Financial Times: Plaid raised $575M at a $6.1B valuation, below its peak $13B+ valuation in 2021, mostly to cover employees' tax bills for those converting RSUs to common stock — Pioneer of open banking will use $575mn raised from BlackRock and others to cover employee taxes and share buybacks
Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times: Q&A with Christopher Bishop on leading Microsoft's AI for Science lab, why scientific discovery will be AI's single most important application, and more — The AI for Science lab director discusses the technology's capability to accelerate time-consuming research
Michael Acton / Financial Times: Documents: the NLRB froze Janneke Parrish and Cher Scarlett's cases against Apple pending a review after Trump nominated an Apple attorney as general counsel — National Labor Relations Board freezes pair of disputes after Crystal Carey nominated as agency's general counsel
Financial Times: In a March 28 brief, X asked SCOTUS to shield user data from US law enforcement without “probable cause”, in Coinbase user James Harper's long-running case — Billionaire backs case brought by Coinbase client whose data was surrendered to authorities
Financial Times: In its first post-IPO earnings, Raspberry Pi reports FY 2024 revenue down 2% YoY to $259.5M, pre-tax profit down 57% YoY to $16.3M, and 1.9M Pi 5 units sold — Low-cost computer maker says pandemic-related inventory problems have since been ‘normalised’ — Raspberry Pi's pre-tax profits fell …
Clive Cookson / Financial Times: Researchers detail a new AI-powered Probability of Fire model, which they say could outperform the conventional danger forecasts used by wildfire trackers — New model takes into account weather forecasts as well as other factors such as levels of flammable vegetation and human activity
Financial Times: TTP: Apple's and Google's app stores host popular “private browsing” apps operated by Shanghai-listed Qihoo 360, sanctioned by the US in 2020 for military ties — New findings reveal free ‘private browsing’ apps popular with US users have ties to blacklisted Qihoo 360
Financial Times: The Alan Turing Institute, the UK's flagship AI agency, plans to focus on defense, environment, and health, after staff criticized its leadership in December — Agency responds to criticism and rapidly evolving technology by cutting back initiatives — Britain's flagship artificial intelligence agency …
Georgina Quach / Financial Times: Barclays, Monzo, Lloyds, and other major UK banks join Amazon, Google, Match, Meta, BT, and Three in committing to live data sharing in a UK fraud clampdown — Industry-led initiative promises to beat existing scam-monitoring systems — Britain's biggest banks, technology and telecoms companies …
Financial Times: Nasdaq-listed Chinese self-driving company WeRide, which reported a ~$260M loss in 2023 and a ~$344M loss in 2024, warns profitability is “difficult to predict” — Nasdaq-listed autonomous vehicle company says government regulation and local partners are key to ending years of losses
Financial Times: Marketing executives say big brands are allocating small amounts of their ad budget to X, seeking to avoid being perceived as boycotting Elon Musk's platform — Marketers want to avoid being seen as boycotting billionaire's social media platform — Big brands are allocating small amounts …
Financial Times: Pat Gelsinger says TSMC's pledge to invest $100B+ in US chip manufacturing will do little to restore the US' chipmaking leadership as R&D will remain in Taiwan — Pat Gelsinger, who has taken on role at venture capital firm, says US must boost R&D to gain ‘semiconductor leadership’
Philip Stafford / Financial Times: Sources: Fidelity Investments is in the advanced stages of testing its own stablecoin, managed by its digital assets arm; Trump pledged to back USD stablecoins — Asset manager is in advanced stages of testing token as the Trump administration prepares to overhaul crypto oversight
Laura Dubois / Financial Times: Sources: the EU's Huawei corruption probe is looking at alleged gifts like soccer tickets exchanged for political favors; one detainee was a Huawei lobbyist — Representatives for Chinese tech giant accused of offering cash, football tickets and smartphones to parliament staff
Delphine Strauss / Financial Times: A cross-party committee of UK MPs casts doubt on the UK's plan to boost the public sector with AI, citing outdated tech, poor data, and a lack of digital skills — Commons committee points to outdated technology and lack of digital skills in government — Outdated technology …
Financial Times: Malaysia plans to tighten chip rules and says Washington demanded it track high-end Nvidia chips entering the country, over suspicions that many end up in China — Trade minister says Washington suspects high-end semiconductors are making it to China despite trade controls
Financial Times: CoreWeave is facing nearly $7.5B in debt repayments by the end of 2026, far above its existing cash flow, requiring investors in its IPO to take a leap of faith — Cloud computing group seeking $32bn IPO must convince backers it can grow fast to settle huge financial obligations
Financial Times: A profile of Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport, who served in Israel's elite cyber intelligence unit 8200; sources say Wiz was on track to surpass $1B of ARR in 2025 — Cybersecurity start-up's fast-moving CEO agrees higher sale price after turning down Alphabet's $23bn offer last summer
Financial Times: Sources: Alphabet has agreed to acquire cybersecurity startup Wiz for $32B+ and will announce the deal today, after talks over a $23B deal collapsed in 2024 — Previous round of negotiations to purchase group fell through last year — Google parent Alphabet has agreed to buy cyber security start …
Mike Schmidt / Financial Times: A former CHIPS Act program officer says Trump repealing the program risks US national security and tariffs alone will not revitalize domestic chip manufacturing — Tariffs alone will not achieve the goal of revitalising domestic semiconductor manufacturing
Stephen Morris / Financial Times: Alphabet spins off laser-based internet company Taara from its X “moonshot” incubator; Taara, which raised new funding, has its origins in Loon, closed in 2021 — Taara start-up aims to compete with Elon Musk's Starlink to connect remote areas to the internet using light beams
Financial Times: Sources detail Alibaba's pivot to AI, quietly led by Jack Ma after ChatGPT's 2022 debut, but question whether it can establish a lead in the competitive AI race — The Chinese tech giant is establishing a lead in a fiercely competitive sector, and its billionaire founder is back in favour
Emma Jacobs / Financial Times: A look at “coachbots”, AI-powered virtual coaches like CoachHub's Aimy and Valence's Nadia that advise on salary talks, work habits, and role-play conversations — AI-powered mentors offer cheaper — but more limited — advice on work issues — Conversing with one “difficult …
Kathrin Hille / Financial Times: Foxconn CEO Young Liu says “the attitude and the approach” of the US government toward tariffs has become a “big headache” for companies like Apple and Amazon — World's biggest contract electronics manufacturer highlights disruption caused by trade policy to groups including Apple and Amazon
Financial Times: Two activist groups launch a legal challenge against the UK's bid to force Apple to create a data “backdoor”, arguing it would breach consumers' privacy rights — Privacy International and Liberty's complaint adds pressure on government as iPhone maker fights demand in court
Zijing Wu / Financial Times: Sources: DeepSeek has shown little intention to further commercialize its tech in the near term, instead focusing on model development and building AGI — Chinese start-up to concentrate resources on building machines with humanlike cognitive capabilities — Chinese artificial intelligence start …
Financial Times: Niantic's $3.5B deal gives Scopely, acquired by Saudi-owned Savvy Games Group in 2023 for $4.9B, a total audience of 500M+ players, driven by Monopoly Go! — US-based Niantic is selling its games business as part of a pivot to artificial intelligence — Scopely, the Saudi-owned developer …
Financial Times: Amazon, Google, and Meta join a World Nuclear Association statement, alongside Occidental, Dow, and others, to triple capacity by 2050; Microsoft didn't sign — Tech giants join banks in calling for new power stations to meet growing energy demands and combat climate change
Financial Times: After Palantir's stock jumped 350%+ in 2024, founder Alex Karp has sold $1.9B in shares since January 2024; VerityData says his PLTR holdings are worth $12.8B — Data intelligence group's chief cashed in on surging shares to make $1.9bn, behind only Meta's Mark Zuckerberg
Richard Milne / Financial Times: Lego CEO Niels Christiansen says the toymaker plans to make video games in-house, after 2024 revenue rose 13% YoY to ~$10B; its Fortnite tie-up has 87M players — Danish toymaker beefs up digital capabilities after success with externally developed games — Lego is building up its capability …
Rafe Uddin / Financial Times: A look at Amazon's growing array of warehouse robots, from robotic arms to heavy lift units and sorting machines; Amazon Robotics has rolled out 750K+ devices — Machines are used to pick, sort and pack online orders — In a vast Amazon warehouse on the outskirts of Tracy, central California …
Financial Times: Stripe, Revolut, and other banks and fintechs rush to launch stablecoins; there are ~$210B in stablecoins issued globally, including Tether printing $142B — Bank of America and Stripe target market for payments in cryptocurrencies — Some of the world's largest banks and fintechs …
Financial Times: Sources: Meta plans to add improved voice features in Llama 4, expected in weeks, betting that future AI agents will be conversational rather than text-led — Social media giant is introducing improved features as it bets on the technology driving the growth of so-called AI agents
George Hammond / Financial Times: New York-based corporate payments startup Ramp hit a $13B valuation in a $150M share sale to GIC, Stripes, Thrive, and others, up from $7.65B in April 2024 — US payments start-up completes share sale as business rebounds after period of low customer spending
Antoine Gara / Financial Times: Guggenheim Partners CEO Mark Walter and ex-Legendary Entertainment owner Thomas Tull launch TWG Global to invest in AI, sources say with nearly $40B in assets — Mark Walter and Thomas Tull want to use artificial intelligence to spur innovation in their finance, sport and media holdings
Owen Walker / Financial Times: Singapore charges three men in a case suspected to involve Nvidia chip sales that breach US export controls, after a tip-off the chips were exported to Malaysia — Arrests made in city-state after raids on 22 locations — Singapore has charged three men in a case suspected …
Financial Times: DeepSeek, OpenAI, and others building smaller, powerful models quickly and cheaply using “distillation” raises questions about LLMs' first-mover advantage — DeepSeek used technique to create smaller powerful models based on the technology of competitors such as Meta
Financial Times: China replaces tech minister Jin Zhuanglong, a key figure in its push to become a tech superpower, with Li Lecheng; sources: Jin faced a graft-related probe — Jin Zhuanglong had been missing from public view for 2 months, FT review shows — China's technology minister …
Financial Times: DeepSeek sparks a nationwide push in China to deploy its LLMs everywhere from hospitals to local governments, as Beijing seeks to solidify its gains in AI — The AI start-up's models are being rapidly adopted by state-owned enterprises, hospitals and local governments
Financial Times: Apple plans to invest $160M in Indonesia to help resume iPhone 16 sales, with Luxshare committing $150M for a factory to produce ~65% of global AirTag supply — Agreement to put $160mn into manufacturing and innovation comes after Jakarta rejected $1bn offer from US tech giant
Financial Times: Estonia partners with OpenAI and Anthropic to launch an AI skills drive in schools for 20,000 students aged 16 and 17, aiming to help develop critical thinking — Nationwide drive with OpenAI and Anthropic to help students prepare for jobs of the future — Estonia is teaming up with OpenAI …
Financial Times: Survey: 92% of UK undergrad students use AI to help them with their studies, up from 66% a year ago, raising questions about how universities assess their work — Rapid spread of technology raises questions about how to assess undergraduate work — The number of UK undergraduate students …
Financial Times: Sources: Huawei has increased its AI chip yield to nearly 40%, up from 20% about a year ago, meaning its Ascend chips are now profitable for the first time — Chinese company improves ‘yield’ of latest semiconductor, despite US efforts to prevent manufacturing advances
Clive Cookson / Financial Times: The ECMWF says its new weather model broke ground by making global predictions freely available; testing shows it outperforms other models up to 15 days ahead — Predictions for up to 15 days ahead expected to improve tracking of extreme events — Improved weather prediction using …
Financial Times: China is increasingly pooling resources from the state and private sectors, including startups like Infinigence AI, to accelerate adoption of AI data centers — Beijing is pooling resources from the private and state sectors to accelerate adoption of the fast-developing technology
Financial Times: Prosus plans to buy Just Eat Takeaway for €20.30 per share, a 22% premium over its three-month high, in an all-cash deal valuing the delivery company at €4B+ — Deal marks end to tumultuous few years for European food delivery group — Just Eat Takeaway is set to be acquired …
Nic Fildes / Financial Times: Australian tech company WiseTech's shares dropped 22% after most of its board, including the chair, resigned over clashes on co-founder Richard White's role — Allies of scandal-hit co-founder Richard White take control as independent directors resign over ‘intractable differences’
Eleanor Olcott / Financial Times: Alibaba's Hong Kong-listed shares jumped 14.6% on February 21 after CEO Eddie Wu said it would invest “aggressively” in AI; Alibaba's HK stock is up 70.36% YTD — Chinese tech group says it will spend more on artificial intelligence in next three years than over past decade
Harry Dempsey / Financial Times: Japanese officials and executives warn that China's export curbs on gallium, germanium, and other chip raw materials threaten global electronics supply chains — Officials and executives say gallium rules will upset supply chains for chips and vehicle batteries
Hannah Murphy / Financial Times: Sources: Meta's oversight board got little notice of Zuckerberg's “free speech” overhaul, fueling tensions as it rushes to hold Meta accountable for the changes — Independent body searches for ways to hold social media group to account over content moderation and hate speech changes