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Cruz Foam, and pro surfer Zak Noyle, are fighting plastic pollution.

Cruz Foam

More than 100 cities in the US have put ordinances in place restricting or flatly banning the use of disposable styrofoam, especially by restaurants and for shipping food and other products. In the state of California alone, 97 cities or counties have a partial or full ban on single-use styrofoam, with another one slated to take effect in Los Angeles County this May.

Meanwhile, companies that ship or sell fragile goods, food or medical supplies that need to stay cold during shipping still need materials with the lightweight, insulating qualities and manufacturability of styrofoam.

That’s where startup Cruz Foam comes in. Founded in 2017 by CEO John Felts and CTO Marco Rolandi the startup, which employees about 30 full-time today, has created an alternative to expanded polystyrene, better known by its trade name styrofoam.

Cruz Foam is made from naturally occurring materials including chitin (pronounced like “kite-in”) along with starches and fibers diverted from agricultural waste streams. Chitin is a polymer contained in the shells of shrimp and other crustaceans, as well as insect exoskeletons. It’s biodegradable and generally safe for animals to eat.

By contrast, traditional styrofoam is made using heavy chemicals, degrades slowly, and proves harmful when it crumbles and accumulates in our oceans, adding to micro-plastics pollution.

According to wildlife conservation researchers at Fauna & Flora International, when marine life ingests styrofoam it can “cause a range of problems such as digestive obstructions, a false sense of fullness that can lead to starvation, and reduced fertility.” Besides that, styrofoam products are usually treated with flame retardants and can absorb other pollutants from water around them, increasing the threat to any wildlife that eats or lives amid the discarded styrofoam.

Cruz Foam CEO and cofounder John Felts says that he and CTO Marco Rolandi bonded during their graduate studies in materials science over a love of the ocean, surfing and a wish to enjoy nature without causing any harm to it.

Cruz Foam CTO Marco Rolandi and CEO John Felts

Cruz Foam

They based their startup in Santa Cruz, California — a city known for its gorgeous beaches, boardwalk, surf culture and elephant seals, and used the name of the city for their startup.

For about two years, they focused their efforts in the lab on developing a kind of foam from chitin that could serve as the core of a molded surfboard. Chitin was already known as a promising bioplastic, but it was typically used to create bioplastic films and not so much puffy foams, Felts recalls.

As they tinkered and tested, they realized they could make a broader impact on ocean health if they addressed a larger market than surfboards. They shifted their attention to packaging.

Since then, Cruz Foam has developed a foam pellet from natural materials which can be extruded and shaped into a wide range of packaging materials and containers on the same machinery that’s in place in factories making traditional styrofoam products today.

On Wednesday, Cruz Foam formally introduced its new line of shipping products including:

  • A foam and paper wrap that can replace bubble wrap or styrofoam peanuts
  • A foam-padded mailer
  • Foam coolers that can protect and keep fresh and frozen items cold
  • Foam products that protect large items like furniture.

All of its new packaging products are “curbside recyclable,” and compostable, said Felts.

Cruz Foam developed a styrofoam alternative that won’t harm marine life or add to plastic pollution in the ocean.

Cruz Foam

The foam dissolves in a tub of water and can be poured over a lawn or garden to safely add some nitrogen back into the soil, Felts said. And it’s safe if your dog, or your fish, eats any of the foam.

To finance its growth so far, Cruz Foam got $2 million in grants from the National Science Foundation to develop materials and manufacturing processes. The startup has also raised just over $25 million in venture funding from climate tech and science-focused investors including At One Ventures, Ashton Kutcher and his climate fund Sound Waves, Helena Group, Regeneration VC and others.

At One founding partner Tom Chi said that his firm wanted to back companies making a difference to ocean health. They looked into “closed loop plastic recycling,” where companies take back the packaging that they make and recycle it, but the unit economics there don’t work because of the high cost of “reverse logistics and post-consumer material processing.”

Cruz Foam’s approach, Chi said, “solves the problem by using earth-compatible materials in the first place, but does so in a way that can be directly cost-competitive with virgin foam production.”

The startup has just kicked off a partnership with North Carolina-based Atlantic Packaging to bring its sustainable foam products to a wide range of grocers and retailers. And Cruz Foam expects to move into its first phase of high-volume production by mid-year 2023, Felts told CNBC.

When it comes to new products, Felts acknowledged there’s a huge amount of demand out there for disposable insulating coffee cups and takeout containers. But the focus for his company this year will remain on e-commerce, shipping and protecting everything from car parts and medical supplies to meal kits.

The pandemic has juiced e-commerce and shipping demand, Felts said, but many businesses are just now figuring out how to ship items they make or sell directly to homes, rather than to grocers or retailers, and that includes rethinking their packaging end to end.

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Tesla launches refreshed Model Y in China to fend off domestic rivals

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Tesla launches refreshed Model Y in China to fend off domestic rivals

Tesla launched a revamped version of its Model Y in China.

Tesla

Tesla on Friday announced a revamped version of its popular Model Y in China, as the U.S. electric car giant looks to fend off challenges from domestic rivals.

The Model Y will start at 263,500 Chinese yuan ($35,935), with deliveries set to begin in March. That is 5.4% more expensive than the starting price of the previous Model Y.

A spokesperson for Tesla China said that the new Model Y is only open for pre-sale in the Chinese market, rather than being launched globally.

Tesla’s Model Y refresh comes after the auto giant this month reported its first ever annual decline in overall deliveries for 2024.

Elon Musk’s electric vehicle firm is facing heightened competition around the world, from startups and traditional carmakers in Europe. In China, the company continues to face an onslaught of rivals from BYD to newer players like Xpeng and Nio.

Jason Low, principal analyst at Canalys, notes that the Tesla Model Y was the best-selling EV in China in 2024 and that the popularity of the car “remains high.” However, he noted that the competition in the sports utility vehicle (SUV) segment with vehicles priced between 250,000 yuan and 350,000 yuan “has been fierce.”

“Tesla must showcase compelling smart features, particularly a unique but well localized cockpit and services ecosystem,” as well as “effective” semi-autonomous driver assistance features “to ensure its competitiveness in the market,” Low added.

Tesla is offering a number of incentives for customers to buy the Model Y including a five-year 0% interest financing plan.

The new Model Y can accelerate from 0 kilometers per hour to 100 kilometers per hour in 4.3 seconds, Tesla said, exceeding the speed capabilities of the previous vehicle. The Model Y Long Range has a further driving range on a single charge versus its predecessor.

Tesla has not introduced a new model since it began delivering the Cybertruck in late 2023, which starts at nearly $80,000.

Investors have been yearning for a new mass-market model to reinvigorate sales. Tesla has previously hinted that that a new affordable model could be launched in the first half of 2025.

Despite Tesla’s headwinds, the company’s stock is up nearly 70% over the last 12 months, partly due to CEO Musk’s close relationship with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

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World’s biggest chipmaker TSMC posts record 2024 revenue as AI boost continues

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World's biggest chipmaker TSMC posts record 2024 revenue as AI boost continues

The logo for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Sept. 26, 2023.

Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. posted December quarter revenue that topped analyst estimates, as the company continues to get a boost from the AI boom.

The world’s largest chip manufacturer reported fourth-quarter revenue of 868.5 billion New Taiwan dollars ($26.3 billion), according to CNBC calculations, up 38.8% year-on-year.

That beat Refinitiv consensus estimates of 850.1 billion New Taiwan dollars.

For 2024, TSMC’s revenue totaled 2.9 trillion New Taiwan Dollars, its highest annual sales since going public in 1994.

TSMC manufacturers semiconductors for some of the world’s biggest companies, including Apple and Nvidia.

TSMC is seen as the most advanced chipmaker in the world, given its ability to manufacture leading-edge semiconductors. The company has been helped along by the strong demand for AI chips, particularly from Nvidia, as well as ever-improving smartphone semiconductors.

“TSMC has benefited significantly from the strong demand for AI,” Brady Wang, associate director at Counterpoint Research told CNBC.

Wang said “capacity utilization” for TSMC’s 3 nanometer and 5 nanometer processes — the most advanced chips — “has consistently exceeded 100%.”

AI graphics processing units (GPUs), such as those designed by Nvidia, and other artificial intelligence chips are driving this demand, Wang said.

Taiwan-listed shares of TSMC have risen 88% over the last 12 months.

TSMC’s latest sales figures may also give hope to investors that the the demand for artificial intelligence chips and services may continue into 2025.

Foxconn, which assembles Apple’s iPhones, reported its highest-ever fourth quarter revenue this week, as it notched strong demand for AI servers.

Meanwhile, Microsoft this month said that it plans to spend $80 billion in its fiscal year to June on the construction of data centers that can handle artificial intelligence workloads.

CNBC’s Jordan Novet contributed to this report.

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Supreme Court set to hear oral arguments on challenge to TikTok ban

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Supreme Court set to hear oral arguments on challenge to TikTok ban

Tik Tok creators gather before a press conference to voice their opposition to the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” pending crackdown legislation on TikTok in the House of Representatives, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 12, 2024.

Craig Hudson | Reuters

The Supreme Court on Friday will hear oral arguments in the case involving the future of TikTok in the U.S., which could ban the popular app as soon as next week.

The justices will consider whether the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, the law that targets TikTok’s ban and imposes harsh civil penalties for app “entities” that continue to carry the service after Jan.19, violates the U.S. Constitution’s free speech protections.

It’s unclear when the court will hand down a decision, and if China’s ByteDance continues to refuse to divest TikTok to an American company, it faces a complete ban nationwide.

What will change about the user experience?

The roughly 115 million U.S. TikTok monthly active users could face a range of scenarios depending on when the Supreme Court hands down a decision.

If no word comes before the law takes effect on Jan. 19 and the ban goes through, it’s possible that users would still be able to post or engage with the app if they already have it downloaded. However, those users would likely be unable to update or redownload the app after that date, multiple legal experts said.

Thousands of short-form video creators who generate income from TikTok through ad revenue, paid partnerships, merchandise and more will likely need to transition their businesses to other platforms, like YouTube or Instagram.

“Shutting down TikTok, even for a single day, would be a big deal, not just for people who create content on TikTok, but everyone who shares or views content,” said George Wang, a staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute who helped write the institute’s amicus briefs on the case. 

“It sets a really dangerous precedent for how we regulate speech online,” Wang said.

Who supports and opposes the ban?

Dozens of high-profile amicus briefs from organizations, members of Congress and President-elect Donald Trump were filed supporting both the government and ByteDance.

The government, led by Attorney General Merrick Garland, alleges that until ByteDance divests TikTok, the app remains a “powerful tool for espionage” and a “potent weapon for covert influence operations.”

Trump’s brief did not voice support for either side, but it did ask the court to oppose banning the platform and allow him to find a political resolution that allows the service to continue while addressing national security concerns. 

The short-form video app played a notable role in both Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’ presidential campaigns in 2024, and it’s one of the most common news sources for younger voters.

In a September Truth Social post, Trump wrote in all caps Americans who want to save TikTok should vote for him. The post was quoted in his amicus brief. 

What comes next?

It appears TikTok could really get shut down, says Jim Cramer

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