Aurelia Butler

OAKLAND, Calif. (Reuters) -Sandbox AQ, a startup spun off from Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Inc last year, said on Tuesday it raised $500 million as it helps customers prepare for a quantum computing future.Quantum (NASDAQ:QMCO) computers, whose processors run based on quantum physics, could one day carry out certain calculations millions of times quicker than today’s fastest super computers, yet they remain years away from making a big change, such as breaking encryption. But as hackers can harvest data today and wait to decrypt them when the quantum computers are ready, the National Institute of Standards and Technology under the U.S. Commerce Department selected new cryptography standards last year that could better withstand quantum computers. The U.S. government has set quantum computing as one of the key technologies important for national security.Sandbox AQ’s software scans companies’ systems to identify which parts use the old cryptography, identifies which need to be replaced urgently, and sets out to fortify the encryption of the enterprise, said CEO Jack Hidary.”Right now you have a lot of banks and pharma companies and governments still using these old protocols,” said Hidary. “The average bank takes five to seven years to migrate over. … Now, hopefully they’ll do their important customer private information first.” Sandbox also has a business selling powerful simulation software to accelerate development of drugs and materials.The simulation does not currently need quantum computers to work, said Hidary. He said in the last 18 months chips that do artificial intelligence work have become powerful enough to run some of the math for quantum physics. When quantum computers are ready, that work would speed up even further.Sandbox AQ is also using existing types of sensors based on quantum physics. These have long been MRI machines, for instance, and Sandbox has created a prototype machine to monitor the heart. It can also be used to monitor slight local changes in the earth’s magnetic field, making navigation systems much more precise, he said.Last month Sandbox AQ said it won a contract with the U.S. Air Force to research these quantum navigation technologies Former Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt is the startup’s chairman as well as investor. Other investors include Breyer Capital, T. Rowe Price funds and Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM) founder Marc Benioff’s TIME Ventures.Schmidt in a statement said Sandbox AQ has already signed up more than 15 enterprise and government customers and is partnering with 30 universities to train PhDs and other talent needed.Some of the team and inspiration for Sandbox originated at Alphabet in 2016. But the Google parent is not a shareholder as Hidary said he wanted the company to be independent to work with the other major cloud companies as well. More

(Reuters) -Rising interest rates helped Commonwealth Bank of Australia (OTC:CMWAY) deliver record profits on Wednesday, but shares of the lender dropped on headwinds facing its mortgages business and concerns that its margins have peaked. Australia’s biggest lender pointed to tailwinds ahead as loan impairment expenses increased by A$586 million ($409 million). Business credit growth also slowed, reflecting inflationary pressures, rising interest rates, supply chain disruptions and a decline in house prices.”We expect business credit growth to moderate and global economic growth to slow during 2023,” said Chief Executive Officer Matt Comyn.”However, we remain optimistic that a soft landing for the Australian economy can be achieved.”Shares in the bank as much as 5.7% in early trading in Sydney, while the broader market was down 0.2%.”With further headwinds from deposit switching likely in 2H23, accelerating headwinds in the mortgage market, and a cash rate that is closer to the peak, we think concerns are likely to grow that NIMs (net interest margins) have peaked,” Citibank said in a note after the earning announcement.”Asset quality was strong in this result, but there is likely to be a perception that it will deteriorate from here as revenue tailwinds are starting to ease.” DIVIDEND UPAfter eight rate hikes through 2022 and a further quarter-basis point raise last week, the central bank has indicated more tightening ahead to stamp out inflation. Soaring rates have cooled off the housing market and added to rising cost of living pressures. “We are conscious that many Australian households are feeling significant strain from rising interest rates, alongside the rising costs of electricity, groceries and other household items,” Comyn said. “Despite this, consumer spend remains resilient.”Higher interest rates are yet to hit many CBA mortgage customers as many cheaply priced fixed rate loans are expected to come off by the end of the year.In an investor presentation pack CBA said approximately 83% of the book is exposed to rate increases by December 2023.CBA said cash profit from continuing operations climbed to A$5.15 billion in the six months ended Dec. 31, from A$4.75 billion a year earlier, almost in line with a Visible Alpha consensus estimate.It declared an interim dividend of A$2.10 per share, higher than the A$1.75 it paid to shareholders a year earlier.The lender also said its “troublesome and impaired” assets fell by $500 million over the half to $6.3 billion.Home lending volume growth slowed for the company, with gross lending coming in at A$77 billion during the first half, down from A$94 billion a year earlier.The bank also announced it would buy back additional shares worth A$1 billion, on the back of A$2 billion share buy-back announced last February.While higher earnings on deposits drove up net interest margin to 2.10% from 1.92% a year earlier, CBA said it was partly offset by increased competition in home lending.($1 = 1.4314 Australian dollars) More

The company joins a growing list of firms in corporate America – from Wall Street banks and tech companies to online furniture retailer Wayfair (NYSE:W) Inc – that have reduced their workforce amid worries of an economic downturn.The company also said its Chief Product & Technology Officer Bob Kupbens will depart, while said Ryan Ross, president, Neiman Marcus, will lead customer insights for the group. Darcy Penick, the president of luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman, will assume group-level leadership of the NMG Product & Technology organization.Neiman Marcus Group has more than 10,000 employees as per its website. Last year, Farfetch (NYSE:FTCH) Ltd, an online retailer of luxury fashion products, had said it would make an investment of up to $200 million in Neiman, gaining a stronger foothold in the United States as part of a deal to develop the high-end department store’s online business. More

PARIS (Reuters) – Airbus will start delivering narrow-body A320neo-family jets to Air India at the end of this year as part of a 250-plane order, the aircraft manufacturer’s chief commercial officer said.The carrier’s huge aircraft acquisition will further expand as Air India additionally leases around 25 A320neo-family jets on the open market, he said in an interview.”Those will come in before we can start delivering the A320s,” Airbus CCO Christian Scherer told Reuters.That would bring the size of the total acquisition, which includes 220 Boeing (NYSE:BA) jets, to 495 planes, 470 of which were announced as direct orders on Tuesday. Reuters reported last month Air India was poised to acquire a total of 495 planes.The Airbus part of the direct order includes 34 A350-1000 aircraft and six smaller A350-900s originally destined for Russia’s sanctions-hit Aeroflot. It also includes 210 single-aisle planes spread between 140 A320neo and 70 A321neo.Asked whether the deal supported Airbus plans for higher A350 production, Scherer said: “It is poised to grow for sure”.Airbus said in October it would lift monthly A350 output to six units from five in early 2023 and then explore more.Industry sources have said Airbus throttled back to 4.5 a month in late 2022 and is now producing 5.6, on its way to six a month in 2024, where it may stay through 2025, barring any changes with its full-year results on Thursday.However, within that shallow overall increase, production of the Air India-backed A350-1000 variant – which currently stands at 1.2 jets a month – is due to increase to 1.8 a month in 2024, two in the first half of 2025 and three in the second half, the sources said.Airbus declined comment on production of individual variants but Scherer said India’s 34 A350-1000 jets would be delivered starting in about two years “at a relatively good pace”.Airbus said in October it is producing three of its A330neo jets a month. Industry sources said it plans to reach a rate of four a month in the second half of 2024, up from 2.8 a month now. It is said to be making seven A220s a month with a goal of 10 by end-year.Sources cautioned production may be further reviewed when Airbus releases full-year results on Thursday. Scherer declined any comment on detailed output numbers ahead of those earnings.(This story has been corrected to change the title of Christian Scherer in paragraph 3) More

Haddad told reporters the topic is not on the agenda.Brazil’s finance chief also stressed the need to harmonize fiscal and monetary policies while predicting that over time the central bank would see that interest rates are too high.The comments come a day after central bank governor Roberto Campos Neto said the monetary authority did not propose the government increase its inflation target in a bid to make decisions over rates more flexible, denying rumors since last week that the target might be boosted.Haddad also defended more closely aligning monetary and fiscal policies, emphasizing that failing to harmonize them would make both the government and the central bank’s top goals more difficult to achieve.Even Campos Neto has recognized that fiscal adjustment measures announced by economic policymakers last month go in the right direction, Haddad noted.”As results come in, I’m sure this will help monetary (policymakers) conclude that we might have an interest rate at the moment that compromises the country’s objectives,” said Haddad, who described Brazil’s inflation rate as “more comfortable” than current borrowing costs. More