Rapper Kanye West took to Twitter on Sunday and wrote, "We must now realise the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future." "I am running for president of the United States! #2020VISION," he added. Replying to his tweet, Tesla's billionaire CEO Elon Musk wrote, "You have my full support!"

SoftBank-backed OYO has reduced the headcount in its Japanese hotel operations from 600 in October to 150 through furloughs and job re-assignment to SoftBank, Bloomberg reported. It added that OYO is encouraging employees to quit, offering up to a four-month severance. The hospitality unicorn also shut some regional offices in June and is reportedly looking to downsize its Tokyo headquarters.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Sunday said American philosopher and cognitive scientist Noam Chomsky "sucks", adding that he is a "mind virus for fools". Musk called Chomsky a 'mind virus' in response to a Twitter user's tweet that said, "Chomsky has uttered insane things about politics for more than five decades."

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that the country is "certainly looking at" banning Chinese social media apps, including TikTok. Pompeo had earlier welcomed India's ban on several mobile apps from China. "India's clean app approach will boost India's sovereignty, it will also boost India's integrity and national security," Pompeo had said after India's move.

TikTok may be "a data collection service disguised as social media" that requires greater scrutiny, Australian Senator Jim Molan said. He said this after Nationals MP George Christensen accused TikTok of being "used and abused" by Chinese Communist Party and said it should be banned. Australian PM Scott Morrison also urged caution on people handing over their data to TikTok.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has denied any links with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein's alleged accomplice and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. After a picture of Musk with Maxwell from 2014 went viral, Musk said, "She photobombed me at a Vanity Fair Oscar party. Don't know Ghislaine at all." Maxwell has been arrested on accusations linked to the sex-trafficking charges against Epstein.

Days after promising that Tesla will sell "short shorts", Elon Musk on Monday said it's available on the carmaker's online store for $69.420. The product's description read, "Enjoy exceptional comfort from the closing bell." It is seemingly a jibe at short sellers who lost around $1.33 billion on Thursday after Tesla stock rose to a record intraday high of $1,228.

Think and Learn, which owns e-learning platform BYJU'S, has made a $300 million all-cash offer to acquire edtech startup WhiteHat Jr, the Economic Times reported. Unacademy was also reported to have made a bid to acquire WhiteHat Jr. The Mumbai-based startup, which provides online coding lessons to kids, was founded by former Discovery Networks India CEO Karan Bajaj in 2018.

Paytm and its CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma announced on Monday that they have reached an agreement to acquire insurance firm Raheja QBE for $76 million. Sharma is acquiring Raheja QBE through QorQl Pvt Ltd, a firm in which he owns majority stake with Paytm owning the remainder. A Paytm spokesperson told TechCrunch that it was an all-cash deal.

After Tesla started selling "short shorts" in an apparent jibe at short-sellers, a Twitter user dared CEO Elon Musk to wear the red satin shorts at a shareholder meeting. This came after the entrepreneur revealed he himself bought a pair of shorts in XL. Responding to the man, Musk tweeted, "That would be next-level".

Short-form video app TikTok, owned by China's Bytedance, has said it will exit the Hong Kong market within days after China imposed a new national security law for the city. The company operates a similar app called Douyin in China. TikTok said it isn't profitable in Hong Kong, where it has about 1,50,000 users.

US-based aerospace startup Rocket Lab's 13th Electron mission, named "Pics Or It Didn't Happen", has ended in failure, after the rocket experienced an issue during second stage burn. The failure, which occurred six minutes after lift-off, resulted in a total loss of the rocket and all seven satellites on board. Founder Peter Beck said he's "incredibly sorry" to all customers.

Uber on Monday announced it has acquired food delivery startup Postmates, the fourth-largest US delivery service, in a $2.65 billion all-stock deal. Uber plans to run Postmates business alongside its own food delivery business, Uber Eats, keeping the Postmates app running. Uber was earlier in talks to buy Grubhub, which was later bought by European food delivery service Just Eat.

The Indian arm of Silicon Valley-based Sequoia Capital announced it has secured $1.35 billion from Limited Partners for two new funds. The funds, which comprise a $525 million venture fund and an $825 million growth fund, will focus on investments in startups across India and Southeast Asia. Sequoia Capital India made more than 50 investments in 2019, as per TechCrunch.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is looking to move a bigger portion of engineering work to India to cut costs amid coronavirus pandemic, The Information reported. About 15% of Uber's engineering team is now in India, it added. Earlier, the Uber CEO had said, "COVID-19 has had a dramatic impact on rides, with the business down globally around 80% in April."

In a letter to staff, OYO said it's making every employee a shareholder in the company by granting them a deeply discounted employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), comparable to restricted stock units (RSUs). The employees also include those who were sent on "leave with limited benefits". The RSUs can only be vested after a year from the date of grant.

Shantanu Naidu, the 27-year-old assistant of Ratan Tata, started 'On Your Sparks' during lockdown, an online talk to help aspiring entrepreneurs. An MBA holder from Cornell University, Naidu has been assisting Ratan Tata for two years. Tata met Naidu and hired him after Naidu wrote to him about a collar he made to protect dogs from being hit by vehicles.

India saw four IPOs worth $2.08 million in the three months ended June, all of which were in SME segment with a median deal size of $0.38 million, an EY India report said. IPOs were seen in consumer and diversified industrial products sector. Indian stock exchanges ranked seventh in the world in terms of number of IPOs in Q2 2020.

Startup investments will be impacted for another six months, a FICCI and Indian Angel Network survey said. Out of 27 investors, 250 startups and 34 incubators interviewed, 56% said they've been moderately affected while 40% said there would be severe impact on investments. Moreover, 33% startups said investments have been put on hold while 10% said their deals were canceled.

Gay dating app Grindr, valued at $620 million, was approved for $1-2 million loan for small businesses suffering from COVID-19. Companies seeking the loan had to certify that the "current economic uncertainty makes this loan necessary to support" their ongoing operations. Earlier, Beijing Kunlun Tech had sold Grindr for $608 million after the US government had raised national security concerns.

Clearview AI will stop offering its facial recognition services in Canada in response to an ongoing investigation into the company by provincial and federal privacy authorities. This would involve immediate suspension of its contract with Royal Canadian Mounted Police, its last remaining client in Canada. However, the investigation against it by privacy protection authorities will remain open.

Gurugram-based fashion tech startup StyleDotMe's Augmented Reality platform 'mirrAR' allows shoppers to try jewellery they see on a screen in real-time, without actually wearing it, through a contactless system. The platform also helps brands sell products without having real inventory. The startup claims that more than 150 jewellers in over 25 cities are using its 'mirrAR' platform.

The World Bank and Indian government have signed an agreement worth $750 million to boost the flow of finance to 15 lakh MSMEs amid the COVID-19 crisis. The decision will help the government to provide targeted guarantees to incentivise NBFCs and banks. Notably, the World Bank has so far committed $2.75 billion to support India's emergency COVID-19 response.

US-based data analytics startup Palantir Technologies, co-founded by Peter Thiel, has filed an initial public offering. It's one of the largest public listings of a tech startup since Uber filed an IPO last year. Palantir, valued at $20 billion, has raised over $3 billion in funding and recently indicated that it is raising more capital in a $1 billion round.

While addressing the Dhamma Chakra Day event on Saturday, PM Modi said Indian startup ecosystem is the "beacon of hope and innovation". "Bright young minds are finding solutions to global problems. India has one of the largest startup ecosystems," he said. PM Modi also called for promotion of startups and agri entrepreneurs amid the launch of Aatmanirbhar Bharat Innovation Challenge.