Homechevron_rightArchiveschevron_rightBusiness and Economy

Archives

Explore Stories by Date

29 Jan 2026

Meta stock surges 10% as revamped AI strategy delivers strong fourth-quarter financial results

Meta exceeded Wall Street expectations with $59.89 billion in Q4 revenue, up 24% year-over-year, and earnings of $8.88 per share. The company's artificial intelligence investments are paying off with measurable improvements in ad performance and engineering productivity. Despite projecting capital expenditures of $115-135 billion for 2026, investors rallied behind Meta's bullish revenue guidance and evidence that its revamped AI strategy is delivering tangible returns.

10 Sources

28 Jan 2026

Snap spins out AR glasses business into Specs Inc. to challenge Meta's smart glasses dominance

Snap is launching Specs Inc. as an independent subsidiary for its augmented reality smart glasses, seeking external investments to compete with Meta's Ray-Ban glasses. After investing over $3 billion across 11 years, Snap positions its see-through lenses and AI-powered Intelligence System as a new computing paradigm, with products expected later in 2026.

6 Sources

Amazon cuts 16,000 jobs as companies cite AI for layoffs, sparking 'AI-washing' debate

Amazon announced 16,000 corporate job cuts as part of its AI push, bringing total layoffs to 30,000 since October. But economists and analysts question whether artificial intelligence is truly driving these workforce reductions or if companies are using AI-washing to mask pandemic-era over-hiring and financial struggles. More than 50,000 layoffs cited AI in 2025.

22 Sources

Waabi raises $1 billion and partners with Uber to deploy 25,000 robotaxis on ride-hailing platform

Toronto-based autonomous vehicle startup Waabi has secured $1 billion in funding and formed a partnership with Uber to deploy at least 25,000 self-driving cars on the ride-hailing platform. The deal marks Waabi's first expansion beyond autonomous trucking, betting that its AI-centric technology can scale across multiple self-driving verticals where others have struggled.

10 Sources

SK hynix commits $10 billion to new U.S. AI solutions company as record profits surge on memory boom

South Korean memory giant SK hynix is establishing a $10 billion AI solutions company in the U.S., restructuring its California-based Solidigm subsidiary in the process. The move comes as the chipmaker posts record quarterly profits, with operating income surging 137% year-over-year driven by explosive demand for high-bandwidth memory chips used in AI data centers.

15 Sources

ASML reports record €13.2 billion orders as AI boom fuels unprecedented demand for EUV machines

Dutch semiconductor equipment giant ASML posted record fourth-quarter bookings of €13.2 billion, more than double analyst expectations and previous quarter results. The surge reflects chipmakers' growing confidence in sustained AI-related demand, with customers accelerating capacity plans for advanced logic and memory manufacturing. ASML projects revenue between €34-39 billion for 2026.

10 Sources

C3.AI in merger talks with Automation Anywhere as startup eyes public market entry

Enterprise artificial intelligence software provider C3.AI is negotiating a merger with privately held startup Automation Anywhere, according to The Information. If the deal materializes, Automation Anywhere would acquire C3.AI and go public as a result, marking a significant consolidation in the enterprise AI software market.

2 Sources

Amazon and SoftBank lead $100 billion OpenAI funding round as tech giants bet big on ChatGPT maker

Amazon is negotiating a $50 billion investment in OpenAI as part of a massive $100 billion funding round that could value the AI company at $830 billion. SoftBank is also in talks to invest up to $30 billion more, while Microsoft and Nvidia consider joining. The capital raise comes as OpenAI faces mounting costs and investor concerns about its ability to deliver returns on its $1.4 trillion in spending commitments.

16 Sources

27 Jan 2026

Anthropic doubles funding target to $20B as enterprise AI revenue surges toward $18B in 2026

Anthropic has doubled its latest venture capital funding target from $10 billion to $20 billion at a $350 billion valuation, driven by booming investor demand. The AI company behind Claude large language models is projecting $18 billion in revenue for 2026—a 180% jump fueled by enterprise customers. With 85% of revenue now coming from corporate contracts, Anthropic is positioning itself as a formidable OpenAI competitor in the enterprise AI adoption race.

8 Sources

Corning lands $6 billion Meta deal for AI data centers, stock surges to near-record highs

Meta has committed to paying Corning up to $6 billion through 2030 for fiber-optic cables in its AI data centers, sending the 175-year-old glassmaker's stock soaring 16%. The deal supports Meta's plan to build 30 data centers, including 26 in the U.S., as part of a $60 billion infrastructure investment. Corning will expand its North Carolina manufacturing facility to become the world's largest fiber-optic cable plant.

7 Sources

Cloudflare stock surges 14% as Clawdbot AI agent buzz ignites edge computing demand

Cloudflare shares jumped 14% premarket Tuesday after viral social media buzz around Clawdbot, an AI agent built on Anthropic's Claude, rekindled investor interest in the company's infrastructure. The open-source agent drew thousands of GitHub stars over the weekend, signaling that agentic AI systems capable of autonomous task execution are moving beyond demos toward real-world applications.

3 Sources

Pinterest cuts 15% of workforce to redirect resources toward artificial intelligence initiatives

Pinterest announced plans to lay off less than 15% of its workforce—roughly 700 employees—by late September 2026 as part of a strategic shift to AI. The company will reallocate resources to AI-focused roles while reducing office space, incurring pre-tax restructuring charges of $35 million to $45 million. Despite the AI investment push, investor skepticism sent shares tumbling nearly 10%.

21 Sources

Sam Altman announces dramatic hiring slowdown at OpenAI as AI efficiency reshapes workforce needs

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed plans to dramatically slow hiring as AI tools enable smaller teams to accomplish more work. Speaking at a town hall event, Altman emphasized avoiding aggressive hiring followed by layoffs, while acknowledging ChatGPT's writing performance declined due to focus on coding and math capabilities in GPT-5.2.

4 Sources

Micron commits $24 billion to Singapore plant as AI demand strains global memory supply

U.S. chipmaker Micron Technology announced a $24-billion wafer fabrication plant in Singapore to address acute memory chip shortages driven by AI infrastructure demand. The facility will add 700,000 square feet of cleanroom space with production starting in 2028, but analysts warn supply constraints may persist through late 2027.

8 Sources

26 Jan 2026

Saudi Arabia's The Line pivots from futuristic desert city to AI data center hub

Saudi Arabia is drastically downsizing its ambitious Neom megaproject, The Line, which was designed to house 9 million people across 170 kilometers. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman now plans to repurpose the site as an AI data center hub, leveraging Red Sea access for seawater cooling. The shift follows project delays, budget overruns, and financial constraints from declining oil revenues.

4 Sources

Get all updates into your inbox 💌, Stay Up-to-date for Free 🥳

Your Daily Dose of Curated AI News

Don’t drown in AI news. We cut through the noise - filtering, ranking and summarizing the most important AI news, breakthroughs and research daily. Spend less time searching for the latest in AI and get straight to action.

The Outpost

News

About