Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today and over the weekend
The annual Fed conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Talks from Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen and European Central Bank president Mario Draghi are both on the agenda, while discussions about a second term for Yellen are distinctly absent (paywall); US president Donald Trump is considering her name along with his economic policy director Gary Cohn.
Samsung empire’s heir awaits a verdict on corruption charges. A Seoul court will decide the fate of Jay Y. Lee, charged with embezzlement and perjury for allegedly funneling $38 million to bribe then-president Park Geun-hye. Lee could face up to 12 years in prison—the longest term ever given to a South Korean business leader.
Hurricane Harvey hits Texas. The intensifying cyclone is expected to make landfall late Friday or early Saturday as a Category 3 storm in the heart of the US oil refinery sector. Catastrophic flooding is feared from Corpus Christi to the Louisiana coast, and up to 100 miles (160 km) inland.
While you were sleeping
Investors cringed as Trump threatened a government shutdown. The US president condemned Republican leaders in Congress for the debt ceiling “mess,” which could lead to a US default on billions of dollars in Treasurys. The interest rate on short-term T-bills maturing October 12 jumped as much as 5 basis points.
Struggling phone maker HTC is weighing strategic options. The Taiwanese firm is considering whether to sell or spin off its virtual reality headset business, and may even sell the entire company, according to Bloomberg. Once among the world’s top smartphone makers, HTC’s market share is now less than 2%.
Softbank made a gigantic investment in WeWork. The Japanese conglomerate and its Vision Fund injected $4.4 billion in the company and its Asian affiliates to fund an aggressive expansion plan for coworking (and soon, co-living) spaces. WeWork’s implied valuation is now about $20 billion, putting it among the five most valuable tech startups.
Amazon unveiled its preliminary plan for Whole Foods. The retailer’s $13.4 billion acquisition, expected to close on Monday, will result in price cuts at the infamously expensive grocery store, give special discounts to Amazon Prime subscribers, and make Whole Foods’ house brand available on Amazon’s e-commerce platforms.
Quartz obsession interlude
Joon Ian Wong on a bitcoin mining giant’s move into AI: “Bitmain plans to sell chips to any corporation that wants to train its own neural nets—which means a vast swathe of the economy. Wang says tech firms like Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent are among his target customers. Bitmain may eventually build its own data centers containing thousands of deep learning rigs and rent out that computation power to clients, just as it does with its bitcoin mines.” Read more here.
Markets haiku
“Whole paycheck” no more / Amazon’s cutting prices / Grocers catch a chill
Matters of debate
Companies should prioritize investor welfare, not value. It would enable them to consider critical social and ethical issues.
All lives should matter to self-driving cars. Germany wants to ban autonomous vehicles from prioritizing age, race, or gender in a collision.
Top US universities don’t admit enough students. Compared to schools in countries like Canada, they create a bottleneck for social mobility.
Surprising discoveries
Google made a cuddly knitwear robot that watches YouTube videos. Researchers eventually want “Blossom” to help kids with autism.
Japan has a rent-a-dad service… Tokyo’s Heart Project offers everything from “parent” to “bridesmaid” surrogates.
… And a ninja-studies major. Sadly, the focus is on historical research, not practical training.
Americans stopped watching TV and porn for the solar eclipse. Netflix and Pornhub traffic showed a noticeable drop.
The driest place on Earth is currently covered in flowers. It only rains every five to seven years in Chile’s Atacama desert.
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