Katie Roof

How AI firms and investors are funding and backing JD Vance & Trump in order to slash AI regulation. A must read - https://lnkd.in/eu4H9gpK

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Third quarter starts with earnings trends largely intact, but nascent signs of trouble in tech land. Earnings still growing for big cap tech but companies like Nvidia seeing decelerating earnings growth. And consumers are pushing back against price increases, which may put margin pressure on consumer staples and consumer discretionary.

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My first front page story as a White House correspondent for USA TODAY — and it is an #exclusive! Our analysis found that in some swing states, which are critical to President Joe Biden’s reelection bid, rental costs have more than doubled in the past four years. In fact, 6 out of the top 10 markets and 34 of the top 100 markets with the largest increases are in swing states. (Also, the print edition came with a QR code that can be scanned to view data on the top 100 markets with the largest increases). Inflation and the economy have long worried American voters, polling shows. But as housing costs continue to be the biggest driver of core inflation, renters are feeling increasingly disillusioned with politicians. #rent #rental Rent.com #NationalLowIncomeHousingCoaltion Link to story: https://lnkd.in/eyaPpTE5

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Here's my profile with Angel Au-Yeung of David Sacks, Trump's new crypto/AI czar. He's been a provocateur back to his days at the Stanford Review -- pulled the material, definitely edgy, often funny! He succeeded at angel investing, entrepreneurship and even movie-producing before starring in the All-In Pod. One question: does he sell various crypto and AI investments given the potential conflicts? https://lnkd.in/gEw8k_w6

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In today’s WSJ China, I write about the parallels between Beijing’s recent economic policy U-turn and the U-turn on zero-Covid. Both point to how Xi’s centralization of power has delayed effective policy response. https://lnkd.in/etQ6w5pb Also we highlight the story by Liyan Qi on China’s most famous red guard. Hope you enjoy reading it! H/T Clarence Leong

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In today's DealBook: Are investors getting tired of the high cost of A.I.? Meta reported its best-ever first quarter results but its shares tumbled, wiping $200 billion of its market capitalization — and serving as a warning to other Big Tech groups that are spending big on A.I. Elsewhere: I look at a mining megadeal that's all about the green transition; and Lauren Hirsch on how companies are thinking about getting round a ban on noncompete agreements. https://lnkd.in/gUCJxsyV

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AI is the dominating idea of the present era

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🎙️ Some real talk on my Opening Bid podcast at the Nasdaq from Domain Money founder and CEO Adam Dell. 🎙️ My question: how to talk to your parents about the inevitable wealth transfer. Adam's perspective: "People don't talk enough about money, and particularly within a family the dynamics of the financial situation of your parents and their long-term well-being and the impact it'll have on your life as they pass, is something that people need to learn to talk about. And we encourage our clients to have those conversations, and give them frameworks to think about broaching those subjects. They're often sensitive. It's really important to just be transparent as parents with your children and similarly as children in talking with your parents so that you're all on the same page about what the expectations are and what's realistic and reasonable to try to achieve. The problem I see with many people is that they're just really unwilling to face the reality of it. That's a very, very bad formula for long-term success. Hope is not a strategy. You need a realistic plan and small incremental steps to take toward that plan. And as it relates to your parents' generation or our parents' generation, having that conversation earlier rather than later, especially as they age and their cognitive abilities decline, is a much better approach." Full watch on Yahoo Finance here! https://lnkd.in/eEnPs3sb

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Are you a working parent? Working parents, guardians or caretakers know the challenge of striking the delicate balance between work and care responsibilities. We teamed up with our partners at JUST Capital to compile a list of the top companies for parents: Goldman Sachs, American Express, Deckers Brands, S&P Global and Splunk top the list. But what makes one company better than others for working parents? All five of those companies offer: • 20 or more weeks of paid parental leave for both primary and secondary caregivers • Parental leave parity for all caregivers • Backup subsidized dependent care for their employees • Flexible work schedules (hybrid or fully remote) #Work #Jobs #WorkingParents CNBC

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Alphabet Inc. will likely post its slowest revenue growth in four quarters tomorrow, hit by stiff competition that weighed on its mainstay Google search business along with weaker YouTube ad spending. Despite ramping up investment in artificial intelligence to boost its cloud computing business, the growth in the segment is expected to be eclipsed by the slowdown in its core businesses. Social media giant TikTok and Amazon's prime video have been snatching up ad dollars from Google as they become increasingly popular with advertisers and consumers. Read the full earnings preview story with Deborah Sophia for Reuters below:

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Congestion pricing was supposed to start today in New York City. It didn't after Gov. Kathy Hochul earlier this month announced an indefinite pause. My latest article in The Wall Street Journal traces the rise and pause of congestion pricing — a tale that involves 17 years and around $700 million. The abrupt reversal, which some attribute to Hochul’s reluctance to impose a new fee in an election year, leaves metro New York grappling with a historic missed opportunity and fiscal mess. There is no relief in sight for the city’s traffic congestion, which is the worst in the world, according to data published last week. The epic collapse in New York shows how a fear of dramatic change can give the status quo stubborn power over those trying to solve some of America’s most intractable challenges. That leaves policymakers nibbling at the edges of deeply rooted problems, even after investing huge sums of money and political capital. Blown up in a New York minute were plans for around $15 billion of planned improvements to the city’s ailing mass-transit system, the largest transportation network in North America. The reversal cast aside around $700 million in meticulous prep work, including a $555-million contract to install tolling cameras—which are already up and ready to go—and $33 million for a customer-service center with 100 employees who have already been brought on, officials said. Planners invested thousands of hours, including going to London and Stockholm to research their congestion-pricing programs, according to people familiar with the travel. What was supposed to be a transformative moment when New York led the way and boldly tackled traffic congestion, air pollution and transit funding, has instead turned into a surprising loss for a broad coalition that includes major employers, real-estate developers and subway riders. Surprised by the reversal were Hochul’s own lieutenants, including Janno Lieber, a fierce champion of congestion pricing and the chief executive of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The MTA—which carries around 5.5 million passengers each day in the New York metro area—now faces a $16.5 billion-financial hole from the loss of money from congestion pricing and federal matching funds. Just days after Hochul’s announcement, a beleaguered Lieber joined a conference call with advocates in which he said he was equally shocked and remained committed to the program, three people familiar with the exchange said. “This is devastating,” he said, according to a person on the call. Here's the latest from me and Joseph De Avila —>

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How will quantum computing change the face of medical research and health? What will it do that we can only imagine right now? Where does quantum computing fit in with classical computing and AI? I'll have a chance to dig into all these questions and more at #BioFuture2024 on Monday, Oct. 28th in a panel discussion with IBM's Victoria Lipinska, PhD, alongside Moderna's Wade Davis and Alexey Galda. Hope to see you there! #QuantumComputing

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New in Newcomer: The investor behind our current defense tech moment. Founders Fund General Partner Trae Stephens has had a hand in many of the venture world’s most important defense tech deals. A veteran of an unnamed three-letter intelligence agency who says he’s always been motivated by public service, he left the government first to join Palantir Technologies, and then Founders Fund. Stephens has climbed to what is effectively the number two spot there by doing exactly what Founders Fund partners dream of doing — bucking the conventional wisdom and defying political pieties. Stephens co-founded the iconic defense tech company — Anduril Industries — with Palmer Luckey, back when the tech world was not as friendly to defense. Now, in a moment of increasing geopolitical tensions, Stephens is tasked with bringing both Founders Fund and Anduril through to the next chapter.  https://lnkd.in/e5_Yx63A

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First interview in our three part series on how generative AI is impacting media. This was a great conversation on how to do something to solve a problem

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Patron closed its sophomore fund at $100 million last week and I sat down with co-founder and general partner Jason Yeh to talk about how he convinced the UCLA Endowment to invest, the next generation of consumers and how his experiences at Riot Games shaped his investment thesis. "One of the unique advantages we have compared to other early-stage investors is because we come from Riot and Discord we have a sense for how this younger generation interacts online," he told me. "Our thesis is a long-term thesis: this generation of consumers growing up online are in college or already working, so it’s inevitable that our worldview comes true.” Read more on Venture Capital Journal. #venturecapital

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Meta reported first-quarter results on Wednesday that beat analysts' estimates, but shares plunged in extended trading on a weaker-than-expected forecast. The company has raised investor expectations due to its improved financial performance in recent quarters, leaving little room for error. The stock is up about 40% this year after almost tripling last year. Revenue increased 27% from $28.65 billion in the same period a year earlier, the fastest rate of expansion for any quarter since 2021. Net income more than doubled to $12.37 billion, or $4.71 per share, from $5.71 billion, or $2.20 per share, a year ago. Meta said it expects sales in the second quarter of $36.5 billion to $39 billion. The midpoint of the range, $37.75 billion, would represent 18% year-over-year growth and is below analysts’ average estimate of $38.3 billion. The company's quarterly call with investors is about to kick off.

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This story is about technology that's sure to affect everyone to some degree, no matter your grasp of the complexities. One of my favorite aspects of my job as a journalist is that it provides cover for asking brilliant people to explain difficult concepts in language a grade-schooler could understand. Here, Malcolm Penn (CEO and semiconductors analyst at Future Horizons) and Beau Jackson (lawyer leading Husch Blackwell LLP’s Section 337 practice) were especially helpful in clarifying, respectively, why anyone should care about the global market for gallium-nitride-based power semiconductor devices, and the role the U.S. International Trade Commission plays for small American companies that believe a foreign-based firm is undercutting its business with cheaper copies of patented inventions. I'm also grateful for the details provided by Alex Lidow, CEO of EPC - Efficient Power Conversion; EPC's external spokesperson, Scott Lindlaw of FGS Global; and Innoscience's external spokespersons at 514 Media Ltd. As the legal battles covered in the story develop, and as more companies in the GaN space turn to the courts to defend their innovations, I invite those involved in the field to message me directly with any insights or news tips. Meanwhile, a snippet of today's coverage, with the full story linked: --- A small California company is wielding patents in court and at a US trade agency to fortify its position in the battle for global supremacy over next-generation power semiconductor devices. EPC - Efficient Power Conversion Corp. scored a first-round win earlier this month in its effort to block imports of China-based Innoscience (Zhuhai) Technology Co.’s gallium nitride-based, or GaN-based, power semiconductor devices. A trade judge at the U.S. International Trade Commission upheld the validity of two EPC patents and found Innoscience’s devices infringe one of those, US Patent No. 8,350,294. EPC’s parallel federal lawsuit, filed in May 2023 over Innoscience’s alleged infringement of four patents—including the two at issue in the ITC case—is on hold until the agency has issued its final decision, which has a target date of Nov. 5. GaN-based technologies are changing the semiconductors game by offering improved performance across a wide range of applications including artificial intelligence and self-driving vehicles while reducing energy consumption and the required physical space compared to conventional silicon-based technologies. The market share for GaN-based technology is growing as it relates to the broader global semiconductor business, according to Grand View Research, Inc. reports. But even if Innoscience’s infringement is “a dead-cert bet” that results in ITC and court victories, the US company’s ability to parlay that to slow the competitor’s “global ambitions is another matter entirely,” said Malcolm Penn, CEO of the British semiconductor-analyst firm Future Horizons. Click for full coverage.

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Correction warnings are mounting, with stock valuations overstretched after both Nifty and Sensex hit record highs Tuesday. While robust flows make it hard to predict when the market will top out, analysts caution that future gains may be subpar. With Alex Gabriel Simon and Chiranjivi Chakraborty via Bloomberg News

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