestment lag, or fund intermediary required. The demand is real, with 89% of corporate treasurers finding it valuable to hold cash directly in U.S. Treasury bills, while maintaining immediate liquidity for payments. Direct T-bill ownership gives investors full exposure to one of the safest assets available - with complete transparency, constant liquidity, and a yield that reflects the "risk-free" rate. ABOUT JIKO Jiko keeps client cash invested in T-bills, in the client's name, earning the "risk-free" rate, with no lending, no leverage, and no commingled exposure. Payments settle on JikoNet 24/7 at scale, with no balance sheet risk. Jiko clients include institutions that move at the speed of modern markets - corporates, fintechs, tech, and crypto companies - giving them and their counterparts a safer, yield-generating alternative for managing cash. Jiko holds a national bank charter and a FINRA broker-dealer license. To learn more, visit www.jiko.com. INVESTMENTS IN T-BILLS: NOT FDIC INSURED - NO BANK GUARANTEE - MAY LOSE VALUE All U.S. Treasury investments and investment advisory services provided by Jiko Securities, Inc., a registered broker-dealer, member FINRA and SIPC. Securities in your account are protected up to $500,000. For details, please see www.sipc.org. Banking services provided by Jiko Bank, a division of Mid-Central National Bank. Jiko Group, Inc. and its affiliates do not provide legal, tax, or accounting advice. You should consult your legal and/or tax advisors before making any financial decisions. This material is not intended as a recommendation, offer, or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any security or investment strategy.