DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Musk Adds Microsoft to OpenAI Lawsuit, Accusing Them of an AI Monopoly
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-15 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Elon Musk has added Microsoft as a defendant to an amended lawsuit against OpenAI. The suit, which also adds Reid Hoffman as defendant, accuses Microsoft and OpenAI of forming a monopoly. AdvertisementThe suit describes Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI as a "de facto merger" and said, "Microsoft is now OpenAI, and OpenAI, Microsoft." The amended lawsuit is the latest escalation between longtime rivals Musk and Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI. Microsoft, OpenAI, and Hoffman didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.

Persons: Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman, OpenAI, —, Shivon Zilis, Zilis, Musk, Mustafa Suleyman, Sam Altman, cofounders Altman, Greg Brockman, SoftBank, Navneet Govil, Govil, BI's Hasan Chowdhury, Hoffman didn't, Hoffman Organizations: Microsoft, OpenAI, Service, Bloomberg, New York Times, OpenAI's San, Financial Times, Business Locations: Neuralink, Northern California, OpenAI's, OpenAI's San Francisco

☆ SoftBank is betting on AI and an IPO revival after swinging to a $7.7 billion profit
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-12 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

SoftBank reported a $7.7 billion quarterly profit on Tuesday after a loss last year. SoftBank Vision Fund's CFO told BI that "macro tailwinds" helped its public portfolio. AdvertisementGains for its Vision Fund 1, a $98.6 billion investment vehicle launched in 2016 with backing from Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth funds, totaled $3 billion in the second quarter. Despite the investment gain, Vision Fund 2 has lost an overall total of $21 billion since its inception. The results come as SoftBank gears up for a huge investment spree in AI to realize Son's ambitious vision.

Persons: SoftBank, —, Masayoshi, Didi Chuxing, Navneet Govil, Ola, Govil, PayPay Organizations: Service, Funds, Vision, IPOs, Nvidia Locations: Abu Dhabi, Saudi, China, OpenAI, Mexico, India, ByteDance

☆ SoftBank’s Arm-twisting fails to convince
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Shareholders already had good reason to take that with a pinch of salt. The Japanese conglomerate’s 478 billion yen ($3.3 billion) net loss, which missed analysts’ estimates, included an increase in the carrying value of chip designer Arm, even though revenue dipped. That allowed the company’s Vision Fund to post a $1.1 billion profit, its first in six quarters. But investors in the Japanese group will be waiting a long time for SoftBank’s new campaign to pay off. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

Persons: Masayoshi Son, Yoshimitsu Goto, ’, Navneet, Arm’s, Antony Currie, Una Galani, Thomas Shum Organizations: MELBOURNE, Reuters, SoftBank, Fund, Vision Fund, Twitter, Siemens, Thomson

☆ A.I. could ‘remove all human touchpoints’ in supply chains. Here’s what that means
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-19 | by ( Lucy Handley | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Ryan Collerd | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesArtificial intelligence is likely to shake up the transportation industry — transforming how supply chains are managed and reducing the number of jobs carried out by people, according to analysts and industry insiders. Sidewalk robots, self-driving trucks and customer service bots are on their way, along with generative AI that can predict disruptions or explain why sales forecasts may have been missed, according to industry executives. "AI may be able to totally (or nearly) remove all human touchpoints in the supply chain including 'back office' tasks," Morgan Stanley 's analysts led by Ravi Shanker stated in a research note last month. AI is the latest one of these potentially transformative technologies to emerge – and perhaps the most powerful to-date," the analysts added. This is a theme picked up by analysts at investment firm Jefferies, who made multiple predictions about the effect that generative AI will have on transportation and logistics.

Persons: Morgan Stanley, Ryan Collerd, Ravi Shanker, Morgan, Jefferies, Stephanie Moore, Navneet Kapoor, Kapoor, Maersk, Igor Rikalo Organizations: Hershey Co, Bloomberg, Getty, EV, Trucking, Logistics, CNBC, Maersk, o9 Solutions Maersk Locations: U.S, Russia, Ukraine

☆ SoftBank tumbles to loss as Vision Fund in red for fourth straight quarter
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Kiyoshi Takenaka | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The Vision Fund, which upended the world of technology with its big bets on startups, reported an investment loss of 730.36 billion yen ($5.52 billion) in the fiscal third quarter. At SoftBank itself, the net loss totalled 783.42 billion yen, compared with a 29.05 billion yen profit a year earlier. SoftBank said the Vision Fund unit had significantly curtailed new investments and was continuing to sell some older ones as part of "prudent defensive financial management" amid the challenging market environment. GOOD ARMThe bulk of the loss at the Vision Fund unit came from a steep decline in the valuation of investments in unlisted companies. Son invested heavily in artificial intelligence and other high-tech startups through the Vision Fund in recent years, delivering both record profits and heady optimism about future valuations.

☆ Inside SoftBank Vision Fund's awful, terrible, really bad year. How the venture fund tumbled, according to former employees, investors and rival VCs.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | Ben Bergman | Samantha Stokes | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

SoftBank's Vision Fund just experienced one of its most dismal years in its history. SoftBank's Vision Fund was once a power broker, having raised a jaw-dropping $100 billion in 2017, followed by plans to raise $108 billion for Vision Fund 2 in 2019 — two of the largest venture-investing vehicles ever established. But insiders are now questioning if it will ever regain influence, according to 11 ex-Vision Fund investors, former employees, VCs, and industry analysts who weighed in on the future of the Vision Fund. One ex-Vision Fund investor described Son, now taking the reins of Vision Fund 2, as someone who is "not a manager." Given its investing performance so far, the obvious question is what happens once Vision Fund 2 has reached full investment.

☆ SoftBank faces tech stock weakness at Q2 earnings
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

TOKYO, Nov 7 (Reuters) - SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) is expected to face further weakness in tech stocks when it reports second-quarter earnings on Friday, after two brutal quarters that have shaken Masayoshi Son's tech conglomerate. The Vision Fund investing arm booked $50 billion in losses in the six months to end-June as valuations slid. Founder and Chief Executive Son has moved to cut headcount and refocus the second fund on managing its existing portfolio. Alibaba (9988.HK), , which SoftBank has been selling to raise cash, has fallen more than 40% year-to-date. "For most/all funding needs, SBG will use Alibaba shares to defend its balance sheet or stock price," Goyal wrote.

☆ SoftBank creates committee to oversee Vision Fund 2 - memo
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Sam Nussey | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

TOKYO, Oct 21 (Reuters) - SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) has created an executive committee to oversee its second Vision Fund, Latin America funds and any future funds, its founder and Chief Executive Masayoshi Son said in a memo to employees reviewed by Reuters. Alex Clavel will oversee investing teams in the United States and Latin America, Greg Moon will manage teams in Europe and Asia and Navneet Govil, Vision Fund's chief financial officer, will oversee other functional teams, Son wrote. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterThe appointment of a new committee comes as Vision Fund architect Rajeev Misra has ceded his frontline role at the second fund to launch an external fund. Son has said the second fund invested at frothy prices and is slashing headcount at the Vision Fund unit. The creation of the executive committee was first reported by Bloomberg.

Search resuls for: "Navneet"

8 mentions found