Category: 3. Business

The slowdown has intensified pressure on Chancellor Rachel Reeves ahead of the autumn Budget.

LONDON, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) — Britain’s economy is facing a series of challenges, with growth losing momentum, inflation remaining elevated, and unemployment rising to a post-pandemic high. Ahead of the autumn Budget later this month, expectations are mounting for measures to reduce costs, boost investment, and shore up confidence.

LACK OF GROWTH MOMENTUM

The British economy slowed again in the third quarter (Q3), with real gross domestic product (GDP) edging up by just 0.1 percent, down from 0.3 percent in the previous quarter and a sharp drop from the 0.7-percent expansion recorded at the start of the year, according to data released Thursday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Julian Jessop, economics fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs, said the figures show that the stronger growth seen earlier in the year “has already fizzled out.” He noted that GDP declined in each month of Q3 before rounding.

In output terms, services grew by 0.2 percent and construction by 0.1 percent between July and September, while the production sector contracted by 0.5 percent, ONS data showed. “Growth slowed further in Q3 with both services and construction weaker than in the previous period,” said Liz McKeown, ONS director of economic statistics.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said the average month-on-month growth rate in Q3 was -0.1 percent, reflecting subdued market conditions. Anna Leach, chief economist at the Institute of Directors, said underlying momentum remains weak, with last year’s cost pressures, a softening labor market, and weak real wage growth weighing on consumer and business spending.

Real GDP per head showed no growth in Q3, highlighting the lack of improvement in living standards, according to Leach. The unemployment rate rose to its highest level since the pandemic, while consumer price inflation has held at 3.8 percent for months, almost twice the Bank of England’s 2 percent target.

BUDGET EXPECTATIONS RISE

The slowdown has intensified pressure on Chancellor Rachel Reeves ahead of the autumn Budget. Stuart Morrison, research manager at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said the absence of consistent growth makes this month’s fiscal statement a make-or-break moment for business.

A recent BCC survey of more than 4,600 firms found that a quarter have scaled back investment plans, while a fifth expect turnover to worsen over the next year. Morrison urged the government to avoid further tax rises and to prioritise measures that address skills shortages, support exporting, and accelerate infrastructure projects.

Ben Jones, lead economist at the Confederation of British Industry, said businesses are looking for a clear signal that the government is committed to unlocking investment and improving competitiveness. “Not another round of tax rises or short-term fixes that would deepen the drag on growth,” he said.

Earlier this month, the Chancellor delivered a pre-Budget speech suggesting further tax increases, though she has since dropped plans for rises in income tax, according to the Financial Times.

NIESR associate economist Fergus Jimenez-England said that while GDP growth is expected to be stronger this year than last, it is largely supported by government spending rather than private-sector activity. With fiscal tightening anticipated, he warned that restoring confidence will require “a larger buffer to reduce policy churn and uncertainty.”

Ashwin Kumar, director of research and policy at the Institute for Public Policy Research, said the government needs to continue efforts to boost public and private investment, reform the planning system, and improve Britain’s trading relationship with the European Union. He added that providing greater certainty for businesses and reforming taxes to promote growth would be key.  ■

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Frankfurt-based DWS is examining whether the boom could unravel at a faster pace, Hoops said in an interview on Thursday, adding that the many retail investors sitting on big gains on stocks such as Nvidia could be quick to sell if sentiment soured.

While institutional investors studied traditional metrics to assess if stocks are overvalued, retail investors often do not and many ‘buy the dip’ when there are declines, Hoops said. How they would behave during a sustained drop was unknown, he added.

DRUMBEAT OF WARNINGS ABOUT POTENTIAL AI BUBBLE

“There’s no playbook, there’s no real history for something like that,” Hoops said at DWS’s London office.

“What’s happening is this most amazing wealth creation (for retail investors)… Nvidia stock is now worth $5 trillion. My question is simply, could it go to $100 trillion? Or would at some point you be the first one to say, ‘You know what, this is getting shaky?’”

The German giant believes AI will transform industries and Hoops did not predict a tumble, but said more evidence was needed beyond efficiency gains to sustain lofty valuations.

DWS still “loves” the data centre sector – which serves AI-driven demand for computing power – and will invest in more built assets, Hoops said, adding it was selling its stake in data centre fund NorthC as it had matured and the time was right.

REINVIGORATING EUROPEAN GROWTH

DWS’s record net inflows of 40.5 billion euros over the first nine months of this year partly reflected some overseas investors diversifying away from the U.S., Hoops said, although he added European governments needed to do more to boost growth.

($1 = 0.8575 euros)

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“We are thinking what (restrictions to dollar funding) would mean. That would have a profound impact on smaller countries, it would have a profound impact on emerging markets,” he said.

“The U.S. has an incredible toolkit for anything around dollar-clearing payments,” he said. “I think Fed swap lines are a… red line, meaning, once you do that then it changes forever.”

Hoops said any interventions would undermine faith in previously neutral market processes such as clearing.

“My personal view is that it’s difficult to see because this is almost like a last resort.”

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(Reuters) -Alphabet’s Google unit will invest $40 billion over the next two years to build three new data centers in Texas, joining peers aggressively spending to build infrastructure to support the surge in artificial intelligence applications.

The investments reflect how the global tech industry is rapidly scaling up its computing and energy capacity ​to power the next generation of AI tools and services.

Here is a list of multi-billion dollar AI, cloud and chip deals signed recently:

NVIDIA-BACKED GROUP AND ALIGNED DATA CENTERS

An ‌investor group including BlackRock, Microsoft and Nvidia is buying U.S.-based Aligned Data Centers, one of the world’s biggest data center operators with nearly 80 facilities, in a deal worth $40 billion.

GOOGLE AND TEXAS

Google will invest $40 ‌billion in three new data centers in Texas through 2027. One of the data centers will be in Armstrong County, in the Texas panhandle, and the other two in Haskell County, a stretch of West Texas near Abilene.

The company is also continuing to invest in its existing Midlothian campus and Dallas cloud region, part of the company’s global network of 42 cloud regions.

BROADCOM AND OPENAI

OpenAI has partnered with Broadcom to produce its first in-house artificial intelligence processors, the latest tie-up for the world’s most valuable startup for computing power amid surging demand for its services.

AMD AND OPENAI

AMD agreed to supply artificial ⁠intelligence chips to OpenAI in a multi-year deal that would also ‌give the ChatGPT creator the option to buy up to roughly 10% of the chipmaker.

NVIDIA AND OPENAI

Nvidia is set to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI and supply it with data center chips, in a deal giving the chipmaker a financial stake in OpenAI. OpenAI is already an important customer ‍for Nvidia.

META AND COREWEAVE

CoreWeave has signed a $14 billion agreement with Meta to supply computing power to the Facebook parent.

NVIDIA AND INTEL

Nvidia will invest $5 billion in Intel, giving it roughly 4% of the company after new shares are issued.

ORACLE AND META

Oracle is in talks with Meta for a multi-year cloud computing deal worth about $20 billion, underscoring the social media giant’s drive to secure faster access to computing ​power.

ORACLE AND OPENAI

Oracle is reported to have signed one of the biggest cloud deals ever with OpenAI, under which the ChatGPT maker is expected to buy $300 billion ‌in computing power from the company for about five years.

COREWEAVE AND NVIDIA

CoreWeave signed a $6.3 billion initial order with backer Nvidia, a deal that guarantees that the AI chipmaker will purchase any cloud capacity not sold to customers.

NEBIUS GROUP AND MICROSOFT

Nebius Group will provide Microsoft with GPU infrastructure capacity in a deal worth $17.4 billion over a five-year term.

META AND GOOGLE

Google struck a six-year cloud computing deal with Meta Platforms worth more than $10 billion, Reuters had reported in August.

INTEL AND SOFTBANK GROUP

Intel is getting a $2 billion capital injection from SoftBank Group, making the Japanese tech investor one of the top-10 shareholders of the troubled U.S. chipmaker.

TESLA AND SAMSUNG

Tesla signed a $16.5 billion deal to source chips from Samsung Electronics,⁠ with the EV maker’s CEO Elon Musk saying that the South Korean tech giant’s new chip ​factory in Texas would make Tesla’s next-generation AI6 chip.

META AND SCALE AI

Meta took a ​49% stake for about $14.3 billion in Scale AI and brought in its 28-year-old CEO, Alexandr Wang, to play a prominent role in the tech giant’s artificial intelligence strategy.

GOOGLE AND WINDSURF

Google hired several key staff members from AI code generation startup Windsurf and ‍will pay $2.4 billion in license fees as part ⁠of the deal to use some of Windsurf’s technology under non-exclusive terms.

COREWEAVE AND OPENAI

CoreWeave signed a five-year contract worth $11.9 billion with OpenAI in March, before the Nvidia-backed startup’s IPO.

STARGATE DATACENTER PROJECT

Stargate is a joint venture between SoftBank, OpenAI and Oracle to build data centers. ⁠The project was announced in January by U.S. President Donald Trump, who said that the companies would invest up to $500 billion to fund infrastructure for artificial intelligence.

AMAZON AND ANTHROPIC

Amazon.com pumped $4 billion into ‌OpenAI competitor Anthropic, doubling its investment in the firm known for its GenAI chatbot Claude.

(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City, Deborah ‌Sophia, Arnav Mishra, Jaspreet Singh, and Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

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Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has built a $4.3bn stake in Alphabet, in what could be one of the conglomerate’s final new stock positions under the legendary investor as he nears retirement at the end of this year.

The new stake in Google’s parent company is Berkshire’s tenth-largest stock holding and somewhat of a deviation from Buffett’s philosophy of opting for long-term, buy-and-hold value stocks over high-growth companies.

Meanwhile, Buffett sold about $11bn worth of Apple shares in the third quarter, as he continued to trim his investment in one of his most profitable trades for the second consecutive quarter.

Berkshire disclosed it sold about 42mn Apple shares between June and September, leaving it with a position that was worth roughly $61bn at the end of the third quarter. However, the iPhone maker remains Berkshire’s biggest stock position.

Buffett sold more than two-thirds of his stake in Apple during a period from 2023 to 2024, which allowed the so-called Oracle of Omaha to lock in huge profits from the investment he first made in 2016.

In a letter to investors on Monday, Buffett said he was “going quiet”, retiring from his role as chief executive and stepping back from day-to-day responsibilities at the end of this year at the investing conglomerate he built.

Other than Apple and now Alphabet, Berkshire’s top stock holdings do not include investments in Big Tech companies. Its other largest positions, which remained largely unchanged for the third quarter, include American Express, Bank of America and Coca-Cola.

Despite Berkshire’s new position in Alphabet, the conglomerate continued to be a net seller of stocks during the period for the third consecutive year, offloading more than $6bn of equity investments in the third quarter. Over the past three years, Berkshire has sold about $184bn of stock.

Buffett’s vote of confidence in Alphabet underscores the turnaround in Google’s fortunes in its battle for dominance of the artificial intelligence market over the past year, while Apple is increasingly seen as falling behind Silicon Valley rivals in the AI race.

Google was caught flat-footed by the debut of ChatGPT in November 2022, and its first efforts to launch a rival chatbot misfired, driving fears that its core search advertising business would suffer as users switched to AI assistants to find online answers.

But this year has seen rapid improvements in Google’s AI capabilities. At the same time, its core search business has proved more resilient than some on Wall Street expected, with Alphabet’s total revenues hitting a record $100bn in the most recent quarter.

At Friday’s close, Apple’s stock had risen by about 12 per cent this year, while Alphabet is up 45 per cent, outrunning even AI chipmaker Nvidia to be the best-performing Big Tech stock so far in 2025.

Fitch Ratings upgraded Greece’s rating status by a notch, saying the country is forecast to continue a debt decline and projected to have another budget surplus despite plans for fiscal easing.

The firm lifted Greece’s long-term sovereign rating to BBB from BBB- with a stable outlook, according to a statement on Friday. Following the move, all major rating agencies now place the country two levels above the junk territory except for Moody’s Rating, which places Greece one notch lower.

By Claudia Assis

Berkshire discloses stake on Alphabet now worth about $5 billion

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway finally went for Alphabet’s stock.

As it nears the end of the Warren Buffett era, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. broke new ground in the quarter that ended Sept. 30: It placed a fresh bet on tech giant Alphabet Inc., according to a securities filing released late Friday.

Buffett, who will be at the helm of Berkshire (BRK.B) (BRK.A) as CEO through the end of this year, had eschewed Alphabet shares (GOOGL) (GOOG) for years while placing plenty of other bets on tech giants such as Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN)

But no longer: Berkshire ended the third quarter with a new stake of nearly 18 million Alphabet shares, at the time worth about $4.3 billion. That same number of shares is worth close to $5 billion as of Friday.

The Google parent company’s stock is up nearly 50% for the year, but endured double-digit losses in February and March. Then, in September, an antitrust case around the company’s Chrome browser business came to a much better-than-expected resolution, and the stock gained 14% and 16% in September and October, respectively.

Securities regulators require all institutional investment managers holding more than $100 million in certain securities to disclose their positions in filings called 13-Fs – offering a window into a firm’s stock and ETF holdings at the end of the quarter, and into its possible strategies.

Other Berkshire moves were more in keeping with the ethos of the organization and offered fewer surprises. It increased its holdings of Domino’s Pizza Inc. (DPZ) by 13%, and its holdings of insurer Chubb Ltd. (CB) by nearly 16%. It also sold off its stake in home builder D.R. Horton Inc. (DHI)

Berkshire reported third-quarter earnings a week ago, showing a growing pile of cash and a continued aversion to stock buybacks.

-Claudia Assis

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Since 2020, commercial real estate (CRE) insurance premiums in the U.S. have risen by 88%. At the same time, risk tolerance for insurers has decreased – driven by concerns about climate risks, inflation and market volatility. Against this backdrop, building features and maintenance practices once rewarded with premium discounts are now less likely to guarantee savings.

However, the enhanced operational resilience, risk mitigation and data collection capabilities delivered by technologies like OpenBlue may help organizations secure better access to coverage and slow the rate of premium increases. The award-winning software platform can enhance resilience and transparency, reduce risk exposure, make real estate portfolios more appealing to insurers, and unlock new business growth opportunities. Here’s how:

How can building data lower insurance premiums?

CRE insurance premiums reflect a mix of location, building type and market dynamics that include volatility, regulatory pressures and climate risks. The increasing complexity of the underwriting process is leading insurers to require detailed information about building performance, maintenance and risk exposure before issuing coverage.

OpenBlue technology streamlines this information-gathering process and gives insurers easier access to timely and relevant information that includes:

• Operational and maintenance records
• Incident reports
• Utilization and occupancy analytics
• Documents and data showing compliance with safety and sustainability standards
• Transparency into asset performance at the property and portfolio level

In addition to making the underwriting process easier, this transparency and smoother data collaboration builds trust between property owners and insurers.

How can building technology help mitigate risk?

OpenBlue solutions streamline the collection, sharing and analysis of data. They also empower you to improve the building performance and operational efficiency reflected in that data. Our systems combine Internet-of-Things sensors, advanced analytics and AI-powered insights to give facilities and real estate teams real-time visibility into building operations, energy use, occupancy patterns and vulnerabilities.

Key capabilities that support risk mitigation include:

Predictive equipment maintenance

OpenBlue Workplace uses AI, sensors and advanced analytics to identify recurring issues and equipment trends. Instead of following an arbitrary and inefficient preventive maintenance schedule, facility managers (FMs) can use this information to strategically plan preventive measures and upgrades. This can prolong the life of expensive assets and building systems and lower overall ownership costs.

When something goes wrong, time is of the essence. The integration of Johnson Controls Metasys into OpenBlue Workplace shortens response times by automatically triggering a work order ticket when the system detects a problem.

Real-time occupancy and utilization insights

OpenBlue Insights provides real-time occupancy and utilization information. This can help organizations plan more effectively for safety, compliance and emergency response. These insights also inform risk-related decisions such as evacuation planning, renovations and refits, or HVAC optimization during severe weather.

Environmental monitoring

OpenBlue Workplace gives FMs early warnings of issues that could put people and property at risk by using data gathered from sensors that track variables like temperature, humidity, particulates and water leaks. Environmental sensors, for example, can notify facilities teams of anomalies in indoor air quality that might impact the health of occupants or damage equipment and potentially increase costs and liability.

Access control and security

OpenBlue Companion’s access control and visitor management features can help bolster the safety and security of occupants and assets. They can also provide digital records that improve safety compliance and protect against liability. They can even improve efficiency by automating routine tasks and helping ensure continuity of operations in emergencies.

Together, these capabilities enhance resilience by turning building data into actionable insights. Investors gain confidence in asset performance, operators can demonstrate strong risk management practices, and insurers get accurate, detailed information to support underwriting. Best of all, a recent Johnson Controls study conducted by Forrester Consulting found that the payback period for OpenBlue can be as little as eight months, with an ROI of 155% over three years.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.

Bill Ackman (Trades, Portfolio) recently submitted the 13F filing for the third quarter of 2025, providing insights into his investment moves during this period. William Ackman, co-investment manager for hedge-fund group Gotham Partners LP, formed Pershing Square in November 2003 with $54 million raised from three investors. Ackman got his start in the real estate business, where he worked for his father prior to starting Gotham. Bill Ackman (Trades, Portfolio) is an activist investor. He buys the common stocks of public companies, and pushes for changes so that the market can realize the values of the companies. Ackman buys stocks trading at a discount, and sells when the companies reach their appraised value.

Bill Ackman (Trades, Portfolio) also reduced position in 4 stocks. The most significant changes include:

• Reduced Alphabet Inc(NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 519,007 shares, resulting in a -9.68% decrease in shares and a -0.67% impact on the portfolio. The stock traded at an average price of $209.46 during the quarter and has returned 36.32% over the past 3 months and 46.49% year-to-date.

• Reduced Brookfield Corp(NYSE:BN) by 140,166 shares, resulting in a -0.34% reduction in shares and a -0.06% impact on the portfolio. The stock traded at an average price of $44.31 during the quarter and has returned 0.86% over the past 3 months and 15.55% year-to-date.

At the third quarter of 2025, Bill Ackman (Trades, Portfolio)’s portfolio included 11 stocks, the top holdings included 20.25% in Uber Technologies Inc(NYSE:UBER), 19.21% in Brookfield Corp(NYSE:BN), 10.58% in Howard Hughes Holdings Inc(NYSE:HHH), 10.52% in Alphabet Inc(NASDAQ:GOOG), 10.04% in Restaurant Brands International Inc(NYSE:QSR).

The holdings are mainly concentrated in 6 of all the 11 industries: Consumer Cyclical, Technology, Financial Services, Communication Services, Real Estate, Industrials.