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Saudi AI firm HUMAIN to launch giant global VC fund this year
The kingdom’s AI champion is also “hardening” data center defenses as the Iran war threatens infrastructure.
Saudi AI firm HUMAIN to launch giant global VC fund this year
The kingdom’s AI champion is also “hardening” data center defenses as the Iran war threatens infrastructure.
View / The best corporate regulator in America isn’t the SEC. It’s the NBA.
View / OPEC’s new threat comes from within
The World at a Glance
Updated 6:41pm EDT
1
OpenAI began a phased release of GPT-6 Astra, the company’s most advanced model yet.
2Nvidia has agreed to buy Hugging Face for $12.9 billion in a move that expands the chipmaker’s capabilities beyond hardware and up the AI stack.
3Markets rallied and global bond yields dipped after a US Federal Reserve governor said to “Give disinflation a chance.”
4Russia’s Vladimir Putin suggested a settlement to end the war was possible, while Ukraine predicted a “new dynamic” in peace efforts, a marked shift in rhetoric.
5China plans to spend at least $1 trillion to become a “sports powerhouse,” in a bid to stimulate sluggish consumption.
6US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth extended troop deployments in the Middle East until 2027 despite Donald Trump’s claims that the war would end soon.
Coefficient Giving’s CEO on Silicon Valley $40 billion philanthropy boom
Alexander Berger is preparing for the AI-fueled wave.
‘A path to victory’: Democrat Andrews pushes party to invest in South Carolina
Annie Andrews thinks she can beat Darline Graham in a red state. She probably needs the party’s resources to do it.
House Democrats weigh punishing party defectors
Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., and Jared Golden, D-Maine, helped Republicans on a key procedural vote earlier this week.
House Republicans vent tariff frustrations
In a closed-door meeting on Wednesday with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Republican Study Committee members were “freewheeling in their expressions,” one Republican lawmaker said.
Paid actors, AI writing: How a new kind of video business cashed in on America’s divided politics
‘Ghost creators’ are reaching millions of viewers with nearly identical, sensationalized videos that take aim at Democrats.
Parnell emerging as top contender for Army secretary
The Pentagon’s current chief spokesman is an ally of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, though GOP Rep. Brian Mast is also getting a look.
Gulf’s biggest port Jebel Ali waits for the war to end
Six months into the Iran war, Dubai’s port operator is spending $100 million a month to keep its flagship facility ready for a recovery.
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Politics
‘A path to victory’: Democrat Andrews pushes party to invest in South Carolina
Annie Andrews thinks she can beat Darline Graham in a red state. She probably needs the party’s resources to do it.
Sam Wolfe/Reuters; Screenshot/YouTube/Annie Andrews
Progressives push Democrats to pair cost-of-living message with anti-corruption talk
The party’s left flank is rolling out new polling of battleground states and voters of color in the South to back up its argument.
Eric Lee/Reuters
House Democrats weigh punishing party defectors
Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., and Jared Golden, D-Maine, helped Republicans on a key procedural vote earlier this week.
Eric Lee/Reuters
House Republicans vent tariff frustrations
In a closed-door meeting on Wednesday with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Republican Study Committee members were “freewheeling in their expressions,” one Republican lawmaker said.
Congress rejected Pentagon office’s equity power
Congress has already conveyed to the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital that it lacks the legal authority to seek equity stakes in private companies.
G20 wraps without consensus amid bond market sell-off
The US-hosted G20 meeting, beset by trade and diplomatic squabbles, wrapped up after failing to ease investors’ concerns over a global bond market sell-off.
Parnell emerging as top contender for Army secretary
The Pentagon’s current chief spokesman is an ally of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, though GOP Rep. Brian Mast is also getting a look.
Democrats make the midterms about one big pitch: Lower costs
Democrats are not crafting the kind of bold-faced messaging that excites pundits this year. That may be the point.
China engages in Egypt charm offensive
Relations between Beijing and Cairo have improved as China takes a more assertive role in the Middle East.
Americans see sprawling government corruption, poll finds
Almost nine in 10 Americans say that government corruption is widespread.
US-Africa trade pact extended
The development represents an interim win for African governments worried about trade relations with the US under the Trump administration.
Business
US Fed Governor Waller floats September rate hold
Markets rallied and global bond yields dipped Thursday after a US Federal Reserve governor advocated holding interest rates steady if inflation continues to cool.
Kylie Cooper/Reuters
Coefficient Giving’s CEO on Silicon Valley $40 billion philanthropy boom
Alexander Berger is preparing for the AI-fueled wave.
The best corporate regulator in America isn’t the SEC. It’s the NBA.
Stripping the Los Angeles Clippers of draft picks is enforcement that hits misbehaving companies where it hurts.
Google avoids another breakup
It is the third time in the last year that a judge has decided against breaking up a big tech company.
Companies confront ‘trade down’ economy
Consumer companies like Nespresso say they’ve had to try harder to convince shoppers to pony up hundreds of dollars for coffee makers.
Technology
OpenAI begins phased rollout of GPT-6 Astra model
OpenAI said its new model surpasses Anthropic’s most advanced models and meaningfully approximates “artificial general intelligence.”
Jonathan Drake/Reuters
Nvidia to buy Hugging Face for nearly $13 billion
Hugging Face has exploded in popularity, providing an open-source hub for collaborative machine learning.
Courtesy of Nvidia
US President Donald Trump imposes 100% tariff on drones
Chinese drone firm DJI alone accounts for more than 70% of the global market.
Asian data center boom faces backlash
Asian governments’ urge to cash in on the AI boom is clashing with constituents’ environmental and health concerns.
Textual sleuths fight AI slop with Pangram
Pangram has recently been credited with helping implode a lucrative book deal and unmasking AI use at The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
China ramps up brain computer interface push
China has approved a slew of brain-computer interface devices this year, in a bid to compete with Elon Musk’s Neuralink.
Energy
Big Law sees a gold mine in data centers
‘Everybody and their brother is a digital infra and power lawyer now.’
Kevin Wurm/Reuters
Oil jumps after Iran strikes on US bases in the Middle East
Oil jumped by more than 5% to $95 a barrel, while Asian stocks slid over worries the latest attacks point to protracted hostilities.
Majid Asgaripour/WANA/Reuters
US launches new strikes on Iran
The new attacks interrupted a weekslong lull in the six-month conflict and sent oil prices to $95 a barrel.
Stringer/Reuters
Gulf
Saudi AI firm HUMAIN to launch giant global VC fund this year
The kingdom’s AI champion is also “hardening” data center defenses as the Iran war threatens infrastructure.
Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters/Semafor graphic
OPEC’s new threat comes from within
Saudi Aramco’s widening oil discount suggests that Riyadh — which normally bears the cost of supporting prices — isn’t willing to surrender market share.
Chinese tech companies plant deeper roots in Saudi Arabia
Companies including ByteDance and Tencent announced investment in the kingdom during Riyadh’s annual LEAP tech conference.
UAE real estate developer Arada agrees to build $7B district in Damascus
The deal is the latest example of Gulf capital being funneled into Syria’s reconstruction, aligned with a broader US effort to keep the country out of Iran’s orbit.
Gulf’s biggest port Jebel Ali waits for the war to end
Six months into the Iran war, Dubai’s port operator is spending $100 million a month to keep its flagship facility ready for a recovery.
China
China announces $1T push to become ‘sports powerhouse’
Beijing is betting that more outdoor sporting events can stimulate sluggish domestic consumption.
Tingshu Wang/Reuters
US President Donald Trump imposes 100% tariff on drones
Chinese drone firm DJI alone accounts for more than 70% of the global market.
Jason Lee/Reuters
China ramps up brain computer interface push
China has approved a slew of brain-computer interface devices this year, in a bid to compete with Elon Musk’s Neuralink.
Florence Lo/Reuters
Africa
Sasol pollution linked to premature deaths, study suggests
Emissions from Sasol’s flagship Secunda plant are linked to about 1,000 premature deaths annually, a study by a Finland-based nonprofit suggests.
Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters
El Niño threatens West Africa’s cocoa producers
The weather phenomenon has been known to intensify the yearly Harmattan winds, which dry out topsoil and cause pods to fall.
Luc Gnago/Reuters
IMF agrees $2.2B Senegal loan package
The move is a key step in tackling an economic crisis in the west African country sparked by the discovery of previously unreported debt.
Nigerian opposition vows to restore fuel subsidy
Nigeria’s opposition African Democratic Congress said it will anchor its presidential election campaign on a promise to reinstate a multibillion-dollar fuel subsidy program.
Nigeria’s economy grows at fastest pace in five years
President Bola Tinubu has overseen a turnaround of Africa’s third-largest economy.
US-Africa trade pact extended
The development represents an interim win for African governments worried about trade relations with the US under the Trump administration.
Security
Russia, Ukraine eye diplomacy effort
Russia’s Vladimir Putin suggested that a settlement to end the war was possible, while Ukraine predicted a “new dynamic” in peace efforts.
Vladislav Culiomza/Reuters
Ukrainian ex-defense minister launches Palantir-backed military tech firm
The move risks angering Ukraine’s European supporters, as defense expertise is likely to be shared with US firms instead.
Reuters
Oil jumps after Iran strikes on US bases in the Middle East
Oil jumped by more than 5% to $95 a barrel, while Asian stocks slid over worries the latest attacks point to protracted hostilities.
Majid Asgaripour/WANA/Reuters
Media
YouTube cracks down on ‘ghost creators’
The enforcement action targeted accounts named in Semafor’s report earlier this week.
Paid actors, AI writing: How a new kind of video business cashed in on America’s divided politics
‘Ghost creators’ are reaching millions of viewers with nearly identical, sensationalized videos that take aim at Democrats.
New Leon Black book picks fight with the Times
Bill Cohan’s new biography is aimed, in part, at rebutting The New York Times’ coverage of Black and his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
Axel Springer invests in Abu Dhabi-based outlet The Circuit
Axel Springer is latest Western publisher to take a greater editorial interest in the business story in the Middle East.
AI writing has already begun to appear on the opinion pages
About 10 — of 310 — contributions to The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and the New York Times over the past month appear to have been written by AI models.
CEO Signal
Coefficient Giving’s CEO on Silicon Valley $40 billion philanthropy boom
Alexander Berger is preparing for the AI-fueled wave.
‘We go big’: Jon Gray on how Blackstone places its AI bets
The $1.3 trillion firm is staying bullish but investing “through the lens that this may change.”
The Canadian founder telling CEOs to rethink AI resilience
Cohere’s Aidan Gomez says companies are waking up to the need for tech sovereignty.
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