FirstFT: Meta axes protein-folding team in pivot to commercial AI

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Good morning. We have a scoop today on Meta, which has axed a team that used artificial intelligence to create the first database of more than 600mn protein structures. The move is a signal that the company is abandoning purely scientific projects in favour of building moneymaking AI products. 

The social media giant had employed a group of about a dozen scientists on a project called ESMFold, which trained a large language model capable of processing vast amounts of biological data to predict protein structures. The effort has been lauded by those involved in the development of new drugs and treatments.

In a previously unreported move, the ESMFold group was disbanded this spring as part of broader lay-offs across the company, three people familiar with the restructuring said.

The move to axe the project showed the company’s desire to abandon blue-sky research in favour of AI projects that can generate revenues, the people familiar with the matter added.

“Meta has tried to align its research strategy to understand more how to create advanced intelligence that can help Meta as a business, rather than just some curiosity projects,” said Yaniv Shmueli, a former research scientist and engineering manager at Meta AI who worked on ESMFold.

Here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today:

• Economic data: China publishes its July trade balance, while Germany releases inflation rate data for last month.

• Results: SoftBank, Lyft, Glencore and Eli Lilly report earnings. See our Week Ahead newsletter for the full list.

• India: Prime minister Narendra Modi faces a no-confidence motion in parliament over inter-ethnic clashes in the north-eastern state of Manipur, a security crisis the opposition says his government has shown “brazen indifference” towards. Though the motion is certain to fail, it will compel the prime minister to address the violence in Manipur.

Five more top stories

1. Germany chancellor Olaf Scholz is under mounting pressure to send cruise missiles to Ukraine to bolster its struggling counteroffensive against Russia. Germany has been hesitant to supply such long-range weapons but two politicians in Scholz’s own party have recently joined a chorus of voices calling for the Taurus missiles to be sent to Kyiv. Here’s more on Germany’s missile debate.

2. Red tape is frustrating the efforts of Big Tech in China to launch electric vehicles, with car rollouts from search giant Baidu, smartphone maker Xiaomi and ride-hailing group Didi all being stalled. “We have hundreds of engineers waiting around doing nothing,” said a staffer at one of the companies. Here’s how Beijing’s tougher regulations are impacting tech groups.

3. Jack Ma-founded Ant Group will swap nearly half its equity stake in Indian payments company Paytm for convertible debt, as geopolitical tension lingers between India and China. “There is a perception among stakeholders that having a Chinese shareholding is a risk factor,” said a person familiar with the transaction. Read the full story.

4. HSBC’s head of public affairs Sherard Cowper-Coles has apologised for saying the UK government had been “weak” by giving in to US pressure to cut back on its dealings with China. The comments illustrate the difficulty that HSBC faces as it attempts to straddle east and west at a time of rising geopolitical tension.

5. Tens of thousands of young people are being evacuated from the site of a global gathering of scouts in South Korea after soaring temperatures and the threat of an inbound typhoon derailed the event. The collapse of the World Scout Jamboree marks an embarrassing setback for the South Korean government’s promotion of the country as a world-class destination for top-tier global events. Here’s more on the evacuation.

The Big Read

Corals are dying in waters near Florida and the Caribbean. With far less ice forming in the seas around Antarctica, marine biologists now worry about fisheries in parts of the north Atlantic as average global sea surface temperatures hit all-time highs. While scientists blame marine heating on human activities pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the reasons why it is speeding up now are far from clear.

We’re also reading . . . 

• Inconvenient truths: It’s clear that it’s difficult, if not impossible, for the US to decouple totally from China in areas like solar power, writes Rana Foroohar.

• Why Biden is the heir to Trump: The current administration has come to share many of Trump’s basic assumptions — including rivalry with China, writes Gideon Rachman.

• ‘Unbalanced’ trade ties: Brussels will press Beijing to reduce barriers to European exports after the EU’s trade deficit with China hit almost €400bn last year. Read the interview with EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis.

Chart of the day

China’s biggest mutual funds are nearing government limits on offshore investment — the $166bn total quota under the so-called Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor scheme — as they seek higher returns elsewhere against a backdrop of slower growth at home.

Take a break from the news

HTSI’s Aesthetes share what artists are listening to on their summer playlists. From James Blake and Ryuichi Sakamoto to old favourites like Siouxsie and the Banshees, the choices are both discerning and disarming.

Additional contributions from Tee Zhuo and Gordon Smith