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Elon Musk's love for gaming isn't unknown. Be it streaming his gaming sessions on X (earlier called Twitter) or talking about his love for various games, the tech mogul has often made headlines for his connection with the gaming world. Musk, known for shaking up industries from space exploration to electric cars, has now announced plans to disrupt the gaming world. Through his AI startup xAI, Musk is launching a new game development studio that aims to challenge the dominance of large corporations in the gaming industry. Musk revealed his intentions in a social media exchange on X (formerly Twitter). Responding to a critique by Dogecoin co-creator Billy Markus about the state of modern gaming, Musk expressed dissatisfaction with corporate-owned game studios. He announced that xAI’s game studio would focus on making games “great again,” prioritising fun and innovation over ideological messaging. The new studio, powered by artificial intelligence, is expected to streamline game development processes while creating immersive experiences. Musk envisions games free from the “manipulative nonsense” he believes dominates today’s industry, offering an alternative for gamers seeking pure entertainment. While details remain sparse, the studio will operate under xAI, which has been at the forefront of developing artificial intelligence tools. The project aligns with Musk’s broader ambitions to use AI to transform industries. Gamers around the world are watching closely as Musk takes on yet another industry with his signature ambition and flair.

Elon Musk wants to make "gaming great again" with AI, here is how

<keyword id="19902194" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Anil-Ambani" source="keywords">Anil Ambani</keyword>'s <keyword id="20479923" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Reliance-Group" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Reliance Group" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Reliance Group">Reliance Group</keyword> has launched the <keyword id="24017314" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Reliance-Group-Corporate-Centre" source="keywords">Reliance Group Corporate Centre</keyword> (RGCC) as part of its <keyword id="24017313" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="2030-growth-strategy" source="keywords">2030 growth strategy</keyword>. "The RGCC will serve as a strategic hub, providing guidance to the Group's companies as they pursue new opportunities and technological advancements," the firm said in a statement. The core team of RGCC will include experienced leaders of the Group -- Sateesh Seth, Punit Garg, and K Raja Gopal. Garg currently leads as CEO of <keyword id="20144587" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Reliance-Infrastructure" source="keywords">Reliance Infrastructure</keyword>, while K Raja Gopal has been at the helm of Reliance Power for six years. He has over 27 years experience in the power sector. Other leaders from the Group companies will also be invited to the RGCC. "The establishment of RGCC aims to harness the in-house expertise of these seasoned leaders to support the Group's forward-looking growth initiatives and cultivate a new generation of leadership for future project," the statement said. The RGCC will play a pivotal role in mentoring and developing emerging leaders, blending experience with fresh talent to propel the Group towards sustained growth. A Reliance Group spokesperson highlighted, "We are thrilled to introduce RGCC, a team of seasoned professionals with a broad spectrum expertise. This strategic move aims to steer the Group's future growth by tapping into the vast experience of these leaders, will help navigate industry challenges and capitalise on new opportunities, drive innovation, and deliver exceptional value to our customers and stakeholders. We believe RGCC will be instrumental in shaping the next phase of our Group's success." In recent developments, Reliance Infrastructure Ltd and Reliance Power Ltd, key entities under the Reliance Group, have achieved zero bank debt status and outlined plans for expansion into new growth areas. Reliance Power has secured 1,270 MW of renewable power projects in Bhutan, while Reliance Infrastructure, through its subsidiary Reliance Defence Ltd, is setting up a manufacturing facility for small arms, ammunition, and explosives in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, spanning 1,000 acres. "To support these ambitious expansion plans, the companies have announced a combined fundraising effort of Rs 17,600 crore. This includes Rs 4,500 crore via preferential equity issues, Rs 7,100 crore from Varde Partners through equity-linked long-term FCCBs, and Rs 6,000 crore via Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP), with Reliance Power and Reliance Infrastructure each targeting Rs 3,000 crore," it added.

Anil Ambani's Reliance Group sets up centre to helm 2030 growth strategy

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Bank of America cited three risks that could upend corporate earnings growth, a key driver of stock returns.</li><li>One potential headwind is Trump's proposed tariff plan, BofA said.</li></ul>The stock market has been <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/trump-election-win-stock-market-today-record-high-sp500-dow-2024-11">riding high</a> since Donald Trump won the presidential election.One main driver of that has been investors pricing in strong profit growth in the future, seen as a direct byproduct of Trump's plans to cut the corporate tax rate and loosen regulation.Although <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/bank-of-america">Bank of America</a>'s year-end target for the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/index/s&amp;p_500">S&amp;P 500</a> is slightly above current levels, new research from the firm's equity-strategy team laid out three developments that could derail the ongoing "earnings-per-share upcycle" that's powering gains.First, an economic recession could significantly undercut earnings growth, drawing S&amp;P EPS down 10% to 20%.Though a US downturn isn't BofA's base case, the bank cited that recession risk is a real possibility under incoming president Donald Trump.That will depend on which policies the incoming administration prioritizes, analysts wrote in a separate note. In a scenario where Trump pushes dramatic immigration curbs and protectionist trade policies amid minimal fiscal easing, the economy would sink into recession.Peak-to-trough profit drawdowns of 20% are typical in an average recession. Under this scenario, EPS would drop to $195-$220 next year.To be sure, BofA also sees chances of blowout growth, if the president-elect de-emphasizes trade and immigration restrictions in favor of tax cuts and deregulation. In this case, GDP growth could even exceed 3% in 2025.Second, if Trump's trade plans are implemented, retaliatory tariffs could trigger a 10% hit to EPS.During his campaign, the president-elect pledged to implement a 10% duty on all foreign imports into the US. That wouldn't apply to Chinese products, which would face a 60% rate instead.If Trump stays true to his word, BofA expects US foreign sales to take on a 3% to 4% hit as the rest of the world establishes its own retaliatory tariffs.In the mounting trade war, industrials and semiconductor stocks would be most at risk, the bank said.Third, a dramatic upswing in bond yields could slash EPS by another 10%.BofA's worst-case scenario would be if the 10-year Treasury yield surges to 7%, a situation that could be prompted if Trump's tariff and immigration reductions spark an inflation shock.If this were to happen, the yield jump implies that the Purchasing Managers Index would hit 43 by 2024's year-end.This measure monitors the health of US manufacturing and indicates a contraction whenever its reading stands below 50. As of October, PMI registered a 46.5 level.While a contracting manufacturing base would cut into EPS, higher bond yields could also weigh on equity exposure. BofA noted that stocks could face increased pressure once the 10-year rate rises above 5%.The yield has been climbing higher amid Trump's election, as uncertainty has grown over whether the Federal Reserve can cut rates amid the president-elect's policies. The 10-year rate is currently trading above 4.5%.

3 developments that could derail the stock market's post-Trump sugar high, BofA says

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/home-depot-business-size-facts-sales-employees-store-locations-2019-5">Home Depot</a> now requires corporate employees to spend one day each quarter working in a retail store.</li><li>The move revives a long-standing practice that was suspended during the pandemic.</li></ul>The next orange-aproned employee who helps you <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-target-kroger-in-labor-hoarding-war-for-workers-2023-3">match a paint swatch at Home Depot</a> might spend their typical work days programming hex code colors for the retailer's app.Beginning in the fourth quarter of this year, Home Depot will require corporate employees to spend a day each quarter working in a retail store to better understand what customer-facing roles entail."It's critical that we all spend time in the aisles engaging directly with customers and understanding the unique opportunities and challenges that our frontline associates face every day," a Home Depot spokesperson told Business Insider. "We've had many <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/home-depot-ben-hill-arthur-blank-good-company-customer-service-2020-9">similar programs in the past</a>, and this newly launched effort is the latest such program."The policy applies to corporate employees, including senior management and remote workers. According to a memo from CEO Ted Decker, employees must complete an eight-hour shift four times a year, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-08/home-depot-ceo-orders-corporate-staff-to-work-in-stores-four-times-a-year">Bloomberg</a> reported.The spokesperson said the move revives a long-standing practice suspended during the pandemic as <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/home-depot-chartering-cargo-ships-started-as-a-joke-2021-10">safety concerns and operational challenges</a> took priority.Software developers on social media <a target="_blank" href="https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/1fycv29/home_depot_software_devs_to_start_having_to_spend/">reacted</a> favorably to the move, saying it would give programmers a better understanding of how actual users — rather than imaginary — interact with the apps and software they build."More firms ought to give their developers systematic exposure to the business end of things," programmer Eric S. Raymond <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://twitter.com/esrtweet/status/1843423420677030258">posted</a> on X in response to the news.Home Depot isn't the only company using the undercover boss strategy.Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi made headlines last year when he revealed his takeaways from <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-ceo-dara-khosrowshahi-company-should-have-paid-attention-drivers-2023-9">driving for the service</a> the year before."It showed me, literally, that we as a company culturally were very much focused on the rider and the eater product because we used them ourselves — we took a lot of pride in it all the time," he told a conference hosted by General Electric. "But we didn't take pride in the driver product because very few of us drove."If you are a Home Depot worker who wants to share your perspective, please <a target="_blank" href="mailto:dreuter@businessinsider.com">contact Dominick via email</a> or text/call/Signal at 646.768.4750. Responses will be kept confidential, and Business Insider strongly recommends using a personal email and a non-work device when reaching out

Home Depot is requiring its corporate employees to do shifts at the company's stores

Market watchdog SEBI has come out with a consultation paper in a bid to ease the functioning of <keyword id="22476006" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="ESG-Rating-Providers" source="keywords">ESG Rating Providers</keyword> (ERPs), pushing for the development of a <keyword id="23760035" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="subscriber-pays-model" source="keywords">subscriber-pays model</keyword>. As of July 2024, nine ERPs are registered with SEBI to operate in the country. These include <keyword id="23760037" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="CRISIL-ESG-Ratings" source="keywords">CRISIL ESG Ratings</keyword> &amp; Analytics, ESG Risk Assessments and Ratings, GlobeTrend Climate Impact Institutional Investor Advisory Services, <keyword id="23760038" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="NSE-Sustainability-Ratings" source="keywords">NSE Sustainability Ratings</keyword> and Analytics, PGS Impact, Pragati Development Consulting, CARE ESG Ratings, and SES ESG Research. Per the paper's proposal, ERPs won't be required to disclose ESG (environmental, social, and governance) ratings to the bourses, provided they confirm that there is no non-public information that could potentially affect the rating. Another proposal was the simultaneous sharing of the ESG rating reports both to the rated companies and to the subscribers who pay to access these reports. ERPs should ensure that rated entities, their group companies, or associates cannot subscribe to their own ESG ratings, SEBI said in its consultation paper. Some of the other suggestions put forth by SEBI include: 1. Companies will have a specific timeframe to respond to the ESG report, and any such comments should be included in the report as an addendum. 2. In case the ERP does not agree with the remarks issued by the rated company, they can add their comments to the report as well. 3. ERPs can rate unlisted issuers or other products, provided they meet specific guidelines from relevant regulators. SEBI is receiving public comment on these proposals until November 15, 2024. <h2>Steady returns </h2>Of the 11 ESG mutual fund schemes available to Indian mutual fund investors, the Quant ESG Equity fund has generated the highest returns of about 45.44% over one year, data from ValueResearch showed. Simply put, had you invested Rs 10,000 every month in this fund for three years, you would have accumulated a corpus of Rs 5,47,525. Over three years, the returns on this fund come to around 26%. This was followed by the ICICI Pru ESG Exclusionary Strategy fund, which yielded 44.73% returns over the same period. However, over ultra-short terms, i.e., 1-3 months, ESG funds have largely delivered negative returns, underscoring their suitability only as a long-term investment avenue. Only the SBI ESG Exclusionary Strategy Direct Fund and Quantum ESG Best In Class Strategy Direct Fund have been around for 5 years, during which they have generated returns of about 16.67% and 18.7%, respectively. <keyword id="23760036" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ESG-mutual-funds" source="keywords">ESG mutual funds</keyword> typically select and invest in companies that are ESG-compliant, i.e., who weave in environmental conversation, social welfare, and robust <keyword id="20392393" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="corporate-governance" source="keywords">corporate governance</keyword> practices into their working philosophy and work ethos, while simultaneously generating decent financial returns for stakeholders as well.

SEBI mulls measures to facilitate ease of doing business for ESG Rating Providers (ERPs)

<ul class="summary-list"><li>After years of struggles, chip giant Intel is in the midst of mass <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/intel-qualcomm-takeover-bid-layoffs-foundry-spin-off-2024-9">layoffs and buyouts</a>.</li><li>Some longtime Intel employees are eligible for up to 19 months of severance.</li></ul>When searching for a wedding planner, most couples don't check for a doctorate. But the brides of greater Portland are about to have that option.Shi Choong got her Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry in 2018, and for the last six and a half years she's worked at Intel improving processes and training for the company's Oregon fab — a factory where Intel's chips are produced. She's one of the thousands of Intel employees who recently took the voluntary severance packages the company made available ahead of a long-forecasted round of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/intel-qualcomm-takeover-bid-layoffs-foundry-spin-off-2024-9">15,000 layoffs and buyouts</a>, which began this month.After years of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/intel-ceo-pat-gelsinger-turnaround-plan-aws-2024-9#:~:text=Revenue%20last%20quarter%20was%20down,shares%20falling%20by%20over%2025%25.">layoffs, buyouts</a>, and even <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/intel-ceo-takes-pay-cut-reduce-costs-prevent-layoffs-2023-2#:~:text=Intel's%20CEO%20and%20members%20of,Intel%20said%20in%20a%20statement.">one temporary pay cut</a>, many employees have thought about what they might do after Intel. Its severance package, which reportedly offers five weeks of pay for every year of service up to 19 months total, pushed some to jump.Though plenty of Intel alums are expressing trepidation about an <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennial-cant-find-job-tech-blames-racial-discrimination-ai-2024-9">uncertain job market</a>, some departing Intel insiders are fashioning entirely new lives for themselves — 180 degrees from corporate life.Choong has been coordinating weddings and modeling outside of her Intel work hours for the last three years. She specializes in nontraditional, heavily themed weddings. This <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/furry-fandom-big-tech-software-developers-2022-3">kind of nerdery</a> often goes hand in hand with the concentrated tech talent in places like the San Francisco Bay area or Portland. She saw the buyout opportunity and the severance that came with it, as a sign to take her side hustle full-time."To me, it's Christmas come early. It's a wish come true," Choong told Business Insider.BI spoke to three former Intel employees who are using the company's hard times as an opportunity to upend their lives.<h2 id="bc1c7975-8847-4cfc-b408-e6b24752f181">Intel lifers head out on their own</h2>"I'm feeling awesome," Javier Apostol told BI from the balcony of a beachside resort in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, two weeks after his last day as a software applications engineering manager at Intel.He joined Intel in Arizona right after finishing his undergraduate degree and stayed for nearly 29 years. Intel was the only company he ever worked for as an adult.Apostol's first job was picking fruit in the fields of Yuma County, California, alongside his parents. Eventually, his dad started doing workforce development for migrants and then tax preparation for Spanish-speaking workers and agricultural contractors.When one of his dad's clients was audited, Apostol, who had started to learn how to program computers, turned handwritten mileage records into a neat chart. The IRS agents told him it was the best they'd ever seen, and Apostol got hooked on computers.Apostol joined Intel in 1996. From inside Intel, he's seen every phase of the internet since nearly the beginning. He said a longer lens gives him perspective.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/intel-struggles-qualcomm-deal-chip-industry-turmoil-2024-9">Intel's situation</a> is no great tragedy, according to Apostol."The world is just changing and that is good. Intel will ultimately find its place where it needs to be," he said. After a vacation, Apostol is sticking with semiconductors, but he and some colleagues are headed in a more entrepreneurial direction.Though Intel has struggled to maintain its once leading-edge status, Apostol said there is a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nvidia-ai-chip-semiconductors-tsmc-intel-jobs-arizona-2024-2">window of creativity</a> in the semiconductor space that he hasn't seen in a long time as investors and consumers alike become aware of the vital role of chips in their everyday lives."<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nvidia-competition-sambanova-groq-cerebras-show-faster-inference-speed-2024-9">Chip design</a> is going to explode," Apostol said. He and five colleagues who also took the buyouts want to apply their expertise in chip-making consulting for businesses and even <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sovereign-clouds-explained-data-center-ai-national-security-vultr-2024-10">countries</a> looking to enter the industry.At 54 years old, and with both of his kids in college and away from home, he has the time and the energy to take the leap, he said. He hopes Intel finds its way to similar boldness again."If I worry about anything it's Intel becoming complacent and deciding to think small — to stop looking for the next great thing," Apostol said.<h2 id="22be38cf-517d-4e34-a89c-5f46756eb17e">Turning a good living into a good retirement</h2>Sumit Guha, a former transfer technology manager at Intel, is founding a new venture too, but with more altruistic aims.Over his 24 years at Intel, Guha used his spare time to develop a wealth management strategy based on the philosophies of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-warren-buffe">Warren Buffet</a>.He's shared his strategy with friends and colleagues over the years, but it wasn't until his 86-year-old mother was sold a fraudulent insurance policy that he considered scaling his efforts up. He fought for two years to get her money back, and that wasn't the first time his parents had been the victims of dubious financial providers."My goal is to teach seniors how to detect financial fraud. I have witnessed this myself. Old people are targets," Guha said. He plans to start studying to become a Certified Financial Planner soon, with the aim of providing free tax services to older adults and eventually starting a nonprofit organization that helps them manage and grow their finances.As Guha, 60, approaches retirement age, he's become increasingly worried about the state of his peers' <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-x-baby-boomers-savings-cant-afford-retirement-2024-4">retirement accounts</a>. AARP estimates that 20% of Americans over the age of 50 have no retirement savings at all.Intel still offers some of the benefits much of the tech world has long eschewed. For example, spreading out the timeline for paid sabbaticals has been one of the perks downgraded in the current era of cutbacks. But for Guha, some of his longevity benefits with Intel have kicked in recently, and the company accelerated stock grants set to be issued in December as a 'thank you' for enduring <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/intel-ceo-takes-pay-cut-reduce-costs-prevent-layoffs-2023-2#:~:text=Intel's%20CEO%20and%20members%20of,Intel%20said%20in%20a%20statement.">2023's pay cuts</a> for those who took the buyout option."It's a gift for me to pull the trigger now," Guha said. He plans to offer tax services, financial fraud awareness, and investment advice with the aim of helping Americans achieve a safe and comfortable retirement, even if they started saving late in the game.<h2 id="7bec7e59-5a0c-4aa0-bd49-7e9d5e9b7d2f">Lessons learned at Intel</h2>Though several departing Intel employees expressed some frustration with the current state of the company, they still believe it can be successful. And they're taking some of the values and skills they picked up there with them. The company always valued continuous training, said Apostol.Choong said many of the skills she learned at Intel will transfer to her new life. Engineers are organized and good at dealing with complexity — the kind that comes with a wedding that starts in formalwear and ends with the entire party wearing animal onesies, for example.Choong also learned how to speak up for herself at Intel, especially when training in the fabs. This comes in handy when dealing with sketchy wedding vendors, she said."I have grown tremendously. I used to cry in my office because someone spoke loudly at me. I'm fearless now," Choong said.Are you leaving Intel too? Or sticking around? Got a tip or an insight to share? Contact BI's senior reporter Emma Cosgrove at <a target="_blank" href="mailto:ecosgrove@businessinsider.com">ecosgrove@businessinsider.com</a> or use the secure messaging app Signal: 443-333-9088.

Life after Intel: After rounds of layoffs and buyouts, some Intel insiders are abandoning the corporate grind altogether

New Delhi, The government might look at enhancing the scrutiny of certain class of corporates, including in terms of <keyword id="19910870" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="kyc" source="keywords">KYC</keyword> requirements, as efforts continue to weed out unscrupulous elements and curb possible misdoings, according to a senior official. The matters related to KYC (Know Your Customer), including a simplified and uniform system, are still under discussion, and a committee headed by the finance secretary is looking into various aspects. The senior official on Monday said that various aspects related to having a uniform KYC are being discussed and in the case of the corporate affairs ministry, Permanent Account Number (<keyword id="19939397" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="pan" source="keywords">PAN</keyword>) is being used for KYC requirements. The ministry is implementing the companies law and <keyword id="20735098" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="limited-liability-partnership" source="keywords">Limited Liability Partnership</keyword> (LLP) Act, among other legislations. Further, the official said enhanced KYC requirements might be explored for certain class of corporates. As many as 26,28,865 companies were registered in the country as on January 31, 2024, and out of the total, 16,65,438 companies, or 63 per cent were active, as per the latest official data. According to the data, a total number of 3,16,402 LLPs were active at the end of January this year. Meanwhile, the ministry-appointed panel is discussing possibilities of having a stricter regulatory regime for startups against the backdrop of instances of corporate governance concerns at some of the entities. The Company Law Committee (CLC), which was set up by the ministry in September 2019, is yet to firm its views and a final decision will be taken after receiving the panel's recommendations, the official said. Over a period of time, the ministry has been clamping down on entities, suspected of carrying out illegal activities. Last week, the <keyword id="20584362" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="financial-stability-and-development-council" source="keywords">Financial Stability and Development Council</keyword> (FSDC), chaired by Finance Minister <keyword id="19916618" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="nirmala-sitharaman" source="keywords">Nirmala Sitharaman</keyword>, discussed strengthening inter-regulatory coordination in the financial sector to support inclusive economic growth. The council also deliberated on prescribing uniform KYC norms, inter-usability of KYC records across the financial sector, and simplification and digitalisation of the KYC process, among others.

Govt may look at enhanced KYC requirements for certain class of corporates

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Much of the office market may be mired in a downturn, but demand has been strong for high-end space.</li><li>New office construction has dropped off sharply, leading to a potential upcoming shortage.</li></ul>Office vacancy is at a record high in Washington, DC, and the city is regarded as one of the nation's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-federal-government-is-cutting-back-its-office-footprint-2023-6">most challenged</a> markets – in part because of its heavy reliance on federal tenants that have continued to slim down their spaces.Yet Hilary Goldfarb, a senior managing director at Rockefeller Development who leads the company's Washington, DC, operations, has little doubt about the sleek 400,000-square-foot office property her firm is raising at 600 Fifth St.When the building is completed in mid-2026, Goldfarb says she is "confident it will be full.""This is not hope as a strategy," she added, noting that half of the project was pre-leased to the law firm Crowell &amp; Morning. "It's based on real data and real activity."Across the country, major office markets from New York to San Francisco have been pummeled by the lasting popularity of remote and hybrid work. Newly built, high-end offices, however, are finding takers.That demand has persisted even as office construction has been stifled by higher interest rates and inflation, which have pushed up costs. Worries over the health of the office market have also made lenders reluctant to finance new development.About 30 million square feet of new office space will be completed this year in the US, roughly half of what was built in 2019, before the pandemic, says CBRE, the real estate services firm. In 2025, deliveries will fall even further, to 14 million square feet, CBRE projects.While the overall office market is awash in hundreds of millions of square feet of empty space, CBRE predicts that vacancy in the market's upper segment will drop to pre-pandemic levels by 2027 – around the same time projects that are breaking ground now will be ready.A growing number of office developers have taken notice and see a budding shortage they are eager to cater to. Large office tenants, who often plan their space decisions years in advance, have also begun to recognize that while space options may abound now, they are likely to vanish in the coming years – raising interest in new development."The last six, seven months, there's not just people coming kicking the tires, there's people that are really looking to engage," said Scott Rechler, the CEO of RXR Realty, referring to what he says is growing tenant interest in 175 Park Ave., a 2.8-million-square-foot skyscraper designed by Skidmore, Owings &amp; Merrill that developers RXR and TF Cornerstone are planning next to Grand Central Terminal in midtown Manhattan.The group now aims to begin construction on the more than $4 billion, 1,575-foot-tall tower midway through 2025 and with significantly less pre-leasing than originally planned because of their growing confidence in demand. Asking rents at the tower will be above $200 per square foot, among the highest ever sought in the city."There used to be a point where we thought we would need to pre-lease all of it," Rechler said. "Now, we think that at 500,000 feet, it's probably enough to get going."Rechler said that interest in elite new space had been stoked by other high-end offerings in the market, such as One Vanderbilt, a recently built nearby tower, JPMorgan's new headquarters at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jpmorgan-nyc-headquarters-design-270-park-avenue-request-proposals-2021-4">270 Park Ave.</a>, and a planned skyscraper at 350 Park Ave. that will house the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ken-griffin-citadel-office-space-real-estate-fifth-avenue-2024-8">investment firm Citadel</a>."If your competitors have a building like that that they're identified with and you're trying to be on a parallel path, you're going to say I want to be in a space at the same level or better," Rechler said.<div type="image" title="Large conference room and office space overlooking Midtown Manhattan." height="1852" width="5000" msid="113908775" hostid="261" sizebytes="387772"></div><h2 id="5d3faa99-284e-4185-804a-807a2344cd11">Other developers are laying plans for new towers</h2>The large development firm Related Companies, meanwhile, says that four office towers it has built with Oxford Properties as part of their Hudson Yards mega-project, are now 99% full. The team is readying to begin a new 45-story, 1.1-million-square-foot office property called 70 Hudson Yards next year."We think we're going to be one of the only new buildings in '27, '28 when there's going to be no new supply," Philippe Visser, Related's president of office development, said.Even as overall office vacancy is now at 15.1% in Manhattan, according to CBRE, Visser sees little competition between the overwhelming majority of that empty space and Hudson Yards, where a number of major corporate names have migrated in recent years to take occupancy of newly built buildings. Tenants include Wells Fargo, KKR, BlackRock, Meta, and L'Oréal."All these successful companies who are looking for really dynamic office space want new construction," Visser said.70 Hudson Yards will feature an array of state-of-the-art features, including a triple-paned glass facade, which greatly enhances the insulating properties of glass exteriors and will make the building more energy efficient and appealing to sustainability-conscious office users.In Lower Manhattan, Larry Silverstein hinted that he is close to moving ahead with plans to erect the final office skyscraper at the World Trade Center, a 2.8 million-square-foot tower designed by architect Norman Foster.Rumors abound that Silverstein is close to signing a large lease with American Express that would allow the project to proceed."Just stay tuned" was all Silverstein would say about the possible deal at the tower, 2 World Trade Center.Silverstein said he was certain other tenants would fill up the remainder of the building's available space once construction is underway."When you put everything this buildings has all together, it's superior," Silverstein said. "It never left my mind that someday we would succeed in accomplishing Tower 2 – and that's where we are today."Manhattan is particularly conducive to new construction in that it has both a large captive audience of corporate office users and a deep inventory of old, outdated office properties that have fallen out of favor.But because there is so little office construction on the horizon nationally, builders have begun to lay similar plans in other markets with similar dynamics.Visser, for instance, says Related expects to break ground on a new 40-story, 925,000-square-foot office tower at 725 W. Randolph St. in Chicago by next year.Although that city is also awash in available space, the building would be one of the only available newly built office properties in the Fulton Market neighborhood, a desirable sub-district in the city's West Loop that is known for its retail and restaurants, he said.Related Ross, a spinoff development firm launched earlier this year by Related's founder, Stephen Ross, is about to begin construction on 15 City Place, a nearly 500,000-square-foot office building in West Palm Beach, Florida. The project is about 70% pre-leased to an undisclosed roster of tenants, according to Jordan Rathlev, a senior vice president of development at the company.Rathlev said he recently received a space inquiry from a financial technology firm that is seeking at least 300,000 square feet – far more than 15 City Place can accommodate. The interest from that tenant and others has given a boost to the company's ambitions to begin building a neighboring office property called 10 City Place that will also be around 500,000 square feet in size."The intent is that they're both going at the same time," Rathlev said, indicating Related's hope that it will sign enough anchor tenancy at 10 City Place to build it and 15 City Place simultaneously.<h2 id="70c57a95-0968-4007-a21d-96efb55c9ff3">A tale of two office markets</h2>There is a yawning gap between the health of top tier office space and the wider market, according to data from CBRE.The firm labels new and heavily renovated spaces that meet a host of quality measures as "prime" – a segment that encompasses only 8% of overall office inventory nationally.A net total of 49.3 million square feet of prime space was absorbed between 2020 and the first quarter of 2024, according to CBRE. Around 170.3 million square feet of net vacancy accrued in the rest of the office market during that same period.Overall office vacancy nationally was 19.1% in June, close to a record level. Prime vacancy was 15.5% and CBRE forecasts that figure will drop by almost half, to 8.2% by 2027, its pre-pandemic average."We believe that this absorption estimate is conservative, and the prime vacancy rate could return to its pre-pandemic level sooner given continued job growth," Jessica Morin, CBRE's director of US office research, said.These top-of-the-market spaces, which charged a 60% premium before the pandemic, are now 84% more expensive than competing spaces.With little supply, that differential could grow."8.2% is a healthy prime market and we expect rent growth in this tranche," Morin said.Driving the solid metrics is a lack of new supply.While a total of 44 million square feet of office space is presently under construction, only about 17.3 million square feet of it, 39% of the total, is considered prime, according to CBRE. 8 million square feet of that is pre-leased, meaning that there is only about 10 million square feet of upcoming available top quality space.<h2 id="ccbe14d6-6f15-40b7-b453-f934e9df0594">Financing remains a sticking point</h2>Even with the tailwinds, financing high end office construction remains a challenge. Banks have grown wary of lending to office projects, even those that are likely to be a financial success, because of broader concerns around declining values, increased foreclosures, and potential financial losses in the sector.Rechler said that RXR was considering "alternative strategies" to arrange financing for 175 Park Ave., as a result."The scale of this project is of a level, I'm not sure you'd be able to get enough traditional banks, as an example, to be a lender," Rechler said.Rechler said RXR has explored other routes to arrange the billions of dollars of debt necessary to fund 175 Park Ave.'s construction, including the municipal bond market, in part because the project includes $500 million of transit upgrades to Grand Central Terminal."I feel good," Rechler said, "that we'll have the right combination of pre-leasing and financing to begin next year."

What office meltdown? Developers see a shortage of high-end space and are rushing to build it. 

<ul class="summary-list"><li>OpenAI may be planning a corporate restructuring within the year.</li><li>Once a nonprofit that "benefits all of humanity," OpenAI shifted to a "capped-profit" model in 2019.</li></ul><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-openai-raising-money-strawberry-after-rough-start-year-2024-9">Sam Altman</a> founded OpenAI in 2015 with a lofty mission: to develop artificial general intelligence that "benefits all of humanity."He chose to be a nonprofit to support that mission.But as the company gets closer to developing artificial general intelligence, a still mostly theoretical version of AI that can reason as well as humans, and the money from excited investors pours in, some are worried Altman is losing sight of the "benefits all of humanity" part of the goal.It's been a gradual but perhaps inevitable shift.OpenAI announced in 2019 that it was <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-mulls-turning-openai-into-a-regular-company-2024-5">adding a for-profit arm</a> — to help fund its nonprofit mission — but that true to its original spirit, the company would limit the profits investors could take home."We want to increase our ability to raise capital while still serving our mission, and no pre-existing legal structure we know of strikes the right balance," OpenAI said at the time. "Our solution is to create OpenAI LP as a hybrid of a for-profit and nonprofit—which we are calling a 'capped-profit' company."It was a deft move that, on its surface, appeared intended to satisfy employees and stakeholders concerned about developing the technology safely, and those who wanted to see the company more aggressively produce and release products.But as investment poured into the for-profit side, and the company's notoriety — <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-koenigsegg-regera-expensive-sports-car-video-openai-musk-2024-7">and Altman's notoriety</a> — increased, some got nervous.OpenAI's board briefly <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-chatgpt-openai-ceo-career-net-worth-ycombinator-prepper-2023-1#chatgpt-was-made-public-so-openai-could-use-feedback-from-users-to-improve-the-bot-18">ousted Altman last year</a> over concerns that the company was too aggressively releasing products without prioritizing safety. Employees, and most notably Microsoft (with its multibillion-dollar investment), came to Altman's rescue. Altman returned to his position after just a few days.The cultural rift, however, had been exposed.Two of the company's top researchers — Jan Leike and Ilya Sutskever — <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jan-leike-ilya-sutskever-resignations-superalignment-openai-superintelligence-safe-humanity-2024-5">both soon resigned</a>. The duo was in charge of the company's so-called superalignment team, which was tasked with ensuring the company developed artificial general intelligence safely — the central tenet of OpenAI's mission.OpenAI then dissolved the superalignment team in its entirety later that same month. After leaving, Leike said on X that the team had been "sailing against the wind.""OpenAI must become a safety-first AGI company," Leike wrote on X, adding that building generative AI is "an inherently dangerous endeavor" but that OpenAI was now more concerned with building "shiny products."It seems now that OpenAI has nearly completed its transformation into a Big Tech-stye "move fast and break things" behemoth.Fortune reported that Altman told employees in a meeting last week that the company plans to move away from nonprofit board control, which it has "outgrown," over the next year.Reuters reported on Saturday that OpenAI is now on the verge of securing another $6.5 billion in investment, which would value the company at $150 billion. But sources told Reuters that the investment comes with a catch: OpenAI must abandon its profit cap on investors.That would place OpenAI ideologically distant from its dreamy early days, when its technology was meant to be open source and for the benefit of everyone.OpenAI told Business Insider in a statement that it remains focused on "building AI that benefits everyone" while continuing to work with its nonprofit board. "The nonprofit is core to our mission and will continue to exist," OpenAI said.

OpenAI's mission to develop AI that 'benefits all of humanity' is at risk as investors flood the company with cash

On September 12, Business Insider convened a roundtable of top technology executives as part of our <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/build-it-series">"Build IT" series</a>.These executives spoke about how they use AI large language models in their personal and professional lives, how their roles have evolved as a result of the AI boom, and their top priorities. The conversation was moderated by BI's senior tech reporter Emma Cosgrove.The roundtable participants were:<ul><li>La'Naia Jones, the chief information officer of the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.cia.gov/">CIA</a>.</li><li>John Roese, the global chief technology officer and chief AI officer of <a target="_blank" href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=89435d8fc76d09828f04475db59d25e39ae30562373c6e7d81ff9d9cffa72374&amp;postID=66eb0f7b69657a7deb4351bd&amp;postSlug=technology-executives-on-artificial-intelligence-applications-role-of-cto-cio-2024-9&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dell.com%2Fen-us">Dell Technologies</a>.</li><li>Elaine Zhou, a co-CEO of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.sagecxo.com/">SageCXO</a> and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.change.org/">Change.org's</a> former CTO.</li><li>Faisal Masud, the president of worldwide digital services at <a target="_blank" href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=b9201568fbe393fd7c8826f24b11068b25db2ec28af44407721de564b92896e5&amp;postID=66eb0f7b69657a7deb4351bd&amp;postSlug=technology-executives-on-artificial-intelligence-applications-role-of-cto-cio-2024-9&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hp.com%2Fus-en%2Fhome.html">HP</a>.</li><li>Erin DeCesare, the CTO of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.ezcater.com/">ezCater</a>.</li></ul>The following transcript of the discussion was edited for length and clarity.Emma Cosgrove: What's your favorite use of an LLM in your daily life right now?Erin DeCesare: My favorite use of an LLM lately is trying to do more cross-functional, creative prompting. So using ChatGPT to say, "Can you give me some creative prompts to start the meeting?" has been a super fun way to bring energy into these conversations.John Roese: I renovated a 1780 house a couple of years ago, and I embedded a home AI system called <a target="_blank" href="https://www.josh.ai/">Josh</a>, which runs on a server in my basement.It's very privacy-oriented. I have a house that I just talk to or ask a question. I could ask it to close the shades, turn up the air conditioning, or tell me what the weather is. Or, I can say, "Could you explain something about the historical house down the street?"We all know that intrusive and difficult technology is never successful until it becomes invisible. That's what's happening in my world, where I forgot that I have an LLM in my house.Faisal Masud: For me on the personal front, it's been medical issues. A friend of our son recently had an issue. We just took a picture of it, and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/anthropic-claude-chatbot-google-chatgpt-2023-3">Claude</a> gave an unbelievable diagnosis. Turns out the doctor's review was 100% identical to that diagnosis as well.I was at an outdoor event, got a rash, and did the same thing, just took a picture of it. It's literally having access to the world's encyclopedia at your fingertips.La'Naia Jones: I typically ask general questions and summarizations. I also look at how the LLMs are formulated to include topics such as bias, and how the underlying technology is used, which largely consists of data from the internet.Elaine Zhou: The thing I find most exciting about AI usage is my mom. She's turning 80. She's using it to plan for her Spain trip in November. She asked ChatGPT in Chinese, "How do you spend your time in Spain?" and it spit out all the recommendations for what you should do in Madrid.Cosgrove: How has the role of the CTO and CIO changed in the past 18 months?DeCesare: Historically, we thought of the CTO as leading engineering and the CIO as leading all the technology, the business uses. But we've had all these dynamics coming together, like cloud-based AI, where that line is completely blurred.My team realized this past year how things operate very differently. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-strategy-low-code-development-market-cloud-wars-2021-6">Low code</a> was a promise a few years back, but now it's a necessity. And we are in the phase where we want to move away from costly engineering and toward more automated practices.Things like Retool or Nintex are platforms that allow us to move what would be a software-engineering concern over to an IT-like business-operated capability.These distinctions are going away, and having the whole organization partner and cocreate is really testing people's identities. It's a creative, fun way to challenge people to think differently and out of their comfort zones.Roese: Every industry has technology disruptions that show up every few years. When you think about the speed at which we have to take advantage of these, that's not a typical IT cycle; that is a research and development cycle. So, obviously, we're blurring the lines, not just in terms of who does what work but how that work is done.We have to be able to interface in ways that we didn't before. The question is, how do you get the internal part of a giant company to move faster and behave more like an R&amp;D organization?We've been focused on understanding how our processes are evolving before we AI them. We don't waste a lot of time AI-ing bad processes, which was our biggest strategic risk at our scale. So there's lots of discipline and prioritization, but most importantly, a dramatic blurring of advanced software-development culture and the rest of the company. In the long term, those two have to come closer together to achieve the speed necessary for an AI cycle.Masud: To me, a lot of CIOs, specifically, as the lines blur, are looking at AI for all the purposes that we mentioned earlier but also to have fewer people because AI will solve XYZ problems.I feel like it's the opposite. It's about doing more with what you have versus what you potentially can get rid of. There has been a massive shift in consumer expectations and end-user expectations. If you look at Gen Z, they don't expect to wait five minutes for the computer to boot up. That's just not acceptable. They were born and raised in this generation, they use all the LLMs, and they're expecting a seamless experience.The challenge is going to come in where a lot of orgs are not going to allow you to use publicly available, cloud-sourced LLMs on corporate devices because they want to protect their data. Of course, they need to, but policing that is not going to be anywhere near easy. It's probably never going to happen because people have their own devices. So the quality of what you produce in your organization as a CTO — if you're going to provide models built in-house — better be superstar quality, or no one's using it.Another challenge is that the adoption of things like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-copilot-everyday-ai-companion-paid-subscription-2024-1">Copilot</a> is <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pharma-cio-cancelled-microsoft-copilot-ai-tool-2024-7">not as rapid</a> as one would have expected because the end users are used to a lot more, so the corporate user is still behind.Jones: Many of our colleagues have backgrounds in the IT or the defense community. There is nothing that we do singularly within the intelligence community because it's a team effort and a team sport.When talking about the question of the CTO and the CIO and about how it's changed in the last 18 months, I do think that government and public sector have a little bit of a different perspective versus the private sector, partially because within the public sector and more directly within government, the role of the chief information officers is actually listed or written in policy and statute.I think the role of the CIO has become, at least in government, a little more ingrained. We meet with lawyers, civil liberty and privacy experts, policy SMEs, and many others since data is foundational to the intelligence mission.We also do a lot of large-scale procurements and acquisitions with technology companies. We want to ensure that the contracts and the business relationships are fair and equitable as they may serve a government organization or even the nation from a broader national security perspective.Cosgrove: What's the most important North Star priority that you're looking at?DeCesare: It is trying to make something that's either benefiting the customer or driving productivity internally. You've got to have every function thinking of themselves as customers and seeking the solution because it's changing by the month — and unless you're having them actively test and try out new AI products, you're unlikely to find that value.I'll give a recent example: Our whole product team, we've been trying to encourage them to leverage AI to move faster on getting ideas to market and to test in our software product and having them pay attention to the GPT store. The recent <a target="_blank" href="https://www.chatprd.ai/">ChatPRD</a> is a way to automate creating the product-requirements documents. It's sort of fascinating how great it can actually get an initial baseline and just having the product manager create some edits, and that is enabling our speed to market for our own features out into the product. Everyone's got to be looking for the solutions and then understanding if it is actually helping them do their job better.Roese: The first and most important questions you have to answer as a company to figure out where to apply this technology are pretty simple: What makes you special? What is the core of your company?At Dell, it's four things: We have a giant at-scale engineering capability, the largest secure supply chain in the world, a global services capability, and the largest enterprise sales force in the world. You take those four things, and anything I do to them that makes them more competitive materially impacts my business. What you'll notice isn't on that list: HR and finance facilities. I could do lots of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dell-workers-layoffs-reaction-ai-restructuring-jobs-tech-2024-8">AI projects</a> there.We are interested in other areas, but in terms of prioritization, where do we land on <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chatgpt-openai-ai-dictionary-help-understand-nvidia-2023-12">our GPUs</a>? What do we run in our data center? Where do we put the resources today? They are in those four areas as a priority. Once you understand that those are high level, then you have to ask if you are actually on a path where if you apply AI, you're going to get to an outcome.Are your processes and people even oriented to be successful when you bring AI into the equation? Each of those needed to go through a level of process re-engineering consideration. If you can't get to a point where your vision of a process re-engineered to solve a strategic problem is executable, your path to production is questionable.Masud: I spent the early part of my career at Amazon, and we were always about the inputs and not the outputs. When you focus on the inputs, the single biggest import in your company is your customer. Everything else, honestly, has to take a back seat.The implementation of any gen-AI or AI capabilities is first a crawl. What are the thorniest issues that the company faces today? If you can't solve those in a rapid fashion with the most basic, easy use cases, then trying to go from crawling to walking is a bit of a mirage because you're assuming you'll have some capability when you haven't even solved the most basic issues.What we should be measuring is how to use AI to prevent those issues from happening. That's the focus area for us at HP, through all sorts of mechanisms that we deploy in anomaly detection and remediations that don't require humans to be out of the loop.Zhou: The hardest part is to determine what is the problem. The No. 1 thing for me is that once you determine that, then, based on the problem, you can have all kinds of metrics and figure out how to measure the successes. The bottom line is to actually solve the problem in a good way.Cosgrove: How do you keep up with the artificial-intelligence space?Jones: It's constant learning. I would say we all deal with that, but the beauty of technology is it's always changing and evolving, and so I think all of us should focus on continuously learning, evolving, and embracing new ideas and not getting stuck in the same way of dealing with the issues that we have.Masud: I have two older kids, 26 and 22. Both of them code, so they are immensely involved in everything from ChatPRD and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/15/arts/design/aaron-ai-whitney.html">Aaron</a>, and I get links every day from my son on what he is building next. I think this rapid transformation of what [<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nvidia-taiwan-tsmc-jensen-huang-china-disruption-2024-9">Nvidia CEO</a>] <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nvidia-ceo-jensen-huang-details-ai-infrastructure-roi-goldman-sachs-2024-9">Jensen [Huang]</a> <a target="_blank" href="https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/jensen-huang-advises-against-learning-to-code-leave-it-up-to-ai">said</a>: Not a single line of code is going to be written after next year by a developer. Well, let's see. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nvidia-swift-returns-on-ai-infrastructure-2024-8">Jensen</a> is somebody I follow. Jensen is somebody I have an unbelievable amount of respect for. This is the GOAT.Zhou: So I love the concept of mom tests. If I can explain to my mom or someone who has absolutely no background in tech and then, in the way that I can explain, she can understand, that means I truly get it. And second, I keep up with my developers and many youngsters and crazy ideas, and they help me keep up and then use AI to help me keep up to date for AI development.DeCesare: I've been most inspired to drive the leverage of AI through the company by finding out how people have applied it. So honestly, with anyone that I'm meeting, whether it's on my team or my colleagues at other companies, I'm asking, "Where have you been applying?" and, "What are you learning?" Because it's the use cases that spark most of the creativity, leading me to a new idea of how we could use it in our company.Roese: Your customers will tell you what the problem is. They don't know what the solution is, but you have to listen to them about what the problem and the pain point is to figure out the solution. I spend a great deal of time out with startups and Silicon Valley companies and anybody in academics, anybody I can talk to, not because any of them have the answer but because they expose patterns. So it's very important to talk to the industry and the innovators to see what they're thinking about, even if they don't know what problem they're solving.

Leaders from the CIA, Dell Technologies, HP, SageCXO, and ezCater share how they keep up with AI development 

State-owned <keyword id="20039950" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bharat-Petroleum-Corporation" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Bharat Petroleum Corporation" meta.hostid="153" meta.entityid="Bharat Petroleum Corporation">Bharat Petroleum Corporation</keyword> plans to invest Rs 1.7 lakh crore over the next five years to grow its core oil refining and fuel marketing business as well as in 'future big bets' of <keyword id="20115883" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="petrochemicals" source="keywords">petrochemicals</keyword> and <keyword id="19895435" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="green-energy" source="keywords">green energy</keyword>, its chairman G Krishnakumar has said. At present, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (<keyword id="19908646" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="BPCL" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="BPCL" meta.hostid="153" meta.entityid="BPCL">BPCL</keyword>) owns about 14 per cent of India's oil <keyword id="20064251" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="refining-capacity" source="keywords">refining capacity</keyword> and about a quarter of the fuel retailing network. It plans to grow these businesses while foraying into newer areas. The firm is now implementing the first phase of a multi-decade aspirational journey in the form of '<keyword id="22826627" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="project-Aspire" source="keywords">Project Aspire</keyword>' - its five-year strategic framework that is based on two fundamental pillars - 'Nurturing the Core' and 'Investing in Future Big Bets', he said in the company's latest annual report. "Our mid-term strategy is on a continuum. While we remain committed to growing our core businesses, which include refining and marketing <keyword id="20037698" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="petroleum-products" source="keywords">petroleum products</keyword> and upstream, we are equally focused on our big bets comprising petrochemicals, gas, green energy, non-fuel retail, and digital. "Project Aspire, with a planned capex outlay of around Rs 1.70 lakh crore over five years, will enable us to create long-term value for our stakeholders while preserving our planet for future generations," he said. "A cornerstone of our long-term strategy, Project Aspire, with a Rs 1.70 trillion investment, marks the initial phase of our multi-decade odyssey to shape the energy of tomorrow. This, coupled with our robust balance sheet, fuels our ambition to lead the <keyword id="19951336" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="energy-transition" source="keywords">energy transition</keyword>." The company is targeting net zero carbon emissions from its operations by 2040. "BPCL has drawn a net-zero roadmap, which encompasses renewable power, green hydrogen, compressed biogas, carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS), efficiency improvement and the offsets procurements. This would require a phased capital outlay of approximately Rs 1 lakh crore till 2040, and the company is geared for the same," he said. The firm's bet on continuing investing in core businesses is based on the premise that India's booming economy will drive a 4-5 per cent annual increase in energy demand and petroleum product consumption. Also, the demand for major petrochemical products is expected to rise by 7-8 per cent annually. "This presents a strategic opportunity to expand refining capacity alongside the development of integrated petrochemical complexes," he said. BPCL is implementing new petrochemical projects at two of its three oil refineries. A Rs 49,000 crore ethylene cracker project is being implemented at the Bina refinery in Madhya Pradesh, alongside raising oil refining capacity from the current 7.8 million tonnes to 11 million tonnes annually by 2029. A polypropylene project is being set up at Kochi refinery in Kerala by 2027. "To meet the anticipated demand beyond our planned expansions in Bina and Kochi, we are actively evaluating options for setting up additional integrated refining and petrochemical capacities within the next 5-7 years," Krishnakumar said without disclosing either the investments or the location of such a project. Andhra Pradesh is being speculated as the likely site after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP and regional party TDP stormed to power in the state in recently concluded assembly elections. TDP has been demanding the implementation of a refinery-cum-petrochemical complex that was promised as part of the package when the state was split more than a decade back. "Our investment in the petrochemical project is consistent with our aspiration of becoming a dominant player in India's petrochemical growth story," Krishnakumar said. On energy transition, he said BPCL is targeting to build 2 gigawatts (GW) of <keyword id="19895602" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="renewable-energy" source="keywords">renewable energy</keyword> capacity by 2025 and 10 GW by 2035. "We are investing nearly Rs 1,000 crore to establish two 50 MW captive wind power plants in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, which will support our refineries in Mumbai and Bina." The firm is also investing around Rs 300 crore in 72 MWp of solar project in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. "Concomitantly, we are executing green hydrogen projects aligned with the National Green Hydrogen Mission. These projects include a 5 MW electrolyser plant at Bina refinery and a green hydrogen refuelling station with an indigenously developed electrolyser at Kochi," he noted. BPCL, he said, is committed to supporting the transition to electric mobility through a robust and accessible charging infrastructure. The company has installed over 3,000 charging stations, including fast chargers for cars and two-wheelers. 900 fast chargers are installed across 120 highway corridors, which helps address the range, discovery and time anxiety of electric vehicle (EV) owners. "Over the next five years, we aim to install 4-wheeler fast chargers at approximately 6,000 retail outlets across 400 highway corridors, prioritising high-traffic corridors like the Golden Quadrilateral and N-S/E-W highways," he said. On biofuels, he said BPCL sells petrol with 20 per cent ethanol blend at 4,279 out of its over 22,000 petrol pumps. It is also building compressed biogas plants using municipal solid waste to make gas that can be used as CNG in automobiles. The firm is also exploring partnerships in the arena. "These combined efforts, along with the upcoming commissioning of a bio-ethanol refinery, positions BPCL as a key player in India's transition to a greener fuel mix, creating a robust ecosystem for the adoption of cleaner fuels across the country," he added. BPCL is establishing a corporate venture capital fund to invest directly in promising startups. "In order to thrive in this complex and challenging business landscape, we will leverage our agility and focus on operational excellence to ensure continued success. Safety and reliability will remain our top priorities, guiding all our actions. We are committed to upholding the highest standards of corporate governance," he added. He said the energy sector of India stands at an inflection point. "The nation has an ambitious vision of becoming a USD 30 trillion developed economy by 2047. 'Viksit Bharat @2047' will necessitate an almost fourfold increase in primary energy demand." India's exponential growth trajectory will propel it to a pivotal role in the global energy market, accounting for roughly 12 per cent of world energy consumption by 2047. "The key strategic objectives for India in the energy sector will entail significant expansion in refining capacities, raising the share of gas in the energy basket from about 6 per cent to 15 per cent, establishing leadership in petrochemical exports, and sharply reducing energy imports from current levels of 47 per cent to below 25 per cent by 2030 and to zero by 2047," he said. India is targeting 500 GW of non-fossil fuel energy capacity, sourcing half of its energy needs from renewables, reducing carbon emissions by 1 billion tonnes and lowering carbon intensity by 45 per cent by 2030 with the ultimate goal of net-zero emissions by 2070. "Building on its strong Indian energy presence, BPCL aspires to meet 7-10 per cent of the nation's primary energy demand by 2047," he said.

BPCL planning Rs 1.7 lakh crore spend to expand core business, new energy foray over next five years

Terming the state budget as "revolutionary," Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath <keyword id="20040955" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="shinde" source="keywords">Shinde</keyword> said that this budget in a true sense empowers women, youth, and farmers through various schemes worth Rs 1 lakh crore. He said that this budget is revolutionary and would make the future of weaker sections, farmers, and youth bright. Stating that the budget was a resolve to give a new direction to Maharashtra, <keyword id="20062947" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="CM-Shinde" source="keywords">CM Shinde</keyword> said that this budget has an "unending chant of the <keyword id="22227448" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="development-of-Maharashtra" source="keywords">development of Maharashtra</keyword>". Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister <keyword id="19941791" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ajit-Pawar" source="keywords">Ajit Pawar</keyword> on Saturday presented the additional budget for the year 2024-25 in the state assembly. The Finance Minister had presented the interim budget in February. Stating that the budget has important provisions to help women and unemployed youth to stand on their own feet, the Chief Minister said that "Chief Minister Majhi Laadki Baheen scheme, free vocational education to girl students, Chief Minister Annapoorna scheme which gives 3 cylinders per year to eligible families, project worth Rs 15 thousand crores for providing free electricity to farmers during day time, Chief Minister Baliraja electricity concession scheme which provides free power to farmers using agricultural pumps, training to 50 thousand youth every year to convey government schemes to masses and resolve to remove poverty of the weaker sections of the society have made this budget special." He said that provisions like free education to girl students for engineering, pharmacy, and medical education along with degree and diploma courses along with Rs. 1500 per month to every woman prove that the government has expressed its responsibility towards women of the state. Stating that the budget proves that it stands behind the farmers, Chief Minister Shinde said that the issue of food-grain storage would be resolved through schemes like Godown per village. He said that the lives of farmers would be transformed through various provisions in the budget which include financial assistance to cotton and soybean growers, special campaigns to complete irrigation projects, and solar pumps on demand. Pointing out that the decision to celebrate the coronation of <keyword id="19966480" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Chhatrapati-Shivaji-Maharaj" source="keywords">Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj</keyword> through a ceremony every year at Fort Raigad is important, the Chief Minister said that other decisions include recommending the annual Pandharpur pilgrimage for the UNESCO World Heritage along with the rock sculptures in Konkan, Dahi Handi celebration are efforts towards the preservation of history and culture of the state. He said that the budget provides Rs 20,000 to every Dindi (the troops participating in the annual Pandharpur pilgrimage) and it has made the announcement of making arrangements for medical treatment of pilgrims through the Chief minister's medical relief cell and provision for Nirmal Waari show commitment towards the annual pilgrim and Warkari sect. He said that a separate Warkari Mahamandal or separate Corporation for the annual pilgrims would be set up. Stating that massive investment would be made in priority sectors and the <keyword id="21313056" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="green-hydrogen-sector" source="keywords">green hydrogen sector</keyword>, he said that it would generate employment in a big way. He said that the chief minister's youth training scheme would impart training to ten lakh youngsters every year and a centre of excellence would be established in ITI's which would benefit the youngsters. Stating that the Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar scheme and Shrawan Bal seva state pension scheme assistance would be raised are strong steps CM Shinde said that providing for housing of various sections of society, Anand Dighe housing scheme for differently abled amply proves that the state government is taking strong steps towards removing the poverty in the state. The chief minister said that Metro routes worth 449 Kms in Mumbai, Pune, and Nagpur along with 23 thousand kilometer road stretch works under Chief Minister Gram Sadak scheme, construction of buildings of village Panchayats under Balasaheb Thackeray memorial Matoshree Gram Panchayat scheme, PM e-bus scheme in municipal corporation areas and other infrastructure works would be undertaken in a big way which would result in speedy development of the state. The monsoon session of the Maharashtra Assembly began on Thursday (June 28) and will go on till July 12. This is the last legislative session before the state assembly polls, in the next four months.

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