DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ How one rising Miami VC raised more money for his first fund. Other emerging investors haven't been so lucky.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-16 | by ( Vishal Persaud | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Evans is the founder of Exceptional Capital, which launched in 2022 among the many emerging VC firms that sprouted during the fundraising boom years. Before pursuing a life in venture capital and tech, Evans hoped to make it to the NFL as a linebacker at the University of Michigan. And then in 2022, Evans decided to launch Exceptional Capital and invest as a solo VC. Exceptional CapitalBecause he's been able to increase the size of his fund, Evans has been able to expand his team. "I could see that for Marell as well, just his work with Exceptional Capital and kind of his determination there."

Persons: —, Marell Evans, Evans, he's, Dave Brandon, Brandon, Ben Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz, Horowitz, A16z, Okta, Owen Van Natta, Hustling, Melissa Morano Aurigemma, Graham Stoddard, Andrew Van Nest, I've, Cody Coleman, Coleman, what's Organizations: Service, Exceptional, Business, NFL, University of Michigan, NCAA, IBM, Facebook, Vision, SV Angel, A16z, Exceptional Capital Locations: Miami, Michigan, San Francisco, Okta, Silicon Valley, SoftBank, —, Bessemer

☆ Self-driving startup Wayve just raised $1 billion from Nvidia, SoftBank, Microsoft and more
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-07 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Alex Kendall, 29, is the co-founder and CEO of autonomous driving startup Wayve. British startup Wayve on Tuesday said it had raised $1.05 billion in an investment round led by Japan's SoftBank to accelerate the growth of its self-driving car technology. The Series C funding round included new investor U.S. chipmaker Nvidia and existing investor, software giant Microsoft , which is a major backer of AI firms. Founded in 2017, Wayve is one of a multitude of startups looking to enable autonomous driving — technology that enables cars to effectively drive without humans at the helm. Unlike Tesla , which manufactures its own cars, Wayve licenses its self-driving technology to other firms, including retailers and automakers.

Persons: Alex Kendall, Japan's SoftBank, Wayve Organizations: Nvidia, Microsoft, Cambridge, Tesla

☆ Columbia University extends hybrid classes through end of semester as tense protests prompt safety concerns
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-22 | by ( Elizabeth Wolfe | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Columbia University faces a seventh day of tense pro-Palestinian demonstrations as solidarity protests have rippled to other colleges and prompted arrests at NYU and Yale. • Columbia goes to hybrid classes amid turmoil: As some students have expressed safety concerns, Columbia said almost all classes on its main campus will be hybrid — technology permitting — until the end of the semester. • NYU students and faculty arrested as protests proliferate: New York University students and faculty members were arrested during protests on the school’s campus Monday night, police said. • Jewish students on heightened alert: As the major Jewish holiday of Passover began Monday, Columbia’s Jewish student organizations said they have increased security around their gatherings due to safety concerns, including having a police presence at the campus Jewish cultural center. Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx has warned university leaders of consequences if they do not rein in the protests.

Persons: Columbia, Passover, Minouche, Virginia Foxx Organizations: CNN — Columbia University, NYU, Yale, New York University, MIT, Harvard, Boston University, New Haven , Connecticut police, Jewish, • University, Republican, Committee, Education, •, Republican Rep Locations: New Haven , Connecticut

☆ Mark Cuban says everyone has the potential to be ‘world-class great’ at one thing—here’s how to identify yours
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-07 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Mark Cuban believes you're capable of greatness — as long as you stay open-minded enough to discover your strengths. "I'm a hardcore believer that everybody has something that they're really, really, really good at — that could be world-class great. "I [only] took one technology class in college, Fortran programming, and I cheated on it," Cuban said. "That's when I realized that I can be really, really good at technology." After getting fired from that sales job, Cuban started a software company called MicroSolutions, which he sold to CompuServe for $6 million in 1990.

Persons: Mark Cuban, Lex Fridman, he'd, Cuban Organizations: Cuban, Mellon Bank, Mellon, CompuServe, Yahoo, CNBC Locations: Pittsburgh, Dallas, Cuban

☆ These are the 3 Apple patents analysts say could hit the production line
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-24 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Analysts predict which Apple patents are likely to become products. An Apple Watch with a camera, a hand wearable for the Vision Pro, and offline Siri may be possible. He identified three Apple patents he believes the company will likely make. AdvertisementThe patents Saini identified as "highly probable" include:1) An Apple Watch with a cameraApple's patent illustration of an Apple Watch with a camera. "Apple has been silently doing a lot of research on AI," analyst Saini said when asked about Apple's patents related to AI.

Persons: Siri, —, Apple's, Ming, Chi Kuo, Anmol Saini, Saini, Gene Munster, Munster Organizations: Apple, Apple Watch, Vision, Service, GreyB, United States Patent, USPTO, Asset Management, Bloomberg, Google, US Department of Justice

OpenAI has completed a deal that values the San Francisco artificial intelligence company at $80 billion or more, nearly tripling its valuation in less than 10 months, according to three people with knowledge of the deal. The company would sell existing shares in a so-called tender offer led by the venture firm Thrive Capital, the people said. The deal lets employees cash out their shares in the company, rather than a traditional funding round that would raise money for business operations. The deal is another example of the Silicon Valley deal-making machine pumping money into a handful of companies that specialize in generative A.I. The funding boom kicked off early last year, after OpenAI captured the public’s imagination with the release of the online chatbot ChatGPT.

Persons: OpenAI Organizations: SpaceX Locations: San Francisco

HONG KONG (AP) — Technology company Baidu on Monday refuted a newspaper report that said its artificial intelligence chatbot Ernie was linked to Chinese military research. The paper stated that the division had tested its artificial intelligence system on Baidu’s Ernie and on artificial intelligence firm iFlyTek’s Spark, both of which are language-based AI chatbots similar to ChatGPT. “Ernie Bot is available to and used by the general public,” the Chinese company said in its statement. Like ChatGPT, users can pose questions or requests to Ernie Bot, which would then generate content based on the initial prompt. The Beijing-headquartered firm said in December that it had more than 100 million users for Ernie Bot.

Persons: Ernie, Baidu, Ernie Bot Organizations: — Technology, Baidu, Hong, China Morning, People’s Liberation Army cyberwarfare, PLA Information Engineering University, China Morning Post, PLA, Huawei, U.S Locations: HONG KONG, Hong Kong, U.S, China, Taiwan, Beijing

☆ After big tech layoffs, Silicon Valley may have lost its monopoly on workers
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-14 | by ( Rachel Curry | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

According to Dice's 2023 Tech Sentiment Report, 60% of tech workers in general are interested in leaving their jobs in 2024, which is up from 52% the year prior. According to Art Zeile, CEO of tech careers marketplace Dice, tech workers are most in demand in the aerospace, consulting, health care, financial services and education industries. Zeile says it's in spaces like these — non-tech enterprises with major tech branches — that tech workers can find better work-life balance and more stability than the tech leaders can provide. In corporate America outside of big tech, he said, "There is more of a dedication to making sure that the project gets fulfilled." Tech job growth geographicallyUltimately, Zeile says recent layoffs have induced a jarring disruption in two decades of growth in big tech.

Persons: Justin Sullivan, Jeff Spector, Spector, I'm, CBRE, Art Zeile, Zeile Organizations: Google, Tech, Meta, Microsoft, MGM Studios Locations: Mountain View , California, Silicon Valley, Seattle, America, India

The world is heading for considerably less warming than projected a decade ago, but that good news is overwhelmed by much more pain from current climate change than scientists anticipated, experts said. Even though emissions of heat-trapping gases are still rising every year, they’re rising more slowly than projected from 2000 to 2015. “It requires the tearing out the poisoned root of the climate crisis: fossil fuels,” said United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Guterres, numerous climate scientists and environmental activists all say what’s needed is a phase-out — or at the very least a phase-down — of coal, oil and gas. “This is throwing the global energy transition and humanity’s future into question.”___Read more of AP’s climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment.

Persons: That’s, It’s, ”, Niklas Hohne, Bill Hare, Rob Jackson, Ani Dasgupta, ” Dasgupta, Hare, Anne Olhoff, “, ” Jackson, Melanie Robinson, that’s, Johan Rockstrom, Antonio Guterres, Sultan al, Jaber, Greta Thunberg, Adnan Amir, ’ ’, Majid Al Suwaidi, we’ve, Institute’s Hohne, Al Jaber, ” Hohne, Dasgupta, can’t, Inger Andersen, ” ___ Read, Seth Borenstein Organizations: United Nations, United Nations Environment, NewClimate, Stanford University, Project, Resources, UNEP, World Resources Institute, Potsdam Institute, Climate Research, Center for Biological Diversity, Biden Administration, Twitter, AP Locations: Dubai, Paris, Europe, Pakistan, Libya, Arab Emirates, ”, al, greenwashing, Russia, Ukraine

☆ Make America Build Again
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-16 | by ( Adam Rogers | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +37 min

America is the sixth-most-expensive place in the world to build subways and trolleys. The solutions will cost trillions of dollars and require a pace of building unseen in America since World War II. Perhaps the single most pressing question we face today is: How do we make America build again? "For this class of projects, federal environmental laws are more the exception." The prospect of overhauling our hard-won environmental laws might feel like sacrilege to anyone who cares about the Earth.

Persons: Anne, Marie Griger's, Griger, —, They're, Obama, I'm, we've, We've, I'd, It's, Matt Harrison Clough, Jamie Pleune, AECOM, Joe Biden's, There's, David Adelman, David Spence, Spence, James Coleman, NECA, Coleman, everyone's, Danielle Stokes, Nobody, Bill McKibben, Mother Jones, McKibben, Michael Gerrard, Columbia University —, they've, David Pettit, it's, Zachary Liscow, That's who's, Adam Rogers Organizations: RES Group, Environmental, Infrastructure Investment, Jobs, Land Management, Forest Service, University of Utah, Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, Brookings, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, White, University of Texas, Greenpeace, Natural Resources Defense Council, Act, NEPA, Berkeley, University of California, University of Southern, Southern Methodist University, Ecosystems Conservation, GOP, Biden, Motorola, Telecommunications, Conservatives, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, FERC, University of Richmond, UC Berkeley, USC, Star, Sabin, Climate, Columbia University, Natural Resources Defense, Republicans, Democrats, Management, Budget, Yale Law School Locations: Panama, Colorado, . California, Los Angeles, San Francisco, China, America, Washington, , Wyoming, Nantucket, New England, San Francisco ., University of Southern California, California, New York, Florida, Southern California, Las Vegas

☆ Preetika Rana — Technology Reporter at The Wall Street Journal
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-30 | by ( Preetika Rana | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Preetika RanaPreetika Rana is an award-winning reporter for The Wall Street Journal in San Francisco, where she covers ride-hailing and food-delivery companies. She was the first to report a new CEO at Lyft, deep cuts at Uber during the pandemic and Airbnb's financials before the company went public. Prior to covering Silicon Valley, Preetika was based in the WSJ's Hong Kong and India offices. Her front-page articles ranging from healthcare to human rights have helped shape government policy, aided investigations and triggered public outcry. Preetika has won several awards, including from The Society of Publishers in Asia, The Society of Professional Journalists and The Asia Society.

Persons: Preetika Rana Preetika Rana, financials, Preetika Organizations: Wall Street, Uber, The Society of Publishers, The Society of Professional Journalists, The Asia Society Locations: San Francisco, Lyft, Silicon, Hong Kong, India, Kashmir, Nepal, China, Asia

☆ Volvo Cars CEO strikes cautious tone on solid-state battery technology
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-27 | by ( Anmar Frangoul | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

The CEO of Volvo Cars is bullish about the long-term potential of electric motors, but appears more cautious on solid-state batteries — technology that's generated much hype around its potential to transform the performance of EVs. Speaking to CNBC's Squawk Box Europe on Thursday morning, Jim Rowan said electric motors were seeing "massive improvements." However, on solid-state batteries he said: "My personal opinion is that solid-state is still some years off, but of course we're involved in the research and development around that." "But I think there's many more incremental benefits that we're going to see with the current electrical propulsion systems, that [are] … just going to continue to drive performance," Rowan added.

Persons: Jim Rowan, Rowan Organizations: Volvo

☆ Airbnb is cracking down on fake listings. The platform has removed 59,000 so far this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-20 | by ( Will Gendron | Associated Press | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Airbnb is cracking down on fake listings. The platform said it had removed 59,000 fake listings this year and prevented another 157,000 from getting on the site. The company says it has removed 59,000 fake listings and prevented another 157,000 from joining the platform this year alone. Fake listings and high cleaning fees are among several issues that Airbnb users highlighted in a company survey, the rental platform said Wednesday. AdvertisementAdvertisementAside from fake listings, Airbnb has had to contend with more stringent regulations in places like New York City.

Persons: there's, Airbnb, Brain Chesky, Chesky Organizations: Service, Airbnb Locations: Wall, Silicon, United States, United Kingdom, U.S, Canada, France, Australia, New York City, San Francisco

☆ Here's why stocks are still vulnerable in September
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-28 | by ( Bob Pisani | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

The bad news is, stocks still aren't cheap, rates still seem like they want to push higher, and China is definitely weaker. Stocks are vulnerable in September: The 'pain trade' is down After that, it's time to repair some damage to the markets. Here's the good news: even though stocks have been straight down most of this month, 5% off the highs is a pretty garden variety correction. Nvidia and AI stocks: how much more do you want? I don't know if that is true, but it sure looks like much of the demand for AI stocks has been pulled forward.

Persons: Jerome Powell's Jackson, Powell, Stocks, there's, Banks, Russell, Susan Collins, Patrick Harker, Joachim Nagel, Thursday's, I'm, Chris Harvey, it's, Jackson Organizations: Federal, deflator, Regional Bank ETF, Energy, Boston, Financial Times, Philadelphia Fed, CNBC, ECB, Nvidia, Microsoft, Cisco, Intelligence, Technology, IBM Locations: China, Wells Fargo, Jackson

☆ Infillion emerges as buyer for bankrupt adtech company MediaMath
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Adtech company Infillion is set to acquire the assets of bankrupt adtech firm MediaMath. US-based adtech company Infillion has emerged as the highest bidder for the assets of MediaMath, the high-profile adtech firm that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June, according to court filings. A sale hearing is scheduled to take place on Wednesday 8.30 a.m. Eastern Time in the Delaware bankruptcy court. London-based Genius Sports, a sports data and video-streaming company, made the second-highest bid for the MediaMath assets, according to the court filings. Infillion was formed in 2022 after Disney sold its video adtech asset TrueX to the location-focused adtech firm Gimbal in late 2020.

Persons: Infillion, couldn't, Sports didn't, MediaMath, Xandr, TrueX, Gimbal, Joe Zawadzki Organizations: MediaMath, Sports, Google, Disney, TrueX, Street, Amazon, Bank of America, Mobile, Phoenix Locations: Delaware, London

Sam SchechnerSam Schechner covers technology, based out of The Wall Street Journal's Paris bureau, focusing on the intersection between technology, business and society. His stories have often tackled the role large technology platforms play on topics like privacy, competition and internet censorship. Previously, Sam covered business in France, and along with his colleagues in the Paris bureau shared in a New York Press Club award for their coverage of the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris. He joined the Journal in 2005 as an entertainment columnist in New York, and later covered the business of television, including large media and cable companies such as Viacom and Comcast. Sam has a bachelor's degree from Brown University and lives in Paris with his wife, their two children and his childhood pet turtle.

Persons: Sam Schechner Sam Schechner, Sam Organizations: Facebook, Polk, U.S . Federal Trade Commission, New York Press, Viacom, Comcast, Brown University Locations: Paris, France, New York

☆ The founder of fallen adtech startup MediaMath is trying to buy back the bankrupt company's assets
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-27 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

MediaMath Cofounder and CEO Joe Zawadzki is assembling a syndicate to buy back the company. MediaMath cofounder Joe Zawadzki is looking to assemble a syndicate of adtech industry investors to attempt to buy back the company's assets at its upcoming bankruptcy auction, according to people familiar with the matter. Former employees and industry observers have said Zawadzki's MediaMath was also ahead of its time developing tools to demystify how digital ad dollars were being spent. MediaMath's supply chain optimization assets could become the backbone of FxM's "SCF+" supply chain financing product, the adtech industry sources suggested. Zawadzki is also a general partner at the venture capital firm AperiamVentures, which has invested in dozens of adtech startups.

Persons: Joe Zawadzki, MediaMath, Zawadzki, Joe, Zawadzki's, —, Neil Nguyen, MGI, hadn't Organizations: IBM, Bain Capital, Google, Media, Games Locations: MediaMath, Delaware, —, AperiamVentures

☆ Car repair costs are up almost 20% over the past year. Here are 6 reasons why
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Here's a look at six reasons why you're paying more for car repairs. More technology in carsJamie Grill | Getty ImagesCommon car repairs can run consumers $500 to $600 a visit and sometimes "much higher," according to AAA. More advanced — and more expensive — technology in vehicles is a big reason for higher repair costs, said Robert Sinclair, Jr., a spokesman for AAA Northeast. More auto wrecks mean greater demand for mechanics, serving to raise prices for car repairs, Sinclair said. Fewer auto repair techniciansMeanwhile, there's been a dearth of available mechanics to meet that greater demand, translating to higher labor costs, auto experts said.

Persons: Michael H, Grill, Robert Sinclair, Jr, Sinclair, Skyler Chadwick, Morgan, Chadwick, Peter Dazeley, there's, — Organizations: Getty, AAA, AAA Northeast, Finance, Cox Automotive, P Global Mobility, Bank, National, Traffic Safety Administration, TechForce Foundation, Auto, Cox

☆ Opinion | Will Translation Apps Make Learning Foreign Languages Obsolete?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( John Mcwhorter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

To polyglots, foreign languages are Mount Everests daring us to climb them — a metaphor used by Hofstadter in his article. After all, despite the sincere and admirable efforts of foreign language teachers nationwide, fewer than one in 100 American students become proficient in a language they learned in school. Immersion programs, if begun early, can actually imprint a foreign language into a child’s brain. I know: A foreign language is a window into a new way of processing the world. With an iPhone handy and an appropriate app downloaded, foreign languages will no longer present most people with the barrier or challenge they once did.

Persons: Hofstadter, John McWhorter, ”, “ Organizations: Columbia University Locations: Rome

☆ Premarket stocks: What markets are watching after digesting the US jobs data
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

While inflation has come down and other economic data point to a cooling economy, the labor market has remained remarkably resilient. The labor market is cooling but not rapidly or significantly, and further rate hikes can’t be ruled out. More trouble for commercial real estateA few weeks ago, Before the Bell wrote about big problems brewing in the $20 trillion commercial real estate industry. In a worst-case scenario, anxiety about bank lending to commercial real estate could spiral, prompting customers to yank their deposits. The proportion of commercial office mortgages where borrowers are behind with payments is rising, according to Trepp, which provides data on commercial real estate.

☆ Panera Bread to start using handprints to greet you by name and suggest menu items
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Aidan Pollard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Panera Bread will allow customers to link their handprints to loyalty accounts, the company announced. Panera will use handprints to greet customers by name and suggest menu items based on preferences. It allows Panera employees to greet customers by name and suggest menu items based on their preferences, a company press release said Wednesday. Go customers have the option of linking their palm print to their Amazon accounts, or using a credit card or app. The use of Amazon One technology will be optional at Panera Bread, the company stressed, and private data obtained through the new technology will be protected by security controls.

☆ CNBC Daily Open: After First Republic rescue, fears of contagion are allayed (again)
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Yeo Boon Ping | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

This report is from today's CNBC Daily Open, our new, international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. At the risk of jinxing the situation, fears of a wider meltdown in the banking industry, which yesterday spread from the U.S. to Europe, appear allayed (again). The Fed's two mandates, to stabilize the economy and to fight inflation, are looking increasingly at odds with each other. Subscribe here to get this report sent directly to your inbox each morning before markets open.

☆ CNBC Daily Open: After First Republic rescue, the banking crisis looks contained (again)
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Yeo Boon Ping | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

This report is from today's CNBC Daily Open, our new, international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. At the risk of jinxing the situation, the banking crisis, which has now spread from the U.S. to Europe, appears contained (again). Wall Street was cheered by the rapid response to the banking crisis. It would also benefit the overall economy, which according to Goldman Sachs has a 35% chance of entering a recession in the coming 12 months — up from 25% before the banking crisis happened.

☆ AI Tech Like ChaptGPT, Bing, Bard Is a Bigger Threat Than Social Media
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Nowadays, the promise of social media as a unifying force for good has all but collapsed, and Zuckerberg is slashing thousands of jobs after his company's rocky pivot to the metaverse. Much like social media in 2012, the AI industry is standing on the precipice of immense change. And as Altman and his cohort charge ahead, AI could fundamentally reshape our economy and lives even more than social media. If social media helped expose the worst impulses of humanity on a mass scale, generative AI could be a turbocharger that accelerates the spread of our faults. Social media amplified society's issues, as Wooldridge puts it.

☆ Joe Biden's physician pronounces him a 'healthy, vigorous, 80-year-old male' in new report
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Nicole Gaudiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Joe Biden's physician pronounced him a 'healthy, vigorous, 80-year-old male' in a new health summary. Biden is being treated for atrial fibrillation, hyperlipidemia, gastroesophageal reflux, seasonal allergies, spinal arthritis, and mild sensory peripheral neuropathy of the feet, Biden's physician Kevin O'Connor wrote in a memo. "President Biden remains a healthy, vigorous, 80-year-old male, who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency..." O'Connor wrote. Biden's medical report comes a day after Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley called for "mandatory mental competency tests" for politicians older than 75, a dig at both Biden and former President Donald Trump. Biden's last medical report in November 2021 also described him as "healthy" and "vigorous" and said he was "fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency."

Search resuls for: "— Technology"

25 mentions found