All posts tagged: invested

.1 Billion CHIPS and Science Act Funding invested in Micron

$6.1 Billion CHIPS and Science Act Funding invested in Micron

Published by skeptic

Semiconductors form the backbone of modern electronics, powering everything from smartphones and computers to advanced medical devices and innovative military technology. The United States has long been a leader in semiconductor manufacturing, but in recent years, the industry has faced increasing competition from overseas manufacturers. Recognizing the strategic importance of maintaining a strong domestic semiconductor industry, both the government and private sector have taken steps to bolster U.S. semiconductor manufacturing capabilities. One company at the forefront of this effort is Micron Technology, Inc., a global leader in memory and storage solutions. Micron has announced plans for a significant expansion of its U.S. manufacturing operations, with the construction of new state-of-the-art semiconductor facilities in Idaho and New York. This move not only underscores Micron’s commitment to U.S. semiconductor manufacturing but also highlights the critical role that government support plays in fostering a competitive and innovative industry. Micron’s Expansion Plans: A Closer Look Micron’s expansion plans are nothing short of ambitious. The company intends to invest approximately $50 billion through 2030 in its U.S. manufacturing infrastructure, with …

What Happened When This Italian Province Invested in Babies

What Happened When This Italian Province Invested in Babies

Published by Sam

In a municipal building in the heart of the alpine city of Bolzano, Stefano Baldo clocked out of work early for his breastfeeding break. “It’s clear I don’t breastfeed,” Mr. Baldo, a 38-year-old transportation administrator, said in his office decorated with pictures of his wife and six children. But with his wife home with a newborn, one of the parents was entitled by law to take the time, and he needed to pick up the kids. “It’s very convenient.” Full houses have increasingly become history in Italy, which has one of the lowest birthrates in Europe and where Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, as well as Pope Francis, has warned that Italians are in danger of disappearing. But the Alto Adige-South Tyrol area and its capital, Bolzano, more than any other part of the country, bucked the trend and emerged as a parallel procreation universe for Italy, with its birthrate holding steady over decades. The reason, experts say, is that the provincial government has over time developed a thick network of family-friendly benefits, going far beyond …

Qatari royal invested million in pro-Trump news channel Newsmax: report

Qatari royal invested $50 million in pro-Trump news channel Newsmax: report

Published by skeptic

Signage for the Newsmax conservative television broadcasting network is displayed at a broadcast TV booth at the National Rifle Association (NRA) annual meeting at the George R. Brown Convention Center, in Houston, Texas on May 28, 2022.  Patrick T. Fallon | Afp | Getty Images Right-wing news outlet Newsmax received an investment of roughly $50 million from a Qatari royal between 2019 and 2020, The Washington Post reported, citing documents seen by the paper and confirmations from representatives of both Newsmax and the royal investment firm. Former Qatari government official Sheikh Sultan bin Jassim Al Thani invested in Newsmax through Heritage Advisors, a London-based investment fund that he owned, according to the report. At the time, Qatar was under an economic and diplomatic blockade by a coalition of neighboring Arab states, led by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. These nations accused Qatar of supporting terrorism, which Doha stringently denied. According to the Post’s reporting on Tuesday, Newsmax was looking for investors to compete with the likes of Fox News. The paper cited sources …

How People Become Emotionally Invested in Hate

How People Become Emotionally Invested in Hate

Published by skeptic

Political and religious hatreds may persist over centuries and can seem immutable even as all else changes. Factional hatred has a powerful emotional hold over us even though it hurts us practically, psychologically, and somatically. The origins of tribalism are mysterious. It may not be a pan-human trait as evolutionary psychologists sometimes claim. Hunter-gatherers were remarkably peaceful and there is no archaeological evidence for warfare prior to settled agriculture. Even if marked group hostility is comparatively recent, there is no doubt that farming communities often went to war over fertile land. Warfare became even more intense in complex societies where neighboring tribes fought for control over cities and the treasures they contained. Whatever its origins, group hostility is a common feature of human social behavior that plays out in bitter antagonisms among kin groups, tribes, religions, and even sports teams. Group affiliations are two-faced: In the plus column, they provide an important sense of belonging that improves our psychological and physical well-being. In the negative column, they may create social friction that compromises our health …

BGF’s South West team invested £70 million last year

BGF’s South West team invested £70 million last year

Published by skeptic

BGF, one of the largest growth capital investors in the UK and Ireland, has delivered a strong run of investment activity in 2023, deploying almost £70 million in small and mid-sized businesses across the South West, Thames Valley and South Wales in 2023. In 2023, BGF as a whole backed 44 new businesses and invested £430 million across the UK and Ireland. BGF is a long-term investor, making initial investments between £1 million to £20 million for a minority equity stake. It backs ambitious teams across a range of sectors and funds a variety of growth plans. In 2023, BGF’s South West team provided equity funding to businesses across a wide range of sectors including technology, healthcare, engineering and manufacturing. Key investments by the South West team over the last 12 months have included a £15.5 million investment in Exeter-based industrial supplies business Troy UK, to support its buy and build strategy; and £9 million in Bristol-based healthcare infrastructure business, Archus, to support its international and domestic expansion plans.  In Wales, BGF invested a further £4 million in …

Sunak’s Covid startup fund invested nearly £2m in firms linked to his wife | Rishi Sunak

Published by Sam

Rishi Sunak’s controversial fund to support startups during the Covid pandemic invested nearly £2m in companies linked to his wife, Guardian analysis has found. Carousel Ventures, a company part-owned by Akshata Murty’s venture capital firm, got an investment of £250,000 from the Future Fund to help fund its ownership of a luxury underwear business called Heist Studios, it can be disclosed. It is the fourth business linked to Murty revealed to have received an investment from the fund set up by Sunak to support startups when he was chancellor during the Covid pandemic. None of Murty’s investments that benefited from the Future Fund appear publicly on Sunak’s register of ministerial interests. Critics have raised concerns over a lack of transparency and the potential for a perceived conflict of interest given Sunak launched the scheme to help startups – a sector in which his wife is a known investor. Other investors in Carousel Ventures via an intermediary fund include Andrew Griffith, a Conservative MP who is now a Treasury minister under Sunak, and Brent Hoberman, a …

Republican donor invested in UK firm owned by Tory peer close to Boris Johnson | Conservatives

Published by Sam

A billionaire US hedge fund executive and major donor to US Republican candidates invested £1m in a British company owned by a Conservative peer who was close at the time to the then prime minister, Boris Johnson. Kenneth Griffin, the founder of Citadel, one of the largest hedge funds in the world, made the personal investment in 2020 in a company set up by Lord Howard of Rising, a Conservative peer whose Westminster mansion served as Johnson’s leadership campaign “nerve centre” a year earlier. Lynton Crosby, the Australian strategist who is considered the political mastermind behind electoral campaigns for Johnson, David Cameron and Theresa May, joined the company, Dalbini Limited, as a director three months after the investment by Griffin, according to Companies House records. Sometimes referred to in press reports as the “Wizard of Oz” due to his successful election campaigns, Crosby was brought back as an adviser to the Tory party to help when Johnson’s premiership was in crisis amid the Partygate scandal, which revealed that multiple parties had been held in and …

Stellantis has invested about one-third of its 300M euro fund into 10 startups

Stellantis has invested about one-third of its 300M euro fund into 10 startups

Published by skeptic

The corporate venture arm of automaker Stellantis has invested about one-third of its 300 million euro ($324M) fund into 10 startups that cover everything from battery technology and holographic augmented reality to sustainable manufacturing and even e-bikes. Stellantis Ventures said Wednesday it also invested in an unnamed venture capital firm’s mobility fund. Stellantis didn’t disclose how much it invested in each company. Nor did it name the mobility fund. It did share where it has put its money so far. Three of those companies — computer vision firm Nauto, connected ebike and app startup Beweelsociety and Trails Offroad — have services rolling out this year within Stellantis’ ecosystem of products. Nauto, which uses computer vision, software and data to improve safer driving in commercial fleets, is bringing its mobile app and cloud services to Stellantis’ U.S. commercial fleet vehicles this summer. Trails Offroad has created a digital library of more than 3,000 offroad trail guides in the U.S. and Canada. This summer, select new Jeep vehicles will gain access to more than  200 trail guides, …