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December 22, 2024
 

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Mark Bergen
SoftBank Group will make a tender offer allowing OpenAI employees to cash in shares if they choose.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 28, 2024
SoftBank seeks to buy $1.5 billion OpenAI shares from employees
SoftBank will make a tender offer for the stock, allowing OpenAI employees to cash in shares if they choose.
Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive officer of SoftBank Group, speaks during a news conference in Tokyo in June.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 12, 2024
SoftBank buys struggling U.K. chip startup Graphcore in AI race
The deal marks Softbank's second acquisition of a U.K. semiconductor firm, following its 2016 purchase of Cambridge-based Arm Holdings.
SoftBank Group is in talks to acquire Graphcore, a struggling British semiconductor startup.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 9, 2024
SoftBank said to be in talks to buy troubled AI chip firm Graphcore
Graphcore reported just $2.7 million in revenue for 2022, a 46% drop from the prior year, according to its latest financial report.
Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive officer of SoftBank Group. One of SoftBank's primary objectives will be to harvest returns from its huge portfolio rather than priming unprofitable startups for growth.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 14, 2024
SoftBank’s Vision Fund swaps splashy bets for ‘timid’ investing
As other tech investors have heaped money into new artificial intelligence firms, Vision Fund has stayed out of the fray.
The New York Times headquarters in New York. The New York Times has sued Microsoft and OpenAI for using its content to help develop artificial intelligence services, in a sign of the increasingly fraught relationship between the media and a technology that could upend the news industry.
BUSINESS
Dec 28, 2023
NYT sues Microsoft and OpenAI for copyright infringement
While OpenAI has been sued by prominent authors, the suit is the first challenge to its practices by a major media organization.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 17, 2022
Big Tech helps Big Oil pump more, belying climate pledges
The tech giants began courting oil companies several years ago, eager for business from a lucrative but technologically backward industry.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 8, 2022
Corporations join the nuclear fusion craze
TAE Technologies' CEO says more corporate partnerships are coming after his company demonstrated a key breakthrough in constructing viable reactors.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
May 12, 2022
Google is remaking search and maps for the TikTok generation
The new features include ways for people to search for nearby items using images and identify physical objects with their smartphone cameras.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 29, 2021
Facebook changes name to Meta in embrace of virtual reality
The name change is the most definitive signal so far of the company's intention to stake its future on a new computing platform — the 'metaverse.'
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 29, 2021
Tech giants’ record quarter gives way to growth skepticism
Three of the world’s largest companies — Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc. — reported about $57 billion in combined profit in a record-busting quarter, riding a resurgence in consumer and business spending.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Nov 21, 2020
Kids see many ads but few educational videos on YouTube, study shows
A report found that adverts were present on 95% of videos analyzed, with a fifth of the ads being categorized as age inappropriate.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 3, 2020
Big Tech draws record revenue and harsh criticism with U.S. election ads
The presidential campaigns for each party more than doubled their ad spending on Facebook compared with the presidential candidates in the 2016 race.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 4, 2020
If Google shares less data, rivals shout antitrust; if it opens up, privacy advocates cry foul
Google LLC is limiting access to key tools that track ad spending, disrupting hundreds of marketers and underscoring the powerful role the search giant plays in the digital advertising industry.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 13, 2018
Inside Huawei's secret research HQ, China is shaping a future that's less reliant on U.S. tech
The surprise arrest of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies Co., has thrust the company into a political firestorm and deepened a core threat: that more and more countries will blacklist its switches, routers and phones out of growing concern that they could be hijacked by foreign...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech / ANALYSIS
Jul 19, 2018
Google shrugs off EU fine; damage to hinge on rivals' next moves
The European Union's record $5 billion fine against Google, levied Wednesday morning, marks the biggest regulatory attack yet on technology giants. But investors and analysts largely shrugged off the ruling's potential to immediately dent Google's business.
Record 78% of people in Japan feel anxious, government survey finds
The public opinion survey on people's lives, conducted by the Cabinet Office, found that 28.1% of respondents think that their standard of living is at a lower-middle level among the general public — the highest percentage to give that response in 35 years.
Police raided suspect's home to arrest him after fatal Kitakyushu stabbing
Broken window glass is seen at Masanori Hirabaru's house in Kitakyushu's Kokuraminami Ward.
Taiwan lawmakers brawl over bills that would 'damage democracy'
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party and opposition party Kuomintang brawl in parliament in Taipei on Friday.
Ride-hailing restrictions to be eased during 2025 Osaka Expo
A venue for the 2025 Osaka Expo in the city of Osaka
Foxconn's interest in Nissan said to be on hold amid Honda merger talks
Foxconn’s pause in its pursuit of Nissan is the latest development in the unexpected emergence of two suitors for the ailing Japanese carmaker.
Japanese officials inspect Yokota Air Base over PFAS concerns
The Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo in September 2019. An inspection of the base by Japanese government officials on Friday came amid public pressure to investigate suspected links between the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam by the U.S. base and contamination of soil and groundwater in western Tokyo.
Crime numbers rise in Japan for second straight year
A police officer stands in front of the residence of a man alleged to have stabbed two junior high school students in Kitakyushu.
A year of Oscar wins and a quiet push for diversity
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Evil Does Not Exist,” released in Japanese theaters in April, sharply dramatizes the clash between rural and urban values. The film won five awards at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, including the second-place Silver Lion prize.
Curiosity didn’t kill the meme: Why cats still rule Japanese YouTube
A screen shot from YouTube user @lagelda shows the simplicity of going viral in Japan in 2024: A cat dancing to EDM in front of a green screen.
With rare Asia carrier deployment, France seeks greater interoperability
The flight deck of the French Navy's Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier during a stop at Changi Naval Base in Singapore in May 2019

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Yasuyuki Yoshida stirs a brew in a fermentation tank at his brewery in Hakusan.
The quake that shook Noto's sake brewing tradition
By Alex K.T. Martin

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