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Amazon enters into a $38 billion partnership with OpenAI


AWS will provide OpenAI with Amazon EC2 UltraServers, with hundreds of thousands of chips and the capacity to scale up to tens of millions of CPUs (Central Processing Unit, meaning the 'brain' of the computer) for advanced GenAI workloads. Martin Peers commented: 'That's not a lot', given Silicon Valley's billion dollar deals and sums on AI, Cloud and whatnot. Indeed, OpenAI has commitments of $1.5 trillion and agreements with Nvidia, AMD, Oracle, Broadcom, Google and Samsung. Amazon is expected to invest $8 billion in Anthropic. On AWS read here. Compiled 4 November, updated 5 November 2025

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Trump negotiates deal with Ozempic manufacturer to sell some weight-loss drugs for $149


Novo Nordisk, as well as Eli Lilly, would get Medicare and Medicaid coverage for their successful slimming drugs. The Trump administration is negotiating a deal with the weight-loss drug companies Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk. This would allow them to sell lower doses of some of their obesity drugs to consumers at $149 for a monthly supply through TrumpRx (*), according to people familiar with the matter. The drugs have list prices ranging from about $1,000 to $1,350 per month. The companies offer discounts to both insurers and patients, including cash prices of about $499 per month for patients using the companies' direct purchasing services. Source : The Wall Street Journal (*) a government-run website, dubbed TrumpRx, to allow consumers to buy drugs directly from manufacturers. GLP1 is discussed here but also in this article.

 

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The price of hazelnuts, essential for Ferrero’s spreads and chocolates, has almost doubled since the beginning of the summer


after a spring frost and a pest epidemic in Turkey reduced the amount of hazelnuts available for the confectionery industry. Ferrero, which consumes about a quarter of global hazelnut production , halted purchases, drawing on its own stocks and sourcing from Chile and the US. London-based traders say prices have further inflated as Turkish middlemen have aggressively bought from farmers, betting that the world's largest hazelnut consumer will soon be forced back into the market. In a normal year, Turkey harvests between 600,000 and 700,000 tonnes of hazelnuts, almost two-thirds of the global supply of around 1.1 million tonnes. The hazelnut situation, like that of cocoa or meat and milk, will create further inflation. Drafted 31 October, updated 2 November 2025

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Italy returns to second place among world oil producers. Here are the figures for the new oil campaign


Total production is expected to be around 300,000 tonnes with an increase of 21% compared to 2024, which would bring Italy back to second place in the world among the main producers. In the Mediterranean basin, on the other hand, data from the International Olive Oil Council paint an evolving picture with Spain registering a slight drop (1.37 million tonnes), Tunisia and Turkey dropping by 21% and 43% respectively, while overall European production is just over two million tonnes Gambero Rosso

 

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Amazon’s cloud business – Amazon Web Services – recorded its strongest quarterly growth in almost three years


this was due to booming demand for computing power related to artificial intelligence. The company's shares rose about 13 per cent in after-hours trading on Thursday, after Amazon Web Services reported a 20 per cent increase in sales to $33 billion. Amazon's total revenues for the three months to the end of September rose 13 per cent to $180.2 billion, while net income rose nearly 40 per cent to $21.2 billion compared to the same period last year. Amazon 's capital expenditure on artificial intelligence infrastructure such as chips and data centres was $34.2 billion in the quarter, higher than the $31.5 billion expected by analysts, bringing the total spent so far this year to $89.9 billion. AWS has always been Amazon's 'golden goose'. Read also this article on Amazon's revenue breakdown.

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Amazon will lay off up to 30,000 workers


The cuts would amount to about 10% of the white-collar workforce of the online giant. Amazon's job cuts come as large companies in the US are looking for ways to reduce or slow their workforce growth, including by employing artificial intelligence. Rising prices, tightening labour markets and the ebb and flow of President Trump's trade war have prompted business leaders to look for ways to tighten their belts without hurting growth. More and more large companies are betting that they can grow without hiring. Read this article on the subject. Below: in front of the Seattle headquarters in 2016

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