Alphabet Inc’s Google late on Tuesday said it was delaying the reopening of its US offices by about two months, because of a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases in some states.
All of Google’s US offices are to remain closed at least until Sept. 7, Google spokeswoman Katherine Williams said.
Google in late May said it would reopen buildings in more cities at about 10 percent of their capacity beginning on Monday next week and scale it up to 30 percent in September, if conditions permitted.
Williams confirmed a Bloomberg report that cited an internal memo to employees sent by a Google executive.
“For all of you that are working from home, please continue to do so unless you are told otherwise by your manager,” Google vice president of global security Chris Rackow said in the memo.
“We don’t expect this guidance to change until Monday, Sept. 7 [Labor Day] at the earliest,” Rackow wrote, adding that the recent rise in coronavirus cases in the US demonstrates that “COVID-19 is still very much alive.”
The development comes as coronavirus cases last month more than doubled in 14 US states, including California, Florida and Texas, a Reuters analysis on Tuesday showed.
Nationally, cases rose by at least 46 percent and deaths increased by 21 percent during the month.
Separately, Google said on Tuesday that it has raised the price of its YouTube online service by 30 percent to US$64.99 per month, citing rising cost of content.
The price hike, effective from Tuesday, comes amid a surge in demand for online content as live events, movie theaters and sporting events remain closed or canceled due to coronavirus restrictions.
Google in April last year raised the cost of its YouTube TV subscription by 25 percent to US$49.99.
The company said the price increase reflects the complete value of YouTube TV, which offers live shows and programs from major broadcast networks, as well as from YouTube creators.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure
RSS