The White House “has won a voluntary commitment“ from the automotive industry “that electric vehicles will comprise up to half of U.S. sales by the end of the decade,” according to an Associated Press report.
“The president also sees opportunities to grow jobs if the domestic supply chain is retooled and expanded to produce batteries and fuel cells in American factories. About 70 percent of the world’s electric vehicle batteries are made in China, where most of the raw materials are also mined,” according to Coral Davenport of The New York Times.
Uber Beats Second-Quarter Estimates
Ride-hailing app Uber exceeded second-quarter estimates, but its core business still suffered significant losses.
“Uber beat estimates on the top and bottom line and turned an unexpected one-time profit during the second quarter,” writes Jessica Bursztynsky of CNBC. “Uber reported a net income of $1.1 billion for the quarter. That was largely due to unrealized gains of $1.4 billion in Didi and $471 million in Aurora. Shares of Didi have dropped about 37% over the last month, however, shrinking Uber’s stake in the company by $2 billion last week. Uber’s operating loss was still $1.19 billion.”
One of the world’s most popular video game companies saw its revenue jump, despite legal action and employee dissent.
“Activision Blizzard is raking in the cash even as the fallout over a harassment and discrimination lawsuit threatens its enormous business,” writes Rishi Iyengar of CNN Business. “The gaming company behind hugely popular titles such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush reported revenues of around $2.3 billion for the quarter that ended June 30, a 19% jump from the same period last year and slightly higher than the company’s previous forecast.”
J. Allen Brack, president of the Blizzard Entertainment unit, stepped down this week. He had been mentioned in the lawsuit, according to The New York Times.
Does Surge in Room Bookings Indicate Better Days Ahead for Travel Industry?
An unexpected rise in hotel reservations has led some experts to foresee a brighter future for the travel industry.
“Booking Holdings Inc. reported a better-than-expected surge in room night reservations and expressed optimism that the pace of travel will continue to improve as more people are vaccinated and restrictions are loosened,” writes Monica Greig of Bloomberg News. “In the period ended June 30, the number of room-night reservations jumped 458% to 157 million, the first positive year-over-year growth since before the start of the pandemic, the Norwalk, Connecticut-based company said in a statement.”
Google ‘Teases’ Newest Smart Phone Tech
Google announced its new Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro this week, although some observers are saying it’s more of a tease than a fully-fledged announcement.
“Rather than releasing all the details on its new Android phones, Google is instead putting the focus on the new system on a chip (SoC) that will be inside the new Pixels. It’s called the Tensor SoC, named after the Tensor Processing Units (TPU) Google uses in its data centers,” writes Dieter Bohn in The Verge. “Both versions of the Pixel were glass sandwiches with fit-and-finish that are finally in the same league as what Samsung, Huawei, and Apple have to offer.”
