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☆ Biden to unveil $3.3 billion Microsoft AI investment in battleground Wisconsin
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-08 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

President Joe Biden will visit the political battleground state of Wisconsin on Wednesday to announce plans by Microsoft Corp to build a $3.3 billion high-tech data center that will create thousands of jobs, the White House said. Microsoft's plans will result in 2,300 union construction jobs and some 2,000 permanent jobs over time, the White House said. It said nearly 4,000 jobs had been added in Racine since Biden took office, while about 1,000 manufacturing jobs were lost during the Trump administration. Biden is seeking to shore up support among Black voters ahead of the November presidential election, with national polls showing him essentially tied with Republican Trump. The Biden campaign on Wednesday announced the launch of a $14 million ad campaign, which will include a seven-figure investment targeting Black, Latino and Asian voters.

Persons: Joe Biden, Foxconn, Donald Trump, Microsoft's, Biden, Trump, — Organizations: Microsoft Corp, Microsoft, Gateway Technical College, Democrat, Black, Republican Trump, Wednesday Locations: Wisconsin, Racine County, Taiwan, Racine, Racine's Black

☆ Congress may be going after the wrong social network
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-16 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Chew, meanwhile, clapped back, “American social companies don’t have a good track record with data privacy and user security. But if lawmakers were serious about protecting the digital data of millions of American social media users, targeting TikTok alone is a limited way to achieve this goal. Separately, US intelligence authorities have said that Russian operatives were able to exploit US-based social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter as part of an election meddling campaign in the lead-up to the 2016 US presidential vote. Sherman said he thinks some lawmakers are raising important national security concerns regarding TikTok. Ultimately, Jameel Jaffer, the executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, called the bill a “missed opportunity” for Congress to take real action regarding their concerns about US user data.

Insider spoke with startup founders and VCs who are managing companies while aiding the war effort. Startup founders and employees have traveled back to Israel from their homes abroad to take up arms and defend their country. The call to serveIn Israel, military service is mandatory for all citizens over 18. These startup founders and employees are using the skills they use every day like problem solving, multitasking and leading during the war effort. "I'm lucky to be a cofounder not a sole founder, so I'm relying on my cofounder," Kandel explained.

Persons: Israel, VCs, —, Oren Kandel, I'm, We're, Munch, Kandel, Isaac Gili, Jon Medved, David, Noy, Danielle Eisenberg, Leyb, Eisenberg, I've, Medved, Oren Kandel Kandel, that's, Ben Yellin, Ofer Sharon, Itamar Friedman, " Eisenberg, Tasmin Lockwood Organizations: Palestinian, Hamas, Service, Wednesday, Israeli Defense Forces, Startup, Israel Relief, Microsoft, Israel, Tel, Lightspeed Venture Partners, GGV, Insight Partners Locations: Gaza, Israel, Gedera, New York, cyberintelligence, Tel Aviv, Binyamina

☆ The farming industry is struggling with labor shortages and the climate crisis. But agtech like digital cow collars and AI-quality-control tools are solving problems in unexpected ways.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-13 | by ( Sabina Wex | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Still, there are concerns about who owns the farm data and how it's being used. Chemeres said that he saw agriculture tech companies bombard farmers with innovations to mitigate this labor shortage. He believes the future of agriculture tech will be "almost surgical," he said, especially as AI comes into the field and becomes more sophisticated. These concerns came to a head in 2020, when Climate FieldView was accused of sharing farmers' data with Tillable, a platform that connects landowners with farmers. Not all tech companies do this.

Persons: Andy Lenkaitis, Lenkaitis Holsteins, Sarah Lenkaitis, Sarah, Lenkaitis, Bill Oemichen, Jeff Chemeres, Chemeres, Croptracker, Oemichen, that's, Bayer, FieldView, it's Organizations: Service, McKinsey, Credit Services, Data, Services, US Department of, The National Young Farmers Coalition, University of Wisconsin Survey Center, University of Saskatchewan, Bayer, US Locations: Wall, Silicon, Charles , Illinois, Minnesota, California, Washington, German

☆ S&P 500 investors are betting on a handful of stocks like Tesla and Nvidia, Apollo's Marc Rowan warns
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Theron Mohamed | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The S&P 500 is dominated by a handful of Big Tech companies like Apple and Amazon. Investors in the index are speculating on just a few companies, Apollo's Marc Rowan says. The S&P 500 weights its constituents by market capitalization, meaning companies with trillion-dollar market caps like Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft have outsized influence among the roughly 500 stocks in the benchmark index. Moreover, Apollo outbid Berkshire for Tech Data in 2019, underscoring that Rowan and Buffett have similar tastes in businesses. Buffett hasn't voiced the same concerns as Rowan about the intense concentration of Big Tech in the S&P 500.

Persons: Apollo's Marc Rowan, Rowan, it's, Warren Buffett, Marc Rowan, Buffett, Buffett hasn't Organizations: Big Tech, Apple, Investors, Service, Nvidia, Australian Financial, Apollo Global, Microsoft, Apollo, Athene, Tech Data, Berkshire Locations: Wall, Silicon, Berkshire

☆ Arizona is running out of water. Big Tech data centers are partly to blame.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-30 | by ( Alistair Barr | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The area has several data centers that use lots of water. In 2021, all the company's data centers consumed 4.34 billion gallons of water. But these data centers have a part to play in Arizona's water shortage. Why do big tech companies build data centers in the middle of a desert? Microsoft said in 2021 that its Arizona data centers would use "zero water" for cooling using adiabatic cooling, which uses outside air instead of water.

Persons: Katie Hobbs, hasn't, there's Organizations: Google, Bloomberg, Microsoft, Meta Locations: Arizona, Phoenix, Mesa

Apple and Broadcom have argued that they should have been allowed to raise the patent challenges during the trial. A jury found that the companies infringed Caltech's patents, ordering Apple to pay $837.8 million and Broadcom to pay $270.2 million. The Federal Circuit took issue with the amount of the award, and sent the case back for a new trial on damages. Apple and Broadcom told the Supreme Court that the Federal Circuit misread the law, which they said only blocks arguments that could have been raised during the review itself. President Joe Biden's administration urged the justices in May to reject the case and argued that the Federal Circuit had interpreted the law correctly.

Persons: Joe Biden's, Blake Brittain, Andrew Chung Organizations: U.S, Supreme, Apple Inc, Broadcom Inc, Caltech, Apple, Broadcom, California Institute of, Appeals, Federal Circuit, U.S . Patent, Federal, Microsoft Corp, Samsung Electronics Co, Dell Technologies Inc, HP Inc, Thomson Locations: Pasadena , California, Cupertino, San Jose, Los Angeles, Washington, New York

☆ Plaid views identity verification as key to its 2023 growth plans. Here's how the fintech is using it to become a one-stop shop for customers.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Paige Hagy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Plaid views identity verification as key to linking together different parts of its business. The company is using ID verification to streamline the onboarding process for fintechs. Plaid wants to create a seamless onboarding experience for fintech users with its new product Plaid Identity Verification (IDV). Plaid IDV launched in July 2022 and has 200 customers. In the fourth quarter of 2022, one in three new deals included Plaid IDV.

☆ Bitcoin Family is moving more than $1 million into decentralized exchanges after Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX disaster
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Mackenzie Sigalos | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +11 min

The Taihuttu family in November, days after moving back to Phuket. Didi TaihuttuZoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards The Taihuttu family in Lagos, Portugal on the day they adopted Teddy, their Pomeranian puppy. Thumb drive-size devices like a Trezor or Ledger offer a way to secure crypto tokens "cold." When asked why he is going all in on DEXs instead of keeping his crypto cold, Didi pointed to ease of access. Under it all, the Bitcoin Family still believes that the original cryptocurrency is a solid bet.

☆ Wall Street titan Apollo has a new class of dealmakers. Here's how 3 rose to partner while in their 30s.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Casey Sullivan | Hayley Cuccinello | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +23 min

He persevered through the brutal all-nighters, the perplexing spreadsheets, and the temperamental bosses who walked the halls of the midtown Manhattan investment firm. At Apollo, executives tend to grow up quickly. Some of their former colleagues have tried to make more money elsewhere, such as the hedge funds run by billionaire personalities that Apollo's executives quietly root against. Associates sometimes dealt with burnout from heavy workloads and demanding bosses by escaping for a walk through Central Park to let off steam, according to the former firm associates. We're Rayman Apollo!'"

☆ US lawmakers want to probe whether online advertising poses a national security threat
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-10 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The Director of National Intelligence has been asked to assess the "foreign weaponization" of adtech data. US lawmakers have asked the Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to investigate whether "foreign weaponization" of widely available adtech data poses a national security risk, a move that has the potential to deal a major blow to the online ad industry. The ODNI and the office of Chairman of the National Intelligence Committee Rep. Adam Schiff, who filed the amendment, didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. US government agencies themselves have used data from advertising auctions to track mobile phones. "Furthermore, brands — especially those with government contracts — may face a moral dilemma in funding an ecosystem that is deemed to be a threat to national security."

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