Thursday newspaper round-up: New oil and gas projects, Micron, ElevenLabs

(Sharecast News) - An internal watchdog said the Federal Reserve mismanaged costs associated with a $2.4bn renovation of its Washington DC headquarters, but noted that no criminal violations occurred, according to a report released on Wednesday. For over a year, Donald Trump has centered his attacks against the Fed and former chair Jerome Powell around the renovations, including a months-long Department of Justice criminal investigation that was dropped in April. - Guardian

New oil and gas projects are a "no-brainer" that pose "no contradiction" to the net zero agenda, according to the head of EDF Energy. Simone Rossi has joined a string of renewables leaders in making the case for more North Sea production as the government prepares to decide on two projects there. He said ministers should give the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields the green light, while accelerating support for heat pumps and electric vehicles. - Guardian

Investors have branded France "the new sick man of Europe", selling off government bonds as the country's debt crisis deepens. The French government is preparing to present its draft budget on Thursday, but ministers have already signalled that the deficit will widen and borrowing will hit a fresh record next year. Sebastien Lecornu, the prime minister, is hoping to cut �54bn (£46bn) of public spending. He faces stiff opposition, however, from politicians jockeying to replace Emmanuel Macron at a presidential election in April 2027. - Telegraph

The Netherlands has dumped plans to tax unrealised gains on shares, bonds and cryptocurrency after warnings it could prompt an investor exodus. Rob Jetten, the prime minister, a liberal who took office in February, will instead introduce a more conventional capital gains tax (CGT) on actual profits at a rate of 36pc. The switch will cost the government �15bn (£13bn) over the next eight years. But Mr Jetten hopes to claw that back by cutting the tax-free allowance for capital gains, bringing more small-time investors into the net. - Telegraph

America's largest maker of memory chips forecast quarterly revenue above Wall Street's estimates on Wednesday night as the artificial intelligence boom continued to boost demand for its products. Micron Technology, which supplies memory technology to AI chipmakers such as Nvidia, has been a big beneficiary of the huge investment in AI data centres in the United States. - The Times

One of Britain's most promising artificial intelligence start-ups has more than doubled its valuation to $22bn after a share sale  landing it among the most valuable AI labs in the world. ElevenLabs was founded in 2022 by Mati Staniszewski, a former Palantir employee, and Piotr Dabkowski, a machine learning engineer at Google. It is renowned in the industry for its voice generation technology, which enables users to turn text into "ultra-realistic" human-like speech, as well as design sound effects or compose music in "any genre". - The Times