Campaigners have challenged British and European patent authorities over their rejection of the world's first "AI inventor". The nine-strong squad of international legal experts is battling for designs conceived by artificial intelligence to be recognised in law, and has filed patents on its behalf around the world. UK officials withdrew the applications – but admitted it was "right [that changes to the law] be debated more widely". The landmark case has highlighted growing anxieties among lawmakers about the role of machines in the creative process internationally. Click here for more BI Prime stories.

The decision by UK and European authorities to reject the world's first "AI inventor" is being challenged in court.

On Friday, Business Insider revealed the world's first artificially intelligent "inventor" had been rejected by British and European patent authorities, marking an historic moment in the debate around creative machines.

Now the Artificial Inventor Project has filed legal challenges with the UK's High Court and the European Patent Agency's boards of appeal.

In July last year, the international squad of legal experts challenged bodies in the UK, EU and US to recognise the "inventorship" of an AI called Dabus, arguing that current regimes were outdated and failing to protect machines' creative output. The team has since filed further applications in Germany, Israel, Taiwan and China.

Ryan Abbott, head of the project and a professor of law at the University of Surrey, told Business Insider he was "not surprised" by either decision.

"We anticipated this project would require judicial involvement," he said. "The patentability of AI-generated inventions is a novel issue of law in every jurisdiction, and whether patent offices allow protection for such inventions is a matter of significant importance to innovation."

Professor Abbott and his team are fighting for patents on two inventions by Dabus.

The first: a fractal beverage container, capable of changing its shape, making it easier for prosthetic or robot hands to grip. The second: a flickering lamp or "neural flame", as the team dubbed it, which mimics brain activity in a way that could draw more attention from the human eye in an emergency situation.

In a written response seen by Business Insider, the UK's Intellectual Property Office rejected Dabus as an inventor because it was "not a person" and therefore ineligible.

It added: "Inventions created by AI machines are likely to become more prevalent in the future and there is a legitimate question as to how or whether the patent system should handle such inventions...The present system does not cater for such inventions and it was never anticipated that it would. 

"But times have changed and technology has moved on. It is right that this is debated more widely and that any changes to the law be considered in the context of such a debate, and not shoehorned arbitrarily into existing legislation." 

The European Patent Office also rejected Dabus' work, saying it "[did] not meet the requirement... that an inventor designated in the application has to be a human being, not a machine". 

Simon Davies, chair of Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys' committee on computer and technologies, said it was "not a surprise" the UK IPO refused to recognise Dabus under existing legislation. 

He added: "It is possible the courts could construe an 'inventor' to include an AI system, but this would be a departure from the original understanding of the legislation. It would require a lot of goodwill and elasticity from the courts." 

The UK IPO and EPO were approached for further comment. 

Original author: Martin Coulter

Apple may have spent less on lobbying than its Silicon Valley peers, but the costs of doing business amid a raging trade war with China seem to be partly reflected in the company boss's executive compensation. Apple CEO Tim Cook's security and air travel costs surged more than double in 2019, according to the company's latest proxy statement.This may be due to Cook's many visits to Washington this year: the famously-diplomatic company CEO is said to have forged close ties with President Donald Trump and his family, in a bid to dodge the punishing tariffs that the administration has placed on products manufactured in China, Apple's manufacturing hub.View Business Insider's homepage for more stories. 

Apple may have spent less on lobbying than tech industry peers like Google and Facebook, but the costs of doing business amid a raging trade war with China are still apparent in the company head's executive compensation. 

Apple CEO Tim Cook's salary has remained relatively flat over the past three years, according to the company's latest proxy statement. But compensation for his security and air travel expenses have surged explosively over the past year. 

Air travel costs climbed 239% in value over the past year, costing the company $315,311. And costs for Cook's private security also rose 104% to $457,083.  

The surge in costs incurred to Apple may partly be due to Cook's private attempts to advocate for the company in Washington DC. As of this summer, Apple's CEO has met with President Donald Trump at least five times in a bid to hold the president's ear amid a raging trade war with China.

Trump's 18-month trade war with China stems from a 2016 campaign promise to revitalize the manufacturing sector in the US by making companies like Apple start "building their damn computers and things in this country instead of other countries." Over the past 18 months, escalating tariffs imposed on Chinese-manufactured goods have threatened Apple's most lucrative products, like the iPhone and Apple Watch. 

But Cook, dialing up a charm offensive, has forged close ties with both President Trump and his family amid the trade war, the Wall Street Journal's Tripp Mickle reported in October. The president has previously said Cook is the only tech executive to have a direct line to the White House, allowing him to convey his own point of view in often-tense situations.

Cook and Trump both toured Apple's Austin plant in November. Apple announced plans to build a new billion-dollar campus in Austin, while the president said he would look into whether the tech giant should be exempt from tariffs on Chinese imports. 

Original author: Bani Sapra

Apple CEO Tim Cook's brought in $11.6 million in the company's 2019 fiscal year.Cook's compensation included $3 million in salary and more than $7.6 million in incentive-based pay.Cook made 200 times more than the median Apple employee, who earned $57,596.Apple disclosed Cook's compensation package in a proxy statement Friday.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. 

Apple CEO Tim Cook brought in just shy of $11.6 million in total compensation during the company's 2019 fiscal year, Apple said in its annual proxy statement Friday.

That hefty pay package is about 200 times more than the median Apple employee earned in compensation during the same time period, the company noted. According to Apple, the median compensation among its global workforce of more than 130,000 full time employees and of its staff of part-time employees was $57,596 during the 2019 fiscal year.

Cook's compensation package included a $3 million base salary, roughly $7.6 million in incentive pay, and the nearly $800,000 that it cost Apple to provide security and private air travel for Cook.

The wide gulf between Cook's pay and that of the median employee is similar to other highly-compensated tech CEOs. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made roughly 248 times more than the median employee during the company's fiscal 2019 year. 

Apple's workforce includes the engineers and designers that work in its $5 billion headquarters, as well as tens of thousands of retail employees that work at its retail stores around the world. Apple said the median employee compensation figures included base salaries. bonuses, commissions and the fair value of equity awards.

While Apple's stock surged roughly 89 percent in the 2019 calendar year, the stock was actually down 2% during the period of the company's fiscal 2019 year.

Original author: Tyler Sonnemaker

One of Silicon Valley's more explosive lawsuits that ended the career of a former partner at Sequoia Capital is winding down with the venture capitalist emerging victorious and vindicated.

Michael Goguen won a 3-year legal battle against his former mistress Amber Laurel Baptiste in California Superior Court, Bloomberg's Lizette Chapman reported on Friday. The judge in the case ruled in Goguen's favor and found Baptiste, a former exotic dancer, committed fraud and extortion when she threatened to go public with accusations that he had given her a sexually transmitted infection, according to Bloomberg. Baptiste, who was not present for the 3-day trial that wrapped on Dec. 20, has until Jan. 10 to appeal. As part of the ruling, Baptiste was ordered to pay back $10.25 million that Goguen had given her as a portion of a rumored $40 million "hush money payment" he had promised.

The lawsuit has powered the Silicon Valley rumor mill since 2016, and its effects have followed Goguen to his new home in Whitefish, Montana, he told Bloomberg. He said he struggled to raise funds for his new venture firm because limited partners were conscious of attracting negative press by working with him.

The initial lawsuit filed by Baptiste was graphic enough to turn away even the least risk averse investors from working with Goguen, even 3 years later. Baptiste accused Goguen of "sexually, physically, and emotionally" abusing her for more than 13 years and then refusing to pay her the $40 million agreed-upon settlement in full. The initial filing claimed Baptiste had been a "victim of human trafficking" since she was 15 years old, and that Goguen met her at a Dallas strip club in 2001 and promised to help her "escape from the human traffickers" if "she would have sex with him." Baptiste claims that Goguen raped and abused her for many years, including an alleged incident where she was left "bleeding and alone on the floor of a hotel room in a foreign country." The signed contract for payment came when Baptiste initially threatened to sue Goguen in 2014, according to a previous Business Insider report.

Goguen did not return Business Insider's request for comment. He told Bloomberg that the ruling caps off a time in his life where his colleagues treated him "like a leper" and he's become "jaded."  Baptiste could not immediately be reached for comment by Business Insider, but Bloomberg reported that she has previously said Goguen was using his "wealth and power to overwhelm" her. 

Goguen was considered one of the leading investors at Sequoia Capital, having overseen several highly lucrative IPOs and exits from his networking and cybersecurity investments over his 20-year career. The initial lawsuit filed in 2016 came just as the #MeToo movement was gaining traction among the upper echelons of all businesses, and Goguen was quickly dismissed as the lawsuit played out.

Original author: Megan Hernbroth

2020 is gearing up to be a pivotal year for healthcare and biotech startups.

In 2019, a handful of health startups went public with valuations above $1 billion, placing them in unicorn territory.

Next year is shaping up to be an even more prolific year, with reports that companies like One Medical could go public by the first quarter of 2020. 

While companies like Tempus and Ginkgo Bioworks and health-insurance startups such as Clover Health and Bright Health added to their war chests, others, like 23andMe and Butterfly Network, maintained their unicorn status without taking on additional funding, according to data provided by PitchBook.

This article was published on December 31, 2019, and has been updated.

Original author: Lydia Ramsey

Former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn does not have a deal with Netflix, a company spokesperson told Business Insider.French newspaper Le Monde wrote that Ghosn signed an exclusive deal with Netflix a few months ago, and other publications had joked that the disgraced auto executive was at the center of a real-life story worthy of a Netflix thriller.The New York Times reported that Ghosn met with one Hollywood producer about a movie portraying his rise as an executive, but the talks to did not advance to mature stages.Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn does not have a deal with Netflix.

French newspaper Le Monde wrote that Ghosn signed an exclusive deal with Netflix a few months ago, and some publications like HuffPost France and The Washington Post picked up the news.

But a spokesperson for Netflix told Business Insider that Ghosn does not have a deal with the company.

News outlets such as Bloomberg and the Financial Times had also joked recently that the disgraced auto executive, who reportedly fled this week to Lebanon from Japan where he was awaiting trial for financial-misconduct charges, was at the center of a real-life story worthy of a Netflix thriller.

Ghosn met in December with Hollywood producer John Lesher, known for films like "Birdman," to discuss a movie portraying his rise as an international executive, The New York Times' Ben Dooley reported. But the publication said the talks never progressed beyond the early stages.

Original author: Ashley Rodriguez

A family says they received a rather unexpected — and gross — surprise in their Amazon order this holiday season.Twitter user Brian McCarthy posted a photo showing a small, turquoise waffle maker coated in what looks like old waffle mix.Recode was first to report the incident, which all started when McCarthy said his mother ordered the product on Amazon as a gift for his daughter.An Amazon spokesperson said that the company is investigating the incident.McCarthy told Business Insider that, while the company did reach out on Twitter, his mother had been unable to get in touch regarding the purchase.Sign up for Business Insider's retail newsletter, The Drive-Thru.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A family says they got more than they bargained for when they ordered a waffle maker through Amazon.

On December 26, Brian McCarthy tweeted that his mother had send his daughter a new waffle maker for the holidays. Recode's Jason Del Rey was first to report on the gross surprise McCarthy's family found inside their new purchase.

McCarthy said that the product in question was a turquoise mini Baby Cakes Waffle Stick Maker. The item has appeared on Amazon since December 2, 2013 and is manufactured by Select Brands Inc.

An Amazon spokesperson told Business Insider that it is still investigating the situation. Amazon's customer service Twitter account also responded to McCarthy's tweet on December 26, providing him with a link to arrange a follow-up with customer support. He said that he forwarded the link to his mother, but that she hasn't "heard anything further from Amazon."

McCarthy added that his mother bought the waffle maker through Amazon Services Inc. A press release heralding the subsidiary's 2003 launch says that Amazon Services provides retailers using the platform "a world-class, cost-effective e-commerce offering for their customers." McCarthy said that there was "no indication" that his mother would be receiving a used or refurbished item, however.

"We never really received an explanation," he said. "The only thing they offered was a return, which we would have done anyway."

This isn't the first time that Amazon's quality control has come under fire. The Wall Street Journal's Khadeeja Safdar, Shane Shifflett, and Denise Blostein released an investigative report in which they discovered sellers hawking wares plucked out of the trash. The team of reporters was also able to set up their own account, stocked exclusively with items found through dumpster diving.

As for McCarthy, he told Business Insider that the incident has changed the way he feels about Amazon.

"It's damaged my impression of the company, as this feels underhanded," McCarthy said. "I am actively reducing the purchases I make with Amazon and focusing on buying direct from retailers or buying locally."

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Original author: Áine Cain

Primary-care startup One Medical just filed to go public. 

On Friday, the company filed paperwork with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to go public, and plans to trade under the ticker "ONEM." The filing says that One Medical plans to raise $100 million, which is a placeholder amount and can change. It doesn't yet say at what price the company will sell shares.

When One Medical opened for business in San Francisco in 2007, its goal was to upend the way people got medical care by making it easy and convenient to see a doctor. The company charges a $200 annual fee and bills your insurance. One Medical had 397,000 members and operated in 77 locations as of September 30, the filing says.

The company's net losses deepened as membership climbed, the filing shows. From 2017 to 2018, losses widened from $31.7 million to $44.4 million. For the first nine months of 2019, One Medical's net loss was $34.2 million.

Read more: I became a member of One Medical, a primary-care practice that charges a $200 annual fee and has plans to double over the next two years. Here's what it was like.

In addition to appealing to consumers, over the past few years One Medical has been increasing its efforts to sign up employers to provide One Medical's services to their employees. According to the filing, it has signed up 6,000 enterprise clients.

In particular, the filing noted, its work with Google accounts for 10% of the company's 2018 net revenue, as well as 10% of the company's net revenue through the first nine months of 2019.

One Medical was founded by Tom Lee, who served as the company's CEO until 2017. Current CEO Amir Rubin
joined One Medical in 2017 after working as an executive at UnitedHealth Group's Optum division. Before that, he was the CEO of Stanford Health Care.

Lee, for his part, has founded a new healthcare startup called Galileo, which offers a mix of online and in-person care. The aim is to do a better job of taking care of sicker people in the government-funded healthcare programs Medicare and Medicaid. 

Read more: Meet the 8 companies changing how doctors get paid and building the future of medicine

After a big infusion of capital in 2018, One Medical is expecting to double the number of medical clinics it operates over the next two years.

The company raised $220 million in funding in a 2018 round led by The Carlyle Group. In total, the company's raised $408 million and has a private valuation of $1.5 billion, according to PitchBook. 

According to the company's IPO filing, One Medical's top investors going into the IPO include The Carlyle Group, which owns 26.8%, Benchmark Capital, which owns 13%, Oak Investment Partners, Lee, DAG Ventures, GV, JPMorgan, and Maverick Fund.

JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley are leading the IPO.

Original author: Lydia Ramsey

Happy Friday and welcome to the Shifting Gears: Criminal minds edition.

Believe it or not, there was news unrelated to the international manhunt for the fugitive former auto executive Carlos Ghosn. But there are also plenty of juicy tidbits from that story, too, if you're interested. 

Want to receive this weekly digest straight to your inbox? Sign up here.

And as always, let me know what we missed at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Let's dive in:

Original author: Graham Rapier

In 2019, Impossible Foods went from a little-known food startup to a household name in one fell swoop as the company partnered with Burger King to launch the Impossible Whopper.

The plant-based version of Burger King's iconic burger was a hit, and Impossible went on to introduce its plant-based version of ground beef in some supermarkets. 

Now in 2020, Impossible is on the verge of its next major step.

From the sound of the company's tease, Impossible Foods is getting ready to launch something new next week during the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

So we went straight to the source and asked Impossible Foods Chief Communications Officer Rachel Konrad what was going on.

"We will have big news at CES — including samples of never-before-tasted all-new products," Konrad said in an email to Business Insider on Friday morning. "Can't say more on the record at this time. Stay tuned!"

What those "all-new products" are remains to be seen, but Impossible execs have discussed some possibilities in the past. One prime suspect is a plant-based version of pork sausage.

Impossible CEO Pat Brown even outright confirmed pork sausage as the company's next major product during an interview with Business Insider in May and pointed to what else people should expect from the company in the future. "We're also working at developing the scalability to produce whole cuts," Brown told us. "Steak and pork chops and stuff like that."

In the immediate future, however, Impossible appears to be focusing on plant-based ground pork and pork sausage.

Original author: Ben Gilbert

2020 is shaping up to be a pivotal year in healthcare. 

From a booming IPO market to pharma companies getting more serious about using artificial intelligence to discover and develop new drugs, healthcare venture investors have no shortage of expectations about what's ahead for the industry over the next year.

While gathering predictions for the year ahead, we asked 10 venture capitalists what they thought could be the biggest surprises to hit healthcare in 2020. That is, if we were to look back on 2020 and think, "Wow! I can't believe that happened this year," what might that be? 

To be clear, the surprises below aren't exactly predictions. But if the events were to occur, they could have big implications for investors and patients.

The answers we got from the venture capitalists included everything from big legislative changes in healthcare to companies like Amazon and Walmart more directly owning pieces of the $3.6 trillion healthcare industry.

Here's what surprises might lie ahead in 2020.  

US government actions could be the biggest surprises of 2020

A common surprise venture investors thought could rock 2020 was government action. 

For Venrock partner Bryan Roberts, having the government do something material in healthcare would be the biggest surprise. That could be anything involving healthcare costs or drug prices that could change what Americans pay for their healthcare. It wouldn't, he said, include changes in which hospitals have to post their prices, a rule introduced by the Trump administration in 2019.

"I don't think anything material's going to happen," Roberts said. 

Similarly, Andreessen Horowitz general partner Julie Yoo said she'd be surprised if "Medicare for All," the idea of single-payer healthcare in the US, moved from an idea to a reality during the 2020 presidential election year. 

"If it actually happens, that'd be a huge shocker," Yoo said. 

Read more: A rising star at Andreessen Horowitz explains why companies that make drugs will start delivering healthcare in 2020

Robert Garber, a 7Wire partner, agreed. "I would look back and be surprised if some version of Medicare for All or public options actually makes its way through legislation," he said. 

While presidential and congressional elections take place in November, the officials elected won't begin their terms until 2021. 

In December, the House passed a bill backed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi directed at lowering drug prices for Americans. 

Krishna Yeshwant, who leads GV's life-sciences team, said that the biggest surprise of 2020 could be if a bill like that were to pass. If it did, he said, it could dramatically reduce the number of new companies working on new approaches to treat diseases.

Big tech gets more ingrained in the healthcare industry

Many of the surprises that the venture capitalists thought could rock 2020 had everything to do with the looming presence of big tech companies that have been increasingly making their way into the healthcare industry over the past few years, as well as retailers like Walmart.

Read more: Companies like Walmart, CVS, and Amazon are beefing up their healthcare strategies. Here are their plans to upend the $3.6 trillion industry.

In particular, it'd be a big surprise if those companies were to make direct acquisitions that got them into entirely new lines of business. 

For instance, Maverick managing director Ambar Bhattacharyya said a big surprise would be if Amazon, Apple, Walmart, or Google were to buy a health insurer. If that happened, he said, "I think the landscape will change significantly." 

Read more: A top investor at a $400 million VC firm predicts 2020 will be the year that prescription weight-loss treatments get sold online, just like Viagra

NEA principal Lily Huang said she'd be surprised if Apple bought a provider group or became a provider itself, while Lux partner Zavain Dar said he'd be surprised if Google or Amazon got into the business of developing new therapeutics. Apple, for its part, operates health clinics for its employees called AC Wellness that are independent from the tech giant.

Already, the moves the unconventional healthcare players have made in the industry — in particular, Amazon — have set it up so it'd be a big surprise in 2020 if they were to turn their backs on it completely. 

"I would be shocked if Amazon walked away from healthcare," Lux partner Adam Goulburn said. 

Read more: VCs at $2.4 billion Lux Capital think 2020 will be the year Big Pharma companies buy startups that ship Viagra and hair-loss pills to your door

Fundamental changes to the market could be big surprises too

For Alyssa Jaffee, a vice president at the venture firm 7Wire, the most shocking thing to come out of 2020 would be a fundamental change to how she invests in startups. 

That is, if the healthcare industry abandoned its push toward a more consumer-friendly market that pays for how well care is given, rather than how much of it is performed. 

"I think that the tailwinds on consumerism and the tailwinds on value-based care are so strong, it is a matter of when, not if," Jaffee said. "I would be shocked if the market flipped."

Throughout 2019, there were predictions that the market was headed for a recession in 2020. NEA partner Blake Wu said he'd be surprised if that were to play out. 

"It doesn't look like 2020 is going to be the year we enter a recession," Wu said, pointing in part to the low unemployment rate in the US. 

"It looks like the global — especially the US — economy will be able to withstand any kind of hit," Wu said. 

Original author: Lydia Ramsey

Hollis Johnson/Business Insider The Galaxy Note 10 is one of Samsung's flagship smartphones, and one of the best Android phones out there.This phablet sports a massive 6.3-inch screen, a speedy processor, and Samsung's S Pen stylus. You can get the Note 10 on eBay right now for just $643.99. 

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10 is one of the company's flagship smartphones, with a massive screen and killer specs. But, it's also a pricey device, with a suggested price of $949.99. Right now, however, you can get it at an impressive discount through a reliable third-party seller on eBay. The phone is listed at $643.99, which is $306 off its original price. 

Our reviewer dubbed the Note 10 "the most 'Android' phone you can buy." Its AMOLED screen is great for watching videos, browsing the web, playing games, or even writing and drawing with the S-Pen. And it comes with 256GB of storage, which should be more than enough for most users. 

 

In terms of battery life, the Note 10 should easily make it a full day — it lasted 18 hours in CNET's battery test.

The Note 10 is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855, which delivers excellent performance as Android phones go. It sports an excellent camera system, containing wide, ultra-wide, and telephoto lenses. And with the S-Pen, you can do a bunch of cool tricks. For example, you can automatically convert a handwritten note to text and export it to Word or PDF formats, and use air gestures to control certain apps (such as the camera).

If this all sounds appealing to you, check out this solid smartphone for $643.99. 

Get the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 from eBay for $643.99 (originally $949.99) [You save $306]

Original author: Monica Chin

Carlos Ghosn's safety in Lebanon is seeming increasingly perilous as details of his escapade trickle out. The former auto executive may have broken Lebanese law with prior trips to Israel, The Washington Post reported. Ghosn is expected to give a press conference in the coming days — where he'll have plenty of questions to answer.Follow Business Insider's full coverage of the international fugitive here.

As details began to trickle out this week of former auto executive Carlos Ghosn's mysterious escape from Japan to Beirut, there are still more questions than answers.

In Japan, the 65-year-old was under strict surveillance while awaiting trial on charges of financial misconduct as part of his multimillion-dollar bail agreement. If convicted, he could face a 15-year prison sentence — a real possibility given Japan's extremely high conviction rate.

However, his April trial seems unlikely to happen so long as he's holed up in Lebanon, which does not have an extradition treaty with Japan.

Now all eyes have turned to Japanese authorities to explain themselves — and to Ghosn to explain what comes next.

A press conference is expected in the coming days, where Ghosn could elaborate on the "injustice and political persecution" he says he escaped.

"I have not fled justice," he said on Tuesday upon his landing in Lebanon, which he reached via Turkey and a private-jet charter, Bloomberg cited Lebanese media as saying. "I have escaped injustice and political persecution." 

In a brief follow-up statement on Thursday, Ghosn sought to discredit reports that his wife or other family had aided in his flight.

"There has been speculation in the media that my wife Carole, and other members of my family played a role in my departure from Japan," he said through a US-based representative retained since his escape. "All such speculation is inaccurate and false. I alone arranged for my departure. My family had no role whatsoever."

Turkey, for its part, has detained seven people, including four pilots it has accused of aiding in his travel, and Interpol has issued to Lebanon a warrant for his arrest.

But while Lebanon has extradition treaties with only the US and South Korea, Ghosn might not be as safe as he thinks — even in a country that loves him enough to put his face on billboards and postage stamps.

A group of lawyers on Thursday sent a complaint to Lebanon's judiciary, The Washington Post reported, alleging his visits to Israel violated Lebanon's laws that forbid contact with the country, a major enemy of Lebanon.

"If he thinks that he actually could be protected here, it's not going to happen, because according to Lebanese law he visited Israel, which is an enemy state," a Lebanese political analyst told the paper.

Now the world waits.

Original author: Graham Rapier

Mark Zuckerberg may be the eight-richest person in the world, but he's just like any other dad: He loves and appreciates a good bargain.

Ahead of the winter holiday season, the Facebook CEO was spotted perusing the aisles of Costco, TMZ reported Friday. The photo appears to show Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan — who have two children, ages 2 and 4 — browsing the selection of TVs on offer at a Mountain View, California Costco. 

TMZ also reports that the couple shopped at Ross Dress for Less, a discount department store, during their shopping trip.

You might not expect to see Zuckerberg at Costco, a warehouse retail chain known for selling products in bulk and at lower prices than other stores. Zuckerberg's net worth currently stands at an estimated $77.5 billion, according to Forbes. And the 35-year-old Facebook founder owns a collection of expensive homes, includinga $22 million estate in California's Lake Tahoe and a $100 million property in Hawaii.

Yet Zuckerberg and Chan have been noted for living frugally in certain aspects of their life. The couple was spotted eating at McDonald's in Rome just days after their secret wedding in May 2012. Zuckerberg's uniform of choice for work is typically a gray t-shirt under a dark hoodie, and a pair of jeans.

Facebook and the Chan-Zuckerberg initiative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Original author: Paige Leskin

Juul. Associated Press

Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Thursday.

The US Army has banned TikTok over security concerns. A spokeswoman said the app was considered a cyber threat, and that the Defense Department had flagged it for security risks.Google will end a controversial tax structure which allows it to delay paying US taxes. The firm will scrap the "double Dutch, double Irish" approach in line with changes to US tax law.More than 2,000 contractors working at Google's headquarters and other Google campuses across the Bay Area have unionized. Recode reported that the workers are organizing through Unite Here, which represents food service and hospitality workers.Sonos is facing backlash for encouraging people to use a "recycle mode" feature on older devices that makes the expensive speakers permanently useless. The company is pushing a trade-up program that lets people "recycle" their devices in exchange for a 30% discount on a new speaker, but only by effectively bricking their old one.Huawei says it's expecting 2020 to be a 'difficult year' thanks to the US-China trade war. The firm on Tuesday said its full-year revenue would likely jump 18% in 2019 to 850 billion yuan ($121.72 billion), lower than its earlier projections.Facebook has begun removing ads that have been criticized for promoting false information regarding an HIV-prevention drug, as the company continues to wrestle with policing ads on its platform. The ads, posted by personal injury lawyers, wrongly claimed that the HIV-prevention drug Truvada had harmful side effects.Amazon is building a homeless shelter on its Seattle campus. The shelter will be run by Mary's Place, a nonprofit that has worked with the company for years, and will be able to house up to 275 people.Juul banned vaping at its offices last year, but some employees continue to use e-cigarettes at their desks, in hallways, and in meetings. Following the ban, Juul warned in September that it would dock the bonuses of and potentially terminate anyone who violated the rule.The SEC has criticised an accounting metric used by Uber, Peloton, and WeWork, warning companies that the "contribution margin" metric could be misleading. Tailored versions of the metric can make companies look healthier than they really are by leaving out key details of how they operate.An internal memo from the Pentagon warned service members against using DNA services like 23andMe, citing security risks. The memo notes these services are unregulated, and could expose personal and genetic information.

Have an Amazon Alexa device? Now you can hear 10 Things in Tech each morning. Just search for "Business Insider" in your Alexa's flash briefing settings.

You can also subscribe to this newsletter here — just tick "10 Things in Tech You Need to Know.

Original author: Shona Ghosh

Microsoft said its researchers stored the Warner Bros. film "Superman" on a piece of quartz glass the size of a coaster.The feat was a proof of concept for a years-long effort to store data in glass. The researchers used a combination of laser optics and artificial intelligence.The glass is designed to last hundreds of years and withstand being baked, microwaved, scoured, doused in water, demagnetized, and subject to "other environmental threats."Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Microsoft said its researchers had produced a piece of glass that is 7.5 centimeters long and 2 millimeters thick and contains the entire 1978 film "Superman."

The feat is the culmination of years of research, made possible by recent advances in ultra-fast laser optics and artificial intelligence, Microsoft said in November.

Researchers used lasers to carve tiny three-dimensional etchings into the glass's surface that could be read by machine-learning algorithms trained to look at the patterns created when a light is shined through the glass.

The research builds on other Microsoft projects that aim to store data more efficiently in the long term. A concurrent project is centered on an invention dubbed Pelican that uses cold storage to preserve dozens of disk drives, The Register reported.

Microsoft isn't the only company exploring cutting-edge long-term storage tech. Millenniata, a startup founded in 2009, has said it developed ultra-durable DVDs that will be readable for 1,000 years.

Lab photos show the meticulous process behind Microsoft's latest accomplishment. Take a look:

Original author: Aaron Holmes

Venture capitalists took to Twitter to share their tech predictions for 2020.Among them, Fred Wilson expects some kind of reckoning in Big Tech. Brianne Kimmel, managing director of Work Life Ventures, predicts more celebrities will break into angel investing. And others contemplate whether Silicon Valley is really over.These are some of their predictions.Click here for more BI Prime stories.

For venture capitalists, publishing a list of tech predictions is a New Year's tradition as time-honored as popping a bottle of champagne and kissing at midnight. 2019 did not disappoint. Investors from Fred Wilson to Brianne Kimmel shared their write-ups with their throngs of Twitter followers.

The listicle is so prevalent that after famed venture capitalist Hunter Walk wrote a snarky tweet about publishing his own predictions post — with no intention of writing such a list — a number of people responded in earnest last week. The Homebrew founder had poked fun at the investors who write their predictions with their portfolio in mind.

We read the tech predictions lists and pulled our top picks here.

The seed round has two types

Semil Shah, an early-stage investor at Lightspeed Venture Partners, who also invests out of his own firm, Haystack, expects the flow of capital to continue pumping up deal sizes in the new year.

Semil Shah is a venture partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners and the founder of Haystack. semilshah.com

Shah wrote on his blog:

"The public markets are soaring. Private markets are bigger than ever. There is so much dry powder alone in the Bay Area (well over $50B contractually committed to funds), it's hard to see that just drying up overnight. In my role as an early-stage investor, I can't worry about what will happen in public markets, and there is so much capital in the private markets, it means that 2020 is setup to just be a continuation of what 2019 was — and that means a bifurcation of seed rounds, with some seed rounds being very competitive pre-product Series A rounds, and other rounds being smaller, more on the fringe, perhaps out of the Bay Area. The entire seed market is wholly different from when I sent the first Haystack wire in March 2013, and with every fund comes a new game to learn to play."

A possible reckoning in Big Tech

The rise of tech monopolies was one of the biggest tech trends of the last decade, said Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist who was among the first to recognize the promise of social media and profit from it. Companies like Facebook, Amazon, and Google grabbed the top position in their markets, and they used their power to amass huge amounts of data and control the most popular methods of communication.

Wilson did not speculate on how Big Tech might falter, but he wrote: "What society does about this situation stands as the most important issue in tech at the start of the 2020s."

Celebrities break into investing

Brianne Kimmel, a former Zendesk executive who raised her own fund in 2019, says "Hollywood angels" are part of the future of early-stage investing. Celebrities will put their own financial resources into startups, as Serena Williams, Will Smith, and Karlie Kloss have already done, as well as join institutional firms as limited partners, she predicts.

Serena Williams has invested in Tonal, The Wing, Lola, and Billie through her investment firm, Serena Ventures. Matt Rourke/AP

She predicts that celebrity-investors will defend their deals on Instagram, TikTok, and other social media apps.

Kimmel wrote in her newsletter: "In the same way vaudeville performers seamlessly transitioned to the film industry with larger crowds and bigger salaries, celebrities will continue to have outsized distribution advantages on any new creative platform and create a high barrier to entry for new creators."

Investors bet big on Gen Z

The start of a new decade means that some venture capitalists are eager to find the products and services that cater to a new group of consumers: Gen Z. Several investors told Business Insider's Megan Hernbroth that they expect to spend more on consumer startups in 2020 because of the rising purchasing power of the younger generations. The group's comfort with e-commerce and fluency with the latest technology trends make for a promising market opportunity.

Caitlin Strandberg, a principal at Lerer Hippeau, told Hernbroth: "On the consumer side, we'll see more products and services that appeal to the Gen Z sentiments around authenticity, empowerment, inclusion and self-expression. This is a new consumer who is resourceful in learning about the brands and businesses they choose to support with their purchases."

Fintech gets a new challenger

Kleiner Perkins investor Monica Desai Weiss asked if brands like Glossier will branch into financial technology in 2020. Reuters

Financial technology startups will face new competition in consumer brands, Kleiner Perkins investor Monica Desai Weiss told Forbes. As the incumbents wrestle for customers, brands that already have large online followings will add financial technology as a feature.

Desai Weiss told Forbes' Jeff Kauflin:

"People you go to for other products and services will use fintech to make their product or service easier. Some people call this embedded finance. You're seeing that with Uber and SmileDirectClub doing it for their teeth aligners. The natural way to do this is with features like flexible payments and insurance. Over time, I think it will go broader than that and will come from brands that you love. Brands like Glossier, Fortnite or Nike that have real loyalty with consumers will start to become bigger players because they have this natural entry point. A challenger bank or a new fintech must build that from scratch in an incredibly difficult world of customer acquisition."

The great startup migration

The soaring cost of living in the San Francisco Bay Area has made it harder for startups to hire and keep people in their ranks. The result is the slow migration of startups into tech hubs that were previously overlooked, said David Blumberg, managing partner of Blumberg Capital.

Blumberg wrote on his blog:

"This past year, we've seen growth of hiring hubs beyond the pricey, competitive, and congested Silicon Valley in welcoming venues around the world. In 2020, we anticipate tech hub expansion across the U.S., in Colorado, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, among others. This is partly due to business-friendly environments (e.g. lower taxes and less regulation), lower housing prices and engineering graduates from local universities."

Patrick Collison and John Collison said their company Stripe would hire more than a hundred remote engineers in 2019. Stripe

The future of work is remote

The same pressures forcing companies to open offices beyond the valley will also encourage startups to allow remote work, said Talia Goldberg, a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. The sprawl will drive demand for new enterprise software solutions that enable workers to get stuff done and connect with their teams from anywhere in the country.

Goldberg wrote on Bessemer's blog:

"Eliminating geography as a constraint to talent is a game-changer for businesses. Now that most knowledge workers can communicate and collaborate remotely, going to work is more of a state of being than a destination. Workplaces of the future will rely on new software and systems that reimagine team architectures and habits and reinvent operations to serve a global and distributed workforce."

'Greentech' makes a comeback

2019 was the year that climate change became part of the cultural psyche. At least one tech investor is betting that sustainability becomes a broad investment theme in 2020 as a result.

Barry Eggers, a founding partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, said there's no shortage of opportunities in the "greentech" sector, from cleaning up the world's oceans to creating a food system for a growing population.

Eggers wrote on Lightspeed's blog: "While 'cleantech' investing had mixed success during the mid-2000s, 'greentech' investing during the 2020s will have the advantage of more efficient business models and heightened consumer awareness, interest, and urgency."

Original author: Melia Russell

A little-known tax perk called Qualified Small Business Stock, or QSBS, can supersize your startup's exit payout by wiping out long-term capital gains taxes on at least $10 million in profits — or on a whopping ten times the amount of your original investment — whichever is bigger.With QSBS, you can wave some or all federal taxes on the sale. Some states, like New York, also abide by QSBS (Sorry, California does not).There are a lot of pitfalls when setting yourself and your company up for QSBS. Use this 4-part checklist to make sure you pocket every penny possible. Start by planning for QSBS early in your startup's life cycle. 

Qualified Small Business Stock, or QSBS, is something every founder and early-stage investor should know about.

The little-known tax exemption lets these early shareholders avoid paying long-term capital gains taxes to the federal government when they sell their shares. Some states allow you to wave long-term capital gains taxes as well with QSBS.

The tax break is potentially huge and applies to at least $10 million in the shareholder's profits or up to 10 times their original investment, whichever is bigger.

That means, if you sell your startup for $10 million and you own 100% of the shares, you can potentially pocket all $10 million, minus what you initially paid for the shares. Without QSBS, you'd be giving giving roughly one-third of your payout away in taxes (20% in federal, 3.8% for the Obamacare levy, plus up to 13.4% in state depending on where your business is owned and operated).

Not every small business qualifies for QSBS. The company needs to be set up in a very specific way to reap the federal tax benefits. There are four main criteria you and your startup need to meet:

You need to receive shares in the company when it is still small — when that company has gross assets of $50 million or less. If you get shares of a company like Airbnb right now, for example, it's too late to qualify for QSBS. Your startup also has to use at least 80% of its assets to conduct its business. So no hoarding cash that doesn't actually contribute to the company's operations.2).The company has to be set up as a C corporation. If your company is set up as a partnership, limited liability company or another so-called "passthrough" that, unlike a C corporation, doesn't pay taxes at the entity level, no dice.Your startup has to actually create or manufacture stuff, like new forms of technology or widgets. And it has to be in a field that qualifies for the benefit. Service firms in law, finance, architecture, accounting, and health care (i.e. doctors' offices) don't qualify. Neither do real-estate investment trusts, sales companies, restaurants, hotels or oil and gas extractors. Cooley's Lee said that while the benefit is mainly for technology companies, he has a lot of brick-and mortar manufacturing companies in the Midwest that qualify for QSBS too.You generally have to hold onto your stock for at least five years before selling it. There are a couple ways around this qualifier, though (more on that below). But if you're granted stock options, and not actual shares, your payout horizon is much longer -- the 5-year holding period starts the day you exercise them, not the day they're granted. Which means QSBS typically has the most bang for the buck when you're a founder, angel investor or board member, since those are the people that typically get actual stock in a seed company.

There are ways around the 5-year rule, along with a means to make your family members rich from your qualifying QSBS.

Here's everything you need to know about setting up QSBS, how it works, and common pitfalls to avoid. 

Original author: Lynnley Browning

Both the Asus Zenfone 6 and OnePlus 7 Pro offer high-end features like a borderless screen, 48-megapixel camera, facial recognition, and an ultra-wide-angle camera lens for $500 — about half the price of flagship smartphones.They both also have pop up cameras that emerge from the phone as needed, making it possible for the screen to occupy the entire face of the phone.Despite their similarities, however, there are some areas in which they both excel over one another and fall short.While they both are compelling options for smartphone shoppers on a budget, the OnePlus 7 Pro is a slightly better value thanks to its larger, higher-quality screen and triple camera among other features.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. 

Buying a new smartphone has become a bigger investment than ever in recent years. As mobile devices have gained new features like edge-to-edge screens and facial recognition, prices have jumped accordingly — resulting in a market where paying nearly $1,000 for a new smartphone has become the norm.

But in 2019, a growing number of companies have started to challenge that notion. Enter the Asus Zenfone 6 and OnePlus 7 Pro. Both smartphones offer modern features like a borderless screen, high-end cameras, and facial recognition for roughly half the price of premium devices from Apple and Samsung. Both phones start at $500, while Apple's iPhone 11 Pro starts at $1,000 and the Samsung Galaxy S10 begins at $900.

OnePlus has always positioned itself as being a cheaper alternative to pricey phones from giants like Samsung and Apple since its debut in 2014. Yet it's facing more competition in 2019 as smartphone makers are starting to offer compelling alternatives at similar price points, like Asus with its Zenfone 6 and Google's $400 Pixel 3a.

The OnePlus 7 Pro and Asus Zenfone 6 are particularly similar: they both cost $500, they both have cameras that pop up when needed and disappear otherwise, and they both have 48-megapixel cameras. Despite these similarities, however, there are a few differences that are worth noting if you're deciding between the two.

Here's a closer look at how the Asus Zenfone 6 and OnePlus 7 Pro compare. 

Original author: Lisa Eadicicco

Business Insider has been polling experts to learn what finance, investing, payments, and real estate will look like in 2030. The past 10 years have seen cost pressures and technological change sweeping across the financial-services industry, and we saw that come to a head in several key ways in 2019. Tech and big data will inevitably continue to drive some key shifts. And the types of skills and jobs needed are generally expected to look very different in 10 years as more basic functions continue to be automated away. Here are 26 predictions about what's in store for the next decade. Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Business Insider has been polling experts to learn what finance, investing, and real estate will look like in 2030. 

The past 10 years have seen cost pressures and technological change sweeping across financial services, and we saw that come to a head in several key ways in 2019.

And 2019 may be remembered as the year that the broker wars reached a fever pitch and discount brokers slashed stock-trading commissions to zero (setting up a compelling argument for industry consolidation in the process.) We also wrote about how the rise of portfolio trading for credit — the latest in a string of innovations to come to the credit market in recent years — was pushing that space toward electronification and away from high-touch practices that dominated for so long. 

All the while, historically low interest rates over the past decade-plus have sent investors on a frantic search for yield, resulting in huge piles of yet-to-be-spent private-equity dollars.

We've also written about how new tech could leave some industries scrambling to address ethical issues and get out in front of regulatory changes. In the insurance-tech world, for example, some are voicing worries that the use of tech to write increasingly customized insurance policies could leave the riskiest customers without coverage.

Given the whirlwind year we had in 2019, we were interested to learn from experts what the future could hold.

If there's one takeaway, it's that technology and big data will inevitably continue to drive some key shifts. And the type of skills and jobs needed in and around finance are generally expected to look very different in 10 years.

New tech will likely change the way we move around in the world, which could translate to changes in real-estate markets. Virtual and augmented reality could give us new ways to picture investments and risk. Human jobs giving financial advice will change as more basic functions are automated away.

And algorithmic trading and the rise of passive investments will likely continue to reshape public markets — changing what it means to be a stock picker. 

Here are the 26 must-know predictions for the next decade.

Alex Nicoll, Casey Sullivan, Bradley Saacks, Meghan Morris, and Shannen Balogh contributed reporting. 

Original author: Dan DeFrancesco, Alex Morrell and Rebecca Ungarino