Tesla Gigafactory: Extension in Grünheide gets the green light

The electric car manufacturer can buy 100 hectares of forest. Also: US antitrust authorities want to block the takeover of the game studio Activision Blizzard by Microsoft.

Good morning! While you slept, work continued elsewhere in the digital scene.

The top topics:

Tesla is allowed to expand its production facility in Grünheide near Berlin. The municipal council approved a corresponding application on Thursday evening. The US electric car maker can now buy over 100 hectares of forest to expand its gigafactory. The vote was twelve to six, with one abstention. According to the municipality, Tesla is planning logistics areas, a service center for customers, a company daycare center, training rooms and its own freight depot.

This will add 100 hectares to the previous Tesla site, which covered 300 hectares. More than 7,000 people currently work in Grünheide, after the expansion it should be 12,000 or more. Environmentalists criticize the expansion because part of the area is in a water protection area, which prohibits the conversion of forest to another type of use. [Mehr bei Handelsblatt und Stuttgarter Nachrichten]

On the founding scene: For their subscription to freshly cooked dog food, the Viennese start-up received Hellobello millions in financing in the fall. One of the investors who recognized the billion-dollar market behind it was the well-known Austrian and business angel Hansi Hansmann. We show you the pitch deck with which Hellobello went on a VC search. [Mehr bei Gründerszene+]

And here are the other headlines of the night:

The US antitrust authority FTC wants to take over the game studio Activision Blizzard through Microsoft To block. The FTC filed a $75 billion lawsuit challenging the transaction. The agency said: “Today, we want to prevent Microsoft from taking control of a leading independent game studio and using it to harm competition in several dynamic and fast-growing gaming markets.” The software maker wants to defend the acquisition in court . [Mehr bei Axios, CNBC, The Information, Handelsblatt und Wall Street Journal]

Also Meta has trouble with the US antitrust authority FTC. This is trying to get Meta’s takeover of the virtual reality studio Within, the maker of the VR fitness game Supernatural. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and CTO Andrew Bosworth are potential witnesses in the case. According to media reports, the FTC is seeking an injunction to prevent the deal from going through as it poses a threat to future competition. [Mehr bei Reuters und The Information]

The Pentagon has announced an 8.5 billion euro contract for a cloud computing project in equal parts Google, Oracle, Microsoft and Amazon forgive. The project, which should be completed by 2028, is about better communication with soldiers in war zones. In the tender for an original computer project in 2019, Microsoft was initially awarded the contract, but the Pentagon canceled the contract last year. [Mehr bei CNBC und Handelsblatt]

At the district court in Munich on Thursday, the trial against the former Wirecard-CEO Markus Braun and two co-defendants started. The bankruptcy of the Dax group is one of the biggest scandals in German economic history. The public prosecutor accused Braun of “commercial gang fraud”. He had formed a “gang” with other top managers of the payment service provider in order to simulate the existence of a successful company. Braun’s defenders plead ignorance. The former Wirecard boss has been in custody since July 2020. [Mehr bei Handelsblatt und Bloomberg]

investments: Union Square Ventures has raised $200 million for a second fund focused on early investments in climate technology startups. The New York-based venture capital firm is known for its early investments Twitter, Coinbase and Etsy known. Banzaia Seattle marketing tech startup, acquires the AI ​​tracking tool Hyros for $110 million. In addition, the startup announced that it had raised $100 million and launched via Spac on the Nasdaq technology exchange. [Mehr bei The Information und Techcrunch]

Our reading tip on Gründerszene: For the express delivery service Considerable things are not going so well in Austria. The market is one of three overseas and is now being discontinued. Flink even had to file for bankruptcy for the business there. [Mehr bei Gründerszene]

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Happy Friday!

Your Gründerszene editors