Oslo, Norway -- Norway came close to its objective of selling only zero-emission cars in 2025, with electric vehicles accounting for 95.9 percent of new registrations. Although Norway is Western Europe's largest exporter of petroleum products, it has led the shift to electric vehicles, setting a non-binding target of selling...

It sold 2.26m EVs vs Tesla's 1.22 by Sept end.

Tokyo, Japan -- Japanese tech investor SoftBank said Wednesday that its stake in OpenAI is now around 11 percent after completing the second stage of a $41-billion investment in the maker of ChatGPT. Having made colossal profits as well as losses on previous investments, flamboyant founder Masayoshi Son has pivoted...

Taipei, Taiwan -- Taiwanese tech titan TSMC has started mass producing its cutting-edge 2-nanometre semiconductor chips, the company said in a statement seen by AFP on Wednesday. TSMC is the world's largest contract maker of chips, used in everything from smartphones to missiles, and counts Nvidia and Apple among its...

Singapore, Singapore -- Facebook owner Meta has agreed to acquire Manus, an artificial intelligence agent created by a company founded in China but now based in Singapore, the two firms said. However, analysts warned the deal could fall foul of regulators at a time of fierce technological rivalry between Washington...

Dakar, Senegal -- Mining company Axis International said Monday it was seeking World Bank arbitration against Guinea for withdrawing its right to operate a major bauxite mine in the West African country. Guinea, which has been run by a junta since a coup in 2021, has cancelled dozens of licences...

San Francisco, United States -- Nvidia has hired the leadership of a promising AI chip startup, a statement said Wednesday, as the artificial intelligence giant expands its tech empire. Chip maker Groq said the departure of its top executives was part of a non-exclusive licensing agreement with Nvidia for its...

London, United Kingdom -- Precious and industrial metals are surging to record highs as the year ends, driven by economic and geopolitical uncertainty, robust industrial demand and, in some cases, tight supply. Below AFP examines the reasons for the surge in demand.  Safe havens  Gold and silver are traditionally seen...

Kuwait City, Kuwait -- Kuwait has signed a deal worth $4.1 billion with China to complete the construction of a major port, as the oil-rich country seeks to diversify its economy with a bigger role in global trade. The State Audit Bureau, a government oversight body responsible for monitoring public...

Tech firms also led the rally in Asia, with South Korea's Samsung Electronics, Taiwan's TSMC and Japan's Renesas among the best performers. Tokyo was the standout, piling on 1.8 percent thanks to a weaker yen.

Washington, United States -- Oracle tech tycoon Larry Ellison is offering a $40.4 billion personal guarantee to back Paramount's hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, deepening a bidding war with Netflix, a statement said on Monday. The amended proposal, worth a total $108 billion from the company run by Ellison's...

Sair, Palestinian Territories - Despite the catastrophic state of the Palestinian economy, Faraj al-Atrash, operator of a quarry in the occupied West Bank, proudly points to an armada of machines busy eating away at sheer walls of dusty white rock that stretch into the distance. "This here is considered the...

Netflix will continue to distribute Warner Bros. films in cinemas if its takeover bid for the storied studio is successful, the streaming service's chief executive Ted Sarandos said in an interview Tuesday in Paris.

Yancheng, China -- In a light-filled workshop in eastern China, a robotic arm moved a partially assembled autonomous vehicle as workers calibrated its cameras, typical of the incremental automation being adopted even across smaller factories in the world's manufacturing powerhouse. China is already the world's largest market for industrial robots, and...

Ashburn, United States -- As planes make their final approach to Washington DC's Dulles Airport, just below lies Ashburn, a town otherwise known as Data Center Alley -- where an estimated 70 percent of all global internet traffic at any moment finds its way. Decades ago, the expanse of empty...

Washington, United States -- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has declared a company-wide "code red" as its ChatGPT technology faces stiff competition from other big tech rivals, especially Google, US media reported. In a memo to staff on Monday, Altman told employees that the company was "at a critical time for...

Singapore, Singapore -- A plushy, AI-enabled teddy bear recalled after its chatbot was found to engage in sexually explicit conversations and offer instructions on where to find knives is again for sale, AFP found. Singapore-based FoloToy had suspended its "Kumma" bear after a consumer advocacy group raised concerns about it...

Frankfurt, Germany -- German insurance giant Allianz signalled Wednesday looming job cuts due to its adoption of artificial intelligence, with a report saying up to 1,800 roles, mainly in call centres, could be axed. Allianz Partners, the company's subsidiary dealing principally with travel insurance, said it was "leveraging AI" to...

Muscat, Oman -- The GCC countries have seen a steady rise in foreign investment, according to data from the Statistical Center for the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC-Stat). In 2023, inbound foreign direct investment (excluding intra-GCC flows) totaled approximately US$523.4 billion, accounting for about 80...

The fresh North American investment pledge came after UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan promised in May to pump $1.4 trillion into the US economy over 10 years during a visit by President Donald Trump.

Washington, DC., US – AMD, Cisco, and HUMAIN, a PIF-backed company delivering full-stack AI solutions, have announced plans to establish a joint venture to position Saudi Arabia as a leading provider of world-class AI solutions for regional and global customers. The joint venture, which will begin operations in 2026, will...

Milan, Italy -- Italian defense group Leonardo said Wednesday it had agreed to launch a joint venture next year with the United Arab Emirates' state-owned defense conglomerate EDGE Group. Details of the sectors covered by the joint venture, which would be 51 percent owned by EDGE and 49 percent by...

State-owned flydubai and its long-haul partner airline, Emirates, have been the chief deal-makers at this week's Dubai Airshow, the largest in the Middle East, signposting their expansion plans.

Dubai, UAE -- Emirates, the Middle East's biggest airline, topped up its order of Boeing 777X planes on Monday despite years of delays, delivering a vote of confidence to the US manufacturer at the Dubai Airshow. The order of 65 777-9s, valued at $38 billion including engines, came despite last...

The latest visit of the Canadian PM is a part of his efforts to find new markets for his nation’s products and forge sustainable trade relations outside of North America.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates -- Rory McIlroy was on Sunday crowned the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai champion for a seventh year, and four seasons in a row, but the world No.2 lost the $10 million Tour Championship to England’s Matt Fitzpatrick in the first playoff hole when he...

Seoul, South Korea -- South Korean conglomerate Samsung unveiled on Sunday a plan to invest $310 billion over the next five years mostly in technology powering artificial intelligence, aiming to meet growing demand driven by a global boom. The business group's flagship Samsung Electronics is already one of the world's...

Brussels, Belgium -- The European Commission on Friday greenlit the takeover of German chemical firm Covestro by UAE state oil giant ADNOC, after the Emirati firm promised steps to alleviate competition fears. Plastics maker Covestro accepted a bid from the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company in October, valuing the company...

The investment is its biggest-ever in Germany.

The pharma giant improved its offer to $10bn.

The company posted tepid Q3 results.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates -- US software firm Palantir launched a joint venture with the Dubai government's investment arm on Tuesday, as the United Arab Emirates continues its push into AI. The joint venture, named Aither, was unveiled a day after Microsoft announced $15.2 billion in AI and cloud computing...

The deal sent US chip-maker Nvidia shares up 2.6 percent, buoyed by hopes the AI juggernaut could see access for its most advanced chips expand to more markets.

The deal is valued at $48.7 billion.

Under the seven-year agreement, OpenAI, which is partly owned by AWS's archrival Microsoft, will gain access to computing resources including hundreds of thousands of state-of-the-art Nvidia GPUs.

Busan, South Korea -- Rows of coffins line a university classroom in the South Korean port city of Busan, ready for use in training the funeral directors of the future in a rapidly ageing country. Growing numbers are finding work in the business of death as South Korea undergoes massive...

El Dorado Hills, United States -- Matt James has collected gold nuggets for years from the hills and riverbeds of California, but as the precious metal's price soars, he has found an unexpected El Dorado: on social media. Though the value has fluctuated, it has effectively doubled in the last...

New York, United States -- Meta raised $30 billion in debt on Thursday, as tech giants flush with cash turn to borrowing to finance the expensive race to lead in artificial intelligence. On a day when Facebook-parent Meta's share price plunged on the heels of disappointing quarterly earnings, demand for...

San Francisco, United States - Amazon's share price skyrocketed by more than ten percent on Thursday after the online retail behemoth reported better than expected earnings, powered by surging demand for its cloud computing services. Quarterly sales rose 13 percent to $180.2 billion across the company, it said. Net income...

Paris, France -- French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies reported on Thursday a sharp increase in third-quarter net profit despite lower crude prices as its production rose. The company said net income grew around 61 percent to $3.7 billion compared to the same period last year, even as oil prices...

This was a 33% year-on-year decrease.

The growth was powered by cloud division buoyed by AI

New York, United States -- AI chip juggernaut Nvidia became the world's first $5 trillion company on Wednesday, as investors remain confident that artificial intelligence will deliver a new wave of innovation and growth. The California-based tech giant saw its share price rise by 4.91 percent to $210.90 at the...

Nvidia share price soars 20%.

Paris, France -- France's TotalEnergies said Saturday the consortium it leads to build a $20-billion liquified natural gas project in Mozambique has decided to lift a suspension on the work imposed in 2021 because of violence. TotalEnergies said in a statement the "force majeure" halt to the Mozambique LNG project...

Dubai, UAE -- Property Finder, the MENA region’s largest property platform, has announced its investment in Stake, a fast-growing digital real estate investment platform. Stake enables users to invest in fractional property ownership and private real estate funds starting from as little as AED 500. The company, which won the...

Paris, France -- A Hermes handbag once belonging to Jane Birkin will be auctioned in Abu Dhabi on December 5, following the record-breaking sale of the original for over $10 million, Sotheby's said Tuesday. Nicknamed the "Birkin Voyageur", the estimated value of the late actor's black leather bag hovers between...

Stockholm, Sweden -- A Swedish court began hearing arguments Monday in a lawsuit brought by Swedish price comparison site Pricerunner, owned by Klarna, against tech giant Google for over $8 billion for promoting its own shopping comparisons in search results. The Swedish tech startup filed its suit with the Patent...

Lloyds Bank and Halifax’s mobile apps went down for users on Monday after a major outage linked to Amazon Web Services (AWS).

New York, United States - OpenAI is ordering hundreds of billions of dollars worth of chips in the artificial intelligence race, raising questions among investors about how the startup will finance these purchases. In less than a month, the San Francisco startup behind ChatGPT has committed to acquiring a staggering...