Lucid EV’s Great Range; Microsoft’s Cash Cloud; AMEX Eyes Kabbage; Google Eases Virtual Education

In a shot over the bow of Tesla and every other electric vehicle maker, Lucid Motors said Tuesday that its upcoming all-electric luxury sedan can travel 517 miles on a single charge — a range that, if validated by the U.S. EPA, blows past every other EV on the road today including Tesla. Techcrunch.com reports that the estimated EPA range was released ahead of the September 9 reveal of the Lucid Air. The estimated EPA range was verified by independent firm FEV North America.

Windows OS is no longer Microsoft’s biggest cash cow. In a government filing noted by geekwire.com, Microsoft’s back-end server products and cloud services are booming. Revenue grew by nearly 27% to $41.4 billion in the product category of Server and Cloud Services in the fiscal year ended June 30. Office and Cloud Services revenue was the second-fastest growing category, at 11%, reaching $35.3 billion in revenue for the year. Windows grew by 9% to $22.3 billion.

American Express is in advanced talks to buy the online small-business lender Kabbage, which is backed by investors including Japan’s SoftBank Group and Reverence Capital Partners, according Bloomberg. The all-cash deal could value the closely held lender at as much as $850 million. An agreement could be announced as soon as this month, though talks could still fall apart. AmEx is already the largest provider of small-business credit cards in the country. With Kabbage, it could be a bigger provider of loans to mom-and-pop shops as well.

Google has announced a number of new features to help make virtual education easier. Theverge.com says for Meet, a larger tiled view that can show up to 49 participants will now arrive in September. Google will integrate its digital whiteboard product, Jamboard, into Meet too. In October, teachers will be able to track attendance in Meet meetings. Also, Google will let students get help with a homework problem just by taking a photo of it using Google Lens.