As it happened: US stocks make gains ahead of Trump-Xi summit September 21, 2026 Welcome back to City AM’s FTSE 100 liveblog. The UK’s blue-chip index made gains on Monday morning, turning a corner from heavy losses on Friday. Miners and industrial stocks like Anglo American, Antofagasta and Metlen Energy and Metals were among the FTSE 100’s biggest risers on Monday morning. BP and Shell dragged on the index, [...]
Drone strikes and noise disputes: The soaring risks of the global data centre boom September 18, 2026 As data centres scale, consume more power, and draw tighter community scrutiny, insurance risks are becoming increasingly complex. As AI infrastructure grows, so do legal risks: large lawsuits involving data centres more than tripled from four in all of 2021 to 14 in the first half of 2026, according to a Howden report. Planning and [...]
Beauty Tech shares glow as boss brushes off ‘cheap’ rivals September 17, 2026 Beauty Tech Group boss Laurence Newman has brushed off competition from ‘cheap beauty devices’ after the London-listed firm more than tripled its first-half profit. Shares in the owner of Currentbody Skin rose more than 13 per cent to 395p on Thursday after revenue climbed 44.3 per cent to £79.7m in the six months to June. [...]
Musk skips King’s AI safety summit with world’s biggest tech chiefs September 17, 2026 King Charles will warn some of the world’s most powerful AI companies against letting humanity “lose control of our destiny” on Thursday, as he brings tech bosses together in Scotland amid escalating warnings about the new technology. The King will host executives from Nvidia, OpenAI, Anthropic and Google Deepmind at Dumfries House in Ayrshire to [...]
Why are the AI chiefs calling for a slowdown? September 17, 2026 Why are the bosses of the world’s top AI companies calling for regulation and advocating a slowdown in the technology’s development? Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and OpenAI’s Sam Altman have been joined by Deepmind co-founder Demis Hassabis and Elon Musk in calling for a slower pace of progress while safety and regulation catch up. Questions about [...]
Former Anthropic researcher behind ‘AI could kill us’ warning called to UK parliament September 16, 2026 Former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon has been invited to give evidence to parliament following his stark warnings over the threat posed by AI, City AM understands. Liam Byrne, chair of the Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee, told City AM that MPs have asked Coxon to appear as part of a parliamentary examination of AI [...]
Tribunal thumbs up £260m legal settlement against Google September 16, 2026 A UK specialist court has greenlit a £260m settlement in a class action against Google’s parent company, Alphabet, following an agreement last week. The settlement is the largest payout for class members the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) has ever approved, though it is significantly lower than the £1.04bn the claim was estimated to be worth [...]
UK government opens door to AI laws as safety warnings mount September 15, 2026 The UK government has left the door open to tougher AI regulation after the companies building the world’s most powerful models called for slower development, fearing safety has fallen behind. City AM understands ministers believe AI is already covered by laws spanning data protection, competition, product safety and online safety, but accept those rules may [...]
Consulting giant Accenture to pay £18.5m to settle probe into hiring practices September 15, 2026 New York-listed consultancy giant Accenture has agreed to pay the US government $25m (£18.5m) to settle allegations over its diversity practices. The Department of Justice (DOJ) alleged that Accenture violated federal anti-discrimination requirements while certifying compliance to secure federal contracts. The US government claims that the Dublin-headquartered firm allocated costs related to these hiring and [...]
Reynolds hails ‘tremendous upsides’ to AI amid warnings on threats September 15, 2026 Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds has emphasised the “tremendous upsides” to AI that should not be overlooked, as a growing number of tech engineers have warned of its threat to existence. Reynolds told the BBC that the UK should “never be complacent” about AI or “naive about the impact”, although he emphasised that new models could [...]