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Efficient Coding for Cost-Efficient Cloud Savings: How Polar Signals Aids Businesses

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Continuous profiling reared its head in a 2010 Google research paper called: Google-Wide Profiling: A Continuous Profiling Infrastructure for Data Centers. Polar Signals is the main developer behind Parca, a continuous profiling open source project which systematically tracks CPU and memory usage, creating profiles of this data to be queried over time. “Our mission is to make the world’s datacenters ten times as efficient as they are today,” Polar Signals’ founder and CEO Frederic Branczyk told TechCrunch. While cutting costs is one of the main benefits that Polar Signals promises, there are other benefits to the technology too — such as incident response efforts around a DDoS attack, for example, as Polar Signals can provide insights on the attack’s impact and identify which parts of a system are under stress. At the time of writing, Polar Signals claims 11employees with experience at companies including AWS, Meta, Red Hat, and HashiCorp.

“Turnitin Reduces Workforce Following CEO’s Prediction of AI Streamlining”

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Turnitin laid off staff earlier this year, after CEO forecast AI would allow it to cut headcountPeople worry that advances in AI will lead to job losses, but rarely does a company’s CEO openly admit that AI will help to reduce their headcount. TechCrunch learned that Turnitin laid off around 15 people earlier this year, as part of broader organizational changes. Klarna recently announced that its AI Assistant can do the job of 700 workers, shocking the industry. (Klarna later clarified that the customer service workers the AI was replacing were hired from outsourcing firms, not direct employees.) Turnitin confirmed its layoffs in a statement to TechCrunch, but not the headcount:

“Major Accomplishments and Setbacks in the World of Automated Vehicles: Waymo Secures Vital Robotaxi License, Fisker Implements Additional Layoffs, and Hopes for Apple Car Diminish”

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I was in Los Angeles earlier this week where I interviewed Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana on stage at our StrictlyVC LA event. The approval removes the last barrier for the Alphabet company to charge for rides in these expanded areas. Yup, that’s right the Apple ended plans to build and sell an autonomous electric car. Electric vehicles, batteries & chargingXiaomi showed off its first electric car, the SU7, at Mobile World Congress. I’ve taken numerous rides in Waymo robotaxis, but never one in Los Angeles.

Polestar Secures $1 Billion Loan to Ensure Success of EV Plans

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Polestar secured a $950 million loan from a dozen banks, critical funds needed to keep its EV plans moving forward following Volvo’s decision to pull back its financial support of the electric automaker. Polestar, which has cut 10% of jobs since mid-2023, said it plans to make another 15% cut this year. Polestar currently produces the Polestar 2, Polestar 3, which recently started production in China, and the Polestar 4. The company said it has successfully completed test production runs for the Polestar 3 at its factory in South Carolina. The $950 million loan follows Volvo Cars’ decision last month to reduce its 48% holding in Polestar and let parent company Geely take over financial responsibility.

“Rivian Implements Workforce Reduction Amid Increasing Pressure on EV Pricing”

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This is the third round of layoffs for the EV company since July 2022 when Rivian cut 6% of its workforce. On a full-year basis, Rivian reported revenue of $4.4 billion, up from $1.66 billion in 2022. It brought in about $39 million in the fourth quarter and $73 million for the full year from the sale of regulatory credits. On an adjusted basis, it reported a loss of $1.1 billion compared to a $1.5 billion loss in the same year-ago period. “We took significant steps towards driving greater efficiency in 2023 gross profit per vehicle improved by approximately $81,000 when comparing the fourth quarter of 2023 to the fourth quarter 2022,” Scaringe said on an earnings call Wednesday.

Swiggy, the leading Indian company, to reduce 400 job positions before anticipated IPO in 2021

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India’s Swiggy to cut another 400 jobs ahead of IPO later this yearIndian food delivery startup Swiggy is cutting about 400 jobs, or nearly 7% of its workforce, as the startup seeks to bring further improvements to its finances ahead of a planned IPO later this year. This is the second round of layoff at the Bengaluru-headquartered startup, which cut just as many jobs early last year. The move comes as Swiggy attempts to further improve its finances. Though its food delivery business is profitable, the startup is not profitable at a group level. Zomato, Swiggy’s chief rival, became profitable last year.

eBay to eliminate 1,000 jobs due to limited growth potential

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E-commerce company eBay said today that it plans to let go of 1,000 employees or around 9% of its workforce due to the ongoing economic conditions. The company said in a blog post that it also plans to cut contract roles in the coming months. The company’s CEO Jamie Iannone admitted that the company hired fast, but it didn’t grow enough to justify the headcount. In Q3 2023, eBay registered $2.5 billion in revenue and $1.3 billion in profits. The company also earned $2.2 billion by selling its equity in online ad business Adevinta to Permira and Blackstone last year.

Twitch to Terminate 500 More Employees from Its Workforce

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The Amazon-owned livestreaming platform will cut 35% of its staff, or roughly 500 employees, Bloomberg reports, and will announce the reduction as early as this week. Shortly after Twitch co-founder and longtime CEO Emmett Shear handed the reigns to its now-CEO Dan Clancy, the company laid off 400 employees. Twitch faces steep operating costs to support livestream content at such a large scale. In a 2022 blog post, Clancy stated that each high-volume streamer on Twitch costs the company about $1,000 per month, citing Amazon Web Service’s interactive video rates. “Delivering high definition, low latency, always available live video to nearly every corner of the world is expensive,” Clancy wrote.

“Duolingo Embraces AI: Cuts 10% of Contractor Workforce”

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Duolingo is the latest company to cite AI as a reason for job cuts. The company confirmed it cut around 10% of its contractor workforce at the end of 2023, as it turns to AI models like OpenAI’s GPT-4 to streamline content production and translations. “The reason [Duolingo] gave is that AI can come up with content and translations, alternative translations, and pretty much anything else translators did. Duolingo also has its own proprietary AI model, “Birdbrain” that personalizes lesson content. Understandably, both the contractors and Duolingo users were upset by the job cuts, as it adds to the ever-growing fear that AI will replace human workers.

Nuro, a cutting-edge autonomous delivery startup, partners with Foretellix simulation company to optimize R&D expenses.

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Autonomous delivery startup Nuro has struck a deal with safety-focused software company Foretellix to help with virtual testing of its automated driving system, in a bid to cut R&D costs while still pushing the technology forward. The partnership, which the companies are set to announce later Thursday, comes in the wake of a tumultuous stretch for Nuro. Many companies developing automated vehicles have their own simulation software; Foretellix specializes in generating millions of scenarios to test autonomous software, lowering the burden on the in-house teams. Foretellix’s software is able to “automatically analyze” driving logs from Nuro test vehicles and re-run those drives in simulation many times over. This allows Nuro’s automated system to encounter many different versions of a drive without the hardship – and most importantly, time – required to run all those variations in the real world.