PhonePe and Google Pay command 80% of India's UPI instant payments network. Rivals are set to meet with regulators to lobby for restrictions.

Amazon layoffs are hitting workers across several states as Fresh closures, AI investments, and post-pandemic restructuring reshape its workforce. The post Amazon Layoffs Hit Thousands Across Multiple States as Fresh Stores Close appeared first on TechRepublic.

The e-commerce giant is making more money than expected from AWS but it's also spending a lot, and will continue to do so in the near term, its chief executive said.

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Amazon CEO Andy Jassy Bloomberg/Getty Images Amazon could start selling Trainium AI chips to external customers within two years. The company disclosed that its Trainium AI chips now have $225 billion in revenue commitments. Amazon is investing aggressively in its AI business with $200 billion in capex planned this year. Amazon says it could begin selling its Trainium AI chips to external customers within two years, putting the cloud giant in closer competition with Nvidia. During Wednesday's earnings call, CEO Andy Jassy said "there's a good chance" the company will start offering full racks of Trainium chips beyond its own cloud "over the next couple of years." That provides a clearer timeline for earlier comments in his April shareholder letter, where he only said expansion could happen "in the future." An Amazon spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider that this is the first time the company has provided a specific timeframe. Today, Trainium is only accessible as a cloud service through Amazon Web Services. The company rents access to this AI computing power over the internet. Selling physical racks of Trainium chips would be a radical business model shift, essentially turning Amazon into a chip company. It would also put Amazon in more direct competition with Nvidia. That's a potentially awkward situation, because Amazon still relies heavily on Nvidia supplying GPUs for its cloud service. "We have such demand from various companies who will consume as much as we make that we have to decide how much we're going to allocate," Jassy said during the call. Jassy added that Trainium has racked up $225 billion in "revenue commitments" through its cloud service from companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Uber, though he didn't specify contract durations. More broadly, Jassy said Amazon is now "one of the top three data center chip businesses in the world," citing its growing portfolio across Trainium AI chips and Graviton CPUs. "We're really unusually well-positioned for the inflection that we're seeing," Jassy said. Amazon stock rose almost 3% in after-hours trading, putting it on course for a record on Thursday. The company's quarterly results topped Wall Street expectations, though spending on data center expansion remains high. Amazon is in the midst of an aggressive AI investment cycle that is expected to cost about $200 billion this year, underscoring how central this new technology has become to the company's strategy. In February, Amazon struck a new partnership with OpenAI, committing to invest $50 billion in the AI lab. In return, OpenAI agreed to use Amazon's Trainium chips and co-develop customized models and a new AI agent service that will run through Amazon's cloud platform. At the same time, Amazon deepened its successful relationship with Anthropic. In April, the cloud giant said it would invest up to $25 billion more in the startup, adding to the $8 billion it had already committed. Anthropic has committed to purchasing $100 billion worth of Trainium chips. In his annual shareholder letter, Jassy said Amazon's chip business is on track to generate more than $20 billion in revenue this year, adding that the figure could approach $50 billion if the unit operated as a standalone business selling to external providers. Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at ekim@businessinsider.com or Signal, Telegram, or WhatsApp at 650-942-3061. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely. Read the original article on Business Insider

Elon Musk says Tesla’s Optimus robot could launch next year, with production starting in 2026 and a major scale-up planned by 2027. The post Tesla Optimus Robot Launch Timeline Targets 2027 Scale appeared first on TechRepublic.

The maker of Claude has received multiple pre-emptive offers at valuations in the $850 billion to $900 billion range, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Global financial institutions are panicked over Anthropic's new superhacker AI model. Cyber experts aren't quite as worried.

Introducing Advanced Account Security: phishing-resistant login, stronger recovery, and enhanced protections to safeguard sensitive data and prevent account takeover.

Elon Musk took the stand for the second day for his attempt to legally dismantle OpenAI.

Meta is losing billions on Reality Labs each quarter, and its AI expenditures are only going to increase its spending.

Microsoft gets to offer OpenAI's tech to its cloud customers and doesn't have to pay for it. "We fully plan to exploit it," Nadella said.

<p><strong>Release:</strong> <a href="https://github.com/simonw/llm/releases/tag/0.32a1">llm 0.32a1</a></p> <blockquote> <ul> <li>Fixed a bug in 0.32a0 where tool-calling conversations were not correctly reinflated from SQLite. <a href="https://github.com/simonw/llm/issues/1426">#1426</a></li> </ul> </blockquote> <p>Tags: <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/llm">llm</a></p>

Tensions flared on the third day of trial in Musk v. Altman as OpenAI’s lawyers cross-examined Musk.

Despite the lingering perception that no one really uses Copilot, Microsoft said on Wednesday that the number of users and engagement is growing.

Angel Au-Yeung / Wall Street Journal: Musk v. Altman: Elon Musk says he was a “fool” for backing OpenAI, accusing Altman and Brockman of manipulating him into donating tens of millions of dollars  —  Billionaire says OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman wasn't honest about nonprofit mission

Microsoft CFO Amy Hood JASON REDMOND/AFP via Getty Images Microsoft reported quarterly results on Wednesday. The company said it expects headcount to decrease in its next fiscal year. Microsoft stock suffered its worst quarterly stock performance since 2008 earlier this year. Microsoft expects headcount to decrease in coming quarters, CFO Amy Hood said during an earnings conference call with analysts on Wednesday. "We continue to evolve how we operate to increase our pace and agility, and therefore we expect headcount will decrease year over year," Hood said. She was discussing the outlook for Microsoft's next fiscal year, which starts in July and runs through June 2027. Before the call, Hood sent out an internal memo to employees touting "increased pace" and "tighter, more accountable squads" amid recent organizational changes. Microsoft has cut thousands of jobs in recent quarters. The CFO's comments on Wednesday suggest that pressure on employees may continue. Earlier in April, Microsoft offered buyouts to long-serving employees as a way to cut costs, affecting as much as 7% of its US workforce of 125,000 people, or about 8,750 people. The buyouts apply to employees who want to retire and whose years of service plus age add up to 70 or more. Quarterly revenue came in at $83 billion, while net income was $32 billion. Barclays analyst Raimo Lenschow noted growth of Microsoft's cloud business was below the "significant acceleration" at competitors Amazon and Google during the most-recent quarter. Hood issued a 39% to 40% growth forecast for the company's Azure business on the call. Earlier this year, Microsoft shares suffered their worst quarterly stock performance since 2008, on concern about whether the company's AI infrastructure buildout will pay off and AI's software threat. Microsoft and OpenAI changed their partnership again this week, letting OpenAI work more with other cloud providers including Amazon. The next day, Amazon and OpenAI said the startup's GPT models will be available on Amazon's cloud. The company recently unveiled a deal with Accenture to roll out Copilot to nearly 750,000 of the consulting firm's employees. Microsoft also recently announced a new software bundle with Copilot built in. Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at astewart@businessinsider.com or Signal at +1-425-344-8242. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely. Read the original article on Business Insider

Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Bloomberg/Getty Images Google has not yet put ads in its Gemini AI app. That could change. Chief business officer Philipp Schindler said on Wednesday that Google was open to the idea. "If done well, ads can be really valuable," he said. Google has so far not put ads in its Gemini AI app, but it's not ruling it out. Google is currently focusing on ads in AI Mode — its AI-powered, conversational version of Search — but this could eventually carry over to the standalone Gemini app, chief business officer Philipp Schindler said on Wednesday's earnings call. "Our focus right now is on AI Mode, but it's fair to say that we really believe a format that works well in AI mode would transfer successfully to Gemini app," Schindler said. In addition to AI Mode, Google also has some ads in AI Overviews, but the standalone Gemini experience has remained ad-free. Google's VP of global ads told Business Insider in January that there were "no plans" for ads in Gemini. Speaking on Wednesday's call, Schindler said Google was focused on the Gemini app subscription plans and "creating a really great user experience" — but said ads could play a key role in growing Gemini if executed well. "But let's also be clear, ads have always been a big part of scaling products to reach billions of people," he said. "And if done well, ads can be really valuable and really helpful commercial information, and at the right moment we'll share any plans as we have said, but we're not rushing anything here." OpenAI is in the early stages of rolling out ads in ChatGPT to free and low-cost subscription members. Anthropic poked fun at OpenAI's decision in a February Super Bowl ad and said it would not put ads in its own AI model, Claude. Google, which already has a mammoth advertising business across Search and YouTube, has the luxury of not needing to turn to ads yet for its chatbot. Instead, the company has packaged more premium Gemini features into paid subscriptions, which bundle in extras such as Fitbit Premium and photo storage alongside its most cutting-edge AI. Google said on Wednesday that its overall subscriptions business had hit 350 million paying subscribers. Read the original article on Business Insider

Google Cloud topped $20B in quarterly revenue for the first time, fueled by surging demand for AI. But capacity constraints mean it could have grown even faster.

GM told Business Insider it's making another several hundred million-dollar investment in US manufacturing. John F. Martin for General Motors GM is investing $340 million in two facilities to build its popular gas cars. EV sales "didn't go as quickly as we thought it was going to," an executive told Business Insider. Overall, the company has invested $6 billion in US facilities in the past 12 months. General Motors is making a fresh $340 million investment in its US plants. The latest investments will help ramp up production of gas-powered vehicle components amid a nationwide slowdown in demand for EVs. They'll go toward two propulsion facilities — in Romulus, Michigan, and Toledo, Ohio — that produce key parts for internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, including 10-speed transmissions and engine components. The Romulus plant will receive $300 million, while the Toledo plant will get an additional $40 million. GM says it has now invested over $6 billion in its US manufacturing in the past 12 months. "It's good news, really, for the United States," Mike Trevorrow, GM's senior vice president of global manufacturing, told Business Insider. "We're able to give customers what they want with the increased capacity. At the same time, we'll continue to invest in our workforce." GM leans into high-profit gas vehicles GM's move will help it build more gas-powered vehicles, including its high-profit trucks and SUVs. Bloomberg/Getty Images GM said the fresh spending will help boost production of its full-size trucks, SUVs, and the Chevrolet Corvette — vehicles that continue to drive a significant share of its profits. The move also comes as GM recalibrates its production plans, and as electric vehicle sales have slowed. "The demand for EVs didn't go as quickly as we thought it was going to be, so we're kind of shifting back to make sure we give them the ICE vehicles," Trevorrow said. "We'll continue to give people what they want." Recent sales data underscores the uneven pace of EV adoption. GM's US deliveries show sharp declines across several electric models in the first quarter, including an 82% drop in Blazer EV sales and a 41% year-over-year decline in Silverado EV deliveries. Overall, US EV sales fell 27% in the first quarter, according to Cox Automotive. The industry's delivery numbers have tumbled since the federal government canceled the $7,500 tax credit for US-built EVs. The investment plan also comes as GM continues absorbing billions in costs tied to scaling back parts of its electric vehicle production strategy, including contract cancellations and supplier claims. In its latest earnings report, the company said it spent $2.2 billion in cash on those items over the past three months. Still, executives said the company is not pulling back from EVs entirely. "Our focus remains on improving EV profitability and scaling our business as market adoption grows, albeit at a slower expected pace than we had previously seen," Paul Jacobson, the company's CFO, said during GM's Tuesday earnings call. So far, the automaker has only discontinued one electric vehicle from its lineup: the Canada-built Brightdrop panel van. Meanwhile, the low-cost Chevy Bolt has returned to production at the company's Fairfax assembly plant in Kansas for a limited time. "We have not gotten rid of any EV production," Trevorrow told Business Insider. "We maintained it and continued to invest in other areas where maybe the demand has gone up as well." The $340 million in new spending is part of a broader $830 million investment GM is highlighting across three facilities that help build the gas-powered cars. Previously announced investments include funding for its Romulus and Saginaw plants. Trevorrow said the new spending will go toward processing, boring, and drilling machines, as well as some facility expansions. "These are increased capacity; some of it may involve some retooling," he said. "Overall, the workforce stays about the same. There really isn't an increase to it." Rising competition? No problem, GM says American automakers are facing stiff global competition from cheaper Chinese models. Wang Gang/VCG via Getty Images The shifting demand dynamics are also playing out against a backdrop of intensifying global competition. Chinese automakers have rapidly expanded their electric vehicle offerings — including cars with ultra-fast charging, sub-$20,000 prices, and an expanding global footprint. Trevorrow, who has worked for GM for 40 years, is still confident in the Detroit automaker's competitive advantages. "We're a global company. We believe we build the best vehicles at the best values through any of those markets," he said. "There are things that the newer Chinese vehicles might be introducing, but we have not seen a long record of them. There's a reputation issue that could be coming to play." Read the original article on Business Insider