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Sergey Brin published an internal memo to Google's Gemini employees recommending 60-hour work weeks and requiring employees to be in office every weekday. He wrote 'Competition has accelerated immensely and the final race to AGI is afoot. I think we have all the ingredients to win this race, but we are going to have to turbocharge our efforts.'

Australian Federal Police and regulators executed search warrants at WiseTech offices regarding alleged trading by founder Richard White and three employees during late 2024 to early 2025. White reportedly sold $200M+ in shares without following proper processes, including during blackout periods when executives are prohibited from trading.

On February 26, 2025, Jeff Bezos announced that The Washington Post's opinion section would only publish columns 'in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets,' and that viewpoints opposing those pillars would not be published. Opinion editor David Shipley resigned following the announcement. Former executive editor Marty Baron wrote that Bezos was doing this 'out of fear of the consequences for his other business interests.' Over 75,000 subscribers cancelled within two days. Senator Bernie Sanders called it 'what Oligarch ownership of the media looks like.' The move followed Bezos's October 2024 decision to block the paper's Harris endorsement.

At Apple's February 2025 shareholder meeting, Tim Cook defended DEI programs, stating 'Our strength has always come from hiring the very best people and providing a culture of collaboration.' Over 97% of shareholders voted against a proposal to end DEI efforts. Trump attacked Apple the next day on Truth Social, writing 'APPLE SHOULD GET RID OF DEI RULES.'

Qualcomm progressively escalated its return-to-office requirements: initial policy suggested 2 days per week, upgraded to 4 days in May 2023, and announced full 5-day in-office mandate in February 2025. CEO Cristiano Amon announced during an all-hands meeting on February 19, 2025, that 5 days in office would be fully implemented by end of FY25. Employees not in compliance with the 4 days/week mandate received notices giving them 45 days to comply before termination. Employee comments on forums describe concerns about work-life balance and 'worst toxic management' with 'unimaginable' stress levels.

On February 18, 2025, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative disbanded its diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility team, just 39 days after reassuring concerned staff on January 10 that Meta's DEI cuts would not affect CZI. CZI COO Marc Malandro cited 'the shifting regulatory and legal landscape.' CZI also canceled its $1.5 million Science Diversity Leadership Awards, ended its Diverse Slate Practice for hiring, scrubbed all DEI references from its website, and laid off staff working on affordable housing and economic inclusion. The move followed Meta's own DEI rollback and Zuckerberg's $1M Trump inauguration donation.

On February 16, 2025, a cyclist was hospitalized after being doored by a passenger exiting a Waymo robotaxi. The cyclist sued Waymo, alleging the vehicle had stopped in an unsafe location and failed to warn passengers before exiting. The incident raised questions about autonomous vehicle passenger safety protocols.

In 2025, Alibaba was confirmed as Apple's AI partner for China. Users have an additional Alibaba layer over Apple Intelligence that manipulates output to ensure all information is censored according to Chinese government requirements. This partnership enables systematic content filtering and government compliance in AI responses.

A spokesperson at Hewlett Packard Enterprise confirmed to The Register that it is not dismantling its DEI team, stating: 'We know that differences of experiences, perspectives, opinions, and ways of thinking lead to better debate, better innovation, and better decision making.' CEO Antonio Neri has championed DEI, and HPE was named 'America's Most Just Company' for 2024 by JUST Capital.

An 18-month investigation by The Markup, The Guardian, and The 19th revealed Match Group's internal 'Sentinel' database tracked hundreds of assault reports weekly since 2019, yet banned users could rejoin without changing their name, birthday, or photos. A promised 2020 transparency report was never released, and Congressional requests from 11 members were ignored since 2020. The company dismantled its central Trust & Safety team in 2024, outsourcing to overseas contractors.

In February 2025, Microsoft contributed $100,000 to oppose Proposition 1A, a ballot measure to fund Seattle's social housing authority through a 5% payroll tax on companies for salaries over $1 million. Microsoft joined Amazon and other corporate donors in spending $780,000 total against the measure. Despite the corporate opposition, the measure passed with 63% voter support.

In February 2025, Amazon contributed $100,000 to oppose Proposition 1A, a ballot measure to fund Seattle's social housing authority through a 5% payroll tax on companies for salaries over $1 million. Amazon joined Microsoft and other corporate donors in spending $780,000 total against the measure. Despite the corporate opposition, the measure passed with 63% voter support.

On February 7, 2025, Infosys terminated hundreds of freshers at its Mysuru campus. NITES (IT union) alleged freshers were confined in rooms with security, forced to sign 'mutual separation' letters under duress, and evicted from campus the same day. These recruits had waited 2+ years after receiving offer letters. India's Ministry of Labour directed Karnataka to investigate. A second round terminated 240 more trainees in April 2025.

In 2025, Google systematically retreated from its diversity, equity, and inclusion commitments. In February, the company announced it would end diversity-based hiring goals, review its DEI initiatives, and removed DEI commitments from its annual report, citing compliance with federal policies. By August, Google had purged more than 50 DEI-related organizations from its funding list, including the African American Community Service Agency, Latino Leadership Alliance, and similar groups. The rollback followed the Trump administration's executive orders against DEI programs.

PayPal has largely removed language on diversity from the human capital section of its annual report to investors. Bloomberg Law reported on February 5, 2025, that PayPal cut diversity language in its new report to shareholders.

Demis Hassabis co-authored the February 2025 blog post justifying removal of Google's 2018 pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance. The post framed military AI as necessary for 'democracies to lead' in AI development. This contradicted DeepMind's founding promise that its technology would never be used for military purposes.

Google removed its commitment to abstain from using AI for weapons and surveillance from its updated AI Principles. The prior version stated the company would not pursue 'weapons or other technologies whose principal purpose or implementation is to cause or directly facilitate injury to people' and 'technologies that gather or use information for surveillance violating internationally accepted norms.' Amnesty International called it 'a shame that Google has chosen to set this dangerous precedent.'

HP Inc announced it would lay off up to 2,000 more employees as part of a continuing cost-cutting plan, bringing the total number of job cuts under the restructuring to as many as 9,000. The company said it would save an additional $300 million by the end of its fiscal 2025. CEO Enrique Lores said the layoffs will hit 'all over the company,' including factory workers, consumer support reps, HR administration, and legacy tech engineers.

NY Attorney General Letitia James announced a $16.75 million settlement with DoorDash for misleading consumers and delivery workers by using tips intended for Dashers to subsidize their guaranteed pay. Between May 2017 and September 2019, DoorDash used customer tips to offset the base pay it had already guaranteed to workers. Approximately 63,000 New York delivery workers benefited from this settlement.

In February 2025, Google eliminated its 2018 pledge not to develop AI for harmful purposes including weaponry and surveillance. The original pledge came after employee protests over Project Maven, a US Defense Department initiative using AI to analyze drone footage. The company now pursues military contracts including a $200M DoD CDAO contract.

In February 2025, Beyond Meat laid off 64 employees (9% of global workforce) and halted all operations in China. In August 2025, the company cut an additional 44 employees (6% of global workforce) in North America. These layoffs came amid continued declining revenues, with Q2 2025 US retail revenues falling 27% and total sales dropping 19.6% year-over-year. CEO Ethan Brown acknowledged it was 'not the moment for plant-based meat right now.'

Workday announced it would cut 8.5% of its workforce in favor of investing in artificial intelligence to counter a 'softer macroeconomic environment.'

Booking Holdings announced layoffs of 'more than 200 and fewer than 1,000' employees at Booking.com, primarily affecting its Amsterdam workforce of 7,000. This came despite reporting a 37% increase in net profit to $5.9 billion in 2024. The company claimed layoffs were 'not a cost-cutting measure' but 'an effort to operate more efficiently.' Previous layoffs: 2,700 in 2022, 4,000 in 2020.

At a book talk at Colonial Theater in February 2025, Bill Gates stated 'I will say that some of these diversity things probably have gone too far, too far.' He added that he would try to 'help the reinvention' of DEI but felt issues of poverty had been overlooked.

At Paris AI Summit, Amodei stated governments need to enforce transparency of safety plans and facilitate measurement of cyber attacks, CBRN, autonomy, and other global security risks by third-party evaluators. Warned of AI systems becoming 'country of geniuses in a datacenter' by 2026-2027.

Shopify dismantled its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in early 2025, following a broader trend among tech companies retreating from DEI commitments.

Reddit filed a lawsuit in California state court against Anthropic, alleging the AI company made over 100,000 unauthorized requests to Reddit's servers to collect user posts and comments without permission. The suit alleged Anthropic circumvented Reddit's robots.txt file and refused to engage in licensing negotiations, unlike Google and OpenAI which entered formal licensing agreements. The case raised questions about intellectual property rights and data protection for user-generated content.

In February 2025, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a $16.75 million settlement with DoorDash for misleading consumers and delivery workers. Between May 2017 and September 2019, DoorDash used customer tips to offset base pay it had already guaranteed workers, rather than paying tips on top. If a customer tipped $6 on a $10 guaranteed order, DoorDash would only pay $4 base - the worker still got $10 total. DoorDash told customers 'Dashers will always receive 100% of the tip' while using tips to reduce its own costs. About 63,000 New York delivery workers were affected.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered Wise to pay approximately $2.5 million for alleged illegal remittance practices, including advertising inaccurate fees and failing to properly disclose exchange rates. The consent order requires approximately $450,000 for consumer redress and a $44,955 civil penalty.

On January 29, 2025, Mark Zuckerberg agreed to pay $25 million to settle Donald Trump's lawsuit over his 2021 Facebook/Instagram suspension. $22 million was directed to a nonprofit that will become Trump's presidential library. Negotiations began after Zuckerberg's November 2024 dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, where Trump raised the litigation. Trump later claimed Meta's policy changes were 'probably' due to threats he made against Zuckerberg.