Automating most company operations could prevent more than 600,000 new hires.

Electric vehicle maker Rivian plans to lay off approximately 4% of its workforce, according to the Wall Street Journal. The report stated that the development would impact over 600 employees. However, the company has not provided further details.

The news comes after a WSJ report in September that Rivian would cut about 1.5% of its workforce. A company spokesperson said that the previous layoffs impacted the commercial team as the automaker worked to “improve operational efficiency” for its upcoming R2 model, planned for launch in 2026.

Some marketing efforts are just simple PR stunts, while others are truly revolutionary feats of engineering. But when a gamer and a hip-hop artist take to the skies to play a video game on a giant screen suspended from a helicopter while flying in a different helicopter, why can't both be true?

Even a fairly straightforward pizza delivery still requires at least 30 minutes to bake the pie, throw it in a car and drive it to your door. But Inversion, an aerospace and defense technology company, is raising the stakes by promising to deliver cargo from space to just about anywhere on Earth within one hour.

The goal of Project Artemis has been characterized as a journey to the Moon “for scientific discovery, technology advancement, and to learn how to live and work on another world as we prepare for human missions to Mars.”

The Austin American-Statesman reported that battery manufacturing startup Base Power moved into the newspaper’s former downtown Austin building. Founded in 2023, the startup makes residential batteries and plans to use the publication’s previous site temporarily.

In the heart of Chillicothe, Ohio, a 175-year-old paper mill, long considered an unofficial symbol of the community, was forced to end production in August. Once a cornerstone of the town of 22,000, demand for the specialty paper it produced steadily declined, leading to its closure. First announced in April, the shutdown affected roughly 750 employees, who were notified months in advance. As Pixelle Specialty Solutions, the plant’s owner, prepared to relocate operations, workers were left facing difficult choices about their futures.

An engineering brand synonymous with bots will divest its robotics division.

ABB has announced that it is selling this business to SoftBank – a Japanese financial holding company with a heavy emphasis in technology.

SoftBank owns significant stakes in major companies like Nvidia and T-Mobile, and recent reports have suggested that the firm is carving out a strategic growth plan specific to AI.

And that’s likely where ABB comes in.