U.S. President Joe Biden is applauded as he holds the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act during a signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, June 17, 2021.
Carlos Barria | Reuters
Big tech companies will observe Juneteenth by offering education resources during the week of the newly official U.S. holiday.
President Joe Bidensigned a bill to make Juneteenth a federal holiday on Thursday afternoon. The holiday, which lands on June 19 every year, commemorates the ending of slavery in the U.S.
“Juneteenth is not just about Black History—it is American history” and a “complex” one, said Tiffany Bowden, program manager on Amazon‘s Global Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion team, in a company Juneteenth blog post. Bowden holds a Ph.D. in communications with a specialization in diversity and inclusion.
“While rejoicing in progress, we must continue to educate ourselves about our history to help guide our future,” the Amazon blog stated. “We honor those who fought, endured, and continue to persevere in the fight for equality. We celebrate with the awareness that advocacy is still necessary in America’s pursuit of equality and, ultimately, equity.”
‘No meetings’
To commemorate Juneteenth, Google has “instituted a no meetings day” on Friday June 18, and is “encouraging all Googlers to use this day for celebration, learning and reflection,” according to a spokesperson.
Facebook said its workers can use one of their paid “Personal Choice Days” if they want to celebrate the holiday. Employees can also participate in “a day of discussions” with known activists and public figures, including Henry Louis Gates and Tina Knowles-Lawson “who will share perspectives on the history and significance of Juneteenth.”
“A lot of meetings have been canceled so folks can go to that,” a Facebook spokesperson added.
Apple said it recognizes Juneteenth as a company holiday in the U.S. and gives employees the day off to observe on Friday, June 18. Apple Retail and AppleCare will remain open to support customers. The company said employees can participate in weeklong events that are “designed to educate, build community, and celebrate.”
Black storytelling and education
Companies will also provide educational material on racial injustice to employees.
“Our approach is not to offer a vacation day; but instead use this day to create time and space for employees to better understand critical topics related to race, ethnicity and racial injustice,” saidLindsay-Rae McIntyre, Microsoft’s chief diversity officer. “Recognizing this day with intention allows us to stay connected to the many challenges unresolved, violence unaddressed, and inequities unchanged for the Black and African American community worldwide.”
Microsoft did not specify what learning programs will be offered.
Google said it’s going to host a two-hour event “spotlighting Black music history and storytelling” including a conversation and performance by Erykah Badu.
Amazon’s programming includes educational panels regarding the origins and importance of Juneteenth, remarks from Black history experts, and a performance and Q&A with African American New York dance studio the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Facebook said it will feature a video by businesswoman (and mother to Beyonce) Tina Knowles-Lawson and a “Lift Black Voices Hub” that includes a curated mix of fundraisers, educational resources and “content that showcases how communities are reimagining Black freedom on Facebook platforms every day.”
Amazon will sponsor an inaugural celebration called Juneteenth Unityfest. Its bookstore will highlight a selection of books that show the history of Juneteenth in a feature called “Celebrate Juneteenth.” It also said Prime Video has a curated selection of movies and series to acknowledge and honor Juneteenth.
Watch now: President Biden signs Juneteenth National Independence Day Act
Bluesky has surged in popularity since the presidential election earlier this month, suddenly becoming a competitor to Elon Musk’s X and Meta’s Threads. But CEO Jay Graber has some cautionary words for potential acquirers: Bluesky is “billionaire proof.”
In an interview on Thursday with CNBC’s “Money Movers,” Graber said Bluesky’s open design is intended to give users the option of leaving the service with all of their followers, which could thwart potential acquisition efforts.
“The billionaire proof is in the way everything is designed, and so if someone bought or if the Bluesky company went down, everything is open source,” Graber said. “What happened to Twitter couldn’t happen to us in the same ways, because you would always have the option to immediately move without having to start over.”
Graber was referring to the way millions of users left Twitter, now X, after Musk purchased the company in 2022. Bluesky now has over 21 million users, still dwarfed by X and Threads, which Facebook’s parent debuted in July 2023.
X and Meta didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Threads has roughly 275 million monthly users, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in October. Although Musk said in May that X has 600 million monthly users, market intelligence firm Sensor Tower estimates 318 million monthly users as of October.
Bluesky was created in 2019 as an internal Twitter project during Jack Dorsey’s second stint as CEO, and became an independent public benefit corporation in 2022. In May of this year, Dorsey said he is no longer a member of Bluesky’s board.
“In 2019, Jack had a vision for something better for social media, and so that’s why he chose me to build this, and we’re really thankful for him for setting this up, and we’ve continued to carry this out,” said Graber, who previously founded Happening, a social network focused on events. “We’re building an open-source social network that anyone can take into their own hands and build on, and it’s something that is radically different from anything that’s been done in social media before. Nobody’s been this open, this transparent and put this much control in the users hands.”
Part of Bluesky’s business plan involves offering subscriptions that would let users access special features, Graber noted. She also said that Bluesky will add more services for third-party coders as part of the startup’s “developer ecosystem.”
Graber said Bluesky has ruled out the possibility of letting advertisers send algorithmically recommended ads to users.
“There’s a lot on the road map, and I’ll tell you what we’re not going to do for monetization,” Graber said. “We’re not going to build an algorithm that just shoves ads at you, locking users in. That’s not our model.”
Bluesky has previously experienced major growth spurts. In September, it added 2 million users following X’s suspension in Brazil over content moderation policy violations in the country and related legal matters.
In October, Bluesky announced that it raised $15 million in a funding round led by Blockchain Capital. The company has raised a total of $36 million, according to Pitchbook.
Alphabet shares slid 6% Thursday, following news that the Department of Justice is calling for Google to divest its Chrome browser to put an end to its search monopoly.
The proposed break-up would, according to the DOJ in its Wednesday filing, “permanently stop Google’s control of this critical search access point and allow rival search engines the ability to access the browser that for many users is a gateway to the internet.”
This development is the latest in a years-long, bipartisan antitrust case that found in an August ruling that the search giant held an illegal monopoly in both search and text advertising, violating Section 2 of the Sherman Act.
The potential break-up would include preventing Google from entering into exclusionary agreements with competitors like Apple and Samsung, part of a set of remedies that would last 10 years.
POLAND – 2024/11/13: In this photo illustration, the NVIDIA company logo is seen displayed on a smartphone screen. (Photo Illustration by Piotr Swat/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Nvidia shares dropped in U.S. premarket trading Thursday after the tech giant’s third-quarter earnings failed to impress investors.
Shares of the chipmaker slumped 3.21% at around 5:03 a.m. ET, following the Wednesday release of Nvidia’s quarterly results, which beat on both the top and bottom lines.
Revenue came in at $35.08 billion, up 94% year-on-year and exceeding the $33.16 billion forecast by LSEG analysts. Earnings per share was 81 cents adjusted, also above analyst expectations.
Other chipmakers fell on the back of the market reaction to Nvidia’s third-quarter results. Shares of Intel, Qualcomm and Micron Technology all lost 1% or more in value, while AMD declined 0.6%.
The slump in Nvidia also had a knock-on effect on European semiconductor firms. ASML, a key chip equipment supplier, dropped 0.9%, while compatriot Dutch chip firm ASMI fell 0.5%. Chipmakers BE Semiconductor, STMicroelectronics and Infineon slipped 0.8%, 0.7 and 0.6%, respectively.
Several notable chip names were also in negative territory in Asia. TSMC, which makes Nvidia’s high-performance graphics processing units, eased as much as 1.5%. Contract electronics manufacturer Foxconn dropped 1.9%.
Why are Nvidia shares falling?
Nvidia has largely cornered the market for the high-powered chips powering the world’s most advanced artificial intelligence models, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Despite nearly doubling sales year-on-year, Nvidia’s third-quarter results showed a slowdown from previous quarters. Nvidia previously reported growth of 122% in the second quarter, 262% in the first quarter, and 265% in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Derren Nathan, head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown, said in emailed comments Wednesday that the dip in Nvidia’s share price “suggests even outstanding isn’t enough for some investors,” adding that he expects the stock to bounce back once markets open.
“NVIDIA’s generated stellar gains for shareholders over many years now, and right now it’s pretty hard to see any major holes in the investment case,” Nathan added.
Analysts are looking ahead to the much-anticipated launch of Nvidia’s next-generation chip called Blackwell. On the firm’s earnings call, CEO Jensen Huang said that demand for the chip is exceeding supply.
