According to a Bloomberg report, the layoffs are expected shortly after Microsoft’s fiscal year ends on June 30. While the number of affected employees has not been disclosed, the planned cuts are expected to go beyond staffing, with reductions also being considered across marketing and other operational budgets.

The restructuring will be the first major overhaul since Asha Sharma became chief executive of Xbox in February.

Sharma reportedly outlined the challenges facing the gaming business in an internal message to employees. She said Xbox’s accountability margin had fallen to just 3% despite the company spending more than $20 billion over the past five years on content, platforms and hardware subsidies. During the same period, annual revenue declined by almost $500 million.

The Xbox chief told staff the business would need to rebuild parts of its platform infrastructure and reassess its portfolio in the months ahead. Bloomberg reported that Sharma and Chief Content Officer Matt Booty have described the current period as an “Xbox Reset”, aimed at putting the division on a more sustainable path.

The planned changes come as Xbox works to overcome challenges across several parts of its business. Microsoft’s drive into subscription gaming and cloud services has not delivered the growth needed to offset weaker console sales.

At the same time, the company has faced complaints over a lack of major exclusive titles capable of driving hardware demand.

Growth in Game Pass subscriptions has also stalled. In April, Microsoft cut Game Pass prices and announced that future Call of Duty titles would no longer launch on the service on day one, marking one of the first major strategic changes under Sharma’s leadership.

The company is also dealing with high hardware costs. Reports say increasing component prices have significantly raised storage costs, creating additional pressure on Microsoft’s long-term console plans, including work linked to its next-generation gaming platform, codenamed Helix.

As part of the reset, Xbox is expected to place greater emphasis on its biggest gaming franchises, including Halo, Gears of War and Forza.

The company recently confirmed that upcoming titles such as Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution will not launch on competing platforms including PlayStation and Nintendo Switch, while it focuses on strengthening the Xbox ecosystem.

Microsoft has not publicly commented on the reported layoffs.

The platform expects the unit to reach an annualised run rate of about $100 million in the next fiscal year, according to a source familiar with the plan.

The Microsoft-owned company introduced BrandWorks internally in March 2026. Since then, the team has expanded by roughly 60%, with new hires coming from TikTok, Meta and X.

It now focuses on building higher-performing campaigns for enterprise clients, including SAP, IBM and ServiceNow.

BrandWorks also runs programmes that link advertisers with creators. One of them, Top Voices 360, supports sponsored content partnerships and has generated over $20 million between May 2025 and May 2026.

“We’re developing services that are designed to meet the marketer where they are,” said Alex Josephson, vice president of BrandWorks, who previously built a similar offering called Twitter Next.

LinkedIn is enhancing its focus in B2B advertising, even as it competes with much larger companies in digital ads. Its advertising business brought in $8.2 billion in 2025 and is projected to rise to $9.7 billion in 2026, with a further increase to $11.3 billion expected in 2027.

Even with that growth, LinkedIn is still smaller than Meta and Google in overall ad scale. Still, it has carved out a strong niche, with about 80% of B2B marketing budgets now flowing into search and social platforms.

“We estimate that 80% of B2B budgets go into search and social media, with Google and LinkedIn the primary beneficiaries of those B2B dollars,” said Luke Stillman, managing director at trend advisory firm Madison and Wall.

LinkedIn’s ad footprint is also expanding in relative terms. It accounts for about 3.2% of US digital ad spend, 2.4% in the UK, and less than 2% across markets such as Brazil, France, Canada and Germany.

Video has become an important part of its strategy. The company reports that vertical video uploads rose by 36% in 2025. CEO video posts have also increased by 68% over the past two years.

Younger users are driving some of that transition. LinkedIn says Gen Z is its fastest-growing audience, with higher engagement in video content and creator-led posts.

BrandWorks by LinkedIn also supports BrandLink, a video-focused advertising programme. The company expects BrandLink revenue to nearly triple in the current fiscal year, although it has not disclosed the base figure.

Following the long-awaited overhaul, the company says the system will bring deeper intelligence across its devices, but it will not launch everywhere at the same time.

The update focuses on a more conversational assistant that can understand context across apps and screens. It also allows users to interact with Siri in a more continuous way, including through a dedicated interface that stores recent interactions privately.

Apple says Siri AI can now search across Messages, Mail, Photos and Calendar to surface personal information when needed. It also reads what is on a device screen and responds based on that content. The assistant is also designed to work across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, AirPods and Vision Pro.

A camera-linked feature adds another layer, where users can point their device at objects and ask Siri to interpret them. Apple says this can include tasks such as analysing food items or helping split shared bills.

At the core of the system is what Apple calls “Apple Intelligence”, built on its own Foundation Models. The company says some tasks will run on-device, while more complex requests will use Private Cloud Compute.

Apple stated that “Privacy at Every Step,” is still very much central to the design, explaining that external support from Google’s Gemini model helps with some cloud-based functions. However, the company maintains that user data is not stored in a way that links back to individuals.

Despite the rollout, access will be restricted in key markets at launch. Users in the European Union will not receive Siri AI on iPhone or iPad when iOS 27 and related updates arrive later this year. China will also miss the initial rollout.

Apple links the European restriction to regulatory demands under the Digital Markets Act. The company argues that it cannot safely integrate the system under current conditions.

In its statement, it said regulators require “direct access to users’ private data – and the ability to directly control other installed applications – as soon as Siri AI is made available in the EU without the necessary safeguards to ensure user and data safety”.

The company also referenced its earlier proposal to regulators, describing a “Trusted System Agent” approach, which it says was not accepted. Apple maintains that the rejected model would have allowed safer integration with competing assistants.

Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, said EU users will not get Siri AI on iPhone or iPad with the new operating system releases this year. He confirmed the restriction during the announcement window.

The company also stated that “extreme interpretation of the DMA” influenced its decision to hold back the feature. It added that it sees “clear dangers to EU users” under the current framework.

Even so, Apple confirmed that EU users will still access Siri AI on Mac computers and Vision Pro headsets. Those platforms will run macOS 27 and visionOS 27 with the feature included.

In China, Apple says approvals are still in progress, and no timeline has been confirmed for a full rollout. The company has not announced Siri AI availability for mainland China at launch.

It added that Hong Kong may receive earlier access, depending on language support and regulatory clearance. English-language beta testing is expected to begin in select regions later.

Apple’s strategy places Siri AI at the centre of its software ecosystem. The assistant will be integrated across iOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27, visionOS 27 and tvOS 27. The company is positioning this as a shift towards a more AI-led operating system design.

Developer access is already open through beta releases, with public testing expected around July 2026. A full release is expected later in the year, likely alongside the next iPhone cycle.

This places the artificial intelligence firm among the world’s most valuable private technology companies ahead of a possible stock market debut.

The Series H round drew backing from investment firms including Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, Sequoia Capital, Capital Group, Coatue and D1 Capital Partners.

Investors such as Baillie Gifford, Blackstone, Brookfield, DST Global and Fidelity Management & Research also joined the round.

The funding package also includes $15 billion in previously committed investments from large cloud companies, including $5 billion from Amazon announced earlier this year.

Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron joined the round as strategic infrastructure partners.

With the funding, Anthropic plans to expand computing capacity, grow its Claude products and continue research into safety and interpretability.

The company announced the funding on the same day it released Claude Opus 4.8, its latest model focused on coding, advanced reasoning and what it described as stronger honesty and self-correction abilities.

Anthropic has expanded rapidly since its last fundraising round in February, helped by rising demand from business customers using Claude Code and other enterprise tools. The company said its annualised revenue run rate passed $47 billion earlier this month.

“Claude is increasingly indispensable to our growing global community of customers, and we work tirelessly to make tools like Claude Code and Cowork more helpful, more powerful, and more adaptable to their needs,” said Krishna Rao, chief financial officer of Anthropic.

“This funding will help us serve the historic demand we are experiencing, stay at the research frontier, and bring Claude to more of the places where work happens.”

The company also said it recently signed new agreements with Amazon, Google, Broadcom and SpaceX to secure more computing power as demand for Claude grows.

Under those agreements, Amazon will provide up to five gigawatts of additional capacity, while Google and Broadcom will supply next-generation TPU infrastructure. SpaceX will also provide access to GPU capacity through its Colossus systems.

Anthropic revealed that Claude is now available across Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure, with AWS remaining its main cloud and training partner.

“Claude’s latest advancements have driven large-scale adoption among the world’s most demanding organisations. This momentum positions Anthropic to lead the next phase of AI innovation and capture the enormous opportunity ahead,” said Brad Gerstner, founder and CEO of Altimeter Capital.

Marc Stad, managing partner at Dragoneer, said, “The technological progress we are seeing right now is breathtaking. And we believe that we are still in the earliest days of both the development and commercialisation of this technology.”

Neil Mehta, founder and managing partner at Greenoaks, added, “Rarely has a company’s culture, mission, and commercial momentum reinforced each other so completely. We are honoured to deepen our partnership.”

With competition increasing among leading artificial intelligence companies seeking more users, stronger computing infrastructure and fresh investment before entering public markets, Anthropic’s latest raise will strengthen its place.

Earlier this year, OpenAI secured a funding round valued at $852 billion after investment, while Elon Musk’s xAI, now merged with SpaceX, has reportedly targeted a $2 trillion valuation ahead of a future public offering.

The company said it will start using internal detection systems from May 2026 to identify videos containing what it described as “significant photorealistic AI” content.

When creators fail to disclose that material, YouTube will now add the label automatically.

The update also changes where viewers see those warnings. Instead of hiding them inside video descriptions, YouTube will place labels directly below long-form videos and over Shorts, making them easier to spot.

YouTube has required creators since 2024 to disclose content made with AI tools when videos could realistically be mistaken for real people, places or events. However, content that was clearly fictional, animated or unrealistic did not need the same treatment.

Now, the company says it wants a more reliable system as AI video tools become harder to distinguish from real footage.

“We’ve heard consistently from our community that they value transparency when it comes to generative AI content,” YouTube said.

“That’s why since 2024, we’ve been labeling content when creators disclose they’ve used AI tools.”

The platform said the policy itself has not changed, but enforcement is becoming more active as AI-generated video quality improves.

The announcement follows the launch of Google’s Gemini Omni models at the company’s developer conference last week. Google said the models can generate highly realistic videos while showing an understanding of subjects including physics, science, history and culture.

Under the new system, creators will still be expected to disclose AI-generated content themselves. However, YouTube explained it will step in when its systems detect realistic AI content that has not been labelled.

“If a creator doesn’t specify whether or not they used AI, but our systems detect significant photorealistic AI use, we will now automatically apply a label,” the company said.

Creators who believe their content was wrongly flagged will be able to update the disclosure status through YouTube Studio. Still, YouTube said labels will remain permanent in some situations.

That includes videos produced using YouTube’s own AI tools such as Veo and Dream Screen. The same applies to videos carrying C2PA metadata showing they were fully generated with AI systems.

C2PA is an industry standard designed to help identify AI-generated and digitally altered media. Companies including OpenAI, Nvidia, Kakao and Eleven Labs have backed the standard in recent months.

YouTube is also changing how labels appear across the platform.

For long-form videos, labels will now be directly below the video player and above the description section. On Shorts, viewers will see them as overlays on the video itself.

The company said labels for unrealistic or lightly edited AI content will still appear only inside the expanded description section.

“By moving these labels on to the main stage, viewers get the context they need at a glance,” YouTube said.

The changes align with YouTube’s expansion of other tools aimed at detecting manipulated content. The company recently increased access to its AI deepfake detection system, allowing adults to scan the platform for videos that may contain their likeness.

At the same time, YouTube continues adding AI features across its services, including AI-generated video summaries, playlist tools for YouTube Music, interactive search functions and creation tools for creators.

Despite the labelling system, YouTube said the presence of an AI label will not affect recommendations or whether creators can make money from their videos.

“It’s important to note that a disclosure label alone does not change how a video is recommended or whether it’s eligible to earn money,” the company said.

The company said the feature works through a new command-line interface tool, now in beta, which connects Spotify with external coding agents such as OpenAI’s Codex, Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenClaw.

Users can generate private audio briefings or podcast-style content from notes, schedules, articles and other personal material, then listen to them inside the Spotify app.

Spotify also explained that the podcasts will remain private and do not appear for other users on the platform.

“People are already starting to use their agents to create personal audio that guides their day: from summaries of class notes before an exam to briefings of what’s on their calendar. And they’re asking for a way to listen to it on Spotify, where they already listen to everything else,” the company said in a blog post.

The tool lets users create different types of audio content depending on what they need. Someone preparing for work can generate a short morning briefing with meeting reminders, weather updates and podcast suggestions for their commute.

A student studying philosophy could also create weekly audio lessons based on saved notes, articles and research material.

Users who already work with coding agents on desktop can install the beta tool through its GitHub page. After signing into Spotify through a browser, they can write prompts describing the kind of podcast they want and ask the agent to save it directly to their Spotify account.

For example, a user could request an audio session explaining the history of the World Cup, including major players, host countries and details about this year’s tournament. The system then creates the podcast and adds it to the user’s library with a Spotify link for playback.

The company further noted that the feature is available to eligible Free and Premium users globally, although limits may apply during the testing period.

Spotify plans to continue adjusting the personal podcasts experience as it receives feedback from listeners and expands the beta programme.

On its online store, the Apple Mac mini no longer comes in 32GB or 64GB RAM variants. The higher option has gone, and the M4 Pro model now tops out at 48GB. If you go for the standard M4 version, you can only choose 16GB or 24GB.

The same pattern shows on the Apple Mac Studio, with the M3 Ultra model losing its top memory tiers. It now ships only with 96GB RAM, after Apple removed the 256GB option and other higher configurations.

On the delivery aspect, both machines now show shipping estimates of about nine to ten weeks, depending on the setup.

Another change affects pricing. Apple has dropped the 256GB storage option for the Mac mini. That means the entry model now starts at 512GB, pushing the base price from $599 to $799.

It’s worthy of note that Apple had already stopped taking orders for some higher-RAM Mac Studio and Mac mini models earlier in March and April. What we are seeing now is a difference in what remains available.

Speaking recently, Tim Cook said supply will stay tight for a while. “We think, looking forward, that the Mac mini and Mac Studio may take several months to reach supply-demand balance,” he said.

He also pointed to stronger demand than expected. According to him, more users are buying these machines to run artificial intelligence tools locally. That demand, combined with high memory costs, is forcing Apple to scale back certain configurations.

The pressure is coming from the global market. Demand for AI servers has driven up the cost of memory chips, especially DRAM and NAND. As a result, manufacturers are adjusting what they can offer.

Apple Mac is not alone in the challenge of memory shortage. Other PC makers, including Dell Technologies, HP Inc. and Lenovo, have also reported delays and fewer options for systems with large amounts of RAM.

As it stands, if you need higher memory on an Apple machine, options are limited. The company’s newer laptops, including models with its latest chips, still offer more flexibility. But on the desktop side, choices have narrowed, and it may stay that way for months.

The new feature will strengthen the company’s focus on artificial intelligence and conversational marketing, building on Sponsored Snaps, the adverts already placed in users’ Chat inboxes.

Until now, those ads were one-way messages, but with this update, users can reply, ask questions and receive recommendations from AI agents representing brands.

Snap said the aim is to place advertising inside spaces where people already talk and interact, rather than sending them elsewhere.

Ajit Mohan, chief business officer at Snap Inc., said: “Conversation is becoming the most valuable real estate in advertising. AI is accelerating that shift, turning chat into the place where people discover products, ask questions, and make decisions in real time. 

“The real opportunity isn’t just putting ads into those environments, it’s designing formats that feel native to how people already talk.”

The company said the format gives advertisers access to Snapchat’s nearly one billion monthly active users. Brands can bring their own AI tools onto the platform and use them to drive awareness, app installs and purchases.

Snapchat also shared new usage figures to support the launch, saying users sent more than 950 billion chats during the first quarter of 2026 alone. The company added that more than half a billion users have messaged its My AI chatbot since it launched in 2023.

According to Snap, 85% of users regularly use the Chat feed. It also said 57% of teenage users send messages daily, while four in ten do so several times a day.

The company further noted that Sponsored Snaps already deliver 22% more conversions with nearly 20% lower cost per action. It added that full-screen ad views generate twice as many conversions compared with some other ad placements.

Snapchat is starting the new product with an alpha launch alongside credit reporting and data firm Experian.

Steve Hartmann, head of Integrated Marketing at Experian, said: “This partnership reflects our commitment to meeting consumers where they are, with trusted insights that empower smarter financial decisions.

“AI Sponsored Snaps delivers a natural, conversational experience, allowing Snapchatters to connect with Experian about credit and money management right where they already feel comfortable. 

“We’re making financial education more accessible and intuitive by becoming part of their everyday conversations.”

Before now, Microsoft helped fund OpenAI’s rapid growth and used early access to its systems to build new tools across Windows, Office, Azure and other products.

Under the new agreement, Microsoft will remain OpenAI’s main cloud partner, but it will no longer have sole rights to host or distribute OpenAI technology.

That means OpenAI can now reach customers already using other cloud providers, instead of asking them to move to Microsoft Azure first.

Even so, OpenAI products are still expected to launch first on Azure unless Microsoft cannot, or chooses not to, support them.

Microsoft will also keep a non-exclusive licence to OpenAI’s intellectual property until 2032.

Another key change concerns money as Microsoft will no longer pay OpenAI a share of revenue from its own AI-related products. At the same time, OpenAI will continue paying Microsoft a 20% revenue share until 2030, though that amount now has a fixed upper limit.

Following the announcement, Microsoft shares fell about 1% in premarket trading on Monday, while Amazon and Alphabet, Google’s parent company, edged higher.

This means Microsoft has lost a strategic advantage, while its competitors now have a stronger path to offer OpenAI products through their own cloud services.

Still, aside from the exclusive deal, Microsoft is deeply tied to OpenAI. The software company owns about 27% of OpenAI, a stake estimated to be worth around $225 billion after OpenAI’s corporate restructuring last year.

The two companies have faced limitations in recent months, with reports in March saying Microsoft had considered going to court over a proposed $50 billion cloud deal involving Amazon and OpenAI that could have conflicted with earlier exclusivity terms.

There were also signs of stress inside OpenAI. Internal discussions reportedly revealed frustration that the old arrangement limited sales opportunities, especially among companies already committed to AWS or Google Cloud.

For OpenAI, the new structure provides room to expand faster and sell across more platforms.

For Microsoft, the deal removes exclusivity but secures long-term access to OpenAI technology while putting clearer limits on future payments.

For customers, it means more choice and less pressure to rely on a single cloud provider.

Marill, joining from Airbnb, where he held a similar leadership role, will oversee operations across the region and will be based in Paris.

The appointment gives OpenAI a senior executive focused solely on a region where demand for its products is increasing, but where political and business issues about dependence on American technology are also growing.

Emmanuel Marill will report to Jason Kwon, chief strategy officer at OpenAI.

“As demand for ChatGPT and Codex continues to grow rapidly all over the world, we are investing significantly in our international leadership and operations,” Kwon said in a statement.

OpenAI has been aiming to win more paying business customers as it faces the high cost of developing new artificial intelligence systems. Europe is an important market, although some officials and company leaders have urged stronger support for home-grown technology firms.

French startup Mistral AI has positioned itself as a European alternative to major US companies such as OpenAI.

At the same time, OpenAI is still reviewing parts of its infrastructure plans in the region. Earlier this month, the company paused its Stargate data centre project in the United Kingdom, citing regulation and energy costs.

Microsoft, one of OpenAI’s biggest backers, later agreed to rent data centre capacity in Norway that had originally been linked to the project. OpenAI said it is still exploring a separate computing agreement there.

Marill will also lead the company’s efforts in the Middle East, where OpenAI has invested heavily, especially in the United Arab Emirates.

Its partner in the country, G42, recently said plans for a large data centre project is still on track despite tensions linked to the US conflict with Iran.

OpenAI has also signed agreements with businesses in banking, pharmaceuticals and media across Europe. It has worked with governments in Germany, Greece and Ireland, while also planning to increase staff numbers in London.

The company said in February that business subscriptions across Europe, the Middle East and Africa had grown sevenfold over the previous year, though it did not disclose revenue for the region.

Globally, Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar has said OpenAI’s annualised revenue exceeded $20 billion last year.