Gallagher Group targets Brazil in South American market move
Good morning Caffeinators,
The long weekend is close and we have a whole lot of exciting things cooking here we can’t wait to show you so let’s not waste any time up top and just get straight into your newsy.
Sit back, sip that coffee and enjoy your Caffeine.
Finn & the Caffeine team
Gallagher Group targets Brazil in South American market move: As New Zealand moves to diversify its target markets, it seems Brazil is catching many eyes. Gallagher Group’s animal and land management business is setting up shop in Brazil, tipped to be a major future producer of the world’s red meat supply as Europe’s livestock count shrinks. As Andrea Fox reports for NZ Herald, the division of the Hamilton-headquartered multi-national believes the investment in a direct sales and service supply to Brazilian ranchers and agribusiness will see its South American contribution to total revenue rise from its present 3% to 10% within around four years. Read more.
Business of Tech Podcast: Is Google’s reckoning at hand? This week on the always informative Business Desk podcast, Paul McIntyre, executive editor of Mi3, walks Ben Moore through the anti-competition trials Google is facing around the globe. He sheds light on Google's online advertising dominance, how it manipulated an industry to get there, and the regulatory challenges it's facing as a result. Is this era of Big Tech Ending? Listen here.
Is the US Government too reliant on Elon Musk?: As we like to take a global perspective on Thursdays, would highly recommend reading this deep dive from the Times on the extraordinary power Elon Musk now has over the US Govt and what a Trump victory in two weeks could mean for growing that power. As the author’s write: “Mr. Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, effectively dictates NASA’s rocket launch schedule. The Defense Department relies on him to get most of its satellites to orbit. His companies were promised $3 billion across nearly 100 different contracts last year with 17 federal agencies.” Read more here.
Anthropic’s latest tool can control your computer and act on your behalf: As we discussed in last week’s newsy, AI is going ‘agentic’ and now Anthropic is show us how. As The Financial Times (Via NZ Herald) reports, the company has enabled its artificial intelligence to control actions on a computer, including searching the internet, clicking buttons and inputting text, as companies increasingly seek to leverage the new technology to build virtual agents. The “computer use” feature, unveiled for developers on Tuesday local time, grants access to Claude, its AI model, to conduct actions on users’ behalf, with their consent, “like a human collaborator”, the company said — controlling the mouse and keyboard to browse the internet, schedule calendar appointments, and fill in forms. Frightening and fascinating stuff. Read more here.
Feds clear way for startups to bring flying vehicles to U.S. airspace: The dream of self driving cars is increasingly becoming a reality and now there is at least a small sign the other great transport moonshot could soon arrive: flying cars. As TechCrunch reports, The Federal Aviation Administration published Tuesday its much-anticipated final ruling on the integration of “powered-lift” vehicles, a category the FAA revived two years ago to accommodate eVTOLs and one that describes aircraft that can take off and land like helicopters but then transition to forward flight like airplanes. Sign. me. UP. Read more here.
The great slowdown of China and the ‘casino’ economy: What’s happening in the world’s second largest largest economy and our largest trading partner should interest everyone and much of the news lately has been dire. The Chinese govt is stepping in with an almighty stimulus plan to try and correct course and its setting off a huge stock rally. This piece from the NYT does a great job putting a human face on the situation by interviewing ten Chinese investors who are rushing into a new ‘casino’ economy. But, as one investor says: “It’s even worse than a casino because a casino has rules, while our ‘casino’ has none. Furthermore, the ‘owner’ of this casino can step in and play, and they can see our cards.” Read more here.
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Samsung and Intel are teaming up to take on TSMC: To finish, interesting little report from a Korean newspaper which is the definition of ‘huge if true’. Anyone wanting to understand how geopolitics, advanced tech and the future of AI intersect has to start with understanding the semiconductor, or ‘chips’, industry. The current market leader is TSMC in Taiwan, where over 90% of the world’s advanced computer chips are made. It’s no exaggeration to say if that factory shut down, development of everything from smartphone’s to weapon systems would grind to a halt. It’s one of the reasons tensions around Taiwan are so high, as the single TSMC mega factory based there is one of the most strategically important buildings on Earth. Any move to break up its hold on the market could have huge consequences. Read more.
That’s it for today, thanks for reading. We’ll be back tomorrow morning. Want to get in touch with a news tip, bit of feedback or just to chat? Email hello@caffeinedaily.co.