Diversity: Google, Meta and Amazon backtrack / Datenture acquires The Ramp / Tesla maneuver behind the scenes in Geneva

Big tech and diversity: Google, Meta and Amazon backtrack

Google puts an end to its diversity objectives to comply with the executive order of Donald Trump prohibiting the initiatives of I in federal subcontractors. Meta, for her part, has reduced her teams in the context of her restructuring, while Amazon leads a discreet review of her programs. Less a rupture than a strategic realignment, this general withdrawal of the Big Tech reflects a refocusing on their economic priorities and an adjustment to the new political pressures in the United States.

Tesla maneuver behind the scenes in Geneva to influence the regulation of autonomous vehicles

Tesla leads an active lobbying within the Economic Commission for United Nations (UNECE) in order to influence standards on the autonomous car. The Californian company now has a regular lobbyist in Geneva. Since 2015, it has played a key role in the definition of the regulatory framework for autonomous vehicles, especially on levels 3 to 5, still under discussion. The objective for Tesla is to obtain a softening of the rules, in order to deploy in Europe its robot-taxi project, cybercab.

Dataventure acquires The Ramp to consolidate its position in multilocal advertising

Elevenlabs raises $ 180 million to accelerate in vocal AI

The Polish startup Elevenlabs, Specializing in vocal AI, lifted $ 180 million in series C, promoting 3.3 billion dollars. The tour was co-directed by A16Z and Iconiq Growth, with the participation of Nea, World Innovation Lab, Valor and historic investors like Sequoia Capital and Salesforce Ventures.

Founded in 2022 by Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dąbkowski, Elevenlabs develops advanced technology of vocal synthesis Offering text-to-speech, Speech-to-Speech and dubbing services. Among its customers are The Washington PostHarperCollins, as well as technological companies and video game studios. For the anecdote, since its launch, its users have generated Over 100 years of audio content.

Softbank in advanced negotiations to acquire Ampere

SoftBank is about to buy ampere, the semiconductor company founded by the former leader of Intel Renee James, according to Bloomberg. The agreement, which could enhance Ampere at around 6.5 billion dollars, would mark a drop compared to the 8 billion estimated in 2021, when SoftBank planned to take a minority participation.

AMPERE designs Arm chips for data centers, a strategic sector for SoftBank, already a majority shareholder of the designer of Arm Holdings chips.

Uber recorded a 20 % increase in turnover but falls on the stock market

Uber announced on Wednesday a turnover of $ 12 billion for the fourth quarter, up 20 %, increased by 18 % growth in reservations in its VTC and delivery activities. Despite these solid results, the action dropped by 7.5 % after the company warned a slowdown in growth in the first quarter.

Workday removes 1,750 jobs while accelerating on AI and international

Workday announced the abolition of 1,750 jobs, or 8.5 % of its workforce, in order to redirect its resources towards artificial intelligence and strengthen its presence internationally. The HR and financial software publisher is focusing on AI to further automate its solutions and improve the productivity of its customers.

This restructuring illustrates the trend that should extend to all companies, where AI redefines skills needs and pushes businesses to rationalize their workforce.

X creditors sell $ 5.5 billion in debt with a limited discount

Elon Musk creditors sold on Wednesday 5.5 billion dollars in debt linked to the buyout of Twitter, which has become X, according to the Wall Street Journal. The transaction comes for more than two years after Musk borrowed $ 13 billion to finance the acquisition of the platform in 2022. The debt was ceded to 97 cents for a dollar

Let’s chat with Alexa on February 26?

Amazon could unveil a new version of Alexa incorporating advanced artificial intelligence capabilities in order to compete with Openai, Google, Microsoft and Anthropic. A key meeting is scheduled for mid February to decide to launch this new version. Amazon will hold an event produced on February 26 in New York, after canceling its event last year. Since 2022, the CEO Andy Jassy has initiated a reduction in costs, impacting the Alexa division with several waves of layoffs. Amazon is struggling to monetize his vocal assistant and has accumulated significant losses estimated at several billion dollars on this activity.

Applications on iOS and Android stole Crypto portfolio recovery sentences

Kaspersky researchers have discovered malicious applications on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to extract crypto wallet recovery sentences from images stored on devices of their users.

+ Discover

+ Fundraising

From Versailles to Fort Alamo: HistoVery raises € 4M to impose the French Touch in increased cultural mediation

• Stockly raises 26 million euros to strengthen its stock pooling network
• Endometriosis, Lyv Healthcare raises 2.6 million euros to impose e-health in the management of chronic female diseases
• Crown lifts 2 million euros to automate purchasing management processes
• Riot lifts $ 30 million to counter cyber attacks doped at AI
• ThePackergers raises 14 million euros to industrialize the logistics of e-commerce from art and vintage

To register in your agenda:

The X welcomes the scientific component of the Summit for Action on AI on February 6 and 7, 2025

On February 6 and 7, 2025, the Polytechnic Institute of Paris (IP Paris) organizes an international conference entitled “AI, Science, and Society” on the campus of the Polytechnic School in Palaiseau. This event will bring together researchers, business leaders, political decision -makers and experts to discuss the impact of artificial intelligence on science and society. Among the speakers are renowned personalities such as Michael Jordan (UC Berkeley/Inria), Yann Le Cun (current Institute/Meta Fair) and Bernhard Schölkopf (Max Planck Institute). The conference will serve as a prelude to the summit for AI action, scheduled for February 10 and 11, 2025 in Paris.

🥐 previous edition of the Good Morning Frenchweb:

• • Military ia: Google renounces its principles / Deel on the way to an IPO? / Bouygues accelerates with AWS
  • The Elon Musk effect is in full swing / shein targeted by a CE / Outbrain investigation, now call me a tank!
  • France inaugurates INESIA, its IA / DOGE security center, the silent intrusion of Musk / Openai engineers launches Deep Research
  • But where did the report of the AI ​​commission go? / AI2 defies Deepseek and Openai with tulu 3 405b / Mistral AI accelerates the cadence

🚀 To read on Frenchweb.fr:

Towards an IPO? Deel strengthens its governance and reaches $ 800 million in Run Rate.

• Google Cloud: Artificial intelligence is not enough to dethrone AWS and Microsoft Azure
• AI for military use: Google renounces its principles
• Wandercraft initiates a clinical trial for its self-balanced personal exoskeleton
• Outbrain, now call me waters!
• OPENAI launches Deep Research, a new tool for internet research
• Bending Spoons: the Italian startup that was worth 3 billion euros
• Associates Pact: What clauses are the most problematic when selling a startup?
• Summit for Action on AI: Europe suffocated by its own rules?