FirstFT: Tech teams crew as much as bid for Pentagon contracts

Immediately’s agenda: Russian nuclear vegetation abroad; Syria’s Isis detainee camps; central banks and uncertainty; accidents at Amazon UK; and Man Palms allegations

Good morning. We start with an unique story on Palantir and Anduril, that are in talks with rivals to type a consortium that may collectively bid for US authorities work in an effort to disrupt the nation’s oligopoly of “prime” contractors.

Who’s collaborating? Palantir and Anduril, two of the biggest US defence know-how corporations, have approached tech rivals similar to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, ChatGPT maker OpenAI, autonomous-ship builder Saronic and synthetic intelligence knowledge group Scale AI to grow to be a part of the consortium, based on a number of individuals with information of the matter.

The consortium will carry collectively the heft of a few of Silicon Valley’s most useful corporations and can leverage their merchandise to offer a extra environment friendly method of supplying the US authorities with cutting-edge defence and weapons capabilities, based on an individual concerned with the talks.

What’s driving the transfer? Extra tech corporations are looking for to seize an even bigger slice of the US authorities’s large $850bn defence funds from conventional prime contractors similar to Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Boeing.

Defence tech start-ups have attracted document quantities of funding this 12 months, as traders guess they are going to be among the many winners of upper federal spending on nationwide safety from the incoming Trump administration.

Wars in Ukraine and the Center East and geopolitical tensions between the US and China have heightened the federal government’s reliance on tech corporations creating superior AI merchandise that can be utilized for navy functions, and inspired traders to the sector. Learn the total report.

Right here’s what else we’re retaining tabs on immediately:

• Financial knowledge: The UK and Spain launch third-quarter GDP figures.

• Mozambique: The nation’s high courtroom is about to provide a verdict on the nation’s disputed election in October.

• Albania: Opposition events demanding Prime Minister Edi Rama’s resignation are set to dam roads in protest.

5 extra high tales

1. Russia is constructing greater than 10 nuclear models overseas because it seems to faucet into rising power demand pushed by synthetic intelligence and creating markets, based on an envoy of President Vladimir Putin. The plans come as Moscow seeks to spice up its international affect by increasing its nuclear fleet. Listed here are the nations the place Russia is establishing new vegetation.

2. Syria’s interim authorities is able to take management of Isis detainee camps being run by US-backed Kurdish militants, mentioned Turkey’s high diplomat Hakan Fidan, the primary international minister to fulfill Hayat Tahrir al-Sham chief Abu Mohammad al-Jolani. Fidan throughout his go to to Damascus additionally mentioned he believed US president-elect Donald Trump would again Turkey over Kurdish forces.

3. Eire’s high central banker has mentioned rate-setters are dealing with extra uncertainty now than in the course of the early levels of the coronavirus pandemic because the agenda and actions of Donald Trump are all however unimaginable to learn. Learn the total interview with Gabriel Makhlouf.

• Fed flip-flops: The US Federal Reserve’s extremely reactive coverage method of latest years has amplified monetary volatility, writes Mohamed El-Erian.

• The Economics Present🎧: European Central Financial institution president Christine Lagarde tells Martin Wolf what Europe must do to shut the hole with the US.

4. Dozens of Amazon employees within the UK have suffered severe accidents over latest years, together with being blinded or requiring amputations, based on new knowledge that’s resulting in renewed calls on the ecommerce big to enhance the therapy of weak employees. The tech group reported 119 severe accidents from work-related accidents between 2019 and 2024.

• UK employment: Extra youthful individuals are neither working nor on the lookout for a job, opting out of the labour market utterly.

5. Unique: Deloitte desires to slash spending on employees journey and bills within the UK by greater than 50 per cent because it seeks to keep up accomplice income underneath what it known as “challenging market conditions”. The price chopping is an indication of the UK consulting sector’s continued struggles as a chronic slowdown in mergers and acquisitions exercise hits demand for advisory work.

The Huge Learn

Within the Italian metropolis of Trieste, a community-based method to psychological sickness has professional­duced startling res­ults at a comparatively low value. The mannequin contrasts starkly with others that make a lot larger use of psychiatric institutionalisation. The ultimate instalment of the FT’s sequence on psychological well being takes a have a look at the decades-long debate in regards to the finest approach to take care of individuals liv­ing with psychological unwell­ness.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

• FT Investigation: Terra Firma founder Man Palms has been accused of raging at employees and making sexually inappropriate feedback.

• Luxurious scale-back: A softening out there is a harbinger of issues to return in equities and the true financial system, writes Rana Foroohar.

• Disinformation storm: Firms want new playbooks for coping with on-line falsehoods as AI intensifies the dangers, writes Anjli Raval.

Chart of the day

On the degree of rhetoric, the UK’s Labour authorities is emphasising the precedence of financial development. It’s proper to take action. Nevertheless it wants to know that development will depend on the confidence of enterprise in that development, writes Martin Wolf.

Take a break from the information

As the primary public steam railway celebrates its bicentenary subsequent 12 months, creator Simon Bradley has put collectively an pleasurable and extremely readable survey of 200 years of British prepare historical past.