From the weekend...
Amazon wants to move some (maybe all?) of its huge Oregon data centers from carbon-intensive market power to even-more-carbon-intensive gas-fed fuel cells.
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Mike Rogoway
@rogoway
Covers the business of technology for . Phone: 503-294-7699 E-mail: mrogoway@oregonian.com DM for Signal
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A bill before the Legislature would require data centers to conform with Oregon’s clean energy targets.
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As we reported last summer, Amazon’s growth in eastern Oregon has coincided with an enormous spike in regional carbon emissions.
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Amazon says it wants to move to “100% renewable energy.” Its Oregon data centers are going in the opposite direction. The fuel cells would contribute even more to climate change than its current, carbon-intensive power source.
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Amazon fuel cells would use natural gas to power Oregon data centers, increasing carbon footprint oregonlive.com/silicon-forest
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It has been an eventful last two days for this man -- and for the town of Astoria.
My story: "Police arrest man they say left dead fish at Astoria’s ‘Goonies’ house, stole yacht and prompted harrowing Coast Guard rescue"
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A Portland govt watchdog says the city should waive penalties for all high-income households that failed to pay new taxes to fund homeless services & universal preschool—or at least inform folks that they are eligible to have the fines canceled / refunded.
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News: Metro & MultCo say thousands have failed to pay new high-income taxes to fund homeless services, universal preschool.
Metro delinquency rate for 2021: ~ 25%.
Neither gov't ever notified those that qualify for the taxes, who now face hefty fines.
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More details here.
Gelsinger delivered the message in a somber, companywide address this evening. He sought to rally employees by referencing hard times Intel endured during the 1980s.
But it's far from clear that Intel can engineer another comeback.
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No cuts in base pay for employees Grade 6 and below
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My sources at Intel confirm. They say
* Suspended merit increases, suspended quarterly profit bonus, 401k match cut by 1/2
* Base pay for Grade 7 employees and above by 5% (grades 7-11) to 25% (for CEO)
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Intel is doing huge cuts to base wages/salary for ALL employees. Also pausing bonuses. Also cutting 401k match.
I got 3 different messages about this from Intel employees within 30 seconds.
This affects people from product to fab to design.
Oof.
$INTC @intel $AMD $TSM $NVDA
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"The governor did not include a major potential cost in her budget proposal: tax incentives for the chip industry. Kotek said she is leaving those negotiations up to lawmakers."
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But some of what the industry seeks may come from other areas of the budget.
($150m for research centers at PSU & OSU, for example, could come from higher ed spending).
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Kotek's budget has $200m in state lottery funds for "for business incentives supporting
advanced manufacturing, including semiconductors, and to leverage federal funds."
She had previously talked $200m-$300m.
Industry boosters seek much more.
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Gov. Tina Kotek pitches big spending on housing and behavioral health, amid economic uncertainty oregonlive.com/politics/2023/
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Oregon software company Exterro lays off two-dozen after buying Zapproved
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Gelsinger: “We realize that we stumbled, we lost share, we lost momentum. We feel that stabilized this year.”
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Pursuing cost costs "even more aggressively."
No full-year guidance because of economic uncertainty, but macro weakness will "continue at least through the first half of the year."
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CEO Pat Gelsinger on earnings call: “Our results and our Q1 guidance are below what we expect of ourselves.”
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Intel reports steep decline in sales, poor outlook oregonlive.com/silicon-forest
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The total number of layoffs companywide, 1,300, appears unchanged.
Vacasa had ~400 Portland employees in 2018 and was planning to add hundreds as it moved into its new Pearl District headquarters.
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Vacasa said it dramatically overstated the number of Portland layoffs this week.
The actual number of local job cuts was 33, not 240 as announced.
It had 240 Portland employees altogether before the cuts.
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Lam is among Oregon’s largest manufacturers. It isn’t saying how the layoffs will affect sites in Tualatin and Sherwood — which had been growing rapidly — but if the cuts are applied equally across the company then 300 would lose their jobs in Oregon.
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Lam Research plans to eliminate 1,300 jobs; Oregon impact unclear oregonlive.com/silicon-forest
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Vacasa's layoffs haven't done anything to ease investors' fears about the Portland company. Stock down 4.8% this morning.
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The layoffs include 240 in the Portland area. It's among the region's biggest round of job cuts since the pandemic's early days.
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Vacasa's market value has fallen from ~$4B at the time of its SPAC deal 13 months ago to $760m now.
Share price closed Tuesday at $1.67.
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Portland-based Vacasa says it's laying off 1300 employees, 17% of the workforce.
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Sad news today.
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Bill Schonely, legendary Trail Blazers broadcaster who coined ‘Rip City,’ dies at 93 oregonlive.com/blazers/2023/0
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Virigina is offering $140m in state incentives and up to 15 years of tax breaks
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Amazon launches $35 billion data center expansion in Virginia wapo.st/3GZcF0C
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Intel says the data center research will go on at some other Oregon venue
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Intel shelves $700m Oregon ‘mega lab’ oregonlive.com/silicon-forest
Exterro buys Zapproved, combining two big Oregon software companies
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Tek's new president takes over an Oregon company that appears to be enjoying a renaissance.
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New Tektronix president promises focused innovation oregonlive.com/silicon-forest
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Faltering Eugene EV company Arcimoto down 60% this morning after it priced stock warrants at $3/share. (The stock closed Wednesday at $6.12.)
Arcimoto expects to raise $12m in the stock sale. The bargain pricing illustrates how dire the company's capital situation has become.
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The utility’s proposed fixes follow years of apparent inaction and come amid new scrutiny from state regulators who either ignored or did not recognize the scope of problems at the aging facility, until wrote about issues last summer.
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Amid problems, PGE pledges major investments to improve reliability and safety at flagship Oregon wind farm oregonlive.com/business/2023/
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The vacant downtown Portland church building lost in an arson fire was a touchpoint for generations of Korean Americans. Hear more from former congregates here:
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Unsealed Nike documents reveal widespread complaints of harassment, pay disparities
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Meanwhile, here's a look at the $1B upgrade underway at Analog Devices' fab near Beaverton, a project that predates the federal CHIPS Act legislation and Oregon's own efforts to boost the regional semiconductor industry.
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“I can imagine opposition on both sides,” Rep. Kim Wallen, a Medford Republican who is a vice-chair of the Legislature's newly established joint semiconductor committee.
“We’re going to have to find out where the fault lines are, and we just don’t know yet.”
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It's not clear how much investment it will attract, though, or if individual lawmakers will coalesce around bills that could boost education spending, loosen land-use restrictions, streamline environmental reviews and give tax incentives to highly profitable companies.
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The Legislative session kicks off with a bipartisan coalition working on one of Oregon's biggest economic development initiatives in years - $300m or more for the state's chip industry.
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Also: the employment department quietly stopped using controversial identity verification service ID.me last month
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Oregon unemployment fraud losses tripled in 2021 oregonlive.com/business/2023/
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NEWS: Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler on Friday afternoon says he demanded Sam Adams' resignation this week upon recommendation of human resources b/c of multiple complaints of bullying and intimidating behavior against female employees. Story TK.
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“I’m stepping away to look after my health, period,” Adams, 59, told The Oregonian/OregonLive in his first interview since stepping down Tuesday. “The only person who put their foot down and said I had to leave my job was my husband.”
oregonlive.com/politics/2023/
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