Category: Business

Millions of U.S. TikTok users are looking to newly sworn-in President Donald Trump, who has given the app’s Chinese parent, ByteDance, 75 days to strike a deal with a U.S. buyer. ...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Tuesday talked up a joint venture investing up to $500 billion for infrastructure tied to artificial intelligence by a new partnership formed by OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank.  The new entity, Stargate, will start building data centers and the electricity generation needed for the further development of the fast-evolving AI in Texas, according to the White House. The initial investment is expected to be $100 billion and could reach five times that sum.  "It's big money and high quality people," said Trump, adding that it's "a resounding declaration of confidence in America's potential" under his new administration.  Joining Trump fresh off his inauguration at the White House were Masayoshi Son of SoftBank, Sam Altman of OpenAI and Larry Ellison of Oracle. All three credited Trump for…

Washington — TikTok restored services to users in the United States on Sunday after briefly blocking access due to a U.S. law banning the social media platform based on national security concerns.  The situation played out amid the change in U.S. administrations as President-elect Donald Trump said he would seek to “extend the period of time before the law's prohibitions take effect.”  He also proposed, in a post on his Truth Social platform, for the United States to take a 50% ownership stake in TikTok.  The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday upheld legislation passed by Congress that called for banning TikTok unless its China-based parent company sold it by Sunday.  The Biden administration had said it would not seek to enforce the ban in its final days in office, leaving the…

Bengaluru, India — Within five hours, while sitting at home in India, retired professor Kamta Prasad Singh handed over his hard-earned savings to online fraudsters impersonating police. The cybercrime known as "digital arrest" — where fraudsters pose online as law enforcement officials and order people to transfer huge amounts of money — has become so rampant that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has issued warnings. Singh told AFP that money was his life savings. "Over the years, I have skipped having tea outside, walked to avoid spending on public transport," the 62-year-old said, his voice breaking. "Only I know, how I saved my money." Police say scammers have exploited the vast gap between the breakneck speed of India's data digitalization, from personal details to online banking, and the lagging awareness of many…

SAN FRANCISCO — If it feels like TikTok has been around forever, that's probably because it has, at least if you're measuring via internet time. What's now in question is whether it will be around much longer and, if so, in what form? Starting in 2017, when the Chinese social video app merged with its competitor Musical.ly, TikTok has grown from a niche teen app into a global trendsetter. While, of course, also emerging as a potential national security threat, according to U.S. officials. On April 24, President Joe Biden signed legislation requiring TikTok parent ByteDance to sell to a U.S. owner within a year or to shut down. TikTok and its China-based parent company, ByteDance, filed a lawsuit against the U.S., claiming the security concerns were overblown and the law…

Washington — TikTok said Sunday it was restoring service to users in the United States after the popular video-sharing platform went dark in response to a federal ban that President-elect Donald Trump said he would try to pause by executive order on his first day in office.  Trump said he planned to issue the order to give TikTok’s China-based parent company more time to find an approved buyer before the popular video-sharing platform is subject to a permanent U.S. ban. He announced the move on his Truth Social account as millions of U.S. TikTok users awoke to discover they could no longer access the TikTok app or platform.  Google and Apple removed the app from their digital stores to comply with the law, which required them to do so if TikTok…

WASHINGTON — TikTok stopped working in the United States late on Saturday and disappeared from Apple and Google app stores ahead of a law that takes effect Sunday requiring the shutdown of the app used by 170 million Americans. President-elect Donald Trump said earlier in the day he would "most likely" give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from the ban after he takes office on Monday, a promise TikTok cited in a notice posted to users on the app. TikTok, which is owned by China's ByteDance, told users attempting to use the app around 10:45 p.m. ET (0345 GMT): "A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can't use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us…

SpaceX says a fire might have caused its Starship to break during liftoff and send trails of flaming debris near the Caribbean. SpaceX's Elon Musk said preliminary indications are that leaking fuel built up pressure in the cavity above the engine firewall. The resulting fire would have doomed the spacecraft. On Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered SpaceX to investigate what went wrong. The FAA said there were no reports of injuries from Starship debris. The 400-foot Starship — the world's biggest and most powerful rocket — launched from the southern tip of Texas on a test flight early Thursday evening. The booster made it back to the pad for a catch by giant mechanical arms, only the second time in Starship history. But the engines on the still-ascending spacecraft…

With a pending law declaring the social media application TikTok illegal in the United States, set to take effect on Sunday, the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is signaling that it plans to try to find a way to prevent the service from going offline. Under current law, the service's parent company, China-based ByteDance, must either sell TikTok to a non-Chinese firm or see it banned in the U.S. Representative Mike Waltz, who has been tapped to serve as Trump's national security adviser, told Fox News on Thursday that the president-elect has options available to postpone enforcement of the law while a possible deal is worked out to sell the company. That includes a section of the law allowing the president to give ByteDance a 90-day extension to…

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump says he wants the United States to be the world leader in artificial intelligence and crypto currency. To that end, he has tapped a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor to be the AI and crypto czar. Michelle Quinn has the story. ...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — Blue Origin's giant New Glenn rocket blasted off from Florida early Thursday morning on its first mission to space, an inaugural step into Earth's orbit for Jeff Bezos' space company as it aims to rival SpaceX in the satellite launch business. Thirty stories tall with a reusable first stage, New Glenn launched around 2 a.m. ET (0700 GMT) from Blue Origin's launchpad at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, its seven engines thundering for miles under cloudy skies on its second liftoff attempt this week. Hundreds of employees at the company's Kent, Washington headquarters and its Cape Canaveral, Florida rocket factory roared in applause as Blue Origin VP Ariane Cornell announced the rocket's second stage made it to orbit, achieving a long-awaited milestone. "We hit our key,…

BENGALURU — India became the world's fourth nation on Thursday to achieve the feat of space docking, a technological milestone that underscores its ambitions to expand its share of a rapidly growing $400-billion global space market.  Target and Chaser, two satellites of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) that are each roughly the size of a large refrigerator, successfully latched onto each other Thursday morning, an agency spokesperson said.  The indigenous technology, crucial for satellite servicing, space station operations, and interplanetary missions, positions India for a key role in commercial and exploratory space efforts.  "India has ambitious missions planned and to achieve those, this is an important technology," astrophysicist Jayant Murthy said.  "Various missions, like building a space station, need assembly in space, which is not possible without space docking."  ISRO…

On Wednesday the U.S. Department of Commerce announced it would implement new export controls on certain biotechnology equipment, citing national security concerns relating to artificial intelligence and data science. The Commerce Department warned that China could use the biotech equipment’s technology to bolster its military capabilities and help design new weapons using artificial intelligence. The department said the technology has many applications, including its ability to be used for "human performance enhancement, brain-machine interfaces, biologically inspired synthetic materials and possibly biological weapons." The sanctions effectively restrict shipments of the technology to countries without a U.S. license, such as China. The controls apply to parameter flow cytometers and certain mass spectrometry equipment, which according to the Commerce Department, can “generate high-quality, high-content biological data, including that which is suitable for use…

TAIPEI, TAIWAN — As TikTok’s Sunday deadline to divest or face a U.S. ban approaches, hundreds of thousands of American users of the popular social media video app say they are migrating to another Chinese social media app, Xiaohongshu, or RedNote. Dubbing themselves “TikTok Refugees,” some say they are making the move in search of a new home; others say their exodus is a form of protest against the ban. With just days to go before the deadline, users are facing growing uncertainty as they wait for a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court on whether the ban will be upheld. Reports are now suggesting that TikTok may just shut down its operations in the United States if the ban goes through. “Our government is out of their mind if they…

Two moon landers built by private U.S. and Japanese companies are on their way to the moon after lifting off early Wednesday on a shared ride aboard a SpaceX rocket. The launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida is the latest in a public-private program that put a spacecraft from Intuitive Machines on the moon last year. Wednesday’s launch included a lander from Japanese space exploration company ispace that is carrying a rover with the capability of collecting lunar dirt and testing potential food and water sources on the moon. The spacecraft is also carrying a small red “Moonhouse” built by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg. The ispace mission is expected to reach its destination on the moon’s far north in four to five months. The company is making its…

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden signed on Tuesday an executive order to boost development of artificial intelligence infrastructure in America. A day earlier, his administration announced sweeping measures to block access to the most advanced semiconductors by China and other adversaries. But the U.S. left India, its strategic partner in the Indo-Pacific, off a list of 18 countries that are allowed unrestricted access to advanced AI chips. Analysts say while a growing technological relationship between the two countries would likely make India eligible in the future to access advanced U.S. AI chips, New Delhi's existing ties with Moscow and the perception of a less robust technology regulatory framework led to its exclusion from the top list. Exclusion not a surprise The Commerce Department's policy framework divides the world into three…

Elon Musk was sued on Tuesday by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which accused the world's richest person of waiting too long to disclose in 2022 he had amassed a large stake in Twitter, the social media company he later bought. In a complaint filed in Washington, the SEC said Musk violated federal securities law by waiting 11 days too long to disclose his initial purchase of 5% of Twitter's common shares. An SEC rule requires investors to disclose within 10 calendar days, or by March 24, 2022, in Musk's case, when they cross a 5% ownership threshold. The SEC said that at the expense of unsuspecting investors, Musk bought more than $500 million of Twitter shares at artificially low prices before finally revealing his purchases on April 4,…

The White House says it has finalized rules that crack down on Chinese and Russian automobile technology effectively banning all personal smart cars from the two countries from entering the U.S. market. In a White House fact sheet detailing the decision, the Biden administration Tuesday said that while connected vehicles offer advantages, the involvement of foreign adversaries such as China and Russia in their supply chains presents serious risks granting “malign actors unfettered access to these connected systems and the data they collect.” “The Department of Commerce has issued a final rule that will prohibit the sale and import of connected vehicle hardware and software systems, as well as completed connected vehicles, from the PRC and Russia,” the fact sheet said. PRC is the acronym for China’s official name, the…

— U.S. President Joe Biden issued an executive order Tuesday directing the development of artificial intelligence data centers on six federal land sites, with a special focus on powering them with clean energy and upholding high labor standards.  Biden said in a statement that the United States is the world leader in AI, but cannot take that lead for granted.  “We will not let America be out-built when it comes to the technology that will define the future, nor should we sacrifice critical environmental standards and our shared efforts to protect clean air and clean water,” Biden said.  The order calls for the Department of Defense and Department of Energy to each identify three suitable sites where private companies will lease the land, pay for the construction and operation of the…

LONDON — Britain's antitrust regulator said on Tuesday it would investigate Google's search services using its new powers to see how they impact consumers and businesses, including advertisers, news publishers and rival search engines. The Competition and Markets Authority, which has gained new powers to examine big tech, said search was vital for economic growth and it was critical that competition was working well. "Millions of people and businesses relied on Google's search and advertising services - with 90% of searches happening on their platform and more than 200,000 UK businesses advertising there," CMA boss Sarah Cardell said in a statement. "It's our job to ensure people get the full benefit of choice and innovation in search services and get a fair deal." The CMA's move comes after U.S. prosecutors in…

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Blue Origin will try again to launch its massive new rocket as early as Tuesday after calling off the debut launch because of ice buildup in critical plumbing. The 98-meter New Glenn rocket was supposed to blast off before dawn Monday with a prototype satellite. But ice formed in a purge line for a unit powering some of the rocket's hydraulic systems and launch controllers ran out of time to clear it, according to the company. Founded by Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin said Tuesday's poor weather forecast could cause more delay. Thick clouds and stiff wind were expected at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The test flight already had been delayed by rough seas that posed a risk to the company's plan to land the first-stage…

WASHINGTON — The U.S. on Monday imposed sanctions on an extreme right-wing online network, designating the "Terrorgram" collective a terrorist group and accusing it of promoting violent white supremacy.  The U.S. State Department said in a statement that it had designated the group, which primarily operates on the Telegram social media site, and three of its leaders as Specially Designated Global Terrorists.  The State Department said the group has motivated and facilitated attacks and attempted attacks by users, including a 2022 shooting outside an LGBTQ bar in Slovakia, a planned attack in 2024 on energy facilities in New Jersey and an August knife attack at a mosque in Turkey.  "The group promotes violent white supremacism, solicits attacks on perceived adversaries, and provides guidance and instructional materials on tactics, methods, and targets…

President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Federal Trade Commission has vowed to continue the agency's drive to break up Big Tech monopolies while adding a new focus: free speech. VOA's Matt Dibble has the story. ...

— The Biden administration announced Monday new restrictions on the export of the most advanced artificial intelligence chips and proprietary parameters used to govern the interactions of users with AI systems. The rule, which will undergo a 120-day period for public comments, comes in response to what administration officials described as a need to protect national security while also clarifying the rules under which companies in trusted partner countries could access the emerging technology in order to promote innovation. “Over the coming years, AI will become really ubiquitous in every business application in every industry around the world, with enormous potential for enhanced productivity and societal, healthcare and economic benefits,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters. “That being said, as AI becomes more powerful, the risks to our national security become…

jerusalem — When a renowned Israeli TV journalist lost his ability to speak clearly because of ALS, he thought his career might be over. But now, using artificial-intelligence software that can re-create his widely recognized gravelly voice, Moshe Nussbaum — known to generations of viewers simply as "Nussi" — is making a comeback.  Nussbaum, 71, was diagnosed two years ago with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a progressive disease also known as Lou Gehrig's disease that attacks nerve cells that control muscles throughout the body.  At the time, he vowed to viewers of Israel's Channel 12 News to continue working as long as he was physically able. But, gradually, it became more and more difficult.  It was a devastating blow to the career of a leading, no-nonsense reporter who for more than 40…

WASHINGTON — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has begun producing advanced 4-nanometer chips in Arizona for U.S. customers, a milestone in the Biden administration's semiconductor efforts, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told Reuters. In November, the Commerce Department finalized a $6.6 billion grant to TSMC's U.S. unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona. "For the first time ever in our country's history, we are making leading-edge 4-nanometer chips on American soil, American workers — on par in yield and quality with Taiwan," Raimondo told Reuters in an interview, saying it had begun in recent weeks. "That's a big deal — never been done before, never in our history. And lots of people said it couldn't happen," Raimondo said of the previously undisclosed production start. A spokesperson for TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker…

Technology companies, industry executives and entrepreneurs are in Las Vegas, Nevada, this week for CES, the consumer electronics show featuring the latest advancements in artificial intelligence, vehicle technology, robotics and more. Tina Trinh reports from Las Vegas. ...

WASHINGTON — Russia's efforts to obtain China's help in enhancing artificial intelligence is seen as a bid to challenge America's lead in the field even as the outgoing Biden administration is expected to impose new export control measures to further curb Beijing's access to AI chips. As the new year began, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the country's state-owned Sberbank, to work with China in researching and developing AI technology, according to the Kremlin. "The Russian president sees his country in global competition for AI with the United States and has positioned the state resources to try and compete with the U.S. in information and cyberspace – two areas where artificial intelligence is supposed to aid Russia in what they see as Western narratives and influence," said Samuel Bendett, adjunct senior…