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CNBC World’s Top Fintech Companies 2026: Apply now

admin — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 23:19:02 +0000

A person using a laptop and mobile phone.

Tom Werner | Digitalvision | Getty Images

Applications are now open for the fourth edition of CNBC’s World’s Top Fintech Companies list, produced in partnership with market research firm Statista.

Each year, CNBC and Statista chart the top fintech players from around the world, ranging from startups to Big Tech names, across segments including payments, wealth technology, insurance and more.

Last year’s iteration included heavyweights such as Mastercard, Stripe and Visa, as well as many newer scaleups. Credit rewards company Bilt, payments upstart TerraPay and insurance platform Entsia made their debuts on the list.

The World’s Top Fintech Companies has been expanded this year, with regulation tech — companies helping others meet their financial regulatory obligations — becoming its own segment.

Over the years, fintech has progressed from a high-growth challenger segment to a core part of the global financial system, helped by a Covid-fueled race to digitize. Artificial intelligence has spurred the sector further, and has been tipped as a source of transformative change.

The global fintech market attracted $44.7 billion in investment across over 2,200 deals in the first half of 2025, according to the most recent report by KPMG, although this was lower than the $54.2 billion investment seen over the six months prior.

How to apply

Companies can submit their information for consideration by clicking here. Developing innovative, technology-based financial products and services should be the core business of nominees.

The form, hosted by Statista, includes questions about a company’s business model and certain key performance indicators, including revenue growth and employee headcount.

You can read more about the research project and methodology here.

The deadline for submissions is April 24, 2026.

For questions about the list or assistance with the form, please email Statista: topfintechs@statista.com.

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Elon Musk on path to become world’s first trillionaire with SpaceX-xAI

admin — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 14:40:29 +0000

Elon Musk’s journey to becoming the world’s first trillionaire will likely be powered by rockets rather than cars, as SpaceX now accounts for nearly two-thirds of the Tesla CEO’s wealth.

Musk became the first person ever to top the $800 billion mark this week, with his net worth now around $845 billion, according to Forbes. He’s worth more than the next three richest people – Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg – combined.

The tech magnate’s unprecedented wealth surged after his aerospace and defense company, SpaceX, acquired his artificial intelligence and social media company, xAI, this week in a deal that valued the merged entity at $1.25 trillion, according to financial documents reviewed by CNBC.

With Musk’s ownership estimated at around 43% in the combined company, his stake would be valued at over $530 billion, marking a rapid shift in his fortunes.

Musk’s priorities are also likely shifting his focus more to SpaceX than Tesla, a reality that the EV company acknowledged in its latest proxy filing, where it noted that “a majority of Mr. Musk’s wealth is now derived from other business ventures.”

Last year, Musk confirmed he wants to take SpaceX public in 2026, which would make Tesla a less prevalent component of his liquid wealth. But he still has to get buy-in from public market investors, who may be reluctant to pay up for a company that combines a defense contractor and satellite business with a cash-burning AI model developer that’s trying to take on Google, OpenAI and Anthropic.

SpaceX has received more than $20 billion from contracts with the federal government, according to research from FedScout, with more lucrative contracts on the way, and Musk has framed the acquisition as the next step towards “orbital data centers.”

“You’ve muddied up your story a little bit as a pure-play SpaceX shareholder, but the opportunity has gotten a lot bigger,” said Greg Martin, managing director at Rainmaker Securities, which works on transactions for pre-IPO companies. “It makes sense for them to access a much larger capital market, especially with xAI, which does have insatiable need for capital.”

XAI is currently being investigated by authorities in Europe, Asia, Australia and California, after the company’s Grok image generator let users create and share “deepfake” explicit images of children and women.

It’s not clear whether Musk’s merger will require any regulatory review. Democratic senators this week called for the Pentagon to investigate SpaceX over undisclosed Chinese investors in the company.

Musk still has a major incentive to stay focused on Tesla. Late last year, shareholders voted to approve a new pay package that could be worth $1 trillion, paid out in 12 tranches, if Tesla hits certain milestones, including market cap gains and operational achievements, over the next decade. The first tranche of stock gets paid out if Tesla hits a market cap of $2 trillion, about $460 billion more than the current valuation.

Tesla said in the proxy filing detailing the plan that the structure aims to “prevent him from prioritizing those other ventures.”

However, Columbia Law professor Dorothy Lund, a corporate and securities law expert, told CNBC in an email that the strategy may not work.

Musk is now “negotiating comp packages at each company, with each board trying to induce him to pay attention via comp,” Lund wrote. “If SpaceX/xAI gives him more money and a bigger share, that Tesla package may look less appealing.”

Before the xAI acquisition, Musk owned about 42% of SpaceX and controlled 80% of the votes, according to FCC reports. His current ownership in Tesla is between 11% and 15% of shares outstanding, depending on what’s included in his stake, according to public filings.

With Tesla’s brand value and core auto sales in decline, and its long-promised robotaxis and humanoid robots still in development, the company’s stock price is down about 9% this year.

Based on Musk’s ownership in SpaceX, and assuming Tesla shares are flat, the rocket and AI company would have to reach a valuation of about $1.6 trillion for the world’s richest person to reach trillionaire status.

Ross Gerber, CEO of investment firm Gerber Kawasaki, is betting that Musk won’t ever want to take SpaceX public as a standalone entity. Rather, he expects to see a merger of SpaceX and Tesla, and he speculated this week it would list on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker symbol X, which formerly belonged to U.S. Steel.

Gerber is a long-time Tesla investor and now holds shares in SpaceX after his firm previously backed Musk’s leveraged buyout of Twitter in 2022. Musk rebranded Twitter as X, and merged the social network with xAI last year.

Consolidating his empire makes sense, Gerber said, because it would allow Musk to fulfill his dream of running one big company under the brand name X. Following Alphabet’s announcement this week that it will spend up to $185 billion on capex this year, Gerber said Musk is going to have to be able to bring in massive sums of cash.

“This huge entity would make it easier for them to raise money and borrow,” he said. “How else is Musk supposed to compete and become a major AI player?”

Musk didn’t respond to a request for comment.

WATCH: SpaceX acquires xAI

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Tesla loses spot as world’s top EV seller to Chinese rival after car deliveries plunge 9% in 2025

admin — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 16:25:22 +0000

Tesla said its vehicle deliveries plunged 9% in 2025 – a worse-than-expected drop that knocked Elon Musk’s company out of its No. 1 spot among world’s EV sellers and handed it to a Chinese rival.

The electric automaker said Friday it recorded deliveries of 418,227 in the fourth quarter, down 16% from the same period last year.

In a consensus posted on its website on Dec. 29, Tesla said analysts were expecting a 15% drop to 422,850 vehicles. Wall Street had expected roughly 426,000 vehicles, per StreetAccount.

Tesla deliveries plunged in the fourth quarter of 2025 to 418,227 vehicles. Getty Images

Its overall 2025 deliveries plunged 8.6% to 1.64 million – down from 1.79 million in 2024.

Tesla shares were off 0.4% at $447.77 in mid-morning trades on Friday.

Meanwhile, Chinese rival BYD said Thursday that sales of its battery-powered cars jumped nearly 28% to 2.26 million units – a stinging defeat after Musk years earlier dismissed the competitor and laughed at their products during a Bloomberg interview.

Tesla suffered a sales slump this year as it faced heated competition in the EV sector from BYD, South Korea’s Kia and Hyundai and European automaker Volkswagen.

Investors grew concerned about the company’s focus on artificial intelligence and robotics during earnings calls, instead of present-day opportunities.

Musk’s brand also suffered blowback from his ties to the Trump administration, earlier this year leading the cost-slashing body known as DOGE – leading to massive federal layoffs and cutting billions in foreign aid.

Protesters swarmed Tesla showrooms across the country as Tesla vehicles across the country have been set ablaze with molotov cocktails or vandalized.

Tesla also experienced some brand damage in European markets after Musk endorsed Germany’s far-right party, AfD; signaled support for British anti-Muslim activist Tommy Robinson; and called for the European Union to be abolished.

Workers clean vehicles at a BYD factory in Brazil. AMERICO ROBERTO/EPA/Shutterstock

Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said in a note Friday while Europe has been a “continuous headwind” for Tesla, he expects sales in the region to bounce back once the automaker’s Full Self-Driving technology is approved by European regulators.

In the first 11 months of 2025, Tesla’s European registrations plummeted 39% – while BYD saw registrations in Europe skyrocket 240% over the same period.

But Tesla’s deliveries rebounded to a record in the third quarter as American shoppers rushed to take advantage of a $7,500 federal tax incentive for EVs before it expired on Sept. 30.

The automaker also rolled out pared-back versions of its Model Y SUV and Model 3 sedan, each less than $40,000, which helped dull the effect of the tax incentive disappearing.

Tesla has officially lost its spot as the world’s top EV seller to Chinese rival BYD. AP

Despite poor results and mixed investor sentiment, Tesla shares ended 2025 roughly 16% higher. Musk bought $1 billion worth of shares in September.

Also on Friday, Tesla said it deployed 14.2 gigawatt hours of battery energy storage products in the fourth quarter, following a record of 12.5 gigawatt hours in the previous period.

Its battery energy systems include backup batteries for homes and larger systems for power-hungry data centers.

The automaker is slated to report its full fourth-quarter earnings on Jan. 28.

In November, shareholders approved a jaw-dropping $1 trillion pay plan for Musk dependent on a series of lofty performance targets over the next decade – like delivering 20 million vehicles and 1 million “Optimus” humanoid robots.

Musk threatened to leave the company if the historic pay package was shot down.

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Boeing 737-800 is among world’s most common aircraft

admin — Mon, 06 Jan 2025 00:05:03 +0000

A Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 taking off from Osaka Kansai airport.

Fabrizio Gandolfo | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Accident investigators are trying to figure out what caused a Jeju Air flight to belly-land without its landing gear down at Muan International Airport in southwestern South Korea, killing all but two of the 181 people on board as it burst into flames in the nation’s worst air disaster in decades.

South Korea’s acting president, Choi Sang-mok, ordered an emergency inspection of the country’s Boeing 737-800s, the type of plane used on the fatal Jeju Air Flight 7C2216.

The Boeing 737-800 is one of the world’s most commonly used airplanes, and it has a strong safety record. It predates the Boeing 737 Max, the type that was involved in two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed all 346 people on board those flights. The 737 Max was grounded for almost two years, and a flight-control system, which was later tweaked, was implicated in both of those crashes.

The scene where a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 series aircraft crashed and burst into flames is seen at Muan International Airport in Muan, some 288 kilometres southwest of Seoul on December 30, 2024.

Jung Yeon-je | Afp | Getty Images

There are nearly 4,400 of the older Boeing 737-800s operated around the world, according to aviation-data firm Cirium. That means the model makes up about 17% of the world’s in-service commercial passenger jet fleet.

The average age of the world’s 737-800 fleet is 13 years old, according to Cirium, and the last of the series of planes were delivered about five years ago.

Jeju Air took delivery of the plane which was involved in this weekend’s crash in 2017. It was previously operated by European discount carrier Ryanair, according to Flightradar24. The plane involved in the crash was about 15 years old.

Aerospace experts say it’s unlikely that investigators will find a design problem with the long-flying aircraft.

“The idea that they’ll find a design flaw at this point is borderline inconceivable,” said Richard Aboulafia, managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory, an aerospace consulting firm.

A full investigation could take longer than a year, and the unusual incident has raised more questions than answers, such as why the landing gear wasn’t deployed. Even with a hydraulic malfunction, Boeing 737-800 pilots can drop the landing gear manually.

One theory involves a possible bird strike that disabled at least one if not both engines.

“If that happens at the altitude they were at, they may not have had time to do emergency checklists,” said Jeff Guzzetti, a retired air safety investigator with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration. He also said if the plane hadn’t run into a mount of dirt and hard wall at the end of the runway, the accident could have been more survivable. That area housed a localizer that helps guide aircraft.

The NTSB is leading the U.S. team of investigators that also includes Boeing and the FAA, since the aircraft was manufactured and certified in the United States.

Under international protocols, the country in which the accident took place will lead the overall investigation.

Boeing shares fell more than 4% early Monday after local officials called for inspections on 737-800s operated by South Korean airlines, but pared earlier losses to end the day down 2.3%.

Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO

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Nissan, Honda announce plans to merge, creating world’s No. 3 automaker

admin — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 09:40:38 +0000

Japanese automakers Honda and Nissan have announced plans to join forces, forming the world’s third-largest automaker by sales as the industry undergoes dramatic changes in its transition away from fossil fuels.

The two companies said they had signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday and that smaller Nissan alliance member Mitsubishi Motors also had agreed to join the talks on integrating their businesses.

“We anticipate that if this integration comes to fruition, we will be able to deliver even greater value to a wider customer base,” Nissan’s CEO Makoto Uchida said in a statement.

Makoto Uchida, Director, Representative Executive Officer, President and CEO of Nissan Motor Corporation, and Toshihiro Mibe, Director, President, and Representative Executive Officer of Honda, hold a joint press conference on their merger talks in Tokyo, Japan, on Dec. 23, 2024. REUTERS

Automakers in Japan have lagged behind their big rivals in electric vehicles and are trying to cut costs and make up for lost time.

News of a possible merger surfaced earlier this month, with unconfirmed reports saying that the talks on closer collaboration partly were driven by aspirations of Taiwan iPhone maker Foxconn to tie up with Nissan, which has an alliance with Renault SA of France and Mitsubishi.

A merger could result in a behemoth worth more than $50 billion based on the market capitalization of all three automakers.

Together, Honda and the Nissan alliance with Renault SA of France and smaller automaker Mitsubishi Motors Corp. would gain scale to compete with Toyota Motor Corp. and with Germany’s Volkswagen AG.

Toyota has technology partnerships with Japan’s Mazda Motor Corp. and Subaru Corp.

The two companies said they had signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday. Getty Images

Even after a merger Toyota, which rolled out 11.5 million vehicles in 2023, would remain the leading Japanese automaker. If they join, the three smaller companies would make about 8 million vehicles.

In 2023, Honda made 4 million and Nissan produced 3.4 million. Mitsubishi Motors made just over 1 million.

Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi announced in August that they would share components for electric vehicles like batteries and jointly research software for autonomous driving to adapt better to dramatic changes centered around electrification, following a preliminary agreement between Nissan and Honda set in March.

Honda, Japan’s second-largest automaker, is widely viewed as the only likely Japanese partner able to effect a rescue of Nissan, which has struggled following a scandal that began with the arrest of its former chairman Carlos Ghosn in late 2018 on charges of fraud and misuse of company assets, allegations that he denies.

He eventually was released on bail and fled to Lebanon.

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Speaking Monday to reporters in Tokyo via a video link, Ghosn derided the planned merger as a “desperate move.”

From Nissan, Honda could get truck-based body-on-frame large SUVs such as the Armada and Infiniti QX80 that Honda doesn’t have, with large towing capacities and good off-road performance, Sam Fiorani, vice president of AutoForecast Solutions, told The Associated Press.

Nissan also has years of experience building batteries and electric vehicles, and gas-electric hybird powertrains that could help Honda in developing its own EVs and next generation of hybrids, he said.

But the company said in November that it was slashing 9,000 jobs, or about 6% of its global work force, and reducing its global production capacity by 20% after reporting a quarterly loss of $61 million.

Uchida, Mibe, and Takao Kato, CEO of Mitsubishi Motors, attend a joint news conference on Monday, Dec. 23, 2024, in Tokyo, Japan. AP

It recently reshuffled its management and Makoto Uchida, its chief executive, took a 50% pay cut to take responsibility for the financial woes, saying Nissan needed to become more efficient and respond better to market tastes, rising costs and other global changes.

Fitch Ratings recently downgraded Nissan’s credit outlook to “negative,” citing worsening profitability, partly due to price cuts in the North American market.

But it noted that it has a strong financial structure and solid cash reserves that amounted to $9.4 billion.

Nissan’s share price also has fallen to the point where it is considered something of a bargain.

Nissan’s alliance member Mitsubishi Motors also agreed to join the talks on integrating their businesses. REUTERS

On Monday, its Tokyo-traded shares gained 1.6%. They jumped more than 20% after news of the possible merger broke last week.

Honda’s shares surged 3.8%. Honda’s net profit slipped nearly 20% in the first half of the April-March fiscal year from a year earlier, as sales suffered in China.

The merger reflects an industry-wide trend toward consolidation.

At a routine briefing Monday, Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said he would not comment on details of the automakers’ plans, but said Japanese companies need to stay competitive in the fast changing market.

“As the business environment surrounding the automobile industry largely changes, with competitiveness in storage batteries and software is increasingly important, we expect measures needed to survive international competition will be taken,” Hayashi said.

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Bob the Drag Queen has written the world’s first Harriet Tubman hip-hop novel. ‹

admin — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 04:24:07 +0000

October 18, 2024, 1:27pm

Bob the Drag Queen has written a book, y’all. And this is not the standard tell-all memoir announcement now standard practice for the cross-over artist with a brand to build.

Luckily for the world, the Drag Race winning superstar has written a novel. And one that looks to be, um, delightfully bonkers.

A log-line, for your troubles; Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert is a time and space bending piece of critical fabulation that follows the famous freedom fighter’s thwarted attempts to make—wait for it—a hip-hop album.

Set in an alternate universe where historical figures abandon their graves to repeat great lessons of old, promo press is calling the book “an inventive, wondrous novel, remixing history into a fresh, dynamic story about love, freedom, salvation, and hip-hop.”

Personally, I am seated.

Bob the Drag Queen, Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert

The alter ego of non-binary performer Caldwell Tidicue, Bob The Drag Queen won hearts, minds, and the big crown in season eight of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Today she is a celebrated actor and activist, and also co-hosts a popular podcast, Sibling Rivalry, with her drag sister Monét X Change. Her most recent gig was taking to the road as Madonna’s warm-up act.

Bob shared on insta this week that the novel took four years to write. And it is, fans-be-assured, “as absurd and camp as you believe it is.”

It’s exciting to see such a fresh entry in the cross-over canon. Performers have been writing and selling novels at least as long as “packaging” has been a verb. But “Harriet Tubman’s rap career” is quite a bit more inventive conceit-wise than the thinly veiled autobiographical bildungsromen, nostalgic mysteries, or children’s books you’ll often hear a celeb’s penned in their spare time.

Which is all to say? We applaud you, Bob. Can’t wait to hear the beat drop under this railroad.

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