Amazon to shut all 19 Amazon Fresh UK stores, shift focus to online grocery

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Amazon.com announced Tuesday it will close all 19 of its Amazon Fresh UK convenience stores, less than five years after entering the British grocery market. Five of the locations will be converted into Whole Foods Market outlets, the U.S. organic grocery chain Amazon acquired in 2017.

Amazon Fresh had introduced Britain to its “Just Walk Out” technology, allowing shoppers to pick up items and skip checkout lines. But the company said after evaluating the business, it made the “difficult decision” to exit physical convenience grocery in the UK, citing greater growth opportunities in online delivery.

The company stressed it continues to see strong demand for groceries through:

  • Amazon.co.uk (household essentials and groceries)

  • Amazon Fresh online

  • Whole Foods Market

  • Delivery partnerships with Morrisons, Co-op, Iceland, and Gopuff

Looking ahead, Amazon plans to add perishable groceries with same-day delivery to its UK online store starting next year, expanding beyond its current essentials offering.

The move underscores Amazon’s pivot away from physical retail in the UK grocery sector toward leveraging its dominant e-commerce and delivery infrastructure.

Brazil’s WEG invests $77M to expand U.S. transformer plant amid AI-driven demand

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Brazilian motor manufacturer WEG announced Tuesday it will invest $77 million to expand its Washington, Missouri specialty transformer plant, aiming to increase production capacity by 50% as demand surges from AI data centers, industrial manufacturing, and U.S. grid stability needs.

The investment, to be deployed over three years, will bring the additional capacity online no later than 2028, WEG U.S. managing director Peter Barry told Reuters. While the facility previously focused on renewable energy applications like wind power, Barry said the shift toward AI and data center infrastructure is now driving growth.

Despite President Donald Trump’s 50% tariff on Brazilian imports, Barry said the company’s decision was unaffected, citing strong and sustained growth in the North American market. “The North American growth for WEG over the last number of years has been very strong, and I would see that continuing,” he noted.

Key points from the plan:

  • Capacity expansion will be pre-sold, reflecting strong forward demand.

  • Investment will emphasize automation, though around 50 new jobs will still be created.

  • WEG remains open to additional U.S. investments as the AI and energy markets evolve, stressing a strategy of flexibility.

The expansion underscores how the AI boom is reshaping industrial supply chains, with transformers becoming critical components for powering vast data centers and stabilizing electricity grids.

Trump team says TikTok U.S. divestiture deal close, Oracle and Silver Lake among investors

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The White House said Monday that President Donald Trump will soon certify a deal to separate TikTok’s U.S. operations from Chinese parent ByteDance, declaring it compliant with the 2024 divestiture law.

Under the agreement, ByteDance’s stake will fall below 20%, with control shifting to a mix of existing U.S. stakeholders and new investors, including Oracle and private equity firm Silver Lake. Additional “household name” investors are expected to be announced, according to a senior official.

Key deal terms include:

  • Oracle will provide U.S.-based cloud infrastructure to store all American user data.

  • Prominent U.S. investors such as Lachlan Murdoch, Larry Ellison, and Michael Dell are expected to participate.

  • The U.S. government will not take a board seat or a “golden share” in the new entity.

  • TikTok’s U.S. assets are valued at “many billions of dollars,” though an exact figure is pending.

The Trump administration is confident Beijing has signed off on the framework, though some paperwork still needs to be finalized. China’s embassy in Washington said it welcomed “productive commercial negotiations” that respected both nations’ laws and interests.

TikTok, with 170 million American users, faced a looming ban after Congress passed a law requiring ByteDance to divest U.S. operations by January 2025. Trump previously extended enforcement to mid-December to allow negotiations. His new executive order will add another 120-day pause to give investors and ByteDance time to close the deal.

The agreement marks a rare breakthrough in strained U.S.–China trade relations and could prevent a forced shutdown of one of the world’s most popular social media platforms in America.