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☆ IBM to launch Meta's Llama 2 on watsonx AI platform for businesses
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

The International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) logo is displayed, during the GSMA's 2023 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain March 1, 2023. REUTERS/Nacho DoceAug 9 (Reuters) - International Business Machines (IBM.N) said on Wednesday it would host Meta Platforms' (META.O) artificial intelligence language program on its own enterprise AI platform, watsonx. IBM's watsonx, which helps businesses integrate AI into their workflow, provides early access to the Facebook-parent's Llama 2 to some clients. The enterprise software provider said that the release of Meta's open source AI model will be followed by additional software such as AI tuning studios, fact sheets and other generative AI models. Llama 2 is a commercial version of Meta's open source AI language model launched in July, distributed by Microsoft's (MSFT.O) cloud Azure services to compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's (GOOGL.O) Bard in the nascent generative AI market.

Persons: Nacho Doce, IBM's, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Bard, Zaheer Kachwala, Maju Samuel Organizations: Business Machines Corporation, IBM, Congress, REUTERS, Business Machines, Facebook, Thomson Locations: Barcelona, Spain, Bengaluru

☆ These are the 3 key things that will impact the stock market in the week ahead
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-15 | by ( Zev Fima | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

A lot was riding on these important measures of inflation after the scorching-hot ADP jobs report last week. Here are 3 things you need to know for the week ahead: 1. Industrial production and capacity utilization, also out Tuesday, shines a light on manufacturing, which attributes about 12% to U.S. GDP. Six months is generally considered to represent a balance between supply and demand in the housing market. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio.

Persons: Stocks, Morgan Stanley, Johnson, Jeff Miller, Lockheed Martin, Charles Schwab, JB Hunt, Goldman, Baker Hughes, Ally, Kinder Morgan, Zions, Philip Morris, Abbott, ABT, Jim Cramer's, Jim Cramer, Jim, Scott Olson Organizations: Nasdaq, Dow Jones Industrial, Housing, CPI, Halliburton, HAL, Johnson, of America Corp, Lockheed, Lockheed Martin Corp, Novartis International AG, PNC Financial Services Group, Inc, PNC, Charles Schwab Corp, Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, BK, Synchrony, Interactive, Goldman Sachs Group, U.S . Bancorp, ASML, Citizens Financial, T Bank Corp, Northern Trust Corporation, Horizon National Corp, Business Machines Corp, IBM, United Airlines, Netflix, Steel Dynamics, Alcoa, Discover Financial Services, Crown, International Corp, Equifax Inc, Las Vegas Sands Corp, Liberty Energy Inc, Philip Morris International Inc, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, American Airlines Group Inc, Travelers Companies, SAP, Nokia Corp, Truist Financial Corporation, Company, McLennan Companies, Infosys Technologies Ltd, Newmont Mining Corp, Fifth Third Bancorp, Pool Corporation, Alfa Laval, Webster Financial Corp, Blackstone, Financial Corp, PPG Industries, CSX Corp, CSX, Berkley Corp, Swift Transportation Holdings Inc, American Express Co, AutoNation Inc, Interpublic, of Companies, Autoliv Inc, Huntington Bancshares, Financial Corporation, Roper Technologies, Comerica, Jim Cramer's Charitable, CNBC, Getty Locations: U.S, Las, ZION, Horton, Freeport, Marsh, ALFVY, W.R, Lemont , Illinois

☆ IBM mulls using its own AI chip in new cloud service to lower costs
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Stephen Nellis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

IBM is hoping to take advantage of the boom in generative AI technologies that can write human-like text more than a decade after Watson, its first major AI system, failed to gain market traction. One of the barriers the old Watson system faced was high costs, which IBM is hoping to address this time. Khare said using its own chips could lower cloud service costs because they are very power efficient. IBM has joined other tech giants such as Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google and Amazon.com (AMZN.O) in designing its own AI chips. Instead, IBM's chip aims to be cost-efficient at what AI industry insiders call inference, which is the process of putting an already trained AI system to use making real-world decisions.

Persons: Mukesh Khare, Watson, Khare, Stephen Nellis, Jamie Freed Organizations: FRANCISCO, Business Machines, IBM, Reuters, IBM Semiconductors, Artificial Intelligence, Samsung Electronics, Google, Nvidia, Thomson Locations: San Francisco, watsonx

☆ Factbox: Japan ramps up efforts to strengthen its chip industry
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Below are investments in Japan announced by chipmakers and measures the government is taking to revive its semiconductor industry. Sony Group (6758.T) and auto parts maker Denso (6902.T), which will use the chips TSMC makes, are also investors. It said it would be the first chipmaker to bring EUV technology to Japan for production. It has offered TSMC a 476 billion yen subsidy, or about half the expected cost of the factory. Rapidus secured an initial 70 billion yen of funding from the government, and local media reported in April that the government was finalising a plan to provide an additional 300 billion yen.

Persons: TW, Rapidus, JIC, Makiko Yamazaki, Sam Nussey, Tim Kelly, Miho Uranaka, Miyoung Kim, Jamie Freed Organizations: Semiconductor, chipmakers, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, Sony Group, Micron Technology, Samsung Electronics, Reuters, Business Machines, IBM, Samsung, Nikon, Tokyo, Japan Investment Corp, Innovation Network Corp of Japan, Toshiba, Japan Industrial Partners, Thomson Locations: TOKYO, Japan, Kyushu, Denso, KS, Yokohama, Japan's, Chitose, Hokkaido, Rapidus, U.S, China, State

☆ Washington and Tokyo vow closer chip cooperation
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Nishimura Yasutoshi, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), talks during an interview with Reuters in Tokyo, Japan, April 5, 2023. In a joint statement, the two countries agreed to increase cooperation between their research and development hubs, as they map out future technology collaboration. The statement came after Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura met in Detroit with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. The two countries agreed to work together "to identify and resolve geographic concentrations of production undermining semiconductor supply chain resilience". Raimondo on Thursday met China's Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao in Washington where the pair exchanged views on trade, investment and export policies.

☆ Japan's prime minister to meet with top chip firms
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SummarySummary Companies Meeting could happen as soon as ThursdayWould include TSMC, Samsung, Intel, MicronTOKYO, May 17 (Reuters) - Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida plans to meet with top executives from global semiconductor companies as early as on Thursday to strengthen multilateral cooperation, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said. Japan is striving to reinvigorate its chip sector, whose global market share has fallen to about 10% from around 50% in the late 1980s. TSMC, the world's largest contract chip manufacturer, is building a major factory in western Japan. Samsung is considering setting up a chip packaging test line in the country, five people familiar with the matter said in March. Also, Intel is looking into opening up a research and development facility in Japan, the Yomiuri Shimbun daily reported on Wednesday.

☆ Japan PM Kishida to meet executives from top chip firms -sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

TOKYO, May 17 (Reuters) - Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida plans to meet on Thursday with top executives from global semiconductor companies including TSMC to seek active investment in Japan, said two people involved in planning the meeting. Kishida will also ask those companies to develop closer cooperation with Japanese firms, the people said following a Yomiuri newspaper report on the meeting. Japan is striving to breathe vigour into its chip sector, whose global market share has tumbled to about 10% from around 50% in the late 1980s. TSMC, the world's largest contract chip manufacturer, is building a major factory in western Japan. Samsung is considering setting up a chip packaging test line in the country, five people familiar with the matter said in March.

[1/4] OpenAI CEO Sam Altman testifies before a Senate Judiciary Privacy, Technology & the Law Subcommittee hearing titled 'Oversight of A.I. Some critics fear the technology will exacerbate societal harms, among them prejudice and misinformation, while others warn AI could end humanity itself. Globally, this is exploding," said Senator Cory Booker, one of many lawmakers with questions about how best to regulate AI. The White House has convened top technology CEOs including Altman to address AI. An OpenAI staffer recently proposed the creation of a U.S. licensing agency for AI, which could be called the Office for AI Safety and Infrastructure Security, or OASIS, Reuters has reported.

In his first appearance before a congressional panel, CEO Sam Altman is set to advocate licensing or registration requirements for AI with certain capabilities, his written testimony shows. That way, the U.S. can hold companies to safety standards, for instance testing systems before their release and publishing the results. "Regulation of AI is essential," Altman said in the prepared remarks which were seen by Reuters. An OpenAI staffer recently proposed the creation of a U.S. licensing agency for AI, which could be called the Office for AI Safety and Infrastructure Security, or OASIS, Reuters has reported. She is expected to urge Congress to focus regulation on areas with the potential to do the greatest societal harm.

OAKLAND, California, May 9 (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N) on Tuesday launched watsonx, a new artificial intelligence and data platform to help companies integrate AI in their business. The new AI platform launch comes over a decade after IBM's software called Watson got attention for winning the game show Jeopardy. Fast forward a decade, chatbot ChatGPT's overnight success is making AI adoption at companies a focus, and IBM is looking to grab new business. This time, the lower cost of implementing the large language AI models means the chances of success are high, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna told Reuters ahead of the company's annual Think conference. IBM said companies can use the watsonx platform to train and deploy AI models, automatically generate code using natural language and use various large language models built for different purposes such as chemical creation or climate change modeling.

And so whenever I get one of those notifications, I know I’m going to have a good time there. kevin roose[LAUGHS]: I actually don’t think I could’ve told you what IBM stood for. kevin rooseSo I’ve thought a lot and written a lot about how and when AI actually is a threat to jobs. The third category is just the jobs that I think are going to be protected, the jobs that we won’t let AI do. But I don’t actually think the speed of it matters at all.

☆ Big Tech Expects Some Assets to Last Longer. But the Boost to Profit Is Temporary.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Mark Maurer | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Google parent Alphabet is among the tech firms that have made extensions to their servers and network equipment this year. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesA growing number of tech companies expect their servers and network equipment to last longer, an accounting change that reflects the slower pace of developments in certain chips while also boosting profits at a difficult time for the industry. Companies such as Google parent Alphabet, information-technology business International Business Machines and cloud-services firm Akamai Technologies made extensions so far this year. Other tech firms—including Meta Platforms , Microsoft , Oracle and Amazon.com —have also revised their estimates since 2022. Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon made two separate sets of extensions in recent years, two years apart, filings show.

☆ IBM to pause hiring in plan to replace 7,800 jobs with AI - Bloomberg News
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

May 1 (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N) expects to pause hiring for roles as roughly 7,800 jobs could be replaced by Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the coming years, CEO Arvind Krishna told Bloomberg News on Monday. Hiring specifically in back-office functions such as human resources will be suspended or slowed, Krishna said, adding that 30% of non-customer-facing roles could be replaced by AI and automations in five years. The reduction could include not replacing roles vacated by attrition, the PC-maker told the publication. IBM did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Reporting by Mrinmay Dey in BengaluruOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

NEW YORK, April 19 (Reuters) - Cybersecurity firm Forcepoint is exploring a sale of its government security unit for more than $2 billion, five people familiar with the matter said. Forcepoint is looking to offload the unit as part of its strategy to focus on growing its commercial business, which caters to large corporations, the sources added. Austin, Texas-based Forcepoint develops and creates computer security software, data protection, and firewall solutions. Last year, Forcepoint won an $89 million contract from the U.S. Department of Defense to provide software solutions that would help monitor user activity. Forcepoint also counts the likes of International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N), CVS Health Corp (CVS.N), Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) as customers.

OAKLAND, California, April 19 (Reuters) - Chip manufacturer GlobalFoundries Inc (GFS.O) said on Wednesday it had filed a lawsuit against International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N), accusing it of unlawfully sharing confidential intellectual property and trade secrets. New York-based GlobalFoundries said in its complaint that IBM had shared IP and trade secrets with Rapidus, a new state-backed Japanese consortium that IBM is working with to develop and produce cutting-edge two-nanometre chips. It also asserted that IBM had unlawfully disclosed and misused its IP with Intel Corp (INTC.O), noting that IBM had announced in 2021 it would collaborate with Intel on next-generation chip technology. "IBM is unjustly receiving potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in licensing income and other benefits," GlobalFoundries said in a statement. GlobalFoundries is seeking compensatory and punitive damages as well as an injunction against IBM to stop using the trade secrets.

☆ Three investors on how to protect your portfolio
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( Krystal Hur | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN —Wall Street has been hit with a barrage of complex signals about the economy’s health over the past month. From banking turmoil to weakening jobs data to slowing inflation, and now the start of earnings season, investors have remained largely resilient. So, how should investors protect their portfolios? Investors say there isn’t one asset that Wall Street should pile all their bets on, but there are fundamentals that should underlie their investment strategies. Doug Fincher, portfolio manager at Ionic Capital Management, says investors should brace their portfolios against inflation.

☆ IBM Explores Sale of Weather Business
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Laura Cooper | Lauren Thomas | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

IBM has been taking steps to focus on its platform-based hybrid cloud and artificial-intelligence strategy. International Business Machines Corp. is exploring a sale of its weather operation, according to people familiar with the matter, as the technology company seeks to streamline its operations. An auction of the business is at an early stage, the people said, and there may not be a deal. Should there be one, private-equity is most likely the buyer in a deal that could be valued at more than $1 billion, the people said.

☆ Pro Take: AI Boom Will Test Readiness of IBM, and Its Customers
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( Steven Rosenbush | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

IBM Chief Executive Arvind Krishna said the world is coming to believe that AI is a fundamentally transformative technology. ARMONK, N.Y.—International Business Machines Corp. researchers spent decades developing artificial intelligence when most of the world wasn’t ready to embrace it, and the company struggled at times to build a business around it. Now, as interest in AI booms amid new advances, IBM is tailoring the technology to address the individual business problems of customers that are prepared to use it. “I think we’ve all talked a lot about AI as a fundamentally transformative technology and I think maybe over the last few months, now, the world is coming to agree,” IBM Chief Executive Arvind Krishna said during an interview at company headquarters. “I think before that they might not have disagreed, but I’m not sure they fully believed.”

☆ US, Canada plan North American chip corridor, starting with IBM expansion
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Stephen Nellis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 24 (Reuters) - The United States and Canada said on Friday they would work together to create a bilateral semiconductor manufacturing corridor, as International Business Machines (IBM.N) signaled its intent to expand in Canada. The Canadian government will spend C$250 million ($181.94 million) on its domestic semiconductor industry to boost research and development and manufacturing, the prime minister's office said in a statement. The countries did not disclose the amount of IBM's investment in Canada. IBM maintains semiconductor research and manufacturing operations in upstate New York. ($1 = 1.3741 Canadian dollars)Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Richard ChangOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Executive Bet on Partner’s Idea for U.S.-Style Hotels in France
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( Bob Tita | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Gérard Pélisson helped build one of the world’s largest hotel companies in Accor SA. Gérard Pélisson bet on an untested business idea for hotels in Europe and picked the right partner for it. Mr. Pélisson gave up a career as an executive at International Business Machines Corp. in the 1960s to start a hotel company with Paul Dubrule, who had taken notice of successful hotel chains like Holiday Inn while working in the U.S. Mr. Dubrule convinced Mr. Pélisson that similar hotels could work in France and elsewhere in Europe, too. Mr. Pélisson mostly focused on the financing for the project and Mr. Dubrule devised the marketing plans. They opened their first Novotel hotel in northern France four years later in 1967.

☆ Ginni Rometty Learned How to Use ‘Good Power’
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Emily Bobrow | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Virginia “Ginni” Rometty emerged as a strong contender to run International Business Machines Corp. after she successfully led the company’s merger with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP’s consulting arm in 2003. When months went by without hitting her profit targets, Ms. Rometty knew she needed to turn things around. What didn’t help, she says, was hearing from a superior that if she failed she was “no longer a welcome member of the family.”“Some of the biggest lessons I learned about power were about how not to lead,” Ms. Rometty, 65, said over video from her home in Naples, Fla. Since retiring as IBM’s chairman and CEO in 2020, after nearly a decade in the job and a lifetime at the company, she says she has been thinking a lot about how power is wielded and abused. “Given the many negative stories about leaders in politics and business, people now associate power with fear, with being uncomfortable,” she says.

☆ Rapidus picks northern Japan's Chitose as semiconductor plant location
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

TOKYO, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Japan's state-backed Rapidus said on Tuesday it would build its semiconductor plant in Chitose, a manufacturing hub on the nation's northern island of Hokkaido. The factory and a Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (2330.TW) plant under construction on the southern island of Kyushu are the key pillars of Japan's strategy to boost its capability to make more advanced chips and shield itself from supply chain snarls. Rapidus Chairman Tetsuro Higashi told Reuters this month that the company would need about 7 trillion yen ($51.4 billion) of mostly taxpayer money to begin mass producing advanced logic chips around 2027. Chitose, a city of about 100,000 people, already hosts a wide range of factories run by major manufacturers including silicon wafer maker SUMCO Corp (3436.T) and auto components maker Denso Corp (6902.T). ($1 = 136.1500 yen)Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka and Mayu Sakoda; Editing by Edwina GibbsOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Generative AI Helping Boost Productivity of Some Software Developers
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Belle Lin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

The technology, known as generative AI, has been pioneered by OpenAI, the lab behind the ChatGPT writing system and the Dall-E visual illustration generator. Copilot, as well as other tools from Amazon.com Inc., International Business Machines Corp. , and startups like Tabnine Inc. and Magic AI Inc., have quickly found a receptive audience among developers seeking a productivity boost. The AI model behind Copilot is trained on data from GitHub, which houses a popular open-source community where developers contribute and share code. Newsletter Sign-up WSJ | CIO Journal The Morning Download delivers daily insights and news on business technology from the CIO Journal team. And, with a tightening economy in mind, Hyland Software is holding back on spending for any new tools or technologies.

☆ As Deal Making Picks Up, Tech Chiefs Worry About Software Integration
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Angus Loten | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

That is a potentially costly process that can require overhauling existing enterprise tech stacks, or even hiring high-priced experts to manage new IT tools, analysts said. SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS How can tech executives smooth the integration of new digital tools when their vendors make acquisitions? Hewlett Packard Enterprise this month said it acquired Pachyderm and would integrate new software tools into its enterprise-tech platform. HPE this month said it acquired Pachyderm, a San Francisco-based software startup, and would integrate the new software tools into its enterprise-tech platform. “Our existing customer base will want to know they won’t be forced to replace an existing technology they already buy,” Mr. Hotard said.

☆ Corporate Layoffs Spread Beyond High-Growth Tech Giants
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Chip Cutter | Theo Francis | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Dow Inc., International Business Machines Corp. and SAP SE announced plans to cut thousands of jobs to prepare for a darkening economic outlook, as the current wave of corporate layoffs spreads beyond high-growth technology companies. Together with layoffs announced by manufacturer 3M Co. this week, these companies are trimming more than 10,000 jobs, just a fraction of their total workforces. Still, the decisions mark a shift in sentiment inside executive suites, where many leaders have been holding on to workers after struggling to hire and retain them in recent years when the pandemic disrupted workplaces.

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