SoftBank wants a piece of the AI pie
FT News Briefing
Forhecz Topher
4.4 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 31 January 2025
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Apple revealed quarterly results that slightly exceeded Wall Street expectations, SoftBank is in talks to invest as much as $25bn into OpenAI, and the European Central Bank cut interest rates as it warned about headwinds to the bloc’s economy. Plus, there are concerns that China’s hukou system creates second-class citizens and holds back consumption in urban areas.
Mentioned in this podcast:
Apple results top estimates even as iPhone sales stall
SoftBank in talks to invest up to $25bn in OpenAI
ECB warns of ‘headwinds’ to Eurozone economy as it cuts rate to 2.75%
How a Mao-era system creates second-class citizens in modern China
The FT News Briefing is produced by Niamh Rowe, Fiona Symon, Sonja Hutson, Kasia Broussalian, Lulu Smyth, and Marc Filippino. Additional help from Breen Turner, Sam Giovinco, Peter Barber, Michael Lello, David da Silva and Gavin Kallmann. Our engineer is Joseph Salcedo. Topher Forhecz is the FT’s executive producer. The FT’s global head of audio is Cheryl Brumley. The show’s theme song is by Metaphor Music.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We're Equinor, an energy company searching for better. |
| 0:03.0 | Currently, we supply 27% of the UK's gas, 15% of its oil, |
| 0:07.7 | and we're playing our part in the UK's energy transition. |
| 0:11.0 | Our wind farms power 750,000 homes, |
| 0:14.0 | and we expect that to grow to over 7 million. |
| 0:16.5 | Last year, we invested 20% of our global growth spend in renewables |
| 0:20.1 | and lower carbon solutions. |
| 0:22.0 | We plan to increase that to 50% by 2030. |
| 0:25.4 | We're an energy company searching for better. |
| 0:28.4 | equinore.co.uk. |
| 0:33.7 | Good morning from the Financial Times. |
| 0:36.3 | Today is Friday, January 31st, and this is your FT News briefing. |
| 0:42.0 | Apple just slightly beat Wall Street's expectations yesterday, |
| 0:46.8 | and the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank wants to lead the pack in the AI race. |
| 0:53.6 | Plus, we look at how a decades-old system in China creates second-class citizens. |
| 1:00.4 | I'm Sonia Hudson, and here's the news you need to start your day. |
| 1:24.5 | Thank you. Apple reported over $124 billion in revenue last quarter, which is just above what analysts predicted. |
| 1:30.3 | And the company's services businesses, like the App Store, ICloud, and Apple Pay hit a record high. But it wasn't totally good news. iPhone sales were flat on the previous year, |
| 1:38.2 | and revenue in China was down. That's a major market for Apple and a region where it's been struggling to compete |
| 1:45.9 | against local rivals like Huawei. |
| 1:54.6 | SoftBank is in talks to invest as much as $25 billion into OpenAI. |
| 2:01.4 | The deal would make it the startup's biggest financial backer. |
... |
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