Author: Jaxon Bennett

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.CoreWeave has struck a $9bn deal to acquire its rival Core Scientific, in a transaction set to eliminate $10bn of expensive lease costs for the artificial intelligence data centre operator.CoreWeave announced on Monday that it was acquiring Core Scientific in an all-stock transaction, capitalising on a rally in its share price to seal a deal that will hand the latter company a stake of less than 10 per cent in the overall business.The New Jersey-based group said the deal valued its competitor’s…

As demand increases for AI solutions, the competition around the huge infrastructure required to run AI models is becoming ever more fierce. This affects the entire AI chain, from computing and storage capacity in data centres, through processing power in chips, to consideration of the energy needed to run and cool equipment.When implementing an AI strategy, companies have to look at all these aspects to find the best fit for their needs. This is harder than it sounds. A business’s decision on how to deploy AI is very different to choosing a static technology stack to be rolled out across…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.More than three years since Apple’s film CODA won the best picture Oscar, the tech company has hit another Hollywood milestone: its first summer blockbuster.F1, starring Brad Pitt and Damson Idris, has taken in more than $200mn at the global box office since it opened on June 27 and is expected to pass $300mn this weekend. “This is a movie that will run and run and run,” said Jeff Goldstein, distribution chief at Warner Bros, Apple’s partner on the film. “There’s a lot of…

Here at FT Alphaville we love exploring “black hole” companies: those ultra-private businesses that must largely be observed by the influence they exert on others.But even within that category, there aren’t many places quite like Valve Corporation, with its bizarre corporate structure, revenue-per-head figures that would make Silicon Valley or Wall Street giants hot and bothered, a product that seems to basically print money, and a seldom-seen leader deified in some corners of the internet — all without ever taking outside investment.Few companies can claim a bigger role in video game history than Valve. Founded in 1996 by Gabe Newell…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Food delivery company Glovo has caused outrage in Italy by offering gig workers bonuses for working in a blistering heatwave, forcing it to “temporarily deactivate” the scheme.In a message to their riders in Italy earlier this week, Glovo said it would pay bonuses ranging from 2 to 8 per cent, depending on the heat, for deliveries made in temperatures of more than 32C. Payment was to be made in mid-September.It said the extra money was to help the riders — many of…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Technology myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.It’s every manager’s worst nightmare: hiring a remote employee who turns out to be a North Korean hacker intent on loading malware on to your network. But that’s what happened to the US cyber security company KnowBe4 last year, as the company’s founder, Stu Sjouwerman, described in a candid blog post. KnowBe4 had posted a job ad for an AI software engineer, interviewed candidates by video, conducted background checks, verified references and made an offer. But soon after the company sent a Mac workstation…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The chief executives of large European companies including Airbus and BNP Paribas have urged Brussels to halt its landmark artificial intelligence act, as the EU considers watering down key elements of the law due to come into force in August. In an open letter, seen by the Financial Times, the heads of 44 major firms on the continent called on European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to introduce a two-year pause, warning that unclear and overlapping regulations are threatening the bloc’s…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Siemens has received notification from the US government allowing it to resume sales of chip design software to China, the German technology company said, as a trade deal between Washington and Beijing takes effect.The US commerce department recently told Siemens that export restrictions introduced in May were “no longer in place”, the company told the Financial Times, adding that it had “restored full access to software and technology” under the controls and resumed “sales and support to Chinese customers”.The announcement comes a…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Climate change myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Can artificial intelligence stop the planet burning?There is both good and less good news about the answer to this question. But since this column is being written at the end of yet another sweltering UK heatwave, let’s start with the more pleasing thought that AI could soon help to cut a non-trivial chunk of global transport, power and food emissions every year.So says a new paper from a research team led by British economist, Nicholas Stern, that is worth reading on several counts.For…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.OpenAI has agreed to lease 4.5 gigawatts of computing power from Oracle in a deal worth around $30bn a year that is one of the largest cloud agreements to date for artificial intelligence.The deal marks a big expansion of OpenAI’s “Stargate” data centre project, which it launched with SoftBank in January to gain access to vast amounts of computing power to develop its powerful AI models and meet consumer demand for products such as ChatGPT.Oracle will develop multiple data centres across the…