Private jets have long been lightning rod for climate protesters, who brand them as polluting toys enjoyed by a tiny group of ultra-privileged travelers. For the company behind the popular Dassault Falcon model, banning the aircraft won’t solve the issue, while making them run on alternative fuel could help cut emissions. One benefit of running private jets on so-called sustainable aviation fuel: occupants have the means to pay for it, given that the scarcity of so-called SAF has made the fuel significantly more expensive than standard kerosene, which could also be taxed more. “Clients are wil ..read more

Federal Reserve Governor Philip Jefferson and Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Patrick Harker suggested Wednesday that the central bank could pause rate hikes at its next policy meeting. Jefferson, President Biden’s nominee to be vice chair of the Fed’s Board of Governors, noted that such a decision wouldn’t necessarily mean the Fed was done hiking rates. “A decision to hold our policy rate constant at a coming meeting should not be interpreted to mean that we have reached the peak rate for this cycle,” Jefferson said in a speech at a conference in Washington, DC. “Skipping a rate hike a ..read more

IBM CEO Arvind Krishna announced a hiring pause earlier this month, but that’s not all. He also stated the company plans to replace nearly 8,000 jobs with AI. Krishna noted that back-office functions, specifically in the human resources (HR) sector, will be the first to face these changes. The transition will happen gradually over the next few years, with machines potentially taking over up to 30% of noncustomer-facing roles in the five years. This means that workers in finance, accounting, HR and other areas will likely find themselves facing stiff competition from robots and algorithms ..read more

Global airlines are setting up a task force to deal with non-carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, stepping up efforts to tackle cloudy streaks formed by aircraft known as contrails, an environmental threat that until now has taken a backseat to carbon pollution in the response to global warming. The move comes as the International Air Transport Association (IATA), representing some 300 major airlines, is preparing to discuss the warming effect of contrails for the first time at its annual meeting in Istanbul next week. The streaks are formed in moist atmospheric conditions and are made up of frozen ..read more

Glencore Plc is getting closer to increasing its offer for Teck Resources Ltd., in a move aimed at ending weeks of limbo in the battle over the Canadian miner’s future. The Switzerland-based commodities giant is working on a potential improvement to its bid that could be announced as soon as the coming weeks, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. By raising its offer and ratcheting up shareholder pressure, Glencore is seeking to force Teck to the negotiating table, the people said. The bitter fight that transfixed the minin ..read more

A former product manager for Coinbase Global Inc and his brother agreed to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charges related to insider trading of crypto asset securities, the regulator said on Tuesday. Former Coinbase product manager Ishan Wahi and his brother, Nikhil Wahi, agreed to settle charges that they engaged in a scheme to trade ahead of multiple announcements regarding at least nine crypto asset securities that would be made available on Coinbase’s platform, the SEC said in a statement. Lawyers for the Wahi brothers did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment ..read more

Qualcomm Inc. is betting the future of AI will require more computing power than what the cloud alone can provide. The world’s largest maker of smartphone processors is transitioning from a communications company into an “intelligent edge computing” firm, said Alex Katouzian, a senior vice president at Qualcomm. The edge in question is the mobile device that a user taps to access a network or service, and Katouzian used his time headlining one of the major keynote events at the Computex show in Taipei to make the case for how big a market that will be. The US company’s chips help smartphones h ..read more

Nvidia Corp. became the world’s first chipmaker with a $1 trillion market capitalization, joining the ranks of just five American companies with valuations that high. The stock rose 4.3% in New York trading on Tuesday, gaining a market cap of $1.02 trillion and joining the likes of Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. in trillion-dollar valuations. Fewer than 10 companies globally have ever achieved this level. No other company embodies Wall Street’s current obsession with AI more than Nvidia. It has become the world’s biggest maker of the specialized chips needed to ..read more

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Friday the projected debt ceiling deadline is extended to June 5, four days later than previously estimated. Yet, Yellen renewed her warning in a letter to Congress that inaction on raising the borrowing limit would “cause severe hardship.” Yellen’s latest letter to legislators on the “X-date” came as Congress broke for the long Memorial Day weekend. She said that the Treasury Department had deployed an extraordinary measure not used since 2015 to get the U.S. financial position to this point. The X-date arrives when the government no longer has enough o ..read more

As concerns grow over increasingly powerful artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT, the nation’s financial watchdog says it’s working to ensure that companies follow the law when they’re using AI. Already, automated systems and algorithms help determine credit ratings, loan terms, bank account fees, and other aspects of our financial lives. AI also affects hiring, housing and working conditions. Ben Winters, Senior Counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said a joint statement on enforcement released by federal agencies last month was a positive first step ..read more