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SoftBank-owned chip designer Arm has started the final countdown to the biggest US initial public offering in almost two years, filing a preliminary prospectus for a Nasdaq listing that is set to take place early next month. Arm is on track to be the most valuable company to complete a US IPO since at least

China will push the Brics bloc of emerging markets to become a full-scale rival to the G7 this week, as leaders from across the developing world gather to debate the forum’s biggest expansion in more than a decade. South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has invited more than 60 heads of state and government to a

A group of Silicon Valley’s biggest private tech companies are dusting off long-delayed plans to list their shares, with the upcoming initial public offering of chip designer Arm set to provide a new gauge for market sentiment. Grocery delivery group Instacart, software company Databricks and identity verification start-up Socure are among those considered candidates to

The leaders of Japan and South Korea on Friday put decades of frequently acrimonious relations behind them, signing on to a trilateral pact with the US that will deepen military and intelligence co-operation between the three allies. The agreement, formally reached at President Joe Biden’s retreat at Camp David outside Washington, sets up annual summits

Labour has watered down plans to strengthen workers’ rights as Sir Keir Starmer tries to woo corporate leaders and discredit Tory claims that his party is “anti-business” ahead of the next general election. A pledge to boost the protection of gig economy workers was diluted by the party’s leadership at Labour’s national policy forum in

The US, Japan and South Korea are to create a leader-level hotline and hold annual military exercises as part of a historic trilateral agreement that will help Washington and its Asian allies boost deterrence against North Korea and China. President Joe Biden will announce the move with Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean

Private equity group TPG Capital has approached EY about buying a stake in its consulting arm in a deal that would herald a second attempt at breaking up the Big Four firm. TPG outlined its plan for a debt-and-equity deal to separate the consulting arm from EY’s audit business in a letter sent to the

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are buying up thousands of the high-performance Nvidia chips crucial for building artificial intelligence software, joining a global AI arms race that is squeezing the supply of Silicon Valley’s hottest commodity. The Gulf powerhouses have publicly stated their goal of becoming leaders in AI as they pursue ambitious

Inflated shipping costs are enabling Russian companies to earn far more from crude oil sales to India than previously recognised, according to a Financial Times analysis which suggests that the charges may have raised more than $1bn in a single quarter. Russia has, until recently, appeared to comply on this route with western measures designed

The era of cheap streaming is ending, as Hollywood’s largest studios turn the screws on customers with price rises that rival the expensive cable television “bundle” consumers began ditching for Netflix 15 years ago. A basket of the top US streaming services will cost $87 this autumn, compared with $73 a year ago, as Disney,

Sam Bankman-Fried has been taken into custody after a federal judge found that the FTX founder probably attempted to tamper with witnesses on two occasions while awaiting trial on fraud charges stemming from the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange. In a brief written order following a hearing in Manhattan federal court on Friday, Judge Lewis

US inflation in July is expected to have risen at roughly the same pace as in June, suggesting that price pressures in the world’s biggest economy are continuing to ease and strengthening the case for the Federal Reserve to hold interest rates steady at its next meeting in September.  The consumer price index (CPI) is

The Biden administration will ban US investment into quantum computing, advanced chips and artificial intelligence sectors in China, as it ratchets up efforts to ensure the Chinese military does not benefit from American technology and capital. President Joe Biden on Wednesday issued an executive order establishing the prohibitions, which will largely affect private equity and

Google and Universal Music are in talks to license artists’ melodies and voices for songs generated by artificial intelligence as the music business tries to monetise one of its biggest threats. The discussions, confirmed by four people familiar with the matter, aim to strike a partnership for an industry that is grappling with the implications

Meta has axed a team that used artificial intelligence to create the first database of more than 600mn protein structures, in a signal the company is abandoning purely scientific projects in favour of building moneymaking AI products. The social media giant had employed a group of about a dozen scientists on a project called ESMFold,

Europe’s biggest companies have suffered at least €100bn in direct losses from their operations in Russia since President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, according to analysis by the Financial Times. A survey of 600 European groups’ annual reports and 2023 financial statements shows that 176 companies have recorded asset impairments, foreign exchange-related charges

Berkshire Hathaway’s cash and investments in short-term Treasuries surged to $147bn at the end of the second quarter, underscoring Warren Buffett’s faith in the backbone of global financial markets despite the rocky political climate in Washington. The sprawling conglomerate — which owns the BNSF railroad and Geico insurer — increased the holdings by nearly $17bn

The US and China are opening new lines of communication to tackle contentious issues, in one of the first signs of progress towards stabilising relations since secretary of state Antony Blinken visited Beijing in June. According to three people familiar with the situation, Washington and Beijing will create two working groups to focus on Asia-Pacific

The Bank of England could slow the pace of interest rate rises when it announces its latest decision on Thursday, but investors expect the central bank to continue tightening monetary policy for longer than either the European Central Bank or the US Federal Reserve. After UK inflation fell more than expected in June, traders think

Donald Trump’s legal team has pushed back against the US government’s drive for a “speedy trial” over this week’s historic charges that the former president conspired to subvert the 2020 election. In comments that signalled Trump’s desire to slow proceedings — possibly until after next year’s presidential contest — John Lauro, one of his lawyers,

UK house prices have dropped by the largest amount in 14 years, according to fresh data from Nationwide. Prices for July fell 0.2 per cent on the previous month and 3.8 per cent on the same month last year, the largest fall since 2009, the Nationwide house price index showed. The average cost of a home in the UK is now

UK mortgage approvals rose unexpectedly in June, despite further increases in interest rates. Bank of England statistics showed net mortgage approvals for house purchases rose to 54,700 from 51,100 the previous month, while approvals for remortgaging rose to 39,100 from 34,100. Analysts had expected the housing market to slow in a month when stubbornly high

Blackstone’s $68bn flagship property fund has gone from being one of the world’s biggest buyers of property to a large seller, as it raises liquidity to meet redemptions and invest billions in data centres to feed the artificial intelligence boom. From the beginning of 2021 to the third quarter of last year, the Blackstone Real

Economists and analysts are increasingly hopeful that the Federal Reserve can avoid pushing the US into a recession, as inflation slows and strong growth persists despite 11 interest rate increases. The Fed this week raised rates by another quarter percentage point to the highest level in 22 years. But a flurry of upbeat data has

A group of companies including the UK coach and train service company Mobico has held detailed talks over launching a cross-Channel train service to rival Eurostar. Other parties involved in the discussions include the Spanish Cosmen industrialist family, which is an investor in Mobico, formerly known as National Express, according to two people with knowledge

Coutts chief executive Peter Flavel has stepped down, saying that he bore “ultimate” responsibility for the bank’s treatment of former UK Independence party leader Nigel Farage. The private bank and its owner, NatWest, have been engulfed in a crisis since Farage revealed last week that Coutts had closed his account in part because of his

NatWest shareholders have ramped up pressure on chair Sir Howard Davies to step down for mishandling the fallout from the closure of Nigel Farage’s bank account. “He’s clearly not in charge,” said a top-20 investor on Tuesday. “Banking is about trust and confidence. That’s sacrosanct and starts with the tone from the top.” NatWest chief

The Bank of England has estimated that it will require the UK Treasury to transfer a total of £150bn by 2033 to cover expected losses on its bond-buying quantitative easing programme, if interest rates follow the path implied by market pricing. The programme was designed so that the central bank is indemnified by the Treasury

Credit Suisse has been fined $388mn by US and British regulators for “significant failures in risk management and governance” related to the collapse of Archegos Capital, which caused a $5.5bn trading loss and helped bring about the demise of the Swiss lender. The US Federal Reserve imposed a $269mn penalty on the bank for “unsafe

UK banks have handed more of the benefits of interest rate rises to savers than their counterparts in Europe or the US, as politicians, regulators and clients push for a greater share of the haul. Global banks are coming under pressure to pass on the benefits of higher interest rates to their customers — but