According to Sina Finance, British AI startup Emulate, founded last month by a team of former DeepMind scientists, is launching a new funding round worth hundreds of millions of dollars at a post-money valuation close to $4 billion. The company was incorporated in August 2026, and its founders include former Google DeepMind researchers Jack Parker-Holder and Matthew McGill. Emulate is in advanced talks with potential investors and plans to raise up to $700 million, which would value the company at $3.7 billion. The round is expected to be co-led by Index Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

According to RTHK, Sina Finance and Reuters, Asian equities were mixed at midday on Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve delivered its first interest-rate increase in more than three years overnight, a quarter-point move whose hawkish tilt signaled one further hike this year and pushed the dollar to a seven-week high; the Bank of Japan is widely expected to raise rates on Friday. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 held modest gains, trading at 64,233.46, up 0.49% or 310.46 points as of 04:31 UTC, after opening more than 700 points higher and giving back most of the advance before noon. Chip-related names were mixed, with Tokyo Electron down 1.64% at 50,840 yen and Advantest off 0.75%, while Sony added 0.81%. Seoul's KOSPI advanced 0.73% to 6,767.15 as of 04:31 UTC. Samsung Electronics rose 0.49% to 254,750 won and SK Hynix edged up 0.11% to 1,761,000 won. Hong Kong stocks eased, with the Hang Seng Index at 24,533.46, down 0.73% or 180.32 points as of 04:31 UTC; the Hang Seng Tech Index shed 0.76% at the half-day, weighed by utility, property and technology shares. Tencent fell 1.29% to HK$427.80, Meituan lost 2.35% to HK$72.70, Alibaba slipped 1.04% to HK$105.10 and Xiaomi eased 0.84% to HK$25.96. Taiwan's TAIEX outperformed, rising 1.30% to 46,446.10 as of 04:31 UTC. TSMC gained 2.10% to NT$2,430.00, MediaTek added 0.99% and Hon Hai rose 1.61%. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite eased 0.36% to 3,877.46 and the CSI 300 fell 0.36% to 4,463.99 as of 04:31 UTC, with both Shanghai and Shenzhen gauges lower at the half-day close.

Shares of Hong Kong developers fell after the city raised interest rates following the Federal Reserve, according to Bloomberg. The move stoked concern that higher borrowing costs could derail a nascent recovery in the housing market.

Gasoline is poised to extend gains as tightness in global fuel markets spreads, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The bank shifted its trading call to gasoline from diesel, Bloomberg reported.

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee said the city plans to almost double spending on innovation in coming years and increase financial support for new parents, according to Bloomberg. Lee announced the measures Wednesday as he unveiled Hong Kong’s first five-year development plan, with the government seeking new growth engines and trying to slow a decline in births.

Japan's Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said on Thursday that she expects the Bank of Japan to manage monetary policy properly in a stable and sustainable manner to achieve its 2% inflation target. According to Sina Finance, Katayama said she hopes the Bank of Japan will maintain close communication with the government. After the Federal Reserve raised interest rates on Wednesday, the yen weakened against the U.S. dollar, and Katayama declined to comment on exchange-rate moves.

CoinShares PLC said shareholders approved all resolutions at a special general meeting on September 15, 2026, including authorization for the company to repurchase up to 25% of its outstanding ordinary shares. According to ChainCatcher, shareholders also approved the CoinShares PLC 2026 equity incentive plan, which is intended to implement a previously approved equity pool across operating jurisdictions without increasing the number of reserved shares.

Anthropic, OpenAI, Nvidia, Google, XAI – Jensen Huang to the left, Amody to the right – Golden Finance: Giants are choosing sides.

Artificial Intelligence, AI Agent, Computing Power, Computing Power Spot Market: Separating AI Inference Computing Power from Subscription Packages (Jinse Finance)

ISO 9001:2026 is the first major revision to the international quality management benchmark since 2015

The flaw has already been exploited in the wild and CISA has added it to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

A probe into fraudulent requests for Revolut customer data has led Italian investigators to a compromised government email account, turning a financial data leak into a wider investigation into the security of Italy’s trusted digital communications system.

Lawson and FamilyMart are using AI to create new convenience store foods, including a pickle-flavoured lemon tart and sweet potato canele. AI is mainly used for ideas and sales trends, while human experts still test and finalise the products before they reach stores.

White House spokesman Kush Desai said that from the government's perspective, the Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates today was rather regrettable and lacked any particularly convincing economic basis. Trump, meanwhile, again urged the Fed to quickly cut interest rates below 1%.

After the CLARITY debacle: A shift in the path of US crypto regulation and institutional inertia.

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time since July 2023, increasing the benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 3.75%-4.00%. This decision reversed market expectations of easing and was interpreted by Wall Street as a major policy shift towards continued tightening and prioritizing anti-inflation measures.

Bitwise: The failure of the Clarity bill will not destroy the crypto bull market that began in early July. Golden Finance: The crypto bull market does not need Washington's permission.