Latest news with #SBA
Gizmodo
a day ago
- Business
- Gizmodo
Elon Musk-Founded Brain Implant Startup Says It's a ‘Disadvantaged' Business Despite Being Worth $9 Billion
Elon Musk, the rightwing culture warrior waging a 'civilization-saving' battle against the 'woke mind virus,' apparently isn't above taking advantage of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs when it serves his business purposes. Neuralink, the $9 billion brain implant startup that Musk founded, recently characterized itself as a 'small disadvantaged business' in a federal filing with the Small Business Administration. The SBA website notes that Neuralink attested in its filings that it is a 'Self-Certified Small Disadvantaged Business.' According to the SBA, businesses can qualify for this designation if the company is '51% or more owned and controlled by one or more disadvantaged persons.' The firm must also 'be small, according to SBA's size standards,' the site states. According to the code of federal regulations, socially disadvantaged people are defined thusly: …those who have been subjected to racial or ethnic prejudice or cultural bias within American society because of their identities as members of groups and without regard to their individual qualities. The social disadvantage must stem from circumstances beyond their control. The filing was first spotted by MuskWatch, a Substack focused on the Tesla billionaire, which accuses the company of having 'falsified federal forms.' MuskWatch published an excerpt from a form that it said was filed by Neuralink on April 24, in which the company checked the box affirming that it is a small disadvantaged business as defined in the code. The blog points out that the SDB designation can also only be legally claimed by companies owned by 'economically disadvantaged individuals,' and that federal regulations state that 'individuals with a net worth exceeding $850,000, excluding the value of their primary residence,' do not qualify as 'economically disadvantaged individuals.' Musk is obviously worth a lot more than that. It is certainly difficult to understand what disadvantaged group Neuralink could claim maintains ownership over the company. The structure of Neuralink's ownership isn't publicly available, but Musk held a majority stake in the company in 2019. The startup has since engaged in raising more funds, but primarily from Silicon Valley's lily white venture capital community. Gizmodo reached out to the firm for more information. The news is amusing and infuriating because two of the things Musk enjoys whining about most are the societal scourge of DEI and people who ask for help from the government. Now, his own company appears to be claiming it should get a federal handout because it is socially and economically disadvantaged. Of course, federal handouts have been the lifeblood of Tesla and SpaceX for many years. Since it was founded in 2016, Neuralink has sought to use neural implants and experimental science to usher in a new era of computer-to-brain interfacing. The startup received FDA approval for human clinical trials in May of 2023. Last year, the company streamed an interview with a quadriplegic who used Neuralink's brain implant to play video games. Prior to human testing, Neuralink trialed its implants on animals. While many of those test subjects are still alive today, many ended up getting euthanized. Some, allegedly, died quite horribly, leading to accusations of 'grotesque' animal abuse and a lawsuit from a physicians' group.
Time of India
3 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
How Elon Musk's Neuralink calling itself ‘small disadvantaged business' may be a ‘problem' for the brain chip company
Elon Musk 's health tech startup Neuralink has labelled itself as a "small disadvantaged business.' This comes shortly before a financing round valued the company at $9 billion. Despite being owned by the richest man in the world, the brain chip implant company said this in a federal filing with the US Small Business Administration (SBA) earlier this year. This designation is typically given to businesses that are at least 51% owned and controlled by certain disadvantaged individuals. The Department of Justice has previously issued fines to companies for making false claims about their Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB) status, a NBC report claims, underscoring the serious nature of such declarations. However, no public record of Neuralink winning government contracts using this status has been found. Nuralink's SDB filing in April was first reported by the Substack-based news site MuskWatch. Which companies according to SBA can get an SDB status As per the SBA's website, an SDB designation indicates that a company is at least 51% owned and operated by one or more individuals who are both 'socially disadvantaged and economically disadvantaged.' The website also notes that holding an SDB designation may allow a business to 'gain preferential access to federal procurement opportunities." The SBA allows companies to self-certify this status. Despite Neuralink's net value and Musk being a majority owner, the company checked the SDB box, the report claims. The filing listed Jared Birchall , a company executive and head of Musk's family office, as the official contact. Birchall has yet to share a officla comment on the same, the report adds. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like American Investor Warren Buffett Recommends: 5 Books For Turning Your Life Around Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List Undo Neuralink is developing a brain-computer interface to help people with severe paralysis control devices using brain signals. The company recently raised $650 million at a $9 billion valuation, with backing from investors like ARK Invest and Founders Fund. The funding will support expanding patient access and creating new devices to strengthen the link between humans and AI. Boat Smart Ring Active Plus: DON'T BUY A SMARTWATCH AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Elon Musk's brain implant startup Neuralink called itself a 'small disadvantaged business' to the federal government
Elon Musk's Neuralink may have been recently valued at a reported $9 billion, but that did not stop the company from claiming a special designation as a 'small disadvantaged business' with the government. The self-designation is meant for companies majority-owned by someone belonging to a socially or economically disadvantaged group and can only be granted to business owners with a net worth of less than $850,000, excluding home equity. Despite being owned by the richest man in the world, Elon Musk's brain implant startup Neuralink identified itself as a 'small disadvantaged business' with the federal government. While Musk's DOGE was busy purging government diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, his company was claiming a special designation meant for companies that are 'unconditionally and directly' majority-owned by someone belonging to a socially or economically disadvantaged group, MuskWatch first reported. The designation also requires that the owners of such companies be 'economically disadvantaged individuals.' The company's profile on the Small Business Administration website currently lists Neuralink as a 'Self-Certified Small Disadvantaged Business.' Neuralink and the Small Business Administration did not immediately respond to Fortune's request for comment. The SBA defines 'economically disadvantaged individuals' as 'socially disadvantaged individuals whose ability to compete in the free enterprise system has been impaired due to diminished capital and credit opportunities as compared to others in the same or similar line of business who are not socially disadvantaged.' Any person with a net worth of more than $850,000, not including their home equity, also does not qualify. Although as a private company, Neuralink's ownership structure is not publicly available, Musk's $364 billion net worth would clearly disqualify Neuralink from consideration for the SDB designation. In June, Neuralink also announced $650 million in fresh funding that reportedly valued the company at $9 billion, according to Semafor. The federal government has since 1988 granted contracts to small disadvantaged businesses in an effort to spur job creation and reduce historical inequities. Under the Business Opportunity Development Reform Act of 1988, Congress declared 'not less than 5 percent of the total value of all prime contract and subcontract awards for each fiscal year,' be awarded to small disadvantaged businesses. There is no evidence Neuralink received any disbursements from the federal government under this designation. Still, the Justice Department has previously sought to prosecute those who claimed false special designations with the government. In 2023, the owner of an investment properties company falsely claimed to be a 'service-disabled veteran owned small business' in SAM, the official website for companies conducting business with the federal government. The owner, who never served in the military, used the designation to claim two Department of Defense contracts worth more than $1.9 million. He later pleaded guilty to wire fraud and was forced to pay $72,000 in restitution and a $10,000 fine, and serve 15 months in prison. This story was originally featured on
New York Post
3 days ago
- Business
- New York Post
The Biden administration secretly stole your data to engineer elections and silence speech
While the Department of Government Efficiency traces the flow of dollars between government and partisan activists, the flow of data may reveal an even deeper menace. The real story of government weaponization can only be told once we reckon with the shadowy data-sharing web secretly used to manipulate elections, punish foes and silence speech — which my new book, 'They're Coming for You,' dares to expose. Without the constitutional authority to collect our financial transactions, our browsing histories or our location data, the Biden administration found a workaround. Federal agencies outsourced unconstitutional data grabs to politically aligned partners. Instead of collecting data directly, they bought or sold it from or exchanged it with nonprofits and tech companies. 5 Author Jason Chaffetz was a House Oversight Committee chairman. Reuters My book exposes three critical fronts where this abuse thrived: election interference, citizen surveillance and the erosion of free speech. The silent manipulation of voters through our data demands urgent scrutiny to protect future elections. While DOGE's budget probes grab headlines, the real scandal is deeper. A Biden executive order forced every federal agency to conduct ostensibly nonpartisan voter-registration drives. Yet the implementation often told a different story. 5 Book The Small Business Administration, for instance, diverted its limited resources toward partisan voter outreach. The agency proactively contacted states, particularly swing states like Arizona and Georgia, to request designations as voter-registration entities, though federal law requires states to make the first move under the National Voter Registration Act. Emails obtained via Freedom of Information Act requests reveal the SBA's focus on liberal voting blocs, including promoting events likely to register Democratic-leaning voters in blue precincts. 'How many events have you run to open small businesses in non-Democratic areas?' one lawmaker asked SBA Associate Administrator for Field Operations Jennifer Kim during a 2024 hearing. Kim didn't answer directly but assured the committee politics played no role in the agency's outreach — a claim the efforts' documented partisan skew contradicts. 5 The Small Business Administration's Jennifer Kim faced questions of agency bias at a 2024 House hearing. YouTube This wasn't random. It was a calculated use of our information, supported by partisan allies, to evade transparency. The result? A voter base quietly reshaped, funded by us but hidden from view. This breach of trust — turning our data into a political tool — undermines democracy itself. My book uncovers this network, revealing how agencies and partners weaponized government services without our knowledge. Voter manipulation is just the opening salvo. The Biden administration unleashed warrantless surveillance to silence dissenters, pressuring financial institutions to flag 'suspicious' transactions and debank opposing voices. This effort ultimately targeted Christian nonprofits, gun makers, conservative protesters — even Melania and Barron Trump — closing their accounts without cause. By buying and sharing information with activist nongovernmental organizations and corporations, financial regulators dodged legal restrictions on government data collection. 5 If this data weaponization goes unchecked, Chaffetz warns, it won't end with the Biden administration. AP This financial chokehold is just the start. President Biden's administration also expanded the National Security Agency's warrantless-surveillance programs to collect bulk data, including phone metadata, browsing histories and emails, bypassing Congress and public transparency. This data net muzzles your voice. Social-media giants Facebook, YouTube and pre-Elon Musk Twitter faced pressure, with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency flagging 859 million tweets as 'misinformation' in 2023, burying 22 million. Among those, many truthful but politically inconvenient facts were buried under labels such as 'Trends blacklist' and 'Do not amplify.' 5 A White House dissent crackdown ensnared Melania and Barron Trump. Getty Images NewsGuard and the Global Disinformation Index, each with documented Biden-adminsitration ties, amplified this bias by assigning conservative outlets disproportionately low reliability ratings. The Federalist, for example, received a NewsGuard failing score of 12.5 out of 100, allegedly for publishing content deemed objectionable to Democrats rather than for spreading inaccurate information. This harsh rating caused advertisers to flee, severely undercutting revenue to conservative outlets that dared tell the truth. By contrast, left-leaning sites such as NPR and The New York Times consistently received top ratings, regardless of their reporting errors, reinforcing their dominance in news visibility and funding. Artificial-intelligence tools, funded by government programs, downranked conservative narratives, ensuring they vanished from searches. YouTube even tweaked algorithms at the feds' behest. Censorship laundering through NGOs masked illegal moves, monitoring posts to crush wrongthink. The stakes couldn't be higher. If this data weaponization goes unchecked, it won't end with Democrats or the Biden administration. History has shown us the erosion of liberties for one group inevitably sets the stage for broader abuses. Today, it's conservatives being silenced; tomorrow, it might be anyone who dissents. But there's hope. Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and Americans of all political stripes should demand transparency and accountability from their government and its partners. Whether through boycotts, lawsuits or investigators like DOGE, there are ways to fight back. Free speech and an open exchange of ideas define our democracy. When those in power suppress dissent, they betray not just their critics but the Constitution itself. 'They're Coming for You' is a first step in exposing this corruption. But the responsibility to stop it falls on us all. Stand for truth. Demand accountability. And above all, protect the freedoms that make America a beacon of liberty. Fox News contributor Jason Chaffetz is a former House Oversight Committee chairman.
Gulf Today
4 days ago
- Business
- Gulf Today
Sharjah clears 167 titles under publishing, translation support programmes in 2025
The Sharjah Book Authority (SBA) has announced the approval of 167 new titles under its specialised publishing and translation support programmes in 2025. The approved titles were selected from a total of 2,478 submissions received within four months since registration was open. These include 99 titles under the Translation Grant, 20 through the Sharjah Publishing Sustainability Fund (Onshur), and 48 titles directly supported by the SBA. The step demonstrates Sharjah's continued commitment to fostering translation, publishing, and knowledge exchange between Arabic and other global languages. These selected titles further SBA's achievements, raising the total number of approved titles to 2,405 across various fields and languages since the initiative's launch in 2011. These initiatives represent a cornerstone of SBA's strategy to support publishers, translators, and authors worldwide, creating an enabling environment for intellectual creativity and accelerating bilateral translation between Arabic and other languages. This contributes to expanding the presence of Arabic literature in global markets, while offering readers access to diverse human and intellectual experiences in multiple languages. Ahmed Bin Rakkad Al Ameri, CEO of the SBA, said, "In Sharjah, under the leadership of His Highness Dr Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, we believe that translation is a vital communication tool for connecting people and fostering understanding and being open to other cultures. "This belief drives us to continue growing our support for exceptional cultural and intellectual content through specialised programmes. At the forefront of these is our Translation Grant, which is given to titles worthy of global readership, in order to promote Arabic creativity to the world, while making international achievements accessible to Arab readers in their native language." Al Ameri added that under the directives of Sheikha Bodour Bint Sultan Al Qasimi, Chairperson of the Sharjah Book Authority, the authority is committed to expanding its support programmes through initiatives that celebrate the most significant literary and intellectual works from around the world. Mansour Al Hassani, Director of Publishing Services at SBA, commented, "The number of submitted applications this year is a clear indicator of the growing trust that global publishers place in our programmes. It reflects their recognition of the tangible value we bring to the translation and publishing sectors, not only in the UAE and the Arab world but globally." The SBA launched its Translation Grant in 2011 to support publishers worldwide in translating distinguished books into multiple languages. The grant offers up to $4,000 for general books and $1,500 for children's books, with special grants of up to $250,000 for translations from or into Arabic. The criteria include a formal translation contract, details of the translator, and copies of the final published edition. Eligible works include novels, biographies, cookbooks, poetry, and children's literature, given that they are under copyright protection. The Sharjah Publishing Sustainability Fund (Onshur) aims to strengthen the publishing industry in the UAE by offering comprehensive support tailored to publishers' needs. The fund supports publishers' sustainability and growth, and boosts their journey into enriching the cultural landscape in the UAE through three core tracks, namely: Launch, Scale, and Disrupt. WAM
