Tuesday newspaper round-up: Car sales, Claire's Accessories, Nvidia

(Sharecast News) - Insolvent recruitment businesses shorn of their debts then reacquired from administration by the directors or shareholders that presided over their demise are costing the exchequer tens of millions of pounds in lost taxes, a Guardian analysis suggests. The practice of "phoenixism" - the art of liquidating a company and allowing the directors to rise from the ashes with a new entity, free of debts - is estimated by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to have cost taxpayers about £800m a year. - Guardian A rise in the popularity of Chinese brands pushed total car sales in the UK above the 2m mark last year for the first time since 2019, figures reveal. Chinese companies accounted for 9.7% of the 2m new car registrations in the UK in 2025, or 196,000 vehicles, according to preliminary figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), a lobby group. That was nearly double the 4.9% market share achieved by the country's carmakers in 2024. - Guardian

Claire's Accessories is on the brink of collapse for the second time in six months after it was struck by Rachel Reeves's tax raid. The jewellery and accessories chain has filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators, putting more than 1,000 jobs at risk just days into the new year. Fresh turmoil comes just months after Claire's Accessories collapsed into administration before being rescued in September. - Telegraph

Losses at Euan Blair's technology start-up have widened as the company cut staff numbers for the first time. Multiverse, founded in 2016 by Sir Tony Blair's son to give apprentices roles at technology companies, said it had made dozens of roles redundant last year, with its total headcount falling from 822 to 813. The job losses were disclosed in Multiverse's latest accounts, which showed losses at the company hit £63.3m in the year to March 2025, up from £60.6m a year earlier. - Telegraph

Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, announced a new AI model for self-driving cars as he tried to reassure investors about the scale of the artificial intelligence boom. Huang unveiled the Alpamayo, the "world's first thinking, reasoning autonomous vehicle" with AI that "can teach the car how to drive". He said it took thousands of people to build. - The Times