Technology

FIRST FINANCIAL BANKSHARES ANNOUNCES 2026 SHARE REPURCHASE PLAN

Published

2 hours ago

July 30, 2026

ABILENE, Texas, July 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — First Financial Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIN) (the “Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) has announced the renewal and increase in the size of its share repurchase plan through July 31, 2027. Pursuant to the renewed plan, the Company may repurchase up to 7,200,000 shares of its common stock, representing approximately 5 percent of the Company’s outstanding shares as of July 28, 2026. The Board of Directors previously authorized the repurchase of up to 5,000,000 shares of common stock through July 31, 2026.

The share repurchase plan authorizes management to repurchase shares at such time and price as repurchases are considered beneficial to the Company and its stockholders. Any repurchase of shares will be made through the open market, block trades, or in privately negotiated transactions in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. Under the repurchase plan, there is no minimum number of shares that the Company is required to repurchase.

“First Financial continues to maintain one of the strongest capital positions in the banking industry, and we believe having a share repurchase plan in place serves the best interests of our shareholders by allowing us to repurchase shares when we believe they are attractively priced,” said David Bailey, President and CEO of First Financial Bankshares, Inc. “The renewal of this plan reflects our board’s confidence in the Company’s outlook.”

About First Financial Bankshares, Inc.

Headquartered in Abilene, Texas, First Financial Bankshares, Inc. is a financial holding company that through its subsidiary, First Financial Bank, operates multiple banking regions with 79 locations in Texas, including Abilene, Acton, Albany, Aledo, Alvarado, Beaumont, Boyd, Bridgeport, Brock, Bryan, Burleson, College Station, Cisco, Cleburne, Clyde, Conroe, Cut and Shoot, Decatur, Eastland, El Campo, Fort Worth, Franklin, Fulshear, Glen Rose, Granbury, Grapevine, Hereford, Huntsville, Keller, Kingwood, Lumberton, Magnolia, Mauriceville, Merkel, Midlothian, Mineral Wells, Montgomery, Moran, New Waverly, Newton, Odessa, Orange, Palacios, Port Arthur, Ranger, Rising Star, Roby, San Angelo, Southlake, Stephenville, Sweetwater, Tomball, Trent, Trophy Club, Vidor, Waxahachie, Weatherford, Willis, and Willow Park. The Company also operates First Financial Wealth Management, with nine locations and First Technology Services, Inc., a technology operating company.

The Company is listed on The NASDAQ Global Select Market under the trading symbol FFIN. For more information about First Financial, please visit our website at https://www.ffin.com.

Certain statements contained herein may be considered “forward-looking statements” as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based upon the belief of the Company’s management, as well as assumptions made beyond information currently available to the Company’s management, and may be, but not necessarily are, identified by such words as “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “target,” “forecast,” “project,” and “goal.” Because such “forward-looking statements” are subject to risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company’s expectations include competition from other financial institutions and financial holding companies; the effects of and changes in trade, monetary and fiscal policies and laws, including interest rate policies of the Federal Reserve Board; economic impact of oil and gas prices, changes in the demand for loans; fluctuations in value of collateral and loan reserves; inflation, interest rate, market and monetary fluctuations; changes in consumer spending, borrowing and savings habits; and acquisitions and integration of acquired businesses, and similar variables. Other key risks are described in the Company’s reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which may be obtained under “Investor Relations-Documents and Filings” on the Company’s Website or by writing or calling the Company at 325.627.7155. Except as otherwise stated in this news announcement, the Company does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements because of new information, future events or otherwise.

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SOURCE First Financial Bankshares, Inc.

Technology

CleanSpark Executives to Discuss Q3 2026 Financial Results Via Webcast

Published

48 minutes ago

July 30, 2026

LAS VEGAS, July 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — CleanSpark, Inc. (Nasdaq: CLSK) (“CleanSpark” or the “Company”), a market leading data center developer, will discuss its fiscal third quarter 2026 financial results via a live webcast beginning at 4:30 p.m. ET / 1:30 p.m. PT on Thursday, August 6, 2026.

Webcast Information: To view the webcast, please click here.

Downloadable files, including a transcript, will be available on the company website 48 hours after the event.

About CleanSpark
CleanSpark (Nasdaq: CLSK), is a market-leading data center developer with a proven track record of success. We control a portfolio of more than 1.8 GW of power, land, and data centers across the United States powered by globally competitive energy prices. Sitting at the intersection of Bitcoin, energy, operational excellence, and capital stewardship, we optimize our infrastructure to deliver superior returns to our shareholders. Monetizing low-cost, high reliability energy by producing a global emerging critical resource – compute – positions us to prosper in an ever-changing world.

Investor Relations Contact
Kyle Sourk
702-989-7693
ir@cleanspark.com

Media Contact
Eleni Stylianou
702-989-7694
pr@cleanspark.com

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SOURCE CleanSpark, Inc.

Technology

Bloomberg Expands Electronic Trading for Onshore-Listed Australian ETFs, Options and Futures

Published

48 minutes ago

July 30, 2026

SYDNEY, July 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Bloomberg today announced an expansion of its electronic trading capabilities for the Australian markets, enabling eligible onshore participants to electronically negotiate Australian-listed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) using Bloomberg’s Request-for-Quote (RFQe) workflow, alongside options and futures, following a variation amendment by ASIC.

The first transaction has been facilitated using the RFQe workflow.

Building on Bloomberg’s established Electronic Markets offering, the rule amendment enables the extension of Bloomberg’s Request-for-Quote (RFQe) workflow to include Australian-listed products. Eligible participants can now access domestic and offshore ETF markets through a single, auditable trading experience with minimal onboarding.

“At JBWere, our focus is on delivering strong investment outcomes for clients. Innovations that improve transparency, liquidity access, and execution quality support that objective by enhancing the way investment decisions are implemented,” said Daniel Walsh, Executive Advice at JBWere. “Capabilities such as RFQe contribute to a more efficient and scalable trading environment, helping us better serve clients as markets continue to evolve.”

“Australia’s exchange-traded fund markets continue to grow as investors increasingly adopt ETFs across a broader range of investment strategies,” said Ben Pool, Head of Australia and New Zealand at Bloomberg. “Extending our RFQ workflow to Australian-listed ETFs, options and futures broadens market access while giving eligible participants a consistent trading experience across domestic and global markets.”

Streamlined ETF Workflows for Australian Markets
The expanded capability provides access to competitive multi-dealer liquidity through an electronic RFQ process, replacing workflows that have traditionally relied on voice, messages or other manual methods. The workflow integrates with Bloomberg’s EMSX and AIM while providing a complete electronic audit trail.

Supporting investment, hedging and portfolio management strategies, the enhancement brings together three key Australian listed asset classes, helping firms simplify trading workflows.

The announcement also builds on Bloomberg’s broader ETF offering in Australia, where the ETF markets have grown significantly. Together with BSKT, Bloomberg’s ETF creation and redemption solution, Bloomberg supports the full ETF lifecycle from basket management and creation/redemption to secondary market trading and execution.

Bloomberg’s Electronic Markets solutions are used by leading financial institutions to trade efficiently in over 175 markets around the world. More than 9,000 client firms use Bloomberg Electronic Markets to access industry-leading depth and breadth of liquidity across asset classes from over 1,500 dealers globally. Bloomberg Electronic Markets provides market participants with comprehensive solutions across the trading lifecycle, including robust price transparency, analytics, automation and execution, powered by Bloomberg’s high-quality, multi-asset class data and tools.

About Bloomberg
Bloomberg is a global leader in business and financial information, delivering trusted data, news, and insights that bring transparency, efficiency, and fairness to markets. The company helps connect influential communities across the global financial ecosystem via reliable technology solutions that enable our customers to make more informed decisions and foster better collaboration.

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SOURCE Bloomberg

Technology

Smallest.ai gets $21 Million in Funding to Build Voice 4.0, the Next Generation of Enterprise Voice AI

Published

48 minutes ago

July 30, 2026

Raises $13 million Series A led by Seligman Ventures, bringing total funding to more than $21 millionIntroduces Voice 4.0 and Hydra, an asynchronous AI architecture designed to make AI conversations as natural, responsive and scalable as human dialoguePulse STT and Lightning TTS rank among the top choices for enterprises on Artificial Analysis, leading on speed and cost efficiency across the global leaderboard

SAN FRANCISCO, July 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Smallest.ai, a San Francisco-based foundational AI research lab building the next generation of real-time voice AI infrastructure for enterprises, today announced it has surpassed $21 million in total funding following the close of a $13 million Series A led by Seligman Ventures with participation from Sierra Ventures and 3one4 Capital.

Industry forecasts expect the global Voice AI market to grow from $2.4 billion in 2024 to $47.5 billion by 2034, however, less than 1% of today’s global voice interactions are powered by AI. Enterprises continue to struggle with systems that sound robotic, fail under real-world complexity, introduce latency, and create operational challenges around reliability, compliance and governance. Smallest.ai is expanding its core voice AI platform across financial services, healthcare, contact centers, and business process outsourcing, where organizations are increasingly looking to deploy AI-powered voice agents at scale.

“Voice AI has gone through three generations of innovation, but each generation has ultimately hit the same wall,” said Sudarshan Kamath, founder and CEO of Smallest.ai. “The industry has focused on making models larger when the real challenge is architectural. Humans don’t wait for someone to finish speaking before they begin thinking. We listen, think, and respond simultaneously. Voice AI needs to work the same way. That’s why we built Smallest.ai around a real-time architecture that processes speech as it arrives, enabling faster, more natural conversations without sacrificing intelligence. By rethinking the stack instead of simply scaling models, we’re reducing latency to the point where voice interactions feel genuinely human.”

The End of Voice 3.0

Voice technology has evolved through three major eras:

Voice 1.0: Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems built around rigid phone trees and menu navigation.Voice 2.0: Machine learning-powered voice bots capable of basic intent recognition but unable to handle complexity.Voice 3.0: Generative AI voice agents powered by large language models that sound more natural but still rely on multiple disconnected systems working sequentially.

Today’s voice agents typically require a chain of separate technologies, including speech recognition, language models, text-to-speech systems, orchestration layers, memory systems, and guardrails. The result is high latency, brittle performance, and conversations that still feel distinctly artificial.

Beyond Voice 3.0: Introducing Voice 4.0

Smallest.ai characterizes its innovation as Voice 4.0, a paradigm shift toward AI architectures that process listening, reasoning, action, and response in parallel. Rather than executing these functions sequentially, Voice 4.0 enables them to happen simultaneously, allowing AI systems to respond while conversations are still unfolding.

Hydra: The Architecture Behind Voice 4.0

At the center of Voice 4.0 is Hydra, Smallest.ai’s speech-to-speech model designed around asynchronous intelligence. Rather than waiting for one process to finish before starting another, Hydra performs multiple tasks in parallel, enabling real-time conversational flow, mid-conversation tool use, natural interruptions, and significantly lower latency.

Together, Hydra and Pulse STT Pro are designed to support real-time conversational interactions, with transcription latency measured in milliseconds rather than seconds.

The Smallest.ai Models

Smallest.ai’s broader platform includes Pulse STT Pro and Lightning V3.1, which rank among the top voice AI models on Artificial Analysis for speed, quality, and cost efficiency. Built for enterprise-scale deployments, Pulse STT Pro supports 38 languages and combines low-latency transcription with capabilities such as speaker diarization, emotion detection, code-switching, noise reduction, and built-in PII and PCI redaction.

Customers use Smallest.ai to automate enterprise voice workflows, reducing support costs by up to 80% while improving agent productivity by as much as 10x.

“Voice AI is creating a real impact on life and work,” said Ashish Kakran, Managing Partner at Seligman Ventures. “Developers now increasingly talk to their machines instead of typing code. Smallest.ai is taking a fundamentally different approach to the category by rethinking architecture itself. Customers get an efficient vertically integrated stack and don’t need to waste time stitching models together. We believe the next generation of enterprise voice will be powered by Smallest AI.”

Smallest.ai currently works with organizations managing large-scale voice operations, including RingCentral, Truecaller, Readymode, Piramal, Kogta, Pocket, and others. The company has nearly 60 employees and plans significant expansion over the next year as demand for enterprise voice AI accelerates.

About Smallest.ai
Smallest.ai is a foundational AI research lab building the next generation of real-time voice AI infrastructure for enterprises. The company develops speech recognition, speech generation, and speech-to-speech systems designed to enable natural, scalable AI conversations across customer service, healthcare, financial services, and other high-volume communication environments. Headquartered in San Francisco, Smallest.ai serves enterprises globally through its Voice 4.0 platform and proprietary AI models. The company is backed by Seligman Ventures, Sierra Ventures, 3one4 Capital, Better Capital, Upsparks Capital, Schema Ventures, Tiny VC, DeVC, Mission Street Capital, and other angel investors.

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SOURCE Smallest.ai