Category Archives: Technology sector

UK competition watchdog launches review of AI market

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CMA to look at underlying systems of artificial intelligence tools amid concerns over false information

The UK competition watchdog has fired a shot across the bows of companies racing to commercialise artificial intelligence technology, announcing a review of the sector as fears grow over the spread of misinformation and major disruption in the jobs market.

As pressure builds on global regulators to increase their scrutiny of the technology, the Competition and Markets Authority said it would look at the underlying systems, or foundation models, behind AI tools such as ChatGPT. The initial review, described by one legal expert as a “pre-warning” to the sector, will publish its findings in September.

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No 10 says UK ‘extremely attractive’ for business after Microsoft broadside

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Downing Street responds to stinging attack from US firm’s president over blocking of $69bn Activision deal

Downing Street has defended the UK as an “extremely attractive” place for tech startups after Microsoft’s president said Brexit Britain was worse for business than the EU, in a stinging attack on the UK’s decision to block a $69bn (£55bn) deal to take over Activision Blizzard.

Microsoft rounded on the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on Thursday after a surprise decision to block its planned takeover of the Call of Duty games developer, with its president, Brad Smith, describing it as the “darkest day in our four decades in Britain”.

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Jeremy Hunt aims to spur business investment with ‘full expensing’ tax break

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Measure over next three years will allow firms to write off costs of IT equipment and machinery against tax on profits

Jeremy Hunt has launched a flurry of tax breaks to encourage investment by businesses after the double blow of microchip designer Arm opting for a New York stock market listing and AstraZeneca deciding to build a new factory in Dublin.

Businesses that invest in IT equipment and machinery will be able to claim back the cost by writing it off against tax on their profits, the chancellor announced in his budget on Wednesday.

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TechScape: How Silicon Valley Bank UK was saved

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In this week’s newsletter: While its quick slip into financial hardship has left American bankers reeling, its UK division is surprisingly fine. But the tech sector isn’t out of trouble yet

Last week, if you had heard of Silicon Valley Bank UK, you probably worked in tech. The bank had only been spun out in to a separate entity last summer, after its few thousand corporate customers pushed it over a regulatory threshold, and while SVB had grown to almost hold £10bn of deposits, with £5.5bn of outstanding loans, it was very much a specialist player.

The bank’s selling point was that it understood the needs of the “innovation economy”, something that high street banks frequently failed to acknowledge. A startup might have zero revenue, yet hold £5m in the bank and have 10 employees, a profile fundamentally different from a typical small business. As a result, trying to get something as simple as a corporate credit card could be a surprising hassle, and when SVB arrived on the UK scene, it was enthusiastically adopted by founders and venture capitalists alike.

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Silicon Valley Bank: global banking shares slide as fallout spreads

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Stock markets fail to be reassured by Joe Biden’s intervention, as SVB failure is followed by Signature

Global financial markets have come under severe pressure after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, despite governments on both sides of the Atlantic taking extraordinary measures to maintain confidence in the banking system.

On a day conjuring up memories of the 2008 financial crisis, the US president, Joe Biden, sought to restore calm by insisting the US banking system remained safe, while HSBC stepped in to buy the UK arm of the failed technology lender after a deal brokered by the British government and the Bank of England.

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UK racing to secure deal to protect firms from Silicon Valley Bank collapse

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Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt explore options to help tech and life sciences sectors

The UK government is scrambling to secure an emergency deal to protect Britain’s tech and life sciences sectors from major losses after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), as financial markets braced for further volatility after the biggest bank failure since 2008.

The prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, signalled on Sunday that they were exploring a range of options, including an emergency fund that could provide a cash lifeline to support startups, as bidders put their hat in the ring for a potential takeover of the UK subsidiary.

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Why Silicon Valley Bank was so important to UK tech sector

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SVB specialised in high-growth startups, solving problems other lenders would not touch

Silicon Valley Bank’s name isn’t just hollow branding. Founded in Santa Clara in the 1980s, in the heart of the Bay Area’s tech cluster, it was a regional bank that served the local economy.

As that local economy became the engine of American growth, SVB – which collapsed on Friday – grew alongside it. It remained a tech specialist, a limitation that allowed it to continue to be regulated as a regional bank and so avoid the stricter requirements piled on larger competitors, but otherwise spread across the US and the world.

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Silicon Valley Bank fails in largest bank collapse since 2008 crisis

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US regulators seize SVB’s assets after a run on the bank, as global institutions monitor situation closely

US regulators rushed to seize the assets of top tech lender Silicon Valley Bank on Friday after a run on the bank, marking the largest failure of such an institution since the height of the financial crisis more than a decade ago.

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the nation’s 16th largest bank, failed after depositors – mostly technology workers and venture capital-backed companies – hurried to withdraw their money this week as anxiety over the bank’s situation spread.

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March of the unicorns: Israel’s tech sector rebels against Netanyahu ‘power grab’

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Proposals to neuter the country’s judiciary have spooked entrepreneurs who had seemed immune to the political weather

About 20 years ago, the skyline of Tel Aviv began to change. The city’s collection of elegant white Bauhaus buildings has been joined by tower after tower, each one a salute to Israel’s rapid transformation into one of the world’s most important advanced technology centres.

It is no accident that the rise of the “startup nation” has dovetailed with the career of its longest serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Bibi, as he is widely known, is a firm believer in the free market and has championed Israel’s vaunted hi-tech sector as his own personal achievement. At 15.3% of GDP, it is now Israel’s main engine of economic growth, employing 10% of the country’s salaried workforce, and generating about a quarter of income taxes.

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UK chip designer Arm chooses US-only listing in blow to Rishi Sunak

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PM had held talks with firm’s owner SoftBank in effort to make London first choice for tech flotations

The Cambridge-based chip designer Arm is to pursue a US-only listing this year, dealing a major blow to Rishi Sunak’s ambitions to make London the first choice for tech company flotations.

The company, which is owned by the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, confirmed its preferred plan of seeking a US-only main listing later this year, spurning the UK despite heavy lobbying by successive prime ministers.

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Missing Chinese billionaire banker Bao Fan assisting authorities in investigation, company says

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Tech dealmaker reported to be unreachable 10 days ago in latest case of a top executive going missing during Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption drive

The Chinese billionaire tech banker Bao Fan, who was reported missing 10 days ago, is cooperating with Chinese authorities conducting an investigation, a China-based boutique bank has said.

It is the first time China Renaissance Holdings has given a reason for the disappearance of its founder and chairman, though no details about the investigation were shared.

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Apple posts first revenue drop in four years

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Facebook parent company Meta bucks trend with better earnings than expected, as Apple sees first profit miss in seven years

The A-Team of big tech – Apple, Amazon and Alphabet – all delivered disappointing results on Thursday a day after Facebook owner Meta bucked the gloomy trend in technology, delivering better-than-expected results.

Apple shares slid more than 4% on Thursday after the company posted a disappointing first-quarter earnings report, including rare misses on revenue, profit and sales.

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Darktrace boss defends UK cybersecurity firm amid short-seller attacks

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Embattled firm to launch £75m share buyback to bolster stock price after criticism of sales and marketing

The chief executive of Darktrace has launched a staunch defence of the embattled cybersecurity company saying it is run with the “greatest integrity”, after allegations of irregular sales, marketing and accounting practices raised by a US-based hedge fund.

Poppy Gustafsson published a 1,200 word defence of the company she co-founded in 2013, after its share price collapsed to a record low after the publication of a highly critical 70-page report by New York-based Quintessential Capital Management (QCM) on Tuesday.

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Bank of Israel governor says judicial reform could hurt economy – reports

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Amir Yaron said to have warned PM that erasing democratic checks and balances could deter crucial foreign investment

The governor of the Bank of Israel has warned Benjamin Netanyahu that his new government’s proposals for sweeping judicial reform could damage the country’s economy, according to Israeli media reports.

Prof Amir Yaron met the Israeli prime minister on Tuesday, according to the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, after requesting an “urgent meeting”.

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Google parent firm Alphabet to cut 12,000 jobs worldwide

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It is latest US tech company to announce sweeping job losses as global outlook weakens

Google’s parent company is to cut 12,000 jobs worldwide as it becomes the latest US tech major to cut staff.

Alphabet’s chief executive, Sundar Pichai, said the redundancies followed a “rigorous review” of the business. The cuts come days after Microsoft said it would cut 10,00 jobs, citing a post-pandemic shift in digital spending habits and weakness in the global economy.

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Microsoft to cut 10,000 jobs in March as tech firms, including Amazon, thin ranks

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Sector reacts to post-pandemic shift in digital spending and gloomy economic outlook for 2023

Microsoft is cutting 10,000 jobs as it cited a post-pandemic shift in digital spending habits and weakness in the global economy.

The tech group joined a list of US peers making extensive job cuts, including Facebook owner Meta, Amazon, and business software-maker Salesforce, who have scaled back on workforce expansions stoked by a pandemic-related boom in demand for their services and products that have lost momentum.

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Where does the Britishvolt collapse leave UK’s dream of an electric future?

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Britain’s car industry relies on petrol or diesel vehicles – and every failure to be part of the electric revolution makes it more exposed

The battery startup Britishvolt eyed a big opportunity. With the looming UK ban on sales of internal combustion engine cars after 2035, big demand for batteries was guaranteed. The problem was actually building the batteries.

The company’s efforts have now come to nothing. It collapsed into administration on Tuesday after funding talks failed, leaving a string of disappointed backers ranging from the FTSE 100 companies Glencore and Ashtead to the property investor Tritax, owned by investment group abrdn, which had committed to fund a battery “gigafactory” in Northumberland.

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China to take ‘golden shares’ in tech firms Alibaba and Tencent

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Move marks shift in focus by Beijing as it tries to extend influence and keep sector in check

China is to take “golden shares” in two of its biggest tech companies, Alibaba and Tencent, as Beijing extends its influence on the country’s star tech firms and its most powerful and wealthy business people.

Beijing’s move marks a shift away from imposing hefty fines and sanctions in its two-year tech crackdown, which was launched after Alibaba founder, Jack Ma, criticised regulators,

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Apple’s Tim Cook to take 50% pay hit after shareholder feedback

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‘Target compensation’ for CEO down from $99.4m in 2022 to an expected $49m for current year

The Apple chief executive, Tim Cook, is expected to have his pay cut by almost 50% this year to about $49m (£40m) after the billionaire boss asked the company to “adjust his compensation” in the light of feedback from shareholders disappointed at the fall in the company’s share price.

Cook, 62, who became CEO after the death of the co-founder Steve Jobs in 2011, was paid $99.4m in 2022 and $98.8m in 2021. But the company said in a regulatory filing late on Thursday night that it had set a “target compensation” of $49m for 2023.

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Obscure Indonesia-linked investor circles UK’s Britishvolt with £160m deal

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Talks on rescue deal for battery startup led by DeaLab, which has been involved in fossil fuel transactions

The battery startup Britishvolt is in talks with an Indonesia-linked oil and gas investor for a £160m rescue deal that would almost wipe out the value of existing shareholders’ stakes.

The investor consortium is led by DeaLab Group, a UK-based private equity investor that has been involved in several fossil fuel and renewable energy transactions in Indonesia, and an associated metals business, Barracuda Group.

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