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By Hannah Lang (Reuters) -Apollo Global Management, Oppenheimer, Jane Street and HSG, formerly known as Sequoia Capital China, invested in crypto exchange Kraken's recent funding round that valued the company at $15 billion, said two sources familiar with the matter. Fortune reported last month that Kraken closed the $500 million round, but Reuters is naming the firms, which are major investors and financial players, for the first time. Their participation underscores how institutional players are moving into the digital asset sector, which has benefited from U.S. President Donald Trump's pro-crypto stance and his administration's push for friendly regulations. Qube Research & Technologies; Kraken's co-CEO Arjun Sethi; and Tribe Capital, a venture capital firm that Sethi co-founded, also bought into the fundraising round, which paves the way for the crypto firm to go public in coming months, one source said. Spokespeople for Kraken, Qube and Jane Street declined to comment. Spokespeople for Apollo, Oppenheimer, HSG and Tribe Capital did not provide comment. Kraken, one of the world's largest crypto trading platforms, is expected to confidentially file a registration statement for an initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by year-end, with plans to go public in the first quarter, one of the sources added, although it was unclear how the U.S. government shutdown might affect that timeline. Several other crypto companies including Circle, Gemini and Bullish have capitalized on crypto exuberance with IPOs this year. Kraken has been expanding aggressively, buying retail futures trading platform NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion in May and futures exchange Small Exchange from IG Group for $100 million this month, paving the way for the company to launch a fully U.S.-based derivatives platform. Growing institutional and corporate participation in crypto markets has helped push up the value of major tokens over the last year. Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, is up more than 20% so far this year, after hitting a record high above $126,000 this month. (Reporting by Hannah Lang in New York; additional reporting by Anirban Sen in New York; editing by Michelle Price and Richard Chang)

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(Reuters) -Social media platform Reddit sued artificial intelligence startup Perplexity in New York federal court on Wednesday, accusing it and three other companies of unlawfully scraping its data to train Perplexity's AI-based search engine. Reddit said in the complaint that Perplexity circumvented its data-protection measures in order to steal the data that it "desperately needs" to power its "answer engine" system. (Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington)

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By Alexandra Alper, Michael Martina, Jeffrey Dastin and Karen Freifeld (Reuters) -The Trump administration is considering a plan to curb a dizzying array of software-powered exports to China, from laptops to jet engines, to retaliate against Beijing's latest round of rare earth export restrictions, according to a U.S. official and three people briefed by U.S. authorities. While the plan is not the only option on the table, it would make good on President Donald Trump's threat earlier this month to bar "critical software" exports to China by restricting global shipments of items that contain U.S. software or were produced using U.S. software. On October 10, Trump said in a social media post that he would impose additional tariffs of 100% on China's U.S.-bound shipments, along with new export controls on "any and all critical software" by November 1 without further details. To be sure, the measure, details of which are being reported for the first time, may not move forward, the sources said.  But the fact that such controls are being considered shows the Trump administration is weighing a dramatic escalation of its showdown with China, even as some within the U.S. government favor a gentler approach, according to two of the sources.  The White House declined to comment. The Commerce Department, which oversees export controls, did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy did not comment on the specific U.S. measures under consideration but said China opposed the U.S. "imposing unilateral long-arm jurisdiction measures" and vowed to "take resolute measures to protect its legitimate rights and interests" if the U.S. proceeds down what it views as a wrong path. Administration officials could announce the measure to put pressure on China but stop short of implementing it, one of the sources said. Narrower policy proposals are also being discussed, two of the people said. "Everything imaginable is made with U.S. software," one of the sources said, highlighting the broad scope of the proposed action. The sources declined to be named because the matter was not public. The move could disrupt global trade with China, especially for technology products, and could come at a cost to the U.S. economy if fully implemented. The measure, if adopted, would echo restrictions that the Biden administration imposed on Moscow after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Those rules restricted exports to Russia of items made globally using U.S. technology or software. Trump's Truth Social post came just three weeks before a previously announced meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea, and a day after China dramatically expanded its export controls on rare earth elements. China dominates the market for such elements, which are essential to tech manufacturing. In his post, Trump said China's action, also effective November 1, represented "a moral disgrace" that would impose controls on "virtually every product they make." But questions have swirled about what Trump meant in his response by "critical software" controls. While Trump has slapped a series of tariffs on China since taking office in January, he has wavered in his use of export restrictions against Beijing, first imposing strict new curbs on shipments of Nvidia's AI chips as well as chip design software to China, and later removing them. China expressed its opposition to a Trump administration rule last month that restricts U.S. companies from shipping goods and technology to companies at least 50% owned by sanctioned Chinese firms. (Reporting by Alexandra Alper and Michael Martina in Washington, Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco and Karen Freifeld in New York; Editing by Chris Sanders and Edmund Klamann)

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(Reuters) -Meta is cutting around 600 positions out of the several thousand roles in its Superintelligence Labs, the Facebook owner said on Wednesday as it looks to make its artificial intelligence unit more flexible and responsive. The job cuts will affect Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR) unit, as well as teams focused on product-related AI and AI infrastructure, the company said. The newly formed TBD Lab, which comprises "a few dozen" researchers and engineers developing Meta's next-generation foundation models, will not be affected. Axios first reported the job cuts announcement, citing a company memo. Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang said fewer team members would streamline decision-making and increase the responsibility, scope and impact of each role. The company said it was encouraging affected employees to apply for other jobs within Meta. Meta on Tuesday struck a $27 billion financing deal with Blue Owl Capital, the company's largest-ever private capital agreement, to fund its biggest data center project. Some analysts said the deal will allow Meta to achieve its massive AI ambitions by shifting much of the upfront cost and risk to external capital, while retaining a smaller ownership share in the project. The parent of Facebook and Instagram reorganized its AI efforts under Superintelligence Labs in June after senior staff departures and a poor reception for its open-source Llama 4 model. CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally led an aggressive hiring spree for the unit to revitalize Meta's AI efforts. Superintelligence Labs includes Meta's foundations, product and FAIR teams as well as TBD Lab that is focused on developing the company's next generation of AI models. The company began investing in AI in 2013 by launching FAIR unit and recruiting Yann LeCun, its chief AI scientist, to lead the effort and building a global research network focused on deep learning. (Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore and Arun Koyyur)

(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) -Meta is cutting around 600 positions out of the several thousand roles in its Superintelligence Labs, the Facebook owner said on Wednesday as it looks to make its artificial intelligence unit more flexible and responsive. The job cuts will affect Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR) unit, as well as teams focused on product-related AI and AI infrastructure, the company said. The newly formed TBD Lab, which comprises "a few dozen" researchers and engineers developing Meta's next-generation foundation models, will not be affected. Axios first reported the job cuts announcement, citing a company memo. Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang said fewer team members would streamline decision-making and increase the responsibility, scope and impact of each role. The company said it was encouraging affected employees to apply for other jobs within Meta. Meta on Tuesday struck a $27 billion financing deal with Blue Owl Capital, the company's largest-ever private capital agreement, to fund its biggest data center project. Some analysts said the deal will allow Meta to achieve its massive AI ambitions by shifting much of the upfront cost and risk to external capital, while retaining a smaller ownership share in the project. The parent of Facebook and Instagram reorganized its AI efforts under Superintelligence Labs in June after senior staff departures and a poor reception for its open-source Llama 4 model. CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally led an aggressive hiring spree for the unit to revitalize Meta's AI efforts. Superintelligence Labs includes Meta's foundations, product and FAIR teams as well as TBD Lab that is focused on developing the company's next generation of AI models. The company began investing in AI in 2013 by launching FAIR unit and recruiting Yann LeCun, its chief AI scientist, to lead the effort and building a global research network focused on deep learning. (Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore and Arun Koyyur)

(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) -Meta is cutting around 600 positions out of the several thousand roles in its Superintelligence Labs, the Facebook owner said on Wednesday as it looks to make its artificial intelligence unit more flexible and responsive. The job cuts will affect Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR) unit, as well as teams focused on product-related AI and AI infrastructure, the company said. The newly formed TBD Lab, which comprises "a few dozen" researchers and engineers developing Meta's next-generation foundation models, will not be affected. Axios first reported the job cuts announcement, citing a company memo. Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang said fewer team members would streamline decision-making and increase the responsibility, scope and impact of each role. The company said it was encouraging affected employees to apply for other jobs within Meta. Meta on Tuesday struck a $27 billion financing deal with Blue Owl Capital, the company's largest-ever private capital agreement, to fund its biggest data center project. Some analysts said the deal will allow Meta to achieve its massive AI ambitions by shifting much of the upfront cost and risk to external capital, while retaining a smaller ownership share in the project. The parent of Facebook and Instagram reorganized its AI efforts under Superintelligence Labs in June after senior staff departures and a poor reception for its open-source Llama 4 model. CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally led an aggressive hiring spree for the unit to revitalize Meta's AI efforts. Superintelligence Labs includes Meta's foundations, product and FAIR teams as well as TBD Lab that is focused on developing the company's next generation of AI models. The company began investing in AI in 2013 by launching FAIR unit and recruiting Yann LeCun, its chief AI scientist, to lead the effort and building a global research network focused on deep learning. (Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore and Arun Koyyur)

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