Tesla is changing its battery plans for the Gigafactory in Grünheide

Apparently the tax incentives make the US a more attractive location. Also: Coinbase beats forecasts in crypto winter and Amazon employees rebel on Slack.

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

The top topics:

Sea Tesla-Chef Elon Musk the plant in Grünheide near Berlin was to become the largest battery factory in the world. But apparently the US electric car manufacturer has deviated from these plans. Complete batteries are no longer to be produced at the Grünheide site. This information comes from the Brandenburg Ministry of Economic Affairs, Tesla has not yet commented on it.

According to the ministry, Tesla has started producing battery systems in Grünheide and is preparing to manufacture battery cell components. Further production steps have been prioritized in the USA because the tax conditions are more favorable there, it said. [Mehr bei N-tv und Reuters]

On Start-up scene: Ann-Kathrin Schlarb is a fully qualified lawyer and advises women and men, including founders, on the subject parental allowance. “The self-employed are often fobbed off with minimal amounts. They can’t live on that, let alone keep their company afloat,” she says. However, the parental allowance expert has valuable tips on how it can still work. [Mehr bei Gründerszene+]

And here are the other headlines of the night:

Coinbase While beating analysts’ forecasts for fourth-quarter revenue, the crypto exchange’s revenue plummeted nearly 75 percent year-over-year. The “crypto winter” has weighed heavily on the price of cryptocurrencies. Overall, Coinbase turned over $629 million versus the expected $590 million. The company reported an unadjusted net loss of $557 million, compared to a net profit of $840 million a year earlier. [Mehr bei CNBC]

Not all Amazon-Employees appear to want to accept the new mandate from CEO Andy Jassy, ​​who has announced that from May 1st employees will have to be in the office again at least three days a week. During the pandemic, many had worked remotely or with hybrid models. According to the US broadcaster CNBC, the employees set up a Slack channel on Friday to advocate for the home office. As of Tuesday morning, almost 14,000 employees had joined this channel. Employees argue that the mandate runs counter to what Amazon wants to promote, namely diversity and inclusion, affordable housing and sustainability. [Mehr bei CNBC]

Palo Alto Networks has published positive figures for the last quarter and thus pleased the stock market: The shares of the manufacturer of security hardware and software rose by seven percent in extended trading on Tuesday. The company’s revenue climbed 26 percent year over year in the quarter ended Jan. 1. Net income was $84.2 million compared to a loss of $93.5 million in the same quarter last year. Palo Alto Networks has now posted three consecutive quarters of profitability after being in the red for a decade. According to management, this should meet the criteria for the company’s inclusion in the S&P 500. [Mehr bei CNBC]

Layoffs: Polygon Labs, a group of companies developing the Polygon blockchain, announced on Tuesday that it had laid off 20 percent of its workforce. This corresponds to approximately 100 employees. Polygon Labs cited its recent restructuring, which has seen several companies consolidated, as the reason for the layoffs. Polygon’s token, Maticis among the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap according to Coingecko. [Mehr bei The Information]

Investments: Freshtohomean Indian startup selling fresh fish and meat to consumers in the South Asian market and the Middle East, has a new supporter: Amazon has participated in a $104 million funding round through its India-focused Smbhav Venture fund. Founded in 2015, Freshtohome is one of the biggest players vying for a share of the $100 billion Indian fish and meat market. [Mehr bei Techcrunch]

Our reading tip on Gründerszene: Various media have the 18-year-old Adem Karagoz celebrated in the past few weeks for his project: Mit Bavarian Airlines the founder wanted to build a new luxury airline. Users should accumulate frequent flyer miles in the form of a cryptocurrency. As research by our editor Georg Räth shows, however, Adem Karagöz’ career consists of several fake companies and dubious crypto deals. This raises the question of how serious Bavarian Airlines really is. [Mehr bei Gründerszene+]

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Happy Wednesday!

Your Gründerszene editors