Category: 3. Business

July 3, 2025 — A new treatment has received a quick federal nod for a common blood cancer, which could affect more than 36,000 people and result in around 12,000 deaths in the U.S. this year alone. 

The drug, known as linvoseltamab but sold under the name Lynozyfic, is for adults with multiple myeloma whose cancer has returned or isn’t responding well to treatment, especially if they’ve already tried at least four other treatments. Lynozyfic is said to offer a flexible dosing plan tailored to each patient’s needs.

In multiple myeloma, plasma cells (a type of white blood cell that makes antibodies against diseases) multiply abnormally, leading to too much of a protein called immunoglobulin in bones and blood that crowds out healthy blood cells in the bone marrow. This damages the bones and eventually multiple organs as the disease worsens and spreads. B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) is a protein found in high levels on multiple myeloma cells that promotes their survival and growth, making the cancer more aggressive and difficult to treat. Despite undergoing three to four therapies, many patients see their cancer return, highlighting the need for new treatments, especially those targeting BCMA.

Lynozyfic was approved after a study with 80 people who had multiple myeloma and had already tried at least four other treatments. About 70% of them got better with Lynozyfic. Of those people, about 9 out of 10 were still doing well after nine months, and about 7 out of 10 were still doing well after a year. Scientists watched the patients for about 13 months. 

About 45% of patients receiving Lynozyfic had no measurable sign of cancer after treatment, according to a news release from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, the drug’s maker.

“The FDA approval of Lynozyfic is a welcome milestone. It provides appropriate multiple myeloma patients and their care teams with a novel patient-centric treatment option that includes a dosing schedule that can be adapted based on patient response,” said Diane Moran, interim CEO and senior vice president of strategic planning at the International Myeloma Foundation. 

Lynozyfic works by connecting special immune cells called T cells to cancer cells in the blood (multiple myeloma cells). This helps the T cells find and kill the cancer cells that usually hide from the immune system. Lynozyfic can be given quickly. It could be an option for people who can’t get a similar but stronger treatment called CAR T therapy, which is harder to make and can have serious side effects.

Lynozyfic is given through a drip into your vein. At first, people get three small doses that get bigger each time: 5 milligrams, 25 milligrams, and then 200 milligrams. After that, they get 200 milligrams once a week for 10 weeks, then once every two weeks. If they’re doing well at week 24 and have had at least 17 doses, they can switch to once every four weeks.

The most common side effects are bone or muscle pain, feeling tired, headache, cough, shortness of breath, weakness, diarrhea, and feeling sick to your stomach.

Some serious side effects can happen, like a very strong immune reaction, problems from the infusion, or nerve damage. Because of these risks, patients may need to stay in the hospital for 24 hours after their first two doses. Lynozyfic is only given through a special safety program to help keep people safe.

Other warnings include a higher chance of infections, low blood cell counts, liver problems, and harm to fetuses. People need to use birth control during treatment and for three months after their last dose. Patients should not drive, use heavy machines, or do dangerous activities for 48 hours after each first dose or if they have new nerve problems like confusion, shaking, or numbness until they feel better.

As an early-summer heat wave blanketed my home state of New Jersey last week, it felt like perfect timing to stumble across a sobering new prediction from Accenture: AI data centers’ carbon emissions are on track to surge 11-fold by 2030.

The report estimates that over the next five years, AI data centers could consume 612 terawatt-hours of electricity—roughly equivalent to Canada’s total annual power consumption—driving a 3.4% increase in global carbon emissions.

And the strain doesn’t stop at the power grid. At a time when freshwater resources are already under severe pressure, AI data centers are also projected to consume more than 3 billion cubic meters of water per year—a volume that surpasses the annual freshwater withdrawals of entire countries like Norway or Sweden.

Unsurprisingly, the report—Powering Sustainable AI—offers recommendations for how to rein in the problem and prevent those numbers from becoming reality. But with near-daily headlines about Big Tech’s massive AI data center buildouts across the U.S. and worldwide, I can’t help but feel cynical. The urgent framing of an AI race against China doesn’t seem to leave much room—or time—for serious thinking about sustainability.

Just yesterday, for example, OpenAI agreed to rent a massive amount of computing power from Oracle data centers as part of its Stargate initiative, which intends to invest $500 billion over the next four years building new AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States. The additional capacity from Oracle totals about 4.5 gigawatts of data center power in the U.S., according to Bloomberg reporting. A gigawatt is akin to the capacity from one nuclear reactor and can provide electricity to roughly 750,000 houses. 

And this week, Meta was reported to be seeking to raise $29 billion from private capital firms to build AI data centers in the U.S., while already building a $10 billion AI data center in Northeast Louisiana. As part of that deal, the local utility, Entergy, will supply three new power plants. 

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made his intentions clear: The U.S. must rapidly expand AI data center construction or risk falling behind China in the race for AI dominance. Speaking on the Dwarkesh Podcast in May, he warned that America’s edge in artificial intelligence could erode unless it keeps pace with China’s aggressive build-out of data center capacity and factory-scale hardware.

“The U.S. really needs to focus on streamlining the ability to build data centers and produce energy,” Zuckerberg said. “Otherwise, we’ll be at a significant disadvantage.”

The U.S. government seems to be aligned with that sense of urgency. David Sacks, now serving as the White House AI and Crypto Czar, has also underscored that energy and data center expansion are central to America’s AI strategy—leaving little room for sustainability concerns.

On his All In podcast in February, Sacks argued that Washington’s “go-slow” approach to AI could strangle the industry. He emphasized that the U.S. needs to clear the way for infrastructure and energy development—including AI data centers—to keep pace with China.

In late May, he went further, saying that streamlining permitting and expanding power generation are essential for AI’s future—something he claimed has been “effectively impossible under the Biden administration.” His message: the U.S. needs to race to build faster.

Accenture, meanwhile, is urging its clients to responsibly grow and engineer its AI data centers in a bid to balance growth with environmental responsibility. It is offering a new metric, that it calls the Sustainable AI Quotient (SAIQ), to measure the true costs of AI in terms of money invested, megawatt-hours of energy consumed, tons of CO₂ emitted and cubic meters of water used. The firm’s report says the metric will help organizations answer a basic question: “What are we actually getting from the resources we’re investing in AI?” and allow that enterprise to measure its performance across time.

I spoke to Matthew Robinson, managing director of Accenture Research and co-author of the report, who emphasized that he hoped Accenture’s sobering predictions would be proven wrong. “They kind of take your breath away,” he said, explaining that Accenture modeled future energy consumption from the expected number of installed AI chips adjusted for utilization and the additional energy requirements of data centers. That data was combined with regional data on electricity generation, energy mix and emissions, while water use was assessed based on AI data center energy consumption and how much water is consumed per unit of electricity generated.

“The point really is to open the conversation around the actions that are available to avert this pathway—we don’t want to be right here,” he said. He would not comment on the actions of specific companies like OpenAI or Meta, but said that overall, clearly more effort is needed to avert the rise in carbonisation fueled by AI data centers while still allowing for growth. 

Accenture’s recommendations certainly make sense: Optimize the power efficiency of AI workloads and data centers with everything from low-carbon energy options to cooling innovations. Use AI thoughtfully, by choosing smaller AI models, and better pricing models for incentivizing efficiency. And ensure better governance over AI sustainability initiatives. 

It’s hard to imagine that the biggest players in the race for AI dominance—Big Tech giants and heavily funded startups—will hit the brakes long enough to seriously address these growing concerns. Not that it’s impossible. Take Google, for example: In its latest sustainability report released this week, the company revealed that its data centers are consuming more power than ever. In 2024, Google used approximately 32.1 million megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity, with a staggering 95.8%—about 30.8 million MWh—consumed by its data centers. That’s more than double the energy its data centers used in 2020, just before the consumer AI boom.

Still, Google emphasized that it’s making meaningful strides toward cleaning up its energy supply, even as demand surges. The company said it cut its data center energy emissions by 12% in 2024, thanks to clean energy projects and efficiency upgrades. And it’s squeezing more out of every watt. Google reported that the amount of compute per unit of electricity has increased about six-fold over the past five years. Its power usage effectiveness (PUE)—a key measure of data center efficiency—is now approaching the theoretical minimum of 1.0, with a reported PUE of 1.09 in 2024.

“Just speaking personally, I’d be optimistic,” said Robinson.

Note: Check out this new Fortune video about my tour of IBM’s quantum computing test lab. I had a fabulous time hanging out at IBM’s Yorktown Heights campus (a midcentury modern marvel designed by the same guy as the St. Louis Arch and the classic TWA Flight Center at JFK Airport) in New York. The video was part of my coverage for this year’s Fortune 500 issue that included an article that dug deep into IBM’s recent rebound.

As I said in my piece, “walking through the IBM research center is like stepping into two worlds at once. There are the steel and glass curves of Saarinen’s design, punctuated by massive walls made of stones collected from the surrounding fields, with original Eames chairs dotting discussion nooks. But this 20th-century modernism contrasts starkly with the sleek, massive, refrigerator-like quantum computer—among the most advanced in the world—that anchors the collaboration area and working lab, where it whooshes with the steady hum of its cooling system.”

With that, here’s the rest of the AI news.

Sharon Goldman
sharon.goldman@fortune.com
@sharongoldman

AI IN THE NEWS

Ilya Sutskever says he is now CEO of Safe Superintelligence, after Daniel Gross steps down to join Meta. Ilya Sutskever, the former OpenAI chief scientist who founded Safe Superintelligence (SSI) with Daniel Gross and Daniel Levy a year ago, confirmed that he will now serve as SSI’s CEO after Daniel Gross stepped down. Sustkever posted on X saying: “Daniel Gross’s time with us has been winding down, and as of June 29 he is officially no longer a part of SSI. We are grateful for his early contributions to the company and wish him well in his next endeavor. I am now formally CEO of SSI, and Daniel Levy is President. The technical team continues to report to me. ⁠You might have heard rumors of companies looking to acquire us. We are flattered by their attention but are focused on seeing our work through.” Meta was rumored to have sought to acquire the $32 billion-valued SSI.

Chinese AI companies erode U.S. dominance. According to the Wall Street Journal, Chinese artificial intelligence companies are gaining ground globally, challenging U.S. supremacy and intensifying a potential AI arms race. Across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, organizations—from multinational banks like HSBC and Standard Chartered to Saudi Aramco—are increasingly adopting large language models from Chinese firms such as DeepSeek and Alibaba as alternatives to U.S. offerings like ChatGPT. Even American cloud giants like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Google now offer access to DeepSeek’s models, despite U.S. government security restrictions on the company’s apps. While OpenAI’s ChatGPT still leads in global adoption—with 910 million downloads versus DeepSeek’s 125 million—Chinese models are undercutting U.S. competition by offering nearly comparable performance at much lower prices.

Meta’s AI talent bidding war heats up. As Mark Zuckerberg rapidly staffs up Meta’s new superintelligence lab, his company has reportedly offered some OpenAI researchers eye-popping pay packages of up to $300 million over four years, with more than $100 million in first-year compensation, Wired reports. The offers, which include immediate stock vesting, have been extended to at least 10 OpenAI employees, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. While Meta’s aggressive recruiting tactics have caught the attention of top talent, some OpenAI staffers told Wired they’re weighing the massive payouts against their potential impact at Meta versus staying at OpenAI. A Meta spokesperson pushed back, claiming reports of the offer sizes are exaggerated. Still, even Meta’s senior engineers typically make around $850,000 per year, with those in higher pay bands earning over $1.5 million annually, according to Levels.FYI data.

Microsoft’s sales overhaul goes all-in on AI. Microsoft’s sales chief, Judson Althoff, is reshaping the company’s sales organization to double down on AI, according to an internal memo obtained by Business Insider. Althoff’s Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions (MCAPS) unit will now focus on embedding Copilot across devices and roles, deepening Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 adoption, winning high-impact AI deals, expanding Azure cloud migration, and strengthening cybersecurity to support AI growth. The memo, sent just one day before Microsoft’s latest round of layoffs—many of which affected Althoff’s sales teams—outlined his vision to make Microsoft “the Frontier AI Firm.” According to Business Insider, this restructuring follows Althoff’s earlier plan to cut the number of sales solution areas in half starting this fiscal year.

FORTUNE ON AI

The new CEO flex: Bragging that AI handles exactly X% of the work —by Sharon Goldman

Sam Altman scoffs at Mark Zuckerberg’s AI recruitment drive and says Meta hasn’t even got their ‘top people’ —by Beatrice Nolan

Figma files for IPO nearly two years after $20 billion Adobe buyout fell through —by Allie Garfinkle

AI CALENDAR

July 8-11: AI for Good Global Summit, Geneva

July 13-19: International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), Vancouver

July 22-23: Fortune Brainstorm AI Singapore. Apply to attend here.

July 26-28: World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), Shanghai. 

Sept. 8-10: Fortune Brainstorm Tech, Park City, Utah. Apply to attend here.

Oct. 6-10: World AI Week, Amsterdam

Dec. 2-7: NeurIPS, San Diego

Dec. 8-9: Fortune Brainstorm AI San Francisco. Apply to attend here.

EYE ON AI NUMBERS

$65 Billion

That’s how much U.S. investment in AI companies soared to in the first quarter of this year—a 33% jump from the previous quarter and a staggering 550% increase compared to the quarter before ChatGPT’s 2022 debut, according to PitchBook.

The biggest price tag? Data centers.

 The New York Times reports that Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google plan to spend a combined $320 billion on infrastructure this year—more than double what they spent just two years ago. A huge chunk of that will go toward building new data centers to keep up with the exploding demand for AI.

It could be described as a storm in a teacup but the humble Jaffa Cake is once again at the centre of controversy after McVitie’s asked a biscuit museum to pull the snack from a display.

The manufacturer took issue with the orangey treat being showcased in a museum devoted to biscuits because, for VAT purposes anyway, it is officially a cake. This fact was settled long ago in a legal battle with the taxman.

The David and Goliath-style row – which some suggested had been orchestrated by McVitie’s to boost sales – has reignited the debate.

Days after the biscuit museum in Bermondsey, south London, unveiled the display, McVitie’s sent it a cease-and-desist-style letter requesting “the immediate removal of Jaffa Cakes from your biscuit exhibit”.

However, it sought to sweeten the pill by diluting the legalese with biscuit-based puns. “We write to you today, not with crumbs of animosity, but with a full slice of firm objection,” it says. “Allow us to be clear: Jaffa Cakes are, in fact, cakes. Some would say the clue is in the name on the box.”

McVitie’s and the biscuit museum, officially called the Peek Frean Museum, said they were yet to agree on a resolution. The museum’s curator, Gary Magold, said, “It’s a shame – we’ve had to remove the exhibition for the moment. We’re hoping we can reach an agreement.”

The subtleties of the “is it a cake or biscuit?” debate have likely filled many a tea break but the tax law is clear: biscuits are zero-rated, but as soon as the makers start covering them with chocolate they attract 20% VAT. This was at the heart of the Jaffa Cakes case, which came to a head in 1991.

HM Customs & Excise (the predecessor of HMRC) said they were biscuits, and that their chocolatey topping was taxable. The manufacturer McVitie’s insisted they were cakes, which are zero-rated. It won, and those smashing orangey bits can be enjoyed tax-free.

This week’s skirmish lit up social media message boards. One poster tried to shut the debate down, stating: “A biscuit goes soft when you leave it out. A cake goes hard. There’s your answer.”

Others questioned whether there was a darker subtext. “They just want to hide how much the thing have [sic] shrunk – shrinkflation strikes again.”

In recent years Jaffa Cake fans have faced diminishing returns. Not only has the number in the box reduced but two years ago the “cakes” shrank in size from 5.5cm to 5cm across. The orange bump became smaller, too.

Pension Insurance Corporation Group Limited (“PICG”), ultimate parent company of Pension Insurance Corporation plc (“PIC”), the specialist insurer of UK defined benefit pension schemes, today announces that Athora Holding Limited (“Athora”) has agreed to acquire PICG for approximately £5.7 billion. Athora is a leading pan-European savings and retirement services group with €76 billion of assets under management and administration, on behalf of 2.8 million policyholders. 

The transaction means that for the first time in its 20-year history, PIC will be held by a single strategic owner. PIC will become the UK insurance business of Athora and continue operating under the PIC (and penguin) brand. Athora has existing insurance businesses in the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium and Germany. Athora is backed by permanent capital owners, including a strategic minority investment by Apollo Global Management and Athene Holding Limited, and long-term institutional investors such as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (“ADIA”).

The transaction creates a total Group with assets of over €130 billion, backing the pensions of more than three million savers and retirees across Europe. PIC will be 45% of Athora’s total assets under management and administration, and will be the largest and fastest growing business in the Group. 

PIC has a portfolio of £50.9 billion backing the pensions of 400,000 people. It has £30 billion invested in the UK. To date it has invested £13.8 billion in UK housing and infrastructure, which help provide the secure, inflation-linked cashflows which match its pension liabilities over future decades. PIC has so far paid more than £16 billion in pensions, with a 99% customer satisfaction rating.

The acquisition reinforces PIC’s strategy of providing very high customer service levels and increases its ability to invest in UK housing and infrastructure as Athora supports PIC through the next phase of its growth. This will allow PIC to provide its best pricing across a larger number of pension risk transfer deals.

PICG’s current shareholders are Reinet Fund S.C.A., F.I.S. (“Reinet”) which holds 49.5% of the issued shares, a wholly owned subsidiary of ADIA, with 18.4% of the issued shares, funds managed by CVC Capital Partners (“CVC”), with 17.4%, and funds managed by HPS Investment Partners with 10.2%, as well as employees and other shareholders, who hold c.4% of the issued shares. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close in early 2026.

Tracy Blackwell, CEO of PIC, said: “PIC has had an amazing growth story over the past two decades and is now one of Britain’s preeminent pension businesses. This success has been based on a simple purpose, which is to pay the pensions of our current and future policyholders. Athora’s investment is validation of what we have always believed: that PIC’s reputation, strategy, fortress balance sheet, purpose, and most importantly our people combine to make this a unique business in a huge and growing market. 

“With Athora backing us through our next phase of growth as their UK insurance business, we will be able to provide more options to the trustees of defined benefit pension schemes and invest more in UK housing and infrastructure. The pension risk transfer market is vital to the wellbeing of millions of UK pensioners and the allocation of tens of billions of pounds of investment into the UK’s economy. This acquisition and the potential for growth that it represents is the strongest possible recognition of the value and importance of the pension risk transfer market, the sector that PIC helped to create and continues to lead.

“Finally, I want to thank our exiting shareholders who have been absolutely brilliant in getting us to this point. I very much look to the next chapter in PIC’s story.”

Mike Wells, CEO of Athora, said: “We are delighted to have agreed this transaction. We have followed PIC’s progress for several years and been consistently impressed by the very high-quality business the PIC team has built. As our UK subsidiary, PIC will be the largest business within the Athora Group and we intend to invest in the business and its people to support that growth in the UK pension risk transfer market. We have great confidence in the long-term strengths of the UK: its retirement market, regulatory and policy framework, and economic prospects.”

Dillie Malherbe, Director: Reinet Investments Manager, said: “We have been invested in PICG since 2012, and have helped oversee a 900% increase in the size of the business since then, by size of financial investments. What has consistently impressed me about PIC is that, despite that amazing growth trajectory, it has maintained a relentless focus on outcomes for its policyholders. I want to thank Tracy, our fellow shareholders, and everyone at PIC for all their efforts over the past 13 years.”

Hamad Shahwan Aldhaheri, Executive Director of the Private Equities Department at ADIA, said: “As a shareholder in PICG since 2018, our investment supported the growth of the company as it strengthened its position as one of the leading players in the UK pension risk transfer market. Following this transaction, we will maintain exposure to the company via our existing shareholding in Athora, and believe that PIC has strong prospects for the future. We wish the company continued success as part of Athora.”