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By Elvira Pollina and Giulio Piovaccari TURIN (Reuters) -Amazon founder Jeff Bezos predicted on Friday gigawatt-scale data centres will be built in space within the next 10 to 20 years and that continuously available solar energy meant they would eventually outperform those based on Earth. Speaking at the Italian Tech Week in Turin, Bezos also compared the surge in artificial intelligence to the internet boom of the early 2000s, urging optimism despite the risk of speculative bubbles. The concept of orbital data centres has gained traction among tech giants as those on Earth have driven up demand for electricity and water to cool their servers. "These giant training clusters, those will be better built in space, because we have solar power there, 24/7. There are no clouds and no rain, no weather," Bezos said in a public conversation with Ferrari and Stellantis Chairman John Elkann. "We will be able to beat the cost of terrestrial data centres in space in the next couple of decades." Bezos said the shift to space infrastructure is part of a broader trend of using space to improve life on Earth. "It's already happened with weather and communication satellites," he said. "The next step is data centres, then other kinds of manufacturing." Hosting data centres in space has its own challenges, including the difficulty of maintenance and carrying out upgrades and the cost of launching rockets, as well as the risk the launches may fail. The executive chair of Amazon said the AI wave shares traits with the dot-com era, when massive hype was followed by a crash. "We should be extremely optimistic that the societal and beneficial consequences of AI, like we had with internet 25 years ago, are for real and there to stay," he said. "It is important to decorrelate the potential bubbles and their bursting consequences that might or might not happen from the actual reality," Bezos said, adding that the benefits of AI were expected "to be broadly diffused and it will go everywhere". (Reporting by Elvira Pollina and Giulio Piovaccari; Writing by Elvira Pollina; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Barbara Lewis)

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By Rocky Swift TOKYO (Reuters) -Japanese shares are expected to keep setting records even as the nation's currency and bonds sputter after fiscal dove Sanae Takaichi was elected on Saturday to lead the ruling party and likely become prime minister. Takaichi, 64, was considered to have the most expansionist fiscal and monetary agenda among five candidates in the Liberal Democratic Party race to replace hawkish Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. In the lead-up to the LDP race, a "Takaichi trade" emerged – long on stocks and bearish on Japanese government bonds, particularly longer maturities – positioning for a win by Takaichi, a devotee of the "Abenomics" stimulus policies of the late Shinzo Abe. 'POSITIVE SURPRISE' FOR SHARES, BONDS ON EDGE Japan's benchmark Nikkei logged a record closing high of 45,769.50 on Friday, topping the record set the week before, as investors bet whoever succeeded Ishiba would be more dovish. Short positions on the gauge have been building up recently and may now be unwound, said Resona Holdings strategist Hiroki Takei.  "This could be considered a positive surprise for stock prices," Takei said. "If short-covering is triggered, the rally could gain momentum, potentially pushing the index toward the 47,000 level." The Japanese government bond market has been on edge since late May due to waning demand among traditional buyers, decreased support from the central bank and concerns about swelling debt. The sector was dealt another blow in July, when Ishiba's coalition lost its majority in the upper house of parliament – having lost its lower house majority last year – as outsider parties campaigning on tax cuts and increased spending gained seats.  The 30-year JGB yield surged to a record 3.285% on September 8, the first trading day after Ishiba announced he was stepping down. In recent weeks, the Nikkei's momentum slowed and longer-term JGBs rallied as markets gave the edge in the LDP race to farm minister Shinjiro Koizumi and Takaichi appeared to moderate her stance, leaving sales tax cuts out of her platform and staying mostly mum on the Bank of Japan. "She seemed to have toned down her rhetoric recently but ultimately the feeling is still that she will push for looser fiscal and monetary policy," said James Athey, a fixed income manager at British investment group Marlborough. "As such, there is likely to be a negative reaction in long-end JGBs and the yen." Japan's currency closed at 147.44 per dollar on Friday, staging a 1.4% gain on the week that was the sharpest since mid-May. After her LDP victory, Takaichi told a press conference the government and central bank must work closely to ensure Japan's economy achieves demand-driven inflation backed by rising wages and corporate profits. Prices for shorter-dated JGBs, those most sensitive to central bank rates, have been on a declining trend, pushing their yields higher as evidence mounted that Japan's economy was sound enough for the BOJ to resume tightening policy. BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda has put the central bank on a long-term path to raise interest rates and shrink its balance sheet after more than a decade of massive stimulus that was a key part of former Prime Minister Abe's economic platform. Yields on two-, five-, and 10-year JGBs have all reached levels not seen since the financial crisis in 2008 on bets the BOJ could raise rates as early as this month's meeting. Takaichi's wide support among rank-and-file LDP members will lend her cabinet a strong mandate and a heavy hand in influencing monetary policy by the BOJ, said Tohru Sasaki, chief strategist at Fukuoka Financial Group and a former BOJ official. "Takaichi will make it difficult for the BOJ to raise rates, so yields will go lower," Sasaki said. "But at the same time, she's likely to expand spending, which is negative for bonds. A steepening of the yield curve is a possible reaction." (Reporting by Rocky Swift in Tokyo; Additional reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Singapore; Editing by William Mallard)

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(Reuters) -OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has embarked on a global fundraising initiative spanning East Asia and the Middle East, seeking financing and manufacturing partners to meet the company's demand for its computing capacity, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing sources familiar with the meetings. Altman has held discussions since late September in Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan with major suppliers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, Foxconn, Samsung, and SK Hynix to boost AI chip production and secure top-priority orders for OpenAI, the report said. Altman was pushing these companies to increase production capacity and give priority to OpenAI's orders, the newspaper added. Reuters could not immediately verify the report. Microsoft, TSMC, Foxconn, Samsung and SK Hynix couldn't immediately respond to requests for comment outside regular business hours. Earlier this week, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix had signed letters of intent to supply memory chips for OpenAI's data centers. Altman has planned to visit investors in the United Arab Emirates to raise money to help fund OpenAI's infrastructure expansion and research, WSJ said. OpenAI recently told its investors and business partners that it was likely to spend around $16 billion in renting computing servers this year, and that the expenditure could rise to around $400 billion in 2029, the report added, citing people familiar with the matter. (Reporting by Dheeraj Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)

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(Reuters) -OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has embarked on a global fundraising initiative spanning East Asia and the Middle East, seeking financing and manufacturing partners to meet the company's demand for its computing capacity, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing sources familiar with the meetings. Altman has held discussions since late September in Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan with major suppliers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, Foxconn, Samsung, and SK Hynix to boost AI chip production and secure top-priority orders for OpenAI, the report said. Altman was pushing these companies to increase production capacity and give priority to OpenAI's orders, the newspaper added. Reuters could not immediately verify the report. Microsoft, TSMC, Foxconn, Samsung and SK Hynix couldn't immediately respond to requests for comment outside regular business hours. Earlier this week, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix had signed letters of intent to supply memory chips for OpenAI's data centers. Altman has planned to visit investors in the United Arab Emirates to raise money to help fund OpenAI's infrastructure expansion and research, WSJ said. OpenAI recently told its investors and business partners that it was likely to spend around $16 billion in renting computing servers this year, and that the expenditure could rise to around $400 billion in 2029, the report added, citing people familiar with the matter. (Reporting by Dheeraj Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)

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TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan's likely next prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, said on Saturday the government and central bank must work closely to ensure the economy achieves demand-driven inflation backed by rising wages and corporate profits. While the world's fourth-biggest economy is already experiencing inflation, it is premature to declare it fully out of stagnation as recent price rises have been driven by high raw material costs, said Takaichi, set to be Japan's first female premier after winning a ruling party leadership race. "Japan may no longer be in deflation. But its economy is still at a critical phase," with companies likely to feel the hit from higher U.S. tariffs, she told a press conference after winning the Liberal Democratic Party presidency. "We can't leave cost-push inflation unattended. It's too early to be complacent" about the risk of a return to deflation, she said. "What would be best would be to achieve demand-driven inflation, where wages would rise and drive up demand, which in turn causes moderate price rises that boost corporate profits." Takaichi also said she would look into whether the government should revise a joint statement with the BOJ, first agreed upon in 2013, that focuses on measures to beat deflation. "The government and BOJ must move in lockstep and cooperate with each other in guiding economic policy," she said. (Reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama, Makiko Yamazaki and Leika Kihara; Editing by William Mallard)

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PARIS (Reuters) -French carmaker Renault plans to cut 3,000 jobs through a voluntary redundancy offer for staff in support functions, French newsletter L'Informe reported on Saturday. Under a cost savings plan dubbed "Arrow", Renault wants to cut staff numbers in support services such as human resources, finance and marketing by 15%, which is expected to lead to about 3,000 job cuts at the carmaker's headquarters in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt and other locations worldwide. The newsletter quoted a source familiar with the matter as saying that a final decision should be made by the end of the year. Renault confirmed it is considering cost cuts, but that at this stage it has no figures to report as no decisions have been made. "Given the uncertainties in the automotive market and the extremely competitive environment, we confirm that we are considering ways to simplify our operations, speed up execution, and optimize our fixed costs," a Renault spokesperson said. At the end of 2024 Renault employed 98,636 staff worldwide. Renault reported in July a 11.2 billion euro ($13 billion) first-half net loss, including a 9.3 billion euro write-down on partner Nissan. Excluding the write-down, net income plunged to 461 million euros, less than a third of the year-earlier level, due to a weaker van market, costs associated with electric vehicles and commercial pressures in a more competitive environment. New CEO Francois Provost – appointed in July after Luca de Meo left for Gucci-owner Kering – needs to restore margins, get Renault's credit rating back to investment grade, and find ways for the relatively small carmaker to deal with the impact of U.S. tariffs and intense competition from Chinese carmakers, analysts say. (Reporting by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Susan Fenton)

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By Erwin Seba, Shivani Tanna, Nicole Jao and Shariq Khan (Reuters) -Chevron's 285,000-barrel-per-day El Segundo refinery in Southern California had taken multiple units offline on Friday after a large fire erupted in a jet fuel production unit, disrupting supply in the Golden State's isolated energy market. The El Segundo refinery is the second-largest refinery in California, and Chevron's second-biggest refinery in the United States. The facility supplies a fifth of all motor vehicle fuels and 40% of the jet fuel consumed in southern California. A fire broke out at the facility's jet fuel production unit on Thursday evening. No injuries were reported, and all workers at the refinery were accounted for, Chevron spokesperson Allison Cook said in an email. Chevron on Friday said the fire had been put out.  It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion at the facility in the suburb of El Segundo, which supplies jet fuel for Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), located just north of the refinery. "There is no known impact to LAX at this time," Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said. A spokesperson for LAX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  The fire broke out in the refinery's Isomax 7 unit, which converts mid-distillate fuel oil into jet fuel, two sources said. On Thursday evening, multiple units at the refinery were shut, including the 60,000 bpd catalytic reformer, 45,000 bpd hydrocracker, and 73,000 bpd fluid catalytic cracker, according to consultancy Wood Mackenzie. The refinery's crude distillation units were still online, two traders said, citing Wood Mackenzie data. FLYERS HIT MORE THAN DRIVERS On the West Coast, traders were still assessing the extent of damage to the refinery but early indications pointed to a small increase in motor fuel prices and potentially larger impacts for aviation fuel. Gasoline prices in California, already the highest in the country, are expected to rise five to 15 cents per gallon for now as the refinery's gasoline producing unit was said to have not been impacted by the fire, said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy. California's nearly 28 million drivers were paying close to $4.70 a gallon for gasoline in the state as of Friday, compared to a national average of under $3.22 a gallon, GasBuddy data showed. However, airlines serving Southern California will see much bigger impacts as prices for jet fuel surged by 33 cents a gallon Friday afternoon, De Haan said. California will likely need to pull more jet fuel imports from northeast Asian refiners in South Korea, Taiwan and Japan to make up for the loss of El Segundo's output, Asian trade sources said. The Long Beach region was receiving around 45,000 to 50,000 bpd of jet fuel imports in recent weeks, and would need to step that up by bringing one more cargo over the next few weeks, a market source said. Fuel prices in California were expected to surge in the months ahead, as Phillips 66 is winding down operations at its 139,000-bpd Los Angeles-area refinery for permanent closure and Valero's Benicia refinery is set to close in April 2026. Those two refineries slated for closure produce roughly 20% of the state's gasoline supply. "In a region that was already expected to see some tightness in supplies after a refinery shutdown this December, the fire could provide support to (fuel prices) in the area and a scramble ahead of the closure," said StoneX analyst Alex Hodes. FIREBALL TURNED THE SKY ORANGE Local officials said no evacuation orders were issued for nearby residents, some of whom live in apartment buildings across the street from the refinery.  Residents of Manhattan Beach, located southwest of the refinery, were told to shelter in place until 2 a.m.  "Chevron fire department personnel, including emergency responders from the cities of El Segundo and Manhattan Beach are actively responding to an isolated fire inside the Chevron El Segundo Refinery," Cook, Chevron's spokesperson, said on Friday. "All refinery personnel and contractors have been accounted for and there are no injuries," Cook said. Los Angeles residents posted numerous videos of the fire online, saying they were stunned by the noise of the blast. A University of California-San Diego camera captured video of the explosion shortly after 9:30 p.m. PDT (0430 GMT).  A fireball from the blaze, along with the refinery's safety flare – triggered by the fire –  turned the sky orange over western Los Angeles, pictures showed. Safety flares, which emit a tall plume of flame, are used when refineries cannot process hydrocarbons normally.  In addition to Chevron, state and federal safety agencies said they will investigate the fire after the blaze is extinguished. In December 2022, an isolated fire in the refinery was quickly extinguished. In the U.S. so far in 2025, there have been several refinery fire incidents. The refinery's total storage capacity is 12.5 million barrels in about 150 major tanks. The sources said they were not sure how much jet fuel was currently in storage.  (Reporting by Nicole Jao and Shariq Khan in New York, Erwin Seba in Houston, Shivani Tanna, Anmol Choubey, Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru, Stephanie Kelly in London, Trixie Yap in Singapore; Editing by Susan Fenton, Clarence Fernandez and Edward Tobin)

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By Marc Jones and Koh Gui Qing NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) -World stocks were on course for a solid weekly gain and more record highs as the seemingly unstoppable rally in tech shares and expectations of lower U.S. interest rates helped to offset uncertainty surrounding the U.S. government shutdown. Investors have mostly shrugged off the shutdown, the 15th since 1981, but on Friday it meant traders weren't getting what is probably the single most-watched piece of market-moving economic data: monthly U.S. payrolls figures. Wall Street did not seem bothered, with all three major stock indexes hitting record highs, pushing MSCI's main 47-country index of world shares up 0.4%, while Europe cruised towards its best week since April. [.N][.EU] Still, with no resolution in sight for the U.S. shutdown, some analysts predicted that other U.S. economic releases might be delayed later this month. "Given the lack of talk among leadership, the shutdown is more likely than not to extend through the end of next week," TD Securities said in a note to clients. "We expect the release of jobless claims to remain sidelined, with the CPI (consumer inflation) and retail sales reports at risk the following week." The S&P 500 Index was up 0.2% after hitting an all-time high of 6,750.87 points, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.2%, pulling back a touch from a record peak of 22,925.43 points struck in early trade. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also jumped to a record high of 47,049.64 points, and was up 0.9% by early afternoon. Euro zone services sector PMIs helped the euro to tick up, too, as they accelerated to an eight-month high owing to moderate growth in Germany, Italy and Spain, although France's political turmoil continued to weigh them down. Christopher Hodge, U.S. economist at Natixis, said the lack of payrolls data in some ways bolstered the current view among forecasters that U.S. interest rates will be cut again this month. "The baseline (of a rate cut) is the default in the absence of new information," Hodge said, adding that the markets also had plenty of practice now in dealing with U.S. shutdowns. "The only thing that could be different this time is that we are in an economic and policy cycle that is a lot more ambiguous." Benchmark government bond yields – the main driver of global borrowing costs – nudged higher in both the U.S. and the euro zone, although they dropped in the UK after poor PMI data there, and all were down for the week. Markets are almost fully pricing in a 25-basis-point Fed rate cut this month and at least four cuts by the end of 2026. GOING FOR GOLD The overnight rise in MSCI's main Asian share index meant it closed with a 2.7% weekly gain and has now risen about 23% this year.  China and some other parts of Asia had been closed for a holiday, meaning trading was thinner than usual, although Taiwan hit a record high and Japan's Nikkei jumped 1.5% ahead of a crucial weekend vote that will determine that country's next prime minister. [.T] Weiheng Chen, global investment strategist at J.P. Morgan Private Bank, said investors appear willing to give Washington time to resolve its disagreements, although a prolonged government shutdown might start to move markets. "For now, investors remain more focused on the potential impacts of the Fed's rate-cutting cycle, trade and immigration policy, economic data, and corporate earnings," Chen said. With no government reports on the labor market to offer cues, investors have turned to alternative data from public and private sources and so far they point to a sluggish U.S. labor market. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM), for example, said on Friday its non-manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) fell to 50 last month, the breakeven level, from 52.0 in August, as U.S. services sector activity stalled in September amid a sharp slowdown in new orders. That has left the dollar under pressure and it sagged again on Friday against a basket of other top currencies. It was on course for its biggest weekly drop since August. [/FRX] The Japanese yen has been a major beneficiary of that dip, although it weakened to 147.42 per dollar on Friday after Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda left markets guessing on when the central bank will next hike interest rates. In commodities, oil prices recovered slightly on the day but were on course for their steepest weekly drop in more than three months. Brent crude futures were at $64.79 a barrel as U.S. trading gathered pace, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $61.17 a barrel. Gold, meanwhile, was up again and on course for its seventh straight week of gains at $3,876.69 an ounce, after hitting a record of $3,896.49 an ounce on Thursday. It is viewed as a safe-haven asset during times of uncertainty and thrives on low interest rates. It has surged 47% this year. [GOL/] "As the U.S. dollar's status as the global reserve currency is tested, gold is emerging as the pre-eminent safe haven, and we continue to view it as the ultimate diversifier," said Greg Hirt, global CIO for multi-asset at AllianzGI. (Additional reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Singapore; Editing by Susan Fenton, Mark Heinrich, Nick Zieminski and Edmund Klamann)

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By Ross Kerber (Reuters) -Minnesota power regulators on Friday approved a $6.2 billion plan for a BlackRock unit and Canada Pension Plan to buy utility owner Allete, parent of Minnesota Power, saying recent modifications by the parties should address concerns about rates and clean-power investments. The 5-0 vote by the Minnesota Public Utility Commission may reassure investors that BlackRock will be able to address regulatory and antitrust concerns as its Global Infrastructure Partners unit, which it bought last year, presses for more deals. Earlier this week, people familiar with the matter said the infrastructure unit was in talks to buy utility group AES. Separately, on Friday two people said the unit was in talks to buy a data center business backed by Macquarie. Company executives said the Minnesota deal, first announced last year, would help Allete to transition to clean energy sources. Opponents, including the environmental group Sierra Club, business customers and State Attorney General Keith Ellison, had raised concerns the agreement could lead to higher rates and did not guarantee that Minnesota Power could meet a requirement for state electricity to be carbon-free by 2040. At Friday's meeting, which was webcast, commissioners said recent modifications helped to ease their previous skepticism towards the deal. A filing from the companies indicates recent term changes will add benefits worth up to $258 million for utility stakeholders, including through a clean technology fund and via bill credits for consumers. Commissioner Hwikwon Ham, in comments made before the decision, said those modifications gave him confidence in the agreement and that the commission could review company rates "if they misbehave." Commission Chair Katie Sieben said Minnesota Power needs massive new investments to pay for projects such as a new transmission line to bring in hydropower from Manitoba. In a securities filing, leaders of BlackRock and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board praised the decision and said that, with all required regulatory approvals now secured, the transition is expected to close in late 2025. "We are committed to preserving Allete's legacy of intense community focus as it continues to provide safe, reliable, and affordable energy which is increasingly carbon-free for Northeastern Minnesota," said Global Infrastructure Partners' founding partner Jonathan Bram in the filing. Several groups voiced criticism towards the decision, including the Private Equity Stakeholder Project and the Sierra Club, which said it remains concerned about rates and that it is not certain the investors would provide capital for less-polluting energy. (Reporting by Ross Kerber; Editing by Edmund Klamann)

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By Ross Kerber (Reuters) -Minnesota power regulators on Friday approved a $6.2 billion plan for a BlackRock unit and Canada Pension Plan to buy utility owner Allete, parent of Minnesota Power, saying recent modifications by the parties should address concerns about rates and clean-power investments. The 5-0 vote by the Minnesota Public Utility Commission may reassure investors that BlackRock will be able to address regulatory and antitrust concerns as its Global Infrastructure Partners unit, which it bought last year, presses for more deals. Earlier this week, people familiar with the matter said the infrastructure unit was in talks to buy utility group AES. Separately, on Friday two people said the unit was in talks to buy a data center business backed by Macquarie. Company executives said the Minnesota deal, first announced last year, would help Allete to transition to clean energy sources. Opponents, including the environmental group Sierra Club, business customers and State Attorney General Keith Ellison, had raised concerns the agreement could lead to higher rates and did not guarantee that Minnesota Power could meet a requirement for state electricity to be carbon-free by 2040. At Friday's meeting, which was webcast, commissioners said recent modifications helped to ease their previous skepticism towards the deal. A filing from the companies indicates recent term changes will add benefits worth up to $258 million for utility stakeholders, including through a clean technology fund and via bill credits for consumers. Commissioner Hwikwon Ham, in comments made before the decision, said those modifications gave him confidence in the agreement and that the commission could review company rates "if they misbehave." Commission Chair Katie Sieben said Minnesota Power needs massive new investments to pay for projects such as a new transmission line to bring in hydropower from Manitoba. In a securities filing, leaders of BlackRock and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board praised the decision and said that, with all required regulatory approvals now secured, the transition is expected to close in late 2025. "We are committed to preserving Allete's legacy of intense community focus as it continues to provide safe, reliable, and affordable energy which is increasingly carbon-free for Northeastern Minnesota," said Global Infrastructure Partners' founding partner Jonathan Bram in the filing. Several groups voiced criticism towards the decision, including the Private Equity Stakeholder Project and the Sierra Club, which said it remains concerned about rates and that it is not certain the investors would provide capital for less-polluting energy. (Reporting by Ross Kerber; Editing by Edmund Klamann)

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