China raising the flag of U.S. protectionism after recent cross border corporate takeovers were scuttled over national security concerns. This comes after Alibaba's Ant Financial scrapped its acquisition of MoneyGram. Axios Media Reporter Sara Fischer explains what this means for the future of data security and technology.
"Media is becoming so technology and data focused so any business move to take over a company that would give a Chinese internet company data not only affects those companies in trade, but it affects media and technology," explains Fischer.
The Committee for Foreign Investments in the United States is now taking a closer look at investments Chinese companies and private equity firms are making in U.S. technology companies. Fischer explains CFIUS is concerned giving foreign interests so much access to data would be a national security problem.
Interest in the concept of the metaverse is heating up as more companies get on board, and Cathy Hackl, CEO of Futures Intelligence Group, a metaverse-focused consultancy, joined Cheddar to talk about trends to watch out for in 2022 and what it will take for it to be more than just a buzzword. Hackl noted that businesses likely will have to consider big technology upgrades in the upcoming year in order to keep up. "We're going to need new levels of computing power to be able to enable shared virtual experiences, both in VR but also in augmented reality," she said.
Ron Gutman, Co-CEO of Intrivo, joins Cheddar News to discuss how the company is creating a test and tech solution for Covid testing called 2Gather, and how it's using data-driven digital diagnostics to make these tests widely available and affordable.
The metaverse took the world by storm in 2021 and it is just the beginning of the virtual universe. Consumers are jumping on board and companies like Meta and Roblox are already taking advantage. Entrepreneur Andrew Duplessie joined Cheddar to discuss how the metaverse will impact the future of socialization and business. "If I'm doing anything right now, I'm building an app, I'm jumping into that ecosystem, and I'm testing it. I'm seeing what people think," he said.
