SoftBank Group Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son speaks during an event in Tokyo in July. SoftBank Group seeks to raise as much as $100 billion from Gulf investors to help it amp up its bets on artificial intelligence (AI), the Financial Times (FT) reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Founder Masayoshi Son has held early talks with potential investors including those in the United Arab Emirates, the newspaper said. The proposed fund would buy companies and use AI and machines, including from SoftBank's robotics arm Roze, to improve operations, the FT said. Fundraising of that scale would fuel more spending by the tech investment firm, which has invested almost $65 billion in OpenAI ahead of the AI lab's public debut.

Modi wants India to power the AI age. Residents hold placards during a protest against Amazon's planned data center, in Thane, on the outskirts of Mumbai, India, last month. What was once a stretch of lush greenery outside his 21st-floor window is now a scar of red earth where trees were felled to make way for an Amazon facility that forms part of the tech giant's planned $21 billion investment in AI infrastructure in India by 2030. "I would not have bought the house if I had known," said the 46-year-old, lamenting a purchase made just five months ago. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.

Zelenskyy accuses U.S. of inaction as Russian strikes kill over 70 in two days One of the two passenger buses struck by projectiles in Kramatorsk, near the front line in eastern Ukraine, on Thursday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused the U.S. of being unwilling to help Ukraine after a Russian bomb attack on Thursday killed at least 35 people in the east, sending the two-day death toll from Russian strikes to over 70. Hours after the strike on the embattled city of Kramatorsk tore through two buses, Zelenskyy criticized Washington's effort to pursue economic ties with Russia while also seeking to mediate the more than four-year war. City authorities reported a new drone attack in the evening that killed two people. That brought to 35 the total death toll in the city. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and other officials observe the Hyunmoo-5 missile at an undisclosed test site in South Korea on Thursday. Seoul - South Korea test-fired its first homegrown hypersonic weapon on Thursday, the presidential office said, days after Pyongyang announced the AI-assisted launch of an intermediate-range hypersonic missile. South Korean President Lee Jae Myung "observed the first test launch of a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) -- currently under research and development using domestic technology," the presidential Blue House said in a statement. Hypersonic glide vehicles are sent into the upper atmosphere via rocket boosters or on ballistic missiles, then glide towards their target at five times the speed of sound or greater. Hailing a "key strategic asset capable of changing the course of the battlefield," the South Korean statement said that the missiles' "unpredictable flight trajectories and overwhelming speed enable them to strike key strategic targets." The test was aimed at verifying "the performance of ultra-high-temperature heat-resistant materials -- a core technology for glide vehicles -- as well as guidance and control capabilities and the ability to fly irregularly at low altitudes under hypersonic flight conditions," it added.

Fast-moving artificial intelligence data-center operators are demanding hard-drive suppliers pack ever more storage into limited spaces. A bidding war for TDK's hard-disk drive parts business could determine the prospects of Japanese corporate icon Toshiba as well as who controls an increasingly lucrative artificial intelligence data-center storage market. Seagate Technology Holdings and delisted Toshiba are vying for TDK's magnetic-heads business in a deal that could be worth several billion dollars. The winning bidder would be able to expand in-house capabilities in the $23 billion hard-drive market that's been transformed by voracious AI data-center demand. Fast-moving AI data-center operators now are demanding hard-drive suppliers pack ever more storage into limited spaces. Prices are climbing and net income at Seagate and Western Digital -- which together control more than 90% of the global HDD market, according to research firm TrendForce -- has grown by multiples in recent quarters.

South Korea bank hack suspect may be 26-year-old in China, U.S. firm says Authorities in Seoul are investigating cyberattacks that affected multiple financial institutions after banks, including Shinhan Bank and KB Kookmin Bank, reported data breaches. SEOUL - The suspect behind recent cyberattacks targeting South Korea's financial sector may be a 26-year-old based in China's Guangdong province, U.S. cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has said. In a report published on its website on Wednesday, CrowdStrike said it uncovered personal details linked to the suspected attacker while analyzing AI coding-tool sessions and infrastructure associated with a campaign targeting South Korean financial institutions from late September to early October. CrowdStrike said the attacker used ARTEX, a recently released Chinese-developed open-source penetration testing tool, alongside large language models and assessed with "moderate confidence" that the actor was a Chinese speaker and likely financially motivated. The firm said one Claude Code session contained a request to create a security researcher resume describing results from the hacking activity.

Zelenskyy condemns one of Russia's most'vile strikes' as at least 28 killed in Ukraine Rescuers work outside a damaged five-story residential building following a Russian drone attack in Kyiv on Wednesday. KYIV - Russia pounded Ukraine with waves of missiles and drones in one of its most "vile strikes" on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, killing at least 28 people, including children, and damaging industrial facilities and energy infrastructure. Ukrainian Interior Minister Ivan Vyhivskyi put the country-wide death toll at 28. The heaviest losses were in Pryluky in Ukraine's northern Chernihiv region, where a Russian missile obliterated a five-story residential building. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.

While sources say Nippan Group has confirmed that it sold books to U.S. artificial intelligence firm Anthropic, the Japanese wholesaler did not disclose how many books were sold or the total purchase amount. Nippan Group Holdings, a Japanese book wholesaler, has confirmed that it had sold books to U.S. artificial intelligence firm Anthropic, sources familiar with the matter said Wednesday. In a letter addressed to the Japan Book Publishers Association, an industry group, Nippan Group said that Nippan IPS, a subsidiary that sells Japanese books overseas, concluded a deal with Anthropic in November 2024 and sold books to it between December that year and last December, according to the sources. Before striking the deal, Nippan IPS asked about the purpose of the book purchases, the letter said. But Nippan Group said that the unit had not been aware that Anthropic's purchases were for AI learning, according to the letter.

Kawasaki Heavy Industries President Yasuhiko Hashimoto poses with a prototype of the company's dog-like robot, Home Leo, in Tokyo on Tuesday. Kawasaki Heavy Industries has unveiled a prototype of a dog-shaped social robot that helps older people with life at home. Leveraging physical artificial intelligence, the robot, Home Leo, can talk to people, recognize its surroundings, make appropriate decisions according to the situation and act autonomously, according to the Japanese firm. Home Leo was presented at a business briefing the company held in Tokyo on Tuesday. The robot will stay close to the older people it lives with, offering companionship through conversation, watching over them and assisting with their daily activities, Kawasaki Heavy said.

For many Okinawa locals, the arrest of a US soldier accused of robbing and killing a woman in a hotel room has reignited decades of frustration over crimes involving US military personnel there. Honestly my first reaction was, 'Not again,' 52-year-old longtime Okinawa resident Ai Sato told the BBC. Nothing has changed since I was a child. How many times are we going to repeat the same thing, create more victims, cause their families to suffer, and ultimately, cause the people of Okinawa to grieve? I know we shouldn't get used to terrible things like this, but because they keep happening, I've stopped being surprised, she told the BBC.