HSBC bags £135m from former Silicon Valley Bank as job cuts push up restructuring bill Banking The rescued UK wing of Silicon Valley Bank has paid another bumper dividend to HSBC as it racked up costs amid a sweeping restructure. HSBC Innovation Banking – the branding bestowed on the collapsed Silicon Valley Bank UK (SVBUK) – was taken over by Europe’s largest lender in March 2023 as ministers, regulators and banking [...]
Trump to reject UK plea over Anthropic ban as AI ‘kill switch’ fears grow Tech The White House is poised to reject Keir Starmer’s attempt to restore British access to Anthropic’s most advanced AI models, in a move that has exposed how dependent the UK has become on a handful of American Big Techs. Downing Street has spent recent days lobbying Washington for an exemption after the Trump administration blocked [...]
Britain’s first sovereign AI model secures blue-chip backing as Starmer unveils £400m plan Tech Sir Keir Starmer’s push to build sovereign British AI capability has won backing from some of the country’s biggest companies, with BT, HSBC, Lloyds, Natwest and BAE Systems joining plans to develop Britain’s first sovereign frontier AI model. British AI startup Cosine unveiled a coalition of major banks, defence contractors and infrastructure firms who had [...]
I’m an AI founder – here’s why I agree with the Pope about AI June 3, 2026 Pope Leo XIV’s has produced the most profound piece of writing on AI – critiquing how extreme capitalism uses AI to homogenize knowledge and concentrate power, says Lewis Liu When I was 18, I took a religious philosophy course as part of the core curriculum at Harvard. When we dove into the Tower of Babel, [...]
Salesforce tries to prove AI won’t kill software after brutal sector sell-off May 28, 2026 Salesforce beat Wall Street expectations on Wednesday evening, but the results did little to soothe investor fears that AI could reshape, and potentially undermine, the software industry. The Slack owner reported quarterly revenue of $11.1bn (£8.2bn) during the quarter, up 13 per cent from last year and ahead of analyst expectations, while earnings per share [...]
Londonmaxxing: Capital reclaims European tech crown as money floods into AI and fintech May 28, 2026 London has reclaimed its position as Europe’s leading tech spot, overtaking Paris after a sharp rise in AI investment and a renewed influx of global capital into its startup scene. New figures from Dealroom show London ranked fourth globally in its latest Global Tech Ecosystem Index, behind only Silicon Valley, New York and Boston, after [...]
‘Delighted to be wrong’ – Sam Altman changes tune on AI job apocalypse fears May 26, 2026 OpenAI boss Sam Altman has softened his warnings over AI wiping out white-collar work, saying the feared “jobs apocalypse” has so far failed to materialise despite the tech rapidly reshaping business decisions and operations. Speaking on Tuesday, Altman admitted he had expected AI to eliminate far more entry-level office jobs by now following the launch [...]
Claude was the nice guy of AI – what changed? May 20, 2026 The narrative around Anthropic’s Claude, initially perceived as the “ethical AI company,” has recently shifted due to concerns over perceived hypocrisy, aggressive ambition, model degradation, platform restrictions, and vendor lock-in risk, causing customers and developers to seek alternatives, says Lewis Liu “You really feel like Claude is a real person that you are interacting with [...]
Quantexa boss: ‘Britain can build global AI winners’ May 19, 2026 Vishal Marria is not short of reasons to be cheerful about Britain. At a time when the UK’s tech sector is once again debating listings, capital flight and whether founders inevitably end up scaling overseas, the Quantexa boss remains notably bullish about building and scaling in London. “Yes, we’re HQ’d in London, in the UK, [...]
UK AI investment hits record £8.3bn as London tightens grip on tech boom May 18, 2026 Britain’s AI sector pulled in a record £8.3bn of investment last year, as global investors raced to back the country’s next generation of AI firms, with London tightening its grip as Europe’s leading tech hub. New research from Barclays Eagle Labs found funding into UK AI companies surged in 2025 after a sluggish period for [...]