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[ad_1] Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks at a panel at the CEO Summit of the Americas hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on June 09, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images Results were good, but not good enough. That's Wall Street's reaction to quarterly results on Tuesday from Alphabet and Microsoft . Both companies reported revenue and earnings that exceeded estimates, yet the stocks sold off in extended trading. In investor speak, the stocks were priced for perfection. Alphabet shares are up 56% for the year and climbed to a fresh high last week, exceeding the prior record from late 2021, the peak of the tech boom. Microsoft is up 70% over the past 12 months, also reaching a fresh high recently and surpassing Apple as the most valuable publicly traded company. The companies generated excitement last year by riding the artificial intelligence wave, and were also lauded by shareholders for their dramatic cost-cutting efforts, which included ...

[ad_1] The US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on June 27, 2023. Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday blocked in full a lower court ruling that would have curbed the Biden administration's ability to communicate with social media companies about contentious content on such issues as Covid-19. The decision in a  short unsigned order  puts on hold a Louisiana-based judge's ruling in July that specific agencies and officials should be barred from meeting with companies to discuss whether certain content should be stifled. The Supreme Court also agreed to immediately take up the government's appeal, meaning it will hear arguments and issue a ruling on the merits in its current term, which runs until the end of June. Three conservative justices noted that they would have denied the application: Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch. "At this time in the history of our country, what the court has done, I fear, will be seen by so...

[ad_1] TikTok has officially launched its e-commerce service TikTok Shop in the US.  Costfoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images Consumers are increasingly turning to social media for their shopping this holiday season, and TikTok's latest venture into e-commerce has emerged at the forefront. For some, it means weighing the convenience of mobile shopping and often low prices against ethical questions. The platform introduced TikTok Shop in the U.S. in September as an in-app shopping experience, capitalizing on the #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt trend. The shop gives opportunities to both content creators who could sell their own products and avid TikTok users who could buy directly on the app, following in the footsteps of other social media apps such as Instagram. Though TikTok Shop previously faced backlash and was forced to shut down in Indonesia, consumers are increasingly trending toward buying off social media. A recent Shopify-Gallup survey says nearly half of respondents ages 18 to 29 s...

[ad_1] The world is aging rapidly, and there are more and more ways to invest in this theme. Shams Afzal, managing director at Carnegie Investment Counsel, noted that 17% of the U.S. population is now over the age of 65, and that proportion is expected to grow higher. And the demographics of that age group is changing. There's been a "marked jump" in education levels — just 5% of those aged above 65 were degree holders in 1950, much lower than the 29% in 2018, Afzal said, citing Population Reference Bureau statistics. The gender gap in terms of mortality has also narrowed, from seven years in 1990 to five years in 2017, he said. "The aging population discussion in recent years has mostly revolved around future challenges to labor productivity and its economic growth implications," he said. "We see meaningful efforts by companies large and small, working to enhance the quality of life for individuals in this age group," Afzal, also a portfolio mana...

[ad_1] Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) (C), chair of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, joins Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) (L) and Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) for a news conference following a GOP caucus meeting at the Republican National Committee offices on Capitol Hill on February 28, 2023 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images A group of lawmakers will travel to California to meet with tech and media executives, including Apple CEO Tim Cook and Disney CEO Bob Iger, to discuss China-related topics, CNBC has confirmed. Nearly a dozen lawmakers representing both parties on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party are set to make the three-day trip, led by Chair Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., a spokesperson for the committee told CNBC. Bloomberg and Axios previously reported details of the trip. The trip highlights how the committee's work could affect the tech and media i...

[ad_1] Sam Altman, chief executive officer and co-founder of OpenAI, speaks during a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, May 16, 2023. Congress is debating the potential and pitfalls of artificial intelligence as products like ChatGPT raise questions about the future of creative industries and the ability to tell fact from fiction.  Eric Lee | Bloomberg | Getty Images This past week, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman charmed a room full of politicians in Washington, D.C., over dinner, then testified for about nearly three hours about potential risks of artificial intelligence at a Senate hearing. After the hearing, he summed up his stance on AI regulation, using terms that are not widely known among the general public. "AGI safety is really important, and frontier models should be regulated," Altman tweeted. "Regulatory capture is bad, and we shouldn't mess with models below the threshold." In this case, "AGI" refers to ...

[ad_1] 2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger Tungsten Ram DETROIT — Automaker Stellantis plans to produce an industry-first electric pickup truck called the Ram 1500 Ramcharger that's equipped with an electric generator and a gas engine. If that sounds like an oxymoron, here's how it works: The truck can operate as a zero-emissions EV until its battery dies and an electric onboard generator — powered by a 27-gallon, 3.6-liter V6 engine — kicks on to power the vehicle. The outcome is a truck with the benefits of an EV, such as fast acceleration and some zero-emissions driving, without the range anxiety synonymous with most current electric vehicles, according to Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis. "This is the ultimate answer for the battery-electric truck. No one else has got anything else like it," Kuniskis told reporters during an event. "This is going to be a game changer for battery-electric trucks." The 2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger is expected to go on sale in late 2024 alongsi...

[ad_1] Daniel Zhang, chairman and chief executive officer Alibaba Group, said the company's financial year from April 2021 to March 2022 was impacted by the uncertainties around Covid, "new expectations" on China's internet sector and the "high frequency" of international geopolitical conflicts. Wang Zhao | AFP | Getty Images Alibaba Group said on Sunday that Daniel Zhang will step down as chairman and chief executive officer of its cloud business. Zhang had previously been concurrently serving in three roles, heading the group as well as its cloud unit. He handed over the role of the group's CEO to Eddie Wu on Sunday, who will also take charge of the cloud unit after Zhang's departure. [ad_2] Source link https://worldnews2023.com/top-stories/alibaba-says-daniel-zhang-steps-down-from-cloud-business/?feed_id=308249&_unique_id=667f96249b2bd

[ad_1] Eric Adams, mayor of New York, speaks during the U.S. Conference of Mayors winter meeting in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022. Eric Lee | Bloomberg | Getty Images New York City banned TikTok on government-owned devices Wednesday, pointing to security concerns that have made the app a target of bipartisan scrutiny across the country. Congress already voted to ban TikTok on federal devices last year and several states have taken similar steps. The concern generally stems from TikTok's ownership by China-based tech company ByteDance, since many policymakers fear that structure could make U.S. users' information vulnerable to being accessed by the Chinese government, if forced to hand over information to comply with Chinese law . An NYC City Hall Spokesperson told WNBC in a statement that the ban was a result of the city's Cyber Command's conclusion that TikTok "posed a security threat to the city's technical networks." City agencies h...

[ad_1] Varda's first manufacturing satellite and reentry vehicle attached to a Rocket Lab Photon bus. Rocket Lab Space startup Varda received long-awaited approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to bring its first spacecraft back to earth after a stint manufacturing drugs in space. Varda's small W-Series 1 capsule, or W-1, has been stuck in orbit since it launched eight months ago. The company has awaited regulatory authorization to make a landing attempt in Utah, at the Air Force's Utah Test and Training Range. The FAA confirmed on Wednesday it had issued the license to Varda. The FAA's approval means Varda will try to land the W-1 mission on Feb. 21. "We are incredibly proud to have this opportunity with our government partners, and appreciate their dedication to safe innovation in the United States," Varda said in a statement. The W-1 mission is a demonstration of the company's automated in-space manufacturing process. Last year, Varda ...

[ad_1] Nikola TRE FCEV2 Courtesy: Nikola Electric truck maker Nikola is still short of winning shareholder approval to issue new stock and has once again adjourned its annual meeting to try to win more support, the company said on Thursday. Nikola had adjourned its June 6 annual meeting until Thursday to try to drum up more support for the proposal. Current law in Delaware, where Nikola is incorporated, requires approval from owners of at least 50% of the company's outstanding shares to pass a share increase proposal. However, that law may change on Aug. 1. Under amendments approved by Delaware's state legislature and now awaiting signature by the state's governor, a company incorporated in the state will need only a simple majority of shares voted to approve an increase in authorized shares. Nikola's meeting is now adjourned again until 4 p.m. ET on Aug. 3, when the new rule may be in effect. Nikola said that proposal would have passed on Thursday had the new ru...

[ad_1] Podcaster and comedian Joe Rogan. Vivian Zink | SYFY | NBCUniversal Spotify has signed a new blockbuster deal with polarizing podcaster and comedian Joe Rogan, but this time, his show won't be exclusive to Spotify, the company announced Friday in a news release. The multiyear deal with Rogan, the founder of "The Joe Rogan Experience," is said to be worth about $250 million, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the deal. The show was the No. 1 podcast in the U.S. for the third quarter of last year, according to Edison Research . Spotify also said it's expanding the partnership to allow the show to be available on other platforms. Shares of the audio streaming giant rose roughly 1.5% Friday. Spotify first brought "The Joe Rogan Experience" to its platform exclusively in 2020 in a deal that was reportedly worth more than $100 million. The talk-show style podcast is known — and often criticized for — its edgy approach and g...

[ad_1] The extraordinary activist-investor interest in Salesforce (CRM) eased further in the second quarter, according to the latest regulatory filings from influential Wall Street pros. These big-name investors also made moves in nine other Club stocks during a strong three-month stretch that ended the best first half for the market in years. Starting with Salesforce, Dan Loeb's Third Point shed its stake in the second quarter. Jeff Smith's Starboard Value — the first known activist to target the enterprise software giant — cut its stake by 21% in the three months ended June 30. Those sales are among the Club-related trades revealed this week by the latest batch of securities filings known as 13Fs. Submitted to U.S. regulators on a quarterly basis, these disclosures offer a look — albeit with some limitations — into the investment decisions that closely followed Wall Street pros have made. CRM .SPX YTD mountain Salesforce's year-to-date stock performance, in compariso...

[ad_1] Social network Twitter, recently rebranded as X, has commandeered the handle "@music" from open-source software developer Jeremy Vaught, who told CNBC he created the account in 2007, and had built a community of around half a million followers there. While Elon Musk-led X gave Vaught no choice but to surrender the desirable username on its platform, he was offered the option to choose from a list of other handles related to the topic of music. His X-assigned account, which is "@musicfan," is not to his liking but he's settling for it for now. X ported his followers over to the new account at least, he said. The move on the part of the social media company raises questions about the worth of a handle on its platform. X terms of service , last updated in May, say, "We may also remove or refuse to distribute any Content on the Services, limit distribution or visibility of any Content on the service, suspend or terminate users, and reclaim username...

[ad_1] China is restricting the exports of gallium and germanium, two metals key to the manufacturing of semiconductors, its commerce ministry said in a statement late on July 3, escalating a technological trade war over access to microchips with Europe and the United States. Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images China is restricting the exports of two metals key to the manufacturing of semiconductors, its commerce ministry said late Monday , escalating a technological trade war with Europe and the United States over access to microchips. These new regulations — imposed on grounds of national security — will require exporters to seek a license to ship some gallium and germanium compounds starting Aug. 1, China's commerce ministry said . Applications for these export licenses must identify importers and end users and stipulate how these metals will be used. This move is part of an intensifying global battle for technological supremacy — with China as the world's largest sourc...