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China's E-payments Giant Nears Mammoth IPO

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Alibaba Group is seen at the company's headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China July 20, 2018. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Alibaba Group is seen at the company's headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China July 20, 2018. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo
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China's E-payments Giant Nears Mammoth IPO

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Alibaba Group is seen at the company's headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China July 20, 2018. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Alibaba Group is seen at the company's headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China July 20, 2018. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo

Ant Group, the online payments giant affiliated to Chinese e-commerce leader Alibaba, said Monday it had taken the first steps toward a blockbuster dual listing in Shanghai and Hong Kong that could be among the biggest in years.

The IPO by Ant Group -- whose Alipay platform dominates the country's thriving e-commerce market -- also would mark a major step forward in a Chinese government initiative to get its big domestic tech companies to list their shares at home instead of abroad.

A company announcement said the shares will be listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong and on a Nasdaq-styled tech board called STAR that was set up on the Shanghai Stock Exchange last year.

The announcement did not give any details on the timing or size of the issue, saying only that Ant Group had "commenced the process" for launching an eventual listing.

But the company, based like Alibaba Group in the eastern city of Hangzhou, was valued at around $150 billion in its most recent round of fund-raising.

It is seeking a valuation of at least $200 billion, Bloomberg news agency reported, citing unidentified sources.

The statement quoted Eric Jing, Executive Chairman of Ant Group, as lauding the STAR market for allowing global investors access to companies such as his, and giving Chinese tech titans wider access to world capital markets.

"We are thrilled to have the opportunity to play a part in this development," Jing said.

"Becoming a public company will enhance transparency to our stakeholders, including customers, business partners, employees, shareholders and regulators."

Alibaba itself has been listed in the US since 2014, but last year raised billions more in a second listing in Hong Kong.

And last month Alibaba's Chinese rival JD.com raised almost $4 billion in an initial public offering in Hong Kong that was the world's second-biggest of the year.

Tech analysts say Ant Group controls more than half of China's huge mobile-payments sector, which it fiercely contests with Chinese rival Tencent.

Ant Group -- spun off from Alibaba years ago -- has expanded recently into lending, wealth management, travel and a range of other services, and this year changed its name to Ant Group from the previously Ant Financial Services Group to reflect it expanded portfolio.

It generated $2 billion in profit in the most recent quarter, Bloomberg said, basing that on calculations made from Alibaba figures.

Ant Group said the listings will allow the company to help drive domestic Chinese consumer demand and "position the company to develop global markets".

Ant Group representatives did not immediately respond to a request for more detail.

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Technology

Major Publishers Sue Meta for Copyright Infringement Over AI Training

Cars drive past a sign of Meta, the new name for the company formerly known as Facebook, at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, US, October 28, 2021. (Reuters)
Cars drive past a sign of Meta, the new name for the company formerly known as Facebook, at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, US, October 28, 2021. (Reuters)
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Major Publishers Sue Meta for Copyright Infringement Over AI Training

Cars drive past a sign of Meta, the new name for the company formerly known as Facebook, at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, US, October 28, 2021. (Reuters)
Cars drive past a sign of Meta, the new name for the company formerly known as Facebook, at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, US, October 28, 2021. (Reuters)

Publishers Elsevier, Cengage, Hachette, Macmillan and McGraw Hill sued Meta Platforms in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, alleging that the tech giant misused their books and journal articles to train its artificial intelligence model Llama.

The publishers, as well as author Scott Turow, alleged in the proposed class action complaint that Meta pirated millions of their works and used them without permission to train its large language models to respond to human prompts.

“AI is powering transformative innovations, ‌productivity and creativity ‌for individuals and companies, and courts have rightly ‌found ⁠that training AI ⁠on copyrighted material can qualify as fair use," a Meta spokesperson responded in a statement on Tuesday.

"We will fight this lawsuit aggressively.”

The publishers allege that Meta pirated works ranging from textbooks to scientific articles to novels including "The Fifth Season" by N.K. Jemisin and "The Wild Robot" by Peter Brown for its ⁠AI training.

They asked the court for ‌permission to represent a larger class ‌of copyright owners and an unspecified amount of monetary damages.

"Meta’s mass-scale ‌infringement isn’t public progress, and AI will never be properly ‌realized if tech companies prioritize pirate sites over scholarship and imagination," Maria Pallante, president of the Association of American Publishers, said in a statement.

The lawsuit opens a new front in the ongoing copyright ‌battle between creators and tech companies over AI training, in which dozens of authors, news outlets, ⁠visual ⁠artists and other plaintiffs have sued companies including Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic for infringement.

All of the pending cases will likely revolve around whether AI systems make fair use of copyrighted material by using it to create new, transformative content.

The first two judges to consider the matter issued diverging rulings last year.

Amazon- and Google-backed Anthropic was the first major AI company to settle one of the cases, agreeing last year to pay a group of authors $1.5 billion to resolve a class-action lawsuit that could have cost the company billions more in damages for alleged piracy.

Technology

Microsoft, Google and xAI to Give US Govt Early Access to AI Models for Security Checks

A Google logo is seen at a company research facility in Mountain View, California, US, May 13, 2025. (Reuters)
A Google logo is seen at a company research facility in Mountain View, California, US, May 13, 2025. (Reuters)
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Microsoft, Google and xAI to Give US Govt Early Access to AI Models for Security Checks

A Google logo is seen at a company research facility in Mountain View, California, US, May 13, 2025. (Reuters)
A Google logo is seen at a company research facility in Mountain View, California, US, May 13, 2025. (Reuters)

Microsoft, Google and Elon Musk’s xAI agreed to give the US government early access to new artificial intelligence models for national security testing, as US officials grow alarmed by the hacking capabilities of Anthropic’s newly unveiled Mythos.

The Center for AI Standards and Innovation at the Department of Commerce said on Tuesday that the agreement would allow it to evaluate the models before deployment and conduct research to assess their capabilities and security risks.

The agreement fulfills a pledge the Trump administration made in July 2025 to partner with technology companies to vet their AI models for “national security risks."

Microsoft will work with ‌US government scientists ‌to test AI systems “in ways that probe unexpected behaviors,” ‌the company ⁠said in a statement. ⁠Together they will develop shared datasets and workflows for testing the company’s models, the company said. Microsoft signed a similar agreement with the UK’s AI Security Institute, according to the statement.

Concern is growing in Washington over the national security risks posed by powerful AI systems. By securing early access to frontier models, US officials are aiming to identify threats ranging from cyberattacks to military misuse before the tools are widely deployed.

The development ⁠of advanced AI systems including Anthropic's Mythos has in recent weeks ‌created a stir globally, including among US officials ‌and corporate America, over their ability to supercharge hackers.

"Independent, rigorous measurement science is essential to understanding ‌frontier AI and its national security implications," CAISI Director Chris Fall said in ‌a statement.

The move builds on previous agreements with OpenAI and Anthropic, established in 2024 under the Biden administration when CAISI was known as the US Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute.

Under former President Joe Biden, the institute focused on developing AI tests, definitions and voluntary safety standards. It ‌was led by Biden tech adviser Elizabeth Kelly, who has since joined Anthropic, according to her LinkedIn profile.

CAISI, which serves ⁠as the government's ⁠main hub for AI model testing, said it had already completed more than 40 evaluations, including on cutting-edge models not yet available to the public.

Developers frequently hand over versions of their models with safety guardrails stripped back so the center can probe for national security risks, the agency said.

xAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Google declined to comment.

Last week, the Pentagon said it had reached agreements with seven AI companies to deploy their advanced capabilities on the Defense Department's classified networks as it seeks to broaden the range of AI providers working across the military.

The Pentagon announcement did not include Anthropic, which has been embroiled in a dispute with the Pentagon over guardrails on the military's use of its AI tools.

Technology

Samsung Electronics Appoints New TV Chief amid Mounting Competition

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Samsung Electronics is seen at the company's store in Seoul, South Korea, April 15, 2025. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Samsung Electronics is seen at the company's store in Seoul, South Korea, April 15, 2025. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo
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Samsung Electronics Appoints New TV Chief amid Mounting Competition

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Samsung Electronics is seen at the company's store in Seoul, South Korea, April 15, 2025. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Samsung Electronics is seen at the company's store in Seoul, South Korea, April 15, 2025. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo

Samsung Electronics, the world's No. 1 TV maker, has replaced its TV head for the first time in more than two years, as it faces mounting competition from Chinese rivals at home and abroad.

Samsung said in a statement on Monday that it has appointed Lee Won-jin, who was previously head of the Global Marketing Office, ⁠as the new ⁠head of its Visual Display Business, succeeding Yong Seok-woo, who will serve as an adviser.

Samsung usually carries out its annual management reshuffle around December, and the company did not disclose the ⁠reason for the replacement.

A Samsung Electronics official told Reuters the new leader is expected to bring a fresh perspective and the change needed for the TV business, which is facing intensifying market competition.

In March, China's TCL Electronics and Japan's Sony signed binding agreements for a strategic partnership in the home entertainment field, increasing pressure on rivals.

The ⁠Nikkei ⁠newspaper previously reported Samsung was considering discontinuing sales of home appliances and TVs in China within this year in the face of competition from Chinese companies that have undercut rivals.

Samsung said last month its TV profit declined in the first quarter because of stagnating demand and rising raw-material costs. Lee had previously worked at Google before moving to Samsung in 2014.