Introducing the FT Tech Tonic podcast. You can subscribe and listen to the rest of the series here.

From picking the best stocks to listening in on earnings calls, AI-powered systems are changing finance. But how big are the rewards, really? And what are the risks? In this episode Robin Wigglesworth tells us how AI has been used in investing, what happens when programs must adapt to new risks and what the robots could learn from watching children play. 

Alice Fordham is senior producer. Josh Gabert Doyon is assistant producer. Oluwakemi Aladesuyi and Liam Nolan are the development producers. Sound design and mixing by Breen Turner. Cheryl Brumley is the executive producer for this series. Original scoring composed by Metaphor Music. 

Review clips: Alphabet, Netflix, Amazon, Man Group.

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The City of London is home to some of the world’s biggest banks and busiest exchanges but the UK is just weeks away from leaving the EU single market and many questions about access to the bloc are still unresolved. Philip Stafford, editor of FT Trading Room, and Stephen Morris, the FT’s banking editor, take a look at the future of financial services after Brexit.

Review clips: BBC News, CNBC, EU 27

Read more on the FT’s coverage of Brexit here: 

Brexit trade talks: the three big sticking points explained

Europe’s finance sector hits ‘peak uncertainty’ over Brexit

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The Boston-based biotech eschewed a traditional approach to vaccine development, instead pitching its use of mRNA technology to investors. That pitch paid off this year as the company stands to be one of the first to bring a Covid-19 vaccine to market. Hannah Kuchler, the FT’s US pharma and biotech correspondent, reports on Moderna’s race to find an immunisation for the novel coronavirus.  

The FT is making key coronavirus coverage free to read for everyone. Go to ft.com/coronavirusfree to read the latest.

Read more here: Moderna’s Covid vaccine offers vindication of its unconventional approach

Review clips: Yahoo Finance, CNBC

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As protests following the killing of George Floyd in the US reverberated around the world this summer, Belgium, like many other countries, experienced its own reckoning: with a brutal colonial past, with the systemic racism that inhibits its black citizens today and with the question of what exactly it owes to the Democratic Republic of Congo, which it exploited for 75 years. The FT's Neil Munshi reports on the company at the heart of Belgium's colonial pursuit, the Union Minière.

Read Neil's FT Magazine story here: https://www.ft.com/content/a17b87ec-207d-4aa7-a839-8e17153bcf51.

Special thanks to Heleen Debeuckelaere, Elli Fernandes, Mohamed Barrie and Jeroen Laporte. 

Review clips: Deutsche Welle, CBS News, France 24, NBC News, Reuters, Al Jazeera English, Getty Images, British Pathé.

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The IPO of Jack Ma's Ant Group would have been the largest in history: it was expected to raise $37bn at a valuation of $316bn. But just days before the stock market listing, China called it off. The FT's Ryan McMorrow and Hudson Lockett report on what led to Beijing pulling the plug, and what it means for China's private sector. Further reading: 'The party is pushing back': why Beijing reined in Jack Ma and Ant.

Review clips: Reuters, World Economic Forum, CNA, Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance.

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Tensions between Washington and Beijing are beginning to resemble a new cold war. Could the complex supply chains built up over a generation that produce Apple's iPhone and other electronics soon be untangled? In this episode Kathrin Hille, the FT’s greater China correspondent, and Richard Waters, the FT’s west coast editor, tell the story of how technology supply chains in the US and China became intertwined and the forces that are pulling them apart. 

Review Clips: CNBC, CSPAN, Washington Post, The Guardian, Reuters, Dallas Morning News, ZDF “Looking for Freedom” WMG (1989) 

Read more from Kathrin Hille

The great uncoupling: one supply chain for China, one for everywhere else

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There is no episode of Behind the Money this week. Here is a preview of what we are working on for next week. 

Review Clips: C-SPAN, CNBC, Dallas Morning News

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The pandemic docked Carnival’s cruise ships and grounded Bombardier’s planes. But when the companies were in need of cash, one went to the bond market and the other to a direct lender. Robert Smith, FT capital market correspondent and Nikou Asgari, FT corporate finance reporter, tell the story of the billion dollar private debt deals shaping who has the capital to weather the crisis. 

Review Clips: CNBC, Reuters, ABC News

Read more from Nikou, Rob and the rest of the corporate finance team

Covid-linked debt rush ignites direct lending market

Asset managers in $300bn drive to build private lending funds

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The market volatility of the past few months has been a boon for the trading divisions of many Wall Street banks, including Morgan Stanley. Laura Noonan, the FT’s US banking editor, explains how success in trading, and a focus on wealth management has positioned Morgan Stanley to make gains during the pandemic - and whether this trend is likely to last. 

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Review clips: CNBC, PBS, Federal Reserve

Read more on Laura’s Noonan reporting on Morgan Stanley - https://www.ft.com/content/22d7c870-870d-4423-bd6f-6e384961f997

Find out what the latest polls say about U.S. voter sentiment towards the economy with FT Washington correspondent Lauren Fedor, Peter Spiegel, the FT’s US managing editor and Michael Peterson of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. The event takes place Monday, October 26 at 12 pm ET. Register here - https://nerpreelectioneconomy.live.ft.com/?segmentId=8f3615ce-4cbc-7122-a54d-8ed636f79675

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Bernard Arnault built a €210bn luxury empire through an unflinching acquisition strategy that earned him the “wolf in cashmere” moniker. Tiffany, famous for its robin-egg blue boxes and diamond engagement rings, was meant to be the jewel atop his LVMH luxury group. The takeover would have been the largest-ever in the luxury sector, until the pandemic hit. The FT’s Leila Abboud, Arash Massoudi and James Fontanella-Khan unwind the saga of how the $16.6bn deal has hit rocky ground and how the pandemic and the forthcoming legal battle could change the terms of M&A engagement globally.

Review clips: CNBC, PBS, Viva Technology

Read more from Leila, Arash and James - https://www.ft.com/content/72af09b4-12a4-45ad-86ca-919d38e279e8

Find the FT’s Due Diligence newsletter - https://www.ft.com/due-diligence

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