In today’s Digest, we discuss Bailey flagging the risk of an AI slowdown for global markets, OpenAI denying Apple’s trade secret theft claims and calling the lawsuit “a mess of Apple’s own making,” and Anthropic signing a USD$35bn (£26.3bn) cloud deal with Nvidia-backed Lambda for a Texas data center. 

Bailey flags AI slowdown risk for global markets

Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England, has told G20 finance ministers that a downturn in the AI industry could ripple outward into a broader global economic crisis, alongside warning of serious cybersecurity risks facing financial systems. In an open letter, Bailey said a sharp slowdown in AI sector growth risks triggering a "future market correction". He urged firms globally to brace for the possibility of coordinated security breaches hitting multiple companies at once. 

Writing in his capacity as chair of the Financial Stability Board, Bailey pointed to a worrying mix of factors that could magnify any future shock: elevated stock valuations, rising borrowing among investors, and an increasing concentration of capital in a handful of dominant tech firms. 

OpenAI rejects Apple’s trade secret theft claims 

OpenAI has formally denied allegations from Apple that former employees stole trade secrets, arguing in a court filing that Apple failed to demonstrate any confidential information was actually taken. "This dispute is a mess of Apple's own making, and it is trying to blame everyone else," OpenAI stated in its filing with the US District Court in San Jose. Apple had sued OpenAI along with former Apple employees Tang Tan and Chang Liu in July, accusing them of misappropriating trade secrets tied to hardware design, manufacturing, and supply-chain operations as OpenAI expands into consumer devices. 

OpenAI, led by CEO Sam Altman, contends Apple is using the litigation strategically, both to slow down a potential rival and to discourage further employee departures, noting that OpenAI has hired roughly 400 former Apple employees for its hardware division, a figure both companies have acknowledged in court filings. 

Anthropic signs $35bn cloud deal with Lambda

Anthropic has struck a USD$35bn (£26.3bn) cloud-computing agreement with Lambda, a cloud provider backed by Nvidia, to secure capacity from a data centre project in Texas, according to a source familiar with the matter. As it heads for an IPO, Anthropic has been expanding its computing power to meet demand growth expected ⁠for products such as Claude Code. The source said the deal will bring online Nvidia capacity to fulfil growing demand for Claude AI.

None of the companies involved, Anthropic, Nvidia, Hut 8, or Lambda, immediately responded to requests for comment outside regular business hours.