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Business news from Australia and around the world: companies, deals, earnings, regulation and the people running them.
1807 articles · page 35 of 38
Canva, once the darling of Australia's startup scene, has endured its most challenging year as soaring AI infrastructure costs, a $10 billion valuation markdown, and the indefinite shelving of its IPO plans have combined to slash $10 billion from its worth, according to a detailed report by David Swan published across Nine newspapers.
· 3 sourcesA Queensland-based construction superannuation fund has failed the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s (APRA) annual performance test, marking the first such failure in three years and triggering an automatic halt to new member enrollments.
Meta has agreed to implement sweeping changes to how children interact with its platforms as part of a landmark $24 billion settlement, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly preparing a contingency plan that would force competitors such as TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube to adopt similar measures, according to sources familiar with the strategy.
Virgin Australia has reported a sharp increase in profits, attributing the gains to its fuel hedging strategy that insulated the airline from the fuel price shock that hit the aviation industry in March, according to financial results released Thursday.
· 3 sourcesPrime Minister Andy Burnham has announced a clampdown on rogue bailiffs and cowboy builders in England and Wales, introducing stricter regulations to protect people in debt from overcharging and aggressive behaviour, and to stop homeowners being ripped off by unscrupulous tradespeople.
· 2 sourcesTwo decades after Aldi entered the Australian market with a low-price, own-brand strategy, Woolworths and Coles have adopted the same tactic to defend their dominance, with new data showing the duopoly’s combined market share has barely shifted since 2001, holding at around 67% while Aldi remains stuck at about 9%.
The Federal Reserve heads to its annual Jackson Hole symposium this week with a deeply divided central bank, as the July Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index came in hotter than expected, complicating the outlook for interest rate cuts and fueling debate between inflation hawks and those advocating for easing to support the labor market.
Meta has agreed to a landmark $18 billion settlement with 29 U.S. states over allegations it improperly collected data from children under 13 without parental consent, but the deal includes a controversial provision that permits the company to retain and use that data to train age-detection models — a trade-off critics say effectively grants a legal pass for exploiting minors' information.
Nvidia, the semiconductor company whose chips power most generative AI systems, has formed a political action committee (PAC) to build its influence in Washington, D.C., according to a Bloomberg report. The move comes as lawmakers and regulators increasingly focus on AI regulation, export controls, and chip manufacturing policy that could directly affect the company's business.
The Canadian government announced late Wednesday that it will exempt seafood and fish products from its retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, responding to industry concerns about broader economic harm as the trade conflict between the two nations intensifies.
Former Barclays chief executive Jes Staley has denied having sex with a woman dressed as Snow White, according to transcripts released by US lawmakers investigating his ties to deceased financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The denial came during a closed-door interview last month with the House Oversight Committee, which is examining Epstein's network and associates.
· 2 sourcesAlf Ianniello, a former professional soccer player, has led Codan from a niche communications firm to a $9 billion drone and defense powerhouse, with its share price jumping tenfold during his tenure, according to a Financial Review report.
Blackbird Ventures, one of Australia's most prominent venture capital firms, has pushed back against market pressure, insisting its investors are willing to wait for a Canva IPO, even as rival Airtree comes under fire for failing to reduce its holdings enough.
Meta will pay the state of Texas $1 billion and implement new child safety regulations on its platforms as part of a settlement, The Hill reported. The agreement follows earlier reports of an $18 billion settlement that would bring changes for child users of Instagram and Facebook in the United States, including a night curfew and a two-hour daily limit.
· 2 sourcesMeta Platforms has agreed to pay $17.1 billion to settle a long-running class-action lawsuit alleging that Facebook improperly shared user data without consent, the company confirmed Wednesday. The settlement, one of the largest in corporate history, resolves claims that date back to the Cambridge Analytica scandal and broader data misuse practices, though Meta continues to deny any legal liability.
Salem Robotics, a Y Combinator S26 alum, today announced the launch of software that enables existing mobile robots to autonomously perform complex inspection tasks like contamination surveys and leak detection in hazardous industrial environments. The founders, who bring over 15 years of combined experience in nuclear robotics from the University of Texas at Austin and Los Alamos National Laboratory, say their system bridges a persistent gap: while robot hardware has advanced significantly, making a robot reliably execute a full industrial procedure still demands extensive custom programming and manual intervention.
The Trump administration is weighing a second round of semiconductor tariffs that would extend duties beyond chips to products built with them, including laptops, gaming consoles, and data center servers, according to eight unnamed sources familiar with the talks cited by POLITICO. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick reportedly favors a structure capping duty-free chip imports at a volume tied to each company’s committed U.S. production, and the exemptions granted in January for data centers, R&D, startups, and consumer devices may not carry over.
Inditex, the Spanish owner of Zara, has opened its first UK Lefties store in Liverpool, deploying an army of robots to support operations in a direct challenge to Primark, Shein, and discount supermarkets in the cut-price clothing segment.
· 2 sourcesA nonprofit organization has sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over its approval of two chemicals used in semiconductor manufacturing, alleging the agency fast-tracked the authorization without adequate safety reviews. The lawsuit, filed by Earthjustice and reported by The Guardian, claims the photoacid generators could cause 'sudden death,' cancer, neurological damage, and reproductive harm, and may belong to the family of long-lasting PFAS 'forever chemicals.' The case highlights tensions between the push to revive domestic chip production and the need to protect public health.
A startup founded by a former Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) engineer has raised $26 million in Series A funding to expand its underground mapping platform, which seeks to reduce bureaucratic delays and accidents in utility and construction work by creating a digital map of buried pipes, cables, and other infrastructure.
· 2 sourcesStarbucks has discontinued use of a drink powder that baristas said created thick clouds of fine dust, causing coughing, sneezing, and respiratory discomfort in stores. The decision, confirmed this week, follows months of complaints from workers who said the ingredient made their work environment hazardous.
Burlington Stores reported better-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday but cut its annual earnings outlook, citing the escalating costs of tariffs on imported goods that are squeezing the off-price retailer's margins.
Best Buy raised its full-year profit outlook on Tuesday after reporting stronger-than-expected fiscal second-quarter earnings, signaling that the consumer electronics chain is navigating a challenging retail environment more effectively than anticipated.
Unilever and McCormick & Company have jointly decided to put the Colman’s mustard and sauce brand up for sale, according to sources familiar with the process. The move comes as Unilever continues to streamline its portfolio under chief executive Hein Schumacher, while McCormick looks to focus on its core spice and seasoning businesses.
Meta has reached a landmark settlement with a coalition of state attorneys general over allegations that its social media platforms were designed to addict children, but the deal does not shield the company from a wave of similar lawsuits, ongoing federal investigations, or potential new regulations aimed at curbing youth online addiction.
Identity verification and fraud prevention company Socure on Thursday announced a $156 million strategic growth investment valuing the firm at $5.2 billion, while also acquiring agentic AI startup Fravity to automate financial crime investigations. The company disclosed it ended the second quarter with $364 million in annual recurring revenue, up 63% year-over-year, and added 95 customers including Circle, Cox Automotive, MoneyLion, and Login.gov. Summit Partners led the round, with participation from Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Wells Fargo, and DocuSign, among others.
AI company Anthropic has signed a $45 billion cloud computing contract with Nscale, a major infrastructure provider, according to an announcement on August 27, 2026. The deal is one of the largest corporate cloud agreements ever, reflecting the soaring demand for computing power to train and deploy advanced AI models.
Meta has reached a settlement with US states in an $18 billion lawsuit that accused the company of deliberately making Instagram addictive to teenagers, agreeing to fund youth safety initiatives and introduce new protections against teen overuse of its apps.
The BBC has confirmed that Top Gear will return to screens, almost four years after the show was taken off air following a serious crash involving co-host Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff at Dunsfold aerodrome in Surrey. The broadcaster announced the revival on Thursday, but gave no immediate details on who will present the new series, sparking intense speculation about the show's future format.
Elderly Aids Ltd, a company that markets call-blocking devices to protect older people from unwanted phone calls, has been fined £190,000 by the UK’s data protection watchdog for making 758,053 nuisance calls of its own between May 2024 and February 2025. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said the firm’s practice of cold-calling potential customers was “hounding” the very people it claimed to protect.
NYSE-listed digital infrastructure giant DigitalBridge has won the bidding war for Ausgrid's Plus Es, a $3 billion digital infrastructure asset, defeating a heavyweight consortium comprising the Future Fund, Morrison & Co, and Aware Super. The deal, advised by Bank of America and Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, marks a significant foreign investment in Australia's critical digital backbone.
The average CEO at the 100 largest US corporations with the lowest median worker pay earned 614 times their typical employee last year, according to a new analysis by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS). The report found that from 2019 to 2025, CEO compensation at these firms rose 41.4%—double the 20.7% increase in median worker pay over the same period.
· 2 sourcesThe UK government has called on Meta to roll out the same sweeping child safety protections it agreed to in the United States as part of an $18bn (£13bn) settlement, with Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden insisting that British children deserve equal safeguards. The demand follows a landmark lawsuit settlement between Meta and dozens of US states that accused the Instagram owner of harming young users with addictive and dangerous products.
· 2 sourcesNutanix CEO Rajiv Ramaswami has disclosed the company spent $20 million building its own on-premises AI cluster to reduce reliance on cloud-based AI tools like Copilot and Claude, expecting the investment to deliver a full return within a year. The revelation came during a media briefing on the company's Q4 fiscal 2026 results, where it reported $757 million in quarterly revenue, a 16% year-over-year increase, alongside plans to expand support for Arm-based hardware to lower customer costs.
Swiss commodity trading firm Gunvor Group is in advanced negotiations to purchase natural gas assets in the Haynesville Shale basin for more than $1 billion, according to sources familiar with the matter, signaling continued consolidation in the U.S. energy sector.
Thousands of City investment firms, hedge funds, insurers and pension funds are scrambling to overhaul their compliance systems ahead of new Financial Conduct Authority rules that will, from September 1, require them to report all cases of bullying, harassment and other non-financial misconduct — a significant expansion of the regulator's crackdown on poor workplace behaviour that previously applied only to banks.
Qantas has flagged it may raise ticket prices and expand add-on fees at its budget carrier Jetstar, after reporting its lowest pre-tax profit in four years — a result the airline blamed on rising fuel costs. Chief executive Vanessa Hudson said on Thursday that strong passenger demand, despite cost-of-living pressures, gave the company room to seek more revenue.
· 2 sourcesQantas has reported a 13% drop in annual profits, citing the ongoing Middle East conflict as a primary driver of higher fuel costs and operational disruptions. The airline's full-year results, released on Thursday, underscore the widening impact of geopolitical instability on the global aviation industry.
· 3 sourcesMeta has agreed to a multibillion-dollar settlement in the landmark trial over teen social media addiction, abruptly ending what was set to be a precedent-setting legal battle. The settlement, announced on Wednesday, brings to a close a case that had drawn global attention to the impact of social media platforms on adolescent mental health.
· 3 sourcesCenturia Capital Group has pledged to reopen its credit funds after the collapse of NSW developer Bathla highlighted mounting risks in Australia's rapidly growing $200 billion private credit market. The promise seeks to reassure investors rattled by the developer's failure, which has drawn regulatory scrutiny and raised questions about the stability of non-bank lending.
Levels of a toxic 'forever chemical' rose to 13 times the legal limit during Thames Water pilots for a controversial multimillion-pound water recycling scheme that would pump millions of litres of treated sewage into the River Thames during drought, according to exclusive data obtained by The Guardian. The findings directly contradict the utility's public assurances that the project will not harm the riverine environment.
The Bathla Group, a major residential developer, has appealed for a $20 million emergency injection to keep building for just five weeks, as its financial collapse leaves hundreds of homebuyers and subcontractors scrambling for answers about deposits, wages, and unfinished homes.
· 2 sourcesForrestania has inked a $145 million mining contract for its Lake Johnston processing hub in Western Australia, accelerating the company's push to become a significant gold producer in the region. The deal, announced on Thursday, represents a major step in the development of the hub, which is expected to process ore from multiple deposits.
· 3 sourcesA federal judge today sentenced an Nvidia employee to five years in prison for smuggling advanced artificial intelligence chips into China, marking the first time a worker at the company has been convicted under US export restrictions aimed at curbing Beijing's access to cutting-edge semiconductor technology. The case underscores the intensifying enforcement of regulations designed to prevent China from acquiring chips capable of powering supercomputing and military AI applications.
Shares of Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical (RARE) jumped 7.5% on Tuesday after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the company’s gene therapy for a rare metabolic disorder. The therapy, priced at $2.7 million per patient, now faces the challenge of convincing insurers, governments, and healthcare systems to pay for what could become one of the most expensive drugs on the market.
Nvidia has once again exceeded Wall Street's lofty expectations, reporting a strong fiscal quarter and an even more impressive sales forecast, as the company continues to dominate the market for chips used in artificial intelligence applications. The results, announced late Wednesday, sent shares soaring in after-hours trading and reinforced Nvidia's position as the bellwether of the AI boom.
Nvidia stunned Wall Street on Tuesday by projecting a 70% increase in sales by fiscal 2028, a forecast that analysts say reinforces the narrative of a sustained “AI supercycle” as enterprises and governments continue to pour billions into generative AI infrastructure. The announcement, made during the company’s earnings call, sent shares up 5% in after-hours trading.
HP Inc. has entered a licensing agreement with Huawei Technologies, paying the Chinese company to use its WiFi technology, a move that highlights growing adoption of Huawei's intellectual property outside China despite the US placing the firm on a trade blacklist that restricts American suppliers like Google from working with it.