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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.
Hard Numbers: Intuit’s mass layoff, Very expensive flip phone, AMD’s Finnish acquisition, Taiwan’s millionaire class
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.US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announces a major grant at the Samsung semiconductor plant in Taylor, Texas, on Monday, April 15, 2024.
Samsung hands Biden another chip win
The Biden administration is busy courting global semiconductor manufacturers to build stateside, recently handing billions to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company to expand its chip fabrication plant in Phoenix, Arizona.
On Monday, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo announced that the Biden administration is giving out another award as part of its CHIPS Act budget — this time to TSMC competitor Samsung, the South Korean electronics giant. Samsung will receive $6.4 billion to put toward its new manufacturing hub in Taylor, Texas, and expand its existing plant in Austin. In return, Samsung will pour $45 billion into its US projects and commit to producing cutting-edge two-nanometer chips.
Biden has made so-called silicon nationalism a tenet of his economic and national security-focused public policy, desperate to control the slow but crucial supply of chips used for everyday technologies as well as new artificial intelligence applications.
Debris fly as smoke rises following an Israeli air strike, amid Israeli-Palestinian fighting, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
What We’re Watching: Israel-Hamas truce, South Korean pardon, weird vaccine incentives
Israel and Hamas agree to ceasefire: After 11 days of intense violence, Israel and Hamas have agreed to an Egypt-brokered ceasefire that goes into effect Friday at 2 am local time. Since May 10, Hamas has fired more than 4,000 rockets at Israeli cities, resulting in a dozen deaths and scores of injuries, while Israel has carried out hundreds of air and ground strikes on Gaza, leaving the Palestinian death toll at more than 200. Now both sides have reportedly agreed to stop fighting without conditions. Each will claim a victory of sorts: Israel says it has seriously degraded Hamas' terrorist infrastructure, setting the group back many years, while Hamas will assert itself as the real protector of Jerusalem and boast of its successes in firing long-range munitions at Israel. How long the Israel-Hamas ceasefire holds is a big question, but another major challenge will be dealing with clashes within Israel, where tensions between Jews and Arabs have soared.
South Korean pardon for... chips? Seoul is under mounting pressure from the US to pardon Lee Jae-yong, South Korea's richest man. Lee is currently serving a 30-month prison sentence for his role in a massive corruption scandal, but he's also the heir at Samsung, one of the world's largest semiconductor manufacturers. So long as he's in prison the company's future leadership is in doubt, and given an ongoing global shortage of microchips that has crippled the US auto industry, that's no small matter for Washington. South Korean President Moon Jae-in seems open to clemency, but he's in a tough spot. On the one hand, a smooth succession at Samsung is crucial for the tech giant to keep churning out semiconductors. On the other, pardoning Lee would send the (wrong) message that powerful and corrupt people always find a way to evade justice. Moon must tread carefully, wary that the Samsung scandal cost his predecessor Park Geun-hye her job in 2015.
Have cow, will vaccinate: Thousands of people have registered to get COVID vaccines in a Thai town after the mayor announced he would raffle off free cows to residents who get jabs. Similar vaccination incentives are happening all over the world, including a free visit to Dracula's castle in Romania or gold nose pins for women in India. The biggest draw so far is in the US state of Ohio, which offers a $1 million prize for the lucky winner of its weekly vaccine lottery. While all of these ploys will surely entice some skeptics, it's not clear whether freebies and rewards like this can really move the needle — so to speak — on vaccine hesitancy. Meanwhile, not all countries are using carrots: Indonesia has made vaccination mandatory, and will fine or cut subsidies to people who refuse a shot. Whether you prefer incentives or punishment, expect more — and perhaps weirder — vaccine incentives to pop up as the jabs become more available, particularly across the developing world, in coming months.Visitors to memorial for Samsung patriarch told to get tested
SEOUL • South Korea said yesterday that it had alerted about 1,000 people who attended the memorial of Samsung Group patriarch Lee Kun-hee last week to get tested for Covid-19 after one person at the event tested positive.
Samsung chairman dies at 78
The tycoon who became South Korea's richest man after transforming Samsung into a global tech titan best known for its smartphones, memory chips and LED televisions has died at the age of 78.
Samsung's Lee: Tainted titan who built a global tech giant
SEOUL (REUTERS) - In February 1993, five years after taking over from his father at South Korea's Samsung Group, 51-year-old Lee Kun-hee was frustrated that he wasn't making his mark.
Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee, head of South Korea’s biggest conglomerate, dies at 78
SEOUL (AFP) -Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Kun-hee died at the age of 78 on Sunday (Oct 25) , the company said.
South Korean prosecutors indict Samsung leader Lee Jae-yong on stock manipulation charge: Official
SEOUL (REUTERS) - South Korean prosecutors indicted Samsung Group leader Lee Jae-yong on charges of manipulating stock prices and breach of trust in order to cement control of the group, a prosecution official said on Tuesday (Sept 1).