This is what the Flux.
I'm bred and I'm justin and it's Friday, the nineteenth of July.
Josie Boy, it's fair to say share markets are in their high confidence era. The ASX two hundred hit a new world record on Wednesday, cracking the eight thousand mark for the first time. And Josey Boy, that's after tech, financial services and property industries saw a big jarm. Not to mention, almost everyone reckons the US will cut interest rates in September.
Not the same for Australia though, be Man, Blucks maam. We can give you a very good start to the weekend with our weekly quiz a quick Sticks. We're giving a fifty bucks to the person who get three questions correct in the Flux app today, So make sure you download the app and had your notifications turned.
On three riveting stories today, Josy boy, let's do it for our first An Australian viral beauty brand, Coco and Eve, has raised one hundred million dollars from a US private equity business, which will now take a majority steak in the company.
Be Man, I've got to be honest, I haven't heard of this one, So tell me what's happening here.
Well. Coco and Eve is a beauty brand that was founded in Melbourne. We're talking hair products, self tanning products, shampoos as well. But dose Boy, We're not talking your run of the mill eight dollars a bottle dove.
Shampoos ohn O my brand. We're talking shampoos selling for forty dollars a pop. Liquid gold some call it now.
Over the past six years, Coco and Eve has managed to grow their brand rapidly, mainly through TikTok and instat.
We're talking millions of followers and thousands of TikTok users doing product reviews of the brand. And now b Man, a Texan private equity company called Gauge Capital, has invested one hundred million baccaronis in Coco and E.
And while we don't know the valuation, we do know that they took a majority steak in Coco.
And E and be Man. This major investment continues a range of Australian beauty brand being recognized on the global stage.
So what's the key learning here?
Move over Korea and Japan. Australia has become the new beauty industry hotspot for years.
K beauty in Korea or Jay Beauty in Japan. They've been the leaders in the skincare world, but Australian beauty has become the next in line. Can everyone please get around a beauty the man.
Australian beauty products supposedly lean into that natural and sunkissed look and they don't mind dropping words like Bondi in their name either, and it's.
Fair to say it's working. Juzzy boy yep.
Over the past couple of years, we've seen Bondai sand salted Japan's Cow Corporation for four hundred and fifty mil Esop was acquired by Laourel for three point seven billion, and now co Co and Eve drop one hundred million dollar investment as well.
The global beauty industry is expected to reach five hundred and eighty billion dollars by twenty twenty seven.
So there might be a few other Ossi beauty brands to make big announcements in the future as well.
For our second story, Google is looking to make its biggest acquisition ever after it announced late stage talks to acquire a cybersecurity company for twenty three billion US dollars.
That's like acquiring quantas and Seek and JB, Highlight and Medibank in one foul swoop. So tell me all about this one.
Well, we know Google and its parent company, Alphabet is an absolute behemoth, valued it over two point twenty five trillion US dollars.
Yep, between its Google Search, It's Android operating system, Gmail, g Drive, YouTube, Google Maps, it pretty much controls our deck Lives.
And now Alphabet, which is Google's parent company, has announced it is in late stage talks to acquire a company named Wiz for a casual twenty three billion US dollars.
Okay, so who is this Wiz you speak about?
Well, Jusi boy, it's an Israeli cybersecurity company that's only been around for just over four years.
But it's fair to say it's made a serious impact in the cybersecurity space so far. It generated one hundred million dollars in annual occurring revenue in twenty twenty two.
Then three hundred and fifty million dollars in annual occurring revenue by twenty twenty four, and be man.
This acquisition of Wiz would help Google grow its cloud business and take some pressure offers advertising business. So what is the key learning here?
Cutting edge technologies often come at the steepest of costs.
You say, be man. Most of the hot new generative tools are run on the cloud.
And that means many corporate clients looking to use AI are panicking about the security in the sky.
Could legal documents and sales deals be lead for everyone to see? So Google's acquisition of wiz would become a strong selling point for Google in its strategy to become a cloud leader. Because let's be honest. Right now, Google Cloud plays third fiddle in the cloud computing.
Space, behind both Amazon with thirty one percent of the market and.
Then Microsoft with twenty five percent of the market.
Google Cloud trailing all the way behind it just eleven percent market share.
And the global cloud infrastructure market is currently generating more than three hundred billion dollars in revenue peranna.
And growing twenty one percent per year. Might I add, so.
It's fair to say it is a space that Google wants to own.
For our third and final story, in Vidia and other AI chip makers have seen their share prices plummet after Donald Trump's latest comments on the chip industry in Taiwan.
Tell you, right, if anyone's going to shake the stock market, you can bet it'll be Donald Trump, So what is the story here?
In Vidia is the computer chip designing company that was founded in nineteen ninety three and has recently become the backbone of the AI industry.
In the last twelve months, in Video share price has jumped almost one hundred and fifty.
And for a while it held the title of the world's most valuable company, all thanks to this AI boom.
But now be Man in Video and other AI chip makers in Taiwan have seen the share prices drop between three and eleven percent.
Now you pretty clued in. What's the reason here?
Well, Donald Trump made comments about Taiwan, one of the world's biggest AI chip exporters.
And what were these comments?
Juzzy boy, he said, Taiwan took our chip business from US. I mean, how stupid are we?
Next minute, in Vidia's share price drops six point six percent, wiping over two hundred billion US dollars off its market cap.
And be men As unbeatable as the AI industry looks, it turns out just a couple of choice words from Trump sends the whole industry into a frenzy crazy So what is the key learning here? No industry is bulletproof when it interacts with politics.
We know, Juzzy Boy, that comments by politicians have the power to shift market expectations and influence industries.
And we know as well that investors react very quickly to how they think political decisions might impact their investments.
And also fair to say that reaction are heightened in the lead up to an election.
Yeah, and given AI such a hot topic right now, it's also one of the most exposed industries when it comes to geopolitical conflicts.
And Johnson boyit this isn't the first time Old Trumpell Stiltskin has impacted the share market with his comments. Yep.
According to research by Northeastern University, when Trump is tweeted about a company, there's a short term increase in trading volume for that company stock.
Whether that be a selloff or a doubling down on that investment.
But thankfully for companies like in video, this time, companies generally see volumes and stock prices return to their pre Trump tweet levels. Fox Sam, if you want to start your weekend on a high with fifty bucks in your front pocket, there is one simple thing to do. Make sure you've downloaded the Flux app and you've got your notifications turned on to win quick six today.
Thanks for listening, and we'll see you on Monday.