FEW European startups have attracted as much attention—and none as much capital—as Northvolt. On November 21st the Swedish maker of batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), and a would-be European champion, went bankrupt, having raised $15bn from governments and investors. Its boss, Peter Carlsson, resigned shortly after. More
Car dashboards have an array of indicators that illuminate to warn of trouble. If the boardrooms of Europe’s carmakers had similar systems they would be lit up like a Christmas market. Volkswagen (VW), the largest of the lot by sales, is bracing for strikes beginning on December 1st in response to its plan to close three factories in Germany and cut wages. Northvolt, a once-promising Swedish battery startup in which VW and BMW invested, has collapsed into bankruptcy. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, Donald Trump is threatening to upend supply chains by imposing a 25% tariff on imports from Mexico and Canada. More
In Victorian London, among the factories and warehouses of the city’s East End, Alexander Parkes developed the world’s first plastic (he inventively called it Parkesine). Notpla, a startup now based in the same part of the city, wants to follow in his footsteps. Unlike Parkesine, however, its material is not made to last. And instead of fossil fuels, it is made from seaweed. At Emirates Stadium, not far away, football fans already gorge on hot dogs served on trays that use the material, which decomposes naturally in just six weeks. More
An underappreciated force behind great technological change is intense—and petty—rivalry. In the “war of the currents” in the late 19th century, Thomas Edison electrocuted stray animals to discredit Nikola Tesla. A century later Steve Jobs traded insults with Bill Gates during a battle between Apple and Microsoft. Even “Silicon Valley,” a satirical HBO series, starts with a feud—and the priceless quip: “These are billionaires, Richard. Humiliating each other is worth more to them than we will make in a lifetime.” More
Congratulations on joining our internship programme. For most of you this is your first experience of the workplace, and with that in mind we have prepared a guide to office etiquette. Other chapters cover what to wear (more), when to use emojis (less) and when to speak in meetings (it depends). More
AS the dust settled on Donald Trump’s election victory, what businesses did investors think would benefit most from his return to the presidency? Tesla? Big oil? Rustbelt manufacturers? No: two firms that lock people up. Shares in GEO Group and Core Civic, which own and run prisons, soared by two-thirds in the three days after the election, beating the rest of America’s 1,500 most valuable firms. More
For the second time in two years, the Adani Group, one of India’s largest conglomerates, has been accused of criminal activity from the other side of the globe. The first barrage came from Hindenburg Research, a short-seller in New York which accused the group of fraud last year. The second came on November 20th, when federal prosecutors in New York filed a 54-page indictment against Gautam Adani, chairman of the group and one of India’s richest men, along with his nephew, Sagar Adani, and six others. The prosecutors allege that “senior executives and directors” engaged in a scheme “to pay over $250m in bribes to Indian government officials, to lie to investors and banks to raise billions of dollars, and to obstruct justice,” according to Lisa Miller, the deputy assistant attorney-general for the case. More
WHEN SAM ALTMAN, boss of OpenAI, posted a gnomic tweet this month saying “There is no wall,” his followers on X, a social-media site, had a blast. “Trump will build it,” said one. “No paywall for ChatGPT?” quipped another. It has since morphed from an in-joke among nerds into a serious business matter. More
