China’s military builds massive new wartime command centre

Good morning and happy Friday. In today’s newsletter:

China’s military is building a massive complex in western Beijing that US intelligence believes will serve as a wartime command centre far larger than the Pentagon, according to current and former American officials.

Satellite images obtained by the FT that are being examined by US intelligence show a roughly 1,500-acre construction site 30km south-west of Beijing with deep holes that military experts assess will house large, hardened bunkers to protect Chinese military leaders during any conflict — including potentially a nuclear war.

Several current and former US officials said the intelligence community is closely monitoring the site, which would be the world’s largest military command centre — and 10 times the size of the Pentagon.

One China researcher familiar with the images said: “This fortress only serves one purpose, which is to act as a doomsday bunker for China’s increasingly sophisticated and capable military.”

Read the full story and view a satellite image of the site.

Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today and over the weekend:

• Economic data: Australia publishes December producer price index inflation rate data and Japan releases the latest labour force survey.

• Results: Samsung Electronics, Tokyo Gas, ExxonMobil, Fujitsu, Hitachi and Komatsu report earnings.

• Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal: Three Israeli hostages are due to be released on Saturday in exchange for dozens of Palestinian prisoners.

Five more top stories

1. OpenAI is targeting a $300bn valuation in a massive new SoftBank-led funding round. SoftBank is set to invest between $15bn and $25bn into the ChatGPT-maker, an investment that will be the centrepiece of a wider funding round which could lead to the artificial intelligence company raising as much as $40bn. The unprecedented size of the latest round suggests investor willingness to back the top US AI start-ups has not been undermined by China’s DeepSeek.

• More AI news: Mark Zuckerberg has pledged to spend “hundreds of billions” on AI to propel Meta to a dominant position, even after DeepSeek’s revelations shook markets this week.

2. India’s government is under pressure to turn around a slowing economy as it prepares to present one of the most consequential budgets since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power more than a decade ago. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will unveil the first full budget of Modi’s third term on Saturday — here’s what to expect.

• Have questions about the budget? Send them to us and we’ll answer them in a special weekend edition of the newsletter. Hit reply or email firstft@ft.com

• More India news: The billionaire Ambani family has won the bidding battle for a stake in the first of eight English cricket teams being put up for auction by the sport’s governing body.

3. Rescuers do not believe there are any survivors among the 67 passengers and crew aboard a commercial jet and military helicopter that collided on Wednesday night outside Washington before plunging into the Potomac River. Here’s what we know about the crash.

• Trump’s reaction: Without citing evidence, Donald Trump blamed Democrats and diversity, equity and inclusion policies for the fatal collision.

4. The US economy grew at an annualised rate of 2.3 per cent in the fourth quarter, a weaker than expected end to a year dominated by the resilience of American consumers. Yesterday’s GDP figure comes after Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell said there was no hurry to cut interest rates.

• European economy: The European Central Bank cut interest rates by a quarter-point to 2.75 per cent, a decision that came hours after new figures showed the Eurozone economy unexpectedly stagnated in the fourth quarter.

5. The Trump administration’s embrace of cryptocurrencies is helping fuel a speculative mania that could cause “havoc” when prices collapse, hedge fund Elliott has warned. The $70bn-in-assets firm took aim at the US government’s apparent enthusiasm for assets that have soared in price but have “no substance”, according to an investor letter seen by the FT.

The Big Read

Just last year, Mistral was hailed as a potential global leader in AI technology. But this week, China’s DeepSeek stunned Silicon Valley by releasing a cutting-edge open-source model with what it claims is a tiny fraction of OpenAI or Meta’s resources and computing power — beating the French start-up at its own game. Has Europe’s great hope for AI missed its moment?

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Donald Trump this week ordered work on the most ambitious missile shield in US history to begin. Dubbed the “Iron Dome for America”, the missile shield will be built to destroy hypersonic missiles and prevent nuclear annihilation. However nuclear experts also warned the initiative could provoke China and Russia to embark on an accelerated arms race in order to retain nuclear parity. Here’s how it will work.

FT news quiz 

How well did you follow the news this week? Test your knowledge in this week’s quiz.