500,000 cybersecurity jobs across the U.S remain unfilled

Tech giants Apple, Google and Microsoft have pledged billions to bolster U.S. cybersecurity following a meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House on Wednesday. The meeting, which also included attendees from the financial and education sectors, was held following months of high-profile cyberattacks against critical infrastructure and several U.S. government agencies, along with a glaring cybersecurity skills gap; according to data from CyberSeek, there are currently almost 500,000 cybersecurity jobs across the U.S that remain unfilled.

“Most of our critical infrastructure is owned and operated by the private sector, and the federal government can’t meet this challenge alone,” Biden said at the start of the meeting. “I’ve invited you all here today because you have the power, the capacity and the responsibility, I believe, to raise the bar on cybersecurity.”

In order to help the U.S. in its fight against a growing number of cyberattacks, Big Tech pledged to invest billions of dollars to strengthen cybersecurity defenses and to train skilled cybersecurity workers.

https://techcrunch.com/

Artificial intelligence and speech technology

Microsoft Corp is in advanced talks to buy artificial intelligence and speech technology company Nuance Communications Inc at about $16 billion, according to a source familiar with the matter. The price being discussed could value Nuance at about $56 a share, the source said, adding that an agreement could be announced as soon as Monday.

Bloomberg News, which first reported the deal between Nuance and Microsoft, said bloom.bg/2Qgfm7e talks are ongoing and the discussions could still fall apart. Burlington, Massachusetts-based Nuance whose voice recognition technology helped launch Apple Inc’s assistant Siri, makes software for sectors ranging from healthcare to the automotive industries.The deal with Nuance would be Microsoft’s second-biggest deal, after its $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn in 2016.

https://www.reuters.com/

Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco ranked at the second place

Apple is now the world’s most valuable publicly traded company, passing Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco. As of close of business Friday, Apple has a market valuation of $1.84 trillion, while Saudi Aramco’s is $1.76 trillion, according to CNBC. Apple’s stock, which has been on a largely-steady climb since the end of March, closed up more than 10 percent on Friday following the company’s record-breaking third-quarter earnings on Thursday, ending the day at $425.04.

Apple’s total revenue for Q3 hit $59.7 billion, up 11 percent from last year. Strong Mac and iPad sales were a highlight, and the company likely saw increased demand for the devices while people have been sheltering in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Apple also announced a four-for-one stock split as part of its third quarter earnings, which will lower the price of an individual stock.

Amazon, Facebook, and Google all announced earnings yesterday as well, and for the most part, they had pretty good quarters. Amazon doubled its profit — during a pandemic. Facebook saw a daily user increase of 12 percent year over year to 1.79 billion. And combined, the four companies netted $28.6 billion in profits.

https://www.theverge.com/