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SoftBank's new growth driver is on its way.

Good morning.

It will come as a surprise to precisely nobody that SoftBank is running headlong into the bubbly AI market once again with its sizeable cheque book.

This time the Japanese conglomerate is leading a US$280 million funding round for Mapbox, the technology that sits behind the in-car navigation found in Toyota, BMW and other vehicles, ingesting new data autonomously.

The new wave of dealmaking is all part of the plan for CEO Masayoshi Son who is putting together an AI “counteroffensive” and looking to list a string of tech companies.

*Stock data as of the market close. Commodities and crypto data in USD.

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MARKET MOVERS

Market News: It’s been a tough couple of weeks for Square.

The payments company, owned by Block, was hit with a two-day outage last week that left its business customers unable to process payments or access their accounts.

Now the Square CEO Alyssa Henry is walking, leaving the company after nine years – with founder Jack Dorsey to step in and take the reins. The ASX-listed CDI, SQ2, is down 13% since the saga began.

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THE QUICK SYNC

  • Huawei appears to be beating US sanctions, raising a new threat to Apple in China. (CNBC)

  • The DOJ probe into Elon Musk stretches back years and beyond Tesla. (WSJ)

  • Amid doubts over its TV and film divisions, Disney will invest a further US$60 billion into its theme parks. (New York Times)

  • In a wild first day of trading, Instacart has closed 12% higher to raise US$660 million. (Bloomberg)

TRADING FLOOR

M&A:

  • Nick Bolton is intensifying his efforts against Magellan Financial's Global Fund, urging unitholders to compel the company to negotiate.(AFR)

  • Newmont has obtained FIRB approval for its acquisition of the gold miner Newcrest. (Capital Brief)

  • Judo Bank's undervalued shares could make it a potential acquisition target. (The Australian)

  • Guardian Early Learning and Affinity Education are seeking substantial prices for their enterprises. (The Australian)

  • Viridios' $55m capital raise is yielding results, as the firm acquires a majority share in Pangolin Associates. (AFR)

  • Pact Group brings in Flagstaff Partners and Herbert Smith Freehills to assess whether the offer from its major shareholder is beneficial for other investors. (The Australian)

Capital Markets:

  • Wiggins Island Coal Export Terminal (WICET) has initiated discussions for the early refinancing of approximately $2bn in debt. (Capital Brief)

  • BGH Capital plans to assess the resilience of debt capital markets by launching a $600m refinancing initiative for Village Roadshow. (AFR)

VC:

  • Tikpay has raised a $1.6m pre-Seed round led by AfterWork Ventures and Black Nova VC. (Startup Daily | Smart Company)

  • Breakthrough Victoria has backed five Victorian universities to help them bring research to market in a deal worth $87m. (Startup Daily)

Others:

  • New Hope's shares have surged following an 11% increase in profit to $1.09bn for the year. (Capital Brief)

  • AMP is exploring using AI to provide investment advice. (Capital Brief)

  • ESR Australia and Lendlease have increased their presence in the thriving industrial property market, particularly targeting the western regions of Sydney. (SMH)

  • Wide Open Agriculture has secured two distribution agreements in the US potentially enabling the company to establish a market presence for its flagship plant-based protein product, Buntine Protein. (BNA)

  • Cyclion is embarking on a $1.5m crowdfunding initiative aimed at transforming soft plastic waste into energy. (BNA)

  • Faye Longmuir, with two decades of experience as a private banker at Macquarie and a role in founding Ord Minnett's Perth office in 2020, departed the company on Monday. (AFR)

THE WATERCOOLER