US SEC charges FTX's former auditor over independence violations

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged accounting firm Prager Metis with multiple violations of auditor independence. The SEC stated that between December 2017 and October 2020, Prager Metis added indemnification provisions to engagement letters for over 200 audits and other work, hindering the firm's required independence.

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Sam Bankman-Fried trial poses biggest test to date for crypto's top cop

The upcoming trial of Sam Bankman-Fried on fraud charges will be a major test for Manhattan's top federal prosecutor, Damian Williams, who has prioritized rooting out corruption in financial markets since taking office in 2021. Williams has brought several indictments against executives in the cryptocurrency space and high-profile fraud charges against individuals such as Charlie Javice, Bill Hwang, and Joe Lewis.

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Google opens generative AI search experience to teens

Google is expanding its generative AI search experience, known as Search Generative Experience (SGE), to teenagers in the US aged 13 to 17. The company aims to strike a balance between providing opportunities for teenagers to benefit from the technology while prioritizing safety and meeting their developmental needs.

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Elon Musk's X Corp in another legal fight over unpaid rent, this time as plaintiff

X Corp, formerly known as Twitter and owned by Elon Musk, has filed a lawsuit against financial services company Atlas Exploration, seeking to recoup over $713,500 in allegedly unpaid rent and fees for office space in San Francisco. The lawsuit alleges breach of contract and claims that Atlas terminated the sublease agreement early without paying the owed rent and early termination fee.

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The harsh ‘reality’ facing real money gaming firms, and other top tech, startup stories this week

The gaming industry in India is facing tax woes as the GST department issued pre-show cause notices to several cash flow-rich firms in the sector. One of the notices, amounting to an estimated Rs 25,000 crore, was served to fantasy sports company Dream11, making it the largest indirect tax notice in India. This move has sparked legal disputes and challenges from the gaming companies, who argue that the tax demands are retrospective and unfair. The Supreme Court will conduct further hearings on the matter on October 10.

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FinMin notifies Oct 1 date for implementing amended GST law provisions for e-gaming

According to the changes to the Central GST Act, these supplies will henceforth be treated as "actionable claims" similar to lottery, betting and gambling and subject to 28 per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST) on full face value of bets.

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Festive fever may light up ecommerce sales by 16%

Sales in terms of gross merchandise value are likely to be between $9.7 billion and $11 billion this festive season, rising roughly 15-16% from a year earlier, according to data. Companies are betting on premiumisation and non-urban markets.

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IBM tries to ease customers' qualms about using Generative AI

IBM on Thursday announced its campaign to ease customers' qualms. The company said it would indemnify companies against copyright or other intellectual property claims for using its generative AI systems.

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AI startup AlphaSense valued at $2.5 billion after latest funding round

Market intelligence platform AlphaSense has raised $150 million in a fresh round of funding that boosted its valuation to $2.5 billion, underscoring strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) startups.

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Former Microsoft product chief Panos Panay joins Amazon as head of devices business

Panay, who was with Microsoft for over 19 years and most recently lead the Windows + Devices division, will take up the new role in October.

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Neobank Fi lays off 10% of workforce; lags behind on fiscal revenue target

The layoffs have been undertaken to increase its cash runway from almost one and a half years currently to two years and are expected to impact employees across functions including engineering, product, analytics and process excellence, among other teams.

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ETSA 2023 Woman Ahead Winner | HUFT’s Rishi Narang up for global market entry next year

Narang, winner of the Woman Ahead category at The Economic Times Startup Awards 2023, impressed this year’s jury with the strong customer loyalty that she has built for her brand. The jurors acknowledged the difficulty of building a brand in a category like pet care in India and spoke about how HUFT’s offline strategy was a strong differentiator for the pet supplies business.

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New India CEO to cut Byju’s down to size; eGaming cos mull legal steps after GST shock

Byju’s new India CEO is setting about cleaning house with no stone unturned. Within a week of taking over, Arjun Mohan is planning to merge verticals and prune staff strength by a third – that’s over a whopping 4,500 jobs - to rein in costs. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.

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Infosys to start next appraisal cycle as pending hikes drag on

The country’s second largest IT exporter will start its ‘performance review cycle–October 2023’ with self-evaluation on September 29, according to an email sent to managers. Manager evaluation will happen by October-end while rating will be communicated to individual employees in the first week of December, said the email, a copy of which ET has seen.

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Worldline starts its own merchant acquisition in India

French payment company has been offering digital payment services in India for years, but only on behalf of banking partners. But now it intends to acquire its own merchants for both online and offline payments.

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India will become top market in Asia in 3-5 years: Netapp CEO

Netapp expects the Indian market to accelerate and become the data storage firm’s largest market in Asia in the next three to five years from the top three position currently.

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US FCC chair proposes to restore net neutrality rules

U.S. Federal Communications Commission chair Jessica Rosenworcel on Tuesday said she would move quickly to reinstate landmark net neutrality rules rescinded under former President Donald Trump.

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Wealthy have a social responsibility amid rising inequality: Rohini Nilekani

If wealth remains concentrated in the hands of a few, the government may have reason to look to other means such as higher taxation to distribute wealth more fairly, Nilekani said.

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Google, Walmart ask Bengaluru staff to work from home amid state water dispute

Internal memos seen by Reuters showed multinational firms such as Google, Walmart, IBM and Accenture have advised employees to work from home and avoid any non-essential commuting during Tuesday's strike.

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ETSA 2023 stars to be feted on Oct 7; Dream11, others stare at Rs 55,000 crore tax demand

The eight winners of The Economic Times Startup Awards 2023 will be felicitated on October 7 in a grand ceremony in Bengaluru. Seema Prem of Fia Global, which won top honours for Social Enterprise, spoke to us about her startup’s journey, and its next aim. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.

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ET Startup Awards 2023: Winners to be Felicitated on October 7

The ninth edition of The Economic Times Startup Awards (ETSA) will be held on Saturday, October 7, in Bengaluru to honour this year's winners across eight categories in what will be a star-studded gathering of the who's who of India's new economy.

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Stock photo giant Getty releases AI image generator

With one of the world's most extensive photo archives, Getty is positioning itself as a competitor to the giants of generative AI, such as Dall-E creator OpenAI or Google, with its Imagen program, but also start-ups Midjourney or Stable Diffusion.

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Yelp wants Google's lawyers tossed from US antitrust case

Yelp and News/Media Alliance, which are not defendants in the litigation but are targets of Google's subpoenas, argue that law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison should be disqualified.

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Elon Musk showcases Tesla humanoid robot performing Yoga, Namaste

Elon Musk showcased the Tesla humanoid robot named 'Optimus' in a video where it performed yoga postures and greeted followers with a 'Namaste'. Optimus has the ability to self-calibrate its arms and legs and can locate its limbs in space using vision and joint position encoders.

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The threat of wildfires is rising. So is new artificial intelligence solutions to fight them

Firefighters and startups are using AI-enabled cameras to scan the horizon for signs of smoke. A German company is building a constellation of satellites to detect fires from space. And Microsoft is using AI models to predict where the next blaze could be sparked.

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Meta gears up to launch dozens of AI chatbots for younger users

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, the company has tested a "sassy robot" persona inspired by Bender from Futurama and an overly curious "Alvin the Alien" that one employee worried could imply the bot was made to gather personal information.

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Groww may pip Zerodha in active user count; ETSA 2023 winner Gameberry Labs on its bootstrap journey

Talk about a growth story! Online stock broking platform Groww is all set to pip market leader Zerodha in terms of active investors next month. While Zerodha took almost a decade to achieve leadership status, Groww did it in just three years, having started in 2020. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.

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Panel in place to modernise Mohali Semiconductor Lab: official

Chips from SCL, which is the only unit in the country to manufacture chips, have gone into previous space missions, however, the nodes are very old and need to be updated with the latest in modern technology.

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Google's Bard just got more powerful, but it's still erratic

Chatbots can't see your calendar, peer into your email inbox or rifle through your online shopping history - the kinds of information an AI assistant would need in order to give you the best possible help with your daily tasks. Google is well positioned to close that gap.

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Hi, Robot: machines take over at China's Asian Games

Hangzhou is the unofficial home of China's tech industry and robots and other mind-boggling gadgets are set to serve, amuse and police visitors.

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Booking.com urges national watchdogs not to back EU antitrust veto on ETraveli deal

The European Commission will announce its decision next week, underlining its concerns that the deal could expand Booking's ecosystem of travel services which include flights, accommodation, car rentals and attractions.

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Netflix prepares to send its final red envelope

Netflix DVD distribution plant, once a bustling ecosystem that processed 1.2 million DVDs a week, employed 50 people and generated millions of dollars in revenue, now has just six employees left to sift through the metallic discs.

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How upstarts are challenging the dominance of ride-hailing giants Ola and Uber

The new players, including Rapido, Blu Smart, Drife, and Shoffr, are gaining traction by offering attractive packages for drivers, lower prices, more convenient booking options, and advanced features such as AI and blockchain-based business models. The traditional players like Ola and Uber have also bounced back from the pandemic decline and are adopting customer-friendly features to compete with the new entrants.

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As Micron unit kicks off, govt says two more proposals likely

Tata Projects will lead construction in the plant’s first phase, which entails building 500,000 square feet of planned cleanroom space, said Micron vice-president Gursharan Singh.

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US Supreme Court extends pause on order curbing Biden social media contacts

The decision to keep the matter on hold until Wednesday gives the court more time to consider the administration's request to block an injunction issued by a lower court that had concluded that federal officials likely had violated the free speech protections of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment by coercing social media platforms into censoring certain posts.

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Oracle spends more than $100 million on Ampere chips

Ampere builds custom server chips based on Arm technology that compete with designs produced by Intel and AMD, which use X86. Oracle has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Ampere since it was founded, according to filings.

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The Pai-and-Kamath way to startup investing; and other top tech stories this week

Bluestone is only the latest in the list of investments by Pai and Kamath, but this marks the growing pace at which they are signing new cheques at a time mid-to-large scale startups are finding it hard to score new funding.

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Micron chip plant a big milestone: MoS IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar

It is a “decadal opportunity” that will also see growth and investment in the complex supply chain needed to support a semiconductor ecosystem, he added, and India is globally becoming a trusted partner.

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Amazon Web Services to help CCMB speed up genomics research

Amazon Web Services (AWS) India Private Ltd has expanded its cloud service offerings to premier research organisation Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) to help it accelerate research in genome sequencing.

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Arm and Instacart add to losses after lukewarm analyst reports

Shares of Arm Holdings and Instacart deepened their recent losses on Friday after analysts gave lukewarm ratings to the two companies that recently held highly anticipated initial public offerings.

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FTC to file antitrust case against Amazon as soon as next week: report

The FTC has been preparing the complaint since at least the start of this year, targeting an array of Amazon's business practices, according to the report, which said the exact details of the lawsuit were not known.

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Govt’s big leg-up for Startup Inc; Antler India closes Rs 500 crore maiden fund

The government is revving up in a big way to achieve India’s startup ambitions. A detailed plan is in the works to energise the ecosystem and remove all impediments to investment in the sector, we’re told. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.

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MeitY reviewing Tarq’s revised semicon proposal

Hiranandani-group firm likely to invest Rs 2,500 crore initially for its ATMP facility

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YouTube 'Dream Screen' tool to soon let AI create videos for Shorts

The feature, called 'Dream Screen' and expected to roll out early next year, will allow users to create an AI-generated video or image background just by typing in what they want to see.

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Microsoft announces integration of AI assistant Copilot across its apps, services, Bing search

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that the artificially intelligent assistant would fundamentally change personal computing by allowing people to converse more freely with their devices in their “natural language”.

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Sebi’s finfluencer crackdown may be off target; String Bio CEO on why businesses must pivot

Cracking down on so-called finfluencers is easier said than done. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) may well find that not all of them are likely to pay heed to its recent directions on operating within the regulatory grid. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.

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E-visa startup Atlys raises $12 million from Elevation Capital, Peak XV, others

The funds raised will be used to expand the platform’s product offerings for travellers, attract customers and further strengthen the team through talent acquisition, the statement added. The San Francisco, California-headquartered startup had previously raised a $5 million seed round in 2021.

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OpenAI's ChatGPT can now generate images, too

On Wednesday, OpenAI, the San Francisco artificial intelligence startup, released a new version of its DALL-E image generator to a small group of testers and folded the technology into ChatGPT, its popular online chatbot.

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FTC nominees vow to combat deceptive AI practices

The deceptive use of artificial intelligence should be a priority for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), three commissioner nominees said at a confirmation hearing Tuesday in show of bipartisanship on the popular issue.

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Amazon plays catch-up with Alexa generative AI, shows off refreshed hardware

Alexa will converse more naturally next year, losing its robotic tone of nearly a decade, and answer questions like the start time for football games and recipe ideas. It will also be able to compose and recite poems, Amazon showed at the company's annual product launch in Arlington, Virginia.

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Flipkart lining up $20 million for in-house credit marketplace

The investment will be done gradually as the team is working on several products, and the platform is expected to be ready by end-2023 or early next year.

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Elon Musk's Neuralink to start human trials for brain implant

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's brain-chip startup Neuralink said on Tuesday that it has received approval from an independent review board to start the first human trial of its brain implant for paralysis patients.

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Mark Zuckerberg's philanthropy project plans AI system for life sciences research

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, created by Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, will use the computing system to run openly available AI models, the philanthropy venture said on Tuesday.

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Verizon India GCCs employee strength grew 15%: Verizon Consumer Group CEO Sowmyanarayan Sampath

Verizon Consumer Group in 2022 contributed $105 billion in revenue to the company’s overall revenue of $136 billion. As per Investopedia, Verizon is the second largest provider of cellular service in the US that provides communications, information, and entertainment products and services worldwide to consumers, businesses, and government organizations through its consumer and business segments.

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Netanyahu visits Elon Musk in California with plans to talk about artificial intelligence

The Israeli leader posted Monday on Musk's social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that he plans to talk with the Tesla CEO "about how we can harness the opportunities and mitigate the risks of AI for the good of civilization."

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Microsoft's chief product executive Panos Panay to step down after 19 years

Another longtime executive, Yusuf Mehdi, will take lead on the Windows and Surface businesses and products. The note said Panay would be helping with the transition.

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Verizon executive testifies Google search always pre-installed on mobile phones

The US Justice Department on Monday questioned a Verizon executive about the company's decision to always pre-install Google's Chrome browser with Google search on its mobile phones, as the government sought to show that Alphabet's Google broke antitrust law to maintain its dominance in online search.

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E-scooter maker Ather Energy readies new models and exports after subsidy cuts

Ather Energy plans to accelerate new model launches and explore export markets after the Indian government reduced subsidies for electric vehicles. Despite the subsidy cut, India's electric scooter market is growing, with e-models accounting for 5% of total scooter and motorcycle sales.

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Lyft to pay $10 million civil penalty over disclosure failures

Lyft has agreed to pay $10 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges it failed to disclose a board member's financial interest in a transaction involving the company, the U.S. regulator said on Monday.

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Australia tells dating apps Tinder, Bumble and Hinge to improve safety standards or face regulation

The government is responding to Australian Institute of Criminology's research published last year that found three-in-four users of dating apps or websites had experienced some form of sexual violence through these platforms in the five years through 2021.

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EU may become as hooked on China batteries as it was on Russian energy: research paper

While the EU has a strong position in the intermediate and assembly phases of making electrolysers, with a more than 50% global market share, it relies heavily on China for fuel cells and lithium-ion batteries crucial for electric vehicles.

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South Korean broadband firm says it is ending all disputes with Netflix

South Korean Internet service provider SK Broadband said on Monday it is ending all disputes with Netflix Inc, after the firms engaged in lawsuits on whether Netflix must pay for costs from increased network traffic and maintenance work.

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Tata chief puts profits first for Neu; Zerodha cofounder Nikhil Kamath's latest bet

Black is beautiful and that’s the colour Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran wants the salt-to-software conglomerate’s digital arm to focus on. ‘Chandra’ has ordered top leaders at Tata Neu to forget the existence of all else for the time being and focus solely and urgently on profitable growth, sources have told ET. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.

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Zerodha’s Nikhil Kamath set to join Ather’s cap table

It isn’t clear how much Kamath would invest in Ather but one of the persons said the transaction would be made through a secondary share sale.

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Tinder partners with Centre for Social Research for user safety

The additional safety guide, along with the existing 15 safety features on the app, is part of Tinder's efforts to ensure the safety of its users.

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Iranian hackers target defence, satellite firms to gather secrets: Microsoft

The heavy sanctions imposed by the US on Iran have limited their access to military hardware and discouraged Western companies from sending medical supplies to the country. As a result, Iran has been compelled to look for trade secrets held by foreign firms, reports CNN.

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Policy predictability for EV adoption needed to make investments: Ather CBO Ravneet Phokela

Pholeka said, "Unpredictability is not good for business because my business plans are based on a certain assumption of subsidy. If the assumption changes then the plans change and if I'm not certain about my plans, I can't make investments."

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Slack is ready to ride AI wave: CEO Lidiane Jones

just nine months after taking on one of the most high profile jobs in Silicon Valley. "It's amazing what has happened to the world," Jones said of this AI moment that has captured the imagination of Silicon Valley and the world.

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Gameskraft to discontinue super app Gamezy amid Rs 21,000 crore tax demand

The company was building Gamezy Fantasy as a super app for online games which hosted multiple products. In addition to fantasy sports, Gamezy also hosts rummy and is in the process of migrating its rummy users to separate apps.

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Advent explores sale of car insurance software vendor CCC

Private equity firm Advent International is considering selling CCC Intelligent Solutions Holdings Inc, a software provider to the car insurance industry, which has a market value of $7.1 billion. CCC is being advised by Morgan Stanley in its discussions with potential buyers, including other private equity firms. There is no certainty of a deal. Advent, which owns a 56% stake in CCC, declined to comment. CCC shares rose 8.6% to $12.50 in after-hours trading on the news. CCC, founded in 1980, supplies software to automotive claims and collision repair companies.

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Public markets pricking the valuation bubble & other top tech, startup stories of this week

After a slowdown in technology IPOs in 2022, several tech companies including Arm, Instacart, and Klaviyo have returned to raise funds from the public market. However, the valuations of these companies have fallen significantly compared to their peak valuations. Instacart, for example, is aiming for a $10 billion valuation, which is only a quarter of its peak valuation of $39 billion. The sentiment in the market has shifted, and investors are now looking for right-sized offerings rather than inflated valuations.

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Apple moves to defuse French iPhone 12 dispute as EU scrutiny steps up

France this week suspended sales of iPhone 12 handsets after tests which it said found breaches of radiation exposure limits.

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Arm options contracts to hit the market starting Monday, analysts stay optimistic

Retail traders are likely to flock to the options of Arm Holdings - some of whose chips have artificial intelligence (AI) applications - due to the buzz generated around the IPO and general investor enthusiasm related to the theme of AI

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Amazon enhances search features on app to take on Google

Ecommerce giant Amazon has introduced new features on its app for search and discovery of products. Here’s a look at them.

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Blockchain analysts suspect North Korea-linked hackers behind $70-million crypto theft

Blockchain research firm Elliptic said that "a number of factors" indicate that the Lazarus Group - a hacker group associated with North Korea - was responsible for the attack.

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People come to India for its talent, not to cut costs: Capgemini global CEO Aiman Ezzat

Aiman Ezzat during his ongoing India visit, said that he is hopeful of the demand situation improving over the next two-to-four quarters but is waiting for an inflection point.

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Disney holds talks with Nexstar on ABC sale: report

Disney CEO Bob Iger said in July that the company could sell some of its traditional TV assets that have struggled for years due to the rise of streaming services.

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Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu to meet Elon Musk amid antisemitism storm

An official in Netanyahu's office on Thursday confirmed the meeting. Musk said on X that their talks would focus on artificial intelligence technology and not the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), with whom Musk is feuding over antisemitism on X.

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SoftBank's Arm valued at nearly $60 bln in stellar Nasdaq debut

Its stock opened at $56.1 per American Depositary Share compared with the initial public offering (IPO) price of $51, in a sign of confidence for other companies planning to list

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Central Bank digital currencies to replace cash in the coming decade: report

The report, titled ‘Future of Money’, said CBDCs have the capacity to boost financial inclusion by offering a safe and affordable means of making transactions for people with no access to traditional banking services.

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A who's who of Silicon Valley is convening with lawmakers on AI

The closed-door meeting is the first in a series of crash-course lessons on AI for lawmakers.

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Alibaba opens AI model Tongyi Qianwen to the public

The Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Division said organisations including OPPO, Taobao, DingTalk and Zhejiang University have reached cooperation agreements to train their own large language models

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Binance US CEO Brian Shroder to leave, firm to lay off 100 people

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Binance and CEO Changpeng Zhao in June for allegedly operating a "web of decep.tion," listing 13 charges

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IT firms rally for AI safety measures; age-gating a challenge for the industry

Genpact is applying an ‘output robustness test’ to ensure its AI-generated output complies with fairness and legal frameworks. Wipro has adopted a ‘privacy and equity by design’ approach and looks out for possible bias not only in preparing datasets but at further points in the AI lifecycle.

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Total share of AI/ML workforce in telcos at 20% in just a year

The proportion of AI/ML-led jobs is expected to reach 23% by the end of fiscal 2024 with the telcos sustaining hiring momentum for these profiles, staffing experts have said. The added that the competition for hiring AI/ML talent is also heating up due to a paucity of skilled talent.

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IBM executives foresee robust growth in Indian tech market

Speaking at the flagship IBM Think conference in Mumbai, on Tuesday, Paul Burton, general manager, IBM Asia Pacific, and Sandip Patel, managing director, IBM India and South Asia, said that skill gaps and talent scarcity are also driving larger investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and automation.

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Apple unveils iPhone 15 with 48-megapixel camera, new chargers expected

Apple said that USB-C charging cables are coming to both its iPhone 15 and the charging case of its AirPods Pro devices, allowing the use of the same charging cables already used for iPads and Macs.

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Apple shows off new Series 9 watch, introduces 'double tap' feature

Apple also introduced a new feature to the Series 9 watches called "double tap" where users tap thumb and finger together twice, without touching the watch, in order to perform tasks like answering a phone call.

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TSMC to invest up to $100 million in Arm Holdings' IPO

TSMC's Chairman Mark Liu said last week that "Arm is an important element of our ecosystem, our technology and our customers' ecosystem. We want it to be successful, we want it to be healthy. That's the bottom line."

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ETSA 2023: Jury to pick winners today; Byju’s puts prized assets on the block to raise capital

D-Day is here! In a virtual meet today, the jury of the Economic Time Startup Awards 2023 will reveal the brightest stars in India’s startup galaxy. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.

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Razorpay acquires BillMe to build on its omnichannel capabilities

Founded in 2018, Mumbai-based BillMe helps merchants send digital bills to customers. It also provides customer relationship management software to online and offline merchants to help decipher customer behaviour and boost engagement.

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ET Startups Awards 2023: Jury to pick winners in virtual meeting today

The jury members spread across the world will come together to recognise the brightest and best entrepreneurial leaders in what has turned out to be one of the most testing years for the startup ecosystem.

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Karnataka poised towards attracting global technology firms: state IT minister Priyank Kharge

Kharge also said the state’s skill advisory committee for emerging tech is looking at more ways to upskill people to close learning gaps and make them more employable.

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Jumping on Arm's blockbuster IPO could be a risky business for retail investors

While dabbling in individual stocks is a notoriously risky business for amateur investors, an analysis underscores just how perilous it can be to buy into blockbuster IPOs on Day One.

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EU antitrust regulators halt Amazon, iRobot probe, await info

The European Commission, which acts as the competition enforcer in the 27-country bloc, said it stopped the clock on Sept. 8, with effect from Aug. 29.

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SaaS fintech startup Perfios raises $229 million in funding from Kedaara Capital

Perfios, a B2B SaaS fintech company, has secured $229 million in its Series-D funding round from Kedaara Capital. The funds will be used to support Perfios' global expansion plans in North America and Europe, as well as to invest in new technologies to enhance its range of Decision Analytics SaaS products.

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ETSA 2023: Nominees for Startup of The Year; Coinbase discontinues services in India

Finally, it’s time to announce the last but most coveted category of The Economic Times Startup Awards 2023: Startup of The Year. A singular focus on innovation and growth is what it will take to lay claim to this title. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.

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G20 Summit: Engagement group for startups to continue under Brazil’s presidency

The engagement group had formed three task forces under it – foundation and alliances, finance, and inclusion and sustainability – and was chaired by Chintan Vaishnav, the mission director of Niti Aayog’s flagship entrepreneurship initiative Atal Innovation Mission.

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Cryptocurrency new subject for social order, monetary & financial stability: PM Narendra Modi

Modi also said that cyberspace is a new source of funding for terrorism and a global cooperation, framework is necessary for cyber security.

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RBI likely to start digital rupee pilot in call money market by October

The pilot of the wholesale CBDC, known as the Digital Rupee-Wholesale (e-W), was launched on November 1, 2022, with the use case being limited to the settlement of secondary market transactions in government securities.

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Semiconductors, rare minerals on agenda as US president Joe Biden visits Vietnam

The US has been pushing for the upgrade for months as it sees the Southeast Asian manufacturing dynamo as a key country in its strategy to secure global supply chains from China-related risks.

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PowerPoint software co-creator Dennis Austin dies at 76

Working with Robert Gaskins, the Forethought executive who conceived the software, it was Austin's job as the software engineer to make PowerPoint easy to operate.

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AI technology behind ChatGPT was built in Iowa - with a lot of water

Leading tech developers including Microsoft, OpenAI and Google have acknowledged that growing demand for their AI tools carries hefty costs, from expensive semiconductors to an increase in water consumption.

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G20 New Delhi Declaration: Digital Public Infrastructure, international governance for AI in focus

Recognising the role of DPI in the delivery of services, the G20 New Delhi Leaders' Declaration backed the 'G20 Framework for Systems of Digital Public Infrastructure', a voluntary and suggested framework for the development, deployment and governance of DPI.

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Authorisation regime likely for OTT communication apps

The licensing regime, proposed in earlier versions of the Telecom Bill, had raised the hackles of several tech companies, which had warned that multiple regulations would be disproportionate and stall the growth of the OTT communications industry.

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ET Startup Awards 2023: search for startup glory begins & other top tech stories this week

ETSA this year comes at a time when the technology industry faces multiple headwinds. The volatility in valuations of publicly listed tech companies, which began in the US in late 2021, has continued to spill over into the private markets. Indian startups, too, have felt this turbulence, with several of them getting valuation markdowns as increasingly cautious investors hedge their bets.

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US chipmaker Nvidia to partner reliance, Tata to boost AI in India

Nvidia to team up with RIL for large language model that will be trained in local languages, to join hands with Tata Group to build AI infra

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Meta Platforms must face class action for breaching medical privacy of patients

US District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco said the plaintiffs could pursue claims that Meta violated a federal wiretap law and a California privacy law, and violated its own contractual promises governing user privacy on Facebook.

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SoftBank's Arm IPO currently six times oversubscribed

While the oversubscription does not guarantee strong IPO performance, it is a positive sign for Arm. It makes it more likely that the company will, at a minimum, reach its targeted price range of $47 to $51 per share, a source said.

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US aviation launch safety regulator closes probe into SpaceX's April Starship test

The FAA, which regulates launch site safety, closed its review on Thursday of SpaceX's technical investigation into the launch mishap, according to an FAA safety official's letter sent to SpaceX that day.

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ET Startup Awards 2023: Nominees for Midas Touch

The award will recognise the most lucrative exit in the year. The decision will be made based on the volume of deals as well as the size of the exit.

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China's widening iPhone curbs roil US technology sector

Apple fell more than 3% and was on track for its worst two-day decline since November after media reports said Beijing has told employees at some central government agencies in recent weeks to stop using their Apple mobiles at work.

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US House panel chair: wider Chinese iPhone ban aims to quash Apple's market access

China in recent weeks has widened curbs on the use of iPhones by state employees, telling staff in at least three ministries and government bodies to stop using their Apple mobile phones at work, Reuters reported on Thursday, following earlier reports by the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg.

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Hackers coming for Indian firms as fintech rises

India saw a 75% increase in cybersecurity budget allocation for 2023 compared with the previous year, marking it one of the highest increases in the APAC region.

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ET Startup Awards 2023: Jury will look for cash flow-generating businesses with a worldview

Building business models that generate cash flows and profitability, and create not for Bharat alone but also the world, are what the jury expects from the nominees.

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SaaS firm Zoho crosses 10 crore users globally

Zoho said it has witnessed a three-year Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 65% in the upmarket segment in India.

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Chinese chipmaker GTA Semiconductor raises over $1.8 billion as Beijing prepares new chip fund

With this injection of capital Shanghai-based GTA Semiconductor, one of China's largest auto chipmakers manufacturers by production, has in less than two years racked up over $2.7 billion of mostly state funds, according to the Securities Times.

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ET Startup Awards 2023: Nominees for Best on Campus

The award will showcase a startup whose impact can be judged both by the idea and the execution. The founders should have been students whose aim was to build a commercial enterprise.

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Soonicorn Ventures gets Sebi nod to launch Rs 250 crore angel fund

Soonicorn Ventures has a sector-agnostic approach to investments and will allocate investments ranging from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 4 crore in startups at the initial funding stages.

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Huawei's new chip breakthrough likely to trigger closer US scrutiny, say analysts

Huawei unexpectedly unveiled the latest Mate 60 Pro smartphone last week during US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo's visit in China, as the government readies a new $40-billion investment fund to bolster its developing chip sector.

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ET Startup Awards 2023: Nominees for Bootstrap Champ

The Bootstrap Champ will have demonstrated the ability to win customers and earn revenue for at least a year. It should possess the potential to scale into a large enterprise.

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Electric scooter startup Ather secures Rs 550 crore in funding from Hero MotoCorp

The Bengaluru-based firm was last valued at $739 million during a $50 million fundraise in October last year, per Tracxn.

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Shorts may 'cannibalise' YouTube's long-form video biz: report

According to a report in The Financial Times, citing veteran YouTube staff, the short-video platform Shorts "risks cannibalising its core business".

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Aditya L1: young scientists, women trailblazers behind India’s solar mission

As India's first space-based solar observatory, Aditya L1, takes giant strides in its sun mission, what’s not much known is that it was a group of youngsters, and the country’s women in science back home, who made the endeavour a reality. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.

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Australia's Pepper Money eyes NBFC business in India

Group CEO Mike Culhane says there is an opportunity to build for Tier 2 and Tier 3 India for the long term

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Aditya L1 launch: Women trailblazers make mission possible

Women scientists and engineers, who have worked on several successful space missions, encourage girls and young women to pursue a career in science.

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Young scientists get their place in the sun with Aditya-L1 launch

A couple of students from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, a student and engineer from the Centre of Excellence in Space Sciences, Kolkata, a scientist from the Udaipur Solar Observatory, and a PhD student from the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), figure among the band of youngsters who toiled hard to take India closer to the sun.

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Firms take cognizance of sensitising those in managerial roles

​​This comes post the video that went viral in June of a prominent bank's senior VP berating his junior colleagues for not meeting their monthly targets and companies are taking stringent measures to avoid such situations.

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Can use AI to identify anti-dumping duty, FTA preparations: Nasscom tells government

The National Association of Software and Services Companies said AI can be used during preparation of free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations and to quickly review patent applications and search for prior inventions.

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Will responsible AI neutralise tech carbon footprint?

Across the globe, data servers are humming, consuming both megawatts and precious natural resources to bring life to our digital world.

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AI project imagines adult faces of children who disappeared during Argentina's military dictatorship

During Argentina's bloody dictatorship from 1976 to 1983, military officials carried out the systematic theft of babies from political dissidents who were detained or often executed and disposed of without a trace.

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'Achieved one goal, have to achieve more': Life after CaratLane for Mithun Sacheti

Mithun Sacheti, co-founder of CaratLane, has gained attention since the announcement of Titan's acquisition of his remaining stake in the company for Rs 4,621 crore ($635 million) in cash. While the spotlight is new to him, Sacheti says he always knew the value of the business.

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Amazon adds cloud executives, Zoox chief to CEO Andy Jassy’s senior team

​​Dave Brown, Aicha Evans and Swami Sivasubramanian are joining what Amazon calls the S-team, Jassy said in a note to employees.

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Why Tamil Nadu is all charged up on EVs

Being the home for several traditional auto manufacturing players and component manufacturers, Tamil Nadu is also the hotbed for innovation in the electronics space and boasts some of the biggest players in the ecosystem.

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Chandrayaan-3's Pragyan rover has been set into sleep mode

India's third lunar mission Chandrayaan-3's rover Pragyan has been set into sleep mode, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced on X late Saturday night.

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How digital payments became democratic – the UPI way, and other top tech & startup stories this week

Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the real-time bank transfer mechanism, breached the 10 billion monthly transaction volume mark last month. And with the festive season not too far away, one can only expect it to grow more in the coming months. But what does this 10 billion really mean — and how did we get here?

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Aditya-L1: India may be the fourth to take a trip to L1 Halo orbit

Aditya’s estimated journey time from launch date to its designated orbit is four months, according to the scientists who said the mission’s objective is not to be a space weather-alert instrument.

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US Judge approves payouts from Elon Musk's SEC settlement

Payouts will come from a "fair fund" created under a settlement between Musk and the US Securities and Exchange Commission, arising from Musk's August 2018 post on Twitter that he had "funding secured" for a Tesla buyout.

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Scrutiny of Sam Altman's iris-scanning crypto project Worldcoin grows

Almost 2.3 million people globally have signed up to have their irises scanned by Worldcoin's "orb" devices in exchange for a digital ID and free cryptocurrency.

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How Anguilla, a tiny island in the Caribbean, is riding the AI domain wave

Once one of the many obscure top-level domains assigned to countries and territories, .ai websites experienced a slow but steady increase in demand in recent years. But the sudden spike in .ai domains nine months ago highlights the broader frenzy around artificial intelligence and its ripple effects throughout the global economy.

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Amazon’s Amit Agarwal on funding India investments; who’s 2023’s model startup founder?

Amazon India’s senior executive Amit Agarwal told ET in an interaction that the ecommerce giant’s newer investments in the country are going into technology and services to bring more shoppers online. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.

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AIGR Foundation to apply for becoming gaming self-regulator

Former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag has been named as one of the Directors as part of the application.

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SBM Bank India appoints Dipak Agarwal as deputy CEO to head overall business

This move comes at a time when the bank is under scrutiny of the Reserve Bank of India for its fintech partnerships, some of which have bordered regulatory grey zones.

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US denies blocking chip sales to Middle East

This comes after disclosures that Washington had expanded export license requirements for Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices artificial-intelligence chips.

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Who’s 2023’s model startup founder?

After 15 years of venture capital infusion into companies, who are the likely role models for young, fledgling entrepreneurs in India today?

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