Latest posts

  • AI boom adds more than half a trillion dollars to wealth of US tech barons in 2025

    Elon Musk’s net worth increased by nearly 50% to $645bn with founders of Google and Amazon also seeing huge wealth gains A stock market boom in artificial intelligence companies has added more than half a trillion dollars to the wealth of America’s tech barons in the past year, data shows. The top 10 US founders…

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  • ‘A gamechanger’: 200,000 UK small businesses sign up to TikTok Shop

    Big brands such as Sainsbury’s and M&S also selling directly in app through links in videos and livestreams It is better known for its viral dances and for making hits out of forgotten songs, but the social media site TikTok is becoming a force to be reckoned with as a shopping platform. Major retailers such…

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  • Elon Musk’s massive 2018 Tesla pay package restored by Delaware court

    Decision from state supreme court on deal once worth $56bn and now worth some $139bn overturns ruling that prompted angry Musk backlash Elon Musk’s controversial $56bn pay package from Tesla was reinstated by the Delaware supreme court on Friday, two years after a lower court struck down the vast compensation deal as “unfathomable”. The reinstated…

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  • Sony collars Snoopy in £340m deal to take control of Peanuts franchise

    Japanese conglomerate raises its stake in the firm that owns the intellectual property Charles Schulz created to 80% Business live – latest updates Sony has taken control of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts franchise including Snoopy and Charlie Brown in a deal worth C$630m (£340m). The Japanese conglomerate has bought 41% of Peanuts Holdings, which owns the…

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  • TikTok signs Trump-backed deal to avoid US ban

    Joint venture will take over part of app’s US operations, including data protection, algorithm security and content moderation Business live – latest updates US politics live – latest updates TikTok has reached a deal to form a joint venture that will allow it to continue operating in the US, five years after Donald Trump threatened…

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  • MPs warn that UK agreements with Donald Trump are ‘built on sand’

    Exclusive: UK government’s ‘naive belief’ that Trump is a good faith actor ‘could cost UK taxpayer billions’, says health select committee chair Ministers and senior MPs have warned that the UK’s agreements with Donald Trump are “built on sand” after the Guardian established that the deal to avoid drug tariffs has no underlying text beyond…

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  • US puts £31bn tech ‘prosperity deal’ with Britain on ice

    Pledge to invest billions in UK paused, with Washington citing lack of progress on trade barriers across pond The US has paused its promised multi-billion-pound investment into British tech over trade disagreements, marking a serious setback in US-UK relations. The £31bn “tech prosperity deal”, hailed by Keir Starmer as “a generational stepchange in our relationship…

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  • Why universal basic income still can’t meet the challenges of an AI economy

    Andrew Yang’s revived pitch suits the automation debate, but UBI can’t fix inequalities concentrated tech wealth drives Universal basic income (UBI) is back, like a space zombie in a sci-fi movie, resurrected from policy oblivion, hungry for policymakers’ attention: brains! Andrew Yang, whose “Yang Gang” enthusiasm briefly shook up the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020…

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  • UK Treasury drawing up new rules to police cryptocurrency markets

    Rachel Reeves wants to protect consumers by bringing digital money and assets into the ‘regulatory perimeter’ Cryptocurrencies will be regulated in a similar way to other financial products under legislation coming into force in 2027. The Treasury is drawing up rules that will require crypto companies to meet a set of standards overseen by the…

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  • Disney wants you to AI-generate yourself into your favorite Marvel movie

    The media company is investing $1bn in OpenAI – and allowing its characters to be used in generated videos Users of OpenAI’s video generation app will soon be able to see their own faces alongside characters from Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars and Disney’s animated films, according to a joint announcement from the startup and Disney…

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