Author: Jaxon Bennett

One mega pay-package smackdown to start: A Delaware judge rejected Elon Musk’s record-breaking $56bn pay package for the second time.Welcome to Due Diligence, your briefing on dealmaking, private equity and corporate finance. This article is an on-site version of the newsletter. Premium subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter delivered every Tuesday to Friday. Standard subscribers can upgrade to Premium here, or explore all FT newsletters. Get in touch with us anytime: Due.Diligence@ft.comIn today’s newsletter:Intel’s chief quits with chipmaker in crisis9fin raises $50mn in fresh investment roundFewer people want a CFA certificateIf Pat Gelsinger couldn’t revive Intel, can…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The new Oxford technology institute funded by Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison will invest at least £100mn in joint ventures with the university in an effort to improve the UK’s poor record on commercialising scientific discoveries.  The initiative aims to back at least 10 projects focused on “particularly challenging global problems”, with the prospect of further investment should they show promise, said Professor Sir John Bell, president of the Ellison Institute of Technology Oxford.The announcement on Tuesday comes as the government strives to…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.A judge in Delaware on Monday rejected Tesla’s attempt to restore Elon Musk’s $56bn pay package after previously striking it down as a breach of the carmaker board’s fiduciary duty. Lawyers for the shareholder who brought the original suit were also awarded $345mn, instead of the $5.6bn in Tesla shares that they had requested.This is a developing story Source link

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.As a devout Christian prone to tweeting Bible verses, Pat Gelsinger is surely familiar with the Book of Exodus. On Monday, Intel announced that Gelsinger would be departing as chief executive of the besieged semiconductor company immediately. The abrupt move was described as a “retirement” for the 61-year-old who was brought in to lead a turnaround of the troubled company. In fact, Gelsinger’s tenure lasted less than four years.With its focus on PCs and datacentres, Intel had missed out on the smartphone…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.European defence technology start-up Helsing has unveiled its first attack drone as the AI specialist seeks to capitalise on rising demand for autonomous weapons driven by the war in Ukraine.  The company is pitching its new drone, which is already being used in Ukraine, to the UK and other Nato allies. Helsing says it can produce tens of thousands of the AI-enabled drones a year at a lower cost than existing systems, using advanced manufacturing techniques such as 3D printing. Nato “urgently requires technology…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Artificial intelligence myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Nebius, the artificial intelligence infrastructure group that was formed from Yandex’s operations outside Russia earlier this year, has raised $700mn from investors including chipmaker Nvidia to capitalise on exploding demand for AI data centres. The new equity financing, via a private placement, comes six weeks after trading in Nebius’ stock resumed on Nasdaq, following its split in July from Yandex, Russia’s biggest internet group. Other investors involved in the deal announced on Monday include Silicon Valley venture firm Accel.Nebius, led by chief…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Intel chief executive Pat Gelsinger is to retire after almost four years at the helm of the processor company.The group said on Monday that he would be replaced by David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Holthaus, who will be interim chiefs until a permanent appointment is made. Interim Intel chair Frank Yeary said: “Pat spent his formative years at Intel, then returned at a critical time for the company in 2021. As a leader, Pat helped launch and revitalise process manufacturing by investing…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.OpenAI is discussing plans to introduce advertising to its artificial intelligence products, as the ChatGPT maker seeks new revenue sources as it restructures as a for-profit company.Sarah Friar, chief financial officer at OpenAI, told the Financial Times in an interview that the $150bn AI start-up was weighing up an ads model, adding that it planned to be “thoughtful about when and where we implement them [ads]”.The San Francisco-based group, which in October secured $6.6bn in new funding, has been hiring advertising talent…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The US has introduced new export controls in an effort to curtail China’s ability to create an advanced semiconductor industry and to slow its development of artificial intelligence with military applications.The restrictions on the export of key manufacturing tools will affect both US companies and foreign firms that use American technology in their chipmaking equipment.The US will also prevent the export of advanced high bandwidth memory (HBM), a critical component in AI chips, to China. US commerce secretary Gina Raimondo said the…

Raspberry Pi operated for seven years before it even thought about setting up a sales department to market the microcomputers it makes.Its small, low-cost devices — about the size of a credit card — were launched through a UK educational charity to promote computing among young people. It was only after the products attracted interest from the first corporate clients, often through parents who had bought one to teach their children about coding and then seen the potential for a commercial use, that the business started hiring people to sell them to new customers.The company, spun out of the Raspberry…