LONDON: British online fashion retailer ASOS plans to add 1,500 new jobs at its London headquarters, the latest tech business to announce new investment in Britain despite the country’s vote to leave the European Union.
ASOS, which also sells to customers in the United States, mainland Europe and elsewhere, said it would increase its London workforce by 60 percent over the next three years from the current 2,500, and invest 40 million pounds ($50 million) to renovate its building in the trendy district of Camden.
The new jobs in technology, marketing and retail follow announcements from Facebook and Google in the last month that they plan to invest in Britain.
The planned hirings come despite warnings before the Brexit vote on June 23 that leaving the EU would make Britain a less attractive place for companies to invest.
The chief executive of ASOS, which has annual sales of more than 1 billion pounds ($1.3 billion), said the Brexit vote had not featured in the company’s thinking.
“The decision today is nothing to do with Brexit,” Nick Beighton said in an interview on Monday. “These plans had been put together pre-June 23.”
In recent months, Britain’s tech sector has proved more resilient than other industries such as financial services, where banks including Goldman Sachs and Citi are said to be considering shifting some jobs abroad due to Brexit.
For tech executives, London’s talent pool and creative culture have convinced them of the city’s importance whether Britain is in the EU or not.
“ASOS is a mixture of fashion, technology, creative and design capability all in one place. There are very few places where you get that hotspot of those talents in one place so London’s very good for that,” said Beighton.
ASOS has benefited from the devaluation of the pound since the Brexit vote as more than half of its sales are made outside Britain.
Retailer ASOS to create 1,500 UK jobs over three years
Retailer ASOS to create 1,500 UK jobs over three years
PIF’s Humain invests $3bn in Elon Musk’s xAI prior to SpaceX acquisition
JEDDAH: Humain, an artificial intelligence company owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, invested $3 billion in Elon Musk’s xAI shortly before the startup was acquired by SpaceX.
As part of xAI’s Series E round, Humain acquired a significant minority stake in the company, which was subsequently converted into shares of SpaceX, according to a press release.
The transaction reflects PIF’s broader push to position Saudi Arabia as a central hub in the global AI ecosystem, as part of its Vision 2030 diversification strategy.
Through Humain, the fund is seeking to combine capital deployment with infrastructure buildout, partnerships with leading technology firms, and domestic capacity development to reduce reliance on oil revenues and expand into advanced industries.
The $3 billion commitment offers potential for long-term capital gains while reinforcing the company’s role as a strategic, scaled investor in transformative technologies.
CEO Tareq Amin said: “This investment reflects Humain’s conviction in transformational AI and our ability to deploy meaningful capital behind exceptional opportunities where long-term vision, technical excellence, and execution converge, xAI’s trajectory, further strengthened by its acquisition by SpaceX, one of the largest technology mergers on record, represents the kind of high-impact platform we seek to support with significant capital.”
The deal builds on a large-scale collaboration announced in November at the US-Saudi Investment Forum, where Humain and xAI committed to developing over 500 megawatts of next-generation AI data center and computing infrastructure, alongside deploying xAI’s “Grok” models in the Kingdom.
In a post on his X handle, Amin said: “I’m proud to share that Humain has invested $3 billion into xAI’s Series E round, just prior to its historic acquisition by SpaceX. Through this transaction, Humain became a significant minority shareholder in xAI.”
He added: “The investment builds on our previously announced 500MW AI infrastructure partnership with xAI in Saudi Arabia, reinforcing Humain’s role as both a strategic development partner and a scaled global investor in frontier AI.”
He noted that xAI’s trajectory, further strengthened by SpaceX’s acquisition, exemplifies the high-impact platforms Humain aims to support through strategic investments.
Earlier in February, SpaceX completed the acquisition of xAI, reflecting Elon Musk’s strategy to integrate AI with space exploration.
The combined entity, valued at $1.25 trillion, aims to build a vertically integrated innovation ecosystem spanning AI, space launch technology, and satellite internet, as well as direct-to-device communications and real-time information platforms, according to Bloomberg.
Humain, founded in August, consolidates Saudi Arabia’s AI initiatives under a single entity. From the outset, its vision has extended beyond domestic markets, participating across the global AI value chain from infrastructure to applications.
The company represents a strategic initiative by PIF to diversify the Kingdom’s economy and reduce oil dependence by investing in knowledge-based and advanced technologies.
