Morning brief: FBI investigates China hack, UK firm on India visas, US shutdown drags on

A fresh FBI probe into cyberattacks on prominent US law firms, an expanded funding drive for Elon Musk’s xAI, and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s firm stance on visa restrictions dominated headlines overnight.

Meanwhile, Washington’s government shutdown stretched into its seventh day, with lawmakers still deadlocked over health care subsidies.

FBI investigates reported Chinese cyberattacks on US law firms

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Washington field office is investigating a series of alleged cyber infiltrations targeting major US law firms by hackers linked to China, The New York Times reported, citing two people briefed on the matter.

One affected firm, Williams & Connolly, confirmed to Reuters that hackers had gained access to some of its computer systems but did not attribute the attack to China.

The firm said a limited number of attorney email accounts were compromised “by leveraging what is known as a zero-day attack.”

“Importantly, there is no evidence that confidential client data was extracted from any other part of our IT system, including from databases where client files are stored,” the firm said.

Williams & Connolly added that the breach had been contained and there was no indication of continued unauthorised activity.

US officials have long accused China-linked entities of engaging in cyber operations aimed at stealing corporate secrets and sensitive intellectual property from American firms.

Musk’s xAI raises funding target to $20 billion with Nvidia support

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence venture, xAI, is seeking to raise as much as $20 billion — double its earlier target — as part of a funding round that now includes support from Nvidia Corp., according to Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the matter.

The financing reportedly includes both equity and debt and will be structured through a special purpose vehicle.

This vehicle is expected to purchase Nvidia processors and lease them back to xAI for use in its “Colossus 2” project, a large-scale data centre based in Memphis.

Nvidia is investing up to $2 billion in the equity portion of the transaction, the report said, as part of a strategy to bolster demand for its AI chips by directly supporting customers’ computing capacity.

The fundraising effort could still expand further, according to Bloomberg’s sources.

Starmer rules out expanding Indian worker visas under trade deal

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his government would not increase the number of highly skilled visas for Indian nationals as part of the recently signed UK-India free trade agreement.

Speaking to reporters en route to Mumbai, where he is promoting the deal, Starmer stated that allowing more Indian workers into the UK “isn’t part of the plans.”

He is accompanied by a 125-member delegation of business and cultural leaders, several of whom have warned that restricting foreign workers could worsen labour shortages.

“The visa situation hasn’t changed with the free trade agreement — we didn’t open up more visas,” Starmer said.

“The issue is not about visas — it’s about business-to-business engagement and investment and jobs and prosperity coming into the United Kingdom.”

The UK-India pact, signed in July, preserved pre-existing provisions that allow temporary business travel between the two nations but did not create any new visa pathways.

Starmer said the agreement overcame earlier sticking points after India dropped demands for greater visa access for its workers.

US government shutdown continues

In Washington, the ongoing government shutdown showed little sign of resolution as Democrats and Republicans remained entrenched over the future of health care subsidies.

Democrats, led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, said they want the government to reopen, emphasising the need to extend premium assistance under the Affordable Care Act.

“We want the same thing that a majority, an overwhelming majority, of Americans want, which is to end this shutdown and halt the health care crisis that will send premiums spiking for tens of millions of people,” Schumer said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said after meeting Senate Republicans that his party was “100% united,” signalling no immediate shift in the GOP position.

Republicans have argued that the current subsidy system is unsustainable and must be scaled back.

With hundreds of thousands of federal employees still unpaid and key government services suspended, the stalemate has begun to strain public patience.

Yet neither side appears ready to compromise, leaving the path to reopening the government unclear.