$300M from Amazon backs housing effort
ARLINGTON, Va. -- Amazon is providing $300 million in low-interest loans to support housing near mass transit in the Washington, D.C., area and the Seattle and Nashville, Tenn., regions.
The largest amount, $125 million, is earmarked for the Washington, D.C., region, where Amazon is building a second headquarters that will support 25,000 jobs, the company said Wednesday. Amazon is working with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which runs the region's Metrorail system. The money will be used to fund 1,000 houses for low- and moderate-income families.
Amazon's second headquarters is being built in the Crystal City neighborhood of northern Virginia.
Amazon also has dedicated $100 million to create 1,200 new houses or apartments near light-rail stations across the Puget Sound region. Another $75 million in below-market loans is earmarked for creation of an estimated 800 houses in Nashville on privately owned land within a half-mile of WeGo transit corridors.
The money is part of a $2 billion housing equity fund Amazon announced in January.
-- The Associated Press
Waymo fundraising yields another $2.5B
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Waymo, the self-driving car pioneer spun off from Google, isn't allowing a recent wave of executive departures to detour its plans to expand its robotic taxi service.
The Mountain View, Calif., company announced it has raised another $2.5 billion from a group of investors, including venture capital firms such as Andreessen Horowitz and the car dealer AutoNation.
Waymo has raised $5.7 billion in the past 15 months as it tries to build upon a driverless ride-hailing service that it has been operating in the Phoenix area.
The latest fundraising comes after Waymo's longtime chief executive officer, John Krafcik, stepped down in April. Waymo is now being led by co-CEOs Dmitri Dolgov and Tekedra Mawakana.
Google later spun off Waymo as a separate subsidiary owned by the same corporate parent, Alphabet Inc.
Waymo is working with Arkansas-based J.B. Hunt Transport Services to test automated trucks on Interstate 45 between Houston and Fort Worth.
-- The Associated Press
State index closes with a loss of 7.02
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, closed Wednesday at 624.81, down 7.02 points.
"Equities closed lower led by the utilities and consumer staples sectors following comments by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell that accommodative monetary policy may be scaled back if inflation persists," said Leon Lants, managing director at Stephens Inc.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.