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Biden meets CEO, workers; backs law to boost U.S. chip production

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 President Joe Biden meets with CEOs of Lockheed Martin, Medtronic, Cummins. Meeting is part of administration's push for legislation to boost U.S. semiconductor industry. Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says he is delaying procedural vote until 11 a.m. ET on Tuesday. The bill includes roughly $52 billion in subsidies for U.S. semiconductor production. The Senate passed procedural measures on a watered-down bill by a vote of 64 to 34. Lockheed Martin CEO James Tecklet told Biden that an adequate supply of chips is 'essential to national security' The law aims to alleviate shortages that have disrupted production in industries such as automobiles, consumer electronics, medical equipment and high-tech weapons. It is part of a broader government-wide effort to counteract a rising China and address supply chain problems by reducing U.S. companies' reliance on foreign-made semiconductors. Senator Bernie Sanders slammed the legislation, calling it a 'blank

Tesla increases spending plans and issues new subpoena in Musk's 2018 tweet

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 The company now expects to spend $6 billion to $8 billion this year and the next two years. Musk said last month that factories were losing billions of dollars as it struggled to ramp up production due to battery shortages and port problems in China. The company also includes a joint venture with Chief Executive Elon Musk. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), issued on June 13, asks for information on compliance with Musk’s 2018 settlement with regulators. Musk settled a SEC lawsuit over his private tweets by agreeing to have company lawyers pre-approve tweets containing material information about the company. The latest subpoena comes as Musk prepares for an October legal showdown with Twitter to walk away from a $44 billion bid to buy the social media company. In June, regulators questioned Musk over a tweet expressing concerns about his acquisition of Twitter over concerns about the number of fake users and spam accounts.

Amazon issues 13,000 disciplinary complaints at single US warehouse

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 Amazon employee Gerald Bryson has been taking a manual count for three days. Bryson made 22 mistakes, including counting 19 products in a bin that actually had 20. If Bryson makes six such mistakes in a year, he would be fired by Amazon, the release said. Internal Amazon documents show how the company regularly measures employee performance in detail and warns those who are even slightly underperforming. In the year ended April 2020, the company instituted more than 13,000 so-called \'disciplines\' in Bryson's camp alone, a lawyer for Amazon said in court filings. Amazon disclosed the records in response to a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) complaint about Bryson's April 2020 firing. Many of those filings are also included in another ongoing lawsuit in federal court in which the NLRB seeks to block what it calls Amazon's \'blatantly unfair labor practices\' An administrative justice judge ordered Bryson's reinstatement in April after finding he ha

Exclusive: Alibaba Hema Xiansheng slashes funding at $6 billion valuation

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 Alibaba’s supermarket chain Hema is trying to raise funds worth about $6 billion. That is well below the as much as $100 it hoped to raise earlier this year. They said the company had to lower its valuation expectations after China's COVID-19 restrictions. Investors are skeptical that loss-making Hema can continue to grow and turn a profit soon. The supermarket chain is aiming to raise between $40 billion and $500 million from outside investors. The fundraiser is far from complete and financial terms could change, two people familiar with the matter warned. The fourth source said Hema would welcome good investors to help it grow, but added that it had healthy cash flow and was not under immediate pressure to raise new capital. Hema has tempered its ambitions for its first-ever independent private funding round at a time when global investor interest in unprofitable tech companies has waned. Hema was founded in 2015 and is 100% owned by e-commerce giant Alibaba. According to its we

Singapore's crypto ambitions dashed by three arrows

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 Crypto players in Southeast Asia’s financial hub are bracing for more bankruptcies and lawsuits. Regulators expected to become less lenient at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), whose welcoming attitude has helped attract companies from China, India and elsewhere. The collapse of crypto fund Three Arrows Capital, a global digital currency slump, was a high profile victim. Investment in Singapore-based crypto and blockchain companies will grow to $1.48 billion in 2021, a 10-fold increase from the previous year. It will account for almost half of the total investment in the Asia-Pacific region in 2021. MAS regulators say they want to promote crypto-related services. Three Arrows Capital (3AC) began liquidation proceedings in the British Virgin Islands on June 27. 3AC did not respond to a request for comment, and its liquidators told a U.S. bankruptcy court they were unable to locate the fund’s founders, Kyle Davis and Zhu Su. The fallout from 3AC's collapse -- and the market

Computer chips face toilet paper hoarding as shortage turns into glut

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 Micron's solid-state drives for data center customers were unveiled at a product launch event in San Francisco, U.S., October 24, 2019. High inflation, the recent COVID lockdown in China and the war in Ukraine dampened consumer spending, especially on PCs and smartphones. Memory chip company Micron Technology announced it would cut production. Micron’s chief commercial officer, Sumit Sadana, acknowledged that the market reversal took Micron by surprise. TechInsights chip economist Dan Hutcheson warned of more bad news after Micron's bleak outlook. Fears of an industry downturn have taken a toll on chip stocks, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (.SOX) plummeting 35% so far in 2022. (See https://tmsnrt.rs/3arSbBA).. Hoarding can make it worse. Just as nervous shoppers searched supermarket aisles for toilet paper before the COVID-19 lockdown, manufacturers have been stockpiling computer chips. Experts say the big-chip reversal hits economic sectors unevenly. Big chip supp

For EV battery makers, it means: go small or go home

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 Batteries are already working on developing smaller, more Durable, cheaper future batteries that also load faster. In the race for electric vehicles, automakers are focusing on range to ease consumer concerns about charging infrastructure. Echion Technologies is developing a commercial-scale prototype battery made from niobium anodes. Startups are experimenting with materials such as silicon carbon, tungsten and niobium, in search of small batteries that can charge extremely quickly. Fast charging combined with widely available chargers will allow automakers to Build cars with smaller batteries at a more affordable price and still increase profits by selling more vehicles to a wider audience. Early adopters in the high-end market want larger battery packs and longer range because they can afford it. China dominates global production of electric vehicle batteries, and companies like CATL (300750.SZ) are developing batteries that can go further on a single charge. Chinese automakers hav