Latest news with #techindustry
Yahoo
31 minutes ago
- Business
- Yahoo
How Israel's startup community is impacted by the Iran conflict
The ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran is creating a disruption of daily life for millions of people. Bessemer Venture Partners managing partner Adam Fisher is in Tel Aviv. He spoke to Market Domination Anchor Josh Lipton about how the conflict is impacting the business community in Israel. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Domination Overtime here. Could Israeli innovation be under fire as escalating tensions between that nation and Iran continue? And what does this conflict mean for the economy, tech industry, and of course, its well-known startup community? Earlier, uh, today, I spoke with Adam Fisher, managing partner at Bessemer Venture Partners with a strong background in early-stage investing in Israel, and he spoke with me from Tel Aviv. I think we've been much more affected by a macro slowdown in in tech spending and and fundraising for for venture funds than any real impact related to the war on tech. Where it has affected companies and people is on just the personal side. Obviously, a lot of people, uh, have been called up for reserve duty at various points over the last 18, 20, 24 months. Uh, there are people who have also been affected, uh, personally in horrible ways. Uh, of course, that is also a relatively small percentage of the overall population that comprises Israel's tech community. If you look at funding, if you look at acquisitions, you look at new startups, honestly, it feels like, uh, we're kind of still at the top. Um, there's nothing that, uh, is visibly, uh, uh, impacted negatively. Um, and I know that sounds like a little bit of a of a strange, um, kind of juxtaposition of of of war and reserves. Uh, but, you know, people, humans, they they they keep going. They move on. They need to, they need to provide for themselves. They've got dreams. Uh, they study, they continue. And, uh, in a strange way, the longer it is, the more we, I wouldn't say get comfortable with it, but we we become accustomed to, um, this is the way it is. We deal with it, and you carry on. You know, Adam, last time we spoke, I remember I asked you about whether there was, in your opinion, a risk that some meaningful number of Israeli founders, entrepreneurs, technologists would leave Israel because of the conflict, because of the war. There would be this, uh, this brain drain. And I remember you told me, Adam, you you didn't see that as a big risk because you said at the time, you know, Israelis just feel more unified than ever, more connected to their country than ever. Is that still your feeling? Absolutely. Uh, even more so. Uh, there's tremendous, uh, solidarity, uh, and patriotism. And also, you know, as strange as that may seem, also, you know, love love for your fellow citizens here. Yes, we have, uh, issues that at times feel like they're tearing the country apart, internal politics, but there's a lot of admiration, uh, for the people who dedicate themselves to defending the country and also building the country from an economic perspective. Uh, although Israel is a place where it produces lots of entrepreneurs and lots of companies, you can't really easily transplant them to another country or city and assume they're going to build the same great company. A lot of the company building relies on local relationships on on understanding how you build a company in Israel. And so I have not seen people relocate except for the usual reasons of being close to the customers of certain sectors. Do you think, Adam, these wars, could they potentially impact what those Israeli founders and entrepreneurs are are curious about? You know, for example, do you think there could be even more interest by Israeli entrepreneurs and technologists in in fields like cybersecurity or defense tech? I can't imagine any more interest than there is right now in cybersecurity. Uh, we're at an all-time high where I'm I'm guessing by something like a third of new startups are in that sector. That may be a bit much. Defense tech has been another area that has grown tremendously, uh, over the last 18 months. However, most the entrepreneurs who are starting those defense tech companies are not coming from from mainstream, uh, tech companies. They're still coming a bit more from the defense sector, the kind of old defense sector. And after this current conflict ends, yes, I assume that that the interest level now will remain high because there's a tremendous demand from various governments and militaries around the world who are seeing, uh, a lot of this being used in action. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Bloomberg
10 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Melinda French Gates Opens Up About Marriage, Tech and Trump
One recent afternoon on the outskirts of Seattle, Melinda French Gates was walking and talking. She was discussing a great many things—including what she feels went wrong with her marriage. In the neighborhood where she bought her first house—on her own and with her own money—she reflected on starting a job as a tech product manager at a small-but-rapidly-growing company called Microsoft. On this episode of The Circuit with Emily Chang, we walk with French Gates as she explains how a few years before she married Bill Gates she purchased that home, a quiet triumph for a single woman in the early 1990s, and everything that came next.
Harvard Business Review
10 hours ago
- Business
- Harvard Business Review
How 6 Companies Approached Digital Transformation
Summary. What exactly is a digital transformation, and how can you lead one successfully? Often guiding a digital transformation requires
Forbes
14 hours ago
- Business
- Forbes
Model Context Protocol provides the the interconnection for AI work.
Persons hand inserting a USB cable charger into a mobile phone AI needs contextual interconnection to work. Model Context Protocol is an open standard developed by the maverick artificial intelligence startup Anthropic. It is designed to allow AI agents to access and interact with external data, application programming interfaces, software tools and services. Rather like some universal two-way USB-C port for AI (a nickname it has embraced), MCP provides a secured and standardized route for AI models to access information and take action. Given this technology's potential, what do software application developers (and the businesspeople using the AI services above them) need to know about MCP? Anthropic open sourced MCP in November 2024 and the company says that the architecture itself is 'straightforward' to use i.e. developers can either expose their data through MCP servers or build AI applications (MCP clients) that connect to these servers. Just as a standard software connector allows different devices to communicate seamlessly, MCP enables AI systems to access and interpret the right context by linking them with a whole range of software services, tools and data sources. Billed as a game-changer for AI integration, MCP is gaining traction among vendors including Microsoft, OpenAI and Google. 'Instead of maintaining separate connectors for each data source, developers can now build against a standard protocol. As the ecosystem matures, AI systems will maintain context as they move between different tools and datasets, replacing today's fragmented integrations with a more sustainable architecture,' detailed Anthropic itself, on the company's technical blog. But that's not all software developers need to know. Why? Because in most software engineering teams, the issue of integration within context remains the biggest barrier to useful AI. According to Facundo Giuliani, solution engineering team manager at enterprise CMS company Storyblok, this integration disconnect is fundamental because context is everything for AI interactions in terms of the way we will want to use AI-based smart automation services today. 'Whether a software team is building a new app, chatbot or ecommerce engine, the model's performance hinges on its ability to understand the user's intent, history, preferences and environment. Traditionally, AI integrations have relied on static prompts to deliver instructions and context. This can be timely and cumbersome, while undermining the scope for accuracy and scalability. MCP changes this,' enthused Giuliani. Instead of relying on scattered prompts, this new technology standard means that software engineers are now able to define and deliver context dynamically, making integrations faster, more accurate and easier to maintain. By decoupling context from prompts and managing it like any other component, developers can, in effect, build their own personal, multi-layered prompt interface. This is said to transform AI from a black box into an integrated part of your an organization's working technology stack. 'One of MCP's big advantages is how well it fits into typical development workflows. Being API-first by design, MCP plugs into existing tools and frameworks with ease, allowing developers to define, update and reuse context programmatically,' explained Giuliani. ' Think of it in the same way as managing code or data. This new layer of control makes AI behavior more predictable and easier to test, debug and scale across environments.' Importantly, he says, MCP also fits naturally into composable and MACH (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, Headless) architectures by treating context as a modular, API-driven component that can be integrated wherever needed. Just like microservices or headless frontends, using this approach means you can compose and embed AI functionality across different layers of the stack without rigid dependencies. The result is greater flexibility and reusability, faster iteration across distributed systems and full scalability. Having worked with this new AI software services layer internally at Storyblok, the team suggest that there is good news to behold. That good news is that users of all technical abilities (okay, software engineers for now, but these technologies inevitably get more and more abstracted over time and moved towards the hands of so-called citizen developers) don't necessarily need to be a machine learning expert to get started with MCP. What's more important is having a solid understanding of APIs, data structures, and typical application architecture. 'To begin, AI engineering teams need to map out the key context components their AI models need to deliver accurate, relevant responses. They then need to ensure these elements are well-structured, consistently maintained and easily accessible across the system. Since MCP is all about providing context effectively, understanding how AI fits into the end users' software product experiences is essential,' said Giuliani. Because MCP is API-driven, teams can start experimenting with context-aware applications using the tools and languages they already know. In Storyblok's experience, most software developers can have a basic integration up and running in under an hour. Once they are up and running, they can then aim to integrate MCP incrementally within existing workflows. They should then test thoroughly to observe how different context signals influence AI behavior. Most importantly, they should treat context as a living part of the AI software system being created and continuously update and refine it based on real user interactions and feedback to maximize effectiveness over time. 'Like any powerful tool, MCP comes with its own set of pitfalls. One of the most common mistakes is a poorly defined context i.e. either too little data or too much irrelevant data. This can result in inconsistent model behavior or bloated integrations. Another mistake is treating MCP as a plug-and-play solution without tailoring it to the specific needs of an application. Context is inherently tied to the business domain in which this technology is used, so it needs to be structured thoughtfully to specific use cases to get the most out of it,' advised Giuliani. Wider support for MCP is seen far and wide. Image and video platform company Cloudinary has announced its Cloudinary Model Context Protocol Server offering this month. The company says that this MCP service allows AI agents and large language models like Base44, Claude, Cursor and others to interact with Cloudinary's image and video APIs and documentation using natural language. The firm promises that this technology will be accessible through its platform for both 'traditional' software developers and AI builders alike. MCP Server is our latest commitment to ensuring software engineers of all kinds have the tools they need to build visual-first experiences and apps, said Tal Lev-Ami, co-founder and CTO, Cloudinary. He suggests that the new era of LLM-powered code generation underscores the importance of open, API-first platforms and tools like MCP. For his money, this is the route to empowering software engineers to build within flexible and trusted frameworks and models. Enterprise data services company Ctera now offers native support for MCP and claims to be the 'first hybrid cloud platform' to embed an MCP Server for secure AI integration into its stack. This allows enterprises to connect LLMs, including assistants like Claude, AI IDEs (e.g. Cursor) and internally developed agents, directly to private data, without compromising security or compliance. CTO of Ctera Aron Brand says that this development is step toward for LLM-based assistants to work seamlessly with an organization's internal data. 'We're giving their teams a secure and intelligent way to enable real-time decisions, faster workflows and new kinds of automation without introducing security and compliance challenges to the business,' said Brand. The industry is in broad agreement of the proposition that MCP is more than just a new standard; it could change how we think about AI and where we are able to 'inject it' into working business applications. With a short-term roadmap focused on enhanced security, richer developer tooling and broader ecosystem support, the consensus is that MCP will continue to inch even closer to becoming a universal standard for AI integration in just the next one to two years.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Tech company Intel slashes thousands of jobs
Published: | Updated: A faltering American tech icon is set to lay off as much as a fifth of its workers next month. Intel — once the dominant chipmaker which powered most PCs — sent an email to employees on Saturday, warning that job cuts are coming to its factories. 'These are difficult actions but essential to meet our affordability challenges and current financial position of the company,' Naga Chandrasekaran, the tech giant's vice president of manufacturing, said in the memo seen by Oregon Live. Chandrasekaran said the company is aiming to slash 15 to 20 percent of its factory workforce in July, a move that could push thousands of Americans into job searches. With Intel employing 109,000 globally, that would mean 16,350 to 21,800 layoffs. It is not clear how many work in US-based factories, and how many American jobs will go. Recently, Intel reported employing more than 20,000 staffers at its plant in Hillsboro, Oregon. The news comes a day after Microsoft said it was cutting thousands of jobs , and two days after Amazon's CEO also announced brutal workforce cuts . Both linked the cuts to AI. This marks the second round of layoffs for the legendary tech company in a year. Last December, Intel slashed 15 percent of its workforce after its stock price dropped by more than 60 percent. The two sets of layoffs are a response to rising pressure from upstart competitors, compounding financial losses, and a declining stock price. For years, Intel had been a dominant force in tech, manufacturing components for computers such as chips and microprocessors. But in recent years, its competitors have made major technological strides. Chipmakers AMD, IBM, TSMC, and NVIDIA have surged past Intel by investing heavily in processors built for artificial intelligence. AI chip deployment has been a weak spot for Intel. Investors have punished the company for its apparent flat-footedness. Intel traded above $68 a share in 2021, but it's currently trading just north of $21. The company reported an $821 million loss in the first quarter of this year. It is also receiving billions of dollars in federal support through the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, which aims to bring militarily critical tech manufacturing back to the US. The company is awaiting the arrival of $6.9 billion in federal grants to support factory builds and growth in Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico, and Ohio. Intel has delayed construction of its Ohio factory until 2030. Jobs jettisoned Some of America's biggest companies have announced sweeping job cuts this year. In May, Walmart — America's largest employer — announced it was cutting 1,500 jobs from its tech operations and e-commerce teams. Procter & Gamble, the owner of Tide detergent and Gillette shaving products, is also undergoing significant cuts. The company said it would eliminate 7,000 positions . Job losses have been even more pronounced in the tech sector, as firms increasingly replace human employees with hyper-intelligent machines. The AI-driven job bloodbath marks a major shift for American workers. For years, mass layoffs were concentrated in US manufacturing plants. Now, they're impacting college-educated, high-to-middle-class earners. Microsoft — one of the leading firms investing in AI — is expected to lay off thousands of employees next month as it shifts resources toward deeper investments. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently said the quiet part out loud : the technology will uproot thousands of Americans from their jobs. 'As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done,' he wrote to his employees in a memo.
