Alphabet to Invest Additional $5 Billion in Waymo

Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving technology unit, laid off 137 employees in its second round of layoffs this year, the company reported on Wednesday, bringing the total number of layoffs for the year to 8%. As part of the cuts, Waymo has eliminated some engineering roles to “focus on commercial success,” the company said in a statement.

- Waymo is now offering over 100,000 paid robotaxi rides each week in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix. - This milestone was shared by Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana on social media platform X, doubling previous figures. - The fleet consists of hundreds of fully autonomous and electric Jaguar I-Pace vehicles, with 778 robotaxis under deployment in California. - Waymo has expanded its 24/7 service in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and is testing fully autonomous vehicles on freeways. - Despite commercial success, Waymo faces high costs, with parent company Alphabet planning to invest an additional $5 billion. Source: [Techcrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2024/08/20/waymo-is-now-giving-100000-robotaxi-rides-week/)

- Alphabet's Q2 revenue surged 14%, driven by strong advertising growth, indicating AI chatbots like ChatGPT haven't impacted Google's search engine dominance. - Cloud computing revenue saw even stronger growth, reflecting high demand for computing and data services as companies integrate AI. - Alphabet's revenue hit $84.7bn, surpassing analyst expectations, with net income rising 28% to $23.6bn. - CEO Sundar Pichai highlighted ongoing momentum in search and cloud, despite criticism for slow commercialization of AI technology. - Alphabet's stock has risen by nearly a third this year, with significant investments in AI and data centers, though some analysts found the Q2 results less exciting than Q1. Source: FT

- Premji Invest, led by billionaire Azim Premji, may invest $10-$15 million in San Francisco-based AI startup Galileo. - This investment is part of Galileo's Series B funding round, following an $18 million Series A round in November 2022. - Galileo specializes in MLOps, helping data scientists and engineers improve machine learning model accuracy. - This marks Premji Invest's fifth AI investment in the past year, including stakes in Hippocratic AI, Hugging Face, Canva, and Poolside. - Premji Invest aims to build a global portfolio in the wake of the generative AI boom. Source: [Moneycontrol](https://www.moneycontrol.com/technology/premji-invest-may-pump-in-10-15-million-in-san-francisco-based-ai-startup-galileo-article-12814083.html)

- HubSpot shares dropped 12% after reports that Alphabet is no longer pursuing an acquisition. - Bloomberg cited sources saying there were no detailed discussions about due diligence between the companies. - Representatives from both HubSpot and Alphabet did not respond to requests for comment. - Regulatory pushback has affected other tech deals, including Amazon's and Microsoft's recent acquisitions. - HubSpot's rapid growth contrasts with Alphabet's, with HubSpot reporting over 20% revenue growth for the past six quarters.

Atleast not in the form it is now. Found a rare good post on LinkedIn via Twitter which lists the reason why i think so. Also, I was reading psychology of money and one of the chapters discussed how GE used to be the most valued company in 2000s and how within 20 years, everything went to manhole. Google is seriously going through a leadership crisis. I hate Pichai from the gut. We Indians like him coz he's brown munda, but I have never seen such narrow minded CEO since Balmer.

Tight slap to AI nihilists. 👋🏻

Hi Grapeviners, creating a thread where you can post the name of a toxic culture company along with which department. This thread is created as a one stop place to know about Toxic Culture Companies whether it, Early/Seed/Growth Stage/MNC . #community