Cristina Criddle / Financial Times: Sources: OpenAI is prioritizing ChatGPT over long-term research, prompting senior staff departures; Sora and DALL-E teams felt neglected and under resourced — Resources at $500bn company are being redirected from long-term research towards improving the flagship chatbot
Kieran Smith / Financial Times: Sources: Telefónica and Liberty Global, co-owners of Virgin Media O2, are set to lead a ~£2B acquisition of the UK's fourth-largest broadband network Netomnia — Telefónica and Liberty Global are leading a takeover of Netomnia in a deal to close gap with BT's Openreach
Financial Times: Sources: Waymo nears a $16B round, valuing it at $110B; Alphabet will contribute $12B+, with a16z, Dragoneer, Mubadala, Sequoia, and DST Global participating — Google's robotaxi start-up brings in new investors amid global roll out and competition from Elon Musk's Tesla
Daniel Tudor / Financial Times: South Korea's Kospi stock index breaks through the record 5,000 level, driven by chip stocks, led by Samsung, up ~3X, and SK Hynix, up ~4x, in the past year — Kospi is up almost 20% in 2026 as reforms to woo investors spur market — South Korea's Kospi benchmark has broken through …
Financial Times: How Ukraine and Russia both rely on the same Chinese drone suppliers, whose tech is vital to the war; China officially bans sensitive drone tech exports to both — As both sides scramble to source vital parts, some experts are convinced Russian buyers are being favoured by Beijing
Financial Times: Berlin-based Parloa, which develops AI customer service agents for Booking.com and others, raised $350M at a $3B valuation, taking its total raised to $560M+ — Berlin-founded group raises $350mn as it looks to expand its AI customer service agents — Florian Müller in Frankfurt and Melissa Heikkilä in London
Financial Times: Sources: McKinsey pilots an overhaul in how it recruits its next generation, asking candidates to use its AI tool Lilli to analyze a case study during a test — Candidates in pilot assessed on how they prompted consulting firm's AI assistant and ability to adapt responses
Demetri Sevastopulo / Financial Times: Sources: China's Salt Typhoon accessed the emails of staff on powerful US House committees, detected last December, and intercepted senior US officials' calls — Beijing's intelligence used Salt Typhoon to access communications used by top panels in US Congress
Financial Times: Telegram bonds worth $500M are frozen in Russia under Western sanctions; filings: its H1 2025 revenue rose 65% YoY to $870M, driven by $300M from Toncoin deals — Founder Pavel Durov's efforts to distance the messaging app from Moscow collide with sanctions reality
Rafe Rosner-Uddin / Financial Times: Sources: Satya Nadella is focused on the increasing AI competition from Amazon and Google; Microsoft Deputy CTO Dee Templeton says Nadella is in “founder mode” — Software giant faces intense competition from Alphabet, Amazon and start-ups — Satya Nadella has overhauled …
Eleanor Olcott / Financial Times: A look at Chinese food delivery giant Meituan's subsidy war with Alibaba and JD.com, leading Meituan to a big Q3 loss and internal debate over global expansion — Competition from Alibaba and JD.com for fast-growing instant retail market has hit the Beijing-based group
Rafe Rosner-Uddin / Financial Times: The top 10 US tech billionaires collectively added $550B+ to their combined net worth in 2025, reaching $2.5T by December 24, up from $1.9T at the year's start — Elon Musk stays on top as Nvidia's Jensen Huang powers up the rankings on an AI-fuelled surge in fortunes
Financial Times: Investigation: internal Binance files show it failed to stop hundreds of millions in crypto from flowing through suspicious accounts, even after a 2023 US deal — Leaked files show continued activity despite links to terror networks, failed ID checks and other red flags
Financial Times: TMTG agrees to merge with Google-backed fusion energy company TAE in a $6B deal and begin building the “world's first utility-scale fusion power plant” in 2026 — Trump Media & Technology Group's shares rise 37% after deal with TAE Technologies
Peter Andringa / Financial Times: Documents and former US government officials detail ICE's digital surveillance capabilities, amid a drive to deport 1M people in President Trump's first year — The US is pulling in vast amounts of personal information in its drive to deport 1mn people this year
Financial Times: Big Tech's AI data center plans, which are set to need an estimated 44GW of additional capacity by 2028, face a power crunch that could deflate the AI “bubble” — A lack of electricity for new data centres could deflate the AI ‘bubble’ — Rafe Rosner-Uddin in San Francisco …
Financial Times: UK pension funds are cutting exposure to US equities over worries about growing concentration in a few tech stocks and a potential bubble in the AI sector — Public and private-sector funds concerned over market's growing concentration in a small number of tech stocks
Daniel Thomas / Financial Times: Getty CEO Craig Peters says Getty may rethink its UK presence if the CMA blocks its Shutterstock deal, arguing the CMA is overlooking AI's impact on imaging — CEO says competition watchdog is overlooking how quickly AI is reshaping image generation — Getty Images boss Craig Peters …
Financial Times: OpenAI's data center partners are set to rack up nearly $100B in debt; sources say banks may lend another $38B to Oracle and Vantage to build more OpenAI sites — Cloud companies and developers rely on lossmaking start-up to repay huge loans — OpenAI's data centre partners are on course …
Jamie Smyth / Financial Times: Amazon-backed nuclear reactor developer X-energy raised $700M led by Jane Street, taking its total funding to $1.4B, to build 150 SMRs in the US and the UK — Reactor developer closes fundraising round as markets expect atomic energy will power the AI boom
Financial Times: The UK announces a £100M plan to support local AI hardware startups via guaranteed “first customer” payments, and estimates its AI market to be worth over £72B — Liz Kendall unveils plan to offer guaranteed payments for British start-ups making AI hardware
Joe Miller / Financial Times: Josh Hawley, Ron DeSantis, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and other Republicans publicly oppose President Trump's proposal to restrict US states from regulating AI — US president endorses move to restrict regulation by states after lobbying from Silicon Valley — A plan backed by Donald Trump …
Louis Ashworth / Financial Times: As OpenAI commits to spending $1.4T, creating a mesh of complicated deals, the startup does not disclose its auditor, and there is little information online — OpenAI is committed to spending about $1.4 trillion on data centres over the next decade or so. — It accounts for about two-thirds …
Financial Times: Sources: Larry Ellison is overhauling a £10B science initiative in Oxford after clashing with President John Bell, who left in September, and COO Lisa Flashner — Trump-supporting billionaire narrows EIT's ambitions by cutting initiatives and tightening control
Financial Times: Sources: Vinted is exploring a share sale that could value the company at ~€8B; Vinted says it expects 2025 revenue to cross €1B+, up from €813M in 2024 — Deal would highlight second-hand fashion start-up's rapid expansion and provide an exit for some early investors
Financial Times: Sources: Apple is intensifying CEO succession planning as Tim Cook, now 65, may step down as early as next year, with John Ternus seen as the likely successor — iPhone maker's board is preparing for its longtime leader to step down as early as next year — Apple is stepping …
Financial Times: Oracle shares are down nearly 30% in the past month, reversing more than $250B in market value gains following the announcement of its OpenAI deals in September — Larry Ellison's software company falls more than rivals over its borrowing and reliance on OpenAI contracts
Nikou Asgari / Financial Times: Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi criticizes UK crypto promotion rules requiring clear risk warnings, saying they hinder retail investors by slowing fund movement — Arjun Sethi says users are hindered by dire warnings and hurdles that slow down transactions — The head of crypto exchange Kraken …
Financial Times: Sources: Meta Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun plans to leave Meta in the coming months to found his own startup; a source says he is in early talks to raise funds — Turing Award winner seeks to depart as Mark Zuckerberg makes ‘superintelligence’ push — Melissa Heikkilä in London …
Financial Times: Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev says he aims to give “normal people” exposure to private AI companies via Robinhood Ventures' fund with 5+ “best in class” companies — CEO Vlad Tenev plans to offer shares in a fund that holds a handful of private artificial intelligence companies
George Hammond / Financial Times: Sources: Roelof Botha was ousted by senior Sequoia partners amid concerns about his “imperial style” leadership, AI investment strategy, and internal clashes — Partners called vote to oust chief after controversial incidents rocked Silicon Valley venture capital firm
Barbara Moens / Financial Times: Draft proposal: the EU weighs a pause and simplification of parts of the AI Act, with a decision expected on November 19, amid pressure from Big Tech and the US — Commission proposes pauses to provisions in digital rule book — The European Commission is proposing a pause to parts …
Financial Times: Jensen Huang warns “China is going to win the AI race”, after the US kept a ban on high-end AI chip sales to China, and says the West is held back by “cynicism” — CEO criticises western ‘cynicism’ while Beijing loosens regulations and cuts energy costs for data centres
Financial Times: Sources: Deutsche Bank is exploring ways to hedge its exposure to data centres after extending billions of dollars in debt to hyperscalers like Alphabet — Executives discussing options including shorting basket of artificial intelligence stocks or using derivatives to transfer risk
Financial Times: Uber reports Q3 revenue up 20% YoY to $13.5B, Gross Bookings up 21% YoY to $49.7B, trips up 22% YoY to 3.5B, and a $1.1B operating profit, below $1.6B est. — Ride-hailing company reassures investors that it enters busy festive period with ‘exceptional momentum’
Financial Times: Sources: China offers to cut data center power bills by up to 50% to Alibaba and others, if they use local chips like Huawei's over foreign ones like Nvidia's — Beijing introduces grants that slash power bills by up to half for some of the country's largest data centres
Dan Thomas / Financial Times: Ofcom chief Melanie Dawes warns social media companies to prove their algorithms protect under-18s from seeing harmful content, or face enforcement action — Ofcom chief Melanie Dawes reveals she held meetings with US AI firms over Online Safety Act — Tech companies will be subject …
Cristina Criddle / Financial Times: Character.ai plans to limit under-18s to two hours of conversations per day, gradually reducing the time limit before banning them completely from November 25 — Move comes following growing public and regulatory scrutiny over safety of the technology for young users
Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times: Substrate, which aims to challenge TSMC, raised $100M+ from Founders Fund, General Catalyst, and others at a $1B+ valuation as it seeks to boost US chip making — Substrate plans to use particle accelerators to lower cost of chip manufacturing — Silicon Valley investors …
Hannah Murphy / Financial Times: Sources: X's advertising chief John Nitti, who joined in January, has left; X's CFO Mahmoud Reza Banki left in early October after less than a year in the role — John Nitti was considered a contender for CEO of the social media platform after Linda Yaccarino quit in July
Christian Davies / Financial Times: South Korea restricts travel to Cambodia over online scam center kidnappings; the UK and US sanction Cambodia's Prince Group for allegedly running scam centers — Seoul says 330 of its nationals detained or abducted in the first eight months of this year — South Korea has prohibited …
Financial Times: HR software startup Deel raised $300M led by Ribbit Capital at a $17B valuation, up from $12.6B earlier in 2025, and says revenue crossed $100M in September — HR start-up raises $300mn from Ribbit, Coatue and Andreessen amid espionage allegations from rival Rippling
Financial Times: An investment consortium including BlackRock, Nvidia, xAI, and Microsoft plans to acquire Texas-based Aligned Data Centers from Macquarie in a $40B deal — Buyer consortium also includes Nvidia and Microsoft and plans to expand Aligned Data Centers to meet computing demand
Financial Times: The Dutch seizing Nexperia from Wingtech is a landmark moment, showing it made a mistake allowing its sale and how ensnared the EU is in the US-China tech war — The Dutch seizure of Nexperia shows how ensnared the EU is in the US-China tech war — The Dutch government's seizure …
Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times: UK startup Nscale signs an up to $14B deal with Microsoft to deploy ~104K Nvidia GB300 chips for Microsoft in Texas within 18 months and 12,600 GPUs in Portugal — Nvidia-backed AI cloud group secures huge new contract as chief executive eyes public listing in ‘back end of next year’
Financial Times: Court filings: the Dutch government seized Nexperia after the US said it would remain on its export control list if Chinese CEO Zhang Xuezheng stayed in charge — Takeover of Nexperia plunges Netherlands into US-China tech war — Andy Bounds in Horsens, Denmark, Ben Hall in London and Ryan McMorrow in Beijing
Financial Times: Sources: Bank of England officials are holding up Revolut's full UK licence over concerns about whether its risk controls can keep pace with its global growth — Europe's most valuable start-up has waited years for approval to begin lending in its home market
Financial Times: Sources: London-based self-driving tech startup Wayve is in early stage talks with Microsoft and SoftBank to raise between $1B and $2B, valuing it at ~$8B — London-based group seeks valuation of $8bn as global investors snap up deals with fast-growing AI start-ups
Financial Times: Sources: UK security services including MI5 step up work with the country's largest companies over hacking fears and to improve UK cyber warfare preparedness — High-profile hacks raise fears about the potential economic damage caused by disruption to supply chains and services
Michael Acton / Financial Times: Inside Intel's new 700-acre factories in the Arizona desert, which cost $32B and are starting large-scale 18A chip production, as it seeks to impress customers — Claims of a breakthrough at the chips company's new Arizona facility will be tested by sceptical Big Tech customers