&w=3840&q=100)
How ex-Google CEO emerged as Ukraine's unlikely friend & helped take down Russian drones
Eric Schmidt speaks onstage during the 2024 TIME100 Summit at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 24, 2024 in New York City. (Photo:via AFP)
Even as Western technology giants like SpaceX and Maxar have emerged as unreliable partners, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has emerged as a key partner of Ukraine in the war with Russia.
Earlier this month, Schmidt met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Denmark and signed a deal for the joint production of artificially intelligence (AI)-driven interceptor drones.
Schmidt's company Swift Beat has provided three types of interceptor drones to Ukraine that have taken down up to 90 per cent of Russian drones that they have encountered, according to Ukrainian-language outlet Ekonomichna Pravda (EP).
STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
'These drones are highly accurate'
A source told EP that Swift Beat's interceptor drones are 'are extremely accurate in identifying Russian drones in the night sky'.
In recent months, Russia has ramped up attacks on Ukraine with near-daily assaults with hundreds of drones and missiles.
Officials told the outlet that Swift Beats' three types of interceptor drones have taken down roughly 90 per cent of Russia's Iranian-origin Shahed drones.
Swift Beat's drones are said to be equipped with advanced AI targeting technology and a secure communication system that has so far proven resistant to Russian electronic warfare, the report said.
The collaboration between Schmidt's Swift Beat and Ukraine has presented a win-win situation where both sides have benefitted — as opposed to the likes of satellite internet-provider SpaceX-owned Starlink and satellite imagery-provider Maxar that led to Ukraine's dependency. Under the arrangement with Swift Beat, while Ukraine has got interceptor drones with high precision, Swift Beat has had an opportunity for the testing and fine-tuning of its products.
Contrary to such a mutually-beneficial arrangement, Ukraine's dependence on other Western tech giants meant that when Elon Musk ordered the shutdown of Starlink in Ukraine's Kherson region in 2022, it compromised Ukraine's ongoing counter-offensive. Similarly, earlier this year, after US President Donald Trump suspended military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine, Maxar was ordered to stop providing satellite imagery to Ukraine.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
29 minutes ago
- Time of India
‘Would you rather we switch off our economy,' Indian envoy asks, defending buying oil from Russia
LONDON: Indian high commissioner to the UK Vikram Doraiswami has defended India buying oil from Russia and its close relationship with Moscow, saying to a British journalist: 'Do you want us to switch off our economy?' Doraiswami was speaking to Times Radio when asked by its political editor, Kate McCann, whether he felt comfortable with the 'closeness' of New Delhi's relationship with President Putin. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now 'We have a relationship that is based on a number of metrics — one of these is our long-standing security relationship that goes back to an era in which some of our Western partners wouldn't sell us weapons, but would sell them to countries in our neighbourhood which used them only to attack us,' Doraiswami replied. 'Second, we have an energy relationship today which is the result of everybody else buying energy from sources that we used to earlier buy from, so we have been displaced out of the energy market, largely, and the costs have gone up. We are the third-largest consumer of energy in the world and we import over 80% of our product. What would you have us do? Switch off our economy?' 'Thirdly, we also see around us relationships that other countries maintain for their own convenience with countries that are a source of difficulty for us. Do we ask you to come up with the litmus test of loyalty,' he said. McCann pressed whether India should be accepting Russian oil, pointing out that Nayara's Vadinar refinery in Gujarat had recently been sanctioned by the EU for refining Russian crude. 'We are the fourth-largest refiner of energy in the world and a number of countries in Europe buy refined oil from us, which ought to tell you something, and also many of our European partners are continuing to buy rare earth and other energy products, not oil perhaps, from the same countries that they are refusing to let us buy from. You wouldn't think that seems a little odd,' Doraiswami said. McCann asked whether PM Narendra Modi would be willing to discuss with Putin ending the war in Ukraine. 'Our consistent position, as our PM has repeatedly said, is that this isn't an era of war. He has made that point to the president of Russia and the president of Ukraine. We are very keen for this terrible conflict to stop, as we are keen for conflicts across the world to stop,' Doraiswami said. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now McCann also probed about a 'new pact between India, Russia and China', asking: 'Do you feel comfortable with those relationships, because the leaders of those countries are roundly condemned by others in Europe?' Doraiswami denied there was ever any such pact and said there had just been a 'trilateral meeting format' which had not happened in a long time. 'It was a format in which we had our leadership coordinate across a range of security-related issues,' he said. 'We are neighbours of China, and China is a neighbour of Russia. It is reasonable that we coordinate our security interests,' he said.
Mint
41 minutes ago
- Mint
The driver of Apple's exploding valuation is under threat. See what's at stake.
Apple sold the same number of iPhones in 2024 as it did in 2015, according to IDC. But Apple stock has jumped ninefold in that time. One reason for the continued run in the shares has been the various services Apple sells to people living their digital lives in its ecosystem. iCloud storage and other subscriptions, paid apps and app advertising, as well as payments related to web search, as a group, have quintupled since 2015, while device revenue has grown less than 40%. And those services generate significantly higher gross profit margins: north of 70%, estimates Bank of America, compared with roughly 30% to 40% for hardware sales. That means the services business has a greater impact on Apple's profit than on its revenue. Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan credits Apple's choice to break out the rapidly growing, highly profitable services segment as a reason investors started paying a bigger earnings multiple for Apple shares. Yet after a big boost during the pandemic, growth of services has moderated, and two clouds are visible on the horizon that could reduce or even eliminate key parts of the business. A primary component of Apple's services business is the fees Apple collects on sales in its App Store, which drove almost a third of the total services revenue in the fiscal year that ended in September, according to Bank of America estimates. Some developers say the fees are usurious and have appealed to regulators or sued Apple to force changes. A California judge ruled that Apple must allow app developers to sell their iPhone services from their own websites. In that scenario, she said, Apple can't collect any fee at all. In a worst-case scenario, Bank of America estimates that Apple could lose 10% of its net profit. But that assumes all large developers shift all of their app purchases outside the App Store, which is very unlikely, and Apple is appealing the ruling in the U.S. In the European Union, a law called the Digital Markets Act requires similar changes to allow developers to avoid Apple's fees. Some experts have expressed concern that other countries could follow suit. Apple disagreed with the California judge's ruling, a spokeswoman said. It also appealed the ruling of the European Commission, saying the changes it is forcing the company to make go beyond what the law requires and are bad for users. The next piece of Apple's services business—and one of its most lucrative—is the money Google pays so it gets to be the default search provider in Apple's Safari web browser. It accounted for about 6% of Apple's overall revenue in the 12 months through March, estimates Bank of America. But because it has essentially no costs associated with it, it falls straight to the bottom line, where it accounts for 19%, or nearly a fifth, of Apple's total operating profit. After the Justice Department won its antitrust case against Alphabet's Google, it asked the judge to throw out the search giant's Apple contract, which the judge is still considering. During trial testimony, the judge asked Apple executive Eddy Cue, who oversees the services business, if Apple has thought about what it would do if he cancels the contract. Cue testified: 'I've lost a lot of sleep thinking about it." Advertising, particularly by apps in the App Store, is another big chunk of services revenue. Subscriptions to iCloud storage, Apple Music, Apple TV and other services add even more to Apple's services business. News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal, has a commercial agreement to supply news through Apple services. While Apple has bested expectations in many arenas of its services business outside of the App Store and Google payments, the company will still face an uphill battle in replacing lost revenue from those two areas, analysts say.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
India and Taiwan were leading buyers of Russian naphtha in June, LSEG data shows
India and Taiwan were the leading destinations for Russian seaborne naphtha exports in June, as cheaper volumes and domestic demand attracted buyers, according to traders and LSEG data. Naphtha is a primary feedstock in the petrochemical industry for producing olefins and aromatics, which are then used to manufacture a wide array of products, including plastics, synthetic resins, synthetic fibers, and various other chemicals. Explore courses from Top Institutes in Please select course: Select a Course Category Product Management Degree Artificial Intelligence Technology Project Management others Design Thinking Cybersecurity Public Policy MBA Data Science Data Science Data Analytics Leadership healthcare Healthcare MCA Digital Marketing PGDM Others Finance Operations Management Management CXO Skills you'll gain: Creating Effective Product Roadmap User Research & Translating it to Product Design Key Metrics via Product Analytics Hand-On Projects Using Cutting Edge Tools Duration: 12 Weeks Indian School of Business ISB Product Management Starts on May 14, 2024 Get Details Skills you'll gain: Product Strategy & Roadmapping User-Centric Product Design Agile Product Development Market Analysis & Product Launch Duration: 24 Weeks Indian School of Business Professional Certificate in Product Management Starts on Jun 26, 2024 Get Details Skills you'll gain: Product Strategy & Competitive Advantage Tactics Product Development Processes & Market Orientations Product Analytics & Data-Driven Decision Making Agile Development, Design Thinking, & Product Leadership Duration: 40 Weeks IIM Kozhikode Professional Certificate in Product Management Starts on Jun 26, 2024 Get Details Since the European Union's full embargo on Russian oil products went into effect in February 2023, countries in the Middle East and Asia have become the main destinations for Russia's naphtha supplies. Naphtha export shipments from Russian ports to India in June totalled 250,000 metric tons, down 5% from May, and exceeded 1.4 million tons in the first half of 2025. Russian naphtha arrived at the western Indian ports of Mundra, Hazira, and Sikka, shipping data showed. Live Events India partially replaced naphtha purchases from the United Arab Emirates with cheaper Russian supplies in order to reduce import costs. Naphtha exports from Russian ports to Taiwan reached 234,000 tons last month, double their May level, and totalled 1.27 million tons between January and June, according to LSEG data. Singapore, Malaysia, Turkey and China were among the other top destinations for Russian naphtha export supplies in June. Ship-tracking data showed that no cargoes from Russian ports arrived in Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates in June. Russia had supplied 80,000 tons to the UAE in May. Vessels carrying nearly 300,000 tons of Russian naphtha loaded last month are heading to Asia via Southern Africa's Cape of Good Hope. Asia received 150,000 tons in May. Traders have been diverting Russian oil products cargoes around Africa since December 2023 to avoid the Red Sea due to a heightened risk of attacks by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi group. All the shipping data above are based on the date of cargo departure.
