German publishers, advertisers, and marketing trade groups are pressing the country’s antitrust regulator to impose penalties on Apple, arguing that the technology giant’s proposed adjustments to its app tracking framework fail to resolve competition concerns tied to its control over user data within the iPhone ecosystem.

The call for action comes as Germany’s competition watchdog, the Bundeskartellamt, continues its investigation into Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework, a privacy feature that has reshaped the mobile advertising industry since its introduction.

The authority charged Apple in February last year with abusing its market power, after a wave of complaints from companies whose businesses depend heavily on advertising data. Among those raising concerns were the Facebook owner Meta Platforms, app developers, publishers, and digital advertisers who argued that the system unfairly restricts access to data needed to deliver targeted advertising.

At the center of the dispute is the ATT tool, which Apple introduced to give users the ability to decide whether apps can track their activity across other companies’ apps and websites. Under the system, apps must seek explicit permission from users before collecting tracking identifiers used in targeted advertising.

Apple has framed the feature as a major step toward strengthening digital privacy. The company says the tool ensures that iPhone and iPad users remain in control of their personal data, particularly when it comes to cross-app tracking used by advertising networks.

“The tracking industry has consistently fought our efforts to keep users in control of their data, and this is just their latest attempt to gain unfettered access to personal information,” Apple said in response to the latest criticism. “We will continue to defend this important privacy tool for our users.”

Apple added that German data protection regulators had confirmed that ATT complies with existing privacy rules. The company also cited a study it commissioned, indicating that a large majority of iOS users support the ability to control whether apps track their behavior across different digital platforms.

The dispute highlights a growing clash between technology platforms seeking to strengthen privacy protections and the advertising industry, which relies on detailed user data to measure campaign performance and personalize marketing.

In December, Apple attempted to address the concerns raised by the German regulator by proposing changes to the framework. The company said it would introduce neutral consent prompts that apply equally to Apple’s own services and to third-party apps, while aligning the wording, content, and visual design of permission requests.

Apple also proposed simplifying the consent process for developers so that they can request permission for advertising-related data processing in a way that complies with European data protection regulations.

Industry groups, however, say the changes do little to alter the power imbalance they believe exists within Apple’s ecosystem.

In a joint letter submitted to the competition authority, several associations — including the German Advertising Federation and the German Association of the Branded Goods Industry — argued that Apple’s proposed commitments would not resolve the concerns outlined by regulators.

Bernd Nauen, chief executive of the German Advertising Federation, said the framework would continue to give Apple significant control over advertising-related data generated through its devices.

“The proposed commitments would not change the negative effects of the App Tracking Transparency Framework,” Nauen said in the letter.

According to the groups, Apple would remain the central “data gatekeeper,” determining which companies gain access to advertising data and how businesses communicate with customers using Apple devices.

“Apple would remain the data gatekeeper and would continue to decide who gets access to advertising-relevant data and how companies can communicate with their end customers,” Nauen added.

The associations are now urging the Bundeskartellamt to reject Apple’s proposed commitments, require the company to discontinue the tracking framework in its current form, and impose financial penalties.

Under Germany’s competition law, companies found guilty of abusing market dominance can be fined up to 10% of their global annual revenue. For Apple, whose yearly revenue exceeds $380 billion, such penalties could reach tens of billions of dollars.

The case is part of a broader regulatory push in Europe to scrutinize the market power of large technology platforms. Authorities across the region have increasingly focused on the influence companies such as Apple exert over digital ecosystems, including app distribution, payment systems, and access to user data.

Germany has been particularly active in this area. The Bundeskartellamt has already designated Apple as a company of “paramount significance for competition across markets,” a classification that allows the regulator to intervene earlier and impose behavioral restrictions if it determines the firm is abusing its dominance.

The debate around ATT also reflects wider economic shifts in the digital advertising industry. Since the feature was introduced globally in 2021, advertisers and social media platforms have reported significant disruptions to the way they track users and measure the effectiveness of campaigns.

Meta previously warned that Apple’s privacy changes could cost its business billions of dollars in lost advertising revenue by limiting its ability to track users across apps and websites.

Smaller developers and publishers have also complained that the restrictions make it harder to monetize free apps supported by advertising, potentially tilting the market in favor of companies that rely on subscription models or direct payments.

Privacy advocates, however, have welcomed the system as a necessary safeguard in an era when smartphones collect vast quantities of behavioral data about users.

They argue that requiring explicit consent for tracking restores a measure of control to consumers who may not have been fully aware of how extensively their digital activity was monitored for advertising purposes.

The Bundeskartellamt is now reviewing the feedback from industry groups alongside Apple’s proposed commitments.

The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (A) has ushered in a new era of product development that operates under a distinct and unforgiving set of rules which do not align with the conventional SaaS business model where digital products benefit from near-zero marginal costs and network effects with scale.

At the heart of this new paradigm lies the brutal economic reality of AI. Unlike traditional software, AI products are built on a foundation of real marginal costs driven by token usage and GPU compute, like what you see in physical products. Simply, the SaaS’ near-zero marginal cost as you grow is replaced by an unpredictable and potentially exorbitant cost of inference. Every prompt is a cost, even as you scale!

My Co-learners, this necessitates an upfront, strategic approach to unit economics and scalable advantages, where profitability must be meticulously designed into the product from its inception. This economic model also dictates a more sophisticated approach to pricing. In today’s class, I will open my ICAN’s intermediate course on managerial accounting, examining marginal cost and how that could help in building pricing models for AI products.

Join us at Tekedia Mini-MBA:

Tue, March 10 | 7pm-8pm WAT | Executing A Winning AI Product Strategy in Africa – Ndubuisi Ekekwe | Zoom link 

Artificial intelligence startup Advanced Machine Intelligence said Tuesday it has raised $1.03 billion in new funding at a $3.5 billion pre-money valuation, as the company pursues a different path to AI development focused on reasoning, planning, and so-called “world models.”

The company was founded by renowned AI scientist Yann LeCun, who previously served as chief AI scientist at Meta Platforms. The financing marks one of the largest early-stage investments in an AI startup and positions AMI as a high-profile experiment in LeCun’s long-standing view that today’s large language models alone cannot produce truly intelligent machines.

The round was co-led by Cathay Innovation, Greycroft, Hiro Capital, HV Capital, and Bezos Expeditions, the investment vehicle of Jeff Bezos.

LeCun’s AMI is poised to challenge the dominance of large language models.

The funding places AMI at the center of an emerging debate within the AI research community about whether systems based primarily on large language models can eventually achieve human-level reasoning.

Most of the industry’s recent breakthroughs have come from models trained to predict the next word or pixel in a sequence, the core technique behind tools developed by companies such as OpenAI and Google. While these systems have demonstrated impressive capabilities in generating text, code, and images, LeCun has argued they remain fundamentally limited.

Speaking in an interview, he said that prediction-based models alone will not lead to broadly capable intelligent agents.

AMI instead plans to build AI systems based on “world models,” architectures designed to simulate how the physical world works. These models aim to allow machines to reason about cause and effect, anticipate outcomes, and plan actions in dynamic environments.

According to LeCun, such systems would move AI closer to the type of common-sense reasoning humans rely on when interacting with the real world.

Industrial Applications First

The startup is initially targeting enterprise and industrial customers that operate complex systems where reasoning and planning capabilities could deliver significant productivity gains.

Potential clients include manufacturers, automakers, aerospace companies, biomedical firms, and pharmaceutical groups that manage intricate processes or large-scale simulations.

“We want to become the main provider of intelligent systems, regardless of what the application is,” LeCun said.

Industry analysts say the strategy is a reflection of a broader trend among AI startups to focus first on high-value enterprise deployments rather than consumer applications, where regulatory scrutiny and safety concerns are often greater.

A Potential Path Toward Robotics

While AMI’s early efforts will focus on industrial use cases, LeCun said the technology could eventually enable more advanced consumer products, particularly robotics.

A key challenge for robots operating in human environments is the ability to understand and reason about the physical world — something current AI systems struggle to do reliably.

“What consumers could be interacting with is a domestic robot,” LeCun said. “You need a domestic robot to have some level of common sense to really understand the physical world.”

Researchers have long argued that combining perception, reasoning, and planning capabilities could unlock a new generation of autonomous machines capable of performing everyday tasks in homes and workplaces.

Although LeCun left Meta at the end of 2025 after more than a decade leading its AI research efforts, his new venture may still collaborate with the technology giant.

He said discussions were underway about potentially deploying AMI’s technology in smart wearable devices developed by Meta, including its Ray-Ban smart glasses.

Meta has been intensifying its investment in artificial intelligence as competition across the technology sector accelerates. In June 2025, the company reorganized its AI efforts under a new division known as Meta Superintelligence Labs, led by former Scale AI chief executive Alexandr Wang.

The restructuring was part of a broader effort to accelerate development of large language models and next-generation AI systems that could power products across Meta’s ecosystem.

A Different Bet On The Future Of AI

AMI’s creation pops from LeCun’s long-held belief that the industry’s current trajectory may not deliver artificial general intelligence without new architectural breakthroughs. Rather than relying solely on ever-larger datasets and computing power, he argues that AI systems must learn internal representations of the world that allow them to reason about events and plan actions.

The new funding gives AMI substantial resources to pursue that vision at a time when investment in AI infrastructure and research is accelerating worldwide.

Although it’s not certain that the company’s approach can produce a viable alternative to today’s dominant AI models, the scale of the funding round suggests investors are willing to back competing ideas about how the next generation of intelligent systems will be built.

The Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) has warned that the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) could surge to nearly N2,000 per liter if tensions in the Middle East continue to disrupt global oil supply chains.

The association said Nigeria must urgently accelerate domestic refining to shield the economy from escalating international petroleum market shocks triggered by the conflict involving Israel, the United States, and Iran.

PETROAN’s National President, Billy Gillis-Harry, delivered the warning in Port Harcourt while presenting a keynote address titled “Deconstructing Energy Trilemma” at an event organized by the Department of Petroleum Economics and Policy Studies at Ignatius Ajuru University of Education.

The remarks were contained in a statement signed by the association’s National Public Relations Officer, Dr. Joseph Obele.

According to PETROAN, the conflict in the Middle East is already exerting significant pressure on global oil markets, with sustained drone and missile attacks threatening critical energy infrastructure and major oil shipping routes.

The association said the resulting uncertainty around global supply has pushed petroleum prices higher internationally and is beginning to transmit directly into Nigeria’s domestic fuel market.

Before the latest escalation in the conflict, PMS sold at around N774 per liter. The price has since climbed above N1,000 per liter, representing an increase of roughly 30 percent. Automotive Gas Oil (AGO), or diesel, has risen even faster. The product previously sold for about N950 per liter but now trades above N1,400 per liter, a jump of nearly 49 percent.

Gillis-Harry warned that if the geopolitical crisis persists and global crude supply tightens further, PMS could approach N2,000 per liter, while diesel may climb toward N3,000 per liter.

The warning highlights Nigeria’s continued exposure to global petroleum price volatility despite being one of Africa’s largest crude oil producers. Although the country exports crude oil, it still depends heavily on imported crude and refined petroleum products due to years of underperforming state-owned refineries.

In a deregulated downstream market, international price movements now translate more quickly into domestic pump prices. Brent crude futures have already surged to around $120 per barrel amid fears of supply disruptions tied to attacks on oil facilities and the potential escalation of hostilities in the Middle East.

Market analysts say sustained disruptions in the region could tighten global crude supply and drive prices even higher, especially if key shipping lanes such as the Strait of Hormuz face security threats.

Call To Revive Domestic Refineries

PETROAN said strengthening local refining capacity remains the most effective way for Nigeria to cushion the impact of international oil price swings.

The association urged the Group Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd.), Bayo Ojulari, to prioritize the immediate resumption of operations at key state refineries. It specifically called for accelerated completion of rehabilitation work at the Area 5 plant in the Port Harcourt Refinery, as well as the Warri Refinery.

According to the association, operational domestic refineries would reduce Nigeria’s reliance on imported refined products and provide a buffer against global supply disruptions.

Gillis-Harry added that state-owned refineries that process domestically produced crude are less vulnerable to international supply chain disruptions than privately operated facilities that rely on imported crude feedstock.

Inflation And Economic Risks

PETROAN warned that further increases in fuel prices would deepen Nigeria’s economic strain by driving inflation, raising transportation costs, and increasing the price of goods and services.

PMS remains the dominant fuel for transportation across the country, while diesel is critical for manufacturing, logistics, and electricity generation in industries that rely on diesel-powered generators.

A sustained spike in both fuels could therefore ripple across nearly every sector of the economy. The association said prolonged high energy costs could also lead to job losses in energy-intensive sectors and further weaken consumer purchasing power.

Nigeria’s petroleum regulator has already acknowledged that fuel prices are now driven largely by global market dynamics. The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) said fluctuations in pump prices are a direct result of the country’s fully deregulated downstream petroleum sector.

The authority’s spokesperson, George Ene-Ita, said the pricing changes reflect the supply-and-demand dynamics typical of open fuel markets.

“Nigeria has been operating a fully deregulated downstream petroleum regime since the inception of the current administration. Therefore, pump price vagaries are purely a result of market dynamics,” he said.

Dangote Refinery And Crude Supply Challenge

Even Nigeria’s newest refining asset, the $20 billion Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lagos, faces supply constraints that limit its ability to stabilize the domestic fuel market. The refinery requires between 13 and 14 cargoes of crude oil each month to operate at full capacity, but NNPC currently supplies only about five cargoes monthly.

As a result, the refinery has had to source additional crude from international traders, often at a premium price because of heightened geopolitical tensions and rising global crude benchmarks.

Industry officials said the refinery has absorbed about 20 percent of the recent price increase to cushion the market, but the remaining costs have been passed on to fuel marketers and eventually consumers. Oil dealers have also reported temporary pauses in PMS loading at the Lekki facility, fueling speculation about additional price adjustments.

Against that backdrop, the federal government, through the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, took steps to secure crude oil supply for the Dangote Petroleum Refinery via third-party international traders to sustain local refining operations.

Meanwhile, major global economies are exploring emergency measures to contain the oil price surge.

Finance ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) countries are considering a coordinated release of crude from strategic reserves managed by the International Energy Agency.

The move is aimed at stabilizing global supply if disruptions linked to the Middle East conflict worsen.

Analysts say the crisis lends credence to the calls for urgent building of a resilient domestic energy system capable of insulating the Nigerian economy from geopolitical shocks.