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(Reuters) -Private equity firm Warburg Pincus has struck a deal to buy Germany's PSI Software for more than 700 million euros ($811 million), with shareholder and customer E.ON remaining a strategic investor, the firms said on Monday. Reuters first reported on both a nearing takeover of PSI last week and Warburg Pincus' offer for the maker of software for energy networks on Sunday. Having jumped nearly 11% on Friday after the news broke, PSI shares gained a further 35% to trade at 44.9 euros apiece – their highest level since January 2022. That was close to the offered price of 45 euros per share in Warburg Pincus' deal, amounting to a premium of about 50% from the company's closing price on Thursday. MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE, BERLIN HQ, TO BE MAINTAINED PSI's software helps run power and gas transmission grids, the backbone of energy infrastructure, as well as factories, and Reuters has reported that it was seeking funding for the development of product upgrades. Last year, the group was hobbled for weeks by a cyberattack that forced it to take most of its IT systems offline, exposing the vulnerability of software supply in critical infrastructure. As a result, PSI posted an annual loss before interest and taxes of 15.2 million euros ($17.6 million) in 2024. PSI said its board supported the suitor's offer and intends to recommend it to its shareholders. PSI plans to delist from the German stock exchange after the closing of the deal. PSI added that Warburg Pincus would maintain the company's management structure and its headquarters in Berlin. E.ON STAYS A KEY SHAREHOLDER "With our deep experience in software and energy, as well as a strong track record in take-private transactions, we believe Warburg Pincus is the right partner to support the next phase of PSI's growth," Warburg Pincus managing directors Max Fowinkel and Ryan Dalton said in a statement. Warburg Pincus has signed agreements for about 28.5% of PSI's equity with its anchor shareholders, PSI said. The statement said that an unnamed anchor shareholder will partially reinvest its proceeds alongside Warburg Pincus into PSI's holding structure. German businessman and newsletter publisher Norman Rentrop is PSI's largest shareholder with a 23% stake, while German utility E.ON, Europe's largest operator of energy networks, is its second-largest investor with around 18%. For the purpose of the transaction, E.ON will be regarded as acting jointly with Warburg Pincus, the firms said. Goldman Sachs is running the sale process. ($1 = 0.8607 euros) (Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal, Shubham Kalia and Disha Mishra in Bengaluru, Alexander Huebner in Munich and Christoph Steitz and Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus, Aidan Lewis and Bernadette Baum)

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(Reuters) -Private equity firm Warburg Pincus has struck a deal to buy Germany's PSI Software for more than 700 million euros ($811 million), with shareholder and customer E.ON remaining a strategic investor, the firms said on Monday. Reuters first reported on both a nearing takeover of PSI last week and Warburg Pincus' offer for the maker of software for energy networks on Sunday. Having jumped nearly 11% on Friday after the news broke, PSI shares gained a further 35% to trade at 44.9 euros apiece – their highest level since January 2022. That was close to the offered price of 45 euros per share in Warburg Pincus' deal, amounting to a premium of about 50% from the company's closing price on Thursday. MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE, BERLIN HQ, TO BE MAINTAINED PSI's software helps run power and gas transmission grids, the backbone of energy infrastructure, as well as factories, and Reuters has reported that it was seeking funding for the development of product upgrades. Last year, the group was hobbled for weeks by a cyberattack that forced it to take most of its IT systems offline, exposing the vulnerability of software supply in critical infrastructure. As a result, PSI posted an annual loss before interest and taxes of 15.2 million euros ($17.6 million) in 2024. PSI said its board supported the suitor's offer and intends to recommend it to its shareholders. PSI plans to delist from the German stock exchange after the closing of the deal. PSI added that Warburg Pincus would maintain the company's management structure and its headquarters in Berlin. E.ON STAYS A KEY SHAREHOLDER "With our deep experience in software and energy, as well as a strong track record in take-private transactions, we believe Warburg Pincus is the right partner to support the next phase of PSI's growth," Warburg Pincus managing directors Max Fowinkel and Ryan Dalton said in a statement. Warburg Pincus has signed agreements for about 28.5% of PSI's equity with its anchor shareholders, PSI said. The statement said that an unnamed anchor shareholder will partially reinvest its proceeds alongside Warburg Pincus into PSI's holding structure. German businessman and newsletter publisher Norman Rentrop is PSI's largest shareholder with a 23% stake, while German utility E.ON, Europe's largest operator of energy networks, is its second-largest investor with around 18%. For the purpose of the transaction, E.ON will be regarded as acting jointly with Warburg Pincus, the firms said. Goldman Sachs is running the sale process. ($1 = 0.8607 euros) (Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal, Shubham Kalia and Disha Mishra in Bengaluru, Alexander Huebner in Munich and Christoph Steitz and Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus, Aidan Lewis and Bernadette Baum)

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By Krystal Hu (Reuters) -Data startups Fivetran and dbt Labs will merge in an all-stock deal, creating a combined data infrastructure company with nearly $600 million in annual revenue, the two companies told Reuters. The deal is structured as an all-stock exchange based on an agreed ratio tied to revenues and growth rates, Fivetran Chief Executive George Fraser said in an interview. The combined entity is worth more than its last private valuation, Fraser said, but added that the valuation will ultimately be determined by the market.  Fivetran was last publicly valued at $5.6 billion in September 2021, while dbt Labs was valued at $4.2 billion in a Series D round in February 2022. The companies share some investors, including Andreessen Horowitz. Upon closing, Fraser will serve as CEO of the combined company, while dbt Labs CEO Tristan Handy will become co-founder and president. The transaction, which unites two highly valued venture-backed startups, marks significant consolidation in the data tooling market as enterprises race to adapt infrastructure for artificial intelligence applications, which require organized access to internal data. "The thing is really unique about this combination is our emphasis on open infrastructure and interoperability… as everyone is trying to figure out how to use their business data in the context of AI," Fraser said. Oakland, California-based Fivetran specializes in automated data movement, helping companies pull information from various sources into a central data warehouse. Philadelphia-based dbt Labs created dbt, an open-source tool for transforming and preparing that data for analysis. Describing the companies' products as complementary, Fraser estimated that 80% to 90% of Fivetran's customers use dbt's tools. The new company will also keep dbt Core, the popular open-source version of dbt Labs' software, available under its current license. The goal is to build a more comprehensive platform for enterprises' data needs, Fraser said, with the increased scale and broader platform strengthening its position for a public listing, even though an IPO is not imminent. Fraser added that the deal is a merger of equals rather than an acquisition as the new company's board will have representation from both Fivetran and dbt Labs, and that the firm will be near cash-flow break-even. Fivetran and dbt Labs expect the deal to close within a year. The Information had earlier reported on talks between the two firms. (Reporting by Krystal Hu in San Francisco; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)

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(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 in a statement. 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. Salesforce shares were up nearly 1% in morning trading. They have fallen around 28% so far this year. Earlier in the day, the company also launched its "Agentforce 360" AI platform globally. The company forecast third-quarter revenue below Wall Street estimates in September. It had also announced a $20 billion increase to its existing share buyback program at the time. (Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)

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(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 in a statement. 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. Salesforce shares were up nearly 1% in morning trading. They have fallen around 28% so far this year. Earlier in the day, the company also launched its "Agentforce 360" AI platform globally. The company forecast third-quarter revenue below Wall Street estimates in September. It had also announced a $20 billion increase to its existing share buyback program at the time. (Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)

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(Removes extraneous words from headline) By Stephen Nellis SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -Power Integrations, a niche chipmaker that provides chips for handling power, on Monday said it is working with Nvidia on the artificial intelligence giant's push to make data centers operate at higher voltages. Nvidia earlier this year unveiled an effort with more than a dozen partner companies to convert massive AI data centers – which can consume as much electricity as cities – to distribute internal power using 800 volts of direct current, rather than the more common alternating current. The effort is meant to reduce the losses that come from moving power around inside the data center. Power Integrations, which had $419 million in revenue in its most recent fiscal year and which supplies chips that handle power for cars and major appliances such as clothing dryers, makes chips out of a material called gallium nitride, known in the industry as "GaN." Those chips can handle the power delivery requirements of chips such as Nvidia's while taking up less space than chips made of other materials. Power Integrations did not give a revenue estimate or precise timeline on when its chips would be supplied to Nvidia. But Roland Saint-Pierre, vice president of product development at Power Integrations, told Reuters in an interview that the reliability testing that comes with supplying the automotive industry helped it gain a spot on Nvidia's approved supplier list. That list already features several of its competitors from Europe and China such as Infineon and InnoScience.  "The fact that we are automotive qualified, and we have these power GaN devices running in automobiles, was eye opening for them," Saint-Pierre said. "This is something they like because of the rigor and the reliability concerns for these data centers." (Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco Editing by Tomasz Janowski)

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(Reuters) -British autonomous driving technology group Wayve is in talks with Microsoft and SoftBank to raise up to $2 billion in funding, which could value the firm at about $8 billion, the Financial Times reported on Monday, citing sources. This comes after Nvidia had signed a letter of intent in September for a potential $500 million investment in London-based Wayve, as investors globally pour billions into fast-growing AI start-ups. Wayve currently operates in Britain and the U.S. and has been expanding its testing and development operations to markets, including Germany and Japan. The firm declined to comment on the report, while Microsoft and SoftBank did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for a comment. Founded in 2017, Wayve raised over $1 billion last year, led by SoftBank and supported by Nvidia. Ride-hailing platform Uber also made an undisclosed investment in the firm in 2024. (Reporting by DhanushVignesh Babu in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)

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By Max A. Cherney and Arsheeya Bajwa (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 10%. 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. Most analysts do not expect the deal, the latest effort by a tech company to develop custom AI chips, to challenge Nvidia's grip on the AI accelerator market, given the significant challenge of designing, scaling and manufacturing in-house chips from the ground up. The OpenAI-Broadcom deal is the latest in a string of massive chip investments that have highlighted the technology industry's surging appetite for computing power as it races to build the most sophisticated AI systems. 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. A one-gigawatt data center can cost between $50 billion and $60 billion, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in August, adding that Nvidia products, powering the data center, can represent more than half of those costs. The 2026 timeline set out by OpenAI for the build-out is aggressive, but the startup is also best positioned to raise the funds required for the project, given the heights of investor confidence, said Gadjo Sevilla, an analyst at eMarketer. "Financing such a large chip deal will likely require a combination of funding rounds, pre-orders, strategic investments, and support from Microsoft, as well as leveraging future revenue streams and potential credit facilities." 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 costly, supply-constrained Nvidia processors. However, similar efforts by Microsoft and Meta have failed to match the performance of Nvidia chips, according to media reports. Still, the rise in demand for custom chips has turned Broadcom into one of the biggest winners of the generative AI boom, with its stock price rising nearly six-fold since the end of 2022. Broadcom unveiled a $10 billion custom AI chip order in September from an unnamed new customer, which some analysts speculated was OpenAI. However, a company executive on Monday alluded that OpenAI was not that unnamed client. 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, 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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By Stephen Nellis SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -Power Integrations, a niche chipmaker that provides chips for handling power, on Monday said it is working with Nvidia on the artificial intelligence giant's push to make data centers operate at higher voltages. Nvidia earlier this year unveiled an effort with more than a dozen partner companies to convert massive AI data centers – which can consume as much electricity as cities – to distribute internal power using 800 volts of direct current, rather than the more common alternating current. The effort is meant to reduce the losses that come from moving power around inside the data center. Power Integrations, which had $419 million in revenue in its most recent fiscal year and which supplies chips that handle power for cars and major appliances such as clothing dryers, makes chips out of a material called gallium nitride, known in the industry as "GaN." Those chips can handle the power delivery requirements of chips such as Nvidia's while taking up less space than chips made of other materials. Power Integrations did not give a revenue estimate or precise timeline on when its chips would be supplied to Nvidia. But Roland Saint-Pierre, vice president of product development at Power Integrations, told Reuters in an interview that the reliability testing that comes with supplying the automotive industry helped it gain a spot on Nvidia's approved supplier list. That list already features several of its competitors from Europe and China such as Infineon and InnoScience.  "The fact that we are automotive qualified, and we have these power GaN devices running in automobiles, was eye opening for them," Saint-Pierre said. "This is something they like because of the rigor and the reliability concerns for these data centers." (Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco Editing by Tomasz Janowski)

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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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