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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The NFL is taking the 2030 Super Bowl to Nashville and the Tennessee Titans’ new Nissan Stadium after team owners voted Tuesday to hold the league’s championship game in the Music City for the first time.

Once the Titans broke ground on the $2.1 billion enclosed stadium, a Super Bowl being played in Nashville appeared to be only a matter of time. Commissioner Roger Goodell said in November that Nashville lacked only the stage after setting a new standard for the league with record attendance at the 2019 draft.

“That for us changed the future of the draft, arguably changed the future of the Titans and the community,” Goodell said in Orlando at the league’s spring meetings. “And I think this is the next great step in a remarkable football journey and a great community in Nashville. We can’t wait to be there.”

The Titans are on schedule to finish the new stadium directly across from the current Nissan Stadium in February, completing the three-year construction. Critics worried the planned capacity wasn’t big enough to host a Super Bowl, though league officials were updated throughout the process.

Awarding the 2030 Super Bowl to Nashville gives the Titans three full seasons to work out any kinks.

Controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk said the Titans are thrilled Nashville’s first Super Bowl is coming and thanked Goodell, her fellow NFL owners and the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp for their partnership.

“We cannot wait for our community to experience an event of this magnitude and for the world to see the energy, hospitality, and culture that make our city so special on a global stage,” she said. “We look forward to bringing an unforgettable Super Bowl experience to Nashville together.”

Nashville impressed the NFL when the executives who work on the league’s big events saw the Music City touch in 2019.

Bands played between draft picks and headliners such as Tim McGraw helped cap each day’s events. Fans poured in for the party in the Lower Broad honky-tonk district with other events at the Titans’ current stadium a short walk across a pedestrian bridge.

Deana Ivey, president and CEO of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp, thanked the NFL for the confidence placed in Nashville. She also made clear Music City will bring the party atmosphere first seen in that 2019 draft to hosting its first Super Bowl mentioning McGraw on stage.

“He’s singing to the entire street of all the football fans were singing ‘Live Like You Were Dying’ with him, and it was the most incredible, authentically Nashville moment, and I can’t wait to see some of those organic things happen for the Super Bowl,” Ivey said.

Only New Orleans and Las Vegas among NFL venues have more hotel rooms within a one-mile radius of the stadium, with the Nashville market area projected to have 658 hotels with more than 80,000 hotel rooms by 2030. Nashville currently has more than 61,000 hotel rooms available.

The new stadium is being built with $760 million in bonds issued by Nashville’s sports authority, with an additional $500 million in state bonds. The combined $1.2 billion in public funding was considered the largest public commitment in funding for an NFL stadium when approved in 2022.

Burke Nihill, the Titans’ president and CEO, said that the commitment from city, state and community leaders helped make Tuesday’s announcement possible. Nihill also said this stadium is being built to feel like Nashville rather than trying to impress folks with size or technology, and yes, there is a big stage in one end zone.

“My expectation is that when people come through that building for the Super Bowl in 2030, they feel something different in that sense of Southern hospitality,” Nihill said.

The announcement adds to the NFL’s Super Bowl lineup of SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, hosting in 2027 followed by Atlanta in 2028 and Las Vegas in 2029.

Nashville isn’t content with lining up just a Super Bowl for the new Nissan Stadium. Former Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, also controlling owner of the NHL’s Nashville Predators, is chairman of the Music City Major Events group assembled in 2023 to bring other high-profile events to the stadium.

The NFL also announced Tuesday that Minnesota will host the 2028 draft, a decade after hosting its most recent Super Bowl in 2018. Pittsburgh drew a record 805,000 fans over three days in April for the draft. Washington will host the 2027 NFL draft.

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AP Pro Football Writer Rob Maaddi in Orlando, Florida, contributed to this report.

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By Michael S. Derby

May 19 (Reuters) – Incoming Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh on Tuesday disclosed an initial round of planned asset sales ahead of being sworn in for the job, though the disclosures did not say who the sales were made to.

In an Office of Government Ethics form, Warsh listed the names of the holdings but not the dollar value of the sales. At his confirmation hearing in April, Warsh, on track to be the richest Fed chair in the institution’s history, said he would bring his holdings in line with government and Federal Reserve ethics rules.

Warsh’s form listed the sale of an investment called Juggernaut Fund L.P. On his financial disclosure form released last month ahead of his confirmation hearing, he listed two entries for the fund with a combined value of at least $100 million. 

Warsh also disclosed the sale of a number of other assets, as well as an asset divested by his wife. 

The incoming Fed leader is scheduled to be sworn in on Friday, succeeding current leader Jerome Powell, who plans to stay on in his governor role while navigating tensions between the central bank and the Trump administration.

PLANNED SALES

Warsh’s disclosure had been expected given an ethics agreement made with the government to bring his wealth in line with prevailing ethics rules. Who or what entities bought these assets is likely to be an issue for Warsh once in office, as some Democrats have already expressed concern about potential buyers. 

“So that there’s no ‌question about my independence, no question about the clarity of my financial record, I agreed to divest virtually all of my financial assets,” Warsh told members of the Senate Banking Committee on April 21. 

Warsh said that after going through the required divestments, as Fed chair he would possess “virtually no financial assets,” with his fortune sitting in close to all cash.

Warsh’s financial disclosure last month reported at least $100 million in holdings across a wide range of investments, many of which the incoming Fed chair declined to disclose, citing confidentiality agreements.

The Juggernaut investments listed on Tuesday as being sold had produced potentially more than $10 million a year in income for Warsh, according to his April disclosure. 

At his confirmation hearing, Senator Elizabeth Warren said she was concerned about who might buy Warsh’s assets and whether it could create a conflict of interest. 

Federal Reserve ethics rules formalized in early 2022 are among the toughest in government and were tightened in the wake of a trading controversy associated with several central bankers leaving the institution amid multiple Inspector General investigations.

Fed rules sharply limit what officials can hold and how they can move money around. They are designed to ensure the public has confidence policymakers are working with the public’s interest in mind. Those rules also apply to immediate family members.

(Reporting by Michael S. Derby, editing by Deepa Babington)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A coalition of Democratic-led states is challenging the Trump administration’s recent caps on federal student loans, arguing the limits will make it harder for students pursuing certain healthcare degrees to attain the necessary training and education.

In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, plaintiffs representing 24 states and the District of Columbia argued the Trump administration’s rules would disproportionately impact critical healthcare sectors.

“This rule will shut talented people out of critical professions and leave communities with fewer healthcare providers they desperately need,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a written statement. “We cannot afford fewer nurses, fewer providers, or fewer opportunities for working people to enter these essential fields.”

The Education Department defended the loan caps on student loans, saying they were already incentivizing colleges and universities to lower tuition.

“Clearly, these Democratic governors and attorneys general are more concerned about institutions’ bottom-line rather than American students and families’ ability to access affordable postsecondary education,” Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said in a written statement.

In 2025, Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which enacted new federal student loan caps. Programs that were designated as “graduate” programs faced a loan cap of $100,000, while professional degrees were capped at $200,000.

Previously, graduate students could take out loans up to the cost of their degree. The new loan caps take effect in July.

The Education Department’s definition of professional degrees include pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary medicine, chiropractic, law, medicine, optometry, osteopathic medicine, podiatry and theology.

But other healthcare fields, such as nursing, physical therapy, dental hygiene, social work and occupational therapy, were not included in the definition. Other fields that require certification and licensure, such as accounting and education, were also excluded.

The changes sparked anger and frustration across excluded healthcare sectors. Advocates said the effects would be felt by communities most in need of medical providers.

“This rule will be felt in real communities, for example, in rural areas where nurse practitioners, midwives, and nurse anesthesiologists are often the only providers of core care services,” American Nurses Association president Jennifer Mensick Kennedy said in a statement when the final rule passed last month.

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The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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Google will soon unleash a wealth of new artificial intelligence-powered tools and systems, including an AI assistant that will help users by proactively performing tasks on their behalf.

“Agentic” AI, the recent buzzword of choice for tech firms, was a central focus of Google’s annual developers conference, Google I/O. The upcoming AI agent, Gemini Spark, was one of many of the company’s announcements from the conference Tuesday.

“We are firmly in our agentic Gemini era,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said Tuesday before a packed amphitheater near the company’s Mountain View, California, headquarters. “I’ve played around with all sorts of agents and you can really see the potential, but it’s still early days when it comes to making agents easy to use, super secure and truly helpful.”

Google and its corporate parent, Alphabet Inc., have poured billions into AI development. Its top finance executive said on a call with investors in late April that this year’s capital expenditures may climb as high as $190 billion. But the investment seems to be paying off, with its quarterly earnings showing strong growth. The stock has climbed another 11% since the report.

Pichai said during the keynote address that the Gemini app had 400 million monthly active users last year, but that usership has now surpassed 900 million, more than doubling in a year.

Google’s latest family of models, Gemini 3.5, is rolling out Tuesday to billions of global users beginning with Gemini 3.5 Flash. The Flash model is focused on speed, and Google says 3.5 Flash is its strongest agentic and coding model yet, but it’s also about four times faster than some competitors.

This model is now the default for the Gemini app and “AI mode” on Google search. The company is also working on the 3.5 version of Gemini Pro, which it says it’s using internally and expects to launch next month.

Gemini 3.5 was developed with new, more advanced safety training and mitigations, meaning its models are less likely to generate harmful content or to mistakenly refuse to answer safe queries, the company said.

Google also announced a new model, Gemini Omni, which will enable users to create high-quality video by making a query with any input, be it text, images, videos and audio. The video Omni creates can then be edited easily though a conversation with the model. Users will eventually be able to create images and audio with Omni, but there were no details about when those features will be rolled out.

The company said Omni’s videos will appear more realistic than videos created by other models because of its understanding of forces like gravity, kinetic energy and fluid dynamics.

Gemini Omni Flash, the first of the Omni family, is launching Tuesday for Google Al Plus, Pro and Ultra subscribers through the Gemini app and Google Flow. Beginning this week, it will be available at no cost on YouTube Shorts and YouTube Create App.

All videos created with Omni will include Google’s imperceptible digital watermark, SynthID, but Google is also adding content credentials verification to the Gemini app. This tool determines if content like photo or video was created by AI or captured with a phone camera and edited with AI tools. It will be available in search in Chrome in the coming months. Google also announced AI companies Open AI, Kakao and Eleven Labs are adopting its SynthID technology to more of their AI-generated content.

Powered by Gemini 3.5, Gemini Spark will be able to complete mundane, routine tasks like sorting through meeting notes, emails and chats and then creating a document with the biggest takeaways and to-dos. Unlike other available agents, Spark is based in the cloud, so it continues working in the background even when users shut their laptops or lock their phones.

The proactive nature of AI agents is what differentiates them from chatbots, and that has also led to some anxieties about the technology’s power. Gemini Spark is designed to ask for permission before performing “high-stakes” tasks like sending an email or making a purchase, the company said.

Select testers will have access to the agent beginning Tuesday, and the company plans to roll out the beta mode to U.S.-based subscribers to its Google AI Ultra tier.

Later this summer, Gemini Spark will operate directly within Chrome, the company said.

At last year’s conference, the most talked-about development was the introduction and rollout of “AI mode” on Google’s search engine. The feature gives users a more conversational answer to their query before providing relevant links, building on previously implemented changed how users experience and interact with the platform.

AI mode queries have more than doubled every quarter since its launch last year, and the tool recently surpassed 1 billion monthly users, according to Liz Reid, Google’s head of search.

The new default model in search will now be Gemini 3.5 Flash and the company is introducing what it calls an intelligent search box. This change, which Reid says is the biggest upgrade to the search box in 25 years, means the box will adapt to accommodate longer queries and it can help users write out their questions with AI-powered suggestions instead of traditional autocomplete.

Users can also search using multiple modalities, using text, images, video, files and even Chrome tabs as search inputs. The new search box is starting its roll out Tuesday in all countries and languages where AI mode is currently available.

The company also announced a new tool, the Universal Cart, which it called “a truly intelligent shopping cart.” It works across merchants and across services so users can add things to their cart while browsing Google search, chatting with Gemini, watching YouTube, or reading emails in Gmail. The cart then runs on Gemini models to go to work as soon as an item is placed in the cart, looking for deals and price drops, providing price history information and alerting users when something comes back in stock.

The Universal Cart tool will be available to users on search and the Gemini app this summer, with YouTube and Gmail to follow.

—— Associated Press Writer Barbara Ortutay in Oakland, California contributed to this story.

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A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Rae Wee

Market sentiment remained fragile on Tuesday even after U.S. President Donald Trump claimed he had paused a planned attack against Iran and that there was now a “very good chance” of reaching a deal limiting Tehran’s nuclear programme.

That sent oil prices falling, though at around $110 a barrel, they remain more than 50% above their levels prior to the Middle East war.

Stocks were in a sombre mood, with Asian shares sliding and U.S. futures surrendering earlier gains, while European futures edged just a touch higher.

South Korea’s high-flying Kospi index fell more than 4%, which analysts attributed to profit-taking.

Much will be riding on artificial intelligence darling Nvidia’s results on Wednesday, where expectations are sky-high for the world’s most valuable company.

Ahead of that, UK jobs data is due later on Tuesday.

With the Iran war nearing its third month, investors are waking up to the worry that the conflict may deliver a lasting inflationary shock, with sovereign bond yields racing to decade highs and threatening a severe hit to the spending power of governments, businesses and households.

G7 finance ministers acknowledged mounting concern over public debt and bond market volatility as they met in Paris on Monday and sought common ground on tackling global economic tensions and coordinating critical raw material supplies.

The bond selloff abated in Asia on Tuesday, with U.S. Treasury yields and Japanese government bond yields easing, but not far from milestone highs.

The average rate at which governments in the G7 nations pay to borrow for 10 years is approaching 4%, up from around 3.2% before the war started in late February.

Elsewhere, data on Tuesday showed Japan’s economy grew faster than expected in the first quarter on solid exports and consumption, though momentum will face a severe test as the full force of the energy shock from the Iran war filters through businesses and consumers.

The upbeat numbers did little to help the yen, which was languishing around the 159 per dollar level, keeping traders on alert for potential intervention from Japanese authorities.

In Australia, minutes of the central bank’s May board meeting showed policymakers judged interest rates to be restrictive after three hikes this year, giving it space to watch how the war plays out, even though inflation is set to trend higher and economic growth to slow.

Key developments that could influence markets on Tuesday:

– UK employment data (March)

(Editing by Jamie Freed)

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By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss

NEW YORK, May 19 (Reuters) – The latest sharp selloff in U.S. Treasuries may be far from over.

A combination of stubborn inflation, shifting expectations about interest rates, and changes in investor behavior could keep pressure on bond prices and drive yields even higher in the weeks ahead, analysts said.

For months, many investors have viewed the 4.5% yield on the benchmark 10-year note as an attractive point to step in and buy bonds. But as yields surged through that level, market participants adjusted their view of where buyers would next bite.

“The question going forward is: will guys really buy here because I believe this (selloff) will continue to persist,” said Padhraic Garvey, head of global rates and debt strategy at ING.

“We’re probably headed to 4.75% in the next round,” he added, citing several underlying forces that continue to fuel the selling. The 10-year yield was last at 4.62%.

Rising benchmark yields pose a challenge for U.S. stocks, as higher borrowing costs weigh on companies and consumers.

A key driver, however, remains inflation: recent consumer and producer price data have come in stronger than expected, reinforcing the view that price pressures are not easing as quickly as markets had hoped. With more data due, particularly for May, analysts expect inflation to stay elevated.

If bond investors believe inflation will stay high—or even rise further—they would demand higher yields to compensate for the loss in purchasing power.

Market-based measures of long-term inflation expectations, or so-called breakevens, rose to 2.507% on the benchmark 10-year note on Friday, close to a three-year high. Breakevens reflect, in part, investor confidence in the Federal Reserve’s ability to rein in inflation over time.

ING’s Garvey warned that even a small increase in inflation expectations—to around 2.6% or 2.7%—could push yields noticeably higher. “That’s how you get the next 10, 20, 30 basis points into the upside in yields very easily.”

This suggests that the market may not have fully priced in the risk of sustained inflation yet. Investors are now beginning to consider the possibility that the Federal Reserve could hold rates steady for longer, or even raise them if inflation does not ease.

As investors adjust to the idea that rate cuts are off the table, short-term yields have moved higher.

Jim Barnes, director of fixed income at Bryn Mawr Trust, said the mood in the market has clearly changed. “It’s a different interest rate environment.”

“In the absence of any positive news on Iran and combined with data pointing toward inflationary pressures, it’s as if the bond market just threw up its hands and just said we have to reprice the market higher.”

LONG-END WOES; FOREIGN TREASURY BUYERS

At the long end of the Treasury curve, the picture also looks uncertain.

Guneet Dhingra, head of U.S. rates strategy at BNP Paribas, said once 30-year Treasury yields moved above 5%, they effectively lost a clear ceiling. In the past, certain levels tended to act as barriers, but once broken, yields can move more freely.

“Now that we have no anchor, what stops bond yields from going up in a world of high inflation, ever-rising deficits, and global bond yield pressure?” said Dhingra.

At the same time, an important factor is the composition of Treasury buyers. In the past, large foreign buyers—such as countries with trade surpluses with the United States—were steady purchasers that were less sensitive to short-term market moves.

Today’s buyers are markedly different and more price-sensitive, Dhingra said, often based in financial centers such as those from the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg. These countries serve as major custody hubs of Treasuries for various hedge funds around the world, and are in the top seven largest non-U.S. holders of Treasuries.

The UK overtook China in March last year as the second-largest owner of U.S. government debt, and now holds nearly $900 billion in Treasuries.

This shift means that higher yields don’t automatically bring in buyers the way they once did, Dhingra said. Investors are more cautious and selective, which can allow yields to rise further before demand picks up — potentially testing higher levels before finding a lasting floor, he said.

“We’re not finished yet. We’re just in May and inflation rates will be higher,” said ING’s Garvey.

(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; editing by Megan Davies and Aurora Ellis)

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TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares were mixed Tuesday as uncertainty about what will happen with the Iran war roiled global markets.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 0.6% in morning trading to 60,433.79, erasing initial gains after the government reported that the economy grew for the second straight quarter in January-March, mainly due to better than expected consumer spending.

South Korea’s Kospi sank more than 4% in early trading and was down 3.5% at 7,249.73 by midday. Shares in Samsung Electronics slipped 3.8% and SK Hynix fell 4%, tracking losses in tech shares overnight on Wall Street.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.9% to 8,582.80. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed 0.5% to 25,811.28, while the Shanghai Composite shed 0.3% to 4,121.11.

On Monday, the S&P 500 swiveled between gains and losses before finishing with a dip of 0.1% at 7,403.05, its second loss since setting an all-time high last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3% to 49,686.12, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.5% to 26,090.73.

In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude lost $1.36 to $103.02 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, dipped $1.99 to $110.11 a barrel.

Oil prices have been gyrating lately because of uncertainty over how long the Iran war will keep the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed, preventing oil tankers from delivering crude. Japan, for instance, imports just about all its oil, much of it previously through the strait.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard was trading at about $70 before the war. It fell after President Donald Trump said in a social media post that he was holding off on a military strike on Iran planned for Tuesday because “serious negotiations” are underway to end the war.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose as high as 4.63% before falling back to 4.59%, where it was late Friday.

Delta Air Lines finished essentially flat after swinging up and down through the day because of oil prices. It got an early boost following news that Berkshire Hathaway had bought more than $2.6 billion of the airline’s stock. Berkshire Hathaway built a reputation as a value investor able to buy stocks at low prices under its former leader, Warren Buffett.

Investors are watching for Nvidia’s latest quarterly results, due Wednesday. The chip company has routinely blown past analysts’ expectations each quarter while forecasting more growth. Target, Home Depot and Walmart also report results this week.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 158.96 Japanese yen from 158.84 yen. The euro cost $1.1643, down from $1.1657.

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AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed to this report.

Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama

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By Summer Zhen

HONG KONG, May 19 (Reuters) – A Hong Kong-based fund manager is launching a new hedge fund to tap rising investor interest in Asian artificial intelligence stocks, with a focus on Taiwan and Japan, three sources familiar with the matter said.

Kuark Capital, led by Taiwanese Kyle Su, has secured at least $400 million before launching the hedge fund, said one of the three sources, all of whom declined to be named as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

Su did not respond to requests for comment.

The hedge fund’s debut comes as a sharp tech stock rally in Asia, from China to South Korea, has spurred investors to seek more exposure to AI firms in the region.

Investor interest has been fuelled by the region’s central role in the AI supply chain, from chip making to packaging and materials. Global asset allocators are also looking at undervalued opportunities to enhance their returns.

Asia equity long-short funds on average posted a 10% gain in the first four months of this year, outperforming other regions and outpacing a 5.2% average gain globally, according to Morgan Stanley prime brokerage data.

The concentration of semiconductor stocks in the Asia-focused long-short funds contributed to the performance, the data showed.

Kuark Capital plans to adopt a low-net-equity long-short strategy, meaning it will look for both bullish and bearish stock ideas while keeping overall market exposure limited.

Market participants said low-net strategies have gained traction in recent years, as they require fund managers to protect downside risks amid increased volatility in global markets.

Su previously managed a roughly $1 billion equity portfolio at Kadensa Capital for about nine years, according to a Kuark investor presentation seen by Reuters.

Kadensa Capital is a Hong Kong-based hedge fund focused on Asian investments.

Kuark’s presentation said its strong local networks in Taiwan and Japan, along with Su’s engineering background, give it an edge in uncovering investment ideas across the region.

Kuark has hired Hiro Ikeda, a Japanese-Taiwanese veteran investor with experience at Optimas Capital, Fidelity and T. Rowe Price, as director of research. Ikeda also did not respond to requests for comment.

Ikeda managed a low-net mandate for Optimas Capital – which received an allocation from New York-based hedge fund Millennium Management last year – in Hong Kong for four years, according to Kuark’s presentation.

(Reporting by Summer Zhen; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Thomas Derpinghaus)

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By Giulio Piovaccari

MILAN, May 19 (Reuters) – Stellantis’ CEO Antonio Filosa will outline a new long-term strategy to investors on Thursday with a focus on reviving crucial U.S. sales, tightening the group’s sprawling portfolio, and leveraging tie-ups with Chinese firms.

The presentation at the Fiat-to-Jeep owner’s capital markets day, in Auburn Hills, Michigan, is a crunch point for Filosa who was brought in last year to turn around the carmaker’s flagging fortunes after it lost ground in the U.S. and Europe. Its shares hit an all-time low in March this year.

The world’s No. 4 automaker by sales is expected to outline plans to focus funding on a smaller group of four core brands, Reuters reported, while looking to expand joint ventures with Chinese automakers to make use of capacity and trim costs.

“They just need their North American business to function. That will give immediate value to their stock,” said Massimo Baggiani from London-based Stellantis investor Niche Asset Management, which has bought two tranches of shares since March.

Baggiani added that Stellantis needs to tackle overcapacity in Europe, overhaul its brand strategy and fend off growing competition from Chinese rivals in regions like South America and Africa where it remains profitable.

“The good thing is that Filosa seems to be aware and has ideas on how to address such challenges,” he said. “We’ll need to test him over a longer period.”

STELLANTIS PRESENTATION TO CONTAIN ‘A LOT OF CHINA’

Filosa will also likely focus on partnerships with Chinese automakers after Stellantis this month announced it will expand its joint venture in Europe with Leapmotor and a deal with Dongfeng to produce vehicles in China.

Filosa’s pitch to investors will have “a lot of China in it,” a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The group has excess production capacity across several countries and, like European rival Volkswagen, Filosa says Stellantis is open to sharing European factory space with other Chinese automakers beyond Leapmotor.

The group last week hinted that its manufacturing cooperation with Dongfeng could soon expand beyond China.

Investors are eager to know whether Filosa’s plan can deliver a sustained sales recovery and lift profits, while addressing issues from brand complexity to industrial inefficiency and $26 billion charges for scaling back its EV ambitions.

Such deals could also help the Franco-Italian automaker improve its own EVs by acquiring electric know-how from Chinese rivals, who have competitive EV platforms and supply chains, major cost advantages and quicker car development time.

BRAND STRATEGY

Citi analysts said in a note that Filosa was trying to address gaps in the U.S. market – where its cars only chimed with half of all buyers – with the new Jeep Cherokee as well as compact and midsize pickup trucks.

Investors will also be looking for clarity on Stellantis’ vision for its 14 brands, the industry’s largest portfolio.

Focusing investments on Jeep, Ram, Peugeot and Fiat would be a shift from the group’s traditionally more even allocation of resources and reflects the need to focus capital on higher-volume, higher-margin labels without scrapping brands entirely.

Remaining brands will stay, but with a more niche or regional scope.

“If you are too drastic in deciding to quit one or the other, then you are losing that customer base for somebody else,” Filosa said last week.

“The real point is not to select one, two, three, or four brands,” he added. “The real point is to combine efficient capital allocation with brand-specific strategies.”

($1 = 0.8541 euros)

(Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari; Editing Nick Carey and Gus Trompiz)

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By Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff

WASHINGTON, May 18 (Reuters) – The U.S. government said on Monday India’s Adani Enterprises agreed to pay $275 million to settle alleged sanctions violations involving Iran, as the Trump administration moved to resolve several cases involving Indian billionaire Gautam Adani. 

The U.S. Treasury Department said Adani Enterprises had bought shipments of liquefied petroleum gas from a Dubai-based trader purporting to supply Omani and Iraqi gas that had actually originated from Iran. Adani is the company’s founder and chairman.

   The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission separately settled a civil lawsuit against Adani over an alleged scheme to bribe Indian government officials, court records showed last week, although the move is subject to court approval.

The Justice Department is also close to dropping related criminal fraud charges against Adani, who has promised to invest $10 billion in the U.S. economy, according to two sources familiar with the matter. That dismissal could come as soon as Monday morning, one source said. 

U.S. prosecutors had charged Adani for allegedly agreeing to pay $265 million in bribes to Indian government officials so his company could win approval to develop India’s largest solar power plant.  

Adani and his alleged co-conspirators raised more than $3 billion in loans and bonds by hiding their corruption from lenders and investors, prosecutors said. The Adani Group, a conglomerate that includes Adani Enterprises, has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

Adani, a close ally of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is one of the world’s richest people, with an estimated worth of $82 billion, according to Forbes magazine. 

(Reporting by Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff and Susan Heavey; editing by Andy Sullivan, Michelle Nichols, Rod Nickel)

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