The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is launching a new Office of Financial Technology early next year in response to the growth of fintech, the agency said Thursday.

The new office will "build on and incorporate" the Office of Innovation, which the agency started in 2016.

"Financial technology is changing rapidly, and bank-fintech partnerships are likely to continue growing in number and complexity," said Michael Hsu, acting comptroller of the currency. "To ensure that the federal banking system is safe, sound, and fair today and well into the future, we need to have a deep understanding of financial technology and the financial technology landscape. The establishment of this office will enable us to be more agile and to promote responsible innovation, consistent with our mission.”

Some progressive senators have been urging the OCC to change its previous guidance, which gives chartered banks the ability to provide crypto custody, hold cash reserves backing stablecoins, and use blockchain and stablecoins to verify bank-to-bank payments. The senators say that the guidance exposes banks to "unnecessary risk."

Meanwhile, more Wall Street firms and large banks are moving further into the use of cryptocurrencies.

Happy Thursday, Protopals. (We’re still workshopping it.) It’s a lovely day for a newsletter, isn’t it? Today, we’re exploring the yawning climate tech chasm the world will need to bridge to limit heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius. But it’s not all bad news. We’re also looking at how the electric school bus is coming into its prime. Hop aboard!

The world’s climate tech gap

The world is gathering in Egypt next month for the United Nations’ annual climate summit. And negotiators will have their work cut out for them, especially when it comes to figuring out how to deploy key climate technology.

Progress is being made, but nowhere near fast enough. The World Resources Institute’s Systems Change Lab broke down the climate action gap sector by sector in a new report published Wednesday. Among the biggest laggards are sectors that the tech industry — and policymakers — are heavily invested in.

• If we want to get on track to a 1.5-degree-Celsius climate, green hydrogen capacity needs to increase to 81 million tons by 2030. The hyped-up fuel can be used to power everything from vehicles to buildings and is critical to decarbonizing hard-to-abate sectors like manufacturing. As of 2020, global green hydrogen capacity stood at a puny 23,000 tons.
• Carbon dioxide removal is another sector critical to reaching net zero. To get on track, the industry needs to increase capacity to 75 million tons per year by 2030. It’s currently just 540,000 tons annually.
• The electric vehicle revolution will also need to pick up steam, particularly for delivery fleets like Amazon’s. The report shows EVs need to make up anywhere from 20% to 40% of total long-distance vehicle fleets globally. The latest estimates put that percentage at 1.3%.

Sure, it seems grim. But there are ways to get these industries on track. Getting a strategic alignment of policy action and private investment is a tall task. But then, the world’s future is at stake.

• For manufacturers to scale up nascent tech like green hydrogen, demand has to be there. Companies and governments are committing to buying green hydrogen, which can help the industry.
• Policies like the Inflation Reduction Act’s 45V tax credit for green hydrogen can also help bring down costs.
• CDR faces similar challenges to green hydrogen, which are seemingly as plentiful as the amount of interest and investment it’s received. That interest includes early financial commitments from the tech industry and even individuals, which could help bring CDR costs down.
• Policies are also coming into form, including the IRA’s enhanced 45Q tax credit and funding for direct air capture hubs.
• EVs are more mature than the other two industries, but they could still use a little (OK, big) bump when it comes to fleet vehicles. Amazon and other logistics companies with major fleets of vehicles have made large-scale investments in electrifying them.
• The IRA is also once again a boon for incentivizing fleet owners to go electric; turning vehicle fleets electric with tax credits could be a “game changer,” though there’s still more work to be done on financing charging infrastructure.

Climate talks are likely to focus heavily on rich countries paying for climate damage in poor countries. But negotiators and companies attending will also have to be busy on the sidelines figuring out how to get more money and policy lined up to support these nascent but needed technologies.

— Michelle Ma

It’s electric: School bus edition

Cars and trucks get all the electric love. But electrifying the humble school bus as well could provide myriad benefits, from clean air to grid resilience. The Biden administration just devoted $1 billion to turbocharging school districts’ efforts to electrify their fleets. Now, it’s on the administration and states to get the incentive structure right so the e-bus industry innovates and brings costs down.

Clean buses are coming up in the rearview. Fast. On Wednesday, the administration rolled out a new federal program to fund clean school buses in what could be an inflection point for their adoption.

• The first wave of grants, administered by the Environmental Protection Agency, will provide funds for districts to buy roughly 2,500 buses nationwide.
• The program, which was funded by the bipartisan infrastructure law, will dole out $5 billion over five years for electric or otherwise “clean” buses that don’t run on dirty diesel.
• The U.S. had just 767 electric school buses on the road as of June, according to a World Resources Institute analysis. The new funding could put the pedal to the metal for clean-bus adoption.

Rapidly electrifying school buses will be a delicate balancing act. Getting the country’s remaining half-million school buses cleaned up will require carefully designed incentives that give the industry a boost while ensuring it will be able to stand on its own.

• Duncan McIntyre, CEO of the electric school bus fleet operator Highland Electric Fleets, said he hopes the per-bus incentives shrinks over time. He said that would stretch the next $1 billion in grants and “force the industry to stand on its own two feet.”
• “In five years, our goal should be that the industry reaches a point where all new vehicles acquired are electric without grants,” McIntyre added, referencing the infrastructure law funding timeline.
• Sue Gander, director of WRI’s Electric School Bus Initiative, concurred that the industry should eventually have fewer incentives down the road.
• But she also said there’s more the federal government could be doing now to incentivize adoption, including funding charging infrastructure specifically for school buses.

Clean buses aren’t just good for the climate. Electrification would come with the added benefit of reducing air pollution from dirty diesel buses, too.

• Diesel school buses belch more than 5 million tons of carbon per year.
• Low-income communities have much higher than average asthma rates, and reducing the number of diesel buses on the roads there will clear the air.
• The White House said that school districts with low-income, rural, or tribal students represented 99% of the grant winners in this latest round.
• Though it’s not clear how future rounds of funding will be structured, ensuring those communities continue to be at the forefront of electrifying school buses could help address a grave injustice.

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Make it rain

Chinese lithium-ion battery maker Hithium raised a $278 million series B round led by ABC International.

Green steelmaker H2 Green Steel announced $70 million in new investments to close its series B round at $260 million. The funds will go towards developing the company's plant in northern Sweden.

Indian electric scooter company Ather Energy raised a $50 million series E, led by Caladium investment.

U.K.-based Orbex Space raised $45.8 million in a series C round led by the Scottish National Investment Bank. The company is developing a low-carbon small launch vehicle.

AM Batteries scored a $25 million series A raise led by Anzu Partners.

In yet more battery news, Ionblox (previously known as Zenlabs Energy) just announced a $24 million series B investment to scale its battery business.

AgroSphere, which develops environmentally friendly crop health products, raised $22 million in series B funding, co-led by Lewis & Clark AgriFood and Ospraie Ag Science.

Spanish startup Heura just announced a roughly $20 million bridging funding round ahead of its series B. The funding will go toward helping the alternative meat company scale in more European markets.

Agtech startup Nitricity announced a $20 million series A, co-led by Khosla Ventures and Fine Structure Ventures.

Syso Technologies, which manages renewable energy and storage project operations for companies, raised a $10 million series A round, led by Lacuna Sustainable Investments.

Hot links

Saudi Arabia is getting into carbon offsets. The kingdom offered 1 million tons of credits that adhere to the oft-criticized standards created by the aviation industry. What could possibly go wrong?

The EU and the U.S. are trying to play nice about EVs. The IRA’s tax credit requirements for North American-made battery components ticked off the EU. The bloc and the U.S. are hoping a task force can somehow solve the problem.

LG ♥️ USA. The electric vehicle battery giant is upping its 2022 sales outlook, and its CFO said its growth plans hinge upon battery demand in the U.S.

Georgia Power may have made a $1.9 billion error in its favor. The solar industry claims that since 2011, the utility has made a “massive over-collection of revenue” rather than kicking money back to customers.

OK, it’s not tech, but if you needed another reason for climate action, “avoid the rise of a brain-eating amoeba” is a pretty good one.

A MESSAGE FROM SLB

Our planet needs balance to thrive; for the climate, for people, and for nature. Together, we will pave the way to a balanced planet through better practices, innovative technology, and the commitment to help others on their journey across the globe.

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Thanks for reading! As ever, you can send any and all feedback to climate@protocol.com. See you next week!

Editor's note: This post was updated significantly, as the wrong version was published in error.

The Biden administration just devoted $1 billion to turbocharging school districts’ efforts to electrify their bus fleets.

On Wednesday, the administration rolled out a new federal program to fund clean school buses in what could be an inflection point for their adoption. The first wave of grants, administered by the Environmental Protection Agency, will buy roughly 2,500 buses nationwide. Successfully electrifying the country’s remaining half-million school buses will require carefully designed incentives that give the industry a boost until it can stand on its own.

Last November’s bipartisan infrastructure law created a $5 billion pot of money to help schools buy clean school buses over the next five years. The grants will cover the full cost of new electric buses, which range between $300,000 and $400,000. (For comparison, a new diesel school bus is in the neighborhood of $200,000.) School districts can decide whether to purchase electric buses from traditional makers like Blue Bird or newer electric-only companies like Lion Electric.

While the federal program and similar smaller-scale state programs are already accelerating demand, Duncan McIntyre, CEO of the electric school bus fleet operator Highland Electric Fleets, said he hopes the per-bus incentives shrink over time. He said that would stretch the next $1 billion in grants and “force the industry to stand on its own two feet.”

“In five years, our goal should be that the industry reaches a point where all new vehicles acquired are electric without grants,” McIntyre added, referencing the infrastructure law’s timeline. “What we don’t want is a program where everyone gets accustomed to free buses, and at the end of five years goes back to buying diesel again.”

It’s a delicate dance, though, given how small the market is right now. According to a World Resources Institute analysis in June, the U.S. has just 767 electric school buses delivered or in operation, though that number was already expected to swell before the infrastructure law funds were disbursed. As of June, school districts had committed to a total of 12,720, or around 3% of the country’s total fleet. A December 2021 contract between bus dealer Midwest Transit Equipment and commercial EV company SEA Electric accounts for 10,000 of those.

Greater demand is clearly there, though; the EPA initially offered $500 million in grants in May, but increased the amount to $965 million due to the overwhelming number of applications.

States are increasingly funding the clean school bus transition as well. Sue Gander, director of WRI’s Electric School Bus Initiative, said states have budgeted roughly $2 billion to help districts clean up their fleets. She said that in the short term, the combined incentives should support school districts’ huge demand and encourage manufacturers to get their supply chains and facilities up to speed to meet it.

In fact, she said there’s room for further federal incentives, especially ones for charging infrastructure specifically for school bus fleets. Doing so wouldn’t just keep buses on the roads; it could help fortify the grid. A bill introduced last month by Sen. Angus King would create a program to equip electric school buses with bidirectional vehicle-to-grid charging capabilities. That would allow buses to serve as backup power for the grid, and potentially even offset their upfront cost for school districts (assuming local utilities are amenable, that is).

However, in the longer term, she echoed McIntyre’s concerns that the market needs to eventually scale on its own.

“As the market matures, as we get closer to this total cost of ownership parity [with diesel buses], we’re going to need fewer and fewer incentives,” Gander said. WRI’s analysis found that parity is expected by roughly the end of this decade, even without factoring in incentives, due to drops in battery prices.

Beyond incentives, tighter diesel bus regulations could further spread electric school bus adoption. The EPA is weighing new tailpipe emissions standards for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, which would include buses. California is also implementing a rule that would restrict the sale of diesel-powered buses and trucks, and other states are following suit. Gander said it’s a “key example” of the role regulations can play in fostering more widespread clean bus tech adoption. Getting it right could help cut more than 5 million tons of carbon pollution that school buses pump into the atmosphere each year.

Another crucial element is structuring incentives so the buses go to the communities that need them most. The White House said that school districts with low-income, rural, or tribal students represented 99% of the grant winners in this latest round, though it is not clear how future rounds of funding will be structured. At this point, the program makes good on the administration’s Justice40 initiative to ensure at least 40% of the benefits of federal climate, environment, and energy investments accrue in marginalized communities that have historically borne the brunt of pollution.

Taking diesel buses off the road is crucial to reducing transportation carbon emissions. But going electric will also cut down on air pollution that disproportionately impacts low-income communities and communities of color. Children in low-income communities tend to have higher than average rates of asthma, and both Black and Hispanic children are at higher risk of developing it than white children, regardless of their family’s income level. Exposure to diesel exhaust — such as via twice-daily school bus rides — exacerbates asthma and other respiratory problems.

“We want to approach this transition in an equitable way,” said Gander. “How are the incentives prioritized for disadvantaged communities? Those are the ones who have the hardest time trying to make the investments, and yet they're the ones whose kids depend on the buses more and also are exposed to the worst of the air quality and the worst of the climate impacts.”

When the latest Call of Duty title launches Friday, it will mark the end of one of gaming’s most enduring, lucrative, and influential series.

Call of Duty isn’t disappearing, of course, but its future stands to change in both subtle and dramatic ways in the coming years. A transforming game industry and Microsoft’s pending acquisition of parent company Activision Blizzard, combined with a potentially bitter breakup from longtime partner Sony, have set the shooter series on a collision course with the kind of radical change franchise leadership has avoided for much of the last two decades.

Activision resisted adapting to major trends such as live service gaming and free-to-play business models until comparatively recently, keeping the money flowing and its hardcore audience satiated with each annual release. For a majority of the last 16 years, Call of Duty has been the best-selling video game in the U.S., its largest and most dependable market. But when just one entry misfires, like last year’s Call of Duty: Vanguard, it can throw a wrench in the gears of Activision’s well-oiled machine.

Activision already plans to skip its fall Call of Duty release next year for the first time since 2005, Bloomberg reported in February, by which point the franchise may be in Microsoft’s hands. Microsoft, in turn, plans to begin offering Call of Duty on its Game Pass service — pending concessions it makes to regulators to appease rival PlayStation.

The all-you-can-play monthly subscription model, in which consumers pay $10 or $15 to access hundreds of games, stands in stark contrast to how Activision has monetized Call of Duty throughout its existence to date. Game Pass also includes a cloud gaming component, which could make Call of Duty available on screens of all sizes — no console required.

Activision has yet to disclose its official plans for next year. A company spokesperson told Protocol, "Across the Call of Duty ecosystem, the teams are well positioned to support these launches with substantial live operations while also continuing development of new premium content planned for 2023 and beyond.”

But taken together, these shifts could have major consequences for the gaming market. Console gaming accounts for almost a third of the global business by revenue, but the console market also stands to shrink by more than 2% this year, as economic pressures, delays of big releases, and weak hardware supply have strained the game industry’s pandemic-era growth.

“For a period of time, releasing a new Call of Duty every year from a different studio worked well in the traditional console space,” said Joost van Dreunen, an assistant professor at New York University and former game analyst. But that market has for years been eroding, as game makers adopted models from mobile gaming to keep products alive for longer and increase recurring revenue.

“In a service context, you could think more along the lines of what you see with Minecraft and Fortnite, where you have battle passes and seasons. It seems to work really well with Call of Duty Mobile,” van Dreunen said, referring to Activision and Tencent’s successful mobile Call of Duty spinoff that has so far amassed more than $1.5 billion in player spending. “Rather than ‘Let’s hold our breath and hope this one doesn’t suck.’”

Vanguard sold so poorly that Activision cited it as the primary culprit behind last quarter’s $271 million year-over-year operating income decline and player base contraction of 33 million users. That puts pressure on this year’s installment, Modern Warfare 2 (not to be confused with the 2009 release also named Modern Warfare 2), to bring players back.

But beyond 2023, the series’ direction remains up in the air, especially as Microsoft and Sony wrangle with regulators over the franchise’s future.

Activision’s game of catch-up

There are signs Activision is finally starting to play catch-up with its peers in the industry — and even with other games under the Activision Blizzard umbrella. Blizzard’s revamp of hero shooter Overwatch, for example, launched earlier this month as a live service free-to-play title with a more modern business model, attracting more than 25 million players in 10 days and achieving a peak player count three times larger than its pay-to-play predecessor.

Activision has been trying to position Call of Duty for a similar transition, building off the success of the 2020 battle royale sensation Warzone and the franchise’s fast-growing mobile component. But Call of Duty’s reliance on selling tens of millions of copies every year has kept it stale, safe, and conservative. It may take new leadership, like Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer, to push it outside the comfort zone of Activision executives.

“At some point the success of a large publisher becomes somewhat of a curse — they have to keep feeding the beast. How do you innovate on these successful franchises without alienating your customer base?” van Dreunen said. “Perhaps the transition to different ownership allows for some breathing room to make exactly those types of changes.

“I think [Activision] has proven themselves capable,” he added. “You can take these big old-school franchises from before gaming was cool and reposition them on a different platform or cater to a different audience and be successful. What would really add fuel to the fire is an acquisition from a platform like Microsoft.”

At some point the success of a large publisher becomes somewhat of a curse — they have to keep feeding the beast.”

"In my opinion, I actually view the size, gravity, and momentum of the [Call of Duty] franchise as a reason that it can push through some more radical changes," said Dennis Yeh, the gaming insights lead for market research firm Sensor Tower. "Free-to-play and live services help with consistent patches or adjustments and a low barrier to entry to extend the revenue runway for a game. In addition, Game Pass may also offer a transitory zone for pay-to-play content to survive, at least in the short to medium term."

Microsoft has outlined big plans for Activision Blizzard, if the deal secures approval from regulators. The company told regulators in the U.K. it wants to build a universal game and app store that spans mobile, console, and PC, and offering Activision Blizzard hits such as Call of Duty and Candy Crush is central to its ambition.

Game Pass, which had more than 25 million subscribers as of January, stands to benefit greatly if it can include new Activision Blizzard titles at launch, as Microsoft plans to do with upcoming Bethesda Softworks releases such as Starfield and future Elder Scrolls installments.

“Building on Activision Blizzard’s existing communities of gamers, Xbox will seek to scale the Xbox Store to mobile, attracting gamers to a new Xbox Mobile Platform,” Microsoft said in statements to the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority. “Shifting consumers away from the Google Play Store and App Store on mobile devices will, however, require a major shift in consumer behavior. Microsoft hopes that by offering well-known and popular content, gamers will be more inclined to try something new.”

Speaking at The Wall Street Journal’s Tech Live conference Wednesday, Spencer said, “Call of Duty specifically will be available on PlayStation. I’d love to see it on the Switch, I’d love to see the game playable on many different screens. Our intent is to treat CoD like Minecraft.” Spencer went on to stress how Xbox’s ambitions are about reaching consumers beyond the console market. “This opportunity is really about mobile for us,” he said. “When you think about 3 billion people playing video games, there's only about 200 million households on console."

Sony and the status quo

Standing in the way of this ambition is, of course, Sony, which has for years enjoyed an exclusive financial relationship with Call of Duty that has helped keep the PlayStation platform dominant. PlayStation is the primary destination for Call of Duty games, with an install base of more than 150 million consoles, ensuring Sony gets a cut of every game sale on its platform and also a commission on in-game microtransactions. Activision and Sony have also had a multiyear publishing deal in place that ensures, among other things, that Microsoft cannot put Call of Duty games on Game Pass for at least several more years.

The corporate spat between the rivals has grown bitter and petty after a number of hostile statements and filings, which U.K. regulators are now sifting through as part of the CMA’s phase two review. But the result of the investigation has very real consequences for the future of Call of Duty, and whether Microsoft can ferry Activision’s shooter into the future or if it must stick to a business-as-usual plan to placate PlayStation.

Sony has been appealing to U.K. regulators to try and squash the Activision Blizzard deal by playing up the importance of Call of Duty and warning of the threat of anticompetitive conduct if Microsoft is allowed to own one of Sony’s largest moneymakers. PlayStation chief Jim Ryan also publicly rebuked statements from Spencer last month by saying Microsoft’s olive branch, in which Spencer said Xbox would support Call of Duty on PlayStation for “several more years” after the end of its existing agreements, is “inadequate.”

You can take these big old-school franchises from before gaming was cool and reposition them on a different platform or cater to a different audience and be successful. What would really add fuel to the fire is an acquisition from a platform like Microsoft.”

There are a number of other avenues regulators may try to restrict to rein in Microsoft’s power in the cloud gaming, subscription, and console markets. Microsoft could be forced to keep Call of Duty available on PlayStation in perpetuity, or it could also be forced to keep the series off Game Pass for many years after Sony’s publishing agreement with Activision.

“The CMA is concerned that having full control over this powerful catalogue, especially in light of Microsoft’s already strong position in gaming consoles, operating systems, and cloud infrastructure, could result in Microsoft harming consumers by impairing Sony’s — Microsoft's closest gaming rival — ability to compete,” U.K. regulators wrote in their decision to move to a phase two review.

But despite Sony’s demands that it continue collecting a hefty slice of the Call of Duty pie, the way games make money is changing, fast, and the old models may not hold up for much longer. “Call of Duty has set the bar in many ways. I don’t think it’s fading in that sense,” van Dreunen said. “But as the audience expands and the market becomes more mainstream, it’s not just about catering to audiences. That’s a big piece of it, but you also have to start thinking about novel revenue models.”

Update 2:30PM ET, October 28: Added statement from Activision.

Good morning! As Activision Blizzard prepares to release the latest Call of Duty title, we take a close look at what the game says about the future of the industry.

What Call of Duty says about the future of gaming

Call of Duty’s latest title is coming out tomorrow. But the future of gaming’s most lucrative and influential series remains cloudy, Protocol’s Nick Statt writes.

Call of Duty is facing major upheaval. Microsoft’s pending acquisition of the franchise’s parent company Activision Blizzard, combined with a potentially bitter breakup from longtime partner Sony and a gaming industry that’s generally shifting away from consoles, make the game ripe for radical changes.

• Activision Blizzard had rejected industry trends like live service gaming and free-to-play business models until relatively recently, relying on hardcore fans to buy annual releases, a model that worked until last year, when Call of Duty: Vanguard flopped.

Activision already plans to skip its fall release of Call of Duty next year for the first time since 2005. Meanwhile, Microsoft plans to begin offering Call of Duty on its Game Pass service.

• The all-you-can-play monthly subscription model stands in stark contrast to how Activision has historically sold Call of Duty. Game Pass also offers a cloud gaming component, which could let users play Call of Duty with no console required. Taken together, these could deal a major blow to the console market.

Whoever is in charge of Call of Duty next will likely need to start thinking outside the box. “Perhaps the transition to different ownership allows for some breathing room to make exactly those types of changes,” Joost van Dreunen, an assistant professor at NYU, told Nick.

• Microsoft gaming CEO Phil Spencer might be just the change the game needs. At the Wall Street Journal’s Tech Live conference Wednesday, he said “Call of Duty specifically will be available on PlayStation. I’d love to see it on the Switch, I’d love to see the game playable on many different screens. Our intent is to treat CoD like Minecraft.”

The catch? Activision Blizzard's relationship with Sony. The console company has for years enjoyed an exclusive financial relationship with Call of Duty that has helped keep the PlayStation platform dominant. Now, Sony is appealing U.K. regulators to put an end to the merger.

But with the way the game industry is changing, the old models may not be to Sony’s benefit for much longer.

Read More: Call of Duty says farewell to the traditional console gaming model

Selling for the cloud

Enterprise software is notoriously a pain to buy. But cloud marketplaces like Salesforce, Microsoft, and Amazon are trying to change that, Protocol’s Aisha Counts writes.

Cloud marketplaces aren’t new. But as more software is put on the market, the need for digital sales channels that streamline the process of buying software has grown.

• “Ultimately, no one wants to build software to sell software, and that's why we exist,” John Jahnke, CEO of cloud marketplace platform Tackle.io, told Protocol’s Aisha Counts.
• Tackle acts as an intermediary between enterprises and the cloud marketplaces, handling the entire go-to-market process.

The pandemic was a big part of the evolution of cloud marketplaces. Because sellers could no longer meet their buyers, they had to figure out how to engage with them in a more effective way. “With all things moving to cloud, the cloud marketplaces accelerated in prominence as being part of the solution,” he said.

What’s so good about buying from a marketplace rather than directly from a software vendor? It’s actually beneficial for both the buyer and the seller, said Jahnke.

• Having everything in one place helps a buyer with budget and vendor consolidation, so they don’t have to “maintain contracts with 1,000 different suppliers,” he said.
• For independent software vendors, access to cloud budgets and the ability to co-sell with cloud providers offers major value.

But listing on a cloud marketplace is only the first step. Actually selling an enterprise product successfully requires targeting the right clients, positioning it in the appropriate way, and thinking about pricing and packaging, Jahnke said, which is where Tackle comes in. “There’s a lot of nuances there — in order to get them to launch, sell, and then sell repeatedly over time,” he told Aisha. “Listing is the starting line, not the finish line.”

Read more: How cloud marketplaces became the most vital software sales channel

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People are talking

Phil Spencer, Microsoft’s CEO of gaming, likened the metaverse to a “poorly built video game”:

• “Video game creators have an amazing ability to build compelling worlds that we want to go spend time in. For me, building a metaverse that looks like a meeting room... I just find that’s not where I want to spend most of my time.”

Disney CEO Bob Chapek said he wants to create a “more customized” in-person fan experience by collecting Disney+ viewing data:

• “We can give you a better experience in the park, because we know what your preferences are in terms of viewing and a better experience on Disney+ because we know what your affinities are.”

Making moves

TikTok is expanding its London footprint. The company is reportedly negotiating a lease for an 11-story, 134,000-square-foot space.

ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott is replacing founder Fred Luddy as chairman of the board of directors. Luddy will remain on the board.

Chris McLaughlin is the new chief revenue officer of Hyland, an enterprise content services provider. McLaughlin joined the company from LumApps, where he was chief marketing officer.

Jay Y. Lee is now officially Samsung’s executive chairman. He’s been the de facto leader for almost a decade.

Argo AI, the autonomous vehicle startup, is shutting down. Its parts are being absorbed by its main backers, Ford and VW.

Seagate is cutting 3,000 jobs as major buyers cut orders of its hard drives.

In other news

Elon Musk showed up at Twitter’s headquarters carrying a sink, in order to tweet “Entering Twitter HQ — let that sink in!” Sigh. More importantly: banks started sending cash to fund the deal, and trading of Twitter shares on the NYSE has been suspended Friday. Yep, it’s happening. And apparently without that 75% staff cut, according to Bloomberg.

Meta lost $65 billion in market cap as investors worried about the company’s spending on metaverse technology while its revenues continue to decline.

Tesla is facing a U.S. criminal probe over its autopilot technology. The probe involves the company’s claims that its cars can drive themselves.

A lawsuit against TikTok accusing it of causing the death of a 10-year-old girl by promoting a deadly "blackout challenge" was dismissed by a U.S. District Judge in Philadelphia.

Volkswagen will make only electric cars in Europe within the next ten years.

Federal authorities monitored social media posts following the overturning of Roe v. Wade to gather intelligence on protests.

Turkish authorities fined Meta $18.6 million for breaking its competition law. Regulators claim the company held a dominant position in social networking services and video advertising and obstructed competitors.

Mobileye stock had a nice first day, rising nearly 40% to close at $28.97. The Intel-controlled company sold roughly $860 million worth of stock at the IPO.

Meta confirmed that its Quest 2 virtual reality headset, a consumer-grade device, is arriving next year.

The tech unicorn is rare again

The title of billion-dollar tech unicorn, once commonplace among buzzy Silicon Valley startups, is becoming more and more rare. Amid layoffs, restructuring, and investors tightening their purse strings, only 25 companies reached the status of being worth over $1 billion in the third quarter of 2022, one-fifth the number from the same period a year ago. But investors see a silver lining: “It’s going to get a ton of founders who shouldn’t be doing it out of the ecosystem — people doing it for money and fame,” one told The Washington Post.

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The flexibility of the cloud helps companies like Capital One unlock access to their data with performance that can scale instantly. But this flexibility and scale can also create a unique challenge for organizations and users who are not proficient in cloud optimization.

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Thoughts, questions, tips? Send them to sourcecode@protocol.com, or our tips line, tips@protocol.com. Enjoy your day, see you tomorrow.