The $10 Billion AI Startup That Thinks It Is an Energy Company
In just ten years, Octopus Energy has gone from being a startup run by a handful of whiz kids, to a successful global business with several thousand employees and a valuation close to $10 billion. Visitors to its bright pink London office include Hollywood stars such as Idris Elba and top-tier politicians like U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.
And earlier this year, it became the largest household energy supplier in Britain, providing green power to more than 7 million consumers in the U.K. and close to 10 million globally.
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Gideon Rabinowitz, director of policy at the Bond network of development organisations, said: "Cutting the UK aid budget while using it to prop up Home Office costs is a reckless repeat of decisions taken by the previous Conservative government. "Diverting £2.2bn of UK aid to cover asylum accommodation in the UK is unsustainable, poor value for money, and comes at the expense of vital development and humanitarian programmes tackling the root causes of poverty, conflict and displacement. "It is essential that we support refugees and asylum seekers in the UK, but the government should not be robbing Peter to pay Paul." Sarah Champion, chair of the International Development Committee, said the government was introducing "savage cuts" to its ODA spending, risking the UK's development priorities and international reputation, while "Home Office raids on the aid budget" had barely reduced. 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