Warren Buffett’s company is lending $1.5 billion to Home Capital and spending roughly $300 million to purchase nearly 40 percent of the troubled Canadian lender’s stock.
Berkshire said Thursday that the credit line will carry a relatively hefty 9 percent interest rate once Berkshire completes its initial stock investment later this month. The rate is similar to what Berkshire charged on loans it made during the financial crisis to companies including Goldman Sachs and General Electric.
Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma, in an interview to CNBC, said the rising technological advancements in artificial intelligence could lead to World War III. Speaking to the news channel, the billionaire Chinese business magnate said there is a need for the world leaders to educate people about the pain that the rapid rise in automation and artificial intelligence will bring.
“The first technology revolution caused World War I. The second technology revolution caused World War II. This is the third technology revolution,” he said. “People are already unhappy because lot of machinery, artificial intelligence is killing lot of jobs,” he added.
An upgrade to a Swiss supercomputer has bumped the US Department of Energy’s Cray XK7 to number four on the list rating these machines. According to supercomputer ranking published on Monday, Switzerland’s 19.6 petaflop1 Piz Daint supercomputer ranked third in the world after Sunway TaihuLight and Tianhe 2, two Chinese supercomputers.
The only other time the US fell out of the top three was in 1996. If there’s any consolation, U.S.-based systems secured five of the top ten spots on the TOP500 list.
The Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings 2017 rank the universities that academics believe excel in teaching and research.
A questionnaire was sent to a selection of experienced published scholars, between January 2017 and March 2017, asking them to offer their views on the standards of teaching and research in their disciplines and in institutions that they are familiar with. The responses were then used to determine which universities were considered the most prestigious. The full methodology of the THE World Reputation Rankings can be found here.
The vacation apartment market in Switzerland has lagged that of Austria and France in recent years. Residential property prices have stagnated in the Alpine tourist destinations here since 2011. The strong franc has weakened domestic and foreign demand. At the same time, the success of the second home initiative has led to a building boom in the Swiss Alps, so that average vacancy rate has almost doubled in recent years.
MIT has been ranked as the top university in the world in the latest QS World University Rankings. This marks the sixth straight year in which the Institute has been ranked in the No. 1 position. Stanford University came in at second, while prestigious Ivy League university Harvard came in third. MIT earned a perfect overall score of 100.
United Kingdom heavyweights Cambridge, Oxford, UCL and the Imperial College of London all made it inside the top 10.
The forecasts by the World Gold Council, in the Metals Focus Database of Mines, suggest irreversible trends: extracting gold, just like extracting diamonds, will be increasingly costly and difficult.
After several years of snatching the prize from each other, Google has managed to fight off Apple to defend its position as the world’s most valuable brand in Kantar Millward Brown’s 2017 BrandZ ranking.
The internet giant has extended its lead after achieving a 7% increase to $246bn, compared to Apple’s 3% rise to $235bn, meaning there is now a 4.4% value difference between to two global leaders. Last year it was far closer at 0.3%.
Microsoft (third) and Facebook (fifth) have also managed to retain their positions in the top five, with the former increasing brand value by 18% to $143bn and Facebook seeing a 27% boost to create a brand value of $130bn. The annual BrandZ ranking, which is compiled by WPP consultancy Kantar Millward Brown, is based on a combination of millions of consumer interviews and each company’s financial performance.
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