Policy
Top AI Companies Agree to Pentagon Deals for Classified Work
The Defense Department finalized agreements with major AI and cloud players to use their systems in classified settings.
Topic
Microsoft
Coverage of Microsoft, Copilot, Azure, and CEO Satya Nadella.
32 stories · Updated 2026-05-01
More on Microsoft
Analysis
WSJ: Big Tech’s AI spending spree is getting expensive — and investors want payback
The Wall Street Journal argues that Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Alphabet are ramping capital spending for AI fast enough that depreciation is starting to bite, raising pressure to translate AI demand into durable profit.
Big Tech
Microsoft and OpenAI remove the contract’s ‘AGI clause’ and loosen exclusivity
The longtime partnership is becoming less exclusive: OpenAI can ship products on other clouds, while Microsoft’s revenue share now runs to 2030 with caps.
AI
GitHub will start charging Copilot users based on their actual AI usage
Copilot moves to an AI-credits model that bills heavy users for inference beyond their plan’s included allocation.
Analysis
WSJ: Big Tech's AI spending wave is accelerating job cuts
A WSJ column argues companies are reallocating budgets from headcount to chips and data centers, with layoffs spreading beyond a few giants.
AI
Microsoft and OpenAI revise partnership to end exclusivity and allow OpenAI to use rival clouds
The revised deal drops Microsoft’s exclusive right to sell OpenAI models, while keeping Azure as OpenAI’s primary cloud partner and extending Microsoft’s license on OpenAI IP.
Big Tech
Meta to Cut 8,000 Jobs — About 10% of Its Workforce — as AI Spending Surges
The layoffs, effective May 20, will eliminate roughly 10% of Meta's global headcount alongside 6,000 open roles, as the company funnels billions into AI infrastructure.
Analysis
Meta, Microsoft Job Cuts Push 2026 Tech Layoffs Past 92,000 as AI Restructuring Accelerates
With four of the largest tech companies planning to spend nearly $700 billion on AI this year, economists are questioning whether the jobs being eliminated will ever return at the same scale.
Big Tech
Microsoft Offers Voluntary Buyouts to 8,750 U.S. Employees, a First in Its 51-Year History
Workers whose combined age and years of service at Microsoft total 70 or more are eligible for the early retirement package, which covers up to 7% of the company's domestic workforce.
AI
OpenAI Launches Workspace Agents in ChatGPT, Succeeding Custom GPTs for Enterprise Teams
The Codex-powered agents run continuously in the cloud, integrate with Slack and Salesforce, and allow organizations to share and schedule automated workflows across teams.
Startups
Anthropic Commits $100 Billion to AWS Over Ten Years as Its Revenue Surpasses $30 Billion Run Rate
The sweeping new deal with Amazon, which builds on $8 billion in prior investment, turns Anthropic into one of Amazon's most significant cloud and chip customers alongside its role as a portfolio company.
Big Tech
Amazon Plans to Invest Up to $25 Billion More in Anthropic
The deal includes a $5 billion upfront commitment plus $20 billion tied to milestones, and requires Anthropic to spend $100 billion on AWS over the next decade.
Policy
US Officials Warn Wall Street That Anthropic's Mythos AI Could Usher In a New Era of Cyber Risk
Federal regulators and senior officials, including Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, privately cautioned bank CEOs about the potential dangers of Anthropic's restricted frontier model, as JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley were permitted to test it for defensive security purposes.
AI
Anthropic launches Project Glasswing cybersecurity initiative, gives Nvidia, Google, Apple, and Microsoft access to Claude Mythos Preview
The restricted AI model can autonomously find critical vulnerabilities across major operating systems and browsers — and Anthropic is keeping it locked away from the public for safety reasons.
Policy
OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google join forces through Frontier Model Forum to combat AI model theft by Chinese rivals
The three competing AI labs are sharing intelligence to detect adversarial distillation — a practice where foreign actors extract proprietary capabilities from frontier models without authorization.
Chips
Foxconn parent Hon Hai posts 30% revenue surge as AI server demand holds strong into 2026
The Nvidia manufacturing partner's quarterly results signal that hyperscaler appetite for AI compute hardware remains robust despite geopolitical headwinds.
AI
Microsoft releases three in-house AI models — MAI-Transcribe-1, MAI-Voice-1, and MAI-Image-2 — in its clearest challenge yet to OpenAI
The MAI Superintelligence team's first commercial model releases beat competitors on key benchmarks while undercutting OpenAI and Google on price.
Big Tech
Meta, Google, and Microsoft race to lock up natural gas capacity for AI data centers — and risks are mounting
The three tech giants are committing to gigawatts of gas generation capacity to feed insatiable AI energy demand, raising questions about long-term resource and climate exposure.
Big Tech
Oracle begins mass layoffs in the thousands as AI data-center investment strains cash flow
Oracle employees across the US, India, Canada, and Mexico received termination emails on March 31, as the company redirects billions toward AI cloud infrastructure at the cost of its headcount.
AI
OpenAI closes $122B funding round at $852B valuation, setting stage for IPO
The additional $12 billion raised since February, including $3 billion from individual investors through banking channels for the first time, reads less like venture financing and more like an IPO rehearsal.
Big Tech
Microsoft commits $1B to Thailand for AI data centers and workforce training through 2028
The investment, announced following a meeting between Brad Smith and Thailand's prime minister, combines cloud infrastructure construction with programs to upskill 150,000 Thai workers.
Big Tech
Alibaba Launches Wukong Enterprise AI Agent Platform with Slack and Teams Integration Plans
The Chinese tech giant's new agentic business tool, currently in invitation-only testing, can autonomously handle document editing, meeting transcriptions, and research tasks across a unified interface.
Analysis
TechCrunch Midpoint Report: The AI Stories Shaping 2026's First Quarter
From Anthropic's Pentagon battle to the data center construction boom and hardware price inflation, a roundup of the defining AI narratives through mid-March finds the industry at a pivotal inflection.
Analysis
Atlassian's AI Layoffs Follow Block's Playbook, Signaling a Broader Tech Industry Pattern
As AI attribution becomes a common rationale for restructurings at once-high-growth software companies, analysts are debating whether the cuts reflect genuine automation gains or financial pressures wearing an AI label.
Chips
Meta Unveils Four Generations of Custom MTIA AI Chips in Bid to Reduce Reliance on Nvidia
The social media giant's accelerated silicon roadmap targets both ranking and generative AI inference, with all four chip generations deploying within two years at a pace far faster than industry norms.
Policy
Anthropic's Pentagon Battle Sets a Dangerous Precedent for Every AI Company With Government Clients
Silicon Valley is watching closely as the first-ever supply-chain risk designation against a US domestic company tests whether the executive branch can penalize firms for their AI safety positions.
Big Tech
Nscale's 'Stargate Norway' Project Targets 100,000 Nvidia GPUs by Year End as European AI Compute Race Accelerates
The British AI infrastructure company's $2 billion raise adds Sheryl Sandberg and Nick Clegg to its board, positioning it for a potential 2026 IPO with OpenAI and Microsoft as anchor customers.
Policy
Anthropic Sues Pentagon Over 'Supply-Chain Risk' Designation, Calling It Unconstitutional Retaliation
The Claude maker filed two federal complaints challenging the DOD's unprecedented blacklisting of an American AI company, citing First Amendment violations.
Big Tech
Oracle Plans Thousands of Layoffs as AI Data Center Expansion Strains Cash Flow
The job reductions will affect divisions across the company and may begin this month, with some cuts targeting roles Oracle expects AI to make redundant.
Analysis
Inside the Trillion-Dollar Race to Build AI Infrastructure: $700 Billion in 2026 Spending, Stargate Construction Underway
A comprehensive analysis of AI infrastructure commitments finds hyperscalers planning nearly $700 billion in 2026 data center spending, with Stargate construction underway in Texas and Oracle locking in $300 billion in compute contracts.
Startups
OpenAI Raises $110 Billion From Amazon, Nvidia, and SoftBank at a $730 Billion Valuation
OpenAI's record-shattering funding round, led by a $50 billion Amazon commitment, is the largest private financing in history and cements deep infrastructure partnerships running on Amazon's cloud and Nvidia's Vera Rubin chips.
Chips
Nvidia Posts $43 Billion Quarterly Profit on Record $68 Billion Revenue as AI Chip Dominance Deepens
Nvidia's fiscal fourth quarter delivered its most profitable period ever, surpassing the quarterly earnings of Apple, Microsoft, and Alphabet, with data center revenue surging 75% year-over-year to $62.3 billion.
