VFD Group Plc has posted a strong profit surge for the first half of 2025, nearly doubling its pretax earnings from a year earlier, driven by robust investment income and disciplined portfolio management despite a significant rise in borrowing costs.

In its financial results for the six months ended June 30, 2025, the financial services and investment company reported a pretax profit of N6.03 billion, representing a 79.97 percent increase from N3.35 billion recorded in the same period of 2024. Post-tax profit rose notably to N5 billion from N2.5 billion, underlining the group’s resilience in a high-cost operating environment.

The earnings growth was anchored by a sharp jump in investment income, which climbed 49.5 percent to N37.5 billion compared to N25.1 billion in the prior year. The top contributors to this performance were interest from placements at N9.6 billion, investment income of N6.6 billion, interest from loans and advances totaling N6.2 billion, and N5.6 billion from interest on investment logistics. As a result, net investment income stood at N35.6 billion, up from N23.8 billion a year ago.

Gross earnings increased to N41.1 billion, representing a 43.99 percent year-on-year rise, while net revenue expanded by 44.74 percent to N37.9 billion. Operating profit rose sharply to N27.1 billion, a 64.15 percent increase from N16.5 billion in the first half of last year.

However, the group faced a steep rise in financing costs, with expenses linked to borrowings climbing 60.18 percent to N21.1 billion. Total operating expenses also grew, rising 11.54 percent to N10.7 billion from N9.6 billion in H1 2024. Even so, the strong revenue growth was enough to offset these pressures and deliver a healthy bottom-line expansion.

Chief Executive Officer Nonso Okpala described the half-year performance as the result of “deliberate strategic moves, disciplined portfolio management, improved group-wide efficiency, and focused capital deployment.”

Looking ahead, he reaffirmed that the group remains committed to its “North Star” strategy, which outlines a clear path toward continental expansion, deeper institutional capabilities, and securing market leadership.

The company’s performance has also been reflected on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX), where its shares have gained 63.51 percent year-to-date as of the trading day ended August 11, 2025, closing at N12.10 per share. Investor sentiment has been buoyed by the strong results, even as analysts caution that the rising finance costs could become a more pressing concern if borrowing pressures persist.

This robust showing in the first half of the year positions VFD Group for a potentially stronger full-year performance, though its ability to maintain this trajectory will depend on how effectively it manages funding costs while executing its ambitious expansion plans across the continent.

AMD CEO Lisa Su has pushed back against the tech industry’s escalating pay packages for artificial intelligence talent, arguing that while money matters, mission and purpose remain the most powerful recruitment tools.

In an interview with Wired published Tuesday, Su was asked about Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s strategy of offering lavish compensation to attract AI researchers, sometimes running into the hundreds of millions of dollars. While acknowledging the fierce competition for top minds, the 55-year-old executive dismissed the idea of billion-dollar offers ever coming from AMD.

“I think competition for talent is fierce. I am a believer, though, that money is important, but frankly, it’s not necessarily the most important thing when you’re attracting talent,” she said. “It’s important to be in the ZIP code of those numbers, but then it’s super-important to have people who really believe in the mission of what you’re trying to do.”

A High-Stakes Recruitment Battlefield

The AI talent war has intensified over the past two years, with major players like Meta, Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI offering multimillion-dollar salaries and massive signing bonuses to secure scarce expertise in machine learning, generative AI, and semiconductor design. Meta has reportedly offered some candidates $100 million to jump ship — a figure OpenAI CEO Sam Altman publicly described as “crazy” in a June podcast.

The poaching attempts have become so aggressive that some engineers report receiving job pitches within hours of announcing roles at rival companies. AI engineer Yangshun Tay, based in Singapore, told Business Insider that he received an email from Meta almost immediately after posting his OpenAI job offer on LinkedIn, asking if he would consider joining them instead.

Altman, like Su, has questioned whether such huge sums create the right workplace culture.

“The strategy of a ton of upfront guaranteed comp and that being the reason you tell someone to join, like really the degree to which they’re focusing on that and not the work and not the mission, I don’t think that’s going to set up a great culture,” he said on the June podcast.

AMD’s Position in the AI Race

Su’s stance comes at a critical time for AMD, which is racing to challenge Nvidia’s dominance in the AI chip market. The company’s latest AI accelerators, the MI300 series, are aimed squarely at powering large-scale AI models — a field that has seen explosive investment since OpenAI’s ChatGPT launched in late 2022. While AMD has historically competed with Intel and Nvidia in CPUs and GPUs, the surge in demand for AI-specific processors has pushed recruitment of elite chip engineers and AI scientists to the top of its priorities.

Culture vs. Compensation

Industry analysts say Su’s comments highlight a philosophical divide in Silicon Valley and beyond: whether the most groundbreaking work emerges from mission-driven teams or from talent lured by extraordinary pay. While there is no denying the influence of competitive salaries, Su’s emphasis on purpose mirrors a sentiment among some executives that innovation and loyalty come from those who buy into the company’s vision — not just its payroll.

With AI reshaping the semiconductor industry and demand for specialized talent outstripping supply, the question remains whether Su’s approach can hold the line against competitors willing to write nine-figure checks.

The U.S. government’s budget deficit widened by nearly 20% in July to $291 billion, even as customs duty collections surged by almost $21 billion due to President Donald Trump’s tariffs, according to Treasury Department data released Tuesday.

The July shortfall was $47 billion higher than the same month last year, driven by outlays growing far faster than receipts. Federal revenues rose 2%, or $8 billion, to $338 billion, but spending jumped 10%, or $56 billion, to $630 billion — the highest ever for the month. The Treasury noted that July had fewer business days than last year; adjusting for that difference, receipts would have been about $20 billion higher, trimming the monthly deficit to roughly $271 billion.

Customs receipts in July soared to $27.7 billion from $7.1 billion a year earlier, reflecting the higher tariff rates imposed under Trump’s trade policy. The jump, largely consistent with June’s tariff collections, marks steady growth since April. For the first 10 months of the fiscal year, customs duties totaled $135.7 billion, up $73 billion — or 116% — compared to the same period last year.

Trump has repeatedly touted the tariffs as a windfall for U.S. coffers, though the duties are paid by importers, many of whom pass some of the cost on to consumers. This dynamic has fueled concerns that the levies could feed inflation, putting Trump at odds with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell over the potential economic fallout.

Inflation data from July, however, showed a more nuanced picture. The Consumer Price Index revealed that while some tariff-sensitive categories saw price increases, the overall rise in prices was softer than anticipated. Household furnishings and supplies rose 0.7% after a 1% jump in June, apparel prices edged up just 0.1%, and core commodity prices increased by 0.2%. Prices for canned fruits and vegetables — often imported and sensitive to tariffs — were flat. Lower gasoline prices helped offset these increases in the broader index.

“The tariffs are in the numbers, but they’re certainly not jumping out hair on fire at this point,” said Jared Bernstein, a former White House economist who served under President Joe Biden, speaking on CNBC.

For the fiscal year to date, the U.S. deficit has reached $1.629 trillion, 7% higher than the same period last year. Revenues climbed 6% to a record $4.347 trillion for the 10-month period, while outlays grew 7% to $5.975 trillion, also a record.

Economists are divided over the long-term inflationary impact of the tariffs. While many see them as causing a one-time price adjustment, the broad range of goods covered under Trump’s orders has raised fears that price pressures could persist.

“Inflation is on the rise, but it didn’t increase as much as some people feared,” said Ellen Zentner, chief economic strategist for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. “In the short term, markets will likely embrace these numbers because they should allow the Fed to focus on labor-market weakness and keep a September rate cut on the table. Longer term, we likely haven’t seen the end of rising prices as tariffs continue to work their way through the economy.”

As the September Fed meeting approaches, policymakers face a delicate balancing act of weighing persistent fiscal deficits, rising but tempered inflation, and the potential economic aftershocks of a trade policy that has both bolstered federal revenue and rekindled concerns over the cost of everyday goods.

With the tariff regime still in its early stages, economists warn the impact could intensify in the coming months, particularly if more categories begin to absorb higher import costs. However, July’s CPI suggests the inflationary effect is selective for now, but the full picture may yet unfold later this year.

Peter Thiel-backed cryptocurrency exchange Bullish made a striking debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, surging more than 80% in its first day of trading and underscoring investor appetite for digital asset stocks amid a political and regulatory environment increasingly favorable to the sector.

The Cayman Islands–domiciled exchange priced its initial public offering at $37 a share, raising $1.11 billion and giving it a market capitalization of $5.4 billion at the offer price. Investor enthusiasm was evident even before trading began, as the company twice raised its target price in the days leading up to the listing.

Shares opened at $90, rocketed to $118 intraday, and settled at $68 — still 83% above the IPO price — for a fully diluted valuation reaching about $13.16 billion. In late afternoon trading, the stock was quoted at $92.60, more than 150% higher than its offer price.

“Bullish came out with an attractive initial valuation, and investors responded by aggressively bidding it up during the pre-IPO process,” said Jeff Zell, senior research analyst at IPO Boutique.

Bullish president Chris Tyrer said the offering’s reception reflected the public capital markets’ growing willingness to back crypto-focused businesses, citing the strong post-listing performance of Circle Internet, the stablecoin operator whose shares have surged since its June debut.

“We’ve gone public today, and there’s a slew of others that are going to follow us, and I think that is net beneficial, because it gives people more options in terms of how they access this asset class,” Tyrer told Reuters.

The IPO came as bitcoin prices have reached record highs, driven in part by US President Donald Trump’s reversal of the Biden-era crackdown on digital assets. Trump has positioned himself as a staunch ally of the cryptocurrency industry, with his administration advancing legislation to regulate stablecoins — most notably the Genius Act — and supporting broader corporate adoption of blockchain technologies. The White House’s pro-crypto stance, coupled with ETF inflows and growing interest from corporate treasuries, has accelerated mainstream acceptance of digital assets.

Bullish, which describes itself as an “institutionally focused” exchange, caters to quantitative traders and hedge funds rather than retail investors. The company says it handled about 35% of all bitcoin spot trading in 2024, excluding offshore platforms such as Binance. In addition to operating its trading platform, Bullish owns CoinDesk, the crypto news outlet and data provider it acquired in 2023. The exchange also maintains large reserves of bitcoin and stablecoins on its balance sheet and plans to convert a significant portion of its IPO proceeds into stablecoins — a segment of the market that has expanded rapidly since the passage of the Genius Act.

Among Bullish’s earliest backers were Thiel, US crypto billionaire Mike Novogratz, and British hedge fund manager Alan Howard, though Howard has since exited his stake. Tyrer emphasized that while Thiel provided early funding, “he is not really involved day to day” in the company’s operations.

Bullish’s debut comes amid a wave of blockbuster US IPOs in recent weeks. Circle’s shares jumped 168% on their first day, while design software company Figma soared 250%. The sharp rallies have renewed criticism from some investors, such as venture capitalist Bill Gurley, that IPO underwriters are leaving substantial money on the table by underpricing offerings.

Despite the market’s euphoria, Bullish reported a net loss of $349 million in the three months to March 31, compared with net income of $105 million in the same period last year. The exchange abandoned an earlier attempt to go public via a special purpose acquisition company in 2021 when rising US interest rates dampened equity markets.

Now, buoyed by shifting political winds and record digital asset valuations, Bullish is one of only a few crypto exchanges to achieve a US listing. Its rival, Coinbase, which caters more to retail investors, became the first crypto firm to join the S&P 500 in May. Bullish is also close to securing a coveted New York “BitLicense,” which would allow it to operate in the state under strict know-your-customer, anti-money laundering, and capital requirements.

For Tyrer, the market debut is less about chasing the highs and more about preparing for the inevitable cycles in digital assets.

“Crypto is an asset class that has cycles. Peaks are peaky and troughs are deep,” he said. “I don’t think we have yet seen anything that would lead me to believe we’re in a bubble.”