FirstFT: Apple abandons secretive electric vehicle project

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Good morning and we start with Apple’s decision to abandon a secret project to build an electric vehicle.

The decade-long effort to build a product that competes with the likes of Tesla and Rivian has never been officially confirmed by Apple but a person familiar with the decision confirmed to the FT that “Project Titan”, as it was known, would end.

The iPhone maker intends to pivot more aggressively towards artificial intelligence, the person said. Investor attention is focused on when Apple will bring new features to its smartphones to keep pace with rivals such as Samsung and Google.

The cancellation comes as the sale of electric vehicles has slowed in Europe and the US in recent months. Ford and General Motors have paused plans to expand their EV manufacturing capacity and last week Rivian announced that it would cut 10 per cent of its workforce and keep deliveries flat this year. Read more on Apple’s decision.

Here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today:

• Economic data: We get the second estimate for fourth-quarter US growth today as well as unemployment data for the November-January quarter from Chile and an economic update from Mexico’s central bank.

• Monetary policy: Susan Collins, president of the Federal Reserve’s Boston branch, John Williams, president of the New York Fed, and Raphael Bostic, President of the Atlanta Fed, will speak at public events today.

• Company earnings: Salesforce, TJX Companies, Paramount Global, AMC Entertainment, Monster Beverages, HP, Baidu and the National Bank of Canada report results.

• G20: Finance ministers from the world’s 20 largest economies meet in Brazil today and tomorrow ahead of a presidential summit in November.

• Moon landing: Representatives from Nasa and Intuitive Machines hold a news conference on the Odysseus lunar lander mission.

Five more top stories

1. Vladimir Putin’s forces have rehearsed using tactical nuclear weapons at an early stage of conflict with a major world power, according to leaked Russian military files that include training scenarios for an invasion by China. The classified papers, seen by the Financial Times, describe a threshold for using tactical nuclear weapons that is lower than Russia has ever publicly admitted. Read the exclusive FT story.

2. McKinsey claimed in marketing materials that it had advised the Chinese central government on boosting domestic consumption and reforming healthcare policy, according to an archived website seen by the FT. The findings raise fresh questions over the consulting firm’s denial earlier this month that it ever worked for Beijing. Here’s more on the latest revelations about McKinsey’s engagement with China.

3. Joe Biden and Donald Trump comfortably won their respective primaries in the crucial swing state of Michigan. But the president faced a significant number of defections in a state with a high number of Arab-American voters where Biden’s response to the war in Gaza has angered Democrats. Biden won 81 per cent of the vote but 13 per cent of voters picked “uncommitted” rather than support the president. Here’s the latest on the vote count.

4. Chinese fast-fashion group Shein is considering a London IPO if its preferred choice of New York is blocked by US regulators over its ties to China. While Shein continues to pursue a US listing as a priority, two investors told the FT that the UK had become an alternative. Politicians in Washington are investigating Shein’s ties to China, such as its alleged use of cotton from Xinjiang.

5. Pension funds and other big investors are reducing the amount they allocate to private credit as they become increasingly concerned about the risks that high interest rates pose to the $1.7tn sector. US-based private credit funds raised $123.1bn from investors last year, according to data group Preqin, down from $150.8bn in 2022. Read the full story.

News in-depth

The FT takes a look inside the miracle of modern chip manufacturing in a special visual data feature. After coming up against the limits of physics, scientists are rethinking chip architecture like never before. With parts of transistors reaching atomic levels of scale, engineers are having to come up with increasingly innovative ways of ensuring progress, such as vertical, tower-like construction and rethinking the way chips are packaged.

We’re also reading and listening to . . . 

• Mexico: Companies controlled by Carlos Slim make up one-fifth of Mexico’s benchmark index. But the billionaire has faced criticism for his unlikely and cosy relationship with leftwing president Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

• Israel-Hamas war: Hamas has demanded the release of a leader seen by many Israelis as rightly jailed for his role in the Palestinian uprising of the early 2000s as a condition for freeing its remaining hostages in Gaza.

• Unhedged 🎧: In the past few weeks, markets have hit highs in the US, Europe, and Japan. The hosts of Unhedged try to understand what has powered the results.

Chart of the day

The visits by Joe Biden and his Republican rival Donald Trump to the US-Mexico border tomorrow highlight how illegal immigration has become an increasingly potent political issue in the race for the White House. Polling shows that 61 per cent of Americans — and 91 per cent of Republicans — now consider illegal immigration to be a “very serious” problem.

Take a break from the news

Scarves are a bold statement piece, whether tied as high as you like and wrapped around, or leaving a sliver of flesh showing from the chin to the Adam’s apple, or in the very French and utterly timeless look of a silk square, folded into a triangle and secured with a knot. Our Ask a Stylist feature shows off a range of chic neckwear. For more news on the fashion industry — and weekly fashion tips — sign up to our Fashion Matters newsletter.

Additional contributions from George Russell and Benjamin Wilhelm