Financial Times: Memo: ByteDance asks Chinese staff in Singapore to pay tax to China or risk losing their ability to cash out on stock options, as China steps up tax enforcement — ByteDance's missive comes as China steps up enforcement of global tax collection — TikTok parent ByteDance is asking Chinese employees …
Financial Times: Some crypto executives fear investor backlash over $TRUMP and $MELANIA memecoins; CoinMarketCap reports most $TRUMP trading is concentrated on Asian exchanges — Industry trying to rebuild its reputation frets over potential conflicts of interest and investor losses
Kenza Bryan / Financial Times: Microsoft plans to buy 3.5M carbon credits, estimated to be worth ~$200M, from Re.green over 25 years to restore parts of Brazil's Amazon and Atlantic forests — Tech giant acquires carbon credits worth around $200mn, as energy usage surges due to generative artificial intelligence
Financial Times: Sources: Google is investing $1B+ more in Anthropic, which is also nearing a further $2B round from Silicon Valley VCs led by Lightspeed at a ~$60B valuation — Artificial intelligence group closes in on $60bn valuation — Google is making a fresh investment of more than $1bn into OpenAI rival Anthropic …
Eleanor Olcott / Financial Times: Huawei plans to challenge Nvidia in China's AI chip market by positioning its latest Ascend AI processors as the hardware of choice for “inference” tasks — Tech giant pushes its artificial intelligence chips as hardware of choice for ‘inference’ tasks
Demetri Sevastopulo / Financial Times: US Commerce Department official Alan Estevez says export rules have “definitely impeded” China's AI chips, and defends the recent three-tier chip access rules — Alan Estevez was at cutting edge of Biden administration's efforts to take global lead in artificial intelligence
Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times: An interview with Broadcom's Hock Tan on backlash from VMware customers, positioning VMware as a “sovereign” alternative to Big Tech's cloud services, and more — Hock Tan is positioning the tech group's $69bn software acquisition as a ‘sovereign’ alternative to Big Tech's cloud services
Financial Times: A profile of Charlwin Mao, founder of Xiaohongshu or “Little Red Book”, who claims the name references the color of his university Stanford and ex-employer Bain — A sudden surge of US users on Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote, could threaten China's Great Firewall
Financial Times: EU expands its X probe, asking for internal docs about X's recommendation algorithm, following complaints from German politicians about boosting the far right — Move follows complaints from German politicians ahead of election next month — Brussels has ordered Elon Musk …
Kathrin Hille / Financial Times: Researchers fear TikTok is softening Taiwanese youth's stance on China with pro-China content; a report says 22% of Taiwan's population uses TikTok or Douyin — A growing number of researchers fear that the controversial app is promoting pro-China content and softening attitudes towards the People's Republic
Daniel Thomas / Financial Times: UK's Ofcom imposes robust age checks on porn sites, which could include photo ID matching, facial age estimation technology, and credit card checks — Ofcom sets out new rules that could include photo ID matching and credit card verification — The UK media regulator will make it harder …
Financial Times: India's IT outsourcing industry, which gets more than half of its revenue from the US, expects Trump's deregulation to spur growth by boosting tech spending — After years of anaemic growth in largest market, sector expects promised deregulation to encourage tech spending
Financial Times: Amazon's AGI lead Rohit Prasad says Alexa will relaunch as an AI agent as Amazon works to address challenges in the system's AI overhaul — Rollout of upgraded voice assistant hit by delays as Big Tech group toils to overcome technical hurdles — Amazon is gearing up to relaunch …
Financial Times: Sources: the EU is reassessing its DMA probes into US tech giants like Apple, Meta, and Google, launched since March 2024, as US groups urge Trump to intervene — Tech groups have urged Donald Trump to intervene against overzealous European regulation — Brussels is reassessing …
Lauly Li / Nikkei Asia: Sources: China tightens scrutiny of Apple and other US tech firms' exports under its dual-use export controls, slowing production expansion in SE Asia and India — TAIPEI — China is increasing its scrutiny of exports by Apple and other American tech companies, hampering their efforts …
Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asia: Sources: Apple is finalizing verification of its first cutting-edge chips from TSMC's Arizona plant, with the initial batch expected as early as this quarter — TAIPEI — Apple is in the final stage of verifying its first “made in America” cutting-edge processor chips from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s plant in Arizona.
Financial Times: The Biden admin unveils new chip export rules, giving 18 key allies full AI chips access while requiring licenses from most other countries, including China — US semiconductor industry warns move will aid competitors — The US is imposing expansive export controls on chips used …
Financial Times: Some advertisers raise brand safety concerns over Meta's content moderation changes, fearing a surge in harmful content and misinformation on its platforms — Facebook owner's move to loosen policing of online content has raised fears over a surge in misinformation
David Allen Green / Financial Times: How aligning with Trump's new administration lets Meta and X pivot from futile cooperation with the EU and other jurisdictions to confrontation and coercion — Behind the alignment of X and Meta with Trump is a cold business logic — and a position of weakness rather than strength
Financial Times: A UK trial in the £1.5B class action suit against Apple is set to begin on Monday over allegations that the company levies “excessive and unfair” App Store fees — iPhone maker faces claim it levies ‘excessive and unfair’ charges on software downloaded from its App Store …
Owen Walker / Financial Times: Malaysia's economy minister Rafizi Ramli says the country anticipates a surge in investment from Chinese tech companies as Beijing braces for more US tariffs — Rafizi Ramli suggests semiconductor and tech sectors are seeking to avoid exposure to possible Trump tariffs
George Hammond / Financial Times: Huge recent fundraising deals for Databricks, SpaceX, and OpenAI may delay their IPOs; Forge Global says the seven largest US private firms are worth $695B — Huge recent fundraising deals for Databricks, SpaceX and OpenAI further delay need for stock market debuts
John Gapper / Financial Times: A look at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, RELX's largest division, which accounts for ~35% of RELX's revenue and holds 9B device records and 3B digital identities — Company once known as Reed Elsevier has moved from legal and scientific publishing into AI fraud detection
Nikkei Asia: TSMC reports December revenue up 57.8% YoY to $8.4B, pushing the 2024 revenue to ~$88.02B, up 34% YoY, driven by AI chips demand from Nvidia and Broadcom — TAIPEI — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s revenue surged 33.9% in 2024 from the previous year, driven by the boom in demand …
Taylor Nicole Rogers / Financial Times: Analysts say that contract negotiations between US dockworkers and the shipping industry over automation could help provide a template for agreements nationwide — As automation becomes a reality everywhere from retail warehouses to restaurant kitchens, the use of robots is increasingly controversial
Brooke Masters / Financial Times: NHTSA: software fixes accounted for 15% of US automotive recalls in 2024, up from 6% in 2019, as traditional carmakers struggle with managing software updates — Managing smooth updates is becoming ever important with the spread of EVs and more sophisticated systems
Niamh Rowe / Financial Times: US bitcoin miners, including Riot Platforms, leveraged BTC's recent price surge to raise $3.7B+ from investors since November, and used the funds to buy coins — US-listed groups tap investors for cash as competition for resources intensifies — US bitcoin miners are accumulating war chests …
Michael Acton / Financial Times: Jensen Huang predicts robotics could become “the largest technology industry the world has ever seen”; Nvidia: the humanoids market to reach $38B in 20 years — Jensen Huang unveils AI models for humanoids and self-driving car partnership with Toyota at CES keynote
Daniel Thomas / Financial Times: Sources: Apple plans to expand Apple News in more countries and considered building locally focused news coverage in the UK; Apple News has 125M monthly users — Tech group now a force in driving revenues for publishers in US, UK, Canada and Australia — Unlock the Editor's Digest for free
Financial Times: Malaysia's environment minister says global tech companies should expect to pay a premium for access to energy and water to serve data centers in the country — Investment in ‘oil of the 21st century’ will support country's development of renewable power — Global tech companies should expect …
Suzi Ring / Financial Times: The UK CMA is testing an AI tool to help catch companies that collude when bidding for public contracts, amid a “significant risk of bid-rigging” by contractors — Agency is trialling an AI-backed programme that scrapes data to identify bid-rigging
Stephanie Stacey / Financial Times: CrowdStrike, whose botched software update caused a global IT outage in July 2024, has more than recovered the $30B in market value it shed after the crisis — Cyber security company has more than recovered the $30bn in market value it shed after the crisis
Jacqueline Sweet / The Spectator World: Analysis of social media posts, AI art, Spaces comments, biographical details, and more suggests Adrian Dittmann is a German fan of Elon Musk living in Fiji — An Elon Musk fan in Fiji tricks the world — The AI avatar for the Adrian Dittmann X account, left, and Adrian Dittmann appearing …
Financial Times: Industry insiders hope the success of Black Myth: Wukong, which earned ~$1.1B from nearly 25M copies, will rekindle Chinese gaming investments after a crackdown — As Beijing eases regulations, developers are tooling up to produce big-budget titles with international appeal
Stephen Morris / Financial Times: An interview with YouTube CEO Neal Mohan on rolling out AI tools without upsetting creators, and more; YouTube has paid $70B to partners in the past three years — Veteran executive seen as a potential Google CEO must tackle threats from Trump to tech rivals
John Thornhill / Financial Times: Paris is vying with London as Europe's top AI hotspot, with 34 of the 40 best-performing startups at the Station F incubator in 2024 focused on AI — Momentum has been slowing but the country boasts enviable technical skills and a burgeoning entrepreurial culture
Financial Times: While the crypto industry anticipates lighter regulation and wider adoption under Trump, some critics worry about systemic risks, particularly from stablecoins — The sector expects lighter regulation and wider adoption under the president-elect, but some worry about systemic risks
Stephanie Stacey / Financial Times: Experts warn of a rise in personalized phishing emails targeting corporate executives with personal details probably obtained via AI analysis of online profiles — Fast-developing technology gives hackers ability to craft ‘perfect’ fraudulent emails — Corporate executives are being hit …
Financial Times: Nvidia invested $1B across 50 funding rounds and several corporate deals in 2024, up from $872M in 2023; the majority of deals were with “core AI” companies — Group emerges as crucial backer of start-ups seeking to gain from the tech revolution its chips are powering
Nikkei Asia: Huawei Rotating Chair Meng Wanzhou says the company is helping train 300,000+ tech students per year, in cooperation with 3,000+ universities in 110 countries — TAIPEI — China's Huawei Technologies said it has built tech “academies” in 110 nations to cultivate hundreds of thousands of engineers a year …
Sylvia Pfeifer / Financial Times: The defense industry is poised for a deal surge as firms expand in AI, drones, and space systems; Bain: VC deal value in the sector has risen 18x in a decade — Large contractors expected to use growing cash piles to invest in high-growth areas — Defence companies are primed for a surge …
Camilla Hodgson / Financial Times: KoBold Metals, which uses AI to sift through historical and scientific data to identify untapped mineral deposits, raised a $537M Series C at a $2.96B valuation — KoBold Metals aims to lead race for critical minerals needed for energy transition — A mining and artificial intelligence start …
Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times: DFC Intelligence expects GTA VI to generate $3.2B in its first year, double that of 2013's GTA V, making it a bright spot in a lackluster video games market — Long-awaited release expected to be a bright spot in lacklustre video games market — The long-awaited release …
Clara Murray / Financial Times: Analysis: mentions of deepfakes or AI-made content in X's Community Notes were more correlated with new image generation model releases than elections in 2024 — The panic over AGI disinformation in this year's political cycle seems to have been overblown — Around this time last year …
Gregory Meyer / Financial Times: US open-air shopping center vacancies drop to historically low levels, defying forecasts of a retail apocalypse caused by e-commerce, which has ~16% of US sales — Availability of outdoor shopping centre space is at its lowest in nearly two decades — Vacancies at open-air shopping centres …
Financial Times: Advantest CEO Doug Lefever, whose company is the largest provider of chip testing machines, on AI chip demand, China, and more; Advantest's stock is up 95%+ YTD — Advantest chief warns any faltering in Big Tech's AI investments will reverberate through supply chain
Richard Milne / Financial Times: Finland says it suspects an oil tanker in Russia's shadow fleet of damaging three undersea internet cables on December 25, the latest Baltic Sea cable damaged — Helsinki opens investigation into damaged power line in latest suspected sabotage attack on Baltic Sea infrastructure
Malcolm Moore / Financial Times: Italian energy giant Eni launches its HPC6 supercomputer, the most powerful outside the US, costing €100M to build and using 14K AMD GPUs, to find oil and gas — Italian energy giant switches on the world's most powerful machine outside the US — Italian energy giant Eni is firing …
Yasemin Craggs Mersinoglu / Financial Times: Opensignal ranks Japan #1 in G7 mobile reliability experience between July 1 and September 28, followed by France, Germany, the US, Canada, Italy, and the UK — Research highlights impact of poor network performance on consumers — Mobile users in the UK had the least reliable experience …
Stephanie Stacey / Financial Times: The biggest online dating companies are in crisis, as women and younger users increasingly look elsewhere, toward niche apps, websites, or real-life meetups — The biggest online dating companies are in crisis, as women and younger users look elsewhere, towards niche sites or real-life meets