
Fitch revises Boeing outlook to stable
June 30 (Reuters) - Global ratings agency Fitch on Monday revised its outlook on planemaker Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab to 'stable' from 'negative', citing improved financial flexibility and production.
It said the outlook revision to stable reflects Fitch's view that Boeing's post-strike production ramp-up and improved financial flexibility, including the recently announced sale of its Jeppesen unit, have reduced the risk of a downgrade and support the company's 'BBB-' rating.
The outlook revision also incorporates the agency's expectations of a reduction in Boeing's debt.

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Reuters
34 minutes ago
- Reuters
Meta deepens AI push with 'Superintelligence' lab, source says
June 30 (Reuters) - Meta (META.O), opens new tab CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reorganized the company's artificial intelligence efforts under a new division called Meta Superintelligence Labs, according to a source on Monday. The division will be headed by Alexandr Wang, former CEO of data labeling startup Scale AI. He will be the chief AI officer of the new initiative at the social media giant, the source said. The high-stakes push follows senior staff departures and a poor reception for Meta's latest open-source Llama 4 model, challenges that have allowed rivals including Google, OpenAI and China's DeepSeek to seize momentum in the AI race. Zuckerberg hopes the new lab will fast-track work on artificial general intelligence - machines that can outthink humans - and help create new cash flows from the Meta AI app, image-to-video ad tools and smart glasses. Over the past month, Zuckerberg personally led an aggressive talent raid, floating offers for startups including OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence (SSI) and courting prospects directly on WhatsApp with million-dollar pay packages. Earlier this month, the Facebook and Instagram parent invested $14.3 billion in Scale AI. Apart from Wang and some Scale AI staff, the new division will reportedly include SSI's co-founder and CEO, Daniel Gross. Former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman will co-lead the Superintelligence Labs with Wang and head the company's work on AI products and applied research, according to the source. Zuckerberg has also brought on 11 new hires in the AI field, including researchers from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, the source said. The new appointments include former DeepMind researchers Jack Rae and Pei Sun; several OpenAI alumni such as Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi, Shengjia Zhao and Hongyu Ren; as well as Anthropic's Joel Pobar, who previously spent more than a decade at Meta, according to the source. Earlier this month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Meta had offered his employees bonuses of $100 million to recruit them. But some analysts worry that Meta's AGI bet could be another moonshot to yield near-term returns. Its other big bet, the Reality Labs unit, has burned through more than $60 billion since 2020, with little to show beyond the Ray-Ban smart glasses and Quest headsets. Together, big tech companies are expected to spend $320 billion on AI this year. In 2024, Microsoft spent $650 million to scoop up most of Inflection AI's staff, including co-founder Mustafa Suleyman, while Amazon poached key talent from Adept. Yet the finish line for AGI remains elusive: Meta's chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, has said current methods will not be enough to reach the holy grail of the technology, while SoftBank's Masayoshi Son pegs the breakthrough within a decade.


The Independent
39 minutes ago
- The Independent
US brings charges in North Korean remote worker scheme that officials say funds weapons program
The Justice Department announced criminal charges Monday in connection with a scheme by North Korea to fund its weapons program through the salaries of remote information technology workers employed unwittingly by U.S. companies. The charges are part of what law enforcement officials described as a nationwide operation that also resulted in the seizure of financial accounts, websites and laptops that were used to carry out the fraud. Two separate cases — one filed in Georgia, the other in Massachusetts — represent the latest Justice Department effort to confront a persistent threat that officials say generates enormous revenue for the North Korean government and in some cases affords workers access to sensitive and proprietary data from the corporations that hire them. The scheme involves thousands of workers who, armed with stolen or fake identifies of U.S. citizens, are dispatched by the North Korean government to find work as remote IT employees at American companies, including Fortune 500 corporations. Though the companies are duped into believing the workers they had hired were based in the U.S., many are actually stationed in North Korea or in China and the wages they receive are transferred into accounts controlled by co-conspirators affiliated with North Korea, prosecutors say. "These schemes target and steal from U.S. companies and are designed to evade sanctions and fund the North Korean regime's illicit programs, including its weapons programs,' Assistant Attorney General John Eisenberg, the head of the Justice Department's National Security Division, said in a statement. In one case exposed on Monday in federal court in Massachusetts, the Justice Department said it had arrested one U.S. national and charged more than a half dozen Chinese and Taiwanese citizens for their alleged roles in an elaborate fraud that prosecutors say produced at least $5 million in revenue and affected more than 100 companies. The defendants are accused of registering financial accounts to receive the proceeds and creating shell companies with fake websites to make it appear that the workers were connected to legitimate businesses. They also benefited from the help of unidentified enablers inside the United States who facilitated the workers' remote computer access, tricking companies into believing the employees were logging in from U.S. locations. The Justice Department did not identify the companies that were duped, but said that some of the fraudulent workers were able to gain access to and steal information related to sensitive military technology. The case filed in Georgia charges four North Korean nationals with using fake identities to gain access to am Atlanta-based blockchain research and development company and stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in virtual currency. The Justice Department has filed similar prosecutions in recent years, as well as created an initiative aimed at disrupting the threat.


The Independent
44 minutes ago
- The Independent
Iranian cyberattacks remain a threat despite ceasefire, US officials warn
A ceasefire between Iran and Israel has not ended the threat of cyberattacks from hacking groups supportive of Tehran, the FBI and federal cybersecurity officials warned Monday. In a public bulletin, the authorities warned that hacking groups affiliated with or supportive of Tehran may still seek to disrupt or disable critical infrastructure systems in the U.S. such as utilities, transportation and economic hubs. Hackers may also target defense contractors or other American companies with ties to Israel, the agencies said. 'Despite a declared ceasefire and ongoing negotiations towards a permanent solution, Iranian-affiliated cyber actors and hacktivist groups may still conduct malicious cyber activity,' the agencies warned. The warning of continued cyberthreats after a halt to conventional warfare reflects the often opaque nature of cyber conflict. Hacking groups may have only loose ties to a nation state, and may seek to retaliate as an alternative to traditional military action. The bulletin outlined recommendations, including the use of regular software updates and strong password management systems to shore up digital defenses. Hackers backing Tehran have targeted U.S. banks, defense contractors and energy companies following American strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities — but so far have not caused widespread disruptions. While it lacks the technical abilities of China or Russia, Iran has long used its more limited capabilities to steal secrets, score political points or frighten opponents. Analysts have tied some of these activities to groups working on behalf of Iran's military and intelligence agencies. But in other instances, the groups appear to act independently.