Amazon is in early-stage talks to invest as much as $50 billion (£40bn) in OpenAI, in what would be one of the largest private technology investments ever made. According to reports, discussions remain preliminary and the final size and structure of any deal have yet to be agreed. If completed at the upper end, the investment would make Amazon the single largest backer in OpenAI’s latest fundraising round. The talks come as OpenAI looks to...
Donald Trump has described it as “very dangerous” for the UK to do business with China, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived in Shanghai on the third day of his official visit to the country. Trump’s comments followed the announcement of several agreements aimed at boosting trade and investment between the UK and China, reached after Starmer met Chinese president Xi Jinping in Beijing. Speaking to reporters at the premiere of a documentary about his...
Octopus Energy Group has unveiled a major joint venture with PCG Power to trade renewable electricity in China, marking a significant expansion into the world’s largest clean energy market. The deal was announced during Keir Starmer’s official visit to China, with Octopus founder and chief executive Greg Jackson joining the UK business delegation in Beijing. The new venture, called Bitong Energy, will combine PCG Power’s position as one of China’s fastest-growing investors and solutions providers...
Lloyds Banking Group is handing more than £3.1 billion back to shareholders after delivering stronger-than-expected annual profits, underlining the financial firepower of Britain’s biggest domestic lender. The FTSE 100 bank reported full-year pre-tax profits of £6.66 billion, up 12 per cent on 2024 and comfortably ahead of the £6.38 billion forecast by City analysts. The performance was supported by lower-than-expected bad loan provisions and growing income from non-lending activities. Lloyds announced a final dividend of...
Tens of thousands of so-called “zombie” businesses could collapse this year as mounting cost pressures and weak demand push companies to breaking point, insolvency specialists have warned. New research from Begbies Traynor shows a sharp rise in businesses experiencing severe financial strain, with a 44 per cent increase in companies classed as being in “critical financial distress” in the final three months of last year compared with the same period in 2024. In total, 67,369...
President Donald Trump warned the U.K. Thursday against strengthening ties with China, hours after Prime Minister Keir Starmer met President Xi Jinping in Beijing to reset relations after a long period of strain. Trump’s remarks came as Starmer and Xi had called for a renewed ‘strategic partnership,’ highlighting the pressures facing them amid global instability. Speaking to Fox News while traveling to Florida for the premiere of first lady Melania Trump’s documentary, Trump was asked...
President Donald Trump on Thursday declared a national emergency via an executive order over Cuba, accusing the communist regime of aligning with hostile foreign powers and terrorist groups while moving to punish countries that supply the island nation with oil. Thursday’s executive order states that the policies and actions of the Cuban government constitute ‘an unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national...
The Trump administration announced Thursday it was easing sanctions on the Venezuelan oil industry, as the U.S. aims to ramp up production in the South American country following the capture of dictator Nicolás Maduro earlier this month. The U.S. Treasury said it is authorizing transactions involving the government of Venezuela and state-owned oil company PdVSA that are ‘ordinarily incident and necessary to the lifting, exportation, reexportation, sale, resale, supply, storage, marketing, purchase, delivery, or transportation...
Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently revoked Iranian senior officials and their family members’ privilege to travel to the U.S., citing ongoing oppression by the regime. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime is accused of killing more than 6,200 protesters since Dec. 28, with nearly 17,100 additional arrests as internet communications remain halted, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). ‘As the people of Iran continue to fight for their basic rights,...
House conservatives are expressing skepticism after Senate Democrats and the White House announced a deal had been reached to fund the government without a long-term Department of Homeland Security funding bill. One House member warned that Republicans should not give in to demands to ‘handcuff ICE.’ With any deal reached in the Senate needing approval in the House of Representatives, Rep. Mark Harris, R-N.C., told Fox News Digital, ‘[Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer’s current demands,...
