Financial Times: An Iranian union official says Iran will demand that shipping companies pay tolls in crypto of $1 per barrel for tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz — Country's oil exporters' union says toll to be paid in cryptocurrency and vessels monitored for weapons
Financial Times: Russian cryptocurrency payment network A7 expands to Africa, as Moscow builds an alternative payments system amid western sanctions after its Ukraine invasion — Videos show A7 office in Nigeria, while company also claims new branch in Zimbabwe — A recent vacancy posted …
Financial Times: Sources: Meta's “Project Walleye” Ohio data center seeks $3B in loans in a first-of-its-kind deal where lenders will fund both the building and the power assets — ‘Project Walleye’ lenders would be first to fund both construction and power — A data centre campus backed …
Stephen Morris / Financial Times: Sources: AI startup Poolside held talks with Google and others to revive a Texas data center project after a CoreWeave deal and a $2B Nvidia-led round collapsed — AI start-up held talks with Google and other cloud providers in bid to revive ambitious 2-gigawatt Texas project
Laura Pitel / Financial Times: How a small German state's bid to replace Microsoft with open-source alternatives like Linux and Kamailio faces issues, as the EU pushes “digital sovereignty” — Schleswig-Holstein's radical tech overhaul offers Europe a live experiment in ending dependence on US Big Tech
Patrick McGee / Financial Times: As Apple turns 50, a look at how a management course in postwar Japan paved the way for Steve Jobs' obsession with quality and its dominance in the iPhone era — How a little-known yet highly influential management course in postwar Japan paved the way for Steve Jobs' obsession with quality.
Joe Miller / Financial Times: US CTO Ethan Klein plans to urge the UK and its allies to help “shore up” quantum computing supply chains at a London meeting, after a US-UK tech deal standoff — US CTO Ethan Klein seeks British co-operation amid stand-off over wider tech pact
Bethan Staton / Financial Times: AI has led some employers like L'Oréal to return to in-person assessments during recruiting, as senior HR leaders see a steep rise in AI-generated applications — Employers wading through job applications are returning to in-person and practical assessments
Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times: Paris-based AI startup Mistral raised $830M in its debut debt financing to build Nvidia-powered data centers across Europe; Mistral plans to spend €4B in total — French company's debut debt financing follows rising demand for alternatives to US groups
Financial Times: Vinod Khosla says AI is accelerating a shift of wealth and power away from workers, and an income tax overhaul in the US could offset voter fears about job loss — Vinod Khosla says voter fears over technology causing job losses will shape upcoming US elections
Barbara Moens / Financial Times: The EU accuses Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX, and XVideos of failing to protect kids from exposure to pornographic content, in preliminary DSA investigation findings — Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos accused of inadequate checks on users' ages — The EU has accused some of the world's …
Financial Times: OpenAI shelves its erotic chatbot “indefinitely” as it refocuses on its core products, sources say after technical issues as well as staff and investor concerns — Decision follows staff and investor concerns about sexual AI content — OpenAI has shelved plans to release an erotic chatbot …
Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times: Apple rolls out mandatory UK age verification with iOS 26.4, requiring users to provide a credit card or ID, a first in Europe, after UK government pressure — Move follows pressure from government on smartphone makers to do more to protect children online
Rafe Rosner-Uddin / Financial Times: Amazon's Zoox plans to launch a paid robotaxi service in Las Vegas by late June, pending local approvals and an NHTSA exemption, ahead of a San Francisco launch — Driverless car group pushes forward with commercial rollout to catch up with rivals Waymo and Tesla
Joe Miller / Financial Times: How Palantir became a flashpoint on the US campaign trail due to its ICE work, ahead of the midterms; six lawmakers publicly refuse any further Palantir funds — Donald Trump's unpopular immigration crackdown has made links to the Peter Thiel-backed company a liability for candidates
Financial Times: European VC firm Hummingbird raised $800M to find “misfit” founders, taking its total assets to ~$2B, after backing Kraken and AI vibe coding startup Lovable — Hummingbird to put $800mn in funds to work after lucrative early bets on the likes of Kraken and Lovable
Demetri Sevastopulo / Financial Times: US Senators Warren and Banks urge suspending Nvidia AI chip export licenses to China and Southeast Asia, following Supermicro co-founder Wally Liaw's indictment — Lawmakers call for commerce department to suspend licences that let company send advanced semiconductors to south-east Asia
Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times: Q&A with GV's Tom Hulme on the AI investment cycle, London's and Europe's opportunities, Q.ai and Nothing investments, AI social norms, sovereign AI, and more — The head of the European office of GV talks about the AI investment cycle and predicts a comeback for Google Glass-style smart glasses
Cristina Criddle / Financial Times: A Stanford study of 391K+ messages across nearly 5,000 chats: AI chatbots affirmed user messages in nearly 66% of replies, often validating delusional thinking — AI chatbots are reinforcing unhealthy beliefs in their users by agreeing even when users express delusional or harmful ideas …
Financial Times: Sources: KKR, Blackstone, and other investors have turned down some data center debt because of insufficient insurance against risks like natural disasters — Lack of sufficient cover means some investors are walking away from deals — Lenders looking to fund the build-out of data centres …
Anastasia Stognei / Financial Times: Mobile internet blackouts hit Moscow as the Kremlin tightens control; Roskomnadzor data shows average daily traffic is down ~20% in March compared to February — Outages mark new phase in government campaign against internet freedom — Moscow is experiencing mass mobile internet blackouts …
Elon Musk / Financial Times: A US judge questions Elon Musk's $134B claim for damages in his lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft but rules he can still make his case to a jury — California court questions billionaire's expert witness but declines to exclude the testimony from April trial
Financial Times: Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab signs a chip supply deal with Nvidia worth tens of billions of dollars, planning to deploy 1GW+ of next-gen Vera Rubin chips — Multiyear partnership includes a further ‘significant’ investment from Nvidia into one-year-old AI start-up
Financial Times: South Korean giant Coupang is lobbying the US to represent its interests as it faces 10+ data leak probes; Coupang Korea CEO Harold Rogers attended Trump's SOTU — Coupang leans on its US domicile to lobby Washington against probes from Seoul — Coupang, the online retailer, once called itself a “proud Korean company”.
Mary McDougall / Financial Times: A Lloyds-commissioned study of 5,000 people in the UK finds that 50%+ of the adults used generative AI platforms for financial advice; ChatGPT was the most used — Millions of people are already turning to chatbots such as ChatGPT to plan their retirement — When Dan, a 41-year-old …
Michael Acton / Financial Times: Samsung's consumer device chief TM Roh says it is “open to strategic co-operation” with more AI groups, having recently added Perplexity to its mobile OS — Korean giant's device chief says its future Galaxy devices will host multiple models as users mix and match AI tools
Financial Times: Sources: Palmer Luckey's ModRetro, which wants to sell updated versions of 1990s consoles like the Nintendo 64, is in talks to raise funding at a $1B valuation — From AI weapons to Game Boys, defence tech billionaire is in talks to raise funds for new gaming venture ModRetro
Financial Times: US investors are pushing Asian fund managers to create special vehicles so they can invest in Asia while avoiding US investment restrictions on Chinese tech — Institutional clients increasingly want so-called parallel funds that exclude certain assets — US investors are increasingly …
Stephen Morris / Financial Times: Alphabet gives Sundar Pichai a new three-year pay deal worth up to $692M, with stock incentives worth as much as $350M linked to the growth of Waymo and Wing — Alphabet boss gets bumper package of stock options tied to the share price and growth of Waymo in the next three years
Financial Times: A draft guidance from the US GSA tightens rules for civilian AI contracts to require AI companies to allow “any lawful” use by the government of their models — The Trump administration has drawn up tight rules for civilian artificial intelligence contracts that would require AI companies …
Ivan Levingston / Financial Times: A look at Munich's UnternehmerTUM, which tops the FT ranking of Europe's startup hubs for a third straight year and has supported 1,000+ companies since 2002 — Centre tops the FT's ranking of Europe's leading start-up hubs for the third time — A trip to Stanford University …
Financial Times: Multiple AWS developers say they are asked to take on new roles with AI tools' assistance, and engineers are now required to complete technical writing tasks — Drive for ‘leaner’ operations piles pressure on employees but could be a playbook for rivals — Amazon's HR chief last month sought …
Financial Times: Sources: DeepSeek plans to release its multimodal model V4 next week and worked with Huawei and Chinese AI chipmaker Cambricon to optimize V4 for their products — Chinese AI group has worked with Huawei to cut reliance on Nvidia chips — Eleanor Olcott in Istanbul and Zijing Wu in Sapporo
Philip Stafford / Financial Times: UK online supermarket Ocado plans to cut ~1,000 jobs and restructure its automated warehouse tech business; Kroger and Sobeys exited their Ocado deals early — Company warns key business's earnings will be hit by end of prolonged period of capital investment
Financial Times: Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff dismisses concerns of a “SaaS-pocalypse”, saying companies like Anthropic use “a lot of SaaS because it just got better with agents” — Shares in company that sells software as a service fall after it projects revenue below Wall Street's expectations
Akila Quinio / Financial Times: Stripe hits a $159B valuation after an employee share sale to investors like Thrive, Coatue, and a16z, a 70% jump from its $92B valuation in February 2025 — Deal will allow payments company to stay private for longer — Stripe's valuation has soared by more than 70 per cent to $159bn …
Financial Times: European military officials worry “tech sovereignty” ideas may have serious consequences for European security, given their reliance on US software and networks — European top brass sceptical about politicians' push to decouple from US tech companies
Max Seddon / Financial Times: Russian media: Russia opens an investigation into Telegram founder Pavel Durov for “abetting terrorist activities”, as it promotes its state-run rival Max app — Kremlin steps up curbs against messaging app and promotes a state-backed rival — Russia has opened an investigation …
Michelle Chan / Financial Times: Data center developers are seeking credit ratings even while facilities are under construction to unlock new capital; S&P, Moody's, and others expand coverage — Agencies are rushing to rate the debt of projects still under construction — Data centre developers are seeking credit ratings …
Kimi Chaddah / Financial Times: A look at the rising popularity of “WorkTok” videos, where employees film their daily work routines on TikTok and Instagram, particularly among Gen Z viewers — Employees videoing their mundane office routines are teaching a younger audience about corporate life
Stephen Foley / Financial Times: Source Global: the US consulting market is set to grow 7% in 2026, the fastest pace in the post-COVID era, as companies seek advice on profiting from AI — Companies are seeking advice on how to provide energy to data centres and profit from artificial intelligence
Financial Times: Sources: Nvidia nears an equity investment of up to $30B in OpenAI, replacing last year's long-term $100B commitment; the deal could be closed this weekend — Chipmaker swaps last year's complex framework with AI start-up in favour of equity cheque — Nvidia is close to finalising …
Hannah Murphy / Financial Times: Sources: Meta cuts its annual distribution of stock options by ~5% for most of its staff, equating to tens of thousands of employees, after a ~10% cut in 2025 — Most employees will receive 5% less in equity rewards as Mark Zuckerberg slashes costs to fund huge AI spending
Joe Miller / Financial Times: How US citizens, clergy, and elected officials in conservative communities like Missouri are leading a grassroots rebellion against the Trump-backed AI boom — Republicans fear backlash against White House agenda could undermine support in this year's midterm elections
Melissa Heikkilä / Financial Times: Q&A with Synthesia founder and CEO Victor Riparbelli on growing the London-based enterprise AI video platform, hitting a $4B valuation, AI regulation, and more — The founder of the $4bn UK start-up talks about his mission to reinvent content creation and how Europe can compete in the global AI race
David Keohane / Financial Times: UK activist investor Palliser says Toto, Japan's largest toilet maker, is an “undervalued and overlooked” AI play due to its “advanced ceramics” used in chips — Toto should make more of its sideline in the chip supply chain, Palliser urges
Suzi Ring / Financial Times: London lawsuit: Getir co-founders Nazim Salur and Serkan Borançılı sue Abu Dhabi's Mubadala for $700M, alleging a “significant loss” in breaking up Getir assets — Entrepreneurs behind food delivery start-up sue Gulf sovereign wealth fund in London
Financial Times: Uber says it plans to launch Uber Eats in Austria and six other European countries in 2026, as it gains market share in the UK, Germany, France, and Spain — Ride-hailing company plans to step up competition to DoorDash-owned rival Wolt in Norway and Finland
Rafe Rosner-Uddin / Financial Times: Current and former senior employees say AWS is undergoing a strategic shake-up amid fears it is losing ground to competitors in securing corporate AI contracts — Shake-up follows fears tech giant missed early AI boom as Microsoft and Google challenge cloud business
Financial Times: Sources: TSMC plans to invest another $100B to build four more US fabs to ensure tariff-free chip sales; analysis: its Arizona site has land for four more fabs — Agreements reached between Taiwan and Trump administration imply big expansion for world's biggest chipmaker