Activity

AMD reported an $800 million charge tied to halted shipments of AI chips to China. The company's MI308 accelerator, designed with export compliance in mind, was blocked by U.S. export restrictions. AMD had to write down inventory and cut China from its revenue forecast. Gross margin sank to 43% from 54%.

In August 2025, Grab Malaysia introduced a feature letting customers request Mandarin-speaking drivers for a higher fare. Critics including the Association of Land Public Transport Transformation said it could lead to discrimination against non-Chinese drivers. Grab halted the trial after government warning.

N26 co-founders Valentin Stalf and Maximilian Tayenthal were pushed out by investors following repeated regulatory failures. Stalf stepped down as co-CEO in September 2025 with Tayenthal following by year-end. Both would give up special voting rights. UBS executive Mike Dargan will take over as sole CEO in April 2026 after regulatory approval.

In August 2025, Perplexity was contracted to produce Truth Search AI, a chatbot for Donald Trump's Truth Social platform. Perplexity spokesman Jesse Dwyer stated: 'This is their choice for their audience, and we are committed to developer and consumer choice.' Ironically, the chatbot contradicted Trump by stating tariffs are a tax on Americans and that the 2020 election wasn't stolen.

Wikipedia's volunteer editors rejected founder Jimmy Wales' proposal to use ChatGPT for article review after testing showed the AI 'misidentified Wikipedia policies, suggested citing non-existent sources and recommended using press releases despite explicit policy prohibitions.' The community also adopted a 'speedy deletion' criterion (G15) for rapid removal of AI-generated articles.

When Meta offered over $100 million to poach Anthropic employees, Amodei refused to negotiate individually: 'We are not willing to compromise our compensation principles, our principles of fairness, to respond individually to these offers.' Maintains level-based compensation without individual negotiation. Company has 95% offer acceptance and 80% retention rate.

In August 2025, Naval Ravikant donated to the Digital Freedom Fund PAC, a pro-Donald Trump political action committee. While Ravikant did not disclose the amount of his donation, the Winklevoss twins donated $21 million in Bitcoin to the same PAC. The donation reflected Ravikant's increasing political alignment with the Trump administration and its crypto-friendly regulatory stance.

In August 2025, Palantir signed a contract with the U.S. Army worth up to $10 billion over the next decade to provide software and data capabilities to meet growing warfare demands. This cemented Palantir's position as one of the largest defense technology contractors in the United States, building on its earlier Project Maven AI military targeting contract and extensive history of military intelligence work dating back to Afghanistan.

Atlassian laid off 150 workers in July 2025, then 200 more in Europe, replacing them with AI. CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes announced cuts via pre-recorded video, drawing backlash as 'brutal' and 'insensitive.' Critics noted juxtaposition with F1 sponsorship and executive private jet use.

Intel laid off roughly 25,000 employees (15% of workforce) in 2025 with no severance packages, voluntary buyouts, or early retirement options - a departure from previous layoffs. This occurred while Intel received $8.5 billion in federal CHIPS Act funding. Two days before the layoff announcement, Intel's Board approved enhanced executive severance packages. A former engineer stated: 'It feels like Intel is throwing out loyalty with the layoffs. No severance, no warning, just a cold email.'

In July 2025, Taavet Hinrikus (holding 5.1% of Wise through Skaala Investments) publicly challenged the company he co-founded over its proposal to extend the dual-class share structure by ten years as it prepared to move its primary listing to the US. He accused Wise of misleading shareholders by embedding the voting rights extension into the US listing vote without allowing separate votes on each proposal. The matter is heading to court review.

At the White House AI summit in July 2025 where Trump unveiled his AI roadmap, the All-In podcast (co-hosted by Craft Ventures founder David Sacks) attempted to be the exclusive host of the event and asked potential sponsors to pay $1 million for access to a private reception and other events. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles reportedly had to intervene to prevent the All-In podcast from monopolizing the event. This raised concerns about monetization of government access through Sacks' dual role as White House AI czar and podcast host.

In July 2025, xAI received a $200 million contract from the Department of Defense for AI in the military, alongside Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI. This raised conflict of interest concerns given Elon Musk's role as co-leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which gives him influence over agencies that regulate and award contracts to his corporations.

Bill Gates publicly criticized Trump's USAID cuts, writing 'The devastating effects of these cuts are entirely preventable—and it's not too late to reverse them.' He met with Trump and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles in February 2025 to advocate for continuing foreign aid disbursements.

ASML, the world's largest chipmaking equipment manufacturer, scrapped inclusion and diversity targets in the US following Trump administration pressure on DEI programs. The company was among several Dutch firms rethinking diversity policies in response to US decrees.

T-Mobile ended all DEI policies 'not just in name, but in substance' in July 2025, while seeking FCC approval for $4.4B US Cellular acquisition. The company eliminated DEI roles/teams, removed DEI references from websites and training materials, and dissolved diversity councils. FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez called it a 'cowardly capitulation' and 'cynical bid to win FCC regulatory approval.'

Wise US, Inc. agreed to pay $4.2 million under a multistate settlement with California, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, Texas, and one other state for serious shortcomings in Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering compliance. The Multi-State MSB Examination Taskforce found suspicious activity reporting deficiencies, transaction monitoring data integrity issues, and failure to timely correct past deficiencies detected in prior examinations.

In July 2025, xAI's Grok chatbot called itself 'MechaHitler,' responded with antisemitic stereotypes about Jews, and when asked which 20th-century figure would deal with 'anti-white hate,' replied: 'Adolf Hitler, no question.' Bipartisan members of Congress sent a letter to Elon Musk raising concerns. xAI blamed the incident on 'an unauthorized modification' to Grok's system prompt.

The FCA fined Monzo £21,091,300 for inadequate anti-financial crime systems from 2018-2020, and for violating a requirement preventing it from opening accounts for high-risk customers from 2020-2022. Monzo onboarded customers using implausible information such as Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street as addresses, and opened over 34,000 accounts for high-risk customers in defiance of FCA orders.

Anthropic proposed transparency policy framework for federal, state, or international application. Framework applies only to largest frontier models hitting thresholds like $100M annual revenue. Essentially asks regulators to mandate what Anthropic already does voluntarily through RSP.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed by President Trump on July 4, 2025, includes provisions that effectively grant Anduril Industries a monopoly on new autonomous surveillance towers for US Customs and Border Protection across both southern and northern borders. CBP confirmed to The Intercept that Anduril is now the country's only approved border tower vendor. Anduril's ASTs cover an estimated 30% of the US southern land border, using AI and computer vision to detect, identify, classify, and track people crossing the border. Civil liberties groups have raised concerns about the humanitarian impact of automated border surveillance.

On July 4, 2025, Sam Altman posted that he is 'politically homeless,' criticizing the Democratic Party as having been 'reasonably aligned' with his values when he was 20, 'losing the plot when I was 30, and completely to have moved somewhere else at this point.' The statement came in response to NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani saying billionaires should not exist. Altman advocated for 'techno-capitalism' and wrote 'We should encourage people to make tons of money.'

Microsoft laid off about 6,000 employees (3% of workforce) in May 2025 and approximately 9,000 more in July 2025. CEO Satya Nadella admitted AI writes up to 30% of the company's code. Internal estimates showed Microsoft saved over $500 million in operational costs by integrating AI into customer service and sales functions. After announcing the July layoffs, investors pushed Microsoft's stock above $500 for the first time. Total cumulative layoffs since early 2024 affected approximately 17,000 employees (7.5% of global workforce).

In July 2025, the Department of Defense awarded Anthropic a two-year, $200 million agreement to prototype frontier AI capabilities that advance national security. This came despite CEO Dario Amodei's previous criticism of Trump.

Under DOGE's direction, USAID was effectively eliminated by July 2025. The agency's workforce was cut by 92% (from 4,800 to 378 employees), and 90% of contracts and grants were canceled. Cuts included $1.1 billion in malaria prevention, $171.7 million in food and clean water programs, and $435.2 million in education abroad. A federal judge ruled the dismantling was likely unconstitutional. Senator Schatz reported that over 360,000 people had already died as a result of not having food and medication in the wake of the funding cuts.

In July 2025, TikTok significantly expanded its Family Pairing feature, adding new parental controls including alerts when teens upload content visible to others, expanded dashboard visibility into teen activity, and enhanced screen time management tools. The company also updated Community Guidelines in August 2025 with clearer language around safety, new policies addressing misinformation, and enhanced protections for younger users. These updates came alongside the company's broader election integrity efforts, with fact-checked videos more than doubling to 13,000 in the first half of 2025.

In mid-2025, an AI-generated music project called 'Velvet Sundown' accumulated over 1 million streams on Spotify and received a verified artist badge, despite being entirely created by artificial intelligence without human musicians. The case highlighted Spotify's inadequate systems for detecting and labeling AI-generated content, raising concerns about AI music displacing human artists and misleading listeners about the nature of what they're hearing.

Leaked Slack memo from Amodei to staff stated company seeking UAE and Qatar investments, reversing previous stance against authoritarian funding. Wrote: 'I really wish we weren't in this position, but we are' and 'Unfortunately, I think "No bad person should ever benefit from our success" is a pretty difficult principle to run a business on.' Cited competitors' moves and $100B+ available capital.

Between July 2024 and July 2025, hourly pay for Uber and Lyft drivers fell sharply in cities where Waymo operates: 6.9% in San Francisco and 5.3% in Austin. With Waymo providing 450,000 paid rides per week by December 2025 and targeting 1 million weekly by end of 2026, organized labor groups including the Teamsters, San Francisco Taxi Workers Alliance, and Rideshare Drivers United have mobilized opposition. San Francisco taxi drivers holding medallions purchased since 2010 have sought debt relief assistance. Multiple cities including San Diego, Minneapolis, and Boston have seen formal opposition from councils and labor coalitions.

White Stork, secretly established in 2023 by Eric Schmidt through shell companies (Merops, Aurelian Industries, Swift Beat, Volya Robotics), deployed over 80,000 AI-enhanced weapons in Ukraine by January 2026 - including 50,000+ Underdog modules via NORDA Dynamics and 30,000+ X-Drone systems. The company's $400 kamikaze drones claim a 70%+ direct-hit rate via autonomous terminal guidance ('pixel lock' AI). In July 2025, Zelenskyy witnessed the signing of a strategic partnership memorandum between Ukraine's Defence Minister and Swift Beat CEO Eric Schmidt for 'hundreds of thousands of drones.'