Tag Archives: Investment & Company Information

AMD’s next-gen GPUs are set to arrive in early 2025, suggesting a CES reveal

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AMD and NVIDIA could be on a collision course for CES. AMD CEO Lisa Su has confirmed for the first time that the company is set to release its next-gen PC GPUs early next year.

"In gaming graphics, revenue declined year-over-year as we prepare for a transition to our next-gen Radeon GPUs based on our RDNA 4 architecture," Su told investors on AMD's third-quarter earnings call. "In addition to a strong increase in gaming performance, RDNA 4 delivers significantly higher ray-tracing performance and adds new AI capabilities. We are on track to launch the first RDNA 4 GPUs in early 2025."

The timing very much suggests that AMD will reveal those RDNA 4-based graphics cards at CES in early January. It's rare for the company to unveil desktop GPUs at the trade show (laptop cards are generally the order of the day for AMD at that event). However, it's widely expected that NVIDIA will use its CES keynote to debut its next-gen 50-series GeForce RTX GPUs. We might get a little more clarity on that front when NVIDIA announces its own Q3 earnings results on November 19.

As PCWorld notes, AMD's first RDNA 4 GPUs are expected to deliver mid-range performance at an equivalent price point in a bid to increase its market share. AMD's gaming business (which includes the company's GPU division) saw a 69 percent year-over-year drop in revenue to $462 million in Q3. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/amds-next-gen-gpus-are-set-to-arrive-in-early-2025-suggesting-a-ces-reveal-192630199.html?src=rss

Dropbox is laying off 20 percent of its workforce

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For the second time in less than two years, Dropbox is laying off a substantial portion of its workforce. In a blog post penned by CEO Drew Houston, the company said it would cut its global headcount by 20 percent or 528 employees. 

Dropbox will provide impacted workers with up to 16 weeks of pay, with tenured employees eligible for one additional week of pay for each complete year they worked at the company. All impacted employees will also receive their year end equity vest, and the company will provide dedicated support to immigrant workers with one-on-one consultation and extra transition time.

Per a filing with the SEC, Dropbox anticipates this latest round of layoffs will cost it up to $68 million in cash expenditures. At the same time, the company expects it will recognize between $47 million and $52 million in incremental expenses related to all the severance and benefit payouts it now needs to make before the end of year and into the first half of 2025.

“As CEO, I take full responsibility for this decision and the circumstances that led to it, and I’m truly sorry to those impacted by this change,” Houston wrote. “We continue to see softening demand and macro headwinds in our core business. But external factors are only part of the story. We’ve heard from many of you that our organizational structure has become overly complex, with excess layers of management slowing us down.”

Partway through last year, Dropbox laid off 500 employees, or about 16 percent of its workforce at the time. Comparing the memo Houston shared then with the one he posted today, there’s a common theme: slowing growth.

“First, while our business is profitable, our growth has been slowing. Part of this is due to the natural maturation of our existing businesses, but more recently, headwinds from the economic downturn have put pressure on our customers and, in turn, on our business,” Houston wrote in 2023. “As a result, some investments that used to deliver positive returns are no longer sustainable.”

Unfortunately for Dropbox, things haven’t improved on that front. As TechCrunch notes, the company only added 63,000 users during its most recent fiscal quarter (PDF link). Year-over-year revenue growth also stalled at 1.8 percent, the lowest in the company’s history. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/dropbox-is-laying-off-20-percent-of-its-workforce-151023877.html?src=rss

Waymo raises $5.6 billion to fund Austin and Atlanta expansion

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Waymo has raised another huge chunk of change from investors. The company announced on its blog that it secured an “oversubscribed investment round” of $5.6 billion in funding, the largest of which came from Google's parent company Alphabet.

The company is working with Uber to expand to Austin and Atlanta by the early part of next year. Waymo says it plans to use this latest infusion of capital for the expansions. This latest round brings Waymo’s total capital fundraising to $11.1 billion, with the $5.5 billion it picked up in two earlier rounds in 2020 and 2021.

Waymo currently operates in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix with a curbside transport service for Sky Harbor International Airport through its Waymo One driving system for businesses. The company announced it’s also started offering “fully autonomous freeway operations in Phoenix and San Francisco.”

The new funding will also help Waymo advance its Waymo One system, an adaptable autonomous driving system for different businesses. Waymo wrote on its blog it plans to “support a variety of business applications over time” through Waymo One.

Alphabet ponied up $5 billion for Waymo back in July as part of what Alphabet’s chief financial officer Ruth Porat called a “multi-year investment.” The driverless vehicle fleet logged a total of 25 million miles in July outpacing companies like Uber, which sold its self-driving unit four years ago before joining forces with Waymo.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/waymo-raises-56-billion-to-fund-austin-and-atlanta-expansion-172031686.html?src=rss

Waymo raises $5.6 billion to fund Austin and Atlanta expansion

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Waymo has raised another huge chunk of change from investors. The company announced on its blog that it secured an “oversubscribed investment round” of $5.6 billion in funding, the largest of which came from Google's parent company Alphabet.

The company is working with Uber to expand to Austin and Atlanta by the early part of next year. Waymo says it plans to use this latest infusion of capital for the expansions. This latest round brings Waymo’s total capital fundraising to $11.1 billion, with the $5.5 billion it picked up in two earlier rounds in 2020 and 2021.

Waymo currently operates in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix with a curbside transport service for Sky Harbor International Airport through its Waymo One driving system for businesses. The company announced it’s also started offering “fully autonomous freeway operations in Phoenix and San Francisco.”

The new funding will also help Waymo advance its Waymo One system, an adaptable autonomous driving system for different businesses. Waymo wrote on its blog it plans to “support a variety of business applications over time” through Waymo One.

Alphabet ponied up $5 billion for Waymo back in July as part of what Alphabet’s chief financial officer Ruth Porat called a “multi-year investment.” The driverless vehicle fleet logged a total of 25 million miles in July outpacing companies like Uber, which sold its self-driving unit four years ago before joining forces with Waymo.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/waymo-raises-56-billion-to-fund-austin-and-atlanta-expansion-172031686.html?src=rss

Uber is reportedly exploring an Expedia takeover

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Uber is reportedly exploring the idea of purchasing Expedia, one of the largest travel booking companies in the world, according to the Financial Times. Expedia, which is valued at $20 billion and which reported its highest-ever annual revenue in 2023, will be the company's biggest acquisition, if the deal does indeed push through. The Times says it's very early days, however, and Uber hasn't even made a formal offer for the travel company yet. It's still in the process of studying the implications of acquiring Expedia and has, over the past months, worked with advisers to figure out whether the deal is feasible and how it would be structured. 

The company's CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, may have to sit out deal discussions, seeing as he used to be CEO of Expedia before he was hired by the ride-hailing service in 2017. He's still in its Board of Directors, as well. It doesn't sound like Khosrowshahi was the one who suggested the potential purchase, though — in its report, the Times said the idea was "broached by a third party."

Uber has had plans to become a wider travel booking platform for a while now. Khosrowshahi said he wanted Uber to be the "Amazon of transportation" from the time he joined the company. Since then, the ride-hailing service has added train, bus and flight bookings in some markets, and it has also made several large acquisitions. It purchased online food delivery service Postmates for $2.65 billion and alcohol delivery service Drizly for $1.1 billion before shutting it down three years later. The company also teamed up with Waymo and Cruise to offer autonomous rides in certain markets. As the Times notes, Uber became profitable for the first time in 2023 due to a renewed demand for rides and food delivery and could be a in a good position to acquire a company as big as Expedia. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/uber-is-reportedly-exploring-an-expedia-takeover-120038754.html?src=rss

OpenAI rakes in over $6 billion in new funding

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Now that OpenAI is becoming a for-profit company, it’s making a tidy profit in the process. The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI has raised $6.6 billion in new funding from investors, nearly doubling its value to $157 billion. The new funding also makes it the largest venture capital deal in history.

The new investors jumped on board after the artificial intelligence startup planned to switch from a charitable non-profit to a for-profit, product-focused company. If OpenAI fails to make the move to for-profit, investors have the right to pull their funding, according to Axios.

The venture-capital firm Thrive Capital founded by Joshua Kushner, the youngest son of convicted-turned-pardoned real estate developer Charles Kushner, led the new round of funding with $1.25 billion. Other investors included SoftBank, Nvidia, Fidelity Management and OpenAI’s previous largest investor Microsoft.

One name that was notably absent from the investor list is Apple. The tech giant was in the process of negotiating a funding deal but apparently the agreement fell apart.

Funding isn’t the only thing that’s growing for OpenAI. Its AI app ChatGPT has attracted 250 million weekly active users, up from the 200 million announced at the end of August, and 11 million paying subscribers. The higher usage rate has OpenAI officials thinking they should raise the subscription price for ChatGPT to $22 a month by the end of the year and $44 a month in the next five years.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-rakes-in-over-6-billion-in-new-funding-192110908.html?src=rss

DirecTV to acquire rival Dish Network for $1, subject to regulatory approval

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It’s always beautiful when two lonely corporations find one another. DirecTV has reached an agreement to acquire Dish Network, according to reporting by The New York Times. This would create a global behemoth in the satellite TV space.

It would also provide some financial armor for the struggling Dish Network. The company’s in debt to the tune of billions of dollars because, well, satellite TV isn’t exactly a growth industry anymore. Stream, baby, stream. All told, Dish has $2 billion in debt that’s due in November and only $500 million in available cash. That math don’t add up to anything but bankruptcy.

The specifics of the deal are pretty dang convoluted. It’s a multi-step transaction with a few players. First, the private equity firm TPG will acquire a majority stake in DirectTV from AT&T for $7.6 billion. Next, DirecTV will buy Dish Network for just a single dollar. However, it’ll also take on that $2 billion in debt. EchoStar, the parent company of Dish, will hold onto some parts of the business as part of the transaction, including over $30 billion in wireless spectrum investments. DirecTV will get the Sling TV video service as part of the deal.

The acquisition would create a massive pay-TV provider, with a combined total of around 19 million subscribers. As a counterpoint, cable TV leader Comcast has 13.2 million subscribers. Netflix is creeping up on 300 million subscribers, to show the stark contrast between pay-TV and streaming.

The companies say they expect the deal to close in the second half of 2025, though the whole thing is subject to regulatory approval. The Justice Department denied a similar merger back in 2002, but that was when the satellite TV industry was at its peak.

More recently, the federal government side-eyed a potential merger between the two companies in 2020 on the grounds that it would deprive rural customers a viable alternative to Dish and DirecTV when looking to purchase 5G wireless service.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/directv-to-acquire-rival-dish-network-for-1-subject-to-regulatory-approval-152041300.html?src=rss

OpenAI reportedly plans to increase ChatGPT’s price to $44 within five years

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OpenAI is reportedly telling investors that it plans on charging $22 a month to use ChatGPT by the end of the year. The company also plans to aggressively increase the monthly price over the next five years up to $44.

The documents obtained by The New York Times shows that OpenAI took in $300 million in revenue this August, and expects to make $3.7 billion in sales by the end of the year. Various expenses such as salaries, rent and operational costs will cause the company to lose $5 billion this year.

OpenAI is reportedly circulating the documents the NYT reported on as part of a drive to find new investors to prevent or lessen its financial shortfall. Fortunately, OpenAI is raising money on a $150 billion valuation, and a new round of investments could bring in as much as $7 billion.

OpenAI is also reportedly in the midst of switching from a non to for-profit company. The business model allows for the removal of any caps on investor returns so they’ll have more room to negotiate for new investors at possibly higher rates.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-reportedly-plans-to-increase-chatgpts-price-to-44-within-five-years-225413308.html?src=rss

Intel reportedly rebuffed an offer from ARM to buy its product unit

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Intel's fortunes have declined so rapidly over the past year that chip designer ARM made a "high level inquiry" about buying its crown jewel product unit, Bloomberg reported. However, Intel said the division wasn't for sale and turned down the offer, according to an unnamed insider. 

There are two main units inside Intel, the product group that sells PC, server and networking chips and a chip manufacturing foundry. ARM had no interest in Intel's foundry division, according to Bloomberg's sources. ARM and Intel representatives declined to comment.

Intel's fortunes have been on the wane for years, but the decline over the last 12 months has been especially dramatic. Following a net $1.6 billion loss in Q2 2024, the company announced that it was laying off 15,000 employees as part of a $10 billion cost reduction plan. Last week, the company also revealed plans to transform its ailing foundry business into an independent subsidiary. Intel lost half its market value last year and is now worth $102.3 billion.

ARM sells its processor designs to Qualcomm, Apple and other manufacturers (mostly for mobile phones) but doesn't build any chips itself. Purchasing Intel's product division would completely transform its business model, though that scenario seems highly improbable.

With Intel wounded at the moment, rivals have been circling. Qualcomm also expressed interest in taking over Intel recently, according to a report from last week. Any mergers related to ARM and Qualcomm would be regulatory nightmares, but the fact that the offers exist at all shows Intel's vulnerability.

Intel has other avenues to boost investment. Apollo Global Management (the owner of Yahoo and Engadget) has offered to invest as much as $5 billion in the company, according to a recent Bloomberg report. Intel also plans to sell part of its stake in chip-maker Altera to private equity investors. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/intel-reportedly-rebuffed-an-offer-from-arm-to-buy-its-product-unit-120044228.html?src=rss

New report details OpenAI’s plan to switch to for-profit mode

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A major shakeup is in the works at OpenAI. Reuters reported that the artificial intelligence research company is restructuring its business from a non-profit board into a for-profit corporation. The publication also says Sam Altman would be given equity in the new corporation.

OpenAI’s move to for-profit wouldn’t eliminate its non-profit entity entirely. The non-profit would own a stake in the new for-profit venture but it won’t have nearly the power as it did. An OpenAI spokesperson gave a statement that’s identical to the one they gave to Fortune’s initial report about the restructuring. Couldn’t they at least have used OpenAI’s software to word a different statement?

"We remain focused on building AI that benefits everyone, and we’re working with our board to ensure that we’re best positioned to succeed in our mission. The non-profit is core to our mission and will continue to exist.”

The move to for-profit would also provide a big payday for chief executive officer Sam Altman. Reuters says he would receive equity in the company once the restructuring is complete. The for-profit company’s worth could go as high as $150 billion, according to some estimates. The for-profit model would also remove the cap on investors’ returns.

Altman has reportedly been trying to move OpenAI to a more traditional for-profit company for some time. It’s not known exactly when the switch will happen since details of the deal are still going through all of the legal motions.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/new-report-details-openais-plan-to-switch-to-for-profit-mode-214354224.html?src=rss