A new survey finds employers are embracing a new, more digitized way of working accelerated by the pandemic, while employees fear being left behind.
Why it matters: The realities of COVID-19 compressed years of remote work growth into a matter of months. But the onus is now on executives to support their workforces as the crisis shifts to the new normal.
The New York Fed's index of real-time data reversed again in the last week, with data continuing to show a slow but recovering economy that is having trouble returning to its pre-pandemic strength.
What happened: The index was unexpectedly weaker given solid data on U.S. retail sales and the massive outperformance of the Conference Board's consumer confidence index.
Palantir Technologies today went public at an initial valuation of more than $21 billion, giving investors a chance to buy into one of Silicon Valley's most talked-about tech companies.
Axios Re:Cap dives into Palantir's mission and controversies with company co-founder Joe Lonsdale.
Experts are seeing malicious groups, both foreign and domestic, shift to more advanced campaigns of disinformation than they had in 2016, Nina Jankowicz, disinformation fellow at the Wilson Center, said Wednesday at an Axios virtual event.
Why it matters: The method, called "disinformation laundering," targets false ideas or conspiracy theories that could become legitimized through media or public figures and politicians.
The technology to produce fake video and audio has become sophisticated enough to make doctored or wholly fabricated images and sound impossible for the public to detect, Hany Farid, professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences & School of Information, said Wednesday at an Axios virtual event.
The big picture: Deepfakes, or computer-synthesized images, audio or video, have caused experts to worry about Silicon Valley's ability to meet the challenge of tracking and stopping these AI-generated clips once they become widespread.
Palantir, the big data analytics company co-founded by Peter Thiel, is set to go public today via a direct listing. The NYSE has set a $7.25 per share reference price, although the actual opening price might be much different.
Why it matters: This is one of two direct listings today, alongside Asana, which effectively doubles the number of VC-backed tech companies that have gone public this way — following last year's direct listings by Slack and Spotify.
A number of leading children's brands, including Lego and Sesame Workshop, are among the investors pouring $50 million into BEGiN, the New York startup behind the early-learning program HOMER.
Why it matters: Thus far, HOMER has focused on reading apps, but with the new funding and partnerships, the company says it will expand to a full early-learning program combining digital, physical and in-person experiences, tapping some of its investors for both content and distribution.
A group of energy industry veterans announced Tuesday that they are launching a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) aimed specifically at taking climate tech startups public.
Why it matters: They're self-branding as "the world’s first climate-focused" SPAC to launch.
Perhaps more important than sustained demand, the mortgage financing landscape now is "very different from 2006," Danielle Hale, chief economist for Realtor.com tells Axios.
By the numbers: She cites metrics like the Mortgage Bankers Association's mortgage credit availability index, which found credit supply at its lowest level since March 2014 in August, and well below where it stood in 2006, at "over 800."
Even after reaching all-time high average prices and sales numbers not seen since the height of the 2000s boom, the housing market still has lots of room to run, experts say.
What's happening: There were fears in late 2019 and early this year that price levels had outpaced income growth and become unsustainable — but record-low mortgage rates and promises by the Fed to keep U.S. interest rates at zero through at least 2023 have lit a new fire under the market.
Royal Dutch Shell will shed up to 9,000 jobs as it undergoes a long-term restructuring around climate-friendly energy sources and continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic that has battered the oil industry.
Why it matters: The cuts could amount to over 10% of the company's global workforce, which was 83,000 at the end of 2019.
The U.S. Treasury Department said Tuesday it has closed loans with seven major airlines, and Secretary Steven Mnuchin urged Congress to extend additional aid to the industry to help airlines weather the coronavirus pandemic.
Why it matters: Tens of thousands of workers face layoffs starting Thursday, when an existing federal payroll support program expires. While Democrats and Republicans have voiced support for helping the airline industry, they've been deadlocked in negotiations on a broader package of economic relief.
