Financial News
The biggest development of this week was Artificial Intelligence - The next wave of eCommerce
This week saw the placation of GST bill on logistics along with many more news such as evolvement of digital payments and artificial intelligence in E-commerce industry. The meeting of AI and e-commerce could not only transform the way jillions of online transactions are done, but also change the in-store purchase behaviors which are influenced by digital interactions. According to Sachin Bansal, CEO, Flipkart, artificial intelligence is a key differentiator in the fiercely competitive e-commerce business. Digital payments will grow 10 times to reach 500 billion by 2020 and contribute 15% of gross domestic product (GDP). Some of the key reasons of these acquisitions include privacy of customer's payment data, secured payment facility and use of payment data for big data analysis to the company.
Chip giants pelt embedded AI platforms with wads of cash
Analysis Artificial intelligence and machine learning engines are underpinning many emerging applications and services, from making sense of big data for enterprises, to supporting hyper-personalized consumer content, or virtual reality gaming. The current challenge is to move AI from the supercomputer to the mobile device, supporting technologies like computer vision locally on the handset, car, camera or VR headset. Qualcomm has been a leader here, but the past weeks have seen Intel and its Chinese partner Rockchip invest in chip-level computer vision and AI capabilities, while Apple has acquired machine learning startup Turi, presumably to enhance its AI-driven personal assistant Siri. Rockchip has licensed the XM4 imaging and vision DSP (digital signal processor) design from IP provider CEVA, to enhance these aspects of its system-on-chip (SoC) products. It says it will enable advanced vision features at the low power levels required for mobile devices, supporting digital video stabilization, object detection and tracking, and 3D depth sensing, among others.
Tim Cook's first 5 years: Apple's CEO on failure and why he still believes in surprises
We hear from Apple CEO Tim Cook during the company's quarterly earnings calls, but lately the leader of Apple has been opening up in ways that non-analysts can understand. First he sat down with Fast Company, and on Monday an in-depth Washington Post interview on Cook's 5-year anniversary as CEO offered more insight into the company's past failures and future surprises. A lot has changed in the last five years, Cook told the Post. Steve Jobs passed away just six weeks after Cook took the reins, which came as a shock, he said. Apple expanded its product lineup after Jobs's death, and some of those devices were conceived of and developed entirely without Jobs's input.
Google buys machine learning startup Moodstocks to help your phone's camera identify objects
Google announced today that it has acquired Paris-based Moodstocks, a startup that has developed machine learning technology to bolster the image recognition features on smartphones. "We continue to pursue our machine learning and research efforts," wrote Vincent Simonet, head of the research and development team for France Google, "and Moodstocks is the latest proof of our commitment to this area." Today, we're thrilled to announce that we've reached an agreement to join forces with Google in order to deploy our work at scale. We expect the acquisition to be completed in the next few weeks. Our focus will be to build great image recognition tools within Google, but rest assured that current paying Moodstocks customers will be able to use it until the end of their subscription. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Apple buys Turi, a machine learning and AI startup for 200 mn
Apple has acquired a machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) startup called Turi, which is based in Seattle, according to reports. Apple on its part has not commented on the deal, and its statement only said the company does make these acquisitions from time to time, which is the standard Cupertino-line on such report. The deal was first reported by GeekWire, which said Apple is paying close to 200 million for the company. According to a report on ReCode, Turi was earlier known as both GraphLab and Dato, and is used by companies like Pandora used to power recommendations. The company was founded was Carlos Guestrin, a University of Washington professor, but he too refused to comment on the deal.
Alphabet's 2Q earns soar despite rising 'moonshot' losses
Business is booming at Google's parent company, Alphabet, even as it loses billions of dollars on kooky-sounding projects that may never produce any revenue. Most of the losses are concentrated in Alphabet's'X'' lab, a wellspring of far-out ideas that has become known as a'moonshot factory' since Google co-founder Sergey Brin launched it about six years ago. The lab is responsible for some once-zany projects, such as Google's self-driving cars, that matured into potentially revolutionary technology. FILE - In this Monday, Feb. 1, 2016, file photo, electronic screens post prices of Alphabet stock at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York. Business is booming at Googleยฟs parent company, Alphabet Inc., even as it loses billions of dollars on risky projects that may never produce any revenue.
Amazon quarterly profit jumps ninefold to 857 million
Online giant Amazon said it profit in the second quarter surged ninefold to 857 million, lifted by cloud services as the tech giant expanded its offerings. Revenues jumped 31 percent to 30.4 billion, Amazon said in stronger-than-expected results. While Amazon developed a reputation for delivering little or no profit in its retail operations, its earnings have been growing over the past year as it expands into video and new delivery services and boosts its cloud computing unit, Amazon Web Services (AWS). Revenues jumped 31 percent to 30.4 billion, Amazon said in stronger-than-expected results The second annual Prime Day was the biggest day ever for Amazon, and was also a record day for Amazon devices globally. Compared to Prime Day 2015, worldwide orders grew by more than 60%, orders from third-party sellers with Prime Day deals nearly tripled, and Prime members saved over twice as much on deals.
Nvidia Tops Sales Guidance, Gives Strong Outlook
Nvidia Corp. NVDA 5.59 % said its second-quarter profit surged as the chip maker exceeded its revenue guidance and saw strong demand for its new products. Nvidia shares rose 2.5% to 61.29 in after-hours trading. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters projected 1.45 billion. Nvidia, based in Santa Clara, Calif., is a prominent name in graphics processing units used in gaming software. It has expanded in many new sectors ranging from virtual reality to self-driving cars.
EBay's plan to stay relevant: Artificial intelligence
As one of the internet's pioneers, eBay's seen it all. And now, it has a plan to stay relevant for years to come and even be "one of the winners," the CEO told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street." "We are planting the seeds right now to ensure that eBay is not only relevant, but a leader -- a disruptor -- in artificial intelligence," CEO Devin Wenig said on Thursday. "Some of the acquisitions we've done are world class teams of both data analysts and engineering capability that are going to allow us to use this incredible data set that we have." Wenig said eBay hopes to build a personalized shopping experience based on data they have on how people browse their site.
The 3 Most Interesting Revelations in Tesla's New 'Master Plan'
Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday published his second "master plan," pulling back the curtain on his long-term plans for the electric automaker. The document comes as Tesla is being criticized over its reaction to a high-profile fatality as well as its plan to merge with residential solar firm SolarCity. Here are the three most interesting revelations in Musk's plan. Tesla currently sells two vehicles: The Model S luxury sedan and the Model X luxury SUV, with the cheaper Model 3 sedan on the way. Now, Musk says at least three more are on the way, including "a compact SUV," "a new kind of pickup truck," a semi truck and a city bus.