 Intel will invest $20B+ on a chip manufacturing site outside of Columbus, Ohio — a project that CEO Pat Gelsinger expects will become "the largest silicon manufacturing location on the planet." The first two chip factories are expected to become operational in 2025. Intel wants to eventually have eight factories costing $100B at the “mega-site” in New Albany within 10 years. More: - During remarks at the White House today, President Biden is expected to hail the project as a sign of U.S. progress in chip production and efforts to address semiconductor shortages.
- The project, believed to be the single largest private-sector investment ever in Ohio, will create an estimated 3,000 jobs as well as 7,000 temporary construction jobs.
- Gelsinger told Time that the 1,000-acre site could become "the Silicon Heartland." It's Intel's first manufacturing expansion into a new state in 40+ years.
- Intel pledged an additional $100M to fund research projects with area universities and support undergrad programs to develop a workforce for the facility.
- The company has factories in Oregon, New Mexico, and Arizona, and plans to build a $95M "megafab" in Europe.
CNN 
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 Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is expected to receive a $390M payout, mostly through his 3.95 million Activision shares, when the Microsoft deal closes in 2023. Evidence indicates that Kotick will not continue on in his role following the $68.7B acquisition announced this week. More: - Once the deal closes, the Activision Blizzard business will report to Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer, which doesn't support Kotick's continued employment.
- In November, the Wall Street Journal reported that Kotick had been aware of the sexual assault allegations and misconduct at the company for years.
- Kotick was CEO of Activision for decades before he became chief of the larger merged company in 2008. Years later, he oversaw the company's $5.9B acquisition of Candy Crush Saga maker King.
- He was later accused of mismanagement amid the allegations and a lawsuit filed by California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing, which accused the company of equal pay violations, sexual harassment, and discrimination.
The deal: - Activision Blizzard was primed for takeover after sexual bias charges and the suit as well as a poorer performance of Call of Duty and Overwatch, which caused its stock price to plummet.
- Microsoft was reportedly one of several companies interested in a deal in late 2021. Activision held talks with Meta and others but when there was "no other serious interest," Microsoft and Activision worked to hammer out a deal over the holidays.
- Kotick "initially didn’t want to sell" but didn't have much board leverage amid the scrutiny and was also keen on the idea of a "graceful exit," according to various reports.
- The CEO did a wide-ranging interview with VentureBeat this week, in which he talked about why he did the deal, antitrust issues, the metaverse, his role during the transition, and more topics.
ARS TECHNICA
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 A message from LOHIKA Web3: Why It Matters and How to Think About It in 2022. You may have heard about “Web3,” along with related technologies like blockchain, NFTs and smart contracts. What exactly is Web3? Is it the evolution of Web 2.0? Is it the future of the Internet? We don’t know all the answers, so invited a panel of experts who do. We’re hosting an online event with Capgemini AIE “Web3: Why It Matters and How to Think About It in 2022.” The panel: We will also discuss: - How engineering leaders should approach recruiting for team building web3 applications
- Whether an NFT represents ownership of digital art or if there’s more to it
- What will happen between central banks asserting their control of fiat currencies and decentralized currencies erasing boundaries and national sovereignty
Join us on February 10, 2022 at 10am PT / 1pm ET. Register Here
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The U.S. Federal Reserve took the first steps in further weighing its own digital dollar as new payment innovations expand in the private sector. In a newly released discussion paper, the Fed explored the risks and benefits of a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The U.S. central bank is accepting public comments on the idea. More: - Unlike bitcoin and other private cryptocurrencies, a CBDC would be backed by the Fed like the paper dollar.
- Digitizing the dollar could speed up electronic payments, improve cross-board payments, and ensure the dollar remains predominant worldwide, though it poses privacy and financial stability risks, reports noted.
- Given the many factors, it's unlikely that a digital dollar will appear anytime soon. The Fed has not issued an opinion and said it would not proceed without support from Congress and the White House, preferably through legislation.
- The agency is taking comments through an online feedback form until May 20.
ZDNET
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 Project Iris will look more like ski goggles than Google Glass, shown above Google aims to ship an augmented reality headset — which would blend real-world video with virtual imagery — in 2024, sources told The Verge. The supersecret device, codenamed Project Iris, resembles ski goggles in its early prototype form. It would use outward-facing cameras and advanced tech to combine the real and virtual worlds in an immersive wearable experience. More: - The wireless device would run Android on a custom Google processor. It would have an internal power source but render some graphics in the cloud due to "power constraints," reports said.
- The ~300 employees working on the headset, led by Google Labs VP Clay Bavor, are required to sign non-disclosure agreements and use special keycards.
- Bavor has also led other Google AR/VR projects, including Google Lens, ARCore, and Project Starline — an immersive telepresence booth that creates 3D life-size models of speakers.
- Google's Glass AR head-mounted display, first revealed in 2012, failed as a consumer product but has continued on as a hands-free workplace device that is used in industries like manufacturing and logistics.
9TO5GOOGLE
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 A message from FLATFILE How the world’s best companies onboard their customers Product and engineering teams spend days or even weeks trying to import customer data, which is typically filled with validation errors. The result? A broken onboarding process that causes issues for 96% of onboarding teams. Help your team focus on building a great product, not cleaning customer spreadsheets. Integrate the leading data onboarding platform and solve the most critical stage of onboarding while providing a delightful experience for your customers, with HIPAA, GDPR, SOC 2 Type II compliance out the box. Learn More
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 Meta is exploring ways to allow users to create and sell NFTs on Instagram and Facebook, according to the Financial Times (FT). The social media platforms are preparing features that would allow users to mint new NFTS and display NFTs as their profile pictures. More: - Meta is also holding internal talks to possibly launch a marketplace for people to buy and sell NFTs.
- The FT notes that plans are still at an "early stage and could yet change."
- Facebook began piloting its digital wallet Novi last October, and its functionality will be "supporting" the NFTS.
- In December, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri said it's “actively exploring NFTs and how we can make them more accessible to a wider audience."
Related: - On Thursday, Twitter started allowing users of its Blue subscription service to use NFTs as their profile pictures.
- The early-stage “Labs” feature lets users link their crypto wallets to their Twitter accounts to display the NFT, which is indicated through a hexagonal display rather than the standard circle profile.
- Twitter launched a unit for crypto, blockchain, and other decentralized tech in November.
THE FINANCIAL TIMES
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IBM has agreed to sell a portion of its Watson Health AI business to a private equity firm, allowing the tech giant to further concentrate on its cloud computing operations. Francisco Partners is acquiring the unit's data assets, including health datasets and products, plus imaging software offerings collectively valued at more than $1B, sources told Bloomberg. More: - Francisco Partners, a private equity investor with a heavy tech portfolio, will acquire the unit's Watson Health Insights, MarketScan, Clinical Development, Social Program Management, Micromedex, and other offerings.
- In the new standalone company, the Watson Health management team will continue on in similar roles.
- Offloading the business is "the next step" for IBM to focus on its platform-based hybrid cloud and AI strategies, according to software SVP Tom Rosamilia.
- The transaction is expected to close in Q2 2022.
- While IBM spent nearly $4B to acquire businesses for the unit, Watson Health's products failed to meet the hype surrounding AI in healthcare. It never became profitable, generating about $1B in annual revenue and struggling for market share.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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- TikTok has been testing support for paid subscriptions that would allow creators to charge for content.
- Samsung will unveil its new S series device, presumably the Galaxy S22, at its February Unpacked event.
- Elon Musk's Neuralink is now hiring a clinical trial director, suggesting that human trials of the brain-computer interfaces could start soon.
- Animoca Brands, a Hong Kong-based blockchain gaming company, raised $360M at a $5B valuation.
- Snapchat said its AI and machine learning algorithms now proactively detect 88% of drug dealing activity on its platform.
- Sign up for free and find out why Splinterlands is the world’s #1 NFT game. Own your own assets. Get daily airdrops. Earn with every win.*
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UPCOMING EVENTS - January 25 - Need To Know NoCoder - Leon Young (Cogniss) (Register Here)
- January 25 - Venturing in VC - Episode #4 with David Cowan (Bessemer Venture Partners) (Register Here)
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- March 10 - NoCode's Impact on the Gig Economy (Register Here)
- March 23 - Need to Know NoCoder: Nichole Bestman (Bubble) (Register Here)
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 |  | Beth is an Inside Analyst and a former public policy/investigative reporter. She has covered AI, VR, technology, and e-commerce for Inside. When she's not busy writing, she's hiking in Arizona's desert, playing pickleball, or trying out new Mexican food recipes. |   | | Editor | Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is writing an illustrated book about climate change that will be published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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