Ares Fundraising Defies Private Credit Jitters

Ares, a leading global alternative investment manager, reported Q1 fundraising of around $30bn, a positive indication of investor appetite for private credit (a multi-trillion dollar sector).  

Ares' AuM is $644bn. It seeks to surpass $750bn by 2028. 

In February, Ares acquired systematic fixed-income manager BlueCove, creating a $5.5bn asset boost to the business.

Ares only earns fees on deployed capital - if capital is uninvested no fees are earned. $32bn of capital was deployed in Q1 increasing fee income. Fee income is up 26% from a year ago.

China Blocks $2bn Purchase of Manus by Meta

Manus is an agentic AI startup. Meta wanted to acquire Manus to leapfrog ahead in AI. Although Manus was incorporated in Singapore, its owners hail from China.

UK Banks to be Briefed on Anthropic's Mythos Cyberthreat

The Bank of England, UK National Cyber Security Centre, HM Treasury and FCA will brief banks, insurers and exchanges in the UK on the cyber implications of Anthropic's new (non-publicly released) AI model, Mythos, which was revealed in April.  

The briefing will include CEOs of the UK's eight largest banks, two insurers and four financial infra providers. 

The model can exploit new-found vulnerabilities autonomously when instructed to do so. Bruce Schneier has observed this is "very much a PR play by Anthropic". It is curious that Anthropic seem to have not built in any guardrails against offensive security.

Bezos Bets Big on Physical AI

Jeff Bezos' Physical AI project, Project Prometheus, is nearing the end of a $10bn funding round.

HawkEye 360 Seeks IPO under ticker HAWK

2015-Herndon-founded satellite data firm HawkEye has now 30 satellites in orbit harvesting data for radio frequency (RF) signals intelligence. 

"Adjusted" EBITDA of just under $25m on a revenue number of almost $118m gives them a 21% adjusted EBITDA margin in FY2025. Revenue growth in FY25 was 74%.

HawkEye "democratises" RF signals intelligence data, previously the domain of state actors.  This is one category of satellite data; others include optical data (photographs) and thermal imaging data.

RF signals are emitted from a multitude of sources including mobile devices, jammers, beacons, drones and missile systems. HawkEye captures, geolocates and classifies signals from orbit. 

In December 2025, they acquired Signal Analysis Incorporated, a signal processing defence specialist.

There are a few direct competitors, with firms like Vantor and Satellogic specializing in optical, and Hydrosat and SatVus specializing in thermal data.  France based Unseenlabs (founded 2015) maintains a nanosatellite constellation using RF emissions to locate vessels at sea, which have disabled their AIS transponders - and hence is focused more exclusively on the maritime space.

Man Group Misses Analyst Estimates

FTSE-250 global alternative investment manager, Man Group,  has had a share-fall of 7% following reports that a client pulled $6.1bn from one strategy in the first quarter.

AuM has been flat at $228.7bn missing analyst consensus expectations of $233bn.  

Good performance in several funds have helped to stem outflows (which are at their highest since 2024 - which experienced two quarters of net outflows).

A net $1.6bn of funds have been redeemed in Q1 2026.

Nymex Front Crude Drops 14% on Ceasefire

Nymex K26 is now at $97 a barrel, with the curve in backwardation.