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By David Shepardson and Alexandra Alper WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The chair of the House Select Committee on China said Thursday that a licensing agreement for use of the TikTok algorithm, as part of a deal by China-based ByteDance to sell U.S. assets of the short video app, would raise "serious concerns." Representative John Moolenaar, a Republican, is waiting for a briefing to get more details on the deal that White House officials said previously would include the new owners of TikTok's U.S. assets licensing the algorithm. "I think anytime you have (China) with leverage over the algorithm, I think that's a problem," Moolenaar said at an event at the Hudson Institute. TikTok did not immediately comment. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on September 25 declaring that the plan to sell TikTok's U.S. operations to a consortium of U.S. and global investors meets the national security requirements set out in a 2024 law and gave them 120 days to complete the transaction. "I just believe you have to have a new algorithm, and I don't know that you can reprogram," Moolenaar added, pointing to technology experts who say it is unclear precisely what is in the algorithm. "I would say it's still very much a work in progress." Trump last month delayed until January 20 enforcement of the law banning the app used by 170 million Americans unless its Chinese owners sell it. Trump's order said the algorithm will be retrained and monitored by the U.S. company's security partners, and operation of the algorithm will be under the control of the new joint venture. The agreement on TikTok's U.S. operations includes the appointment by ByteDance of one of seven board members for the new entity, with Americans holding the other six seats. ByteDance would hold less than 20% in TikTok U.S. to comply with requirements set out in the 2024 law that ordered it shut down by January 2025 if ByteDance did not sell its U.S. assets. (Reporting by David Shepardson and Alexandra Alper; Editing by Franklin Paul and Edmund Klamann)

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

By Stephen Nellis and Harshita Mary Varghese (Reuters) -Oracle said on Thursday it expects cloud infrastructure revenue to grow to $166 billion in fiscal 2030, which would make up nearly 75% of its total sales by then. Chief Executive Officer Clay Magouyrk gave the cloud infrastructure prediction during a meeting with financial analysts, where he said new bookings were coming in from a range of customers, not just OpenAI. Dough Kehring, Oracle's chief financial officer, said the company expects $225 billion in overall revenue and adjusted profits of $21 per share by the firm's fiscal 2030. Analysts had been expecting $198.4 billion in overall sales and adjusted profits of $18.92 per share for fiscal 2030, according to LSEG data. Oracle shares closed up 3% after the cloud computing announcement, but declined about 2% in after-hours trading after the broader revenue and profit forecasts. Oracle said last month that it has racked up hundreds of billions of dollars worth of infrastructure bookings and is working with ChatGPT creator OpenAI on a $500 billion project that will include five new data centers. For the most recent quarter, Oracle reported cloud revenue jumped 28% to $7.2 billion. Magouyrk said that during a single 30-day period during the previous quarter, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, the company's cloud unit, had booked $65 billion in new commitments, which included a $20 billion deal with Meta Platforms. He said that the newest $65 billion of bookings came from customers other than OpenAI. "I know some people are questioning, 'Hey, is it just OpenAI?' The reality is, we think OpenAI is a great customer, but we have many customers," Magouyrk said. "This is literally seven deals, four customers, all of them other than OpenAI." Oracle also sought to address concerns among investors about its gross margins, which were 68.7% in its most recent quarter and which analysts predict will fall slightly in its fiscal 2027, according to LSEG estimates. Oracle said it expected to have adjusted gross margins of between 30% and 40% for delivering AI cloud computing infrastructure, while other segments such as more conventional cloud software and infrastructure for business customers would have margins of between 65% and 80%. Oracle also said that those margins would be steady over the term of a contract, showing a hypothetical example of an AI infrastructure rollout where the company would have about $6.4 billion of costs in each year of a six-year, $60 billion cloud contract. (Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Vijay Kishore, Mark Porter and Sonali Paul)

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

By Stephen Nellis and Harshita Mary Varghese (Reuters) -Oracle said on Thursday it expects cloud infrastructure revenue to grow to $166 billion in fiscal 2030, which would make up nearly 75% of its total sales by then. Chief Executive Officer Clay Magouyrk gave the cloud infrastructure prediction during a meeting with financial analysts, where he said new bookings were coming in from a range of customers, not just OpenAI. Dough Kehring, Oracle's chief financial officer, said the company expects $225 billion in overall revenue and adjusted profits of $21 per share by the firm's fiscal 2030. Analysts had been expecting $198.4 billion in overall sales and adjusted profits of $18.92 per share for fiscal 2030, according to LSEG data. Oracle shares closed up 3% after the cloud computing announcement, but declined about 2% in after-hours trading after the broader revenue and profit forecasts. Oracle said last month that it has racked up hundreds of billions of dollars worth of infrastructure bookings and is working with ChatGPT creator OpenAI on a $500 billion project that will include five new data centers. For the most recent quarter, Oracle reported cloud revenue jumped 28% to $7.2 billion. Magouyrk said that during a single 30-day period during the previous quarter, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, the company's cloud unit, had booked $65 billion in new commitments, which included a $20 billion deal with Meta Platforms. He said that the newest $65 billion of bookings came from customers other than OpenAI. "I know some people are questioning, 'Hey, is it just OpenAI?' The reality is, we think OpenAI is a great customer, but we have many customers," Magouyrk said. "This is literally seven deals, four customers, all of them other than OpenAI." Oracle also sought to address concerns among investors about its gross margins, which were 68.7% in its most recent quarter and which analysts predict will fall slightly in its fiscal 2027, according to LSEG estimates. Oracle said it expected to have adjusted gross margins of between 30% and 40% for delivering AI cloud computing infrastructure, while other segments such as more conventional cloud software and infrastructure for business customers would have margins of between 65% and 80%. Oracle also said that those margins would be steady over the term of a contract, showing a hypothetical example of an AI infrastructure rollout where the company would have about $6.4 billion of costs in each year of a six-year, $60 billion cloud contract. (Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Vijay Kishore, Mark Porter and Sonali Paul)

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

By Manya Saini (Reuters) -Crypto heavyweight Kraken said on Thursday it has acquired futures exchange Small Exchange from IG Group for $100 million, paving the way to launch a fully U.S.-based derivatives suite. The cryptocurrency sector is maturing as digital assets gain broader acceptance and traditional financial firms increasingly engage through regulated products such as futures, options and tokenized securities. Small Exchange is a U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission-licensed designated contract market, giving Kraken a regulated venue to offer futures and options to both retail and institutional clients. "Under CFTC oversight, Kraken can now integrate clearing, risk and matching into one environment that meets the same standards as the largest exchanges in the world," Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Kraken, said in a statement. Once the preserve of banks and brokers, the derivatives market is drawing digital asset firms looking for liquidity and risk management. Analysts say adoption is likely to accelerate as more institutional and traditional financial players enter the digital asset space. "Digital asset firms are no longer content being sideshow players. They aim to wrest seats in the core capital markets ecosystem," said Michael Ashley Schulman, partner and CIO at Running Point Capital Advisors. The derivatives market is likely to pull closer together, with big exchanges and fintech firms first testing offerings like tokenized futures and hybrid products at the edges, then rolling them out more widely, he added. Crypto-linked futures and options have been among the fastest-growing segments as investors seek to manage risk. "By securing the necessary licensing and infrastructure today, Kraken is laying the groundwork for institutional-grade markets as crypto matures," the company said. The deal comes as a more crypto-friendly regulatory tone under U.S. President Donald Trump encourages digital asset firms to expand in the United States with promises of clearer rules. Earlier this year, Kraken agreed to buy retail futures trading platform NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion. (Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)

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