logo
Coca-Cola tops estimates on steady soda demand, plans cane sugar-based products

Coca-Cola tops estimates on steady soda demand, plans cane sugar-based products

CNAa day ago
Coca-Cola beat Wall Street estimates for second-quarter revenue and profit on Tuesday, as the beverages giant benefited from resilient demand for zero-sugar drinks and higher prices for its sodas.
The company said it plans to launch an offering made with U.S. cane sugar under its trademark Coca-Cola product range, days after an announcement from President Donald Trump.
Food companies have rolled out plans to make changes in ingredients and include healthier substitutes amid Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) campaign.
Prices rose 6 per cent overall in the second quarter, following a 5 per cent rise in the prior quarter, led by increases in some inflationary markets.
Meanwhile, total case volumes fell about 1 per cent, compared with a 2 per cent rise in the preceding three-month period.
Coca-Cola Zero Sugar jumped 14 per cent, driven by growth across all geographies.
The company's comparable revenue rose 2.5 per cent to $12.62 billion. Analysts on average had expected $12.54 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Excluding items, the company earned 87 cents per share, beating estimates of 83 cents.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

White House unveils AI policy vision to spur US development
White House unveils AI policy vision to spur US development

Business Times

timean hour ago

  • Business Times

White House unveils AI policy vision to spur US development

[WASHINGTON] The Trump administration called for boosting artificial intelligence development in the US by loosening regulations and expanding energy supply for data centres under new guidelines that also urged withholding funds from states that put burdensome rules on the emerging technology. The so-called AI Action Plan, released by the White House on Wednesday, recommends revamping the permitting process and streamlining environmental standards to speed AI-related infrastructure projects. The blueprint also seeks to make American technology the foundation for AI worldwide while enacting security measures to keep adversaries like China from gaining an edge. 'It is a national security imperative for the US to achieve and maintain unquestioned and unchallenged global technological dominance,' President Donald Trump said in the report. 'To secure our future, we must harness the full power of American innovation.' Mandated by Trump shortly after taking office in January, the 23-page plan marks the administration's most significant policy directive on a technology that promises to reshape the global economy. The president is scheduled later Wednesday to speak at an AI event hosted by the All-In Podcast and a consortium of tech leaders and lawmakers known as the Hill and Valley Forum. Trump plans to sign a handful of executive orders Wednesday to set in motion elements of his AI plan. The expected directives include a plan to use the US International Development Finance Corporation and the Export-Import Bank to support global deployment of American technology. Another would call for all large language models procured by the government to be neutral and unbiased. The blueprint represents the culmination of Trump's campaign promise to position America as the world leader in AI, while dismantling what he characterised as a rules-heavy approach under President Joe Biden. Trump rescinded a 2023 order from Biden that had set extensive safety testing requirements and mandated transparency reports from major AI developers. In its place, Trump demanded a new path on AI policy and set a six-month deadline for White House AI czar David Sacks to create it. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up Sacks, a venture capitalist who has emerged as one of the administration's most influential voices on tech policy, was joined in shaping the new policy approach by senior AI adviser Sriram Krishnan and tech policy chief Michael Kratsios. Together, they spent months cultivating detailed input from key AI companies and other industry leaders. Regulatory rollback Under the recommendations, the federal government would ask businesses and the public about existing regulations that hinder AI adoption, with an eye towards rolling back those rules. The White House's budget office would also work with federal agencies that have oversee AI-related funding to consider putting limts on those awards 'if the state's AI regulatory regimes may hinder the effectiveness of that funding.' The guidelines also call on the federal government to only contract with developers whose AI models are deemed 'free from top-down ideological bias' and strip references to misinformation, diversity and equity language, and climate change from risk-management frameworks. 'To win the AI race, the US must lead in innovation, infrastructure, and global partnerships,' Sacks said in a statement. 'At the same time, we must centre American workers and avoid Orwellian uses of AI.' The White House, signalling concern that AI could reshape the labour market, also asks the Education and Labor departments to prioritise skill development and training to assist US workers. It also proposes prioritising investment in theoretical, computational, and experimental research – a request that comes even as the administration has slashed grants to top-tier research universities. Race with China The blueprint suggests countering Chinese AI development by strengthening export controls, including by putting new location verification features in advanced AI chips. The administration also wants to establish a new effort under the Commerce Department to collaborate with the intelligence community to monitor AI developments and chip export control enforcement. The plan also envisions the Commerce Department gathering proposals from the industry on full-stack AI export packages that would allow approved allies to purchase hardware, software, models and applications together. Approved deals would be facilitated by the US Trade and Development Agency, the Export-Import Bank, the US International Development Finance Corporation, among others. The guidelines were released a little more than a week after the administration moved to ease restrictions it had imposed in April barring Nvidia Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices from selling some AI chips to customers in China. The export curbs were relaxed as part of the trade understanding reached with China in June in exchange for Beijing resuming shipments of rare earths to American buyers. Sacks and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have defended the move, saying that letting Nvidia restart shipments of its H20 chips would position the US to compete more effectively abroad and blunt efforts by Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies to gain a bigger slice of the global market. 'These clear-cut policy goals set expectations for the Federal government to ensure America sets the technological gold standard worldwide, and that the world continues to run on American technology,' said Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a statement. Energy components Trump and other administration officials have also stressed the importance of meeting another tech industry priority: ensuring the US has enough power to run energy-hungry AI data centres. In their view, adequate electricity supply is intertwined with national security, essential to keeping the US ahead of global competitors in the race to dominate artificial intelligence. The plan recommends working to stabilise the existing energy grid and implementing strategies to enhance the performance of the transmission systems. The document also suggests prioritising the interconnection of reliable, detachable power sources that could see nuclear and enhanced geothermal plants deployed to help manage a surge in demand. BLOOMBERG

White House unveils artificial intelligence policy plan
White House unveils artificial intelligence policy plan

CNA

time2 hours ago

  • CNA

White House unveils artificial intelligence policy plan

WASHINGTON :The White House released an artificial intelligence (AI) policy plan on Wednesday spelling out priorities for the U.S. to achieve "global dominance" in the sector. U.S. President Donald Trump's plan calls for open-source and open-weight AI models to be made freely available by developers for anyone in the world to download and modify. The plan also calls for the Commerce Department to research Chinese AI models for alignment with Chinese Communist Party talking points and censorship. As previously reported by Reuters, it adds the federal government should not allow AI-related federal funding to be directed toward states with "burdensome" regulations.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store