US curbs on foreign-made robots intensify its wider rivalry with China over AI, chips and industry.
Humanoid robots are no longer a laboratory experiment; they are a growing market. Morgan Stanley estimates it could hit $5 trillion by 2050, with more than a billion humanoids in use worldwide.
However, much of the global robot supply chain runs through China. It produces robot components at a scale and a price its competitors struggle to match.
The United States has banned imports of foreign-made humanoid robots, citing national security. It has also blocked power inverters used in data centres and solar energy systems. The move is seen as part of a broader effort to protect US industry and limit China’s technological rise.
Europe’s established technology companies are emerging as unexpected beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence boom, as businesses shift from AI experimentation to large-scale deployment. Rather than model developers capturing all the value, companies specializing in enterprise software, consulting, and cloud infrastructure are seeing stronger demand by helping organizations integrate AI into existing operations.
Enterprise AI Shifts Toward Implementation
Recent earnings from SAP, Capgemini, Sopra Steria, and OVHcloud indicate that corporate AI spending is increasingly focused on implementation rather than simply acquiring AI models.
Large organizations require AI systems that integrate with legacy software, fragmented databases, compliance frameworks, and existing business processes. This complexity has created growing demand for firms with deep experience in enterprise technology integration.
Integration Becomes the Next AI Battleground
Industry analysts argue that the next phase of AI competition lies in applications rather than foundation models.
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As businesses adopt multiple AI models for different functions, the challenge is no longer selecting the best model but ensuring those systems work securely across finance, supply chains, human resources, and customer operations.
This transition is benefiting European firms that have spent decades building enterprise software ecosystems and managing digital transformation projects.
Strong Corporate Results Reflect Growing Demand
SAP reported a 26% increase in its cloud backlog, reflecting continued migration of enterprise systems onto cloud platforms that increasingly support AI deployment.
Meanwhile, Capgemini and Sopra Steria upgraded their business outlooks after stronger-than-expected growth in bookings and consulting demand, particularly for AI integration, governance, and data management services.
These results suggest implementation services are becoming a major source of value creation within the AI economy.
European Digital Sovereignty Gains Importance
Demand is also growing for AI infrastructure that provides greater control over corporate and government data.
Sectors such as defense, aerospace, healthcare, and critical infrastructure increasingly prioritize security, regulatory compliance, and data sovereignty when deploying AI.
This trend has supported European cloud providers such as OVHcloud, while companies including Airbus have chosen European AI infrastructure and cloud services for sensitive applications.
Challenges Remain
Despite improving demand, Europe’s technology incumbents must demonstrate that AI-driven growth is sustainable over the long term.
Automation could pressure consulting margins, while increasing competition among AI providers may compress pricing. Companies will also need to continue investing heavily in infrastructure and software development to maintain their competitive position.
Analysis: Europe’s Competitive Advantage Lies Beyond AI Models
The latest earnings reinforce a broader shift in the AI value chain. While much investor attention has focused on companies developing large language models, the commercialization of AI increasingly depends on firms capable of integrating those models into complex enterprise environments. Europe’s established technology companies possess decades of expertise in enterprise software, systems integration, cybersecurity, and regulatory compliance areas becoming increasingly critical as organizations deploy AI at scale. If businesses continue prioritizing implementation, governance, and digital sovereignty over standalone AI models, Europe’s incumbents could become some of the most durable long-term beneficiaries of the global AI transformation, despite not leading the race to build frontier AI models.
Second-quarter revenue jumped 93 percent but Palantir’s ties to Israel and role in military technology are controversial.
Published On 4 Aug 20264 Aug 2026
United States artificial intelligence and data analytics giant Palantir Technologies has reported “otherworldly” quarterly results, sending its shares more than 14 percent higher in after-hours trading, as its growth shows no signs of slowing despite mounting criticism over its close ties to the US and Israeli governments and concerns about its growing role in artificial intelligence and warfare.
Palantir Technologies reported a revenue of $1.94bn for the second quarter, up 93 percent from a year earlier, and raised its forecast annual revenue to between $8.15bn and $8.158bn, up from $7.65bn to $7.662bn earlier. It said strong demand from both commercial customers and government agencies drove the surge.
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“This quarter was otherworldly: our US commercial revenue grew 149 percent year-over-year, our overall revenue grew 93 percent year-over-year,” Chief Executive Alex Karp said. “Demand for AI sovereignty has now been unleashed.”
In a letter to shareholders, Karp wrote: “Our business is compounding at a rate and scale that we have never before witnessed.”
Palantir holds multibillion-dollar contracts with US government agencies, including the US Army. Revenue from its US government business rose 90 percent year on year to $809m, even as the company has faced growing opposition over its role in President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, which critics say has resulted in unlawful deportations and killings.
Founded in 2003 by technology entrepreneurs including Karp and multi-billionaire Peter Thiel, Palantir opened its first office in Israel in 2015 and has since expanded its work with the Israeli military.
Following what Palantir described as a “strategic partnership” with Israel in January 2024, the company significantly expanded its operations supporting Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and operations in the occupied West Bank.
According to Open Intel, a platform tracking corporate involvement in the genocidal war on Gaza, Palantir has actively recruited former members of Israel’s elite Unit 8200 cyberintelligence division. The group says Palantir’s software integrates intercepted communications, satellite imagery and other datasets to help generate military targeting lists for Israeli forces.
In a statement to Al Jazeera earlier this year, Palantir UK reiterated the company’s support for Israel.
The company has also secured major contracts with the United Kingdom’s government. In January, the UK’s Ministry of Defence awarded Palantir a $323m (240-million-pound) contract. A separate $444m (330-million-pound) NHS contract awarded in November 2023 has also attracted criticism, with campaigners raising concerns about the handling of sensitive health data and the heavy redaction of contract documents.
Palantir has also faced scrutiny over its vision for the future of artificial intelligence. In The Technological Republic, a recent book co-authored by Karp and the company’s head of corporate affairs, Nicholas W Zamiska, the authors argue that technology companies have a responsibility to build advanced military AI capabilities. Critics have described the philosophy as a form of “techno-fascism”.
Whether driven by retirements or re-configuration, the insurance industry is scrambling for tech talent.
This article appears in the July/August issue of Global Finance Magazine.
Caught between a wave of retirements and a weak talent pipeline short on tech-savvy candidates, the insurance industry faces a talent shortage that could affect its ability to address cyber and other emerging risks.
“Demand is rising sharply for fluency in analytics, AI, as well as in cyber risk. These are all capabilities that are either new or that the traditional sources of talent haven’t produced at scale,” says Peter Miller, president and CEO of The Institutes, a risk management and insurance education provider.
In 2014, to help expand the talent pool, a group of risk management and insurance companies, nonprofits, and educational institutions, led by The Institutes, created MyPath, a one-stop resource for job seekers that outlines the benefits of, and pathways to, insurance careers.
The initiative remains timely because, in a November 2024 Institutes report, 66% of insurance professionals in the property and casualty sector surveyed identified the loss of institutional knowledge as the retirement wave’s greatest impact: “The result is both a talent shortage and a knowledge-transfer risk.” That means organizations must find ways to “preserve institutional expertise that took decades to build” while developing new skills.
Other Industry Observers Agree
“There is a dual-sided talent crisis,” says Margaret Milkint, global insurance practice leader at DSG Global, an executive search firm. “Organizations are losing experienced professionals faster than they can be replaced while simultaneously racing to build leadership capacity around capabilities that barely existed a decade ago.”
The talent crunch is rippling beyond primary insurers to encompass reinsurance carriers, brokerages, and risk management firms, she says. “Artificial intelligence is creating an entirely new category of roles spanning enablement, governance, ethics, and cultural integration that require skill sets the traditional insurance pipeline was never built to produce.”
The shortage of talent with tech and AI capabilities has become one of the industry’s most critical gaps as roles across underwriting, claims, and risk management become more data-driven, says Victor Harris, vice president at financial services recruiter Selby Jennings. “The shortage is slowing the pace at which many organizations can fully adopt and scale their AI strategies,” he warns.
Worsening Insurance Talent Squeeze
While they agree that AI is increasing demand for certain roles, experts at Aon observe that AI and automation are reducing demand in some entry-level and operations slots, particularly in finance and reporting.
“There is a risk of mischaracterizing the issue as a blanket shortage,” says Louisa Blain, head of insurance for human capital at Aon. “The reality is more nuanced, and linked to where the industry wants to grow versus the skills it currently has versus requirements for the future. This is less about replacement and more about reconfiguration of the workforce.”
Louisa Blain, Aon: This talent shortage is less about replacement and more about reconfiguration of the workforce.
Yet, the talent constraints could limit industry growth in specialist and emerging risk areas, argues Jeff Reider, head of Aon’s benchmarking, strategy and technology group. The Institutes’ Miller sees the shortage coming in cyber, complex liability, multinational program structuring, and cross-jurisdictional claims coverage.
“Knowledge lost to retirement can have meaningful downstream effects on compliance and strategy,” he says. “For any multinational that depends on its risk transfer partners to keep pace with growing exposure complexity, this is a material consideration.”
The infusion of capital and the emergence of new carriers and managing general agents in specialty lines have made the talent squeeze more pronounced over the last five years, says Tony Chimera, chief administrative officer at carrier Westfield Specialty.
“That has pulled talent out of the pool used by insurance carriers and brokers,” he adds, noting the talent squeeze has been building for two decades. “You do have an aging workforce. Some people are working longer, but you have a 55- to 65-year-old workforce that is probably not going to be there in the next five years.”
In addition, insurers are competing with the banking and technology sectors, which many younger professionals are turning to for more attractive careers with greater compensation. Yet, the actual compensation for some banking sector jobs, when salaries are integrated with a lack of work/life balance, can be much less desirable than insurance roles, Chimera points out: “Insurance is a great industry where you can earn a lot. And you can have a life.”
But Harris notes that many insurers’ locations in midsize cities can dissuade younger professionals intent on living in larger, more alluring metropolises. That leaves the industry with a limited pool of specialized talent.
Technical Fluency Isn’t Everything
How, then, is the industry to attract new talent?
The technology industry could be one source, Chimera says. But candidates must accompany the tech skills needed for roles in data analytics, AI, and cybersecurity with knowledge of the complex insurance business.
“Technical fluency alone doesn’t translate directly into effectiveness in risk management and insurance,” says Miller, adding that regulatory knowledge, coverage mechanics, and underwriting judgment take time to develop. “The most successful transitions involve strong technical capabilities combined with a genuine curiosity to develop insurance-specific expertise.”
While agreeing that the talent shortage has been building for years, Milkint notes that there is no clear consensus on when, or whether, it will peak. “Closing this gap,” she says, “will require the entire industry to go on the offensive and actively dismantle outdated stereotypes, confront long-standing biases, and make a compelling, unified case that insurance is not just keeping pace with the future, but helping to shape it.”
To attract more students from outside the traditional insurance and risk management programs, the industry must expand students’ awareness of career opportunities “beginning well before students reach their junior and senior years of college,” says Grace Grant, executive director at Gamma Iota Sigma. The collegiate society represents more than 7,000 students interested in careers in insurance, risk management, and actuarial science across 177 colleges and universities.
“Many students simply are not exposed to the breadth of careers available in the industry,” Grant says, adding that employers should highlight their innovation, technological sophistication, purpose-driven work, career stability, and advancement opportunities. “Students are highly motivated by careers where they can make a meaningful impact, and insurance is fundamentally about helping individuals, businesses, and communities recover from loss and manage uncertainty.”
Paula L. Green is a contributing writer based in New York City.
Most generative AI projects in finance fail. Here’s what it means for CFOs and their future hires.
Mid-market finance chiefs aren’t hiring like they used to. A Gartner survey of more than 300 finance executives shows that while companies are pouring more money into artificial intelligence tools, the share of CFOs planning to expand headcount has fallen.
“Four out of five were either freezing capacity or headcount or reducing capacity in their team,” Alok Ajmera, chief executive officer at Prophix, told Global Finance in a phone interview.
While CEOs and boards pressure their teams to show productivity gains from generative AI, results have been uneven, Ajmera added.
The GenAI Reality Check
Another Gartner estimate shows that more than 90% of generative AI proof-of-concept projects in finance departments failed to generate incremental value. This “staggering amount,” Ajmera said, curdles AI enthusiasm into AI skepticism.
“A lot of projects from an AI perspective felt really good on paper, but have not actually materialized the value … in real life,” he added.
He attributed the shortfall to a mismatch between the technology and finance work itself.
“This is not a probabilistic exercise, this is a deterministic exercise,” Ajmera said. “You can’t be 99% accurate with your numbers. You have to be 100% accurate.” CFOs remain comfortable using AI for reporting, commentary and analytics, he said, but “extraordinarily uncomfortable” letting it touch journal entries or adjust numbers directly.
Shifting Skills, not Mass Layoffs
Ajmera pushed back on warnings of mass AI-driven unemployment, including recent comments from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, saying “the Doomerism view has been overhyped.” He pointed to software engineering — home to agentic coding, the most monetized AI use case to date — as evidence. “We have hired more engineers in 2026 than we did in 2025,” despite productivity tools making individual engineers more efficient, he said.
He predicted finance will see similar skill displacement rather than outright job losses. “I would not be surprised in a couple of years if we start seeing finance operations engineers” managing AI agents on staff. Slower hiring, Ajmera added, is not the same as letting people go.
Ajmera also described a broader consolidation trend, as companies unwind software sprawl built up earlier this decade. He cited a mid-market manufacturer in the Midwest whose cloud application count grew “from five or six applications to 25 or 30” before Prophix helped consolidate roughly nine or 10 of those tools onto a single platform.
Looking ahead, Ajmera said he expects more caution from CFOs. “There’s a lot of caution in the air,” he said, predicting longer purchasing cycles and heavier scrutiny of technology spending amid broader economic uncertainty.
Anthony Noto covers corporate finance and private credit. Contact him at anoto@gfmag.com
Synopsys (SNPS) has expanded its collaboration with Nvidia (NVDA) to introduce new agentic AI capabilities, headlined by an autonomous chip verification agent that speeds time-to-validated RTL by up to 50x while boosting coverage by 20%.
Demonstrating Synopsys’ first fully autonomous computer-aided engineering
From journalist to CEO to PM: Han Seong-sook breaks barriers to lead Korea’s AI revolution.
The National Assembly — South Korea’s parliament — has confirmed former Naver CEO Han Seong-sook as the country’s new prime minister. The 59-year-old will be only the second woman to hold the position in South Korea. The first female prime minister was Han Myeong-sook, who served from 2006 to 2007.
After President Lee Jae-myung’s Democratic Party dominated June’s local elections, he nominated Han as prime minister. She had previously served as minister for small businesses and startups.
Han began her career as a technology journalist, then joined a search startup, and later rose through Naver’s senior ranks. She was the first non-engineer CEO of a major South Korean technology company and, at the time, the only woman outside the chaebol families — the dynasties that control the country’s large industrial conglomerates — to lead a top-100 firm.
During her five-year stint at Naver, Han pushed the company beyond search into shopping, payments, and content generation, cementing its position as the country’s top internet group. With a reputation for hands-on communication, she gave up the top-floor suite for a mid-level office to be closer to staff. When she entered government last year, she became the richest public-office nominee in Korea’s post-1993, post-autocracy history.
Driving South Korea’s AI Growth Agenda
“I think one can interpret the nomination of Han Seong-sook as a deliberate signal to markets: a former CEO rather than a career politician is being installed to place a credible tech operator at the heart of Lee’s AI-led growth agenda,” says Hannes Mosler, chair of East Asian Social Sciences at the University of Duisburg-Essen. “The promise is continuity in the semiconductor export boom and a pledge to recycle those gains into AI and a sturdier social safety net.”
Yet, Han’s nomination remains clouded by suspicion.
Mosler notes: “The controversies are real, but mostly the standard Korean confirmation gauntlet: multiple-home ownership that sits badly against Lee’s anti-speculation line, a data breach in her own ministry’s startup program, and family property dealings. None look good on her, nor do they look disqualifying, even though you never know.”
The harder question, Mosler argues, is not so much her confirmation, since Lee’s party holds the majority in Parliament, but rather her ability to deliver.
“Korea’s premiership is largely administrative,” he points out, “so Han’s real influence depends on whether President Lee genuinely lets a technocrat drive industrial policy or keeps her as the public face.”
Luca Ventura is a contributing writer based in Italy.
This photo, taken Thursday, shows the trading room of Hana Bank in Seoul as South Korean stocks fell by more than six percent on tech stock losses amid Middle East tensions. Photo by Yonhap
Seoul shares again plummeted Thursday, led by steep losses in technology heavyweights, as escalating tensions in the Middle East weighed on investor sentiment. The Korean won rose against the U.S. dollar.
After opening 4.45 percent lower, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) extended its losses to close at 6,820.60, down 463.81 points, or 6.37 percent from the previous session, after falling as low as 6,730.87.
The Korea Exchange, the country’s bourse operator, activated a sell-side sidecar on the KOSPI for 20 minutes at around 9:10 a.m. after the benchmark index fell more than 5 percent.
The decline came after the index surged 6.24 percent Wednesday as softer-than-expected U.S. inflation data eased concerns about near-term Federal Reserve interest rate hikes.
Adding to investor jitters, the Bank of Korea (BOK) raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 2.75 percent earlier in the day, the first increase in 3 1/2 years, to curb inflation amid escalating tensions in the Middle East.
The U.S. launched fresh strikes on Iran, escalating tensions in the Middle East and renewing concerns over potential disruptions to regional energy supplies.
“Profit-taking followed sharp gains in technology stocks a session earlier, while persistent concerns over the semiconductor industry kept the index under pressure,” Kang Jin-hyeok, an analyst at Shinhan Securities Co., said.
Institutional and foreign investors sold a net 2.37 trillion won (US$1.6 billion) and 1.38 trillion won worth of shares, respectively, while retail investors bought a net 3.66 trillion won.
Technology stocks led the decline.
Market bellwether Samsung Electronics plunged 8.77 percent to 255,000 won, while rival chipmaker SK hynix tumbled 11.53 percent to 1,842,000 won.
Top automaker Hyundai Motor fell 2.07 percent to 425,000 won, while steelmaker POSCO Holdings slipped 0.95 percent to 311,500 won.
Among gainers, shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean rose 5.73 percent to 86,700 won, while leading beverage firm Hitejinro gained 2.47 percent to 14,910 won.
The Korean won was quoted at 1,480.4 won against the U.S. dollar at 3:30 p.m., up from 1,484.7 won the previous session.
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This photo, taken Monday, shows the trading room of Hana Bank in Seoul as South Korean stocks plunged by nine percent on tech stock losses amid Middle East tensions. Photo by Yonhap
Seoul shares plunged 9 percent Monday as investors dumped technology stocks for profit-taking amid renewed tensions in the Middle East. The Korean won fell against the U.S. dollar.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 669.01 points, or 8.95 percent, to close at 6,806.93 after falling as low as 6,783.43.
Trade volume was moderate at 469.86 million shares worth 39.8 trillion won (US$26.5 billion), with decliners far outnumbering gainers 713 to 179.
Institutions and foreigners sold a net 2.22 trillion won and 1.7 trillion won worth of shares, respectively, while individuals bought a net 3.9 trillion won.
After opening 0.85 percent lower, the KOSPI extended its losses, triggering a circuit breaker that temporarily halted trading of KOSPI-listed stocks for 20 minutes. It marked the seventh activation of the measure this year.
On Friday, U.S. stocks advanced, buoyed by South Korean chipmaker SK hynix’s multibillion-dollar U.S. share offering. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.29 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite also rose 0.29 percent.
SK hynix’s American depositary receipts (ADRs) on the Nasdaq closed at US$168 each, well above the offering price of $149.
Despite the successful U.S. market debut, SK hynix shares tumbled as investors took profits and shifted to the company’s ADRs, analysts said.
Investor sentiment was also dampened by heightened uncertainty in the Middle East after the United States and Iran exchanged fresh strikes over the status of the Strait of Hormuz.
“The country’s newly introduced single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds linked to Samsung Electronics and SK hynix continued to fuel volatility in the stock market,” Samsung Securities said in a research note.
Tech stocks led the decline.
Market bellwether Samsung Electronics plunged 10.7 percent to 254,500 won, while its chipmaking rival SK hynix plummeted 15.37 percent to 1,845,000 won.
Top carmaker Hyundai Motor fell 2.95 percent to 444,000 won, and defense giant Hanwha Aerospace declined 3.21 percent to 936,000 won.
Among gainers, leading battery maker LG Energy Solution rose 0.77 percent, and leading refiner SK Innovation climbed 7.09 percent to 110,200 won.
The Korean won was quoted at 1,503.4 won against the U.S. dollar at 3:30 p.m., down 2 won from the previous session.
Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed lower. The yield on three-year Treasurys rose 4.1 basis points to 3.809 percent, and the return on the benchmark five-year government bonds climbed 3.3 basis points at 4.041 percent.
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European shares were little changed on Friday but remained on track for their first weekly decline in five weeks as weakness in technology stocks and renewed tensions between the United States and Iran dampened investor sentiment.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index edged 0.1% lower to 640.28 points by 0849 GMT, with losses in technology companies offsetting gains in most other sectors.
The benchmark index is poised to end a four-week winning streak after investors reassessed lofty valuations in artificial intelligence-related stocks while monitoring escalating geopolitical risks in the Middle East.
Technology stocks remain under pressure
The technology sector fell 1.3% on Friday as investors continued taking profits following months of strong gains driven by enthusiasm for artificial intelligence.
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The sector also remained focused on the closely watched U.S. stock market debut of South Korean memory chip maker SK Hynix after its $26.5 billion share sale.
Among European chip-related stocks:
Soitec fell 3.3%.
BE Semiconductor Industries declined 1.6%.
ASML dropped 2.3%.
“The large swings we’re seeing in technology stocks suggest investors remain under stress amid elevated valuations,” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior market analyst at Swissquote Bank.
“Attention is now turning to SK Hynix’s U.S. debut, which could help gauge broader appetite for AI-related stocks and influence sentiment across the sector.”
Iran tensions weigh on market sentiment
Investor caution also reflected renewed uncertainty in the Middle East after Iranian forces targeted U.S. military infrastructure in Gulf states following fresh U.S. strikes on Iran.
The latest escalation further weakened the fragile three-week-old ceasefire and renewed concerns over potential disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important energy trade routes.
Higher oil prices and possible supply disruptions have raised concerns about inflation, particularly in energy-importing Europe, where markets are closely watching the implications for economic growth and European Central Bank policy.
Telecoms and travel outperform
Despite weakness in technology, most sectors in the STOXX 600 traded higher.
Telecommunications stocks led gains, rising 1.4%, after Vodafone surged nearly 11%.
The rally followed an announcement by UAE telecoms group e& that it would sell its stake in Vodafone to the family investment group of French billionaire Xavier Niel.
Travel and leisure stocks gained 0.8%, supported by strength in airline shares.
British budget carrier EasyJet jumped 14% after agreeing in principle to a £5.7 billion ($7.65 billion) takeover approach from Apollo Global.
Steel stocks rally on broker upgrades
European steelmakers outperformed after J.P. Morgan adopted a more positive view of the sector.
The investment bank upgraded ArcelorMittal to “neutral” from “underweight,” lifting its shares 5%.
Austria’s Voestalpine climbed 6%, while Germany’s Salzgitter surged 10.3% after both companies received double upgrades to “overweight.”
Other movers
Wealth manager St. James’s Place was among the session’s biggest losers, falling 8.5% after reports that Sovereign Wealth, one of its largest partner firms, was in talks to join a Swedish wealth management group.
Future outlook
Markets are expected to remain focused on two key drivers in the coming days: whether the renewed U.S.-Iran hostilities escalate further and whether SK Hynix’s U.S. debut reinforces or weakens investor confidence in the AI-driven technology rally.
With geopolitical risks pushing oil prices higher and technology valuations facing increased scrutiny, analysts expect volatility across European equities to remain elevated in the near term.
My dinner course is served. It is a Campbell’s-inspired soup can, lightly angled so strands of broccoli are peeking out. I lift the can to uncover a slow-braised short rib and mashed potatoes. An American dish to represent an American artist, here Andy Warhol.
The room is overtaken with projections, scenes of bustling New York traffic paired with bachelor-pad-like guitar riffs. Shown on a wall above a dinner table is a selection of Warhol silkscreens. It’s a Friday night in West Hollywood, and I’m surrounded by a mix of out-of-towners and those celebrating an anniversary. And while this is a special occasion, we’re urged to get a little messy with our food — to use our hands, to paint with a salad, to draw on a cookie.
The main course: A tomato soup can? “7 Paintings” is an immersive event that occasionally hides dishes in artist-inspired presentations.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Play is the primary side dish at “7 Paintings,” a tech-infused dinner theater that aims to be a crash course in fine art. That selection of veggies paired with multiple mini cups of colorful dressings? Guests are encouraged to mix and match the vinaigrettes into a mess of hues, a nod to abstractionist Jackson Pollock. And yellowfin tuna with dashes of avocado and taro chips? That’s an edible tribute to Banksy, of course. What does raw fish have to do with stenciled street art? It’s bold, heavily angled and has a short shelf life? Maybe? Perhaps don’t overthink it.
Even the paper is edible.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
“Have you ever eaten a painting before?” says Nadine Beshir, the Dubai-based creator of “7 Paintings.” “We try to get people out of their comfort zones and eating paper. I want to bring out the child in them.”
“7 Paintings,” held at Sunset House L.A. through the end of August, is the latest example of immersive dining to arrive in this city. These experiences often involve guest participation and are accentuated with advanced multimedia technology and sometimes theatrical elements.
Worldwide, there have been standouts. For instance, Eatrenalin at Germany’s Europa-Park, a dining room-meets-ride where participants are whisked around the space on trackless “floating chairs,” has just received a coveted Michelin star. Ibiza’s Sublimotion has similar haute ambitions, pairing 12 diners together in a room that will come alive with otherworldly projections and performers. At times, diners will win don virtual reality headgear.
“7 Paintings” pairs food with art and music. It’s “fun dining, not fine dining,” says its founder.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Bartender Luca Famulari shakes a cocktail at the immersive dining event.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
“The economics of a restaurant are not the same as the economics of theater and the challenge of combining the two lies in thinking outside the box with respect to pricing and cost structure, such that the customer perceives high value from both the food and the experience,” says the Gallery co-founder Daren Ulmer.
Entrepreneurs keep aiming for that careful balance. “Le Petit Chef and Friends” is currently running at Tangier at downtown’s Hotel Figueroa, an event in which a fully animated film is projected on our plates and tables. Long-running pop-up event Fork N’ Film leans more dinner and movie, pairing dishes directly inspired by what is happening on screen. Upcoming films include “Ratatouille” and “Lilo and Stitch.”
The field comes with challenges. “The costs are very high,” says Joanna Garner, an immersive designer and former creative director with experiential art firm Meow Wolf. Garner has been experimenting herself with communal, immersive dinner events, and her next, the flirtatious “Please Open Your Mouth,” is set for July 11. (No tech there, as Garner is after a more sensual, adult-focused gathering.) Tickets for her event are $150 and a spot in the “7 Paintings” dining room runs $175, priced on par with a number of city’s most acclaimed restaurants.
There is also the reality that all public dining is in some fashion immersive, usually requiring varying combinations of engagement, communication and presentation. And then, are all these added elements distracting?
An animated Mona Lisa sits on the wall as guests enjoy their meals. Throughout the dinner, the painting provides factoids on various artists.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Throughout “7 Paintings,” for instance, an animated Mona Lisa, situated on the wall next to the main dinner table, will provide brief biographical details of each artist represented.
“Being able to nail the food, and nail the story, those are two very difficult threads to weave,” Garner says. “I do think, ultimately, people come to a dinner table to talk to the people at the table and to have intimate experiences. To have an experience where you’re constantly being taken away from the food, I’m not so sure if that’s what people are looking for.”
Food is framed as a star of “7 Paintings” but tasting it is just one component. At one point, we must uncover a cheese course in a tiny treasure chest, the code for the lock hidden in the projections (don’t stress, it’s not a hard puzzle). Beshir highlights the Pollock-inspired salad course, which is accentuated with a jazz soundtrack, as the thesis of the evening.
1
2
1.A guest uses a silicon brush to apply sauces onto an entree, a nod to abstractionist Jackson Pollock.2.Projections fill up the dining table during meals.
“This course is really about getting people to free their minds from preconceived ideas,” Beshir says. “Like, you have to eat with a fork and knife, or the salad comes and then the dressing. No, the dressing comes and then the salad, and it’s trying with big brushes to paint the way he did. A lot of people do not understand Abstract Expressionism, and they think it’s people just splashing colors around. But when you understand the link between the rhythm of the music and painting, you live it. We give you time to paint with your salad dressing.”
In L.A., Beshir has partnered with nightlife impresario Kim Kelly, who is plotting a “Sleep No More”-inspired walk-around theatrical show for the Sunset House venue later this year. “7 Paintings,” however, is fully seated, and purposefully a little silly. Beshir and Kelly have been evolving it during its L.A. run, recently adding a stronger painting component by giving guests their own canvas to work on throughout the evening. Each night crowns a winner.
“Everyone comes over to look at their art,” Kelly says. “It just kind of changed the whole thing, to be honest. People are now being creative throughout the entire evening. Instead of just watching and occasionally painting, you’re now painting the whole time.”
As for what, perhaps, soba noodles with edamame and mushrooms have to do with Pablo Picasso, or why Salvador Dali gets an unexpected dessert course of a white chocolate potato souffle, Beshir clarifies the goal of the evening. While the animated Mona Lisa will provide backstories on each painter, this isn’t an educational night. “It’s fun dining, not fine dining,” Beshir says.
And by the end of my night, strangers were socializing, showing off their painted cookie creations, sharing Banksy tidbits and asking for recommendations on various vinaigrette combinations. Ultimately, it’s an evening of discovery, packed with surprises like finding an entire course hidden under a canvas.
Darryl Mayes of Charlotte, N.C., left, and Taylor Smith of North Hollywood, right, uncover their course.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
“We try not to have too much sophistication, like fried ants or something. I’m personally very adventurous in how I eat, but if I want to have this in 100 cities around the world, I cannot be too meticulous.”
And Beshir has big goals.
“I want this be your movie and dinner thing,” Beshir says. “I want people to be waiting for our next show, and to be able to afford to come every couple months.”
And to come home not with leftovers, but perhaps a painting of their own.
This photo, taken Tuesday, shows the trading room of Hana Bank in Seoul as South Korean stocks plunged by nearly five percent on tech stock losses. Photo by Yonhap
Seoul shares plummeted nearly 5 percent Tuesday as technology stocks extended losses after Samsung Electronics Co. released its preliminary second-quarter earnings estimate. The Korean won fell against the U.S. dollar.
After opening 1.6 percent lower, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) extended losses, falling 395.02 points, or 4.91 percent, to close at 7,656.31.
Trade volume was heavy at 512.29 million shares worth 39.66 trillion won (US$25.9 billion), with decliners outnumbering gainers 509 to 358.
Institutions and foreigners sold a net 309.1 billion won and 2.92 trillion won worth of stocks, respectively, while individuals purchased a net 3.13 trillion won.
Technology stocks plunged on profit-taking after Samsung Electronics estimated its operating profit for the April-June period at 89.4 trillion won, beating market forecasts.
Investors are now focusing on whether rising capital spending, intensifying competition and expanding production capacity will generate the earnings growth needed to justify elevated valuations of technology companies, analysts said.
In Seoul, technology shares led the decline.
Market bellwether Samsung Electronics plunged 6.92 percent to 296,000 won, while chip giant SK hynix declined 6.06 percent to 2,201,000 won ahead of its planned US$29 billion U.S. listing later this week.
Top carmaker Hyundai Motor dropped 4.48 percent to 479,000 won, and defense company Hanwha Aerospace shed 3.19 percent to 1,122,000 won.
Hanwha Ocean plunged 22.65 percent to 89,800 won after a South Korean consortium that includes the shipbuilder failed to win Canada’s multibillion-dollar submarine procurement project.
Among gainers, cosmetics maker Amorepacific rose 4.2 percent to 126,500 won, and leading refiner SK Innovation climbed 7.56 percent to 103,800 won.
The Korean won was trading at 1,528.20 won per U.S. dollar as of 3:30 p.m., down 2.1 won from the previous session.
The Korea Exchange (KRX), the country’s bourse operator, meanwhile, activated a circuit breaker for the benchmark index, suspending trading of KOSPI-listed shares for 20 minutes after the index plunged more than 8 percent during the session.
Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed lower. The yield on three-year Treasurys rose 0.4 basis point to 3.780 percent, and the return on the benchmark five-year government bonds climbed 0.8 basis point to 3.999 percent.
Copyright (c) Yonhap News Agency prohibits its content from being redistributed or reprinted without consent, and forbids the content from being learned and used by artificial intelligence systems.
Wall Street ended the holiday-shortened week higher as investors looked past softer-than-expected labor market data and increased bets that the Federal Reserve could cut interest rates before year-end.
The June jobs report showed the U.S. added just 57,000 jobs, missing expectations, while the
Since its opening in 1967, Pirates of the Caribbean has stood as an anchor at Disneyland, a statement piece that has defined the direction of the park.
And that remained true last week when Walt Disney Imagineering unveiled a new audio-animatronic pirate. It’s wow-inducing. It’s also narrative-wrecking. And it fundamentally shifts the vibe of the attraction’s early scenes.
The high-tech pirate, we can bet, is just a small preview of the park’s next-gen toys. Because when changes come to Disneyland, they often hit Pirates of the Caribbean first. Over a half-century ago, the robotic figures of Pirates were a symbol of Disneyland’s technological ambitions, dazzling audiences with characterized but lifelike movements. With the ride, Disneyland made it clear that as the world advances, so, too, would the park.
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As culture shifted and the lecherous buccaneers of the ride began to look more like symbols of sexual harassment, they would be forced to undergo some welcome personality adjustments. A redheaded victim of sex trafficking would transform into one of the ride’s most striking characters, and a number of rides from the Jungle Cruise to Splash Mountain would eventually undergo similar reassessment.
For Pirates of the Caribbean, after all, is the attraction that defined the Disneyland template. Its mastery is that it is a series of larger-than-life dioramas constructed around an abstracted narrative where themes of greed, lust and intemperance take precedence over a plot with a firm beginning, middle and end. And thus it made sense for Imagineering, the outfit of the company responsible for theme park experiences, to unveil its latest tech-driven master work on the ride.
A new animated pirate on Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean shifts from living to dead using projection technology.
(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Times)
Reaction, however, has been less than enthused. Disneyland’s own social media accounts are flooded with pointed critiques, but even if we consider that social media tends to lead with gripes, some of the park’s most ardent fan sites have referred to the reimagined scene as a gutting. Why so much hullabaloo over a single robot? If we allow that Disneyland is a place that generations make pilgrimages to, then Pirates of the Caribbean is its most sacred temple. Handle with care.
Where once was a foreboding skeleton frozen in time atop a treasure and swords, there is now an animated figurine built with the latest in projection technology. The latter transitions from living to dead, caught in a perpetual loop with each glimpse of the cavern’s “cursed treasure,” which it continually lifts and drops. The pirate is placed after the ride’s two dips in a gold-filled room among the winding, mysterious underground chambers that help set its tone.
Dead pirates fill the caverns of Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean.
(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Times)
Since the attraction’s opening, the only living beings in this portion were a lone seagull and maybe a stray sea critter or two. It is here where the mystique of Pirates of the Caribbean is set, and guests are placed in the active role of piecing together the time-shifting narrative. Story is hinted at rather than fed to us. We hear tales of the hexed fortunes found in the caves via ghostly narration, but see only its after-effects — skeletons locked in a chess battle or standing behind the wheel of a crumbling ship.
The centerpiece treasure room, where our new pirate is found, has long been a breathtaking scene. Previously, a now decayed body sat atop a mountain of wealth, an empty, soulless figure done in by selfish pride. It was disquieting, and a bit ghoulish. Stray, soft musical notes underscored the tragedy. Further on, a trapped pirate quietly transitions from living to dead via an old theatrical mirror illusion, and the boats float into a city filled with battles and buffoonery.
Gone is the subtlety. A somber tableau is now relatively loud, as our eyes no longer take in the full set but zero in on a bright and at times lively figurine. I cannot deny that it is an impressive piece of technology. On the multiple rides that I took Monday morning, I overheard two teens describe it as “pretty cool” and watched as a young child excitedly shouted to his mom and dad that the figure’s face was changing.
The caverns of Pirates of the Caribbean set a foreboding tone.
(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Times)
Such reactions are no doubt what Imagineering is hoping for. Part of the job of stewarding a classic attraction, after all, is ensuring it maintains an appeal to future generations. But I believe two things can be true. The new pirate may captivate some audiences and it can also stylistically and tonally clash with the attraction. This is the right tech, perhaps, for a more animated experience, one such as the in-development “Coco” ride coming to Disney California Adventure. Unfortunately, in Pirates it’s misplaced. Worse, it’s distracting, as we’re immediately drawn to its movement, grunts and quick-transitioning face.
I lament losing what was there. Projected figures, even the best of them, such as this one, are still media and can still gleam with light. And while the original Pirates of the Caribbean designs by Marc Davis were exaggerated, they were brought back to reality by Blaine Gibson, who sculpted them with bold, hardened features that made them at once heightened but believable. They may have been cartoonish, but they weren’t actual cartoons, and this figure is too much of a contrast, its comic-like excess feeling less relatable, less human. And that says nothing of its snort-like laughs, which reminded me too much of the huffs and puffs of the ride’s donkeys.
It also raises more story questions than it answers. Why, for instance, aren’t the other skeletons caught in a loop? Sometimes more is said by saying less, and this feller leans silly in a portion of the ride that calls for spooky. Ultimately, it just feels unnecessary, a symptom of our often exhausting, tech-obsessed, digital-drenched age where new, needless tools are shoved in our faces daily.
Thankfully, the rest of the attraction serves as a reminder that no computer wizardry can out-class old-school theater. Theme parks should evolve with the times, but sometimes it takes artful restraint to not mess with what’s already timeless.
This week in SoCal theme parks
Disney California Adventure turns Soarin’ Over California into Soarin’ Across America. The makeover will be unveiled July 2, just in time for the Fourth of July holiday and the celebration of America’s semiquincentennial. While Soarin’ Across America is already open at Florida’s Walt Disney World and I’ve written about the patriotic re-imagining, I’ve waited to see it in the flesh and will have impressions next week.
Fireworks! If you’re looking for them this weekend, our theme parks have got you covered. Disneyland, of course, has an annual Fourth of July show with patriotic music, and the park will be running “Disney’s Celebrate America! — A Fourth of July Concert in the Sky” Friday through Sunday. If you’re heading to Knott’s, be sure to check out the park’s free-to-visit Independence Hall, a replica of the Philadelphia landmark that will be offering guided tours Friday and Saturday, while Six Flags will feature fireworks Friday through Sunday. Universal Studios Hollywood will on Friday and Saturday debut a new Fourth of July-themed fireworks show.
Shattered glass on Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift. Fans are eagerly awaiting the opening of Universal Studios Hollywood’s new “Fast & Furious”-inspired coaster, and word spread via social media recently that a panel of glass on one of the ride’s sound barriers had shattered. Universal declined to comment, but sources familiar with the ride characterized it as an “installation error” that shouldn’t delay the public launch of the ride, which is expected by mid-summer. I reached out to California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health’s Amusement Ride & Tramway Unit (Cal/OSHA), which monitors the state’s theme park attractions. A spokesperson said the situation was looked into but did not warrant further evaluation.
Have a theme park tale to share? Whether it was a good day or less-than-perfect day, I would love to hear about it. Have a question? A tip? A fun photo from the parks to share? Email me at todd.martens@latimes.com. I may feature your note in an upcoming newsletter.
Ride on,
Todd Martens
P.S.
Visitors tie paper tags bearing wishes onto trees in the courtyard of the Broad as part of an exhibition dedicated to Yoko Ono.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
Theme parks often are about the power of imagination, allowing us to play pretend in heightened, alternate worlds. And I had theme parks on my mind while I traversed the Broad’s excellent current exhibit dedicated to Yoko Ono.
What, perhaps you wonder, does Ono have to do with theme parks? “Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind” documents the entirety of the artist’s career, and much of her early work centers on play. Real, philosophical play, essentially the idea that through creativity, fantasy and a bit of silliness, we can all see the world differently.
Whether it was communicating with her audience while in a bag (1964’s “Bag Piece”), an antecedent to Meow Wolf’s “Experience Tube,” or offering instructions to count stars, tally our wrinkles, drop off peas on a morning walk, attach wishes to a tree or create fictional maps of our neighborhoods, much of Ono’s career was dedicated toward building community and connections through playfulness and imagination.
It’s freeing work, and a reminder that a little frivolity via participatory art — and that’s really what theme parks and so-called immersive entertainment provide — is a necessary ingredient for happiness.
This photo, taken Tuesday, shows the trading room of Hana Bank in Seoul as South Korean stocks rose by almost one percent as investors watched for a resumption of U.S.-Iran talks. Photo by Yonhap
South Korean stocks ended nearly 1 percent higher Tuesday, led by gains in technology shares, as investors watched for a possible resumption of U.S.-Iran talks in Qatar aimed at easing tensions in the Strait of Hormuz. The Korean won weakened against the U.S. dollar.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) gained 81.83 points, or 0.97 percent, to close at 8,476.47.
Investor sentiment improved after the United States and Iran were set to resume talks in Qatar aimed at easing tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, alleviating concerns over a prolonged disruption to global oil supplies.
Overnight, Wall Street rebounded sharply as investors returned to tech stocks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.59 percent to close at a record high, while the Nasdaq composite jumped 2.07 percent and the S&P 500 advanced 1.18 percent.
Crude prices rose modestly as investors monitored implementation of the U.S.-Iran peace framework.
Trade volume was moderate at 444.61 million shares worth 41.08 trillion won (US$26.51 billion), with losers outnumbering losers 621 to 261
Institutions and individuals bought a net 2.93 trillion won and 833.45 billion won worth of shares, respectively, while foreigners sold a net 3.79 trillion won.
“Investors scooped up semiconductor shares following recent losses, while IT infrastructure and electricity stocks rose on hopes for major investment in semiconductor infrastructure in the southwestern region announced by the government and chipmakers,” said Lee Kyoung-min, an analyst at Daishin Securities.
Tech shares lifted the overall market.
Market bellwether Samsung Electronics rose 3.41 percent to 334,000 won, and chip giant SK hynix gained 0.84 percent to 1.65 million won. SK Square, the parent of SK hynix, advanced 3.48 percent to 1.69 million won.
Chip components maker Samsung Electro-Mechanics jumped 7.16 percent to 1.18 million won after announcing a 454 billion-won supply deal for multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) for artificial intelligence servers to a U.S.-based customer.
Battery shares retreated on profit-taking after sharp gains the previous session.
LG Energy Solution plunged 9.61 percent to 362,000 won, and its smaller rival Samsung SDI sank 4.88 percent to 487,000 won.
The Korean won was quoted at 1,549.4 won per U.S. dollar as of 3:30 p.m., down 4.2 won from the previous session.
Copyright (c) Yonhap News Agency prohibits its content from being redistributed or reprinted without consent, and forbids the content from being learned and used by artificial intelligence systems.
Canberra says tech platforms are still letting too many children bypass its under-16 social media ban.
Published On 27 Jun 202627 Jun 2026
Australia says it will double fines on social media companies that fail to keep children off their platforms, accusing Big Tech of dodging the spirit of its under-16 ban.
The government said on Saturday that new legislation would raise the maximum penalty for systemic breaches from 49.5 million to 99 million Australian dollars ($31m to $68m) and give the eSafety Commissioner stronger powers to force platforms to comply.
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The regulator is investigating possible breaches by Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube.
“It’s clear Big Tech are not doing enough to comply with the law – there are still too many children on social media,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
“These changes reflect the seriousness with which we take any failure by social media companies to comply.”
The ban, which came into force on December 10, made Australia a global test case for countries trying to curb children’s access to social media. The United Kingdom, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates and New Zealand are among those watching or considering similar restrictions.
But children have continued to evade the rules by using accounts registered to older people, creating fake profiles or logging in through private browsers.
A peer-reviewed evaluation published this month in the British Medical Journal found “insufficient evidence” that the ban had sharply reduced social media use among young people. Researchers surveyed more than 400 children before the measure took effect and again three months later, finding “substantial circumvention” of the rules.
The government says more than five million accounts held by under-16s have been blocked, but Communications Minister Anika Wells said platforms were still falling short.
“Based on the regular updates I receive from the eSafety Commissioner, it is clear to me that social media platforms are adopting tricks straight out of the Big Tech playbook and doing the bare minimum to get by,” Wells said.
“Social media platforms are some of the richest and most powerful companies in the world, and we’re serious about holding them to account,” she added.
The new powers would allow the eSafety Commissioner to demand documents and evidence from platforms, age-checking companies and app stores.
Platforms must show they have taken “reasonable steps” to keep under-16s out. Some use artificial intelligence to estimate ages, while users can also verify their age with a government ID.
California Forever, the tech billionaire-backed group that hopes to build a city from scratch on farmland in the outer San Francisco Bay Area, is lobbying state leaders to fast-track a massive shipbuilding deal that would kick-start its development after years of local opposition.
The billionaires behind the project are seeking a deal to expedite environmental reviews of the development and, if necessary, bypass county restrictions on building by being absorbed into Suisun City boundaries. They’ve hired former Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and former Senate Majority Leader Bob Hertzberg — Democratic architects of landmark environmental laws — to make their case, and are using the prospect of luring a major shipbuilder to California to accelerate the dealmaking.
California Forever has pursued its project for nearly a decade, though the vision has shifted: At first pitched as a walkable city with cottages, bike lanes and even a water park, the plan then added a major shipbuilding operation and, last summer, a significant manufacturing hub. California Forever’s proponents, led by the state’s powerful building trades union along with Realtors, peace officers and pro-housing groups, argue the latest proposal would boost the state’s economy and bring an estimated half a million jobs to California. And now, a prospective tenant has emerged: Defense company Saronic Technologies Inc., which builds autonomous vessels for use in national security, is deciding between California and Texas for its next factory. The state must fast-track the development or lose the deal, supporters argue.
The developers are seeking the state’s permission to use an 18-year-old environmental impact report for the shipyard development, limit any legal challenges to the project to 270 days, and allow Suisun City to annex their land if needed, according to Steinberg and Hertzberg.
“In short, if legislation is not approved, California will lose billions of dollars in investments and tens of thousands of jobs this summer to Texas and other states,” proponents wrote in a joint letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders this week.
But some locals and lawmakers are skeptical, arguing that details about the project remain scarce. The proposed development would convert vast farmlands into factories and risk harming the surrounding ecosystem, they said, which deserves rigorous environmental review under the landmark California Environmental Quality Act that proponents are seeking to expedite.
State Sen. Christopher Cabaldon (D-West Sacramento) is shown during a Senate floor session at the state Capitol in Sacramento on Feb. 20, 2025.
(Fred Greaves / CalMatters)
“For a project this scale in this location, it is what the [law] was designed for,” said Sen. Christopher Cabaldon (D-West Sacramento), who represents the area. “A central question for the people of Solano County is: Is this going to be for the community or is this a conversion project that leaves them behind?”
Opponents also slammed California Forever for pursuing relief behind closed doors with state leaders and circumventing local opposition. Since 2018, the group has secretly bought up agricultural land, shelled out hundreds of millions of dollars to court local residents and spent at least $330,000 lobbying the governor and legislative leaders for favorable legislation.
“I think they know that the only way this actually happens is under cover of darkness, by trying to essentially get the governor to work this plan for them,” said Jordan Grimes, legislative director at Greenbelt Alliance, which has advocated for streamlined environmental reviews for housing projects.
Secretive beginnings foment distrust
For residents of Solano County, an agricultural community on the outskirts of the Bay Area that includes coastal areas next to a deep-water shipping lane, the suspicion around California Forever has been hard to shake.
The group’s subsidiary, Flannery Associates, started buying up farmland in 2018, eventually acquiring 62,000 acres while routinely refusing to answer questions about its backers. Some farmers later alleged the company used strong-arm tactics to get them to sell.
In 2023, Flannery’s backers were unmasked as a group of wealthy venture capitalists, including the founders of LinkedIn and Netscape, all led by former Goldman Sachs trader and real estate developer Jan Sramek. Marc Andreessen, co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, holds investments in both California Forever and Saronic, the defense company eyeing California. Andreessen’s firm did not immediately return a CalMatters inquiry for comment.
Despite rocky beginnings, California Forever needed the majority of Solano County voters on its side due to a 1984 “orderly growth” law that requires voters to approve development on unincorporated land.
In 2024, the company debuted the East Solano Plan to rezone 17,500 acres of agricultural land for a dense, 400,000-person city. The proposal was set to go before voters that year, but its backers pulled it following powerful grassroots opposition, poor polling and a county assessment that found holes in the plan. Sramek acknowledged the group likely moved too fast and said the initiative would go back before voters in 2026.
Instead, the group has pivoted. The East Solano Plan has become the Suisun Expansion Plan and the Solano Shipyard. In January 2025, Suisun City’s city council directed its manager to explore expanding the city’s limits through annexation, which is now underway, although it could take years.
State Route 113 runs through land where California Forever plans to put its new city in Solano County.
(Loren Elliott / CalMatters)
“The annexation and the shipbuilding have been a clear way to work around the need for voter support in Solano County,” said Nate Huntington, a member of the grassroots group Solano Together, which formed in response to the secretive land purchases. Huntington pointed out that California Forever hasn’t even submitted a proposal for a shipbuilding facility to the county.
“All of this has been happening in backrooms of Sacramento, and it’s not been publicly available.”
Seeking state environmental relief
California Forever is now selling the development to the state as a major incentive to lure manufacturers and shipbuilders to California — and the subsequent need for housing to accommodate the promised jobs.
The company wants the governor and state lawmakers to cut red tape for the development and require enough housing for the new jobs. Steinberg and Hertzberg told CalMatters they are contemplating legislation to that end, but only after California Forever signs a lease with a manufacturer or shipbuilder.
Their plan would allow the governor to designate construction on company land as “environmental leadership development projects,” which would effectively require any litigation to be resolved within 270 days. Steinberg authored the state law streamlining that process in 2013.
State law requires government agencies to prepare a report for any project that might have a significant impact on the environment. Instead of assessing the impact of the proposed shipyard, Steinberg and Hertzberg’s proposal would use a 2008 report, which designated the area where the shipyard would go as “water-dependent industrial usage.” Most of California Forever’s 7,500-acre planned footprint does not have that designation.
Steinberg told CalMatters the report is sufficient since the site has changed little.
“The state and county need the ability to say yes now to these numerous opportunities,” he said in a text. A new report, he said, “would require years of additional delay and lost opportunities.”
But the report is outdated, Cabaldon argues.
“This is completely different,” he said. “Just the notion that you would just say, ‘We are not going to do any assessments at all and we’ll just rely on this old one’ — that is not consistent with what the public interest is.”
Steinberg and Hertzberg also want the state to require enough housing in the area, but to allow surrounding cities and Solano County to permit local housing developers to build first.
But if local governments aren’t willing to or cannot build enough housing within the timeline the manufacturer or the shipbuilder wants, Steinberg and Hertzberg’s proposal would allow Suisun City to annex adjacent California Forever-owned county land into its city boundaries — a controversial idea that has drawn fierce local opposition. The move would be a “last resort,” Steinberg and Hertzberg stressed repeatedly.
The annexation would effectively bypass the county’s orderly growth initiative, which requires voters to have a say in development.
“The shipbuilders and manufacturers need certainty on a much faster timeline,” Steinberg said.
Cabaldon said the pitch to build new housing to accommodate theoretical jobs is “fantastical,” noting that Saronic, the proposed shipbuilder, is a leader in automation.
“There’s no indication that this is going to generate on an ongoing basis that many jobs, and certainly not more jobs than we have housing for even today without building a single additional unit,” he said.
Historic union agreement prompts support
In January, California Forever announced it had signed a 40-year deal with the Napa/Solano Building Trades Council and Northern California Carpenters Union to use union labor to build its development. The agreement was an important political alliance for Chief Executive Sramek, bringing more influential advocates to the table.
According to Digital Democracy, both the Building Trades Council and the Carpenters Union have given roughly $10 million in direct donations to legislative candidates since 2000.
Those advocates made themselves heard over the last few weeks, following a Texas county court approving significant tax incentives to lure Saronic to Brownsville. In a statement, Saronic said its nationwide search is still “active and ongoing.”
The California Alliance for Jobs, an alliance of influential construction companies and workers, drafted two letters in quick succession calling for legislative leaders to streamline the California Forever expansion and shipyard.
“We champed at the bit to go all in to get this project moving, and to get legislation through Sacramento this session,” said Joshua Arce, executive director of the alliance.
Suisun City Councilmember Princess Washington, who has consistently been the sole vote on the council against the annexation plan, said she feels organized labor is being used as “political pressure” to win approval.
“Processes are slow, but they’re done that way through government to ensure that it’s being done correctly, that all parties of interest are being treated fairly, and there’s checks and balances,” Washington said.
“It’s unheard of for a project to be done as quickly as they want it to be done.”
In a statement, California Forever spokesperson Jim Wunderman said any shipyard project will comply with all California environmental and land-use laws. He said county supervisors already approved using the 2008 impact report, and that legislation would allow the group to “meet prospective employers’ timelines.”
He said by pursuing expansion within Suisun City, California Forever is following the community’s preferences by channeling new growth into existing cities.
An ongoing presence in the Capitol
Since 2024, California Forever has spent at least $330,000 lobbying the Legislature and governor’s office on bills and other actions, according to campaign finance records.
Steinberg and Hertzberg told CalMatters they were hired in April as “special counsel,” not lobbyists, meaning they are spending less than a third of their time talking with public officials.
Grimes, who said he respects Steinberg for leading landmark environmental land-use reforms in the Legislature, said he’s disappointed in his advocacy for California Forever, “a project that is antithetical to all of this.”
Sheep graze on land where California Forever plans to build its new city in Solano County.
(Loren Elliott / CalMatters)
California Forever reported spending $90,000 lobbying the governor’s office and the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, called GO-Biz, last year on “federal shipbuilding activities and California business attraction and retention activities.”
“GO-Biz has discussed relevant state incentive programs with Saronic and explained how they operate,” said GO-Biz spokesperson Willie Rudman. He said the agency does not offer incentive packages to specific companies.
Last fall though, GO-Biz helped organize a bid for Saronic to settle in Solano County. County staff reported during a board meeting that GO-Biz supported a legislative effort to override the county’s “orderly growth” law.
County supervisors rushed through a proposal to change the boundaries of the Solano Shipyard to comply, but with just days remaining before the end of the legislative session, Assemblymember Lori D. Wilson, a Democrat from Suisun City, said there wasn’t time to introduce legislation.
Since then, Wilson said, the proposal has been on the table, but “nothing’s been requested” of her office by California Forever.
The company also urged lawmakers to act fast or risk losing the shipbuilder to Texas last year — a negotiating tactic common in economic development, Cabaldon said.
But Cabaldon argued that Saronic will decide where to place its shipyard based on “defense needs of the United States of America” instead of state incentives.
“We have to negotiate with our eyes open,” he said.
SMEs and Startups Minister Han Seong-sook attends a meeting of the emergency economic headquarters at the government complex in Seoul, South Korea, 22 May 2026. Photo by YONHAP / EPA
June 26 (Asia Today) — South Korea plans to create an investment and procurement system aimed at producing homegrown security technology companies comparable to U.S. data analytics company Palantir Technologies, the government said Friday.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced the strategy with the Defense Ministry and Korea AeroSpace Administration during a meeting on future security innovation companies at the Blue House.
The plan seeks to accelerate the transfer of advanced civilian technology into national defense and security.
The government aims to develop five security technology companies valued at more than 1 trillion won ($651 million) and 50 companies with annual sales exceeding 100 billion won ($65.1 million) by 2030.
It will designate five strategic sectors covering drones and robotics, defense artificial intelligence and semiconductors, advanced sensors and materials, aerospace technology and cybersecurity and quantum communications.
Officials described the initiative as an effort to cultivate a “Korean Palantir,” referring to the U.S. company known for software that integrates and analyzes large volumes of defense and intelligence data.
The phrase is a policy description rather than the name of a company the government plans to establish.
Investment vehicle modeled on In-Q-Tel
The ministry plans to establish a government-backed investment organization modeled on In-Q-Tel, the nonprofit strategic investor created to support technologies relevant to U.S. intelligence agencies.
The proposed organization would make direct investments in early-stage security technology companies to address funding shortages.
The government also plans to support the establishment of a technology-focused asset management company tentatively called Korea Strategic Technology Partners.
Through government and private investment vehicles, officials aim to create as much as 10 trillion won ($6.5 billion) in strategic technology financing over the next five years.
The money would provide growth capital to startups and smaller companies developing technologies with potential defense, intelligence, aerospace or cybersecurity applications.
Faster research and procurement
South Korea also plans to introduce a special research and development program modeled on the U.S. Other Transaction Authority system.
The system would connect research, testing and government purchasing under a faster contracting process intended for rapidly changing technologies.
Selected companies could receive as much as 10 billion won ($6.5 million) each over five years.
The Defense Ministry and Korea AeroSpace Administration plan to create procurement systems capable of placing some advanced weapons or technologies into initial service within one year.
The government also plans to expand access to defense data through a catalog showing what information may be available to approved companies.
Aerospace authorities will support the development of core technology for a national space data center and platforms that allow businesses to use satellite information.
The strategy reflects the government’s view that traditional defense procurement moves too slowly for technologies such as artificial intelligence, drones, robotics and cybersecurity software.
Support for smaller technology companies
Minister of SMEs and Startups Han Seongsook said the global security industry is shifting rapidly from traditional hardware toward software, data and artificial intelligence.
“The government will provide bold and rapid support so startups and small venture companies with flexible and creative technologies can become leaders in security innovation,” Han said.
The government also plans to protect companies’ intellectual property rights and allow technologies developed through public programs to be adapted for civilian markets.
Officials said the strategy would help smaller companies enter a defense industry that has traditionally been dominated by large manufacturers and hardware-centered weapons programs.
The ministries plan to form an interagency committee, pursue special legislation and revise contracting rules to support the initiative.
Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark called out officials following her team’s 86-77 win over the Phoenix Mercury on Monday. She was one of five players assessed technical fouls amid a fourth-quarter dustup that also involved former teammate DeWanna Bonner.
Clark was called for a personal foul at the 7:57 mark in the fourth quarter after getting tangled up with Bonner, who was trying to post up near the free-throw line. The two exchanged some words before things escalated as their teammates got involved. Clark appeared flabbergasted when she learned she received a technical foul for clapping while her teammate Myisha Hines-Allen and the Mercury’s Alyssa Thomas were in each other’s faces.
Bonner, Thomas, Hines-Allen and Fever guard Sophie Cunningham were also assessed technical fouls for their actions during the scuffle. Hines-Allen was later ejected from the game after earning another technical foul for pushing Thomas after being called for a foul in the very next play.
This marks Clark’s fifth technical of the season so far. Players who rack up eight technical fouls in a season must serve a one-game suspension.
“It’s ridiculous. I got a tech for clapping,” Clark said after the game. “We should all just go on the calendar now and pick a game that I’m going to be suspended for if I’m going to get technicals for clapping.
“If any technicals should be taken away, it should be that one,” Clark added. “I don’t understand it at all. … I’m going to play with emotion. I’m going to play with passion. And if they’re going to give me a technical foul for clapping, then so be it. That’s their choice.”
Caitlin Clark reacts during Monday’s game between the Indiana Fever and the Phoenix Mercury.
(Michael Hickey / Getty Images)
This was not the first time this season the two-time All-Star has been seen clapping toward other players or officials during a game. None of the previous occasions resulted in Clark receiving a technical foul. The star guard has been receiving more attention this season for her behavior during games outside of her play. The Fever reportedly plan to appeal the technical foul.
Clark led all scorers with 24 points while also dishing out nine assists in the Fever win, while Kelsey Mitchell added 22 points. For the Mercury, Kahleah Copper led with 20 points, while Thomas had 19 points, five rebounds and nine assists.
Bonner, a two-time WNBA champion, had signed a one-year contract with the Fever last season. She played in just nine games before parting ways with the team and eventually rejoining the Mercury, where she started her career. Fever fans could be heard booing Bonner at various times during Monday’s game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Fever coach Stephanie White said that Clark has to be aware of her technical fouls and that “there are some that we could do without.”
“There are natural things that happen that the energy of the game creates when you do get those,” White said. “But there are some that we can be a little bit more in control of. So, yes, we’ll continue to remind her, and I think she has to have an awareness.”
She also brushed off the incident as something “that … happens” in “a competitive sport.”
“As a group, we have to be able to have our moment and then regroup and play with poise and composure. It can’t continue to go on,” White said.
Dallas Wing guard Paige Bueckers and Golden State Valkyries forward Janelle Salaün are among the other players who have been assessed technical fouls this season for clapping after a play. Neither incidents involved taunting players from the opposing team, and both of those techs have reportedly been rescinded.
For decades, historian’s discussion about colonialism has revolved around large armies, territorial conquests and vast empires. Yet, they often fail to focus on the fact that one of the most powerful empires did not begin with soldiers – it emerged because of corporations. The British East India Company, in 1600 started its commercial activities in the sub-continent, initially as a trading merchandise seeking profit in foreign markets. Within the period of two centuries, it acquired its own military, expanded its territorial influence, and started acting as a ruling government that ultimately blurred the difference between private capitalist enterprises and sovereign national authority. More than two hundred years later, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the latest incarnation of that colonial legacy. Unlike previous forms of colonialism of territory and resources, this control is primarily centered around data, algorithmic decision-making systems, and automated computation. Their territories are not like land, it is the dominance over data ecosystems; their currency is not raw materials, it is ‘data’, and their empires are not built on castles, but are gigantic ‘data-centers’. Instead of emancipation for the marginalized, this technology creates new forms of dependency known as ‘digital dependency’.
The 21st century is witnessing a growth of an imperial empire that is built on establishing control over datasets, computational power, and algorithmic sovereignty. Where a few Chinese and American tech giants such as NVIDIA, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure are controlling the digital markets through complete ownership of cloud platforms, chip production, and algorithmic intelligence. These hegemonic corporations act as imperial powers that perpetuate similar inequalities to traditional colonists, in which the global south risks becoming a resource for the tech giants. The comparison might seem like an exaggeration, but in reality AI colonialism follows similar patterns. Historically great economies were built on extraction; they extracted raw materials from peripheries, and then the industrial base at the center transformed into a worthy product, geopolitical influence, innovation, and wealth. Cotton flowed from subcontinent to Britain; rubber moved from southeast Asia to European countries, while minerals obtained from Africa were sent to imperial empires.
Today, the AI economy adopts an akin model where “data” is the vital material for digital functioning. Millions of people from the south utilize these platforms; every search, GPS location, digital personal profile, and digital transaction becomes part of the data ecosystem that is required for its training, but their economic value is located elsewhere. It is particularly evident in African countries, where millions of people rely on these foreign platforms for information. Their data from search engines, digital databases, and social media, is then used to train the AI models, whilst the African community receives little economic benefit or no influence over how these technologies are deployed in their region. By controlling these giant data ecosystems, these tech conglomerates also gain leverage over their political, social, cultural, and economic affairs. Even though having a digital footprint is a sign of progress, when it is foreign owned or funded by external actors, it can be manipulated as imperialistic power that not only controls the data system, but also significantly affects the local traders and businesses.
Similar to east India companies, these tech corporations operate across national jurisdictions, shape economic trajectories and influence domestic governments to sustain their digital dominance. They shape information systems, and their regimes of truth. They decide which technology should be introduced in the market, at what cost, what conditions, and for whom. The east India company governed India not through military conquests but because the local leaders became dependent on the commercial and political networks controlled by the corporation. Their economic dependency paved the way for the east India company’s takeover. Today, the danger is not that the tech corporations will rule the state directly, rather it is the fear that the national governments will become so dependent that the exercises of their sovereign autonomy will be meaningless. AI colonialism is at the front, recreating the colonial dependency traps.
Another manifestation of ‘digital colonialism’ in the global south is the extraction of data through coercive bundles of consent forms. Most people from third-world countries click ‘accept all’ to install an app or to log into a website without reading its full contents. It is an illusion of ‘choice’ created by these companies, but in actuality, these people have no choice. If they ‘refuse’ to click they might lose their access to digital accounts, bank apps, or mobile services. Colonial powers used a similar tactic of ‘terra nullius’ to lay claim on foreign land and resources. The new digital ecosystems are now integrating modern forms of terra nullius to govern the global data and algorithmic infrastructures. In addition to controlling the databases, the new AI colonial world order exploits the cheap labor services of the global south to maximize their profits. During Venezuela’s economic crisis, the prime educated force was readily exploited as ‘cheap labor’ by the Silicon Valley. In exchange for survival income, they were exposed to precarious working conditions, pay-cuts, unstable contracts. This reflects that the AI colonialism is following the legacy of historical empires step-by-step; controlling foreign ecosystems, exploiting cheap labor, and profiting over their raw materials.
The digital hegemony in the global south extends beyond economical matrix; it is the struggle over political influence, power, and raw materials that will ultimately determine who will produce the knowledge, who controls the technology, and who profits off the wealth generated by AI ecosystems. Colonial history should not be merely viewed as the ancient past, but as a lesson to reject the ‘modern empires’. In order to do so, the global south must invest in indigenous technology companies, data systems and regulatory digital frameworks to protect the local’s data. Unless the global south acts collectively against AI colonialism, it may again serve as a colony supplying critical resources that enrich others whilst itself remains excluded from the global power centers.
