Category Archives: Big Tech

Michael Klimes Illustration by Dan Murrell

We love the cover images created each month by our art editor, Leon Parks, for the print magazine. But this time Leon has excelled himself. The dark wolf with demonic eyes, staring at the reader, is so arresting.

After you have dragged your own eyes away from those of the wolf, there are the little details to savour, such as the person with a bow whom the wolf seems to be hunting; or is it the other way around? Also, what about all that orange mist perhaps smoke between the two protagonists?

One thing these firms are very good at is providing innovative, efficient products and services

The cover image is so good you might not have felt like turning the page to discover what was in the rest of the magazine. If you did, and are reading my words here, I thank you.

The prose in the cover story, by chief reporter Lois Vallely, is equal to Leons artistic vision.

Their combined work makes editing become a joy, and Lois has produced a fine piece on whether Big Tech is a threat to advisers. Its a skilfully told story whose ultimate direction is hard to determine.

On one hand, there are the clunky platform behemoths that go back some years.

Advisers know their names and histories well. They cost tremendous amounts of money and generated huge expectations, but fell short of the mark.

Using AI should enable advisers to focus on what is most important in the long run: serving clients with a human touch

On the other hand, there is what comes under the label of Big Tech: Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. These giants are not associated with financial advice but they could make inroads to the sector due to their financial firepower, datasets and tech nous.

Lois mentions the fact the Financial Conduct Authority believes Big Tech firms could bring benefits to consumers of retail financial services by competing with incumbent providers. One thing these firms are very good at is providing innovative, efficient products and services.

Conversely, there are risks they could get a stranglehold on financial services in the same way they have in other sectors. The Big Tech giants have been criticised by both consumer advocates and politicians for exploiting their market dominance.

Big Tech could make inroads to the sector due to their financial firepower, datasets and tech nous

The best scenario, which Lois outlines, is that something like artificial intelligence (AI) comes in to complement what advisers do. This should enable them to focus on what is most important in the long run: serving clients with a human touch.

We will be covering the same theme of Big Tech and financial advice at MMI Leeds on Thursday 11 May, with Dr Liza Lovdahl Gormsen, a senior adviser to the FCA on the subject. She is our closing speaker and will give us the regulators view.

In other news, I managed to do some writing for the magazine, having conducted MM Meets with M&G Wealth managing director David Montgomery. Enjoy!

Michael Klimes is acting editor. Contact him at: michael.klimes@moneymarketing.co.uk

This article featured in the May 2023 edition of MM.

If you would like to subscribe to the monthly magazine, please click here.

Go here to see the original:

MM View: The Big Tech monster is coming for you - but only if you let it - Money Marketing

By Nick Matich

Google founder Larry Pages first patent U.S. Patent Number 6,285,999 describes the search algorithm that later became one of the most powerful tools in human history. Mr. Page and his colleagues turned that patent, which was licensed from Stanford, into a trillion dollar company and revolutionized the internet in the process.

But now, having reached the commanding heights of the economy, Google and other technology giants with some help from their allies in Washington are trying to weaken patent protections and thus prevent a new generation of startups from climbing the ladder.

First, starting in 2014 with Alice Corp v. CLS Bank International, a series of Supreme Court decisions made it much harder to patent the kind of algorithmic innovations that made Google what it is today. In the years after the Alice decision, for example, denials of AI-related patents on grounds of ineligibility quadrupled. Indeed, under current law, Mr. Pages first patent would almost certainly be invalid.

Lower courts have extended the Supreme Courts precedent to new areas, ruling that even innovations in electric car chargers and garage door openers are actually unpatentable abstract ideas. Bad law that once affected only tech startups, now impacts potentially any industry.

A bipartisan reform proposal in the Senate crafted by Thom Tillis, R-NC, the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act, would clear up the murkiness the Supreme Court created. But Big Tech interests are dead-set against it. The less thats patentable, the more Big Tech can lift the work of others without paying.

Second, around 2010, Big Tech lobbied Congress to pass the America Invents Act, which lawmakers wrote with the intention of streamlining patent litigation. Most notably, the law set up an administrative body that could review the validity of already-issued patents, to confirm whether they were genuinely novel, useful, and nonobvious. One of the architects of that legislation, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-CA, just became the new chair of the House subcommittee on intellectual property.

Unfortunately, Big Tech almost immediately abused the law, by infringing on smaller rivals patents and then repeatedly filing challenges against those patents. In fact, there are now companies whose entire business is challenging patents on behalf of Big Tech. These professional patent challengers keep their clients anonymous, enabling them to mount repeated attacks on their rivals patents.

Third, even if a patent survives Big Techs attacks, it has become virtually impossible to stop their infringement. Traditionally, courts would order an infringer to simply stop using the technology as a matter of course. The patent owner could decide whether to compete based on its idea or accept payment from infringers.

In recent years, however, courts have moved towards awarding a reasonable royalty but allowing infringement to continue. Now, after years of infringement and millions in litigation costs, the most a patent owner can usually collect is what the infringer should have paid before using the technology.

The result of all of these changes to our patent system is that it is almost impossible for startups to use patents to challenge the Big Tech incumbents as they might have in the past. With their other market advantages, Big Tech companies can crush new competition and make our economy less dynamic in the long run.

Thats why Congress needs to empower small innovators by restoring the balanced patent system that built Americas tech industry.

Nick Matich, a patent litigator in private practice, served as acting General Counsel at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

See the article here:

Big Tech has eviscerated America's patent system The Gilmer Mirror - Gilmer Mirror

Is Britain really closed for business? That, were told, is the view of US Big Tech as expressed by Activision Blizzard the company whose most famous product is the violent videogame Call of Duty in response to the blocking by the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) of Activisions proposed $70 billion merger with Microsoft, which would have given the latter a dominant position in the emergent field of cloud-based gaming. You dont need to know exactly what that means to be worried that the worlds digital giants take a dim view of the UK as a marketplace and investment destination. But are they right?

Some pundits have used Activisions scorn as a prompt to recite the UKs obvious faults. Our corporate taxes are too high, we no longer offer EU access, our tech skills are woeful, our stock exchange offers a poor platform for high-growth companies and Tory ministers are not as keen as they should be to cut red tape. All true.

But in the case of Microsoft-Activision, lets note that the US Federal Trade Commission has also challenged the deal, that Activision boss Bobby Kotick stands to collect 300 million if it goes through, and most importantly, that Big Tech is always a seeker of monopoly power witness Amazons habitual crushing of competitors which regulators oppose in the interest of consumers and challengers. Competition is for losers (the slogan of the veteran US tech investor Peter Thiel) sums up the long-term strategy of Microsoft and its ilk. The fact that the CMA has teeth and is prepared to use them is a counter-indication that the UK is open, but for fair business rather than corporate bullies.

The takeover by JP Morgan Chase of First Republic, the collapsed Californian bank, may or may not mean, as Morgan boss Jamie Dimon declared, that this part of the crisis is over and the banking system is very stable. What it does signal is that JPMorgan Chase itself, having absorbed $173 billion of First Republics lendings, is now, even more than before, too big to fail. And rumours of other troubled banks around the world despite Dimons confident tone are likely to lead to another round of safety-first mergers akin to Credit-Suisse-UBS. So the next part of the crisis, if and when, will involve bigger banks needing taxpayer bailouts rather than smaller ones that might easily be taken over by their elder brethren. Frying pans and fires come to mind.

Ive observed before that my own City cohort, who started work in the mid-1970s, were a limp lot compared with the generation a decade or so ahead of us, who were pioneers of eurobond issuance, contested take-overs and international consortium banking. Battle-hardened by the early 1970s boom and bust, I wrote, they turned out tougher and more resilient than we were. Now theyre old and some, sadly, are dead, we can begin to place them in bankings pantheon.

Sir John Craven was a big figure because he brokered so many mergers between the banks themselves. My old boss Lord Camoys, saluted here recently, deserves credit for his bold vision of BZW. Among those still with us, Sir David Scholey of Warburgs was a prince before the fall of his firm and Sir Martin Jacomb was the thinking mans City grandee in a multiplicity of roles.

But without fear of contradiction, Id say the most admired for professionalism, leadership, loyalty, global gladhanding and multi-decade stamina was the German-born Sir Win Bischoff, who died last month aged 81. Successively chairman of Schroders, Citigroup in New York during the 2008 crisis, Lloyds Banking Group in London in the aftermath of that crisis, and finally JPMorgan Securities, Bischoff bestrode the financial world.

And everyone liked him. Long ago we headlined a Spectator profile of him (by Judi Bevan) The last of the Citys frequent flyers. There must be younger candidates for that title by now, but few who also deserve this simple accolade offered by one of Bischoffs peers: Hes a traditional relationship banker who puts the interests of the client first.

Are you an early retiree with a penchant for travel but thinking of re-entering the workforce? How about becoming a train driver for Transpennine Express (TPE)? They certainly need you: the northern regional rail franchisee, owned by FirstGroup, currently cancels one train in five for lack of driver availability.

And the terms are attractive, not to say fantastic. Salary around 60,000 a year, almost twice as much as most teachers and nurses, plus lashings of overtime if you want it but no pressure, since the drivers union, Aslef, cancelled a rest day working agreement with TPE. Youll get a leisurely 18 months training to learn the routes and no risk of repetitive strain because you cant be asked to drive the same route twice in a day. Holidays? Take them at 48 hours notice and put your feet up whenever you feel peaky: TPE drivers take the equivalent of 30 sick days per year compared with a national average of 5.7.

For further details, best to contact Aslef lead officer Andy Hourigan rather than TPE, whose current contract expires on 28 May. The government says all options are on the table for the future of the franchise while voxpopped travellers and northern mayors overwhelmingly support Hourigans call for the axe to fall on TPE, whose management wins no praise or sympathy.

But could any private-sector operator run a decent service with a drivers union so determined to derail it in pursuit of the declared political aim of a publicly owned railway from which privateers are excluded? If TPEs routes end up renationalised, the victor will be union militancy, not the suffering passenger.

More:

We need regulators with teeth to fight Big Tech monopolism - The Spectator Australia

IAMAI member companies are also contemplating whether to seek a revamp of the lobby group's functioning and force out tech giants from the association in its forthcoming elections, say sources

A splinter group of around 30-40 startups and domestic companies who are Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) members are considering whether to join other tech lobby groups, including a prominent rival tech association that is involved in legal action against Big Tech firms, according to people close to the developments.

This comes days after a controversy erupted about IAMAI's alleged leanings to tech giantslike Google and Meta.

"There's a WhatsApp group of around 394 participants who are largely Indian founders and includes both IAMAI members and non-members. The mood has been really hot there with several founders ranting about the issue," said the founder of a unicorn.

"They are saying either we should compel IAMAI to restructure their workings and kick out the Big Tech firms, or join the other prominent rival of the lobby. A third but not too probable option is to form a new group," he added.

Earlier this week, in a bid to assuage the concerns of domestic tech companies, IAMAI said that it was carrying out its mandate by following a process and "work without fear or favour".

On the specific issue of a separate competition law for the digital arena, which triggered the controversy, IAMAI President Subho Ray told members in an e-mail earlier this week that an overwhelming majority of the groups constituents were opposed to the idea of such legislation.

"The genesis of the recent social media and media buzz is the issue of the government setting up a committee to purportedly bring in a separate Competition Law for digital companies. One of the key features of the proposed new competition law is likely to be ex-ante regulations. This means even before you have become large or dominant, your company would be subject to the new provisions," IAMAI President Subho Ray wrote in the mail.

Sources had earlier said that IAMAIs views on the matter may be submitted this week to the Committee on Digital Competition Law (CDCL). However, now, that is unlikely and the process may be delayed further in light of the current controversy.

Moneycontrol has sent queries to IAMAI on the matter and this article will be updated when we receive their responses.

The CDCL earlier had a May 6 deadline for industry bodies to submit their report. However reports state that the deadline has been extended, and a CDCL meeting is scheduled for May 10 to deliberate on the matter further.

Meanwhile, Monday (May 1) was the last day for IAMAI members to submit their views regarding the matter, the group had said in a recent email to its 500 plus members.

A source briefed on the matter said that IAMAI can make changes in its recommendation based on the dissenting views that it may have received from domestic companies. However, that seems unlikely since IAMAI's president Shubho Ray has already said that the last version of its suggestions on the matter, which argued against a separate competition law, reflected the opinion of the majority of IAMAI members.

However, the dissenting views can be captured in a 'dissent note' as part of the larger industry consultation document, and be submitted to the government, sources said.

Another person close to the developments said that IAMAI might be planning to do separate calls with its members and non-member domestic companies on the issue, in order to discuss their concerns about the groups independence.

The issue here is very simple. All of us would like anything that hurts big tech companies. Perhaps, one way to revamp the working of the lobby group would be to ensure that the big tech firms dont get any of the top positions in the upcoming elections of IAMAI, said the founder of the Indian unicorn quoted earlier.

Deepsekhar Choudhury Deepsekhar covers tech and startups at Moneycontrol. Tweets at @deepsekharc

Aihik Sur covers tech policy, drones, space tech among other beats at Moneycontrol

Read the original:

IAMAI showdown: Start-ups explore other lobby groups to fight Big Tech dominance - Moneycontrol

Advantage, big tech. Snaps first-quarter report today, showing a 7% drop in revenue, was a markedly worse performance than what its much bigger rival Meta Platforms reported on Wednesday night. (For those whove already forgotten, Metas ad revenue rose 4% in the quarter.) More noticeable was the difference in the second-quarter revenue outlook: Snap projected a 6% drop, while Meta projected growth of as much as 11%. Investors have made their choice, selling Snap stock down close to 20% in after-hours trading and wiping out all its gains for the year. Meta, on the other hand, is up 98% so far this year.

And this isnt just about Meta versus Snap. Alphabets Google is sailing through the ad downturn reasonably well, all things considered. While it reported a fractional dip in first-quarter ad revenue earlier this week, its search ad number rose slightly. What suffered were ad sales it handles for other companies websites, as well as on YouTube. And on the video front, YouTubes 2.6% decline was better than the 6.1% drop reported by Comcasts NBCUniversal today for its domestic ad revenue. Meanwhile Amazon tonight reported a 21% increase in advertising, slightly better than last quarters growth rate and a lot better than for other big ad-selling firms. (Details on Amazons overall quarter are here, Snap is here and Comcast here.)

See the original post:

Snap and Amazon Q1 Shows Big Tech's Advertising Advantage - The Information

Californians and other Americans were shaken last year when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, sending womens rights back five decades and placing millions of American women at risk.

This occurred alongside a parallel crisis: the feeble state of online privacy, including among pregnancy and period tracker apps. This femtech software ostensibly helps women navigate ovulation, conception and pregnancy. While this software does do that, these apps are also deeply entwined with the unfettered data economy, which collects, shares and sells reams of personal information about people. This includes data like menstrual cycles, ovulation windows, sexual activity and doctors appointments information that could indicate an abortion.

Right now, California policymakers are debating some of the most important legislation in a generation. In Sacramento and in local legislatures, our representatives are crafting bills about climate change, immigration and wealth inequality.

For that reason, its easy to overlook a seemingly modest bill now being considered in Sacramento: AB254.

AB254 doesnt propose a grand new law. Instead, it revises Californias existing Confidentiality of Medical Information Act to protect a new subset of personal data: reproductive or sexual health information collected by apps and other digital services.

For this reason, AB254 is among the most important bills circulating that address womens and reproductive health rights. It addresses real risks Californians face in a post-Roe America, where pregnancy and period tracking apps are ubiquitous and their data collection policies are abysmal.

Indeed, my nonprofit group, Mozilla,published in-depth researchinto 25 of the most popular pregnancy and period tracking apps in August, shortly after the Supreme Court decision. The findings were frightening: 18 of those apps failed to meet minimum standards for privacy and/or security. The vast majority of the apps have opaque privacy policies, grave security issues or share data widely with advertising and marketing firms. One app, Sprout Pregnancy, didnt even have a privacy policy. And others,like Maya, share users information with Facebook. Lawsuits against these apps for privacy breaches arent uncommon.

Worst of all, these apps can potentially share that data with law enforcement. This could allow authorities to weaponize these apps to determine if users are pregnant, seeking abortion information or services, or crossing state lines to obtain an abortion. Mozilla research found only a handful of apps clearly articulate if and how they handle data requests from law enforcement the rest did not. And this isnt a theoretical problem: Last year, police in Nebraska used online data to investigate a teens abortion.

This fraught landscape is why AB254 is so important. Yes, its true that abortion isnt under direct threat in California: In November, Californians voted to amend the state Constitution and enshrine the right to an abortion. Gov. Gavin Newsom has even encouraged womenfrom states where abortion is illegal to travel to California for health care.

There are multiple ways AB254 can influence reproductive health rights nationwide.

California has tremendous market power. Its likely that most of these apps would apply AB254s mandate across all states; it can be too costly or technically difficult to tailor apps on a state-by-state basis. For decades, Californias progressive laws on climate and environmental protection have created a similar de facto national standard.

California is also a trendsetter in consumer data privacy. The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 and the later California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 was among the first online privacy laws in the U.S. and many states have used it as a blueprint for their own laws. Since 2018, the California laws have spurred Virginia, Utah, Connecticut and other states to take action on online privacy.

Never have I seen the two issues womens rights and digital rights intersect quite like this. In an always-online country where reproductive health rights are under attack, Californias AB254 is a desperately needed response.

Ashley Boyd is vice president for global advocacy at Mozilla.

Read the original:

How big tech is undermining women's reproductive rights in ... - San Francisco Chronicle

Images are unavailable offline.

Screens display the logos of OpenAI and ChatGPT in Toulouse, France, on Jan. 23.

LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP/Getty Images

Kean Birch is director of the Institute for Technoscience and Society at York University.

A growing chorus of voices from across the political spectrum is raising concerns about artificial intelligence technologies, with many people calling for the regulation of AI, or at least a halt to further deployment while we think through how to regulate it. This includes an open letter published on Tuesday that was signed by about 75 Canadian researchers and startup chief executives.

I agree wholeheartedly with these calls for regulation and Ive long thought about how bizarre it is that we dont regulate AI companies that are literally experimenting on us given that they are being trained on our data even though we heavily (and necessarily) regulate biopharmaceutical testing. I think we need to do far more in Canada to regulate whats coming down the AI pipeline and we need to do so now.

Story continues below advertisement

Its not just about the misinformation and loss of jobs that a lot of people fear. Absent regulation of AI, we risk further entrenching Big Techs dominance over the direction of our technologies.

Heres what I see as the most significant issues facing us with the development of AI technologies. And none of them can be solved via individual choices or market signals. A co-ordinated regulatory approach is required.

First, it is deeply problematic that our personal, health and user data are critical inputs into the development of AI algorithms. I dont want my personal information and user data to be deployed to develop new technologies I disagree with and Im pretty sure other people feel the same way.

But permissive terms and conditions agreements mean companies can largely do what they want with our data. Whatever future society AI could create, we are providing the building blocks for it through our data.

Story continues below advertisement

This society could easily end up as a dystopia.

According to a paper that infamously got Timnit Gebru, technical co-lead of Googles Ethical AI Team, and other researchers fired in 2020, these large language models are best thought of as stochastic parrots. The models can put together outputs, such as human-like conversations, on the basis of probabilistic analysis analyzing millions of real conversations but they cant tell us the meaning of the interactions.

This is why using a platform such as ChatGPT is often a hilarious exercise in spotting how much absolute nonsense it can spit back at you.

The use of these AI technologies developed with large data sets will only further embed a range of biases prevalent in human life. If AI gets more integrated into our lives with no oversight, it will amplify these biases and worse.

Story continues below advertisement

Which brings me to computing capacity. Developing AI requires immense computing power. The worlds computing capacity is being increasingly concentrated in the hands of Big Tech. Companies such as Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc./Google dominate cloud computing, which provides the digital infrastructure on which much of AI is being developed and on which it will run.

This infrastructure will have to expand significantly in the future to keep up with the demands of AI developments, leading to negative effects such as rising greenhouse gas emissions and energy costs. Moreover, these companies, which are already accused of having too much power over us, will only further entrench their control.

This means were not going to see the development of AI technologies that can actually do useful things. My favourite idea, for example, would be to automate the investigation of tax avoidance and evasion by the wealthy and big business, and then automate the enforcement action against them.

Unfortunately, Big Tech is not going to invest in developing these kinds of AI technologies. Thats because the technologies we create usually end up reflecting the social, political and economic context in which they emerge.

Story continues below advertisement

Were at a crossroads right now where we need to do something. Trying to regulate AI after the fact will not be a viable option.

See the original post:

Opinion: Failure to regulate artificial intelligence will entrench Big ... - The Globe and Mail

Tech layoffs: Yes, there's a better way to fire people. Is Big Tech doing it? No way.  Yahoo Finance

Here is the original post:

Tech layoffs: Yes, there's a better way to fire people. Is Big Tech doing it? No way. - Yahoo Finance

Workers who jumped from one high-paying job to another as Big Tech companies staffed up at a dizzying pace in recent years are now considering leaving the sector entirely as those same large employers lay off tens of thousands of workers. MarketWatch spoke with several recently laid-off tech workers who are looking for jobs at companies that dont focus solely on technology many of which say they are still hiring.

Anna Naumova was laid off in January after nearly four years as a contract worker at Apple Inc. AAPL, -0.75%, where she was a product manager of internal sales tools for Apples marketing team. Now shes looking into a nontech job at grocery chain H-E-B, where she would be able to use the same skills.

Its a really hard situation, said Naumova, who also recently started a consulting business to help immigrants land jobs in the U.S.

Todd Erickson, meanwhile, has spent nearly two decades in tech, working for the last six years at Phase Change Software. Now hes exploring marketing and communications openings at nontech companies in sectors like healthcare, government and financial services.

Longtime tech workers like Naumova and Erickson are considering making these kinds of career changes as tech giants like Apple, Meta Platforms Inc. META, +0.26%, Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, -0.97%, Alphabet Inc.s GOOGL, -1.21% GOOG, -1.24% Google, Microsoft Corp. MSFT, -1.56%, Cisco Systems Inc. CSCO, -0.43%, HP Inc. HPQ, -0.36% and Intel Corp. INTC, -2.09% pink-slip thousands of employees in an effort to cut costs. The shift would help explain why the U.S. continues to exceed forecasts for job growth, as Januarys jobs report showed, despite massive tech layoffs.

Silicon Valley added 88,000 jobs in the year ending in June 2022, according to the recently published Silicon Valley Index. More than 16,000 of those jobs were in the tech industry, leaving the regions unemployment rate at about 2%, compared with the national rate of 3.4%.

On Friday, during the annual State of the Valley conference, Joint Venture Silicon Valley CEO Russell Hancock said most local jobs are in infrastructure, and parts of that sector including healthcare, social services and banking and financial services are rebounding and adding jobs. The 11,000 tech layoffs through February amounted to about 0.7% of the total Silicon Valley workforce and 2% of tech workers, he said, noting that 22,000 jobs were added to the region in the second half of 2022.

Another employment wrinkle is placing non-tech workers at pure-tech companies. Ed-tech platform Careerist has helped place 1,000 people in jobs as office workers, drivers, and sales reps at Apple, Amazon, Google, Samsung Electronics 005930, -1.73%, and Intel Corp. INTC, -2.09% over the three years, company CEO Ivan Tsybaev told MarketWatch.

For more: Heres why the jobs report was so good despite Big Tech layoffs

The sudden influx of laid-off workers has not only intensified competition for jobs but has added to harsh feelings among some tech workers toward their employers and the tech industry in general.

The honeymoon period with tech ended five years ago with the tech backlash, 2016 elections, data breaches, federal legislation and antitrust lawsuits, Spencer Greene, a general partner at venture-capital firm TSVC, told MarketWatch. There is a sense of disillusionment.

Stephen Deasy, chief technology officer at Benchling, a biotech-research platform, predicts that many jobless tech workers will land at more traditional businesses, which he says is an invaluable opportunity to transfer their skills.

Industries outside of tech have undergone massive digital transformations and are in need of workers with skills in artificial intelligence, cloud computing and data services, and companies in sectors such as banking, pharmaceuticals, biotech, healthcare and the defense industry are now hiring from a huge pool of newly available talent.

Former Cisco Systems Inc. CSCO, -0.43% CEO John Chambers has repeatedly said Fortune 500 companies have no choice but to adapt or perish. Have of these companies wont exist in 10 years, he famously said in 2020.

For years, those industries struggled to recruit against Big Tech, which offered legendary perks and lofty compensation. But now, industries such finance and insurance are hoping to hire while tech companies are on pause.

Wells Fargo & Co. WFC, +0.57%, for example, is in the midst of a tech-hiring binge. After filling more than 1,000 tech-related job openings in 2022, the financial-services company plans to hire 1,500 additional software engineers, systems architects and people skilled in user-experience design, operations and AI and machine learning. Wells Fargo already employs 40,000 technology workers globally.

It remains hard to recruit and get through to top talent. They are never looking for a job. We have to reach out to them, Jason Strle, chief information officer and head of enterprise-functions technology at Wells Fargo, told MarketWatch.

At the same time, early-stage tech startups are finding it easier to hire from the growing pool of qualified workers who have been let go recently by the industrys biggest names.

Seed-stage startups had difficulty hiring in 2021, but that is freeing up now, TSVCs Greene said. In 2021, there was so much competition for talent. Now it is a question of how much of more than 100,000 [laid-off tech workers] can you absorb now? I dont know, but startup people are really excited about [the available talent pool].

Somesh Dash, a general partner at Silicon Valley VC firm IVP, said 90% of people laid off at his portfolio companies, which include Uber Technologies Inc. UBER, -4.00% and Netflix Inc. NFLX, -0.78%, found jobs within a year.

If there is any consolation for recently unemployed tech workers, its that they are in high demand, as companies like Wells Fargo and State Farm Insurance build out their IT operations and need workers with AI, software and cloud skills.

This has happened before, said Muddu Sudhakar, CEO of Aisera, a service-desk platform. After the dot-com implosion in 2001, nontech employers ramped up hiring of tech talent. Now, we are having it happen again 20 years later.

This time around, there is a twist. Some tech workers are reluctant to take a job at another Big Tech company because of misgivings over companies damaged reputations as well as a general feeling that the industry is more interested in profits and market value than innovation.

Nick Hirsch started out as a software engineer intern at Google and later worked at Amazon and Microsoft before leaving Big Tech in 2015 to start his own venture. He also does freelance work for nontech companies such as McGraw Hill through A.Team, a marketplace for people with tech skills.

He says that his career path reinforces the idea that highly skilled tech workers dont have to be full-time employees at Big Tech firms. Like Hirsch, many have made the choice to do meaningful work at other kinds of companies.

Every company is a tech company to a certain degree, Deasy said. As banks, healthcare and customer service move into the application of AI, [machine learning] and cloud computing, there are more job opportunities than ever. So if you lost a job at a Big Tech company, dont despair. You have options.

Jeremy Owens contributed to this report.

More here:

As Big Tech cuts workers, other industries are desperate to hire them

According to statistics, the technology industry makes up 35% of the total market. And its steadily growing: the growth rate was 5.3% for 2022. There are more than 500 thousand tech companies alone in the United States, over 6,600 of which are in Silicon Valley.

Almost each and every company -no matter which industry theyre originally in- depends on technology companies in one way or another. It might be hardware, software, online services/tools, cybersecurity solutions

And my friends, this means money.

For this article, I went through Forbes The Global 2000, the annual ranking of public companies based upon 4 metrics (sales, assets, profits, and market value).

Here are the biggest tech companies of 2023

Amazon, one of the most valuable companies in the world, was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos.

Initially an online marketplace, the company started to produce its own technological devices and offer cloud services over time.

As well as ranking as the worlds 6th largest company in Forbes list, its listed among the top 25 tech and IT companies to work for -a.k.a. best workplaces!

Another tech giant on our list is Apple, which is not very surprising.

Specialized in electronics, software and online services, Apples annual revenue was $365.817B last year, in 2021.

The company was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne in 1976. Since then, Apple has been producing various tech devices, from computers to wearables.

Apple was one of the most popular tech companies in the industry when I was a little kid, it still is, and it doesnt seem like this will change in the near future.

Alphabet is a multinational conglomerate company, with $257.637B annual revenue for 2021.

After the restructuring Google went through in 2015, Alphabet Inc. was founded, and it became the parent company of Google businesses.

The company also invests in various start-ups and companies of different sizes in the tech industry: smart home projects, self-driving cars, cloud-gaming systems, and more.

Founded by Bill Gates and Paul Ellen in 1975, Microsoft is another tech giant rises from the United States.

It produces consumer electronics and computer software, as well as offering related solutions.

One of Microsofts best products, MS Office, has become an indispensable part of our lives. Spreadsheets, presentations, meeting notes You are ready for any meeting, any time with Office tools.

Also; LinkedIn, Skype, and GitHub can be listed among the companys subsidiaries.

Founded in 1969 in South Korea, Samsung Electronics operates through business divisions, as they manufacture and sell a wide range of electronics and software.

These are Consumer Electronics, IT & Mobile Communications, and Device Solutions.

Samsung Electronics does not only manufacture TVs, phones, and wearables; it also has smart home and digital health initiatives.

Tencent Holdings is a Chinese technology conglomerate company that was founded 23 years ago. Its the first Asian tech company that crossed the $500B mark.

Among its services, there are web portals, e-commerce platforms, payment systems, social networks, and mobile games.

The holding group also owns Tencent Music and Tencent Games, the largest company in the video game industry.

Tencents most popular communication tool WeChat has over 1.2 billion monthly active users. And its sibling app, QQ, has 564 million monthly active users.

The company also provides marketing solutions and cloud services. Tencent is dedicated to being a digital assistant they say. Through their digital services and technologies, they aim to help every industry.

Launched by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 to connect Harvard students with one another, Facebook was an instant hit. In 2 years, it became open to public use. In 2010, more than 400 million people were using it monthly.

In 2021, Facebook Inc. changed its name to Meta Platforms to emphasize its orientation to the metaverse.Virtual/augmented reality is the future, and Meta claims to help people exist there.

In addition to their own products focusing on metaverse and web3, such as Meta Quest and Meta Portal, the company acquired many subsidiaries, including Novi Financial, Hot Studio, and WhatsApp.

Born out of the difficulties of a husband and wife working at Stanford to communicate within the organization, Cisco Systems is almost 40 years old today.

Headquartered in San Jose, Silicon Valley, Cisco is an IT and networking company specialized in routers, switches, and cybersecurity.

The cybersecurity unit is the most valuable -and the fastest growing- part of the company. Last quarter, it grew its revenue by 14%, according to company data.

With Cisco SecureX; you can detect, respond, and quickly recover from cyber attacks. Its an integrated platform that can be used across various products, which means you can secure your apps, users, endpoints, and network from a single platform.

A fun fact about the company name: Cisco stands for San Francisco, and the vertical lines on the logo represent the Golden Gate Bridge

Oracle is an American computer software company. It was founded in 1977, in California, but the corporate headquarters are in Austin, Texas now.

They have more than 400,000 customers across the world, including FedEx, Xerox, and Siemens Healthineers, as they provide specific solutions for different industries.

You can manage your restaurant, modernize your finances, secure network infrastructure solutions, connect HR/product management/marketing and increase client satisfaction.

Plus: Oracle holds developer events regularly. From machine learning to image recognition, specialists exchange ideas. You can check out old events recordings and register for the upcoming ones from here.

Yeah, software companies are worth the whole world, and hardware companies can be worth a lot too. But companies who provide both? Theyre totally different gems

Broadcom has a diverse product portfolio, including both semiconductor and infrastructure software solutions.

With their innovative vision and collaboration, they achieved excellence more than once.

SAP is a leading software company that focuses on business management solutions such as data processing and information flow.

It was founded in 1972 in Weinheim, Germany.

When they released SAP R/2 and SAP R/3 software, they set a global standard in terms of enterprise resource planning (ERP). Now they have SAP S/4HANA, the latest version of ERP software. It makes use of in-memory computing; therefore, it enables tremendous amounts of data to be processed fast and smoothly.

SAP software gathers and centralizes data, normally which would be collected and analyzed separately by each department/team. It helps to have a better view and interpretation of collected data while increasing productivity -and ultimately, profits.

ERP software includes tools and programs suitable for all teams: HR, sales, marketing, product

And SAP has different solutions for companies of different sizes. A big corporate or a small company, doesnt matter, you can get help from them!

For other business management tools, lets take you here.

Its not easy to be recognized as a successful company by business magazines and get featured. But if theres anything harder, it is to be recognized and loved by those who got featured there.

Accenture has been working with 89 of Fortune 100 companies.

Its also listed as one of the best workplaces for innovative people by Fast Company.

Now, who is this Accenture? Lets have a close look at their services

They provide a wide range of services. From AI and cloud services to services for marketing needs, security needs, data & analytics

Furthermore, Accenture helps customers understand the metaverse and shape their business plans in a way that will fit into the future. With a deep understanding of the industry and the future that awaits it, they accompany customers in their metaverse journey.

While we are at the early days of the metaverse, it will advance very quickly. If companies dont act now, theyll find themselves operating in worlds designed by, and for, someone else.

PAUL DAUGHERTY, Group Chief Executive Technology & Chief Technology Officer

P.S. Accenture leads a national tech apprenticeship program. You can read more about it here.

Salesforce is the worlds #1 customer relationship management (CRM) platform.Founded in 1999, in California, it became one of the major tech companies shortly.

It acquired several companies including Slack, Heroku, and Tableou Software.

Customer 360, Salesforces original product, is a platform that integrates all the data and information about your company into one place. Sales team, customer Support, marketing people, product engineers All teams, one workspace.

You can integrate different apps with Customer 360 for sales/marketing purposes, data analysis, etc. and actually the more you integrate the better results you get.

Dont forget to check the best Salesforce alternatives!

Founded in 1982, Adobe is an American software company that provides marketing and document management solutions as well as creative tools. The corporate headquarters are in San Jose, Silicon Valley.

The company offer services in 3 main categories:

Intuit is a software company that is specialized in finance.

Along with their own products, QuickBooks, TurboTax, and Mint, the company owns time management and scheduling app TSheets, Mailchimp, and Credit Karma, which was another finance company but now is a brand of Intuit.

Lets see what you can do with their products

TurboTax:

Work with a tax expert

Get your tax refunds

Mint:

Manage all your accounts in one place

Track your cash flow (bill payments included!)

QuickBooks:

Keep track of your income and expenses

Complete your payments

Organize your taxes

Capgemini is a French-American IT services & consulting company. Corporate headquarters are in Paris, France.

They offer companies various solutions such as business transformation, cybersecurity, and enterprise management.

Also, they are aware of the fact that industry needs differ. Capgemini follows each industry closely and offers recommendations based on their needs.

From healthcare to media, insurance to travel, banking to automotive, and even aerospace and defense! You can trust them.

Founded in 1998, in Palo Alto, California, VMware is a cloud computing company.

It provides multi-cloud services for all apps. But what is multi-cloud?

Hybrid has became the new normal for most of us. No, Im not talking about half-time office half-time home-office shifts. Im talking about online workspaces, clouds. 73% of enterprises work with two -or more- cloud accounts. Even though the wide use of cloud-based platforms and the digital transformation is good news, they might bring possible security risks and productivity problems.

That is where VMware comes into play:

It connects and secures data across data centers and clouds.

It leverages infrastructure to protect apps.

It does not only protect your apps, but also help you improve and modernize them.

And finally, it improves the work experience of your employees. Anyone can work from anywhere from now on!

Uber, one of the companies with a high-tech employment rate, is mobility as a service company. It was founded in 2009 and quickly grew to be one of the most successful start-ups of the last decade.

You can mainly do two things with Uber:

You can meet your transportation needs

Or you can order from your favorite restaurants and get delivery with Uber

Also, you can work as a Uber driver or a delivery person.

Plus, as the largest mobility as a service platform in the world, the company is aware of its responsibilities towards the environment. They will have become a full electric, zero-emission platform by the end of 2040.

Shopify, which emerged shortly after as a solution when its founders could not find an e-commerce platform that meets their needs for their own commerce ventures, is now helping millions of businesses worldwide.

You can start your business, sell your products, plan your marketing campaigns, and manage your finances from only one platform.

But it doesnt end with creating a page on Shopify. You need to be on good terms with your customers, which means, you need to welcome them.

Take a look at how to onboard your Shopify customers successfully from here.

Go here to see the original:

Worlds 22 Biggest Tech Companies of 2023 - UserGuiding