International business briefs: Meta to pay $14.8bn for stake in AI start-up

Bengaluru — Meta Platforms has agreed to buy a 49% stake in AI start-up Scale AI for $14.8bn, The Information reported on Tuesday, citing two people familiar with the matter.

Founded in 2016, Scale AI provides vast amounts of labelled data or curated training data, which is crucial for developing sophisticated tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

The deal, which has not been finalised, appears to be beneficial for Scale AI’s investors, including Accel, Index Ventures, Founders Fund and Greenoaks Capital, as well as its present and former employees, the report said.

Meta, Scale AI and the start-up’s investors did not immediately respond to requests for comment. As part of the deal, Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang will take a top position inside Meta, leading a new “superintelligence” lab, according to the report. Reuters

Glean’s valuation rockets to $7.2bn in AI boom

Bengaluru — Glean said on Tuesday it was valued at $7.2bn in its latest funding round — the third capital raise for the US enterprise AI search start-up in less than two years.

The round marks a nearly 57% jump in valuation for Glean, underscoring strong investor appetite for start-ups leveraging AI use cases. In the previous funding in September, the company’s valuation had more than doubled in just over six months.

Palo Alto, California-based Glean raised $150m in the funding round led by asset manager Wellington Management.Reuters

Tencent Music to buy Ximalaya audio for $2.4bn 

Beijing — Chinese music platform Tencent Music Entertainment Group said on Tuesday it would buy long-form audio platform Ximalaya for about $2.4bn in cash and stock, expanding its library of content to attract more paying users.

The company will offer $1.26bn in cash and class A shares representing up to 5.20% of its total outstanding stock. It will also issue shares to Ximalaya’s founder investors not exceeding 0.37% of its total share count. Reuters

Sentix survey detects upturn in German economy

Berlin — The Sentix survey of investor sentiment found evidence of an upturn in Germany and in the eurozone in June, with the overall index for Germany hitting its highest level since March 2022 and the euro area index at its highest level in a year.

The Sentix index for the eurozone rose to 0.2 in June from -8.1 in May, beating the forecast for a reading of -6.0.

While the sentiment index for Germany was still clearly in negative territory at -5.9, optimism at a new conservative-led government taking office, a belief in the possibility of a ceasefire in Ukraine and the fading of the initial shock at US tariffs policy were all helping drive an improvement. Reuters

China extends ‘complex’ investigation into EU pork

Beijing — China extended on Tuesday a high-profile investigation into imported pork from the EU by six months, days before it was due to wrap up and as negotiators from Brussels and Beijing carve out a deal over the bloc’s electric vehicle tariffs.

Launched in June last year, the probe is widely seen as retaliation for EU tariffs on Chinese electric vehicle exports and has hit over $2bn in pork exports, concentrated in major producers such as Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark.

China, the world’s largest pork consumer, has decided to extend the investigation period to December 16 due to the “complexity” of the case, the country’s commerce ministry said in a statement on its website.

The decision to delay comes as China and the EU close in on a deal over the tariffs. Beijing has already extended its anti-dumping investigation into EU brandy and offered to speed up rare earth magnet export licences for European firms. Reuters

Pound sterling weakens against euro and dollar

London — The British pound fell against the dollar and the euro on Tuesday as soft UK labour market data bolstered investors’ bets for more rate cuts this year from the Bank of England.

Pay growth slowed sharply while the unemployment rate rose to its highest level in nearly four years in the three months to April, Britain’s Office for National Statistics said.

The downturn appeared to gather pace in May as more timely tax office data showed a slump of 109,000 in the number of employees on company payrolls, the biggest decline since May 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The latest official read on UK labour market activity provided broad confirmation that conditions were easing,” said Nikesh Sawjani, senior UK economist at Lloyds. Reuters

Shares soar for British transporter FirstGroup

Bengaluru — British public transport operator FirstGroup reported full-year profit ahead of market expectations on Tuesday, helped by strong performance of its bus division and recent acquisitions.

Shares in the London-listed company, which carries more than a million passengers daily on its buses and trains, rose more than 6% after it also announced an additional share buyback of £50m and raised dividend by 18% to 6.5 pence a share.

Britain, as part of a new spending review, pledged £15.6bn (R372bn) for transport projects targeting cities outside London, which have long been underfunded.

FirstGroup has been expanding its bus network across Britain, including by entering the London market earlier this year with its acquisition of RATP London. Reuters

Streaming giant Netflix to produce content in Spain

Madrid — Netflix is set to invest more than €1bn ($1.14bn) to produce content in Spain over the next four years, the streaming giant’s co-CEO, Ted Sarandos, told an event in Madrid on Tuesday. Reuters

New BP drug gives Insmed shares a 28% boost

Bengaluru — Insmed said on Tuesday that its experimental blood pressure drug met the main and key secondary goals in a mid-stage study, sending shares of the company up 28% in premarket trading.

The drug, treprostinil palmitil, is a once-daily therapy that is inhaled through a device. The 120-patient study found that the drug helped reduce blood pressure in the patients’ lungs by 35%, compared with a placebo.

It also helped improve the patients’ ability to walk by an average of 35.5m and reduced levels of a protein associated with heart stress by 60%. Reuters

Brown & Brown to buy Accession Risk Management

Bengaluru — Insurance broker Brown & Brown will buy Risk Strategies parent Accession Risk Management in a $9.83bn deal, the companies announced on Tuesday.

The deal adds to a handful of mega transactions in the highly fragmented insurance broker industry in recent years, as top firms look to increase scale and boost their competitive position. It is expected to close in the third quarter of 2025.   Reuters

Barcelona-El Prat airport gets nod for expansion

Barcelona — Catalonia has given approval for airport operator Aena to carry out a €3.2bn expansion of the Barcelona-El Prat airport, Salvador Illa, the region’s president, told reporters on Tuesday.

The deal, between Spain’s transport ministry, Catalonia’s government and Aena, includes the extension of a third runway and the construction of a satellite terminal, as well as a remodelling of Terminals 1 and 2, and the parking area, he said.

In addition, almost 300ha of the neighbouring Llobregat agriculture fields park will be turned back into wetlands to compensate for the construction works’ projected environmental impact. Reuters

Italy industrial output rises after more than two years

Rome — Italian industrial output rose unexpectedly in April from the month before, data showed on Tuesday, and increased from the year before for the first time in more than two years, in a sign of recovery for the long-struggling manufacturing sector.

Industrial output in the eurozone’s third-largest economy rose 1.0% in April from March, national institute ISTAT reported, versus a forecast of a 0.2% drop in a Reuters survey of 16 analysts.

On a work day adjusted year-on-year basis, industrial output was up by 0.3% versus a forecast for a 1.4% decline, marking the first rise after 26 consecutive declines.

April’s month-on-month gain extended to all industrial sectors with the exception of energy, ISTAT said. Reuters

Recursion Pharmaceuticals to slash 20% of jobs

Bengaluru — Recursion Pharmaceuticals said on Tuesday it would lay off about 20% of its workforce as the biotech company tries to cope with an industry-wide funding crunch and the current policy uncertainty.

The biotech firm had about 800 employees from December 31 2024, a regulatory filing showed.

Investors fear that a major overhaul of health agencies under health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a longtime vaccine sceptic, along with cuts to federal research grants and other policy changes, could delay drug approvals and trigger a substantial biotech sell-off.

Shares of the Salt Lake City, Utah-based biotech rose more than 1% to $5.43 in premarket trading. Reuters

Britain to add £14.2bn for Sizewell C nuclear station

London — Britain will invest a further £14.2bn to build the Sizewell C nuclear plant in southeast England, the government said on Tuesday, as part of its wider spending review which will define its priorities over the next four years.

Britain is seeking to build new nuclear plants to replace its ageing fleet to boost its energy security, reach its climate targets and also create new jobs.

The funding announced on Tuesday takes the total amount the government has committed to the project to £17.8bn, with £3.6bn invested before the spending review. Reuters

Copper prices decline on US-China uncertainty 

London — Copper prices lost ground on Tuesday as many investors shunned the market due to uncertainty about US-China trade talks and how the ongoing trade war between the world’s two largest economies will hit economic growth and metals demand.

Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was down 0.3% at $9,767 a tonne in morning trade, having recovered by 20% since hitting its lowest since November 2023 in April.

“We have a lot of market complacency right now. Volatility seems to be drifting lower across markets even though we have yet to see any breakthrough on trade talks with China,” said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank in Copenhagen.

Top US and Chinese officials were to resume trade talks for a second day in London on Tuesday, hoping to secure a breakthrough over export controls for rare earths and other goods. Reuters