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North America
Fortune

Global AI leaders gather in Dubai as the emirate expands its ambitions 

Another week, another emirate—and another big AI play. Hello this week from Dubai, where I’ve been attending the third Dubai AI festival in downtown Dubai that ran across Monday and Tuesday. The event brought together more than 20,000 participants from 100 countries, along with 500 investors and 200 exhibitors. Interestingly, more than 100 Chinese technology companies were exhibiting, alongside a dedicated pavilion showcasing 23 Indian firms specializing in cloud, data center, and GPU infrastructure. Dubai’s most high-profile AI champion, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, crown prince of Dubai, also made an appearance on the opening day. Along with touring numerous pavilions, the crown prince announced he was raising the targets for the Dubai AI Campus, aiming to attract more than 1,000 specialized AI companies and create over 5,000 highly skilled jobs by 2030. The campus has already attracted more than 500 AI companies and over AED 1 billion ($272 million) in private equity and venture capital investment since its launch in May 2024, according to the Dubai government. It has also helped generate more than 2,000 specialized technology jobs, reaching its original five-year employment targets two years ahead of schedule. Located in the Dubai International Finance Center (DIFC), the campus offers a dedicated AI licence built on DIFC’s independent legal framework, and facilitates tech partnerships with companies including Amazon Web Services, HP, Microsoft, Oracle and Nvidia. In May this year, Sheikh Hamdan announced that his goal was to make Dubai the world’s leading city for the economic and commercial adoption of agentic AI. Arguably, the biggest corporate news story to emerge from the festival was the announcement by U.S. tech company Scale AI that it is now open for business in the UAE after establishing an office at the DIFC. Valued at $29 billion following a major investment led by Meta Platforms in June last year, Scale AI partners with the world’s leading frontier AI labs, developing evaluations and benchmarks to assess the performance and capabilities of advanced AI models. It then applies these to help businesses and governments build, test, and deploy reliable AI systems. The company already lists Meta, Cisco, Instacart, Nvidia, OpenAI, Microsoft, and Time, as well as the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army, among its clients. Speaking at a signing ceremony at the festival, Trevor Thompson, global managing director at Scale AI, noted how the UAE has set a “clear, ambitious vision for AI and is now putting it to work across government and the economy,” adding that the company’s plans will complement the UAE’s digital ambitions.

Global AI leaders gather in Dubai as the emirate expands its ambitions 
North America
Fortune

Anthropic plans to spend up to $567 billion on compute. Its IPO prospectus reveals plans to set up its own data centers

Anthropic’s 318-page IPO prospectus, which the company made public today, makes one thing clear: Compute is essential to Anthropic’s business, and not securing enough of it is a significant risk factor. “Our ability to develop, train, improve, and deploy frontier models depends on our access to enormous and increasing quantities of specialized compute,” the company wrote in its prospectus, which is part of its S-1, a form the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission requires companies to file ahead of an initial public stock offering. At the same time, “the market for compute is intensely competitive,” and Anthropic competes with “some of the world’s largest and most well-capitalized technology companies,” the document said. The company’s future computing costs are potentially massive and could swamp Anthropic’s ability to pay for them. In total, the company has committed to spending between $542 billion and $567 billion on future compute and infrastructure, the S-1 reveals.On Dec. 31, 2025, Anthropic signed a $417 billion compute deal with various providers. The deals therein start between 2026 and 2027 and last for one to 20 years. Anthropic also signed up for more capacity, starting between 2028 and 2031, totaling $125 billion to $150 billion. Overall, compute is Anthropic’s number one operating expense, costing it $5.6 billion in the second quarter of 2026. But for now, the company generates a healthy amount of revenue from that spending. The company made $11.6 billion in revenue during the same quarter. That means it’s in the black as far as its revenue-to-compute ratio, a metric the S-1 says the company is focused on continuing to improve. It made a little over two dollars for every dollar it spent on compute. Anthropic is securing compute from three main cloud service suppliers: Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. The S-1 also reveals deals with Elon Musk–owned SpaceX. From May to October 2026, Anthropic entered into a series of deals with SpaceX to access up to $120.5 billion in compute through 2029. (That compute is powered by Nvidia GPUs SpaceX owns.) The company has also built a “proprietary orchestration layer” that optimizes which workloads it runs on different chips across the different cloud providers, including AWS Trainium, Google TPUs, Nvidia GPUs, and AMD GPUs. This intelligent router of sorts took Anthropic “years of significant investment to build,” the company says. It helps Anthropic keep costs down, and reduces dependence on any one supplier. The problem is, Anthropic’s relationship with Amazon, Google, and Microsoft is “multifaceted and complex,” the S-1 says. These suppliers are also its competitors, who need compute for their own AI products, so they could “prioritize their own compute needs.” The companies may also “gain insight” into how Anthropic’s business runs, and its compute requirements, that “could inform their competitive strategies.” Adding even more wrinkles to these circular relationships, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google have all made “significant” investments in Anthropic, and may continue to do so in the future. The kicker: They’re also customers of Anthropic’s products, using its models. To reduce dependence on its competitors, Anthropic is pursuing a new compute strategy called Anthropic Direct, which means essentially standing up its own data centers, the filing says. Anthropic expects its Direct initiative to “represent a growing share” of its “compute investments over time,” yielding “long-term economic advantages.” Starting around Sept. 30, 2026, the company began entering into purchase commitments and lease agreements for Anthropic Direct. Its third-party partners will secure the real estate, power, and facilities, and manage the data centers on an ongoing basis. Anthropic will lease the compute it needs from those partners. Its rent payments over the five-year lease are $125.2 billion, excluding interest. Anthropic’s largest infrastructure partner in 2026 is Broadcom, at $42 billion in potential financing. Google follows at $20 billion, and Amazon at $15 billion. Broadcom’s stock is up 3% today on the news. The downside of this approach is that Anthropic needs to pay out these costs in advance, without getting a quick return on investment. As a result, the company said in its S-1 that it expects to “incur significant cash outflows” that could “adversely affect our liquidity, financial condition, and results of operations.” Powering the data centers is another major concern. Anthropic expects “substantial energy demands,” according to the S-1. To that end, it has signed power generation and infrastructure deals, although it did not specify the type of deals or power source. The biggest risk is connecting the power to the data center, which could be delayed owing to permitting, legal challenges, supply-chain disruptions, and more, the company said.

Anthropic plans to spend up to $567 billion on compute. Its IPO prospectus reveals plans to set up its own data centers
Europe
BBC Business

Binance says crypto worth $6.3bn impacted in suspected hack

Cryptocurrency giant Binance said on Thursday that a "security incident" on its platform has impacted about $6.3bn (£4.7bn) of assets. The world's biggest crypto exchange said about half of those assets have been frozen with the help of other platforms, adding that it will "cover all losses". Early checks show the suspected hack may have involved an engineer's laptop that had been compromised, which allowed an attacker to make unauthorised withdrawals, Binance said in a series of online alerts. The incident is potentially the biggest ever crypto heist, eclipsing a record-setting $1.5bn hack on the Bybit exchange in 2025, which was linked to North Korea. The security incident concerns Binance.com, while much smaller crypto platform Binance.US which provides trading services specifically for American residents, said its platform is not affected by the issue. Zhao, who is also known as CZ, no longer manages the firm but remains a key shareholder. Binance said earlier that the amount of funds frozen may continue to increase while investigations are underway. "We are working closely with our law enforcement partners to confirm the identity of these criminals and bring them to justice," Binance said, urging users to rely only on its official channels for updates. In a series of posts, Yi He, Binance's co-chief executive, thanked various cryptocurrency issuers for freezing their assets. "Safety first: withdrawals are currently disabled until the environment is confirmed to be secure," she said. Bitcoin dropped by more than 4% following the alerts. The price of other major cryptocurrencies including Ethereum and Solana also fell sharply. Two other major crypto platforms, Tether and Circle, said they have also frozen a total of about $2.4bn of assets in response to the potential Binance hack.

Binance says crypto worth $6.3bn impacted in suspected hack
North America
CNBC Finance

American Airlines hikes annual fees on rewards cards for first time since 2018

American Airlines is raising the annual fee for two of its rewards credit cards for the first time since 2018 and adding new benefits like a TSA PreCheck credit and points from spending on hotels. The fee on the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite Mastercard will go up to $150 a year from $99. That is the first hike since 2018, when it raised the fee from $95 to $99, an airline spokeswoman said. The Citi AAdvantage Business Mastercard will also have a fee increase and will now cost $150 a year. Airlines and their bank partners have been steadily raising fees on rewards credit cards. Those cards generate billions of dollars a year for airlines, which make money when miles are sold to banks, which then give them to customers. American's move, announced Tuesday, follows similar increases by rivals such as United Airlines. Meanwhile, American Express last year raised the fee on its popular Platinum card, which comes with airport lounge access, to $895 a year from $695. JPMorgan Chase increased the annual fee on its competing card, the Sapphire Reserve, to $795 from $550. The new perks for the American card include three times AAdvantage miles earnings on hotels booked through American's portal, a credit of up to $120 every four years for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck, and a $100 annual statement credit on in-flight purchases like food. Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis.

American Airlines hikes annual fees on rewards cards for first time since 2018
Europe
BBC Business

Why North Korea's 'elite' hackers are the prime suspect in major Binance hack

Image source, ReutersByLily JamaliNorth America Technology correspondentPublished31 October 2026Two major blockchain analytics firms say they have robust intelligence pointing to a North Korean state-backed group as the likely culprits in the $6.3bn (£4.7bn) hack of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. The Lazarus Group, a North Korean hacking unit also known as TraderTraitor, was identified "with high confidence" by TRM Labs, as well as Chainalysis. This incident is just the latest linked to the country, one of the poorest in the world and where access to the internet is severely restricted. Experts accuse the government of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un of relying on cybercrime to finance itself, something Pyongyang has long denied. Though not financial, the nation's most spectacular suspected hack took place in 2014. The target: Sony Pictures, which had made the Hollywood film The Interview. The film involves a plot to assassinate Kim. The resulting hack exposed thousands of embarrassing emails exchanged among the studio's top executives. Crypto giant Binance attempting to recover $6.3bn stolen in hack linked to North Korea Last year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said North Korea was responsible for the theft of $1.5bn on the Bybit exchange. In the aftermath of that incident, the agency said TraderTraitor had moved to quickly launder and disperse the stolen assets, converting them to Bitcoin and other digital assets with a goal of eventually turning them into hard currency. The FBI has broadly accused North Korea of "illicit cybercrime and virtual asset theft activities". The nation has systematically developed its cyber operations, recruiting the most promising students from universities and channeling them into hacker groups overseen by North Korea's intelligence agency, according to reports. Some of the cyberwarfare conducted takes place just over the nation's border in China, according to analysis from tech groups.

Why North Korea's 'elite' hackers are the prime suspect in major Binance hack
North America
CNBC Finance

Boeing narrows third-quarter loss as defense sales rise, but focus remains on 737 Max production

Boeing narrowed its loss in the third quarter after defense sales rose, but CEO Kelly Ortberg told staff that the manufacturer has "more work to do." For the three months ended Sept. 30, Boeing reported a net loss of $116 million, or 26 cents a share, compared with a $5.34 billion loss, or $7.14 per share, a year earlier. Adjusting for one-time items, the company reported a loss of 34 cents a share. A year earlier, Boeing had taken a nearly $5 billion charge on its long-delayed 777X aircraft program. Revenue climbed 4% on the year to $24.19 billion. Free cash flow rose to $464 million from $238 million in the third quarter of 2025. The company's defense unit revenue rose 15% in the third quarter from a year earlier to $7.94 billion. Boeing delivered 161 commercial airplanes in the third quarter, one more jet than a year earlier. Revenue in the all-important commercial aircraft business fell 3% to $10.72 billion. The unit had a negative operating margin of 6.5% because of a "less favorable delivery mix, higher projected costs associated with future production rate adjustments and higher estimated supply chain costs," Boeing said. The plane manufacturer's executives are set to update investors on how quickly it can increase aircraft production in the coming months when it holds a quarterly earnings call on Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. ET. Boeing has been producing about 47 of its 737 Max planes a month, but is aiming for more. CEO Kelly Ortberg told investors last month that production is taking "a little bit longer" than expected to stabilize, and the company expects to increase its output of the planes next year. "Looking ahead, expectations are rising, and they should," Ortberg said in a note to staff on Tuesday. "That means elevating our performance through lean, productivity and efficiency improvements in our day-to-day work while upholding our high levels of safety and quality." Aircraft production and deliveries are key to Boeing's recovery since the bulk of an aircraft's price is paid when the customer receives it. But the manufacturer had some wins lately. The U.S. Navy tapped Boeing to develop its next-generation fighter jet. And the Federal Aviation Administration last week signed off on the 737 Max 10, the largest in the Max family. That followed the approval of the 737 Max 7 in August and marked the final certifications for the aircraft line.

Boeing narrows third-quarter loss as defense sales rise, but focus remains on 737 Max production
North America
Fortune

Why investors will likely ignore the $81 billion hole that Anthropic must dig itself out of

Can Anthropic generate revenues so gigantic that they far outpace the huge spending on compute that its leaders acknowledge is coming? So far, the S-1 shows surprisingly excellent bedrock performance, Fortune’s Shawn Tully reports. Revenues exploded 13x from $1.3 billion to $16.3 billion in H1 2026, over the same period last year. But the company’s income statement shows a staggering loss of $80.7 billion. The vast bulk of that deficit arose from changes in the “fair value” of convertible notes and other non-cash charges. Here’s a visualization of that (below). Anthropic’s quarterly revenues (blue) are growing and keeping pace with its operating expenses (red). But its GAAP net income (yellow) shows steep losses increasing over time. However, if you back out the non-cash charges for the changing value of convertible notes, then Anthropic’s net income losses (green) look manageable. In fact, the company actually garnered adjusted operating income of $1.6 billion for the first six months of 2026, for a 9%+ margin. How is P&G’s CEO getting inflation-weary shoppers to pay more? It starts with cashmere-like diapers - Phil Wahba Trump promised 300,000 tons of beef imports at lower tariff rates to reduce grocery costs. Instead, shipments have lagged and prices haven’t budged - Sasha Rogelberg Meet Wizz Air’s CEO—his father was jailed under Soviet rule. Now, he’s on $4.4 million a year and would ‘rather keep building than sit on a beach’ - Orianna Rosa Royle ‘Why do we value a Mars bar more than life-saving medicine?’ Sandoz CEO calls for level playing field with cheap Chinese antibiotics - Sam Forsdick AI is dividing companies into haves and have-nots. And the haves are the tech companies, according to Apollo Global Management’s Torsten Sløk. “Despite massive investments and widespread hype around artificial intelligence, the technology has delivered zero financial payoff to corporate America outside of tech,” he said in a recent blog. “Revenue per worker is rising for the Mag 7 but is flat for the S&P 493,” he wrote. “Profit margins are rising for the Mag 7 but are flat for the S&P 493.” The same effect—or lack thereof—shows up when you look at productivity, too. A couple of macro reasons explain why AI's positive effects are conspicuous by their absence in non-tech companies. Corporate investment in AI is actually crowding out investment elsewhere in the economy, according to Pantheon Macroeconomics’ Samuel Tombs and Oliver Allen: Stock markets were mixed globally this morning. Asia had a good day, with the exception of China’s CSI 300, which fell more than a full point. Europe, which is heavily dependent on energy imports, declined in early trading after the price of Brent crude oil rose to $117 per barrel and settled later at $116. In the U.S., futures for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were up marginally after the main index rose yesterday. Tech stocks were largely buoyed by the appearance of Anthropic’s IPO filing, which largely calmed fears that AI frontier labs—and the ecosystem they have created around them—might be unable to operate sustainably.

Why investors will likely ignore the $81 billion hole that Anthropic must dig itself out of
North America
Fortune

Tech bulls are barely winning their fight against the oil bears

Stock markets were mixed globally this morning. Asia had a good day with the exception of China’s CSI 300, which fell more than a full point. Europe, which is heavily dependent on energy imports, declined in early trading after the price of Brent crude oil rose to $117 per barrel and settled later at $116. In the U.S., futures in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were up marginally after the main index rose yesterday. Tech stocks were largely buoyed by the appearance of Anthropic’s IPO filing, which largely calmed fears that AI frontier labs—and the ecosystem they have created around them—might be unable to operate sustainably. Meta was the major exception: Its stock declined nearly 2% after it announced it would offer $95 billion in new, dilutive stock to fund its AI buildout plans. 30% of the S&P 500 has now reported earnings and the results so far are good: “78% beat EPS expectations, just shy of the 80% beat rate after Week 2 last quarter and well above the historical post-Week 2 average (65%),” Bank of America’s Savita Subramanian and Victoria Roloff told clients. But despite the evidence, investors are worried a crash is around the corner: “Fears that today’s AI boom is paving the way for tomorrow’s bust have put the sector on pace for its worst month vs. the S&P 500 since DeepSeek in January 2025,” they said in an email. 42% of traders are bearish right now, according to a survey of 953 investors by Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. “There’s no shortage of market and economic headwinds to make investors cautious as we approach year-end,” said Chris Larkin, head of trading at E*TRADE/Morgan Stanley.

Tech bulls are barely winning their fight against the oil bears
Europe
BBC Business

US tech stocks see sharp falls as AI spending nears $1tn

Image source, Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesByRachel ClunBusiness reporter, Reporting fromNew YorkPublished30 October 2026Tech stocks tumbled for the second day in a row as concerns rise over the hundreds of billions of dollars firms are investing in artificial intelligence (AI). Shares in Intel plummeted by 28% on Friday, while Google owner Alphabet saw its stock price continue to fall another 1.4% after a 12% plunge on Thursday. Other tech stocks, including Reddit and Amazon also fell, while the Nasdaq index of the largest tech firms listed in the US, ended October with its worst monthly slide since March 2025. While tech firms are spending big on AI, their earnings are not always meeting analysts' expectations, spooking investors and creating fears of an AI bubble. Major tech companies have ramped up artificial intelligence spending, with Meta, Alphabet, Oracle, Amazon, and Microsoft committing to spending $800bn between them in 2026. Alphabet's stock market value fell sharply on Thursday, taking more than $500bn (£374bn) off its market value after it revealed the AI summaries it now provides as the top answer to search queries were affecting its core search advertising revenue. At the same time, Alphabet expects to spend up to $205bn this year on investments, almost entirely related to AI. The bigger losses on Friday were elsewhere however, with Intel shedding more than $130bn in value. The chip maker said it planned to increase spending on AI despite weaker demand for computers, a major source of demand for its micro-processors. On Thursday, Intel's finance chief David Zinsner said the firm did not expect to bring in more cash than it spent this year and forecast lower-than-expected revenue for its fourth quarter. "Looking ahead, we see the PC slowdown continuing at least through the first half of next year," he said in the chip maker's third quarter earnings report. In the earnings call, he said the firm had significantly ramped up investment in equipment in the third quarter and expected that to be "even more significant" in the following three months.

US tech stocks see sharp falls as AI spending nears $1tn