FBI investigates China-backed VC fund

Good morning. In at the moment’s e-newsletter:

• The ‘soap opera’ derailing Australian central financial institution reform

• Younger Indians rack up bank card debt

• The FT’s US Election Sport

However first, the FBI is investigating whether or not a China-backed US enterprise capital fund handed commerce secrets and techniques to Beijing.

California-based Hone Capital, which launched in 2015 with $115mn of preliminary capital from a Chinese language non-public fairness group, invested in 360 US tech start-ups in lower than three years.

The fund grew to become one in every of Silicon Valley’s most prolific early traders, constructing stakes in driverless-car maker Cruise, funds group Stripe and aerospace engineer Growth.

The FBI is analyzing whether or not Hone Capital accessed details about the expertise, funds or purchasers of start-ups for the good thing about its Beijing-based proprietor or Chinese language authorities, stated a number of folks near the matter.

Right here’s what else we all know concerning the probe, which comes as heightened geopolitical tensions between the US and China have rattled Silicon Valley’s enterprise trade.

And right here’s what else I’m holding tabs on at the moment:

• Financial knowledge: Singapore publishes its newest industrial manufacturing index and Malaysia report PPI knowledge for August. Closing second-quarter GDP knowledge is due within the US.

• Japan: The Financial institution of Japan publishes its newest financial coverage assembly minutes.

• Ukraine chief in Washington: Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet President Joe Biden on the White Home and current him with a “Victory Plan” that he says will drive Russia to the negotiating desk.

5 extra prime tales

1. A political “soap opera” is threatening a once-in-a-generation reform of the Reserve Financial institution of Australia geared toward enhancing the central financial institution’s much-criticised report on financial coverage after a post-pandemic inflation surge. The reform would set up a separate financial coverage board throughout the RBA to resolve rates of interest. However the opposition Liberal get together, which initially supported the plan, has turned in opposition to it.

2. Younger Indians are racking up mortgage and bank card debt as they splurge on aspirational purchases from clothes to holidays, elevating considerations about rising delinquencies and a wider lending slowdown. A couple of third of millennials and 40 per cent of Gen Z Indians are submerged underneath unsustainable borrowings, based on Freed, an Indian debt decision platform.

3. Mira Murati, OpenAI’s chief expertise officer who briefly served as chief government throughout the failed coup in opposition to founder Sam Altman, is leaving the corporate. It’s the newest blow to the Microsoft-backed synthetic intelligence start-up, which has had a number of high-profile departures this yr.

4. Vladimir Putin has issued a stark menace to Ukraine’s Nato allies, saying he would increase Russia’s nuclear doctrine to probably cowl assaults in opposition to his nation utilizing superior western missiles. Putin’s threats had been a transparent message to Ukraine’s western allies because the US and UK contemplate letting Kyiv hit targets deep inside Russia with Storm Shadow missiles. Right here’s extra on Putin’s revised nuclear doctrine.

5. The US and France had been racing yesterday to safe a short lived truce between Israel and Hizbollah as Israel’s army chief instructed troops to organize for a possible floor offensive in Lebanon. US President Joe Biden and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron had been concerned within the diplomatic push on the UN Basic Meeting in New York, based on folks briefed on the state of affairs.

The Massive Learn

Within the years since its founding in 2009, Uber instigated a transport revolution, unfold its disruptive enterprise mannequin to a variety of sectors and have become one of many world’s most respected non-public tech corporations. On prime of ride-sharing and takeaways, Uber’s couriers now ship items for retailers, placing it in ever extra direct competitors with Amazon. Is it attempting to do an excessive amount of?

We’re additionally studying . . . 

• Hizbollah: The Iran-backed militant group is not going to admit defeat, writes Kim Ghattas. However there’s a quick window for worldwide diplomacy to discover a face-saving formulation that may permit Hizbollah to face down.

• The top of the favored politician: A once-common sort is vanishing from the west. Janan Ganesh argues it’s a drawback of demand not provide.

• European competitiveness: The EU tech trade is dire. However the issue is not lack of cash, writes Martin Wolf.

Chart of the day

Chinese language markets have given a short-term welcome to an “unprecedented” toolbox promised by Beijing to stabilise capital markets and revive animal spirits. However the greater concern is whether or not the measures will probably be sufficient to stimulate the faltering actual financial system.

Take a break from the information

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Extra contributions from Gordon Smith and Tee Zhuo