
For the third year in a row, Elon Musk’s charitable foundation did not give away enough of its money. And it did not miss the mark by a small amount. New tax filings show that the Musk Foundation fell $421 million short of the amount it was required to give away in 2023. Now, Musk has until the end of the year to distribute that money, or he will be required to pay a sizable penalty to the IRS. Musk, in his new role as a leader of what President-elect Donald Trump is calling the Department of Government Efficiency, is promising to downsize and rearrange the entire federal government — including the IRS. But the tax records show he has struggled to meet a basic IRS rule that is required of all charity leaders, no matter how small or big their foundations. Musk’s is one of the biggest. His foundation has more than $9 billion in assets, including millions of shares in Tesla, his electric vehicle company. By law, all private foundations must give away 5% of those assets every year. The aim is to ensure that wealthy donors like Musk use these organizations to help the public instead of simply benefiting from the tax deductions they are afforded. Musk’s group has fallen further and further behind. In 2021, his foundation was $41 million short, then $234 million the following year. Now, the hole is deeper still. Private foundations do have a way to solve the problem if they do not give away enough money. They can distribute more the following year as a make-good. Musk could choose to do so in 2024. Musk did not respond to requests for comment. His foundation, which is required to make its tax filings public, provided the 2023 document to The New York Times. The IRS appears to be among Musk’s early targets as a leader of Trump’s government efficiency initiative. The tax agency serves as the federal government’s charity regulator and thus oversees Musk’s foundation. Last month, Musk used X, his social media platform, to ask users if the IRS’ budget should be increased, kept the same, decreased or “deleted.” His followers chose “deleted.” Musk, who on Wednesday became the first person with a net worth of over $400 billion, has been an unusual philanthropist. He has been critical of the effectiveness of large charitable gifts, and his foundation maintains a minimal, plain-text website that offers very little about its overarching philosophy. That is different from some other large foundations that seek to have national or even worldwide impact by making large gifts to causes like public health, education or the arts. The Musk Foundation’s largesse primarily stays closer to home. The tax filings show that last year the group gave at least $7 million combined to charities near a launch site in South Texas used by Musk’s company SpaceX. Other large charitable foundations have also failed to distribute the IRS’ minimum required amount in recent years, sometimes by more than $100 million, according to tax filings compiled by the company CauseIQ, which analyzes charity data. But Musk’s foundation is unusual even among those, both for the amount of its shortfall and the speed at which it is increasing. In 2022, the last year for which full data is available, the Musk Foundation had the fourth-largest gap of any private foundation in the country, according to CauseIQ data. Musk’s charity, which he founded in 2002, has never hired paid employees, according to tax filings. Its three directors — Musk and two people who work for his family office — all work for free. The filings show they did not spend very much time on the foundation: just two hours and six minutes per week for the past three years. But the board’s task grew enormously in 2021 and 2022, when Musk tripled the foundation’s assets by giving it billions of dollars’ worth of Tesla stock. Tax experts said if he claimed those donations on his personal taxes in the year given, those gifts would have been very beneficial to him. Because of the deductions allowed for charitable gifts, they potentially saved Musk as much as $2 billion on his tax bills. Because of the skyrocketing growth in assets, the three-person board had to give away hundreds of millions of dollars per year just to meet the minimum. That group entered 2023 needing to pay off the previous year’s $234 million shortfall, or it would have to pay a penalty tax of 30% on whatever was left at the end of the year. The foundation met that, giving away a total of $236 million and avoiding the penalty. But it also had to give away an additional $424 million to meet its obligation for 2023. The filings show it did not come close, leaving an even bigger deficit to make up this year. “The distributions made by the foundation are meeting the bare minimum to avoid penalties,” said Brian Mittendorf, an accounting professor at the Ohio State University who studies nonprofits. “It is clear that the organization is not in a hurry to spend its money.” In 2023, as in other years, many of the foundation’s gifts went to organizations that were closely tied to Musk or his businesses. In 2023, for instance, he gave $25 million to a donor-advised fund, a separate charitable account over which Musk retains effective control. Musk began donating to schools in the Brownsville, Texas, area just after his company’s reputation took a major hit: One of its rockets exploded, showering the area with twisted metal. The foundation’s largest gift for the year — $137 million in cash and stock — went to a nonprofit called The Foundation. That charity, run by Musk’s close associates, has set up a private elementary school in Bastrop, Texas. The school is a short distance from large campuses operated by Musk’s businesses and a 110-home subdivision planned for his employees. Related Articles Business | Australian Senate debates social media ban for under-16s Business | California commission that approves rocket launches is anti-Elon Musk, claims SpaceX lawsuit Business | SpaceX blasts past 100 launches in 2024 with 101st from California Business | Tesla Optimus bots were remotely operated at Cybercab event in Burbank Business | In engineering feat, SpaceX ‘arms’ catch Starship rocket booster back at launch pad Mittendorf noted that Musk gave that school $102 million on Dec. 28 — days before the deadline to give away the unspent millions from the year before. The Musk Foundation’s gifts for 2023 gave little hint of the political transformation that would follow this year, as he spent hundreds of millions of dollars to support Trump’s presidential campaign. Throughout 2023, Musk became increasingly right-wing in his public statements, especially on issues like crime and immigration. But his foundation’s only gift with an apparent political tilt was a small one: The Musk Foundation gave $100,000 to a libertarian think tank in Utah. This article originally appeared in The New York Times .
Report: Institutional neutrality favored at Carolina, Wake, DukeChris Cenac Jr., the top center in the Class of 2025 according to the ESPN100, has committed to play for the Houston Cougars. The five-star recruit announced his decision Tuesday via the Bleacher Report's B/R App. Cenac previously said he wouldn't make his decision until the spring, but his stock soared over the summer after his impressive play on the Puma Pro 16 circuit with Dallas-based YGC, vaulting him into the national top-10 rankings. The 6-foot-10 New Orleans native was reportedly choosing between LSU, Auburn, Arkansas, Baylor, Kentucky, Tennessee and others before making the decision to join Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson's team. "I just like the coaching staff a lot, I like their plan to develop me and I like coming into a winning program," Cenac told 247Sports. "I'm looking forward to producing and just helping them win more. But the main thing was development and them being able to get me better so I can be ready for that next level." Cenac's rating of .9978 by 247Sports Composite makes him the Cougars' highest-rated commit in the modern era, according to multiple outlets. "They see me as a four who can kind of play all over the court and do everything," Cenac told 247Sports. "I can get rebounds, push the ball, shoot and play all over the floor." With Cenac joining other Houston commits like five-star shooting guard Isaiah Harwell, four-star point guard Kingston Flemings and three-star wing Bryce Jackson, Houston's Class of 2025 is ranked No. 2 in the nation by 247Sports and ESPN. --Field Level Media
“It is entirely possible that future generations will puzzle over how such a fundamental right could ever be denied to them.” These are the words of David Steel, the veteran former leader of the Liberal party and a Westminster MP for more than three decades, referring to this Friday’s historic vote in parliament on whether to legalise assisted dying. But Steel could just as well have been referring to a private member’s bill he brought before parliament 57 years ago that was also about the right to bodily autonomy and was the subject of fierce debate and vocal opposition from church leaders. That bill – passed under a free vote by MPs – became the 1967 Abortion Act, the “landmark legislation that underpins women’s and girls’ right to safe abortion services nearly six decades on”, Steel wrote in the Sunday Times . One of the arguments deployed by opponents of the abortion act was that it would result in a “slippery slope” – that its strict criteria would inevitably be widened to allow “abortion on demand” up to a pregnancy’s full term. A similar argument is being used by opponents of assisted dying. But the fears raised more than half a century ago in relation to abortion have not been realised. Under the original terms of the Abortion Act, a woman could terminate a pregnancy at less than 28 weeks’ gestation under certain conditions, including harm to her physical or mental health or the foetus’s health. Abortion was allowed beyond 28 weeks in very limited circumstances, such as if the woman’s life was at risk. Since then, the law has been changed twice but the criteria for an abortion have remained the same. The act was tightened in 1990 to lower the gestation limit for abortions from 28 weeks to 24 weeks, the point at which a foetus was considered viable outside the uterus. The law was further changed in 2022 to permit women in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy to take medication at home to terminate a pregnancy. This confirmed in law a temporary approval issued during the Covid pandemic, when access to clinics was limited. Despite the furore at the time around the legalisation of abortion, it is widely accepted today that women should have the right to choose whether or not to continue with a pregnancy. Nearly nine in 10 people surveyed by YouGov last year agreed that abortion should be allowed, with 49% saying the current 24-week limit was about right. Two-thirds of people said abortion should be available to any woman who wants it up to 24 weeks. In 2022 there were 251,377 abortions, the highest number since the Abortion Act was introduced. The high numbers – of great concern to those opposed to abortion – are an illustration of how the law has been utilised. As Steel pointed out, there are other areas of the social-legal landscape that are almost unrecognisable from that of the middle of the last century. “For a young person reaching adulthood today, the idea that the state could wield its power to prohibit them from marrying the person they love, dissolving a marriage when love is absent, or choosing when and whether to have children would be viewed as not just alien but irrational,” he wrote. Those putting forward the “slippery slope” argument on assisted dying often point to other countries – principally Canada – that have legalised it. Canada’s medical assistance in dying (Maid) laws, crafted in response to a supreme court decision , initially covered only terminally ill Canadians. However, in 2019 a judge ruled that restricting access to those who had a “reasonably foreseeable death” was unconstitutional, forcing federal lawmakers to expand the law. Now, a person must have a “ grievous and irremediable medical condition ” to be eligible. They must meet all the criteria of having a serious illness, disease or disability; being in an advanced state of decline that cannot be reversed; and experiencing unbearable physical or mental suffering that cannot be relieved. The Canadian government has shelved an expansion of the law to include people with mental illnesses. The US state of Oregon, which legalised assisted dying in 1997 and whose law has been used as a model for many other jurisdictions, has not changed its criteria for eligibility in the past 27 years. Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP who has put forward the assisted dying bill to the Westminster parliament, has said there is a misconception that the scope of the law has been broadened in other countries. Of her bill, she said this weekend: “The strict eligibility criteria make it very clear that we are only talking about people who are already dying. That is why the bill is called the terminally ill adults (end of life) bill; its scope cannot be changed and clearly does not include any other group of people.”SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — A political party in North Macedonia on Saturday demanded authorities ban social networks whose content incites violence and self-destructive behavior after several young people were seriously injured in connection with the popular “Superman challenge” on TikTok. Health authorities said at least 17 students, ages 10 to 17, were brought to hospitals in the capital Skopje and other towns over the past week with broken bones, contusions and bruises. The children were injured after being thrown into the air by their friends to fly like superheroes and get applause on the internet. The Liberal-Democratic Party, which was part of the left-led coalition that ruled the country from 2016 to earlier in 2024, issued a press statement Saturday strongly condemning “the irresponsible spread of dangerous content on social media, such as the latest TikTok 'challenge' known as ‘Superman,’ which has injured six children across (the country) in the past 24 hours.” “The lack of adequate control over the content of social media allows such ‘games’ to reach the most vulnerable users,” the party statement said. It demanded the “immediate introduction of measures to ban content that incites violence and self-destructive behavior, increase surveillance, and sanction platforms that enable dangerous trends.” North Macedonia’s education minister Vesna Janevska said students should focus on education, not TikTok challenges. “The ban on mobile phones in schools will not have an effect. Phones will be available to children in their homes, neighborhoods and other environments,” she said. Psychologists have warned that the desire to be “in” with the trends on social networks, combined with excessive use of mobile phones, is the main reason for the rise in risky behaviors among children. They urged parents and schools to talk with students.
49ers' Shanahan Provides Brock Purdy Shoulder Injury Update; Status vs. Bills TBDIn both real estate and politics, timing is everything. For Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, he of once-impeccable political judgment, that timing has gone a little awry of late. Albanese’s decision to buy a $4.3 million clifftop home in the Central Coast amid a housing and cost-of-living crisis left several of his Labor colleagues scratching their heads. It meant the government wasted another week defending the prime minister from the “out of touch” allegations rather than prosecuting its agenda. Tough market... Anthony Albanese is struggling to sell his Dulwich Hill investment property. Those allegations had been furnished by news in May that a Sydney man who had lived as a tenant in Albanese’s Dulwich Hill investment property was left blindsided after receiving an eviction notice. That too left the prime minister on the defensive, forced to waste time discussing his record as a landlord. That property was set to go under the hammer with a $1.9 million price guide last month. Not a bad return given Albanese bought it in 2015 for $1.175 million. But the property was abruptly pulled from auction, and the asking price lowered to $1.85 million. Now, the asking price has fallen to $1.75 million, with Albo’s real estate agent Shad Hassen telling us it was the victim of a changing market. Loading “I think the reason for it is quite simple. There’s been a slight change in the market, and the PM’s property is not immune to that change,” he said, adding that he anticipates the property will be sold soon. When it does, it’ll still leave a tidy profit for the former housing commission boy made good. And the fact that a three-bedroom red brick townhouse in Dulwich Hill is pushing the $2 million mark says it all about the housing challenges the Albanese government faces. You can get a French chateau for less. Pistols at dawn On Friday, Australia’s politicians finally got a chance to return fire against the country’s journalists. It didn’t end well for them. About a dozen MPs had gathered at the Canberra International Clay Target Club for the pollies versus press gallery shoot-out, organised by former Olympic shooter turned Labor’s man mountain member for Hunter Dan Repacholi and Coalition frontbencher Bridget McKenzie. Co-chairs of the Parliamentary Friends of Shooting, the pair had worked hard to get the tournament together. Attending MPs included Regional Development Minister Kristy McBain, Labor’s Alison Byrnes, and Perin Davey, Colin Boyce and Ian Goodenough from the Coalition. But the might of that bipartisanship was no match for the journos, not usually the most athletic bunch. In just his second time shooting, Channel Nine cameraman Luke Nicolaou had a blinder, with both sides finishing on equal points. Things then proceeded to a tiebreaker between Repacholi and a ring-in from the National Press Club. The big man was the first to miss, giving the journos bragging rights. Lovely Rita “On social media, bad behaviour is good for business.” Rita Panahi’s controversial Instagram story. Credit: Instagram So spoke News Corp executive chair Michael Miller at a National Press Club address earlier this year, where he laid into the big tech giants. But we wonder who exactly the online behaviour of some of News Corp’s highest profile opinionators is good for. Take Rita Panahi, the Herald Sun columnist who also co-hosts the Outsiders show on Sky News for one of the world’s biggest multinational media companies. Last week, Panahi’s Instagram story featured the Appeal to Heaven Flag, or Pine Tree Flag, an American Revolutionary War symbol popularised by the rioters who tried to storm the United States Capitol in 2021, inspired by the conspiracy theory that the previous year’s presidential election was “stolen” from Donald Trump . US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito caused a bit of a storm when the flag was seen flying at his Virginia beach house earlier this year. Panahi’s flag went even better, and was captioned with: “AN APPEAL TO HEAVEN TO SEND THE JOURNOS TO GITMO,” accompanied by the caption “fair”. So, does Panahi really reckon her hardworking colleagues at the Hun and Sky ought to be shipped off to an offshore military prison synonymous with torture and other nastiness? Perhaps it was an off-colour attempt at trolling. Either way, neither Herald Sun editor Sam Weir nor Sky News’ representatives responded to our questions. And Rita didn’t take up our offer to clarify things either. No doubt, we’ll get a scolding in her other Sky News after-dark show, Lefties Losing It. Bush Boutique In Gina Rinehart’s evolution from Australia’s richest person to art aficionado and wannabe fashion mogul, the billionaire has bought up bushwear brands, including coat maker Driza-Bone and RM Williams’ challenger Rossi Boots, managing to get the likes of Peter Dutton and Barnaby Joyce to play influencer . Now, the mining magnate’s S Kidman & Co has opened a bricks-and-mortar store in Tamworth, “bringing country style to the heart of fashion”. No, we’ve never heard anybody talk about Tamworth like that either. Rinehart, who we last encountered at Mar-a-Lago toasting Donald Trump’s election victory and hanging out with Elon Musk, was in town for the ribbon-cutting, along with former Northern Territory chief minister Adam Giles (who is chief executive of her Hancock Agriculture) and Joyce, decked out in his custom Gina-sponsored bush hat. Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter . Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. License this article CBD For subscribers Anthony Albanese Kishor Napier-Raman is a CBD columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Previously he worked as a reporter for Crikey, covering federal politics from the Canberra Press Gallery. Connect via Twitter or email . Most Viewed in National LoadingWINDHOEK: Political veteran Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah hopes to win Namibia’s election Wednesday, becoming the country’s first female president as her party prepares for its toughest race since independence. Current vice president and candidate of the ruling South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO), NNN - as she is known - is facing at least two major challenges. One is convincing young voters hit by high unemployment to pick her as next leader, and the second is persuading the electorate to support a woman in a country analysts like John Mendelsohn describe as “patriarchal”. “Probably a lot of people (in Namibia) would not be terribly enthusiastic about voting for a woman. But we have seen it in other parts of Africa,” said the author of an atlas on Namibia. Since Ellen Johnson Sirleaf won elections in Liberia in 2006, becoming Africa’s first female head of state, the number of women leaders on the continent has been low. “It’s very difficult to judge if they (Namibians) are all willing to vote for a woman,” said Henning Melber, of the Nordic Africa Institute at the University of Uppsala. Especially “in the northern regions”, he said, where the influence of traditional leaders is strong. Conservative views Her nomination by the party was highly contested and even challenged unsuccessfully in court. “Does that mean they (Namibians) won’t vote for her?” asked Melber. Another obstacle she faces is her advanced age in a country where more than 60 percent of the population is under 30. “They say I am too old and we need young people...” NNN said back in 2022, brushing away the accusations. “I do not deny my age,” the 72-year-old added. Recognizable by her gold-framed glasses, she has tried to vaunt the wisdom of her years during the campaign where she was often wearing blue, red and green, the colors of her party and of the national flag. But she’s also seen as a “SWAPO stalwart” according to Marisa Lourenco, a political analyst based in Johannesburg, which might not play in her favor. Daughter of an Anglican pastor, Nandi-Ndaitwa has conservative views on issues like abortion, which is illegal in most cases in the largely Christian country. “She is a strict advocate of strong abortion laws,” said Melber. Among her promises, NNN said she intends to “create jobs by attracting investments using economic diplomacy.” Despite being rich in mineral resources including uranium and recently discovered oil offshore, Namibia is the second most unequal country on Earth after South Africa, according to the World Bank. Apart from advertising her initials as “November, Namibia, Netumbo” her campaign staff have struggled to find something new to highlight about their candidate. A senior party official, she has been a member of the national assembly since 1990 and a minister since 2000. “She’s been there for ages and just seems to be part of the status quo... and that’s just not so appealing to voters,” said Lourenco. After going into exile in the 1990s, NNN spent some years in Russia where she joined the Komsomol, a Soviet Union-era political youth organisation. She also studied in the UK, but according to Melber, “her links to Moscow seem to have affected her much more.” “She has internalized a kind of an anti-Western feeling,” he said. But as the country hopes to attract foreign investors in particular from the oil industry, analysts doubt she would turn her back to the West if she became president. — AFP
Chilean authorities confirm sexual harassment investigation against President Gabriel BoricSANTA CLARA, Calif., Nov. 25, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Agora, Inc. (NASDAQ: API) (the “Company”), a pioneer and leader in real-time engagement technology, today announced its unaudited financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2024. “Recently, we launched our Conversational AI SDK in collaboration with OpenAI’s Realtime API to allow developers to bring voice-driven AI experiences to any app. We believe multimodal AI agents that can interact with human through natural voice will gain widespread adoption across many use cases such as customer support, education and wellness, and Agora is well positioned to become a key infrastructure provider for real-time conversational AI,” said Tony Zhao, founder, chairman and CEO of Agora. “To support this vision, we recently made some structural changes, aligning our organization to fully leverage the accelerating conversational AI opportunities, and operate in a faster, leaner, and more responsive fashion. These changes will help us build the next generation real-time engagement technology for the Generative AI era and strengthen our position as the leader in real-time engagement space.” Third Quarter 2024 Highlights Third Quarter 2024 Financial Results Revenues Total revenues were $31.6 million in the third quarter of 2024, a decrease of 9.8% from $35.0 million in the same period last year. Revenues of Agora were $15.7 million in the third quarter of 2024, an increase of 2.6% from $15.3 million in the same period last year, primarily due to our business expansion and usage growth in sectors such as live shopping. Revenues of Shengwang were RMB112.9 million ($15.9 million) in the third quarter of 2024, a decrease of 20.0% from RMB141.2 million ($19.7 million) in the same period last year, primarily due to a decrease in revenues of RMB 17.5 million ($2.4 million) due to the end-of-sale of certain products and reduced usage from customers in certain sectors such as social and entertainment as a result of challenging macroeconomic and regulatory environment. Cost of Revenues Cost of revenues was $10.5 million in the third quarter of 2024, a decrease of 16.4% from $12.6 million in the same period last year, primarily due to the end-of-sale of certain products and the decrease in bandwidth usage and costs, which was offset partially by severance expenses for customer support teams of $0.3 million. Gross Profit and Gross Margin Gross profit was $21.0 million in the third quarter of 2024, a decrease of 6.1% from $22.4 million in the same period last year. Gross margin was 66.7% in the third quarter of 2024, an increase of 2.7% from 64.0% in the same period last year, mainly due to the end-of-sale of certain low-margin products, which was offset partially by higher severance expenses in the third quarter of 2024. Operating Expenses Operating expenses were $45.9 million in the third quarter of 2024, an increase of 24.3% from $36.9 million in the same period last year, primarily due to the increase in restructuring and severance expenses in the third quarter of 2024, which included share-based compensation of $11.4 million as a result of the cancellation of certain employees’ equity awards and immediate recognition of relevant remaining unrecognized compensation expenses, as well as severance expenses of $4.4 million. Loss from Operations Loss from operations was $24.7 million in the third quarter of 2024, compared to $13.9 million in the same period last year. Interest Income Interest income was $3.9 million in the third quarter of 2024, compared to $4.9 million in the same period last year, primarily due to the decrease in the average balance of cash, cash equivalents, bank deposits and financial products issued by banks and the decrease in average interest rate realized. Losses from equity in affiliates Losses from equity in affiliates were $4.2 million in the third quarter of 2024, primarily due to an impairment loss on an investment in certain private company of $4.1 million. Net Loss Net loss was $24.2 million in the third quarter of 2024, compared to $22.5 million in the same period last year. Net Loss per American Depositary Share attributable to ordinary shareholders Net loss per American Depositary Share (“ADS”)1 attributable to ordinary shareholders was $0.26 in the third quarter of 2024, compared to $0.23 in the same period last year. 1 One ADS represents four Class A ordinary shares. Share Repurchase Program During the three months ended September 30, 2024, the Company repurchased approximately 6.8 million of its Class A ordinary shares (equivalent to approximately 1.7 million ADSs) for approximately US$3.9 million under its share repurchase program, representing 1.9% of its US$200 million share repurchase program. As of September 30, 2024, the Company had repurchased approximately 129.4 million of its Class A ordinary shares (equivalent to approximately 32.3 million ADSs) for approximately US$113.7 million under its share repurchase program, representing 57% of its US$200 million share repurchase program. As of September 30, 2024, the Company had 368.3 million ordinary shares (equivalent to approximately 92.1 million ADSs) outstanding, compared to 449.8 million ordinary shares (equivalent to approximately 112.5 million ADSs) outstanding as of January 31, 2022 before the share repurchase program commenced. The current share repurchase program will expire at the end of February 2025. Executive Leadership Update Today the Company announced that Chief Security Officer Roger Hale will be leaving the Company, effective immediately. Mr. Hale has served in this role for the past 2.5 years, during which he made significant contributions to enhancing the Company’s security, compliance, and data protection protocols. Mr. Hale will work closely with senior leadership to ensure a smooth transition of his responsibilities. Moving forward, Patrick Ferriter and Robbin Liu will assume responsibility for security and compliance, reflecting the Company’s commitment to maintaining a strong and effective security framework. Mr. Hale will continue to provide strategic advice as an advisor to the Company. “We are grateful for Roger’s dedication and expertise over the past two and a half years. His leadership has been invaluable in strengthening our security & compliance foundation,” said Tony Zhao, founder, chairman and CEO of Agora. “Security and compliance remain top priorities for Agora, and we will continue to uphold the highest standards to protect our customers and stakeholders.” Financial Outlook Based on currently available information, the Company expects total revenues for the fourth quarter of 2024 to be between $34 million and $36 million, compared to $31.6 million in the third quarter of 2024, and $33.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2023 if revenues from certain end-of-sale low-margin products were excluded. The Company also expects significant improvement in net income / (loss) in the fourth quarter. This outlook reflects the Company's current and preliminary views on the market and operational conditions, which are subject to change. Earnings Call The Company will host a conference call to discuss the financial results at 5 p.m. Pacific Time / 8 p.m. Eastern Time on November 25, 2024. Details for the conference call are as follows: Event title: Agora, Inc. 3Q 2024 Financial Results The call will be available at https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/wie28zvr Investors who want to hear the call should log on at least 15 minutes prior to the broadcast. Participants may register for the call with the link below. https://register.vevent.com/register/BIf58a0b6f500c4362b1a8c64f9fa4cea8 Please visit the Company’s investor relations website at https://investor.agora.io on November 25, 2024 to view the earnings release and accompanying slides prior to the conference call. Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures The Company has provided in this press release financial information that has not been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“GAAP”). The Company uses these non-GAAP financial measures internally in analyzing its financial results and believe that the use of these non-GAAP financial measures is useful to investors as an additional tool to evaluate ongoing operating results and trends and in comparing its financial results with other companies in its industry, many of which present similar non-GAAP financial measures. Besides free cash flow (as defined below), each of these non-GAAP financial measures represents the corresponding GAAP financial measure before share-based compensation expenses, acquisition related expenses, amortization expenses of acquired intangible assets, income tax related to acquired intangible assets and impairment of goodwill. The Company believes that such non-GAAP financial measures help identify underlying trends in its business that could otherwise be distorted by the effects of such share-based compensation expenses, acquisition related expenses, amortization expenses of acquired intangible assets, income tax related to acquired intangible assets and impairment of goodwill that it includes in its cost of revenues, total operating expenses and net income (loss). The Company believes that all such non-GAAP financial measures also provide useful information about its operating results, enhance the overall understanding of its past performance and future prospects and allow for greater visibility with respect to key metrics used by its management in its financial and operational decision-making. Non-GAAP financial measures are not meant to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for comparable GAAP financial measures and should be read only in conjunction with the Company’s consolidated financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP. A reconciliation of its historical non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures has been provided in the tables captioned “Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Measures” included at the end of this press release, and investors are encouraged to review the reconciliation. Definitions of the Company’s non-GAAP financial measures included in this press release are presented below. Non-GAAP Net Income (Loss) Non-GAAP net income (loss) is defined as net income (loss) adjusted to exclude share-based compensation expenses, acquisition related expenses, amortization expenses of acquired intangible assets, income tax related to acquired intangible assets and impairment of goodwill. Free Cash Flow Free cash flow is defined as net cash provided by operating activities less purchases of property and equipment (excluding the acquisition of land use right and the payment for the headquarters project). The Company considers free cash flow to be a liquidity measure that provides useful information to management and investors regarding net cash provided by operating activities and cash used for investments in property and equipment required to maintain and grow the business. Operating Metrics The Company also uses other operating metrics included in this press release and defined below to assess the performance of its business. Active Customers An active customer at the end of any period is defined as an organization or individual developer from which the Company generated more than $100 of revenue during the preceding 12 months. Customers are counted based on unique customer account identifiers. Generally, one software application uses the same customer account identifier throughout its life cycle while one account may be used for multiple applications. Dollar-Based Net Retention Rate Dollar-Based Net Retention Rate is calculated for a trailing 12-month period by first identifying all customers in the prior 12-month period, and then calculating the quotient from dividing the revenue generated from such customers in the trailing 12-month period by the revenue generated from the same group of customers in the prior 12-month period. As the vast majority of revenue generated from Agora’s customers is denominated in U.S. dollars, while the vast majority of revenue generated from Shengwang’s customers is denominated in Renminbi, Dollar-Based Net Retention Rate is calculated in U.S. dollars for Agora and in Renminbi for Shengwang, which has substantially removed the impact of foreign currency translations. Shengwang excluded the revenues from certain end-of-sale products, Easemob’s CEC business and K12 academic tutoring sector. The Company believes Dollar-Based Net Retention Rate facilitates operating performance comparisons on a period-to-period basis. Safe Harbor Statements This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical or current fact included in this press release are forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements regarding the Company’s financial outlook, beliefs and expectations. Forward-looking statements include statements containing words such as “expect,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “project,” “will” and similar expressions intended to identify forward-looking statements. Among other things, the Financial Outlook in this announcement contain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on the Company’s current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. The Company’s actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of these risks and uncertainties, which include, without limitation, risks related to the growth of the RTE-PaaS market; the Company’s ability to manage its growth and expand its operations; the continued impact of COVID-19 on global markets and the Company’s business, operations and customers; the Company’s ability to attract new developers and convert them into customers; the Company’s ability to retain existing customers and expand their usage of its platform and products; the Company’s ability to drive popularity of existing use cases and enable new use cases, including through quality enhancements and introduction of new products, features and functionalities; the Company’s fluctuating operating results; competition; the effect of broader technological and market trends on the Company’s business and prospects; general economic conditions and their impact on customer and end-user demand; and other risks and uncertainties included elsewhere in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including, without limitation, the final prospectus related to the IPO filed with the SEC on June 26, 2020. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement, and the Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof. About Agora, Inc. Agora, Inc. is the Cayman Islands holding company of two independent divisions, under Agora brand and Shengwang brand, respectively, whose businesses are conducted through separate entities. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Agora is a pioneer and global leader in Real-Time Engagement Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), providing developers with simple, flexible, and powerful application programming interfaces, or APIs, to embed real-time voice, video, interactive live-streaming, chat, whiteboard, and artificial intelligence capabilities into their applications. Headquartered in Shanghai, China, Shengwang is a pioneer and leading Real-Time Engagement PaaS provider in the China market. For more information on Agora, please visit: www.agora.io For more information on Shengwang, please visit: www.shengwang.cn Agora, Inc. Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (Unaudited, in US$ thousands) Agora, Inc. Condensed Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Loss (Unaudited, in US$ thousands, except share and per ADS amounts) Agora, Inc. Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (Unaudited, in US$ thousands) Agora, Inc. Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Measures (Unaudited, in US$ thousands, except share and per ADS amounts) Investor Contact: investor@agora.io Media Contact: press@agora.ioIs Freeport-McMoRan Stock Underperforming the Dow?Some Coalition MPs have cold feet on the social media ban. Dutton will stare them down
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Building the current crop of artificial intelligence chatbots has relied on specialized computer chips pioneered by Nvidia, which dominates the market and made itself the poster child of the AI boom. But the same qualities that make those graphics processor chips, or GPUs, so effective at creating powerful AI systems from scratch make them less efficient at putting AI products to work. That’s opened up the AI chip industry to rivals who think they can compete with Nvidia in selling so-called AI inference chips that are more attuned to the day-to-day running of AI tools and designed to reduce some of the huge computing costs of generative AI. “These companies are seeing opportunity for that kind of specialized hardware,” said Jacob Feldgoise, an analyst at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology. “The broader the adoption of these models, the more compute will be needed for inference and the more demand there will be for inference chips.” It takes a lot of computing power to make an AI chatbot. It starts with a process called training or pretraining — the “P” in ChatGPT — that involves AI systems “learning” from the patterns of huge troves of data. GPUs are good at doing that work because they can run many calculations at a time on a network of devices in communication with each other. However, once trained, a generative AI tool still needs chips to do the work — such as when you ask a chatbot to compose a document or generate an image. That’s where inferencing comes in. A trained AI model must take in new information and make inferences from what it already knows to produce a response. GPUs can do that work, too. But it can be a bit like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. “With training, you’re doing a lot heavier, a lot more work. With inferencing, that’s a lighter weight,” said Forrester analyst Alvin Nguyen. That’s led startups like Cerebras, Groq and d-Matrix as well as Nvidia’s traditional chipmaking rivals — such as AMD and Intel — to pitch more inference-friendly chips as Nvidia focuses on meeting the huge demand from bigger tech companies for its higher-end hardware. D-Matrix was founded in 2019 — a bit late to the AI chip game, as CEO Sid Sheth explained during a recent interview at the company’s headquarters in Santa Clara, California, the same Silicon Valley city that’s also home to AMD, Intel and Nvidia. “There were already 100-plus companies. So when we went out there, the first reaction we got was ‘you’re too late,’” he said. The pandemic’s arrival six months later didn’t help as the tech industry pivoted to focus on software to serve remote work. Now, however, Sheth sees a big market in AI inferencing, comparing that later stage of machine learning to how human beings apply the knowledge they acquired in school. “We spent the first 20 years of our lives going to school, educating ourselves. That’s training, right?” he said. “And then the next 40 years of your life, you kind of go out there and apply that knowledge — and then you get rewarded for being efficient.” The product, called Corsair, consists of two chips with four chiplets each, made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. — the same manufacturer of most of Nvidia’s chips — and packaged together in a way that helps to keep them cool. The chips are designed in Santa Clara, assembled in Taiwan and then tested back in California. Testing is a long process and can take six months — if anything is off, it can be sent back to Taiwan. D-Matrix workers were doing final testing on the chips during a recent visit to a laboratory with blue metal desks covered with cables, motherboards and computers, with a cold server room next door. While tech giants like Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft have been gobbling up the supply of costly GPUs in a race to outdo each other in AI development, makers of AI inference chips are aiming for a broader clientele. Forrester’s Nguyen said that could include Fortune 500 companies that want to make use of new generative AI technology without having to build their own AI infrastructure. Sheth said he expects a strong interest in AI video generation. “The dream of AI for a lot of these enterprise companies is you can use your own enterprise data,” Nguyen said. “Buying (AI inference chips) should be cheaper than buying the ultimate GPUs from Nvidia and others. But I think there’s going to be a learning curve in terms of integrating it.” Feldgoise said that, unlike training-focused chips, AI inference work prioritizes how fast a person will get a chatbot’s response. He said another whole set of companies is developing AI hardware for inference that can run not just in big data centers but locally on desktop computers, laptops and phones. Better-designed chips could bring down the huge costs of running AI to businesses. That could also affect the environmental and energy costs for everyone else. Sheth says the big concern right now is, “are we going to burn the planet down in our quest for what people call AGI — human-like intelligence?” It’s still fuzzy when AI might get to the point of artificial general intelligence — predictions range from a few years to decades. But, Sheth notes, only a handful of tech giants are on that quest. “But then what about the rest?” he said. “They cannot be put on the same path.” Get local news delivered to your inbox!Fifth District Savings Bank ( NASDAQ:FDSB – Get Free Report ) and HSBC ( NYSE:HSBC – Get Free Report ) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, risk, profitability and dividends. Valuation & Earnings This table compares Fifth District Savings Bank and HSBC”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation. HSBC has higher revenue and earnings than Fifth District Savings Bank. Analyst Recommendations Profitability This table compares Fifth District Savings Bank and HSBC’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets. Institutional and Insider Ownership 1.5% of HSBC shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.0% of HSBC shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth. Summary HSBC beats Fifth District Savings Bank on 8 of the 8 factors compared between the two stocks. About Fifth District Savings Bank ( Get Free Report ) Fifth District Bancorp, Inc. is the holding company for Fifth District Savings Bank which provide all banking services. Fifth District Bancorp, Inc. is based in NEW ORLEANS. About HSBC ( Get Free Report ) HSBC Holdings plc provides banking and financial services worldwide. The company operates through Wealth and Personal Banking, Commercial Banking, and Global Banking and Markets segments. The Wealth and Personal Banking segment offers retail banking and wealth products, including current and savings accounts, mortgages and personal loans, credit and debit cards, and local and international payment services; and wealth management services comprising insurance and investment products, global asset management services, investment management, and private wealth solutions. This segment serves personal banking and high net worth individuals. The Commercial Banking segment provides credit and lending, treasury management, payment, cash management, commercial insurance, and investment services; commercial cards; international trade and receivables finance services; foreign exchange products; capital raising services on debt and equity markets; and advisory services. It serves small and medium sized enterprises, mid-market enterprises, and corporates. The Global Banking and Markets segment offers financing, advisory, and transaction services; and credit, rates, foreign exchange, equities, money markets, and securities services; and engages in principal investment activities. It serves government, corporate and institutional clients, and private investors. HSBC Holdings plc was founded in 1865 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. 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AP Trending SummaryBrief at 3:14 p.m. ESTTOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Sam Lewis' 18 points helped Toledo defeat Defiance 111-49 on Saturday. Lewis also had five rebounds for the Rockets (6-3). Javan Simmons scored 16 points while shooting 8 of 9 from the field and 0 for 3 from the line and added eight rebounds. Sonny Wilson finished 7 of 10 from the field to finish with 16 points. Jalen Brown finished with 12 points for the Yellow Jackets. Connor Bush added eight points for Defiance. Donovan Stone finished with eight points. Toledo took the lead with 19:42 remaining in the first half and did not relinquish it. The score was 55-23 at halftime, with Simmons racking up 14 points. Toledo extended its lead to 90-34 during the second half, fueled by a 16-3 scoring run. Grgur Brcic scored a team-high 10 points in the second half as their team closed out the win. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .The Vancouver Canucks start their first of three East Coast games in four days with a visit to Boston on Tuesday night. The game at the TD Center will start at 7 p.m. ET and you can watch it on ESPN+ (introductory discount). Vancouver (10-6-3, in the Pacific Division) last played on Saturday night, starting a six-game road trip with a 4-3 win at Ottawa. Jake DeBrusk had two goals and an assist, Kiefer Sherwood had a goal and an assist, and Teddy Blueger also scored. Elias Pettersson chipped in with two assists. The Canucks won despite a rough night for their special teams, as they went 1 for 6 on the power play. Vancouver has a 7-1-0 record on the road. Quinn Hughes leads the Canucks with 19 points, and five players are tied for the goal-scoring lead with six (J.T. Miller, Elias Pettersson, Kiefer Sherwood, Brock Boeser and Pius Suter. Kevin Lankinen is their primary goalie, with 14 starts and a 9-3-0-2 record and a 2.61 goals-against average. WATCH: ESPN+ (introductory discount) The Bruins (10-9-3, in the Atlantic Division) have won two second straight games under interim coach Joe Sacco, beating Utah 1-0 and Detroit 2-1. They beat the Red Wings thanks to Brad Marchand’s goal midway through the third period on Saturday night. Justin Brazeau scored a power-play goal for Boston and Jeremy Swayman made 19 saves. Detroit Red Wings center Marco Kasper (92) guards Boston Bruins right wing David Pastrnak (88) during the first period of an NHL hockey game Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson) AP Boston is 6-4-2 at home so far this season. Its power play, ranked last in the league, is showing signs of life with a man-advantage goal in three straight games. David Pastrnak is the Bruins' top scorer with eight goals and 19 points, and Brad Marchand is next with 15 points. Jeremy Swayman has gotten a majority of the starts (15), and his record is 6-7-2 with a 3.30 goals-against average. More sports news How to watch #1 Kansas vs. #11 Duke basketball: Time, TV channel, FREE live streams How to get Philadelphia Eagles tickets for Ravens game in NFL Week 13: Prices, options Pittsburgh Steelers making big changes to help spark offense Mike Tomlin explains why Steelers ‘love’ the Justin Fields package
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(The Center Square) – Adoption of institutional neutrality is supported by better than 6 in 10 tenured and nontenured faculty at the University of North Carolina, Wake Forest University and Duke University, a report says. Nationally, 66% of faculty say “colleges and universities should not take positions on political and social issues,” says Silence in the Classroom, the 2024 FIRE Faculty Survey Report. At Duke, the percentage is 71%, at Carolina 65%, and at Wake 64%. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.
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Nearly half of American teenagers say they are online “constantly,” despite concerns about the effects of social media and smartphones on their mental health, according to a new report published Thursday by the Pew Research Center. As in past years, YouTube was the single most popular platform teenagers used — 90% said they watched videos on the site, down slightly from 95% in 2022. Nearly three-quarters said they visit YouTube every day. There was a slight downward trend in several popular apps teens used. For instance, 63% of teens said they used TikTok, down from 67%, and Snapchat slipped to 55% from 59%. This small decline could be due to pandemic-era restrictions easing up and kids having more time to see friends in person, but it’s not enough to be truly meaningful . X saw the biggest decline among teenage users. Only 17% of teenagers said they use X, down from 23% in 2022, the year Elon Musk bought the platform. Reddit held steady at 14%. About 6% of teenagers said they use Threads, Meta’s answer to X that launched in 2023. The report comes as countries around the world are grappling with how to handle the effects of social media on young people’s well-being. Australia recently passed a law banning kids under 16 from social networks, though it’s unclear how it will be able to enforce the age limit — and whether it will come with unintended consequences, such as isolating vulnerable kids from their peers. Meta’s messaging service, WhatsApp, was a rare exception in that it saw the number of teenage users increase, to 23% from 17% in 2022. Pew also asked kids how often they use various online platforms. Small, but significant numbers said they are on them “almost constantly.” For YouTube, 15% reported constant use, for TikTok, 16% and for Snapchat, 13%. As in previous surveys, girls were more likely to use TikTok almost constantly, while boys gravitated to YouTube. There was no meaningful gender difference in the use of Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook. Roughly a quarter of Black and Hispanic teens said they visit TikTok almost constantly, compared with just 8% of white teenagers. The report was based on a survey of 1,391 U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 conducted from Sept. 18 to Oct. 10, 2024. Get any of our free email newsletters — news headlines, sports, arts & entertainment, state legislature, CFD news, and more.