Next: Iran war costs retailer £15m and could push up prices March 26, 2026 High street giant Next has said it will take a £15m hit from the soaring air freight and fuel prices caused by the Iran war, as it races to make savings elsewhere to offset the costs. The FTSE 100 firm said it expects the conflict to constrain its growth in the Middle East, which accounts [...]
Arm is opening a chip shop. This could be transformative March 26, 2026 Fascinating news came on Tuesday night that semiconductor designer Arm confirmed rumours that it would be launching its own chip. For those not in the know, Cambridge-based Arm has so far only focused on semiconductor architecture – the blueprint that determines how chips work – and then licences that out to tech firms who choose [...]
Arm moves into chips as boss says firm will deliver silicon March 25, 2026 Arm boss Rene Haas said the company will begin delivering its own chips as it unveiled its first in-house processor, marking a major shift for the UK tech firm. “With today’s announcement, we’re expanding the Arm compute platform to include delivery of production silicon with our Arm AGI CPU,” Haas said. The Cambridge-based company revealed [...]
OpenAI shuts Sora and drops Disney deal in AI reset March 25, 2026 OpenAI has shut down Sora, its AI video app, less than two years after the tool made headlines for turning short text prompts into strikingly realistic video clips. The company is also winding down its content partnership with Disney, bringing an abrupt end to one of the most closely watched tie-ups between Hollywood and a [...]
If Reeves wants Britain to lead in AI, she must offer tax incentives March 25, 2026 The government is aware of the levers it’s able to pull to compete on AI: planning, electricity connections, visas, higher education policy, direct subsidies. But where’s tax? Asks Tim Sarson A couple of weeks ago one of those mini news stories came along, the sort that is so neatly zeitgeisty that it demands further consideration. [...]
Tesla jumps on Musk’s $20bn AI chip push March 24, 2026 Tesla shares climbed around 3.5 per cent on Monday after Elon Musk unveiled plans for Terafab, a huge semiconductor manufacturing project aimed at securing chip supply for the company’s next phase of growth. The stock rose to about $381 as investors responded positively to the announcement, as the firm looks beyond electric vehicles into AI [...]
S4 Capital sales fall as tech clients divert cash to AI build-out March 24, 2026 Sir Martin Sorrell’s S4 Capital has been hit with sliding sales as its biggest clients spend less on advertising and more on building AI. The digital advertising group behind Monks reported revenue of £754.8m for 2025, down 11 per cent from £848.2m a year earlier. Net revenue fell 10.8 per cent to £673m, reflecting weaker [...]
Advertising Week Europe boss: humans still run the show in the age of AI March 24, 2026 As Advertising Week Europe kicks off, the conversation isn’t about replacing human talent, but about recalibration, says Ruth Mortimer We’ve all read the headlines, the hyperbolic predictions and the confident declarations that everything is about to change. Apparently artificial intelligence is going to change each and every one of our jobs and lives immediately. But [...]
Half of AI’s most expensive chips are sitting idle, says tech expert March 23, 2026 The artificial intelligence boom, so far, has been defined by a single instinct: build more. More chips, more data centres, more power. Capital expenditure from the world’s largest tech firms is running into the hundreds of billions as they race to scale AI systems. Analysts expect global data centre investment to continue rising sharply, with [...]