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Japan’s economy slows, missing growth forecasts

Japan's Economy Slows, Missing Growth Forecasts: A Deeper Dive into the Consequences Jean's economy has been dealt a significant blow as the latest data reveals a sluggish growth rate of 0.3 percent in the second quarter, falling short of initial forecasts. The underwhelming performance can be attributed to a decline in consumption and capital spending, posing significant concerns for the country's economic trajectory. As the world's third-largest economy, Japan's slowdown is likely to have far-reaching implications for the global market. Key Highlights: Sluggish GDP growth: Japan's GDP rose by a mere 0.3 percent in the second quarter, missing initial forecasts and sparking concerns about the country's economic momentum. Decline in consumption: Weakened consumer spending, which accounts for roughly 60 percent of Japan's economy, has been a major contributor to the slowdown. Capital spending sag: A decline in capital expenditure has also hin...

Meta will sell $2 billion worth of assets to split the cost of AI infrastructure.

In a filing on Thursday, Meta Platforms (META.O) revealed plans to sell $2 billion worth of data center assets as part of its ongoing efforts to find outside partners to help finance the enormous infrastructure required to power artificial intelligence. 
As they struggle with the skyrocketing cost of constructing and powering data centers to support generative AI, tech giants, who have historically been known for self-funding growth, are adopting a different approach.
In order to help fund its significant capital expenditure for the upcoming year, the social media behemoth announced earlier this week that it was looking into ways to collaborate with financial partners to co-develop data centers.
On a conference call following Wednesday's earnings, Meta Chief Finance Officer Susan Li stated, "We're looking into ways to collaborate with financial partners to co-develop data centers."
According to Li, the company still anticipates funding a large portion of its capital expenditures internally, but some projects may draw "significant external financing" and provide greater flexibility if infrastructure requirements change over time. She stated that the business had no completed transactions to report.
However, the disclosure in Meta's quarterly filing suggests that plans are becoming more solid.
Meta reclassified $2.04 billion worth of land and construction-in-progress as "held-for-sale" and approved a plan in June to sell some data center assets, according to its quarterly filing on Thursday. Within the following 12 months, it was anticipated that these assets would be transferred to a third party for the purpose of co-developing data centers.
The reclassification, which values the assets at the lower of their carrying amounts or fair value less selling expenses, did not result in a loss for Meta. According to the filing, the total held-for-sale assets as of June 30 were $3.26 billion.
For this story, Meta chose not to comment.

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO, has outlined plans to spend hundreds of billions of dollars building "superclusters" of AI data centers for superintelligence.
"A large portion of Manhattan's footprint is covered by just one of these," he stated.
On Wednesday, the owner of Instagram and WhatsApp increased the lower end of its yearly capital expenditure projection by $2 billion, from $66 billion to $72 billion.
AI-driven enhancements to targeting and content delivery helped it report higher-than-expected ad sales. According to executives, those profits were assisting in offsetting growing infrastructure expenses associated with its long-term AI push.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES

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