Google Fires Twenty-Eight Workers for Protesting Cloud Deal with Israel

Google fired twenty-eight employees Wednesday after they participated in protests against Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion cloud contract with Israel’s government that also includes Amazon. Workers at both companies have claimed the deal makes advanced technology available to Israel’s security apparatus that could contribute to the killing or harm of Palestinians in Gaza and the … Read more

Google terminates 28 employees after series of protests: Read the memo

Google terminated 28 employees Wednesday, according to an internal memo viewed by CNBC, after a series of protests against labor conditions and the company’s contract to provide the Israeli government and military with cloud computing and artificial intelligence services. The news comes one day after nine Google workers were arrested on trespassing charges Tuesday night … Read more

Google workers arrested after nine-hour protest in cloud CEO’s office

Nine Google workers were arrested on trespassing charges Tuesday night after staging a sit-in at the company’s offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California, including a protest in Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian’s office. The arrests, which were livestreamed on Twitch by participants, follow rallies outside Google offices in New York, Sunnyvale and Seattle, which … Read more

Google Workers Detained By Police for Protesting Cloud Contract with Israel

Nine Google workers were removed by police from company offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California, late Tuesday after staging an hours-long sit-in protest against a cloud contract with Israel’s government. The Sunnyvale protest occupied the office of Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google’s cloud division, at a building close to Google’s main HQ in Silicon … Read more

Alibaba founder Jack Ma re-emerges with praise of ‘transformations’

Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, reappeared in the public view in China for the first time in months. Alibaba then announced a huge reorganization of its business. Experts see the move as a signal that the Chinese government is softening its stance toward tech giants after a crackdown that began in late 2020. Jean Chung … Read more

The Internet Archive Just Backed Up an Entire Caribbean Island

Aruba’s colonial history also meant documents were spread all over the place. “Our collection was scattered,” says Edric Croes, the head of archival conservation and management at the National Archives of Aruba. There were works to be scanned across the world, including in the Netherlands, Spain, the United States, and other islands like Curaçao. Establishing … Read more

Huawei’s profit more than doubles in 2023, sales up 9.6% as cloud and digital businesses grow

Chinese telecoms gear company Huawei Technologies has reported its profit more than doubled last year as its cloud and digital businesses thrived in spite of US sanctions. The Shenzhen-based company reported a net profit of 87 billion yuan (USD 12 billion), helped by strong sales and an improved product portfolio. Revenue jumped nearly 10 per … Read more

Amazon’s Cloud Boss Likens Generative AI Hype to the Dotcom Bubble

As CEO of Amazon’s dominant cloud computing platform AWS, Adam Selipsky is one of the most powerful people in computing at a time when the industry is racing to adopt generative artificial intelligence. Although a fan of the technology, he also has a warning for anyone trying to make sense of the moment: Some AI … Read more

Alibaba (BABA) Q3 2023 earnings report for December quarter

Alibaba is operating in Suqian City, Jiangsu Province, China, on December 29, 2023. Costfoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images Alibaba missed market expectations for revenue in the December quarter, but announced it is increasing the size of its share buyback program by $25 billion, sending shares to whipsaw after earnings were released. U.S.-listed shares in … Read more

The Holy Grail of Quantum Computing Is Finally Here. Or Is It?

Andersen and Lensky of Google disagree. They do not think the experiment demonstrates a topological qubit, because the object cannot reliably manipulate information to achieve practical quantum computing. “It is repeatedly stated explicitly in the manuscript that error correction must be included to achieve topological protection and that this would need to be done in … Read more