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RIYADH (Reuters) -Qatar's finance minister said on Tuesday that artificial intelligence would be a big part of planned Qatari investments in the United States. "I would say most of the (QIA investment) will be in technology and AI because we see the growth in this field, and it is going to be rewarding," Ali Ahmed Al-Kuwari said, speaking in Riyadh at the annual Future Investment Initiative conference. "Now we see the huge growth in the U.S. economy is coming from technology and AI and we believe this is one area we are going to focus on," he said. The Qatar Investment Authority, Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, plans to at least double its annual U.S. investments in the next decade, its CEO said in May. The fund had already pledged to invest $500 billion in the U.S. economy over the next 10 years. Al-Kuwari also highlighted the importance of the sector for diversifying Qatar's own economy and reducing its dependence on hydrocarbon income. Speaking alongside his British counterpart Rachel Reeves, Kuwari said a trade agreement between the UK and the Gulf Cooperation Council was "almost done". Reeves said on Monday she was confident a trade deal with Gulf countries could be done quickly after she had "really good" meetings about an agreement that could help her plan to speed up economic growth. (Reporting by Nayera Abdallah and Andrew Mills in Dubai; Writing by Rachna Uppal; Editing by Michael Georgy and Aidan Lewis)

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RIYADH (Reuters) -Qatar's finance minister said on Tuesday that artificial intelligence would be a big part of planned Qatari investments in the United States. "I would say most of the (QIA investment) will be in technology and AI because we see the growth in this field, and it is going to be rewarding," Ali Ahmed Al-Kuwari said, speaking in Riyadh at the annual Future Investment Initiative conference. "Now we see the huge growth in the U.S. economy is coming from technology and AI and we believe this is one area we are going to focus on," he said. The Qatar Investment Authority, Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, plans to at least double its annual U.S. investments in the next decade, its CEO said in May. The fund had already pledged to invest $500 billion in the U.S. economy over the next 10 years. Al-Kuwari also highlighted the importance of the sector for diversifying Qatar's own economy and reducing its dependence on hydrocarbon income. Speaking alongside his British counterpart Rachel Reeves, Kuwari said a trade agreement between the UK and the Gulf Cooperation Council was "almost done". Reeves said on Monday she was confident a trade deal with Gulf countries could be done quickly after she had "really good" meetings about an agreement that could help her plan to speed up economic growth. (Reporting by Nayera Abdallah and Andrew Mills in Dubai; Writing by Rachna Uppal; Editing by Michael Georgy and Aidan Lewis)

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By Milana Vinn (Reuters) -SAP, Europe's largest software provider, offered to buy accounting software firm BlackLine for nearly $4.5 billion in June but was rebuffed and is now considering a new approach, according to a copy of the offer letter reviewed by Reuters and a person familiar with the matter.  The German software giant, which is working with JPMorgan on the deal, submitted a formal, non-public offer of $66 per share on June 18, but BlackLine wasn't interested in a deal and rejected the advance, according to the letter and person familiar with the talks. The offer represented a 31% premium to the 60-day average price of $50.50. In the offer letter, SAP said it didn't need outside financing to close the deal.   ANALYST SAYS BID IN LOW-TO-MID $70S MIGHT PREVAIL Private equity firm Clearlake Capital holds nearly 9% of BlackLine's shares and would have a say in a potential sale as a large shareholder. The Vanguard Group and BlackRock are other top shareholders through their fund families.  SAP is now weighing whether it wants to reopen negotiations, although nothing has been decided and it hasn't sent another formal offer, according to the person familiar with the matter. They asked not to be identified since the discussions are private. SAP, whose shares were down 0.5% at 0947 GMT on Tuesday, declined to comment, as did JPMorgan and Clearlake. BlackLine and Morgan Stanley did not immediately respond to requests for comment. BlackLine shares jumped as much as 12% on the Nasdaq exchange after the Reuters report on Monday, before paring gains to close 3.8% higher. Citi analysts on Monday suggested a dollar-per-share offer in the "low to mid 70s" would increase the likelihood of acceptance for SAP. They added that BlackLine had been a likely M&A target because of the stock’s under-performance, a "best of breed product" and the involvement of activist investors. BlackLine could help SAP, which has struggled to quickly migrate customer data to its newer HANA cloud platform, potentially boost HANA adoption by simplifying that process. "The acquisition should be a good fit into S/4HANA finance," said analyst Frederik Altmann at brokerage Alpha, but he cautioned that a $70 per-share offer would not be cheap. Los Angeles-based BlackLine provides cloud-based software that helps companies automate and manage complex financial and accounting processes. Its products are designed to modernize tasks traditionally done on spreadsheets, reducing errors and increasing efficiency for corporate finance departments. BlackLine and SAP have a long-standing partnership; SAP sells BlackLine’s solutions to its customers. The agreement accounts for nearly 30% of BlackLine's annual revenue, according to company disclosures. SAP's Chief Financial Officer Dominik Asam and Chief Corporate Development and Investment Officer Georg Kniese said buying BlackLine represented a "logical extension of the long standing partnership" between the two companies, according to the offer letter addressed to BlackLine co-CEOs Theresa Tucker and Owen Ryan. The offer came as Tucker, who founded BlackLine and stepped down earlier this month, was preparing to hand over the reins to Ryan, who also serves as chairman. An acquisition of BlackLine would significantly bolster SAP's cloud-based financial software suite as it competes with rivals like Oracle and Workday. BlackLine’s financial automation software, already tightly integrated with SAP, helps companies clean up financial records before migrating to new platforms. (Reporting by Milana Vinn in New York. Additionale reporting by Hakan Ersen and Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt. Editing by Leslie Adler, Nick Zieminski and Mark Potter)

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By Greg Bensinger SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders on Tuesday called on Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos to account for what the Vermont independent said were hundreds of thousands of potential lost jobs due to automation. "If Amazon succeeds on its massive automation plan, it will have a profound impact on blue-collar workers throughout America and will likely be used as a model by large corporations throughout America," Sanders wrote in a letter to Bezos, which was exclusively reviewed by Reuters. Sanders, who caucuses with the Democrats, was referring to a New York Times article published earlier this month that cited documents and interviews showing that Amazon executives believe 500,000 jobs could be cut over time by replacing warehouse workers with robots. Amazon employs 1.55 million people, the majority of whom are hourly workers. Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. It has said its automation goals are to assist workers and create new jobs. On Monday, Reuters reported Amazon planned to cut as many as 30,000 corporate jobs beginning Tuesday, as it pares expenses. In the letter, Sanders asked Bezos whether Amazon planned to provide laid-off workers with sufficient severance payments and some continuation of their health-care coverage. He also noted that Amazon workers have received federal subsidies for food, housing and health care and the company has received “billions of dollars” in federal contracts. “What are Amazon’s plans to provide help and support for the many hundreds of thousands of workers you’ll be replacing with robots and AI?” said Sanders, referring to artificial intelligence software. Bezos is now executive chairman and no longer runs day-to-day operations at Amazon after the company appointed Andy Jassy as chief executive in 2021. Jassy said earlier this year that advancements in AI would lead to a shrinking corporate workforce at the Seattle-based firm. Sanders has frequently sparred with Amazon and Bezos, particularly over warehouse working conditions, but also what he has called union-busting tactics. (Reporting by Greg Bensinger; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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(Reuters) -Amazon said on Tuesday it will reduce its corporate workforce by about 14,000 roles, as the tech giant cuts down on operational layers to limit costs amid ballooning investments in artificial intelligence. The company had about 1.56 million full-time and part-time employees at the end of last year. Amazon's corporate workforce includes roughly 350,000 employees. Reuters first reported on Monday that Amazon is planning to cut as many as 30,000 corporate jobs beginning on Tuesday, as the company compensates for over-hiring during the peak demand of the pandemic. Amazon has been restructuring its workforce across multiple divisions in recent months, with piecemeal job cuts across its books, devices and services unit, as well as its Wondery podcast division. CEO Andy Jassy said in June growing adoption of generative AI tools would reduce total corporate workforce at the e-commerce giant in the next few years. Corporations are increasingly using AI to write code for their software and adopting AI agents to automate routine tasks, as they look to save costs and cut reliance on people. (Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Devika Syamnath)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

(Reuters) -Amazon said on Tuesday it will reduce its corporate workforce by about 14,000 roles. The company had about 1.56 million full-time and part-time employees at the end of last year. Amazon's corporate workforce includes roughly 350,000 employees. Reuters first reported on Monday that Amazon is planning to cut as many as 30,000 corporate jobs beginning on Tuesday, as the company pares expenses and compensates for over-hiring during the peak demand of the pandemic. (Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Devika Syamnath)

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(Reuters) -Amazon said on Tuesday it will reduce its corporate workforce by about 14,000 roles. (Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)

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By Foo Yun Chee and Leo Marchandon (Reuters) -Austrian privacy group noyb said on Tuesday it has filed a criminal complaint in Austria, accusing U.S.-based Clearview AI of illegally collecting photos and videos of European Union residents to build its facial-recognition database. Noyb said in a statement Clearview violated the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and Austria's criminal provisions for those violations could expose Clearview and its executives to personal liability, including potential jail time. Clearview, which markets its tools mainly to law enforcement and says it has collected more than 60 billion images globally, did not immediately respond to an emailed request from Reuters for comment. The company has previously been found in breach of the GDPR by regulators in France, Greece, Italy, and the Netherlands in collecting and processing the data of millions of European citizens. The countries issued nearly 100 million euros ($116.62 million) in cumulative fines and reached a U.S. class-action settlement in March over its data-scraping practices. Clearview is contesting a 7.5-million-pound UK fine, arguing Britain's GDPR should not apply because its facial-recognition service is sold only to foreign law enforcement. The company says its operations fall outside UK jurisdiction. Its first appeal in the UK was dismissed in October, with the court ruling the service is used by clients to identify individuals and analyse behavior to predict and prevent illegal activities, thereby falling under the scope of UK GDPR. The case is now set to return to a lower tribunal, while Clearview retains the option to seek permission to appeal the jurisdiction decision. Noyb, led by Austrian lawyer Max Schrems, a privacy advocate known for winning two landmark EU court rulings that struck down transatlantic data-transfer frameworks, says Clearview has disregarded EU decisions as it lacks an EU establishment and has not paid imposed fines. The planned Austrian case seeks to test whether criminal enforcement can succeed where administrative penalties have struggled. Austria has implemented criminal provisions for certain GDPR violations within the country. If prosecutors accept the complaint, the case could set a precedent for criminal enforcement of GDPR violations and increase pressure on non-EU firms that process Europeans' biometric data. "Clearview AI amassed a global database of photos and biometric data, which makes it possible to identify people within seconds. Such power is extremely concerning and undermines the idea of a free society, where surveillance is the exception instead of the rule," Schrems said in the statement. ($1 = 0.8575 euros) (Reporting by Leo Marchandon in Gdansk and Foo Yun Chee in Brussels; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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SYDNEY (Reuters) -Instagram owner Meta and other social media firms said on Tuesday they will comply with a ban on users under the age of 16, adding that they will start deactivating accounts once the law takes effect on December 10. In parliament, Meta, TikTok owner ByteDance and Snapchat owner Snap said they continued to believe the ban would not protect young people, but they would soon reach out to owners of more than a million underage accounts to prepare them for the change. Their comments represented a shift in the social media industry's response to the law, which is being watched by lawmakers around the world as concern grows about youth mental health. Under the Australian law, platforms must take "reasonable steps" to block users aged less than 16 or face a fine of up to A$49.5 million ($32.5 million). The platforms previously argued that the ban would drive young people to more dangerous corners of the internet that are poorly monitored, as well as deprive young people of social contact. They also said that implementation would be unnecessarily complex. Snap and Google-owned YouTube have also argued they aren't social media companies. "We don't agree, but we accept and we will abide by the law," said Jennifer Stout, Snap's senior vice president of global policy and platform operations, via a video link. Ella Woods-Joyce, TikTok's public policy lead for Australia, reiterated the Chinese-owned platform's opposition to the ban but said "TikTok will comply with the law and meet its obligations". "We are on track to meet our compliance," she said. Mia Garlick, Meta's policy director for Australia and New Zealand, said the company would soon approach holders of accounts confirmed to be under 16 – about 450,000 across Instagram and Facebook – to give them a choice between deleting their photos and other data or offering to store it until they turned 16. TikTok, which says it has 200,000 under-16 accounts in Australia, and Snap, which says it has 440,000 under-16 accounts, said they would take similar steps. The companies added that they would use automated behaviour-tracking software to determine if an account holder claiming to be over 16 was underage. "Where we identify someone that is saying they're 25 but the behaviors would indicate that they're below the age of 16, from December 10th we will have those accounts deactivated," Woods-Joyce said. For users incorrectly deemed to be under 16, Meta and TikTok said they would refer them to a third-party age-estimation tool. Snap said it was still working on a solution for users who believed they were incorrectly blocked. (Reporting by Byron Kaye; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)

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