Hard Numbers: Intuit’s mass layoff, Very expensive flip phone, AMD’s Finnish acquisition, Taiwan’s millionaire class

July 16, 2024

Intuit logo displayed on a phone screen and a laptop keyboard are seen in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on October 30, 2021.

Jakub Porzycki via Reuters Connect

1,800: Intuit, the company behind popular financial software Quickbooks and Turbotax, announced a mass layoff of 1,800 employees — about 10% of the company — with plans to rehire the same number with a renewed focus on AI. The firm has an AI-powered financial advice tool, called Intuit Assist, in which it plans to invest heavily. That new investment might be necessary: A recent Washington Post review of Intuit’s AI assistant called it “awful” — not only “unhelpful” but also “wrong” much of the time.

1,899: Samsung has a new line of AI-powered foldable phones — and they’re extremely expensive. The Galaxy Z Fold starts at $1,899.99, a $100 increase from last year’s model. This nouveau flip phone boasts AI tools such as voice recording transcription, translation, and summarizing and text suggestions across email and social media apps. AI isn’t exactly a new thing on mobile phones, of course — so hopefully for this price, these new features make Siri look like a bot of the past.

665 million: The chip designer AMD is buying a Finnish startup called Silo AI for $665 million. Silo bills itself as “Europe’s largest private AI lab.” This deal will get AMD into the AI development business — an expansion from its hardware focus — as it tries to compete with industry leader Nvidia.

1.16 million: There are plenty of new millionaires in Taiwan, thanks to AI. Taiwan is a global hub for the semiconductor industry, which has boomed in recent years due to demand for AI. TSMC, its leading firm, is a key global fabricator for computer chips of all kinds. Taiwan’s total number of US dollar millionaires was 790,000 last year and could grow to 1.16 million by 2028, according to a new estimate by UBS.

Carney clinches Canadian Liberal leadership

Former Bank of Canada and Bank of England Governor Mark Carney listens to outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's speech just before being elected to succeed Trudeau as Liberal Party leader on Sunday, March 9, in Ottawa, Canada.

REUTERS/Amber Bracken/Pool

Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, won the leadership of Canada’s Liberal Party on Sunday, succeeding outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Sectarian violence erupts in Syria – in former Assad stronghold

Syrian fighters and civilians carry the coffin of a member of the Syrian security forces during his funeral in Hama province after he and 11 other colleagues were killed in an ambush by groups loyal to the ousted President Bashar al-Assad in Latakia.

Moawia Atrash/dpa via Reuters Connect

It seems that the 14-year-long civil war isn’t quite over in Syria. Since Thursday, violent clashes between deposed dictator Bashar Assad’s Alawite loyalists and supporters of the new Sunni regime in the coastal regions have left over 1,000 dead, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Republicans bid to avoid government shutdown

US House Speaker Mike Johnson speaks to reporters at the Capitol in Washington, U.S., in February 2025.

REUTERS/Nathan Howard

With a government shutdown deadline looming on Friday, US House Speaker Mike Johnson on Saturday introduced a continuing resolution that, if passed, would effectively fund the government through September. US President Donald Trump has backed the bill. The budget battle comes as fears rise over the impact of Trump's tariff policies, and the flip-flopping nature of their implementation. On Sunday, Trump refused to rule out that his aggressive economic policies could cause a recession.

Putin ramps up attacks as Ukraine flies blind

People stand at the site of an apartment building hit by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the town of Dobropillia, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on March 8, 2025.

REUTERS/Nadia Karpova

Russian forces bombarded Ukraine for two consecutive nights this weekend, killing over 25 people in Donetsk and Kharkiv. Moscow also retook three towns in Kursk after troops crawled for miles through a gas pipeline and staged a surprise attack.

Kim Jong Un shows off North Korea’s first nuclear-powered sub

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un visits a shipyard, in this photo released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on March 8, 2025.

KCNA via REUTERS

Cigarette in hand, and with the toothiest of grins, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un posed for photographs at a shipyard next to the makings of a “nuclear-powered strategic guided missile submarine.” The vessel appears to be a 6,000-ton-class or 7,000-ton-class one, with a payload of 10 missiles, in line with plans unveiled at the Hermit Kingdom’s 2021 party congress.

Syria sees worst fighting since Assad’s fall

Syrian forces head to Latakia after fighters linked to Syria's ousted leader Bashar Assad mounted a deadly attack on government forces on Thursday, March 6, 2025.

REUTERS/Mahmoud Hassano

Nearly 50 people were killed on Thursday in the deadliest clashes Syria has seen since the overthrow of Bashar Assad. Pro-Assad militants attacked security checkpoints around the western coastal town of Jableh, a stronghold of the former regime.

US may target Iranian tankers

The Liberian-flagged tanker Ice Energy, chartered by the US government, takes Iranian oil from Iranian-flagged Lana (formerly Pegas) as part of a civil forfeiture action off the shore of Karystos, on the Island of Evia, Greece, in May 2022.

REUTERS/Costas Baltas/File Photo

The Trump administration is reportedly considering a strategy to disrupt Iran’s oil exports by stopping and inspecting Iranian oil tankers at sea. The US would use the Proliferation Security Initiative, established in 2003 to prevent the trafficking of weapons of mass destruction, as a legal justification for the inspections.

Hard Numbers: Intuit’s mass layoff, Very expensive flip phone, AMD’s Finnish acquisition, Taiwan’s millionaire class

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Carney clinches Canadian Liberal leadership

Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, won the leadership of Canada’s Liberal Party on Sunday, succeeding outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Sectarian violence erupts in Syria – in former Assad stronghold

Republicans bid to avoid government shutdown

Putin ramps up attacks as Ukraine flies blind

Russian forces bombarded Ukraine for two consecutive nights this weekend, killing over 25 people in Donetsk and Kharkiv. Moscow also retook three towns in Kursk after troops crawled for miles through a gas pipeline and staged a surprise attack.

Kim Jong Un shows off North Korea’s first nuclear-powered sub

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Syria sees worst fighting since Assad’s fall

Nearly 50 people were killed on Thursday in the deadliest clashes Syria has seen since the overthrow of Bashar Assad. Pro-Assad militants attacked security checkpoints around the western coastal town of Jableh, a stronghold of the former regime.

US may target Iranian tankers

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EU leaders met in Brussels on Thursday to answer two big questions: How can Europe defend Ukraine in the short term and defend itself in the long term?

Hard Numbers: Intuit’s mass layoff, Very expensive flip phone, AMD’s Finnish acquisition, Taiwan’s millionaire class

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More from GZERO Media

Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, won the leadership of Canada’s Liberal Party on Sunday, succeeding outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Russian forces bombarded Ukraine for two consecutive nights this weekend, killing over 25 people in Donetsk and Kharkiv. Moscow also retook three towns in Kursk after troops crawled for miles through a gas pipeline and staged a surprise attack.

GZEROMEDIA

Subscribe to GZERO Media's newsletter: Signal

With so much of the world in geopolitical flux these days, it’s hard to pick clear winners or losers. But one leader who could be pretty happy about how things are going at the moment is Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Nearly 50 people were killed on Thursday in the deadliest clashes Syria has seen since the overthrow of Bashar Assad. Pro-Assad militants attacked security checkpoints around the western coastal town of Jableh, a stronghold of the former regime.

EU leaders met in Brussels on Thursday to answer two big questions: How can Europe defend Ukraine in the short term and defend itself in the long term?