[A few weeks after the suspension of the car-making plan, Apple laid off more than 600 employees] On April 5, according to the announcement submitted to California, 614 Apple employees were notified of the layoffs on March 28, effective from May 27. This is the company's first large-scale layoff since the pandemic. In February, Apple canceled a years-long plan to develop self-driving electric vehicles. At the time, media reported that some of the project's employees would be transferred to other departments, while others could be laid off. The announcement did not explicitly mention Apple's car-building project. The layoffs will affect employees at eight offices in Santa Clara, California, while Apple's headquarters will not be affected. (Sina Finance)
[Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI may raise $3 billion, and the valuation is expected to reach $18 billion] On April 5, people familiar with the matter said that investors close to Musk are talking to help his AI startup xAI raise $3 billion, and this round of financing will make the company's valuation reach $18 billion. It is reported that supporters considering investing in this round of financing include venture capital firm Gigafund and American venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson. The terms of xAI's financing have not yet been finalized, and plans are subject to change. (Oriental Fortune Network)
Volkswagen Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Oliver Bloom said in an interview with Germany's "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" on the 5th local time that Volkswagen hopes to avoid setting a "utopian" target for its market share in China, and that in a fierce competitive environment, it is already "very considerable" to have a market share of more than 10%. Volkswagen's overall market share in China reportedly fell from 18% in 2018 to 14% last year, while domestic EV makers are gaining market share. (Interface News)
On April 5, on the issue of insurance premiums and more than 500,000 oil vehicles, Xiaomi Auto responded: The terms of commercial insurance for new energy vehicles and fuel vehicles are different, and the exclusive "Terms" for new energy vehicles not only provide protection for the "three electrics" system, but also comprehensively cover the use scenarios of new energy vehicles driving, parking, charging and operation. In addition, it will be comprehensively calculated according to various factors such as new car/old car, brand, model, type of household, type of insurance, amount insured, etc., and the premium price is also different, so it cannot be simply compared by car price. (Oriental Fortune Network)
On April 6, Liu Tao, co-CEO of Zhiji, posted on Weibo: Xiaomi is indeed fast, and it started to do the first vehicle from the platform in three years, starting from the original platform to do research and development, 2-3 years of complicated vehicle and parts test and verification plan, no matter how to optimize it seems to be not enough, who knows how to do it so efficient and high-speed? For this question, there are different opinions in the comment area, and some bloggers said: This is the strength of China's industrial chain, complete facilities, perfect engineer reserves, the right selection of several key technical figures, enough budget, 3 years out of the car is not fast. Some netizens said: As long as there are sufficient funds and talents, time is not a problem, this is the first car for Xiaomi, but for the engineers of Xiaomi cars, this may be the first car they have built. There are also points of view to explain the difference between traditional car manufacturers and Xiaomi: the difference between traditional car companies and connected car companies is that Xiaomi only needs to integrate the world's most cost-effective industrial chain, while the traditional one emphasizes independent development and core technology, while Xiaomi's core is the car machine and ecosystem. (Fast Technology)
[The "offline exclusive price" of Hema that has been launched for half a year has been cancelled, and the membership system is expected to return] During the Qingming holiday, Ms. Lin, a citizen of Shanghai, visited the Hema Fresh Supermarket, but unexpectedly found that the "offline exclusive price" that had been launched for about half a year was cancelled. "Since Hema has an offline exclusive price, when I pass by Hema, I will consciously go in and have a look, and now it has all returned to the original price, and the original offline discount is gone, is it a disguised price increase?" Ms. Lin couldn't help but wonder. On April 5, the reporter learned from a number of Hema stores in Shanghai that since April, Hema stores have canceled offline exclusive prices, and the current prices are basically the same online and offline. Some people close to Hema speculate that the cancellation of the offline exclusive price may be a warm-up of the new strategy after the recent change of Hema coach. On social platforms, the news about the resumption of the membership system of Hema has spread far and wide. (Sina Finance)
According to information on Tesla's official website in the United States, potential buyers of the Cybertruck will have to wait until 2025 to receive their vehicles if they place orders now. According to the website, both the all-wheel-drive Cybertruck and the high-end Cyberbeast are expected to be delivered in 2025. Tesla plans to eventually deliver 250,000 Cybertrucks per year. However, Musk has previously warned that this milestone will not be achieved this year, but will not be achieved until 2025. (IT House)
[Weilai's second brand "Ledao" car official blog is online, expected to be released in mid to early May] Query Weibo found that "Ledao" car is suspected of registering an official Weibo account, which has been certified by Blue V, and currently has no avatar, no blog post, and no profile. It was previously reported that NIO's second brand is named "Ledao", and the English name is "ONVO". Qin Lihong, co-founder of NIO, said that the new brand will be officially launched in mid to early May. (Tencent.com)
Reuters reported that Apple has reached an agreement with Shutterstock to license millions of images, which could be worth $25 million to $50 million (currently about 181 million - 362 million yuan). In addition, several other big tech companies, including Meta, Google, Amazon, have reached similar agreements with Shutterstock. Founded in 2003 by programmer and photographer Jon Oninger, Shutterstock is an American provider of image libraries, stock footage, image music, and editing tools, with a library of approximately 200 million royalty-free images, vectors, and illustrations, as well as approximately 10 million movie clips and music tracks available for licensing. (IT House)
[Clarification of Li Auto: Ideal L6 adopts front double wishbone rear five-link suspension structure] Li Auto clarified the recent false rumors that "Ideal L6 adopts MacPherson suspension structure": Ideal L6 adopts the front double wishbone rear five-link suspension structure commonly used in luxury medium and large SUVs. The Ideal L6 has a minimum ground clearance of 180mm, which is 4mm higher than the 2024 Ideal L9/L8/L7 with standard air suspension. Based on the second-generation range extender platform of Li Auto, the Ideal L6 took three years of research and development with an investment of more than 2 billion yuan. (Straight Flush)
The first delivery ceremony of Xiaomi SU7 was held on April 3 in the assembly workshop of Xiaomi Automobile Factory. According to the official account of Harbin World Joy City, invested and built by Beijing Linda Group, the first owner of Xiaomi SU7 is Li Xiaolin, a representative of the 13th National People's Congress, chairman of Shuanglinhui Business Club, and chairman of the board of directors of Linda Group. At the delivery ceremony, Lei Jun awarded Li Xiaolin the No. 0001 certificate of the first owner of Xiaomi SU7. (Sina Finance)
[Uniqlo plans to open more than 20 new stores in North America this year] Uniqlo will open 5 new stores in Texas and 6 new stores in California this year, and announce the specific location. UNIQLO currently has nearly 74 stores in the North American market, most of which are located in the United States. The company plans to open more than 20 new stores in North America this year and 200 stores in this market by 2027. (Interface News)
McDonald's announced on April 4 that it would buy back all 225 McDonald's restaurants in the country from Israeli distributor Alonyal and retain the latter's more than 5,000 employees. In a statement, McDonald's said, "Thanks to Alonyal for building the McDonald's business and brand in Israel over the past 30 years, McDonald's remains committed to the Israeli market." According to the statement, the agreement is subject to certain conditions and is expected to be completed in the coming months. (Finance)
[300% growth in 3 months, OpenAI Enterprise Edition ChatGPT user scale exceeded 600,000] On April 6, OpenAI Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap said in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek on Thursday that the current number of registered users of the enterprise version of ChatGPT exceeds 600,000. (IT House)
[YouTube CEO named OpenAI: If it is illegal to use its platform video to train AI models] On April 6, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan (Neal Mohan) publicly stated in an interview recently that although there is no direct evidence that OpenAI uses YouTube videos to train Sora (AI model for text-generated videos), it warned that this behavior violates YouTube's current platform terms of service. (Bullwhip)
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On April 6, local time, Indian aerospace startup Agnnikul Cosmos postponed the first launch of its Agnibaan rocket again, citing technical problems. The company delayed the launch of the Agnibaan rocket last month, but did not give a clear reason. (Finance Associated Press)
On April 6, it was reported that around the issue of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical's "red koji" health care products damaging health, Japan's Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare Keizo Takemi attended a meeting of the House of Representatives Welfare and Labor Committee on April 5, and said on the reasons why the government is promoting the investigation and adjustment of measures: "What problems exist in corporate governance such as manufacturing processes and safety management, we will thoroughly investigate and explore the necessary rules." In order to prevent the recurrence of the problem, Keizo Takemi said that "if it is necessary to be legalized, it will be handled quickly," and indicated that he would discuss relevant laws such as the revision of the Food Sanitation Law. Japan's current Food Sanitation Act stipulates a "duty of effort" to report health damage to local governments, etc., to all food products, but does not impose penalties. (Interface News)
[371! All 99 Cent Stores in the United States Will Close] According to CNN, on the 4th local time, the American discount retailer "99 Cent Stores" announced that it would close all 371 chain stores and gradually cease business operations. Founded in 1982, the "99 Cent Store" is popular with customers for offering a wide variety of products at low prices. However, in recent years, due to the pressure brought about by factors such as rising costs and inflation, the prices of some goods in the store have risen significantly, and the store has encountered difficulties. (Finance)
According to Reuters and other media sources, Apple filed an application with the U.S. Court of Appeals, hoping to overturn the decision made by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) in a patent dispute with Masimo, a medical monitoring technology company, to ban the import of some Apple Watches. Apple told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that the ITC's decision was based on "a series of materially flawed patent decisions," and noted that Masimo had failed to demonstrate that it had invested in the production of competing products in the U.S. to justify the injunction. (Huanqiu.com)
[Ultraman and Apple's former chief designer seek $1 billion in funding for new AI projects, and the widows of Masayoshi Son and Jobs may participate] On April 6, according to market news, OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman and Apple's former chief designer Jonathan Yves are seeking $1 billion in funding for a new undisclosed artificial intelligence project. Altman and Yves are seeking investment from existing OpenAI investors Thrive Capital and Emerson Collective, led by Jobs' widow Lauren Powell Jobs, the report said. The two are also in talks with SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son to fund their upcoming AI equipment business.
On April 5, Johnson & Johnson and Shockwave Medical announced a definitive agreement whereby Johnson & Johnson will acquire all outstanding shares of Shockwave for $335 per share in cash. The total value of the transaction is approximately $13.1 billion, including acquisition cash. The transaction has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies.
[Shell and Saudi Aramco bid for Temasek's Pavilion Energy assets, and it is reported to have entered the price negotiation stage] After completing the due diligence process, Shell and Saudi Aramco have entered the price negotiation stage for the assets of Pavilion Energy, Temasek's liquefied natural gas trading company, according to people familiar with the matter. It is reported that the value of the underlying assets may exceed $2 billion.
Sapiens International, an Israel-based insurance software company with a market capitalization of nearly $2 billion, is exploring various options, including a potential sale, according to people familiar with the matter. It is reported that Sapiens is working with investment bank William Blair to assess potential buyer interest.
[Limited to 62 vehicles worldwide, Maserati Circuit exclusive model MCXtrema "Beast Out"] On April 6, Maserati released the track-exclusive model MCXtrema at Monterey Car Week last year. The MCXtrema is an evolution of the road-going MC20 and is limited to just 62 units worldwide. The 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 "Made-in-Modena" engine makes an eye-watering 730 hp and produces a maximum torque of 730 Nm. Despite being longer and wider than its predecessor, it is more than 11 per cent lighter and with 110 hp more power, it is Maserati's most powerful race car on the track to date, built for racing conditions and helping drivers set new lap records. (IT House)
[Samsung is expected to launch a Galaxy Watch FE smart watch, based on Watch 4] News on April 6, according to foreign media Android Headlines reports, Samsung is about to launch a Galaxy Watch FE smart watch, this new model watch is expected to be based on the current Galaxy Watch 4, model SM-R866F, SM-R866U, SM-R866N (the letters F, U and N at the end of the model They represent the international, American, and Korean versions, respectively). (IT House)
[The total box office in April 2024 will break 1 billion] According to the data of Maoyan Professional Edition, at 12:01 on April 6, the total box office in April 2024 will exceed 1 billion, "What kind of life do you want to live", "Godzilla vs. Kong 2: Rise of the Empire" and "Grass and Trees" are the top three in the April box office list. (Beijing News)
According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, according to the data center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 119 million domestic tourists traveled during the three-day holiday, an increase of 11.5% over the same period in 2019, and domestic tourists spent 53.95 billion yuan, an increase of 12.7% over the same period in 2019. (Xinhua News Agency)
[Report: It is expected that the transaction of idle goods in the mainland is expected to exceed 3 trillion yuan in 2025] On April 6, it was reported that the "2021 China Idle Second-hand Trading Carbon Emission Reduction Report" released by the Institute of Energy, Environment and Economics of Tsinghua University and other institutions showed that the domestic second-hand consumer market has exceeded one trillion yuan in 2020, and it is expected that the transaction of idle goods in the mainland is expected to exceed 3 trillion yuan by 2025. In the increasingly large ranks of idle consumers, young people are beginning to occupy the main position. (Finance Associated Press)
On April 6, Tongcheng Travel released the "2024 Qingming Small and Long Holiday Travel Consumption Report". According to the report, the flower-viewing tour during the Qingming holiday has become a hot spot for consumption, the popularity of outdoor mountaineering continues to rise, and famous Chinese mountains such as Mount Tai and Mount Huangshan have attracted the attention of young tourists. New "Internet celebrity" destinations such as Kaifeng and Tianshui have also ushered in a large number of passengers. Among them, the popularity of Kaifeng tourism increased by more than 3 times year-on-year, and the tourism popularity of Tianshui increased by more than 5 times year-on-year. (Straight Flush Finance)