Good morning and welcome back to FirstFT Asia. In today’s newsletter:

• Paramount gatecrashes Warner Bros-Netflix deal

• Trump says Nvidia can sell advanced chip to China

• Indonesia’s authoritarian tilt

Paramount has launched a $108bn hostile bid to buy Warner Bros Discovery, partnering with Middle East sovereign wealth funds and Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner to derail Netflix’s agreed deal. Here’s what you need to know.

Paramount’s approach: The all-cash offer for the whole of WBD, including its studio, streaming and cable businesses, values the media group at $30 a share. Paramount said it was offering $18bn more in cash, with chief executive David Ellison criticising Netflix’s “inferior proposal”. The Ellison family and RedBird Capital had committed to backstop the entire $40.7bn of equity capital required for the deal, Paramount said, adding that financing would also come from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar sovereign wealth funds as well as from Kushner’s Affinity Partners.

Following a three-month auction process, which was kicked off by Paramount’s initial bid for WBD, Netflix last week sealed an $82.7bn deal to buy the media giant’s studio assets behind Harry Potter and the DC Comics franchise, and its HBO Max streaming service.

What’s at stake: Netflix’s deal would reshape Hollywood by putting a technology company at the helm of one of the most famous studios. It has already drawn the ire of powerful unions and the attention of the US president. Paramount is seeking to win over WBD shareholders by fuelling doubt about Netflix’s ability to secure antitrust approval. Read more about the battle brewing over the legendary film studio.

Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today:

Join us today for The Global Boardroom, where Financial Times journalists meet leaders in government and business, including Bank of Japan governor Kazuo Ueda and European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde. Register for free.

Five more top stories

1. Trump has decided to let Nvidia export its advanced H200 chip to China, in a move that has sparked concern among some security officials in the administration and lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Read more about this developing story.

2. Thailand has launched air strikes on Cambodia after border clashes that killed one Thai soldier, marking the collapse of a Trump-brokered peace deal between the south-east Asian neighbours. Each side accused the other of instigating the renewed outbreak of violence, which is the most serious since a five-day conflict in July killed at least 48 people.

3. Singapore-based payments company Airwallex has made San Francisco its second headquarter and reduced the holding of Tencent, its major Chinese shareholder, as part of a fundraising round that values the business at $8bn. The Singapore fintech’s US pivot comes after it was labelled a “Chinese backdoor” by a prominent tech investor.

4. Jay-Z’s investment firm is targeting a $500mn fund to back South Korean lifestyle companies. MarcyPen Capital Partners, which is backed by the rapper, is working with Hanwha Asset Management, the financial arm of one of South Korea’s biggest conglomerates, to raise a private equity fund, in a bet on the global popularity of Korean pop culture.

5. Warren Buffett’s investment protégé Todd Combs is to leave Berkshire Hathaway for a new role at JPMorgan Chase, as a new guard prepares to take over at the sprawling $1.1tn conglomerate. Combs’ departure comes alongside a series of wider leadership changes yesterday.

The Big Read

Since his inauguration one year ago, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has expanded the military’s power and allowed the armed forces to participate in civilian affairs — raising concerns about autocratic creep in the world’s third-largest democracy. This anxiety has only intensified after his recent decision to honour the late dictator Suharto, his father-in-law, as a national hero.

We’re also reading . . . 

Chart of the day

China’s trade surplus in goods has surpassed $1tn this year for the first time, as exports boomed despite Trump’s tariff war. The country’s rising surplus has drawn criticism from its trading partners, with French President Emmanuel Macron pointing to “unbearable” imbalances on a visit to Beijing last week.

Take a break from the news . . . 

Frank O. Gehry, designer of the Guggenheim in Bilbao and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, has died aged 96. The FT’s Edwin Heathcote looks back at the life of one of the most influential architects of the modern age.