NEWS IN BRIEF - Business: Groundbreaking ceremony for Roche expansion in the USA +++ Musk sues Apple and Chat-GPT makers

dba.

With the official groundbreaking ceremony, Roche marked the start of construction of a new plant in the USA. In Holly Springs, North Carolina, its US subsidiary Genentech is building its first production facility on the East Coast. According to an announcement Monday evening (August 25), the pharmaceutical company will invest $700 million in a manufacturing facility where it will eventually produce obesity medications.

More than 1,900 jobs will be created at the site. The factory is scheduled to be completed and operational by 2029, and the site has additional land reserves for any additional construction. The investment is part of the $50 billion the company announced for expanding production in the USA.

US President Donald Trump is threatening pharmaceutical companies with high tariffs on drug imports in order to force them to relocate production to America.

(dpa) Tech billionaire Elon Musk is dragging Apple and Chat-GPT inventor Open AI to court because his own AI chatbot, Grok, is allegedly being discriminated against. Musk's AI company, xAI, claims in the lawsuit filed in Texas on Monday (August 25), that the iPhone company is hindering other chatbots in order to give Chat-GPT an advantage. Apple responded to Musk's initial threat of legal action two weeks ago, arguing that the company's App Store is designed to be fair and not favor anyone.

Last year, Apple launched a collaboration with Open AI that allows users of iPhones and other devices to submit queries directly to Chat-GPT. According to the company, other AI chatbots could also be integrated in this way over time.

From xAI's perspective, Apple is a monopolist in the US smartphone market with a 65 percent share, and Open AI holds a monopoly in AI chatbots with 80 percent. This is the basis for accusing them of anti-competitive behavior. The lawsuit seeks damages and a ban on the current cooperation.

Musk is already involved in a lengthy legal battle with Open AI and accuses company CEO Sam Altman of trying to illegally restructure the Chat GPT development company.

(dpa) Unicredit is moving towards a takeover offer for Commerzbank: The major Italian bank increased its direct shareholding in Germany's second-largest private bank to around 26 percent on Monday (August 25), according to its own statements.

At the same time, the Milan-based bank announced that it would also convert its remaining financial instruments into Commerzbank shares "in due course," which would bring its stake to approximately 29 percent. If the 30 percent mark is exceeded, Unicredit would be legally obligated to submit an official purchase offer to the remaining shareholders of the Frankfurt-based DAX-listed group.

Unicredit CEO Andrea Orcel, undeterred by all the opposition in Germany, has been promoting the benefits of a cross-border merger since the fall: Unicredit, which already has a foothold in the German market with Hypovereinsbank (HVB), sees opportunities in the private and SME business. In Germany, there are great concerns that a merger would mean job cuts and branch closures.

The Milan-based bank took advantage of the federal government's partial exit from the bank's holdings in September to acquire Commerzbank on a large scale. In addition to an initial direct stake of just under 10 percent, the Italians secured access to a further nearly 19 percent through financial instruments.

At the beginning of July, Unicredit converted a good half of these financial instruments into shares, overtaking the German government as Commerzbank's largest shareholder with a stake of around 20 percent. The German government, which had saved Commerzbank from collapse during the 2008/2009 financial crisis with billions in tax revenue, still holds a good 12 percent of the shares and recently ruled out further share sales.

(dpa) The US government is becoming a major shareholder in the struggling chip company Intel. As Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick announced on Friday (August 22), the government now holds a 10 percent stake in the company. The remaining $8.9 billion (approximately 7.2 billion Swiss francs) in subsidies for the expansion of US production will be paid out as the purchase price, according to an Intel statement. Intel had already received a good $2 billion.

According to previous statements by Lutnick, President Donald Trump wanted the stake in return for the subsidies. According to the minister's previous statements, the US government will receive shares without voting rights. This would prevent it from exerting direct influence on management decisions at Intel. According to the Intel announcement, the stake is 9.9 percent.

The US government can also buy an additional five percent stake at a price of $20 per share within five years if Intel holds less than 51 percent of its manufacturing business. Intel shares rose about 5.5 percent to $24.80 in US trading on Friday. Read the report