Oil Extends Jump as US Pulls Some Embassy Staff From Middle East
Oil extended its biggest daily gain since October after the US ordered some staff to depart its embassy in Baghdad and allowed military service members' families to leave the Middle East amid rising security risks.
West Texas Intermediate rose as much as 1.7% to $69.29 after jumping 4.9% on Wednesday, while Brent settled just shy of $70. The Trump administration's move came in response to ongoing security concerns, after Iran threatened to attack US bases if talks over its nuclear program fall through. The UK Navy also issued a rare warning to mariners that higher tensions in the Middle East could affect shipping.
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New York Times
32 minutes ago
- New York Times
Meta Invests Nearly $15 Billion in Scale AI to Kick-Start Superintelligence Lab
Meta said on Thursday that it planned to invest nearly $15 billion in Scale AI, a start-up that works with data to train artificial intelligence systems, in a deal that Meta hopes will add needed muscle to its disappointing A.I. division. As a condition of the deal, Alexandr Wang, Scale AI's 28-year-old chief executive, plans to join Meta in a top leadership role in the new division, which Meta is calling its Superintelligence lab. Mr. Wang, whom people inside Meta have taken to calling a visionary leader, will also bring a team of employees from Scale AI to work at Meta. The move to invest billions in Scale AI, an amount equal to about 10 percent of Meta's revenue in 2024, would be Meta's first major minority investment in an outside company. It is Meta's second-largest deal, after the $19 billion acquisition of the messaging app WhatsApp about 11 years ago. Meta is scrambling to catch up with A.I. competitors such as Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic, as industry executives jockey for an edge in what they believe will be the most transformative technology in a generation. 'Meta has finalized our strategic partnership and investment in Scale AI,' a spokesperson for Meta said in a statement. 'As part of this, we will deepen the work we do together producing data for A.I. models, and Alexandr Wang will join Meta to work on our superintelligence efforts.' Meta's investment with Scale AI is unusually structured. Meta will take a minority stake in the start-up and receive little control over its direction. The structure was intentional. Executives at Meta and Scale AI were worried about drawing the attention of regulators. Meta is waiting on a federal judge's decision in an antitrust case scrutinizing its earlier acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. The Federal Trade Commission under President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was skeptical of big technology acquisitions, and Lina Khan, who led the agency at the time, scrutinized multibillion-dollar investments in A.I. companies. The structure of those deals — which included Amazon's investments in Anthropic and Microsoft's backing of OpenAI — allowed the big companies to form close ties with smaller rivals while dodging regulatory issues. It is unclear if the F.T.C. under its new chairman, Andrew Ferguson, will continue down that path. But Mr. Ferguson has shown few signs of changing course. OpenAI kicked off the A.I. movement in late 2022 with the release of its chatbot ChatGPT, compelling companies like Google and Meta to build similar technologies. Meta found an important niche when it chose to open source its systems, freely sharing the underlying tech with developers and businesses. But its latest system, called LLAMA4, has not matched the technologies produced by its biggest rivals. Among technologists, superintelligence is a futuristic goal of A.I. development. OpenAI, Google and others have said their immediate aim is to build artificial general intelligence, or A.G.I., a machine that can do anything the human brain can do. Superintelligence, if it can be developed, would go beyond A.G.I.
Associated Press
32 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Live updates: Israel attacks Iran's capital with explosions booming across Tehran
Israel attacked Iran's capital early Friday, with explosions booming across Tehran. The attack comes as tensions have reached new heights over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program. Update: Date: 2025-06-13 00:54:47 Title: The Israeli official said Iran is posing three threats to the state of Israel Content: First, he alleged that the Iranian government is advancing a 'secret program' to develop nuclear weapons. The U.S. intelligence community assesses that Iran is not actively pursuing a nuclear weapon. Secondly, the Israeli official said, Iran has thousands of ballistic missiles. Finally, he said Iran has been distributing weapons and arms to proxy groups across the region, like Hezbollah and Hamas. Update: Date: 2025-06-13 00:52:03 Title: Iran halted flights at Imam Khomeini International Airport outside of Tehran, state TV says Content: Iran has closed its airspace in the past when launching previous attacks against Israel during the Israel-Hamas war. Update: Date: 2025-06-13 00:44:50 Title: Trump on White House lawn as explosions begin Content: As the explosions in Tehran started, President Donald Trump was on the lawn of the White House mingling with members of Congress. It was unclear if he had been informed but the president continued shaking hands and posing for pictures for several minutes. Earlier in the day, Trump said an Israeli attack over Iran's nuclear program was not imminent 'but it looks like it's something that could very well happen.' The U.S. has been preparing for something to happen, pulling some diplomats from Iraq's capital and offering voluntary evacuations for the families of U.S. troops in the wider Middle East. The White House did not have an immediate comment Thursday night.
Bloomberg
37 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Meta Announces Scale AI Investment, Recruits CEO to AI Unit
Meta Platforms Inc. said it finalized a multibillion-dollar investment in Scale AI and recruited the startup's chief executive officer to help oversee its artificial intelligence efforts — an unusual deal that signals a heightened push by the social media giant to catch up on AI development. Meta said Thursday that it has backed Scale, without including details. The size of the investment was $14.3 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter. The new $29 billion valuation includes the money raised, said the person, who asked not to be idenified discussing private information.
