As Monday morning rolls in, we’re providing TechWire readers with a quick recap of the past week’s news headlines.
Notable news stories from last week included: Developer Kane Realty announced it’s building a $1 billion, 33-acre innovation district in Raleigh’s North Hills; NC TECH released its annual State of Technology Industry Report showing that tech job demand remains elevated despite the pandemic; Durham semiconductor firm Cree is changing its longtime name to Wolfspeed; Wake Tech Community College partnered with Amazon to offer a new robotics training program.
And, in national news: The headlines were flooded with news about the r/WallStreetBets subreddit, as GameStop shares soared in a grassroots-led rally against short sellers; a massive internet service outage hit the U.S. on Monday; $284 billion in loans is now available for small businesses through a new round of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funding; Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and other tech giants reported big profits in their latest quarterly earnings reports.
Keeping with our Monday “TechWire Rewind” tradition, here’s a look back at 81 local, state and national headlines as reported by WRAL TechWire last week:
MONDAY | Jan. 25 Headlines:
- $1 billion ‘Innovation District’ to be built at Raleigh’s North Hills
- Apple: Keep safe distance between new iPhones, medical devices
- Big renwable energy milestone: Usage in EU surpasses fossil fuels for first time
- Check it out: Nearing 2nd anniversary, Triangle Startup Guide continues to grow in multiple areas
- CrowdfundNC raises $1.5M to fuel ‘two-sided marketplace’ startups in NC
- From AI to IoT & beyond, there’s a meetup for nearly everyone in the Triangle – here’s a list
- NC headliners: 22 statewide events & deadlines wrap up a busy Jan.
- On the horizon: 83 events & webinars happening across NC in February
- Report: 1,000 richest recover wealth lost in pandemic; 3 NC billionaires are richer
- Startup Rewind: A recap of 20+ news stories and features covering NC startups
- Sweet sorrow: Godiva closing its 128 stores in US, including one in Durham
- TechWire Rewind: Startup hub growth; IBM revenue woes and ‘NewCo’ update; Chimerix $100M funder + 77 other headlines
- Triangle headliners: 43 events & program deadlines coming up this week
- Try – and try again for IPO: Life science firm Bioventus aims for $100M offering
- U.N.: Pandemic cost 4 times as many jobs as 2009 crisis; women, young people hardest hit
- Video game phenom: GameStop stock is soaring – here’s why
TUESDAY | Jan. 26 Headlines:
- $284B is available in new rounds of PPP loans – here’s a look at how 2nd round works
- Big internet outage strikes US, hitting wide variety of services, companies, then eases
- BUILDING1: The personal side of working from home
- Charlotte’s Dais X sells assets, forms new firm to focus on mentoring, funding startups
- Elon Musk tweet sends Etsy stock up 10% – just how silly is Wall Street getting?
- Google: We’re making progress in removing third-party ‘cookies’
- IMF: Coronavirus variants, new infections, vaccine supply could hammer pandemic recovery
- Interested in edge computing, 5g? Don’t miss this RIoT event today
- LimeLight: Creative agency McKinney names 4 execs to new positions
- LimeLight: Institute for Emerging Issues secures grants from Corning for broadband initiative
- Mortgage lender promises 322 new jobs in Cary; average salary is $64,000
- RDU adding new Minneapolis-based airline in May
- Teaching Startup: Recapping the series to date
- Teaching Startup: You need $250,000 to start a company – here’s why
- Twitter setting up users group to monitor tweets, bans My Pillow CEO
- Wake Radiology practice adds artificial intelligence in fight against breast cancer
- What’s ahead for our state’s tech sector? NC TECH’s CEO sees promise, lots of change
WEDNESDAY | Jan. 27 Headlines:
- Apple warns iPhone, iPad users to update devices to fix security flaws, reports record revenues
- Battling bots: Walmart to use robots in race with Amazon to fulfill online orders faster
- Big Tech driving markets higher with Facebook, Apple earnings due today
- Cree’s CEO is changing company’s long-time name to Wolfspeed
- Cree – soon to be Wolfspeed – revenue tops expectations, loss is not as bad as forecast
- Donald Thompson: Venture capitalists are betting on the future with diversity in the spotlight
- Facebook closes 2020 with a flourish but year ahead appears challenging
- Inside the Reddit stock frenzy: Who are the WallStreetBets and what’s driving this market?
- Internet recovers after massive outage; Verizon acknowledges ‘issue’ as source
- Microsoft profits surge 33% as pandemic drives more customers to cloud, work from home
- Need a chief information officer? Digital strategy? Durham firm has a smashing idea
- ‘Never waste a good crisis:’ Research exec tells leaders to think digital, digital, digital
- Red-hot edge computing startup in Raleigh lands $10M more from 20 investors
- Robotic surgical firm TransEnterix raising $69M but its stock is hammered
- Tasty deal: Beyond Meat, PepsiCo tout plant-based protein snacks, drinks
- Tech jobs ‘permeating’ every sector of NC economy and growing, new report says
- Tesla charges to it first annual net profit as sales surge
- Thom Ruhe: NC IDEA looks to 2021 as a year to step up entrepreneurial support
- Welcome to the Reddit market: Wall Street Bets board is driving some unlikely stocks
THURSDAY | Jan. 28 Headlines:
- Amazon partners with Wake Tech to offer robotics training as Triangle workforce grows
- Connecting workforce & town: How Cary rose to challenge of COVID with ‘Anywhere Operations’
- Facebook oversight board orders 4 posts restored; no decision yet on Trump ban
- In his own words: CEO discloses why he’s changing Cree’s name to Wolfspeed
- It’s data privacy day – here are 7 steps to protect your information
- LimeLight: NC Central, Saint Augustine join Google’s HBCU digital skills program
- Lowe’s to hire 50,000 – here’s where to find a job; $80M in bonuses going to current workers
- Reddit driven, GameStop stock keeps soaring – where does mania end?
- Zuckerberg about face: Time to ‘turn down the temperature and discourage divisive conversations’
- Your data, your privacy: Apple nears release for privacy control to prevent secretly tracking of users
- Why edge computing is a game changer: No more waiting for data processing in a cloud
FRIDAY | Jan. 29 Headlines:
- 100+ companies will participate in CED’s Venture Connect – here’s who made the cut
- A trifecta for sex: NCSU researchers develop contraceptive, libido-enhancing, anti-viral gel
- Between a Reddit and a hard place: As GameStop stock saga shows, populism is rising
- Does unemployment rate truly measure state of jobs? Yes, no, maybe – NCSU economist explains
- GM’s push into electric vehicles is going into overdrive
- Inside the WallStreetBets-Reddit phenomenon: Stock market meets internet fringe culture
- New platform promises to be ‘one-stop shop’ for all things real estate
- Raleigh entrepreneur Brian Hamilton acquires video tech firm, to add jobs in NC
- Reddit hype triggers rush to buy cryptocurrency dogecoin
- Tech Today: $10M in V Foundation grants; Honeywell beats Street; CommScope gear clearance + AskBio, Worldwide Clinica;, AeroMed news
- Tim Cook blasts ‘cost’ of social media: ‘polarization, lost trust and yes, of violence’
- Wake Tech to provide Amazon robotics training at Raleigh Beltline center
- Who’s No. 1 in video games? Fortnite publisher Epic, says global study of brands
Weekend Reading:
- Archiving Trump’s tweets, social: A mammoth task (20 terabytes) for Durham’s ArchiveSocial
- Newspaper publisher files antitrust suit against Facebook, Google
- Reddit frenzy turns 10-year-old’s Kwanzaa gift of GameStop stock into lots of cash
- Yo, Fortnite! G.I. Joe commando Snake Eyes joins the battle
- Wall Street will never be the same after Reddit-GameStop saga: 5 things to know