FTI Consulting News Bytes – 15 August 2025

FTI Consulting News Bytes

We begin this week’s newsletter by looking at the impact of the UK Online Safety Act on adult website traffic, which has seen a slowdown since the legislation came into practice. After that, we look at Perplexity AI’s unsolicited bid for Google’s Chrome browser, before turning to WhatsApp’s accusations that Russia is restricting citizens from accessing secure calls on the app. We then look at the potential ripple effects of a fire at a key Japanese supplier on the global semiconductor supply chain, and finish with a British tech entrepreneur’s ambitious plan to launch data centres into space.

This week’s news

Age verification rules slow UK adult website traffic

The Financial Times reported that traffic from British users to some of the world’s most popular adult websites has almost halved since new age verification rules came into force. Media regulator, Ofcom, began enforcing new requirements for adult sites to check the age of all UK users under the Online Safety Act, deemed one of the world’s toughest new regimes at protecting children on the internet. Users of adult websites have been asked to upload identity documents, enter credit card details, or scan their faces to prove they are over 18. The introduction of the age verification scheme coincided with a huge rise in British usage of virtual private networks – or VPNs – which disguise a user’s online location, potentially enabling users to circumvent the age verification methods. The Online Safety Bill’s objectives are widely supported by the general public, but its implementation has been met with privacy concerns, as users of adult websites fear their identities could be leaked if they comply with the age verification methods to access the site’s content.

A Perplexing offer

Artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI made an unsolicited $34.5 billion bid for Google’s Chrome browser, CNBC confirmed on Tuesday. That figure is higher than Perplexity’s current valuation, but the Company said several investors have agreed to back the deal. The bid comes after the US Department of Justice (DoJ) proposed Google divest Chrome as part of the antitrust suit the Company lost last year. At the time, Google responded that the DoJ was pushing “a radical interventionist agenda,” and that the agency’s proposal was “wildly overbroad.” Telecoms.com described the bid as “unserious” both due to the size difference in Perplexity’s and Google Chrome’s valuations and as the $34.5bn bid represents an exact price of $10 per each of Chrome’s 3.45bn users, suggesting more thorough due diligence has not been undertaken.

What’s up with WhatsApp in Russia?

WhatsApp has accused Moscow of trying to block millions of Russians from accessing secure communication after calls on the messaging app were restricted. This follows Russia declaring on Wednesday that it had started restricting some WhatsApp and Telegram calls, accusing the foreign-owned platforms of failing to share information with law enforcement in fraud and terrorism cases. Reuters notes that Russia is trying to promote home-grown social media platforms as it seeks greater control over the country’s internet space. The Guardian adds that Moscow has clashed with foreign tech platforms for several years over content and data storage in a simmering dispute that intensified after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Chips could be down for the semiconductor supply chain

A fire at Japanese industrial gas maker Kanto Denka Kogyo’s factory is spurring concerns about possible disruptions to the semiconductor supply chain, according to Bloomberg. Last week, a fire broke out at Samsung and Kioxia supplier, Kanto Denka’s nitrogen trifluoride plant in Shibukawa. One of the plant’s two production lines sustained partial damages and operations have been suspended by authorities. Kazuyoshi Saito, senior analyst at Iwai Cosmo Securities, commented that if the plant remains closed for a prolonged period, “this may exacerbate a capacity squeeze at manufacturers that are operating at maximum utilization rates to meet artificial intelligence demand”.

British tech boss’ moonshot: data centres in space

As the rise of AI yields an explosion of electronic information and challenges over where to store it safely and sustainably, The Times spoke to British entrepreneur, Chris Stott, who wants to put data centres on the moon and beyond. Stott, founder, Chairman and CEO of Lonestar Data Holdings, views Earth as a dangerous place to store information, and fears its eradication, with cloud data living in physical data centres that cause stress on power grids and strain energy resources. He believes that in space, power is free and abundant through solar energy, while the high latency of space communications defends against real-time cyberattacks. Lonestar intends to send data storage hubs to Lunar Lagrange Point 1, a cosmic parking spot 320,000km from Earth, to provide data disaster recovery, back-up and long-term archiving for government, enterprise and private sector customers.

Top Tweets of the Week

• LBC News: Delete your old emails to help save water, public told as experts warn of ‘significant’ shortfalls https://t.co/J32eo9L4l9
• Jeremy Clarkson: If your A level results are disappointing, don’t worry. I got a C and two Us and here I am today, installing lights for a helicopter landing pad in my garden.
• Lewis Goodall, Presenter, The News Agents and LBC: Godfather of AI Geoffrey Hinton at world’s biggest AI conf in Las Vegas. Is asked what could AI gain control of soon? “Us…they’re just going to be much smarter than us. Imagine you were in charge of a playgroup of 3 year olds…it wouldn’t be very hard to get control of them….”

Number of the week

$3tn The predicted amount of global spending on data centres between now and 2029, according to Morgan Stanley analysts quoted in the Financial Times.