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By Shubham Kalia (Reuters) -Apple's deal with ChatGPT owner OpenAI is not "exclusive" and does not harm competition, Apple's lawyers said as they asked a U.S. judge on Tuesday to dismiss a case filed by billionaire Elon Musk's OpenAI rival xAI. Musk's xAI is seeking billions of dollars in damages, saying Apple would have no reason to more prominently feature the X app and the Grok app in its App Store because of the "exclusive" deal with OpenAI. Under a deal announced in June 2024, Apple has integrated ChatGPT into its operating system for iPhones, iPads and Macs. Musk owns both X and xAI, which owns the Grok chatbot. Apple and OpenAI have "locked up markets to maintain their monopolies and prevent innovators like X and xAI from competing," the lawsuit filed by xAI in August claimed. "Apple and OpenAI's agreement is expressly not exclusive, and it is public and widely known that Apple intends to partner with other generative AI chatbots," lawyers for Apple said. In a separate filing, lawyers for OpenAI accused Musk of waging "a campaign of lawfare" against OpenAI and ChatGPT, referring to earlier suits that Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has filed against the company. They too asked the judge to dismiss the case. Musk's xAI "has not alleged any non-speculative harm rising directly out of ChatGPT’s integration as an option for certain features on certain iPhones — and certainly not the species of unlawful, anticompetitive harm targeted by antitrust law," lawyers for OpenAI wrote. Musk is separately suing OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman in federal court in California to stop its conversion from a nonprofit to a for-profit business. Musk cofounded OpenAI with Altman in 2015 as a nonprofit. xAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours on Apple and OpenAI seeking dismissal of the suit. (Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Elaine Hardcastle)

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SEOUL (Reuters) -Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have signed letters of intent to supply memory chips for OpenAI's data centers, they said on Wednesday, as South Korean chipmakers join forces with the ChatGPT maker to meet rising demand from its Stargate project. The announcements were made on Wednesday after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman met South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and the chairmen of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix at the presidential office in central Seoul. U.S. President Donald Trump announced the $500 billion Stargate project in January, charging OpenAI and partners including SoftBank and Oracle with ensuring the U.S. remains a leader in artificial intelligence. Expanding chip availability was one of the key ideas of the project, and Nvidia said last week it would invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI and supply it with data center chips. FIRMS SEEN SUPPLYING MUCH OF OPENAI'S STARGATE CHIP DEMAND South Korea's presidential office said OpenAI's chip demand for Stargate was expected to reach 900,000 wafers a month, and OpenAI hoped to source much of that from Samsung and SK Hynix. It added that the supply timeline had not yet been decided. The office said the partnership gave South Korean chipmakers an early foothold in the world's largest AI infrastructure project, providing a growth opportunity for the domestic chip industry. Samsung and SK Hynix together hold about 70% of the global Dynamic Random Access Memory chip market and nearly 80% of the HBM market. HBM – a type of DRAM standard first produced in 2013 – involves stacking chips vertically to save space and reduce power consumption, helping to process the large volumes of data generated by complex AI applications. OpenAI this year set up its first office in Seoul as South Korean demand for its ChatGPT service surged. The country has the largest number of paying ChatGPT subscribers after the United States, according to OpenAI. (Reporting by Heekyong Yang and Hyunjoo Jin. Editing by Mark Potter and Jan Harvey)

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By David Jeans NEW YORK (Reuters) -"I'm a warlord now, bitch!" Steven Simoni, wearing a $4,000 Celine track suit unzipped to reveal a bare chest and a silver chain, was holding court at a recent film premiere in the East Village of Manhattan, joking with a reporter about his latest venture. The tech entrepreneur was in town to see "Match in a Haystack," a documentary he funded about a dance troupe that defeats the odds to put on a show in war-torn Ukraine. A little more than a year ago the 39-year-old was a typical Silicon Valley success story having sold a payments company to DoorDash for $125 million in 2022. But now he is the co-founder of a different kind of startup, Allen Control Systems, which makes a product far removed from menu QR-codes: an AI-powered autonomous machine gun called the "Bullfrog" designed to shoot drones out of the sky. "The future is Skynet, basically," Simoni said, referring to the fictional AI system from the "Terminator" films that becomes self-aware and turns on humanity. "I want to supply those products to the government so they can use them." Just a few years ago, the idea that this "Star Wars" nerd and one-time national champion of "A Game of Thrones: The Card Game," would become a brash defense contractor might have seemed absurd. But Simoni is well on his way, with $40 million in funding – most recently raised in a round led by Craft Ventures, the firm cofounded by President Donald Trump's AI czar David Sacks – and prototype contracts with the U.S. Army and Special Operations Forces. Simoni is part of a new generation of entrepreneurs riding Silicon Valley's pivot to military technologies, as wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and surging tensions with China, have underscored the U.S. need to prepare for the future of warfare. Using a playbook championed by Anduril founder Palmer Luckey and Palantir CEO Alex Karp, tech entrepreneurs who once sold consumer apps are now developing drone swarms, spy satellites, autonomous boats, and other lethal technologies while raising hype from venture capitalists and the Pentagon alike.  Simoni, a Navy veteran, said his "warlord" character, inspired by Bradley Cooper's slick arms dealer from the film "War Dogs," is one ironic way he's getting attention for his company.  “I hate war, but war is always going to happen anyway,” he said. “So, it's like, someone's going to make this product at some point.” 'THE GENERALS LOVE ME' During a recent dinner in Washington, D.C., with a Reuters reporter, Simoni received a text from a staffer at Executive Branch, the private club founded by Donald Trump Jr. that charges as much as $500,000 to join. The club is happy hunting grounds for an aspiring defense contractor looking to meet people connected to the Trump administration, and Simoni was hoping to negotiate a cut-price entry.  “I should have spent more time on the Executive Branch,” he said, referring to the Trump administration. “The major thing in defense tech is selling to the White House and Congress. Even before the DoD.” He later opted against joining after learning he wouldn't get a discount. But his hustle continues to generate outsized attention for his company. He's appeared on Fox News as a drone expert, launched a podcast featuring interviews with top military officials, and, most recently, joined venture firm Forum Ventures as a partner to invest in other defense tech companies. Being backed by Sacks' venture firm has also opened doors, including an invite to a recent AI summit co-hosted by Sacks' "All-In" podcast where Trump delivered a speech. He throws late-night parties at the company's Austin penthouse, attended by startups and government officials alike. Earlier this year, he hosted a fundraiser for Republican congressman John Carter attended by Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. On another occasion, he said he went out for karaoke with military officials he declined to name after a conference. “The generals love me,” he said. In June, General James Rainey, the commander at Army Futures, the command responsible for modernizing the Army and acquiring cutting-edge technology, joined Simoni on his weekly podcast "The Drone Ultimatum" to discuss the Pentagon's efforts to work with Silicon Valley. “It's really about getting the fiscal agility to go out to the great U.S. tech companies that exist and start buying stuff and get it in the hands of our war fighters,” Rainey said. In a statement, the U.S. Army said it's "in the process of awarding a contract to Allen Control Systems," before the end of the fiscal year to "evaluate the potential for The Bullfrog to integrate into existing Army platforms." Carter, Rogers and Sacks did not respond to requests for comment. Craft Ventures declined to comment. SHOOTING DRONES Allen Control Systems is trying to solve a persistent battlefield danger that has emerged in Ukraine: shooting small, cheap, unjammable drones from the sky before they can attack. While soldiers currently shoot them with guns, a host of startups have emerged to provide solutions spanning laser beams to microwave blasts. In August, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced he was launching an anti-drone taskforce to address the issue. “There's no doubt that the threats we face today from hostile drones grow by the day," he said.  The company is selling its AI-powered Bullfrog for around $350,000 apiece, making it a potential add-on to autonomous vehicles and unmanned drone boats, or as a stationary sentry to secure perimeters, like the U.S.-Mexico border, or military bases abroad. The contraption, fit for a scene from the Terminator, can swivel 400 degrees in less than a second. One prototype turret undergoing field testing is called Eminem; another is named Bob, after the late television painter Bob Ross. Under the hood, custom circuit boards feature a printed image of Simoni and co-founder Luke Allen. “If Russia or China recovers one of these eventually, they have to see our faces,” Simoni said. “We're laughing at them.” During a demo for the U.S. Army, intelligence community and investors last month at a ranch in Austin, the Bullfrog’s M240 machine gun was mounted on the back of a pickup truck and pelted bullets at drones in the sky. After shooting a burst of about a half dozen rounds, one drone fell from the sky in flames.  Later, the gun jammed, and the drones flew toward the gun before flying away again unscathed.  Simoni shrugged off any concerns, and said the product would be ready for primetime by the end of the year. “It's in its post-adolescent stage,” Simoni said. “Almost an adult.” RACK UP THE HYPE Simoni grew up in a military family in Pennsylvania, and joined the Navy as an engineer in 2008 to work on nuclear reactors. There, he met fellow engineer and future co-founder, Luke Allen. After leaving the military, both men moved to Silicon Valley, and – following multiple failed ventures – started the QR code business Bbot in 2019.  The company initially struggled to sell its first product – a robotic system that delivered drinks to tables in restaurants – but found success after pivoting to software. Soon after, it was acquired by DoorDash, minting the founders a small fortune.  “Putin's second invasion of Ukraine happened within a few days of us selling Bbot,” Allen told Reuters. “So as an engineer, you can basically help the good guys, help the bad guys, or do nothing, which is still a choice.” Allen left DoorDash and, seeing the growing threat of drones in Ukraine, he started to work on the Bullfrog with seed investment from Simoni. After some convincing, Simoni joined as CEO of Allen Control Systems at the start of 2024. “Every company needs a front man," Simoni said. Since then, Simoni has leaned into the Silicon Valley buzz machine. He said Allen sometimes compares him to Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced founder of health startup Theranos w…

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

By David Jeans NEW YORK (Reuters) -"I'm a warlord now, bitch!" Steven Simoni, wearing a $4,000 Celine track suit unzipped to reveal a bare chest and a silver chain, was holding court at a recent film premiere in the East Village of Manhattan, joking with a reporter about his latest venture. The tech entrepreneur was in town to see "Match in a Haystack," a documentary he funded about a dance troupe that defeats the odds to put on a show in war-torn Ukraine. A little more than a year ago the 39-year-old was a typical Silicon Valley success story having sold a payments company to DoorDash for $125 million in 2022. But now he is the co-founder of a different kind of startup, Allen Control Systems, which makes a product far removed from menu QR-codes: an AI-powered autonomous machine gun called the "Bullfrog" designed to shoot drones out of the sky. "The future is Skynet, basically," Simoni said, referring to the fictional AI system from the "Terminator" films that becomes self-aware and turns on humanity. "I want to supply those products to the government so they can use them." Just a few years ago, the idea that this "Star Wars" nerd and one-time national champion of "A Game of Thrones: The Card Game," would become a brash defense contractor might have seemed absurd. But Simoni is well on his way, with $40 million in funding – most recently raised in a round led by Craft Ventures, the firm cofounded by President Donald Trump's AI czar David Sacks – and prototype contracts with the U.S. Army and Special Operations Forces. Simoni is part of a new generation of entrepreneurs riding Silicon Valley's pivot to military technologies, as wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and surging tensions with China, have underscored the U.S. need to prepare for the future of warfare. Using a playbook championed by Anduril founder Palmer Luckey and Palantir CEO Alex Karp, tech entrepreneurs who once sold consumer apps are now developing drone swarms, spy satellites, autonomous boats, and other lethal technologies while raising hype from venture capitalists and the Pentagon alike.  Simoni, a Navy veteran, said his "warlord" character, inspired by Bradley Cooper's slick arms dealer from the film "War Dogs," is one ironic way he's getting attention for his company.  “I hate war, but war is always going to happen anyway,” he said. “So, it's like, someone's going to make this product at some point.” 'THE GENERALS LOVE ME' During a recent dinner in Washington, D.C., with a Reuters reporter, Simoni received a text from a staffer at Executive Branch, the private club founded by Donald Trump Jr. that charges as much as $500,000 to join. The club is happy hunting grounds for an aspiring defense contractor looking to meet people connected to the Trump administration, and Simoni was hoping to negotiate a cut-price entry.  “I should have spent more time on the Executive Branch,” he said, referring to the Trump administration. “The major thing in defense tech is selling to the White House and Congress. Even before the DoD.” He later opted against joining after learning he wouldn't get a discount. But his hustle continues to generate outsized attention for his company. He's appeared on Fox News as a drone expert, launched a podcast featuring interviews with top military officials, and, most recently, joined venture firm Forum Ventures as a partner to invest in other defense tech companies. Being backed by Sacks' venture firm has also opened doors, including an invite to a recent AI summit co-hosted by Sacks' "All-In" podcast where Trump delivered a speech. He throws late-night parties at the company's Austin penthouse, attended by startups and government officials alike. Earlier this year, he hosted a fundraiser for Republican congressman John Carter attended by Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. On another occasion, he said he went out for karaoke with military officials he declined to name after a conference. “The generals love me,” he said. In June, General James Rainey, the commander at Army Futures, the command responsible for modernizing the Army and acquiring cutting-edge technology, joined Simoni on his weekly podcast "The Drone Ultimatum" to discuss the Pentagon's efforts to work with Silicon Valley. “It's really about getting the fiscal agility to go out to the great U.S. tech companies that exist and start buying stuff and get it in the hands of our war fighters,” Rainey said. In a statement, the U.S. Army said it's "in the process of awarding a contract to Allen Control Systems," before the end of the fiscal year to "evaluate the potential for The Bullfrog to integrate into existing Army platforms." Carter, Rogers and Sacks did not respond to requests for comment. Craft Ventures declined to comment. SHOOTING DRONES Allen Control Systems is trying to solve a persistent battlefield danger that has emerged in Ukraine: shooting small, cheap, unjammable drones from the sky before they can attack. While soldiers currently shoot them with guns, a host of startups have emerged to provide solutions spanning laser beams to microwave blasts. In August, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced he was launching an anti-drone taskforce to address the issue. “There's no doubt that the threats we face today from hostile drones grow by the day," he said.  The company is selling its AI-powered Bullfrog for around $350,000 apiece, making it a potential add-on to autonomous vehicles and unmanned drone boats, or as a stationary sentry to secure perimeters, like the U.S.-Mexico border, or military bases abroad. The contraption, fit for a scene from the Terminator, can swivel 400 degrees in less than a second. One prototype turret undergoing field testing is called Eminem; another is named Bob, after the late television painter Bob Ross. Under the hood, custom circuit boards feature a printed image of Simoni and co-founder Luke Allen. “If Russia or China recovers one of these eventually, they have to see our faces,” Simoni said. “We're laughing at them.” During a demo for the U.S. Army, intelligence community and investors last month at a ranch in Austin, the Bullfrog’s M240 machine gun was mounted on the back of a pickup truck and pelted bullets at drones in the sky. After shooting a burst of about a half dozen rounds, one drone fell from the sky in flames.  Later, the gun jammed, and the drones flew toward the gun before flying away again unscathed.  Simoni shrugged off any concerns, and said the product would be ready for primetime by the end of the year. “It's in its post-adolescent stage,” Simoni said. “Almost an adult.” RACK UP THE HYPE Simoni grew up in a military family in Pennsylvania, and joined the Navy as an engineer in 2008 to work on nuclear reactors. There, he met fellow engineer and future co-founder, Luke Allen. After leaving the military, both men moved to Silicon Valley, and – following multiple failed ventures – started the QR code business Bbot in 2019.  The company initially struggled to sell its first product – a robotic system that delivered drinks to tables in restaurants – but found success after pivoting to software. Soon after, it was acquired by DoorDash, minting the founders a small fortune.  “Putin's second invasion of Ukraine happened within a few days of us selling Bbot,” Allen told Reuters. “So as an engineer, you can basically help the good guys, help the bad guys, or do nothing, which is still a choice.” Allen left DoorDash and, seeing the growing threat of drones in Ukraine, he started to work on the Bullfrog with seed investment from Simoni. After some convincing, Simoni joined as CEO of Allen Control Systems at the start of 2024. “Every company needs a front man," Simoni said. Since then, Simoni has leaned into the Silicon Valley buzz machine. He said Allen sometimes compares him to Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced founder of health startup Theranos w…

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

By Sneha S K (Reuters) -Bristol Myers Squibb, Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Astex Pharmaceuticals are coming together to share proprietary data for training an artificial intelligence model to assist drug discovery and development. The companies are joining a consortium that includes AbbVie and Johnson & Johnson , and will contribute data from several thousand experimentally determined protein–small molecule structures to train an AI model called OpenFold3, life sciences company Apheris said on Wednesday. The initiative is based on a federated data sharing model, which enables collaboration without exposing sensitive data. Germany-based Apheris' computing platform enables the aggregation of diverse data sets from companies while ensuring each dataset remains securely in its original location. By pooling these datasets, the initiative aims to improve OpenFold3’s accuracy in predicting interactions of proteins and small molecules. The federated platform allows multiple companies to "advance predictive models for small molecule discovery in ways no single organization could achieve alone," said Payal Sheth, vice president, discovery biotherapeutics and lead discovery and optimization at Bristol. OpenFold3 is the flagship project of the industry-led AI Structural Biology Network, conducted in collaboration with the AlQuraishi Lab at Columbia University. This consortium really ties into our larger corporate goal of embedding AI throughout all of what we do; and also a nice example of how we can come together as pharma companies and do even more for patients than we could if we did it on our own, said Hans Bitter, head of computational sciences at Takeda. (Reporting by Sneha S K in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed)

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(Reuters) -Apple and ChatGPT owner OpenAI on Tuesday asked a U.S. federal judge to dismiss a case filed by billionaire Elon Musk's xAI, which had accused them of illegally conspiring to thwart competition in the field of artificial intelligence. (Reporting by Shubham Kalia in BengaluruEditing by Tomasz Janowski)

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By Arpan Chaturvedi and Aditya Kalra NEW DELHI (Reuters) -In India, Bollywood stars are asking judges to protect their voice and persona in the era of artificial intelligence. One famous couple's biggest target is Google's video arm YouTube. Abhishek Bachchan and his wife Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, known for her iconic Cannes Film Festival red carpet appearances, have asked a judge to remove and prohibit creation of AI videos infringing their intellectual property rights. But in a more far-reaching request, they also want Google ordered to have safeguards to ensure such YouTube videos uploaded anyway do not train other AI platforms, legal papers reviewed by Reuters show. A handful of Bollywood celebrities have begun asserting their "personality rights" in Indian courts over the last few years, as the country has no explicit protection for those like in many U.S. states. But the Bachchans' lawsuits are the most high-profile to date about the interplay of personality rights and the risk that misleading or deepfake YouTube videos could train other AI models. The actors argue that YouTube's content and third-party training policy is concerning as it lets users consent to sharing of a video they created to train rival AI models, risking further proliferation of misleading content online, according to near-identical filings from Abhishek and Aishwarya dated September 6, which are not public. "Such content being used to train AI models has the potential to multiply the instances of use of any infringing content i.e. first being uploaded on YouTube being viewed by the public, and then also being used to train," the filings said. Representatives for the Bachchans and Google spokespersons did not respond to Reuters' queries. The Delhi High Court last month asked Google's lawyer in court to submit written responses before the next hearing on January 15. YouTube's India managing director, Gunjan Soni, last month described the platform as "the new TV for India". With around 600 million users, India is YouTube's biggest market globally, and it is popular for entertainment content like Bollywood videos. LAWSUIT ALLEGES YOUTUBE VIDEOS ARE 'EGREGIOUS' Indian courts have already started to back Bollywood stars upset about generative AI content damaging their reputation. In 2023, a Delhi court restrained the misuse of Anil Kapoor's image, voice and even a catchphrase he often used. Reuters is first to report details of the Bachchans' specific challenge against Google, which was contained in court filings spanning 1,500 pages where they mostly target little-known sellers for unauthorised physical merchandise like posters, coffee mugs and stickers with their photos, and even fake autographed pictures. They are also seeking $450,000 in damages against Google and others, and a permanent injunction against such exploitation. The lawsuits contain hundreds of links and screenshots of what they allege are YouTube videos showing "egregious", "sexually explicit" or "fictitious" AI content. The judge in early September ordered 518 website links and posts specifically listed by the actors to be taken down, saying they caused financial harm to the couple and harmed their dignity and goodwill. Reuters, however, found videos similar to the examples of infringing videos cited in Abhishek's papers on YouTube. Among them: a clip showing Abhishek posing but then suddenly kissing a film actress using AI manipulation; an AI depiction of Aishwarya and her co-star Salman Khan enjoying a meal together while Abhishek fumes standing behind; and a crocodile chasing Abhishek as Khan tries to save him. Khan was in a relationship with Aishwarya long before her marriage. His spokesperson did not respond to Reuters' queries. AI CAN GENERATE BOLLYWOOD LOVE STORIES YouTube's data-sharing policy states creators can opt in to share their videos for training models of other AI platforms, like OpenAI, Meta and xAI. YouTube adds: "We can't control what a third-party company does" if users share videos for such training. The Bachchans argue in their filings that if AI platforms are trained on biased content that portrays them in a negative manner and infringes their intellectual property rights, then AI models "are likely to learn all such untrue" information, leading to its further spread. Eashan Ghosh, chair professor for intellectual property rights at the National Law University Delhi, said it would be difficult for actors to build a direct case against YouTube since their grievances are mostly with creators and personality rights infringement. But "it wouldn't be beyond the pale for the court to nudge YouTube to write something into their user policies or set up a queue jump for celebrity claimants to get quicker responses to legal requests," he said. YouTube in May disclosed that it had paid more than $2.4 billion to Indian creators in the last three years. The actors alleged that creators infringing their personality rights can make money when videos become popular. Reuters found a channel on YouTube titled "AI Bollywood Ishq" that shares "AI-generated Bollywood love stories". Its 259 videos have garnered 16.5 million views. The most popular video with 4.1 million views shows an AI animation of Khan and Aishwarya in a pool, while another shows them on a swing. In a tutorial, the channel explains it used simple text prompts to create an image via X's Grok AI and then turned it into a video using Chinese AI startup MiniMax's Hailuo AI. A Reuters test generated an AI video showing lookalikes of Bollywood stars Khan and Abhishek in a fistfight within five minutes. Grok, MiniMax and the owner of YouTube channel @AIbollywoodishq did not respond to Reuters' queries. It was unclear whether the YouTube channel consented to sharing those videos for AI training. "Content is made only for entertainment and creative storytelling," the channel's page said. (Reporting by Arpan Chaturvedi and Aditya Kalra; Editing by Jamie Freed)

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By Rae Wee and Xinghui Kok SINGAPORE (Reuters) -World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture backed by the family of U.S. President Donald Trump, plans to launch a debit card as early as this year, CEO Zach Witkoff told a crypto conference on Wednesday. "We are definitely rolling out a debit card that'll bridge … crypto assets with everyday spending … we'll be rolling out a pilot program here in the next quarter, and that debit card will either be live (in) Q4 or Q1 26," he said. Witkoff was speaking on a panel at the TOKEN2049 crypto conference in Singapore alongside World Liberty co-founder Donald Trump Jr. Speaking to a full audience, Witkoff and Trump reiterated their bullish stance on cryptocurrencies and spoke at length about the progress the industry has made under the Trump administration. Their comments were at times met with cheers from the floor. Launched last fall, World Liberty's goal is to allow people to access financial services using cryptocurrencies – without intermediaries like banks – in what is called decentralised finance, or DeFi. In September, it launched a digital token, known as $WLFI, which allowed holders the right to vote on some changes to the business. The token last traded 0.5% higher at $0.2011, according to data from CoinGecko. In response to a question about tokenisation, Witkoff said the company is "working on it." "Whether it comes to tokenising some of these asset classes like real estate, oil and gas, etc., we're looking at actively tokenising that ourselves," he said. "But we also want USD1 to be the base pair for these assets, because we view it as the most trustworthy and the most transparent and the most cultured stablecoin on Earth," Witkoff said, referring to World Liberty's dollar-pegged stablecoin. 'NOT A POLITICAL ORGANISATION' Critics have said that the Trump family is profiting from crypto as the president eases regulations and enforcement on the industry. On Wednesday, Donald Trump Jr. said it was "100% true" World Liberty is not a political organisation. Since the company's launch, the Trump family has made around $500 million from the project, according to Reuters calculations based on the company's terms and conditions, transactions traced by crypto analysis firms and publicly disclosed deals. The U.S. president's name was invoked a number of times during Wednesday's panel discussion. "My father was the first guy to run as sort of a pro-crypto president," Donald Trump Jr. said. Witkoff said "nobody really believed in us in the beginning." He said that last year, during a panel discussion at TOKEN2049 that featured blockchain platform Aptos, "the old leadership … sat up here and they called us a joke, they called us a memecoin." "They said we would never amount to anything," he said, before saying World Liberty met with the new leadership of Aptos and they "will be bringing USD1 to Aptos." (Reporting by Rae Wee and Xinghui Kok in Singapore; Editing by Tom Hogue, Sam Holmes and Thomas Derpinghaus)

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(Reuters) -Apple and ChatGPT owner OpenAI on Tuesday asked a U.S. federal judge to dismiss a case filed by billionaire Elon Musk's xAI, which had accused them of illegally conspiring to thwart competition in the field of artificial intelligence. In a lawsuit filed in August, xAI had said that Apple would have no reason to refrain from more prominently featuring the X app and the Grok app in its App Store if not for its "exclusive" deal with OpenAI. Musk's company sought billions of dollars in alleged damages. "Apple and OpenAI's agreement is expressly not exclusive, and it is public and widely known that Apple intends to partner with other generative AI chatbots," lawyers for Apple said in a court filing on Tuesday, while asking the judge to dismiss the case. Musk's AI startup xAI and social media X do not "plausibly allege" that the integration of ChatGPT into Apple devices harms competition, they added. Apple in partnership with OpenAI has integrated ChatGPT into its operating system for iPhones, iPads and Macs. xAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours on Apple and OpenAI seeking dismissal of the suit. (Reporting by Shubham Kalia in BengaluruEditing by Tomasz Janowski)

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By Nick Carey and Jesus Calero LONDON (Reuters) -Tesla's sales rose in France and Denmark last month for the first time this year, local industry data showed on Wednesday, with the U.S. electric car maker's revamped Model Y coming in as the best-selling model in Denmark. The company's sales continued to rise in Norway, where EVs dominate the market and Tesla has long been one of the country's top sellers. But in Sweden new car registrations – a proxy for sales – showed a ninth straight monthly drop for Tesla. RISING COMPETITION AND BACKLASH VS MUSK Tesla has struggled in Europe this year as its small, ageing model lineup has faced growing competition from EVs launched by European and Chinese rivals. The U.S. company has not released a new mass-market model since the Model Y in 2020. Tesla's competitive problems have been compounded by a backlash by some consumers against its CEO Elon Musk, who helped bankroll Donald Trump's U.S. presidential election victory last year and has championed European far-right parties. Tesla has argued that its revamped Model Y, which it began delivering in many European markets in June, would lead a recovery in European sales. For January-August, Tesla's sales were down 42.9% year-on-year in the European Union and down 32.6% in Europe as a whole. China's BYD outsold Tesla in the EU in August for the second time this year. But in September, Tesla reported a 2.74% annual increase in sales in France and a 20.5% rise in Denmark. In Norway, Tesla's registrations were up 14.7%, with its Model Y and Model 3 taking the top two spots for sales. But in Sweden, which was Tesla's worst-performing market in Europe in the first eight months of the year, its registrations fell 64% to 1,726 cars, although that was up sharply from the 210 cars it registered there in August. (Reporting by Nick CareyEditing by Mark Potter)

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