European defence stocks face uncertainty
FT News Briefing
Forhecz Topher
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 25 June 2026
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Anthropic accuses Alibaba of obtaining ‘illicit’ access to Claude, and concern is brewing over KNDS’s upcoming initial public offering after Germany scraps warship plans. Plus, Meta is turning to AI content moderators, and the FT’s John Plender breaks down Donald Trump’s contributions to the US national debt.
Mentioned in this podcast:
Anthropic accuses Alibaba of obtaining ‘illicit’ access to Claude
Meta races to replace human moderation with AI
Berlin warship U-turn hits defence sector as KNDS heads to market
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The FT News Briefing is produced by Victoria Craig, Sonja Hutson, Saffeya Ahmed, Katya Kumkova, and Fiona Symon. Our editor is Marc Filippino. Our show is mixed by Kelly Garry and Alex Higgins. Additional help from Gavin Kallmann, Michael Lello, Peter Barber and David da Silva. Our intern is Cole van Miltenburg. Our executive producer is Topher Forhecz. Flo Phillips is the FT’s global head of audio. The show’s theme music is by Metaphor Music.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Thursday, June 25th, and this is your FT News Briefing. |
| 0:08.8 | Anthropic is beefing with Alibaba, and European defense markets are in flux ahead of a major IPO. |
| 0:14.9 | Plus, how long can America's debt problem go on? |
| 0:18.8 | Well, the public debt in America now exceeds 100% of GDP. |
| 0:23.8 | So we're talking very large numbers indeed, which are quite hard to wrap ones head around. |
| 0:28.8 | I'm Mark Filipino, and here's the news you need to start your day. |
| 0:49.7 | Anthropic is accusing the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba of illicitly using its Claude AI assistant to train cheaper and smaller models. |
| 0:54.3 | In a letter to Congress, the U.S.-based AI company said Alibaba conducted the, quote, |
| 0:58.0 | largest campaign to illicitly extract Claude's capabilities. |
| 1:03.0 | Anthropic alleges that Alibaba did so by creating 25,000 fake accounts, |
| 1:05.7 | which were used for tens of millions of interactions. |
| 1:08.7 | Anthropic does not offer Claude in China, and it's asking Congress to crack down further on Chinese labs accessing advanced AI chips, which are restricted by U.S. export controls. |
| 1:17.5 | Meanwhile, Alibaba this week asked to be removed from a Pentagon blacklist of Chinese companies with alleged ties to China's military. |
| 1:24.9 | Last fall, the F.T. learned that the White House concluded that it had provided tech support |
| 1:28.7 | for, quote, operations against unspecified U.S. targets. |
| 1:33.0 | Alibaba has denied any connection to the People's Liberation Army. |
| 1:36.5 | At the time of this recording, it had not responded to the accusations from Anthropic. |
| 1:51.6 | Tankmaker KNDDS is planning to list its shares on the Paris and Frankfurt exchanges, |
| 1:57.0 | and the Franco-German venture is set to have one of the largest European flotations in recent memory. |
| 2:01.7 | But the initial public offering announcement comes at an uncertain time for Europe's defense sector. Aaron Kirchfeld is the FT's chief European business correspondent. He's been writing |
| 2:06.8 | about this. Hi, Aaron. Hi. So let's start with KNDS. Tell me about the company and the IPO that |
| 2:13.3 | they're planning. So KandAS is one of the biggest defense companies in Europe. It's a crucial supplier |
... |
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