Original Broadcaster Captioning (Enhanced). Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:00MUSIC
00:00:03Live from Singapore now on BBC News,
00:00:09News, Business Today. Google announces
00:00:17announces a major shake up at the the top of its artificial intelligence intelligence division, as the company
00:00:21company seeks to keep up with big big tech rivals in the AI race. The
00:00:25The Dow reaches an all-time high high thanks to strong earnings and
00:00:28and hopes for a deal to reopen shipping shipping in the Strait of Hormuz
00:00:31Hormuz and shares of Disney Jump Jump as the entertainment giant sees
00:00:34sees a major profit bump ahead of
00:00:36of a plan to launch a new streaming
00:00:39streaming product. Hello and welcome
00:00:44welcome to Business Today with me, me, Steve Lai. Now we begin with
00:00:47with a major shake-up at Google's Google's artificial intelligence
00:00:50intelligence business, which seems seems to have got investors nervous
00:00:52nervous sending shares of alphabet alphabet down 4%. Jeff Dean, a long
00:00:56long time Google employee central central to the development of the the company's AI strategy, is departing
00:01:00departing to launch a start-up, taking taking several high profile colleagues
00:01:03colleagues with him. Demis Hassabis, Hassabis, the head of Google DeepMind,
00:01:06DeepMind, will now assume the dual dual title of chairman of the lab
00:01:09lab and chief scientist of alphabet, alphabet, our North America business
00:01:13business correspondent Samira Hussain Hussain has more insight into what
00:01:14what this means for the company. Google is under immense
00:01:18immense pressure as it competes with
00:01:20with the likes of Anthropic and OpenAI.
00:01:23OpenAI. It is why this big shake-up
00:01:25shake-up of their AI leadership has has investors just so nervous. There
00:01:29There are worries that alphabet has
00:01:31has actually fallen behind in the
00:01:33the AI race, even though it created
00:01:36created some of the key technologies technologies that are underpinning
00:01:40underpinning current AI models. Now Now also remember like other tech
00:01:43tech firms, Google continues to spend
00:01:45spend big on AI data centres and
00:01:47and such to the tune of somewhere
00:01:51somewhere between 195 to $205. That's That's an awful lot of money to spend
00:01:55spend on a division of a company company that is going through such
00:01:58such a massive shake up. The Dow
00:02:00Dow climbed to new all-time highs highs on Wednesday thanks to another
00:02:04another day of strong earnings and and signs of progress towards peace
00:02:08peace in the Middle East. Nvidia Nvidia was among the stocks that that rallied, jumping more than 3%
00:02:113% after Elon Musk announced an exclusive
00:02:14exclusive partnership to use Nvidia's Nvidia's chips for its AI infrastructure.
00:02:17infrastructure. SpaceX, however, however, dropped 13% over investor
00:02:21investor fears about its surge in in spending. Meanwhile, an agreement
00:02:24agreement between Iran and Oman is is in its final stages to reopen
00:02:27reopen a route for shipping through through the Strait of Hormuz, sending
00:02:30sending oil prices lower. Brent crude, crude, the international benchmark,
00:02:33benchmark, is currently just under under $80 a barrel. The US benchmark
00:02:37benchmark is also down to around
00:02:39around $76 a barrel. The Janiv Shah Shah is Vice President of commodity
00:02:42commodity markets and oil at Rystad Rystad Energy. He's been giving me
00:02:45me his take on the state of play play as an agreement on the state
00:02:48state approaches. Of course, it's it's a very interesting and intriguing
00:02:52intriguing 24 to 48 hour period that that we're set in the middle of with, with, of course, the potential for
00:02:56for Iran and Oman to have engaged engaged within a deal to allow vessels
00:02:59vessels to flow. But as you correctly correctly mentioned, right. We have have to look at the flow metric and
00:03:03and what we are seeing from a real real time tracking perspective is,
00:03:07is, yes, around 4 to 5 million barrels barrels a day worth of, worth of
00:03:10of fuel and crude rather that has has been exiting the Straits. But
00:03:14But importantly, it is week on week
00:03:15week up from last week's, state of
00:03:18of play of operations. It is trending trending upwards in the correct direction
00:03:21direction as per potential deal could could signal. But of course much
00:03:24much of this rests on, on how the the US President and Iran continue
00:03:27continue their negotiations to actually actually open from a long-term perspective. Yeah. So it's encouraging,
00:03:31encouraging, I suppose, that we have have seen oil able to get through. through. That'll be welcome news
00:03:35news to customers, particularly in
00:03:37in Asia. Absolutely correct. Asia Asia has been starved of its crude.
00:03:41crude. If you consider what Chinese Chinese refinery run rates are, as
00:03:44as well as exports for products going going to the wider region, they've
00:03:47they've been significantly lower
00:03:49lower around 30. Now Air India has
00:03:53has named former Ethiopian Airlines
00:03:56Airlines chief Tewolde Gebremariam Gebremariam as its new CEO. He takes
00:03:59takes over from Campbell Wilson, Wilson, who resigned four months
00:04:02months ago. Ghebremariam tenure will
00:04:05will begin as Air India faces scrutiny
00:04:07scrutiny over last year's crash that that killed 260 people. Our India
00:04:11India business correspondent Archana Archana Shukla joins me now. For For more on this, Archana, tell us
00:04:14us more about the man himself, but but also about this appointment and
00:04:16and the timing of it. Well, it took
00:04:20took more than 4 or 5 months for
00:04:23for the Tata Group to actually zero
00:04:25zero in on tell World Day as the
00:04:28the new CEO. And it really shows shows that the Tata Group was looking
00:04:32looking at somebody who has an experience experience of managing an airline
00:04:36airline through a difficult time time because that is where Air India
00:04:39India is. There is a deadly crash crash which is still being investigated.
00:04:42investigated. There are mounting mounting losses. And this is also
00:04:44also a very difficult time for the the airline industry considering
00:04:48considering the geopolitical uncertainties, uncertainties, the longer routes
00:04:50routes that they have to take. And And international operations under
00:04:54under severe pressure. So, with,
00:04:57with, you know, this experience of of turning around Ethiopian airline
00:05:00airline that comes in to help Air Air India and possibly that's one
00:05:04one of the biggest reasons. Remember, Remember, he has led the airline
00:05:07airline through two major crises. crises. One is the Covid-19. The
00:05:10The second is the fatal 2019 Boeing
00:05:14Boeing 737 Max accident. The deadly deadly one, which, you know, which
00:05:17which also led to the grounding of
00:05:20of the 737 Max's. And, and, and they've they've already led Ethiopian airline
00:05:24airline through that. And during during his tenure, Ethiopian airline
00:05:26airline also grew in terms of revenues. revenues. It grew more than four
00:05:30four times. It also tripled in size
00:05:32size in terms of its fleet. And all all that. Would, you know, that experience
00:05:35experience would come for Air India India at this point in time, Air
00:05:38Air India is really dealing with with a cash burn. And that would
00:05:41would be one of the first priorities priorities that the new CEO will
00:05:44will have to focus on and also to
00:05:47to steady the international, you you know, operations where many of
00:05:50of the routes have been cut because because of the geopolitical tensions tensions in the Middle East. And
00:05:54And that is leading also to cash cash burn. Remember very recently
00:05:58recently the Tata Group chairman chairman also said that the company
00:06:01company is pushing the profitability profitability timeline, which was was for five years. They are pushing
00:06:05pushing it now to about ten years. years. So there will be a there is
00:06:08is a difficult period now for the the new CEO. But there is a hope
00:06:12hope and especially even amongst
00:06:14amongst the airline's own employee employee strength, they are also
00:06:17also looking forward to this new new appointment to see how the leaf
00:06:20leaf turns for Air India. Arjuna, Arjuna, thanks so much for joining joining us across that Archana Shukla
00:06:24Shukla in Mumbai. Let's take a look look at some other stories making
00:06:27making the news. The Trump administration administration has paid back $100
00:06:30$100 billion in tariff refunds to to businesses. The refunds represent
00:06:34represent roughly 60% of all tariff tariff revenue collected by the government
00:06:38government under the Trumps. Under Under Trump's Liberation Day policy,
00:06:40policy, but a good amount still remains remains unpaid. Nearly 29 billion
00:06:44billion in potential refunds is still still under review by trade authorities. authorities. The repayments follow
00:06:48follow a major Supreme Court decision decision where judges ruled that
00:06:50that this round of tariffs were unlawful.
00:06:53unlawful. Meta is rolling out its
00:06:55its first coding agent to help developers
00:06:58developers write software as it tries tries to challenge firms like Anthropic
00:07:01Anthropic and OpenAI. Titled Muse Muse Code, the tool makes it easier
00:07:05easier to build apps while utilising utilising AI powered agents to support
00:07:08support the software development development process. The new coding
00:07:11coding agent is viewed as a new way way for Meta to generate revenue
00:07:15revenue from artificial intelligence. intelligence. The American gaming
00:07:17gaming giant Electronic Arts Electronic
00:07:20Electronic Arts has been sold for for $55 billion in what is believed
00:07:23believed to be the largest leveraged leveraged buyout in history. The
00:07:26The company has been bought by a a consortium including Saudi Arabia's
00:07:29Arabia's Public Investment Fund and and Affinity Partners, led by President
00:07:33President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Jared Kushner. EA, which is known
00:07:35known for blockbuster games like like The Sims and Fifa, will now
00:07:39now be taken private, removing it it from the Stock Exchange. Now,
00:07:43Now, shares of Disney have jumped
00:07:46jumped nearly 4% after expecting expecting after beating a profit
00:07:50profit expectations income for its its experiences division, which includes
00:07:52includes theme parks and cruises, cruises, jumped 20% from a year ago,
00:07:56ago, easing investors concerns about about travel disruption from the
00:07:59the war in Iran. But advertising advertising was a major topic of
00:08:03of discussion during Wednesday's Wednesday's earnings call with investors,
00:08:06investors, CEO Josh D'Amaro said said the company is now exploring
00:08:09exploring a free ad supported streaming streaming product for consumers.
00:08:12consumers. He also said Disney sold sold out ads spots for the Super
00:08:16Super Bowl in February. I've been been speaking with Mike Prue, Vice Vice President and research director
00:08:20director at the tech firm Forrester. Forrester. He told me what stood
00:08:23stood out from Disney's latest report. report. We now have two quarters
00:08:26quarters under the new CEO's belt,
00:08:29belt, and he is showing strong profitability profitability because he's aggressively
00:08:32aggressively managing costs but also
00:08:34also seeing new revenue streams.
00:08:36streams. And if we look at Disney Disney Plus, which is of course one
00:08:40one of the company's big North stars,
00:08:43stars, it is not only seeing increased increased subscriptions and ad revenue,
00:08:47revenue, but growth overall and so
00:08:49so much so that the company sees
00:08:52sees Disney Plus as the hub of the
00:08:56the member member ecosystem for Disney Disney overall, really becoming a
00:09:00a digital centrepiece much more than than just a streaming service. And
00:09:03And what should we understand about about Disney agreeing this deal with
00:09:06with TikTok to use its film and TV TV shows and videos? That's a quite
00:09:10quite a big change in its IP strategy, strategy, which has always been very
00:09:14very protective over. That's exactly exactly right. It is a huge departure.
00:09:17departure. And so we're seeing a
00:09:20a modernisation in Disney's thinking thinking and tapping into the world
00:09:23world of feeds, which is where so so much of entertainment is being
00:09:27being consumed now is not only being being consumed, but it's being generated
00:09:30generated by creators. So this partnership partnership will allow Disney to
00:09:33to work with creators on TikTok to
00:09:36to not only leverage Disney IP in
00:09:39in TikTok content, but it will take
00:09:41take the best of creator made content
00:09:45content and feature it on Disney's
00:09:47Disney's new verse feature on Disney
00:09:50Disney Plus mobile app. And so this
00:09:54this is really driving more value
00:09:57value into the mobile version of
00:09:58of Disney Plus and bringing new viewing
00:10:01viewing occasions and engagement engagement to the streaming app. app. Yeah. So do you think we'll
00:10:05we'll see more of these kinds of of deals? I mean, the CEO, he's not not been there for too long, but
00:10:08but he seems like he's quite progressive progressive and quite aggressive, aggressive, as you said, into moving
00:10:12moving into new areas. He's doing
00:10:14doing what he has to do based on on modern consumer behaviour. And
00:10:18And right now, Forrester data shows shows that the streaming industry
00:10:22industry really across all of our our other industries, has a customer
00:10:25customer relationship problem. And And so Disney seems to be understanding
00:10:28understanding the assignment to really really double down on trying to create
00:10:32create more always on engagement
00:10:35engagement moments with their subscribers. subscribers. And this idea of launching
00:10:38launching a free ad supported streaming
00:10:41streaming service also would allow
00:10:44allow much more upper funnel reach
00:10:46reach to price sensitive consumers. Yeah, and just quickly, quickly, I suppose this puts Disney
00:10:50Disney on the front foot when it it comes to a very competitive streaming
00:10:53streaming industry. It's pretty remarkable remarkable that they're doing so
00:10:56so well amid all of the competition competition and greater scale and
00:11:00and consolidation that's happening happening in the marketplace. That's That's it for this edition of Business
00:11:03Business Today. Thanks for joining joining me. See you again. Same time
00:11:06time tomorrow. Bye for now.
00:14:29MUSIC
00:14:36AI is dramatically increasing demand for energy in a way that the the current systems can't fully cope
00:14:40cope up. I want to listen to people
00:14:44people without it being transactional, transactional, without asking people
00:14:47people for their vote, but listening listening to them. Everything you
00:14:50you go through, you can surmount, surmount, you can endure and find
00:14:54find a good place for it. When the
00:14:57the big names talk, they talk to
00:15:00to us. Now on BBC News, a round up
00:15:06up of the day's sporting action plus plus talking points analysis and
00:15:09and original journalism. BBC Sport.
00:15:21Sport. Hello, I'm Mark Benstead and
00:15:23and here are your latest sports headlines.
00:15:26headlines. Infantino's carries on on the Fifa president remains in
00:15:30in position. Salah on the move. Mo
00:15:32Mo gets set to sign for Trabzonspor.
00:15:38Trabzonspor. And Joseph Parker can can return to the ring. The former
00:15:42former heavyweight champion has seen
00:15:43seen his ban lifted.