Economy

ECB vs inflation  

Sources: ECB ready to flag for reduction at next meeting  

 

The ECB executive will change its rhetoric in the context of the March interest rate announcement - to flag a possible cut in June - provided inflation remains close to target. This is stated by four sources for Reuters.  

 

On Thursday, the ECB left interest rates unchanged. Recently, the central bank has flagged that it continues to worry that wage increases will fuel inflation. Before the June meeting, wage data for the first quarter will have been published. 

 

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The ship attacks  

After the attacks: Fewer ships in the Suez Canal 

 

 Shipping through the Suez Canal has fallen by 42 percent in the past two months compared to a year earlier, as a result of the ship attacks in the Red Sea. This is stated by the UN trade body Unctad, according to TT.  

 

- We are very concerned that the attacks on shipping in the Red Sea are increasing tensions in global trade and exacerbating existing trade disruptions due to geopolitics and climate change, says UNCTAD chief Jan Hoffman.  

 

Container traffic has decreased by 67 percent during the period and oil shipping by 18 percent.  

 

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The development of AI  

Sources: Musk wants to take in 6 billion in Open AI grants  

 

Elon Musk's AI company X AI is in talks with investors to raise up to $6 billion to take on Microsoft-backed Open AI. It reports the Financial Times and refers to several sources with transparency.  

 

X AI is said to have been on some sort of global charm tour to try and attract investors. Among other things, the tour has made stops in Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea, as well as at government investment funds in the Middle East. XAI is expected to receive a valuation of approximately 20 billion dollars in connection with the round, the newspaper writes.  

 

Last week, there were reports that X AI had secured half of the funding of $1 billion that it had aimed for in a capital round, something that Musk dismissed as untrue. 

 

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The US is reviewing tech giants' investments in AI companies  

 

The Federal Trade Commission has begun an investigation into the investments that tech giants such as Google and Microsoft have made in AI startup companies such as Open AI and Anthropic. Bloomberg reports. The ambition is to ensure that the larger players do not exclude competition.  

 

A concrete concern that the authority has is that generative AI requires enormous amounts of computing power, something that large technology companies are almost alone in being able to deliver.  

 

"We examine whether these ties allow dominant companies to exercise undue influence or gain privileged access in ways that may undermine fair competition," writes FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan.