North America:

  • Meta announced a $10 billion expansion of its West Texas AI data center, creating thousands of construction jobs.
  • Microsoft halts new hiring in its cloud unit and North American sales groups amid growth slowdown.
  • OpenAI's ChatGPT ad pilot surpasses $100 million in annualized revenue within six weeks.
  • SpaceX is preparing for an IPO, sparking speculation about its valuation and corporate restructuring.
  • United Airlines reached a tentative labor agreement with flight attendants, including a $740 million signing bonus.
  • Mastercard is exploring the sale of its real-time payments unit, acquired from Denmark's Nets Group in 2019 for $3.2 billion.

Europe:

  • Volkswagen and Rivian complete winter testing of their joint EV electronics architecture for the ID.Every1 model.
  • Pernod Ricard confirms discussions about a potential merger with Brown-Forman.
  • Novartis acquires Excellergy for up to $2 billion to expand its allergy treatment pipeline.
  • Lufthansa Group signed a collective bargaining agreement granting a 4.6% pay increase for over 20,000 ground staff.
  • UBS halted withdrawals from a €469 million real-estate fund due to insufficient liquidity.
  • Harbour Energy completes a secondary offering of 60 million shares, raising approximately GBP 178 million.

Rest of World:

  • China Construction Bank reports a 1% rise in 2025 net profit and declares a final cash dividend.
  • ICBC reports a 1% rise in 2025 net profit, reaching 370.77 billion yuan.
  • Japan's INPEX considers supplying LPG to India and securing contracts with Indonesia.
  • Eni exits the consortium with Ratio Energies and Dana Petroleum for gas exploration in Israel's Cluster G.
  • Jaguar Land Rover temporarily halts production at its Solihull plant due to a supplier issue.
  • HDFC Bank chair resigned following a power struggle with the CEO.
  • Evergrande Property Services Group reported FY revenue of RMB 13.6776 billion and net income of RMB 986.6 million.
  • Bank of Communications reports FY-end financial metrics with an NPL ratio of 1.28%.
  • Bursa Malaysia and HKEX sign an agreement to explore dual-listing pathways and other financial products.