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(Reuters) -Brookfield Asset Management said on Monday it will invest up to $5 billion in Bloom Energy's fuel cell technology to power data centers, as companies eye cleaner energy to meet the needs of the artificial intelligence boom. Shares of Bloom Energy were up 31% at $113.72 in premarket trading. Companies are turning to cleaner power sources such as nuclear, renewables and fuel cells as they invest billions into building and expanding data centers to meet the surge in demand for AI, cloud computing and digital services. The two companies are working on the design and delivery of AI factories globally, including a site in Europe that will be announced before the end of the year, they said. Brookfield is pushing to expand Europe's largest AI infrastructure cluster. In June, it had announced plans to invest up to 95 billion Swedish crowns ($9.98 billion) to build an AI data center in Sweden and a 20 billion euro commitment for AI projects in France. Fuel cells offer a cleaner alternative to traditional power by generating electricity through chemical reactions rather than combustion. Depending on the fuel, byproducts can include water and heat, making them more environment friendly. Bloom Energy has already deployed its fuel cell technology to data centers, through partnerships with American Electric Power, Equinix and Oracle. ($1 = 0.8639 euros) ($1 = 9.5158 Swedish crowns) (Reporting by Dharna Bafna and Tanay Dhumal in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Leroy Leo)

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(Reuters) -Amazon said it plans to hire 250,000 workers for the holiday season across its fulfillment and transportation networks in the U.S., the same number as the last two years, as the e-commerce behemoth prepares for a surge in orders. The announcement on Monday, however, comes amid concerns that U.S. shoppers will be cautious about spending in this holiday season as they brace from the impact of President Donald Trump's tariff policies. Data firm Adobe Analytics last week projected U.S. holiday online sales to grow at a slower pace this year, but e-commerce are still expected to outshine overall sales growth. Trump's latest tariffs on Chinese imports will have limited impact on holiday sales as most of the inventory is already in the country. Amazon will hire full-time and part-time employees at $23 per hour with benefits, while seasonal workers will earn an average wage of over $19 per hour, it said. The company had last month said it is investing more than $1 billion to raise pay and lower healthcare costs for U.S. fulfillment and transportation employees. Retailers have issued mixed outlooks ahead of the holiday season, with Target and Best Buy maintaining their annual forecasts, and Walmart and Macy's raising theirs. (Reporting by Prerna Bedi in Bengaluru; Editing by Leroy Leo)

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By Jaspreet Singh (Reuters) -Salesforce said on Monday it would invest $15 billion in San Francisco over the next five years to accelerate AI adoption, as the cloud software provider looks to sharpen its competitive edge against tech giants. Founded in San Francisco in 1999 and still headquartered there, Salesforce has been integrating AI into its products, including workplace messaging platform Slack, as it jostles with companies such as ServiceNow, Oracle and Microsoft to win businesses eager to adopt the booming technology. Salesforce said the latest investment would support a new AI incubator hub on its San Francisco campus and help companies adopt AI agents, which can perform tasks on behalf of the users. "This $15 billion investment reflects our deep commitment to our hometown — advancing AI innovation, creating jobs and helping companies and our communities thrive," CEO Marc Benioff said. The announcement comes ahead of the company's Dreamforce conference, scheduled to take place between October 14 and October 16 in San Francisco. The annual conference is expected to draw nearly 50,000 attendees and generate $130 million in local revenue, Salesforce said. The company, which has more than 76,000 employees globally, last week announced plans to spend $1 billion in Mexico over the next five years. It began operating in Mexico in 2006. "If the company wants to remain a leader in an important emerging technology area, it must have a pipeline of talent to innovate and drive the field forward. We already see shortages of AI talent, so this makes sense," Morningstar analyst Dan Romanoff said. Salesforce shares were up 2.8%. They have fallen around 28% so far this year. Earlier in the day, the company also launched its "Agentforce 360" AI platform globally. Salesforce had in September forecast third-quarter revenue below analysts' estimates, and announced a $20 billion increase to its existing share buyback program. (Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)

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(Reuters) -OpenAI has partnered with Broadcom to produce its first in-house artificial intelligence processors, the latest chip tie-up for the ChatGPT maker as it races to secure the computing power needed to meet surging demand for its services. The companies said on Monday that OpenAI would design the chips, which Broadcom will develop and deploy starting in the second half of 2026. They will roll out 10 gigawatts' worth of custom chips, whose power consumption is roughly equivalent to the needs of more than 8 million U.S. households or five times the electricity produced by the Hoover Dam. The agreement is the latest in a string of massive AI chip investments that have highlighted the technology industry's surging appetite for computing power as it races to build systems that meet or surpass human intelligence. OpenAI last week unveiled a 6-gigawatt AI chip supply deal with AMD that includes an option to buy a stake in the chipmaker, days after disclosing that Nvidia plans to invest up to $100 billion in the startup and provide it with data-center systems with at least 10 gigawatts of capacity. "Partnering with Broadcom is a critical step in building the infrastructure needed to unlock AI's potential," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a statement. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed and it was not immediately clear how OpenAI would fund the deal. CUSTOM CHIP BOOM The tie-up with Broadcom, first reported by Reuters last year, places OpenAI among cloud-computing giants such as Alphabet-owned Google and Amazon.com that are developing custom chips to meet surging AI demand and reduce dependence on Nvidia's costly processors that are limited in supply. The approach is not a sure bet. Similar efforts by Microsoft and Meta have run into delays or failed to match the performance of Nvidia chips, according to media reports, and analysts believe custom chips do not pose a threat to Nvidia's dominance in the short term. The rise of custom chips has, however, turned Broadcom – long known for its networking hardware – into one of the biggest winners of the generative AI boom, with its stock price rising nearly sixfold since the end of 2022. The company unveiled a blockbuster $10 billion custom AI chip order in September from an unnamed new customer that some analysts and market watchers speculated was OpenAI. Broadcom and OpenAI said on Monday that the deployment of the new custom chips would be completed by the end of 2029, building on their existing co-development and supply agreements. The new systems will be scaled entirely using Broadcom's Ethernet and other networking gear, giving the company an edge over smaller rivals such as Marvell Technology and challenging Nvidia's InfiniBand networking solution. (Reporting by Max Cherney in San Francisco and Arsheeya Bajwa in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)

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(Reuters) -OpenAI has partnered with Broadcom to produce its first in-house artificial intelligence processors, the latest chip tie-up for the ChatGPT maker as it races to secure the computing power needed to meet surging demand for its services. Shares of Broadcom rose more than 12% in premarket trading. The companies said on Monday that OpenAI would design the chips, which Broadcom will develop and deploy starting in the second half of 2026. They will roll out 10 gigawatts' worth of custom chips, whose power consumption is roughly equivalent to the needs of more than 8 million U.S. households or five times the electricity produced by the Hoover Dam. The agreement is the latest in a string of massive AI chip investments that have highlighted the technology industry's surging appetite for computing power as it races to build systems that meet or surpass human intelligence. OpenAI last week unveiled a 6-gigawatt AI chip supply deal with AMD that includes an option to buy a stake in the chipmaker, days after disclosing that Nvidia plans to invest up to $100 billion in the startup and provide it with data-center systems with at least 10 gigawatts of capacity. "Partnering with Broadcom is a critical step in building the infrastructure needed to unlock AI's potential," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a statement. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed and it was not immediately clear how OpenAI would fund the deal. CUSTOM CHIP BOOM The tie-up with Broadcom, first reported by Reuters last year, places OpenAI among cloud-computing giants such as Alphabet-owned Google and Amazon.com that are developing custom chips to meet surging AI demand and reduce dependence on Nvidia's costly processors that are limited in supply. The approach is not a sure bet. Similar efforts by Microsoft and Meta have run into delays or failed to match the performance of Nvidia chips, according to media reports, and analysts believe custom chips do not pose a threat to Nvidia's dominance in the short term. The rise of custom chips has, however, turned Broadcom – long known for its networking hardware – into one of the biggest winners of the generative AI boom, with its stock price rising nearly six-fold since the end of 2022. The company unveiled a blockbuster $10 billion custom AI chip order in September from an unnamed new customer that some analysts and market watchers speculated was OpenAI. Broadcom and OpenAI said on Monday that the deployment of the new custom chips would be completed by the end of 2029, building on their existing co-development and supply agreements. The new systems will be scaled entirely using Broadcom's Ethernet and other networking gear, giving the company an edge over smaller rivals such as Marvell Technology and challenging Nvidia's InfiniBand networking solution. (Reporting by Max Cherney in San Francisco and Arsheeya Bajwa in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)

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(Reuters) -Salesforce said on Monday it will invest $15 billion in San Francisco over the next five years to support artificial intelligence innovation and workforce development in the city. (Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)

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(Reuters) -Insiders at dating app Grindr are discussing taking it private after a share slump put its top owners in a tight personal financial position, Semafor reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. Grindr shares jumped more than 10% following the report. They have lost about 26% so far this year. Raymond Zage and James Lu, who control majority of Grindr, are in talks to secure debt financing from Fortress Investment Group to acquire the dating app, the report said. Zage and Lu have discussed a buyout price of around $15 per share, the report said, adding that the number could change. A deal at that price would value Grindr at around $3 billion. The talks have accelerated after a unit of Temasek, having extended personal loans to at least one of Grindr's owners secured by their holdings, seized some of those shares last week and sold them, Semafor reported. Both Grindr and Fortress Investment Group declined to comment on Reuters' requests. Originally owned by Beijing Kunlun Tech, Grindr was sold to San Vicente Acquisition LLC for more than $600 million in 2020 after the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment raised national security concerns. (Reporting by Kritika Lamba in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)

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(Reuters) -Cloud software provider Salesforce said on Monday it would invest $15 billion in San Francisco over the next five years to support artificial intelligence innovation and workforce development in the city. The investment will support a new AI incubator hub on Salesforce's San Francisco campus and help companies adopt AI agents, which can perform tasks on behalf of the users, the company said. "This $15 billion investment reflects our deep commitment to our hometown — advancing AI innovation, creating jobs and helping companies and our communities thrive," Chief Executive Marc Benioff said in a statement. (Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)

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London (PA Media/dpa)  – Quitting smoking, even in later life, could help slow down age-related memory problems, a study has found. According to experts, the findings add to evidence that giving up cigarettes may help prevent dementia, but they stress that more research is needed. A team from University College London (UCL) examined the impact of smoking on age-related, cognitive decline, which is when a person’s ability to think, learn and remember gets worse as they get older. The study, published in the Lancet Healthy Longevity journal, included data from 9,436 people aged 40 and over from across 12 countries. Half had quit smoking, while half had continued. Researchers said “the association between smoking and cognitive health is well established” but the long-term benefits of quitting are “less clear”. Analysis of tests that measured memory and verbal fluency showed scores for people who had given up cigarettes declined slower in the six years after they quit. For the smokers who quit, the rate of decline was about 20% slower for memory and 50% slower for verbal fluency. Dr Mikaela Bloomberg, of UCL’s Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care, said: “Our study suggests that quitting smoking may help people to maintain better cognitive health over the long term even when we are in our 50s or older when we quit. “We already know that quitting smoking, even later in life, is often followed by improvements in physical health and well-being. It seems that, for our cognitive health too, it is never too late to quit. “This finding is especially important because middle-aged and older smokers are less likely to try to quit than younger groups, yet they disproportionately experience the harms of smoking. “Evidence that quitting may support cognitive health could offer new compelling motivation for this group to try and quit smoking. “Also, as policymakers wrestle with the challenges of an ageing population, these findings provide another reason to invest in tobacco control.” Co-author Prof Andrew Steptoe, also of UCL’s Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care, added: “Slower cognitive decline is linked to lower dementia risk. “These findings add to evidence suggesting that quitting smoking might be a preventative strategy for the disease. However, further research will be needed that specifically examines dementia to confirm this.” The latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) Annual Population Survey estimates about 11.9% of people aged 18 or over – or the equivalent of about six million – smoked cigarettes in the UK in 2023. It is the lowest proportion of current smokers since ONS records began in 2011. The figures suggest people aged 25 to 34 were most likely to smoke (14%) while those aged over 65 were least likely to smoke (8.2%). Reacting to the findings of the UCL study, Dr Julia Dudley, head of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “Smoking is linked to multiple serious health conditions, including cancer, heart disease and dementia, particularly Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia. “Quitting smoking can significantly reduce your risk of developing these diseases. “As this is an observational study, it only suggests a link between cognitive decline and quitting smoking. “Further research is needed to understand whether other factors contributed to the differences, such as demographic differences, socioeconomic background or alcohol consumption. “Having other measures of cognition monitored, such as problem solving, would also give a bigger picture of the benefits of quitting smoking.” Professor Paresh Malhotra, group leader at the UK Dementia Research Institute Centre for Care Research and Technology and head of the division of neurology at Imperial College London, said: “It’s increasingly clear that what’s good for your heart and blood vessels is good for your brain and thinking. “This study from UCL provides further evidence, showing that stopping smoking after the age of 40 is associated with better memory and language skills than if people continue to smoke. “This adds further impetus to the need to help as many people as possible, at whatever age, quit smoking altogether.” The following information is not intended for publication pa dpa coh

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(Reuters) -OpenAI has partnered with Broadcom to produce its first in-house artificial intelligence processors, the latest tie-up for the world's most valuable startup for computing power amid surging demand for its services. The companies said OpenAI would design the chips, which Broadcom will develop and deploy starting in the second half of 2026. They will roll out 10 gigawatts worth of custom chips, whose power consumption is roughly equivalent to the needs of more than 8 million U.S. households or five times the electricity produced by the Hoover Dam. Here is a list of multi-billion dollar AI, cloud and chip deals signed recently: AMD AND OPENAI AMD agreed to supply artificial intelligence chips to OpenAI in a multi-year deal that would also give the ChatGPT creator the option to buy up to roughly 10% of the chipmaker. NVIDIA AND OPENAI Nvidia is set to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI and supply it with data center chips, in a deal giving the chipmaker a financial stake in OpenAI. OpenAI is already an important customer for Nvidia. META AND COREWEAVE CoreWeave has signed a $14 billion agreement with Meta to supply computing power to the Facebook parent. NVIDIA AND INTEL Nvidia will invest $5 billion in Intel, giving it roughly 4% of the company after new shares are issued. ORACLE AND META Oracle is in talks with Meta for a multi-year cloud computing deal worth about $20 billion, underscoring the social media giant's drive to secure faster access to computing power. ORACLE AND OPENAI Oracle is reported to have signed one of the biggest cloud deals ever with OpenAI, under which the ChatGPT maker is expected to buy $300 billion in computing power from the company for about five years. COREWEAVE AND NVIDIA CoreWeave signed a $6.3 billion initial order with backer Nvidia, a deal that guarantees that the AI chipmaker will purchase any cloud capacity not sold to customers. NEBIUS GROUP AND MICROSOFT Nebius Group will provide Microsoft with GPU infrastructure capacity in a deal worth $17.4 billion over a five-year term. META AND GOOGLE Google struck a six-year cloud computing deal with Meta Platforms worth more than $10 billion, Reuters had reported in August. INTEL AND SOFTBANK GROUP Intel is getting a $2 billion capital injection from SoftBank Group, making the Japanese tech investor one of the top-10 shareholders of the troubled U.S. chipmaker. TESLA AND SAMSUNG Tesla signed a $16.5 billion deal to source chips from Samsung Electronics, with the EV maker's CEO Elon Musk, saying that the South Korean tech giant's new chip factory in Texas would make Tesla's next-generation AI6 chip. META AND SCALE AI Meta took a 49% stake for about $14.3 billion in Scale AI and brought in its 28-year-old CEO, Alexandr Wang, to play a prominent role in the tech giant's artificial intelligence strategy. GOOGLE AND WINDSURF Google hired several key staff members from AI code generation startup Windsurf and will pay $2.4 billion in license fees as part of the deal to use some of Windsurf's technology under non-exclusive terms. COREWEAVE AND OPENAI CoreWeave signed a five-year contract worth $11.9 billion with OpenAI in March, before the Nvidia-backed startup's IPO. STARGATE DATACENTER PROJECT Stargate is a joint venture between SoftBank, OpenAI and Oracle to build data centers. The project was announced in January by U.S. President Donald Trump, who said that the companies would invest up to $500 billion to fund infrastructure for artificial intelligence. AMAZON AND ANTHROPIC Amazon.com pumped $4 billion into OpenAI competitor Anthropic, doubling its investment in the firm known for its GenAI chatbot Claude. (Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City, Deborah Sophia, Arnav Mishra and Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Maju Samuel)

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