The gulf is not the place to build the world's AI infrastructure
In May, the Trump administration green-lit one of the most consequential technology investments of the decade: the construction of massive artificial intelligence data centers in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. These facilities, funded by gulf sovereign wealth and built with U.S. technology, are projected to host some of the largest and most powerful computing clusters in the world — critical infrastructure for training and deploying advanced AI models.
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Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Starmer to urge Trump to end the mass starvation in Gaza
Sir Keir Starmer will plead with Donald Trump to bring about a ceasefire in Gaza and end the suffering of thousands of Palestinians when he meets with the US president in Scotland on Monday. The growing crisis in the Middle East will top the agenda when the two hold their bilateral meeting at President Trump's Turnberry golf course in Ayrshire, with the prime minister under immense political pressure to change the UK's policy on recognising Palestine as a state. It comes after the IDF announced a 'tactical pause' in fighting to allow aid to get in, with thousands of people trapped in Gaza facing mass starvation. On Sunday, Jordan and the UAE carried out the first airdrops of food and essential supplies. A Downing Street source said that the prime minister and the president have a 'shared desire to bring an end to the barbaric war'. The meeting comes after a Sunday bilateral between Mr Trump and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen at Turnberry, where the two struck a trade deal to avoid a tariff war despite the US president having told reporters beforehand that he was 'not in a good mood'. It was put to Mr Trump that Sir Keir would ask him about a Middle East ceasefire, but he replied: 'We're meeting about a lot of things. We have our trade deal and it's been a great deal. 'It's good for us. It's good for them and good for us. I think the UK is very happy, they've been trying for 12 years to get it and they got it, and it's a great trade deal for both, works out very well. 'We'll be discussing that. I think we're going to be discussing a lot about Israel. They're very much involved in terms of wanting something to happen. [Starmer] is doing a very good job, by the way.' The mini-summit at Turnberry was intended primarily to focus on the continuing problem of steel tariffs imposed by President Trump, and other aspects of the trade deal the two signed last month. Sir Keir also wants to press the president on providing a backstop for the 'coalition of the willing' he is establishing with French president Emmanuel Macron to provide a guarantee of peace in Ukraine once the war with Russia comes to an end. But with harrowing pictures emerging over the past week of malnourished children in Gaza, alongside reports of the impact of starvation in the territory, the Middle East crisis has risen to the top of the agenda. Sir Keir is hoping that the strong personal relationship he has developed with the US president will help him in persuading Mr Trump to move on a number of these issues. The two will continue to talk when they travel together to Aberdeen for a further private dinner at Mr Trump's other Scottish golf course, which is dedicated to his mother. The president is looking for support to host an Open championship. Downing Street has insisted that 'the strength of the UK-US relationship will be on display again' as the prime minister meets President Trump for what it described as 'wide-ranging talks'. But the meeting is likely to be overshadowed by pressure on Sir Keir to join Mr Macron in officially recognising a Palestinian state. There was some speculation on Friday that the prime minister was close to doing so, after 221 MPs signed a cross-party letter supporting the move. Labour's biggest donors, the trade unions, have also collectively demanded action on recognising Palestine. Sir Keir used his strongest language yet on Friday when he described Israel's actions in Gaza as 'unspeakable and indefensible', adding that Palestinians have an 'inalienable right' to their own state. Pressure was further added by Mr Macron's announcement that France was preparing to recognise Palestine as a state, just ahead of an E3 phone call on Friday with Sir Keir and the German chancellor Friedrich Merz. But Sir Keir has held off taking similar action, with some suggesting that he wanted to see what President Trump would have to say about the crisis at their meeting at Turnberry before making a final decision. The problems kicked off further on Sunday, when Live Aid founder and former pop star Sir Bob Geldof clashed with Tory leader Kemi Badenoch on the topic of Israel and Gaza. The two appeared on Sir Trevor Phillips's Sunday morning show on Sky News. When asked about Israeli government claims that there are hundreds of trucks full of aid waiting to get into Gaza that are being held up by United Nations incompetence and Hamas, Sir Bob hit out at Benjamin Netanyahu and his government. 'The Israeli authorities are lying,' he claimed. 'They're lying. Netanyahu is a liar. The IDF are lying.' The comments enraged the Israeli government, which has denied being at fault after reports emerged that more than 110 people have died of hunger during the conflict. Israel has blamed Hamas for 'stealing aid and prolonging the war'. Israel's deputy foreign minister, Sharren Haskel, told The Independent: 'Bob Geldof says that 'we are way beyond' the attack by Hamas on Israel on 7 October 2023. This is complete rubbish. Hamas still holds 50 hostages in their dungeons of torture. They have been held for 660 days. I don't hear Bob Geldof calling for their release?' When Sir Bob's remarks were put to her by Sir Trevor, Ms Badenoch said he was wrong. She said: 'I disagree with that. What I'm seeing is Israel allowing humanitarian aid to go in. This has been an unbelievably difficult situation. It's been heartbreaking seeing some of the pictures, hearing those stories, and what we all want to see is this awful war coming to an end, and that will happen when those hostages are released. We need a ceasefire.' Polling by More in Common has shown that the British public side with Palestinians more than with Israel, by 29 per cent to 15 per cent.
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Broadcom is no longer the 'poor man's Nvidia' in the AI race
Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to be a key theme of Big Tech earnings, as Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) kicked off "Magnificent Seven" earnings with very high additional AI capital expenditure (CapEx), a positive sign for AI chipmakers. Nancy Tengler, CEO and chief investment officer of Laffer Tengler Investments, and Stacy Rasgon, managing director and senior analyst at Bernstein, share their thoughts on two major AI chip players: Nvidia (NVDA) and Broadcom (AVGO). To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Catalysts here. I think you guys are on the same page when it comes to Nvidia. You've got a buy equivalent rating on it, Stacey. Nancy likes that one. Let's talk about Broadcom for a minute because Nancy, this is one that you've liked for a while. Um, do you still like it? What are you going to be looking for from Broadcom, Nancy, going forward? Yeah, we do, Julie. I mean, it's our largest holding across all of our large cap equity strategies, member of our 12 best, our five for 25. I think, uh, and it's outperformed Nvidia pretty handily over the last year, almost double the returns for Nvidia on a trailing one year. We've always called it the poor man's Nvidia. I think we're going to have to come up with a new name. But one of the things that we're going to be paying attention to is, of course, um, the AI revenues. We we've we've seen those compound at 60 plus percent. They've announced new partnerships. We want to hear more about that. Um, it seems that the rest of the business, the rest of the chip business may have bottomed. We'd like to hear some some information and and confirmation about that. And then I just think, you know, it's just going to be about the future guidance. And Hock Tan has demonstrated he can acquire companies, make them accretive quickly. We bought the stock when, uh, it sold off on the computer associates that used to be the name of the company they acquired. Wall Street didn't like it. They turned it around, made it a very positive acquisition. So we we'll be listening for that, too. Are there any acquisitions they're they're planning to make? And I certainly hope one of them is not Intel. Yeah, that would be something. Uh, Stacey, um, along with Nvidia, is Broadcom sort of, are those the sort of must-owns in the chip space? Yeah, I frankly, in in chips, it hasn't been great outside of AI, right? I mean, AI's been super strong. The analog, more diversified guys, like the people who were playing those on cyclical recovery, some of those prints so far this earning season have not not been so great. There's worries about pull forward and everything else. Again, you got companies like Intel which which frankly are a basket case. I mean, if it wasn't for AI, this space would not be doing very well. So I I do like the AI names. We cover Nvidia and Broadcom. I like them both. Um, Broadcom is is just more expensive than it used to be. That's the only only, you know, it was Right. I guess hence Nancy's comment that they're going to have to rename it from the poor man's video. Yeah, and look, you know, you got to remember Broadcom like not all that long ago was like 16 times earnings, like now it's like the multiple's like like doubled, right? Um, they are showing a lot of AI upside. A lot of that comes next year, but they they're clearly, I mean even the last earnings call a couple of months ago, they're clearly calling for upside in their AI revenues next year on more inference demand. They're a massive player on AI networking, right? So there's there there's a a big play there. And and and Nancy, I think, is right, they have the core semi business which admittedly has been lousy. They're not the only ones. Everybody in though in those kinds of markets has has been lousy. It it doesn't look like getting any worse at least. I we can we can argue about when it's going to start getting better. I don't know yet, but at least it isn't getting worse. Um, you know, if you're looking in in into the near term, I mean you could argue, again, we we like both stocks. Nvidia is cheaper. And you know, you know, they just they just got their China licenses, um, reinstated, so there's probably more upside to their AI numbers this year for Nvidia versus Broadcom. I think the Broadcom AI upside comes next year and Broadcom's a little more expensive. Um, and then there's a whole ASIC versus, you know, GPU debate. But I I think you can own them both. Like I I I like them both. And again, AI is the only thing in semis right now that fundamentally is really working.
CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
Syria to hold parliamentary ballot in September, first elections since Assad's removal
The Middle East Syria conflictFacebookTweetLink Follow Syria will hold parliamentary elections in September, the head of a body tasked with organizing the election process told state media Sunday. Mohammed Taha al-Ahmad, chairman of the Higher Committee for People's Assembly Elections, told state news agency SANA that elections will take place between Sept. 15 and 20. They will be the first to take place under the country's new authorities after the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a lightning rebel offensive in December. One third of the 210 seats will the appointed by interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, with the rest to be elected. In a recent interview with the Erem News site, another member of the elections committee, Hassan al-Daghim, said an electoral college will be set up in each of Syria's provinces to vote for the elected seats. A temporary constitution signed by al-Sharaa in March called for a People's Committee to be set up to serve as an interim parliament until a permanent constitution is adopted and general elections held, a process that could take years. The announcement of impending elections comes at a time when the country is increasingly divided in its views of the new authorities in Damascus after sectarian violence broke out in the southern province of Suwayda earlier this month. The fighting killed hundreds of people and threatened to unravel Syria's fragile postwar transition. The violent clashes, which broke out two weeks ago, were sparked by tit-for-tat kidnappings between armed Bedouin clans and fighters from the Druze religious minority. Syrian government forces intervened, ostensibly to end the fighting, but effectively sided with the clans. Some government fighters reportedly executed Druze civilians and burned and looted houses. Israel intervened, launching airstrikes on government forces and on the Defense Ministry headquarters. Israel said it was acting to defend the Druze minority.
