22/06/2026

BIZ & FINANCE MONDAY | JUNE 22, 2026

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Danone sues Chobani over high-protein claims

Trump no longer views Anthropic as security threat

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said he might have viewed artificial intelligence company Anthropic as a national security threat last week, but he no longer does, according to an interview with The Axios Show . Senior Anthropic technical staff were scheduled to meet with Trump administration officials early this week to discuss a dispute over foreign access to its most advanced AI models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5. The company last week disabled access for all users to those models after Trump ordered Anthropic to block foreign nationals from accessing them. When asked if he viewed Anthropic, or its CEO Dario Amodei, as a threat to national security, Trump said: “Well, not now, but a week ago, maybe.” Trump told Axios that Amodei responded to the administration’s export control directive “very quickly” and “responsibly”. Trump and other G7 leaders met with tech bosses, including Amodei, at a summit in France this week. Trump did not rule out using emergency powers under the Defense Production Act against Anthropic, according to Axios. “I have the power to use a lot of things,“ Trump said of the DPA. “But I’m not sure I have to do that.” Asked to comment on Trump’s interview, an Anthropic spokesperson said: “We are grateful to the administration for their ongoing partnership in working to get this matter resolved as quickly as possible. “We remain committed to working alongside them towards our shared goals of protecting critical infrastructure and making sure the US leads in AI.” – Reuters Australia extends fuel excise relief to ease household cost pressures SYDNEY: Australia will extend fuel excise relief for an additional month, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said yesterday, as the country continues to grapple with higher fuel costs during the Iran war. The government would “extend fuel excise relief for another month, making petrol and diesel 16 cents per litre cheaper versus normal prices for July, saving Australians around A$11 per tank”, he said in a statement. “This is more temporary support that will help take the sting out of petrol prices and help Australians with the cost of living.” The centre-left government had already halved the excise on fuel and diesel and removed a heavy road user charge for three months until the end of June to help households deal with higher prices at the fuel pump, sparked by the war in the Middle East. Yesterday’s announcement followed last month’s move to extend a measure that releases petrol and diesel from domestic reserves until September. It was due to expire in July. Australia, which imports most of its fuel, has experienced localised shortages during the US-Israel war against Iran that broke out in February. Some 20% of the world’s oil was shipped through the Strait of Hormuz before the war choked supplies. “We know that families are still under pressure, and we also know that the impact of this conflict on the other side of the world will have a long economic tail to it,“ Albanese said in televised remarks yesterday. – Reuters

LONDON: Danone’s lawsuit against Chobani over protein claims makes it clear the French dairy company sees its US rival as a threat in one of the few food groups seeing a boost from weight-loss drug users both during and after they get their GLP-1 fix: yoghurt. Danone, which has struggled to meet growing consumer demand for high-protein products, sued Chobani in Manhattan federal court last week, accusing it of inflating protein claims on labels on multiple-serving tubs of Chobani 20G Protein, which it calls a direct rival to Danone’s Oikos Pro in the ultra-high-protein yoghurt category. The battle for protein supremacy is particularly important in the US, where growing numbers of GLP-1 weight-loss drug users are seeking out protein-heavy products to combat muscle wastage. A consumer study by Boston Consulting Group showed that unlike products such as protein shakes, yoghurt is among a handful of foods that see a more permanent boost from weight-loss drugs. “High-protein foods like yoghurt or ... meat seem to increase in frequency during and even more after stopping GLP-1s,” Lauren Taylor, managing director and senior partner at BCG, said. The Paris-based company accused Chobani of copying its product and misleading consumers to improve sales, allegations Chobani dismissed. Danone also said Chobani’s methods were allowing it to undercut Danone’s €1 billion Oikos brand on price. Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya said Danone was “throwing things out there” to create damaging headlines for the privately held New York company, which he founded in 2007. “In a way, I am kind of laughing at it,” Ulukaya told Reuters. “We never add external protein to our products. We will never mislead anybody.” Danone, in a statement, said it believes consumers should be able to make product comparisons with “clear, accurate and consistent nutrition information”. o Demand for yoghurt tends to increase among GLP-1 users: Study

Danone Oikos Pro, protein-packed yoghurt, for sale in a cooler at a grocery store in Port Washington, New York. – REUTERSPIC

was 26% in the first quarter of this year, up from 21% three years ago. Danone’s share slipped to 25.8% from 30.7% in the same timeframe. Danone’s dairy unit saw 3% like-for-like sales growth in the Americas in the first quarter of this year, filings show. The company has sued Chobani at least four times since 2016, most recently over coffee packaging slogans; Ulukaya said previous lawsuits have been thrown out. “Danone sues Chobani four or five times a year for everything,” said Brad Charron, a former Chobani marketing executive who now runs plant-based protein brand ALOHA. “If you can’t compete with them, sue them.” Charron did say a lot of big consumer packaged foods companies will change serving sizes to represent things – like protein content – differently. However, he said “at the end of the day, I think the consumer is smart enough to figure out whether they’re being misled one way or the other.”– Reuters

It said Chobani’s multi-serve labelling inflates its serving size, which it believes is misleading to consumers, rendering them unable to make “an accurate comparison between products.” Danone, which highlighted its struggles to meet extremely high demand for high-protein yoghurts in the second half of 2025, is steadily adding more production capacity. But Barclays analysts said in May that investors are getting nervous for what they see as a lack of urgency around the recovery of Danone’s U.S. dairy business. The company’s shares are down 15% this year, compared with an 11% rise in the MSCI World Index. “Competitors, notably Chobani, (are) doing a much better job and growing currently at more than 20%,” Barclays said. “There is a feeling that Danone has been too slow to add capacity and perhaps it needs to spend more to compete with aggressive competitors such as Chobani.” According to NielsenIQ data shared by Chobani, the company’s US market share

MGX said weighing multi-billion deal for DayOne DUBAI: Abu Dhabi-backed artificial intelligence investor MGX has been exploring buying Singapore-based data centre operator DayOne, three sources said, in what would mark a major step in its global expansion into the technology. DayOne didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. DayOne, which is affiliated with China’s GDS Holdings, operates and develops data centres across Southeast Asia as well as in Hong Kong, Japan and Finland. MGX falls under the purview of Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the United Arab Emirates’ national security adviser and brother of the president.

MGX is targeting over US$100 billion in assets investing across the whole AI chain, including data centres and the powerful chips that power them, as the UAE pours billions into the sector as part of its economic diversification efforts. The firm has invested in some of the largest AI companies globally including SpaceX’s xAI, OpenAI and Anthropic as well as in Aligned Data Centers through a US$30 billion AI infrastructure fund that includes BlackRock and Nvidia. Separately, it has also acquired a 15% stake in TikTok’s US operations and invested US$2 billion for a minority stake in the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance. – Reuters

Reuters reported last month that it was considering a dual initial public offering in Singapore and the US, though the Singapore plans are not concrete at this stage. DayOne has secured investments from US investor Coatue Management, SoftBank Vision Fund and Citadel Securities founder Ken Griffin. A deal for DayOne could mark MGX’s first acquisition in Asia as the company pursues a lightning-fast international expansion. It was set up a little over two years ago with the US$385 billion sovereign wealth fund Mubadala and AI company G42 as its founding partners.

MGX has been working with an investment bank in preparation for the potential transaction, said two of the sources, who declined to be identified because the discussions are confidential. DayOne has been planning a US initial public offering targeting a valuation of US$20 billion, Reuters has reported, a price that MGX may not be willing to match, two of the sources said. The sources cautioned that a deal may not proceed and that the firm may still opt to pursue an IPO. A spokesperson for MGX declined to comment.