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☆ Google's farm-tech moonshot is becoming a full-fledged company as the unit doubles down on more commercial AI projects
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Mineral, an agriculture-tech project inside Google's moonshot lab, X, is spinning out into a company. It's launching under the parent company, Alphabet, as X is evolving to be more commercial. Alphabet's moonshot lab, X, has announced it's turning its agriculture-technology project, Mineral, into an official company. Mineral will spin off of X and become a business under the parent company Alphabet, Mineral's CEO Elliott Grant wrote in a blog post on Tuesday. Mineral entered into a partnership last year with the berry seller Driscoll's to help farmers create tastier strawberries, Bloomberg reported at the time.

☆ Tech Industry Reversal Intensifies With New Rounds of Layoffs
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Dana Mattioli | Miles Kruppa | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Spheres at the headquarters of Amazon, which said planned layoffs will affect more than 18,000 employees. Tech’s reassessment is intensifying, as a new wave of layoffs signals how executives are pivoting from a growth-above-all mindset to protecting their bottom line. After a bruising 2022 in which companies from small startups to tech giants slammed the brakes on expansion, some of the biggest names in the sector are demonstrating that an era of austerity is only beginning, with expenses closely scrutinized and moonshot projects abandoned. Amazon.com Inc. and Salesforce Inc. both announced plans for layoffs in the past week.

☆ Inventor in Baja is testing a plan to cool the Earth by mimicking a volcanic eruption
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +14 min

When Luke Iseman was thinking of launching a solar geoengineering startup, he talked to experts in the field. I want no geoengineering to occur," Iseman told CNBC. And that's a that's a pretty terrifying world to imagine," Iseman told CNBC. "Initially, I was really skeptical entirely of the of the voluntary carbon credit market," Iseman told CNBC. Pasztor told CNBC.

☆ I moved to the US to pursue a career in academia before realizing it's a broken system. Here's how I pivoted to climate tech and found a job that made me happier than ever.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

He was on track to become an academic but pivoted to climate tech for a better work-life balance. But now I work in climate tech, and I've never been happier. Building an online presence helps candidates stand out in a competitive job marketBuilding my online presence really set me apart from the typical candidate. I also launched a newsletter called Geospatial Jobs to compile open positions in climate tech for thousands of subscribers. Take advantage of the high demand for climate-tech jobs todayNow is the best time to break into climate tech.

☆ CIOs Nominate Their Favorite Reads of 2022
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Tom Loftus | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +9 min

Chief information officers, ever alert to any development in a field that only hurtles forward, largely reflected that alacrity in their choice of reading during 2022. PREVIEWChris Bedi, chief digital information officer, ServiceNow Inc. Photo: IBM Corp.Ron Guerrier, chief information officer, HP Inc. Photo: Cisco Systems Inc.Fletcher Previn, chief information officer, Cisco Systems Inc. Photo: Home Depot Inc.Fahim Siddiqui, chief information officer, Home Depot Inc.

☆ 'One of our best years on record': With VC deals on the decline, venture-debt investors are cleaning up. But there's a dark side to startups borrowing cash.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

As the Fed keeps raising interest rates to fight inflation, venture-debt defaults could soon go up. Venture debt, like a typical venture-capital investment, involves betting big on fledgling startups that may be far off from profitability. In the first six months of the year, venture debt increased 7.5%, even as VC funding fell 8% over the same period. The year for debtArmentum's Markell said venture debt had exploded in popularity this year as traditional VC deals dwindled and startup valuations plummeted. Factoring in expected Fed rate rises, Kroll thinks these interest rates will climb to as much as 12% next year.

☆ Here are the 10 Dow stocks analysts think will see the most gains in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

With that in mind, CNBC Pro looked at stocks in the Dow that have the most upside to the average analyst price target, per FactSet. Salesforce takes the top spot, with nearly 50% upside to the average analyst price target. Tech giant Apple could also see big gains, with the average analyst price target implying upside of 28%. The stock has had a lackluster year, losing 25%, but 62% of analysts covering Apple rate it a buy. 4 spot with nearly 21% upside to the average analyst price target.

☆ Here are Friday's biggest analyst calls: Apple, Amazon, Meta, Nvidia, Carvana, Delta, Walmart & more
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Michael Bloom | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Evercore ISI names Apple as a top pick in 2023 Evercore said it sees 2023 as a "moonshot" year for Apple. MKM names Walmart a top 2023 pick MKM said it sees further share gains for Walmart in 2023. " JPMorgan names Eli Lilly a top 2023 pick JPMorgan said Eli Lilly is "best-in-class." Canaccord names Yeti and Traeger top 2023 picks Canaccord says Yeti should hold up well in a recessionary environment. YETI Holdings (YETI : BUY, $58 PT): We believe the core YETI consumer should hold up relatively better in a recession as it skews a bit higher end.

☆ It's been 50 years since the last moonwalk. NASA astronauts explain why it took so long.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | Hilary Brueck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The 50th anniversary of the last Apollo astronaut moonwalk is Wednesday. NASA astronauts say it's taking so long to return to the moon because of politics and money. But NASA built Orion to send astronauts back into lunar orbit and, as early as 2025, link up with SpaceX's Starship to land astronauts on the moon. NASA astronaut Victor Glover visits the Space Launch System rocket inside Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building, on July 15, 2021. NASA/Kim ShiflettAs early as 2004, former President George Bush was setting goals to return astronauts to the moon.

☆ Prince William gave a $1.2 million Earthshot prize to a startup that makes edible packaging from seaweed
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( Stephanie Stacey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Prince William awarded five Earthshot Prizes of $1.2 million on Friday to fund climate innovation. The prestigious Earthshot Prizes were awarded on Friday in Boston. Each winner will receive £1 million ($1.2 million) to develop their climate innovations. The star-studded ceremony, hosted by Prince William and Kate Middleton, had various celebrities in attendance including Billie Eilish, Ellie Goulding, Annie Lennox, Rami Malek, Catherine O'Hara, and David Beckham. The Earthshot Prizes were launched in 2020 by Prince William and Sir David Attenborough.

☆ It's not just Elon Musk. Tech CEOs everywhere are quietly asking their employees to step it up or risk getting fired.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Tech CEOs are turning up the heat, even if it's not as blatantly "hardcore" as Elon Musk's verbiage. Major tech CEOs have been asking employees to step up throughout this year's stingier economy. Employees at Google, Amazon and others have all been asked to work harder or risk their jobs. Sign up for our newsletter for the latest tech news and scoops — delivered daily to your inbox. In October, Meta told managers to mark 15% of its employees as "needs support" in what workers dubbed "quiet layoffs," Insider previously reported.

☆ How the founder of SiriusXM wants to tackle an organ shortage with 3D-printed hearts and lungs
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

She is the CEO of the $12 billion biotech United Therapeutics and founder of SiriusXM. Her company, the $12 billion Maryland-based biotech United Therapeutics, has already put gene-edited pig hearts, lungs, and kidneys into humans in clinical studies. Rothblatt previously founded SiriusXM before starting United TherapeuticsUnited TherapeuticsThe organ research is far from the first moonshot in Rothblatt's career. After that compound's owner, the pharma giant GSK, declined to test it against PAH, Rothblatt founded United Therapeutics in 1996 and bought the rights to the molecule. That drug helped save Jenesis, and United Therapeutics now sells a suite of PAH treatments that have helped over 12,000 patients.

☆ Google has a secret new project that is teaching artificial intelligence to write and fix code. It could reduce the need for human engineers in the future.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Google is working on a tool that teaches code to write and rewrite itself. The project was spun up at the company's moonshot unit X, and moved into Google Labs this year. Google is working on a secretive project that uses machine learning to train code to write, fix, and update itself. It could have profound implications for the company's future and developers who write code. Google Labs pursues long-term bets, including projects in virtual and augmented reality.

☆ Google has a secretive project that could reduce the need for human engineers
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Today, we've got the details on Elon Musk walking back perks at Twitter, and news on a secretive project at Google. Google has a secretive new project that teaches code to write itself. In this case, the goal is to reduce the need for humans to write and update code, while maintaining code quality. It later moved into Google Labs — a transition that signaled its increased importance to leaders, with Google Labs pursuing long-term bets. Elon Musk put an end to some Twitter perks.

The law allows the government to choose 10 drugs to negotiate from among the 50 costliest drugs for Medicare. Even so, Republicans will "chip away" at the drug price negotiation provision and its implementation, said Joel White, founder and president of Horizon Government Affairs. Biden is unlikely to weaken his signature domestic achievement, said Larry Levitt, Executive Vice President for Health Policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation. Even Republican support for the drug pricing provision is not guaranteed because it is popular with voters across the political spectrum, he said. "All Republicans voted against drug price negotiation, but they have to tread carefully in any effort to weaken it."

☆ Alphabet must cut headcount and trim costs, activist investor TCI says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Rohan Goswami | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

TCI's stake represents 0.27% of outstanding Alphabet shares, according to Factset data, a position that the hedge fund has steadily accumulated since 2017. TCI noted that headcount has "increased at an annual rate of 20% since 2017," the year that TCI first disclosed their Alphabet position. TCI argued for an increase in share buybacks and the establishment of an EBIT margin target for Google Services. Significantly, TCI argued that Google's "Other Bets" category – their Moonshot division – demanded immediate attention, singling out self-driving vertical Waymo as a unit that failed to justify "its excessive investment." Alphabet shares are down more than 30% year-to-date.

☆ BlackRock says it could be time to buy some growth and tech — Top ETFs to play the trade
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Patti Domm | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

BlackRock strategists recommend investors dip back into growth and tech for next year, but they say picking selective themes will be the best way to play them. BlackRock strategists say 2023 could be the year that changes the three-year pattern of growth and tech stocks moving in unison, both higher and lower. ETFs that fit these themes include BlackRock's iShares Self-Driving EV and Tech ETF , the iShares Global Clean Energy ETF , and iShares U.S. Infrastructure ETF. There is the iShares Cybersecurity and Tech ETF , IHAK and IRBO, the iShares Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Multisector ETF. BlackRock Future Health ETF, i Shares Genomics and Immunology and Healthcare ETF, and iShares Neuroscience and Healthcare ETF cover those themes.

☆ Amidst the layoffs at Amazon, the company's ultra-secretive research lab is at risk of being shut. It's a sign things are changing 'dramatically' at the company.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Early last month, members of Amazon's secretive in-house research lab, Grand Challenge, were called into an unexpected video meeting. Weibel announced 3 of the 5 projects Grand Challenge was working on would shut down, effective immediately. When other team employees wanted to collaborate with the team, they needed additional approvals from its leadership. Amazon Glow was among the Grand Challenge projects to be discontinued at the end of this year. Getting support promoting Grand Challenge projects was a challenge too.

CNN —“Mattress Mack” had reason to celebrate the Houston Astros’ World Series win on Saturday – and not just because he’s an Astros superfan. Houston furniture store owner Jim McIngvale, known as “Mattress Mack,” made a series of bets amounting to $10 million on the Astros to win the World Series. The Houston Astros celebrate their World Series win against the Philadelphia Phillies in Houston, Texas, on Saturday, November 5. Peña was awarded the World Series MVP for his stellar play during the series. He is just the second rookie to be named LCS and World Series MVP in the same postseason.

☆ The Stripe founders' memo explaining its layoff plan to employees is a remarkably candid look at why so much of tech is in freefall
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-05 | by ( Travis Clark | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Its memo to employees highlights the economic headwinds other tech companies are facing. From Meta to Shopify, tech companies are navigating an uncertain future. It over-hired during the pandemic"We over-hired for the world we're in," the founders wrote. It failed to keep other costs in checkThe founders' wrote: "We grew operating costs too quickly. The open question facing Stripe and other tech companies is what that recalibration looks like, beyond simply cutting costs.

CNN —The Houston Astros won the franchise’s second World Series title on Saturday after defeating the Philadelphia Phillies 4-1 in Game 6 at Minute Maid Park. After falling behind 2-1 through the first three games of the World Series, Houston evened up the series after throwing a combined no-hitter in Game 4. Party!”The Houston Astros celebrate their World Series win against the Philadelphia Phillies in Houston, Texas, on Saturday, November 5. Mary DeCicco/MLB Photos/Getty Images The Houston Astros celebrate their win in Game 5 of the World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday, November 4. The Phillies hit five home runs in the game, tying a World Series record, and they won 7-0 to take a 2-1 series lead over the Houston Astros.

☆ Britain's Prince William unveils finalists for Earthshot environmental prize
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Britain's Prince William on Friday unveiled the finalists for his Earthshot prize, which awards 1 million pounds ($1.12 million) each to five winners developing solutions to major environmental problems. The 15 finalists across five categories range from a Kenyan startup that makes cleaner-burning stoves to a city-wide recycling initiative in Amsterdam. The prize received more than 1,000 nominations. Other prize finalists include an Omani initiative to remove carbon dioxide by turning it into rock, an Indian business making a sustainable alternative to leather from used flowers, and a Chinese team trying to turn barren desert into fertile soil. ($1 = 0.8940 pounds)Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar; Editing by Sandra MalerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ This tech stock is a 'screaming buy' right now: Ritholtz's Josh Brown
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Weizhen Tan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Tech stocks got clobbered this week, with the Nasdaq Composite tumbling more than 3% Wednesday after the U.S. Federal Reserve hikes rates by another 0.75 percentage point . Tech stocks have been underperforming all year, with the Nasdaq down more than 30% year-to-date. But Josh Brown , co-founder and CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, says one mega-cap tech stock is a "screaming buy." I don't think that's going to be the case," Brown told CNBC's "Street Signs Asia." "And so I think Alphabet right now is a screaming buy."

CNN —It was an anxious, exciting night to be a Philadelphia or Houston sports fan Thursday, with a two-sport high-stakes showdown played at the same time that gave Houston an edge in the World Series and kept Philadelphia perfect on the gridiron. In Pennsylvania, there was Game 5 of the World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and Houston Astros, each looking to take the advantage in a 2-2 series. The Houston Astros celebrate their win in Game 5 of the World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday, November 4. Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images Philadelphia right fielder Nick Castellanos makes a diving catch on the first play of Game 3 on Tuesday night. Houston vs. Philly, againAs the World Series was underway Thursday night, the Eagles held off the Texans in Houston 29-17 to start 8-0 for the first time in franchise history.

☆ Everybody thinks Apple's Tim Cook's boring (but he's kicking everybody's ass)
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Samantha Delouya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Apple's market cap is worth more than Amazon, Meta, and Alphabet combined. Other tech companies have faced more pushback for seemingly investing too much in headcounts and moonshot projects. Apple isn't immune to criticism, but CEO Tim Cook largely avoids controversy, which may insulate the company. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has even publicly accused the company of undercutting other businesses to grow its own. But Apple's stock is down only 23%.

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