Inside Silicon Valley NDAs - Apple contractor 'sweatshops' - Chinese stocks tank

Hello!

Welcome to this weekly roundup of stories from Insider. I'm Olivia Oran, filling in this week for Matt Turner. Subscribe here to get this newsletter in your inbox every Sunday. Plus, download Insider's app for news on the go - click here for iOS and here for Android.

What we're going over today:

• Chinese stocks are tanking - and they could sink even lower.
• 20 hedge-fund dealmakers are injecting billions into the world's hottest private companies.
• Workers who fix Apple laptops say the facilities are like a "sweatshop."
• An inside look at 36 NDAs from tech giants - showing how far Silicon Valley will go to silence employees.

What's trending this morning:

• Instacart's CEO stepped down after a year of chaotic management and Draconian rule.
• Workday's software deal with Amazon lasted only three years. Senior engineers saw the red flags ahead of time.
• The $9 billion cybersecurity startup Tanium is suing its rival for poaching four top sales reps - Insider found private text messages of former employees.
• A couple in their 30s shared how they buy property to build their portfolio, which already has 21 rental units.
• Wall Street intern diaries: How new grads manage 75-hour work weeks with investment banks.

Chinese stocks are tanking - and it could still get worse

Investors worldwide have bought into Chinese stocks and bonds at a 40% higher clip than last year. But now Chinese regulators are installing new rules for alleged national security reasons - and Chinese stocks are taking a hit:

To skirt regulation at home, many Chinese companies that sell their shares overseas do so through a legal structure called a variable interest entity. The VIE, usually incorporated outside China, allows Chinese corporations to set up shell companies in tax havens such as the Cayman Islands or the British Virgin Islands.

Before listing themselves on Wall Street, the shell companies enter into a complex web of contracts giving them de facto "ownership" of their Chinese parent corporation. When US investors think they're buying ​​shares in a Chinese company like Didi, they're actually handing over their money to an empty shell company in the Cayman Islands that's set up contractual agreements with Didi in China.

Get the full scoop here:

• Chinese stocks are tanking. Here's why their financial meltdown could get way, way worse

Also read:

• Inspired by Cathie Wood, an ex-Goldman Sachs analyst launched an ETF to capitalize on world-beating growth in emerging Asian economies. He shares 6 high-growth stocks that are expected to generate high-teens returns for years.
• How to mine bitcoin: The founder of a mining farm breaks down the costs of electricity and equipment, how to pool, and the profits he earns in the process

Hedge fund-dealmakers are beating VCs at their own game

Hedge funds have taken to private markets in droves. Firms like Tiger Global and D1 have invested billions into unicorn startups. Insider has the list of those leading the charge in the most promising funding rounds:

"To many of our clients, the private markets have become increasingly important over the past few years, and we only expect continued growth in the space," said Tiger Williams, the founder of Williams Trading, a trading-execution firm that has clients in public and private markets.

Managers like Tiger Global are pumping so much into private markets that traditional venture capitalists are grumbling that they can't find any deals for their own clients, and more firms are expected to get in.

Read the full story here:

• 20 hedge-fund dealmakers who are beating VCs at their own game by pumping billions into the world's hottest private companies

Also read:

• Wall Street legend Richard Dennis conducted an intellectual experiment that turned 23 novice investors into overnight millionaires. Here are the 6 trading rules and philosophies that his 'turtle traders' live by.
• Sick of working from home? These companies are reinventing work for a post-office world.

Workers describe facilities where Apple laptops get repaired as "sweatshops"

Workers at facilities that Apple contracts to repair many of its laptops say they face "sweatshop" conditions as they fix the expensive, high-tech products. Current and former workers told Insider what their typical work day was like:

Apple contracts out many of its laptop repairs to a Texas company called CSAT Solutions, a major piece of the technology giant's third-party repair network. It was founded in 1992 and also counts Dell and Lenovo as clients.

There, people with knowledge of the facility said, low-wage workers toil, often in oppressive heat with grueling targets. They are cut off from the outside world during their shifts and sometimes wait in long lines to use toilets smeared with feces.

In recent interviews with Insider, workers said that CSAT Solutions is a "sweatshop," with one even likening the technicians who labor in its Houston facility to "slaves."

Read what else former laptop repair workers said:

• Your Apple laptop is probably repaired at a facility workers say is a 'sweatshop'

Also read:

• Experts say this is the nightmare scenario for Amazon Web Services
• Inside the turmoil at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where employees say divorce, Epstein, and vaccines have left some staffers polishing their résumés

Silicon Valley's giants leverage NDAs to keep staffers quiet

Insider reviewed dozens of tech workers' nondisclosure agreements and found most contracts involve vague, overly broad language and unenforceable rules. Social and legal repercussions from the MeToo movement may limit future NDAs:

Kira isn't allowed to talk about the business trip she took to Texas in 2019, when she says a male colleague drugged and raped her. She awoke the next morning to find his credit card on the floor of her hotel bathroom, her underwear torn, and her body bruised.

Kira canceled the second leg of her trip and flew home, where she called her boss to describe what happened. Her boss notified human resources, setting off a chain of events that made it impossible for Kira to continue working at the multibillion-dollar tech company where she was a contract manager.

At the end of a contentious legal mediation in the months that followed, Kira signed a settlement agreement that forced her to resign. In exchange for roughly a year's worth of her salary, Kira is now bound to silence, facing the threat of steep financial penalties if she ever tells her story.

See what other NDA-bound former employees have said:

• We reviewed 36 NDAs from major tech companies and discovered how far Silicon Valley's giants will go to silence and control their employees

Also read:

• These are the 6 most important things to watch out for when you sign an NDA
• 21 developers transforming Silicon Valley: these are the people shaking up the tech industry and redefining what it means to be a programmer

Finally, here are some headlines you might have missed last week.

- Olivia

• Investors are betting billions that cutting edge cures can upend how we treat heart disease and transform pharma
• The CMOs to watch in 2021
• Read the viral template a 22-year-old freelancer uses to plan a month of Instagram posts in under an hour
• A former investment banker in recovery from addiction is opening a treatment center offering Wall Street-focused mental-health services
• Leaked memo: The New York Times has made two big hires for its secret Substack competitor
• The 9 behind-the-scenes players who can make or break a digital health startup
• These 20 millennial Democratic campaign operatives are reshaping politics in the US