ICICI Is Said to Weigh Buying Additional Stake in Prudential JV
Follow Bloomberg India on WhatsApp for exclusive content and analysis on what billionaires, businesses and markets are doing. Sign up here.
ICICI Bank Ltd. is considering buying additional shares in India's ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co. ahead of a potential listing of the business, according to people familiar with the matter.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Axios
an hour ago
- Axios
Mark Zuckerberg's supersized AI ambitions
Mark Zuckerberg wants to play a bigger role in the development of superintelligent AI — and is willing to spend billions to recover from a series of setbacks and defections that have left Meta lagging and the CEO steaming. Why it matters: Competitors aren't standing still, as made clear by recent model releases from Anthropic and OpenAI and highlighted with a Tuesday night blog post from Sam Altman that suggests "the gentle singularity" is already underway. To catch up, Zuckerberg is prepared to open up his significant wallet to hire — or acqui-hire — the talent he needs. Meta wants to recruit a team of 50 top-notch researchers to lead a new effort focused on smarter-than-human artificial intelligence, a source told Axios on Tuesday, confirming earlier reporting by Bloomberg and the New York Times. As part of that push, the company is looking to invest on the order of $15 billion to amass roughly half of Scale AI and bring its CEO, Alexandr Wang, and other key leaders into the company, The Information reported. Zoom in: Scale itself would likely continue its current work, albeit without Wang and some other top talent. Zuckerberg has also been making eye-popping offers to individual researchers, which the Times says can stretch from seven to nine figures. Between the lines: Meta is hoping to woo leading AI researchers by making the case that it has the resources and ongoing business to fund such a lofty ambition. But Scale AI is an unusual target. The company has built its business by focusing on the more manual tasks of AI — using humans to label data. However, Wang is close to Zuckerberg and seen as a rising star — a self-made billionaire and someone he hopes can convince others to join the ambitious research effort. And Meta isn't a newcomer to the field. The company has released several versions of its open-source Llama models, published extensively and inserted its Meta AI chatbot through Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Yes, but: The company has reportedly struggled with performance in its most recent large models and has also seen some top researchers head for the exits, including AI research head Joelle Pineau, announced in April that she was leaving the company. The big picture: A Meta-Scale AI deal would follow a growing trend: tech giants buying parts of promising AI startups to secure key talent or intellectual property, without acquiring the full company. Last year, Microsoft struck a deal with consumer chatbot creator Inflection AI. Microsoft got the services of Inflection CEO (and DeepMind co-founder) Mustafa Suleyman as well as other colleagues and technology. Inflection's investors got an immediate return while also leaving in place a slimmed-down operation focused on sales to businesses. Google made a similar arrangement with acquiring key talent and a technology license, handing over millions to investors without buying the entire company. It's yet to be proven whether this approach will ultimately pass muster, as some regulators in the U.S. and abroad see these deals as meriting further scrutiny, similar to outright acquisitions. Zoom out: Meanwhile, the march to superintelligence continues at breakneck speed, fueled by giant investments in computing power and data centers. "We are past the event horizon; the takeoff has started," Altman wrote in his blog post Tuesday. "We have recently built systems that are smarter than people in many ways, and are able to significantly amplify the output of people using them."
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Popular café on Westcliff seafront to shut its doors
THE owners of a popular Leigh café have announced the closure of their Westcliff sister-location after an initial probation period. Toppers and Toast is a much-loved fixture of Leigh Road's restaurant scene and recently opened a second café in the Arches on Western Esplanade. Taking to social media to share their news, the Toppers and Toast team has reassured dedicated customers that the Leigh café will continue to remain open and said a new business will be opening in its place this week. We're now on WhatsApp! Join our new channel at to get all the latest breaking news and exclusive stories delivered straight to your phone. "After a probation period, we've made the decision not to continue with our partnership with the Arches location, which was part of a franchise," a spokesperson for the business said. "Sometimes things just don't align the way you hope, and that's okay. "Our heart and focus have always been with our Leigh shop - it's where it all began, and where we feel most connected to our amazing community. "So we're pouring all our love, energy and creativity back into Leigh to keep making it the best it can be." The spokesperson also indicated that residents can expect a new business to take the place of Toast and Toppers on Western Esplanade later this week. They said: "We want to wish the owners the very best of luck with their next chapter - keep your eyes peeled for their new opening this week. "Thank you for your continued support - it truly means everything to us."
Washington Post
9 hours ago
- Washington Post
Meta takes $15 billion stake in Scale AI in bid to catch competitors
Meta has agreed to pay $14.8 billion for a 49 percent stake in the AI data firm Scale AI in one of the biggest acquisitions the social media giant has made since its 2014 deal to buy WhatsApp, according to a person familiar with the matter. The arrangement with Scale AI, which could be announced as soon as Wednesday, will give the start-up's CEO, Alexandr Wang, a senior position at Meta leading a team focused on developing super intelligence, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private company matters.
