Category: 3. Business

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Google DeepMind will establish its first “automated science laboratory” in the UK, as it signs a new partnership with the British government in a move designed to enhance the use of artificial intelligence across the country.

The US Big tech group’s AI unit, run by British Nobel laureate Sir Demis Hassabis, announced on Thursday that it would set up the new materials science lab in 2026.

The lab will focus on using AI tools to develop new materials for superconductors, solar cells and semiconductors. DeepMind will also provide local scientists with “priority access” to its scientific AI tools.

“We think that AI systems are now ready to bridge the gap between digital and actually discovering new materials,” said Pushmeet Kohli, DeepMind’s vice-president for science and strategic initiatives.

DeepMind also signed a memorandum of understanding with the UK as Sir Keir Starmer’s government seeks to boost use of AI in science, education, public services and national security. 

The company, which was founded in London before being acquired by Google in 2014, has pledged to work more closely with the UK’s AI Security Institute (AISI) which evaluates and researches the safety of AI systems. 

DeepMind will offer access to its models to AISI researchers to jointly develop techniques to monitor an AI system’s chain-of-thought reasoning process, where the model solves problems step-by-step. It will also work with AISI to understand the social and emotional effect of its models on users, as well as the economic impacts of AI adoption. 

In return, the UK government will “explore” how teachers can use Google’s Gemini AI model for teaching England’s national curriculum. DeepMind will also offer technical expertise and access to its models to modernise public services.

“This partnership will make sure we harness developments in AI for public good so that everyone feels the benefits,” Starmer said.

“That means using AI to tackle everyday challenges like cutting energy bills thanks to cheaper, greener energy and making our public services more efficient so that taxpayers’ money is spent on what matters most to people.” 

The UK has also sought deals with AI companies to attract new investment into the country. It signed a technology pact with the US government to boost advances in science and AI research in September. 

AI models made by US-based Anthropic are being used to help citizens find UK government information. Meanwhile, Canada’s Cohere has pledged to also help the British public sector and defence industries use its technologies.

OpenAI has promised to “explore” developing research and development infrastructure in the UK, after setting up its first office outside the US in London two years ago.

Critics have argued that the UK is too close to Big Tech groups and should go further to regulate AI.

“We need to ask who is setting the agenda for the UK’s future with AI,” said Imogen Parker, associate director at the Ada Lovelace Institute, a research body.

“In the absence of independent regulation or scrutiny, we’re at the mercy of technology companies’ commercial interests aligning with what the public want.”

She added: “Google partnering with the government to explore how to refine its own Gemini model may or may not benefit teachers and pupils, but it will undoubtedly benefit Google.”

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

The Federal Reserve has said it will launch a $40bn short-term bond-buying programme just weeks after it stopped shrinking its balance sheet following repeated bouts of strain in money markets.

The US central bank said on Wednesday it would begin purchasing Treasury bills, debt that matures in four weeks to a year, starting on December 12.

Its decision comes after interest rates in overnight lending markets jumped last month as the Fed’s three-year efforts to shrink its balance sheet absorbed excess liquidity from markets.

Some Fed officials had expressed concern that rates in the repo market, which forms a vital part of the financial system’s plumbing, had repeatedly become unmoored from other borrowing costs the central bank sets.

The Fed halted its quantitative-tightening programme on December 1, but many in the market viewed that as insufficient to steady funding markets.

The Fed was expected by some on Wall Street to announce a Treasury bill- buying programme on Wednesday, but the pace and size of the purchases were more aggressive than projected, suggesting the Fed was uneasy about the volatility in short-term funding markets in recent months.

The Fed said these purchases “will remain elevated for a few months” ahead of April, the month when many Americans make tax payments, sucking reserves out of the banking system.

Fed chair Jay Powell said on Wednesday that since the central bank was monitoring reserve levels, “we knew this was going to come. When it finally did come, it came a little quicker than expected, but we were absolutely there to take the actions that we said we would take.”

Powell stressed that the bond purchases were not part of the Fed’s monetary policy mix and did not mark a return to large-scale purchases of long-term debt used to stimulate the economy.

The Fed’s quantitative-tightening programme had returned more government debt to private markets, depleting bank reserves. The 2019 repo crisis, in which a scarcity of reserves sent repo rates above 10 per cent, ended the Fed’s previous quantitative-tightening initiative.

Jefferies chief economist Thomas Simons said the scale of the bond-buying programme was in line with his expectations. He said it was “a good move to get out ahead of a crisis like 2019”.

“This is very reminiscent of 2019 where the Fed overshot by reducing the balance sheet too much. This is the Fed saying that they may have overshot a little bit, and now they’re just topping up,” added Calvin Tse, head of US strategy and economics at BNP Paribas.

The repo market allows banks and other financial institutions to borrow cash overnight in exchange for ultra-safe collateral such as Treasuries. The cash loaned out overnight is often “excess” bank reserves, which refers to money kept on hand by banks to meet customer and regulatory demands.

When those reserve levels fall, borrowing rates rise as banks compete for cash to meet their obligations, sending interest rates higher.

Staff at one of Glasgow’s busiest cinemas are to begin strike action to protest against working conditions, wages and lack of trade union recognition.

Workers at the Vue in St Enoch’s Centre told BBC Scotland News they felt they had to act for a number of reasons, including the company not paying for employees to get transport home after late night shifts which end about 02:00.

The action is believed to the first in Scotland at a cinema and is scheduled to last until 7 January.

The cinema chain said screenings of films like Wicked For Good and Zootropolis 2 at the venue would continue as normal, with temporary staff brought in.

Members of the Unite union voted in favour of striking last month, and about 50 employees are expected to take part in the protest, including picketing the cinema.

Yusuf Kidwai, the lead convenor of the strikes, said frustration with conditions had been growing for some time at the chain.

He told BBC Scotland News: “There is a lot of turnover in hospitality, so there is not a strong union culture in the industry. That’s why it’s amazing what we have been able to do here.

“Vue has told us to complain through the proper channels but we have done that, and nothing has been done.”

Mr Kidwai, who has worked at the St Enoch cinema since autumn 2024, said workers want four things from the dispute – to be paid the real living wage, for trade unions to be recognised by Vue, for staff to have better contracted hours, and for paid transport home after late shifts.

He added: “We have screenings that go on until two or three in the morning, and that asks a lot of staff.

“The area around Argyle Street is not safe at night, and you have a lot of young students left to either walk home through unsafe areas or spend half the day’s wages on a taxi.”

A planning committee meeting at Glasgow City Council recently heard how the area around St Enoch’s often suffered anti-social behaviour.

Mr Kidwai said he believed workers trained at another Vue cinema would be brought in to replace the striking workers.

Vue is one of the biggest cinema chains in the country, and its city centre venue one of Glasgow’s largest, after the closure of Cineworld earlier this year.

Founder and chief executive Tim Richards recently said the company had returned to pre-pandemic trading levels this year.

A spokesperson for Vue said: “Our teams are at the heart of our business and are highly valued. We continue to have regular meetings and open dialogue with site team members.”

Samsung Electronics and KT Corporation (KT) announced they have successfully validated AI-based radio access network (AI-RAN) optimization technology on KT’s commercial network, confirming that stable, uninterrupted service can be delivered across a range of real-world environments. Following simulation-based verification completed in June, this marks the first successful demonstration of the technology on a live commercial network.

As user-perceived communication quality becomes a key priority for telecom operators, Samsung has been developing AI-RAN optimization technologies to meet this need.

Traditionally, the same network configuration has been applied to all user devices — such as smartphones — connected to a base station. When users move through weak-signal areas or travel at high speeds, the connection between their devices and the base station may weaken or drop.

The AI-RAN optimization technology verified by the two companies automatically applies optimal configurations for each user — rather than for the network as a whole — based on real-time wireless conditions. The system leverages AI to learn from issues tied to a user’s movement paths and usage patterns, identifying recurring trends to predict potential problems. By proactively preventing disruptions, the technology helps users avoid the connectivity issues they experienced in the past.

Samsung Research of Samsung Electronics and the Future Network Laboratory at KT Corporation conducted a field test with approximately 18,000 users in select areas of Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, featuring varying environmental conditions. The AI-RAN technology was applied to users who had repeatedly experienced service disruptions, allowing the teams to identify recurring issue patterns and develop user-specific network configurations. The companies then compared the number of disconnections before and after applying these configurations on the commercial network. The results showed a significant drop in connection failures among users who had faced frequent disruptions, as well as a notable decrease in issues for other users in the region.

AI-RAN optimization will be essential as the industry prepares for the 6G era, when data usage is expected to surge and networks must deliver stable service across a wide range of communication environments. Because the improvement in communication quality was noticeable at the user level, this achievement is expected to be recognized as a leading example of AI-RAN technology. Moving forward, the two companies plan to expand validation across additional commercial networks and further advance 6G technology.

“This is a major milestone that shows how AI can improve user experience on real-world commercial networks,” said JinGuk Jeong, Executive Vice President and Head of the Advanced Communications Research Center, Samsung Research at Samsung Electronics. “Through close collaboration with KT, we will continue shaping and validating the next generation of AI-driven communication technologies.”

“This achievement demonstrates that AI can transform network operations around users,” said Jong-Sik Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of Future Network Laboratory at KT Corporation. “Together with Samsung, we will continue developing customized optimization technologies to deliver stable, uninterrupted service and drive core 6G capabilities that create new value for customers.”

Samsung is leading AI-driven 6G innovation through its research on AI-RAN technology, integrating advanced AI capabilities into wireless networks. The company will continue to strengthen collaboration with both domestic and global operators and partners to further enhance user experiences in next-generation communications.

By Claudia Assis

The online used-car retailer’s stock has gained more than 50% over a 12-day winning streak, and is aiming for an all-time high

The Carvana-sponsored #84 Carvana Chevrolet, driven by Jimmie Johnson, at a Nascar race in 2023. Carvana’s stock has more than doubled this year.

Carvana’s stock has caught a boost from the company’s soon-to-come inclusion in the S&P 500 index – and then some.

Shares of Carvana (CVNA) on Wednesday ended at a fresh all-time high and extended their winning streak to a 12th session, their longest run on record. The stock is up 51% over that stretch.

S&P Dow Jones Indices announced late Friday that the online used-car retailer and two other companies will join the S&P 500 SPX before the market open on Dec. 22 – leapfrogging companies such as Marvell Technology (MRVL) and Strategy (MSTR), which also were thought to be candidates for inclusion.

A place in the S&P 500 is a coveted spot for companies as it exposes their shares to a much broader range of investors, including passive funds that track the equity benchmark and actively managed funds that may have restrictions on where they can invest.

Carvana’s market cap hovered at $102 billion on Wednesday, topping the $100 billion threshold for the first time. At its 2022 low, the company had a market cap of $703 million.

Carvana is a bit of a Cinderella story: It was a struggling business in late 2022 and part of 2023, beset by a cash crisis followed by a bankruptcy-dodging deal with bondholders in July 2023.

Since then, however, the company has carved out a comfortable and lucrative space for itself. Wall Street often praises its competitive advantages and potential for market-share growth in the fragmented used-car-sales industry. And competition from the likes of Amazon.com’s (AMZN) Amazon Autos is viewed as being far off in the future, if it all.

See also: Carvana survived a debt crunch. Can it survive Amazon?

Carvana has eye-catching “car vending machines” in key cities and offers buyers a still-novel way to shop from home for a used car, without haggling. And it delivers cars to buyers, sometimes on the same day, depending on the city.

While many people may be hesitant to buy a car 100% online, more are now willing to do it – especially younger consumers, who might not be willing to negotiate prices and want the process to be as quick and painless as possible.

Carvana shares have gained 130% this year, after an advance of nearly 300% last year and an eye-popping run of 1,017% in 2023.

The company finds itself in a “Goldilocks scenario,” analysts at Deutsche Bank said in a recent note.

A meaningful portion of Carvana’s infrastructure is already in place and under capacity, and “substantial fixed operating leverage” across its network is likely to allow it to both reinvest into its “market-leading competitive moats” and also deliver margin expansion, the analysts wrote.

-Claudia Assis

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

  (END) Dow Jones Newswires

  12-10-25 1721ET
Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

(Bloomberg) — A global equities rally spurred by the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate cut evaporated as disappointing results from Oracle Corp. weighed on tech shares and focus turned to the US central bank’s outlook for further easing next year.

Futures on Nasdaq 100 slumped as much as 1.6% while a selloff in technology stocks in Asia caused the regional equity gauge to reverse early gains. S&P 500 futures declined 1.1%. Shares of Oracle, whose fate is deeply tied to the artificial intelligence boom, plunged more than 10% in extended US trading after second-quarter cloud sales fell just short of analysts’ estimates. In a sign of waning risk appetite, Bitcoin plunged more than 3%.

The moves in Asia came after the S&P 500 rose 0.7% on Wednesday, ending just short of all-time highs as the Fed cut rates for a third consecutive time and Chair Jerome Powell voiced optimism that the economy will strengthen as the inflationary impact from tariffs fades away. The result marked the first time since 2019 that three officials voted against a policy decision, with dissents on both ends of the policy spectrum. Officials maintained their outlook for a single cut in 2026.

“While most of the focus was on the FOMC, a key risk for markets overnight was Oracle,” said Billy Leung, investment strategist at Global X Management. Its result was a key test for the AI infrastructure trade given Oracle’s role as a bellwether for hyperscale data center spending and has added to broader tech pressure, he said.

A gauge of Asian technology stocks was down more than 1%, versus a 0.4% decline in the broader regional benchmark.

Traders in Asia were also assessing the market impact of Mexican lawmakers’ final approval for new tariffs on the region’s imports. Also in focus was Thursday’s interest-rate decision in the Philippines, where the central bank is predicted to cut its key interest rate for a fifth straight meeting.

In Japan, bond futures extended gains after an auction of 20-year government debt drew its strongest demand since 2020 as higher yield levels attracted investors. Yields across the curve have climbed to multi-year highs on renewed fiscal concerns as well as rising expectations for a Bank of Japan rate hike at its meeting next week.

Elsewhere in markets, a gauge of the dollar edged higher after falling 0.4% on Wednesday. In commodities, oil prices were in focus after the US seized a sanctioned tanker off Venezuela, deterring more shipments from the South American producer and raising the risk of a conflict.

‘Fairly Choppy’

US Treasuries rallied on Wednesday, with the policy-sensitive two-year yield sliding eight basis points, as the Fed’s quarter-point rate reduction was accompanied by the authorization of fresh Treasury bill purchases to rebuild bank reserves. The yield fell one more basis point on Thursday.

The 10-year yield, which dropped around four basis points in the previous session, was three basis points lower on Thursday. The declines have stalled a prior run up in yields that had driven one global gauge to its highest since 2009.

Powell pushed through the quarter percentage point cut not only over the objection of a few voters. A much larger group of regional Fed bank presidents who participated in the debate but weren’t among this year’s voting roster also signaled they opposed the cut.

The fractures could foreshadow what’s to come in 2026, when a new chair may struggle even more than Powell to marshal consensus at the Fed.

The Fed chair suggested the central bank had now acted sufficiently to help stabilize the labor market while leaving rates high enough to continue weighing on price pressures. He also underscored the importance of upcoming economic reports while advising caution on assessing household jobs readouts, given technical distortions after a government shutdown caused a data blackout.

Nick Twidale, chief analyst at AT Global Markets in Sydney, said he is “hesitant” on how much momentum the Fed’s cut will bring to global markets.

“The forward guidance was probably less dovish than most investors were hoping for,” he said. “We may see some fairly choppy markets in the sessions ahead as the market digests what Jerome Powell had to say.”

Corporate News

Private equity firm TPG Inc. is considering options for APM Monaco, including a possible stake sale or an initial public offering of the jeweler, according to people familiar with the matter. SK Hynix Inc. fell after South Korea’s main bourse issued a higher-level warning on investing in the stock following strong gains sparked by expectations of a listing in New York. Investment banks are on track to take home their smallest slice of underwriting fees from Hong Kong listings in years, even as share sales in the city have staged a blistering rebound. President Donald Trump signaled he’ll oppose a Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. deal that doesn’t include new ownership of CNN, a potential wrinkle for the bid from Netflix Inc. Shares of Jingdong Industrials Inc., the supply-chain unit of Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com Inc., fell in their Hong Kong trading debut after a HK$2.98 billion ($383 million) initial public offering. Japan’s stock market is witnessing a record wave of large private transactions known as block trades, stemming from companies reducing cross-shareholdings to improve corporate governance. Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek has relied on Nvidia Corp. chips that are banned in the country to develop an upcoming AI model, according to a new report in The Information. Coca-Cola Co. said Chief Executive Officer James Quincey is stepping down and will be replaced at the end of March by Henrique Braun, the company’s chief operating officer. Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

S&P 500 futures fell 0.8% as of 12:49 p.m. Tokyo time Japan’s Topix fell 0.7% Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.2% Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was little changed The Shanghai Composite fell 0.5% Euro Stoxx 50 futures were little changed Currencies

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed The euro was little changed at $1.1694 The Japanese yen rose 0.2% to 155.69 per dollar The offshore yuan was little changed at 7.0611 per dollar Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin fell 2.7% to $89,920.79 Ether fell 4.5% to $3,189.12 Bonds

The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined three basis points to 4.12% Australia’s 10-year yield declined 12 basis points to 4.69% Commodities

West Texas Intermediate crude was little changed Spot gold fell 0.2% to $4,218.59 an ounce This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

–With assistance from Richard Henderson.

©2025 Bloomberg L.P.