Paramount-Warner Bros deal faces ‘sufficient competition’, says CMA August 17, 2026 The Paramount-Warner Bros Discovery merger will face “sufficient competition” in the UK to prevent the combined Hollywood giant from gaining too much market power, the competition watchdog has said. In a full decision published on Monday, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) laid out why it cleared the £111bn tie-up earlier this month, after examining [...]
Skilled tech visa applications fall again despite AI talent push August 17, 2026 The number of overseas tech workers applying for UK visas has fallen for a third consecutive year, despite ministers promising to make Britain a magnet for global AI talent. A Freedom of Information (FOI) request by consulting firm RSM UK found that applications from skilled tech workers dropped seven per cent to 34,936 in 2025, [...]
Goldman and Intel back $5.4bn AI video startup August 17, 2026 Goldman Sachs and Intel have backed AI video maker Higgsfield in a $400m (£295m) funding round that has more than quadrupled the two-year-old company’s valuation since January. The fresh funding values the startup at $5.4bn, up from $1.3bn just eight months ago, as investors pile into companies looking to turn generative AI into products businesses [...]
Ofgem warns on grid squeeze after Heathrow data centre approved August 14, 2026 The energy watchdog Ofgem has warned that speculative data centre projects risk holding up viable investments on Britain’s electricity grid, after councillors approved another power-hungry facility near Heathrow Airport. Hounslow Council has backed plans for a data centre on a 12.2-acre brownfield site at the Haslemere Heathrow Estate, which would require an 80MVA high-capacity electricity [...]
Google backs publisher model as Apple considers price tag for news August 14, 2026 Google said it backs the established system for paying news publishers, even as Apple considers a radically different model that would tie payments to how often its AI assistant uses journalism. The search giant considers itself the only major tech platform with a structured approach to paying publishers at scale, City AM understands, with licensing [...]
Voi rides on in London borough despite council order August 13, 2026 Voi is continuing to operate hundreds of e-bikes in Ealing despite the council choosing Lime and Forest to run its new rental scheme, City AM understands. The Swedish e-bike operator has not removed its fleet after its previous agreement with the west London council expired at the end of July, leaving three companies operating in [...]
Vodafone defends migrant SIM scheme after Reform threat August 13, 2026 Vodafone has defended its charity SIM card programme after Reform UK threatened the telecoms giant with government contract bans and its bosses with prison over thousands of cards distributed through Care4Calais. The telecoms group said its programme provides SIM cards to registered UK charities for distribution to vulnerable people in Britain, after Reform shadow home [...]
‘Absurd’: Government seeks quantum tech chief – no experience necessary August 12, 2026 The government is recruiting a senior official to oversee billions of pounds of quantum investment despite saying candidates do not need any background in the technology. A job advert for a deputy head of the Office for Quantum published on Tuesday says the successful candidate could oversee the rollout of the UK’s national quantum programme, [...]
Brits fear AI is slipping out of human control after ‘rogue’ systems escape tests August 12, 2026 More than eight in 10 Brits are worried that AI could act outside the limits set by humans, according to the latest City AM/Freshwater Strategy poll, after a string of high-profile incidents in which advanced AI systems behaved in unexpected – and alarming – ways during safety testing. The polling found that 85 per cent [...]
ChatGPT to follow Claude’s watermark pledge – but Grok to swerve it August 12, 2026 Elon Musk’s Grok is poised to swerve rivals’ plans to ‘watermark’ all artificially-generated content, City AM understands, after refusing to sign up to a European push forcing firms to make AI content traceable. xAI was the only major large language model maker to shun a European Union-led move to tighten AI transparency rules that means [...]
