San Francisco-based fusion energy startup Marathon Fusion says it has converted mercury into stable gold at a rate 10 times higher than a record previously reported by CERN, reviving questions about whether laboratory-produced gold could eventually affect the precious metal’s market.

The company announced on Wednesday that it had achieved the transmutation last month. However, the claim has not been independently verified, and details about the quantity produced, production costs and the process’s commercial viability remain unclear.

Founded in 2023 by Kyle Schiller and Adam Rutkowski, a former SpaceX engineer, Marathon Fusion develops fuel systems for future fusion power plants. These facilities aim to generate electricity by fusing atomic nuclei, a process that also powers the sun.

The company lists the US Department of Energy as a partner on its website and received a 2023 award from the department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy. Its backers include Breakthrough Energy, founded by Bill Gates, and mining group Anglo American, which owns diamond company De Beers.

Marathon said its process uses neutrons generated by fusion reactions to bombard mercury. This produces an unstable isotope that subsequently decays into gold.

The company said it had exceeded a record reported by CERN, the Geneva-based organisation operating the world’s largest particle physics laboratory. In 2025, CERN reported that its Large Hadron Collider had produced approximately 29 picograms of gold during operations between 2015 and 2018. The gold nuclei existed for only a fraction of a second before being destroyed in collisions with accelerator equipment.

Marathon also claims to have broken a 40-year-old Soviet record using its plasma centrifuge, a machine designed to separate isotopes used in fusion fuel. It is developing a reactor in San Francisco intended to achieve record power density.

The announcement has drawn attention because of the impact laboratory-grown diamonds have had on the natural diamond industry. Lab-grown diamonds are chemically identical to mined stones but can be produced at substantially lower prices. Industry analyst Paul Zimnisky said wholesale prices for laboratory-grown diamonds fell by 90% to 95% from their 2015 levels.

De Beers introduced its Lightbox laboratory-grown diamond brand in 2018 but discontinued it in 2025 to concentrate on natural diamonds. Anglo American is now in talks to sell its 85% stake in De Beers for about $1 billion, according to Bloomberg.

Gold presents a different challenge. Unlike diamonds, it is also widely held by central banks as a reserve asset. The World Gold Council reported that mines produced 3,672 tonnes in 2025, while approximately 222,600 tonnes have been mined throughout history.

Marathon estimated in a 2025 study that a fusion plant could potentially produce about five tonnes of gold annually per gigawatt of electricity. One hundred plants operating at that level could add around 500 tonnes to annual supply, equivalent to roughly 14% of 2025 mine production.

However, commercial fusion power plants are not yet generating electricity for sale, and widespread deployment remains years away. Marathon has also said the resulting gold could contain radioactive isotopes and might require storage for up to 18 years before being sold.

No public plans have been announced to commercialise the process. While the claim remains unverified, the prospect of producing gold through nuclear reactions has raised questions about how future technological advances could affect the precious metal market.

Barclays plans to cut around 5,000 jobs, equivalent to roughly 5 per cent of its global workforce, by the end of 2026 as the British bank expands its use of artificial intelligence and other technologies to streamline operations and reduce costs.

The announcement came on Thursday alongside the bank’s third-quarter earnings update, which showed a 13 per cent increase in net profit, supported by strong growth in equities trading income. Barclays shares edged lower in London following the announcement.

The bank said in an earnings presentation that it was pursuing “organisational simplification and technology change efficiency driven by AI”. Around 1,000 of the planned job cuts had already taken place during the first half of the year.

About 60 per cent of the reductions will affect support functions, including software developers, as automation and AI tools enable employees to complete more work, according to Barclays.

Will Howlett, a financial analyst at Quilter Cheviot, said the decision demonstrated how AI and automation could reshape the banking industry in the coming years.

Banks have invested heavily in technology for years, he said, but those investments were increasingly allowing them to operate with fewer employees. Barclays expects its efficiency measures to generate more than £1.1 billion (€1.31 billion) in savings, helping to reduce expenses and improve profitability.

The bank reported profit attributable to shareholders of £1.65 billion (€1.97 billion) for the July to September quarter, up from £1.46 billion (€1.74 billion) a year earlier.

Total group income increased 3 per cent to £7.37 billion (€8.79 billion), while income from equities trading surged 47 per cent year on year.

Chief executive C. S. Venkatakrishnan said the bank had maintained operational and financial momentum, highlighting strong performance in equities at its investment bank.

However, Howlett noted that the investment bank had faced weaker results in some areas, particularly fixed-income trading. He said Barclays remained on track to meet its longer-term targets but would need to demonstrate that technology investment and a smaller workforce could deliver lasting cost reductions without limiting growth.

Barclays also announced a £500 million (€596 million) share buyback. AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould said the repurchase programme had not fully offset investor disappointment over the quarterly results.

Mould also highlighted two concerns facing the bank: an expected increase in taxes on the banking sector in the UK’s upcoming budget and a reported investigation into the treatment of risks associated with its private credit portfolio.

According to the Financial Times, the Bank of England was examining claims that Barclays had understated risks linked to financing for private credit funds. The issue centres on whether the exposures were presented as less risky in the bank’s accounts, potentially reducing the capital it needed to hold against losses.

Barclays has said its private credit exposure is treated in accordance with accounting rules and regulatory capital requirements.

The planned workforce reductions reflect the growing role of technology in banking, as lenders seek to improve efficiency while navigating regulatory scrutiny, rising costs and changing market conditions.

Elon Musk has expressed support for a possible merger between SpaceX and Tesla, saying the companies could benefit from closer cooperation in artificial intelligence, robotics, chip design and space-based computing.

The comments came as SpaceX reported its first quarterly profit since going public, recording net income of $4.4 billion for the July to September period, compared with a loss of $1.1 billion a year earlier. Revenue jumped 161% to $14.6 billion, driven largely by growing demand for artificial intelligence computing services.

Speaking to analysts on Tuesday, Musk described a merger as “a good idea” but cautioned that discussions remained preliminary and there was no guarantee an agreement would be reached. SpaceX shares rose nearly 5% in after-hours trading following his remarks.

Independent director committees at both companies have been established to examine the proposal at shareholders’ request. Musk said he would not participate in their discussions because of his potential conflict of interest, given his leadership roles and significant ownership stakes in both businesses.

Musk is chief executive of Tesla and serves as chief executive, chairman and chief technology officer of SpaceX. A regulatory filing showed he owned 48.4% of SpaceX as of June 30 and controlled more than 82% of its voting power. He holds about 20% of Tesla.

Any merger would require approval from a majority of all Tesla shares, rather than only those participating in a vote, which Musk described as a high hurdle. The committees have yet to agree on terms.

SpaceX began trading on the Nasdaq on June 12 following an initial public offering priced at $135 a share that raised approximately $85.7 billion. Its first earnings report as a listed company showed second-quarter revenue of $7.8 billion and a net loss of $541 million.

The turnaround in the latest quarter was led by its artificial intelligence division, now called “Super Intelligence”. Revenue from the unit increased more than ninefold year on year to $7.6 billion, making it SpaceX’s largest source of sales and overtaking its Starlink satellite internet business.

The company attributed the growth to cloud computing agreements, wider use of its Grok chatbot and its acquisition of artificial intelligence coding start-up Cursor.

SpaceX’s cloud customers include Anthropic, which agreed in May to pay nearly $45 billion over three years for computing capacity at its Colossus data centres. Google also signed an agreement in June to pay $920 million a month from October through June 2029.

Despite the strong revenue growth, spending remains substantial. SpaceX invested $19.6 billion during the quarter, including $16.4 billion in artificial intelligence infrastructure. Capital expenditure for the first nine months of the year reached $48 billion.

The company’s computing capacity rose to 1.7 gigawatts from 0.6 gigawatts a year earlier. Musk said he was confident SpaceX could bring an additional 10 gigawatts online in 2027, although power supply, cooling systems and electrical equipment remained constraints.

Starlink revenue rose 69% to $5.2 billion, with consumer subscribers reaching 13.6 million. However, average monthly revenue per consumer fell to $69 from $83 a year earlier.

SpaceX also completed the first revenue-generating flight of its Starship rocket, carrying 26 next-generation Starlink satellites into orbit. The vehicle is central to Musk’s plans for expanding satellite deployment and eventually reaching Mars.