All posts tagged: billion

Scientists Intrigued by Galactic Structure That’s 1.4 Billion Light-Years Wide

Scientists Intrigued by Galactic Structure That’s 1.4 Billion Light-Years Wide

Published by José

Scientists say they’ve uncovered the “largest known galactic structure” — a cosmic monster that spans a mind-boggling 1.4 billion light-years, which is around 14,000 times the diameter of our own Milky Way galaxy. The team, led by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Physics, made the discovery after analyzing data as part of the ROSAT X-ray satellite sky survey. They found that the structure — dubbed “Quipu” after strings with knots used by the Incas for bookkeeping — stretched across huge swathes of the night sky. The team believes it’s largely composed of dark matter, the invisible substance believed to account for 85 percent of all mass in the universe. The finding could have considerable implications for our understanding of the larger structures lurking in the universe and how to accurately map them. “If you look at the distribution of the galaxy clusters in the sky in a spherical shell with a distance of 416 to 826 million light-years, you immediately notice a huge structure that stretches from high northern latitudes to almost the southern …

Trump Still Considering Tariffs on Taiwanese Chips, Despite 0 Billion TSMC Deal

Trump Still Considering Tariffs on Taiwanese Chips, Despite $100 Billion TSMC Deal

Published by skeptic

Second, tariffs can only make foreign companies start producing chips in the US if it becomes cheaper than doing it somewhere else. But higher American labor costs and the country’s lack of a sophisticated semiconductor supply chain means moving manufacturing there will take years, if not decades, and there’s little guarantee that such US outposts will be profitable. Faced with US tariffs, it could make more sense for Taiwanese companies like TSMC to simply move production to a third country instead to avoid paying them. But the Trump administration could choose to expand the tariffs to all countries, effectively making production in the US the only viable alternative. It could alternatively apply the tariffs to any end products that contain Taiwanese chips. The latter idea would constitute a significant disruption to the semiconductor industry. A single smartphone can have dozens of chips inside responsible for a range of different functions; a car can potentially have thousands. Figuring out which of them have components from Taiwan, how much those components should be taxed, and how difficult …

U.S. will spend up to billion to combat bird flu, USDA secretary says

U.S. will spend up to $1 billion to combat bird flu, USDA secretary says

Published by Sam

The U.S. will invest up to $1 billion to combat the spread of bird flu, including increasing imports of eggs, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Wednesday. A three-year bird flu outbreak in U.S. poultry has killed 166 million chickens since 2022, according to USDA data. The virus has also infected nearly 1,000 dairy herds and almost 70 people, including one death, since early 2024. The USDA will spend up to $500 million to provide free biosecurity audits to farms and $400 million to increase payment rates to farmers who need to kill their chickens due to bird flu, Rollins said at a conference of state agriculture officials. Some of the money will come from cuts to USDA spending by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, Rollins said Wednesday in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. The USDA is exploring vaccines for chickens but is not yet authorizing their use, Rollins said. The poultry industry is divided on whether to vaccinate chickens because of potential trade implications. The administration plans to increase imports and decrease exports of eggs to boost domestic supply and combat record high …

New report catalogs seizure of Iraqi Jewish assets exceeding billion

New report catalogs seizure of Iraqi Jewish assets exceeding $34 billion

Published by skeptic

Episode constitutes the little-known population transfer of over 135,000 Jews  NEW YORK — The prospect of a population transfer in the Middle East has dominated headlines and ignited fierce debate over the past two weeks. While unpopular in some quarters, population transfers have occurred many times over the past century with mostly enduring results. A new report released by Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC) details the largely-unknown population transfer of over 135,000 Jews from Iraq to Israel and other countries, which began in 1951. To provide historical context, in the 1920s, Greek Orthodox Christians in Turkey moved to Greece, while Muslims in Greece moved to Turkey. After World War II, millions of Indians and Pakistanis were geographically relocated and forced to find new homes, as were ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union. Little known, and less reported is the negotiations among the British, American and Iraqi authorities, in the late 1940s, to transfer 135,000 Jews from Iraq and a significant number of Palestinians to be resettled in Iraq. Although the agreement was never …

China’s CATL to file for at least US billion Hong Kong listing this week, sources say

China’s CATL to file for at least US$5 billion Hong Kong listing this week, sources say

Published by Sam

SYDNEY: Chinese battery giant CATL plans to file a Hong Kong listing application this week to raise at least US$5 billion, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. The filing could come on Tuesday or Wednesday, added the sources, who could not be identified discussing confidential information. CATL did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters. A listing of the Shenzhen-listed firm, the largest battery maker in the world, would be the largest listing in Hong Kong in four years, according to Dealogic data. At US$5 billion, it would be the biggest listing since Kuaishou Technology’s 2021 initial public offering that raised US$6.2 billion, the data showed. The city’s equity capital markets have languished in the past three years as a result of Chinese regulators slowing down the approval process and volatile global financial markets. CATL’s planned float in the Chinese offshore market comes amid rising geopolitical tensions as the US in January added Chinese tech companies including CATL and Tencent Holdings to a list of firms it says …

Trump Set to Approve 0 Billion Deal to Build Huge AI Datacenters

Trump Set to Approve $500 Billion Deal to Build Huge AI Datacenters

Published by José

That’s a *lot* of money. Big Spenders Returning president Donald Trump is preparing to approve a $500 billion investment into private sector-developed AI infrastructure, according to reporting from CBS. The project is reportedly a joint venture between ChatGPT creator OpenAI, the Japanese investment group SoftBank, and the software behemoth Oracle, and will see the building of new datacenters — in short, massive, wildly energy-intensive computing facilities — in the US. The first of these facilities, according to the report, will be constructed somewhere in Texas. The effort is reportedly called “Stargate,” because of course it is. More investors are reportedly expected to join the project, though it’s unclear who they might be. The money going into this thing is staggering: company executives are “expected to say they plan to commit $100 billion initially,” reads the CBS report, and “pour up to $500 billion into Stargate over the next four years.” News of Stargate’s forthcoming announcement comes fresh on the heels of the Trump Administration’s reversal of the Biden-era executive order on AI — which, though …

U.K. to Turbocharge AI, Gain up to Billion a Year as World Leader

U.K. to Turbocharge AI, Gain up to $57 Billion a Year as World Leader

Published by skeptic

Artificial intelligence will “be unleashed across the U.K. to deliver a decade of national renewal.” At least, that is the vow made by Prime Minister Keir Starmer as he unveiled a plan that his Labour Party government says will “turbocharge AI” and “deliver a decade of national renewal” by “backing AI to the hilt.” Agreeing to take forward all 50 recommendations set out by Matt Clifford, chairman of talent investor Entrepreneur First, in his “AI Opportunities Action Plan,” which he was tasked to draw up last summer, Starmer and his team said on Monday that AI could help with “revolutionizing our public services and putting more money in people’s back pockets.” Citing an International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimate, the government emphasized that “if AI is fully embraced and productivity gains are fully realized, this could be worth up to an average £47 billion ($57 billion) to the U.K. each year over a decade.” Concluded the government: “Today’s plan mainlines AI into the veins of this enterprising nation – revolutionizing our public services and putting more …

Google’s billion bet on Africa’s digital future

Google’s $1 billion bet on Africa’s digital future

Published by skeptic

Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people Notice: JavaScript is required for this content. This article is an installment of Future Explored, Freethink’s weekly guide to world-changing technology. You can get stories like this one straight to your inbox every Saturday morning by subscribing above. It’s 2030, and more than two-thirds of the population of sub-Saharan Africa is now online. While this internet access is helping residents combat poverty, disease, illiteracy, and more, continuous effort will be required to ensure the benefits of the tech outweigh its potential harms. Africa’s “digital decade” It’s been 55 years since a team of researchers at UCLA sent a message from their university’s room-sized computer to another massive machine housed at Stanford, giving birth to the technology that would eventually become the internet. Since then, computers have gotten small enough to carry around in our pockets, the wires are optional, and two-thirds of the world’s population is now online.  For individuals, this internet access has meant opportunities in work, education, …

Malaysia’s 1MDB files legal claim against Amicorp Group alleging over billion in fraud

Malaysia’s 1MDB files legal claim against Amicorp Group alleging over $7 billion in fraud

Published by Sam

KUALA LUMPUR: Scandal-hit Malaysian state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad has filed a legal claim against corporate services provider Amicorp Group and its CEO alleging it facilitated over US$7 billion in fraudulent transactions, 1MDB said on Monday.  The claim was filed in the British Virgin Islands against eight Amicorp entities and its Chief Executive Officer Toine Knipping, alleging that they played a vital role in enabling the sovereign wealth fund to be defrauded between 2009 and 2014, 1MDB said in a statement. It estimates the value of the claim at over US$1 billion.      Amicorp Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  Source link

Exclusive-Databricks nears record .5 billion VC raise, eyes extra .5 billion debt

Exclusive-Databricks nears record $9.5 billion VC raise, eyes extra $4.5 billion debt

Published by Sam

Software firm Databricks is nearing a deal that could become one of the largest venture capital funding rounds in history, as investors have shown a strong appetite to own a piece of the fast-growing data analytics firm, three sources said on Friday.  The round, almost twice oversubscribed, could top $9.5 billion when it is finalized next week, exceeding the company’s original goal and higher than what was discussed earlier, the sources told Reuters, cautioning the final number could still go up. The San Francisco-based company, which helps enterprises process and analyze their data, is expected to fetch a valuation of over $60 billion at a price of $92.50 per share. That price is considered a bargain in the eyes of some investors, given that the company’s projected revenue for the next fiscal year is $3.8 billion, said the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss private matters. Thrive Capital and returning investors Andreessen Horowitz, Insight Partners, as well as Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC are expected to lead this mega round, according to one of the sources. …