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沃尔玛悄然进军元宇宙
沃尔玛似乎正在尝试挺进元宇宙，并计划创建自己的加密货币和非同质化代币（NFT）。
这家大型零售商上月底申请了几个新商标，表明其有意制造和销售虚拟商品，包括电子产品、家居装饰品、玩具、体育用品和个人护理产品。在另一份文件中，该公司表示将向用户提供虚拟货币以及非同质化代币。
“他们的行动非常积极，”对于沃尔玛申请的新商标，商标律师乔什·格本评论道。“这表明沃尔玛幕后正在进行很多计划，关于他们将如何应对加密货币，如何应对即将到来的元宇宙和虚拟世界时代。”
Walmart appears to be venturing into the metaverse with plans to create its own cryptocurrency and collection of nonfungible tokens, or NFTs.
The big-box retailer filed several new trademarks late last month that indicate its intent to make and sell virtual goods, including electronics, home decorations, toys, sporting goods and personal care products. In a separate filing, the company said it would offer users a virtual currency, as well as NFTs.
“They’re super intense,” said Josh Gerben, a trademark attorney. “There’s a lot of language in these, which shows that there’s a lot of planning going on behind the scenes about how they’re going to address cryptocurrency, how they’re going to address the metaverse and the virtual world that appears to be coming or that’s already here.”
（来源：CNBC）
欧洲电动汽车销量首次超过柴油车
初步估计显示，2021年12 月欧洲电动汽车的销量首次超过柴油车型。与重度依赖燃油的汽车相比，司机继续选择购买有补贴的无排放汽车，特别是自从2015年大众的漏油事件造成大众负面影响以后。
根据独立汽车分析师马蒂亚斯·施密特为英国《金融时报》整理的数据，在包括英国在内的 18 个欧洲市场销售的新车中，超过五分之一完全由电池供电，而包括柴油混合动力车在内的柴油车占比不到销售额的 19%。
得益于德国和其他地方的慷慨政府补贴，以及 2020 年出台的严格规定，迫使欧盟制造商销售更多低排放汽车，电动汽车销量一直在稳步上升。这一趋势在去年最后一个季度加速，因为特斯拉通过交付创纪录的 309,000 辆电动汽车证明比竞争对手更能适应半导体供应链的短缺瓶颈。
Sales of electric cars in Europe overtook diesel models for the first time in December, preliminary estimates have shown, as drivers continued to choose subsidised emissions-free vehicles over those reliant on a fuel that was tarnished by the 2015 Volkswagen emissions scandal.
More than a fifth of new cars sold across 18 European markets, including the UK, were powered exclusively by batteries, according to data compiled for the Financial Times by independent auto analyst Matthias Schmidt, while diesel cars, including diesel hybrids, accounted for less than 19 per cent of sales.
Thanks to generous government subsidies in Germany and elsewhere, as well as strict regulations introduced in 2020 that force EU manufacturers to sell more low-emissions vehicles, electric sales have been rising steadily.
The trend accelerated in the final quarter last year, as Tesla proved to be better able than rivals to adapt to bottlenecks in semiconductor supply chains by delivering a record 309,000 electric cars.
（来源：ft）
软银投资人工智能初创公司Qraft
软银集团向 Qraft Technologies Inc. 投资 1.46 亿美元，以获得资金管理的人工智能工具，并帮助这家初创公司的发展。Qraft 为亚洲的银行和保险公司管理着 17 亿美元的资产，并通过其在美国上市的交易所交易基金系列建立了一个软件平台，可以挖掘市场数据以寻找有前途的股票。
资产管理公司曾经对人工智能的价值持怀疑态度，并十分关注他们的员工对这些程序将取代人工选股的担忧。但是现在资产管理公司终于开始寻求数据分析工具，以帮助他们改善人工选股长期的低迷表现，并以此证明他们向投资者收取的手续费是合理的。
行业的觉醒引发了一场军备竞赛，资产管理公司正大量聘请程序员，以开发数据分析工具并以此发现隐藏在数据中的市场信号。这些信号可能转瞬即逝，在其他投资者发现相同趋势之前，公司只需几个月的时间就能获得良好的回报。然而，此类程序员在从制造业到金融的各个行业都供不应求，聘请技术专家团队的成本可能令人望而却步。
“除了交易之外，资产管理可能是采用人工智能最慢的行业，”Qraft的美国CEO内斯特先生表示。“许多公司现在正开始考虑运用人工智能工具，但是大多数中小型公司没有这样的能力能力，这对我们来说是一个机会。”
SoftBank Group Corp is investing $146 million in Qraft Technologies Inc. to gain access to the money manager’s artificial-intelligence tools and help seed the startup’s growth.
Qraft, which manages $1.7 billion for Asian banks and insurance companies and through its lineup of U.S.-listed exchange-traded funds, built a software platform that mines market data for promising stocks.
Asset managers, once skeptical of the value of AI and mindful of their staffs’ concerns that the programs would replace human stock- and bond-pickers, are now looking to add data-analysis tools that can help them combat chronic underperformance and justify the fees they charge investors.
The industry’s awakening has triggered an arms race to hire the programmers who can develop those tools and spot the market signals hidden in the data. Those signals can be fleeting, giving firms as little as a few months of good returns before other investors spot the same trend. And the costs of hiring teams of technologists, in demand from every industry ranging from manufacturing to finance, can be prohibitive.
“Asset management has probably been the slowest adopter to AI, outside of trading,” Mr. Nestor said. “Many firms are now going through the process of saying ‘we need to be thinking about it.’ Most midsized and smaller firms don’t have the capabilities. That’s an opportunity for us.”
（来源：The Wall Street Journal）
