Good morning, you're tuned in to Markets Desk.
The scale of artificial intelligence infrastructure spending is drawing serious attention from the accounting world, with forecasts now suggesting the AI buildout will exceed the combined cost of laying railways across both the United States and the United Kingdom — and then add the entire internet on top of that. What sets this apart from prior technology waves isn't just the ambition, it's the rate at which capital is being deployed, and that trajectory shows no sign of bending.
Staying with the theme of infrastructure, Russia's bid to build a domestic alternative to Starlink has hit a significant setback. All sixteen satellites from its latest launch batch failed to reach their intended orbit, a costly failure for a program Moscow has treated as strategically essential since being cut off from Western satellite services. The Soyuz rocket carried the payload, but publicly available tracking data confirmed the satellites never reached operational altitude.
On the consumer side, Ikea's parent Ingka Group is making a bold bet on volume over margin, committing one point two billion euros to reduce prices across Europe on some of its most recognizable products. The Billy bookcase and Kallax units are among those getting marked down. The CEO has been candid that margins will compress, but the strategy is squarely aimed at defending market share as household budgets remain stretched.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
