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J. Edward Moreno4h

Novo Nordisk to acquire liver disease drugmaker Akero Therapeutics for up to $5.2 billion

Novo Nordisk announced Thursdsay that it intends to acquire Akero Therapeutics for up to $5.2 billion.

Novo said it would pay $54 per share for Akero, a 15% premium to its $46.49 closing price in Wednesday, for a total of $4.7 billion.

Akero’s efruxifermin (EFX) treats a liver disease known as MASH, or metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis. The company is currently conducting late-stage trials of the drug. Shareholders will receive another $500 million if US regulators approve EFX to treat compensated cirrhosis brought about by MASH.

Akero rose about 18% in premarket trading.

Roche announced in September that it would buy another MASH drugmaker, 89bio, for $2.4 billion. GSK in July completed a $1.2 billion deal to license Boston Pharmaceuticals’ MASH drug.

Novo, the maker of Ozempic and Wegovy, has been struggling to spark sales growth amid increased competition from other weight-loss drugs and copycat versions of its drugs. The Danish drugmaker, which is down more than 30% for the year, slipped about 1% in premarket trading.

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Part of the rally is related to the federal government’s retreat from student lending. But there’s more to it.

The S&P 500 ETF wars are over — VOO has won out over SPY

After more than three decades at the top, SPY has lost its crown in the S&P 500 Index wars. Now, VOO’s closest challenger is IVV.

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Serve Robotics spikes after announcing multiyear partnership with DoorDash for deliveries

Serve Robotics is spiking in early trading after the maker of sidewalk delivery robots and DoorDash announced a “multi-year strategic partnership to roll out autonomous robot vehicles across the US,” starting with Los Angeles.

Serve already does restaurant deliveries in Los Angeles (as well as Miami, Dallas, Chicago, and Atlanta) thanks to its partnership with Uber Eats.

DoorDash, for its part, already utilizes Coco Robotics to deliver food in Los Angeles and Chicago. Last week, it debuted its own delivery robot called “Dot,” which can operate on roads and sidewalks and is designed for suburban environments, per the company. Dot will initially be trialed in Tempe and Mesa, Arizona.

Read more: A day in the life of a Serve food-delivery robot

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Nvidia reportedly receives US government approval to ship some AI chips to the UAE

Nvidia has received the all clear from the US Commerce Department to start sending its powerful AI semiconductors to the United Arab Emirates, per Bloomberg.

These shipments are part of the “Stargate UAE” project, announced in May, which saw the UAE offer to invest over $1 trillion in the US in exchange for access to American technology — including massive amounts of Nvidia chips — to support the build-out of a cluster of data centers in the Gulf nation.

Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, as well as some senior White House officials, were frustrated by the lack of progress on this deal amid national security concerns held by others in the administration, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. The apparent internal strife underscores the difficulties involved in the pursuit of “sovereign AI” by many nations, with the US government aiming to balance the best interests of its leading technology companies with a desire to maintain a national competitive edge in the space by controlling the flow of key AI hardware.

The Stargate UAE venture — which also includes OpenAI, Oracle, Cisco, SoftBank, and G42 — came amid a spree of multiyear, multibillion-dollar pacts between US tech giants and companies or sovereign-affiliated entities in the Middle East, which were announced in May as President Donald Trump toured the region. This included Super Micro Computer’s $20 billion partnership agreement with Saudi Arabian data center firm DataVolt as well as Nvidia’s deal with the Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund to build “AI factories of the future.”

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Stocks rebound from yesterday’s dip to post fresh closing highs

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 notched new record closes.

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