#softbank group

[indianexpalert]

ChatGPT rival Perplexity AI is now worth $9 billion after latest funding round – Firstpost

Founded in 2022, Perplexity AI has quickly carved a niche for itself. In April, Perplexity was valued at $1 billion, a figure that jumped to $3 billion in June after an investment from SoftBank Group Vision Fund 2. Now, it is valued at $9 billion after latest funding round read more Perplexity AI, a rising star in artificial intelligence, has seen its valuation skyrocket to an impressive $9…

[uniqueeval]

Asia markets: CPI, Inflation, Nvidia, FOMC

TSMC offices in San Jose, California, US, on Thursday, April 18, 2024. David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images Asia-Pacific markets rose Thursday, tracking gains on Wall Street fueled by a tech rally. Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 3.41% to close at 36,833.27 and The Taiwan Weighted Index advanced 2.96% to finish at 21,653.25. During the trading session, chipmakers and related companies extended…

[techmarkethunter]

Nikesh Arora: Leading the Charge for Cybersecurity Innovation at Palo Alto Networks

Title: “Nikesh Arora: Leading the Charge for Cybersecurity Innovation at Palo Alto Networks” Introduction: Type your email… Subscribe In the dynamic landscape of cybersecurity, Palo Alto Networks has emerged as a global leader under the visionary leadership of CEO Nikesh Arora. With a stellar career that includes influential roles at SoftBank and Google, Arora brings a wealth of experience to…

[rjzimmerman]

The New Climate Gold Rush: Scrubbing Carbon From the Sky. (New York Times)

Excerpt from this New York Times story:

This summer, Bill Gates huddled in London with representatives of some of the world’s wealthiest people, including the Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, the SoftBank founder, Masayoshi Son, and Prince al-Waleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia.

They were evaluating their joint investments in companies that could help the world combat climate change. Among the businesses in their portfolio, four stood out as having a particularly audacious goal: They were working to strip carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, for a profit.

As countries around the world continue to pump planet-warming pollution into the skies, driving global temperatures to record levels, the financial world is racing to fund the emerging field of carbon dioxide removal, seeking both an environmental miracle and a financial windfall.

The technology, which did not exist until a few years ago, is still unproven at scale. Yet, it has a uniquely alluring appeal. Stripping away some of the carbon dioxide that is heating up the world makes intuitive sense. And with a small but growing number of companies willing to pay for it, investors are jockeying to be first movers in what they believe will inevitably be a big industry that is necessary to help fight global warming.

Companies working on ways to pull carbon dioxide from the air have raised more than $5 billion since 2018, according to the investment bank Jefferies. Before that, there were almost no such investments.

“It’s the single greatest opportunity I’ve seen in 20 years of doing venture capital,” said Damien Steel, the chief executive of Canada-based Deep Sky, which has raised more than $50 million to develop carbon dioxide removal projects. “The tailwinds behind the industry are greater than most industries I’ve ever looked at.”

The group assembled by Mr. Gates, known as Breakthrough Energy Ventures, is among the biggest backers of the more than 800 carbon removal companies that have been started in recent years. Others investors include Silicon Valley venture capitalists, private equity firms from Wall Street and major corporations like United Airlines.

Investors believe the market is poised for explosive growth.

More than 1,000 big companies have pledged to eliminate their carbon emissions over the next few decades. As part of those efforts, more corporations are starting to pay for carbon dioxide removal. This year, Microsoft, Google, and British Airways were among the companies that committed a total of $1.6 billion to purchase removal credits.

That figure was up from less than $1 million in 2019, according to CDR.fyi, a website that tracks the carbon dioxide removal industry. Next year, industry executives believe companies could spend up to $10 billion on such purchases. In a recent report, McKinsey estimated the market could be worth as much as $1.2 trillion by 2050.

While huge sums of money are being dedicated to the nascent field, these projects will not have a meaningful effect on global temperatures anytime soon.

[motherofplatypus]

Bisan Owda is a journalist in Gaza that keeps updating about the barbaric genocide actions that israel committed with weapons supplied mainly by US, all the while living through that genocide itself.

Over 30k+ has been killed, and over 15k+ of those are children and babies.

The celebs and artists who wanted to rescind Bisan's nomination are as follow:

Ari Ingel, Executive Director, Creative Community for Peace

David Renzer, Former Chairman/CEO Universal Music Publishing Group, CCFP Chairman & Co-Founder

Steve Schnur, Worldwide Executive & Music President, Electronic Arts, CCFP Co-Founder

Rakefet Abergel, Actor/Director, Cyclamen Films

Orly Adelson, Former President of ITV Studios, America

Marty Adelstein, CEO, Tomorrow Studios

Anne-Marie Asner, Co-Founder, Animation Israel

Jeff Astrof, TV Producer/Showrunner, Other Shoe Productions

Michael Auerbach, Partner, Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris Bernstein Trattner Auerbach Hynick Jaime LeVine Sample & Klein

Dean Bahat, Attorney, Ziffren Brittenham

Andrea Ballas, VP Comms, CBS

Jackie Barrie, A&R Manager, Nvak Collective

Richard Baskind, Partner & Head of Music, Simons Muirhead & Burton

Aton Ben-Horin, Executive VP of Global A&R, Atlantic Records Group

Steven Bensusan, President, Blue Note Entertainment Group

Adam Berkowitz, Founder and President, Lenore Entertainment Group

Sharon Bialy, Casting Director, Bialy/Thomas & Associates

Josh Binder, Co-Founder and Partner, Rothenberg Mohr & Binder, LLP

Neil Blair, Founding Partner, The Blair Partnership

Selma Blair, Actress, Author, Advocate, Sainted Productions

Rebecca Blumberg, SVP Ad Sales, Paramount

Evan Bogart, Songwriter & CEO, Seeker Music

Benjamin Budde, CEO, Budde Group GmbH

Bruce Burger, Producer, RebbeSoul

David Byrnes, Attorney, Ziffren Brittenham

Civia Caroline, Social Impact Consultant, CLiC Impact

Pamela Charbit, Director of A&R, Warner Music Group

Emmanuelle Chriqui, Actor, Yellow Ray Entertainment

Leanne Coronel, Talent Manager, The Coronel Group

Raye Cosbert, Managing Director, Metropolis Musi

Paul Craig, Ceo, Nostromo Management

Doug Davis, NATAS Member, 2x Emmy winner, The Davis Firm

Rebecca De Mornay, Actor

Jamie Denbo, Co-Executive Producer, Grey’s Anatomy, ABC/Disney

Josh Deutsch, Chairman/CEO, Premier Music Group

Avi Diamond, Director, Film/TV Sync, Warner Music Canada

Craig Dorfman, President and Owner, Frontline MGMT

Rachel Douglas, Manager, Range Media Partners

David Draiman, Frontman, Disturbed

Jeremy Drysdale, Screenwriter, bigbamboo

Craig Emanuel, Ryan Murphy Productions

Hannah Epstein, Agent, CAA

Rami “Kosha dillz” Even-Esh, Rapper/Comic/Actor

Lindsay Fabes, Actor

Ron Fair, Record Producer & CEO, Faircraft Inc.

Sharon Farber, Composer, Score by Score Music

Danny Federman, Owner, Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball Club

Eric Feig, Attorney and TV Academy Member, Feig/Finkel

Patti Felker, Attorney, Felker Toczek Suddleson McGinnis Ryan LLP

Ken Fermaglich, Partner, United Talent Agency

Ross “Remedy” Filler, Artist

Shalom Fisch, President, MediaKidz Research & Consulting

David Fishof, CEO, RRFC Films, LLC

Siri Garber, Publicist, Platform

David Gardner, President, Artists First

Barbara Garshman, CEO, Garshman Productions LLC

Gary Gersh

Gary Ginsberg, Senior VP, SoftBank Group Corp.

Brian Ralston, Composer/Producer, Studio 74 Music, LLC

David Glick, Founder & CEO, Edge Group

Zusha Goldin, Celebrity Photographer, Zusha Goldin

Michael Goldwasser, President, Easy Star Records

Andrew Gould, President, Music Publishing

Scott Greenberg, Partner, LBI

Steven Greenberg, Founder and President, S-Curve Records

Daniel Grindlinger, Writer

Ronnie Harris, Partner, Harris & Trotter

Michael Hirschhorn, Manager, Streaming and Sales, Atlantic Records

Linda Edell Howard, Attorney, Novick Law

Rich Ingram, Artist/Creator

Neil Jacobson, Former President, Geffen Records, Founder & CEO of Hallwood Media

Michael Kaplan, Writer/Producer

Sam Katz, Music Manager, Homebase MGMT, LLC

Zach Katz, CEO & Co-Founder, Fixated

Ketura Kestin, Film Producer, Serendipity Productions

Amanda Kogan, Manager, Aaron Kogan Management

Keetgi Kogan Steinberg, Writer/Producer/Showrunner

Jason Kozel, Creative Executive, Range Media Partners

Rick Krim, CEO, Krim Music + Media

Evan Lamberg, President, North America, Universal Music Publishing Group

Sherry Lansing, Former CEO, Paramount Pictures

Colin Lester OBE, Founder/Chairman, JEM Music Group

Sean Liebowitz, Agent

Koura Linda, Founder & CEO, Space Dream Productions

Marci Liroff, Intimacy Coordinator/Casting Director

Cory Litwin, Managing Partner, Range Media Partners

David Lonner, CEO, The David Lonner Company

Ben Maddahi, President, Unrestricted Publishing & Mgmt

Gabriel Mann, Composer

Deborah Marcus, Executive, CAA Foundation

Susan Markheim, Full Stop Mgt., The Azoff Company

Amanda Markowitz, Actor/Producer, SAG/AFTRA & PGA

Orly Marley, President, Tuff Gong Worldwide

Devra Maza, Screenwriter

Debra Messing, Actor/Producer

Hilary Michael, Agent and Partner, WME

Beth Milstein, Writer

Jennifer Morrow, Actor, CAA

Patrick Moss, Writer, Moroccan Boychik

Robert Munic, Writer/Showrunner, Pull The Pin Productions, Inc.

Lisa Nupoff, Manager, iminmusic management

Scott Packman, Founder and Managing Member, SSP Partners LLC

Mark Pinkus, President, Rhino Records

Jonah Platt, Actor/Producer

Wendy Plaut, SVP Music & Celebrity Talent, Paramount Global

Jessica Poter, Writer, Gustavo Anibal Productions

Golan Ramraz, Writer/Producer, EGX Film Factory

Bruce Resnikof

Frederic Richter, Producer, Writer & Researcher

Wendy Robbins, Executive Producer, Creators Inc

Dan Rosen, President, Warner Music Australasia

Rick Rosen, Co-Founder, Endeavor, WME

Aaron Rosenberg, Partner, Myman Greenspan Fox Rosenberg Mobasser Younger & Light

Gregg Rossen, Screenwriter

Michael Rotenberg, CEO, 3 Arts Entertainment

Joshua Rothstein, CEO/Founder, Ice Cream For Dinner

Haim Saban, Chairman and CEO, Saban Capital Group

Glenn Sanders, Writer/Director/Creative Director, Masonry Creative

Ayelet Schiffman, SVP Head of Promotions, Island Records

Paul Schindler, Senior Partner, Greenberg Traurig LLC

Jordan Schur, CEO and Chairman, Mimran Schur Pictures and Suretone Entertainment

Adam Schwartz, Writer

Sam Schwartz, Partner, Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency

Jay Schweid, Founder/CEO, ephelants/Village

Adam Segal, President, The 2050 Group

Ben Silverman, Chairman and Co-CEO, Propagate Content

Ralph Simon, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Mobilium Global Limited

Tamar Simon, Owner/CEO, Mean Streets Management

Martin Singer, Attorney, Lavely and Singer

Halle Stanford, President of Television, The Jim Henson Company

Mimi Steinberg, Writer/Producer

Jonathan Steinsapir, Partner, Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir

Gary Stiffelman, Founder, GSS Law

Traci Symanski, CEO, Co-Star Entertainment

Aaron Symonds, Film Composer

Fernando Szew, President, Fox Entertainment

Tal Tavin, Actor

Adam Taylor, President, APM Music

Michael Testa, Casting Director, Michael Testa Casting

Fred Toczek, Partner, Felker Toczek Suddleson Abramson McGinnis Ryan LLP

Eric Tuchman, Writer/Producer, MGM-TV

Noa Vinshtok, Streaming, Range Media Partners

Joshua Washington, International Recording Artist, JoDavi Music LLC

Avi Weider, Filmmaker, Loop Filmworks

Jon Weinbach, President, Skydance Sports

Nola Weinstein, Tech Executive

Ilana Wernick, Writer/Producer, Fox

Modi Wiczyk, Co-Founder, MRC

Evan Winiker, Managing Partner, Range Music

Seth Yanklewitz, Casting Director, Yanklewitz Pollack Casting

Sharon Tal Yguado, Founder & CEO, Astrid Entertainment

Ky Zaretsky, Manager, Range Media Partners

David Zedeck, Global Co-Head of Music

[Sources: here, here, and here]

[argumate]

To overstate things only a little bit, for a while, SoftBank Group Corp. put up a sign saying “hi, we have $100 billion, we want to invest it in tech companies that are growing their user bases quickly, we don’t care that much about profitability, we make decisions quickly, we’ll give you way more money than you need, so if you want some of it show up at our offices and pitch us.” People showed up. SoftBank wanted to hear a particular sort of tech story, and it was pretty open about the exact elements of the story it wanted to hear, and when it heard that story it would start gushing money. People are motivated by incentives. They learned how to tell SoftBank the story it wanted to hear.

The funniest person who ever told SoftBank that story is surely Adam Neumann. The robot pizza delivery guy is up there too.

[thoughtportal]

There is common ground between Liberty and ByteDance. Masa Son’s SoftBank Vision Fund invested in ByteDance in 2018, and is also a limited partner in Mnuchin’s Liberty Strategic.

[eightyonekilograms]

Poor investment decisions of Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank Group led to a panoply of losing investments across the history of the company. Since Son founded SoftBank in 1981, he has made many investments, but the vast majority of those deals failed, and his reputation as an investor rests almost solely on his $20 million initial investment in Alibaba Group in 2000,

When your Wikipedia article just fucking roasts you

[collapsedsquid]

Losses from its technology funds had left SoftBank with a net loss of ¥970 billion, equivalent to $6.9 billion, for the fiscal year ended March, the company reported in May. It was the company’s second consecutive year in the red, but the loss was smaller than a year earlier—thanks to SoftBank’s cashing out almost its entire stake in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group. Son said he has been focusing on making his own inventions in artificial intelligence after soul-searching late last year. “There were times when I felt a real emptiness,” Son said. “I had a big cry. The tears didn’t stop for days.” The answer, he concluded, was to chase his old dream of being a technology “architect” who uses the creative side of his brain. He said he used ChatGPT every day for brainstorming and has come up with more than 600 ideas. He described one lengthy exchange—at around 3 to 4 in the morning—in which he pitched an idea and then answered the AI chatbot as it raised objections. “After we repeated this several dozen times, I really felt great because my idea was praised as feasible and wonderful,” he said.

[mariacallous]

Just after 2 am Pacific time on Monday morning, several OpenAI staffers—including its chief technology officer, Mira Murati—posted in unison on X: “OpenAI is nothing without its people.” Sam Altman, who was dramatically removed as the company’s chief executive on Friday, reposted many of them. By then, Altman already had a new job. Satya Nadella—CEO of Microsoft, a major investor and partner of OpenAI—announced late on Sunday night that Altman and his cofounder Greg Brockman would be joining the tech giant to head a new “advanced AI research team.” Nadella’s statement seemed to suggest that others from the startup would be joining Microsoft.

By hiring Altman and Brockman amid the chaos at the top of OpenAI, Microsoft has managed to acquire one of the most successful management teams in artificial intelligence without having to buy the company—whose pre-chaos valuation was $86 billion.

“Satya now looks like one of the most epic kingmakers,” says Nathan Benaich, founder and general partner at Air Street Capital and author of the State of AI report.

At least three other senior researchers—Jakub Pachocki, Aleksander Mądry, and Szymon Sidor—have reportedly left OpenAI.

“The head and the arms and one of the legs [of OpenAI] have gone to Microsoft,” says tech analyst Azeem Azhar, author of the newsletter Exponential View. “This is an enormous opportunity for Microsoft because it gets to take Sam Altman and Greg Brockman and probably a large part of the leadership team, and many of the very best engineers and researchers.”

At Microsoft, Altman and Brockman will have access to huge amounts of capital and compute power, Azhar says, as well as the tech giant’s support to develop other parts of the AI tech stack, including chips and consumer electronics. Altman was reportedly trying to raise billions of dollars from investors for a new chip project in the weeks running up to his firing. Altman and OpenAI had also been linked to a hardware venture with former Apple head of design Jony Ive that was reportedly hoping to build the “iPhone of AI,” backed by Softbank’s Masayoshi Son.

“I’m sure [Microsoft] will give Sam the leeway to go up and down the stack,” Azhar says. “Microsoft itself is developing its own chips for AI. Well, Altman’s group can probably help with that now, and they will be developing consumer electronics like surface computers and so on. Sam can start to head into that direction now through this group.”

Microsoft shares slipped on Friday as news of the problems at OpenAI spread. OpenAI’s technology has been integrated into a number of Microsoft products, including its Bing search engine, and the two companies’ fortunes had been seen as deeply intertwined. The news that Altman will be moving to the company is likely to restore confidence, analysts say.

“[Microsoft] hired this key asset and now he will oversee OpenAI from Redmond along with Nadella which is music to the ears of investors,” Dan Ives, senior equity research analyst covering the technology sector at Wedbush Securities, said in an email. “If Microsoft lost Altman he could have gone to Amazon, Google, Apple, or a host of other tech companies craving to get the face of AI globally in their doors. Instead he is safely in Microsoft’s HQ now leading the company’s key AI efforts.”

In an increasingly competitive AI industry, this is more than just steadying the ship after a chaotic few days for Microsoft. “Microsoft would never have thought they would get this level of talent, right? And especially at the senior level,” says Imran Ghory, general partner at VC Blossom Capital.

What it means for OpenAI isn’t clear, but the weekend’s events have also punctured a pervasive myth that the company’s lead in the industry is bulletproof. “The weekend’s chaos has shown us that no one is immune from the laws of corporate physics. Considering Sam’s centrality, it’s the most baffling decision from an AI lab I’ve witnessed,” he says. “People who are investing in OpenAI took the view that it was invincible. History teaches you that no one is invincible."

[ashitakaxsan]

“Black Beth” got my Interest:)

A week ago I just steped in a comics shop,one i am familiar with for many years now.Once I noticed this one “Black beth” it got me hooked.

What’s this all about? A dark fantasy,sword and sorcery comic

Premise

“Driven by her crusade to punish the unjust, Black Beth must save a group of sacrifices from a warlock intent upon unleashing evil upon the world. But the witch Moldred has given Beth a dire warning: to undertake this mission will have terrible consequences! Will Beth heed Moldred’s advice? Or is her homicidal thirst for vengeance all that matters to her?”

So it’s by Beth perspective,with a Serious fighting girl that should never stoop to the low as her enemies.If she would become as much Despicable as they are then all these she’s doing are good for nothing! it’s Chilling.

The creative team have crafted Beth being something Higher than any one would call it ‘ a mere poor immitation of Conan the barbarian,or Red Sonja”.The artist has done serious,detailed work on her Boob armor.Besides scientifically such armor works fine:)

Black Beth: Vengeance Be Thy Name Softbank and webshop exclusive hardback collecting The Magos of Malice, The Witch Tree, The Devils of Al-Kadesh, Fairy Tales and the original strip Black Beth by Blas Gallego, June 2022. 

With 5 stars for Excellent I give it 4,5 on it:)

[tsevis]

SoftBank Group Corp is a Japanese multinational investment holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. I have been commissioned to create a series of portraits of their founder and CEO Mr. Masayoshi Son and Mr. Rajeev Misra , the CEO of SoftBank Investment Advisers. I have used several hundreds of logos from companies Softbank founded to create the 4 mosaic portraits.

[hjellacott]

Tiktok

The international version of the Chinese product Douyin.

Owned by: ByteDance Limited (Zìjié Tiàodòng).

Content censorship: They ban and suppress criticism of leaders like Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, Barack Obama, mahatma Gandhi, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Also they suppress content informing of what happens at the Xinjiang Internment Camps (basically modern Chinese concentration camps to brainwash muslims), and the Uyghur genocide. They also ban users deemed too ugly, poor or disabled for the platform, censor political speech, block positive LGBT content, and set country-specific censorship rules.

It has been revealed that TikTok's Chinese employees could spy on users from all over the world, including obtaining their fingerprints and biometric data, aside from facial, which the Chinese government also has access to.

BYTEDANCE LTD.

Headquarters: Beijing and incorporated in the Cayman Islands (tax haven).

Founded by: Zhang Yiming, Liang Rubo, and more.

In partnership with: The Chinese Ministry of Public Security.

Also owned by: several companies with shares in it. For example a Chinese state-owned company owned by the Cybespace Administration of China and China Media Group.

Financed by: Hillhouse Capital Group )largest privaty equity fund in Asia), General Atlantic (US growth equity firm), Sequoia Capital (American venture capital firm), SoftBank Group Corporation (Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company focused on investment management), KKR & Co. Inc. (American investment company that manages alternative assets).

They've also created: Toutiao, a Chinese news platform that has been subjected to criticism for showing advertisement of products that Toutiao doesn't care if they're good or not, or even certified, after Toutiao employees said the company will even fake product certifies and allow illegal advertisement.

There are surveillance and privacy concerns with Bytedance company, with suspicions of its work for the Chinese Communist Party to censor content about human rights abuses.

[theclassyelfman]

Here's some food for thought. Instead of trying to completely erase the technology, how about focusing that energy on the benefactors that are causing the problems? It's obvious people here hate the police so that's target #1. Also there isn't much context provided.

So here's some extra information to think about:

Does this not seem like a very useful and important application? Ignoring the "acab" aspect for a moment. This method arguably puts a lot less lives at risk in such a tense situation. Surely this is more acceptable than being used to patrol the streets?

While the use of the word "yet" may be concerning, the statement has still ultimately been made that they won't be patrolling, or at least of their own will, perhaps remote-controlled at most.

And lo and behold, there's likely nothing to worry about because the scheme already seems to have been negatively received. I figured that the trials wouldn't last very long just like the other robo cop things people are complaining about the NYPD using.

Some of the comments people left have also made interesting points. Again, we should be stopping and considering the actual intention of the technology and what else it could be used for. I saw some sources also citing that the robot dogs have been employed in pharmaceutical environments or helping hospital workers amongst the covid disruptions. Surely this is something significant and more noble to acknowledge?

The mention of Boston Dynamics being funded by the military appears to have been a one time thing when they created BigDogs although correct me if I'm wrong. The company has been previously owned by Google X and SoftBank Group and is now currently owned by Hyundai.

Also the complaint about pinch points seems slightly redundant because of course the robot has moving parts, how else can it move. That can't really be avoided and of course people shouldn't be consciously sticking their hands and stuff in those areas. I've seen comments about it leaving other horrendous injuries but it all seems to be going off memory and rumours with no actual evidence. I've tried Googling about them and I can't seem to find anything.

So yeah, I think people are just being overly sceptical and fear mongering without taking other factors into account.

[argumate]

Adam Neumann and capital providers including Dan Loeb’s Third Point are exploring an offer to buy WeWork Inc. out of bankruptcy, according to a letter sent to WeWork’s lawyers that was seen by Bloomberg News.

The short version of this trade is that Adam Neumann started WeWork, sold it to SoftBank Group Corp. head Masayoshi Son for $47 billion in one of the greatest feats of salesmanship ever, left, watched it collapse, and will now buy it back for $0.

exaggerated, but still hilarious