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

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 WASHINGTON, July 25 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden almost met the chief executives of Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N), Medtronic Corp (MDT.N) and Cummins Corp (CMI.N) on Monday. officials, as well as union leaders, as part of the administration's push for legislation to boost the U.S. semiconductor industry. "Congress needs to pass this legislation as quickly as possible," Biden said. "The economic imperative... This bill will accelerate semiconductor manufacturing jobs." Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he was delaying the procedural vote until 11 a.m. ET on Tuesday because of severe weather concerns. The bill includes roughly $52 billion in subsidies for U.S. semiconductor production, as well as a new four-year 25 percent tax credit to encourage companies to build semiconductor factories in the U.S. The tax credit is estimated to be around $24 billion. Other provisions include a $1 billion grant program for "ongoing communities." L

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

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 July 25 (Reuters) - Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) said in a regulatory filing on Monday that it has increased its investment plan by $1 billion, which also includes a joint venture with Chief Executive Elon Second subpoena for private tweets disclosed by Elon Musk. 2018. The company now expects to spend $6 billion to $8 billion this year and the next two years, up from a previous spending plan of $5 billion to $7 billion, to boost output at its new plants in Texas and Berlin. 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. Meanwhile, the latest subpoena from 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 company sai

Amazon issues 13,000 disciplinary complaints at single US warehouse

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 Amazon Union (ALU) organizer Gerald Bryson hears union vote results as ALU members celebrate their official victory outside the NLRB office in Brooklyn, New York City, U.S., April 1, 2022 Address the media. REUTERS/Brendan Keder Mead. NEW YORK, July 12 (Reuters) - Amazon employee Gerald Bryson has been taking a manual count for three days when his manager showed him a "supportive feedback document". Thousands of items in warehouse inventory. The 2018 report said Bryson made 22 mistakes, including counting 19 products in a bin that actually had 20. If Bryson made six such mistakes in a year, he would be fired by Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) at one of its largest U.S. warehouses, the release said. Internal Amazon documents (not previously reported) show how the company regularly measures employee performance in detail and warns those who are even slightly underperforming — sometimes before the end of their shift. In the year ended April 2020, the company instituted more than 13,000

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

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 Customers wearing face masks shop at Alibaba's Hema Xiansheng chain after the coronavirus outbreak, during the Lunar New Year holiday in Beijing, China, January 27, 2020. Reuters/Wang Tingshu. HONG KONG, July 12 (Reuters) - Alibaba’s (9988.HK) supermarket chain Hema is trying to raise funds worth about $6 billion, well below the as much as $100 it hoped to raise earlier this year, three people familiar with the matter said. billion dollars in funding. The matter told Reuters. They said the company had to lower its valuation expectations after China's COVID-19 restrictions, particularly the severe lockdown in Shanghai, the economic hub, severely affected business. Given the company's bleak outlook, investors are also skeptical that loss-making Hema can continue to grow and turn a profit soon as the world's second-largest economy continues to implement strict policies to eradicate COVID-19 cases, two of the people said. . The supermarket chain, known in China as Hema Xia

Singapore's crypto ambitions dashed by three arrows

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 A view of the Monetary Authority of Singapore headquarters in Singapore on June 28, 2017. REUTERS/Darren Whiteside. HONG KONG/SINGAPORE, July 12 - Singapore's ambitious cryptocurrency industry, in some ways the largest in the Asia-Pacific region, faces an uncertain future following the recent collapse of crypto fund Three Arrows Capital, a global digital currency slump. High profile victim. Crypto players in Southeast Asia’s financial hub are bracing for more bankruptcies and lawsuits, with 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. Hoi Tak Leung, an attorney in Ashurst’s senior technology division, said: “Following recent events, it seems likely that MAS will crack down on crypto and digital assets.” According to KPMG, investment in Singapore-based crypto and blockchain companies will grow to $1.48 billion in 2021, a 10-fold increase from the previo

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. REUTERS/Stephen Nellis/. OAKLAND, Calif., July 12 — A supply chain crisis triggered by the global pandemic has stripped manufacturers of everything from personal computers and smartphones to cars of the computer chips they need to make their products. All of this changed abruptly in three weeks from late May to June as high inflation, the recent COVID lockdown in China and the war in Ukraine dampened consumer spending, especially on PCs and smartphones expenditure. The chip shortage has turned into a flood in some areas, catching Wall Street by surprise. At the end of June, memory chip company Micron Technology (MU.O) announced it would cut production. Micron’s chief commercial officer, Sumit Sadana, acknowledged that the market reversal took Micron by surprise. As chip earnings season kicks off in the U.S. later this month, TechInsights chip econ

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

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 Jean de La Verpilliere, CEO of Echion Technologies, holds up a commercial-scale prototype battery made from niobium anodes at the battery startup's headquarters in Cambridge, England, on June 13, 2022. REUTERS/Nick Carey.. CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom, July 11 - In the race for electric vehicles, automakers are focusing on range to ease consumer concerns about charging infrastructure, but battery makers are already working on developing smaller, more Durable, cheaper future batteries that also load faster.. As today's automakers chase market leader Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) and try to build cars that can travel 300 miles (482 kilometers) or more between charges, battery startups expect range to increase becomes less important because chargers for public electric vehicles (EVs) are becoming ubiquitous. Startups are experimenting with materials such as silicon carbon, tungsten and niobium, in search of small batteries that can charge extremely quickly. The battery is the most expensive pa