Category: Semafor

The extent of AI excitement among China’s public may be overstated, analysts argued. A viral craze this year saw grandmothers installing the agentic AI tool OpenClaw, part of the so-called “raising lobsters” frenzy that was widely presented as evidence of rabid AI enthusiasm in China. But the lobster has become ...

The Scoop Apollo founder Leon Black’s career started falling apart in October of 2020, when The New York Times revealed that he’d been one of Jeffrey Epstein’s main financial patrons, relying on the criminal long after others had abandoned him. The veteran finance writer Bill Cohan’s new 673-page Black biography, ...

Liz’s view Hi, and welcome back. A lot happened while Rohan and I were on vacation, but the one thing still on my mind — freshly cleansed by Hudson Valley air — is Kevin Warsh’s speech in Jackson Hole. The Fed chair argued the central bank should say less about ...

Ben’s view Analysis of China is often so polarized that a casual observer might get the impression that Beijing is an unstoppable force on the verge of global domination a precarious dictatorship on the brink of collapse. That is not an impossible combination, of course. The Soviet Union was an ...

Andy’s view To have any hope of countering China’s industrial challenge, the US needs a coalition. Alone, it is outmatched in overall size — measured by purchasing power, China’s economy is 30% larger — and manufacturing strength: In shipbuilding, for instance, China has more than 200 times US capacity. But ...

The Scoop Saudi Arabia’s ROSHN Group has hired its first full-time chief executive in more than two years, filling one of several leadership vacancies at companies controlled by the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund. Naaman Atallah, currently president of real estate at UAE conglomerate Al-Futtaim, is set to join the developer ...

The News Abu Dhabi-based Neurovia AI is pitching Saudi security agencies software it says can compress video files by up to 95%, lowering the cost and processing demands of the vast camera networks used to keep Islam’s holiest cities safe for pilgrims and residents. The company developed an algorithm that ...

US President Donald Trump hasn’t won the energy war in Venezuela yet. The White House this week released the first details of the deal Trump announced Friday between Washington and Caracas: The Pentagon will take an equity stake in the Venezuelan oil producer NABEP, which will then assume responsibility for ...

Chinese leader Xi Jinping pledged stronger ties with Russia after meeting President Vladimir Putin on Monday, as Beijing flexed its diplomatic might at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Kyrgyzstan. With 10 member states in attendance, the gathering offers Xi the chance to demonstrate that Beijing has “friends and options ...

The head of the world’s financial stability watchdog warned that greater cyber threats from frontier AI are heightening the risk of market disruptions. Financial institutions and service providers should prepare for “severe scenarios involving simultaneous disruption across multiple firms or shared technology dependencies,” Andrew Bailey wrote in a letter Monday ...