ReportWire

Tag: Microsoft

  • Meta, Google, and Microsoft Triple Down on AI Spending

    While Microsoft didn’t offer a specific forecast for its AI capital expenditures for the next quarter or coming year, the company’s chief financial officer, Amy Hood, said that the company’s total spend will “increase sequentially, and we now expect the fiscal year 2026 growth rate to be higher than fiscal year 2025.”

    Tech companies are making these ambitious plans for more capital spending under the assumption that demand for AI will only continue to grow. But some analysts are raising concerns that the AI market is a bubble and will eventually burst.

    Those worries are being fueled by announcements about enormously expensive, multi-year data center projects and staggered investments. Last month, Nvidia said it would invest “up to $100 billion” in OpenAI, provided that the ChatGPT maker builds and deploys at least 10 gigawatts of AI data centers using Nvidia’s chips. OpenAI, meanwhile, said just yesterday that it was planning to develop 30 gigawatts of computing resources worth $1.4 trillion.

    Microsoft has committed to putting a total of $13 billion in OpenAI, and it continues to use the company’s frontier AI models, but took a $3.1 billion hit in net income this quarter due to losses from that investment. Microsoft said that the ongoing nature of its partnership with OpenAI will result in increased volatility. Going forward, Hood said, the company will exclude any impacts from its OpenAI investment in its financial outlooks.

    Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told analysts there are two “critical” things to consider about how the company views its capital expenditures. The first is that it is finding ways to make its fleet of data centers “fungible,” or interchangeable, meaning they can be easily modified to meet changing customer demands in the future. The second is that the company is expecting to continually modernize its infrastructure.

    “It’s not like we buy one version of Nvidia and load up for all the gigawatts we have. Each year, you buy, you ride Moore’s Law, you continually modernize and depreciate it, and you use software to grow efficiency,” Nadella said.

    Mark Moerdler, a senior research analyst covering global software at Bernstein, says that Microsoft is “building capacity in tranches over time and can shift resources, which gives them a lot of protection.” But, he added, “Is there an overall AI bubble? [It’s] possible, and that they did not answer.”

    Lauren Goode, Will Knight

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  • Xbox console revenue fell 30 percent year-over-year this summer

    It hasn’t been a good year for Xbox so far. Microsoft has released its earnings report for the quarter ending on September 30, and it has revealed that its revenue from the Xbox hardware fell by 30 percent year-over-year. Take note that the revenue decline doesn’t reflect any dip in sales caused by the console’s $20-to-$70 price hike, since that took effect on October 3. Similarly, Microsoft only raised the price for its Game Pass Ultimate subscription from $20 to $30 in October.

    Meanwhile, revenue from Xbox content and services remained relatively unchanged from the same period last year. Microsoft says it saw growth from Xbox subscriptions and third-party content, but it was “partially offset” by the decline in first-party gaming content.

    The Xbox division was one of the most affected teams when Microsoft started cutting down its global workforce earlier this year, with the company cancelling games that were being developed for the console. Microsoft scrapped the modern reimagining of Perfect Dark, a first-person shooter from the year 2000, and even closed down the Xbox studio working on it. The company also cancelled Everwild, a project that had long been in development by Xbox studio Rare, also in the midst of its mass layoffs.

    Overall, Microsoft’s $77.7 billion revenue was 17 percent higher compared to the same period last year, and its operating income was up by 22 percent. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella posted a few highlights about the company’s earnings call on X, mostly focusing on its AI efforts. He said that the company will increase its AI capacity by 80 percent this year and will double its data center footprint over the next two.

    Mariella Moon

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  • Mixed share reaction to megacap earnings burst, Meta droops

    (Reuters) -Shares in three of the “Magnificent Seven” companies with significant investments in artificial intelligence were mixed in after-hours trade on Wednesday after the mega caps released third quarter earnings.

    Shares in Google-parent Alphabet rose 6.2% after the company beat Wall Street estimates for third-quarter revenue on Wednesday, as both its core advertising business and cloud computing unit showed steady growth.

    The cloud services and AI giant raised its capital expenditure forecast for the year to between $91 billion and $93 billion, compared with the estimates of $80.67 billion.

    But Microsoft fell 3.4% in extended trading even though the company reported blockbuster growth in its cloud-computing business that pushed its quarterly revenue past Wall Street estimates, showing businesses are still splurging on AI services despite fears of a bubble.

    The results highlight the growing returns from Microsoft’s massive AI investments.

    Shares in Meta fell more than 8% after it said it recorded a nearly $16 billion one-time charge in the third quarter related to U.S. President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, and said its capital expenditure next year would be “notably larger” than in 2025.

    Meta has been doubling down on AI, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has personally led an aggressive talent hiring spree and has said that the company would spend hundreds of billions of dollars to build several massive AI data centers for superintelligence.

    COMMENTS:

    MICHAEL ASHLEY SCHULMAN, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER, RUNNING POINT CAPITAL, LOS ANGELES

    “From a market perspective the earnings wave says the AI investments are being somewhat vindicated; they’re not wild hype anymore, but not fully matured either. From a geopolitical angle the tech sector isn’t just about widgets, it’s now about data wars, platform power, regulatory maneuvers, and global supply chain guts. And the investor in me says great results, but buckle up, because the real test is converting those massive outlays into steady predictable returns. AI is both overhyped and under penetrated, simultaneously a bubble and a base case depending on your time horizon. Machine as narrative velocity moves prices faster than cash flows can catch up, and the market algorithm rewards engagement over fundamentals. For boring detail: In aggregate the trio basically told us the artificial intelligence land grab is real and the shovels are very expensive, with Alphabet clearing the $100 billion quarter while lifting capital expenditures to feed cloud and search, Meta posting record sales but face-planting on a nearly sixteen billion dollar tax charge as it leans into a $70 to $72 billion build out, and Microsoft reaffirming that the enterprise cloud is the toll road of artificial intelligence with a fresh revenue beat and rapid Azure growth. Nonetheless, for all the good news out there, parts of the market are behaving more like a social network than a discounting machine as narrative velocity moves prices faster than cash flows can catch up, and the market algorithm rewards engagement over fundamentals.”

    STEVE SOSNICK, CHIEF STRATEGIST, INTERACTIVE BROKERS, GREENWICH, CONNECTICUT

    “From a broad market point of view, they’re sort of a push (not an index catalyst) because the good reaction in Alphabet is enough to offset the uninspiring outcome in Microsoft and the surprise tax loss at Meta. The reactions in Meta and Alphabet are currently greater than the implied volatility moves that were priced into weekly options, but not egregiously so, with Microsoft being a somewhat more subdued move.”

    BESPOKE INVESTMENT GROUP (emailed note)

    “Taken together, while these results weren’t all necessarily

    constructive for the stocks they show zero signal of a slowdown in the AI capex boom. Their combined capex rose $14bn QoQ or more than 22%, (the same pace as last quarter) and is up 88% YoY.”

    (Compiled by the Global Finance & Markets Breaking News team)

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  • Azure is in recovery following an outage that affected Microsoft 365, Xbox and Minecraft

    Microsoft’s Azure cloud service is recovering from an outage that affected key apps and services like Microsoft 365 , Xbox and Minecraft. All three showed spikes in outage reports on DownDetector around 12PM ET, and the Azure status page indicates that Microsoft first observed technical issues around 12PM ET.

    In its most recent Azure status update at 3:57PM ET, Microsoft says that it “initiated the deployment of our ‘last known good configuration,’” and that “customers may have begun to see initial signs of recovery.” The company is continuing to reroute traffic through “healthy nodes” and believes that Azure should be fully recovered “by 23:20 UTC,” or 6:20PM ET.

    At the peak of the outage, users on Reddit reported issues loading Game Pass on Xbox consoles, along with limited access to productivity and enterprise apps. The outage also appeared to affect Microsoft support pages and some airline websites.

    A Microsoft spokesperson provided the following statement to Engadget about its Azure issues:

    We are working to address an issue affecting Azure Front Door that is impacting the availability of some services. Customers should continue to check their Service Health Alerts and the latest update on this issue can be found on the Azure status page.

    At least so far, the Azure outage pale in comparison to Amazon Web Services outage that occurred last week. Amazon’s outage kept popular apps and services offline for hours.

    Update, October 29, 4:33PM ET: Added new details on Azure’s recovery.

    Update, October 29, 3:09PM ET: Added details from the latest Azure status update to article along with a statement from Microsoft.

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  • The Microsoft Azure Outage Shows the Harsh Reality of Cloud Failures

    Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, its widely used 365 services, Xbox, and Minecraft started suffering outages at roughly noon Eastern time on Wednesday, the result of what Microsoft said was “an inadvertent configuration change.” The incident—which marks the second major cloud provider outage in less than two weeks—highlights the instability of an internet built largely on infrastructure run by a few tech giants.

    Microsoft’s problems specifically originated from Azure’s Front Door content delivery network and emerged just hours before Microsoft’s scheduled earnings announcement. The company website, including its investor relations page, was still down on Wednesday afternoon, and the Azure status page where Microsoft provides updates was having intermittent issues as well.

    Microsoft described in status updates on Wednesday that it went through a process of sequentially rolling back recent versions of its environment until it could pinpoint the “last known good” configuration. At 3:01 pm ET, the company said it had identified and pushed this stable configuration and that “customers may begin to see initial signs of recovery. We are currently recovering nodes and routing traffic through healthy nodes.”

    A Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement, “We are working to address an issue affecting Azure Front Door that is impacting the availability of some services. Customers should continue to check their Service Health Alerts.” The company did not immediately respond to questions from WIRED about the nature of the configuration change that caused the outage.

    In addition to occurring on Microsoft’s earnings day, the outage comes nine days after Azure rival Amazon Web Services suffered a massive outage that impacted sites and services around the world. Major cloud providers, often called “hyperscalers,” standardize and often improve baseline security and reliability for their customers, but problems and outages can cause them to become single points of failure for large populations of critical digital services

    “Even Azure’s outage status page is down,” says Davi Ottenheimer, a longtime security operations and compliance manager and a vice president at the data infrastructure company Inrupt. “Another configuration change error—we are in the age of integrity breach more so now than ever.”

    Azure blocked customers from making configuration changes to their instances while it worked to address the issue. The company said in a status update at 3:22 pm ET that it expects “full mitigation” of the situation by 7:20 pm ET.

    “Organizations may think they’re insulated by their choice of cloud provider, but dependencies run deeper,” says Munish Walther-Puri, an adjunct faculty member at IANS Research and the former director of cyber risk for the city of New York. “When key partners rely on other hyperscalers, exposure multiplies. As AI becomes the next layer of critical infrastructure, these outages demonstrate the brittleness of our digital backbone.”

    Lily Hay Newman

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  • M&T Bank’s chief data officer: Microsoft’s AI solutions key to strategy

    M&T Bank is tapping Microsoft for its AI solutions due to the tech giant’s maturity, expertise and ability to access robust information.  “What we need is a large, complex organization that is used to delivering complex technology into other complex organizations,” Chief Data Officer Andrew Foster told FinAi News. For the purposes of generative AI, […]

    Whitney McDonald

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  • Bill Gates Just Changed His Tune on Climate Change. Here’s Why

    Billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates just wrote a surprising new blog post on climate change. The upshot of the lengthy memo goes something like this: Climate change is likely to hurt the world’s most vulnerable—but won’t pose a catastrophic risk to civilization, so it’s time to focus on quality of life rather than emissions cuts or temperature rise.

    The blog was penned in the run up to the United Nations’ global climate conference COP30, which will take place in Brazil in mid-November, and represents a different tone from Gates’s past commentary on climate change. It also comes amid sweeping cuts to foreign aid and open hostility about climate change from the Trump administration.

    “Although climate change will hurt poor people more than anyone else, for the vast majority of them it will not be the only or even the biggest threat to their lives and welfare. The biggest problems are poverty and disease, just as they always have been,” Gates wrote. “Understanding this will let us focus our limited resources on interventions that will have the greatest impact for the most vulnerable people.”

    The billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder has long been a major advocate for climate change mitigation and investment in related technologies. He has invested billions in climate-related causes through his Gates Foundation, which he announced earlier this year will sunset in 2045. (In a blog post on the subject, he wrote that he wanted to accelerate his philanthropy in an effort to give away a bulk of his fortune within 20 years, rather than extending the life of the organization for decades after his death.)

    He also co-founded Breakthrough Energy in 2015 to find, incubate, and invest in promising companies and projects. The venture capital arm of the organization, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, counts as portfolio companies such businesses as battery recycling company Redwood Materials, sustainable aviation company ZeroAvia, and nuclear fusion company Commonwealth Fusion Systems. The organization has not been immune from broader economic and political changes: It cut “dozens” of staff, according to March reporting from The New York Times.

    In his post, Gates, who is 70, wrote that the “doomsday view of climate change,” which sees it as having the potential to cause civilizational collapse, is not actually correct. He added that “people will be able to live and thrive in most places on Earth for the foreseeable future,” thanks to projections that show greenhouse gas emissions declining in coming years., and that “innovation will allow us to drive emissions down much further” with supportive policy and investment.

    “Unfortunately, the doomsday outlook is causing much of the climate community to focus too much on near-term emissions goals, and it’s diverting resources from the most effective things we should be doing to improve life in a warming world,” he added. “It’s not too late to adopt a different view and adjust our strategies for dealing with climate change.”

    That “different view” entails foregoing measuring success in terms of temperature rise, and instead looking at the impact of climate change on human welfare. He called on COP30 attendees to adopt that approach, and outlined two priorities when thinking about climate change. The first entails investing in innovation to eliminate the premium on pricing for cleaner technologies, particularly in difficult-to-abate sectors like manufacturing, agriculture, and transportation. Second, he emphasized using data to inform which investments are doing the most to save lives and improve quality of life for the most people—and then focus on those.

    “Vaccines are the undisputed champion of lives saved per dollar spent,” he wrote, as an example. “And vaccines become even more important in a warming world because children who aren’t dying of measles or whooping cough will be more likely to survive when a heat wave hits or a drought threatens the local food supply.”

    The World Meteorological Organization confirmed 2024 was the hottest year on record with global mean temperatures exceeding the 1.5 degrees celsius benchmark established in the 2015 Paris Agreement. And U.N. secretary general António Guterres said last week that overshooting the temperature goal “is now inevitable,” the BBC reported. Given those developments, stepping away from metrics on climate progress such as temperature rise and emissions cuts may seem drastic. But Gates’s repositioning comes with some key context. 

    Vaccine access has always been a top priority for Gates. But earlier this year, the Elon Musk-helmed Department of Government Efficiency effectively dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and cut future funding for Gavi, a global vaccine alliance responsible for vaccinating more than one billion children. Gates discussed his anxieties over the reduction in funding in his blog.

    “COP30 is taking place at a time when it’s especially important to get the most value out of every dollar spent on helping the poorest,” he wrote. “The pool of money available to help them—which was already less than 1 percent of rich countries’ budgets at its highest level—is shrinking as rich countries cut their aid budgets and low-income countries are burdened by debt.”

    Furthermore, the Trump administration has made no secret of its hostility toward climate change, but continues to position itself as favoring reindustrialization and innovation. Biden-era bills like the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, however, have demonstrated that clean energy and climate tech go hand-in-hand with those objectives.

    Another priority of the Trump administration, noted in an executive order the president signed on his first day in office, is “unleashing American energy.”  While stopping short of endorsing fossil fuels, Gates did echo some of Trump’s points when he wrote that “from the standpoint of improving lives, using more energy is a good thing, because it’s so closely correlated with economic growth.” He did, however, temper it by noting that “what’s good for prosperity is bad for the environment,” given that the world still doesn’t have the means to meet growing energy demand without also spiking emissions.

    “We will have the tools we need if we focus on innovation. With the right investments and policies in place, over the next ten years we will have new affordable zero-carbon technologies ready to roll out at scale,” he wrote.

    Speaking of innovation, Gates also mentioned the tech issue of the moment: AI. He wrote that he feels confident that AI will accelerate progress and innovation for companies working on climate solutions.

    Gates’s shift in tone may be strategic for another reason, as well. Research has increasingly found that young people respond better when climate change is reframed in a more positive, solutions-oriented way. A  2019 research paper identified three different mechanisms of coping with climate anxiety. Whereas one strategy entailed withdrawing from climate discourse in favor of emotional self-soothing, two other strategies—problem-focused and meaning-focused coping—were found to lead more often to climate action. Meaning-focused coping in particular was associated with resilience and entailed a reframing of the problem in a more positive light and placing trust that society will do its part.

    Experts seem divided on the memo. The director of Columbia University’s Center for Sustainable Development told ABC News the memo was “pointless, vague, unhelpful and confusing.” A Stanford University climate scientist said it is worth considering whether climate change discourse is too pessimistic, but that stakeholders should continue to think longterm about investment in climate change mitigation. And a Princeton expert told ABC that humanity’s welfare can be the top priority in climate-related policy without being the only one.

    Gates told The New York Times that while he expects the blog to be controversial, he doesn’t see it as a reversal. And in bold font, for emphasis, he wrote: “To be clear: Climate change is a very important problem. It needs to be solved, along with other problems like malaria and malnutrition. Every tenth of a degree of heating that we prevent is hugely beneficial because a stable climate makes it easier to improve people’s lives.”

    Chloe Aiello

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  • The next chapter in OpenAI’s dealmaking frees it to make even more

    This is The Takeaway from today’s Morning Brief, which you can sign up to receive in your inbox every morning along with:

    It didn’t take long for OpenAI to get out from under Microsoft’s (MSFT) shadow.

    You’d be forgiven for thinking it was already among the tech giants as ChatGPT makes its mark on the world and embeds itself into phones and minds and (questionable) work products. Tuesday’s new agreement with Microsoft makes it official though: The next chapter in OpenAI’s life frees it up to make even more deals and pushes the AI princeling closer to becoming a Magnificent member of Big Tech.

    The for-profit deal, like so many other AI pacts, juiced with investor excitement and the prospects of huge growth, sets both parties on a path to enrich themselves, with mutually reinforcing provisions. Now valued at $500 billion, OpenAI can more easily raise money, hire talent, and define its objectives without its nonprofit robes.

    Microsoft, after generating a roughly 10x return already, will own 27% of the new public benefit corporation and has secured a purchase from OpenAI of $250 billion worth of Azure services. The company’s intellectual property rights for OpenAI’s models and products will be extended through 2032.

    But the contours of the deal give way to a bigger idea. After restructuring to a traditional for-profit company, OpenAI has removed a major roadblock on the path to raising capital and potentially becoming a publicly traded company.

    Microsoft had been one of the most consequential holdouts to OpenAI’s for-profit plan. Other outside parties, most notably Elon Musk, have objected to OpenAI’s deviation from its original nonprofit mission. (Musk’s rival AI company xAI is also suing OpenAI and Apple over allegations of anticompetitive behavior in promoting ChatGPT through the App Store.)

    But it appears the AI rat race — at the scale of mega tech platforms — has no place for nonprofits. And whatever objections Microsoft had have since been squashed. It probably helped that Microsoft and OpenAI have enjoyed a lucrative partnership and will probably continue to.

    OpenAI relied on the Azure cloud platform, while Microsoft provided billions in investments to OpenAI. The software and cloud giant’s stock has been strapped to the AI rocket ship, and its first-mover status has secured a leadership position, arguably ahead of rivals Amazon (AMZN) and Google (GOOG).

    In a now-familiar dynamic, shares of Microsoft rose close to 4% after the updated partnership was announced. In recent weeks, Walmart (WMT), AMD (AMD), Broadcom (AVGO), and Nvidia (NVDA) have all received the OpenAI bump following deal announcements.

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  • From retail to tech, here are the 10 corporations that recently announced mass layoffs | Fortune

    Amid wider economic uncertainty, some analysts have said that businesses are at a “no-hire, no fire” standstill. That’s caused many to limit new work to only a few specific roles, if not pause openings entirely. At the same time, some sizeable layoffs have continued to pile up — raising worker anxieties across sectors.

    Some companies have pointed to rising operational costs spanning from President Donald Trump’s barrage of new tariffs and shifts in consumer spending. Others cite corporate restructuring more broadly — or, as seen with big names like Amazon, are redirecting money to investments like artificial intelligence.

    In such cases, “it’s not so much AI directly taking jobs, but AI’s appetite for cash that might be taking jobs,” said Jason Schloetzer, professor business administration at Georgetown University’s McDonough School. He pointed to wider “trade offs” from employment to infrastructure investment seen across companies today.

    Federal employees have encountered additional doses of uncertainty, impacting worker sentiment around the job market overall. Shortly after Trump returned to office at the start of the year, federal jobs were cut by the thousands. And many workers are now going without pay as the U.S. government shutdown nears its fourth week.

    “A lot of people are looking around, scanning the job environment, scanning the opportunities that are available to them — whether it’s in the public or private sector,” said Schloetzer. “And I think there’s a question mark around the long-term stability everywhere.”

    Government hiring data is on hold during the shutdown, but earlier this month a survey by payroll company ADP showed a surprising loss of 32,000 jobs in the private sector in September.

    Here are some companies that have moved to cut jobs recently.

    Amazon

    Amazon said Tuesday that it will cut about 14,000 corporate jobs, close to 4% of its workforce, as the online retail giant ramps up spending on AI while trimming costs elsewhere. A letter to employees said most workers would be given 90 days to look for a new position internally.

    CEO Andy Jassy previously said he anticipated generative AI would reduce Amazon’s corporate workforce in the coming years. And he has worked to aggressively cut costs overall since 2021.

    UPS

    United Parcel Service has cut about 34,000 jobs since the start of this year as part of turnaround efforts, amid wider shifts in the company’s shipping outputs.

    The layoffs, disclosed in a regulatory filing on Tuesday, are notably higher than the roughly 20,000 cuts UPS forecast earlier this year. On Tuesday, UPS said it also closed closed daily operations at 93 leased and owned buildings during the first nine months of this year.

    Target

    Last week, Target that it would eliminate about 1,800 corporate positions, or about 8% of its corporate workforce globally.

    Target said the cuts were part of wider streamlining efforts — with Chief Operating Officer Michael Fiddelke noting that “too many layers and overlapping work have slowed decisions.” The retailer is also looking to rebuild its customer base. Target reported flat or declining comparable sales in nine of the past eleven quarters.

    Nestlé

    In mid-October, Nestlé said it would be cutting 16,000 jobs globally — as part of wider cost cutting aimed at reviving its financial performance.

    The Swiss food giant said the layoffs would take place over the next two years. The cuts arrive as Nestlé and others face headwinds like rising commodity costs and U.S. imposed tariffs. The company announced price hikes over the summer to offset higher coffee and cocoa costs.

    Lufthansa Group

    In September, Lufthansa Group said it would shed 4,000 jobs by 2030 — pointing to the adoption of artificial intelligence, digitalization and consolidating work among member airlines.

    Most of the lost jobs would be in Germany, and the focus would be on administrative rather than operational roles, the company said. The layoff plans arrived even as the company reported strong demand for air travel and predicted stronger profits in years ahead.

    Novo Nordisk

    Also in September, Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk said it would cut 9,000 jobs, about 11% of its workforce.

    Novo Nordisk — which makes drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy — said the layoffs were part of wider restructuring as the company works to sell more obesity and diabetes medications amid rising competition.

    ConocoPhillips

    Oil giant ConocoPhillips has said it plans to lay off up to a quarter of its workforce, as part of broader efforts from the company to cut costs.

    A spokesperson for ConocoPhillips confirmed the layoffs on Sept. 3, noting that 20% to 25% of the company’s employees and contractors would be impacted worldwide. At the time, ConocoPhillips had a total headcount of about 13,000 — or between 2,600 and 3,250 workers. Most reductions were expected to take place before the end of 2025.

    Intel

    Intel has moved to shed thousands of jobs — with the struggling chipmaker working to revive its business as it lags behind rivals like Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices.

    In a July memo to employees, CEO Lip-Bu Tan said Intel expected to end the year with 75,000 “core” workers, excluding subsidiaries, through layoffs and attrition. That’s down from 99,500 core employees reported the end of last year. The company previously announced a 15% workforce reduction.

    Microsoft

    In May, Microsoft began began laying off about 6,000 workers across its workforce. And just months later, the tech giant said it would be cutting 9,000 positions — marking its biggest round of layoffs seen in more than two years.

    The latest job cuts hit Microsoft’s Xbox video game business and other divisions. The company has cited “organizational changes,” with many executives characterizing the layoffs as part of a push to trim management layers. But the labor reductions also arrive as the company spends heavily on AI.

    Procter & Gamble

    In June, Procter & Gamble said it would cut up to 7,000 jobs over the next two years, 6% of the company’s global workforce.

    The maker of Tide detergent and Pampers diapers said the cuts were part of a wider restructuring — also arriving amid tariff pressures. In July, P&G said it would hike prices on about a quarter of its products due to the newly-imposed import taxes, although it’s since said it expects to take less of a hit than previously anticipated for the 2026 fiscal year.

    Wyatte Grantham-Philips, The Associated Press

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  • Apple and Microsoft are now both worth more than $4T | TechCrunch

    Apple and Microsoft are now both worth more than $4 trillion each.

    This is the first time Apple’s market capitalization has crossed the $4 trillion mark, making it the third company to ever cross the milestone, after Nvidia and Microsoft. Redmond first crossed the mark in July, but its valuation then dropped slightly to $3.9 trillion, before returning to $4 trillion on Tuesday on the back of news that it had signed a new agreement with OpenAI.

    Apple’s growth has been impressive: it reached $1 trillion in 2018, $2 trillion in 2020, and $3 trillion in 2022. Apple’s stock has soared following the launch of the iPhone 17 range, which seem to be outselling previous versions. The company is set to report its Q4 2025 results on Thursday, October 30.

    Microsoft has also been thriving, thanks to demand for its Azure cloud service, which offers OpenAI’s large language models as well as the computing power needed to train AI models. The company said on Tuesday that its roughly 27% stake in OpenAI was valued at about $135 billion. The tech giant reports its quarterly results on Wednesday.

    Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is getting close to the $4 trillion milestone, too: it’s currently trading at a market capitalization of $3.25 trillion.

    Lauren Forristal

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  • Microsoft Risks the Ire of the Anti-Woke, Won’t Build a Jerk-Off Machine

    A line in the sand has been drawn in the AI race: the porn-brained and the porn-banned. Microsoft has sorted itself into the latter category. According to a report from CNBC, Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman told an audience at the Paley International Council Summit that the company would not allows its LLM-powered tools to generate “simulated erotica,” marking a stark contrast from its partner/rival OpenAI.

    “That’s just not a service we’re going to provide,” Suleyman reportedly said. “Other companies will build that.”

    And build it they will. Earlier this month, OpenAI announced that, as part of its principle to “treat adult users like adults,” it would be introducing “erotica for verified adults”—basically giving over-18 users the green light to goon. CEO Sam Altman later tried to explain erotica “was meant to be just one example of [OpenAI] allowing more user freedom for adults,” but he also didn’t choose it by accident.

    The ability to create porn with generative AI tools has become something of a signal for those who are vigilantly monitoring whether AI is “woke” or not. Elon Musk made a point of using that as a wedge to draw a distinction between his company xAI and OpenAI, introducing an “AI girlfriend” called Ani, represented by a pretty sexed-up anime avatar. OpenAI initially decided to mock this, with Altman saying “Anime is cool I guess but I am personally more excited about AI discovering lots of new science” and “we haven’t put a sex-bot avatar on ChatGPT yet.” But a few months later, erotica is on the menu.

    Not everyone wants porn to be the marker of anti-woke, though. At the same time, the Trump administration announced its AI Action Plan earlier this year, the President also signed an executive order to ban “woke” AI from landing federal contracts. Its definition of woke focused more on the embrace of diversity, equity, and inclusion principles. It didn’t say that AI had to generate anime titties on demand. Vice President JD Vance went so far as to say that using AI to “come up with increasingly weird porn” is bad and floated the idea that it should be regulated.

    That created a new strain between the AI industry and the administration, which previously seemed like it was on the same side when it came to doing everything possible to prevent any guardrails from going up. According to a report from NBC, an AI super PAC called Leading the Future has drawn the ire of the White House because it is offering its backing to any candidate who promises an AI-friendly agenda, including Democrats. With the House of Representatives up for grabs in 2026, the Trump administration views the potential support of Democrats as a threat to its hold on the House.

    But, even within Trumpworld, there is support for unfettered AI. David Sacks, Trump’s “Crypto and AI Czar,” explicitly called out AI startup Anthropic for throwing its support behind state-level AI safety regulations, claiming that doing so was “a sophisticated regulatory capture strategy based on fear-mongering.” For Sacks and the folks he’s aligned with in Silicon Valley, any sort of AI guardrails equates to stifling innovation. If that means AI erotica, so be it. Who cares if it makes the Vance wing of the party queasy? Porn is progress, apparently.

    There’s something fitting about the possibility of AI porn being the first crack in the breaking apart of the Trump-Big Tech alliance. We’ll just have to deal with the fallout of everyone getting hopelessly addicted to sexting their chatbot later.

    AJ Dellinger

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  • Bezos Earth Fund Awards $30M to A.I. Climate and Nature Projects

    Lauren Sánchez-Bezos, vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund, calls A.I. a key tool for climate action. Kevin MazurGetty Images for Keri

    Researchers using A.I. to combat illegal fishing, automate plant identification, and track bird populations are getting a major boost from Jeff Bezos. The Amazon founder’s Bezos Earth Fund, his philanthropic commitment to fighting climate change, is donating $30 million to more than a dozen organizations that merge environmental science with cutting-edge technology.

    As concerns mount over A.I.’s soaring energy demands and its contribution to emissions, the Bezos Earth Fund wants to show how the technology can also help mitigate climate impacts. “These projects show how A.I., when developed responsibly and guided by science, can strengthen environmental action, support communities and ensure its overall impact on the planet is net positive,” said Amen Ra Mashariki, director of A.I. at the Bezos Earth Fund, in a statement.

    The grant is part of the AI for Climate and Nature Grand Challenge, an initiative launched in 2024 that will invest up to $100 million in A.I.-driven climate solutions. Earlier this year, the program awarded $50,000 grants to 24 different organizations. Fifteen of those will now receive up to $2 million each to scale their projects over the next two years, supported by mentorship and computing resources from partners including Amazon Web Services, Google and Microsoft Research.

    Applying technology to climate issues is one of the Bezos Earth Fund’s core missions, alongside efforts in nature conservation, environmental justice, decarbonization and food system transformation. Bezos launched the fund in 2020 with a pledge to invest $10 billion in environmental initiatives by the end of the decade. So far, it has distributed $2.3 billion to more than 300 projects.

    The Bezos Earth Fund is led by Tom Taylor, a former Amazon executive. Bezos serves as the fund’s executive chair, while his newlywed wife, Lauren Sánchez Bezos, has been its vice chair since 2023.

    “A.I. can be a powerful ally to help make the world a better place,” said Sánchez Bezos in a statement. “These innovators, using A.I., are showing us new possibilities by reimagining how we grow food, protect wildlife and power our planet to make a true impact.”

    Among the newly funded projects: Delft University of Technology is using neural networks to accelerate cultivated meat production; the Periodic Table of Food Initiative is developing an A.I. tool to generate healthy recipe suggestions; and the University of Leeds plans to use A.I. to convert food waste into microbial protein. Other grantees include the New York Botanical Garden, Yale University and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

    The challenge’s overarching goal is to fuel technological innovations that push climate solutions into new territory. At Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology, for example, researchers will use the fund to develop bioacoustic technology that monitors threatened species in biodiversity hotspots like Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve and Brazil’s Pantanal wetland.

    “We need to figure out what’s causing the declines and how we can reverse them,” said Ian Owens, director of the Cornell lab, in a statement. “We can’t do that using traditional methods, and support from the Bezos Earth Fund will help us unlock exactly the kind of efficient, scalable approach we need.”

    Bezos Earth Fund Awards $30M to A.I. Climate and Nature Projects

    Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly

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  • The Rise of the Chief A.I. Officer: A New Power Player in Corporate C-Suite

    More companies are naming chief A.I. officers as A.I. becomes central to strategy, reshaping corporate power and leadership structures. Unsplash

    When A.I. moved from academia to corporate America, it didn’t just change how companies operate—it reshaped what leadership looks like. A title that barely existed a few years ago is now spreading fast: the chief A.I. officer (CAIO). The role signals how deeply A.I. has become embedded in corporate strategy and identity.

    According to IBM’s 2025 survey, 26 percent of global enterprises now have a chief A.I. officer, up from 11 percent two years ago. More than half (57 percent) were promoted internally, and two-thirds of executives predict that nearly every major company will have one within the next two years.

    The title first appeared in the early 2010s, as deep learning began to take off, but it truly gained momentum after 2023 with the rise of generative A.I. The U.S. government cemented its importance in 2024 through Executive Order 14110, which required every federal agency to appoint a CAIO to oversee A.I. governance and accountability.

    The private sector quickly followed suit. A.I. strategists began moving into the C-suite, marking a new kind of leadership role for the algorithmic age.

    “A.I. was often a specialist function living under the CTO. Organizations realized A.I. was too strategic to be managed as a side project,” Baris Gultekin, software giant Snowflake’s vice president of A.I., told Observer. “In addition to CAIOs, we often hear that Snowflake customers now also have large internal A.I. councils made up of individuals across departments to strategically and effectively facilitate enterprise-wide A.I. adoption.” Gultekin reports through Snowflake’s product leadership to the CEO.

    Some of the most influential chief A.I. officers are already reshaping Big Tech. At Meta, Alexandr Wang, former Scale AI CEO, took on the role in mid-2025, co-leading Meta Superintelligence Labs alongside Nat Friedman, former GitHub CEO. Microsoft’s Mustafa Suleyman, DeepMind co-founder and former Inflection AI CEO, now heads Microsoft AI, overseeing the company’s long-term infrastructure push. At Apple, veteran A.I. leader John Giannandrea, continues to guide the company’s A.I. direction, reporting directly to CEO Tim Cook.

    Companies beyond tech are also joining the trend. Lululemon appointed Ranju Das as its first chief A.I. and technology officer in September to boost personalization and innovation. Consulting giant PwC recently appointed Dan Priest, former VP and CIO at Toyota Financial Services, as its first CAIO for the U.S. market. Even universities, such as UCLA and the University of Utah, have added CAIOs to coordinate campuswide A.I. strategy.

    From CIO to CDO to CAIO

    In the 1980s, chief information officers (CIOs) led the IT revolution; in the 2010s, chief data officers (CDOs) rose with big data; now, CAIOs embody the institutionalization of A.I.

    “CAIOs are responsible for exploring what parts of the business can be safely delegated to A.I. agents, how teams can properly govern A.I. decisions, the types of infrastructure needed to serve context-rich data to A.I. systems, and much more,” Sean Falconer, head of A.I. at data streaming platform Confluent, told Observer. “CDOs ensure the data is clean, while CIOs ensure it’s accessible. CAIOs ensure data becomes actionable and capable of reasoning, predicting and taking autonomous steps on behalf of the business.”

    In industries like banking, health care and retail, CAIOs often act as translators, turning complex A.I. potential into practical results. “They navigate complex legacy processes and cultural resistance, making upskilling and securing organizational willingness to change as critical as building the models themselves,” Snowflake’s Gultekin said.

    The rise of the chief A.I. officer also parallels the growing influence of data engineers. A study by Snowflake and MIT Technology Review Insights found that 72 percent of global executives now view data engineers as essential to business success. More than half said data engineers play a major role in shaping A.I. deployment and determining which use cases are feasible.

    “Businesses will always require a CIO, which has also evolved over the years into providing strategic guidance to the business rather than just simply an IT function. Where we see overlap (with CAIOs) are areas that are critical to a company, like governance, tech enablement and strategic alignment,” Bhaskar Roy, chief of A.I. & product solutions at business automation platform Workato, told Observer. “The mandate for CAIOs is clear: continuously push the boundaries of what’s possible with A.I., and ensure the organization remains at the forefront of technological change, all while listening to customers’ needs and concerns.”

    The Rise of the Chief A.I. Officer: A New Power Player in Corporate C-Suite

    Victor Dey

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  • Reid Hoffman and David Sacks Are Feuding on X Over AI and ‘Dirty Tricks’

    The discourse over AI regulation is heating up and spilling out on social media. 

    White House crypto and AI czar David Sacks and billionaire LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman exchanged barbs after Hoffman expressed his support for Anthropic’s approach to AI innovation and safety in a thread posted to X on Monday.

    “The leading funder of lawfare and dirty tricks against President Trump wants you to know that ‘Anthropic is one of the good guys.’ Thanks for clarifying that. All we needed to know,” Sacks posted on social media platform X.

    Hoffman, who is also a major Democratic donor and AI optimist, responded minutes later. He accused Sacks of not actually reading the thread in which he advocates for “a light-touch regulatory landscape that prioritizes innovation and enables new players to compete on level playing fields.” He also referenced Microsoft, Google and OpenAI as “trying to deploy AI the right way.” 

    “When you are ready to have a professional conversation about AI’s impact on America, I’m here to chat,” Hoffman wrote. “Also: crying ‘lawfare and dirty tricks’ is particularly rich, given the Trump Administration’s recent actions.”

    In a wide-ranging conversation prior to the social media spat (and on the heels of an event called Entrepreneurs First Demo Day in San Francisco), Hoffman spoke to Inc. about his approach to AI regulation, describing it as “iterative deployment and development,” rather than preemptive, fear-based rulemaking. He compared it to how motor vehicles preceded the introduction and mandate of seatbelts.

    “Let’s limit the regulatory stuff to transparency, monitoring, accountability, to get a good sense of what’s actually going on, and then only impose when we know that there’s something potentially catastrophic,” he says.

    Some critics worry, however, that lawmakers are not informed enough to craft meaningful regulations for technology that is changing as rapidly as AI, whereas others blame regulatory inaction on lobbying and campaign contributions. Hoffman says that he believes frontier AI labs can help govern themselves.

    “When I was on the board of OpenAI, part of what we were doing was trying to make sure all the top labs were talking to each other about how to do safety the right way, but it grew more and more tense with regulators,” he says. 

    “It’d be useful to have some kinds of cross-collaboration on what is good alignment, what is good safety,” he adds.

    Hoffman’s uneasy relationship with the Trump administration precedes the October X feud. In late September, Trump mentioned Hoffman as a possible target of a probe along with George Soros, after a Reuters reporter asked him who he might investigate in connection with domestic terrorism, Reuters reported. Trump was signing a memorandum meant to crack down on domestic terrorism and political violence several days after he signed an executive order designating anti-fascism or “Antifa” a domestic terrorism organization. Both Soros and Hoffman are substantial donors to the Democratic Party, and Hoffman also helped to fund E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuit against the president through a nonprofit, CNBC reported.

    Hoffman tells Inc. that these developments have not changed his politics, although he has been “careful about trying to fund stuff very directly.”

    Hoffman describes himself as “very pro-American society, very pro-American prosperity and business.”

    “As far as I’m aware,” he says, “Antifa is a fictional organization and I certainly would never have deliberately funded anything that would support domestic terrorism.”

    Hoffman also says he has not backed pro-AI super PACs, two of which emerged in one week in September to support AI-friendly politicians regardless of political affiliation, The New York Times reported. Tech titans have also been spotted hobnobbing with the president, including at a September dinner at the White House. Executives including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Apple’s Tim Cook and Microsoft’s Bill Gates reportedly discussed various AI-related investments and educational initiatives, while also praising the president. Hoffman says the fawning “could be a little silly,” but says he believes business leaders do have a role to play in U.S. politics.

    “Especially in democracies, it’s very important for all business leaders to be in collaboration [and] discussion with the elected leaders,” Hoffman says. “Technology sets the drumbeat about what happens with society, what happens with industries and so forth, and so I think that dialog is extremely important.”

    Hoffman has himself co-founded two AI-powered startups in recent years. He co-founded Inflection AI together with Mustafa Suleyman and Karén Simonyan in 2022, to create a more empathetic large language model. The company pivoted in 2024 after Microsoft paid a fee to license its technology and hired away much of its top talent. And earlier this year, he launched a new venture, Manas AI, to leverage AI to cut down on the time and costs inherent to therapeutic drug discovery.

    Chloe Aiello

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  • Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Shares Acquired by Ewa LLC

    Ewa LLC increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report) by 49.9% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 15,415 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,132 shares during the period. Microsoft accounts for approximately 2.4% of Ewa LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Ewa LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $7,668,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

    Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its stake in Microsoft by 27.0% in the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $427,000 after acquiring an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. lifted its stake in Microsoft by 0.3% in the second quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 12,658 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $5,658,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 410.4% in the third quarter. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,144,000 after acquiring an additional 2,138 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. lifted its stake in Microsoft by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 2,374 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $1,000,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Eagle Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Microsoft by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 23,097 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $9,735,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

    Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

    Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on MSFT shares. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Loop Capital increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $640.00 price objective on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $540.00 to $637.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $618.97.

    Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on Microsoft

    Microsoft Price Performance

    MSFT stock opened at $517.66 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Microsoft Corporation has a 12 month low of $344.79 and a 12 month high of $555.45. The firm has a market cap of $3.85 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.03. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $511.49 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $478.38.

    Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The software giant reported $3.65 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.35 by $0.30. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.15% and a return on equity of 32.44%. The firm had revenue of $76.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $73.79 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.95 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 18.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Microsoft has set its Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

    Microsoft Increases Dividend

    The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be issued a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. This is an increase from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 24.34%.

    Insider Activity

    In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 149,205 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $504.78, for a total transaction of $75,315,699.90. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 790,852 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $399,206,272.56. The trade was a 15.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 4,850 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $527.32, for a total transaction of $2,557,502.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 39,111 shares in the company, valued at $20,624,012.52. This trade represents a 11.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

    About Microsoft

    (Free Report)

    Microsoft Corporation develops and supports software, services, devices and solutions worldwide. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers office, exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft viva, and Microsoft 365 copilot; and office consumer services, such as Microsoft 365 consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other office services.

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    Want to see what other hedge funds are holding MSFT? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT – Free Report).

    Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)



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    ABMN Staff

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  • Microsoft increases the price of Xbox dev kits by $500

    Players aren’t the only ones facing higher price tags from Xbox. According to a report by The Verge, Microsoft has upped the cost of the Xbox Development Kit from $1,500 to $2,000. That’s a 33 percent jump in cost for these custom hardware kits, which are essential for devs to make and test games for release on the console.

    “The adjustment reflects macroeconomic developments,” Microsoft said in an email sent to Xbox devs and seen by The Verge. “We remain committed to providing high-quality tools and support for your development efforts.” Although the macroeconomics in question are almost certainly the tariffs enacted by the US, it appears this is a blanket increase that will impact developers in other countries as well. The new kit costs appear to be effective immediately.

    The change caps off a series of price increases for the Xbox ecosystem. Game Pass prices recently rose, with the Ultimate tier now costing $30 a month compared to the previous $20. And Microsoft has upped the cost of the Xbox twice this year, once in May and again in September. Between these additional expenses and the little matter of cutting thousands of gaming jobs earlier this year, a lot of us are giving up on Xbox before Microsoft can disappoint us yet again.

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  • Apple, Trade Thaw Lift Stocks Toward New Highs

    Easing trade tensions and a big gain in Apple shares helped drive stocks back toward records on Monday, the start of a heavy week of corporate earnings.

    Indexes opened with gains, with some investors saying sentiment was buoyed by President Trump saying he will soon meet with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s Friday comments that he will meet with his Chinese counterpart in person this week. 

    Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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  • Uber Launches Program to Let Drivers Train A.I. Models In Their Downtime

    A new digital tasks program will be piloted for U.S. Uber drivers this year. Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

    The life of an Uber driver often involves stretches of downtime—waiting on ride requests or charging an electric vehicle’s battery. To make the most of those idle moments, Uber is launching a pilot program that allows drivers and couriers to make extra money by completing digital tasks that train A.I. models for Uber’s enterprise clients.

    “Drivers have asked for more ways to earn, even when they’re not on the road,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a statement. To address this request, drivers will soon be able to opt in for quick, in-app tasks ranging from uploading documents—such as restaurant menus or receipts—to providing everyday images and recording audio samples.

    The pilot will launch later this fall as part of Uber’s AI Solutions Group, a division created last November to offer data-labeling services to other businesses. Its client list includes Aurora, a self-driving software developer; Niantic, the company behind Pokémon Go; and Luma AI, a text-to-video generator. Until now, Uber AI Solutions has relied on independent gig workers to complete data-labeling tasks. The new program shifts those assignments to Uber’s own network of drivers and couriers, giving them access to additional income streams directly through the Driver app.

    In addition to the upcoming U.S. launch, Uber has already been testing the initiative in more than 12 cities in India. “Until now, these tasks were completed by independent contractors outside the app,” said Megha Yethadka, the global head of Uber AI Solutions, in a September LinkedIn post describing the Indian pilot as “very promising.”

    Before accepting a task, drivers will be able to see the expected pay rate and estimated completion time. They can only take on digital tasks while not actively signed in to drive or deliver for Uber.

    While data-labeling is a relatively new area for Uber, it’s long been a critical part of A.I. development. One of the largest players in the space is Scale AI, which was valued at $29 billion earlier this year following a $14 billion investment from Meta. Other players include Surge AI, which counts Anthropic and Microsoft amongst its clients, and in-house data-labelling initiatives run by model developers like xAI.

    Khosrowshahi first discussed Uber’s plans to introduce digital tasks at the Bloomberg Tech Summit in June, where he laid out a strategy to expand income opportunities of drivers and couriers over the next five to ten years. He described the data-labeling effort as a form of “knowledge work” emerging from the A.I. era and a way to provide new job options even as automation and autonomous vehicles threaten traditional driving roles.

    Uber announced the digital tasks initiative yesterday (Oct. 16) during its annual Only on Uber event, which highlights new features inspired by driver and courier feedback. Other updates unveiled at the event included a new heat map tool showing demand hotspots, a rider rating filter that allows drivers to screen trip requests, and a delayed-ride guarantee offering extra pay when trips take longer than estimated.

    Uber also announced an expansion of its women rider preference feature, which lets female drivers accept rides only from women passengers—a setting that has been used for more than 150 million trips and is activated weekly by one in four female drivers.

    Uber Launches Program to Let Drivers Train A.I. Models In Their Downtime

    Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly

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  • Microsoft sounds alarm as hackers turn Teams platform into ‘real-world dangers’ for users

    NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

    Microsoft is sounding the alarm, and this time, the warning hits home for everyday users. Hackers are now turning Microsoft Teams security threats into real-world dangers that go far beyond corporate networks. Using Teams, cybercriminals gather intel, pose as trusted contacts, trick people into sharing private data and even spread malware that can steal passwords or lock up personal files. 

    What was once a simple video chat and collaboration tool has become a high-value target for cybercriminals and even state-backed hackers. Whether you use Teams for work, school or staying in touch, the risks are real and growing. We’ll break down how attackers abuse Teams, what Microsoft recommends and the simple steps you can take to protect yourself at home or on the job.

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    How hackers use Teams to attack

    Hackers exploit Microsoft Teams at every stage of an attack, using it to spy, impersonate, spread malware and even control compromised systems, and consumers are now in their sights, too.

    SCAMMERS NOW IMPERSONATE COWORKERS, STEAL EMAIL THREADS IN CONVINCING PHISHING ATTACKS

    Hackers are finding new ways to weaponize Microsoft Teams, turning everyday chats into dangerous entry points. (David Becker/Getty Images)

    Reconnaissance via Teams

    Attackers start by probing Teams environments to find weak spots. They look for users with open settings, public profiles or external meeting links. Microsoft warns that “anonymous participants, guests and external access users” can give hackers a way in. If your Privacy Mode is off, they can see when you’re online, send unwanted chats, or try to join meetings outside your group, even if you’re just using a free account.

    Persona building & impersonation

    Hackers often pretend to be someone you trust, like an IT admin, a coworker or even a Microsoft representative. They create fake profiles and logos that look convincing to trick you into clicking a link or sharing credentials. Microsoft says attackers “take advantage of the same resources as legitimate organizations” to pull off their scams.

    Initial access & malware delivery

    Once they’ve earned your trust, hackers send a chat or call that includes a malicious link or file. You might get a message saying, “Your Teams account needs verification” or “Update required for better security.” It’s all bait. These links can install spyware, steal logins or deliver ransomware that locks up your data, whether you’re on a company laptop or your personal PC at home.

    MICROSOFT SHAREPOINT BUG PUTS CRITICAL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES AT RISK

    Persistence & lateral movement

    After breaking in, attackers try to stay hidden. They might add guest accounts, install shortcuts or change permissions so they can come back later. In some cases, they use the same Microsoft tools meant for admins to move across Teams, OneDrive or even your personal files stored in the cloud.

    Command & control & data exfiltration

    Once inside, hackers can send commands through Teams messages or hide malware in shared links. They’ve even been known to send ransom demands directly through Teams chat. Microsoft says one group, Octo Tempest, used Teams to taunt victims and pressure them into paying up, showing how personal these attacks can get.

    Tips to stay protected

    You don’t need to be a cybersecurity expert to stay safe on Microsoft Teams. A few smart tools and habits can go a long way in keeping hackers, scammers and snoops from taking advantage of your information.

    1) Enable privacy mode

    Keep your online presence private. Turn on Privacy Mode in Teams to stop strangers from seeing when you’re active or trying to join meetings. It’s a simple setting that makes it harder for hackers to target you or your company.

    2) Be careful with roles and permissions

    If you share your Teams account with coworkers or family members, don’t give everyone full control. Keep admin access limited to one trusted person. This reduces the chance of someone accidentally approving a scam link or letting malware spread.

    3) Use a data removal service

    Hackers often rely on personal details found online to make their scams more convincing, things like your job title, workplace or even who you’ve video-chatted with. That information helps them build fake Teams profiles or send messages that look legitimate. Using a personal data removal service helps wipe your private details from data broker sites, cutting off one of the main sources hackers use to impersonate you. The less they can learn about you, the harder it is for them to trick you into trusting a fake message or clicking a malicious link.

    While no service can guarantee the complete removal of your data from the internet, a data removal service is really a smart choice. They aren’t cheap, and neither is your privacy. These services do all the work for you by actively monitoring and systematically erasing your personal information from hundreds of websites. It’s what gives me peace of mind and has proven to be the most effective way to erase your personal data from the internet. By limiting the information available, you reduce the risk of scammers cross-referencing data from breaches with information they might find on the dark web, making it harder for them to target you.

    A man stares at computer code on his monitor in a darkened room, with a ring light reflected on the screen and an open canned beverage next to him.

    There are attack techniques used to compromise people. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

    HOW FAKE MICROSOFT ALERTS TRICK YOU INTO PHISHING SCAMS

    Check out my top picks for data removal services and get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web by visiting Cyberguy.com.

    Get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web: Cyberguy.com.

    4) Double-check links and files, plus use strong antivirus software

    Hackers love to send fake messages pretending to be support or IT help. Never open links or attachments from people you don’t recognize, even if the message looks official. Use strong antivirus software to automatically scan downloads and attachments before you open them.

    The best way to safeguard yourself from malicious links that install malware, potentially accessing your private information, is to have strong antivirus software installed on all your devices. This protection can also alert you to phishing emails and ransomware scams, keeping your personal information and digital assets safe.

    Get my picks for the best 2025 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android and iOS devices at Cyberguy.com.

    5) Limit guest access

    Only allow trusted guests into your Teams chats and meetings. If you invited someone for a one-time project, remove them afterward. Tight control over who can join helps prevent impersonators from slipping in unnoticed.

    6) Turn on alerts

    Activate Teams alerts to catch anything unusual, like sign-ins from new devices or unexpected permission changes. Pair that with your antivirus program’s real-time protection to get notified if malicious activity starts on your device.

    7) Think “zero trust”

    Zero Trust means verifying every user, every time. Don’t assume messages or calls are legitimate, especially if someone asks for a password or authentication code. If you’re unsure, contact your company’s IT team or verify the person’s identity through a separate channel.

    GOOGLE CONFIRMS DATA STOLEN IN BREACH BY KNOWN HACKER GROUP

    8) Practice spotting phishing attempts

    Hackers rely on panic and urgency to make you click. If you get a message claiming your account will be locked or that support needs your password, pause. Report suspicious messages to Microsoft or your security provider. Regular phishing awareness training helps you spot scams faster.

    9) Keep everything updated

    Always install the latest Teams and operating system updates. Patches fix security holes that hackers exploit to sneak in.

    Stock image shows nefarious man typing on laptop.

    Cybercriminals often impersonate IT support or trusted colleagues to trick users into sharing credentials. (CyberGuy.com)

    Kurt’s key takeaways

    Microsoft’s warning about Teams is a reminder that hackers are always searching for new ways to reach you, even through apps you use every day. What makes these attacks so dangerous is their familiarity. Messages look normal, video calls seem real, and fake tech support chats can sound convincing. That’s why awareness, not fear, is your strongest defense. With privacy settings enabled, antivirus protection running, and a reliable personal data removal service scrubbing your info from the web, you’re already several steps ahead of scammers. Staying alert to phishing attempts and keeping your software up to date can turn Teams back into what it’s meant to be: a safe, helpful way to stay connected.

    If attackers can weaponize your day-to-day communication platform, how confident are you that your Teams environment is truly safe? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.

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    Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

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