Top News Today: Japan Chip Rally, Deepslate AI Funding, IIT-IIM Salaries, Gemini 4 Argon, Bitcoin

• Asian factory activity continued to expand at the end of the third quarter as the artificial intelligence boom offset supply disruptions and rising costs. • Thailand's Purchasing Managers' Index, a measure of economic health, reached a nine-month high during this period.

• Factory activity across Asia expanded in September driven by the global artificial intelligence boom, according to private surveys released Thursday. • Growth was inconsistent across the region, with Indonesia and Vietnam seeing expansion while Malaysia and the Philippines experienced contractions.

• Manufacturing activity expanded across Asia in September, driven by strong global demand for artificial intelligence goods. • Export powerhouses Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan saw growth specifically due to high demand for chips and AI-related products.

• The US Federal Trade Commission opened an antitrust probe into AI leaders including OpenAI and Anthropic. • Microsoft's gaming chief explicitly stated that Xbox is not for sale.

• Suspected Chinese hackers impersonated an Anthropic executive and former US officials in a recent espionage campaign to steal information on American AI developments. • Britain's MI5 intelligence service reported Wednesday that British academics provided AI and cybersecurity research to a Chinese institute linked to Chinese intelligence.

• Microsoft identified the U.S., Israel, and Ukraine as the most targeted nations in its Digital Defense Report 2026. • Germany also ranked among the top 10 hardest-hit countries, while ransomware attacks saw a boom across Europe.

• Google requested an interim suspension of European Union decisions regarding search engines on October 1, 2026. • Other regulatory updates include Live Nation avoiding a French review for the Plenitude Arena acquisition and Telefonica losing a legal challenge over an antitrust fine.

• Bain research found that most marketers are struggling to translate the adoption of artificial intelligence into measurable business gains. • Only 6% of marketers surveyed reported seeing a significant impact on their performance.

• Google requested an interim suspension of European Union decisions regarding its search engine operations on October 1, 2026. • Other regulatory actions include the French government clearing Live Nation's acquisition of the Plenitude Arena and the EU granting Partners Group approval for the AVK Power Solutions deal.

• Headline closed its Headline EU VIII fund with $400 million to support European seed and Series A founders. • The fund received backing from the European Investment Fund, the Otto Group, and Germany's state development bank KfW.

• European equity markets rose after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that top technology executives agreed to create voluntary safety standards for artificial intelligence development. • The gains were primarily driven by listings in the technology and semiconductor equipment sectors.