Investment bankers

Zoom Video Communications Inc on Monday said it has created a $100 million fund to invest in startup software companies that build apps using its technology. The video conferencing company has become a household name during the pandemic as businesses and schools shifted to its platform, along with rival platforms such as Microsoft Corp's Teams and Cisco Systems Inc's Webex. Zoom Chief Financial Officer Kelly Steckelberg told Reuters that the fund will make investments of between $250,000 and $2.5 million into companies building "Zoom Apps" that plug into the company's video conferencing software to add new features to it. While established firms such as Salesforce.com Inc have Zoom apps that can, for example, display information from corporate systems for discussions during sales meetings, Steckelberg said Zoom wants to encourage developers to create new functions like digital white boards for sketching ideas. She said that the fund will also be open to companies … [Read more...] about Zoom creates $100 million fund to invest in startup software companies

KUALA LUMPUR: Microsoft Corporation will invest $1 billion over the next five years in Malaysia as part of a new partnership programme with government agencies and local companies, the Southeast Asian nation's prime minister said on Monday. The announcement on what would be the U.S. tech giant's biggest investment in Malaysia comes after the country in February gave conditional approvals for Microsoft, Google , Amazon and state telecoms firm Telekom Malaysia to build and manage hyper-scale data centres and provide cloud services. It also comes after the country saw foreign direct investments ( FDI ) plunge by 68% last year, the biggest decline in Southeast Asia. Malaysia has defended itself as an investment destination, with the finance minister recently saying it was looking at incentives to help attract more FDI. It has said the investments from these cloud service providers will total between 12 billion ringgit and 15 billion ringgit ($2.91 … [Read more...] about Microsoft to invest $1 billion in Malaysia to set up data centres: Malaysian PM

Volvo will provide vehicles for Didi Chuxing’s self-driving taxi fleet, according to a new deal between the two companies. The Swedish automaker, which is owned by China’s largest private automaker Geely, will supply XC90 SUVs to Didi Autonomous Driving, the self-driving technology division of China’s vehicle-for-hire company. Didi said it would use Volvo’s SUVs when it eventually launches a commercial robotaxi operation at a later date. The company has been testing its autonomous technology in Shanghai since 2019 as part of a pilot approved by the Chinese government. It’s an interesting twist, considering Volvo used to be a partner in another global ride-hailing firm’s autonomous ambitions. Volvo had an agreement with Uber to deploy a fleet of self-driving taxis by 2019, but that plan was scrapped after an Uber test vehicle (an XC90 SUV) struck and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona, in 2017. Still, the Swedish automaker maintained its partnership with Uber’s autonomous … [Read more...] about Volvo will provide cars for Didi’s autonomous vehicle division

Faraday Future was investigated by the Department of Labor in 2020, though the electric vehicle startup says the matter was “resolved,” according to a previously unreported passage in a recent regulatory filing . The startup didn’t say what the investigation was about or how much it paid to resolve the legal matter. Faraday Future’s former chief lawyer has claimed in a lawsuit that the company was previously inspected by the Department of Homeland Security’s United States Citizenship and Immigration Services division in 2018, though the startup denied this in court filings. A spokesperson for Faraday Future declined to comment on the investigation. The regulatory filing, known as the S-4 “registration statement,” was published as part of Faraday Future’s merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) called Property Solutions Acquisition Corp. When that merger is done, Faraday Future will be a publicly traded company and will have around $1 billion in fresh cash — … [Read more...] about Faraday Future was investigated by the Department of Labor in 2020

Amazon bought nine launches from the Boeing-Lockheed joint venture United Launch Alliance to send its internet-beaming Kuiper satellites into space, the companies announced. It is Amazon’s first launch agreement. The deal is for ULA’s workhorse Atlas 5 rocket. An Amazon spokesman declined to say how many satellites each launch will carry or how often they will launch. Amazon is planning to build a so-called constellation of 3,236 satellites in space to bring internet to rural parts of the world that have little to no connectivity. It’ll also serve as a major infrastructure boost to its mammoth cloud computing platform, Amazon Web Services. But details on the network have been scant since the Federal Communications Commission approved the company’s network for launch in July 2020. The competition is stiff, too: both OneWeb and Elon Musk’s SpaceX are also deploying broadband internet networks in low-Earth orbit. The FCC requires Amazon to launch at least half of its Kuiper … [Read more...] about Amazon buys nine ULA rocket launches for its space internet satellites