WisBusiness.com

This week’s episode of WisBusiness.com: the Podcast 🎙 is with Goutham Narla, chief scientific officer for #WARFTherapeutics and founder of Rappta Therapeutics. This program of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) is focused on developing and ultimately commercializing new medicines based on University of Wisconsin-Madison research. “That’s really meant to take a very exciting #biological target, and to develop a drug, go through all the pre-clinical studies and then partner that with industry or venture in order to then clinically develop it,” Narla said. Listen to the full podcast, sponsored by UW-Madison, at ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/gPmiRjts

The CEO of We Energies’ parent company says he has “confidence” that Oracle will meet the #collateral requirements imposed on it by state regulators to receive power service in #Wisconsin. WEC Energy Group CEO Scott Lauber told investment analysts in an earnings ☎️ call yesterday that he did not believe the tech giant’s collateral requirements would be a “long-term” issue for #Oracle. He also said the utility is working with Oracle to make sure the company provides the required collateral; a spokesperson did not have a timeline to share for when that would happen. https://lnkd.in/gJWM_KX8

#WEDC provided 💰 $229 million to 303 businesses and other recipients in #Wisconsin in the latest fiscal year, exceeding the prior year’s total of $198 million. That’s according to Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation Secretary and CEO John W. Miller, who discussed the state agency’s annual impact yesterday during a meeting of its Board of Directors. He noted the total is the highest 📈 for a given year since 2018. WEDC was created in 2011. “This work encompasses all sorts of different areas we work in, helping #communities create and retain vibrant downtowns, attracting businesses to our state and providing them with the resources to grow, enabling #startups to progress from concept to reality and promoting Wisconsin goods and services throughout the world,” he said. https://lnkd.in/grmgZKpv

💭 Opinion column by manufacturing expert Buckley Brinkman #AI will transform how we learn, work, and explore. Its power and simplicity open more possibilities to more people than any #technology before it. Those possibilities keep expanding daily, with no end in sight. Also unfolding: the question of who profits from that technology. Will AI mature like #search or #socialmedia, where providers capture most of the value? Or will it play out more like the ✈️ airline industry, where operators run enormously complex businesses but pass most of the value to their customers? That question remains open, but two data points I came across this week point toward the #airline outcome. First, the industry carries more debt than its books show. A Nikkei Asia analysis 📑 finds that Alphabet Inc., Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Oracle owe $1.65 trillion off their balance sheets, against just $1.35 trillion they report officially. https://lnkd.in/gsMFK_48

A #union representing painters 🪣 and other #tradespeople argues it “did nothing wrong” after an employee of Olympic Companies, Inc., in Waukesha filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board alleging illegal coercion. The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation announced painter Caryn Johnson filed charges with the #NLRB against the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 7 after she was “coerced” into joining the union. The foundation says Johnson was told she had to join the union and pay dues 💰 to be employed by the Waukesha business, which has worked on various large-scale commercial and public projects including the Baird Center and BMO Financial Center in Milwaukee, according to its website. https://lnkd.in/geW6ygfD

This week’s episode of WisBusiness.com: the Podcast 🎙 is with Ross Larson, a software engineer with Madison-based Paradigm and board member for The Forward Festival. He previews this year’s event series, which focuses on #Wisconsin’s tech sector and #entrepreneurs with more than 50 individual events held Aug. 17-21 in the Madison area. “It’s made by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs,” Larson said, noting the events include “bringing together people, networking, hands-on learning, conversations, workshops, making connections. Trying to be the #community that we want to be.” https://lnkd.in/gwBi93P3

The latest Marquette University Law School Poll 📊 shows a further drop in public opinion on #datacenters, with just 22% of surveyed registered #voters saying the benefits of these projects outweigh the costs. In the group’s latest survey, conducted earlier this month, 76% of registered 📮 #voters said the costs of data centers outweigh the benefits. That’s a far cry from October 2025, when the survey found 44% thought benefits were greater and 55% thought the 💰 costs were greater. Alex Moe https://lnkd.in/gqEGDJFv

Federal #research funding cuts ✂️ are having “unacceptable” impacts on scientific progress, according to the vice chancellor for research at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dorota Grejner-Brzezinska spoke 🗣 yesterday on a panel in Milwaukee organized by the Wisconsin Technology Council, focused on how shifting federal priorities are impacting #innovation in the state. She previously served on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology #PCAST during the first #Trump administration, and was later appointed to the National Science Board under the Biden administration. 🎙 Sanford Health, Dr. Jennifer Meece, The National Institutes of Health (#NIH), Ali Abedi, vice chancellor for research and innovation at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Robert Baranowski of the Wisconsin Center for Technology Commercialization, Universities of Wisconsin. https://lnkd.in/gp7ur48s

The latest episode of #TalkingTrade 📽 features a discussion on upcoming tariff developments with Brett Ewer, a principal with Michael Best Strategies. The Trump administration’s temporary #Section122 tariffs are set to expire Friday. It’s widely expected the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will issue a determination before then about #forcedlabor occurring in dozens of countries, forming the basis for #Section301 #tariffs being enacted in their place. That’s according to Ewer, who said “everyone is waiting I think right now with bated breath” for the existing #tariff framework to expire. He said observers expect the #USTR determination to identify forced labor happening in 60 countries that make up 99% of all U.S. imports, and finalize tariff rates between 10% and 12.5%. https://lnkd.in/gRi_XQ7E

University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers 👩💻 are “paving the way for scalable and practical” #quantumcomputing by using advanced sensors to improve the #technology. That’s according to the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), which is touting the approach as a top licensing prospect 📑 in its portfolio of #engineering and #computerscience research from the university. In an overview on the technology, #WARF notes future quantum computers could “open new scientific and engineering frontiers” due to their advantages over classical 💻 #computers. But while the potential for this next wave of computing is immense, #quantum information itself is “prone to significant errors,” which can be worsened by imperfect reading of quantum bits or #qubits, the group says. https://lnkd.in/gWKcyk4U