Bank of America plans to deploy $250 billion toward U.S. digital and infrastructure projects by July 2027, adding to a growing push by Wall Street’s largest banks to channel unprecedented amounts of private capital into the facilities needed to support artificial intelligence, energy production, and broader economic growth.

The bank said Wednesday that its new “Critical Infrastructure Finance Initiative” will provide lending, investments, capital markets services, banking and advisory support for projects considered important to the U.S. economy.

The initiative, launched following the country’s 250th anniversary celebrations, will focus on infrastructure that Bank of America says is essential to meeting rising demand for computing capacity, electricity and transportation while supporting long-term economic expansion.

The $250 billion target covers an 18-month period from Jan. 1, 2026, through July 4, 2027. Bank of America said the financing could support tens of thousands of jobs as new infrastructure is developed across the country.

The initiative highlights the important role major banks are seeking to play in financing the physical infrastructure behind the AI boom. The rapid construction of data centers has created enormous demand for computing facilities, power generation, electricity transmission, and energy storage, while the expansion of advanced manufacturing has increased demand for critical minerals and related infrastructure.

“Meeting America’s growing infrastructure needs requires mobilizing capital at scale across increasingly interconnected sectors,” Karen Fang, Bank of America’s global head of infrastructure and sustainable finance, said in a statement.

“Delivering these projects requires integrated financing solutions spanning corporate and project-level capital in both public and private markets.”

Bank of America’s plan will concentrate on three broad categories.

The first is digital infrastructure, including data centers and computing facilities. The second covers energy and power infrastructure, including renewable generation and energy-storage projects. The third encompasses core infrastructure such as transportation and natural gas.

The strategy comes as the U.S. faces a growing financing requirement for the physical assets needed to support the country’s technology expansion. AI companies and cloud providers are committing billions of dollars to data centers, but those facilities require substantial investments in electricity generation, transmission, and other supporting infrastructure before they can begin operating.

The scale of those requirements is reshaping the financing market.

Morgan Stanley said days ago that it plans to facilitate roughly $1.5 trillion in technology and infrastructure projects over the next decade. JPMorgan Chase launched a $1.5 trillion initiative last year to facilitate, finance and invest in industries it considers critical to U.S. national security and economic resilience, including defense, energy and advanced manufacturing.

Bank of America’s $250 billion commitment is smaller in absolute terms, but its shorter 18-month timeframe represents a substantial planned deployment of capital. The bank expects the financing to span multiple stages of infrastructure development.

Fang said many projects require significant capital to build facilities before they begin generating revenue.

Construction loans for U.S. infrastructure projects typically run for five to seven years, she said. Once projects are completed and operational, they can be refinanced through longer-term debt with maturities of 10, 15 or 20 years. That financing structure could allow banks to participate throughout the infrastructure lifecycle, from initial construction through refinancing after projects become operational.

Fang also left open the possibility that Bank of America’s financing could exceed the $250 billion target after July 2027.

“If we all do our job right, we should be deploying more capital,” she said when asked whether the bank could increase its deployment beyond the initial period.

The views appear to emanate from how banks view infrastructure finance. The surge in AI investment is creating demand not only for chips and software but also for physical assets that require large amounts of capital and years to build.

Data centers, for example, require land, buildings, specialized computing equipment and reliable power supplies. As electricity demand rises, developers also need new generation capacity, transmission infrastructure and storage systems. These interconnected requirements create opportunities for financial institutions capable of arranging debt, equity and capital-markets financing across multiple parts of a project.

Bank of America expects that spending on infrastructure will have effects beyond individual projects, with construction activity supporting employment while completed infrastructure improves productive capacity.

“Infrastructure spending will lead to economic growth and prosperity,” Fang said.

The latest commitments from Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase show that Wall Street is positioning itself at the center of what could become one of the largest infrastructure investment cycles in decades.

The competition among banks also reveals the changing economics of the AI boom. The technology industry’s expansion increasingly depends on access to physical infrastructure, making financing capacity a critical component of the race to build AI systems and the energy networks required to operate them.

New York City lawmakers are escalating scrutiny of the rapidly expanding prediction market industry, opening an investigation into whether platforms including Polymarket, Kalshi, Coinbase and Gemini Titan have used deceptive or predatory marketing tactics to encourage consumers to wager on event contracts.

The New York City Council is examining allegations of “false, deceptive, unconscionable, and objectionable marketing practices” by prediction market platforms, the office of Council Speaker Julie Menin said Wednesday.

In letters sent to the four companies, Menin said the Council had been examining the platforms’ marketing practices for several months and intends to determine whether existing consumer protection measures are sufficient to address the industry’s growth.

“Prediction markets aggressively entice consumers to bet and wager on sports, politics, culture, weather, and pretty much anything,” Menin said. “I intend to harness the full power of the Council to protect New Yorkers from deceptive and predatory marketing practices by prediction market platforms.”

The inquiry adds a new layer to an already intensifying regulatory battle surrounding prediction markets in New York. While state authorities are separately challenging the legality of event contracts offered by several of the companies, the City Council’s investigation is focused specifically on how the platforms market their products to consumers.

Menin’s letters cited a Wall Street Journal investigation into Polymarket’s marketing campaigns. The Journal reported in June that some content creators working with the platform appeared to be presented as successful traders even though they were not using their own money to place the bets.

The report prompted scrutiny from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal regulator that oversees U.S. derivatives markets and has jurisdiction over federally regulated prediction contracts.

Polymarket has since begun changing aspects of its marketing operation. CNBC reported Tuesday that the company had introduced updated and streamlined guidelines governing its employees and the content creators with whom it works.

The City Council is now examining whether similar practices exist across the broader prediction market industry rather than treating the allegations involving Polymarket as an isolated case.

A memo attached to Menin’s letters said the allegations point to an urgent need to determine whether new legislation or other policy measures are required. The Council also plans to hold a hearing as part of the investigation. The inquiry does not address a separate and potentially more consequential question: whether prediction markets themselves constitute illegal gambling under New York law.

That issue is already being litigated at the state level.

New York state is suing Kalshi, Coinbase and Gemini, arguing that the companies are operating illegal gambling businesses. The platforms dispute that characterization, maintaining that their event contracts are financial products offered through federally regulated exchanges and therefore fall under federal rather than state oversight.

Polymarket is not currently a defendant in that litigation.

The distinction between the city investigation and the state lawsuits could become important for the industry. The Council is examining consumer-facing conduct, including advertising and promotional practices, while the state litigation centers on the legal classification of prediction markets and the authority of federal and state regulators over them.

Prediction markets have expanded rapidly by allowing users to buy and sell contracts tied to the outcomes of events ranging from elections and sporting contests to economic indicators and weather. Their growing popularity has attracted both financial-market participants and retail users, while also increasing scrutiny over whether the products resemble conventional financial derivatives, sports betting, or a hybrid of the two.

Marketing has consequently become a central regulatory concern. As platforms compete for users, promotions and partnerships with online creators can bring prediction markets to audiences that may not traditionally view themselves as participants in financial markets or betting activities.

The Council’s investigation could therefore have implications beyond the four companies named in the letters. If lawmakers conclude that existing advertising rules do not adequately cover prediction markets, the city could consider additional consumer-protection measures governing how platforms promote contracts, disclose risks and portray potential returns.

The companies also have a significant local presence. Kalshi, Polymarket and Gemini are headquartered in New York City. Coinbase is headquartered in Texas but said earlier this year that it planned to expand its workforce in New York to more than 1,000 employees.

Polymarket said it welcomed engagement with the Council.

“We look forward to engaging with The New York City Council on this matter,” a company spokesperson said.

A Coinbase spokesperson said the exchange offers customers access to federally regulated prediction markets overseen by the CFTC and “fully complies with applicable laws.”

The investigation comes as prediction markets face a broader test over where financial-market regulation ends and gambling and consumer-protection law begins. The outcome of New York’s legal and regulatory scrutiny could help shape how these platforms operate in one of the largest U.S. consumer markets, particularly as their products become more mainstream and their marketing reaches a wider audience.

Nigerian-born, UAE-headquartered mobility company Moove has joined Africa’s growing unicorn club after securing a $250 million Series C round that valued the company at $2.1 billion.

The funding round was led by Mubadala and co-led by Woven Capital and Ion Pacific, marking a significant increase from Moove’s last disclosed valuation of $750 million in 2024.

According to a report by Africa: The Big Deal, the latest valuation places Moove among Africa’s three most valuable private technology companies with recently disclosed valuations, behind fintech giants Flutterwave, valued at $3.2 billion, and OPay, valued at $3.1 billion.

The $250 million Series C is the second-largest equity funding round secured by an African startup in 2026 so far, trailing only Spiro’s $270 million raise announced in June. Together, the two rounds account for approximately 44% of all equity funding raised by African startups in 2026 as of August 10.

The size of Moove’s latest round also highlights the scarcity of major funding deals on the continent. Before Spiro and Moove, the last African startup to secure an equity round of this scale was Tyme, which raised $250 million in its Series D in December 2024.

With the latest funding, Moove’s total capital raised has reached roughly $700 million, comprising about $500 million in equity and more than $180 million in debt. Only MNT-Halan, with approximately $1.2 billion, and Sun King, with around $900 million, have raised more in combined equity and debt.

The mobility company has also emerged as one of the fastest African startups to reach unicorn status, achieving the milestone in just 6 years. Although the creation of new African unicorns remains relatively rare, Moove’s latest milestone demonstrates that the continent can still produce large-scale technology companies when strong growth, international expansion and substantial strategic investment converge.

Moove now joins a growing group of African-founded technology companies that have crossed the $1 billion valuation threshold. The group includes Flutterwave, OPay, Interswitch, Moniepoint, Wave, Chipper Cash, Andela, MNT-Halan, Tyme/TymeBank.

The company’s entry is particularly notable because it expands the African unicorn story beyond its heavy concentration in fintech. While payments, banking and financial services have produced most of the continent’s billion-dollar startups, Moove has demonstrated that mobility, transportation and technology infrastructure can also generate companies at global scale.

Founded in 2020, Moove powers the capital, infrastructure and city-level systems that underpin leading mobility platforms across driver-led and autonomous transportation.

The company finances and owns mobility assets across global markets, powering the world’s leading platforms to scale efficiently and reliably. Also, it runs city-level operations, platform integrations and workflows that keep fleets available, utilised and service-ready around the clock.

Notably, Moove operates the world’s largest manned ride-hail fleet, with more than 39,000 vehicles across 29 cities. Having achieved EBITDA break-even in September 2024 and on course for approximately $400 million in annual recurring revenue this calendar year, Moove has grown 70× since 2020 through relentless focus, disciplined execution, and global ambition.

Building on this foundation, Moove is now creating the world’s largest physical AI asset manager the Hyperscaler for the Autonomous Revolution developing the infrastructure layer that will enable the global scale-up of Level 4 autonomy.

Also, it is launching its Series C to fund this next phase of growth, expanding globally and building the infrastructure layer to enable the scale-up of Level 4 autonomy. The company applies the same infrastructure platform across today’s ride-hail fleets and the next generation of autonomous mobility.

Its rapid growth reflects expansion across international markets and its focus on providing vehicle financing and mobility solutions to drivers.

Moove’s rise represents not only a major milestone for the company but also another signal of the potential for African-founded startups to attract significant global capital and compete at the highest levels of the international technology market.