Microsoft (MSFT) said it envisioned agents operating across individual, organisational, team and end-to-end business contexts. The company explained that expects to see what it calls an “open agentic web” in which AI agents can make decisions and perform tasks for individual users or entire organisations.
AI agents have emerged as one of biggest trends in tech, with the likes of Microsoft and customer relationship management software company Salesforce (CRM) developing offerings in the space. They are are semi- or fully autonomous pieces of AI software that can perform certain tasks for users.
"What we're seeing is AI development accelerating, and people going from kind of proof of concepts to working solutions that are really driving business impact," Scott Guthrie, Microsoft (MSFT) executive vice president of cloud and AI, told Yahoo Finance.
"We expect momentum to continue and accelerate, in particular, as what we call the agentic web emerges. And our key goal at Microsoft is how do we make it easier for organisations and for developers and startups to really keep pace with all the new technologies," Guthrie added.
Microsoft (MSFT) also announced on Monday that it was making AI model Grok 3, from Elon Musk's company xAI, available on its Azure AI Foundry marketplace.
Shares in Microsoft (MSFT) closed Monday's session 1% in the green but were flat in pre-market trading on Tuesday morning.
US drugmaker Pfizer (PFE) announced on Monday evening that it had entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Chinese biopharmaceutical company 3SBio (1530.HK) Inc for an experimental cancer treatment.
Pfizer (PFE) said in a statement that under the agreement it was have an exclusive global license to develop, manufacture and commercialise SSGJ-707 worldwide, excluding China.
The treatment is currently undergoing several clinical trials in China for non-small cell lung cancer, metastatic colorectal cancer, and gynaecological tumours.
The US pharma company said it would pay 3SBio $1.25bn (£934m) upfront, followed by up to another $4.8bn on the basis of certain development, regulatory and commercial milestones being met.
Shares in 3SBio soared more than 32% on Tuesday, though Pfizer (PFE) shares were little changed in pre-market trading.
Foxconn's (2317.TW) Singapore subsidiary is will purchase 12.7 billion shares at INR10 each in Yuzhan Technology India, which works out to around INR127.7bn ($1.49bn).
Yuzhan Technology India produces electronic components and assembles iPhones, according to a Reuters report.
The Financial Times recently reported that Apple (AAPL) is planning to transition the assembly of its US-sold iPhones to India and away from China, in the wake of US president Donald Trump's tariffs.
Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Limited (3750.HK)
Shares in the world's largest electric vehicle (EV) maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Limited (3750.HK) surged in their debut on the Hong Kong stock exchange on Tuesday.
CATL (3750.HK), which supples carmakers including Tesla (TSLA), closed Tuesday's session up 16.4% at share price of HKD306.20 (£29.23), compared to its initial public offering price of HKD263. The company raised $4.6bn in its listing last week, making it the world's largest so far this year.
"Strong demand for shares in CATL (3750.HK) on its stock market debut implies investors still believe they can make money from the electric vehicle revolution," said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell (AJB.L).
"Offering the public the chance to buy shares in an EV battery maker was a big gamble given what’s happened in the automotive industry of late. Take-up of electric vehicles hasn’t been as strong as previously expected, particularly in the West, and that’s led many investors to lose interest in the sector."
"Investors buying CATL (3750.HK) shares seem to have focused on its big exposure to the Chinese EV market which is motoring along nicely," he added. "That’s the company’s bread and butter – sales in other parts of the world are the jam on top, and perhaps investors are hoping that component will become tastier in time."
On the London market, telecom giant Vodafone (VOD.L) posted a full-year operating loss of €411m, down from a profit €3.67bn (£3.08bn) last year. The company said the operating loss was due to non-cash impairment charges for Germany and Romania totalling €4.5bn.
At the same time, the company launched the first €500m tranche of its latest €2bn share buyback programme, in welcome news to investors. On the back of the results, Vodafone (VOD.L) shares were up 1.6%.
"Vodafone (VOD.L) delivered a somewhat mixed set of results with both revenue and earnings came in slightly behind expectation," said Matt Dorset, equity research analyst at Quilter Cheviot. "Furthermore, weakness in Europe and Germany continues to persist."
"Guidance for the next financial year was stronger, with Vodafone (VOD.L) guiding to positive free cash flow growth after years of decline, ahead of consensus," he said.
"This is despite the merger with Three in the UK. However, its guidance for Europe specifically continues to be weak, with earnings expected to be 3% behind expectations with Vodafone (VOD.L) continuing to rely on growth in Africa and Turkey to offset weakness elsewhere."
