News in Brief
Germany readies €20b to bolster chip output
BLOOMBERG – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government plans to dole out €20 billion ($22 billion) to bolster semiconductor manufacturing in Germany in a push to shore up the country’s tech sector and secure supplies of critical components amid growing geopolitical tension.
The money is to be distributed to German and international companies by 2027 and will be drawn from the Climate and Transformation Fund, according to people involved in the negotiations.
Worldcoin crypto launched
REUTERS – Worldcoin, a cryptocurrency project founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, launched on Monday.
The project's core offering is its World ID, which the company describes as a "digital passport" to prove that its holder is a real human, not an AI bot.
To get a World ID, a customer signs up to do an in-person iris scan using Worldcoin's 'orb', a silver ball approximately the size of a bowling ball. Once the orb's iris scan verifies the person is a real human, it creates a World ID.
Worsening euro zone business downturn reignites recession fears
AFP – Euro zone business activity shrank much more than expected in July as demand in the bloc's dominant services industry declined while factory output fell at the fastest pace since COVID-19 first took hold, a survey showed.
The decline was broad-based with the euro zone's two biggest economies - Germany and France - both in contractionary territory and will likely add to fears the bloc will slip back into recession.