Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA
Big Four firm KPMG laid off about 400 consultants in its US advisory division on Wednesday. Loading audio narration… The cuts focused on consultants in regulatory risk advisory, customer operations, and financial services, a person familiar told Business Insider. These divisions have seen slowing demand in recent months, the person said.Employees were informed of the layoffs during a call at noon on Wednesday. On Reddit, posters who said they were employees reported that they received calendar invites for the call as early as Tuesday.Russ Grote, a spokesperson for KPMG, said in a statement to Business Insider that the firm’s actions…
Elon Musk was grilled for nearly three hours by OpenAI’s lawyer on his second day of testimony in a high-stakes civil trial — and he will face more cross-examination on Thursday. Loading audio narration… Here are the biggest takeaways from his time on the stand on Wednesday as he was questioned about how much control he wanted over OpenAI; his lawsuit against the company and cofounders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman; and communications with his now-partner Shivon Zilis.Musk explained why he waited years to sueOne of the biggest questions about Musk’s 2024 lawsuit is why he waited so long to…
Amazon was one of several tech giants that on Wednesday beat Wall Street’s first-quarter earnings expectations, offering more financial evidence that the AI boom continues to reward companies that supply the picks and shovels. Amazon’s cloud business is the latest example. Amazon Web Services, buoyed by its role in fueling the AI boom, saw its net sales increase 28% year-over-year, climbing to $37.6 billion, the company said Wednesday. It was the fastest growth rate for AWS in 15 quarters, Amazon president and CEO Andy Jassy said during the company’s earnings call. Jassy attributed AWS’ success to its role in providing…
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. Loading audio narration… 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…
Investor interest in Anthropic has reached a feverish pitch. The maker of the Claude AI assistant has received multiple preemptive offers to raise fresh capital of around $50 billion at a valuation in the $850 billion to $900 billion range, according to half a dozen sources familiar with the matter. Bloomberg and Business Insider reported earlier this month that Anthropic received multiple preemptive bids at an $800 billion valuation, but at that time, the company had not yet committed to a fundraise. Sources say, however, that Anthropic is finding it difficult to resist the pressure to secure more funding in…
Elon Musk came to a California federal court on Wednesday to argue that Sam Altman and his co-founders “stole a charity.” He left having admitted, under oath, that Tesla is not currently pursuing artificial general intelligence (AGI)— directly contradicting a tweet he’d posted just weeks earlier. It was that kind of day for Musk. The lawsuit he filed challenging the structure of OpenAI alleges Altman and the other co-founders tricked him into backing a non-profit, then launched the frontier lab’s for-profit arm and let it come to dominate the organization. After an occasionally testy Musk testified for hours, it appears…
When Meta released its quarterly earnings report on Wednesday evening, a colleague pointed out how Meta lost $4 billion on Reality Labs, the division responsible for its AR glasses, VR headsets, and VR software. I yawned at first. Meta losing $4 billion on Reality Labs just didn’t seem surprising. It’s a given. Reality Labs lost another $4 billion, and also, the sky is blue. Then I realized, that itself is notable — for Meta, losses on this unit are quite literally average behavior. Over its last 21 quarterly earnings reports, dating back to 2021, Meta has lost a total of…
As Meta employees brace for layoffs next month, the big question is how many humans it actually needs in the age of AI. Loading audio narration… In a telling moment during Wednesday’s first-quarter earnings call, CFO Susan Li said she “doesn’t really know” what the company’s ideal head count looks like.”I think there’s a lot of change right now, with AI capabilities advancing rapidly,” she said.That question is causing anxiety across tech, not just at Meta, which is set to cut 10% of its staff on May 20.Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg didn’t address the layoffs directly during the call, though…
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was asked point-blank by a Wall Street analyst on Wednesday how its revised OpenAI partnership would impact Microsoft’s financials. He said that the new agreement was a good deal for everyone. “We feel good about our partnership with OpenAI. I’m always very focused on any partnership and ensuring that there’s a win-win construct at all times. I mean, that’s how you can remain good partners.” He underscored that Microsoft has retained its access to OpenAI’s intellectual property — including its models and agent products — but that it no longer has to pay OpenAI for them.…
Despite the lingering perception that no one really uses Copilot, Microsoft said Wednesday that its user base and engagement are growing for the AI tool that’s baked into M365 apps like Word, Excel, and Outlook email. M365 Copilot now has 20 million paid enterprise Copilot seats, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said during the company’s quarterly earnings conference call. The company has quadrupled the number of companies paying for over 50,000 seats, Nadella said, noting that Bayer, Johnson & Johnson, Mercedes, and Roche have more than 90,000 seats. He pointed to the deal announced earlier this week with Accenture for over…