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By Jaspreet Singh and Supantha Mukherjee (Reuters) -Spotify founder-CEO Daniel Ek will step down to become executive chairman in January, the Swedish streaming company said on Tuesday as it adopts a new co-CEO structure in its strategy to fend off rivals and shore up its profit margin. Billionaire Ek, who built Spotify into a rare global consumer technology leader from the region, will step back from day-to-day business as the company charts out its plan to keep ahead of music offering from YouTube, Apple and Amazon. "Ek leaves the CEO role on a high note, with big boots to fill for the incoming CEOs," said PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore. The U.S. shares of Spotify were down about 5% after gaining 63% this year. Ek, a prominent tech entrepreneur of Europe, will focus on capital allocation and long-term strategy as executive chairman in what the company called a European-style role. "I will be more involved than a typical US chairman. So think of it a little bit like moving from a player to a coach," said Ek, who has been on the company's board since 2008. Spotify remains the clear market leader with nearly 700 million monthly users and more than 100 million tracks, far ahead of Apple Music's roughly 90 million subscribers.  But it faces competition from YouTube Music's vast video-integrated catalog and Amazon Music's Prime-linked offerings, which give rivals distinct advantages in certain markets. Despite Spotify's dominance, pressure on profit margins have persisted as artists push for higher payouts and the ad-supported tier expands. Global revenue from recorded music rose 4.8% to $29.6 billion in 2024. Streaming exceeded $20 billion for the first time and subscription streaming accounted for more than half of it, according to IFPI's Global Music Report. FROM STARTUP TO GIANT Founded in 2006, Stockholm-based Spotify helped transform a music industry that had been shrinking for years due to piracy and falling CD sales. Its U.S. debut in 2011 came as industry revenue had slumped. Still, the company reported its first annual profit only in 2024, after a slew of price increases and cost-cutting efforts. Billionaire Ek is often cited as a champion of Europe's ability to produce companies that can compete with U.S. and Asian tech giants. Soderstrom, currently chief product and technology officer, oversees global tech strategy and product development, while Norstrom, as chief business officer, manages subscriber and advertising businesses along with music, podcast and audiobook operations.  They will report to Ek who also serves on the board. The three executives have worked together for a decade and a half. "Norstrom is deeply interested in knowledge about product, and I'm very interested in business," Soderstrom said. "So we run this as a single team. Several high-profile firms such as Oracle and Netflix have adopted a co-CEO model to better manage their operations as they become more complex and globally diversified. The co-CEO model, which has become popular, has also drawn skepticism for creating blurred lines of authority. "The big unknown is why Spotify needs an executive chairman and two chief executives as that conjures up the idea that too many cooks spoil the broth," said Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell. (Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm and Jaspreet Singh and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

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By Stephen Nellis SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -Arm Holdings said on Tuesday it planned to appeal a judge's ruling in a licensing dispute against Qualcomm that left the chipmaker's jury victory intact. Qualcomm secured a key win in U.S. federal court in Delaware last year, with a jury finding that central processor units made by its subsidiary Nuvia were properly licensed under an agreement with Arm. The jury reached a verdict on two out of three counts, and deadlocked on the third count, which resulted in a mistrial. Arm had asked Judge Maryellen Noreika to either throw out the verdict on the two counts where Qualcomm won, or have a new trial. The judge declined both of Arm's requests. "Arm remains confident in its position in its ongoing dispute with Qualcomm and will immediately file an appeal seeking to overturn the judgment," Arm said in a statement. Qualcomm said the decision affirmed its position that it did not breach its agreement with Arm. "Our right to innovate prevailed in this case and we hope Arm will return to fair and competitive practices in dealing with the Arm ecosystem," Ann Chaplin, Qualcomm's general counsel, said in a statement. Arm supplies Qualcomm and other chip firms such as Apple and Taiwan's MediaTek with key technologies used in their chip designs. (Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Jamie Freed)

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TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan will not agree to a deal with the United States for half of all semiconductor production to take place in the country, the island's top tariff negotiator said on Wednesday after returning home. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick told U.S. television network News Nation over the weekend that Washington's pitch to Taiwan would be a 50-50 split in making chips, the vast majority of which are now made on the island. Taiwan Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun, who is leading the tariff talks with Washington, told reporters upon getting back to the island that she had not discussed the 50-50 idea suggested by the U.S. during the talks. "Our negotiating team has never made any commitment to a 50-50 split on chips. Rest assured, we did not discuss this issue during this round of talks, nor would we agree to such conditions," she said, according to Taiwan's official Central News Agency. Neither the U.S. Commerce Department nor the Office of the United States Trade Representative responded to requests for comment sent outside of U.S. business hours. Taiwan, home to the world's biggest contract chipmaker TSMC, runs a large trade surplus with the United States. The island's exports to the United States are currently subject to a 20% tariff. TSMC, whose business is surging on strong demand for artificial intelligence applications, is investing $165 billion to build chip factories in the U.S. state of Arizona, though the bulk of its production will remain in Taiwan. Taiwan's government said last month that it hoped for a more favourable tariff rate from the United States after talks achieved "certain progress". Speaking in parliament in Taipei on Tuesday, Premier Cho Jung-tai said Cheng had had multiple talks with the United States on tariff issues. "The most critical substantive consultations are currently underway," he said. Cheng, speaking at the airport, said that "detailed" discussions had taken place which yielded "certain progress", the Central News Agency added. (Reporting by Ben BlanchardEditing by Shri Navaratnam)

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By Deepa Seetharaman and Dawn Chmielewski (Reuters) -OpenAI is releasing an AI video-generating app called Sora that lets people create and share AI videos that can be spun from copyrighted content and shared to social media-like streams.   Copyright owners, such as television and movie studios, must opt out of having their work appear in the video feed, company officials said, describing it as a continuation of its prior policy toward image generation.   The copyright policy is likely to ruffle feathers throughout Hollywood.  The ChatGPT-maker has been in talks with a variety of copyright holders in recent weeks to discuss the policy, company officials said. At least one major studio, Disney, has already opted out of having their material appear in the app, people familiar with the matter said.  Earlier this year, OpenAI pressed the Trump administration to declare that training AI models on copyrighted material fell under the "fair use" provision in copyright law.  "Applying the fair use doctrine to AI is not only a matter of American competitiveness — it’s a matter of national security," OpenAI argued in March.  Without this step, it said at the time, U.S. AI companies would lose their edge over rivals in China.  OpenAI officials said it put measures in place to block people from creating videos of public figures or other users of the app without permission. Public figures and others’ likeness cannot be used until they upload their own AI-generated video and give their permission. One such step is a "liveness check" where the app prompts a user to move their head in different directions and recite a random string of numbers. Users will be able to see drafts of videos that involve their likeness.  Videos in the Sora app can be up to 10 seconds long. OpenAI built a feature it calls Cameo that will let users create realistic-looking AI versions of themselves and insert themselves into AI-generated scenes.  "Our companies are in the business of competing for time and modifying consumer behavior," Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak said in a research note, adding he saw Sora app as a direct competitor to longstanding social media and digital content platforms from Meta, Google, TikTok and others. (Reporting by Deepa Seetharaman in San Francisco and Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

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By Steve Gorman, Danielle Broadway and Dawn Chmielewski LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -The recent debut of an AI-generated "actress" dubbed Tilly Norwood, and its producer's boasts of interest from studio executives, sparked a backlash on Tuesday from the SAG-AFTRA actors union, condemning the replacement of human performers with "synthetics." The Hollywood buzz around Tilly Norwood, introduced on Saturday at a film industry conference in Zurich, and the union's scathing reaction to it reflected the dread many in the creative community feel about the intersection of artificial intelligence and show business. The official Tilly Norwood launch consisted of a 20-second appearance of the photo-real character – a twenty-something fictional ingénue bearing no particular resemblance to any real celebrity – in a brief video parody about making an AI-generated television show. Dutch actor-producer Eline Van der Velden, whose London-based AI production studio Particle6 created Tilly Norwood, said during her presentation at the Zurich Summit the project was starting to turn heads. After months of facing boardroom skepticism, talent agents were starting to tell her: "'We need to do something with you guys,'" Hollywood trade paper Variety quoted Van der Velden as saying. She said an announcement of a first-of-its-kind talent agency deal was a few months away, Variety reported. Concerns about Hollywood actors and writers being exploited, and even supplanted, by AI-generated scripts and performers was a major issue SAG-AFTRA's most recent round of contract talks with studios and streaming services. Computer-generated imagery is nothing new to the film and television industry, and AI-enhanced software has more recently emerged in various effects such as "de-aging" technology allowing actors to portray younger versions of themselves. The ability to convincingly replicate a feature-length human film performance with AI stand-ins is still seen as far off. 'VERY REAL EMOTIONS' Nevertheless, the prospect of talent agents suddenly showing interest in AI-created figures stirred a swift denunciation from SAG-AFTRA, representing 160,000 actors, announcers, recording artists, stunt performers and other talent. "Creativity is, and should remain, human-centered," the union said in a statement. "The union is opposed to the replacement of human performers by synthetics." The parody video, which first appeared in July, actually comprises 16 AI-generated characters in all. But Tilly Norwood – a winsome figure with shoulder-length brown hair, brown eyes, a British accent and her own social media profile – was the star. A separate Facebook post attributed to the character exclaims: "I may be AI generated, but I'm feeling very real emotions right now. I am so excited for what's coming next!" SAG-AFTRA officials were not amused. "To be clear, 'Tilly Norwood' is not an actor," the union said in its statement. "It's a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers – without permission or compensation." Van der Velden sought to assuage such concerns in an Instagram message, saying Tilly Norwood "is not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work – a piece of art. Like many forms of art before her, she sparks conversation, and that in itself shows the power of creativity." Van der Velden was more provocative in an interview in July with the publication Broadcast International, which quoted her as saying: "We want Tilly to be the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman, that's the aim of what we're doing." Not everyone is convinced Tilly Norwood packs such potential. Yves Berquist, director of AI in media at the University of Southern California's Entertainment Technology Center, called the hoopla "nonsense." "There is a lot of very understandable nervousness and fear out there about talent being replaced," he said. But judging from his own daily interactions with Hollywood executives, Berquist said there was zero interest from "serious people" in developing entirely synthetic characters. "Scarlett Johansson has a fan base. Scarlett Johansson is a person," he said. (Reporting and writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Danielle Broadway and Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles)

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By Steve Gorman, Danielle Broadway and Dawn Chmielewski LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -The recent debut of an AI-generated "actress" dubbed Tilly Norwood, and its producer's boasts of interest from studio executives, sparked a backlash on Tuesday from the SAG-AFTRA actors union, condemning the replacement of human performers with "synthetics." The Hollywood buzz around Tilly Norwood, introduced on Saturday at a film industry conference in Zurich, and the union's scathing reaction to it reflected the dread many in the creative community feel about the intersection of artificial intelligence and show business. The official Tilly Norwood launch consisted of a 20-second appearance of the photo-real character – a twenty-something fictional ingénue bearing no particular resemblance to any real celebrity – in a brief video parody about making an AI-generated television show. Dutch actor-producer Eline Van der Velden, whose London-based AI production studio Particle6 created Tilly Norwood, said during her presentation at the Zurich Summit the project was starting to turn heads. After months of facing boardroom skepticism, talent agents were starting to tell her: "'We need to do something with you guys,'" Hollywood trade paper Variety quoted Van der Velden as saying. She said an announcement of a first-of-its-kind talent agency deal was a few months away, Variety reported. Concerns about Hollywood actors and writers being exploited, and even supplanted, by AI-generated scripts and performers was a major issue SAG-AFTRA's most recent round of contract talks with studios and streaming services. Computer-generated imagery is nothing new to the film and television industry, and AI-enhanced software has more recently emerged in various effects such as "de-aging" technology allowing actors to portray younger versions of themselves. The ability to convincingly replicate a feature-length human film performance with AI stand-ins is still seen as far off. 'VERY REAL EMOTIONS' Nevertheless, the prospect of talent agents suddenly showing interest in AI-created figures stirred a swift denunciation from SAG-AFTRA, representing 160,000 actors, announcers, recording artists, stunt performers and other talent. "Creativity is, and should remain, human-centered," the union said in a statement. "The union is opposed to the replacement of human performers by synthetics." The parody video, which first appeared in July, actually comprises 16 AI-generated characters in all. But Tilly Norwood – a winsome figure with shoulder-length brown hair, brown eyes, a British accent and her own social media profile – was the star. A separate Facebook post attributed to the character exclaims: "I may be AI generated, but I'm feeling very real emotions right now. I am so excited for what's coming next!" SAG-AFTRA officials were not amused. "To be clear, 'Tilly Norwood' is not an actor," the union said in its statement. "It's a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers – without permission or compensation." Van der Velden sought to assuage such concerns in an Instagram message, saying Tilly Norwood "is not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work – a piece of art. Like many forms of art before her, she sparks conversation, and that in itself shows the power of creativity." Van der Velden was more provocative in an interview in July with the publication Broadcast International, which quoted her as saying: "We want Tilly to be the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman, that's the aim of what we're doing." Not everyone is convinced Tilly Norwood packs such potential. Yves Berquist, director of AI in media at the University of Southern California's Entertainment Technology Center, called the hoopla "nonsense." "There is a lot of very understandable nervousness and fear out there about talent being replaced," he said. But judging from his own daily interactions with Hollywood executives, Berquist said there was zero interest from "serious people" in developing entirely synthetic characters. "Scarlett Johansson has a fan base. Scarlett Johansson is a person," he said. (Reporting and writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Danielle Broadway and Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles)

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

(Corrects spelling of Bergquist in paragraphs 17-18) By Steve Gorman, Danielle Broadway and Dawn Chmielewski LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -The recent debut of an AI-generated "actress" dubbed Tilly Norwood, and its producer's boasts of interest from studio executives, sparked a backlash on Tuesday from the SAG-AFTRA actors union, condemning the replacement of human performers with "synthetics." The Hollywood buzz around Tilly Norwood, introduced on Saturday at a film industry conference in Zurich, and the union's scathing reaction to it reflected the dread many in the creative community feel about the intersection of artificial intelligence and show business. The official Tilly Norwood launch consisted of a 20-second appearance of the photo-real character – a twenty-something fictional ingénue bearing no particular resemblance to any real celebrity – in a brief video parody about making an AI-generated television show. Dutch actor-producer Eline Van der Velden, whose London-based AI production studio Particle6 created Tilly Norwood, said during her presentation at the Zurich Summit the project was starting to turn heads. After months of facing boardroom skepticism, talent agents were starting to tell her: "'We need to do something with you guys,'" Hollywood trade paper Variety quoted Van der Velden as saying. She said an announcement of a first-of-its-kind talent agency deal was a few months away, Variety reported. Concerns about Hollywood actors and writers being exploited, and even supplanted, by AI-generated scripts and performers was a major issue SAG-AFTRA's most recent round of contract talks with studios and streaming services. Computer-generated imagery is nothing new to the film and television industry, and AI-enhanced software has more recently emerged in various effects such as "de-aging" technology allowing actors to portray younger versions of themselves. The ability to convincingly replicate a feature-length human film performance with AI stand-ins is still seen as far off. 'VERY REAL EMOTIONS' Nevertheless, the prospect of talent agents suddenly showing interest in AI-created figures stirred a swift denunciation from SAG-AFTRA, representing 160,000 actors, announcers, recording artists, stunt performers and other talent. "Creativity is, and should remain, human-centered," the union said in a statement. "The union is opposed to the replacement of human performers by synthetics." The parody video, which first appeared in July, actually comprises 16 AI-generated characters in all. But Tilly Norwood – a winsome figure with shoulder-length brown hair, brown eyes, a British accent and her own social media profile – was the star. A separate Facebook post attributed to the character exclaims: "I may be AI generated, but I'm feeling very real emotions right now. I am so excited for what's coming next!" SAG-AFTRA officials were not amused. "To be clear, 'Tilly Norwood' is not an actor," the union said in its statement. "It's a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers – without permission or compensation." Van der Velden sought to assuage such concerns in an Instagram message, saying Tilly Norwood "is not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work – a piece of art. Like many forms of art before her, she sparks conversation, and that in itself shows the power of creativity." Van der Velden was more provocative in an interview in July with the publication Broadcast International, which quoted her as saying: "We want Tilly to be the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman, that's the aim of what we're doing." Not everyone is convinced Tilly Norwood packs such potential. Yves Bergquist, director of AI in media at the University of Southern California's Entertainment Technology Center, called the hoopla "nonsense." "There is a lot of very understandable nervousness and fear out there about talent being replaced," he said. But judging from his own daily interactions with Hollywood executives, Bergquist said there was zero interest from "serious people" in developing entirely synthetic characters. "Scarlett Johansson has a fan base. Scarlett Johansson is a person," he said. (Reporting and writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Danielle Broadway and Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles)

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TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan will not agree to a deal with the United States for half of all semiconductor production to take place in the country, the island's top tariff negotiator said on Wednesday after returning home. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick told U.S. television network News Nation over the weekend that Washington's pitch to Taiwan would be a 50-50 split in making chips, the vast majority of which are now made on the island. Taiwan Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun, who is leading the tariff talks with Washington, told reporters upon getting back to the island that she had not discussed the 50-50 idea suggested by the U.S. during the talks. "Our negotiating team has never made any commitment to a 50-50 split on chips. Rest assured, we did not discuss this issue during this round of talks, nor would we agree to such conditions," she said, according to Taiwan's official Central News Agency. Neither the U.S. Commerce Department nor the Office of the United States Trade Representative responded to requests for comment sent outside of U.S. business hours. Taiwan, home to the world's biggest contract chipmaker TSMC, runs a large trade surplus with the United States. The island's exports to the United States are currently subject to a 20% tariff. TSMC, whose business is surging on strong demand for artificial intelligence applications, is investing $165 billion to build chip factories in the U.S. state of Arizona, though the bulk of its production will remain in Taiwan. Taiwan's government said last month that it hoped for a more favourable tariff rate from the United States after talks achieved "certain progress". Speaking in parliament in Taipei on Tuesday, Premier Cho Jung-tai said Cheng had had multiple talks with the United States on tariff issues. "The most critical substantive consultations are currently underway," he said. Cheng, speaking at the airport, said that "detailed" discussions had taken place which yielded "certain progress", the Central News Agency added. (Reporting by Ben BlanchardEditing by Shri Navaratnam)

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TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan will not agree to a deal with the United States for half of all semiconductor production to take place in the country, the island's top tariff negotiator said on Wednesday after returning home. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick told U.S. television network News Nation over the weekend that Washington's pitch to Taiwan would be a 50-50 split in making chips, the vast majority of which are now made on the island. Taiwan Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun, who is leading the tariff talks with Washington, told reporters upon getting back to the island that she had not discussed the 50-50 idea suggested by the U.S. during the talks. "Our negotiating team has never made any commitment to a 50-50 split on chips. Rest assured, we did not discuss this issue during this round of talks, nor would we agree to such conditions," she said, according to Taiwan's official Central News Agency. Neither the U.S. Commerce Department nor the Office of the United States Trade Representative responded to requests for comment sent outside of U.S. business hours. Taiwan, home to the world's biggest contract chipmaker TSMC, runs a large trade surplus with the United States. The island's exports to the United States are currently subject to a 20% tariff. TSMC, whose business is surging on strong demand for artificial intelligence applications, is investing $165 billion to build chip factories in the U.S. state of Arizona, though the bulk of its production will remain in Taiwan. Taiwan's government said last month that it hoped for a more favourable tariff rate from the United States after talks achieved "certain progress". Speaking in parliament in Taipei on Tuesday, Premier Cho Jung-tai said Cheng had had multiple talks with the United States on tariff issues. "The most critical substantive consultations are currently underway," he said. Cheng, speaking at the airport, said that "detailed" discussions had taken place which yielded "certain progress", the Central News Agency added. Separately, Taiwan's presidential office said late on Tuesday that President Lai Ching-te had met the visiting Luke J. Lindberg, Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Lai said that a Taiwan agricultural delegation visiting the United States in September planned to buy $10 billion of U.S. agricultural goods over the coming four years, including soybeans, wheat, corn and beef. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Stephen Coates)

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(Reuters) -U.S. quantum computing startup PsiQuantum said on Tuesday it broke ground for a facility at Chicago's Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park (IQMP), as it capitalizes on a fresh $1 billion funding round. The facility, located at a former U.S. Steel South Works site, will serve as IQMP's anchor tenant and launch with the development of PsiQuantum's largest intermediate-scale quantum test system.  The system will be evaluated by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency under the Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, a sign that government agencies will be closely watching the progress. PsiQuantum is betting on a photonic approach, using semiconductor manufacturing processes and conventional telecom fiber, a route that offers solutions to some of the technical bottlenecks hindering rivals, the company said. The Silicon Valley-based company said the new facility, if successful, will house the country's first million-qubit, fault-tolerant quantum computer. The site will also eventually host quantum facilities from IBM, Australian firm Diraq and Colorado-based startup Infleqtion. "From this site, we'll begin building out this campus as the epicenter of a massive quantum ecosystem," Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said in streamed remarks at the site on Tuesday. PsiQuantum earlier this month disclosed a $1 billion funding round with participation from Nvidia's venture arm, which was one of the largest U.S. investments in quantum technology.     The latest funding will also support development at a partner site in Australia and further work on its quantum photonic chips, the company said. (Reporting by Kritika Lamba in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya Biswas and Leslie Adler)

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