FirstFT: Legal risks pile up for OpenAI

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Good morning and welcome to FirstFT. In today’s newsletter:

• Legal risks pile up for OpenAI
• US recalls B-1 bombers from UK air base
• M&A boom loses steam
• The new movie villains: tech titans

Legal risks pile up for OpenAI

US recalls B-1 bombers from UK air base

M&A boom loses steam

The new movie villains: tech titans

A spiralling legal crisis threatens to engulf OpenAI after its AI agents hacked dozens of companies and governments worldwide, with the prospect of a barrage of lawsuits marking the latest test of Sam Altman’s leadership.

Staff at OpenAI, alongside senior legal, tech and policy figures, told the FT that the company had been left open to legal damages and government actions after cyber security breaches involving its AI agents were revealed around the world.

The past week has seen new legal actions and regulatory probes launched against OpenAI almost daily, from California to Australia, with more expected to follow as details of other incidents come to light.

Altman is fending off accusations that he is sidelining security concerns and deprioritising “alignment” training — which ensures models do not take actions harmful to humans — to regain ground against rival lab Anthropic.

In the wake of the dramatic attack on AI site Hugging Face by hundreds of OpenAI agents, Altman has acknowledged the risks presented by AI’s advances and joined calls by his arch-rival, Anthropic chief Dario Amodei, to “pace the frontier” of AI development. However, several OpenAI investors and others close to the company rejected the idea that there would be any meaningful slowdown.

“If you’re Sam Altman and you want to beat your competitor . . . there’s no way you’re going to pump the brakes,” said a former senior OpenAI employee. “Knowing the psyche of the people there, there’s no way they’re slowing down.” Read the full story.

Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today:

• Brazil election: Results are due in the highly polarised contest with repercussions for Donald Trump’s aim of expanding US influence across Latin America.
• Japanese politics: Diet convenes an extraordinary session, the first full-scale parliamentary debate session since Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi reshuffled her cabinet in September.
• China: Financial markets are closed for the National Day Golden Week holiday.

Brazil election: Results are due in the highly polarised contest with repercussions for Donald Trump’s aim of expanding US influence across Latin America.

Japanese politics: Diet convenes an extraordinary session, the first full-scale parliamentary debate session since Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi reshuffled her cabinet in September.

China: Financial markets are closed for the National Day Golden Week holiday.

Five more top stories

1. The US has recalled the B-1 bombers stationed at the UK’s Fairford air base to American soil, a US defence official confirmed yesterday, following a suspected terrorist plot to target the British facility. The withdrawal comes a week after five British men in their twenties were arrested near the base after police received reports of three suspicious vans and masked men.

2. China has reduced the total number of banks by nearly a quarter as part of a drive to strengthen oversight of smaller lenders at a time of slower economic momentum. There were more than 670 closures of banking entities last year — a record high — according to official data from the National Financial Regulatory Administration.

• Chinese women turn to surrogates to avoid motherhood ‘penalty’: With surrogacy illegal in China, agencies and consultancies are increasingly connecting would-be parents with women overseas.

Chinese women turn to surrogates to avoid motherhood ‘penalty’: With surrogacy illegal in China, agencies and consultancies are increasingly connecting would-be parents with women overseas.

3. Global dealmaking fell below $1tn in the third quarter for the first time since Trump unleashed his trade war last year, as high interest rates threaten to derail a blockbuster year for mergers and acquisitions. The total for 2026 so far of $3.9tn now lags that of 2021, when almost $4.2tn worth of deals were recorded in the first nine months.

• M&A news: Schneider Electric is in advanced talks to buy US engineering software provider PTC for about $20bn.

M&A news: Schneider Electric is in advanced talks to buy US engineering software provider PTC for about $20bn.

4. Australian authorities are investigating the Flydubai attacker’s ties to the country, as recriminations between various governments escalate after the attempted hijacking of a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv last week.

5. Wall Street initial public offerings have slowed to a trickle as tepid investor demand for new deals and worries about high valuations weigh on what was tipped to be a bumper quarter of new listings. Several listings have been paused in recent weeks while a delay in Anthropic’s public debut has darkened sentiment in US equity capital markets.

China, America and the new Great Game

The geostrategic competition between the US and China has much in common with the Great Game between Britain and Russia in the 1800s, a century-long struggle that drew allies and adversaries alike into multiple regional conflicts involving both competition and collaboration. Which country wins — and indeed whether there can be an ultimate winner — may depend on forces beyond either’s control.

We’re also reading . . .

• Polymarket’s Alpha traders: In a private group chat, an elite crew of prediction-market bettors turn elections, wars and disasters into “free money on the floor”.
• Modernity malaise: So pervasive is tech fatigue among young people that many of them wish they had been born in an altogether different era, writes Jemima Kelly.
• ‘Smart shipyards’: South Korea and Japan are accelerating efforts to deploy robots in their shipyards as China’s dominance of the industry alarms Washington and its allies.

Polymarket’s Alpha traders: In a private group chat, an elite crew of prediction-market bettors turn elections, wars and disasters into “free money on the floor”.

Modernity malaise: So pervasive is tech fatigue among young people that many of them wish they had been born in an altogether different era, writes Jemima Kelly.

‘Smart shipyards’: South Korea and Japan are accelerating efforts to deploy robots in their shipyards as China’s dominance of the industry alarms Washington and its allies.

Chart of the day

Corporate Japan must work harder for investors or risk derailing a record stock market boom as bonds become more attractive, the head of its largest trading house has warned. Mitsubishi Corporation chief executive Katsuya Nakanishi said that both his company and the wider market needed to deploy cash more efficiently.

Take a break from the news . . .

Meet the new movie villains: Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Sam Altman. The three tech titans are all subjects of films due for release in the coming months that portray them in a negative light. But while film-makers vilify AI, studios are investing in it hungrily.

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