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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.US product design software company Figma has filed for an initial public offering that will test investor appetite for tech listings as Donald Trump’s tariffs roil global financial markets.Figma on Tuesday said it had confidentially submitted a draft registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, paving the way for an IPO. Market volatility unleashed by the president’s fast-changing tariffs policies has chilled the market for new US listings that many bankers had expected to explode back to life under a Republican…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.By most metrics of a start-up ecosystem, Silicon Valley comes out on top. It produces more “unicorns”, sucks in more investment, wins higher valuations and attracts the best talent, and has done so broadly uninterrupted since the 1980s.So it is surprising that research from King’s Business School in London argues that south-east Asia’s tech scene could achieve greater success by following innovation strategies from Japan or South Korea.Despite its dominance, Silicon Valley’s zero-sum approach — where disruptive start-ups challenge and replace incumbents…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the worldPresident Donald Trump has suggested he could cut tariffs on Chinese goods if Beijing allows ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, to divest the hugely popular video sharing app to avoid a ban in the US.“We have a situation with TikTok where China will probably say we’ll approve a deal, but will you do something on the tariffs,” Trump said aboard Air Force One. “The tariffs give us great power to negotiate.”The comments came one day after Trump imposed “reciprocal”…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Intel’s new chief executive has promised a major “culture change” at the US semiconductor group, saying he will prioritise attracting talent, building relationships with customers and slashing bureaucracy. Speaking at a company conference in Las Vegas on Monday, Lip-Bu Tan also said Donald Trump’s administration is prepared to help Intel as the federal government seeks to maintain US semiconductor leadership.Tan, a longtime investor in the sector and former CEO of chip software company Cadence, was appointed to lead Intel earlier in March.…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Google parent Alphabet is in talks to buy cyber security start-up Wiz for about $30bn, setting the stage for the biggest acquisition in the search giant’s history, according to people familiar with the matter. Alphabet held talks over a $23bn acquisition of Wiz last year, although the negotiations collapsed after some of the cyber security company’s directors and investors became worried about antitrust hurdles. Alphabet had now returned with a bid of more than $30bn, a person said. The new round of…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Two human rights groups have launched a legal challenge against the UK government’s bid to force Apple to create a “back door” in its security systems, as the iPhone maker prepares to go to court to fight the secret order on Friday. In legal submissions to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, which probes complaints against the UK’s security services, Privacy International and Liberty argue that Apple’s appeal should be heard in public. They add that ordering the company to compromise the security of…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the worldThe US Federal Trade Commission has backtracked on a request to delay the trial in its high-profile case challenging Amazon’s Prime service, rejecting its own lawyer’s claim of resource constraints. An FTC lawyer on Wednesday asked a judge in a Seattle federal court to delay the start of the trial scheduled for September due to “extremely severe resource shortfall in terms of money and personnel,” according to US media reports. “The resource constraints are severe and really unique to this moment,”…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.OpenAI has forged a near-$12bn contract with CoreWeave and will take a stake in the cloud computing provider, boosting the group ahead of its expected $35bn public listing.The ChatGPT maker has signed a five-year deal in which CoreWeave will supply computing power to train and run OpenAI’s artificial intelligence models, said two people with knowledge of the deal. OpenAI is looking to expand beyond a reliance on Microsoft, its biggest partner, for its computing needs.The Financial Times last week reported Microsoft had…

US start-ups are raising more cash than at any point since 2021 thanks to investor bullishness about artificial intelligence, but the venture capital market has tilted sharply towards funding a handful of huge private tech companies.More than $30bn has been invested into fledgling groups already this quarter, according to PitchBook data. A further $50bn of fundraising is also in train, as venture capitalists work on a series of major deals involving OpenAI, Safe Superintelligence and defence tech start-up Anduril. The fervour over AI has led investors to spend at their fastest rate since the market’s peak in 2021, a period…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Technology sector myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Broadcom shares surged in after-hours trading on Thursday as the chip designer announced better than expected revenue and a confident outlook around artificial intelligence.The company, which designs custom AI chips and infrastructure for the biggest tech companies, offered a reassuring message to investors after tech stocks fell on Thursday during a broader pullback in the market.Broadcom reported first-quarter revenue of $14.9bn, and said it was expecting roughly the same revenue for the current quarter, beating Wall Street expectations. Profits in the period…