GE Aerospace to invest $22M locally as part of increased production goals – Port City Daily

General Electric Aerospace will make a $22 million investment to its Wilmington facility. (Port City Daily/File)

WILMINGTON General Electric Aerospace will make a $650 million investment in its manufacturing facilities and supply chain in 2024, with multi-millions coming to its local facility on Castle Hayne Road.

READ MORE: A big damn announcement: GE Hitachi to expand staff by 500, add joint-venture fuel plant

The money will fund increased production to support its commercial and defense customers. A spokesperson for GE Aerospace said its to help ramp up demand after the pandemic for customers looking for new, efficient engineswith greater range and capabilities.

GE Aerospace works toward modernizing jet and turboprop engines and other sustainable systems for commercial, military, business and general aviation aircraft. This includes LEAP engine production, production preparation for the GE9X, and supporting U.S. military and its allies.

Roughly $400 million in the investment strategy will be put toward new machines, inspection equipment, building upgrades, and new test cells and safety enhancements at 22 of its facilities in 14 states.

The $22 million infused into Wilmington will be for machines and specialized tooling to increase capacity. It also will help with facility updates.

These investments allow us to build on the strong 40-year history we have here in Wilmington to meet our customers needs and ensure a bright future for GE Aerospace as we become an independent company, Jackson Autry, site leader for GE Aerospace Wilmington, said in a press release.

GE announced three years ago it would split into three companies, to center on aerospace, healthcare and energy. The aerospace division is to be finalized this spring.

In addition to aerospace, in Wilmington GE has fuel manufacturing and training facilities. The county and city approved incentives for its energy sector in 2022, signing off on $1.9 million, with the county forking over $1.25 million and the city contributing $250,000, to be paid over five years. The money was to be used for hiring staff for the rollout of GE Hitachis small nuclear reactor and building a new facility to produce fuel for a different reactor.

GE Aerospace is investing $46 million overall in North Carolina, with $11 million to go to Asheville, $7 million in Durham and $5 million in West Jefferson.

Alabama, Massachusetts, and Ohio are also cumulatively set to receive more than $200 million. Internationally, the company is investing another $100 million at facilities in in North America, India and Europe.

An additional $100 million will go to supplier partners based in the United States that make castings and forgings and early-stage parts for commercial and military engines.

In addition to investments, GE Aerospace is hiring more than 1,000 employees for external positions at its U.S. factories. Locally, its looking to hire 20 more people, with the facilitys job openings here.

These investments are part of the next chapter for GE Aerospace, supporting cutting-edge equipment and safety enhancements that will help us meet our customers growing needs, chairman and CEO, H. Lawrence Culp Jr. wrote in a press release.

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Space exploration and colonisation: US, China, Russia and others | TheCable – TheCable

Space exploration is dynamic and developments have been ongoing over the years with several countries actively engaged in space exploration; and have demonstrated interest in the long-term goal of space colonization. Three prominent countries at the fore of space exploration and showing interest in colonization include the United States, China, and Russia.

The United States, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), has played a lead role in space exploration since when it was established in 1958. They have a rich history of crewed space missions, which included the Apollo moon landings. In recent years, NASA has paid more attention to projects some of which are:

These are just a few, and NASA is working on various other scientific missions, technological advancements, and international collaborations. For the latest updates and detailed information, its recommended to visit NASAs official website and follow their press releases and mission updates.

Private Companies: SpaceX, or Space Exploration Technologies Corp., founded by Elon Musk in 2002, is a private aerospace manufacturer and space transportation company. They have been driving interesting activity in various space exploration initiatives. This is aimed at revolutionizing space travel and making it more accessible. Some space exploration activities and projects that SpaceX has been working on include:

Another country doing some work is China. China National Space Administration (CNSA) has been actively working on space exploration with some achievements under its belt. It is noteworthy to mention that the space industry is evolving rapidly. Here are some major areas of Chinas space exploration efforts:

Furthermore, the Russian Roscosmos has a long history in space exploration, with a rich history of achievements dating back to the era of the Soviet Union. Here are some major areas of Roscosmoss space exploration efforts:

Besides, several African countries have shown an increasing interest in space exploration and have taken steps to develop their space capabilities. It is important to say that Africas involvement in space activities varies among its countries. Here are some major aspects of space exploration in Africa:

While these examples demonstrate the progress made by some African countries in space exploration, it is important to recognize that the level of involvement varies across the continent, and yes more work can be done through private organizations active involvement. Collaboration and the sharing of resources and expertise have been major conversations in promoting Africas presence in space exploration. Continued efforts and investments are likely to shape Africas role in future space activities.

In conclusion, while space exploration has led to numerous benefits and advancements, some challenges need to be addressed, including cost, environmental impact, and ethical considerations. Continued international collaboration and responsible exploration practices are crucial for ensuring the sustainable development of space activities.

Thank you for the investment in time, and I am open to conversations on furthering these thoughts. To be notified each time I publish a new post, follow my Medium: https://medium.com/@roariyo and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olufemi-ariyo-923ba6130/ or send an email to [emailprotected]

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Accelerating telco transformation in the era of AI – The Official Microsoft Blog – Microsoft

AI is redefining digital transformation for every industry, including telecommunications. Every operators AI journey will be distinct. But each AI journey requires cloud-native transformation, which provides the foundation for any organization to harness the full potential of AI, driving innovation, efficiency and business value.

This new era of AI will create incredible economic growth and represent a profound shift as a percentage impact on global GDP, which is just over $100 trillion. So, when we look at the potential value driven by this next generation of AI technology, we may see a boost to global GDP of an additional $7 trillion to $10 trillion.

Embracing AI will help operators unlock new revenue streams, deliver superior customer experiences and pioneer future innovations for growth.

Operators can now leverage cloud services that are adaptive, purpose-built for telecommunications and span from near edge on-premises environments to the far edges of Earth and space to monetize investments, modernize networks, elevate customer experiences and streamline business operations with AI.

Our aim is to be the most trusted co-innovation partner for the telecommunications industry. We want to help accelerate telco transformation and empower operators to succeed in the era of AI, which is why we are committed to working with operators, enterprises and developers on the future cloud.

At MWC in Barcelona this week, we are announcing updates to our Azure for Operators portfolio to help operators seize the opportunity ahead in a cloud- and AI-native future.

AI opens new growth opportunities for operators. The biggest potential is that operators, as they embrace this new era of cloud and AI, can also help their customers in their own transformation.

For example, spam calls and malicious activities are a well-known menace and are growing exponentially, and often impact the most vulnerable members of society. Besides the annoyance, the direct cost of those calls adds up. For example, in the United States, FTC data for 2023 shows $850 million in reported fraud losses stemming from scam calls.

Today, we are announcing the public preview of Azure Operator Call Protection, a new service that uses AI to help protect consumers from scam calls. The service uses real-time analysis of voice content, alerting consumers who opt into the service when there is suspicious in-call activity. Azure Operator Call Protection works on any endpoint, mobile or landline, and it works entirely through the network without needing any app installation.

In the U.K., BT Group is trialing Azure Operator Call Protection to identify, educate and protect their customers from potential fraud, making it harder for bad actors to take advantage of their customers.

We are also announcing the public preview of Azure Programmable Connectivity (APC), which provides a unified, standard interface across operators networks. APC provides seamless access to Open Gateway for developers to create cloud and edge-native applications that interact with the intelligence of the network. APC also empowers operators to commercialize their network APIs and simplifies their access for developers and is available in the Azure Marketplace.

AI opens incredible opportunities to modernize network operations, providing new levels of real-time insights, intelligence and automation. Operators, such as Three UK, are already using Azure Operator Insights to eliminate data silos and deliver actionable business insights by enabling the collection and analysis of massive quantities of network data gathered from complex multi-vendor network functions. Designed for operator-specific workloads, operators tackle complex scenarios with Azure Operator Insights, such as understanding the health of their networks and the quality of their subscribers experiences.

Azure Operator Insights uses a modern data mesh architecture for dividing complex domains into manageable sub-domains called data products. These data products integrate large datasets from different sources and vendors to provide data visibility from disaggregated networks for comprehensive analytical and business insights. Using this data product factory capability, operators, network equipment providers and solution integrators can create unique data products for one customer or published to the Azure Marketplace for many customers to use.

Today, we are also announcing the limited preview of Copilot in Azure Operator Insights, a groundbreaking, operator-focused, generative AI capability helping operators move from reactive to proactive and predictive in tangible ways. Engineers use the Copilot to interact with network insights using natural language and receive simple explanations of what the data means and possible actions to take, resolving network issues quickly and accurately, ultimately improving customer satisfaction.

Copilot in Azure Operator Insights is delivering AI-infused insights to drive network efficiency for customers like Three UK and participating partners including Amdocs, Accenture and BMC Remedy. Three UK is using Copilot in Azure Operator Insights to unlock actionable intelligence on network health and customer experience quality of service, a process that previously took weeks or months to assess, is now possible to perform in minutes.

Additionally, with our next-generation hybrid cloud platform, Azure Operator Nexus, we offer the ability to future-proof the network to support mission-critical workloads, and power new revenue-generating services and applications. This immense opportunity is what drives operators to modernize their networks with Azure Operator Nexus, a carrier-grade, hybrid cloud platform and AI-powered automation and insights unlocking improved efficiency, scalability and reliability. Purpose-built for and validated by tier one operators to run mission-critical workloads, Azure Operator Nexus enables operators to run workloads on-premises or on Azure, where they can seamlessly deploy, manage, secure and monitor everything from the bare metal to the tenant.

E& UAE is taking advantage of the Azure Operator Nexus platform to lower total cost of ownership (TCO), leverage the power of AI to simplify operations, improve time to market and focus on their core competencies. And operations at AT&T that took months with previous generations of technology now take weeks to complete with Azure Operator Nexus.

We continue to build robust capabilities into Azure Operator Nexus, including new deployment options giving operators the flexibility to use one carrier-grade platform to deliver innovative solutions on near-edge, far-edge and enterprise edge.

Read more about the latest Azure for Operator updates here.

Operators are creating differentiation by collaborating with us to improve customer experiences and streamline their business operations with AI. Operators are leveraging Microsofts copilot stack and copilot experiences across our core products and services, such as Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft Copilot for M365 and Microsoft Security Copilot to drive productivity and improve customer experiences.

An average operator spends 20% ofannual revenue on capital expenditures.However, this investment does nottranslate into an equivalentincrease in revenue growth. Operators need to empower their service teams with data-driven insights to increase productivity, enhance care, use conversational AI to enable self-service, expedite issue resolution and deliver frictionless customer experiences at scale.

Together with our partner ecosystem, we are investing in creating a comprehensive set of solutions for the telecommunications industry. This includes the Azure for Operators portfolio a carrier-grade hybrid cloud platform, voice core, mobile core and multi-access edge compute, as well as our suite of generative AI solutions that holistically address the needs of network operators as they transform their networks.

As customers continue to embrace generative AI, we remain committed to working with operators and enterprises alike to future-proof networks and unlock new revenue streams in a cloud- and AI-native future.

Tags: AI, Azure for Operators, Azure Operator Call Protection, Azure Operator Insights, Azure Operator Nexus, Copilot in Azure Operator Insights

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Accelerating telco transformation in the era of AI - The Official Microsoft Blog - Microsoft

Spacegoods secures 2.5m to supercharge functional mushrooms and nootropics blends – The Grocer

Wellness startup Spacegoods has closed a 2.5m seed round to accelerate growth of its functional mushrooms and nootropics range.

Matthew Kelly launched the London-based brand in 2022 and has since attracted more than 75,000 customers.

The business makes all-in-one powder blends aimed at enhancing energy, relaxation, mood and general wellbeing, which are marketed as being similar to coffee but without crashes or jitters.

It will use the funding to expand its product portfolio and broaden its customer base, with the seed round led by food tech fund Five Seasons Ventures, alongside backing from Redrice Ventures, Slingshot Ventures and G Fund.

In addition to product development and research, the cash will support team expansion in London, with Spacegoods hiring across growth, marketing and product teams.

The functional mushroom space is relatively untapped in Europe, said Kelly. With this investment, and the support of our investors, Spacegoods has a huge opportunity to be the European market leader.

Produced in the UK, Spacegoods blends are claimed to be 100% natural and made with a combination of adaptogen mushrooms and nootropics, such as ashwagandha and lions mane.

Both its flagship Rainbow Dust day blend which claims to enhance focus and energy and the Astro Dust night blend which promotes relaxation and restful sleep come in a range of flavours.

The business, which also has a presence in Europe, said it had gained significant momentum since launching, with an impressive growth rate primarily through DTC sales online.

Five Seasons Ventures principal Saskia Hoebe added: Spacegoods is a first mover in a novel category of mushroom-based energy and supplements, and has the vision to become a category leader in the space.

The company operates at the crossroads of three trendy markets: supplements, functional drinks and coffee replacements, all in which high growth is expected in the coming years due to increased consumer demand for clean energy and broader wellness.

The adaptogenic mushroom market was valued at approximately $10.9bn in 2022 and is expected to grow 10% annually, reaching a projected value of $30bn by 2032, according to Global Market Insights data.

Spacegoods previously raised 500k in a pre-seed round from angel investors.

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Spacegoods secures 2.5m to supercharge functional mushrooms and nootropics blends - The Grocer

COP28: EU joins forces with Latin America and Caribbean to combat sargassum and make it an economic opportunity … – European Union

Today at COP28, the EU and the Government of Dominican Republic co-organised the COP 28 Sargassum Panel Urgency and Opportunities for Action and Investment at the Dominican Republic Pavilion. The Panel brought together the governments of the Barbados, Dominican Republic, Mexico, regional actors such as the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Central American Commission on Environment and Development (CCAD) and representatives from the private sector.

This forum follows both regions joint commitments at the EU-CELAC summit in July 2023, where, leaders pledged to work together to combat sargassum in the Caribbean. Under the EU-LAC Global Gateway Investment Agenda the EU roadmap for potential investment projects to help address the region's infrastructure needs the EU launched Turning sargassum into an economic opportunity, a Team Europe Initiative that aims to reduce the damage caused by these algae and integrate them into the circular economy, where, for example, sargassum would be transformed into cosmetics, fertilizers, electricity and biomass. It also includes aspects related to monitoring, research and the mobilisation of resources to maximise impact for tackling and optimising both regions joint approach.

The forum at COP28 contributed to consolidating understanding, review ongoing experiences and identify opportunities for future joint actions. Since the EU-Caribbean Sargassum conference in June 2023 in Santo Domingo, this follows close coordination between the EU, Caribbean and Latin American partners to combat the challenge of sargassum and make it an economic opportunity.

More than a decade has passed since the first mass strandings of sargassum in the Latin America and Caribbean region, countries are faced with exponentially increasing accumulations on their shores. The trend continues to impact key coastal ecosystems contributing to major negative economic, environmental and health impacts.

The panel, facilitated by EU programme Euroclima, complements the event Combatting together the toxic effects of massive sargassum groundings in the Caribbean and beyond, organised by France on December 2nd with the Vice-President of the Guadeloupe Region, and with the support of the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Mexico and the OECS, which promoted an international political initiative in the run-up to the United Nations Conference on the Oceans, due to be held in Nice in June 2025. The French government is a key Team Europe partner in the political discussions to building a collective and strategic approach to addressing sargassum.

Through the ongoing actions, and as part of Global Gateway, the European Union and the European Member States continue to demonstrate the readiness to support Caribbean efforts to tackle sargassum.

Global Gateway is the European strategy mobilising 300 billion by 2027 to develop smart, clean and secure links in the fields of digital, energy and transport, and to strengthen health, education and research systems in the whole world.

The European Union - Latin America and the Caribbean Global Gateway Investment Agenda has identified more than 130 potential investment opportunities to help address the region's infrastructure needs, while creating local benefit and promoting growth, jobs and social cohesion. The EU-LAC Global Gateway Investment Agenda is a political commitment to work together, identifying fair green and digital investment opportunities in Latin America and the Caribbean, which will benefit from the open environment generated by trade and investment agreements and will help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Investment Agenda revolves around the following pillars

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COP28: EU joins forces with Latin America and Caribbean to combat sargassum and make it an economic opportunity ... - European Union