Tech
India’s Adani partners to make hydrogen fueled electric truck
India’s Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL) (ADEL.NS) said on Tuesday that it has signed an agreement with Ashok Leyland (ASOK.NS) and Canada’s Ballard Power (BLDP.TO) to launch a pilot project to develop a hydrogen fuel cell electric truck (FCET) for mining logistics and transportation.
The project led by Adani will have Ballard supply the fuel cell engine, while Indian truck maker Ashok Leyland will provide vehicle and technical support for the project.
The FCET is scheduled to be launched in India in 2023, the flagship company of Adani Group said in a release.
Hydrogen, made by splitting water with an electrical process called electrolysis, can be used as fuel. If the devices that do that, electrolysers, are powered by renewable energy, the product is called green hydrogen.
In the next ten years, the Adani Group – led by Asia’s richest man Gautam Adani – has plans to invest more than $50 billion in green hydrogen and associated ecosystems for a capacity of up to 3 million tons of green hydrogen annually, AEL said.
The Indian government had recently approved an incentive plan of 174.9 billion rupees ($2.11 billion) to promote green hydrogen and had set green hydrogen consumption targets for some industries earlier this month.
Indian companies such as Reliance Industries (RELI.NS), Indian Oil (IOC.NS), NTPC (NTPC.NS), Adani, JSW Energy (JSWE.NS), ReNew Power (RENE.BO) and Acme Solar (ACMO.NS) have big plans for green hydrogen.
Adani has a tie-up with French energy company TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) as part of a deal to form a new green hydrogen project in India.
India plans to go net zero carbon emissions by 2070.
Tech
OpenAI, SoftBank each commit 19bn dollars to Stargate AI data center
OpenAI and Japanese conglomerate SoftBank (9984.T) will each commit $19 billion to fund Stargate, a joint venture to develop data centers for artificial intelligence in the U.S., the Information reported on Wednesday.
The ChatGPT maker will hold a 40% interest in Stargate, and would act as an extension of OpenAI, the report said, citing OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaking to colleagues. His comments imply SoftBank would also have a 40% interest, the report added.
OpenAI and SoftBank did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that OpenAI, SoftBank Group and Oracle (ORCL.N) will unveil Stargate and invest $500 billion over the next four years to help the United States stay ahead of China and other rivals in the global AI race.
Stargate will initially deploy $100 billion and the rest of the funding is expected over the next four years. The project is being led by SoftBank and OpenAI.
Tech
Taiwan’s HTC to sell part of XR unit to Google for 250mn dollars
Taiwan’s HTC (2498.TW) said on Thursday it will sell part of its unit for extended reality (XR) headsets and glasses to Google (GOOGL.O) for $250 million and transfer some of its employees to the U.S. company.
The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of this year, HTC said.
The two companies will also explore further collaboration opportunities, HTC added.
Google said in a separate statement that the deal will accelerate the development of the Android XR platform and strengthen the ecosystem for headsets and glasses.
Lu Chia-te, HTC vice president and general counsel, told reporters the company had granted its intellectual property rights to Google as a non-exclusive license.
“Therefore, this is not a buyout nor an exclusive licence. In the future, HTC will still retain the ability to use, utilise, and even further develop it without any restrictions,” he said.
Tech
Microsoft’s LinkedIn sued for disclosing customer information to train AI models
Microsoft’s (MSFT.O) LinkedIn has been sued by Premium customers who said the business-focused social media platform disclosed their private messages to third parties without permission to train generative artificial intelligence models.
According to a proposed class action filed on Tuesday night on behalf of millions of LinkedIn Premium customers, LinkedIn quietly introduced a privacy setting last August that let users enable or disable the sharing of their personal data.
Customers said LinkedIn then discreetly updated its privacy policy on Sept. 18 to say data could be used to train AI models, and in a “frequently asked questions” hyperlink said opting out “does not affect training that has already taken place.”
This attempt to “cover its tracks” suggests LinkedIn was fully aware it violated customers’ privacy and its promise to use personal data only to support and improve its platform, in order to minimize public scrutiny and legal fallout, the complaint said.
The lawsuit was filed in the San Jose, California, federal court on behalf of LinkedIn Premium customers who sent or received InMail messages, and whose private information was disclosed to third parties for AI training before Sept. 18.
It seeks unspecified damages for breach of contract and violations of California’s unfair competition law, and $1,000 per person for violations of the federal Stored Communications Act.
A lawyer for Prince Harry on Wednesday said the Duke of Sussex had reached a settlement with Rupert Murdoch’s news conglomerate.
LinkedIn said in a statement: “These are false claims with no merit.”
A lawyer for the plaintiffs had no immediate additional comment.
The lawsuit was filed several hours after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a joint venture among Microsoft-backed OpenAI, Oracle (ORCL.N) and SoftBank (9984.T), with a potential $500 billion of investment, to build AI infrastructure in the United States.
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