Open Source: Murky layoffs
Hey all. I’m Brian Gordon, tech writer for The News & Observer, and this is Open Source.
This week brought news of the Triangle getting new jobs (around 200) and layoffs (how many isn’t yet known). Plus, Duke Energy execs answered questions on the Moore County power outage while Boom Supersonic found new engine partners.
Do you think Boom’s ambitions for supersonic passenger flight will work? Their jets will be assembled in Greensboro, so people in North Carolina are invested. Feel free to reach out if you have thoughts. It’s certainly a gambit.
Cisco and Lenovo layoffs
The tech conglomerate Cisco is eliminating around 5% of its positions this month, and this has impacted some RTP employees. While the company declined to confirm where its cuts are occurring, an employee who works at the Cisco campus in Morrisville said she and several local colleagues were informed Monday that they would be laid off.
“Way to ring in the holiday season, huh?” she said.
A few minutes from Cisco’s RTP campus stands Lenovo’s North American headquarters where workers are also getting layoff news.
The tech sector has been hit with a series of layoffs in recent months, as it’s generally recognized the industry is pulling back after many over hired during the low-interest, stimulus-fueled boom times of 2020 and 2021.
Boom moves past Rolls-Royce breakup
Ending a relationship isn’t easy. In September, the supersonic jet startup Boom Supersonic saw its engine partnership with Rolls-Royce collapse. This was seen as a setback for Boom in its pursuit of commercial supersonic flight by the end of the decade.
This week, Boom unveiled its new engine design team — and its new engine — at Piedmont Triad International Airport, where it plans to open a substantial assembly plant in the coming years.
Duke Energy leaders field questions (and answer some of them)
Three Duke Energy executives sat before the North Carolina Utilities Commission this week to discuss the shooting of two electric substations in Moore County that cut off power to tens of thousands of residents earlier this month.
The commission regulates public utilities in the state. It inquired about the attacks’ cost, substation security, and whether the perpetrators had intimate knowledge of power grid operations. Here’s how Duke’s leaders responded.
(Also this week, we published a rundown of North Carolina’s electrical grid, its more than 2,100 substations, and their vulnerabilities.)
Short Stuff: Biotech jobs coming. Apple is too (eventually)
On Tuesday, the biotech firm Catalent received a state incentive grant potentially worth more than $800,000 to create 200 new jobs and invest $40 million in Research Triangle Park. And as was discussed in last week’s Open Source, Apple isn’t sharing a timeline for opening its RTP campus.
National Tech Happenings
Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested this week. Among the federal charges, the former head of the crypto exchange FTX faces charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to misuse client funds.
Twitter has suspended accounts that track the private jets of billionaires, including Elon Musk’s. Twitter then suspended the accounts of a handful of journalists who cover the company.
Scientists achieved a nuclear fusion breakthrough this week that could have major implications for energy production in the future.
ChatGPT, a new artificial intelligence chat bot from OpenAI, surpassed a million followers in its first five days. It’s being heralded as the most advanced AI chat bot yet. You can ask it to write code, take a practice bar exam, or find cookie recipes. I used it to find out why North Carolina is the best and got this response in three seconds:
Podcast Pick of the Week
NPR’s Throughline podcast explores the history and controversies of America’s electrical grid.
Thank you for reading!
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.
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