Selected highlights from the third key day of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland:


TOP STORIES:

Uber in Talks with Automakers to Build Vehicles Customized for Ride-Sharing, Delivery -- WSJ

Uber Technologies Inc. is in talks with automobile makers about building lower-cost electric vehicles tailored for its ride-hailing and delivery businesses, part of its effort to electrify its fleet. Speaking Thursday at an event hosted by The Wall Street Journal, Uber Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi said that the company is working with manufacturers on vehicles optimized for city use, ferrying passengers and deliveries. For ride-sharing, that includes cars with lower top speeds and with seating areas where passengers can face each other. "I do think that top speeds, for example, that many cars have are not necessary for city driving that's associated with rideshare," Mr. Khosrowshahi said. "That can reduce the specs and if you reduce the specs you can reduce the ultimate cost."

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Philippine President Says He Is Seeking Ways to Defuse Tensions With China -- WSJ

The Philippines is increasing cooperation with the U.S. and developing stronger mechanisms to defuse disputes with China as it walks a fine line between the two superpowers, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said. "I learned an African saying: When elephants fight, the only one that loses is the grass," Mr. Marcos said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week. "We are the grass in this situation. We don't want to get trampled." China is one of the Philippines' largest trading partners, while the U.S. is a longstanding security ally, making the Philippine government reluctant to take sides against either. "It's a very precarious balance, " Mr. Marcos said.

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Outsider Likely Responsible for FTX's $400 Million Hack -- WSJ

An outside player, rather than an FTX employee, was likely involved in the roughly $400 million stolen in a hack during the crypto exchange's collapse, according to digital assets data analytics firm Chainalysis. "It's not easy to launder $400 million in crypto," said Chainalysis co-founder Michael Gronager on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Chainalysis, which maintains a data trove of crypto transactions, was hired by FTX's new management to track down existing assets.

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Microsoft Hosted Sting Performance in Davos on Night Before It Announced Layoffs -- WSJ

On Tuesday evening, Microsoft hosted an event. It was an intimate gathering of 50 or so people, including the company's top executives, who got to wile away the evening listening to a performance by the musical artist Sting, said people familiar with the event. The concert would end up sounding a sour note to some employees at Microsoft the next morning. On Wednesday--while much of the company's leadership team was halfway around the world from its Redmond, Wash. headquarters--it announced plans to lay off 10,000 people, the largest layoff Microsoft has had since 2014, and as CEO Satya Nadella would explain in a blog post, reflected the need for the company to adapt to a global economic slowdown.

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Goldman CEO Touts Progress in Reducing On-Balance-Sheet Investing -- WSJ

David Solomon, the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. chief executive, touted progress the firm has made in reducing the use of its balance sheet in its asset-management business, a key component of his strategy to boost the Wall Street giant's shares. Goldman this week reported that fourth-quarter profit plunged 66% from a year ago, as economic uncertainty and market volatility crimp corporate dealmaking. Though a big loss in its consumer-lending unit drew a lot of attention, tough market conditions also plagued the bank. "One of the reasons we had a lot of noise this quarter wasn't the absolute performance, it was that we missed," he said in an interview at The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "If there was no consumer [business], we still would have missed."


INTERVIEWS AND PANELS:

A top official at Singapore wealth fund GIC said the fund is "much chastised" and "thinking much more soberly" about venture capital and startup investment amid a wave of losses and red ink in the sector. Jeffrey Pichet Jaensubhakij, group chief investment officer of GIC, said on a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday that 2021 saw many times the standard level of investment in the sector, a surge that should have given investors pause. "There are only so many good ideas that can be funded at any one time that will make you money," he said. "Investors--ourselves, as well as the venture firms and the growth firms--we only have ourselves to blame."

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Ahmed Bin Sulayem, the chairman of global ports operator DP World Ltd., urged the U.S. and China to mend their trade relations to avoid further supply-chain disruptions. "We can cope with multiple production centers, but we can't cope with the emergence of another cold war between China and the U.S. That disturbs the market in a big way," Mr. Bin Sulayem said Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "I know that there are many moves to apply protectionist policies, but everyone realizes that cooperation and opening in trade is the best for everyone," he added.

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From earlier Thursday:

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde signaled that the bank will continue to increase interest rates this year amid an improved economic outlook and historically tight labor market. Speaking Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Ms. Lagarde warned that the ECB isn't satisfied with current high levels of inflation in the currency union. "On inflation we have way too high numbers," Ms. Lagarde said in a panel discussion. "We shall stay the course until such a time when we have moved into restrictive territory for long enough so that we can return inflation to 2% in a timely manner." Asked about the possibility that the ECB might limit future rate increases, Ms. Lagarde said she would advise investors to "revise their position."

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Allowing the semiconductor industry to become too dependent on Asia was a mistake and fixing it will likely take decades, Intel Corp. Chief Executive Patrick Gelsinger said. "We needed a global crisis to realize we had allowed ourselves to become dependent on single points of failure in the supply chain," Mr. Gelsinger told an audience at the World Economic Forum at Davos on Thursday, referring to the recent chip shortage. "We need resilient supply chains for the future." Mr. Gelsinger said just three decades ago the U.S. and Europe accounted for 80% of the world's chip output. Now, Asia accounts for that figure and the U.S. and Europe produce 20%, he said. "It will take decades to fix," he said.

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A fragmented satellite industry is facing more consolidations as new, well-funded players like Elon Musk's Starlink, as well as Chinese competitors, make plans to saturate space with new satellites, said Rajeev Suri, chief executive of Inmarsat Global Ltd., one of the world's largest satellite operators. He said 55 companies have laid out fully funded plans to launch some 100,000 new satellites into orbit by the end of the decade, on top of the 7,000 already there. "I think it does mean consolidation because you can't have, in a somewhat low-growth market, 55 players compete, and with deep pocketed new players coming in that don't have a desire for near term profit, i.e. its a long term bet," he said.

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New technologies, from autonomous vehicles to artificial intelligence, are creating both increasing opportunities and new security risks, said Christopher Wray, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Speaking on a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Mr. Wray said that the U.S. is particularly concerned about China's AI programs and their ability to hack into other countries. He also said that the FBI had proactively shut down a Russian cyber effort to probe American infrastructure at the start of the war with Ukraine. "The attack surface is broadening, the range of attack methods is increasing, in quality and quantity," he said.

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The European Space Agency is pushing a zero debris policy that would mandate companies and governments to remove any space junk launched from Earth. "We want to establish a zero debris policy, which means that if you bring a spacecraft into orbit you have to remove it," Josef Ashbacher, ESA's director general said in a presentation at the World Economic Forum in Davos. "We need to protect our orbits for our own safety and the safety of spacecraft and astronauts."

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Governments and global health agencies need to find ways to ease the political friction that hampered the response to the Covid-19 pandemic as they build readiness for future health crises, according to Albert Bourla, chief executive officer of Pfizer Inc. Despite the many scientific and technical obstacles Pfizer had to overcome in developing and then distributing its Covid-19 vaccine, "the biggest challenge was the political challenge," said Mr. Bourla during a panel on ways to accelerate the response to future pandemics at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Thursday. Governments should focus now on developing mechanisms and systems to ensure that politics don't interfere with the rapid production and delivery of vaccines during future pandemics, he said.

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01-19-23 1232ET