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Tag: Breaking News: Technology

  • Ryan Serhant: AI will make real estate agents more personable in home buying and selling

    Ryan Serhant: AI will make real estate agents more personable in home buying and selling

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    Real estate agent and reality television star Ryan Serhant.

    Newspix

    Real estate has been historically slow to modernize, but AI is changing that. The integration of artificial intelligence is transforming how buyers and sellers interact with agents, fundamentally altering competitive dynamics in the industry. 

    With AI reshaping daily operations of a real estate agent’s business by automating tasks — from generating property listings to conducting neighborhood analyses — the agent’s focus in day-to-day activities will shift. 

    Ryan Serhant, CEO of Serhant and reality TV star of “Owning Manhattan,” says AI is already making real estate less about access to information and more about the agent building deeper relationships. He predicts a mindset shift is on its way as agents leverage AI and at the same time are forced to find new ways to differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive market. “If we are all using AI and have the same level of expertise, who wins? It’s the game of attention,” said Serhant at the CNBC Evolve AI Opportunity Summit in New York City this past week. 

    Buying a home is the single largest investment most Americans make in their lives, which makes real estate a business where greater success can be achieved with greater personal touch on the part of the agent. Serhant says the big advantage he sees in use of AI is having more time for the real estate agent to provide personalized attention to their clients. 

    “The product in sales is no longer just the skill set,” Serhant said. “It is the attention to the skill set.”

    His own company, Serhant, has developed a service called “Simple” for sales automation to handle daily tasks in customer relationship management, which typically consumes over 60% of agents’ time. 

    AI tools are being used to streamline lead generation, automate marketing campaigns, and provide predictive analytics to identify opportunities, but that is not replacing the critical role of the agent in providing top performance. Serhant says AI won’t virtualize relationships, but for the real estate agents who embrace the AI revolution — which he says is a necessary move to make — it will strengthen their relationships.

    Making access to real-time market data and sales insights less onerous may allow agents from small boutique firms to compete on a more equal footing with larger real estate corporations. “There is a trust factor in sales. … It isn’t about who is the largest, but who is the most empowered,” Serhant said. 

    That also stands to benefit homebuyers and sellers, Serhant said, with a wider selection of suitable agents with enhanced personalized services and greater focus on the client. 

    The real estate industry is still in the initial stages of adopting AI and understanding remains low among real estate professionals, but the interest is there. Generative AI was ranked among the top three technologies expected to have the greatest impact on real estate over the next three years by investors, developers, and corporate occupiers, according to JLL Technologies’ 2023 Global Real Estate Technology Survey. But the survey also finds that real estate professionals have very low understanding of AI compared to other technologies.

    According to Serhant, agents who understand how AI can empower their business are going to have huge opportunities over the next 20 years to take significant market share. 

    No tech innovation comes without risks, and wire fraud remains a major challenge for the real estate industry, which will be exacerbated by AI. The FBI reported a big year-over-year increase in wire fraud cybercrime losses in 2023, driven significantly by real estate transactions. Improved artificial intelligence technology is facilitating real estate scammers. 

    Fraud can’t be ignored, said Serhant, but he believes real estate will adapt to the risks inherent in new technology in the same way the business has in the past, such as with digital listings. “With every advancement in technology, greater rules get put into place that can help stop those fakes,” he said. 

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  • Digital bank Revolut slams Meta over approach to scams, says tech giant should compensate victims

    Digital bank Revolut slams Meta over approach to scams, says tech giant should compensate victims

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    Revolut CEO, Nikolay Storonsky (L) and Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.

    Reuters

    British financial technology firm Revolut on Thursday criticized Facebook parent company Meta over its approach to tackling fraud, saying the U.S. tech giant should directly compensate people who fall victim to scams via its social media platforms.

    A day after Meta announced a partnership with U.K. banks NatWest and Metro Bank on a data-sharing framework designed to help prevent customers from falling prey to fraud schemes, Revolut said the pact “falls woefully short of what’s required to tackle fraud globally.”

    In a statement, Woody Malouf, Revolut’s head of financial crime, said that Meta’s plans to tackle financial fraud on its platforms amount to “baby steps, when what the industry really needs is giant leaps forward.”

    “These platforms share no responsibility in reimbursing victims, and so they have no incentive to do anything about it. A commitment to data sharing, albeit needed, simply isn’t good enough,” Malouf added.

    CNBC has contacted Meta for comment.

    New payment industry reforms will come into force in the U.K. on Oct. 7 that require banks and payment firms to issue victims of so-called authorized push payment (APP) fraud a maximum compensation of £85,000 ($111,000).

    Britain’s Payments System Regulator had previously recommended a £415,000 maximum compensation amount for fraud victims, but backed down following backlash from banks and payment firms.

    Revolut’s Malouf said that, while his company is on board with steps the U.K. government is taking to combat fraud, Meta and other social media platforms should do their part to financially compensate those who fall victim to fraud as a result of scams originating on their sites.

    The fintech firm published a report Thursday alleging that 62% of user-reported fraud on its online banking platform originated from Meta, down from 64% last year.

    Facebook was the most common source of all scams reported by Revolut users, accounting for 39% of fraud, while WhatsApp was the second-highest source of such events with an 18% share, the bank said in its “Consumer Security and Financial Crime Report.“

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  • Tesla stock slips after it reports 462,890 total deliveries during the third quarter

    Tesla stock slips after it reports 462,890 total deliveries during the third quarter

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    A worker unloads a new Tesla Model 3 from a truck at a logistics drop zone in Seattle, Washington, US, on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024. 

    Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

    Tesla posted its third-quarter vehicle production and deliveries report on Wednesday. The stock fell about 3.5% in premarket trading after the report.

    Here are the key numbers:

    Total deliveries Q3 2024: 462,890

    Total production Q3 2024: 469,796

    Analysts were expecting deliveries of 463,310 in the period ending Sept. 30, according to estimates compiled by FactSet StreetAccount.

    Deliveries are not defined in Tesla’s financial disclosures, but are the closest approximation to units sold reported by the company. It’s one of the most closely-watched metrics on Wall Street.

    In the year-ago period, Tesla reported 435,059 deliveries and production of 430,488 EVs. Last quarter, the company reported 443,956 deliveries, and production of 410,831 vehicles.

    Tesla is facing increased competitive pressure, especially in China, from companies like BYD and Geely, along with a new generation of automakers, including Li Auto and Nio.

    In the U.S., EV competitors like Rivian are maturing, while legacy automakers Ford and General Motors are selling more electric vehicles after walking back more ambitious goals for electrification.

    GM this week reported a roughly 60% increase in EV sales for the third quarter from a year earlier. Still, its electric business is tiny compared to Tesla’s, with just 32,100 units sold in the latest period, accounting for 4.9% of the company’s total sales.

    Ford plans to report results on Wednesday.

    Tesla hasn’t issued specific guidance for 2024 deliveries, but executives have said they expect a lower delivery growth rate this year versus last despite the company having added a new vehicle, the angular stainless steel Cybertruck, to their lineup.

    The company also said on Wednesday that it deployed 6.9 GWh of energy storage products in the quarter.

    Shares of Tesla climbed 32% in the third quarter, erasing their loss for the year in the process. The stock is now up almost 4% in 2024, trailing the Nasdaq, which has gained 19%.

    Tesla’s brand has been under pressure in the U.S. due in part to the antics of CEO Elon Musk, who, in addition to endorsing former President Donald Trump, has shared what the White House called “racist hate,” and false claims about immigrants and election fraud on X, his social media app.

    But Tesla still sells more battery electric vehicles in the U.S. than any other automaker, with Hyundai a distant second.

    In its third-quarter earnings report later this month, investors will be particularly focused on profit margins.

    Tesla has continued to offer attractive financing options and an array of incentives to drive sales volume in recent months in China as well as in the U.S. Prior to earnings, Tesla will host a marketing event on Oct. 10, and is expected to show off the design of “dedicated robotaxi.”

    Musk has promised Tesla self-driving cars for years, but the company has yet to deliver. Meanwhile competitors like Waymo and Pony.ai have begun operating commercial robotaxi services.

    WATCH: Tesla is a place where investors can find safety, says RBC’s Tom Narayan

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  • Facebook owner Meta forms data-sharing pact with UK banks to counter scams

    Facebook owner Meta forms data-sharing pact with UK banks to counter scams

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    Jakub Porzycki | Nurphoto | Getty Images

    Facebook parent company Meta on Wednesday said that it’s working with two leading banks in the U.K. on an information-sharing arrangement to help protect consumers from fraud.

    Meta said it was expanding its Fraud Intelligence Reciprocal Exchange (FIPE) to enable U.K. banks to directly share information with the social media giant, in a bid to help it detect and take down scamming accounts and coordinated fraud schemes.

    Meta said that the tech has already been tested with multiple lenders in the U.K. In one example, Meta says it was able to take down 20,000 accounts from scammers engaged in a concert ticket scam network targeting people in the U.K. and U.S., thanks to data shared by British lenders NatWest and Metro Bank.

    NatWest and Metro Bank are the only banks in the U.K. that are currently part of the fraud information-sharing pact, but more are set to join later on, according to Meta.

    “This work has already seen us take action against thousands of accounts run by scammers, indicating the importance of banks and platforms working together to tackle this societal issue,” Nathaniel Gleicher, global head of counter-fraud at Meta, said in a statement Wednesday.

    “We will only beat these criminals if we work together and share relevant information related to scams. Financial institutions can share unique information with us which we can in turn use to train our systems to take action against more scams globally,” Gleicher added.

    Meta has long faced calls from banks in the U.K. to do more to stop scammers from running rampant on its platforms, which include Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

    In 2022, British digital bank Starling, which is backed by Goldman Sachs, began boycotting Meta and pulled advertising from its platforms over concerns that the company was failing to tackle fraudulent financial advertising.

    Meta’s apps have been frequently abused by scammers attempting to swindle users out of their money through a variety of fraudulent schemes.

    One of the most common forms of scams users encounter on the company’s platforms is authorized push payment fraud, through which criminals attempt to convince people to send them money by impersonating individuals or businesses that are selling a service.

    Meta already has policies in place banning promotion of financial fraud, such as loan scams and schemes promising high rates of returns. The firm also prohibits ads that promise unrealistic results or guarantee a financial return.

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  • Mastercard to buy Swedish startup that makes it easier to manage and cancel subscription plans

    Mastercard to buy Swedish startup that makes it easier to manage and cancel subscription plans

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    BARCELONA, SPAIN – MARCH 01: A view of the MasterCard company logo on their stand during the Mobile World Congress on March 1, 2017 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by Joan Cros Garcia/Corbis via Getty Images)

    Joan Cros Garcia – Corbis | Corbis News | Getty Images

    Mastercard said Tuesday that it’s agreed to acquire Minna Technologies, a software firm that makes it easier for consumers to manage their subscriptions.

    The move comes as Mastercard and its primary payment network rival Visa are rapidly attempting to expand beyond their core credit and debit card businesses into technology services, such as cybersecurity, fraud prevention, and pay-by-bank payments.

    Mastercard declined to disclose financial details of the transaction which is currently subject to a regulatory review.

    The payments giant said that the deal, along with other initiatives it’s committed to around subscriptions, will allow it to give consumers a way to access all their subscriptions in a single view — whether inside your banking app or a central “hub.”

    Minna Technologies, which is based in Gothenburg, Sweden, develops technology that helps consumers manage subscriptions within their banking apps and websites, regardless of which payment method they used for their subscriptions.

    The company said it works with some of the world’s largest financial institutions in the world today. It already counts Mastercard as a key partner as well as its rival Visa.

    “These teams and technologies will add to the broader set of tools that help manage the merchant-consumer relationship and minimize any disruption in their experience,” Mastercard said in a blog post Tuesday.

    Consumers today often have tons of subscriptions to manage across multiple services such as Netflix, Amazon and Disney Plus. Owning multiple subscriptions can make it difficult to cancel them as consumers can end up losing track of which subscriptions they’re paying for and when.

    Mastercard noted that this can have a negative impact on merchants because consumers who aren’t able to easily cancel their subscriptions end up calling on their banks to request a block on payments being taken.

    According to Juniper Research data, there are 6.8 billion subscriptions globally, a number that’s expected to jump to 9.3 billion by 2028.

    Financial services incumbents such as Mastercard have been rapidly growing their product suite to remain competitive with emerging fintech players that are offering more convenient, digitally native ways to manage consumers’ money management needs.

    In 2020, Mastercard acquired Finicity, a U.S. fintech firm that enables third parties — such as fintechs or other banks — to gain access to consumers’ banking information and make payments on their behalf.

    Earlier this year, the company announced that by 2030, it would tokenize all cards issued on its network in Europe — in other words, as a consumer, you wouldn’t need to enter your card details manually anymore and would only have to use your thumbprint to authenticate your identity when you pay.

    Visa, meanwhile, is also trying to remain competitive with fintech challengers. Last month, the company launched a new service called Visa A2A, which makes it easier for consumers to set up and manage direct debits — payments which are taken directly from your bank account rather than by card.

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  • London-based Robinhood rival Freetrade buys UK arm of Australian investing platform Stake

    London-based Robinhood rival Freetrade buys UK arm of Australian investing platform Stake

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    People walk along London Bridge past the City of London skyline.

    Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

    London-based online trading platform Freetrade told CNBC Tuesday that it’s agreed to buy the U.K. customer book of Stake, an Australian investing app.

    The move is part of a broader bid from Freetrade to bolster its domestic business and comes as British digital investment platforms face rising competition from new entrants — not least U.S. heavyweight Robinhood.

    The startup told CNBC exclusively that it entered into a transaction with Stake to take on all of the company’s clients and move all assets the firm manages in the U.K. over to its own platform.

    Freetrade and Stake declined to disclose financial information of the deal, including the value of Stake’s U.K. customer book.

    Stake, which is based in Sydney, Australia, was founded in 2017 by entrepreneurs Matt Leibowitz, Dan Silver and Jon Abitz with the aim of providing low-cost brokerage services to retail investors in Australia.

    The company, which also operates in New Zealand, launched its services in the U.K. in 2020. However, after a recent business review, Stake decided to focus primarily on its Australia and New Zealand operations.

    Following the deal, customers of Stake U.K. will be contacted with details about how to move their money and other assets over to Freetrade in “the coming weeks,” the companies said. Customers will still be able to use their Stake account until assets and cash are transferred to Freetrade in November.

    Freetrade operates primarily in the U.K. but has sought to expand into the European Union. It offers a range of investment products on its platform, including stocks, exchange-traded funds, individual savings accounts, and government bonds. As of April 2024, it had more than 1.4 million users.

    Earlier this year, CNBC reported that the startup’s co-founder and CEO, Adam Dodds, had decided to depart the company after six years at the helm. He was replaced by Viktor Nebehaj, the firm’s then-chief operating officer.

    Freetrade was a beneficiary of the 2020 and 2021 retail stock investing frenzy, which saw GameStop and other so-called “meme stocks” jump to wild highs. In the years that followed, Freetrade and its rivals, including Robinhood were impacted by higher interest rates which hammered investor sentiment.

    In 2022, Freetrade announced plans to lay off 15% of its workforce. The following year, the firm saw its valuation slump 65% to £225 million ($301 million) in an equity crowdfunding round. Freetrade at the time blamed a “different market environment” for the reduction in its market value.

    More recently, though, things have been turning around for the startup. Freetrade reported its first-ever half year of profit in 2024, with adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization hitting £91,000 in the six months through June. Revenues climbed 34% year-over-year, to £13.1 million.

    “I’m focused on scaling Freetrade into the leading commission-free investment platform in the UK market,” CEO Nebehaj said in a statement shared with CNBC. “This deal shows our commitment to capitalise on opportunities for inorganic growth to reach that goal.”

    “Over the last few months, we have worked closely with Stake to ensure a smooth transition and good outcomes for their UK customers. We look forward to welcoming them and continuing to support them on their investment journeys.”

    Freetrade currently manages more than £2 billion worth of assets for U.K. clients. Globally, Stake has over $2.9 billion in assets under administration.

    Robinhood, a far larger player in the U.S. with $144 billion in assets under management, launched in the U.K. in November 2023 to much fanfare. Earlier this month, the company launched a securities lending scheme in the U.K., in a bid to further entice prospective British clients.

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  • California governor vetoes contentious AI safety bill

    California governor vetoes contentious AI safety bill

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    California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks to the press ahead of the presidential debate between US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 10, 2024. 

    Matthew Hatcher | Afp | Getty Images

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday vetoed a hotly contested artificial intelligence safety bill, after the tech industry raised objections, saying it could drive AI companies from the state and hinder innovation.

    Newsom said the bill “does not take into account whether an AI system is deployed in high-risk environments, involves critical decision-making or the use of sensitive data” and would apply “stringent standards to even the most basic functions — so long as a large system deploys it.”

    Newsom said he had asked leading experts on generative AI to help California “develop workable guardrails” that focus “on developing an empirical, science-based trajectory analysis.” He also ordered state agencies to expand their assessment of the risks from potential catastrophic events tied to AI use.

    Generative AI — which can create text, photos and videos in response to open-ended prompts — has spurred excitement as well as fears it could make some jobs obsolete, upend elections and potentially overpower humans and have catastrophic effects.

    The bill’s author, Democratic State Sen. Scott Wiener, said legislation was necessary to protect the public before advances in AI become either unwieldy or uncontrollable. The AI industry is growing fast in California and some leaders questioned the future of these companies in the state if the bill became law.

    Wiener said Sunday the veto makes California less safe and means “companies aiming to create an extremely powerful technology face no binding restrictions.” He added “voluntary commitments from industry are not enforceable and rarely work out well for the public.”

    “We cannot afford to wait for a major catastrophe to occur before taking action to protect the public,” Newsom said, but added he did not agree “we must settle for a solution that is not informed by an empirical trajectory analysis of AI systems and capabilities.”

    Newsom said he will work with the legislature on AI legislation during its next session. It comes as legislation in U.S. Congress to set safeguards has stalled and the Biden administration is advancing regulatory AI oversight proposals.

    Newsom said “a California-only approach may well be warranted – especially absent federal action by Congress.”

    Chamber of Progress, a tech industry coalition, praised Newsom’s veto saying “the California tech economy has always thrived on competition and openness.”

    Among other things, the measure would have mandated safety testing for many of the most advanced AI models that cost more than $100 million to develop or those that require a defined amount of computing power. Developers of AI software operating in the state would have also needed to outline methods for turning off the AI models, effectively a kill switch.

    The bill would have established a state entity to oversee the development of so-called “Frontier Models” that exceed the capabilities present in the most advanced existing models.

    The bill faced strong opposition from a wide range of groups. Alphabet’s GOOGL.O Google, Microsoft MSFT.O-backed OpenAI and Meta Platforms META.O, all of which are developing generative AI models, had expressed their concerns about the proposal.

    Some Democrats in U.S. Congress, including Representative Nancy Pelosi, also opposed it. Proponents included Tesla TSLA.O CEO Elon Musk, who also runs an AI firm called xAI. Amazon AMZN.O-backed Anthropic said the benefits to the bill likely outweigh the costs, though it added there were still some aspects that seem concerning or ambiguous.

    Newsom separately signed legislation requiring the state to assess potential threats posed by Generative AI to California’s critical infrastructure.

    The state is analyzing energy infrastructure risks and previously convened power sector providers and will undertake the same risk assessment with water infrastructure providers in the coming year and later the communications sector, Newsom said.

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  • Trump calls for prosecution of Google over search results he says favor Harris

    Trump calls for prosecution of Google over search results he says favor Harris

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    Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the press at Trump Tower in New York City, U.S., September 26, 2024. REUTERS/David Dee Delgado

    David Dee Delgado | Reuters

    Donald Trump on Friday called for Google to be criminally prosecuted for what the Republican presidential nominee called the company’s bias toward his election opponent Vice President Kamala Harris in online search results.

    Trump in a social media post wrote that if the Department of Justice does not prosecute Google “for this blatant interference of Elections” he would request its prosecution “when I win the election and become President of the United States!”

    He seemed to be reacting to a new study by the right-leaning Media Research Center, which purportedly found that Google search engine results tended to show news articles that supposedly were positive to the Democrat Harris ahead of Trump’s own campaign website when a user searched for “Donald Trump presidential race 2024.”

    In his post on Truth Social, Trump wrote: “It has been determined that Google has illegally used a system of only revealing and displaying bad stories about Donald J. Trump, some made up for this purpose while, at the same time, only revealing good stories about Comrade Kamala Harris.”

    US Vice President and Democratic nominee for President Kamala Harris speaks at an event hosted by The Economic Club of Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon University on September 25, 2024 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

    Jeff Swensen | Getty Images

    MRC founder Brent Bozell told Fox News Digital earlier this week that “Google is trying to stack the deck in favor of Kamala Harris.”

    CNBC has requested comment from Google’s parent company Alphabet, as well as the campaigns of Trump and Harris.

    This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.

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  • Wall Street hovers near record highs. Here’s why we want to see choppiness

    Wall Street hovers near record highs. Here’s why we want to see choppiness

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  • SEC says Elon Musk should be sanctioned if he keeps dodging Twitter depositions

    SEC says Elon Musk should be sanctioned if he keeps dodging Twitter depositions

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    Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of X looks on during the Milken Conference 2024 Global Conference Sessions at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May 6, 2024. 

    David Swanson | Reuters

    The Securities and Exchange Commission has asked a federal judge to sanction Elon Musk if he continues to violate the court’s order to appear for a deposition in a probe of his 2022 Twitter acquisition.

    The SEC has been investigating whether Musk or anyone else working with him committed securities fraud in 2022 as the Tesla CEO sold shares in his automaker and shored up a stake in Twitter, ahead of his leveraged buyout of the company now known as X.

    In May, the court ordered Musk to appear for a deposition by the financial regulators regarding the Twitter deal.

    “Musk has now failed to appear before the SEC twice: first in September 2023, in defiance of a lawful administrative subpoena, and last week, in defiance of a clear court order,” SEC attorney Robin Andrews said in the Friday filing.

    Andrews asked the judge to consider sanctions should Musk delay further, according to the filing.

    “The Court must make clear that Musk’s gamesmanship and delay tactics must cease,” Andrews wrote.

    The filing also revealed, in a footnote, that the SEC intends to ask the court to hold Musk in “civil contempt” for canceling a deposition on Sept. 10, giving the agency only a few hours notice that he would not appear. Musk’s cancellation cost the SEC time and money after it sent personnel to Los Angeles to depose him and he didn’t appear for the investigative interview, the agency said.

    Musk’s deposition in the probe has been rescheduled for a date in early October at an SEC office, the filing said.

    “Without further action by the Court, nothing deters Musk” from “simply failing to show up for that date,” Andrews wrote.

    Musk’s attorney, Alex Spiro, a partner at Quinn Emanuel in New York, wrote in a response that “such drastic action would be inappropriate,” adding that the SEC and Musk had agreed rescheduling would be permissible in light of an emergency.

    Additionally, Musk and his companies have “cooperated and are cooperating with the SEC in multiple other ongoing investigations,” Spiro wrote.

    In a separate, civil lawsuit concerning the same Twitter deal, the Oklahoma Firefighters Pension and Retirement System has sued Musk in a federal court in New York accusing him of deliberately concealing his progressive investments in Twitter and intent to buy out the company.

    The pension fund’s attorneys argue that Musk, by failing to clearly disclose his investments in and intentions to buy Twitter, had influenced other shareholders’ decisions and put them at a disadvantage.

    Discovery from that case in New York yielded correspondence between an unnamed person at Morgan Stanley, and the executive who manages Musk’s money, Jared Birchall. In the messages, the Morgan Stanley contact wrote in February 2022 that Musk’s Twitter stock-buying strategy was closely held.

    “No one knows what is going on and why but you and me,” the person at Morgan Stanley wrote. “Not compliance, not anyone.”

    Read the court filing below:

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  • Disney to ditch Slack following July data breach

    Disney to ditch Slack following July data breach

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    The Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse float passes by during the daily Festival of Fantasy Parade at the Magic Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World on May 31, 2024, in Orlando, Florida. 

    Gary Hershorn | Corbis News | Getty Images

    The Walt Disney Company will no longer use Slack for in-house company communication months after a hack that involved more than a terabyte of company data being leaked to the public.

    The company had already begun to transition to a new internal “streamlined enterprise-wide collaboration tools,” but officially notified employees and cast members Thursday that most of its business units would move away from Slack usage by the end Disney’s next fiscal quarter, according to a memo from Disney Chief Financial Officer Hugh Johnston that was obtained by CNBC.

    Disney told investors in August that the summer data hack, which included a range of financial information, computer codes and details about unreleased projects, was not expected to have a material impact on the company’s operations or financial performance.

    Representatives from Disney and Salesforce, the owner of Slack, did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

    “Our security is rock-solid,” Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, said during an interview with Bloomberg at the company’s annual Dreamforce conference this week.

    “Companies also have to take the right measure to prevent phishing attacks and to lockdown their employees’ social engineering,” he added. “So, we can do our part, but our customers also have to do their part.”

    Benioff noted that Disney continues to use Salesforce products in other aspects of its business including its Disney store, Disney guides, sales and service operations and its call centers.

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  • An ‘AI apocalypse’ is coming to investing. How financial advisors can prepare

    An ‘AI apocalypse’ is coming to investing. How financial advisors can prepare

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  • Brazil supreme court unfreezes assets of Elon Musk’s Starlink, X after taking fines

    Brazil supreme court unfreezes assets of Elon Musk’s Starlink, X after taking fines

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    Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, July 24, 2024. 

    Samuel Corum | Bloomberg | Getty Images

    Brazil’s supreme court announced Friday that it ordered banks to transfer funds from Starlink and X accounts to pay fines the court levied against Elon Musk’s social network.

    The court’s top justice, Alexandre de Moraes, and a panel of five other justices, found that X had repeatedly violated Brazilian law when it refused to appoint a legal representative in the country, and when it refused to remove content or profiles from its platform that the court determined to be harmful towards democratic institutions in Brazil.

    The court had nearly 18.4 million Brazilian reals, or approximately $3.3 million, transferred out of the accounts. Musk acquired X, then known as Twitter, in 2022. Starlink is the satellite internet service run by SpaceX.

    Following the transfers, the court ordered that the frozen bank accounts and assets of X and Starlink be released, saying there was no longer any need to keep them.

    The court suspended X at the end of August, and the suspension remains in place. 

    Musk and his businesses have said they view the actions of de Moraes as “illegal,” and his court’s orders as having been issued without due process. X and SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.

    Brazilian news agency UOL reported earlier this month that some of the accounts de Moraes ordered Musk to suspend at X belong to users who allegedly threatened federal police officers involved in a probe of former right-wing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

    Bolsonaro has been accused of instigating Brazil’s Jan. 8 riots and of attempting to stage a coup there.

    Musk is a proponent of Bolsonaro, in part because the former Brazilian president authorized his business Starlink to operate in the country.

    Musk has been ramping up insults and calls to impeach de Moraes since April. On Sept. 5, his long-time collaborator at the helm of SpaceX, COO Gwynne Shotwell, also took shots at the Brazil supreme court online.

    She wrote, “@Alexandre, please stop harassing Starlink and let us keep serving the people of Brazil.”

    Backers of de Moraes and the STF have seen the orders against X Corp. as an assertion of Brazilian sovereignty.

    WATCH: New data shows Musk’s Twitter takeover is worst deal for banks since 2008 financial crisis

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  • Dutch neobank Bunq goes on hiring spree, targeting digital nomads, as other fintechs slash jobs

    Dutch neobank Bunq goes on hiring spree, targeting digital nomads, as other fintechs slash jobs

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    Dutch digital bank Bunq is plotting re-entry into the U.K. to tap into a “large and underserved” market of some 2.8 million British “digital nomads.”

    Pavlo Gonchar | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

    Dutch challenger bank Bunq told CNBC that it plans to grow its global headcount by 70% this year to over 700 employees, even as other financial technology startups have decided to cut jobs.

    Bunq, which operates in markets across the European Union, is looking to expand into new regions including the U.K. and the United States, taking on the fintechs already in those countries, including the likes of Britain’s Monzo and Revolut, and American neobank Chime.

    Bunq said it needs corresponding talent in those regions to support its global expansion ambitions. To that end, the firm said it plans to see out the year with 735 employees globally — up 72% from its 427 members of staff at the start of 2024.

    “Bunq focusses on digital nomads who tend to roam the world,” Ali Niknam, Bunq’s CEO and co-founder, told CNBC via emailed comments.

    So-called “digital nomads” are defined as people who travel freely while working remotely, using technology and the internet to work abroad from hotels, cafes, libraries, co-working spaces, or temporary housing.

    “We’d love to be able to service our users wherever they go — given the regulatory environment we’re in, this results in us having to have a lot of extra people to make this happen,” Niknam added.

    Bunq is currently in the process of applying for banking licenses in both the U.S. and U.K. Last year, the firm submitted an application for a federal banking license. And in the U.K., Bunq is awaiting a decision from financial regulators on an application to become a licensed e-money institution, or EMI.

    The digital bank said it was actively looking to hire across sales and business development, product marketing, PR, affiliate marketing, and market analysis, as well as user support, development, and quality assurance.

    Many of these positions will be part of a “tailored digital nomad” program that allows staff to work from anywhere in the world, Bunq said.

    However, the firm stressed it’s not closing down office space and that many new hires would work in its offices, including in Amsterdam, Sofia, Istanbul, Munich, Paris, Dublin, Madrid, London, and New York City.

    A contrast from jobs cuts at other fintechs

    Over the past two years, one of the biggest stories in both the fintech and broader technology industry has been companies slashing jobs to cut back on the massive spending implemented during in the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021.

    The operating environment for fintech firms has gotten tougher, meanwhile, with inflation knocking consumer confidence and higher interest rates making it harder for startups to raise money.

    In January last year, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase slashed 950 jobs. It was followed by payments giant PayPal, which reduced its global headcount by 2,000 people in early 2023, and then by another 2,500 jobs in early 2024.

    Meanwhile, some fintechs are looking to artificial intelligence to take on a growing number of roles.

    Swedish buy now, pay later firm Klarna, for instance, said last month that it was able to reduce its workforce from 5,000 to 3,800 over the past year from attrition alone. It added that it is looking to further cut employee numbers down to 2,000 through the use of AI in marketing and customer service.

    “Our proven scale efficiencies have been enhanced by our investment in AI, which has driven down operating expenses and improved gross profits,” the company said in first-half earnings.

    Klarna said that its average revenue per employee had risen 73% year-over-year, thanks in no small part to the internal application of AI.

    Bunq’s Niknam said he doesn’t see AI as a way to help firms reduce headcount, however.

    “We’ve been deploying AI systems and solutions years before they became mainstream, [but] in our experience AI empowers our employees to be able to do better by our users, more effectively and efficiently,” he told CNBC.

    Bunq earlier this year reported its first full year of profitability, generating 53.1 million euros ($58.51 million) in net profit in 2023. The business was last valued privately by investors at 1.65 billion euros.

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  • Why a Wall Street downgrade of Costco is not a reason to sell the stock

    Why a Wall Street downgrade of Costco is not a reason to sell the stock

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  • A Porsche-backed startup is building a massive battery recycling plant to boost Europe’s EV industry

    A Porsche-backed startup is building a massive battery recycling plant to boost Europe’s EV industry

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    Cylib, a startup backed by Porsche and Bosch, is building a huge electric vehicle battery recycling facility in Dormagen, a town in Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia region.

    Cylib

    A massive battery recycling plant is being built in Germany by Cylib, a startup looking to reduce waste from EV batteries that have reached the end of their life.

    Cylib, which is backed by luxury sports car firm Porsche and appliances maker Bosch, on Monday started work on the new site in the town of Dormagen, in the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

    More than 180 million euros ($200 million) is being pumped into the facility, which is expected to span 236,000 square feet and will produce recycled batteries for the electric vehicle industry in Europe.

    Cylib says its facility will be the largest end-to-end lithium-ion battery recycling facility in Europe.

    It plans to recycle roughly 30,000 metric tons of end-of-life batteries at the facility each year, making it larger in scale than the current biggest plant, Hydrovolt, a joint venture between Swedish EV battery maker Northvolt and Norway-based aluminum and renewable energy firm Hydro.

    Hydrovolt has capacity to recycle 12,000 metric tons of end-of-life batteries annually, according to Hydro’s website.

    Recycled batteries produced by Cylib’s new facility are expected to be used by Porsche, which invested in the startup as part of a 55 million euro funding round, a source familiar with the matter told CNBC.

    The source, who preferred to remain anonymous as the information is not yet public, added that the plans are still in the early stages and have not yet been formalized.

    Asked about Porsche’s involvement in the project, a Cylib spokesperson said that investments from partners like Porsche are “strategic,” adding that it is working closely with its investors about process industrialization and commercial partnerships.

    Crucial for the EV transition

    Battery recycling is a key priority for the European Union, which is looking to ensure the sustainable development of batteries needed to fuel the transition to electric vehicles.

    Founded in 2022 by German entrepreneur Lilian Schwich, her husband Gideon Schwich, and Paul Sabarny, Cylib uses water-based lithium and graphite recovery techniques to repurpose materials from batteries that have hit the end of their lifespan.

    Earlier this year, the firm raised 55 million euros of financing from investors including climate-focused venture capital firm World Fund, Porsche Ventures, Bosch, and DeepTech & Climate Fonds.

    Cylib said the new plant would primarily serve automotive, battery manufacturing and chemicals clients. The startup wants it to be the first of many, with further facilities planned elsewhere in Germany and Europe within the next few years.

    The new facility is being built on a brownfield site located at Chempark, an industrial space used primarily by the chemicals industry. Cylib said that the location was strategic, with preexisting supply chains already located on-site.

    Operations at the plant are scheduled to commence in 2026. The move is key to Cylib’s ability to reach mass production, said CEO Lilian Schwich.

    “Cylib reaching industrial scale production will be a key driver in building a robust European battery infrastructure,” Schwich said in a press statement.

    “Battery recycling is pioneering the circular economy, proving that economic success is compatible with reduced environmental impact,” she added.

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  • Small nuclear reactors could power the future — the challenge is building the first one in the U.S.

    Small nuclear reactors could power the future — the challenge is building the first one in the U.S.

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    Nuclear plants could become smaller, simpler and easier to build in the future, potentially revolutionizing a power source that is increasingly viewed as critical to the transition away from fossil fuels.

    New designs called small modular reactors, or SMR in shorthand, promise to speed deployment of new plants as demand for clean electricity is rising from artificial intelligence, manufacturing and electric vehicles.

    At the same time, utilities across the country are retiring coal plants as part of the energy transition, raising worries about a looming electricity supply gap. Nuclear power is viewed as a potential solution because it is the most reliable power source available and does not emit carbon dioxide.

    Building large plants is very costly and time-consuming. In Georgia, Southern Co. built the first new nuclear reactors in decades, but the project finished seven years behind schedule at a cost of more than $30 billion.

    Small modular reactors, with a power capacity of 300 megawatts or less, are about a third the size of the average reactors in the current U.S. fleet. The goal is to build them in a process similar to an assembly line, with plants rolling out of factories in just a handful of pieces that are then put together at the site.

    “They’re a smaller bite from a capital perspective,” Doug True, chief nuclear officer at the Nuclear Energy Institute, told CNBC. “They’re a perfect fit for things like replacing a retired coal plant, because the size of coal plants typically is more than that of the small modular reactor design space.”

    The challenge is getting the first small modular reactor built in the U.S.

    Only three SMRs are operational in the world, according to the Nuclear Energy Agency. Two are in China and Russia, the central geopolitical adversaries of the U.S. A test reactor is also operational in Japan.

    Executives in the nuclear industry generally agree that small modular reactors won’t reach a commercial stage until the 2030s. An ambitious effort by NuScale to deploy SMRs at a site in Idaho was canceled last year, as the project’s price tag ballooned from $5 billion to $9 billion due to inflation and high interest rates.

    Eric Carr, president of nuclear operations at Dominion Energy, said the biggest challenge to commercializing the technology right now is managing the costs of a first-of-a-kind project.

    “Nobody exactly wants to be first, but somebody has to be,” Carr told CNBC. “Once it gets going, it’s going to be a great, reliable source of energy for the entire nation’s grid.”

    Dominion Energy

    Dominion is currently evaluating whether it makes sense to build a small modular reactor at its North Anna nuclear station in Louisa County, Virginia, northwest of Richmond. The utility’s service area includes the largest data center market in the world in Loudoun County, less than 100 miles north of the plant.

    Electricity demand from these computer server warehouses is expected to surge because artificial intelligence consumes more energy. In the case of Dominion, the peak power demand from data centers is forecast to more than double to 6.4 gigawatts by 2030 and quadruple to 13.4 gigawatts in 2038.

    Dominion asked SMR technology companies in July to submit proposals evaluating the feasibility of developing a small reactor at North Anna. Carr said interest in the proposal process has been high. The utility is currently working with vendors to make sure they understand Dominion’s needs and to figure out which technology might be suitable, Carr said.

    “For our specific case at Dominion, we have a duty to our shareholders to do the right thing, and we also have a duty to our customers to make sure we can meet the demand of this growth, but we have to balance both of those interests,” Carr said. Though Dominion has not committed to building an SMR yet, one planning scenario envisages developing six such reactors starting in 2034.

    The tech companies driving the data center boom have also shown a growing interest in nuclear due to its reliability and role in fighting climate change. Carr said Dominion is having discussions with some customers on possibly collaborating to move SMRs closer to reality.

    “We’re having some discussions with the technology vendors as well as the large customers that are coming in and saying, ‘What could this look like if we all work together,'” Carr said.

    Holtec International

    Holtec International, a privately held nuclear technology company, is trying to find a path forward for the industry on two fronts. The company is in the process of restarting the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan, which would be the first time a plant that ceased operations has come back online.

    Holtec also plans to install two small reactors at Palisades in the early 2030s, which would nearly double the power capacity of the plant. Kelly Trice, president of Holtec, said, without disclosing names, that at least six utilities are interested in participating in restarting Palisades and constructing the small reactors.

    How the massive power draw of generative AI is overtaxing our grid

    “If they participate, they can get all of those painful lessons learned without having to pay for them,” Trice told CNBC. “And then, when the plant is built at their site, it is the second one or the third one or the fourth — which usually becomes a lot less expensive once you’ve learned all your lessons.”

    Once the first SMR has been constructed at Palisades, Holtec plans to build an order book to “continually manufacture the components to do this for whatever plant is needed,” Trice said.

    Holtec’s SMR design is a pressurized water-reactor, the same technology as most plants currently operating in the U.S. fleet. “But with some elegant safety features that don’t require human action, and as a result of that simpler to operate, fewer people required, easier to maintain,” Trice said.

    “And also reproducible. Our goal is for every SMR to essentially be the same,” he said.

    Constellation Energy

    The largest operator of nuclear plants in the U.S., Constellation Energy, is also exploring the possibility of building a small reactor at one of its facilities.

    The trend in the industry is to upgrade existing plants with small reactors in part because the communities are already open to nuclear. The necessary land, water, grid connection and security footprint are also already available, said Kathleen Barrón, chief strategy officer at Constellation.

    Barrón said the idea is to work with a customer that is interested in contracting at one of Constellation’s existing plants for power today, and then working with them to use the facility to “host an SMR to provide greater clean power to that customer in the future.”

    “This will only happen if there’s a supportive state policy akin to what states have done with offshore wind and there are customers that are interested in buying the offtake from those reactors,” Barrón said.

    For now, the energy transition will require an all-above approach with natural gas acting as a bridge toward cleaner energy as coal phases out — until the next technology comes online, Dominion’s Carr said.

    “SMR may very well be that next technology,” he said.

    Don’t miss these energy insights from CNBC PRO:

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  • Visa debuts a new product designed to protect consumers making bank transfers

    Visa debuts a new product designed to protect consumers making bank transfers

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    Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

    Visa said it plans to launch a dedicated service for bank transfers, skipping credit cards and the traditional direct debit process.

    Visa, which alongside Mastercard is one of the world’s largest card networks, said Thursday it plans to launch a dedicated service for account-to-account (A2A) payments in Europe next year.

    Users will be able set up direct debits — transactions that take funds directly from your bank account — on merchants’ e-commerce stores with just a few clicks.

    Visa said consumers will be able to monitor these payments more easily and raise any issues by clicking a button in their banking app, giving them a similar level of protection to when they use their cards.

    The service should help people deal with problems like unauthorized auto-renewals of subscriptions, by making it easier for people to reverse direct debit transactions and get their money back, Visa said. It won’t initially apply its A2A service to things like TV streaming services, gym memberships and food boxes, Visa added, but this is planned for the future.

    The product will initially launch in the U.K. in early 2025, with subsequent releases in the Nordic region and elsewhere in Europe later in 2025. 

    Direct debit headaches

    The problem currently is that when a consumer sets up a payment for things like utility bills or childcare, they need to fill in a direct debit form.

    But this offers consumers little control, as they have to share their bank details and personal information, which isn’t secure, and have limited control over the payment amount.

    The open banking movement is inspiring consumers to ask who owns their banking data

    Static direct debits, for example, require advance notice of any changes to the amount taken, meaning you have to either cancel the direct debit and set up a new one or carry out a one-off transfer.

    With Visa A2A, consumers will be able to set up variable recurring payments (VRP), a new type of payment that allows people to make and manage recurring payments of varying amounts.

    “We want to bring pay-by-bank methods into the 21st century and give consumers choice, peace of mind and a digital experience they know and love,” Mandy Lamb, Visa’s managing director for the U.K. and Ireland, said in a statement Thursday.

    “That’s why we are collaborating with UK banks and open banking players, bringing our technology and years of experience in the payments card market to create an open system for A2A payments to thrive.”

    Visa’s A2A product relies on a technology called open banking, which requires lenders to provide third-party fintechs with access to consumer banking data.

    Open banking has gained popularity over the years, especially in Europe, thanks to regulatory reforms to the banking system.

    The technology has enabled new payment services that can link directly to consumers’ bank accounts and authorize payments on their behalf — provided they’ve got permission.

    In 2021, Visa acquired Tink, an open banking service, for 1.8 billion euros ($2 billion). The deal came on the heels of an abandoned bid from Visa to buy competing open banking firm Plaid.

    Visa’s buyout of Tink was viewed as a way for it to get ahead of the threat from emerging fintechs building products that allow consumers — and merchants — to avoid paying its card transaction fees.

    Merchants have long bemoaned Visa and Mastercard’s credit and debit card fees, accusing the companies of inflating so-called interchange fees and barring them from directing people to cheaper alternatives.

    In March, the two companies reached a historic $30 billion settlement to reduce their interchange fees — which are taken out of a merchant’s bank account when a shopper uses their card to pay for something.

    Visa didn’t share details on how it would monetize its A2A service. By giving merchants the option to bypass cards for payments, there’s a risk that Visa could potentially cannibalize its own card business.

    For its part, Visa told CNBC it is and always has been focused on enabling the best ways for people to pay and get paid, whether that’s through a card or non-card transaction.

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  • Nvidia slides further in post-market trading after plunge that wiped out nearly $300 billion in market cap

    Nvidia slides further in post-market trading after plunge that wiped out nearly $300 billion in market cap

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    Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks during Computex 2024 in Taipei on June 4, 2024. 

    I-hwa Cheng | AFP | Getty Images

    Nvidia shares fell 2% in extended trading Tuesday after Bloomberg reported that the company received a subpoena from the Department of Justice as part of an antitrust investigation.

    The slide comes after Nvidia dropped nearly 10% during regular trading, wiping $279 billion off its market cap.

    The DOJ probe has not reached the stage of a formal complaint, according to Bloomberg, and the agency is asking questions about whether Nvidia makes it harder to switch to other suppliers of AI chips. Nvidia has more than 80% of the market for data center AI chips, according to industry estimates.

    Nvidia’s huge rise in recent years has been directly tied to its dominance in AI chips for data centers, established years before competitors AMD and Intel started taking the category seriously. Nearly a decade ago, Nvidia developed a programming language for its chips, called CUDA, which is a key tool for engineers who train advanced AI models like the one at the heart of ChatGPT.

    Many of Nvidia’s top customers are cloud companies as well as internet giants, including Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, Amazon and Tesla.

    As Nvidia’s AI chips have become a hot commodity, the company has released new enterprise software subscriptions and marketed its networking products as important complements to get the most out of its chips.

    Recent versions of Nvidia’s chips can come pre-installed in entire Nvidia-designed server racks, an example of Nvidia’s effort to move from being a mere parts supplier to an entire systems provider.

    A representative for Nvidia told CNBC that the company “wins on merit, as reflected in our benchmark results and value to customers, who can choose whatever solution is best for them.” The DOJ declined to comment to CNBC.

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  • Klarna rival Zilch posts first profit and appoints ex-Aviva CEO to board ahead of IPO

    Klarna rival Zilch posts first profit and appoints ex-Aviva CEO to board ahead of IPO

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    Zilch CEO Phil Belamant.

    Zilch

    British financial technology firm Zilch on Tuesday reported its first-ever month of profit, marking a key milestone for the company as it looks toward an eventual initial public offering.

    In a trading update, Zilch, which competes with the likes of Klarna and Block in the buy now, pay later space, said that it made an operating profit in July 2024, hitting profitability within four years of its founding date — faster than other major consumer fintechs that have also managed to break even.

    Competitors Starling and Monzo, meanwhile, took more than three and four years to make their first profit, respectively. Others have managed to hit profitability faster. Digital banking startup Revolut, for example, broke even for the first time just two years after its launch.

    Zilch also said it topped £100 million ($130 million) in annual revenue run rate, doubling from the run rate it reported last year.

    Philip Belamant, Zilch’s CEO and co-founder, told CNBC Tuesday that, despite the current high-interest rate environment, the firm was able to hit profitability by growing its business rather than cutting back like other fintechs have done.

    “If you think of the last two and a half, three years, a lot of VC-backed companies, especially high growth fintech businesses have had to cut their way to get to profitability. And some of those have actually cut so far they went bust along the way,” Belamant told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.”

    “It’s not been easy. And, for Zilch, we took a different approach. We looked at this and said let’s grow our way to profitability,” Belamant added.

    Separately Tuesday, Zilch announced the appointment of former Aviva CEO Mark Wilson to its board. Wilson, who was made a non-executive director, said he was “excited” to join the firm at a critical juncture and “further help Zilch steer its path toward sustainable success as a category leader.”

    Zilch’s CEO Belamant told CNBC in June that he wants to list the business publicly in the next 12 to 24 months. That same month, the company announced that it had raised $125 million of initial debt financing from Deutsche Bank.

    That deal, which gives Zilch the option to draw down up to $315 million of credit from both Deutsche Bank and other banks, is expected to help the company triple its overall sales volumes in the next couple of years, according to the firm.

    Klarna, which Zilch competes with in the U.K., is also planning a stock market flotation in the medium term, with its CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski having previously told CNBC it wouldn’t be “impossible” for the firm to list as soon as this year.

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