All posts tagged: booming

Google justifies its massive AI spending with a booming cloud business

Google justifies its massive AI spending with a booming cloud business

Published by skeptic

Alphabet investors have very publicly worried that the company’s massive AI spending isn’t worth the money. With the company’s latest earnings report, those investors should be able to relax a little. The takeaway: Google’s cloud business — driven largely by enterprise AI adoption — is booming. The search giant saw Google Cloud revenue spike 82% from where it was this time last year, climbing to $24.8 billion. That’s well above last quarter’s generous year-over-year growth, which showed a revenue jump of 63% to $20 billion — and it also handily beats what Wall Street analysts expected for this quarter’s growth (the expectation was $22.46 billion). Those cloud gains were driven largely by enterprise AI solutions and enterprise AI infrastructure adoption, the company said, while also noting that its backlog of cloud contracting work — that is work that it hasn’t yet converted into revenue — had climbed to $514 billion. The company’s profit hit $112.1 billion, which is a massive jump from this time last year, when the company reported $28.1 billion in profit, the …

‘I fell in love with the art of coffee-making’: the female baristas shaking up Somalia’s booming cafe scene | Global development

‘I fell in love with the art of coffee-making’: the female baristas shaking up Somalia’s booming cafe scene | Global development

Published by Sam Flores

Every morning at six, Saabiriin Hassan slips on her apron as she takes her place behind the counter at Cplus Cafe in the heart of Mogadishu. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee fills the air, but it is Hassan’s ever-present smile that draws the attention first. It stays with her every move – from grinding beans and steaming milk to chatting with customers. Hassan is among the first female baristas in Somalia, serving coffee and helping a new cafe culture take root in a capital city once only known for conflict. “It started out of curiosity in 2020,” says the 23-year-old. “I realised there were no female baristas in the city. I decided to learn the craft and took a three-month course. Since then, I fell in love with the art of coffee-making.” Somalis have long been known for their love of camel-milk tea, but as modern coffee shops spring up across Mogadishu, social habits are being reshaped and new spaces are created for young people. At the heart of this transformation are young female …

Dimension Capital’s 0M third fund shows the intersection of science and compute is booming

Dimension Capital’s $800M third fund shows the intersection of science and compute is booming

Published by skeptic

While many newer VC firms are still struggling to raise fresh capital, Dimension Capital, founded in late 2022, has been raising increasingly larger funds in quick succession.  On Tuesday, the New York firm — which invests at the intersection of science and compute — announced an $800 million fund, which is 60% larger than its $500 million second vehicle announced just 18 months ago. When Zavian Dar and Adam Goulburn — formerly partners at Lux Capital —teamed up with Obvious Ventures alum Nan Li to launch the firm four years ago, they bet that founders would increasingly want to build deep-tech companies that crossed the boundaries of biotech and software. Now, the three partners admit to being impressed by how quickly their thesis has played out. In 2024, they co-led a $30 million seed investment in Chai Discovery. The startup, which is developing open-source AI foundation models for drug development, announced last week that it raised $400 million at a $3.8 billion valuation. The firm also backed anti-aging startup New Limit at its Series A round in January …

As L.A. struggles, these surprising communities are booming. What are they doing right?

As L.A. struggles, these surprising communities are booming. What are they doing right?

Published by Sam Flores

When residents and business owners began talking about creating a city in the Santa Clarita Valley nearly three decades ago, few could have imagined the demographic juggernaut the region would become. Back then, it was a far-flung collection of four distinct communities: The very suburban Valencia, the historic towns of Saugus and Newhall and the more rural Canyon Country. Developers knew the valley 45 miles north of downtown Los Angeles was ripe for subdivisions and office parks. But Santa Clarita’s growth has been so dramatic that it now ranks as the third largest city in Los Angeles County behind L.A. and Long Beach. Santa Clarita’s growth is all the more remarkable given the sluggish population expansion in other parts of Los Angeles County in the last few years. Data show L.A. County as a whole grew by 0.5% from 2010 to 2024, from 9.76 million to 9.81 million. Growth has often been stymied by a shortage of vacant land on which to build new housing. Santa Clarita, meanwhile, has been L.A. County’s growth champion of …

Million-Dollar Watches Are Absolutely Booming. Here’s Why

Million-Dollar Watches Are Absolutely Booming. Here’s Why

Published by Jenni Sidey

The watches fueling this surge of million-dollar pieces come from unlikely sources. The most money is going to brands that to the average person—familiar with the likes of TAG Heuer, Omega, and Cartier—sound like Sanskrit. It’s independent watchmakers like F.P. Journe, Rexhep Rexhepi, Kari Voutilainen, Philippe Dufour, and Nospmis Remoh that are stacking up seven-figure sales. (And if you caught that I completely made up that last one, congratulations…you know ball.) Inflated sales for independent watchmakers are largely due to a subset of collectors who recognize them as fine artists creating rare works, not than mass-produced products. “We are getting a new segment of collectors who were, or are, art collectors,” Boutros says. That’s borne out in the numbers. While the list starts with two historic Swiss brands with an extensive catalog of potential high-priced watches, it quickly veers into smaller names. Here’s the list of brands and watchmakers with the most million-dollar watches dating back to 2015. 1. Patek Philippe: 2432. Rolex: 933. F.P. Journe: 634. Richard Mille: 425. Philippe Dufour: 146. Audemars Piguet: …

The British food scene was booming. Why has it suddenly gone bust? | Restaurants

The British food scene was booming. Why has it suddenly gone bust? | Restaurants

Published by Sam Flores

It’s 9am on a weekday morning and although I’ve just finished my porridge, the chef Richard Wilkins is making my mouth water. “My signature dish is soft Scottish langoustines wrapped in very thin, crispy pastry, served with Japanese sushi rice and a langoustine bisque.” His other specialities include turbot in a spinach and champagne sauce, buttery wagyu steak with English peas, and raspberry millefeuille. Sadly, I won’t be able to sample any of them and neither will anyone else. At the end of April, Wilkins took the painful decision to close his west London Michelin-listed Restaurant 104 after seven years. “The financial pressures became brutal,” says Wilkins, who previously worked with Gordon Ramsay at Pétrus. “We were very small, with only 12 covers. So when things like business rates or VAT rates change, it’s the smallest people who are hit the hardest.” At the end of last year, Wilkins was determined to fight back. “I did a five-figure refurb. I upped my marketing, leafleting and talking to hotel concierges to ask them to recommend us. …

Crypto-Funded Chinese Peptide Labs Are Booming

Crypto-Funded Chinese Peptide Labs Are Booming

Published by skeptic

Meta has been quietly stashing dormant face recognition code on more than 50 million phones, WIRED reported this week, tucked inside the companion app that pairs with its Ray-Ban and Oakley smart glasses. If activated, the feature—known internally as NameTag—would let wearers identify people in front of them by matching captured faces against a biometric gallery sitting on the user’s device. It’s the same kind of technology Meta said it walked away from in 2021, after paying out billions of dollars to settle biometric privacy lawsuits in Texas and Illinois. Meanwhile, xAI is asking a federal judge to force four people suing the company over Grok-generated deepfake nudes to drop their pseudonyms and litigate under their real names—including one plaintiff who alleges the chatbot was used to fabricate sexual images of her as a child. The plaintiffs say they’d sooner drop the suit than submit to harassment and doxing from Musk’s online supporters. xAI’s lawyers, however, claim that since the deepfakes will remain under seal, there’s “nothing inherently stigmatizing” about naming the people in them. …

Viner says Guardian has seen decade of booming foreign and reader revenue

Viner says Guardian has seen decade of booming foreign and reader revenue

Published by Sam Flores

Guardian editor-in-chief Katharine Viner speaking at WAN-IFRA World News Media Congress on 1 June 2026. Picture: WAN-IFRA More than 80% of revenue coming from outside the UK at The Guardian did not exist ten years ago, editor-in-chief Katharine Viner has revealed. Viner was speaking at the WAN-IFRA World News Media Congress about The Guardian’s ongoing strategy to become more global, more reader revenue funded, more human and more digital. Axios reported last month that The Guardian’s US operation made revenue of $81.4m (£60.4m) in the year to 31 March 2026, up 25% year on year and the highest since the newsbrand launched in the US 15 years ago. US revenue came mostly from digital reader revenue (71%). Some 8% of Guardian Media Group revenue came from outside the UK ten years ago, increasing to more than 40% today. Viner told the Congress that in the year to 31 March 2026, digital reader revenue from people who pay regularly as “recurring supporters” and one-off donations was up 17% to £125m. Two years ago in 2023/2024 digital …

US clean energy is booming and unraveling at the same time

US clean energy is booming and unraveling at the same time

Published by skeptic

Volkswagen ID.4 production at Chattanooga, TN (Source: VW) Clean energy developers announced more than 50 new utility-scale solar, wind, and battery storage projects in Q1 2026 as companies scramble to get projects moving before a looming federal deadline tied to Trump’s big bill act passed last year. According to new data from E2’s latest “Clean Economy Works” report, developers announced 54 new large-scale renewable energy projects between January and March, nearly double the number of active projects announced during all of 2025. The projects represent more than $18 billion in planned investment and would add over 12 gigawatts (GW) of new electricity generation and storage capacity to the grid – enough to power around 2 million homes. The report underscores something the industry has been warning about for months: Developers are rushing to break ground before federal clean energy tax incentives become harder to access under new rules tied to the OBBA. Companies are trying to move quickly ahead of a July 4 deadline that could make future projects far more difficult to finance. Advertisement …

Why Bookstores Are Booming Again

Why Bookstores Are Booming Again

Published by Jenni Sidey

This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. Why Bookstores Are Booming Again As attraction to a more analog lifestyle grows, literary chic stomps the runway and the streets, and bookish social media continues to dominate, it may come as no surprise that bookstores are seeing better days. Bookshop.org founder and CEO Andy Hunter sat down with Fast Company to talk about Independent Bookstore Day and the success of indie bookstores, in spite of Amazon: “People are really galvanizing around bookstores as a force for good in our culture,” he says. “You see that in the fact that there are about 70% more bookstores now than there were six years ago in the United States. After 20 years of declining numbers, they’re coming roaring back.” The article celebrating Independent Bookstore Day gets into the origins of the book lover’s holiday, what the day and participating bookstores …