PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel talks quarter-life crises and how to tackle the state November 2, 2014 It's not every day that you get to speak to Silicon Valley royalty. And Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, first outside investor in Facebook, fund manager, and leader of multiple firms, is a dynasty heavyweight. Having just published his new book, Zero to One, he’s keen to talk about some of his latest ideas. [...]
Tesla to share its car patents June 12, 2014 ELON Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur behind leading electric car company Tesla and private space travel firm SpaceX, has announced Tesla will allow others to use its intellectual property in hopes of boosting development of electric cars. Musk said on the company’s website that the industry would benefit from open-source sharing of technologies. “If we clear [...]
Which books do the giants of business read over the summer? July 29, 2014 You might be surprised how many older volumes make the cut. Most of us look at our summer holiday as reading prime time. Indeed, research from TripAdvisor found that, for nearly one in four of us, it’s the only time we manage to read a book. And even if you read more regularly, a [...]
The market’s already come up with something that makes Nick Clegg’s electric car plan totally irrelevant January 30, 2014 Nick Clegg’s on a drive to make Britain the world leader in electric cars. Today, he announced that the government will invest more than £9m to up the number of charging points across the country. The government’s partnered up with major car manufacturers who are backing the suspectly-named Go Ultra Low campaign – which they [...]
3 electric car myths debunked February 20, 2014 If Tesla Motors' results are anything to go by, it looks like electric cars are taking off. Yesterday, the firm revealed a gross profit of $156.6m (£93.7m) – over six times higher than than a year earlier. The forward-thinking company, which is headed by PayPal and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, saw record transactions of its [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 22 November 2013 November 21, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES Independence could lose sterling Scotland will be forced to quit the sterling currency union if it votes for independence next year, a cabinet minister has said, in the starkest warning yet for Scottish voters to remain in the UK. Speaking to the Financial Times days before the Scottish government releases its vision for [...]
A new breed of super-entrepreneurs could leave HS2 looking antiquated September 8, 2013 FOR A mode of transport that first arrived in the nineteenth century, railways have been remarkably resilient. All three major political parties currently support the creation of a new high speed rail network, High Speed 2 (HS2), a £43bn plan to connect London Euston, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield, and the East Midlands in two phases. [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 20, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Funds’ €60bn to buy European bank debt Hedge funds and private equity firms have amassed almost €60bn to buy loans from stricken European banks in coming years as many of the continent’s lenders seek to shrink their way to health, according to a PwC survey. PwC estimates European banks have almost €2.5tn of [...]
Driverless cars show the journey of discovery is a long and winding road May 31, 2012 SOMETHING important happened in Spain this week, and not just the continuing revelations of the depths of its economic crisis. Volvo announced that on a motorway just outside Barcelona a convoy of four driverless cars drove 123 miles on a public road, among other road users, perfectly safely. The vehicles travelled at 53 miles an [...]
Time to reach for the stars: Britain’s new space industry has the potential to blast off November 2, 2011 SIR RICHARD Branson opened the world’s first commercial spaceport last month. As his new venture Virgin Galactic recognises, space is an industry where the sky’s not the limit. For too long the domain of superpower rivalry between America’s Nasa and Russia’s Federal Space Agency, space is now giving way to the private sector, funded by [...]