Category: 3. Business

LINKOPING, Sweden and LOS ANGELES, Dec. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Today, Divergent Technologies, Inc. (Divergent) and Saab announced the delivery of initial fuselages for a Saab future product concept of an autonomous aircraft.

The fuselage, jointly designed and manufactured by Saab and Divergent, was developed and realized with no unique tooling or fixturing, instead utilizing Divergent’s fully digital, software-defined manufacturing assets. The Divergent Adaptive Production System (DAPS™) is an end-to-end structural engineering design and manufacturing system leveraging AI-driven design, industrial-rate additive manufacturing, and universal robotic assembly to deliver structures that are faster to develop, higher performance, and lower cost than their conventionally designed and manufactured alternatives.

Watch: Saab x Divergent – Creating Hardware as Software – Intro (YouTube)

The structure will be amongst the largest laser powder bed fusion structures to ever undergo powered flight, marking both a significant technical achievement in demonstrating the absolute scale of Divergent’s fixtureless assembly technology while highlighting the continued expansion of Divergent’s capabilities to ever more demanding applications. The full structure stretched 15 feet in length and comprised 26 unique printed parts, each joined and bonded in the company’s fixtureless robotic assembly cell.

“This collaboration with Saab highlights what becomes possible when ambitious aircraft concepts are paired with an end-to-end, software-defined manufacturing platform,” said Lukas Czinger, Co-founder and CEO of Divergent. “By tightly integrating digital design, additive manufacturing, and automated assembly, our teams were able to realize a large-scale fuselage structure aligned with Saab’s vision, while moving with a level of speed, flexibility, and structural integration that traditional approaches cannot match.”

“Adopting Divergent’s additively manufactured and digitally designed structures in this effort has given our joint team unparalleled flexibility in this development process,” said Axel Bååthe, head of Saab’s Rainforest. “We see digital design and advanced manufacturing as a key enabler of our collaborative success in this project.”

Divergent
Divergent has created the world’s first end-to-end software-hardware production system for industrial digital manufacturing – the Divergent Adaptive Production System (DAPS™) – allowing customers to design, additively manufacture, and automatically assemble complex structures for automotive, aerospace, and defense applications. DAPS transforms the economics, speed, and scalability of defense vehicle manufacturing by optimizing designs, dematerializing structures, and eliminating upfront capex. For more information, please visit www.divergent3d.com.

Saab
Saab is a leading defence and security company with an enduring mission, to help nations keep their people and society safe. Empowered by its 27,000 talented people, Saab constantly pushes the boundaries of technology to create a safer and more sustainable world. Saab designs, manufactures and maintains advanced systems in aeronautics, weapons, command and control, sensors and underwater systems. Saab is headquartered in Sweden. It has major operations all over the world and is part of the domestic defence capability of several nations.

The Rainforest is Saab’s internal startup for transformative innovation, for more information please visit https://thernfrst.io/

SOURCE Divergent Technologies, Inc.

Developing business ideas in a commercial environment and connecting with entrepreneurs from around the world – this opportunity is offered to the start-up Atera Water through Porsche‘s new social flagship initiative ‘Start-up Your Dream’. This initiative supports fledgling companies worldwide with outstanding innovations that can contribute to improving living and working conditions of people, primarily in countries of the Global South. Furthermore, ‘Start-up Your Dream’ also targets founders who create chances for others with innovative business ideas in the areas of climate change, integration, or education.

After a visit to Porsche’s headquarters in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, the two Atera Water founders, Tai Kee and Dr Adrian Yeo, experienced another highlight: participating in the one-week Ignite program at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. This intensive training program provides entrepreneurial frameworks based on academic research with startups in the Cambridge ecosystem and globally. Participants benefit from practical teaching sessions as well as guidance from experienced entrepreneurs and innovators. Dr Adrian Yeo said, “Participating in the Ignite program enabled us to further develop our business idea and exchange ideas with other entrepreneurs on site.” Tai Kee added, “The keynotes, workshops, mentoring sessions, and networking events were very valuable to us and broadened our perspective.”

As part of ‘Start-up Your Dream’ Porsche supports the participation of the two Atera Water founders in the Ignite program in order to prepare them specifically for the next development steps of their start-up. “With this project, we support selected start-ups in bringing their innovative business ideas to market and in improving the living conditions of people in areas of social engagement important to Porsche,” explains Dr Philipp Metz, Head of the Strategic Field Partner to Society.

Atera Water at Cambridge University

The kick-off for ‘Start-up Your Dream’ took place in summer 2025. During a visit to Porsche’s headquarters, the Atera Water founders gained comprehensive insights into Porsche’s world and culture. Until the end of the multi-month program, Tai Kee and Dr Adrian Yeo will benefit from numerous training modules, mentoring offers, and networking events designed to further strengthen their development.

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Porsche: ‘Start-up Your Dream’

With ‘Start-up Your Dream’, Porsche is implementing a flagship project to provide support for start-ups. The initiative aims to reach as many people as possible in important social areas. The funding is based on the four pillars of education, networking, mentoring and financing and is individually tailored to the needs of the courageous and creative founders.

About Atera Water

Atera Water is developing water filtration technology designed to make clean drinking water available even in regions where water is scarce or polluted – with minimal use of chemicals. The start-up combines scientific excellence with practical use and sees itself as a partner to help solve global water problems. Atera Water combines innovation from membrane research with applied engineering to bring a cost effective and energy efficient filtration system to market maturity. Initial pilot deployments have shown promising results.

About Ignite

Now in its 27^th year, Ignite boasts an impressive track record: the program at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, has successfully launched numerous new business ventures and strengthened companies in their internal development and structure. Since its inception, more than 1,200 participants from 50 countries across Europe, Asia, and the Americas have benefited from Ignite. It is estimated that Ignite alumni have created around 300 business ventures that are still active today. The program is designed based on proven methods of academic and practical entrepreneurship education and provides a unique space at the heart of the Cambridge ecosystem.

Porsche: Partner to Society

‘Partner to Society’ is a strategy field in sustainability at Porsche. With various initiatives, donations and CSR activities, the sports car manufacturer aims to assist regions around the world in preserving the environment, guaranteeing good working and living conditions and strengthening social cohesion. Under the motto ‘Creating Chances’, Porsche is particularly committed to self-help projects designed to empower people in their living and working environment – and to help make their very personal dreams come true.

Singapore, 10 December 2025 – Safran Electronics & Defence and ST Engineering have expanded their global cooperation into the defence domain through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). With the growth in the global defence market, the MOU will strengthen both partners’ cooperation across several areas including joint business development, technology integration, lifecycle support and sustainment services in order to meet customers’ operational requirements. This expanded partnership brings together complementary capabilities to deliver integrated and mission-critical solutions in the land, air, sea and space domains in Asia Pacific and worldwide. 

A key focus will be the integration of Safran’s core expertise in optronics, avionics and PNT (Positioning, Navigation and Timing) electronics with ST Engineering’s domain expertise in integrated defence solutions to deliver high-performance solutions that address the global demand for technology-driven defence modernisation.

“As ST Engineering grows its international defence business, strengthening partnerships with international counterparts is aligned with our commitment to deliver advanced, mission-ready solutions to our customers. Such partnerships reinforce our position as a trusted partner of choice in the global defence industry. This MOU with Safran builds upon the strength of our existing collaboration and leverages the complementary technical expertise that both sides will bring to drive innovation and excellence across multiple domains,” said Mervyn Tan, President, Defence & Public Security, ST Engineering. 

“ST Engineering and Safran Electronics & Defense have established a robust and reliable partnership in the worldwide aviation market. This MOU marks a significant expansion of this collaboration into the defence sector, demonstrating our strong commitment to mutual growth in this field . By combining our technological and industrial capabilities, we will jointly enhance innovation, operational readiness and lifecycle support thereby creating greater value and long-term capability for our customers,” said Alexandre Ziegler, Head of Defence Global Business Unit, Safran Electronics & Defense.

Annex: Photo of the MOU Signing Ceremony

Mervyn Tan, President, Defence & Public Security, ST Engineering (left) and Alexandre Ziegler, Executive Vice President, GBU Defense, Safran Electronics & Defense (right) marking the completion of the MOU signing with the presentation of a commemorative plaque.

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India’s largest airline, IndiGo, says it has “normalised” operations after cancelling more than 3,000 flights last week due to what officials described as poor pilot roster planning, a crisis that left thousands of passengers stranded.

This came as authorities ordered IndiGo to cut 10% of its winter schedule – double the reduction first announced – a move that could see more than 200 daily flights cancelled.

Federal Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu said the ministry “considers it necessary to curtail the overall IndiGo routes” to help restore stability.

He added that despite the 10% cut, “IndiGo will continue to cover all its destinations as before”.

The airline has also been ordered to submit its revised flight schedule to the regulator by Wednesday.

IndiGo operates over 2,200 flights daily and controls more than 60% of India’s domestic market.

Aviation analysts told the BBC slashing 10% of IndiGo’s daily capacity may worsen India’s aviation crisis in the weeks to come, as other airlines like Air India or SpiceJet do not have spare capacity.

“The government’s move may benefit passengers in the long term but for now they might have to pay more,” Sanat Kaul, an analyst, told the BBC.

India’s aviation ministry summoned IndiGo CEO Peter Elbers on Tuesday to explain how the airline was addressing the crisis and handling passenger complaints.

In a video note posted on X on Tuesday, Mr Elbers said that the airline has “fully stabilised” its operations.

IndiGo’s shares have lost 15% since 1 December as investors fear rising costs from operational disruptions and higher crew expenses under the new rules.

Aviation Analyst Mark Martin said he expects IndiGo to face “more penalties for its actions” in the days ahead.

The carrier has been instructed to cap fares, expedite refunds and quicken baggage handover to affected customers.

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Deep in the Abu Dhabi desert, a vast AI campus a quarter the size of Paris is starting to emerge, the oil-rich UAE’s boldest bet yet on technology it hopes will help transform its economy.

Towering cranes clank as long, low buildings take shape below, the eventual home of data centres powered by five gigawatts of electricity — the biggest such facility outside the United States.

The campus will provide storage and computing capacity over a 3,200-kilometre (1990-mile) radius covering up to four billion people, said Johan Nilerud, chief strategy officer of Khazna Data Centers, a subsidiary of Emirati AI giant G42, which is spearheading the project.

Since the 1960s, oil has fuelled the United Arab Emirates’ rise from a desert outpost of nomadic tribes to a Middle East economic and diplomatic powerhouse.

Now, the UAE is hoping that AI can help fill the gap when oil demand inevitably wanes.

“The UAE is punching above its weight because it’s a very small country that really wants to be at the forefront,” said Nilerud.

“The idea is obviously to bring in international partners… to be this AI-native nation,” he added.

Phase one of the AI campus — the G42-built, one-gigawatt Stargate UAE cluster — will be operated by OpenAI and is backed by other US tech giants such as Oracle, Cisco and Nvidia.

And last month, Microsoft announced more than $15.2 billion in investments in the UAE by 2029, after injecting $1.5 billion last year into G42.

– Core subject –

The UAE has been betting heavily on AI since 2017, when it named the world’s first AI minister and became the second country after Canada to unveil a national AI strategy.

A year later, G42 was founded with backing from Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund Mubadala. Chaired by the UAE president’s brother, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, it offers a range of AI products and employs more than 23,000 people.

The UAE said it has pumped more than $147 billion into AI since 2024, including up to 50 billion euros ($58 billion) in a one-gigawatt AI data centre in France.

“AI, like oil, is a transversal sector, which can potentially have a leverage effect and an impact on different activities,” said professor Jean-Francois Gagne of the University of Montreal.

In 2019, Abu Dhabi opened Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), the world’s first AI-dedicated university. Last August, AI became a core subject in the country’s public schools from kindergarten up.

MBZUAI and Abu Dhabi’s Technology Innovation Institute (TII) have since launched generative AI models including Falcon, which compared favourably with industry leaders and now has an Arabic version.

Keen to cut reliance on imported hardware and expertise, the UAE has made large investments in research, development and homegrown programmes.

TII opened a research lab with Nvidia to “push the boundaries” of generative AI models and develop robotics systems, said CEO Najwa Aaraj.

“Sovereignty and self-sustainability and domestic customisation of technology to local needs are all very, very important,” Eric Xing, president of MBZUAI, told AFP.

“And also difficult to achieve if you solely rely on importing and external… technical transfer.”

– Chips ahoy –

In the race for AI market share, the UAE is in the chasing pack behind the US and China, the clear leaders. But the small, desert country has its advantages, chiefly money and energy.

With oil, gas and year-round sun for solar power, it can quickly build electricity stations to feed data centres — a major obstacle elsewhere.

Deep pockets and unquestioned royal rule give it the freedom to plough billions into AI development and infrastructure.

And as the region’s business hub, with a population that is nearly 90 percent expatriate, the UAE has the edge on neighbour and AI rival Saudi Arabia in attracting talent.

All the while, the UAE has engaged in a balancing act between the US and China as it seeks imports vital for AI, including the specialist chips that make data centres work.

Last month, intense lobbying bore fruit when the US approved the export of advanced Nvidia chips to both the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

“They (UAE) clearly don’t want to be dependent on China, but that doesn’t mean they want to depend on the US either,” said Gagne.

But despite its progress and years of heavy investment, success in this complex, ever-changing sector is far from guaranteed.

“Right now, we don’t know what the right strategy is, or who the good players are,” Gagne said.

“Everyone is betting on different players, but some will lose and some will win.”

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Ludovic Phalippou is professor of financial economics at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School. William Magnuson is a law professor at Texas A&M University.

In August, a White House executive order quietly triggered a major shift in US financial markets. It called on agencies to “democratise” access to private equity, private credit and digital assets (including Bitcoin) for 401(k) retirement savers.

While barely registering in the broader news cycle, this marks a significant departure from long-standing regulatory practice and accelerates a trend more than a decade in the making: the migration of private equity from institutional capital pools into the savings of everyday investors. Moreover, it could come back to bite the industry that lobbied for it.

For nearly a century, securities regulation rested on a clear divide. Public companies, because they raise money from ordinary people, must follow strict disclosure, reporting and governance rules. Private companies, which raise money only from institutions and wealthy individuals, operate under far lighter oversight. And private equity has flourished on the light touch regulatory side of the divide. It could use valuation methods, fee practices and contractual structures that would be difficult to defend in public markets, because its investors were assumed to be sophisticated and legally equipped to protect themselves.

Once retail investors enter the picture, that assumption becomes untenable. And with it, the legal equilibrium the industry has relied on begins to unravel.

A shift with legal consequences

As private equity expands from institutional clients to household savers, it enters a fundamentally different legal environment. Institutional investors routinely tolerate problematic practices because open disputes can jeopardise access to future funds, strain professional relationships or undermine career aspirations. Retail investors face none of these pressures. They have no reason to resolve concerns quietly and no commercial interest in preserving relationships with fund managers. When they believe they were not adequately informed, they are far more willing to pursue formal claims.

The tobacco cases from the 1990s revealed something important: even when risks are widely known by experts, courts may still conclude that consumers are not properly informed about them.

Against that backdrop, the retailisation of private equity stands out. Investors are being shown performance numbers that do not behave like returns, fee structures whose economic impact is far larger than the headline figures suggest and liquidity provisions that function very differently from how they sound. Class actions have been rare in private markets, but the gap between representation and reality here is large enough that a tobacco-style challenge is no longer far-fetched.

Performance metrics that do not behave as advertised

The internal rate of return, or IRR, dominates private equity performance reporting. It is almost universally read as an annual rate of return, yet it is nothing of the kind. IRR is simply the discount rate that makes a series of cash flows sum to zero; it says little about how an investor’s wealth actually accumulates over time.

Worse, because IRR is highly sensitive to early cash flows, a fund can report a very high IRR even when long-run performance is modest. In addition, the IRR becomes almost immovable, giving the illusion of stable and high performance across business cycles.

A plaintiff’s lawyer will have little difficulty arguing that presenting IRR as an annualised return metric is misleading to average investors. Courts have repeatedly held that disclosures must be judged from the standpoint of a reasonable investor. Once the investor base shifts, so does the legal standard.

Valuations that shape fees, liquidity and outcomes

Private equity valuations create similar vulnerabilities. Because portfolio companies are illiquid, managers set their own estimates of “fair value,” which in turn affect reported performance and the prices at which semi-liquid vehicles admit or redeem investors.

An accounting quirk has long permitted funds to buy secondary stakes in PE funds at a discount to net asset value and then immediately mark them up to NAV, recording outsized gains. This is maybe understandable in a world of consenting institutional investing adults. But this game has recently moved to retail-oriented funds.

Retail investors who transact at inflated prices are exposed to direct financial loss. When valuations diverge materially from observable market levels, the potential for litigation becomes difficult to ignore.

Fees whose true magnitude is difficult to discern

Fees present a similar problem. They are typically described to investors in the familiar shorthand of “two and twenty with an eight per cent hurdle.” But in most cases, there is also a provision known as a catch-up clause. Once returns exceed roughly ten per cent, the manager receives the same compensation as if the hurdle had been set at zero. In other words, a feature presented as investor protection often has little practical effect. This is only one example among many in which terms that appear straightforward can be deeply misleading. In an institutional setting, these conventions are likely to be understood; for retail investors, the odds are different.

Liquidity aligns poorly with expectations

Semi-liquid private equity products are frequently described in terms that resemble mutual funds. In practice, redemptions are often capped at low percentages of net asset value and remain subject to manager discretion. In times of financial stress, precisely when most investors are most likely to need their funds, they could face delays of five years or more to be able to withdraw their money.

Nothing about this structure is inherently problematic for investors who understand it. But if savers are sold “semi-liquid” products without understanding that liquidity is conditional and very limited, then claims of misrepresentation become plausible.

A coming wave

For decades, private equity has operated in a legal environment defined by deference: deference to contract, to sophistication and to private ordering. That environment is changing. As retail capital flows into the industry, the legal framework shifts from one based on negotiated expectations to one based on statutory protections and judicial interpretation. Contract law, consumer-protection law, tort principles and fiduciary doctrines all provide routes to challenge practices that were previously insulated.

The irony is clear. In seeking access to public capital without accepting public-company obligations, private equity may have exposed itself to a much more demanding form of accountability. Regulators may hesitate to intervene, but courts do not face the same constraints. Once a critical mass of retail investors experiences losses or mismatches between marketing and reality, class actions are likely to follow.

For years, the industry has equated “democratisation” with access to more assets and more fees. It may soon realise that what has actually been democratised is legal risk.

Further reading:

— The delusion of private equity IRRs (FTAV)

— Another problem with IRRs (FTAV)

— The volatility laundering, return manipulation and ‘phoney happiness’ of private equity (FTAV)

Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR

GRAND-LANCY, Switzerland, December 10, 2025 – Temenos AG (SIX: TEMN), a global leader in banking technology, today announces a new share buyback program of up to CHF 100m, which will commence on December 11, 2025 and last until December 30, 2026 at the latest.

The shares will be repurchased through the ordinary trading line and will be used for general business purposes, including employee equity incentive plans and/or the financing of potential acquisitions.

The share buyback is supported by Temenos’ strong free cash flow generation. The company expects its leverage to be within the target range of 1.0 to 1.5x net debt to non-IFRS EBITDA by year-end 2026.

Further details of the share buyback will be made available here.