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How many engineers does it take to make a Dyson headphone? We tour its secret labs to find out

Dyson is known for its consumer gadgets such as vacuum cleaners, hair styling products and air purifiers, but it is now breaking into a new generation of products.

Recently launched devices like its 360 Vis Nav robot vacuum boast “intelligent” features, which require more software development — and the company has ramped up hiring in order to support those functions.

“We’ve really seen a ten-fold increase in our engineers working in software over the last years,” Dyson’s Chief Technology Officer John Churchill said. “We’re hunting for the greatest talent, from graduates of colleges to experienced people, to join us to pivot Dyson into more of a software world.”

The company is trying to hire another 2,000 engineers globally, according to Dyson’s director of upstream robotics, Kashyap Chandrasekar.

“Robotics and software are the largest pools of people we’re trying to hire,” he said.

The Dyson 360 Vis Nav robot vacuum is displayed at the company’s headquarters at St. James Power Station in Singapore in May 2023.

Lauren Choo | CNBC

Another Dyson device that has garnered attention, due to its futuristic look, is the Dyson Zone — headphones that double as a wearable purifier.

While the Zone has been criticized for its $999.99 price tag and bulky appearance, Churchill remained optimistic.

“With new products, we have a high selling price because there’s so much investment in terms of that technology,” he told CNBC in an interview.

“The first generation of products is really the stepping stone, in terms of the journey, and the products are going to continue to evolve.”

When asked about public health and access, Churchill said “We’ll continue to look into how we can bring the cost down to make it available to more people.”

Dyson’s global investment plan

Since its inception in 1991, founder Sir James Dyson has been set on pioneering new technology. Dyson started in the United Kingdom, before launching into Australian, European, American and Asian markets.

While Dyson faced headwinds like rising costs and chip shortages like many other consumer technology companies, the privately owned company reported £6.5 billion ($8.15 billion) in revenue for 2022, up from £6 billion the year before.

The company currently has a £2.75 billion investment plan divided across Singapore, the U.K. and the Philippines. The company already has research and development focused campuses in U.K., Malaysia and Shanghai — and is now investing £166 million in a new tech campus in Batangas, Philippines.

Dyson’s Singapore Headquarters at the St. James Power Station.

Lauren Choo | CNBC

A key part of Dyson’s global investment scheme is the 247,000-square-feet battery plant in Singapore. The company has estimated it will be up and running by 2025.

“Our new battery factory allows Dyson to have a much longer-term view because they’re supported by a very clear strategy from the government to allow us to make big investments, with the confidence that they’re going to be supported,” Churchill explained.

Singapore in focus

Dyson’s decision to build their battery plant in Singapore comes after the company relocated its global headquarters to the city-state from the U.K. The company was criticized for that 2019 decision, partly due to founder Sir James Dyson’s vocal support for Brexit.

Out of 14,000 employees globally, 1,400 are based in Singapore, including 600 engineers.

“If we’re going to have a manufacturing footprint in this part of the world, you need engineers to be closely located,” Chandrasekar said. “It does help that there’s a fair amount of government push as well in the field of robotics. There’s plenty of initiatives. There’s a lot of capable research groups. All this lends itself well to build a talent pool that can support this.”

Churchill added that Dyson sees itself as a global technology brand, rather than a purely British one.

“We want to really understand some of those cultures and diversities that will inspire us to create new ideas, to solve problems that are relevant to people in different countries.”

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Micron shares jump on earnings beat, rosy guidance as data center revenue triples

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Micron shares jump on earnings beat, rosy guidance as data center revenue triples

Signage outside the Micron offices in San Jose, California, on Dec. 17, 2024.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Micron shares popped 6% in extended trading Thursday after the company reported second-quarter results that beat analysts’ estimates and offered better-than-expected guidance.

Here’s how the company did:

  • Earnings per share: $1.56, adjusted vs. $1.42 expected by LSEG
  • Revenue: $8.05 billion vs. $7.89 billion expected by LSEG

Revenue increased 38% from $5.82 billion during the same period in 2024, Micron said in a press release. The memory and storage solutions company reported net income of $1.58 billion, or $1.41 per share, up from $793 million, or 71 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Data center revenue tripled, the company said.

Revenue for the fiscal third quarter will be about $8.8 billion, Micron said, topping the $8.5 billion average analyst estimate, according to LSEG. Adjusted earnings will be roughly $1.57 a share, the company said, beating the $1.47 average estimate.

Prior to Thursday’s close, Micron shares were up 22% for the year, while the Nasdaq is down more than 8%.

Micron will host its quarterly call with investors at 4:30 p.m. ET.

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BlackRock’s head of digital assets says staking could be a ‘huge step change’ for ether ETFs

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BlackRock’s head of digital assets says staking could be a ‘huge step change’ for ether ETFs

Omar Marques | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Appetite for ether ETFs has been tepid since their launch last July, but that could change if some of the regulatory wrinkles holding them back get “resolved,” according to Robert Mitchnick, head of digital assets at BlackRock.

There’s a widely held view that the success of ether ETFs has been “meh” compared to the explosive growth in funds tracking bitcoin, Mitchnick said at the Digital Asset Summit in New York City Thursday. Though he sees that as a “misconception,” he acknowledged that the inability to earn a staking yield on the funds is likely one thing holding them back.

“There’s obviously a next phase in the potential evolution of [ether ETFs],” he said. “An ETF, it’s turned out, has been a really, really compelling vehicle through which to hold bitcoin for lots of different investor types. There’s no question it’s less perfect for ETH today without staking. A staking yield is a meaningful part of how you can generate investment return in this space, and all the [ether] ETFs at launch did not have staking.”

Staking is a way for investors to earn passive yield on their cryptocurrency holdings by locking tokens up on the network for a period of time. It allows investors to put their crypto to work if they’re not planning to sell it anytime soon.

But Mitchnick doesn’t expect a simple fix.

“It’s not a particularly easy problem,” he explained. “It’s not as simple as … a new administration just green-lighting something and then boom, we’re all good, off to the races. There are a lot of fairly complex challenges that have to be figured out, but if that can get figured out, then it’s going to be sort of a step change upward in terms of what we see the activity around those products is.”

The Securities and Exchange Commission has historically viewed some staking services as potential unregistered securities offerings under the Howey Test – which is used to determine whether an asset is an investment contract and therefore, a security. But a more crypto friendly SEC is moving swiftly to reverse the damage done to the industry under the previous regime. Its newly formed crypto task force is scheduled to kick off a roundtable series Friday focused on defining the security status of digital assets.

Ether has been one of the most beaten up cryptocurrencies in recent months. It’s down more than 40% year to date as it has struggled with conflicting and difficult-to-comprehend narratives, weaker revenue since its last big technical upgrade and increasing competition from Solana. Standard Chartered this week slashed its price target on the coin by more than half.

Mitchnick said the negativity is “overdone.”

“ETH … at the second grade level is easier to define … but at the 10th grade level is a lot harder,” he said. “Second grade level: it’s a technology innovation story. … Beyond that, it does get a little more vast, a little more complicated. It’s about being a bet on blockchain adoption and innovation. That’s part of the thesis as we communicate it to clients.”

“There are three [use cases] that we focus on that have a lot of resonance with our client base: it’s a bet to some extent on tokenization, on stablecoin adoption, and on decentralized financing,” he added. “It does take a fair bit of education, and we’ve been on that journey, but it’s going to take more time.”

BlackRock is the issuer of the iShares Ethereum Trust ETF. It also has a tokenized money market fund, known as BUIDL, which it initially launched a year ago on Ethereum and has since expanded to several other networks including Aptos and Polygon.

Don’t miss these cryptocurrency insights from CNBC Pro:

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Tesla to recall 46,000 Cybertrucks, citing exterior panel that can increase ‘risk of crash’

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Tesla to recall 46,000 Cybertrucks, citing exterior panel that can increase 'risk of crash'

A Tesla Cybertruck is parked in front of the White House in Washington, U.S., March 11, 2025. 

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

Tesla is recalling more than 46,000 of its Cybertrucks due to a cosmetic exterior trim panel that it said can “delaminate and detach from the vehicle,” potentially becoming a road hazard and “increasing the risk of a crash.”

The recall covers an exterior part of the vehicle, known as a cant rail, and it will affect all Cybertruck vehicles manufactured from November 2023 to February 2025, Tesla wrote in a filing to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The Cybertrucks’ recall comes at an already-challenging time for the embattled EV maker, whose value has dropped by more than 40% as CEO Elon Musk continues his role as a top advisor in the Trump administration.

Owners of affected vehicles can take their Cybertrucks to Tesla’s service department for free replacement of the cant rail, the company wrote in its filing.

Both Tesla and The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Following the recall filing, The Information reported that the company plans to introduce a new innovation to the Cybertruck’s battery this year that would “sharply decrease battery manufacturing costs,” citing a senior executive.

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