SpaceX and Tesla have formed special committees to discuss the possibility of a merger, Elon Musk has revealed during the former's earnings call for the third quarter of 2026. Musk, who serves as CEO for both companies, said the committees were formed at the request of shareholders. The committees are made up of independent directors from SpaceX and Tesla. Musk himself can't be part of the discussions, as someone who's considered a "conflicted party," along with his brother Kimbal Musk. Based on the corporate information listed on the companies' websites, Tesla has seven independent directors, while SpaceX has six. However, Ira Ehrenpreis, the chairperson for Tesla's Compensation and Nominating and Governance committees, also joined SpaceX's board in February.

Anthropic, the artificial intelligence (AI) company known for creating the chatbot Claude, recorded a net loss of more than $80bn in the first half of 2026, according to the Wall Street Journal, as the market anticipates its looming initial public offering (IPO). The corporation also indicated it could spend up to $750bn in coming years to acquire more computing capacity, including potential deals currently under discussion, the Journal said on Tuesday. The loss figure was up from $13bn a year earlier, according to a draft prospectus, a legal document corporations submit to financial regulators, for its IPO. The figures show the hefty costs of the AI race, even as investors look more closely at whether the money companies are pouring into chips and data centres will pay off. Anthropic also shared a list of potential risk factors, including uncertainty over how to prevent its products from doing harm, whether through sophisticated cyberattacks or blackmail by uncontrolled models.

Why does Elon Musk want to merge Tesla and SpaceX? Elon Musk has spent years building Tesla and SpaceX into a pair of trillion-dollar technology empires. Now, he is considering bringing them together . Asked on Tuesday whether a merger would be a good idea, Musk was clear: Yes. The prospect is more than hypothetical.

Elon Musk has revealed that SpaceX and Tesla are exploring a possible merger, a tie-up that would create a corporate colossus worth more than $3 trillion. Musk said on Tuesday that his two largest companies had established special committees to explore a merger. "They've got to come up with something, and then that's got to be put to the shareholders as a vote," Musk said on a SpaceX earnings call. Musk, the world's richest man with a net worth of more than $900bn, said that a merger would need to clear the "high hurdle" of a 50 percent vote among Tesla shareholders "Some people out there assume that a SpaceX and Tesla merger is a certainty, and I think that would be overstating it," Musk said. "Do I think it would be a good idea? But at the end of the day, the shareholders have to be supportive of this."

Anthropic was valued at $965bn in May when it raised $65bn in a funding round. Anthropic was valued at $965bn in May when it raised $65bn in a funding round. AI firm Anthropic to commit 5% of shares to fund for'public good' Anthropic has said it will commit 5% of its shares to a fund for the "public good", as the AI developer behind the Claude chatbot seeks to bolster its appeal before its stock market listing. The company announced it would commit the shares, worth around $48bn (£36bn) at its latest valuation in May, subject to shareholder approval. It will add a further 2% of its stock to the fund for every 50% increase in its value above an undisclosed baseline.

Bank of America hit with $1.2bn fine for money laundering failings Bank of America has been fined $1.2bn (£910m) for failing to detect potential money laundering and other illegal activity, the US Treasury Department said on Tuesday. The banking giant failed to report over $5bn in suspicious activity to the government, $1bn of which posed national security and illicit finance risks, the Treasury said. Those failures included not flagging transactions that possibly involved Chinese money laundering networks or trade-based laundering with a substantial nexus to the southwest border, according to the Treasury. Our team is far along with and committed to completing the work required to address the issues raised by our regulators, Bank of America told the BBC. The announcement came less 24 hours before Bank of America was due to announce its quarterly earnings on Wednesday morning.

Character.AI, a controversial generative AI startup that lets users create their own chatbot characters, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company, which lost key talent to Google and had its former CEO hired by Disney, allowed Disney to make the first offer on its assets for 20 million, pending higher offers. Character expects the sale to be completed by early December. In its blog post, Character said it filed for Chapter 11 protection to facilitate the sale of the company and its assets, listing liabilities of between 50 million and 100 million. As the lead "stalking horse" bidder, Disney would buy certain assets and provide transition support using staff it previously hired from Character.AI.

Hillary Clinton listed her 2016 loss among hard times for Americans at a Nebraska Democrats event and criticized Donald Trump's leadership at the midterms gathering.

Image caption, Samsung is also one of the world's biggest smartphone makers Samsung Electronics says it expects a nine-fold surge in its quarterly profits compared with a year earlier, driven by surging demand for memory chips used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centres. The tech giant estimates that its operating profit for the three months to the end of September will jump to 107.4tn won (£61bn; $80bn), its fourth quarter in a row of record earnings. Samsung is one of the world's largest memory chip makers alongside local rival SK Hynix and Micron in the US, which produce chips crucial for AI firms like Nvidia. Samsung, which makes the Galaxy Fold and S26 smartphones, is also expected to get a boost from its latest folding devices that were launched in August. The firm's full third-quarter earnings will be released at the end of October.

The UK's biggest broadband provider, BT, has agreed to rescue rival operator TalkTalk in a takeover. The deal, which will need to be approved by the UK's competition regulator, would mark end of months of speculation over the future for TalkTalk, which has been on the brink of administration because of its debts. TalkTalk has 1.5 million retail customers and one million wholesale customers across the UK. Some have raised concerns about the increased control BT will have over the broadband market as a result of the deal. BT chief executive Alison Kirkby said the deal provided a safety net for the households and businesses who rely on TalkTalk.