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Over the past 50 years, China has become a global economic powerhouse, due in large part to the rise of its manufacturing industry. But the CEO of one of the largest companies in that space, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., predicted that era could be coming to an end.

Young Liu, chairman of Hon Hai, which is more commonly known as Foxconn, told investors this week that China's "days as the world's factory are done," Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

Liu said during Foxconn's latest earnings call that Trump's trade war with Beijing has forced electronic device makers to diversify their supply chains to other countries so they don't get hit with tariffs on Chinese-made products, according to Bloomberg.

Foxconn, the largest global manufacturer of iPhones, plans to do the same. Liu told Bloomberg that 30% of the company's production capacity is now outside China, a 20% increase from the previous June and that it's interested in expanding in a variety of regions.

"No matter if it's India, Southeast Asia, or the Americas, there will be a manufacturing ecosystem in each," Liu said, according to Bloomberg.

Trump has imposed expansive tariffs on goods imported from China as part of his years-long trade war against the country, but most evidence points to a net negative impact for US companies, individuals, and the overall economy.

An analysis from Bloomberg Economics previously estimated that the Trump administration's punitive measures will end up costing the US $316 billion by the end of 2020, and independent researchers from the New York Federal Reserve, Princeton, and Columbia estimated that the tariffs would cost Americans roughly $831 per household over the course of 2019.

Tensions temporarily deescalated last December when Trump and China reached an interim trade deal, but a survey from the US-China Business Council this week found that only 7% of businesses viewed the gains from the deal as outweighing the costs incurred by two years worth of tariffs.

Trump recently reignited tensions with China with two executive orders seeking to ban viral video app TikTok and messaging app WeChat, which are owned by Chinese-firms ByteDance and Tencent, respectively, from operating within the US.

Enterprise automation startup JIFFY.ai raised an $18 million Series A round led by Nexus Venture Partners in June.

JIFFY.ai is an AI-first platform focusing on the highly regulated fintech industry.

Its tech draws on robotic process automation (RPA), machine learning, and artificial intelligence to simplify process automation and app development for companies. 

CEO Babu Sivadasan says the startup's client base has grown 200% in the first half of 2020, as an increasing number of companies look to streamline their operations.

"[In] the second quarter, actually a lot of organizations started seriously looking at automation," said Sivadasan. "Because the fundamental notion that you're going to have people working in office operating your infrastructure, operating your applications, that has been challenged."

Since it was founded in 2018, JIFFY.ai has built a global team of 150 employees and over 30 clients. This includes Fortune 500 companies like Southwest Airlines, which use JIFFY.ai to automate a wide range of processes, from bookings to pilot timesheets.

The US-based startup was co-founded by a team of 20, largely former founders and C-suite executives to disrupt the growing automation market. Almost all companies will use RPA within the next five years, according to a survey by Deloitte.

Its majority stakeholder is the non-profit organization Paanini Foundation, which partners with the startup to retrain workers whose jobs are displaced by automation. 

"We are also concerned about the potential impact of automation to existing jobs ... so we wanted to pursue build a company with a strong sense of deep social responsibility and moral character," says Sivadasan. "Being ruthless about innovation ... but at the same time being compassionate."

JIFFY.ai competes with a number of other tech giants in the RPA space like $10.2 billion UiPath, which plans to go public in early 2021, and UK-based market leader Blue Prism.

"We have had good success competing against the big players. We've just been selected by, for example, AirAsia in Malaysia," says Sivadasan. "Where we have seen success in competition is when a decision is being made based on the merits of the product."

Check out the pitch deck it used to bring investors on board:

Lyft president John Zimmer warned that the company may temporarily stop operating in California due to a court ruling earlier this week ordering the ride-hailing giant to reclassify drivers as employees.

"If our efforts here are not successful it would force us to suspend operations in California," Zimmer told investors during Lyft's quarterly earnings call Wednesday, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Zimmer's comments echoed a similar warning from Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who told MSNBC earlier on Wednesday that "it's hard to believe we'll be able to switch our model to full-time employment quickly."

On Monday, a California court ruled that Lyft and Uber must treat their California drivers as employees rather than independent contractors under the state's  gig work law, AB-5. The ruling dealt the companies a major blow in their legal battle with the state over drivers' status.

The judge in the case issued a 10-day stay on the ruling in order to give the companies time to appeal. Both have argued that reclassifying drivers would significantly hurt their business.

"Lyft cannot comply with the injunction at the flip of a switch," Zimmer said, according to the Chronicle, adding that doing so during the coronavirus pandemic would be "nearly impossible."

He told investors that rides taken in California account for roughly 16% of the company's total trips.

Lyft and Uber have refused to reclassify drivers as employees under AB-5, initially arguing the law doesn't apply to them. But the state's top rideshare regulator determined the opposite in a June ruling, and a group of city attorneys from California cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego filed suit against the companies over the issue in May.

Uber and Lyft have a long history of making — and in some cases acting on — similar threats about leaving markets when faced with regulations they don't like.

Researchers from the University of California Berkeley noted in 2018 that Lyft and Uber used similar tactics in Chicago, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio in response to the cities' efforts to require drivers to undergo more rigorous background checks in order to work for the platforms. Both companies temporarily left Austin, and Uber also left San Antonio, before the regulations were revised or overturned with legislation supported by the companies.

"Uber's threats to leave a market have been an effective tool of overturning regulations," the researchers concluded.

The researchers also pointed to Uber's regulation-busting strategies such as leveraging its app to mobilize drivers and consumers in support of legislation or ballot initiatives it supports and "manipulation of public opinion data available to regulators."

Uber and Lyft have deployed similar approaches in their effort to avoid having to comply with AB-5. The companies poured $30 million each into a ballot measure that would exempt rideshare and food delivery companies from the law.

Zimmer used Wednesday's call as an opportunity to push the Lyft and Uber-backed measure, telling investors that "California voters can make their voices heard by voting Yes on Prop. 22 in November," according to the Chronicle.

The companies argue that, in addition to helping their own bottom lines, drivers also benefit from the flexibility of working as independent contractors. They have also said that new benefits that they would provide under Proposition 22 will give drivers the best of both worlds.

But driver advocacy groups have pushed back on those talking points, saying that it lets Lyft and Uber off the hook for denying drivers more robust pay, benefits, and labor protections guaranteed to traditional employees in California, and that it's the companies' own fault if they curb flexibility in response to regulations.

The state's labor commission brought a separate lawsuit against the companies earlier this month on similar grounds, claiming that Lyft and Uber have committed wage theft by misclassifying drivers. Driver advocacy group Rideshare Drivers United, which has been rounding up driver wage theft accusations, claimed that Uber and Lyft owe more than $1.3 billion in payments to drivers in California.

In 2015, Google's corporate structure was completely reimagined, as the search giant moved under the new parent company of Alphabet. 

The company's core business — search, YouTube, and Android — would remain a part of Google, under the watch of CEO Sundar Pichai. The rest would be broken out into separate companies, each with their own CEOs. All would fall under the auspices of the new Alphabet construct, led by Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. 

These non-Google companies that make up the Silicon Valley conglomerate are usually referred to as the "Other Bets," which is how they are labeled on Alphabet's financial statements.

But bets don't always work out, and some have proven more successful than others. Over time, some have been either reabsorbed into Google (Chronicle, Nest, Jigsaw) or killed off entirely (Makani).

Though their revenues and losses are lumped together each quarter, Alphabet's "Other Bets" share little else in common, with company's ranging from anti-aging labs to drone delivery services to startup investment funds.

Also, because the top executives of these companies are not named Larry or Sergey or Sundar, these leaders often fly under the radar. But that doesn't mean their backgrounds aren't worth considering. 

One was a child chess prodigy, who created a smash hit video game by the age of 17. Another is the largest individual shareholder in Apple. Notably, none are women. 

Here are the top executives at Alphabet's "Other Bets:"

The $1.3 billion conversational support startup Intercom is eyeing an IPO and just hired a chief financial officer to help it get there.

Intercom announced the appointment of Dan Griggs in August, though he actually began his role in April after spending nearly six years at customer experience company Sitecore. As chief financial officer of Intercom, he's  preparing the company to go public

"We have no specific timeline — I envision it a few years out," Griggs told Business Insider. "Nothing is set in stone: We're really focused on realistic strategic growth objectives and building a long term sustainable business."

Griggs says the company is "near profitability" this year, but is willing to invest in areas that will help it grow — like sales to mid-market and large enterprise customers — even if it pushes the timeline for profitability back. Ultimately, Griggs expects Intercom to become profitable within the next two years. 

Griggs worked at the adtech company Rocket Fuel as vice president of financial planning and analysis, prior to Sitecore, where he was working when he heard about the opportunity through a recruiter. At the time, he wasn't looking for anything new, but Intercom caught his eye. He was further drawn in his first interactions with founder and then-CEO Eoghan McCabe, as well as Karen Peacock, who was COO at the time but became CEO in July.

"[It] really felt like there was an opportunity to make a difference here," Griggs said. "It's a chance to build a really great team and really take the team to the next level and help build out our infrastructure to support the scale we're looking for."

Griggs has already had an eventful year as he's been tasked with navigating Intercom through the coronavirus pandemic. In May, the company laid off 39 employees, representing about 6% of its workforce. Many of its smaller customers scaled back on their contracts as they took a hit during the crisis, Griggs said. 

Read more: Intercom, a $1.3 billion messaging startup backed by Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey, laid off 39 employees and is relocating 47 roles to Dublin

Still, he says the company is seeing a rebound from the initial market reaction to the pandemic from March to May, and he says he's "optimistic about the business."

"We really have a great story to tell to both customers and to the market about what we're doing and what problems we're solving," Griggs said.

Intercom competes with other customer support companies like Zendesk, but relies on a more conversational approach where humans and chatbots interact with customers. 

As CFO, Griggs plans to invest in scaling the company's R&D, sales, marketing, and business operations, and doesn't expect Intercom to need to raise money again anytime soon. In total, it's raised $240.5 million at a $1.3 billion valuation, via PitchBook. 

"As I think about it, we have plenty of liquidity," Griggs said. "We're not struggling for cash. For me, it's really about finding that balance between profitability and growth. We have really big ambitions and have every right to believe in continued growth to our company."

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Facebook and Snap both recently approached a TikTok-like platform expressing interest to acquire it for "hundreds of millions of dollars," according to The Information.

The app in question is called Dubsmash, a social platform for creating lip-syncing videos that has been around since 2013. Facebook and Snap's interest in a rival video-sharing app comes as TikTok faces off against the Trump administration's threat to ban the app next month.

Dubsmash and other video-sharing platforms have recently seen boosts in downloads and user numbers as TikTok's 100 million monthly users in the US prepare for a future without the viral app. TikTok is currently facing an executive order from Donald Trump that bans "any transactions" as of mid-September with the app and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. Although it's unlikely a nationwide ban will be implemented, the threat to TikTok has been enough to send users into a panic about where to make videos and find their favorite creators.

The Information reports that although Dubsmash's acquisition talks with Snap and Facebook occurred in "recent weeks," the discussions are no longer active.

A Snap spokesperson told Business Insider in a statement, "We admire the team but aren't in active talks to acquire." Facebook cited company policy of not commenting on "rumor or speculation," but confirmed they're not in "active discussions" with Dubsmash. Dubsmash did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Meanwhile, Facebook and Snap have been working on their own features drawing from TikTok's popular format. Earlier this month, Facebook launched Instagram Reels in the US, while Snap started to roll out a music-overlay feature for videos.

Dubsmash was an early adopter of the audio-based, video-splicing format later made popular by TikTok. As reported by the New York Times, Dubsmash is where some of the internet's most viral dances have originated, before spreading to TikTok and getting picked up by the platform's most popular creators.

However, Dubsmash has not seen the same level of success as TikTok, nor rivals like Triller and Likee. Sensor Tower indicates Dubsmash has been downloaded around 2 million times in the last six months, and had only one-third of TikTok's lifetime installs in January.

Dubsmash was originally founded in Germany, but the app's creators restarted the company from the ground level in 2017, TechCrunch reported. Dubsmash established itself in Brooklyn with a team of around a dozen employees, and has raised $20 million from investors — although it's receieved no funding since last year, according to PitchBook.

Annie Hwang and Jason Cui met on the first day of college at Harvard, where they later started dating. After graduating in 2018, they worked as product managers and launched their tech careers.

After the coronavirus pandemic struck, the power couple started brainstorming new ways to get audience members to interact with, and pay, content creators that use live streaming platforms like TikTok. In April, they launched the private beta version of Jemi, a Patreon alternative that landed the couple a coveted spot in Y Combinator's Summer 2020 batch.

"We want to build this next generation of creator entrepreneurs," Hwang told Business Insider in an interview. 

The country's ongoing shelter-in-place orders means that many actors, comedians, and musicians are unemployed and turning to live streaming, she explained.

Creators "deserve to be monetizing their time and individuality," Hwang added, noting that "not all creators are making money."

Jemi allows creator entrepreneurs to offer merchandise and experiences, such as autographed pictures, 1-on-1 virtual hangouts, and acting classes. The startup takes a cut from each transaction, Cui explained, though he didn't reveal specifics. 

When Jemi launched in April, Hwang started reaching out to creators. So far, Jemi has brought on ex-Guns N' Roses lead guitarist Bumblefoot, Olympic figure skater Karen Chen, and actor Sean Whalen, who is best known for his role in the films 'The People Under the Stairs' and 'Twister'. 

"We're not going after the typical celebrities," Hwang said. "They see themselves as content creators."

Whalen, who most recently appeared in the 2020 film 'American Pickle' starring Seth Rogen, told Business Insider in an interview that, before he discovered Jemi, he'd been looking for new ways to make money from his TikTok live streams, where many of his 100,000+ followers tune in weekly.

Whalen said that Jemi has been helping him make extra cash, as "there's no production going on" in the film industry. 

"I gave Patreon a try," he said, "but my followers weren't into the subscription model."

Many of his followers, Whalen explained, are die-hard horror fans that come from rural parts of the Midwest.

"They know me as Roach from The People Under the Stairs or from Twister," he said. The actor's name also got a boost from Netflix, which added Twister to the streaming platform at the beginning of June (before removing the film 2 months later).

Whalen, who sells merchandise like autographed photos, DVDs, and Blurays, said he also tried including links to his PayPal and Venmo accounts on his TikTok live streams.

But many of his fans would tell him "I don't have Venmo! I don't have PayPal," the actor said, explaining that the payment platforms aren't as popular among fans in rural areas. 

Jemi made the process simple: Followers make one-time purchases by inputting their shipping and credit card information, all in one place.

"Almost everyone has a credit or debit card," the actor said of his fanbase.  

Since switching from Venmo and PayPal to Jemi, Whalen says his sales have increased by more than 30%. On his Friday TikTok live streams, his busiest days, he said that he sells about 40-50 items in 2 hours, and that Jemi makes it easier to manage the influx of requests. 

There have been some hiccups, Whalen admitted, but he also said that the young entrepreneurs who founded the company "are willing to learn, and there's no ego around that."