Highlights for the morning: xAI losses, Glencore and Rio Tinto mega deal and MiniMax IPO

Elon Musk's AI startup xAI has grown revenue but is recording billion-dollar losses. Chinese company MiniMax soared after its IPO in Hong Kong, becoming a test of investor interest in AI software. Rising copper prices prompted Glencore and Rio Tinto to resume mega-merger talks. About these and other topics - in the review of key events by the morning of January 9.

AI company xAI reported a net loss of $1.46 billion for the quarter ended September, compared to a $1 billion loss in the first quarter, Bloomberg reports , citing internal documents. Revenue, meanwhile, nearly doubled from the previous quarter to $107 million in the period. Reuters could not independently confirm the data, and in response to a reporters' query, the company said: "Traditional media lies."

According to data compiled by Bloomberg, xAI spent $7.8 billion in cash in the first nine months of the year.

This week, xAI announced it raised $20 billion in an expanded Series E round - up from the originally planned $15 billion - to accelerate the development of new models and computing infrastructure.

US President Donald Trump said he has instructed the federal government to buy $200 billion worth of mortgage bonds to lower mortgage rates and make housing more affordable amid voter concerns ahead of November's midterm elections, Yahoo Finance reports. He said the funds would be drawn from the reserves of government-controlled mortgage agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but authorities did not disclose a specific timeline for the operations.

According to real estate market analysts, such purchases can reduce the rate on a 30-year mortgage only by 0.25-0.5 percentage points, without eliminating the key problem - a chronic shortage of housing, the publication notes. At current average rates of about 6.2%, even a small reduction is unlikely to remove structural market constraints and significantly increase the affordability of home buying for Americans, they conclude.

Intel shares rose 2% in extended trading on Jan. 8 after Donald Trump issued a positive message about the company and its CEO Lip-Bu Tan, highlighting the benefits of government investment in the chip maker, CNBC reported. In August, the U.S. government acquired 10% of Intel for $8.9 billion as part of programs to support the semiconductor industry. Since then, the company's shares have risen about 75% and the value of the government's stake has exceeded $18 billion. The U.S. is now Intel's largest shareholder.

Trump said the deal has brought "tens of billions of dollars" to Americans and is helping bring advanced chip manufacturing back to the US. Despite this, Intel remains in a difficult competitive position after losing market share to AMD and Nvidia. The company has been announcing layoffs and slowing production expansion, the TV station recalls. This week, the company unveiled processors on the 18A process (less than 2nm), which it calls the most advanced chips ever made in the U.S., which Trump separately noted in his statement.

Shares of MiniMax Group, one of China's largest generative AI startups, rose 91% in momentum on the first day of trading in Hong Kong after an IPO in which the company raised $619 million, Bloomberg reports. The offering was at the upper end of the range, with the offering oversubscribed more than 1,800 times.

MiniMax, in which Alibaba and the Abu Dhabi sovereign fund invested, became one of the first Chinese generative AI companies to go public. The market sees MiniMax's debut as a test of investor interest in AI software developers, not just chip makers, the agency said.

Glencore and Rio Tinto have reported the resumption of preliminary talks on a possible merger that could create the world's largest mining company worth more than $260 billion, the Financial Times reports. The deal is being discussed amid record copper prices and growing competition for access to resources; however, the parties emphasize that an agreement is not guaranteed. Rio Tinto shares in Australia fell by about 4.5% after the news, the newspaper notes.

Interest in the merger is intensifying due to expectations of long-term copper shortages, but the risks remain valuation issues and Glencore's coal assets, which Rio Tinto is wary of. Under UK market rules, Rio Tinto must either make an offer to Glencore or reject it by February 5.

- Japan's broad Topix index was up 0.85%, while the Nikkei 225 was up 1.6% in Jan. 9 trading.

- Hong Kong Hang Seng index increased by 0.31%. CSI 300 index of mainland China - by 0.4%.

- In South Korea, the Kospi index added 0.75% and the Kosdaq added 0.4%.

- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was little changed.

- Futures on the S&P 500, the Nasdaq Composite and the Dow Jones Industrial Average exchange-traded contracts also showed little movement.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor