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24 Aug 2026

AI in China Triggers Mass Layoffs as 160 Beijing Coders Lose Jobs in Automation Push

Computer programmer Fei Zhaojun and 160 colleagues were laid off two weeks after his boss questioned if AI could replace human coders. As China accelerates AI adoption through its AI Plus initiative, workers face mounting displacement risks while the nation's slowing economy grapples with automation's mixed effects on employment and consumer confidence.

4 Sources

Nvidia revenue tops $96 billion as AI chip demand accelerates and memory commitments reach $160 billion

Nvidia delivered record-breaking Q2 results with $96.2 billion in revenue, up 106% year-over-year, driven by surging AI chip demand. CEO Jensen Huang declared AI has reached its inflection point as the company committed $160 billion to memory procurement and projected 70% revenue growth for fiscal 2028, despite ongoing supply constraints from TSMC and memory chip shortages.

88 Sources

AI Reduces Wage Growth by 6.7% in Exposed Occupations, Apollo Analysis Finds

Apollo Global Management's analysis reveals AI is suppressing wages rather than eliminating jobs. Workers in occupations highly exposed to AI experienced 6.7% slower wage growth after 2023, with lower-paid workers facing a 10.7% gap. Employment levels remained unchanged, challenging assumptions about AI's labor market impact.

2 Sources

TCS Secures $1.5 Billion Porsche Deal with MHP Acquisition for AI Deployment

India's largest IT services firm Tata Consultancy Services has acquired Porsche's IT consultancy MHP for €320 million while securing a five-year €1.25 billion AI deployment contract. The deal transfers 4,500 MHP employees to TCS and establishes a dedicated center of excellence for Porsche's digital transformation.

14 Sources

XPeng Robotics Secures $900M to Fast-Track IRON Humanoid Robot Production by End of 2026

XPeng's robotics unit raised over $900 million at a $6.3 billion valuation in what the company calls China's largest single-round private financing in embodied AI. The funding will accelerate mass production of its IRON humanoid robot, targeting 1,000 units monthly by December 2026, as Chinese automakers race against Tesla in the humanoid robotics market.

5 Sources

Nvidia pursues Perplexity investment at $30B valuation as AI search startup triples revenue

Nvidia is reportedly in talks to invest billions in Perplexity AI at a valuation exceeding $30 billion, marking a 50% jump from its $20 billion valuation a year ago. The AI-powered search company has tripled its annualized revenue to $750 million in eight months, driven by growth in AI agent workloads and conversational search capabilities.

9 Sources

Nvidia to Acquire Hugging Face for $13 Billion in Strategic Move to Dominate Open-Source AI

Nvidia is reportedly finalizing a $12.9 billion acquisition of Hugging Face, the leading open-source AI platform where developers share and deploy AI models. The deal positions Nvidia to control a critical piece of AI infrastructure as frontier labs like OpenAI and Anthropic develop their own chips, threatening the hardware giant's dominance.

41 Sources

SoftBank Seeks Another $10 Billion Loan Against OpenAI Stake Just Weeks After First Deal

SoftBank is pursuing a second $10 billion loan secured against its OpenAI stake, arriving just 22 days after closing an identical facility. The Japanese conglomerate is accelerating its borrowing cadence to refinance a $40 billion bridge loan due March 2027, while simultaneously planning up to $20 billion in bond sales to fund its $64.6 billion AI investment bet.

10 Sources

23 Aug 2026

Alibaba Raises $10.2 Billion in Record Share Sale to Accelerate AI Expansion

Alibaba completed a $10.2 billion share placement in Hong Kong to fund its AI infrastructure and capabilities. The record-breaking offering comes as the company reported a 75% quarterly profit decline driven by surging AI investments, with CEO Eddie Wu projecting a payback period of 2.5 years.

16 Sources

Nvidia to raise AI server prices over 15% in early 2027 as memory costs soar

Nvidia has notified its largest customers including Microsoft, Google, and Oracle of price increases exceeding 15% on AI servers shipping from early 2027. The hikes affect systems with Vera Rubin and Grace Blackwell chips, driven by unprecedented memory chip costs that Nvidia is passing through rather than absorbing despite its 75% gross margin.

19 Sources

Anthropic Shifts Strategy: $7B MatX Acquisition Abandoned as AI Lab Pursues In-House Chip Development

Anthropic discussed a $7 billion acquisition of AI chip startup MatX before abandoning the deal in favor of partnerships. The company hired Google TPU veteran Amir Salek to lead its push into hardware as it seeks to develop custom processors for its Claude AI models and reduce reliance on third-party suppliers.

7 Sources

22 Aug 2026

Nscale Eyes $3B IPO as AI Data Center Builder Races to Meet Surging Infrastructure Demand

London-based AI data center builder Nscale is preparing to raise $3 billion in a US IPO as soon as September, with Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase as underwriters. The company has $51 billion in contracted revenue and is expanding from 831 megawatts to 11 gigawatts of computing capacity across global sites.

4 Sources

Swiss National Bank warns AI may increase inflation short-term despite productivity gains

Swiss National Bank governing board member Petra Tschudin cautioned that artificial intelligence could push up inflation in the near term due to supply chain disruptions and chip shortages, even as the technology promises long-term productivity gains. Her warning aligns with recent IMF research questioning AI's deflationary potential.

2 Sources

21 Aug 2026

Nvidia Invests in Cloverleaf Infrastructure to Secure AI Data Center Pipeline

Nvidia has taken a minority investment in Cloverleaf Infrastructure, a data center developer founded in 2024. The partnership addresses critical infrastructure bottlenecks threatening AI expansion by securing power, cooling and computing resources for next-generation facilities across the United States.

6 Sources

Nvidia Strikes $7 Billion Poolside Deal to Build Open-Weight AI Models Against DeepSeek and OpenAI

Nvidia is paying $6 billion to license Poolside's AI model-building software and investing another $1 billion in the startup at a $12 billion valuation. The deal includes hiring 109 Poolside engineers to strengthen Nvidia's Nemotron project as the chipmaker positions itself to compete directly with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Chinese AI leaders like DeepSeek.

6 Sources

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