*By Jacqueline Corba*
Salesforce has saved a seat at its executive meetings for Einstein, an artificial intelligence-powered robot developed by the cloud computing company.
"The fact that we are using our own products to really drive our forecasting, it's pretty amazing," said Bob Stutz, CEO of Salesforce's Marketing Cloud. "It is really great to have that tool that you can use every single day to run your business."
Salesforce's chief executive, Marc Benioff, has been an outspoken proponent of the company's use of A.I., and said that Einstein has [been at every weekly senior staff meeting](http://fortune.com/2018/01/25/salesforce-benioff-einstein-davos-ai/) for the last year.
Stutz said Einstein pulls his weight on a team that has grown its quarterly revenue by 41 percent year over year.
"We are on an incredible tear right now," Stutz said in an interview with Cheddar. "It's really helping customers connect with their consumers across sales, marketing, service ー it's a real growth driver for us nowadays."
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/inside-salesforce-marketing-cloud-growth).
Qualcomm shares are rising after reports that Apple is dropping chipmaker Intel. By 2020, Apple will stop using Intel's 5G modems in its new iPhones. This comes as Qualcomm is looking to dominate the 5G market.
The smart home speaker company filed for its public offering on Friday. Sonos is looking to list on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol "SONO." Cheddar's Kristen Scholer and Nora Ali give us the latest.
The retail giant's fourth annual Prime Day begins July 16 and will last 36 hours, making it the longest one to date. But the company may have an ulterior motive for the low prices, says Matt Swider, senior mobile and buying guides editor at Tech Radar. "They're trying to install their products...into your home so they have you for life. It's a really ingenious, supervillian-type idea by Jeff Bezos," he tells Cheddar.
With Instagram offering more ways to shop, experts are comparing the experience to a mall. "You're browsing when you're on Instagram," says Richard Greenfield, media & tech analyst at BTIG. "It's a very different mode than the mode you're in when you're on Amazon."
The cryptocurrency was on the rise Thursday, but experts are skeptical about how long it will last. "We're not going to blast past 10k," said Jonny Dubowsky, cyberneticist and chief technical officer at My Personal Therapeutics.
The company behind XRP, the third highest cryptocurrency by market cap, wants the digital asset to become more than just an investment for consumers and that's been difficult partly because of the confusion around the technology. But Ripple's Chief Market Strategist Cory Johnson says consumers don't need to understand the technology to use it. "Do you actually know what happens when you send a text message and throw some emojis onto it?"
Singapore's competition watchdog is proposing fines on Uber and Grab, saying the recent merger between the two companies stifles competition. The Competition and Consumer Commission, or CCCS, even suggested unwinding the deal between Uber and Grab. Last March, Uber sold its Southeast Asia business to ride-hailing rival, Grab.
Amazon is reportedly planning to roll out a holiday catalog later this year. The catalog would be mailed out to millions of U.S. households and would also be available to customers at Whole Foods locations across the country. The e-commerce giant is looking to attract holiday shoppers from Toys R Us after the toy chain shuttered all U.S. stores.
Business Insider reported that Tesla's CEO Elon Musk asked engineers to halt putting Model 3 vehicles through a standard brake and roll alignment test before leaving the factory floor.
The federal investigation into Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal is expanding. AT&T raising prices on DirecTV Now by $5 a month. Trump’s shortlist for replacing Justice Anthony Kennedy's seat on the Supreme Court.
The e-cigarette company announced last week it was raising $1.2 billion, which would value it at $15 billion. Dan Primack, business editor at Axios, tells Cheddar that the "valuation is justified on the math," but questions the company's ethics. “Does it want to stop kids from getting these?”
The ride-sharing company is following rival Uber into the bike-sharing business, buying Motivate, the company that owns Citi Bike. The deal is estimated to be worth about $250 million and would give Lyft “exclusive rights” to contracts already existing in some cities, says Patrick Sisson, senior reporter at Curbed. Uber acquired electric bike company Jump Bikes earlier this year.
