Highlights for this morning: LG strikes deal with Tesla, US and China seek compromise on tariffs

AI chip startup Groq is in talks to raise $600 million at a valuation of $6 billion, double its last round in August 2024. Meta is preparing to report quarterly earnings on the back of a massive investment in supercomputing data centers and the hiring of key industry experts, including former OpenAI employees. Meanwhile, South Korea's LG Energy Solution signed a $4.3 billion contract with Tesla to supply LFP batteries for energy storage systems, strengthening its position in the US market. On these and other topics - in our review of key events by the morning of July 30.

South Korea's LG Energy Solution has signed a $4.3 billion contract with Tesla to supply lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries for energy storage systems, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters. The batteries will be supplied from LGES's plant in the U.S. 

A statement from LGES, a key supplier to Tesla and General Motors, did not specify whether the batteries are for cars or for energy storage systems. "In accordance with our agreement, we cannot disclose the customer under confidentiality obligations," LGES said. Tesla did not comment.

The term of the contract is from August 2027 to July 2030. The agreement provides for an option to extend for up to seven years and to increase the volume of deliveries under additional arrangements.

LGES is one of the few LFP battery manufacturers in the U.S., while the technology has long been dominated by Chinese companies. LGES launched LFP production in Michigan in May.

Facebook's parent company Meta will release its second-quarter earnings report on Wednesday amid continued massive investments in artificial intelligence and aggressive hiring of AI talent, writes Yahoo Finance.

On Friday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that former OpenAI researcher Shengjia Zhao, who was involved in the development of the ChatGPT model, has been named chief scientist of the new Meta Superintelligence Lab. 

Meta had previously invested $14.3 billion in Scale AI and hired its CEO Alexander Wang, as well as exits from Safe Superintelligence and Apple.

Meta is also actively investing in AI infrastructure: according to Zuckerberg, the company is spending hundreds of billions of dollars to build multi-gigawatt data centers across the country;

According to Bloomberg's consensus forecast, analysts expect Meta to report earnings per share (EPS) of $5.89 on revenue of $44.83 billion. A year earlier, the numbers were $5.16 EPS and $39.07 billion in revenue.

Advertising revenue is estimated to grow 15% year-over-year to $44.09 billion, and the Reality Labs division is expected to bring in $386 million.

AI chip startup Groq is in talks to raise a new round of investment of $600 million at a company valuation near $6 billion, reports Bloomberg, citing sources. The deal has not yet been finalized, and terms could change.

Groq had already raised $640 million in August 2024 at a valuation of $2.8 billion, so the new valuation effectively doubles the startup's value in less than a year.

The round is led by Texas-based venture capital firm Disruptive, Bloomberg notes. In the previous round in November, investors included BlackRock, Neuberger Berman, Type One Ventures, as well as corporate funds Cisco, KDDI and Samsung Catalyst Fund.

The company was founded by Jonathan Ross, who previously worked at Google on the development of its proprietary Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) chips. 

The new round follows a May partnership with Bell Canada - Groq will supply infrastructure for the Canadian telecom operator's large AI project. In April, the company also announced a partnership with Meta to accelerate the processing of the Llama 4 model.

Neither Groq nor Disruptive commented on Bloomberg's inquiries.

U.S. and Chinese negotiators wrapped up two days of talks Tuesday without announcing a further delay in new tariffs, while markets are keeping a close eye on a possible compromise that could prevent the imposition of additional duties in about two weeks, reports Yahoo Finance.

"We're going back to Washington and we're going to discuss with the president whether he wants to do this," Trade Representative Jamison Greer said at the conclusion of talks in Stockholm, Sweden.

"The final decision is up to the president," he added.

Finance Minister Scott Bessent also commented on the outcome, calling it the result of a "very busy two days" and confirming that a new 90-day extension was possible. He said the overall tone of the talks was "very constructive."

Later Tuesday, President Donald Trump, answering questions from reporters aboard Air Force One, said he had just spoken with Bessent and would make a decision after the briefing. He also noted that Bessent was positive about the outcome of the meeting.

- Japan's broad Topix index was up 0.1 percent at the open.

- The benchmark Nikkei 225 was unchanged.

- In South Korea, the Kospi index rose 0.48% and the Kosdaq small-company index gained 0.42%.

- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was falling 0.19 percent.

- Futures on the S&P 500 were up 0.12%, the Nasdaq 100 was up 0.20%, and futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were adding 0.08%.

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