Toyota's second-quarter US auto sales rise 7.2%
The Japanese automaker's sales rose 7.2 per cent to 666,469 units, from a year ago.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNA
an hour ago
- CNA
Meta to share AI infrastructure costs via $2 billion asset sale
Meta Platforms is pressing ahead with efforts to bring in outside partners to help fund the massive infrastructure needed to power artificial intelligence, disclosing plans in a filing on Thursday to offload $2 billion in data center assets as part of that strategy. The strategy reflects a broader shift among tech giants — long known for self-funding growth — as they grapple with the soaring cost of building and powering data centers to support generative AI. The social media giant said earlier this week that it was exploring ways to work with financial partners to co-develop data centers to help finance its massive capital outlay for next year. 'We're exploring ways to work with financial partners to co-develop data centers,' Meta Chief Finance Officer Susan Li said on a post-earnings conference call on Wednesday. While the company still expects to fund much of its capital spending internally, some projects could attract 'significant external financing' and offer more flexibility if infrastructure needs shift over time, Li said. The company did not have any finalized transactions to announce, she said. The disclosure in Meta's quarterly filing, however, signals that plans are firming up. In its quarterly filing on Thursday, Meta said it had approved a plan in June to dispose of certain data center assets and reclassified $2.04 billion worth of land and construction-in-progress as "held-for-sale". These assets were expected to be contributed to a third party within the next twelve months for co-developing data centers. Meta did not record a loss on the reclassification, which values the assets at the lower of their carrying amounts or fair value less costs to sell. As of June 30, total held-for-sale assets stood at $3.26 billion, according to the filing. Meta declined to comment for this story. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has laid out plans to invest hundreds of billions of dollars into constructing AI data center 'superclusters' for superintelligence. 'Just one of these covers a significant part of the footprint of Manhattan,' he said. The Instagram and WhatsApp owner on Wednesday raised the bottom end of its annual capital expenditures forecast by $2 billion, to $66 billion to $72 billion.
CNA
an hour ago
- CNA
Kugler Resigns From Fed, Opening Door to Trump Appointment
WASHINGTON: Federal Reserve Governor Adriana Kugler will step down from her post on Aug 8, the US central bank said Friday (Aug 1), creating a vacancy that could allow President Donald Trump to begin reshaping the Fed's leadership amid tensions over interest rate policy. Kugler, who joined the Fed in September 2023, was originally set to serve until January 2026. The central bank said she will return to Georgetown University as a professor next autumn. Kugler did not attend this week's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, a move Fed watchers described as unusual. The central bank did not provide further comment on her early exit. Her resignation comes as Fed Chair Jerome Powell's term nears its May 2026 end. Trump, who has long criticized Powell and the Fed for maintaining high interest rates, has threatened to remove Powell and could use Kugler's vacancy to elevate a preferred candidate. Trump will now nominate a new governor to serve the remainder of Kugler's term. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on who might be chosen. In a resignation letter to Trump, Kugler said: 'I am proud to have tackled this role with integrity, a strong commitment to serving the public, and with a data-driven approach strongly based on my expertise in labor markets and inflation.' Kugler's tenure was marked by the Fed's efforts to bring inflation under control through aggressive rate hikes. While inflation has recently moved closer to the Fed's 2% target, the central bank's high rates have become a source of political friction. At its latest meeting this week, the Fed left interest rates unchanged at 4.25% to 4.5%, opting to observe the economic effects of Trump's sweeping tariff increases before adjusting policy. Two FOMC members dissented, urging an immediate rate cut due to rising risks to the labor market and the belief that tariff-driven inflation would be temporary.
CNA
2 hours ago
- CNA
US securities regulator announces AI task force
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Friday that it is creating an artificial intelligence task force to lead the agency's efforts to "enhance innovation and efficiency" in its operations. Valerie Szczepanik, who has been named the SEC's chief AI officer, will lead the task force, the regulator said in a statement.
