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Global business news today featured a pair of significant stories: a boost for British artificial intelligence ambitions and a notable escalation in international trade tensions.

The AI Firm's Robotic Research Lab

Google DeepMind revealed plans to establish its inaugural “robotic research facility” in the United Kingdom. This initiative is considered a boost to the country's artificial intelligence ambitions.

The laboratory will be mainly focused on advanced materials discovery. It will leverage “advanced robotics” to synthesize and analyze many hundreds of materials each day. The primary goal is to substantially shorten the timeline for discovering revolutionary new materials.

The company commented that the lab, set to be built in the year 2026, will “supercharge scientific discovery”. In a statement:

Discovering new materials is one of the most important endeavors in scientific research, which could lead to reduce costs and enable completely novel technologies.

To illustrate, materials that conduct electricity without resistance that operate at room temperature and pressure could enable affordable medical imaging and reduce energy loss in electrical grids. Additional discoveries could help us tackle critical energy issues by enabling next-generation batteries, next-generation solar cells and more efficient semiconductors.

This initiative is one element in a wider partnership with the UK government. Under the agreement, UK scientists will get special access to a suite of cutting-edge artificial intelligence tools for research purposes.

The Mexican Tariff Move

In another story, international trade tensions intensified further after Mexico's Senate passed tariff hikes of as high as 50% next year on imports from China and a number of other Asian-Pacific nations.

The import duties are designed to bolster local industry. They will raise or impose new duties of as much as 50% from next year on certain products such as autos, vehicle components, fabrics, apparel, plastic goods and steel.

The measures will affect goods from nations that lack free trade agreements with the country, including China, India, South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia. Most of affected goods will see tariffs of up to thirty-five percent.

China's Ministry of Commerce has called out the move, urging its counterpart to correct “unilateral, protectionist practices” promptly.

Additional Market Updates

Moscow's energy export revenues reached their lowest level following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. A global energy watchdog stated that exports declined again in November due to lower export volumes and lower market prices.

In Switzerland, the central bank kept its key policy rate unchanged at zero percent. The bank pointed to price increases that was slightly lower than anticipated, but noted that longer-term price pressures remained largely the same.

The AI sector experienced selling pressure after disappointing earnings from the software giant Oracle. The company's stock slid in after-hours dealing after it missed revenue and earnings forecasts and increased its spending outlook for AI data centers. The news raised concerns about the financial returns of substantial spending on AI.