With the increasing importance of data elements in productivity, many financial and information giants with a century of history are also transitioning towards the direction of "AI+technology", and Thomson Reuters is also one of them.
This US listed company will hold its first investor conference in nearly three years this week. At this critical moment, Steve Haske, the head of Thomson Reuters, publicly spoke out, cheering for the company's "AI vision" and emphasizing that this emerging technology will drive the company's business transformation, rather than eroding Thomson Reuters' position in the professional information field.
(Thomson Reuters daily chart, source: TradeView)
"Massive financial firepower"
Steve Haske bluntly stated that the company has a "massive financial firepower" in the AI field of nearly $8 billion - the company's ability to generate cash flow from existing assets, low asset leverage, and potential revenue from further sales of London Stock Exchange stocks in the future. In addition, the company also plans to invest $100 million annually in self-developed AI technology.
Last year, under the leadership of Steve, Thomson Reuters completed a two-year transformation plan to shift the company's positioning from a "content provider" to a "content driven technology company.". The CEO also admitted that he had just completed policy transformation, and generative AI was sweeping across the entire world.
Steve revealed that Thomson Reuters has signed several agreements with multiple AI companies to use Reuters News to train large models. However, Steve declined to comment on the prospects of AI commercialization, only stating that "market pricing is constantly evolving.".
Last year, the company launched a new artificial intelligence service that allows customers to ask complex research questions and obtain AI assisted answers from authoritative sources
Currently, Thomson Reuters has a total of 26000 employees worldwide. The Thomson family owns slightly less than 70% of the company's shares, with the remaining stocks listed on the New York and Toronto exchanges, respectively.
Holding "8 billion US dollars", the acquisition is also a reasonable development. Thomson Reuters has spent over $2 billion on acquisitions in the past year and a half. The company also stated that future acquisitions will mainly focus on AI capabilities.
Reuters News is not for sale
For Thomson Reuters' business line, Reuters News only accounted for 10% of the group's total revenue in the 2023 financial report. However, Haske also emphasized that Reuters News is not for sale and it is through its news business that the entire group can be integrated.
However, the CEO also mentioned that the company has considered whether to add a pay wall to its news business, but is now more focused on serving its largest client, LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group). However, in the era of AI, companies are also considering placing news and AI features aimed at professionals behind paid walls.
Of course, in addition to unsold products, Thomson Reuters also has plans to further sell LSEG stocks. The LSEG stock held by Thomson Reuters was acquired during the 2019 spin off and sale of Luftwaffe to LSEG.
Steve revealed that LSEG's holdings are not strategic, so the timing for clearing all positions will be roughly when the last batch of stocks in the first quarter of next year passes the lock up period.