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Andreessen Horowitz Raises $7.2 Billion, a Sign That Tech Startup Market May Be Bouncing Back (CNBC)
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Vancouver, BC, April 16, 2024--Andreessen Horowitz said Tuesday that it raised $7.2 billion across five different funds, investments, a sign of optimism in the tech startup world, which has seen a dearth of significant exits over the past two years. The biggest chunk of new funding is in Andreessen Horowitz's growth fund, which reeled in $3.75 billion. That money gets invested in later-stage companies that are viewed as closer to going public, or capital-intensive businesses that require big checks.
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Bitcoin Hits Record High Above US $72,000 as UK Opens the Door to Crypto Exchange-Traded Products (and Ethereum Breaks Through $4,000) (CNBC)
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Vancouver, BC, March 11, 2024--Bitcoin extended recent gains and climbed to another record to start the week. The price of the flagship cryptocurrency was last higher by 4% at $72,492.42, according to Coin Metrics. Inflows into U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs continue to drive the cryptocurrency's price action. Last week, bitcoin hit new records in volatile trading for the first time since 2021, before more subdued trading over the weekend. Meanwhile, ether broke $4,000 for the first time since December 2021, lifted in part by bitcoin. It was last higher by 4% at $4,063.43.
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Amazon and Google-Backed Anthropic Debuts 'Claude 3', Its Fastest and Most Powerful AI Yet (Says it Outperformed GPT-4 on Benchmark Tests) (CNBC)
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Vancouver, BC, March 4, 2024--Anthropic has debuted Claude 3, a suite of artificial intelligence models that it says are its fastest and most powerful yet. The new tools are called Claude 3 Opus, Sonnet and Haiku. The company said the most capable of the new models, Claude 3 Opus, outperformed GPT-4 and Gemini Ultra on benchmark tests, such as undergraduate level knowledge, graduate level reasoning and basic mathematics. This is the first time Anthropic has offered multimodal support. Users can upload photos, charts, documents and other types of unstructured data for analysis and answers.
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Electronic Arts to Lay Off 5% of Workforce, Reduce Office Space, End Work on Some Video Games (CNBC)
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Vancouver, BC, February 29, 2024--Electronic Arts announced Wednesday that it will cut 5% of its workforce, part of a plan that includes reducing office space and ending work on some video games. EA employed 13,400 workers as of the end of March 2023, according to its most recent annual filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in May. That means the layoffs may affect about 670 jobs. EA CEO Andrew Wilson wrote in a memo to employees that the video game company is "streamlining our company operations to deliver deeper, more connected experiences for fans everywhere."
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These Are the Tech Jobs Most Threatened by ChatGPT and A.I. (CNBC)
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Vancouver, BC, April 21, 2023--As if there weren't already enough layoff fears in the tech industry, add ChatGPT to the list of things workers are worrying about. This year, the tech industry already has cut 5% more jobs than it did in all of 2022, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, and is on track to surpass 2001 job losses. Workers are not only scared of being laid off, they're scared of being replaced all together. 300 million jobs globally stand to be impacted by AI and automation, according to a recent Goldman Sachs report.
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Canada Is Aiming to Beat China in the Critical Race for Rare Earth Metals (CNBC)
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Vancouver, BC, March 14, 2023--Canada has one of the largest deposits of minerals that are essential to manufacture of electric cars, and is now positioning itself as a solution for the many European governments that are looking to rely less on China for critical raw materials — which are essential for the manufacture of goods like electric cars. The G-7 member announced in December a plan to ramp up the production of these minerals, with Canada having one of the largest deposits. Canada is estimated to have over 15.1 million metric tons of rare earth oxide.
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Slack CEO and Co-Founder Stewart Butterfield Leaving Salesforce Two Years After US $27 Billion Acquisition (CNBC)
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Stewart Butterfield, Slack CEO and co-founder Vancouver, BC, December 6, 2022--Salesforce announced today that Slack founder Stewart Butterfield, who joined the company through its acquisition of Slack, is now leaving the company. Salesforce bought Vancouver-born Slack Technologies for about US $27 billion in a deal that closed in mid-2021. Stewart Butterfield, who was born in BC, was also a co-Founder of Flickr, a photo sharing platform that also began in Vancouver (and later sold to Yahoo). Slack has offices in the Yaletown area of Vancouver, BC and in downtown Vancouver at 550 Burrard Street.
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Tech Hiring Slowdown Not Happening, Recruiters Say (CNBC)
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Vancouver, BC, June 27, 2022--Recruiting and economic experts say they aren't seeing a slowdown in the tech labor market despite some recession fears. They say layoffs and hiring slow-downs are few, leaving the market mostly unmoved. Workers are still "in the driver's seat" experts said.
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Job Openings Requiring Vaccination Are Up 90% in August Compared to July (CNBC)
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Vancouver, BC, August 20, 2021--Looking for a new job? You might be required to provide proof of vaccination to get one. The share of job postings per million that require candidates be vaccinated against Covid-19 specifically is up 34% in the first week of August compared to the same period in July, according to data from the jobs site Indeed; meanwhile, the share of roles requiring job-seekers be vaccinated in general, but don't mention Covid-19 specifically, is up by 90% month-over-month.
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Breaking: Moderna Reaches Deal to Build 'State-of-the-Art' Covid Vaccine Manufacturing Plant in Canada (CNBC)
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Vancouver, BC, August 10, 2021--Moderna said it has reached a deal with the Canadian government to build a "state-of-the-art" manufacturing plant in Canada to make Covid vaccines and potentially shots for other respiratory viruses after the country was plagued by supply shortages earlier this year. The plant aims to provide Canadians with access to domestically manufactured mRNA vaccines against respiratory viruses, including Covid, seasonal influenza, respiratory syncytial virus and possibly other vaccines, pending licensure, the U.S. drugmaker said.
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