Author: Jaxon Bennett

Elon Musk’s support for Donald Trump is set to boost X’s flagging business, with some marketers poised for a return to the social media platform in order to seek favour with the incoming administration.Media executives told the Financial Times that some brands were preparing to advertise on X once again, as its billionaire owner was likely to gain an influential role within a second Trump White House.The platform’s revenues have fallen dramatically since Musk’s $44bn acquisition two years ago, with some investor estimates suggesting its current valuation is less than $10bn. Brands have expressed concern that Musk has stripped back moderation,…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Artificial intelligence myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.The writer is a science commentatorThe conversation about whether AI will attain or supersede human intelligence is usually framed as one of existential risk to Homo sapiens. A robot army rising up, Frankenstein-style, and turning on its creators. The autonomous AI systems that quietly handle government and corporate business one day calculating that the world would operate more smoothly if humans were cut out of the loop.  Now philosophers and AI researchers are asking: will these machines develop the capacity to be bored…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the worldDonald Trump is considering appointing antitrust officials who may press on with the Biden administration’s crackdown on Big Tech’s market power, in what would represent a break with the Republican party’s traditionally business-friendly stance.Gail Slater, a top aide to vice president-elect JD Vance, and Mark Meador, who previously worked as an enforcer at the Department of Justice’s antitrust division and the Federal Trade Commission, are the frontrunners to lead the FTC, according to people briefed on the matter.Some on Wall…

The legal operations specialists who use their technological knowhow to support companies’ in-house lawyers are the focus of this last instalment of the FT’s monthly Accelerating Business series for 2024. The series examines the way lawyers, managers and legal tech providers use the latest resources to keep pace with business needs: this time we highlight five legal operations professionals. They stand out for their efforts to make full use of technology, especially artificial intelligence, and for broadening the role and influence of this area of in-house legal teams’ work. The five were selected by FT research partner RSGI. Rosario Alonso…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.SoftBank Group wants to build a happier future for all through artificial intelligence technologies. The Japanese tech investor has just posted its biggest quarterly profit in two years. That, combined with founder Masayoshi Son’s restraint in making risky investments in recent years, gives Son the cash and credibility to make a big bet on the next AI breakthrough.SoftBank reported net income of ¥1.18tn ($7.7bn) for the latest quarter, higher than expected and a sharp turnaround from a net loss of ¥931bn last…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank Group swung to a ¥1.2tn ($7.8bn) profit in its latest quarter, driven by a string of successful initial public offerings in India and better tech valuations.The company’s results easily beat analysts’ forecasts for a profit of just ¥286.8bn and comes after a ¥931bn loss in the September quarter last year and a ¥174.3bn loss in its previous quarter.The rebound was helped by a strong fiscal second quarter for its risk-taking and tech-heavy Vision Funds, which reported a gain on…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Baidu has unveiled artificial intelligence-powered smart glasses as Chinese tech groups race with global rivals to capitalise on AI-integrated hardware.Li Ying, head of Baidu’s hardware brand Xiaodu, said its smart glasses would “become a private assistant” during a Baidu event in Shanghai on Tuesday.The glasses are run on Baidu’s large language model Ernie and will enable wearers to track calorie consumption, ask questions about their environment, play music and shoot videos, said the company.While China is lagging behind the US in developing…

Amazon is poised to roll out its newest artificial intelligence chips as the Big Tech group seeks returns on its multibillion-dollar semiconductor investments and reduce its reliance on market leader Nvidia.Executives at Amazon’s cloud computing division are spending big on custom chips in the hopes of boosting the efficiency inside its dozens of data centres, ultimately bringing down its own costs as well as those of Amazon Web Services’ customers. The effort is spearheaded by Annapurna Labs, an Austin-based chip start-up that Amazon acquired in early 2015 for $350mn. Annapurna’s latest work is expected to be showcased next month when…

Japanese gaming giants Nintendo and Sony are heading into this year’s crucial holiday season with little to offer mass-market consumers — one relying on sales of a seven-year-old console and the other appealing only to hardcore players with a new premium offering that critics say is overpriced.As Sony released the $700 PlayStation 5 Pro last week to mixed reviews, Nintendo put a damper on the industry’s biggest quarter, lowering its guidance on sales of its ageing Switch console from 13.5mn to 12.5mn for its fiscal year ending in March. Traditionally, Nintendo roughly doubles its revenues in the December quarter compared…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Indian business & finance myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Trading in Indian food delivery app Swiggy begins on Wednesday in a $1.3bn initial public offering that investors have already given a lukewarm reception, as it tries to grow in a fiercely competitive sector.On Friday, institutional investors shored up Swiggy’s listing on its final subscription day as the Bengaluru-based company chased a valuation of about $11.2bn.Swiggy’s listing — India’s second-largest this year — received bids more than three times the shares on offer, with the retail portion just covered. It…