Made In America: Toyota to invest $1 billion in artificial intelligence, robotics

Editor’s note: Each Sunday, Talk Business & Politics provides “Made In America,” a round-up of state and global manufacturing news.

TOYOTA TO INVEST $1 BILLION IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, ROBOTICS: Japanese auto giant Toyota Motor Corp. announced Friday (Nov. 6) it will invest more than $1 billion to establish a new company, Toyota Research Institute Inc. (TRI), as an R&D enterprise with an initial focus on artificial intelligence and robotics. The headquarters will be located in Silicon Valley near Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. A second facility will be located near the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A. The new company will begin operations in January 2016.

Toyota said it believes artificial intelligence has significant potential to support future industrial technologies and the creation of an entirely new industry. To underscore this belief, it is making an initial investment of $1 billion over the next five years, to establish and staff the two initial locations and conduct operations. The investment is in addition to the $50 million investment over the next five years with MIT and Stanford to establish joint fundamental artificial intelligence research centers at each university. To watch the webcast of the Japanese automaker’s game-changing announcement, click here.

U.S. ECONOMY ADDS 271,000 WORKERS IN OCTOBER, JOBLESS RATE UNCHANGED: Total nonfarm payroll employment jumped significantly in October as 271,000 workers were added to the U.S., the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. The unemployment rate remained static at 5% for the month. Over the prior 12 months, employment growth had averaged 230,000 per month. In October, job gains occurred in professional and business services, health care, retail trade, food services and drinking places, and construction.

KRAFT TO CLOSE SEVEN PLANTS, PLANS TO CUT 10% OF WORKFORCE: Food giant Kraft Heinz Co., which was purchased for $40 billion earlier this year by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and Brazilian private equity firm 3G Capital, said this week that it plans to move forward cost-cutting measures that will close seven plants and cut 2,500 white collar jobs.

Under the plan, about 10% of the company’s workforce will be laid off when plants in California, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Ontario are shuttered over the next 12 to 24 months. The maker of Heinz ketchup, A-1 steak sauce and Kraft macaroni and cheese has already sacked thousands of white collar workers at the company’s suburban headquarters north of downtown Chicago.

LR MANUFACTURING TECH FIRM SHOWCASES DIGITAL LASER SYSTEM AT NEW YORK INDUSTRY EVENT: Little Rock-based Power Technology Inc. was recently selected to make a presentation at the NEC New York Partner Showcase on Wednesday, Nov. 4. Each year during New York Digital Signage Week, NEC hosts a partner showcase and open house to highlight NEC’s technology and their partners for upcoming product offerings.

One of the featured products this year was NEC’s laser illuminated projector using Power Technology’s Illumina Cinema Laser System. The NEC projector paired with the Illumina Cinema Laser System demonstrated the super-bright and crisp images that will drive the next generation of digital cinema projectors with the aim of reversing the world-wide slump in cinema attendance.

GOV. HUTCHINSON, AEDC TO MAKE TRADE TRIP TO CHINA AND JAPAN: Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Arkansas Economic Development Commission Director Mike Preston will travel to Japan and China on a business recruitment trip Nov. 15-24, Hutchinson announced Friday (Nov. 6) in a press conference. The two will meet with companies that are considering locating or expanding in the United States, as well as those with an interest in or a current presence in Arkansas. Hutchinson said they will be meeting with more than a dozen companies in the two countries and will contact numerous government officials. They will meet with some of the 18 Japanese companies that employ more than 5,400 Arkansans.

OBAMA REJECTS KEYSTONE PIPELINE PLAN, ARKANSAS LAWMAKERS CRITICIZE THE DECISION: President Barack Obama on Friday (Nov. 6) rejected the Keystone XL pipeline proposal after a lengthy State Department review of the controversial project. The move ignited a barrage of criticism from Arkansas’ Congressional delegation and the oil and gas industry. Read more here.