Global Markets Today: Asia, Europe & Emerging Markets News

International

OpenAI-backed biotech firm Chai Discovery raises $130M Series B at $1.3B valuation

The round was led by General Catalyst and Oak HC/FT, the company said. Other participants include Menlo Ventures, OpenAI, Dimension, Thrive Capital, Neo, Yosemite venture fund, Lachy Groom, SV Angel,...

International

I hate that I love Riverside’s AI-driven ‘Rewind’ for podcasters

Instead of sharing statistics like how many minutes you recorded, or how many episodes you made, Riverside created a 15-second collage of laughter, showing a quick succession of clips in which my...

International

Disney’s OpenAI deal is exclusive for just one year — then it’s open season

The deal gives OpenAI a high-profile content partner, allowing users to draw on more than 200 characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars to create content on Sora. For now, it’s the only AI...

International

Nvidia bulks up open source offerings with an acquisition and new open AI models

Nvidia continues to expand its footprint in open source AI on two fronts: an acquisition and a new model release. Slurm was originally launched in 2002 and SchedMD was founded in 2010 by the lead...

International

Ford is starting a battery storage business to power data centers and the grid

Ford said Monday that instead of scuttling plans to build the batteries for those vehicles, it will pivot that capacity into a new battery storage business. Those storage systems, which will use...

International

Ford’s next F-150 Lightning will have a gas generator as it pivots away from large EVs

Ford is ending production of the fully-electric F-150 Lightning as part of a broader companywide shakeup of its electric vehicle plans, the company announced Monday. In its place, Ford will sell...

International

Creative Commons announces tentative support for AI ‘pay-to-crawl’ systems

Now, the nonprofit is tentatively backing pay-to-crawl systems, saying it is “cautiously supportive.” In the past, websites freely allowed web crawlers to index their content for inclusion into...

International

Lightspeed raises record $9B in fresh capital

The firm has also positioned itself as a predominantly AI-focused investor. Lightspeed claims to have backed 165 AI-native companies, including Anthropic, xAI, Databricks, Mistral, Glean, Abridge,...

International

Merriam-Webster names ‘slop’ the word of the year

AI’s impact on our social media feeds has not gone unnoticed by one of America’s top dictionaries. Amidst the onslaught of content that has swept the web over the past 12 months, Merriam-Webster...

International

DoorDash driver faces felony charges after allegedly spraying customers’ food

A woman is facing felony charges in Evansville, Indiana over a DoorDash delivery in which she allegedly sprayed the food with a substance that made the customers vomit. The sheriff’s department said...

International

With iOS 26.2, Apple lets you roll back Liquid Glass again — this time on the Lock Screen

Apple is releasing another tool to dial down Liquid Glass’ transparency with its release of iOS 26.2, out now. With the update, users will be able to control the transparency of the Lock Screen’s...

International

Google launched its deepest AI research agent yet — on the same day OpenAI dropped GPT-5.2

The new Gemini Deep Research tool is an agent equipped to synthesize mountains of information and handle a large context dump in the prompt. Google says it’s used by customers for tasks ranging from...

International

Disney hits Google with cease-and-desist claiming ‘massive’ copyright infringement

Disney is accusing the tech giant of copyright infringement on a “massive scale,” claiming it has used AI models and services to commercially distribute unauthorized images and videos, according to...

International

OpenAI fires back at Google with GPT-5.2 after ‘code red’ memo

OpenAI launched its latest frontier model, GPT-5.2, on Thursday amid increasing competition from Google, pitching it as its most advanced model yet and one designed for developers and everyday...

International

Google debuts ‘Disco,’ a Gemini-powered tool for making web apps from browser tabs

For instance, if you’re studying a particular subject, GenTabs might suggest building a web app to visualize the information, which could help you better understand the core principles. Or, in a...

International

Marco Rubio bans Calibri font at State Department for being too DEI

Calibri, which is a sans-serif font, was apparently adopted in 2023 during Biden’s tenure. It was chosen by the department’s then-DEI office, which has since been disbanded under Rubio amid the Trump...