Financial Times: OpenAI faces rising pressure from rivals three years after ChatGPT's debut; Similarweb says Gemini users chat longer per visit than ChatGPT and Claude users — Three years since the debut of ChatGPT, the $500bn start-up is facing significant challenges to its dominance in AI
Kathrin Hille / Financial Times: Taiwan raises its 2025 GDP growth forecast to 7.37%, up from 4.45% forecasted in August, the fastest in 15 years, as AI demand boosts its electronics exports — Growth forecast for 2025 raised to 7.37%, the fastest rate in 15 years — Taiwan has sharply raised its economic growth forecast …
Bryce Elder / Financial Times: Jefferies: Tether, which said it held 116 tons of gold in September, is “the largest holder of gold outside central banks”, buying 26 tons in Q3 and 24 in Q2 — Remember about a month ago, when gold hit an all-time high, lots of commentators got on their hobby horses to huff about currency debasement?
Nicholas Fearn / Financial Times: London-based AI video startup Synthesia says its ARR reached $100M by April 2025, after reporting 2024 revenue up 82% YoY to $58M and a pre-tax loss of $59M — Seeing limited potential in its niche dubbing product, Synthesia built an AI tool to appeal across industries
Financial Times: Sources: Alibaba and ByteDance are among the top Chinese companies training their latest LLMs in Southeast Asian data centers to access Nvidia's AI chips — Alibaba and ByteDance shift development to south-east Asia to sidestep US curbs — Top Chinese companies are training …
Financial Times: Michael Saylor-led Strategy is down 50%+ in the past three months after crypto loses $1T+ in value, as the “digital asset treasury” craze at companies unravels — ‘Digital asset treasury’ craze sours amid $1tn rout in cryptocurrency market — Crypto-hoarding companies …
Samuel Agini / Financial Times: Q&A with Sportable co-founders Dugald Macdonald and Peter Husemeyer on their sensor-based sports tech that generates data for teams, leagues, and broadcasters — The founders of Sportable are using sensors to provide a wealth of information for athletes, teams and fans
Michael Peel / Financial Times: Researchers detail popEVE, an AI model to predict the disease-causing potential of unknown human genetic mutations, and says it beats Google's AlphaMissense — PopEVE system outperformed rivals such as Google DeepMind's AlphaMissense — Scientists have built an artificial intelligence model …
Financial Times: Taiwan's minister Wu Cheng-wen says the US won't impose “punishing” tariffs on Taiwan, after a “consensus” that Taiwan would support the US chip industry — Tech official says Taipei willing to share lessons from its world-leading industrial model under trade deal
Martin Arnold / Financial Times: The UK CMA opens probes into StubHub, Viagogo, and others over allegedly deceptive online pricing practices; the UK plans to ban above face value ticket resales — CMA opens investigations into eight companies including ticketing websites StubHub and Viagogo
Kieran Smith / Financial Times: Sources: UK companies and groups tell the UK that a planned ban on paying ransoms to ransomware gangs is unlikely to stop attacks and risks collapsing services — Companies and security groups warn government's proposed measure is unlikely to stop hacking attacks
Financial Times: A look at Indian messaging app Arattai, which officials are backing as a domestic WhatsApp alternative; Arattai maker Zoho says it had 350K sign-ups in October — Top officials promote domestic messaging platform as Narendra Modi pushes self-reliance in face of US tariffs
Financial Times: European carmaker officials warn the industry faces “devastating” chip shortages after the Netherlands' Nexperia takeover and is scrambling to find alternatives — Executives warn production lines could stop within weeks as the Dutch chipmaker is not sending products to China unit
Ivan Levingston / Financial Times: Philadelphia-based grocery delivery company Gopuff raised $250M led by Eldridge Industries and Valor Equity at an $8.5B valuation, down from $15B in 2021 — Investment marks fresh backing for US rapid delivery app service seen as survivor in turbulent sector
Financial Times: Google files a lawsuit in the SDNY against China-based hackers who it says run the Lighthouse platform for “phishing services”, ensnaring 1M and stealing $1B+ — Tech giant aims to dismantle the ‘Lighthouse Enterprise’, which it claims has tricked 1mn victims out of $1bn
Financial Times: Sources: software-focused PE firm Vista plans significant workforce cuts in the coming years as it uses AI to compile presentations, aggregate data, and more — Software-focused buyout shop will use technology to trim roles making investor presentations and aggregate data
David Keohane / Financial Times: SoftBank sold its entire Nvidia stake, or ~32M shares, in October for $5.8B and part of its T-Mobile stake for $9.2B, boosting Q2 profit to $16.2B, above est. — Net profit doubles to $16bn on gains from OpenAI and PayPay holdings — Masayoshi Son's SoftBank Group has sold its entire stake …
Lee Harris / Financial Times: ABI: UK insurers paid out £197M+ in cyber claims in 2024, up from £60M in 2023; malware and ransomware-related claims were 51% of the total, up from 32% in 2023 — Companies paid out £197mn, according to the Association of British Insurers, prior to a string of high-profile attacks
George Steer / Financial Times: A look at Dominari Holdings and Yorkville Advisors, two little-known boutique banks that have helped finance the Trump family's flurry of crypto deals this year — Dominari Holdings and Yorkville Advisors are benefiting from close connections with Eric and Donald Trump Jr
Financial Times: Nasdaq had its worst 5-day run since April, falling 3% for the week as the combined market value of eight most valuable AI-related stocks fell by about $800B — Nasdaq falls 3% over the five-day period as investors worry about sky-high valuations — US companies closely tied …
Chris Allnutt / Financial Times: A profile of Football Manager game developer Sports Interactive, which has ~280 full-time staff and licenses its scouting data to 40+ teams, as it releases FM26 — Over 33 years, the series has won over frustrated fans, the football industry, even Americans — but it took three Lionesses to get women's teams into the game
Philip Stafford / Financial Times: UK retailer M&S reports a £135.6M profit hit in H1 2025 after a cyber attack in April, which it attributes to DragonForce, and claimed £100M from its insurers — Stuart Machin says prospect of Budget tax rises is making customers uneasy — Marks and Spencer chief executive …
Nikou Asgari / Financial Times: Chainalysis CEO Jonathan Levin says DeFi platforms' rapid growth leaves their users' assets at risk of attack; DefiLlama says $140B+ is held on DeFi protocols — Head of world's biggest crypto tracing company says security 'hasn't really been considered' by start-ups
Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times: Microsoft says the US now lets it ship the latest Nvidia chips to the UAE, the first company to get a license; Trump made a deal with UAE President MBZ in May — Commerce department approval paves way for huge new investment in AI and cloud infrastructure in Middle East
Financial Times: London is establishing itself as a center for quantitative finance; filings show trading firms XTX, Qube, and Quadrature each made £1B+ revenue in the past year — A pipeline of skilled graduates is helping the UK build out its expertise in algorithmic trading
Financial Times: Analysis: sports volumes on Kalshi approach $1B a week, with open interest in sports contracts regularly above $100M, significantly higher than other categories — Open interest in Kalshi sports contracts has surged past any other category as lawsuits threaten operations
George Steer / Financial Times: Big Tech's dominance on the S&P 500 is becoming more extreme; the eight biggest tech stocks account for 60% of the gains since the market bottomed in April 2025 — In a week when Nvidia's value reached $5tn, investors in even the broadest index of global companies are now heavily exposed to the AI boom
Financial Times: China says it will allow some Nexperia semiconductor chip exports to resume to ease critical supply shortages impacting global auto production — Dispute over Netherlands-based chipmaker has threatened to disrupt global auto supply chains — China has said it will allow some Nexperia chips …
Financial Times: Google, Meta, and Microsoft collectively spent nearly $80B on AI infrastructure in Q3, dividing the market on whether they can translate huge capex into income — Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft divide the market over whether they can translate huge capital expenditure into income
Financial Times: Sources: JPMorgan Chase is giving staff the option to use its in-house LLM to write year-end performance reviews, a shortcut to the often painstaking process — Move allows employees to use bank's large language model to generate reviews from their own prompts
Financial Times: Airbus, Leonardo, and Thales agree to a deal to combine their space businesses, promising “significant synergies” in a bid to build a European SpaceX competitor — European defence groups promise ‘significant synergies’ to respond to rapid expansion of Starlink network
Cristina Criddle / Financial Times: Lawyers for a teen who died by suicide after allegedly discussing methods with ChatGPT call OpenAI's request for all memorial documents “intentional harassment” — Family of teen who took his own life after ChatGPT use alleges chatbot maker intentionally weakened protections
Financial Times: Electricity demand from data centers powering the AI boom has caused a gas turbine supply crunch, as the US becomes the epicenter of new gas-fired power plants — A supply crunch in giant turbines for gas-powered plants threatens environmental and geopolitical consequences
Kenza Bryan / Financial Times: Carbon accounting authority Greenhouse Gas Protocol proposes its first update in a decade to tighten its rules, threatening US giants like Amazon and Meta — Amazon and Meta face biggest proposed update on measuring emissions in a decade — The world's leading authority on carbon accounting …
Financial Times: Blackstone President Jonathan Gray says AI risk is “top of our list” when evaluating deals; sources: the firm backed down from buying companies vulnerable to AI — Jonathan Gray says private capital group has put risks from the technology ‘top of our list’ when evaluating deals
Financial Times: Sources: Chinese companies including Ant Group and JD.com pause plans to issue stablecoins in Hong Kong after instructions from regulators not to move ahead — Regulators raise concerns about the rise of privately controlled currencies — Chinese tech giants have paused plans …
Stephanie Stacey / Financial Times: Strava CEO Michael Martin says Strava plans to launch a US IPO; Sensor Tower says Strava has 50M MAUs and users spent $180M+ on Premium in the year to September — CEO Michael Martin targets US IPO to raise capital for deals to keep Strava ahead of rivals including Garmin and Nike
Cristina Criddle / Financial Times: Sources: xAI is building world models for use in gaming and robotics, and has hired two AI researchers, Zeeshan Patel and Ethan He, from Nvidia to work on them — Artificial intelligence group hired staff from Nvidia to work on advanced AI that can design and navigate physical spaces
Financial Times: The UK CMA designates Google with “strategic market status” in online search, but excludes Gemini; Google warns such oversight could slow product launches — Big Tech company becomes the first to be designated with special status under strict new digital laws
Financial Times: Sources: China tightens customs checks on chip imports, starting with Nvidia's H20 and RTX Pro 6000D, after urging local tech companies to avoid Nvidia products — Stringent border checks come after Beijing orders tech companies to stop ordering US processors
Martin Arnold / Financial Times: The European Securities and Markets Authority plans to centralize the regulation of stock exchanges, crypto companies, and clearing houses at an EU level — Esma chair says move would help boost bloc's capital markets by removing supervision from 27 separate authorities
Financial Times: A profile of Silver Lake co-CEO Egon Durban, who brokered the EA takeover with Jared Kushner, following the PE firm's high-stakes deals from TikTok to Altera — Dealmaker's $55bn takeover of Electronic Arts follows a spree of high-stakes transactions from TikTok to Endeavor
Financial Times: Sources: the UK Home Office issued a new order to Apple in early September to create a backdoor into its cloud storage service, this time focused on UK users — Order issued in September comes after Trump administration said London had backed down in fight over encryption
Tabby Kinder / Financial Times: A profile of AI skeptic Ed Zitron: Sam Altman's firing and return was his “Joker moment”, tech journalism is flawed, his brash persona is not a mask, and more — How a British-born hobbyist blogger became one of Big Tech's punchiest critics — Ed Zitron is not a journalist …
Financial Times: A look at some uncertainties surrounding Nvidia's proposed $100B investment in OpenAI, including concerns about the agreement's circular structure — Jensen Huang seeks to ensure US chipmaker stays at the heart of new tech — Tim Bradshaw in London, George Hammond in Abilene, Texas and Stephen Morris in San Francisco
Financial Times: A look at the data center cluster in the Chinese city of Wuhu, where 15 companies, including Huawei, have built data centers with a total investment of $37B — Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy.
Financial Times: Happn, a dating app with 170M registered users that matches people based on where they cross paths, agrees to a takeover deal with Beijing-based Hello Group — French company targets Asian markets after agreeing takeover deal with Hello Group of China — The online dating industry must …
Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times: Sources: Nvidia is in advanced discussions to invest $500M in UK self-driving car startup Wayve, as part of a £2B pledge for UK startups; Wayve is evaluating — AI chipmaker's chief tells London audience that UK's first trillion-dollar company will be an AI business
Martin Arnold / Financial Times: The UK FCA plans to exempt cryptoasset providers from some of its finance rules, as it prepares to integrate the sector into its regulatory framework from 2026 — FCA says traditional financial rules would not be effective for the sector as it prepares to fully integrate the market
Financial Times: How Kalshi is shaking up US sports betting, as its board member and CFTC Chair nominee Brian Quintenz takes a permissive stance on sports prediction markets — Kalshi is spearheading a legal battle to expand access to online betting, with support from some in Trump's circle