Business, in sixty words

Microsoft has pulled out of a deal to be the main customer at Nscale's planned AI datacentre in Loughton, Essex, over worries about power supply. Ministers hailed the site as Britain's largest sovereign AI datacentre when it was announced in 2025. Nscale, backed by Nvidia, says it remains committed to the project and is exploring other power sources. Microsoft stays involved in its Norway project.

Barclays is spending more than £100m on job cuts, mostly in its UK high street banking arm, as part of a drive to reduce costs, The Times reports. The bank has said it will book £125m of restructuring costs in its UK business this quarter. Barclays is due to report third-quarter results soon, amid talk of higher taxes on banks in the 28 October Budget.

Ratings agency Moody's has warned that Prime Minister Andy Burnham's plan to bring water companies under greater public control could deepen the sector's money problems, The Telegraph reports. It said constant political pressure and doubts about future ownership are putting off investors and raising borrowing costs. Moody's said this could lead to another round of credit downgrades and delay badly needed upgrades to the network.

Insulating homes and installing heat pumps would cut living costs more than drilling the Rosebank oilfield, according to thinktank E3G. It says the government's £15bn warm homes plan, now at risk of budget cuts, would save households £1bn a year and create about 50,000 jobs. The Rosebank field would create roughly 1,100 jobs. Ministers are expected to decide soon on the Jackdaw and Rosebank fields.

Renault chief executive François Provost says Britain should drop its 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel car sales if it wants to join the EU's Made in Europe industrial scheme. He called the ban stupid and said the UK would also need to match EU tariffs on Chinese electric cars. Downing Street said joining the scheme would be good news for British car makers.

Replit, the AI coding platform popular with start-up founders, has made OpenAI's ChatGPT its default model instead of Anthropic's, chief executive Amjad Masad said at TechCrunch Disrupt. He said the switch came down to cost, partnership and performance, citing Replit's own benchmarks. Customers can still choose Anthropic models on the platform, but the change could sharply reduce how much Replit spends with the AI firm.

The BBC will rest its long-running renovation show DIY SOS next year because of budget pressures, replacing it with a cheaper spin-off called DIY SOS Rebuilt My Life that revisits past projects. Presented by Nick Knowles, the programme first aired in 1999. The BBC is trying to save £500m over three years and has already axed shows including Blankety Blank and Live at the Apollo.

Chancellor John Healey and Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband have faced criticism after posting a video of themselves tasting Thai snacks in a Bangkok tuk-tuk. The pair were in Thailand this week for IMF and World Bank meetings. Shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith accused Healey of acting like an influencer, and Nigel Farage called the clip cringe-making, with the 28 October Budget less than two weeks away.

Apprenticeship starts among under-19s have nearly halved in a decade, while almost 1 million young people are out of work, education or training. Ministers are considering making employers cover a quarter of training costs for apprentices aged 25 and over, under plans being developed for England. The change could begin in September 2027.

The European Union is drafting a deal so British under-30s can take any job in Europe under a youth mobility scheme, The i Paper reports. Some EU states may delay demanding lower UK tuition fees for EU students. France has eased blocks on UK access to Made in Europe contracts if Britain raises Chinese electric car tariffs. A UK-EU summit is due on 20 November.

Developers planning a data centre at Cardiff East Park and Ride near Llanrumney want a temporary gas plant up to 49.9 megawatts. Curtis Hall says turbines may run from 2028 for five years if a 150 megawatt grid link arrives late, calling gas a worst-case option. Friends of the Earth called it climate-wrecking. Most local Senedd members objected. Welsh ministers may call in the plan.

Standard Life indicates a 62-year-old with a £100,000 fund could receive about £13,800 annually over five years, plus a £50,000 lump sum. A £13,800 annual payment exceeds the £12,548 provided by the full new state pension, which commences at an age increasing from 66 to 67 in April 2028. Canada Life, another provider, notes a substantial increase in interest for its equivalent product.

Airbus's UK sites at Stevenage and Portsmouth employ 3,000 people, and industry figures have claimed they wouldn't survive without the next Skynet deal. Guillaume Faury, Airbus's chief executive, is understood to have written to the prime minister Andy Burnham, while north-east politicians back Lockheed Martin's bid, which includes a new factory in Durham. The Ministry of Defence says no final decision has been made.

Councillors are investigating more than £1bn in loans made to about 50 property developers from a regional fund while Andy Burnham was Greater Manchester mayor. Scrutiny chair John Leech said the approval process had been criticised as opaque. Three firms controlled by Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour received about £55m in 2017 at meetings Burnham chaired, though all combined authority members took those decisions together.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards say a supertanker carrying more than two million barrels of crude oil exploded and caught fire after hitting a naval mine in the Strait of Hormuz. They claim the ship had switched off its tracking systems and used an unauthorised route with US military help. The vessel, its owner and the crew's condition have not been named or independently confirmed so far.

Sterling is heading for a third straight weekly gain against the euro, which fell to 84.28 pence on Wednesday, its weakest point since June 2025. Strong August growth in computer programming beat forecasts, and markets expect the Bank of England to raise interest rates on 5 November. Finance minister John Healey also promised his first budget on 29 October will offer "a bit of breathing space".

British food and drink exports to the European Union have fallen by more than a third since Brexit, National Farmers Union analysis of official data shows. Sugar exports dropped 70 percent and egg products about 74 percent versus 2019. Poultry and horticulture were also hit hard. NFU president Tom Bradshaw said red tape is crushing trade with Britain's largest agri-food partner amid an EU reset.

Helge Berger, deputy director of the IMF's European department, said Britain's tax take is already around 40% of GDP. He told reporters on Friday that scrapping the pensions triple lock and targeting benefits better would make more sense. His comments follow a Guardian report that chancellor John Healey is poised to raise the bank profits surcharge in his budget.

Chancellor John Healey has reportedly decided not to lower the threshold for Labour's new mansion tax from £2m to £1.5m in his upcoming Budget. The annual levy on homes in England worth over £2m starts in April 2028. Lowering the threshold would have roughly doubled the number of homes affected, from 134,000 to 271,000. Healey reportedly fears that changing it early would weaken public support.

Energy regulator Ofgem has proposed bringing back a market stabilisation charge, which would make suppliers pay rivals when they win customers with cheaper deals after a sharp fall in wholesale prices. Ofgem says the aim is to stop firms collapsing during a volatile winter linked to the Middle East conflict. Martin Lewis criticised the plan, calling it a switching penalty that would hurt ordinary consumers.

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said the effects of soaring energy prices on wider British prices have been limited so far, calling second-round price pressures quite subdued. He warned it is too early to draw firm conclusions. Most economists now expect the Bank to start raising interest rates next month, after holding its main rate at 3.75% since the US-Iran war began in February.

The Ministry of Defence seeks to acquire new Skynet satellites, potentially valued at £2bn, from the American firm Lockheed Martin. The potential acquisition has raised concerns that Washington could gain a veto over the UK's vital communication system, similar to recent Starlink restrictions in Ukraine. Opponents claim the switch risks thousands of UK jobs, with No 10 already scrutinising the MoD's decision.

KFC has served Pepsi drinks in the US since Pepsi bought the chain in 1986, so this is its first drinks switch in decades. KFC US president Catherine Tan-Gillespie said on Thursday that the Yum Brands chain wants to win back diners lost to Chick-fil-A and Popeyes. She expects Coke to be pouring in every US restaurant by the end of March 2027.

Reuters reports that some investors at Anthropic's investor day in San Francisco on Wednesday talked about a $1.5tn value, down from the $2tn expected for a November listing. They were reportedly disappointed by slowing growth and high AI infrastructure costs, even though Anthropic reported revenue of nearly $17bn. Anthropic declined to comment.

Twenty of the world's biggest AI and semiconductor companies have lost more than $1tn in combined market value this week, according to CNBC. Investors are worried about heavy spending on AI, rising credit stress at cloud provider CoreWeave and hot US inflation figures. Nvidia, AMD and Intel all fell on Thursday, and Dell dropped almost 7%, although TSMC posted a sixth straight record quarterly profit.

Nvidia and Apple each pledged $25 million towards President Donald Trump's White House ballroom project, according to documents reported by The Washington Post, with total donations passing $330 million. Cisco and ServiceNow confirmed giving $5 million each, while Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Palantir were also listed. Lawmakers and experts have raised concerns that the donations could influence policy decisions or the award of federal contracts.

The main index climbed 1.1% on Thursday to finish at exactly 10,840.35 points, marking its best performance since 26 August. Markets got a lift when finance minister John Healey promised to keep strict control over government spending ahead of this month's budget. Drug company AstraZeneca jumped 3.2% as money moved away from global AI shares and into safer UK companies.

The utility, which owes about £20 billion, expects its cash to dry up by early 2027 without this financial package. It has already spent most of its current £3 billion lifeline after years of neglecting its ageing infrastructure. Lenders have until 29 October to approve the latest borrowing request and stop the government from taking temporary control.

Official figures reveal a 0.1% increase for August, beating economist forecasts that actually predicted a slight economic drop. The computer programming sector drove this surprise growth, while a weaker American currency helped sterling achieve its best daily gain since mid-August. Finance minister John Healey promised his upcoming budget will feature new plans to protect Britain from Iran war energy shocks.

The US Federal Trade Commission sent civil investigative demands to OpenAI and Anthropic seeking records on AI safety incidents and consumer protection practices. Each demand runs over 50 pages and covers security, safeguarding, marketing materials and privacy policies. An OpenAI spokesperson said safety remains a top priority and the company will engage constructively. The FTC plans to compel top AI executives to testify as well.

Ukraine's parliament passed a bill taxing e-commerce and international parcels, meeting a key condition for financial aid after missed deadlines. It won 252 votes and introduces VAT on foreign parcels worth up to 150 euros, plus new customs rules for mail and express shipments. Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko said the IMF and EU tranches of 700 million dollars and 3.7 billion euros should arrive soon.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev broke ranks with EU leaders on Thursday by welcoming the United States deal easing sanctions on Russian diesel. At a Brussels energy summit he said Europe needs cheaper fuel for competitiveness. Sweden's Ulf Kristersson said Europe deeply regrets the pact. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called it a gift to Vladimir Putin as Russia escalates its attacks on Ukraine.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said she is minded to intervene in Sky's proposed £1.6 billion purchase of ITV's media and entertainment arm. She cited risks to free expression and UK news variety, and may order Competition and Markets Authority and Ofcom probes. Sky and ITV must reply by 20 October. The deal excludes ITV Studios. Sky said it remains confident the tie-up strengthens British media.

The AI firm told investors in San Francisco on Wednesday that revenue was $16.8bn last quarter, up 45% on the $11.6bn before, according to the Financial Times. Documents filed last month show it lost $42bn last year, and it's understood to be aiming for a valuation of around $2tn. It's expected to list after next month's US midterms, ahead of rival OpenAI.

The Environment Agency has declared severe drought in parts of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, East Sussex and West Sussex after a record-breaking summer. Officials said the South East and South West had their driest April to September in over a century. Environment Secretary Angela Eagle promised more government support, while the agency urged water companies to follow drought plans and everyone to use less water.

India's government has agreed to sell a 60.7% stake in state-owned IDBI Bank to Canada's Fairfax Financial Holdings for about $5.5bn. Officials say it will become the biggest foreign direct investment deal in India's financial sector once the Reserve Bank of India approves it. Fairfax offered 81 rupees a share, below Wednesday's closing price, and IDBI's shares then fell more than 7% on Thursday morning.

Taiwan's TSMC, the world's biggest contract chipmaker, has reported a record quarterly profit for the sixth quarter running, up 68.7% on a year earlier and ahead of analysts' forecasts. The company says demand for chips used in artificial intelligence is still outpacing its supply. It expects fourth-quarter revenue of up to $54.3bn and plans much higher investment through 2028, even as wider tech shares tumble.

ASML says its planned supply for 2027 and 2028 will not fully meet customer demand for lithography tools used to make advanced AI chips. It raised its 2026 sales forecast to 44 to 45 billion euros, after record third-quarter sales of 11.66 billion euros. ASML is studying ways to expand 2028 capacity beyond a 30% increase, and some customers want orders for 2029 and 2030.

Firms including Wagamama, Nando's, Burger King, Premier Inn and Fuller's will give unemployed 18 to 24-year-olds placements of up to four weeks. They are collaborating with the Department for Work and Pensions, which operated a comparable initiative with retailers last month. Alan Milburn, a former health secretary, warns the number of young people not working or studying could reach 1.25 million within five years.