The Edition

The US is asking big questions about how to divvy up AI’s potential riches. Australia is still figuring out how to get a seat at the table.

FDC Consolidated has pulled off the year’s biggest IPO so far, but its leaders are keen to show it is more than the market’s latest AI play.

Today’s Telstra network crash has left Communications Minister Anika Wells with another political headache as the telco faces scrutiny over failed triple zero calls.

Anthropic says its local talks are early, but reports of a giant data centre push have moved markets and again ignited fights over copyright and resources.

Anthony Albanese says Australia can “set the ground rules” for AI, but the battle over frontier model access shows sovereignty may be harder to build than data centres.

A rock star at the Midwinter Ball and a flat end of financial year on the ASX offered two unlikely reminders of Australia’s uncomfortable place in the AI boom.

Firmus and Sharon AI are trying to keep their distance from one another, but both are becoming increasingly enmeshed in Nvidia’s balance sheet.

Coles’ potential Greencross buyout has rattled investors, who fear the pet market has peaked and the deal could distract from its core strategy.

A Sydney court spared TPG dealmaker Joel Thickins from jail, but not from a withering assessment of his conduct behind the wheel.

A new Nvidia-backed facility in Indonesia marks another strategic shift for Firmus as its long-anticipated ASX listing remains on ice.

Karl Stefanovic’s podcast scandal, the biggest story in Australian media, says less about one interview than the rightward culture shift he is trying to surf.

Zali Steggall and Allegra Spender’s new party is designed to pool resources without binding votes. A Senate run could complicate its community-first pitch.

If Labor wants to improve housing affordability, it needs to stop prices rising. The hard bit is selling voters the consequences.

The KPMG audit leaks scandal has served as a reminder of the cost of speaking up. MP Andrew Wilkie warns whistleblowers remain too exposed.

After leaks, resignations and a bruising Senate grilling, KPMG faces the real test of any business scandal: whether it hits the bottom line.

Noise on social media may increasingly set the agenda, but this week showed why original reporting still matters.

The startup sector got its capital gains tax win today, but big questions over eligibility, secondaries and holding periods are far from settled.

Pauline Hanson’s National Press Club speech was a tour de force in grievance politics, aimed squarely at a growing base of supporters angry about the world.

Fund manager Geoff Wilson came armed with supporters and placards as the capital gains tax fight became the political spectacle Labor probably hoped to avoid.

Behind the scenes of our 4,000-word deep dive into the collapse of an award-winning national buyers agency just weeks after the federal budget.

The SpaceX IPO is attracting stratospheric levels of investor excitement. History suggests they might be in for a bumpy ride.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers isn’t backing down over his sweeping tax reforms, which are aimed at solving the housing affordability crisis but have upset the business community.

Anthony Albanese wants the CGT fight over and done with in less than a fortnight. But unless there’s careful consideration of business, and significant carve outs, the blows will keep coming.

We’re moving into “uncharted territory” as OpenAI joins its peers in looking to raise unprecedented amounts of capital from sharemarket investors.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is set for IPO next week, with retail investors invited aboard a vast, speculative bet on rockets, AI and orbital data centres.

IREN’s South Australian campus could be the next major test of Australia’s nascent push to become a global data centre power.

Dashdot’s collapse raises a bigger question for Australia’s gravity-defying property market: is this an isolated failure or a sign of a deeper reckoning?

Anthropic has filed for an IPO, putting the Claude maker, investor FOMO and the costly reality of the AI boom on a collision course with public markets.

Australia is trying to ride the data centre boom, but local communities are asking what they stand to gain from hyperscale projects.

Two Capital Brief stories capture a turning point in Australia’s economy, with housing losing steam and AI infrastructure beginning its surge.

It’s often said Labor can struggle to fluently speak the language of business. That weakness is on display as it continues its budget sales job.

Jim Chalmers is selling tax changes as a productivity fix, but economists say supply bottlenecks and weaker investment could limit the payoff.

CBA’s inaugural AI summit put OpenAI’s Sam Altman centre stage as Matt Comyn argued Australia must build capability now or risk being left behind.

The startup sector is furious over Labor’s capital gains tax changes, but Anthony Albanese says the government always planned to consult after the fact.

Guzman y Gomez will exit the US market, pleasing investors by shuttering all eight of its Chicago restaurants after a shaky rollout that had tested analysts’ patience.

Deep tech firms can spend decades on R&D before earning revenue. These companies argue the proposed tax incentive age cap could cut them off mid-flight.

The bank today told brokers it has effectively accepted Labor’s negative gearing rethink, warning the changes “could create a serviceability shortfall”.

A jury said Elon Musk was too late to challenge OpenAI’s for-profit turn, clearing a legal cloud as the AI boom prepares to sell itself to public investors.

Jim Chalmers says he expected a political hit from the budget. But Labor’s capital gains tax changes are proving a harder sell than hoped.

Startups and VC were clearly meant to play a starring role in this week’s budget. Now, anger over capital gains tax is overshadowing the innovation pitch.