BizTechia

Beijing is the biggest threat to Brazil's sovereignty. It started with the lights. In January 2017, China's State Grid took control of CPFL Energia, one of Brazil's biggest power companies. By 2018 it had spent almost R$30 billion buying out the other owners. State Grid also runs about 10% of Brazil's high-voltage power lines, more than 16,000 km of them. In March 2026 it closed a deal worth about R$7 billion for one more, a 1,200 km line in Minas Gerais. China Three Gorges bought Duke Energy's ten Brazilian hydro plants in 2016 and became the biggest private power producer in the country. A year later, another state company, SPIC, paid R$7.18 billion for the São Simão dam, and it gets to run that dam until 2048. Out at sea, two Chinese state oil companies own 15% of the extra oil rights at Búzios, which pumped about 1.19 million barrels a day in September 2026 and is now Brazil's biggest oil field. On the coast, China Merchants bought 90% of TCP in 2017, the biggest container terminal in southern Brazil. On the farm, a company backed by China's CITIC paid US$1.1 billion for Dow's Brazilian corn seed business and walked away with 18.5% of the corn seed market. Underground, China's CMOC took over gold mines in Maranhão, Minas Gerais and Bahia in January 2026 for up to US$1.015 billion. On November 7th, CSN signed a deal to sell CSN Cimentos, Brazil's second biggest cement maker, to China's Huaxin for R$12.7 billion. MMG, controlled by state-owned China Minmetals, is still waiting on Europe to approve its US$500 million deal for Anglo American's Brazilian nickel. In 2025, Brazil pulled in more Chinese investment than any other country on Earth, US$6.1 billion. In April 2024, State Grid told Brazil's energy minister it wants to invest another R$200 billion. State Grid, Three Gorges, SPIC and CNOOC all report to one office in Beijing called SASAC, which picks their top bosses and signs off on their big deals. So the parent companies behind a large share of Brazil's power answer to a government no Brazilian ever voted for. Brazil's own government sold some of these assets at public auction, including São Simão and the Búzios oil rights. Brazil needs outside capital, and the safest money comes from many countries at once, so no single foreign government ever holds the switch.

JUST IN: Momentum is building behind the bipartisan permitting reform bill ahead of Monday’s Senate vote, with Democrats reportedly making progress in negotiations, clean-energy groups endorsing the revised legislation, and conservative Rep. Chip Roy urging Congress to pass permitting reform before January 3. The developments could provide a positive catalyst for data center, power infrastructure and renewable energy stocks that have faced selling pressure following the Democratic sweep in the midterms. The revised bill would accelerate federal permitting and transmission construction, require new qualifying data centers to cover their incremental electricity and grid costs rather than passing them on to consumers, establish financial guarantees for operators, and expand oversight of data center electricity and water consumption. It also includes four nuclear provisions addressing licensing, uranium enrichment, NRC staffing and DOE transparency. The most significant development may be the emergence of broader political support for energy infrastructure development, including solar and wind projects that previously faced Republican opposition. Faster permitting and transmission expansion could benefit renewable developers, grid equipment suppliers, utilities and data center operators, although new cost-sharing requirements could pressure data center economics. Nuclear developers could also benefit from regulatory reforms. The bill potentially offers a policy catalyst for several recently pressured sectors, but Monday’s 60-vote threshold remains the immediate hurdle.

NEW: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang admits to cheating on his wife two days after a report dropped that U.S. intelligence believes he had a relationship with a Chinese spy. "I was unfaithful to my wife," Huang said in a letter to Nvidia staff. "My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did." "I love our country and our company, and I am committed to protecting Nvidia and supporting America's national security," he said. The company has launched an independent investigation into Huang to determine whether he was the "target of a foreign intelligence effort." The woman in question, alleged Chinese spy Alice Huang, is suspected of smuggling chips to China. Photos show her with the Nvidia CEO, and she is accused of funneling information to Beijing.

JUST IN: 🇬🇧 UK rejects calls to slow down AI development.

Nvidia’s board is launching an independent investigation into reports that CEO Jensen Huang was targeted by a foreign intelligence operation. The board says it has confidence in his leadership. Jensen Huang is one of the most important figures of our time. It is a tragedy - and it infuriates me - to see the despicable tactics that states will resort to in order to obtain secrets. My full solidarity goes out to Jensen.

Former CIA Director David Petraeus: Keep in mind that the Russians have now sustained 1.5 million killed and wounded. That's more than the United States sustained in all of World War II. There is a point at which Putin cannot recruit the additional soldiers that would be needed. And by the way, they don't train these soldiers very well in any event. They really are almost human cannon fodder

Wait till you see what we been up at @Meta :)

DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis: "One person who really understands AI will outperform an entire startup team In 5 years, the people who build with AI will run whole companies with a tenth of the headcount"

Former CIA Director David Petraeus: With Budanov now heading the Presidential Office, Zelenskyy has someone close to him who deeply understands the military situation and ongoing operations. I know Budanov well. He is very direct in his assessments. We first spoke by video when he was near the russian border, commanding one of the first operations on russian territory. Petraeus in an interview with SpyCast: Ukraine has the largest and most innovative army in Europe. It is doing what NATO armies would otherwise have to do themselves if russia achieved its objectives in Ukraine. Moldova would be next, and possibly Lithuania after that. During my recent visit to Ukraine, a russian jet-powered drone struck the locomotive of a train on the track next to ours. The passengers on trains leaving Ukraine are mostly women and children. It was terrifying for them. Russia has suffered 1.5 million killed and wounded, more than the United States suffered during the entire Second World War. Last month alone, Ukraine estimated approximately 46,000 russian casualties, while russia recruited only around 30,000 soldiers. New recruits receive very little training. Ukrainian forces have captured russian soldiers who had been in the army for less than two weeks. They are practically cannon fodder. Ukraine has struck every russian oil refinery within 3,000 kilometers of its border, many of them multiple times. Russian oil production has fallen below 9 million barrels per day for the first time since 2009. Russians now use smartphone apps to find gas stations that still have fuel. The National Welfare Fund has been redirected toward the military-industrial complex and is expected to run out by the end of the year. It is time for Europe and the United States to seize frozen russian reserves and provide them to Ukraine. We tend to assume that Ukrainians are far ahead in military innovation, just as we assume the United States leads in artificial intelligence. But when you look closely, the gap is not always that large. In some areas, the russians have developed capabilities before the Ukrainians. China, North Korea, and Iran are carefully studying what is happening in Ukraine. The West needs to learn from Ukraine much faster. Simply buying drones for existing tank units is not enough. We need to fundamentally rethink our military structures because many traditional Western weapons systems would no longer survive on the Ukrainian battlefield. And we need to do this immediately. The Ukrainian people have demonstrated extraordinary resilience. They have been absolutely unbreakable despite enormous pressure. But they are also exhausted, and another difficult winter lies ahead. Source: SpyCast

Could Gemini 4 Carbon be AGI? 👀 Pushmeet Kohli, one of the architects of Google DeepMind's AI for Science strategy, just said we're entering a real turning point in the pace of scientific discovery, But which field is he referring to? Computational biology, materials science, math, or advanced scientific agents, possibly successors to AlphaFold, Co Scientist or AlphaEvolve?

Across our projects @GoogleDeepMind, we are witnessing a genuine phase transition in the pace of scientific discovery. You will see a glimpse of this in our releases in the next few weeks.

Note to Stephen Miller: While Richard Nixon never saw jail time, his chief of staff did.

🚢1,600 tankers sit in the world’s sanctioned dark fleet. Trafigura, Mercuria, Vitol and ADNOC Group now reportedly want Washington’s approval to buy or lease some of them. The reason is a shortage of ships. With Hormuz effectively shut, shipping Gulf crude to East Asia costs more than 6 times what it did before the war. On 8 October a supertanker earned $1.41m a day. Energy Secretary Wright already opened the door in October. Dark-fleet ships can be cleared to carry legal oil, and he spoke of adding “dozens” or even “hundreds” of tankers. Here’s why this matters for Canada. Freight is now part of the 🇨🇦 Canadian discount. High freight makes a barrel moving down the pipeline to a US refinery the cheapest heavy crude around. In my latest article I said a possible deal with Iran would reopen the strait and cut supertanker earnings to 1/10 of the peak. Canada would then lose the freight part of the discount. These traders are a 2nd way to get there, without waiting for a peace deal. More ships, cheaper freight, a narrower gap. Good for Canadian producers. Less of a bargain for the US refiners buying their crude. Full thesis here: “The Market Just Gave Me The Canadian Oil Entry I Waited For” themerchantsnews.substack.co…

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung unveiled the country’s largest ever budget, pledging to “boldly invest in AI and future growth engines.” Speaking to the National Assembly, Lee said total spending for 2027 would rise 12.8% to 820.9 trillion won ($610.14 billion), including 21.3 trillion won for semiconductors, physical AI and AI data centers — nearly double the 2026 level. A separate 4.7 trillion won will go toward developing a sovereign AI model with what Lee described as the “world’s highest performance”: cnb.cx/4eP391O

United Arab List ready to back Eisenkot government without coalition deal haaretz.com/israel-news/elec…

Razón tenía Andrés Oppenheimer cuando decía que “el Perú crece de noche cuando sus políticos duermen…” Hemos liquidado la última década, hemos desperdiciado tiempo metidos en ese “ciclo anárquico y guerracivilista”, del cual debemos salir. El Perú crece a pesar de todo y de todos; y así lo titula @latercera

$AMZN has 5 +$50B businesses. 5. They know how to do business.