FTI Consulting News Bytes – 21 November 2025

FTI Consulting News Bytes

This week, we spotlight Great Western Railway’s bold move to bring Formula 1 technology to Britain’s railways, trialling hybrid connectivity systems to deliver high-speed onboard Wi-Fi and “set a new national benchmark.” Next, Nokia unveils plans to carve out a dedicated AI-driven network infrastructure unit, doubling down on connectivity in the era of the ‘AI supercycle.’ In the U.S., Cloudflare suffers a major outage disrupting hundreds of services, from Spotify to Microsoft Teams, raising fresh questions about resilience in critical systems. Meanwhile, HUMAIN made headlines at the US-Saudi Investment Forum, announcing nine strategic partnerships with global tech leaders. And finally, Jeff Bezos steps back into the CEO role with Project Prometheus, a $6.2 billion AI venture aimed at revolutionising aerospace and advanced manufacturing.

This week’s news

GWR trials Formula 1 tech for high-speed train wi-fi

Could Britain’s rail passengers finally enjoy reliable high-speed Wi-Fi? Great Western Railway (GWR) hopes so, by transferring technology from Formula 1 to rail. According to The Independent, a 125mph Intercity Express Train has been fitted with “next generation” motorsport-grade connectivity, aiming to “set a new national benchmark.” Unlike today’s slow, patchy onboard Wi-Fi, the pilot uses a hybrid system combining cellular signals and low-earth orbit satellites, avoiding costly trackside infrastructure. GWR is working alongside Peninsula Transport, Motion Applied, Network Rail and Hitachi to trial technology inspired by F1’s dynamic beamforming and diversity antennas, designed to keep trains connected at speed. Technology Magazine reports that the approach promises to transform passenger expectations for onboard internet by adapting techniques that already keep racing teams reliably connected at 200mph. 

Nokia sets out new strategy as it looks to lead in the AI supercycle

Following Nokia’s lucrative partnership announcement with Nvidia a few weeks back, the Finnish group has announced plans to create a new network infrastructure division to house its AI-fuelled cloud and data centre businesses. Speaking at Nokia’s CMD in New York, CEO Justin Hotard unveiled a new strategy designed to address the networking potential linked to the ‘AI supercycle’. In an interview with Bloomberg, Hotard added, “We’re doubling down on being a focused connectivity infrastructure provider – you can’t win in connectivity without winning in AI.” According to the Financial Times, Nokia plans to restructure its four existing segments into two main divisions – Network Infrastructure and Mobile Infrastructure. 

Cloudflare: the latest victim of seismic outages

In the latest wave of major tech outages, Cloudflare suffered a significant disruption earlier this week, reportedly caused by a failed “routine” upgrade that affected hundreds of company websites. As reported in The Independent, the cybersecurity provider indicated that the outage stemmed from a malfunction in a configuration system designed to automatically manage threat traffic, which failed and triggered a software crash. The outage impacted users of a wide range of services — including Spotify, ChatGPT, X, Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Canva — as well as retail websites such as Visa, Vodafone and UK grocery chains Asda and M&S. Cloudflare’s chief executive, Matthew Prince, described the event as “unacceptable.” 

HUMAIN unveils AI collaborations alongside global tech leaders 

HUMAIN made headlines at the US-Saudi Investment Forum during Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s state visit to Washington, announcing nine strategic partnerships that signal a bold leap toward human-centric AI. Collaborations with Adobe, AMD, AWS, Cisco, Global AI, Groq, Luma AI, NVIDIA, Qualcomm and xAI form the backbone of this vision, including a joint venture with AMD and Cisco and a 100-megawatt data centre project with Luma AI. Bloomberg spotlighted these moves, while The New York Times called HUMAIN’s deal with xAI “a victory for HUMAIN.” Meanwhile, Adobe and Qualcomm’s partnership with HUMAIN to help develop tools for generating content in Arabic and for the broader Middle East, as reported by Reuters, added further momentum. HUMAIN CEO Tareq Amin captured the spirit of the moment in his LinkedIn post, calling it “a privilege to work with exceptional partners” as HUMAIN cements its role in shaping global AI infrastructure. 

Bezos steps back into the tech spotlight with Project Prometheus

Jeff Bezos is stepping back into the CEO role with Project Prometheus, a new AI start-up that has already secured $6.2 billion in early funding, according to The New York Times, making it one of the most well-financed ventures globally. Co-led with Vik Bajaj, a former Google X executive, the company aims to develop AI systems for engineering and manufacturing across aerospace, computing and automotive sectors. Nearly 100 hires from OpenAI, Meta, and DeepMind signal serious intent. Yet, as The Times notes, even with the funding, Bezos faces “stiff competition” in a crowded market dominated by giants like OpenAI and Alphabet, as well as smaller AI challengers racing to define the next wave of AI innovation. 

Top Tweets of the Week

• Mark Kleinman, City Editor at Sky News: “Revealed: Motion Picture Licensing Company, which collects royalties on behalf of film studios including The Walt Disney Company and Amazon-owned MGM, is being sold to US buyout firm Great Hill Partners in a deal worth several hundred million pounds.”
• Lewis Goodall, Co-Host of LBC’s The News Agents Podcast: “Chilling piece on employment effects of AI on early careers. Includes this line, which will probably become the norm for many firms: “Managers at Shopify must now justify hiring a human by first explaining why AI can’t do the job. https://t.co/ys1yIHPAcQ“
• Joel Hills, Business and Economics Editor, ITV News: “Exc: The Chancellor faces pressure to hike taxes on gambling firms in the Budget. The industry says it’s already heavily taxed. But Sky Bet has quietly shifted its HQ to Malta – potentially cutting its UK tax bill by 10s of millions of pounds a year.”

Number of the week

 70% The percentage of CFOs who thought employees were using AI to attempt to falsify travel expenses and receipts, according to a recent study by SAP Concur (City AM).