PayPal is “exploring” the idea of allowing its users to trade individual stocks. Per CNBC, the company recently hired TradeKing co-founder Richard Hagen to head up a new unit at the company called Invest at PayPal. “Leading PayPal’s efforts to explore opportunities in the consumer investment business,” Hagan says of his new job on his LinkedIn profile. The outlet reports PayPal has also had discussions with potential brokerage partners.

Moving into retail trading wouldn’t be out of character for PayPal. The company has spent much of the last year expanding into the cryptocurrency market. It all started last October when PayPal announced it would let US users buy, sell and hold Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin. PayPal CEO Dan Schulman also recently told investors the company could partner with different financial institutions to expand the number of services it offers. He even mentioned “investment capabilities” as one possibility. Either way, it’s a move that would make sense in the context of all the recent interest in retail trading that came out of the GameStop saga.

A PayPal spokesperson declined to comment on the report when we reached out.

Should PayPal decide to offer stock trading, it may take some time before it’s available to US users. CNBC reports PayPal is unlikely to roll out the service this year. And if the company decides it wants to operate as its own brokerage firm, it would need approval from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). That’s a process that can take more than eight months.

Virgin Orbit has announced plans to go public on the Nasdaq stock exchange through a special purpose acquisitions company (SPAC) merger. The deal with NextGen Acquisition Corp. II values Virgin Orbit at $3.2 billion.

The combined company is expected to pull in up to $483 million in cash when the deal closes, which Virgin Orbit believes will happen by the end of this year. Around $383 million of that is expected to come from funds NextGen holds in trust, and the other $100 million from a common stock PIPE (private investment in public equity) offering at $10 per share. Virgin Orbit's existing stakeholders will own around 85 percent of the combined company, with NextGen shareholders owning about 10 percent, PIPE investors (which will include Boeing) holding roughly three percent and the SPAC sponsor owning the remaining two percent or so.

Virgin Orbit will use the funds to scale up its rocket manufacturing endeavors and bolster the company's space solutions business and Virgin Orbit’s ongoing product development initiatives. An SPAC merger with a company (usually a shell corporation) that's already listed on a stock exchange allows a business to go public without going through the usual initial public offering process.

The first spaceflight company to go public through an SPAC, and the company that really kicked off the SPAC trend, was Virgin Galactic back in 2019, which sought to fund its tourist trips to space. Virgin Galactic spun out Virgin Orbit as a separate company in 2017 so they could respectively focus on space tourism and small satellite launches. Virgin Galactic held its first fully crewed flight in July (with founder Richard Branson on board), while Virgin Orbit had its first successful satellite deployment in January.

Virgin Orbit launches its satellites from a custom Boeing 747, with the LauncherOne rocket taking payloads into space. The company says this approach offers a "significant performance advantage" over traditional ground launches (an approach adopted by the likes of SpaceX) while lowering "local carbon emissions and acoustic impacts" at launch sites.

T-Mobile says millions more people have been impacted by its recent data breach than initially believed. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the company said an additional 6 million or so accounts were affected, taking the total to more than 54 million.

On Wednesday, T-Mobile disclosed that data from around 40 million former or potential customers had been compromised in a cyberattack. The data included names, birth dates, social security numbers, driver’s licenses and information from other types of identification. The company now says another 667,000 accounts of former customers were accessed, with attackers obtaining some personal data from those, but no SSNs or ID details.

In the previous disclosure, T-Mobile said approximately 7.8 million current holders of T-Mobile postpaid accounts were impacted, with attackers gaining at least some customers' personal data. The company now says phone numbers and IMEI and IMSI details (identifiers for mobile devices and SIM cards respectively) were compromised as well.

On top of that, T-Mobile has identified another 5.3 million affected postpaid accounts. No SSNs or driver’s license/identification details were compromised from those, the company said, but the attackers accessed other identifiable information.

Around 850,000 active T-Mobile prepaid customers have been impacted as well. The attackers may have garnered up to 52,000 names connected to current Metro by T-Mobile accounts too. Accounts of former Sprint prepaid and Boost Mobile customers are unaffected.

Other data was stolen in the cyberattack, including additional phone numbers and IMEI and IMSI numbers, but the company claims there was no personally identifiable information in those files. Meanwhile, T-Mobile still has "no indication" that customer financial details, such as credit card data, were affected.

A member of an underground forum claimed over the weekend to have data for more than 100 million T-Mobile customers. They reportedly attempted to sell information of around 30 million of those for about $270,000 worth of Bitcoin.

T-Mobile's investigation into the breach is ongoing and it will provide more details if it finds more affected accounts. The company says it's "confident that we have closed off the access and egress points the bad actor used in the attack" and that it has taken steps to mitigate the impact on customers. For instance, it has offered two years of identity protection service to anyone who thinks they might have been affected.

Wondering what to do with your Bitcoin stash now that you can't buy a Tesla? It might be time to catch a big-screen flick. According to CNN, AMC has announced that it plans to accept Bitcoin as payment for tickets and snacks at all US theaters by the end of 2021. Company chief Adam Aron didn't say how you'd make those payments, but he did hint that AMC was also researching other ways it could join the "burgeoning cryptocurrency universe."

American theaters should also support Apple Pay and Google Pay for online purchases by the end of the year, Aron said.

The executive explained the decision as a result of his stint on the board of Centricus Acquisition Corp, a contractor for the blockchain company Arquit. And yes, the Reddit meme stock frenzy played a role —Aron is aware that many of AMC's recently added shareholders are "quite enthusiastic" about cryptocurrencies. He's hoping the tech enthusiasts who pumped up his company's stock value will be frequent customers, to put it another way.

Whether or not this is a sustainable idea is another matter. Gizmodonotes that crypto transaction fees can be steep, and you might pay a premium for that already expensive soda. The volatility of cryptocurrency remains a problem, too. The Bitcoin you spend on tickets one day could be worth enough to rent a whole theater just a few months later. AMC would have to figure out how to ride that uncertainty without damaging its bottom line.

Most credit cards these days offer some kind of reward to users, whether it's a percentage of your spending in cash back, airline miles or some other perk. Venmo launched its own credit card last fall, and while it offers up to three percent cash back, the company is now letting users do something relatively unique with that refund. As of today, Venmo credit card users can automatically get that cash back in cryptocurrency.

Once you opt in, you can choose one of four cryptocurrencies to purchase with your cash back: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash. There are no transaction fees for the purchase, and the transfer happens automatically. From there, you can turn that crypto back into cash at any time, or change what currency you get each month from your cash back. 

This feature builds on the cryptocurrency features that Venmo added to its app earlier this year. Since April, Venmo users have been able to buy those same four cryptocurrencies directly in the app, so a feature to easily turn cash back into crypto might make it easier for more people to dip their toes into the Bitcoin world. 

Renault is looking to revive flagging sales in China. It has agreed to set up a joint venture with a major auto manufacturer in the country. Renault will share tech and resources with Geely (which owns Volvo and Polestar) to bring Renault-branded hybrid vehicles to China.

The companies plan to take advantage of Geely's supply chain and manufacturing capabilities. Renault will focus on sales and marketing.

Along with China, the companies are eyeing South Korea as a key market for their joint venture. They plan to sell localized versions of hybrids from Geely's Lynk & Co brand.

The joint venture will likely expand to other Asian markets in the future, according to Reuters, which reported that Renault and Geely are considering making fully electric vehicles as well. Renault recently announced an ambitious timeline for electrifying its vehicles. It forecasts that 65 percent of its lineup will be electric by 2025.

Having a partnership in China seems important for Renault, which has struggled to sell cars under its own name in the country. It sold just 2,324 Renault-branded cars there in 2020, a drop of 89 percent from the previous year, amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the global semiconductor shortage. In comparison, Jinbei and Huasong, brands owned by a joint venture between Renault and Brilliance Auto, sold 154,049 vehicles in China last year.

Square has announced that it plans to pay $29 billion in stock for Afterpay, an Australian service that lets you pay for purchases over time with no interest, The Verge has reported. Square, led by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, has already purchased a majority stake in Tidal and launched a new Bitcoin business in 2021. 

In a press release, Square called Afterpay "the pioneering global 'buy now, pay later' (BNPL) platform." Afterpay notes that it has over 16 million customers worldwide and services nearly 100,000 resellers across retail markets like "fashion, homewares, beauty, sporting goods and more." 

"The addition of Afterpay to Cash App will strengthen our growing networks of consumers around the world, while supporting consumers with flexible, responsible payment options," said Square's Brian Grassadonia. "Afterpay will help deepen and reinforce the connections between our Cash App and Seller ecosystems, and accelerate our ability to offer a rich suite of commerce capabilities to Cash App customers."

Afterpay, like other increasingly popular BNPL services (including Affirm, Klarna and Uplift), allows customers to pay over time without interest. To make money, they charge retailers a fee (4 to 6 percent), promising to connect them with a desirable demographic and assume all financial risk. In Square's press release, Afterpay also said it can help "drive repeat purchases [and] increase average transaction sizes." 

One of the world's largest retailers, Apple, is reportedly planning to offer its own buy now, pay later type program directly to consumers. Much like PayPal's "Pay in 4" service, "Apple Pay in 4" would allow Apple Wallet users to stretch purchases out to four payments, interest-free. Square's purchase of Afterpay, meanwhile, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022. 

Newly public Robinhood has ambitions to be much more than just a stock-trading app, according to its CEO. In an interview with the AP, CEO Vlad Tenev said that, eventually, he wants to turn Robinhood into “the single money app” his users need.

Though Tenev didn’t use the word “bank,” his description certainly sounds more like a bank than the current iteration of Robinhood.

Over time, we want to be the single money app, the most trusted and most culturally relevant money app worldwide. So, everything that you use your money for, you should be able to do through Robinhood.

Anytime you receive a paycheck direct deposit, we’d like you to do that through Robinhood. Your emergency fund, your bill pay, your day-to-day spending, we’d like for customers to use us for that. And of course, all types of investing ranging from more discretionary investing to long-term retirement savings as well.

Tenev didn’t elaborate on exactly how these plans could take shape. And though it’s not necessarily surprising the company would want to expand the types of services it offers, the CEO’s comments will likely raise more than a few eyebrows.

The app, which became popular for its simple interface and commission-free trading, has also drawn criticism for many of its practices. The SEC fined the company $65 million last year, for misleading users about how it executes trades. It was also hit with a class action lawsuit earlier this year after it restricted trading on GameStop and other “meme stocks.” The company has also been accused of making the stock market feel too much like a casino, particularly for younger and less-savvy investors.

Facebook users are spending a lot more time watching video, and short-form video like Instagram Reels is growing fast. Speaking during the company’s second-quarter earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that “video now accounts for almost half of all time spent on Facebook.” And on Instagram, TikTok competitor Reels is the “largest contributor to engagement growth.”

Though he stopped short of sharing more specific stats, the new details suggest Instagram’s Reels may be gaining more traction as the company vies for creator talent. Zuckerberg also noted that the company’s focus on creators and shopping would also help it reach its longer term goal of becoming a “metaverse company.”

Facebook revealed earlier this week that it was tapping an Instagram exec to start a new team focused on creating a metaverse. “You can kind of think about this as an embodied internet that you're inside of rather than just looking at,” Zuckerberg said. “You're basically gonna be able to do everything that you can on the internet today, as well as some things that don't make sense on the internet today like dancing.”

Zuckerberg’s comments come as the company reported some of its strongest growth in years, with revenue of more than $29 billion, an increase of 56 percent from last year. The company also reported more than 3.5 billion “monthly active people,” though user growth in the US once again remained flat.

Despite the strong numbers this quarter, the company warned that the rest of 2021 could look very different. Facebook expects revenue and growth to “decelerate significantly” in the second half of the year, said CFO Dave Wehner. He also noted that Apple’s iOS 14.5 update, which allows users to opt out of the social network’s ad tracking, would have a “greater impact” next quarter.

Developing...

Last week, news leaked out that Rivian was planning to build a second US manufacturing plant for its electric vehicles and batteries, and now more details have leaked out. The company plans to invest $5 billion initially in the second plant, dubbed Project Tera, with construction slated to start in the fall of 2021, according to Reuters. The aim is to begin production by the second quarter of 2023. 

The second plant will reportedly include a 50 gigawatt-hour (GWh) battery cell production operation and a product and technology center. There's no word on where it'll be built, but the company is reportedly looking at land east of Mesa, Arizona, near Gold Canyon, according to Reuters' sources. Rivian Chief Executive R.J. Scaringe has reportedly spoken with Arizona Governor Doug Ducey about the project.

Rivian previously acknowledged that it's looking to expand. “The company has recognized that future production and product plans will not be fully met by the current capacity at Rivian’s Normal, Illinois facility,” it said in the document seen by Reuters. 

The plant would supposedly support around 10,000 jobs, though many of those could come indirectly. For a startup that has so far not produced a single vehicle, however, the investment and job figures would be impressive. Rivian is backed by Ford, Amazon and other companies and could reportedly soar to a $50 billion value in a possible public listing later this year, according to Reuters' previous story.