Associated Press

News Agency

Samsung says it will build $17B chip factory in Texas

Samsung said it plans to build a $17 billion semiconductor factory outside of Austin, Texas, amid a global shortage of chips used in phones, cars and other electronic devices. “This is the largest foreign direct investment in the state of Texas, ever,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in announcing the project Tuesday. Samsung said it […]

T-Mobile to pay $20M after outage led to failed 911 calls

Wireless carrier T-Mobile agreed to pay $19.5 million in a settlement with the Federal Communications Commission over a 12-hour nationwide outage in June 2020 that resulted in thousands of failed 911 calls. The FCC said Tuesday that as part of the settlement, T-Mobile will also commit to improving communications of outages to emergency call centers, […]

AstraZeneca opens research center as UK builds science hub

Prince Charles will be on hand Tuesday when pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca opens a 1 billion-pound ($1.34 billion) research center near the University of Cambridge, hoping to build on work in developing one of the first COVID-19 vaccines. The 19,000 square-meter (more than 200,000 square-foot) complex will house more than 2,200 research scientists. It joins a […]

WhatsApp pushes privacy update to comply with Irish ruling

WhatsApp is adding more details to its privacy policy and flagging that information for European users, after Irish regulators slapped the chat service with a record fine for breaching strict EU data privacy rules. Starting Monday, WhatsApp’s privacy policy will be reorganized to provide more information on the data it collects and how it’s used. […]

GM exploring electric boats, buys 25% stake in engine maker

General Motors is testing the water in electric boating by buying a 25% stake in a Seattle company that makes battery-powered outboard motors. The Detroit automaker said Monday that it bought the stake in Pure Watercraft for a venture that it says will develop and commercialize battery electric watercraft. Pure Watercraft, founded in 2011, is […]

Asian stocks mixed after late slump on Wall Street

Asian shares were mixed Tuesday after a late drop left major Wall Street indexes mostly lower. Tokyo was closed Tuesday for a holiday. Hong Kong and Seoul declined while Shanghai advanced. Market players appeared to be relieved to learn that President Joe Biden will nominate Jerome Powell for a second four-year term at the helm […]

Ericsson to buy cloud service company Vonage in $6.2B deal

Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson is buying U.S. cloud communications company Vonage in a $6.2 billion deal that will help it expand wireless services for business customers. The acquisition would also give it access to software developers who can build new applications to take advantage of features built into new fifth generation high speed wireless […]

US offers investment to boost global COVID vaccine capacity

Pressed to address gaping inequality in global COVID-19 vaccines, the Biden administration took steps Wednesday to make billions of dollars available to drugmakers to scale up domestic production to share with the world and prepare for the next pandemic. Under the new initiative, the government’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority is soliciting pharmaceutical companies […]

NYC Aims to Be First to Rein in AI Hiring Tools

Job candidates rarely know when hidden artificial intelligence tools are rejecting their resumes or analyzing their video interviews. But New York City residents could soon get more say over the computers making behind-the-scenes decisions about their careers. A bill passed by the city council in early November would ban employers from using automated hiring tools […]

Electric vehicles get spotlight at Los Angeles Auto Show

Battery-powered vehicles will get top billing at the Los Angeles Auto Show, which opens this week after a year’s hiatus due to the novel coronavirus. Subaru, which has seen strong sales growth in the U.S. during the past decade, will unveil its first all-electric vehicle, a smallish SUV named the Solterra. VinFast, a Vietnamese automaker […]