The Layoff Arc
From pandemic correction to AI restructuring—three years of tech industry job cuts, visualized.
Meta reports Q4 revenue up 24% YoY to $59.9B, vs. $58.35B est., net income up 9% to $22.8B, and family DAP up 7% to 3.58B for December; META up 9%+ after hours
Meta Platforms, Inc. (Nasdaq: META) today reported financial results for the quarter and full year ended December 31, 2025.
Microsoft reports Q2 revenue up 17% YoY to $81.3B, operating income up 21% to $38.3B, net income up 60% to $38.5B, and Microsoft Cloud revenue up 26% to $51.5B
Microsoft Cloud and AI Strength Drives Second Quarter Results — REDMOND, Wash. — January 28, 2026 — Microsoft Corp. today announced …
Amazon plans to cut ~16,000 roles across the company as part of an ongoing effort to reduce organizational layers and bureaucracy, after cuts in October 2025
I want to let you know that we're making additional organizational changes across Amazon that will impact some of our teammates.
Following UK CMA's proposals, Google says it is exploring controls to let websites opt out of AI Overviews and AI Mode
Google just announced it is looking into ways to allow websites to specifically opt out of Google using its content in the Search generative AI features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode.
Google updates Gemini in Chrome with a new side panel, an auto browse feature that can navigate pages and take actions for AI Pro and AI Ultra users, and more
ZDNET's key takeaways — Google Chrome is being upgraded with Gemini 3 and a revamped sidepanel UX.
Sources: China approved its first batch of Nvidia H200 imports, covering 400K+ chips for ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent, during Jensen Huang's visit to China
China has approved its first batch of Nvidia's H200 artificial intelligence chips for import, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters …
Google DeepMind researchers unveil AlphaGenome, an AI model trained on molecular data to predict 11 different genomic processes, such as gene splicing
AlphaGenome is a leap forward in the ability to study the human blueprint. But the fine workings of our DNA are still largely a mystery.
Toronto-based self-driving truck startup Waabi raised a $750M Series C led by Khosla and G2 and partners with Uber, which can invest $250M based on performance
Waabi Innovation Inc., a Canadian startup that develops self-driving technology for trucks, has secured $1 billion in funding …
Decagon, which offers AI-powered customer service agents, raised a $250M Series D led by Coatue and Index Ventures at a $4.5B valuation, up from $1.5B in June
Decagon AI Inc., a customer support startup, has raised $250 million in a new round of funding that triples its valuation to $4.5 billion …
Sources: Anthropic is set to raise about $20B led by Singapore's GIC and Coatue, double the amount it had targeted, at a $350B valuation
Company in talks to raise new funds from Coatue, GIC, Iconiq and Sequoia at $350bn valuation — Anthropic is set to raise about $20bn from venture capitalists …
SK Hynix reports Q4 revenue up 66% YoY to $23B, above ~$22.4B est., and operating profit up 137% YoY to $13.3B, both company records, driven by AI HBM demand
South Korea's SK Hynix on Wednesday posted record quarterly revenue and profit, boosted by surging memory prices and demand …
Memo: Amazon appeared to mistakenly alert some AWS staff about planned layoffs in an email invite to a January 28 “Project Dawn” meeting on company efficiency
- Some Amazon employees got a worrying calendar invitation on Tuesday. — The invitation discussed upcoming job cuts and …
The UK CMA proposes measures to let publishers opt out of content scraping for Google's AI Overviews and AI training without losing visibility in search results
News organisations hope proposals will increase leverage to get paid if content is used in AI summaries
Memo: Tim Cook told Apple staff that he is “heartbroken by the events in Minneapolis”, calls for a “deescalation”, and says he discussed it with President Trump
Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook became the latest executive to weigh in on the killing …
Tether launches USAT, a US-regulated stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, marking the company's direct return to the US market that it left in 2018
Tether Holdings SA said it has launched a US-focused stablecoin, as the world's largest issuer of dollar-pegged tokens prepares to return to crypto's largest market.
DHS reveals that NEC is the vendor that sold Mobile Fortify, a facial recognition app used by federal immigration agents to identify people in the field, to CBP
Immigration agents have used Mobile Fortify to scan the faces of countless people in the US—including many citizens.
Flapping Airplanes, an AI research lab “devoted to solving the data efficiency problem”, raised $180M at a $1.5B valuation from GV, Sequoia, Index, and others
Flapping Airplanes is one of a wave of new startup research labs drawing intense interest from investors, the latest chapter in the AI race
Canada says it is talking to Meta to restore news to Facebook and Instagram as the Online News Act is put on the table as part of trade negotiations with the US
Save for later — Log in or create a free account to listen to this article. — Government officials are in talks …
Samsung says it will introduce a display feature for the Galaxy S26 series that improves “privacy at a pixel level” to protect users from “shoulder surfing”
Samsung has confirmed that the Galaxy S26 series will introduce a new display feature designed to improve privacy when using your phone in public.
Battery recycling and cathode production startup Redwood expands its Series E to $425M, sources say at a $6B valuation, adds Google as a new strategic investor
ASML reports Q4 net sales of €9.7B, vs. €9.6B est., and €2.84B net profit, vs. €3.01B est., and says it expects China to account for 20% of its total 2026 sales
ASML reported on Wednesday orders that smashed past expectations while 2026 sales guidance was also ahead …
Snap launches a wholly-owned subsidiary called Specs Inc. for its upcoming AR glasses, in a bid to facilitate minority investment and offer distinct branding
Specs will now be launched under... Specs. … Snap is launching a separate business for its upcoming Specs augmented reality glasses …
Fidelity Investments announces its own stablecoin, the Fidelity Digital Dollar, or FIDD, available to institutional and retail clients in the coming weeks
Fidelity Investments, one of the largest asset managers on the planet, announced on Wednesday it will launch its own stablecoin.
A Google bug report apparently leaks the planned Android desktop interface, showing a taller status bar, a new mouse cursor, Chrome extensions, and more
A Google bug report on the Chromium Issue Tracker today has inadvertently leaked the Android desktop interface for the first time.
Sources: Elon Musk proposes timing SpaceX's IPO with a rare planetary alignment and his June birthday; SpaceX seeks to raise up to $50B at a ~$1.5T valuation
ADL study of Grok, ChatGPT, Llama, Claude, Gemini, and DeepSeek: Grok performed worst at identifying and countering antisemitic content, while Claude was best
In a study, the Anti-Defamation League fed Grok, ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, DeepSeek, and Llama antisemitic, anti-Zionist …
Amazon plans to close all 57 Fresh and 15 Go locations in the US, as it pivots its physical retail strategy to focus exclusively on Whole Foods
Amazon's homegrown grocery stores are getting shelved. — The company said Tuesday morning that it's closing all of its Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh locations …
Bluesky says it is working to make feeds more “live”, interactive, and timely during live events, and teases improvements to posting and follow suggestions
The Bluesky 2026 roadmap teases updates for feeds, follows, posting, and real-time features.
Some US college students say they are using AI “humanizer” tools to alter text to avoid cheating accusations; AI detection tools now aim to catch “humanizers”
Students are taking new measures, such as dumbing down their work, spying on themselves and using AI …
ESA astronomers say they used AI model AnomalyMatch to scan 100M image cutouts from the Hubble Legacy Archive in 2.5 days, finding ~1,400 “anomalous objects”
The AI model took just 2.5 days to search 100 million image cutouts and flag oddities like jellyfish galaxies.
ServiceNow reports Q4 revenue up 20.5% YoY to $3.57B, vs. $3.53B est., and subscription revenue up 21% YoY to $3.47B; NOW drops ~3% after hours
ServiceNow topped Wall Street's fourth-quarter estimates after the bell on Wednesday, but shares fell more than 3%. — Here's how the company performed versus LSEG estimates:
PaleBlueDot, which operates a GPU capacity marketplace and designs GPU clusters for enterprises, raised a $150M Series B led by B Capital at a $1B+ valuation
Krystal Hu /Reuters:NEW
ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet says the company plans to cut 1,700 jobs, or 4% of its workforce, mainly in its Tech and IT organizations; ASML jumps 5%+ pre-market
Sarah Jacob /Bloomberg:NEW
Tesla says it agreed to invest $2B in xAI for preferred shares as part of xAI's Series E, despite a shareholder vote in November that failed to win approval
IBM reports Q4 revenue up 12% YoY to $19.7B, vs. $19.2B est., and projects 2026 revenue growth and free cash flow above estimates; IBM jumps 8%+ after hours
Crypto PAC Fairshake expanded its war chest to $193M by the end of last year, up from $141M in July; Ripple gave $25M, and a16z gave $24M in H2 2025
The crypto political action committee Fairshake amassed $193 million by the end of last year, positioning itself to play a major role …
A co-creator of the dark web marketplace Empire Market pleads guilty to US drug conspiracy charges for facilitating $430M in illegal transactions in 2018-2020
Spotify paid out $11B+ to the music industry in 2025, up 10% YoY, bringing its all-time payments to $70B, and now accounts for ~30% of recorded music revenue
Slice, which uses AI agents to encode tax policies and legal rules across 60+ countries, raised a $25M Series A led by Insight, taking its total funding to $32M
Slice Global Equity, an equity compliance and management startup, announced Wednesday that it has raised $25 million in Series A funding.
Adaptive6, which treats cloud cost inefficiencies as security vulnerabilities to help companies cut bills, raised a $28M Series A, for $44M in total funding
Cloud cost governance and optimization startup Adaptive6 Inc. says it's ready to help large enterprises save millions of dollars …
Texas Instruments reports Q4 revenue up 10% YoY to $4.42B, vs. $4.44B est., and forecasts Q1 revenue above estimates; TXN jumps 9%+
Outtake, which uses autonomous AI agents to help companies detect and remove cyberthreats, raised $40M led by Iconiq, after a $16.5M Series A in April 2025
Alex Dhillon spent almost five years at Palantir before leaving to build cybersecurity startup Outtake.
Seagate reports Q2 revenue up 22% YoY to $2.83B, vs. $2.73B est., forecasts Q3 results above estimates on strong data storage demand; STX jumps 8%+
Tel Aviv-based Factify raised a $73M seed led by Valley Capital to develop an AI-native document standard intended to replace the legacy PDF format
Tel Aviv-based Factify has raised $73 million in a seed funding round to establish a new document standard for AI, the company announced Wednesday.
A look at AI-powered tools and apps like Aira Explorer that are helping blind people access visual feedback about their bodies, sometimes for the first time
Artificial intelligence is helping blind people access visual feedback about their bodies, sometimes for the first time …
LinkedIn launches a new feature to let users display verified “vibe coding” and AI proficiency levels from third-party partners including Replit and Lovable
Apple Creator Studio review: the subscription suite offers value, but lacks a photo management tool to rival Lightroom and lacks iOS support for flagship apps
Osaka-based Capcom reports game sales up 13.5% to a record 34.64M from March to December 2025; the Street Fighter and Resident Evil maker's stock jumps 10%+
Japanese video game publisher Capcom Co. posted its biggest single-day share gain in 18 months on Wednesday after December-quarter …
Privacy-focused MVNO Cape, which has raised $61M from a16z and others, launches across the US following a March 2025 beta, offering a $99 monthly plan
AI sales startup Clay launches its second employee tender offer in under nine months, valuing it at $5B, up from $3.1B in August and $1.5B in its May 2025 offer
Momentum Works: the GMV of the online food delivery market in Southeast Asia's six biggest economies grew 18% YoY to $22.7B in 2025, and Grab accounted for 55%
SINGAPORE — Grab Holding's share of the Southeast Asian food delivery market rose to 55% last year, cementing its position …
Google expands Android's anti-theft suite, including a dedicated toggle for its Failed Authentication Lock feature on devices running Android 16 or later
Singapore-based Digital Edge plans to invest $4.5B to build a 500 MW hyperscale data center facility in Indonesia, with the first phase set to open in Q4 2026
Digital Edge, an Asian digital infrastructure firm backed by alternative asset manager Stonepeak Partners, plans to invest $4.5 billion …
AdImpact: Meta spent $6.4M in November and December 2025 to run TV ads in eight US state capitals and DC, aiming to change negative opinions about data centers
Apple releases iOS 12.5.8 for the iPhone 5s and iPhone 6, extending software support for these devices to 13 and 12 years after their respective launches
Clawdbot creator Peter Steinberger says he is changing the name of the viral AI agent to Moltbot after he “was forced to rename the account by Anthropic”
- Clawdbot, the viral AI agent that's leading techies to buy up Mac Minis, is now named Moltbot.
Sources: Google sends “cease and desist” letters to Kantar, halting Kantar and Barb's UK TV measurement tools comparing YouTube with linear TV and streamers
PayPal survey in October 2025: 40% of merchants already accept crypto, led by large enterprises, 85% expect crypto payments to be commonplace by 2030, and more
Partner offers — Quick Take — Four in 10 surveyed merchants said they already accept crypto at checkout …
Court filings: Mark Zuckerberg approved allowing minors to access AI chatbot companions that safety staffers warned were capable of sexual interactions
Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg approved allowing minors to access AI chatbot companions that safety staffers warned were capable …
Q&A with James Wu on leaving his role as DJI's chief scientist to found FJDynamics to build robots for labor intensive sectors like agriculture and construction
The former chief scientist at Chinese drone maker DJI explains why he is building robots for ‘forgotten’ sectors, such as agriculture
An interview with Mozilla President Mark Surman about plans to deploy its ~$1.4B in reserves to fund an AI “rebel alliance” to challenge companies like OpenAI
From his small, snow-covered farm outside Toronto, home to cats and a dog, and soon some donkeys …
Yahoo launches Scout, an AI answer engine powered by Claude, in beta for US users on desktop and mobile, and joins Microsoft's Publisher Content Marketplace
Sources: C3.ai is in talks to merge with Automation Anywhere, which would go public in the deal; C3.ai's market cap is now ~$1.7B, a tenth of its 2020 valuation
C3.AI, founded by tech industry veteran Thomas Siebel, is in talks to merge with privately held startup Automation Anywhere …
Google expands its AI Plus subscription to 35 new countries and territories, including the US at $7.99/month, with “enhanced access” to Gemini 3 Pro and more
Ai2 launches Open Coding Agents, starting with SERA, an open-source family that includes 32B and 8B parameter models designed to adapt to private codebases
Several Indian tech workers say they are buckling under deadline pressure and worry about layoffs, with many fearing conditions will worsen with the rise of AI
A wave of suicides and widespread AI-fueled layoffs reveal a workforce under extreme pressure.
Amazon plans to discontinue its Amazon One palm recognition system on June 3 and will automatically delete all user data; One remains for healthcare check-ins
TikTok settles a California lawsuit ahead of a landmark social media addiction trial; Snap recently settled the suit, while Meta and YouTube remain defendants
The settlement means TikTok will avoid a trial where plaintiffs had planned to argue that social media platforms are inherently defective …
France plans to replace Microsoft Teams and Zoom with French-made and Outscale-hosted Visio by 2027, as part of a push to drop US software vendors in government
France announced that it will roll out the Visio platform across all government departments by 2027.
The AI Whistleblower Initiative says OpenAI recently updated its whistleblower policy, addressing eight of 13 recommendations and going further than Anthropic
OpenAI recently updated its policy for handling whistleblower complaints, following concerns about AI startups ignoring what are standard rules applying to all companies.
Amazon partners with Harris Farm to offer fresh food delivery in Australia for the first time, starting in inner Sydney, free for Prime members on AU$100 orders
Amazon will deliver fresh food to homes in Australia for the first time after striking an agreement with Harris Farm Markets …
Pornhub parent Aylo says it will restrict UK users from February 2, after six months of complying with the UK's OSA; users who verified their ages can log in
Meta blocks users from sharing links to ICE List, which compiles names of DHS staffers; Meta cites a policy against “asking for personally identifiable” info
Users of Meta's social platforms can no longer share links to ICE List, a website listing what it claims are the names of thousands of DHS employees.
Internal documents from 2025: Microsoft expects its annual water consumption to reach 28B liters by 2030, up from 7.9B liters in 2020 and 10.4B liters in 2024
Driven by the artificial intelligence frenzy, Microsoft is internally projecting that water use at its data centers will more than double …LinkedIn:Adam Satariano.Forums:r/technologyLinkedIn:Adam Sata...
Crypto payments network Mesh raised a $75M Series C led by Dragonfly at a $1B valuation, bringing its total funding to $200M
A critique of a large UK social media study that suggested measures like social media bans are unlikely to have an effect on teens' long term mental health
The “moral panic” framing misses how platforms actually harm kids. PLUS: Newsom investigates TikTok over Trump, and the Clawdbot frenzy
Google adds Gemini 3 to AI Overviews as the default model globally and now lets users ask follow-up questions “seamlessly” via AI Mode
Gemini 3 is coming to AI Overviews and you can ask follow-ups for a ‘seamless Search experience.’ — Google is making Search less about links and more about AI.
WhatsApp launches Strict Account Settings, a high-security mode to protect high-risk users like journalists and public figures from sophisticated cyberattacks
Meta's WhatsApp messaging service is offering users an advanced security mode, joining a growing number of U.S. tech firms …
Sources: Nvidia has allocated ~70% of its 2026 HBM4 demand to SK Hynix; Counterpoint estimates SK Hynix will account for 54% of the global HBM4 market in 2026
SK hynix Inc. has secured over two-thirds of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) supply orders from U.S. tech giant Nvidia Corp. to be used …
Internal Slack message: Sam Altman tells OpenAI staff that “What's happening with ICE is going too far” and he hopes President Trump “will rise to this moment”
SEC filing: Pinterest plans to lay off less than 15% of its workforce by Q3 and cut back on office space, saying it is “reallocating resources” to AI teams
Pinterest said Tuesday it plans to lay off less than 15% of its workforce and cut back on office space as the company embraces artificial intelligence.
Sources: Hugging Face declined Nvidia's $500M investment offer at a $7B valuation in late 2025; Hugging Face says it does not want a single dominant investor
Sources: SoftBank is in talks to invest up to $30B more in OpenAI; SoftBank is already one of its largest shareholders after investing $22.5B in December 2025
The Japanese conglomerate is exploring further investment as part of the startup's efforts to raise up to $100 billion
OpenAI launches Prism, a free cloud-based LaTeX editor that embeds GPT-5.2 to assist in scientific paper drafting and citation management
OpenAI just revealed what its new in-house team, OpenAI for Science, has been up to. The firm has released a free LLM-powered tool for scientists called Prism …
Sources: CISA's interim director Madhu Gottumukkala triggered automated security warnings in summer 2025 by uploading sensitive documents to ChatGPT
Cybersecurity sensors at CISA flagged the uploads this past August, said the four officials. One official specified there were multiple …
TikTok says the new US entity has not updated its algorithm since the joint venture was announced, after users accused it of suppressing posts related to ICE
Some users had accused the app of blocking them from posting videos about Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The app said it was a power outage issue.
Paolo Ardoino says Tether now holds ~140 tons of gold, worth ~$23B, has been buying one to two tons per week, and plans to keep doing so for the next few months
There are roughly 370,000 nuclear bunkers in Switzerland, a legacy of the Cold War that are now rarely used. One of them, though, is a hive of activity.
Sources: Anthropic raises its revenue forecasts to $18B in 2026, $55B in 2027, and $148B in 2029, delaying its cash flow positive expectations by a year to 2028
TikTok US says it doesn't “have rules against sharing the name Epstein in direct messages” and is “investigating why some users are experiencing issues”
Bobby Allyn /NPR:
ASML reports record quarterly bookings of €13.2B in Q4, beating €6.32B est., and projects its 2026 full-year sales at between €34B and €39B, above €35B est.
UpdateBenzinga:ASML Q4 Net Bookings Surge To €13.2B, Includi...Associated Press:ASML: Q4 Earnings Snapshot
Cloudflare stock surged 9.2% on Monday and ~9% on Tuesday as users of Moltbot, previously Clawdbot, adopt the Cloudflare Tunnel tool to secure their connections
Nate Wolf /Barron's Online:
Microsoft Q2 gaming revenue fell 9% YoY, including a 32% drop in Xbox hardware revenue and a 5% decline in Xbox content and services, which includes Game Pass
• 💻 Windows OEM + devices revenue up 1% — • 👾 Gaming rev down 9% — • 🕹️ Xbox content + services rev down 5% — • 🎮 Xbox hardware rev down 32% — full details here 👇 …
Microsoft says capital expenditures for Q2 hit $37.5B, exceeding analyst estimates for $36.2B; MSFT drops 4%+ after hours
Matt Day /Bloomberg:
Meta expects 2026 capex to be $115B-$135B, compared with a $110.6B analyst estimate and $72.2B in 2025, driven by investments in superintelligence labs
Riley Griffin /Bloomberg:
Meta reports Reality Labs Q4 revenue of $955M vs. $940.8M est. and a $6.02B operating loss vs. $5.67B est.; Reality Labs now has $75B+ in losses since late 2020
stock down ahead of Q4 results, AI spending biggest worryAli Merchant /Investing.com:Meta Earnings Preview: Big AI Bets and Reality Labs Drag on OutlookForums:r/technology:Meta's Reality Labs posts $6...