Norway Discovers Europe’s Largest Deposit of Rare Earth Metals

Rare Earths Norway has discovered Europe’s largest proven deposit of rare earth elements in the Fen Carbonatite Complex, positioning Norway as a key player in Europe’s effort to reduce reliance on China’s rare earths supply. CNBC reports: Rare Earths Norway said in a June 6 statement that its Fen Carbonatite Complex in the southeast of the country boasts 8.8 million metric tons of total rare earth oxides (TREOs) with a reasonable prospect for economic extraction. Within the TREOs, which are considered vital to the global shift away from fossil fuels, the company says there is an estimated 1.5 million metric tons of magnet-related rare earths which can be used in electric vehicles and wind turbines. The discovery eclipses a massive rare earths deposit found last year in neighboring Sweden.

One of the aims of the Critical Raw Materials Act is to extract at least 10% of the European Union’s annual demand for rare earths by 2030 and Rare Earths Norway says it hopes to contribute to that goal. Rare Earths Norway said the rare earths deposit in Telemark, roughly 210 kilometers (130 miles) southwest of Oslo, is likely to underscore Norway’s position as an integral part of Europe’s rare earth and critical raw material value chain.

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Japan Enacts Law Forcing Third-Party App Stores On Apple and Google

Following in the European Union’s footsteps, Japan’s parliament has enacted a law on Wednesday that will prohibit big tech from blocking third-party app stores. AppleInsider reports: The intention of the bill is that it will facilitate competition and reduce app prices. Japan’s government reportedly believes that Apple and Google are a duopoly, and that they charge developers high fees that are then passed on to users. Big tech companies with App Stores will also prohibit companies from prioritizing their own services. Google is likely to be hit hardest by this. Violators will initially be fined up to 20% of the domestic revenue of the specific service that broke the law. The fee can increase to 30%, if the behavior continues.

The Japanese government’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) will choose which firms to apply it to. Companies that will be regulated will be required to submit compliance reports annually. While it hasn’t been explicitly said that Apple and Google must comply, It seems certain that the announcement that they’ll be held to the provisions is imminent. The Japan FTC isn’t expected to add any Japanese firms to the list. The law likely won’t take effect until the end of 2025.

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Intel Is Trucking a 916,000-Pound ‘Super Load’ Across Ohio To Its New Fab

Intel has begun ferrying around 20 “super loads” across Ohio for the construction of its new $28 billion Ohio One Campus. The extensive planning and coordination required for these shipments are expected to cause road closures and delays during the nine days of transport. Tom’s Hardware reports: Intel’s new campus coming to New Albany, OH, is in heavy construction, and around 20 super loads are being ferried across Ohio’s roads by the Ohio Department of Transportation after arriving at a port of the Ohio River via barge. Four of these loads, including the one hitting the road now, weigh around 900,000 pounds — that’s 400 metric tons, or 76 elephants. The super loads were first planned for February but were delayed due to the immense planning workload. Large crowds are estimated to accumulate on the route, potentially slowing it even further.

Intel’s 916,000-pound shipment is a “cold box,” a self-standing air-processor structure that facilitates the cryogenic technology needed to fabricate semiconductors. The box is 23 feet tall, 20 feet wide, and 280 feet long, nearly the length of a football field. The immense scale of the cold box necessitates a transit process that moves at a “parade pace” of 5-10 miles per hour. Intel is taking over southern Ohio’s roads for the next several weeks and months as it builds its new Ohio One Campus, a $28 billion project to create a 1,000-acre campus with two chip factories and room for more. Calling it the new “Silicon Heartland,” the project will be the first leading-edge semiconductor fab in the American Midwest, and once operational, will get to work on the “Angstrom era” of Intel processes, 20A and beyond. The Ohio Department of Transportation has shared a timetable for how long this process will take.

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Best Buy Is Laying Off More Employees As It Reckons With Falling Sales

According to The Verge, Best Buy conducted another round of layoffs and job restructurings to “right size” the business in response to declining sales post-pandemic. Further layoffs and changes are expected throughout the year. From the report: The layoffs appeared to have mostly targeted in-home sales roles called designers, who would go to customers’ homes to help identify products that would work in their space. It’s not clear how many were let go, but designers who weren’t laid off have been moved into a different, largely in-store role. Also, pay scales for a similar, existing in-store “consultant” position were revamped. Best Buy confirmed the layoffs in an email to The Verge but declined to share how many people were let go or how pay was changing. “Many of our team members were moved to new areas or roles where our customers need it most,” Best Buy spokesperson Ryan Furlong told The Verge. He said some employees in Best Buy’s “Design and Consult workforce” — the collection of roles with in-store workers (called consultants) and in-home field sales positions (called designers) — will be transitioned into a new “Premium Designer role.”

Best Buy has been drastically restructuring in recent months, responding to factors like falling sales after the pandemic spiked consumer electronics spending. Best Buy CEO Corie Barry told investors in February that they should expect layoffs this year, and two months ago, mass layoffs of Geek Squad employees were reported. Barry repeated similar things during the company’s first quarter earnings call in May, saying that many of Best Buy’s moves to “right size” its business “are being implemented throughout this year.”

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Brazil Hires OpenAI To Cut Costs of Court Battles

Brazil’s government is partnering with OpenAI to use AI for expediting the screening and analysis of thousands of lawsuits to reduce costly court losses impacting the federal budget. Reuters reports: The AI service will flag to government the need to act on lawsuits before final decisions, mapping trends and potential action areas for the solicitor general’s office (AGU). AGU told Reuters that Microsoft would provide the artificial intelligence services from ChatGPT creator OpenAI through its Azure cloud-computing platform. It did not say how much Brazil will pay for the services. AGU said the AI project would not replace the work of its members and employees. “It will help them gain efficiency and accuracy, with all activities fully supervised by humans,” it said.

Court-ordered debt payments have consumed a growing share of Brazil’s federal budget. The government estimated it would spend 70.7 billion reais ($13.2 billion) next year on judicial decisions where it can no longer appeal. The figure does not include small-value claims, which historically amount to around 30 billion reais annually. The combined amount of over 100 billion reais represents a sharp increase from 37.3 billion reais in 2015. It is equivalent to about 1% of gross domestic product, or 15% more than the government expects to spend on unemployment insurance and wage bonuses to low-income workers next year. AGU did not provide a reason for Brazil’s rising court costs.

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