Ant

The fossil extinct giant ant Titanomyrma from Wyoming that was discovered over a decade ago by SFU paleontologist Bruce Archibald and collaborators at the Denver Museum. The fossil queen ant is next to a hummingbird, showing the huge size of this titanic insect. Credit: Bruce ArchibaldSimon Fraser University scientists say their research on the latest fossil find near Princeton, B.C. is raising questions about how the dispersal of animals and plants occurred across the Northern Hemisphere some 50 million years ago,…

Alibaba Group Holding's chip unit T-Head and Alipay, the payment service under Alibaba's financial affiliate Ant Group, will release computing chips for secure payments based on the RISC-V instruction set architecture, the two entities said. The development comes as Chinese companies continue to invest heavily in chips, in the wake of US export restrictions targeting China's semiconductor sector. The chip will be embedded in hardware devices and used to enhance mobile payments, which are popular in China via the use of QR…

Photo via Marvel Stuios Marvel Studios will likely be conducting a lengthy postmortem on Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The movie is currently sitting at a miserable 48 percent on the Tomatometer and is experiencing a huge box office drop-off, leading many to wonder for the first time in years whether all’s well behind the scenes at the studio. Quantumania‘s problems are manyfold, but would it have been better if they’d included a Ninja Turtle-style giant ant voiced by Werner Herzog? Yes, yes it would. This…

China's Ant and Japan's SoftBank are likely to offload their stakes in Indian digital payments firm Paytm in the open market, after talks with Bharti Airtel founder failed, the Economic Times reported.Shareholders and investment banks representing Ant and Softbank had earlier approached Bharti Airtel founder-chairman Sunil Mittal with an offer to sell their stakes in One 97 Communications, which owns Paytm, according to the report on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.Ant is the largest shareholder in the…

China’s Ant group and Masayoshi Son-led SoftBank, two of the largest investors in Paytm’s parent One97 Communications, are looking at reducing their holding in the fintech major. Paytm founder and chief executive Vijay Shekhar Sharma, however, is not in favour of a strategic investor coming in via secondary share sale. This and more in Monday’s edition of the ETtech Morning Dispatch.Also in this letter:■ Zomato seeks higher commissions from restaurants■ India asks IMF, FSB to prepare technical paper on crypto assets■…

Ant Group Co. is considering selling some of its shares in the operator of Indian financial technology firm Paytm to keep its holding within a required threshold, according to people familiar with the matter. The Chinese fintech giant has been discussing options to reduce its stake in One 97 Communications Ltd. after its share percentage increased passively due to share buybacks, the people said, requesting not to be identified because the matter is private.Talks are preliminary and details could change depending on…

Cissy Zhou / Nikkei Asia: Sources: Chinese regulators told Tencent, Ant Group, and others not to offer public ChatGPT services, after state media criticized chatbots over misinformation — State media outlet blasts chatbot as spreading U.S. government ‘misinformation’ — HONG KONG — Regulators … Cissy Zhou / Nikkei Asia: Sources: Chinese regulators told Tencent, Ant Group, and others not to offer public ChatGPT services, after state media criticized…

We’re about to see the Quantum Realm like never before in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.Image: Marvel StudiosWhile Ant-Man is best known for being small, the latest trailer for Quantumania, the next installment of the huge, multi-generational, inter-dimensional Ant-Man and the Wasp series, reveals a world so much bigger than the previous two movies, it’s almost unfathomable.With Quantumania, director Peyton Reed is back to complete his no-longer-so-tiny trilogy. This third film picks up after the events of Avengers:…

Billionaire Jack Ma is ceding control of Ant Group Co., capping a tumultuous period for the Chinese fintech giant. Mr. Ma will no longer be the controlling person of Ant, the company said in a statement on Saturday, confirming a previous report by The Wall Street Journal. The changes are being made to reduce Ant’s reliance on the flamboyant Chinese billionaire, who co-founded Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. BABA…

Shares of listed Chinese companies that count Ant Group as a major shareholder rose after announcements that Ant founder Jack Ma is giving up control of the fintech giant following an overhaul. Hong Kong-listed shares of Ma's Alibaba jumped more than 5%. Shares of Longshine Technology Group Co Ltd, Jilin Zhengyuan, Shanghai Golden Bridge Infotech Co, Orbbec Inc and Hundsun Technologies, in which Ant owns a more than 5% stake, also rose. Ant said over the weekend that founder Jack Ma will give up control of the…