Bloomberg: Sources: Anthropic has begun weighing a new funding round at a $900B+ valuation, after previously resisting investor proposals at an $800B+ valuation  —  Anthropic PBC has begun weighing a fresh funding round that would value the artificial intelligence developer at more than $900 billion …

Ford booked a $1.3 billion tariff refund on its earnings on Wednesday. Bill Pugliano/Getty Images Ford flagged a one-time $1.3 billion tariff benefit in its quarterly results. The announcement comes a day after GM reported a roughly $500 million tariff benefit. Still, car companies expect to pay billions on other tariffs levied on imported vehicles and parts. Ford just got a big tariff-related boost. The automaker said on Wednesday that it booked a $1.3 billion one-time tariff-related benefit, tied to duties it paid between March 2025 and February 2026. The benefit helped lift profits to $2.5 billion, even as its underlying business showed mixed signals. Revenue rose 6% to $43.3 billion, while wholesale volumes dropped by 4%. In February, the Supreme Court ruled that President Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs were illegal, prompting companies to begin filing claims to recover costs. Ford's announcement comes a day after its cross-town Detroit competitor, General Motors, flagged a roughly $500 million tariff benefit. Despite the one-time tailwind, automakers are still expected to face billions in tariff costs. Trump has imposed a separate 25% tariff on automotive parts and vehicles under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Ford, which says it builds more than 80% of its vehicles in the US, expects about $1 billion in tariff-related costs this year. Read the original article on Business Insider

Waldo highlights the need for task-specific models within enterprises while revealing the changing landscape search vendors face.

Jonathan Vanian / CNBC: Meta says Q1 family daily active people fell 20M QoQ to 3.56B, vs. 3.62B est., due to internet disruptions in Iran and WhatsApp access restrictions in Russia  —  Meta shares fell in extended trading on Wednesday after the company reported lower-than-expected capital expenditures and missed on user growth.

Elon Musk was on the witness stand for the second day in his high-stakes case against Sam Altman. Karl Mondon / AFP via Getty Images Elon Musk testified for a second day in his blockbuster civil trial against OpenAI. He told a jury about how he reacted to Microsoft's $10 billion investment in OpenAI. In a text to OpenAI CEO, he blasted the move as a "bait-and-switch," Musk testified. "What the hell is going on?" That's what Elon Musk told a federal California jury Wednesday he texted Sam Altman after learning in early 2023 that tech giant Microsoft invested $10 billion in OpenAI. Musk, who cofounded OpenAI with Altman more than a decade ago, said he blasted the move in the text as a "bait-and-switch." The Tesla and SpaceX CEO made the comments during his second day on the witness stand in his blockbuster civil trial over OpenAI's for-profit transition from a nonprofit research lab. He is seeking to convince the jury that OpenAI and other defendants were "unjustly enriched to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars." "Microsoft would only put $10 billion — which is a huge sum of money — into something if they feel like they will get a return," Musk said in explaining why he was so mad about the investment. Altman, OpenAI's CEO, was in the courtroom during Musk's testimony. Musk, while under direct questioning by his lead trial attorney, Steven Molo, said he was concerned that Microsoft would effectively be in control of AGI, or artificial general intelligence, that was "started by a charity." "Microsoft would have motivations that are different from a charity," Musk added. The investment was Microsoft's second in OpenAI. Microsoft first invested $1 billion in 2019. When asked why Musk didn't file any lawsuits in 2019, he said that he understood the situation as one with a capped profit. Musk, who left OpenAI in 2018, said he believed that Microsoft had "agreed to be involved in a cap profit way." In 2024, Musk sued OpenAI, Altman, and OpenAI president Greg Brockman over the AI company's transition to a for-profit entity. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was in the courtroom during Elon Musk's testimony. Amy Osborne / AFP via Getty Images The lawsuit, which later added Microsoft as a defendant, alleges Altman and Brockman abandoned OpenAI's founding mission as a nonprofit dedicated to developing AI for the public's benefit, and not for private gain. Musk says in his lawsuit that he invested $38 million in seed money over the years to support that mission, only to be "betrayed" by the company's transformation into a "for-profit, market-paralyzing gorgon" that's essentially a "subsidiary of Microsoft." Microsoft's attorney, Russell P. Cohen, told the jury in opening statements on Tuesday that Microsoft "helped OpenAI pursue and further its mission." "Unlike Mr. Musk, Microsoft never tried to control OpenAI," Cohen said. When asked on Wednesday how Musk responds to those comments, Musk testified, "They're trying to trick the jury." Throughout the monthlong trial, the jury is expected to hear more testimony from tech heavyweights, including Altman, Brockman, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. OpenAI has repeatedly slammed Musk's lawsuit as "baseless," and in opening arguments, OpenAI and Altman's lead lawyer, William Savitt, told the jury that Musk only went after the ChatGPT-maker because he "didn't get his way with OpenAI." "The only thing Musk cared about is being on top," said Savitt. While under cross-examination by Savitt on Wednesday, Musk accused the attorney of trying to "trick" him. "Your questions are not simple. They're designed to trick me, essentially," Musk said to Savitt. "Any simple answer would be misleading to the jury." Read the original article on Business Insider

Alphabet: Alphabet reports Q1 revenue up 22% YoY to $109.9B, vs. $107.2B est., and Google Cloud revenue up 63% to $20B, vs. $18.05B est.; GOOG jumps 6%+ after hours  —  Alphabet Announces First Quarter 2026 Results MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - April 29, 2026 - Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG, GOOGL) …

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Google says paid subscriptions reached 350M in Q1, up 25M QoQ, driven by YouTube and Google One, while Gemini Enterprise paid MAUs grew 40% QoQ  —  Google has added another 25 million paid subscriptions to its services over the past quarter, according to parent company Alphabet's first-quarter earnings on Wednesday.

Kelly Cloonan / Wall Street Journal: eBay reports Q1 revenue up 19% YoY to $3.09B, vs. $3.04B est., net income up 2% to $512M, GMV up 18% to $22.2B, and forecasts Q2 revenue above estimates  —  The company logged a profit of $512 million, or $1.12 a share  —  EBay recorded higher profit and revenue in its latest quarter as gross merchandise volume climbed.

Quartz: AWS revenue rose 28% YoY in Q1 to $37.6B, vs. $36.64B est., its fastest growth in 15 quarters, as capital expenditure rose to $44.2B, up from $25B in Q1 2025  —  AWS revenue rose 28% to $37.6 billion, the fastest growth in 15 quarters, as total revenue climbed 17% to $181.5 billion

Google added 25M paid subscriptions in Q1, reaching 350M total, as YouTube and Google One grow.

Surprise! Fusion startup Zap Energy says it will be developing fission reactors alongside its fusion devices.

Emma Roth / The Verge: Microsoft reports Q3 Xbox hardware revenue fell 33% YoY and Xbox content and services revenue, which includes Game Pass, dropped 5% YoY  —  Xbox hardware revenue took a 33 percent hit, even as the company raked in $82.9 billion. … Microsoft's Xbox hardware revenue continues to tumble …

“I believe the technology was deployed too quickly in too vast amounts, with hundreds of vehicles, when it wasn’t really ready,” one police official told federal regulators last month.

Kenneth Branagh on the set of "Thor." Marvel Studios "Thor" director Kenneth Branagh declined to direct a sequel. He still has ideas for how he'd tackle one. He told BI his treatment would be similar to "Logan," James Mangold's moody take on Wolverine. "Part of me would love to finish my relationship with that character," Branagh told BI of Thor. When Kenneth Branagh was pitching himself to direct the first "Thor" movie in 2008, he envisioned a story with gravitas. After spending years forging a reputation as a skilled adaptor of William Shakespeare's works, writing, directing, and starring in both 1989's "Henry V" and 1996's "Hamlet," he saw plenty of Shakespearean qualities in the story of the God of Thunder: generations-old mythology, a hero who must learn to be a leader, and plenty of family turmoil. Branagh's resulting adaptation, 2011's "Thor," would go on to gross $449 million at the worldwide box office and set the stage for Marvel's dominance of the decade to come. But the "Thor" movie franchise would truly hit its stride when director Taika Waititi took the reins with 2017's "Thor: Ragnarok." The film, which represented a shift to a more humorous tone, became the biggest earner in the franchise, taking in over $855 million at the worldwide box office. Tom Hiddleston and Chris Hemsworth in "Thor." Marvel Studios Branagh, who spoke to Business Insider to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the release of "Thor," has seen Waititi's sequels — which also include 2022's "Thor: Love and Thunder" — and called them "amazing films." Still, he wonders what could have been if he hadn't declined to continue on with the franchise. "Part of me would love to finish my relationship with that character," Branagh said, revealing that Marvel wanted him to return for a "Thor" sequel, but after three years of working on "Thor," he said he "needed a break." 2013's "Thor: The Dark World," was ultimately directed by Alan Taylor. Branagh told BI that if he took on a "Thor" sequel, it wouldn't have been very comedic. "I'd always wanted to do more and indeed had a couple of ideas, more in the territory of James Mangold's brilliant 'Logan,'" Branagh said, referring to the hit R-rated 2017 release that delivered a more mature storyline for Hugh Jackman's Wolverine. "I would love to see Chris Hemsworth and the others have their own individual final story that takes Thor into a glorious twilight." Hugh Jackman in 2017's "Logan." 20th Century Fox While Thor's story turned more comedic in Waititi's sequels, the tide seems to be shifting in what audiences want from the character. After the release of the fourth movie in the franchise, 2022's "Thor: Love and Thunder," failed to best "Ragnarok" at the box office and received middling reviews from critics, Hemsworth admitted that the movie was "too silly." Even Waititi acknowledged the desire to switch it up, telling Business Insider right after the movie opened that if he were to do a fifth movie, he would want a "new take." "I would want something that feels unexpected when it comes to the story," he said. "Like making just a $5 million movie with no fighting at all, just Thor on a road trip." (Months later, Waititi told BI he would not be involved in a fifth "Thor" movie.) Hemsworth revealed in February that after we see Thor in "Avengers: Doomsday" at the end of this year, Marvel has plans for another Thor movie. "Thor: Love and Thunder." Marvel Studios "I was talking to Kevin [Feige] about it, and he said it's cool because the audience now expects dramatic turns with the character," Hemsworth said on the "SmartLess" podcast of his discussions with the Marvel Studios head about the future of Thor. Branagh, who also appears in the upcoming "The Devil Wears Prada 2," said he's excited to see where Thor's story goes. "I have such a high regard for what Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston and all of them involved have done," he said. "I think it would be something very beautiful to take those characters into their own particular sunset." So, how about coming back to direct the latest chapter in the "Thor" saga? "That's a whole other question," Branagh said. "They are so far deep into the future of the Marvel Universe that I'm sure whatever plans they have for it are already kind of set." Read the original article on Business Insider

Researchers show scammers are using AI-manipulated footage of celebrity interviews to trick users into sharing their personal data.

Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood. Stephen Brashear/Getty Images Microsoft reported third-quarter results on Wednesday. CFO Amy Hood sent an internal memo to employees thanking them for "increased pace." The company has introduced sweeping organizational shifts and mandates to work faster and leaner. After Microsoft reported quarterly results on Wednesday, CFO Amy Hood sent an internal memo to employees highlighting "increased pace" and "tighter, more accountable squads." "Thank you for the way you showed up this quarter — with focused execution and increased pace as the opportunity ahead of us grows," Hood wrote in the email, viewed by Business Insider. Hood sends these emails every quarter when Microsoft discloses its financials. The latest memo called out Microsoft cloud revenue at $54.5 billion for the quarter and AI revenue, which Hood said surpassed $37 billion in annual run rate, up 123%. Microsoft stock was initially up about 4% in after-hours trading following the earnings report and was down about 1% at publication time. The email comes after Microsoft workforce changes focused on increasing "intensity and urgency," as one executive recently told Business Insider. The company has introduced sweeping organizational shifts including high-profile executive changes and mandates for teams to work faster and leaner — all designed to consolidate power around AI leaders and radically reshape how the company builds and funds its products. "Over this past period, we've continued to make real progress," she wrote. "That progress is showing up in tangible ways, from how we work in tighter, more accountable squads, to what we're delivering." 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. Read the full memo Team, This afternoon, we announced our third-quarter financial results. We exceeded Wall Street expectations, growing revenue 18% and 15% in constant currency and operating income by 20% and 16% in constant currency. Our Microsoft Cloud revenue was $54.5 billion, growing 29% and 25% in constant currency, reflecting strong customer demand and execution by our teams. This quarter our AI revenue surpassed $37 billion in annual run rate, up 123%. Our quarterly results include clear examples of strong customer adoption and the progress we are making: Azure and other cloud services revenue grew 40% and 39% in constant currency, ahead of expectations, reflecting our customers scaling complex workloads on Azure and integrating AI into the heart of their businesses. And over 15,000 customers now use both Foundry and Fabric, up 60%. Microsoft 365 commercial cloud revenue increased 19% and 15% in constant currency, ahead of expectations. M365 Copilot continues to scale, now exceeding 20 million paid seats with monthly active usage of our first party agents up 6x year-to-date. In addition, Microsoft 365 consumer cloud revenue increased 33% and 29% in constant currency with subscriber growth of 7%. Commercial bookings grew 7% when excluding the impact from OpenAI, driven by consistent performance across our core annuity business. Our total commercial remaining performance obligation, a measure of how much business we have already contracted that still needs to be delivered to customers, increased to $627 billion. We invested $31.9 billion in capex on GPUs, CPUs, and datacenter infrastructure to support Azure platform demand, growing first-party AI applications and solutions, and R&D by our product teams. Search advertising revenue ex-TAC increased 12% and 9% in constant currency. Edge has taken share for 20 consecutive quarters, and Bing monthly active users reached one billion for the first time. Windows OEM revenue increased 1% as our OEM and channel partners continued to build inventory in response to higher memory prices. Xbox content and services revenue decreased 5% and 7% in constant currency. Last week, we announced price changes to our Game Pass subscriptions as we refocus on delivering more value for fans. And, LinkedIn revenue increased 12% and 9% in constant currency with growth across all lines of business. Investors tune in to our earnings call for the full details on this quarter and a look ahead to Q4. It's a helpful way to stay aligned as we deliver on our commitments. Join live today at 2:30 PM Pacific, listen on-demand, or check the transcript on the Investor Relations website. Thank you for the way you showed up this quarter — with focused execution and increased pace as the opportunity ahead of us grows. Over this past period, we've continued to make real progress. That progress is showing up in tangible ways, from how we work in tighter, more accountable squads, to what we're delivering — like last week's announcement of agentic Copilot capabilities now available across Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Our customers are counting on us to deliver these amazing things and to make sure we do it all with quality and security. As we move into Q4, our biggest quarter of the year, let's finish the year strong! With appreciation and gratitude,   Amy 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

Jerome Powell has been chair of the Federal Reserve since 2018. FOMC Wednesday was Jerome Powell's last meeting as chair, but he confirmed he'll remain on the Fed as a governor. April's FOMC decision had four dissents, the most in more than two decades. The Iran war and other supply shocks continue to foil the Fed's inflation goals. After eight years, Jerome Powell is clocking out. The Federal Reserve opted to hold rates steady at its third meeting of 2026, which was Powell's last as head of the central bank. From oil shocks to Fed leadership, here are Business Insider's biggest takeaways from the decision. Highest vote split since the 1990s The Federal Open Market Committee had four dissenting votes in Wednesday's rate call — the most since October 1992. Governor Stephen Miran hoped for a rate cut, and Governors Beth M. Hammack, Neel Kashkari, and Lorie K. Logan opted for a hold, but "did not support inclusion of an easing bias" in the statement's language. The breakdown continues a pattern of division among central bank leaders as they weigh the Fed's dual mandate for stable prices and maximum employment. Some FOMC members prioritize one side of the mission more than others, Powell said. The committee has disagreed on rate decisions at every meeting since September 2025. Prior to that, decisions were often unanimous. Powell said the current division is a "function of the extraordinarily challenging set of supply shocks" over the past few years. Everyone on the committee has a different risk tolerance, he said, and "it's only natural that you would have a range of views on the committee. If everyone agreed, that would be surprising." He called the 19-person committee "strong-minded." One thing is clear: Kevin Warsh will be stepping into an uncharacteristically divided Fed once he's confirmed. Powell will stay, but not as 'a shadow chair' In a highly anticipated announcement, Powell said he will remain on the Fed as a governor until he thinks it's "appropriate" to leave. He is eligible to vote until 2028. It's rare for a former chair to remain on the FOMC beyond their tenure, but Powell said he would prefer to stay on the Fed until he's sure the Department of Justice probe is "well and truly over." The US Attorney General dropped the criminal investigation into Powell's alleged mishandling of construction at the bank's Washington, DC, buildings last week, passing it to the Office of the Inspector General. Jeanine Pirro said she "would not hesitate" to reopen the probe if she felt it necessary. Since it launched in January, the investigation has been seen as a political attack on Fed independence by lawmakers across the aisle, which Powell said is "battering the institution" and causing "widespread concern." As long as he remains on the committee, Powell said he will keep a "low profile" and won't interfere as a "shadow chair." He congratulated Warsh on passing the committee vote on Wednesday, and said he takes him "at his word" that he will stand up to White House pressure. Powell reaffirmed his belief that the Fed's independence is key to its management of the economy. "It's not about the Fed or the institutions, it's about the benefits of a central bank that makes decisions based on analysis and our best thinking rather than trying to help or hurt politicians," he said, adding that he will do everything he can to support his successor. A laundry list of supply shocks As he exits Fed leadership, Powell acknowledged that inflation remains above the committee's 2% target. The Iran war, and associated oil price hikes, are a central reason. Gas remains above $4 a gallon, with no clear indication of when the Strait of Hormuz will reopen. Since becoming chair in 2018, Powell said the US economy has faced four major supply shocks: The pandemic, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Trump's tariffs, and the Iran war. Events like these make it difficult for the Fed to balance both sides of its mandate, Powell said. "This is a very different world, and a much more challenging one" than when he began guiding monetary policy. He added that the Fed is "not in a rush" to raise or lower rates and broadly feels that a neutral stance is the best position for monitoring the Iran war. This attitude could change once Warsh takes the helm. Powell left the podium to applause, saying that he's proud of his work at the central bank. "I won't see you next time," he said. Read the original article on Business Insider

Amazon is bringing OpenAI's models and Codex to AWS after Microsoft’s shift away from exclusivity, giving cloud customers more ways to use AI tools. The post AWS to Resell OpenAI Products After Microsoft Loses Exclusive License appeared first on TechRepublic.

Wiz used an AI reverse-engineering tool to pinpoint a vulnerability that previously would have been too costly and time-consuming to undertake.

Many analytical questions are decision-support, not audit. If knowing "~4.7M unique...