| To: Ron who wrote (15812) | 12/28/2023 8:12:59 PM | | From: E_K_S | | | | Re: GOOGL settlement - The lawsuit sought at least $5 billion
So who gets this money other than the lawyers? Those that were tracked won't but I bet it is distributed to the States and/or the Federal Gov. |
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| From: Julius Wong | 1/14/2024 7:34:39 AM | | | | | | AMIE: A research AI system for diagnostic medical reasoning and conversations
Inspired by this challenge, we developed Articulate Medical Intelligence Explorer (AMIE), a research AI system based on a LLM and optimized for diagnostic reasoning and conversations. We trained and evaluated AMIE along many dimensions that reflect quality in real-world clinical consultations from the perspective of both clinicians and patients.
blog.research.google |
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| To: Frank Sully who wrote (15814) | 1/18/2024 10:13:48 PM | | From: Sr K | | | | AST SpaceMobile to Offer $100 Million in Stock After AT&T, Google Deal
Shares turn lower after stock offering
By
Will Feuer
Jan. 18, 2024 5:02 pm ET
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AST Chairman & CEO Abel Avellan and an AST SpaceMobile engineer make test calls in Texas. PHOTO: AST
AST SpaceMobile is launching a public offering of $100 million worth of common stock, minutes after the company said it had received investments from AT&T and Google.
Shares of AST SpaceMobile, which rose more than 20% after the news of the AT&T and Google investments, reversed course after the company launched the offering. The stock recently traded more than 5% lower in after-hours trading after closing regular trade at $4.16.
Exc. |
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| From: Glenn Petersen | 1/22/2024 12:42:02 PM | | | | | | Alphabet’s Moonshot X Lab Cuts Staff, Turns to Outside Investors- X is the brainchild of Google founders Brin and Page
- Google’s job cuts are part of a broader cost-efficiency push
By Julia Love
Bloomberg
January 22, 2024 at 2:00 PM UTC
Alphabet Inc.’s lab for pioneering technology is laying off dozens of employees as it turns to outside investors to help fund its ventures.
The division, known as X, has in recent months ramped up discussions on funding with venture capitalists and other investors, according to people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be named as it is private. The lab is adopting a new structure that’ll enable its projects to more easily spin out of X as independent startups with support from Alphabet and outside backers, according to one of the people and an email to staff obtained by Bloomberg.
X seeks bold approaches to major challenges like climate change and connectivity, but its efforts have yielded few durable businesses thus far.
“We’re expanding our approach to focus on spinning out more projects as independent companies funded through market-based capital,” Astro Teller, who leads to lab, wrote in the email. “We’ll do this by opening our scope to collaborate with a broader base of industry and financial partners, and by continuing to emphasize lean teams and capital efficiency.”
As part of the restructuring, X is laying off dozens of employees, according to one of the people with knowledge of the matter. The layoffs are focused on support staff, the person said. Alphabet didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.
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Launched by Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, X has captured the public imagination by pursuing projects from self-driving cars to high-altitude balloons that connect remote communities to the internet. But in recent years the lab has come under more pressure to show that it can turn its speculative bets into profitable businesses, and Alphabet as a whole is waging a campaign to cut costs.
This month, Google eliminated hundreds of jobs on teams including hardware and engineering, with more cuts potentially on the way as it sharpens its focus on artificial intelligence. Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat, who has sought to instill greater financial discipline, is moving into a new role as president and chief investment officer, in which she will oversee a division that includes X.
“She will put more heat into the kitchen and help drive success and viable businesses,” Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, wrote in an email.
Since Google reorganized itself as a conglomerate in 2015, X’s moonshots have sought to “graduate” as Other Bets, or independent ventures under the banner of parent company Alphabet. But Alphabet could only accommodate so many Other Bets, creating a bottleneck for X ventures that were ready to take the next step, according to one of the people with knowledge of the matter. Startups within X often faced a choice between waiting for a spot to open up or striking out on their own.
X employees had explored raising outside capital for their ventures in the past, but they ran into concerns from Alphabet leadership, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
In addition to seeking venture capital, X has met with family offices, sovereign wealth funds, private equity firms and strategic investors, or companies operating in the same industries that the moonshots are targeting, according to the people.
Silicon Valley’s innovation labs have come under threat in a time of layoffs and budget cuts. Last year, Google slashed most jobs at Area 120, an in-house startup incubator. X cut some jobs last year but has refrained from making more significant changes until now.
“This approach will give us more opportunity to focus on what Xers do best: inventing breakthrough technologies to help solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges,” Teller wrote in the note to staff. “Because the world needs moonshots more now than ever.”
— With assistance from Sarah McBride, Mark Bergen, and Sankalp Phartiyal
Google Layoffs Saga Continues as Alphabet’s X Cuts Dozens of Jobs, Seeks Funds - Bloomberg (archive.ph) |
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| From: Glenn Petersen | 1/31/2024 5:48:07 AM | | | | | | Alphabet shares slide on disappointing Google ad revenue
PUBLISHED TUE, JAN 30 202412:00 PM EST
UPDATED TUE, JAN 30 20245:49 PM EST
Ari Levy @LEVYNEWS
CNBC.com
KEY POINTS
- Alphabet reported better-than-expected revenue and profit for the fourth quarter, but ad revenue trailed analysts’ projections.
- Due to workforce reductions last year, the company recorded severance and related charges of $2.1 billion for 2023.
- Alphabet shares are up 56% in the past year, not including the after-hours drop.
Alphabet shares slid more than 6% in extended trading on Tuesday after the company reported ad revenue that missed analysts’ estimates.
Here are the key numbers:
- Earnings per share: $1.64 vs. $1.59 expected by LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv.
- Revenue: $86.31 billion vs. $85.33 billion expected by LSEG.
- Google Cloud: $9.19 billion vs. $8.94 billion expected, according to StreetAccount.
- YouTube ads: $9.2 billion vs. $9.21 billion expected, according to StreetAccount.
- Traffic acquisition costs: $13.9 billion vs. $14.1 billion, according to StreetAccount.
Alphabet reported its fastest quarter for revenue growth since early 2022, with sales climbing 13% from $76.05 billion a year earlier, the company said in a statement. However, ad revenue of $65.52 billion trailed analysts’ estimates of $65.94 billion, according to StreetAccount.
YouTube, which has been helping to drive accelerated growth, came in just shy of expectations.
The results, while generally above estimates, weren’t enough to satisfy investors, who pushed the stock to fresh highs last week. Facebook’s ad business is growing faster, and TikTok represents an ongoing competitive threat as younger users turn to the app to create short viral videos.
Google Cloud remains a growth engine, with 26% expansion in the fourth quarter compared to a year ago. The company is also drawing profit from the cloud business, which was losing money for years as it tried to keep up with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Operating income in the fourth quarter was $864 million, following a year-ago loss of $186 million.
Across Alphabet, CEO Sundar Pichai continues to focus on investments in artificial intelligence and embedding new generative AI tools into more of Google’s key products. To get there, Pichai has said the company has to make cuts elsewhere, meaning more layoffs on top of last year’s 12,000 cuts, which amounted to roughly 6% of its full-time workforce.
“We are pleased with the ongoing strength in Search and the growing contribution from YouTube and Cloud,” Pichai said in Tuesday’s press release. “Each of these is already benefiting from our AI investments and innovation.”
In December, Google launched the large language model called Gemini, which it considers its largest and most capable AI model to date. The company is planning to license Gemini to customers through Google Cloud for them to use in their own applications.
Alphabet said due to the workforce reductions last year, the company recorded severance and related charges of $2.1 billion for 2023. Additionally, Google exited some of its offices, resulting in charges of $1.2 billion for the quarter and $1.8 billion for the year.
Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said on the earnings call that severance-related expenses in the first quarter will be about $700 million.
Net income jumped 52% in the fourth quarter to $20.7 billion, or $1.64 per share, from $13.6 billion, or $1.05 per share, a year earlier. Operating margin, the profit left after subtracting costs to run the business, expanded to 27% from 24%.
Other Bets, which includes the Waymo self-driving car business and the Verily life sciences unit, reported revenue of $657 million, up from $226 million the year prior. Its loss narrowed to $863 million from $1.24 billion.
Alphabet shares are up 56% in the past year, not including the after-hours drop. Shares of Meta and Microsoft have also reached fresh highs as investors continue to pour into tech stocks.
Microsoft reported better-than-expected financials on Tuesday but it’s stock price also fell following the announcement. Amazon, Apple and Meta are scheduled to release results Thursday.
— CNBC’s Jennifer Elias contributed to this report.
Alphabet (GOOGL) Q4 earnings report 2023 (cnbc.com) |
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| From: Ron | 2/26/2024 8:32:50 PM | | | | | | Alphabet’s stock has weathered past AI missteps. Is latest blunder different?
Alphabet is no stranger to Wall Street’s concerns over its artificial-intelligence efforts, and its stock has recovered from past episodes. Is the latest backlash to a since-pulled image-generation tool any different?
Wall Street currently appears worried about the fallout of an image-generation feature within the Gemini chatbot that was criticized for sometimes creating racially insensitive images. Even a Google executive acknowledged they were at times “inaccurate or even offensive.”
archive.ph |
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