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☆ Roaring Kitty's tweet sent GameStop spiking. The company's cofounder shares his outlook on where the stock is headed and advises hedge funds on how to navigate it.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-15 | by ( Laila Maidan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

There's no sense in this, said Gary Kusin, the cofounder of Babbage, the company to which GameStop traces its roots. Imagine if Taylor Swift's brand or company went public, and all the Swifties bought stock, the shares would be overvalued. What Wall Street doesn't understand is that there are Swifties in the video game industry. "If I worked on Wall Street, I would find some other stocks and some other places to go; I wouldn't touch GameStop." And I believe that's exactly what's ailing Wall Street right now," Kusin said.

Persons: Michael Burry, Keith Gill, Gary Kusin, Babbage, Kusin, It's, Taylor, Swifties, Shorting, doesn't, Citron, Brooks, Macy's Organizations: GameStop, Melvin Capital Management, Technology, S3 Partners

☆ Walmart to reportedly lay off hundreds of corporate staff and relocate others
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-14 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Walmart is cutting hundreds of corporate jobs and asking most remote workers to move to offices, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. Walmart will still let staff work remotely part time, as long as they are in offices a majority of the time, the report said. Walmart employed approximately 2.1 million associates as of Jan. 31, 2024, according to regulatory filings. In February 2023, it shut three of its U.S. technology hubs and asked hundreds of workers to relocate to keep their jobs, pushing for more employees to report to work from office. Walmart didn't immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Persons: Walmart didn't Organizations: Walmart, Wall Street Locations: Dallas , Atlanta, Toronto, Bentonville, Hoboken, Southern California

☆ Google Takes the Next Step in Its A.I. Evolution
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-14 | by ( Nico Grant | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Last May, Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive, said that the company would use artificial intelligence to reimagine all of its products. On Tuesday, at Google’s annual conference in Mountain View, Calif., Mr. Pichai showed how the company’s aggressive work on A.I. Overviews, that generates information summaries above traditional search results. Overviews is likely to heighten concerns that web publishers will see less traffic from Google Search, putting more pressure on an industry that has reeled from rifts with other tech platforms. On Google, users will see longer summaries about a topic, which could reduce the need to go to another website — though Google downplayed those concerns.

Persons: Sundar Pichai, Pichai Organizations: Google Locations: Mountain View, Calif, U.S

☆ Early Facebook investor Accel raises $650 million fund to back European and Israeli startups
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-13 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

AccelVenture capital firm Accel said Tuesday it's raised $650 million for its eighth fund targeted at investing in European and Israeli early-stage startups, in a sign the venture capital market may be showing signs of a recovery. "The environment has dramatically changed since then," Nelis told CNBC. Climate-focused VC firm World Fund closed a 300 million euro fund in March. "We're lucky that with DeepMind here in London and with Fair [Facebook AI Research] in Paris, there's at least two big centers that have great AI expertise," Nelis told CNBC. "My expectation is Europe is going to generate some really interesting AI application companies," Nelis told CNBC.

Persons: Harry Nelis, Sonali de Rycker, Andrei Brasoveanu, Luca Bocchio, Philippe Botteri, it's, Nelis, UiPath, Russia's, Wise, Magnus Grimeland, Grimeland, there's, Victor Riparbelli, Synthesia, Riparbelli Organizations: Accel, Accel Venture, Spotify, CNBC, Skype, U.S, Nvidia Locations: Europe, Israel, Lithuania, Romania, Ukraine, New York, U.S, London, Paris, Synthesia

Jefferies raised its price target on the artificial intelligence chipmaker, calling for more than 30% upside. Analyst Biju Perincheril downgraded shares to neutral from positive and slashed his price target by $36 to $56. Ramnani's $531 price target implies upside of 16.2% for Mastercard, while he sees Visa shares advancing 14.7% to $322. — Alex Harring 5:39 a.m.: Jefferies raises Nvidia price target Nvidia's gains won't stop anytime soon, according to Jefferies. After an analyst change, the firm kept its buy rating and raised its price target to $1,200 from $780.

Persons: Jefferies, Biju Perincheril, SolarEdge, Perincheril, — Alex Harring, Tom O'Malley, O'Malley, Seth Seifman, We've, Seifman, Morgan Stanley, Dara Mohsenian, Mohsenian, Alex Harring, Piper Sandler, Arvind Ramnani, Ramnani, Achal Kumar, Kumar, Delta, Blayne Curtis, NVDA, Curtis, Fred Imbert Organizations: CNBC, Nvidia, HSBC, American Airlines, Susquehanna, FactSet, Wall, Micron, Barclays, JPMorgan, GE Aerospace, GE, PepsiCo, Pepsi, PEP, Mastercard, Visa, Technology, Delta Locations: Delta, United, Europe, Monday's premarket

☆ The US military isn't ready for the coming drone war
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-11 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +18 min

The Department of Defense is working on initiatives to face the drone threat, but the US military doesn't yet appear ready to confront this ever-evolving challenge, especially on the scale seen in Ukraine. AdvertisementA US military MQ-9 Reaper drone waits for take-off at Kandahar Air Base in Afghanistan on March 9, 2018. US military leaders have repeatedly stressed there's no silver bullet to defeat small drones in battle. Shellie HallStudents there spend several weeks learning how to identify, engage, and defeat small drones. The drone threat draws certain parallels to fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, where hidden bombs posed a tremendous threat.

Persons: GENYA SAVILOV, Mick Ryan, hasn't, you've, Franz J, Marty, Samuel Bendett, Paul Scharre, that's, Mike Parent, Mark Schauer, Parent, Paul Butcher, Cpl, Doug Bush, Amber Osei, Moseph Sauda, doesn't, Sauda, America's, Bram Janssen, Scharre, Justin Bronk, Jack Watling, Ryan Organizations: Business, Troops, of Defense, Department of Defense, Getty, Australian Army, Islamic State, Kandahar Air Base, Defense Ministry, Karabakh . Defense Ministry, Azerbaijan, AP, Pentagon, US Army, Aircraft Systems, Solutions, 71st Jaeger Brigade, US Army Yuma, Technology, Army, sUAS University, US Marine Corps, Force, Central Command, Shellie, National Training Center, US Army Air Defense Artillery, Center, New, New American Security, Base, London's Royal United Services Institute Locations: Russian, Ukrainian, Ukraine, prowling, Jordan, Chasiv Yar, Donetsk, AFP, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Nagorno, Karabakh, Avdiivka, Yuma, East, Oklahoma's Fort Sill, California, Fort Sill, China, Luhansk Region, Europe, Iran, New American, Iraq, Washington, Bagram, Kabul, Australian

☆ I was a single parent in the 90s. It was hard to make adult connections, and sometimes I wish I had had social media.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-05 | by ( Jill Robbins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Looking back, I think being a single mom was hard. However, I think today's solo parents have a more difficult time due to the pressures of social media. We adopted our boys in 2012 and 2013, and there was a Facebook mom group for everything. I sometimes wonder how my experience parenting my daughter in the 90s would have been made better or worse by the presence of social media. My experience with Facebook mom groups has taught me that they're mostly a place of judgment and one-upmanship.

Persons: I'm, else's, I've, Amelia Bedelia Organizations: Technology Locations: what's

☆ We allow our kids screen time at home, and they go to a tech-free school. It's a good balance.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-02 | by ( Melissa Petro | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

But at our son's tech-free school, there isn't so much as a smart board — and that's just the way we like it. We let our kids use screens at home, but they don't overindulgeLike most Waldorf schools, Otto Specht suggests limited media exposure at home. But in our house, our kids have free rein when it comes to screen time. AdvertisementSome people argue that it's necessary to introduce kids to technology because it makes them "workplace-ready." In the meantime, let's let kids be kids.

Persons: —, Daniel Tiger's, Oscar, that's, Otto Specht, Melissa Petro's, Melissa Petro, Minecraft, He's, let's Organizations: Service, Business, Waldorf Schools, Otto Specht School, Waldorf, Disney

☆ Apple Reports Decline in Sales and Profit Amid iPhone Struggles in China
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-02 | by ( Tripp Mickle | More About Tripp Mickle | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Apple said sales fell 4 percent to $90.8 billion for the three months that ended in March. Revenue from iPhones, iPads and wearables like the Apple Watch declined from the same quarter last year, while sales of software and services rose. Apple’s struggles were most worrisome in China, the world’s second-largest smartphone market, where sales fell 8 percent. Last quarter, Apple’s share of smartphones sold in China fell 4 percent, according to Counterpoint, a technology research firm. Shares of Apple rose 6.5 percent because the results slightly exceeded Wall Street predictions for quarterly sales and profit and were better in China than feared.

Persons: Apple’s, Trump Organizations: Apple, Justice Department, Revenue, Apple Watch, Huawei Locations: iPhones, China

☆ These are the stocks with the most to gain or lose from the Fed decision
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-01 | by ( Brian Evans | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The 10-year Treasury yield at one point in April neared 4.75% after starting the year below 4%. The anecdote, coupled with troubling inflation and economic growth data in April, helped push Treasury yields higher. More worrisome Powell commentary Wednesday after the Fed decision could further spike Treasury yields — or perhaps, he will sound confident the Fed still has a handle on inflation and rates will decline in response. However, that climb could run out of steam if Federal Reserve comments on Wednesday force Treasury yields higher. Higher interest rates constrain technology companies' ability to post the type of strong growth the sector has become synonymous with in recent years.

Persons: Stocks, Jerome Powell, worrisome Powell, Goldman Sachs Organizations: Federal, Tesla, Micro, Treasury

☆ How the High Cost of Borrowing May Skew the Presidential Race
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-30 | by ( Peter S. Goodman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Kimberly Jolasun, a 32-year-old entrepreneur in Atlanta, has never voted for the Republican candidate for the presidency. Not yet profitable, her company needs financing to grow. Banks want to charge her interest as high as 14 percent for business loans. The interest rate on the credit card debt she used to start the company has spiked to 25 percent, tripling her monthly payments. But she assumes that his Republican opponent, former President Donald J. Trump, is more in tune with the needs of business owners.

Persons: Kimberly Jolasun, Banks, Jolasun, Biden, Donald J, Trump Organizations: Republican, Technology, Federal Reserve Locations: Atlanta, Silicon Valley, Austin , Texas, Georgia

☆ Generative A.I. Arrives in the Gene Editing World of CRISPR
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-22 | by ( Cade Metz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Generative A.I. technologies can write poetry and computer programs or create images of teddy bears and videos of cartoon characters that look like something from a Hollywood movie. Now, new A.I. The company is expected to present the paper next month at the annual meeting of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy. Much as ChatGPT learns to generate language by analyzing Wikipedia articles, books and chat logs, Profluent’s technology creates new gene editors after analyzing enormous amounts of biological data, including microscopic mechanisms that scientists already use to edit human DNA.

Persons: ChatGPT Organizations: American Society of Gene, Cell Locations: Berkeley, Calif

☆ IPO market continues to open up, market downdraft be damned, but higher rates loom
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Bob Pisani | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

For proof that the market for initial public offerings continues to open up despite the downdraft in the market, just look at this week. This spring reopening, however, is threatened by the specter of higher interest rates. Why higher interest rates hurt IPOs The major headwind: higher for longer interest rates. technology) are more sensitive to a change in interest rates, because their cash flow projections are further out. Still, most admit higher rates make it more difficult to get investors excited about IPOs.

Persons: Ibotta, Rubrik, Matt Kennedy, IPOs, That's, Kennedy, Santosh Rao Organizations: Centuri Holdings, Southwest Gas Holdings, UL Solutions, Group, Renaissance Capital, Loar Holdings, Manhattan Venture Partners

☆ These companies slated to report next week have a history of beating earnings estimates, including one tech giant
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Lisa Kailai Han | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Nearly 76% of companies that have reported have beaten earnings expectations, while 59% have come in above analysts' expectations for revenue. A diverse group of companies reports results next week, on track to be the busiest one of the season. A company's earnings results are, of course, integral to both its near- and long-term performance. As a result, CNPC Pro screened stocks slated to report their earnings next week for those that have a history of beating analysts' expectations. The workflow automation platform beats earnings expectations 89% of the time.

Persons: They've, Meta, Piper Sandler, Five9, Baird, William Power, —, Robert Hum, Fred Imbert Organizations: Dow Jones, Technology, Microsoft, Meta, Humana, Comcast, Chubb, Visa, Investment Group, JPMorgan, Citi, Cloud Locations: industrials

☆ Apple CEO Tim Cook visits Vietnam — one of the iPhone giant's most important manufacturing hubs
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-15 | by ( Arjun Kharpal | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Cook will meet with Apple users, developers and content creators during the two-day visit, local media reported. In December, the Nikkei reported Apple was moving some of its key iPad engineering resources to Vietnam. Apple CEO Tim Cook (C) walks near Hoan Kiem lake in downtown Hanoi during his visit to Vietnam on April 15, 2024. India has also emerged as a key hub for iPhone manufacturing. Cook's visit to Vietnam comes after 61 environmental and human rights groups called on Apple to oppose the country's detention of climate activists.

Persons: Tim Cook, Cook, Bryan Ma Organizations: Apple, International Data Corporation, IDC, Samsung, Nikkei, Apple Watch, Getty, CNBC, Bloomberg Locations: Hanoi, Vietnam, U.S, China, Cupertino, Hoan, Giang Huy, Afp, India, iPhones

☆ Now Hiring: Sophisticated (but Part-Time) Chatbot Tutors
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-10 | by ( Yiwen Lu | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

After her second child was born, Chelsea Becker took an unpaid, yearlong leave from her full-time job as a flight attendant. After watching a video on TikTok, she found a side hustle: training artificial intelligence models for a website called Data Annotation Tech. For a few hours every day, Ms. Becker, 33, who lives in Schwenksville, Pa., would sit at her laptop and interact with an A.I.-powered chatbot. technology has put a more sophisticated spin on a kind of gig work that doesn’t require leaving the house. The growth of large language models like the technology powering OpenAI’s ChatGPT has fueled the need for trainers like Ms. Becker, fluent English speakers who can produce quality writing.

Persons: Chelsea Becker, yearlong, Becker Locations: Schwenksville, Pa

☆ Opinion | Happy 20th Anniversary, Gmail. I’m Sorry I’m Leaving You.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-07 | by ( Ezra Klein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The Verge blames search engines. But here’s another: Our digital lives have become one shame closet after another. A shame closet is that spot in your home where you cram the stuff that has nowhere else to go. But as the shame closet grows, the task of excavation or organization becomes too daunting to contemplate. The shame closet era of the internet had a beginning.

Persons: Inboxes Organizations: Wired, Technology, Google

☆ What's more important? AI or the election.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-05 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

In today's big story, we're announcing the finalists for our business, tech, and innovation bracket. What's on deck:This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. If you're just catching up, a few weeks ago we identified eight of the biggest trends in business, tech, and innovation. And then there were two: the AI race vs the US presidential election. Dan Rosen, founder and partner, Commerce Ventures:Advertisement"As a fintech investor, AI strikes me as more important.

Persons: —, we're, Chelsea Jia Feng, Readers, Bruce K, Lee, Dan Rosen, Ira Allen, Tracy Albert, Wendy Craft, Elle, Dodd, Frank, Zach Blank, Nick DiGiovanni, Adam Jeffery, Ian MacNicol, David Einhorn, Jesse Cohn, Greg Coffey, Goldman Sachs, Brian Robinson, Nelson Peltz's, James Park, would've, Justin Sullivan, Marissa Mayer's, Enrique Munoz Torres, Elon Musk, Musk, Lukas Schulze, it's, Dan DeFrancesco, Jordan Parker Erb, Hallam Bullock, George Glover Organizations: Service, Business, Keebeck Wealth, Commerce Ventures, CNBC, NBCU, Getty, Elliott Management, Sohn, Street Journal, Disney, UCLA, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Elon, Apple, Ford, Workers, Advertising Research, NCAA Locations: Europe, California, New York, London

☆ Biden and Xi Jinping hold phone call ahead of Yellen's trip to China
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-02 | by ( Rebecca Picciotto | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

President Joe Biden spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the phone Tuesday, a call the White House described as a way for the two leaders to "check in" and responsibly manage the strained U.S.-China relationship. During the call with Xi, the first such phone meeting since July 2022, Biden raised a host of U.S. concerns, according to a White House readout of the call. Specifically, Biden confronted Xi on China's "unfair trade policies and non-market economic practices," the White House said. The last time Biden and Xi met in person was in November, on the sidelines of a summit in Woodside, California. "To take it back to that meeting last November, both President Biden and President Xi agreed that they would try to pick up the phone a bit more," the senior administration official said.

Persons: Joe Biden, Xi Jinping, Xi, Biden, Janet Yellen, Antony Blinken, Yellen Organizations: White, U.S ., Russia, U.S, Treasury, Treasury Department, Trump Locations: U.S, China, Taiwan, Ukraine, November's, Woodside , California, Guangzhou, Beijing, United States, Washington

☆ OpenAI Unveils A.I. Technology That Recreates Human Voices
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-29 | by ( Cade Metz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

First, OpenAI offered a tool that allowed people to create digital images simply by describing what they wanted to see. Then, it built similar technology that generated full-motion video like something from a Hollywood movie. Now, it has unveiled technology that can recreate someone’s voice. start-up said on Friday that a small group of businesses was testing a new OpenAI system, Voice Engine, that can recreate a person’s voice from a 15-second recording. If you are an English speaker, for example, it can recreate your voice in Spanish, French, Chinese or many other languages.

Persons: OpenAI

☆ This retailer is set up for a comeback — we're getting in early by starting a position
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-27 | by ( Jeff Marks | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

We are initiating a position in Best Buy, buying 400 shares at $82.30 each. Consumer electronics historically needed to be upgraded and replaced every three to seven years, meaning many of the products that were purchased in the Covid era will need to be replaced soon. They point out that Best Buy is one of the last broad-line and hard-line retail stocks in its coverage that experienced a Covid pull-forward that hasn't returned to its historical valuation. Lastly, Best Buy sports an attractive dividend yield of about 4.65%. As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade.

Persons: Jim Cramer's, Bose, hasn't, Jim Cramer, Jim Organizations: Consumer, Management, Microsoft, Electronics, Telsey Advisory, JPMorgan, Federal Reserve, CNBC Locations: Vegas

☆ It’s a Golden Age for Shipwreck Discoveries. Why?
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-23 | by ( Michael Levenson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Some were fabled vessels that have fascinated people for generations, like Endurance, Ernest Shackleton’s ship that sank in the Antarctic in 1915. No matter their place in history, more shipwrecks are being found these days than ever before, according to those who work in the rarefied world of deep-sea exploration. He added: “We’re in a transitional phase where the true period of deep-sea and ocean exploration in general is truly beginning.”So what’s behind the increase? Shipwreck hunters are also looking for wrecks for their historical value, rather than for sunken treasure. And climate change has intensified storms and beach erosion, exposing shipwrecks in shallow water.

Persons: Ernest Shackleton’s, ”, James P, Delgado Organizations: Technology Locations: Ironton, Lake Huron, Washington ,

Companies like OpenAI and Midjourney build chatbots, image generators and other artificial intelligence tools that operate in the digital world. Now, a start-up founded by three former OpenAI researchers is using the technology development methods behind chatbots to build A.I. technology that can navigate the physical world. Its goal is to help robots gain an understanding of what is going on around them and decide what they should do next. The technology also gives robots a broad understanding of the English language, letting people chat with them as if they were chatting with ChatGPT.

Locations: Emeryville, Calif

☆ Dozens of Top Scientists Sign Effort to Prevent A.I. Bioweapons
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-08 | by ( Cade Metz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Dario Amodei, chief executive of the high-profile A.I. start-up Anthropic, told Congress last year that new A.I. technology could soon help unskilled but malevolent people create large-scale biological attacks, such as the release of viruses or toxic substances that cause widespread disease and death. Senators from both parties were alarmed, while A.I. Now, over 90 biologists and other scientists who specialize in A.I.

Persons: Dario Amodei, Frances Arnold Locations: United States

☆ Did your chef wash their hands? Handwashing ‘lie detectors’ could find out
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-08 | by ( Parija Bhatnagar | Parija Kavilanz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Food workers wash their hands as they should only one in three times, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The consequence: Germs spread from food workers’ hands to food, which can trigger an outbreak of dangerous foodborne illness in restaurants. By improving handwashing practices, food workers can be a critical part to preventing outbreaks of diseases like norovirus, Salmonella, and E. coli, it said. “In all circumstances, thorough, frequent hand hygiene is critical for preventing the spread of disease. Technology can potentially assist with increasing compliance and quality of hand hygiene, and that is very exciting indeed,” she said.

Persons: It’s, Christine Schindler, Schindler, ”, ” Waanders, Rebecca Bartles, Bartles, Don’t, there’s, ” Schindler, “, “ We’ve, PathSpot, Colin McCabe Organizations: New, New York CNN, Centers for Disease Control, Taco Bell, Association for Professionals, CNN, “, Environmental Health, Duke University, Employees, Valor Siren Ventures, Starbucks Locations: New York, “, United States

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