In February 2026, a Baku military court sentenced Ruben Vardanian, an investment banker who pioneered the stock market in Russia, to 20 years in prison. Prior to that, he served as prime minister of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), which was the steepest turn in his 30-year career and led him to an Azerbaijani prison. Oninvest looked into how Vardanyan went from Forbes list member and investment banker to politician and prisoner.

Investment banker Ruben Vardanyan was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a court in Azerbaijan. What led him to this? 

NVIDIA Corporation

ServiceNow, Inc.

Palantir Technologies Inc.

Broadcom Inc.

Salesforce, Inc.

CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc.

Cloudflare, Inc.

Amazon.com, Inc.

Microsoft Corporation

Alphabet Inc.

In March, CEO Jensen Huang spoke about the new stage of the AI revolution: companies will move from selling software (SaaS) to selling the results of AI work (AaaS). So the very logic of their monetization will change. Most importantly, this is already happening. Igor Klyushnev, co-founder of Freedom Holding, named 10 companies that will benefit from this transition.

AI agents decide everything: 10 companies that will benefit from moving to an AaaS model

Investors are always looking for the "right answers", especially during times of market turbulence like now. Will a recession begin? Is it better to buy or sell? The problem is that most of these questions don't have an answer - they require a solution. And both factually and psychologically, finding an answer and making a decision are different things. How do you learn to make decisions in the face of uncertainty? An economic model of the psyche can help, writes Konstantin Kunakh, psychologist, author of the <a href="https://www.litres.ru/book/konstantin-kunah/straday-s-tolkom-kniga-instrukciya-po-gramotnomu-ispolzov-71035111/">book</a> "Suffer with reason" and the<a href="https://t.me/usepain"> Telegram channel of</a> the same name.

How an economic model of the psyche can help investors 

For the last 10 years, the UAE has been the undisputed financial center of the Middle East and the place where projects from Russia and CIS countries are being developed. Dubai's government policy to attract investors has become a role model - other Gulf countries have actively copied the fintech and crypto-regulation of their tiny but insanely successful neighbor.

What's happening to businesses in Dubai during the war in the Middle East

Knowledge Atlas Technology Joint Stock Company Limited

Minimax-wp

Alibaba Group Holding Limited

Tencent Holdings Limited

Baidu, Inc.

SenseTime Group Inc.

iFLYTEK CO.,LTD

A few years ago, the actions of Chinese AI developers were perceived as an attempt to catch up with American competitors. But now it is already a separate center of power: according to the latest data from Stanford University, China <a href="https://hai.stanford.edu/assets/files/hai_ai_index_report_2025.pdf">ranks</a> first in terms of the citation rate of AI publications. Beijing's official goal is to <a href="https://www.morganstanley.com/insights/articles/china-ai-becoming-global-leader">become the</a> world leader in AI by 2030. Roman Lukyanchikov, analyst at Freedom Broker, has written about how investors can bet on the growth of the Chinese AI sector.

China wants to become a leader in AI and is willing to spend billions. How to capitalize on it

Aeva Technologies, Inc.

The Hackett Group, Inc.

Extreme Networks, Inc.

TipRanks has <a href="https://www.tipranks.com/news/3-small-cap-tech-stocks-with-strong-buy-ratings-and-big-upside-in-2026">identified</a>&nbsp;three small cap tech stocks with "strong buy" ratings and big upside in 2026. Year to date, their share performance has diverged, yet Wall Street still sees upside of at least 49%.

TipRanks names three tech small caps that Wall Street thinks have at least 49% upside

Founders with Russian roots in 2025 attracted just over $3 billion of foreign investment in their projects, which is comparable to the result of 2024. This means that the crisis of 2022-2023, when foreign investors turned away from Russian startups after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, has been overcome. In 2026, Russian founders will have to deal with new serious problems, including tougher US immigration policy and Russia's inclusion in the EU's money laundering blacklist. How will this affect their business?

Startups with Russian roots attracted more than $3 billion in foreign investment in 2025. What awaits them in 2026? 

On Monday, the markets will face one of the most serious geopolitical tests in recent times: they will open amid a de facto blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and military strikes against oil-producing countries in the Middle East. Oninvest has collected the opinions of managers and investors on what market players should prepare for.

War in the Middle East: what should investors do at Monday's market open? 

Knowledge Atlas, known as Zhipu, is <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/37c91e08-d13a-45a7-a3a7-acb43fa5522e">called the</a> Chinese equivalent of OpenAI. In January 2026, it went public, and its quotations rose more than five times the IPO price. What an investor should know about it, wrote independent analyst Mikhail Zavaraev.

Shares of Zhipu, a China-based AI developer and OpenAI peer, have quintupled since its IPO. What do investors need to know about it? 

Entry-level positions in investment banking allow you to earn six-figure sums, but require working 24/7

Can an analyst get 9 hours of sleep? Wall Street has closed a lawsuit over 24/7 work hours

Union Pacific Corporation

Meta Platforms, Inc.

Equinix, Inc.

Last week was the worst week for the S&amp;P 500 since November 2025, losing 1.39% in five days, the Nasdaq Composite was down 2.1% and the Dow Jones was down 1.23%. In February, one of the reasons for the storm in the markets was a reassessment of the prospects of entire industries because of the development of AI. For investors, it's now a technology that must actually prove its ability to be profitable. What should they bet on now?

The market has experienced a wave of selling because of AI. Who will benefit from companies' revised valuations?

SAP SE

Dassault Systemes SE

Tata Consultancy Services Limited

Infosys Limited

Experian plc

London Stock Exchange Group plc

Blackstone Inc.

KKR & Co. Inc.

Blue Owl Capital Inc.

The Charles Schwab Corporation

Raymond James Financial, Inc.

CBRE Group, Inc.

Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated

In February, one market crash after another occurred in several sectors whose business model threatens to be undermined by AI, from software makers to wealth managers. "It's certainly a case of shoot first and ask questions later," Kerry Craig, global market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2026-02-11/jpmorgan-s-craig-on-trading-opportunities-in-ai-selloff-video">told</a> Bloomberg TV. Are the market's fears fair?

In February, stocks collapsed in several sectors at once. Investors traded "on fears of AI"

Investments