Category: Semafor

The Trump administration’s plans for an executive order regulating artificial intelligence were put on hold this week after some of the tech industry’s biggest players, including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and venture capitalist David Sacks, persuaded the White House to call it off, according to people familiar with the matter. ...

Washington’s Middle East partners are increasingly seeing Israel as a destabilizing force, analysts said, a perception that is shifting regional power dynamics. Turkey is bolstering security partnerships in preparation for a regional power struggle with what it views as an unrestrained Israel, buoyed by the US, The Washington Post reported. ...

US President Donald Trump on Thursday postponed signing an executive order on AI and cybersecurity over concerns it could shrink the country’s AI lead over China. The order laid out “a voluntary framework” for AI firms to share their new models with the government before their public release, stemming from ...

Major US retailers suggested shoppers are reining in spending as the Iran war raises prices on essential goods. Walmart on Thursday reported a worse-than-expected outlook, noting that its sales were driven by lower-price goods. The average number of gallons a customer buys at Walmart gas stations has fallen to 2022 ...

Economists debated whether there’s light at the end of the tunnel for China’s multiyear property slump. Home prices in the country’s largest cities have ticked up this year, and sellers’ “panic listings” have fallen. Some analysts “see a turning point” in the crisis and predict home prices will start recovering ...

The Iran war is undermining Saudi Arabia’s efforts to diversify away from oil, while boosting the kingdom’s oil revenues. Riyadh ordered government entities to freeze payments to strategy advisers, management consultants, and law firms, which were central to the kingdom’s efforts to reinvent its economy and become a global business ...

Qatar Airways reported a decline of more than 7% in annual net profit, in a sign of how Gulf airlines are struggling to cope with the biggest disruption to their operations since the pandemic. The state-owned carrier posted a $1.9 billion profit for the year to the end of March, ...

Qatar Investment Authority and Spain’s state-backed investor COFIDES will establish a €300 million ($349 million) joint fund to back Spanish companies involved in the green transition and digital transformation. The new vehicle will be managed by Madrid-based private equity firm Portobello Capital, which oversees about €4.5 billion in assets and ...

Generic versions of Ozempic went on sale this week in Canada — somehow the world’s second-largest GLP-1 market — raising questions about whether Novo Nordisk’s failure to renew its Canadian patent and prevent the entry of generic companies into the country was a bit of cunning corporate strategy or an ...

Steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie, in called it a disgrace to die rich. The robber barons were ruthless, but they also endowed universities, charities, and civic institutions that endure today. How will tech billionaires of the AI age be remembered? Jeff Bezos used his CNBC interview yesterday to pan philanthropy, arguing ...