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☆ The US is dismantling nuclear warheads to power next-gen reactors
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-09 | by ( Ella Nilsen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

This fuel is set to power the next generation of America’s nuclear reactors — small, modular power stations that are easier and cheaper to build. They require far less upkeep and physical space than the aging fleet of large nuclear power plants. “In order to meet our energy security needs and our climate goals, we do need significantly more nuclear energy deployed.”The nuclear power industry is increasingly looking to smaller reactors, which run on HALEU. The uranium for conventional reactors is enriched up to 5% and HALEU is uranium enriched between 5-20%. Highly enriched uranium is anything more than 20% and is used in weapons or naval submarines.

Persons: —, Michael Goff, Bill Gates, ”, Jeff Navin, “, hasn’t, Benjamin Rasmussen, Jeff Chamberlin, Goff, Dan Leistikow, Josh Jarrell, Leistikow, Centrus, TerraPower’s Navin, ” Navin Organizations: CNN, Manhattan Project, National Nuclear Security, US, Energy, of Nuclear Energy, Idaho National Laboratory, Department of Energy, New York Times, United, US Energy Department, Miller, Centrus Energy, Idaho National Laboratories, Idaho National Labs, Energy Department, DOE Locations: Oak Ridge , Tennessee, Oak Ridge, Tenneseee, United States, Russia, Ukraine, Idaho, Wyoming, Kemmerer , Wyoming, Congress

☆ Multi-agent systems are the next big thing in AI. Here's why VCs at NEA, Mayfield Fund, and Foundation Capital are excited.
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-29 | by ( Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Startups are building AI agents that collaborate to fill out forms, dial customer service reps, and order food delivery. These "multi-agent systems" are the next hot thing, according to investors from NEA, Mayfield Fund, and Foundation Capital. Multi-agent systems are distributed systems of multiple specialized AI agents that work together toward a collective goal. AdvertisementIn contrast, multi-agent systems are built on top of LLMs and are designed to execute a task from start to finish. AdvertisementMayfield Fund's Navin Chaddha is optimistic — AI agents will serve as teammates to workers.

Persons: —, Spike Jonze's, that's, OpenAI's, NEA's Madison Faulkner, Devin, Warren Hui, Nitta, Satya Nitta, Ashpreet Bedi, Faulkner, Mayfield Fund's Navin Chaddha, …, It's Organizations: Service, NEA, Mayfield Fund, Foundation Capital, Business, Soul Ventures, Nvidia Locations: Italy, PitchBook, Japan

But, not all AI startups are created equal. AdvertisementBusiness Insider surveyed nine VCs who invest in AI startups at firms like Bain Capital Ventures, Flybridge, and Sapphire Ventures. Startups building AI's "picks and shovels" are a better bet than yet another LLMStep aside, OpenAI and Anthropic. In contrast, unstructured data encompasses various formats such as text documents, images, audio files, emails, social media posts, and videos. Some AI investors say they're shying away from point solutions—think online payment processing or project management—in favor of full-stack solutions.

Persons: —, Harvey, Navin Chaddha, Chip Hazard, they're, Kahini Shah, there's, Rak Garg, Garg, Shah, Lauri Moore, Moore, Chaddha, Capital's Moore, she's Organizations: Service, Accel, Business, Bain Capital Ventures, Flybridge, Sapphire Ventures, Google, Meta, Mayfield Fund, Flybridge Capital Partners, Obvious, Investors, Obvious Ventures, Foundation, Dig Ventures Locations: Mayfield, Hazard, Flybridge

☆ AI-powered devices could drastically change how we interact with technology. But will they catch on?
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-01 | by ( Samantha Stokes | Vishal Persaud | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

"The key isn't hardware but the user experience it enables," Khosla, whose firm Khosla Ventures, is an investor in Rabbit, told Business Insider in an email. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. At the same time, I don't think the average consumer wants to carry around multiple devices," S. Somasegar, a managing director at Madrona, told Business Insider. That's where we're at," he told Business Insider. Ginsberg said he's excited about the Humnane Pin because AI voice assistants have finally become powerful enough to be useful for average consumers.

Persons: Vinod Khosla, Khosla, Navin Chaddha, Ai, Somasegar, Bernstein, Nielsen, Zachary Ginsburg, Ginsberg, Marc Benioff, Sam Altman, Lachy Groom, Avi Schiffmann, it's, Chaddha Organizations: Khosla Ventures, Software, Business, Mayfield, Microsoft, Calm Ventures, Bond Ventures, Forerunner Ventures, Harvard Locations: Humane's

☆ With an intensified focus on AI, VC firm Mayfield is closely watching for 'maturing' early-stage gen AI startups in 2024
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-16 | by ( Madeline Renbarger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

In July, the firm announced its first dedicated seed fund focused on AI called AI Start. Prior to launching AI Start, Mayfield had already backed 25 early-stage startups in the space like MindsDB. Reddy's background makes him a perfect fit to lead the $250 million fund, Chaddha told Business Insider. This year, Chaddha tapped him to lead its new AI seed fund. With the AI Start fund, the team plans to double down and lead deals in seed stage and pre-seed generative AI startups, as well as AI infrastructure startups with an enterprise focus.

Persons: Mayfield, Vijay Reddy, who's, Reddy, Navin Chaddha, Mayfield's, Chaddha, He's Organizations: Business, Intel Capital, Cisco, Clear Ventures, Mayfield Locations: Mayfield

☆ India's ONGC posts 20% drop in quarterly profit on lower crude prices
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

The logo of Oil and Natural Gas Corp's (ONGC) is pictured along a roadside in Ahmedabad, India, September 6, 2016. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsBENGALURU, Nov 10 (Reuters) - India's state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) (ONGC.NS) on Friday posted a more than 20% drop in second-quarter profit, dragged down by lower prices for crude oil. The company's profit fell to 102.16 billion Indian rupees ($1.23 billion) for the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with 128.26 billion rupees a year earlier. ONGC's total crude oil production fell 2.1% to 5.25 million metric tons (MMT), while total gas production dropped 2.8%. Oil India (OILI.NS) reported a more than 80% drop in second-quarter profit on Wednesday as it set aside 23.63 billion rupees for an ongoing litigation.

Persons: Amit Dave, Nishit Navin, Anil D'Silva Organizations: Gas, REUTERS, Rights, Natural Gas Corp, Oil, Sethuraman, Thomson Locations: Ahmedabad, India, Oil India, Bengaluru

☆ Goldman Sachs just promoted 608 employees to the coveted role of managing directors. See the full list here.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-02 | by ( Emmalyse Brownstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Goldman Sachs announced its 2023 class of managing directors Thursday afternoon, giving 608 employees the coveted title. It's a smaller cohort than the bank's 2021 MD class, down 5% amid a dealmaking slowdown. Still, Goldman appears to have taken pains to promote employees in revenue-generating divisions like investment banking and trading. Goldman says the percentage of women it promoted as part of the 2023 MD class sets a record, up 1% from 2021. Two years ago, Goldman promoted the largest managing director class in its history, naming 643 employees to the designation in 2021.

Persons: Goldman Sachs, Goldman, David Solomon, John Waldron, we've, Solomon, Waldron, Goldman Sachs Fereshteh Abbasi Thomas Abe Devina Abreo Francesca Adamski Emmanuel Adenitire Gopal Agarwal Prasoon Agarwal Udit Agrawal Khamran Ali Omar Alzaim Dorothee Amar Akbar Amin Joe Amsler Wilfred Amuri Jack Anstey Paul Antonios Hidemi Aoki, Carolina Aragon Gonzalez Nelson Armbrust Georgina Aspden Laurene, Gisha, Sharon Babick Navin Babu Alexey Bachurin Alberto Bacis Patrick Badaro Rahul Bajaj Elise Bal Tanya Ballaram Brian Baltz Guillaume Banderet Nirav Bansal Nitin Bansal Swati, Chalapathi, Andrei Banu Camella Barnes James Barry Elisa Anna Bassu Aman Batra Eleanor Beasley Nicole Beavan Michael Becker Yukiko Beer Omar Benchekroune Richard Bennett Nigel Beslee Ashima Bhalla Nikhil Bhandari Nimita Bhargava Bodha Bhattacharya Rebecca Bibb Roseline, Rahul Bindu Mark Bird Leo Biselman Christian Blanc Patrick Bogues Michael Boratin Katherine Bordlemay Gabriela Borges Kate Boucher Erik Bouland Joanne Braidi Chris Brett Joseph Briggs Charles Brockett Emmeline Brothers Aaron Brown Adrienne Brown Kevin Bryck Archana Budida Oliver Bunn Rebecca Burgoyne Andrew Burpitt Todd Byers Patrick Byrne Michael Cahill Ashley Caldwell Jake Caldwell Serdar Caliskan Jon Calluzzo Stewart Campbell Samantha Cantor Yuri Cantor Dan Carabas Gemma Carlaw Laura Carroll Tim Carson Matt Carter Quentin Cezard Alex Cham Simon Chamama Heidi Chan Patrick Chan Suraj Chandran Kim Cheah Jon Cheh CP Chen Nelly Cheng Sarrah Cherhabil Jackson Cheung Michael Cheung Rama, Stan Chiu Anish, Kunal Choraria Ankit Chowdhari Dario Claus Cosimo Codacci, Michael Coleman David Collerd Shannon Collins Francesca Condini Lee Coppersmith John Couch Tim Creamer Maziar, Satish Damodaran Gareth Davies Serkan, Nick De Kock Ann de la, Nick De Kock Ann de la Montaigne Jan Debeuckelaer Molly Decker Gabrielle Decrion Laurent Dedieu Antoine Demongeot Yannick Derippe Deepalakshmi Desai Tim Desiano Joshua Dezube Randeep Dhillon Javier Diaz, Merry Matheus, Jared Dickow Alex Doell Mao Dong Praneil Doolabh Daniel Dooling Michelle Dorea Szymon Doroz Jacqueline Du Benjamin Duell Kelsey Dumont Julie Duval Todd Ebe Dayo, Jeremy Eisenstein Chris Elmore Ryan Erickson Joaquin Escribano Larry Estrada Pavel Fadeev Will Fairbourn Jeremy Falgiani Fabio Federici Wenlong Fei David Felman Sophia Ferguson Zach Fernandez David Fernandez Miguez Scott, William Fio Rito Duffy Fischer Lisa Florentine Akshay Fomra Janice Foo Nicholas Forbat Elie Franko Georgina Fraser Jason Freeman Nicole Freeman Oliver Friedberg Gavriel Friedland Ross Fuller Angela Fung Greg Furness Nikhil Gadodia Stefano Gamba Amit Singh Gambhir Javier Gandara Giorgio Gandola Amit Gangrade Sudha Garimella Mima Garland Mingmin Ge Graziano Gemma Shefali Gera Constance Germain Brad Gifford Benjamin Giles Abbas Ginwala Marlene Giorgio Thomas Giovachini Zachary Glasser Guillaume Gnech Harley Golding Yuriy Goldman Jesse Goldstein Roy Golender Sharon Gonnella Alejandro Gonzalez Steven Gooden Jessie Gould Varun, George Graf von Waldersee Florian Granier Jamie Greenberg Brian Grzelakowski Alessandro Guicciardi Michael Guiliano Samuel Guinness Bivash Gunpath Deepa Gupta Parikshit Gupta Lauren Gutierrez Johannes Hahn Chris Hallam Alex Halpern Christina Halpin Michael Hamilton Brooke Hammel Saki Hanioka John Hanson Mathew Harris Ally Hart Amy Harwood Tom, Emily Hashimoto Rob Haslam Michael Heino Brandon Herde Sarah Higgins Camilla Hill Spencer Hill Sho, Cecilia Ho Jonathan Ho Bryan Hoffman Kevin Hoffmeyer Eliza Hollyday Simon Holmes Mehdi, Lily, Derek Hu Jennifer Hui Tim Huiszoon Camille Humbert Kurt Humes Kelley Hutchison Masayuki Ichioka Andrew Imber Calvin Isaac Jackson Isaacs Sharif Ismail Yu, Doug Michael Jaffa Nitin Jagga Rahul Jain, Jataprolu Fiona Jervis Yinpeng Jin Sandeep Jindal Jennifer Jochinger Steven Johnson David Johnstone Megan Jordan Nicolas Joseph Bob Kadel Jean Kam Harneet Kaur Vinay Kaura Peter Kelman Stephanie Kenary Maggie Keohan Humayun Khalid Sunil Khandelwal Scott Kilpatrick Jenny Kim Ashley King Joel Klaus Rene Klos Rossitsa, Michael Kondoleon Gregory Kontopoulos Larry Kornreich Shrivathsa Kota Konrad Krallmann Ken Kraska Alexander Kretzberg Bryant Krongard Simon Kubbies Adam Kulik Peter Kulka Ajeya Kumar Aditya Kurella Sara Lachapelle Raagini, Langalia Chaim Langer Alexander Langley Raven LaRue Dolapo Lawal Claire Leblanc, Langalia Chaim Langer Alexander Langley Raven LaRue Dolapo Lawal Claire Leblanc Mary LeDonne, Allison Lee Michael Lee Soohyun Lee Victoria Lewis Alice Li Qing Li George Lin Ali Lippert David Lipworth Bozhena Lisko, Murphy Mark Littlewood Zhenyi Liu Yelli Lobel Avinash Lobo Burke Loeffler Gabriela Lopez Cristian Lopez, Balboa Carlos Lopez Torrero Stephanie Louie Edward Lowe Reynolds Lowry Fei Luo Ranjan Luthra Sangeetha M Martin Ma Matthew Maciaszek Michael Magee Steffen Mahringer Poonam Majithia Terres Maloney Gopal Manchikanti Jade Mandel, Manfay Varun, Pierre Marboeuf Matt Margolin Thiago Marinheiro Kevin Martens Masato Maruyama Lucinda Mataka Rishi Mathur Pierre Maugest Scott Maxfield Andrei Maxim Michael McClurg Selina McCole Jeff McCown Andrea McGee Sinead McGuigan John McGuinness Benjamin McRoberts Amit Mehrotra Gaurav Mehta Kelly Mellecker Josef Menasche Raf Mercado Alexander Mielke Rachel Miles Christopher Miller Megan Miller Robert Miller Max Minton Edward Mitchell Oliver Money Tyler Moni Anna Montvai Taylor Moore Anthony Moschella Brandon Moy Faraz Munaim Sasha Munn Ashok Musuvathy Negar, Julian Naden Robinson Hiroki Nagamine Srijith Nair Cornelius Namiluko Sanjiv Nanwani Jay Narain Robert Andranik Nazarian Jovan Negovan Ryan Newman Michael Ng, Tasuku Nishihara John Nixon Kristy Nomi Alexandre Nunes Patrick O'Callaghan Yusuke Ochi KC O'Connor David Olivares Erica Olsen Victoria Ortengren Anas, Peter Pace Robert Packwood Nitin, Ellen Pak Ruth Pan Pedro Panizo Jayshri, Rahul Parikh Dan Parisi Freddie Parker Phil Parsons Peter Paruch Paul Pate Bella Patel Preya Patel Rakesh Patel Amit Patni Ed Paulinski Adam Pennacchio Kyle Penton Abhishek Periwal Michael Perrier Yoric Perrin Rasmus Persson Tommy Pinhas, Marco Poletti Megan Prasad Avijit Praveer James Puccinelli Sameer Punde Rob Pyne Na Qiao Valentina Quadri Marco Quirico Anya Radford Abhishek Rai Rahul Raj Ram Rajamony Ryan Ramsay Rami Rankoussi Nach Rao Pawan Rao Anurag Rathi Philip Renton Noel Reyes Ruth Reynolds Timothy Richards Peter Richter Brigid Riley Hutchinson Nick Rill Kristina Ristagno Vicky Ritter Martin Roberson James Roberts James Robinson Giorgio, Erin Roos Erin Ross Sumit Roy Conrad Ryan Soo, Ryu David Sage Jai Sahani Namita, Sarah Sakkej Karim Saleh Ayesha Salman Divya Samani Henrik Samuelsson Ryan Sansalone Vikram Sarker Shalini Satish Babu Charlotte Saury, Hania Schmidt Helene Schmitt Emily Schorr Wendy Schrunk Thomas Schwegler Michael Sciancalepore Brandon Seaman Benjamin Seigel Gamal Selvarajah Nicholas Semeniuk Devjoy Sengupta Michael Shafik Arpan Shah Shashwat Shah Shahnawaz Shahbaz Manoj Sharma Sachin Sharma Wazila, Gunduz Shirin Alex Silver Asmita Singh Kamalpreet Singh Andrew Sinnott Sapna, Dan Skinner Andrew Snow Stephanie Snyder Farouk Soussa Christopher Spahr Erik Sparks Matt Speltz Naveen Srinivasan Bhargav, Warren, Damian Steele Tobias Stein Catherine Stemp Dave Stringer Shekar Subramanian Jordan Sudy Philipp Suess Fatima Sultana Lu Sun Kumar Sundaram Fiona Syer Matthew Sykes Tofi, Filippo Taddei Sandhya Tadishetty Omer Tanvir Rita Taylor Zachary Tcheyan Brian Teague Wesley, Caitlin Terry Thomas Tesauro Hemal, Justin Therry Christine Thornburg Gregory Thysheril Angelo Tierno Alexander Tingle Ryan Townsend Cynthia Trillo Dimitris, Jessica Tung Jonathan Tung Ezgi, Zachary Upcheshaw Kiyomi, Nadine Urseanu Jim Vais Pim Valantagul Perrin Van Allen Annerieke van Dijk Jeroen van Dorp Dennis van Laer Todd van Stolk, Riley Jacqueline Vargas Alexander Vavalidis Edwin Velez Prasanna Venugopal Tim Verheyden Amanda Verstegen Ankit Vijay Vargiya Salvador Villanueva Arthur Villard Sichel Denzel Voesenek Bradley Wainwright Adam Walker Barbara Walters Omar Waly Daniel Wang Kenneth Wang Kristen Ward Gavin Warren Michael Washington Harry Webster Fredrik Weege Brian Weiss Thomas Weitz Nat Wells Joe Wenzel Tim Whitehead Henry Willans Matthew Williams Taylor Williams Katie Wilson Richard Wilson Stephanie Wisner Ilana Wolfe Jake Woodson Jeff Wu Qi Wu Jackson Yang Esma, Yoon Harm, John Zhai Jenny Zhang Lynn Zhang Raye Zhu Jane Zhuang Hans Zijlmans Carolyn Zimmer Samia Zitouni Mira Zorkot Organizations: Goldman, Wall, Carolina, Nick De Kock Ann de la Montaigne, Langalia Chaim Langer Alexander Langley Raven LaRue Dolapo Lawal Claire Leblanc Mary Locations: Europe, Asia, India

☆ India's Coforge posts 16% jump in Q2 revenue, reiterates full-year forecast
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BENGALURU, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Indian IT services company Coforge (COFO.NS) on Thursday reported a 16.2% jump in second-quarter revenue and reiterated its revenue growth forecast for fiscal year 2024, aided by new deal wins amid a challenging macroeconomic environment. Consolidated revenue from operations rose to 22.76 billion rupees ($273.4 million) for the quarter ended Sept. 30. Coforge's order intake for the quarter rose to $313 million, from $304 million last year. The company's revenue growth beat peers Tata Consultancy Services (TCS.NS), which missed estimates and LTIMindtree, which posted a smaller 8.2% increase. It, however, lagged behind Persistent Systems (PERS.NS), which posted an 18% growth in revenue and a 20% growth in profit.

Persons: Nishit Navin, Varun Organizations: Indian IT, Indian, Tata Consultancy Services, Thomson Locations: BENGALURU, Indian, LSEG, Bengaluru

☆ Netflix and other streamers have to share data with creators now — but the new transparency only goes so far
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-28 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Discovery — would rip the curtain back on the data secrecy practiced by the streamers, that's not quite what happened. And it's not just creators hoping for bigger residual checks who are eager for more transparency about streaming data. As Netflix, Disney, and more companies pitch new ad-supported streamers, advertisers have griped that streamers have been slow to share the data about audience numbers and composition. Brands investing in films for distribution on streamers also are clamoring for more data to understand how many people are watching them. The WGA can share the data with its broader membership, but only in aggregated form.

Persons: that's, —, Tom Ara, DLA Piper, Kevin Krim, Ashwin Navin, Pryor Cashman, Simon Pulman, It's, Ted Hope, Hope Organizations: Netflix, Disney, Writers Guild of America, Alliance, Producers, Warner Bros, EDO, Brands, Samba, WGA, Nielsen

☆ Kevin McCarthy's House is the least productive in modern history — and it's not just because of divided government
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-27 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The current GOP-run House is the least productive in modern history, according to a new analysis. It's not just due to divided government — McCarthy's House falls short of other similar periods. AdvertisementAdvertisementKevin McCarthy is leading the least productive House in modern history, according to an analysis of legislative data shared exclusively with Insider. According to the analysis, the average number of bills to pass the House during periods of divided government by September 19 is 299. "The extremists in the house run the show," said Nayak.

Persons: It's, —, Kevin McCarthy, MAGA, Navin Nayak, Joe Biden, McCarthy, that's, Barack Obama's, Spokespeople, Nancy Pelosi Organizations: GOP, Service, MAGA Republicans, Center for American Progress, CAP, Capitol, McCarthy's, Democratic Party, 118th, Infrastructure Law

☆ Ford exec expects software to boost revenue for commercial trucks, vans
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-10 | by ( Paul Lienert | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] A model of the Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup is parked in front of the Ford Motor Company World Headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, U.S. April 26, 2022. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook/File PhotoCompanies Ford Motor Co FollowAug 10 (Reuters) - Ford Motor (F.N) expects to incorporate more and better software into the trucks and vans in its highly profitable Ford Pro commercial vehicle business and grow revenues by $4,000-$5,000 per vehicle by 2026, a top executive said on Thursday. Navin Kumar, chief financial officer of Ford Pro, said the automaker would look to boost revenue with software- and data-driven fleet services, safety and security services, partial vehicle autonomy and insurance. Ford Pro will continue to offer a full portfolio of combustion engine, hybrid electric and full electric vehicles, Kumar said. Its second-generation EVs, including the successor to the F-150 Lightning pickup, will be more profitable, in terms of their ability to generation additional software and services revenue.

Persons: Rebecca Cook, Navin Kumar, Kumar, Morgan, Paul Lienert, David Gregorio Our Organizations: Ford, Ford Motor Company, REUTERS, Ford Pro, Transit Courier, Thomson Locations: Dearborn , Michigan, U.S, Europe, Detroit

☆ Meet the contrarian VC: Why Mayfield's Navin Chaddha is writing more checks than ever before while other investors pull back
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Vishal Persaud | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The longtime VC firm just announced a new $250 million seed fund focused on AI. In tough economic times, the firm's leader, Navin Chaddha, believes it's a prime time to invest. That has essentially been Navin Chaddha's mantra since he took over the reins at venture-capital stalwart Mayfield Fund in 2009. With a dedicated $250 million AI seed war chest, Mayfield is now prepared to lean in even more. "We believe that AI will emerge as our teammate and that the Gen.AI wave will create many iconic companies," Chaddha said in a press release.

Persons: Mayfield, Navin Chaddha, it's, Navin, that's, Chaddha, – who's, Forbes, –, Vijay Reddy, Reddy Organizations: VC, Mayfield Fund, Mayfield, Tiger, Insight Partners, Clear Ventures, Intel Capital, Wing Venture Locations: Bessemer, Sequoia

REUTERS/Amit Dave/File PhotoNEW DELHI, July 8 (Reuters) - An Indian court rejected PepsiCo Inc's appeal against an order that revoked a patent for a potato variety grown exclusively for the New York-based company's popular Lay's potato chips. The authority removed PepsiCo's patent cover after Kavitha Kuruganti, a farmers' rights activist, argued that the company cannot claim a patent over a seed variety. PepsiCo petitioned the Delhi High Court against the revocation of the patent cover. In its order dated July 5, Delhi High Court judge Navin Chawla dismissed PepsiCo's appeal against the authority's decision. In 2019, PepsiCo sued some Indian farmers for cultivating the FC5 potato variety, accusing growers of infringing its patent.

Persons: Amit Dave, Kavitha Kuruganti, Navin Chawla, Kuruganti, Mayank Bhardwaj, Sumit Khanna, Kim Coghill Organizations: REUTERS, PepsiCo, New, ' Rights, Authority, Court, Monsanto, drugmaker Bayer AG, Thomson Locations: Ahmedabad, India, DELHI, New York, Delhi, PepsiCo India, U.S

☆ Some venture capitalists were probably a bit too hopeful about hitting fundraising goals this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-15 | by ( Vishal Persaud | Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Insight Partners and TCV are reportedly scaling back the size of huge venture funds they planned. The amount of money VC firms raised themselves hit $170.8 billion in 2022, according to PitchBook data, up from $158.5 billion in 2021. And it's also evident in two gigantic firms that had lofty fundraising goals but are now scaling back: Insight Partners and TCV. The firm has raised about 50% to 75% less for a $5.5 billion fund it planned for last year, The Information reported. Last month, Mayfield Fund announced that it raised $955 million across two new venture funds.

Persons: VCs, —, it's, they're, whittle, It's, Insider's Melia Russell, Brian, Lisa Sugar, Turner Novak, Monique Woodward, Navin Chaddha, who's, Chaddha Organizations: Insight Partners, Morning, Insight, Bloomberg, Financial Times, Tiger, Tiger Global, Street, Sugar, Banana, Cake Ventures, Mayfield Fund Locations: Mayfield, Silicon Valley

OAKLAND, California, June 13(Reuters) - Silicon Valley-based AI chip startup SiMa.ai on Tuesday said it raised an additional $13 million from investors including a key fund in Taiwan called VentureTech Alliance, which has a strong strategic partnership with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (2330.TW). This is at least the third investment in U.S. chip startups by VentureTech Alliance in the past month. British AI chip unicorn Graphcore's struggles have been widely reported. Rangasayee also pointed to one recent benchmark testing result by SiMa.ai that beat AI chip giant Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O) in performance and power of chips used on devices like cameras, drones and robots. The testing data is published by MLCommons, an engineering consortium that maintains testing benchmarks widely used in the AI chip industry.

Persons: VentureTech, Ethernovia, SiMa.ai, Navin Chaddha, Mayfield, Chaddha, they're, Moshe Gavrielov, Krishna Rangasayee, MLCommons, it's, David, Goliath, Jane Lanhee Lee, Lisa Shumaker Organizations: VentureTech, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, VentureTech Alliance, Ayar Labs, Nvidia Corp, Nvidia, Thomson Locations: OAKLAND, California, Taiwan, British

☆ AI startup MindsDB aims to help every developer be a machine learning engineer. Here's the pitch deck it used to raise $25 million from investors like Mayfield Fund and Benchmark.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Vishal Persaud | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

AI startup MindsDB just raised a $25 million seed extension round led by Mayfield. The round comes less than three months after it raised a $16.5 million round led by Benchmark. The founders of MindsDB aims to help software developers worldwide perform the roles of machine-learning engineers. Founded in 2017, MindsDB is now gaining the interest of investors as AI has become the talk of the town in tech. In February, the startup announced $16.5 million in funding led by Benchmark.

Persons: Mayfield, MindsDB, Navin Chaddha, Chaddha, MindDB's cofounders Jorge Torres, Adam Carrigan, Torres, Chetan Puttagunta Organizations: Benchmark, Mayfield Fund, Ventures, Australian National University Locations: San Francisco, Europe

The government expects growth could remain around 6.5% in the current fiscal year, despite risks emerging from a global slowdown. Asia's third-largest economy expanded faster than the forecast of 5.0% by economists in a Reuters poll in the last quarter of the 2022/23 fiscal year through March, up from a revised 4.5% in the previous quarter. She added growth numbers, however, reflected optimism for the Indian economy despite global headwinds. Reuters GraphicsFederal government spending, constituting about 10% of GDP, rose 2.3% year-on-year in the latest quarter, compared with a revised 0.6% contraction in the previous quarter. Currently, 45% of India's workforce is employed in the farm sector, which contributes just 15% to the economy.

Persons: Anantha Nageswaran, Sakshi Gupta, Narendra Modi, Economists, Sarita Chaganti Singh, Shivangi Acharya, Nishit Navin, Emelia Sithole, David Holmes Organizations: Reserve Bank of India, Reuters, Reuters Graphics Federal, Monitoring, Thomson Locations: DELHI, India, HDFC, Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru

☆ India's Tech Mahindra Q4 profit drops 26% as clients cut spending
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

BENGALURU, April 27 (Reuters) - India's Tech Mahindra (TEML.NS) reported a drop in fourth-quarter profit on Thursday as challenging macro-economic conditions prompted clients to tighten spending. Consolidated net profit for the information technology services firm fell 25.8% to 11.18 billion rupees ($136.66 million)for the quarter ended March 31, from 15.06 billion rupees a year earlier. ($1 = 81.8100 Indian rupees)Reporting by Nishit Navin in Bengaluru; Editing by Sohini GoswamiOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ India's Infosys tumbles 15% on downbeat revenue outlook
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BENGALURU, April 17 (Reuters) - Infosys Ltd (INFY.NS) shares slumped nearly 15% on Monday and dragged stocks of peers, after the IT services exporter's dismal revenue outlook highlighted the impact of banking turmoil in major markets, the United States and Europe. Infosys' outlook followed a disappointing quarterly report from larger rival Tata Consultancy Services (TCS.NS), highlighting worries for the sector which earns more than 25% of its revenue from just the U.S. and European banking, financial, services and insurance sector. Infosys saw its biggest intraday percentage drop since October 2019, and dragged other IT stocks, with the Nifty IT index (.NIFTYIT) dropping as much as 7.6%. "Given the uncertain environment in the near term, growth can be back ended for Infosys, in our view," PhillipCapital said in a note. ($1 = 81.9020 Indian rupees)Reporting by Nishit Navin; editing by Eileen SorengOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ India's Infosys forecasts slower FY24 revenue growth of 4%-7%
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BENGALURU, April 13 (Reuters) - Infosys Ltd (INFY.NS) on Thursday forecast slower revenue growth for the current fiscal year compared with analysts' expectations, amid a turmoil in the U.S. banking sector that has prompted clients to tighten spending. India's second-largest IT services firm expects revenue growth of 4%-7% for the fiscal year ending March 2024. Analysts expected growth of 10.73% for the period, according to Refinitiv IBES data. Infosys won large deals worth $2.1 billion in the fourth quarter, down from $2.3 billion in the same period the previous year. Infosys' consolidated net profit rose 7.77% to 61.28 billion rupees ($749.10 million) in the three months ended March 31, while revenue rose 16% to 374.41 billion rupees.

☆ Instant View: Here’s what experts think of India's surprise rate decision
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +16 min

The monetary policy committee (MPC) retained the key lending rate or the repo rate (INREPO=ECI) at 6.50% in a unanimous decision. With the likely softening of CPI to the low- to mid-5% levels in the coming month, the current repo rate of 6.5% implies that India’s real policy rate will hover around 1% during 2023-24, while maintaining a policy rate differential of about 1.5% with the US. Room for additional rate hikes has been retained with MPC’s policy stance continuing to remain unchanged at ‘withdrawal of accommodation’. We believe the bar for future rate hikes has increased, especially since near-term prints of CPI will be sub 6%. Scope for further hikes is limited given our growth-inflation outlook and impact of the past rate hikes on the same.

☆ India's Tata Technologies, a unit of Tata Motors, files for IPO
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BENGALURU, March 10 (Reuters) - Tata Technologies, a unit of Indian carmaker Tata Motors (TAMO.NS), filed for an initial public offering (IPO) on Thursday, according to draft papers submitted to the market regulator. However, Tata Tech, which provides engineering and product development digital services, said it will not offer any of the 95.7 million shares, representing around 23.6% of its paid-up share capital, to be sold in the IPO. Instead, Tata Motors, which has a 74.69% stake in Tata Tech, will sell up to 81.1 million shares, while Alpha TC Holdings will sell 9.7 million shares and Tata Capital Growth Fund I will sell 4.9 million shares. The spend on digital services in these industries is expected to rise from $1.64 trillion in 2021 to $2.28-2.33 trillion by 2025, Tata Tech said, citing a report by Zinnov Management Consulting. Tata Motors said in December it was exploring the possibility of selling part of its stake in Tata Tech through a public float.

☆ India's HDB Financial Services flags data breach at service provider
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BENGALURU, March 7 (Reuters) - HDB Financial Services, the non-bank lending unit of India's top private lender HDFC Bank (HDBK.NS), said on Tuesday there was a data breach at one of its service providers which processes customer information. "We have taken immediate steps to secure the service provider's system to prevent any further unauthorized access," HDB said in an emailed statement. The company did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the nature of the data breach and how many customers were affected. HDFC Bank said it was not affected by the incident. "We wish to state that there is no data leak at HDFC Bank and our systems have not been breached or accessed in any unauthorised manner.

SYDNEY/BENGALURU, March 3 (Reuters) - Adani shares surged on Friday after a $1.87 billion investment in the group by GQG Partners Inc eased concerns about the group's ability to attract funding, while the conglomerate lined up more road shows to shore up investor confidence. Adani Group will hold road shows this month in London, Dubai and several cities in the United States, according to a document seen by Reuters. Overall, Adani group firms' net debt totalled $24.1 billion as of September 2022. Adani Green Energy and Adani Transmission jumped 5% each. Dollar bonds issued by Adani entities also rallied, with Adani Green Energy's 2024 bond adding 2.3 cents on the dollar to trade at 85.5 cents, while most bonds issued by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, Adani Transmission and Adani Electricity Mumbai rose by more than 1 cent.

☆ India's Tata Motors in talks to raise $1 bln via stake sale in EV business - Report
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The company plans to sell a significant minority stake, the newspaper report added, eyeing a valuation of about $10.5 billion. The funds and investors include the UAE-based Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and Mubadala Investment Company, the Saudi Arabia-headquartered Public Investment Fund, Singapore's Temasek Holdings, and KKR and General Atlantic. Tata Motors and some of the companies did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment. Tata Motors plans to use the bulk of the proceeds to retire a part of its outstanding debt and infuse a small portion as primary equity in the EV business, the report said. Tata Motors has outlined plans to expand its electric car portfolio with new models and higher price points.

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