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By Joice Alves LONDON (Reuters) -The boom in investment in artificial intelligence is starting to be felt for the first time in currency markets across Europe, and analysts reckon the Swedish crown and sterling stand to benefit the most. Trading in the almost $10 trillion-a-day FX markets this year has been driven by broad dollar weakness given tariff-related concerns and U.S. rate cut expectations. But dig deeper and the impact of AI, which has helped drive stocks to record highs, is rippling across to currencies. According to JPMorgan, the resilience of the Swedish crown, or krona, and sterling in recent months may be partially attributable to tech as Sweden and Britain stand out on measures of AI investment and their currencies are receiving a tailwind from this dynamic, even if only a small one. By one measure, the UK and Sweden received just over $4 billion each last year in private AI investments, ranking third and fourth in a Stanford University AI index of biggest beneficiaries of such investments, behind the United States and China.  Sweden's krona is the strongest-performing major European currency against a weak dollar so far this year, having climbed almost 15%. Sterling has rallied 7%.     Dissecting the exact impact of AI on currency moves is hard, analysts say, given other factors at play such as interest rate expectations or fiscal unease, especially with sterling. "Large AI investments have been announced for both countries," said Rabobank's head of FX strategy Jane Foley. "The inward investment could certainly have created some demand for sterling and Swedish crown respectively and created some resilience".  The crown is also up against the euro and other Scandinavian currencies. Sterling, hurt by fiscal worries, is down against the euro and Swiss franc, however. Investments in Swedish AI companies, which bring higher demand for crowns, would cause a visible spike in the currency, while the impact of such investments on sterling would be less visible because it is already so heavily traded, Rabobank's Foley said.   Sterling is the world's fourth most-traded currency, accounting for just over 10% of all trades, while Sweden's crown accounts for less than 2%, according to the Bank for International Settlements. BIG PROMISES Britain and the United States last month agreed a technology pact, with top U.S. firms led by Microsoft pledging 31 billion pounds ($42 billion) in UK investments. AI giant Nvidia plans to provide its data centre platform to Swedish companies including telecoms gear maker Ericsson, and drug developer AstraZeneca. Microsoft, Facebook's owner Meta, Google's owner Alphabet and Canada's Brookfield Asset Management plan data centres in Sweden given the country's reliable electricity supplies and infrastructure. While it's too soon to say what impact AI will have on economic growth or unemployment, which could potentially add to strains on public finances, the announcements offered a favourable backdrop for the krona and sterling, analysts said. A report by SEB released earlier this year looking at major Swedish participants in the FX market showed their net overweight position in the crown was close to record highs. Societe Generale head of corporate research for FX and rates Kenneth Broux said U.S. tech investment pledges can diminish pessimism ahead of Britain's November budget, when taxes are expected to rise, lifting sterling's appeal. Latest CFTC positioning shows investors are neither heavily in favour nor against sterling. Speculators have eroded bullish dollar positions against the pound from August's almost three-year high of $3.3 billion to just $165 million, reflecting waning conviction that the greenback will rally against sterling. "What AI does potentially change is the outlook for productivity growth, the Achilles' heel of the UK economy", said Broux.  An aging population in the West opens the door to “reskilling and upskilling” which can help keep a lid on welfare payments and potential unemployment benefits caused by AI, he added.  Some are broadly positive on sterling. Investment firm St James's Place has an overweight position. Deutsche Bank expects sterling to rise to $1.45 over the next couple of years, compared with roughly $1.34 currently.  And HSBC Private Bank's global CIO Willem Sels said that while his near-term view on sterling was not too positive given the looming budget, he sensed that investor sentiment towards the UK was more "constructive" than it appears. "One of the reasons for that is that people see the UK as a relatively interesting destination for AI-related investment," Sels said.   "This is why we also saw (Nvidia CEO) Jensen Huang sitting next to the Prime Minister (Keir Starmer earlier this year) and talking about the strength of the UK." (Reporting by Joice Alves; Editing by Dhara Ranasinghe and Hugh Lawson)

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By Kane Wu and Yantoultra Ngui HONG KONG/SINGAPORE (Reuters) -DayOne, a global data centre operator affiliated with GDS Holdings, one of China's largest data centre operators, is seeking to raise more than $1 billion in a new funding round, four people with knowledge of the matter said. DayOne, formerly known as GDS International, has tapped new and existing shareholders for the series C fundraising, which will support its growth plans in Southeast Asia and Europe, said the people, who declined to be named as the information was confidential. DayOne could be valued at $4 billion to $5 billion in the funding round before new capital is injected, two of the sources said. New investors, including major global infrastructure funds and Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds, were approached for the new round, the sources said. DayOne confirmed the equity fundraising via email late on Thursday, clarifying that the effort was independent of GDS. Reuters previously reported that GDS was raising capital for DayOne, its international unit. DayOne did not comment on the fundraising details. GDS did not respond to requests for comment. DAYONE SEPARATED FROM GDS Shanghai-based GDS established GDS International in Singapore in 2022, which was rebranded as DayOne in January after its separation from the parent company. The international business has raised a total of about $1.8 billion from two funding rounds in 2024, according to GDS statements. Singapore-based DayOne's current investors include Hillhouse Investment, Boyu Capital, U.S. investment firm Coatue Management and the SoftBank Vision Fund, the statements said. GDS was seeking to build up DayOne and list it separately in the mid- to long-term, said one of the sources and a separate person with knowledge of its plans. In its email on Thursday, DayOne said GDS is one of its founding investors but DayOne is not part of GDS's corporate structure and it operates under a distinct ownership and governance framework, with its own management team, board and investors. GDS founder, chairman and chief executive William Huang is also chairman of DayOne, according to DayOne's website. After the $1.2 billion series B funding round in December 2024, GDS's stake in DayOne was diluted to 35.6% from 52.7%, which valued it at around $1.3 billion, equivalent to about $6.75 per American Depositary Share of GDS, it said at the time. GDS deconsolidated the international unit following that round for accounting purposes, recognising it as an equity investee, it said, adding that it would not have the right to appoint the majority of its board directors. DayOne's portfolio of assets included some 480 megawatts of data centre capacity that are in service or under construction and an additional 590 MW reserved for future development across strategic locations in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Japan, GDS has said. In August, DayOne unveiled a 1.2 billion euro ($1.4 billion) investment in a hyperscale data centre campus in Lahti, Finland, marking its first entry into Europe. (Reporting by Kane Wu in Hong Kong and Yantoultra Ngui in Singapore; Editing by Joe Bavier and Thomas Derpinghaus.)

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By Joice Alves LONDON (Reuters) -The boom in investment in artificial intelligence is starting to be felt for the first time in currency markets across Europe, and analysts reckon the Swedish crown and sterling stand to benefit the most. Trading in the almost $10 trillion-a-day FX markets this year has been driven by broad dollar weakness given tariff-related concerns and U.S. rate cut expectations. But dig deeper and the impact of AI, which has helped drive stocks to record highs, is rippling across to currencies. According to JPMorgan, the resilience of the Swedish crown, or krona, and sterling in recent months may be partially attributable to tech as Sweden and Britain stand out on measures of AI investment and their currencies are receiving a tailwind from this dynamic, even if only a small one. By one measure, the UK and Sweden received just over $4 billion each last year in private AI investments, ranking third and fourth in a Stanford University AI index of biggest beneficiaries of such investments, behind the United States and China.  Sweden's krona is the strongest-performing major European currency against a weak dollar so far this year, having climbed almost 15%. Sterling has rallied 7%.     Dissecting the exact impact of AI on currency moves is hard, analysts say, given other factors at play such as interest rate expectations or fiscal unease, especially with sterling. "Large AI investments have been announced for both countries," said Rabobank's head of FX strategy Jane Foley. "The inward investment could certainly have created some demand for sterling and Swedish crown respectively and created some resilience".  The crown is also up against the euro and other Scandinavian currencies. Sterling, hurt by fiscal worries, is down against the euro and Swiss franc, however. Investments in Swedish AI companies, which bring higher demand for crowns, would cause a visible spike in the currency, while the impact of such investments on sterling would be less visible because it is already so heavily traded, Rabobank's Foley said.   Sterling is the world's fourth most-traded currency, accounting for just over 10% of all trades, while Sweden's crown accounts for less than 2%, according to the Bank for International Settlements. BIG PROMISES Britain and the United States last month agreed a technology pact, with top U.S. firms led by Microsoft pledging 31 billion pounds ($42 billion) in UK investments. AI giant Nvidia plans to provide its data centre platform to Swedish companies including telecoms gear maker Ericsson, and drug developer AstraZeneca. Microsoft, Facebook's owner Meta, Google's owner Alphabet and Canada's Brookfield Asset Management plan data centres in Sweden given the country's reliable electricity supplies and infrastructure. While it's too soon to say what impact AI will have on economic growth or unemployment, which could potentially add to strains on public finances, the announcements offered a favourable backdrop for the krona and sterling, analysts said. A report by SEB released earlier this year looking at major Swedish participants in the FX market showed their net overweight position in the crown was close to record highs. Societe Generale head of corporate research for FX and rates Kenneth Broux said U.S. tech investment pledges can diminish pessimism ahead of Britain's November budget, when taxes are expected to rise, lifting sterling's appeal. Latest CFTC positioning shows investors are neither heavily in favour nor against sterling. Speculators have eroded bullish dollar positions against the pound from August's almost three-year high of $3.3 billion to just $165 million, reflecting waning conviction that the greenback will rally against sterling. "What AI does potentially change is the outlook for productivity growth, the Achilles' heel of the UK economy", said Broux.  An aging population in the West opens the door to “reskilling and upskilling” which can help keep a lid on welfare payments and potential unemployment benefits caused by AI, he added.  Some are broadly positive on sterling. Investment firm St James's Place has an overweight position. Deutsche Bank expects sterling to rise to $1.45 over the next couple of years, compared with roughly $1.34 currently.  And HSBC Private Bank's global CIO Willem Sels said that while his near-term view on sterling was not too positive given the looming budget, he sensed that investor sentiment towards the UK was more "constructive" than it appears. "One of the reasons for that is that people see the UK as a relatively interesting destination for AI-related investment," Sels said.   "This is why we also saw (Nvidia CEO) Jensen Huang sitting next to the Prime Minister (Keir Starmer earlier this year) and talking about the strength of the UK." (Reporting by Joice Alves; Editing by Dhara Ranasinghe and Hugh Lawson)

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(Reuters) -A new underground transmission line was approved by the New York State Public Service Commission linking an existing Clay substation with Micron Technology's proposed semiconductor megafab facility in Onondaga County, Governor Kathy Hochul announced on Thursday. The two-mile, 345-kilovolt line is a key piece of infrastructure for Micron’s planned $100 billion investment in Central New York, the largest private investment in the state’s history, Hochul's press release said. The project is expected to create more than 50,000 jobs over the next two decades, including 9,000 direct positions at Micron. "This project is set to transform Central New York — and we're moving quickly ahead with all due speed and deliberation," Hochul said. The transmission line approval follows a 2022 agreement between Micron and New York State, when the chipmaker selected the region for its advanced manufacturing facility. The megafab aims to produce one in four of all U.S.-made semiconductors by 2030. The commission also approved environmental and construction plans for the first phase of the project, including the eastern expansion of the Clay substation and installation of equipment linking it to the Micron facility. (Reporting by Sarah Qureshi in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

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By John Revill ZURICH (Reuters) -Switzerland's ABB is "very confident" about future demand from data centers that power artificial intelligence, its CEO Morten Wierod told Reuters. The engineering company has seen double-digit percentage growth this year in orders for electrification products from data centers being built to meet AI and cloud computing demand. CEO CONFIDENT IN DATA CENTRE DEMAND "Over the next five years I am very confident about demand from data centers," Wierod said on Thursday. "I don't think there is a bubble, but we do see do see some constraints in terms of construction capacity not keeping up with all the new investments," he added. "We are talking about trillions in investment," he said, adding: "That will take a few years to implement because there is not enough people and resources to build all this." AI is only in its early stages, leaving room for growth in data center demand, while many newcomers are joining large tech companies in the sector, Wierod said. ABB generated some 7% of its revenue from data center business this year, up from 6% in 2024, selling electrification systems, including medium and low voltage switchgear and uninterruptible power solutions to keep servers online. ABB STRIKES PARTNERSHIP WITH NVIDIA ABB announced a partnership agreement with chip maker Nvidia earlier this week to develop electrification products for the next generation of chips used in data centers. "That's not for 2025 or 2026, it's more of a long term investment," Wierod said. "It's very important to be part of the future technology developments." While the majority of ABB's business is for new-build sites, Wierod also saw opportunities in retro-fitting and upgrading. "For some of the older, smaller size data centres, you will need to upgrade the racks with equipment, and you also need to have more power coming in," he said. "That is a big opportunity," he added. (Reporting by John Revill; Editing by Alexander Smith)

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By John Revill ZURICH (Reuters) -Swiss engineering company ABB said it is seeing strong customer demand, particularly from a surge in new data centres being built in the U.S. to process artificial intelligence. ABB, which makes factory robots, as well as motors and drives for factory production lines, also said on Thursday it was seeing little impact on customers from U.S. import tariffs as it reported its third quarter results. The results give an insight into the health of the broader industrial economy, with ABB's products used to electrify and control buildings, mines and factories. New orders in the U.S. jumped 27% during the third quarter. "It's not related to tariffs," said Chief Executive Morten Wierod. "It's the normal standard business where there is strong demand." GROWING DEMAND FOR DATA CENTRES, UNINTERRUPTED POWER ABB generates around 7% of group revenues from data centres, up from 6% a year ago. It provides electrification products, for example uninterruptable power supplies, to keep server rooms online. "The build-out of data centres, of course, is one key driver, but it's also the electrification trends of industries that also puts more pressure on the utility side, so they need to invest, and even in power generation," Wierod told reporters. Data centre-related orders increased by a double digit percentage rate in the third quarter. Earlier this week ABB announced a partnership with chip maker Nvidia to develop the next generation of data centres. ABB said its operating earnings before interest, tax and amortisation (EBITA) rose 12% to $1.74 billion, slightly above analysts forecasts. Revenue rose 11% to $9.08 billion, beating forecasts for $8.88 billion, while orders rose 12%. Its shares rose 2.5% in early trading before paring gains later in the morning. Chief Financial Officer Timo Ihamuotila, who is stepping down next year, said the impact of U.S. import tariffs had been limited to the tens of millions of dollars on operating profit, which ABB was countering with small price increases and efficiency gains. The company currently produces locally around 75-80% of the products it sells in the U.S. and is aiming to reach 90% by investing more in U.S. factories. (Reporting by John RevillEditing by Jane Merriman and Elaine Hardcastle)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A group representing major automakers warned late on Thursday that a chip disruption stemming from a dispute between China and the Dutch government could quickly impact U.S. auto production. Carmakers and their suppliers received notice from chipmaker Nexperia last week that it could no longer guarantee delivery of its chips, said ACEA, the European Union's auto association, which also said manufacturing could be significantly disrupted. In the United States, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents General Motors, Toyota, Ford, Volkswagen, Hyundai, and nearly all other major automakers, urged a quick resolution. "If the shipment of automotive chips doesn’t resume – quickly – it’s going to disrupt auto production in the U.S. and many other countries and have a spillover effect in other industries," said the group's CEO John Bozzella. "It’s that significant." Some automakers told Reuters that U.S. auto plants could be affected as soon as next month. They declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue. The chips made by Nexperia are crucial to production of U.S. parts and vehicles. The Dutch government announced on Sunday that it had as of September 30 taken control of Chinese-owned computer chipmaker Nexperia, citing worries about the possible transfer of technology to Nexperia's Chinese parent company, Wingtech. Court documents showed the Dutch government's move came after months of rising U.S. pressure on the company. Nexperia was at risk of being impacted by a new U.S. rule that extends export control restrictions to companies at least 50% owned by one or more entities on the U.S. entity list. Washington put Wingtech, which has 100% ownership of Nexperia, on the U.S. list in late December. The Chinese commerce ministry issued on October 4 an export control notice prohibiting Nexperia China and its subcontractors from exporting specific finished components and sub-assemblies manufactured in China, according to a statement Nexperia published on Tuesday. Volkswagen and BMW both said production in Europe had not yet been impacted by the issues but that they were working to identify potential supply risks. (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Sonali Paul)

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By Haripriya Suresh and Sai Ishwarbharath B BENGALURU (Reuters) -Indian IT firms Infosys, Wipro and LTIMindtree beat estimates for quarterly revenue on Thursday and pointed to improving demand in the back half of the year as clients show more willingness to fund AI projects. Their upbeat results follow a strong showing by market leader Tata Consultancy Services last week and bode well for the $283 billion sector, which has struggled in the past few quarters as customers cut discretionary spending amid tariff-related uncertainty. "We are benefiting from consolidation plays on automation and on using AI for efficiency. That's the big focus that we see from our clients across industries," Infosys CEO Salil Parekh said on a conference call, noting there was a "huge" opportunity in the enterprise AI space. Buzz around artificial intelligence is prompting more companies to consider funding projects tied to the technology to improve efficiency and drive automation, potentially opening up a major revenue stream for Indian IT firms. Infosys, which topped analyst estimates for profit and revenue in the second quarter, sees full-year revenue growth of 2-3%, compared with its prior view of 1-3%. Jefferies analysts said the forecast was achievable due to its "strong" deal bookings. Smaller peer Wipro, which expects its revenue to range between a 0.5% decline and a 1.5% rise for the third quarter, is also gaining from clients warming up to AI projects. "New demand that's picking up is AI," Wipro CEO Srini Pallia said. "Clients want to move away from proof of concepts to implementing AI and agentic AI across business processes and workflows." RISING TIDE LIFTS ALL BOATS Analysts viewed the quarter as a signal that the IT sector had put the worst behind it. "The results highlight a stabilizing IT sector gradually regaining traction amid shifting client priorities toward AI and digital acceleration," StoxBox analyst Sagar Shetty said. Anand Rathi's Sushovon Nayak confirmed that most of the IT firms, which had reported results, had shown "green shoots." The sector has particularly gained from a recovery in spending by financial services firms. Infosys and LTIMindtree beat second-quarter revenue estimates, driven by strength in the banking segment. ($1 = 87.8590 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Haripriya Suresh and Sai Ishwarbharath B; Additional reporting by Kashish Tandon; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee, Dhanya Skariachan and Anil D'Silva)

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(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 Chinese-based ByteDance to sell U.S. assets of the short video app would raise "serious concerns." Representative John Moolenaar, a Republican, is waiting for 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 a forum. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Sept. 25 declaring 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. (Reporting by David Shepardson and Alexandra Alper, Editing by Franklin Paul)

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(Reuters) -Companies announcing multi-billion dollar investments in artificial intelligence have raised concerns about the formation of a bubble reminiscent of the dotcom boom and bust. Investors are on guard for signals that demand is tailing off or that the massive spending is not paying off as anticipated. A BofA Global Research's monthly fund manager survey revealed that 54% of investors said they thought that AI stocks were in a bubble compared with 38% who do not believe that a bubble exists. Here is a list of industry executives, economists and analysts’ takes on the topic: BANK OF ENGLAND Global markets could tumble if investors' mood sours on the prospects for artificial intelligence, the Bank of England said on October 8. "The risk of a sharp market correction has increased," the BoE's Financial Policy Committee said in a quarterly update, in its sharpest warning to date of the dangers of an AI-triggered market slump, adding that the risk of spillovers to Britain's financial system from such a shock was "material". BRYAN YEO, GIC PRIVATE CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER "There's a little bit of a hype bubble going on in the early-stage venture space," said Singapore sovereign wealth fund's Yeo during a panel discussion at the Milken Institute Asia Summit 2025 on October 3. "Any company startup with an AI label will be valued right up there at huge multiples of whatever the small revenue (is),… That might be fair for some companies and probably not for others." JEFF BEZOS, FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN OF AMAZON “When people get very excited as they are today about artificial intelligence, for example, every experiment gets funded,… And investors have a hard time in the middle of this excitement distinguishing between the good ideas and the bad ideas,” Bezos said during the Italian tech week on October 3. “A bubble like a banking bubble, a crisis in the banking system, that's just bad … The ones that are industrial are not nearly as bad, it could even be good because when the dust settles and you see who are the winners, society benefits from those inventions.” JOSEPH BRIGGS, ECONOMIST AT GOLDMAN SACHS' GLOBAL ECONOMICS RESEARCH The flood of multibillion-dollar investments pouring into U.S. artificial intelligence infrastructure is sustainable, pushing back on mounting concerns that the sector's spending spree could be overheating, Briggs said in a note on October 16. While the overall macroeconomic case for AI investment remains strong, he cautioned that "the ultimate AI winners remain less clear," with fast technological change and low switching costs potentially limiting first-mover advantages. MORTEN WIEROD, ABB CEO"I don't think there is a bubble, but we do see do see some constraints in terms of construction capacity not keeping up with all the new investments," Wierod told Reuters on October 16. "We are talking about trillions in investment," he said, adding: "That will take a few years to implement because there is not enough people and resources to build all this." PIERRE-OLIVIER GOURINCHAS, IMF'S CHIEF ECONOMIST The U.S. artificial intelligence investment boom may be followed by a dot-com-style bust, but it is less likely to be a systemic event that would crater the U.S. or global economy, Gourinchas, said on October 14. "This is not financed by debt, and that means that if there is a market correction, some shareholders, some equity holders, may lose out." SAM ALTMAN, OPENAI CEO“Are we in a phase where investors as a whole are overexcited about AI? My answer is yes,” Altman told tech media The Verge in August. “Someone is going to lose a phenomenal amount of money. We don’t know who, and a lot of people are going to make a phenomenal amount of money.” UBS Almost as many investors who feel we're in an AI bubble are also hanging on to their investments in the sector, UBS equity strategists said on October 14. "Most felt we were in an AI bubble, but that far from the apex of a bubble peak and thus around 90% of the people who said we were in a bubble said they were still invested in many of the AI-related areas." (Reporting by Paolo Laudani and Mathias de Rozario in Gdansk; Editing by Matt Scuffham)

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