SoftBank Group's market value halved from its peak in June. SoftBank Group's market value halved from its peak in June, as higher borrowing costs fuel investor concerns over the sustainability of its massive investments in artificial intelligence. Shares of the Tokyo-based company fell 6.9% on Thursday, taking their drop from an all-time high struck on June 2 to 50%, with earnings from U.S. megacaps failing to ease the angst. After briefly overtaking Toyota as Japan's biggest company four months ago, its market capitalization is now about ¥24.7 trillion ($157 billion), smaller than that of Hitachi and Recruit. Global concerns over AI spending had accelerated after U.S.-based cloud-computing provider CoreWeave's bonds fell to levels associated with distress, exposing financing risks across the industry. "SoftBank's vulnerability stands out as investors increasingly scrutinize the financial health of AI-related companies, given the group's highly leveraged financial structure and growing borrowing costs," said Kazuyuki Muramatsu, head of investment management at Nagomi Capital.

Tesla's spending has again fallen short of Wall Street expectations, clouding Elon Musk's plan to transform the maker of electric vehicles into an artificial intelligence and robotics company. Capital expenditures totaled $4.73 billion in the third quarter, Tesla said Wednesday in a statement. Analysts had expected $7.95 billion on average according to estimates. On the company's call with analysts, Chief Financial Officer Vaibhav Taneja said Tesla was cutting its 2026 capital expenditure target to $20 billion, down from more than $25 billion it had previously projected. Tesla invested $8.3 billion over the first six months of the year. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.

Deadly attacks in the kingdom, including against Saudi Aramco facilities, have heightened concerns that escalating Middle East hostilities could hit oil supplies. Oil advanced after deadly attacks in Saudi Arabia heightened concerns that escalating Middle East hostilities could hit supplies, even as exports through the Strait of Hormuz accelerate. Brent rose to trade near $110 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate was around $98. A drone strike on Saudi Aramco's Shaybah field killed two people but left operations unaffected, while an attack on the King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, killed one. The U.S. also ordered the departure of some personnel and family members from American diplomatic facilities in the kingdom. Global benchmark Brent has surged about 80% this year after flows from the Persian Gulf were disrupted by the U.S.-Iran war, which is approaching its ninth month with little sign of a resolution.

A screen displays an unavailable Dutch government website, as cyber agencies warn that websites may be taken offline while PHP prepares a critical fix on Wednesday. Government websites in Europe and elsewhere went offline on Wednesday after the disclosure of critical vulnerabilities in a widely used programming language sent website operators around the world scrambling to protect their systems. Developers of the PHP programming language on Wednesday released urgent new fixes to vulnerabilities that had quietly been lurking in their software for years until they were uncovered using AI, saying that all users were "encouraged to update immediately." With tech firms warning that some hackers were already exploiting the flaws, government agencies across Europe were among those that took sites offline as a precaution. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.

Anthropic to commit 5% stake to new'public benefit fund' Anthropic cited the potential impact of artificial intelligence on workers as one area of focus for its new fund. Artificial intelligence lab Anthropic, the developer of Claude, said on Sunday it would commit 5% of its shares to a new public benefit fund so it has increased flexibility and scale to make donations for the "public good." The proposed fund would be established as a wholly owned limited liability company and would receive an additional 2% of Anthropic's shares, at the board's discretion, for every 50% increase in the company's value above a baseline that has yet to be disclosed. The move comes at a time when Anthropic is planning one of the biggest initial public offerings in history as a public benefit corporation, a legal structure that requires management to consider certain broader interests as well as turning a profit for investors. The company, which has positioned itself as a safety-first AI lab, has said AI could pose "catastrophic or existential risks to humanity" and devoted roughly 80 pages of the 261-page main body of its prospectus to laying out risk factors.

SoftBank is said to weigh buying top U.S. security firm allied SoftBank head Masayoshi Son is exploring the use of AI-powered robots across various industries. SoftBank Group is considering an acquisition of Allied Universal, the largest security services company in the U.S., people familiar with the matter said, as founder Masayoshi Son explores ways to deploy AI-powered robots across industries. The potential transaction may give closely held Allied an equity value of as much as $18 billion, said some of the people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private. The security company, whose backers include private equity firm Warburg Pincus and Canadian pension fund La Caisse, also has about $12 billion of publicly traded debt, across loans and bonds, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That could bring a total deal value close to $30 billion.

CoreWeave's slump fueled a global rout in AI stocks, underscoring investor doubts about whether future revenue from the technology can keep pace with the spending. Shares of Nvidia-backed CoreWeave steadied on Thursday after a sharp slump, as investors worried about the debt financing behind the artificial intelligence build-out. The loss-making cloud company has about $50 billion in debt and has become a focus of concerns that the data-center boom is being fueled by credit, straining newer players and pressuring cash flows even at giants such as Alphabet and Meta Platforms. CoreWeave's slump fueled a global rout in AI stocks, underscoring investor doubts about whether future revenue from the technology can keep pace with the spending. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.

Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Ryosei Akazawa speaks during a news conference in Tokyo on Thursday. Japanese Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Ryosei Akazawa on Thursday praised the U.S. semiconductor plant project selected for the third round of Japanese funding in the United States under the two countries' tariff agreement. The project "holds great significance for Japan and the United States to work together to secure a competitive advantage in the age of artificial intelligence," Akazawa said during a news conference. In the agreement concluded last year, Japan pledged to provide the United States with $550 billion in investment and loans in exchange for U.S. tariff cuts for imports from the Asian country. Under the project, led by U.S. semiconductor contract manufacturer GlobalFoundries, two new plants are set to be built in the state of New York with funding of up to $21 billion.

A Ukrainian serviceman prepares a Starlink satellite internet systems near the front line in Donetsk region, Ukraine, in 2024. WASHINGTON - Ukraine said on Wednesday that Elon Musk's SpaceX had restricted "military-grade" Starlink services, hampering Ukrainian drone strike missions and air defenses. The complaint has drawn renewed attention to the distinction between Starlink, SpaceX's commercial satellite internet service, and Starshield, a military version developed for the Pentagon. While Musk has said the two systems are separate, in many cases they share the same underlying satellite technology. "Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the U.S. government," Musk said on Wednesday in a post on social media platform X, adding that any limits on speed or usage are decided by the U.S. military or the U.S. president.

Banking watchdogs are ramping up their scrutiny of artificial intelligence as fears mount over its effect on stability, sources say. NEW YORK/LONDON - Banking regulators are stepping up efforts to contain growing artificial intelligence risks, six people familiar with the matter have said, with some pointing to the potential for cyberattacks on banks or rogue agents undermining global financial stability. The regulatory scrutiny reflects growing recognition that advances in frontier AI may require costly investments in cyberrecovery, greater attention to dependencies on external technology providers and in some jurisdictions more formal regulatory guidance, sources said. Three top regulators in the United States, including the Federal Reserve, are quizzing banks about their use of advanced artificial intelligence models, two of the people said, which adds to prior scrutiny. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.