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Financial Times

From hostile takeovers to C-suite intrigue, Behind the Money takes you inside the business and financial stories of the moment with reporting from Financial Times journalists around the world. 
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Behind the Money

In recent weeks, satellite business EchoStar has clinched multibillion-dollar deals with SpaceX and AT&T. It may sound like boom times for founder Charlie Ergen, but these deals illustrate something different: the abandoning of an ambitious, decades-long quest to build his own mobile phone network. The FT’s Wall Street editor Sujeet Indap and US trading and crypto correspondent Jill R Shah explain how Ergen’s fortunes changed, and the role Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump played in that. 

Clips from CNBC, Reuters, Yahoo Finance, Echostar/Vimeo

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For further reading:

How a deal with Elon Musk helped a telecoms tycoon save his company from bankruptcy

Trump forces billionaire to fold

Charlie Ergen: Media mogul at a Sprint

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Behind the Money has been nominated for a Signal Award in the Money & Finance category! It's a Listener Choice award, which means we need your help. Vote for us to win here. We appreciate your support!

Follow Sujeet Indap on X (@sindap), or on Bluesky (@sindap.bsky.social). Follow Jill Shah on X (@jillrshah). Michela Tindera is on X (@mtindera07) and Bluesky (@mtindera.ft.com), or follow her on LinkedIn for updates about the show and more.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Elon Musk and the end of a telecom tycoon’s dream

US President Donald Trump has pledged to “plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars”, China could send its first crewed mission to Mars within a decade, and Elon Musk wants people to actually settle on Mars, transforming the human race into an interplanetary species. 

In a new series of Tech Tonic, the FT’s Peggy Hollinger asks if we’re really about to land, and even live, on the red planet. 

Free to read:

Musk’s mission to Mars

Three days with America’s rocket chasers

Tech Tonic is produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. The senior producer is Edwin Lane. Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Sound design by Breen Turner and Samantha Giovinco. Original music by Metaphor Music. Manuela Saragosa is the FT’s acting co-head of audio.

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Coming soon from Tech Tonic: Mission to Mars

India’s tech hub Bangalore has experienced huge growth of companies and employees in the past two decades. But the city’s infrastructure is not keeping up with such rapid growth. With the tech sector contributing more than $300bn to the nation’s economy, what happens to the country’s growth if Bangalore can’t solve its issues? The FT’s Mumbai bureau chief Chris Kay and Mumbai correspondent Krishn Kaushik travelled to Bangalore to try to find out.

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For further reading:

The unsustainable boom in India’s Silicon Valley

Multinationals turn to India’s back offices for AI engineers

Indian IT shares fall over fears from Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee

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Behind the Money has been nominated for a Signal Award in the Money & Finance category! It's a Listener Choice award, which means we need your help. Vote for us to win here. We appreciate your support!

Follow Chris Kay on X (@christopherkay) or on Bluesky (@christopherkay.ft.com), and Krishn Kaushik on X (@Krishn_) Michela Tindera is on X (@mtindera07) and Bluesky (@mtindera.ft.com), or follow her on LinkedIn for updates about the show and more.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The unsustainable boom in India’s Silicon Valley

Behind the Money has been nominated for a Signal Award in the Money & Finance category! It's a Listener Choice award, which means we need your help. Vote for us to win here. We appreciate your support!

And while you're at it, vote for some other FT podcasts that have also been nominated. The FT News Briefing podcast was nominated for best daily podcast category. Vote here. And our Tech Tonic podcast was nominated for best technology podcast. Vote here. 

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vote for Behind the Money in the Signal Awards!

The recent collapse of Tricolor Holdings, a subprime auto lender in Texas, has left a trail of losses and questions from Wall Street to low-income immigrant communities throughout the American south-west. The FT’s US banking correspondent Akila Quinio, and Amelia Pollard, US investment correspondent, explain what they’ve found.

Clip from Fifth Third

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For further reading:

Tricolor collapse sparks concern about health of US subprime auto sector

Debt linked to collapsed subprime auto lender Tricolor tumbles

JPMorgan and Fifth Third face losses tied to collapsed subprime car lender

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Follow Amelia Pollard on X (@ameliajpollard) and Bluesky (@pollard.bsky.social) and Akila Quinio on X (@akilazoe). Michela Tindera is on X (@mtindera07) and Bluesky (@mtindera.ft.com), or follow her on LinkedIn for updates about the show and more.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A subprime auto lender collapsed. Wall Street has questions

Ecommerce start-up Jumia was supposed to become the “Amazon of Africa”. Its prospects seemed promising after raising close to $800mn prior to its IPO in 2019 — more than any African start-up. But in the years since, things haven’t gone the way investors probably hoped. The FT’s west and central Africa correspondent Aanu Adeoye explains Jumia’s plans to turn the business around, and what its challenges say about applying western business models in Africa. 

Clip from New York Stock Exchange 

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For further reading:

Is there a future for the ‘Amazon of Africa’?

‘Amazon of Africa’ Jumia fights to rebuild investor trust 

Complaints that Jumia is not African ring hollow

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Follow Aanu Adeoye on X (@aanuadeoye). Michela Tindera is on X (@mtindera07) and Bluesky (@mtindera.ft.com), or follow her on LinkedIn for updates about the show and more. 

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is there a future for the ‘Amazon of Africa’?

The natural diamond industry is facing an existential threat: lab-grown diamonds. They’re chemically and physically identical to natural stones, and they're just a fraction of the price. Eleanor Olcott, the FT’s China technology correspondent, travelled to the epicentre of lab-grown diamond production in the central Chinese province of Henan to see how they’re made. While the FT’s natural resources editor, Leslie Hook, explores what the sale of leading natural diamond producer, De Beers, could mean for the future of the sector. 

Clip from Arnold Worldwide 

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For further reading:

How the diamond industry lost its sparkle 

The sparkle is fading in Africa’s diamond heartland

Taylor Swift hands diamonds a moment to shine

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Follow Leslie Hook on X (@lesliehook) and Eleanor Olcott on X (@EleanorOlcott). Michela Tindera is on X (@mtindera07) and Bluesky (@mtindera.ft.com), or follow her on LinkedIn for updates about the show and more.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How the diamond industry lost its sparkle

Earlier this summer, energy supermajor Chevron secured access to one of the most valuable oilfields in the world. It was the culmination of a months-long battle that pitted America’s second-largest oil company against the largest, ExxonMobil. The FT’s US energy editor, Jamie Smyth, looks at what Chevron aims to do next, and how it plans to take on its larger rival. 

Clips from CNBC, Bloomberg

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Sign up for the FT Weekend Festival at ft.com/festival and use the promo code “FTPodcasts” for 10 per cent off.

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For further reading:

Chevron prepares for US oil supermajor battle with Exxon 

Chevron seals $53bn Hess takeover after Exxon fails to torpedo deal

For further listening … Our Behind the Money episode on Guyana from 2024: 

Will Exxon make or break Guyana?

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Follow Jamie Smyth on X (@JamieSmythF) and Bluesky (‪@jamiesmythft.bsky.social‬). Michela Tindera is on X (@mtindera07) and Bluesky (@mtindera.ft.com), or follow her on LinkedIn for updates about the show and more. 

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chevron prepares to take on ExxonMobil

AI music generators - platforms that use artificial intelligence to create new, original music from scratch - can make songs that are almost indistinguishable from human creations. For some musicians, they’re the next frontier in music-making technology. But for others, they represent a grave threat, flooding the world with low-grade AI music, stealing the jobs of working musicians, and even spelling the end of the creative process as we know it. Is this just technophobia, or is music facing AI annihilation?

In a new two-part series of Tech Tonic, the FT’s pop critic Ludovic Hunter-Tilney explores the emerging world of AI music, and the impact it could have on the industry.

Tech Tonic is presented by Ludovic Hunter-Tilney. The producers are Lulu Smyth and Josh Gabert-Doyon. Edwin Lane is the senior producer, Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Sound design by Breen Turner and Samantha Giovinco. Original Music by Metaphor Music. Manuela Saragosa and Topher Forhecz are the FT’s acting co-heads of audio.

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Coming soon from Tech Tonic: Will AI ruin music?

This week we're sharing an episode from, Unhedged, another podcast from the FT network.

The annual meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is supposed to be an intellectual retreat. Instead, it was overshadowed by personal and political attacks on US Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook. Today on the show, Katie Martin talks to US economics editor Claire Jones about her reporting from Jackson Hole and what might happen if the central bank falls under the president’s control. Also, we attempt to go long and short but are interrupted by a fire alarm. 

For a free 30-day trial to the Unhedged newsletter go to: https://www.ft.com/unhedgedoffer.

You can email Robert Armstrong and Katie Martin at unhedged@ft.com.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Unhedged: The Fed under attack

Over the past three decades, China has built itself into a manufacturing powerhouse. The plan was simple: use exports as a way to avoid becoming too dependent on the west. But with US President Donald Trump imposing 145 per cent tariffs on the country, this strategy now hangs in the balance. The FT’s Beijing bureau chief Joe Leahy explains how Beijing built its export machine and whether its plan to sell the world cheap goods could go wrong. Clip from European Commission. 

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For further reading:

Will China’s manufacturing juggernaut run out of road? 

How China’s record trade surplus helped spark Trump’s tariff war 

China says ‘sky won’t fall’ as exports surge ahead of Donald Trump’s tariffs 

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Follow Joe Leahy on X (@leahyjoseph). Michela Tindera is on X (@mtindera07) and Bluesky (@mtindera.ft.com), or follow her on LinkedIn for updates about the show and more.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How China's global trade strategy could backfire

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