Category: Semafor

BP’s ousted chair said he intends to challenge accusations against him. Albert Manifold was abruptly removed from his position at the top of the oil major’s board this week over what the company said were “serious concerns” related to “governance standards, oversight, and conduct.” Subsequent reporting in the Financial Times ...

The European Central Bank warned US President Donald Trump’s policies could lead to a financial crisis, as inflation risks grow more urgent. The bank on Wednesday cited the war with Iran, coupled with Trump’s shifting trade positions that have “become a structural feature of the global environment.” Europe is bracing ...

Elon Musk has reportedly discussed merging SpaceX with Tesla, a deal that would give the world’s richest person even more control over his sprawling tech empire. Musk floated the idea just weeks before SpaceX, the satellite and rocket giant, is expected to launch its massive IPO on the Nasdaq, CNBC ...

Russia authorized its central bank and other financial institutions to shoot down drones, as the country’s cities and infrastructure increasingly come under attack from Ukraine. A central bank branch in Russian-annexed Crimea was struck by a rocket Wednesday; a local official accused Ukraine of trying to destabilize Russia’s financial system. ...

Tech giants are deepening their investments in Asia’s chip sector as demand for compute explodes. Nvidia is planning to invest $150 billion annually in Taiwan; CEO Jensen Huang called the island the “epicenter” of the AI revolution, days after challenger AMD announced a $10 billion investment there. And Samsung is ...

China is trying to balance its society-wide AI push with mounting concerns over the tech’s disruptive socioeconomic effects. Beijing’s vice premier was “shaken” after China’s largest employers warned him last year of AI’s potential impact on their workforces, The Wall Street Journal reported. While policymakers have touted AI’s “job creation” ...

Reed’s view It’s an accident that the economic unit of AI is known as a “token.” The 19th century mathematician and philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce used the term in linguistics, and computer scientists later adopted it to break language down into the smallest possible fragments. Because large language models also ...

Saudi Aramco is offloading its 50% stake in a large refinery and petrochemicals project in Malaysia, transferring ownership to the country’s national oil company Petronas. The financial details have not been disclosed, but are likely to be significant — when the PRefChem joint venture was announced in 2017, Aramco pledged ...

David’s view The major US political parties are best understood by looking at Texas and California, whose 2026 primaries tell a clear story: Republicans are run from the top, while Democrats aren’t run at all. Texas Republicans did what the president asked them to on Tuesday, nominating state Attorney Gen. ...

In a first of its kind for retail investors, Robinhood has announced AI agents that can trade stock on a user’s behalf. What could go wrong? The tools allow anyone with a Robinhood account to compete more closely with institutional investors that have long deployed automated systems and have more ...