Global equity markets suffered sharp losses on Wednesday after technology companies unveiled huge investment plans for artificial intelligence infrastructure, triggering investor concerns about profitability and the long-term sustainability of such spending. As a result, the combined market value of major Big Tech firms has fallen by more than $1 trillion over the past week, with shares of companies such as Amazon and Oracle coming under particularly strong pressure.
A group of U.S. senators has introduced an amendment to online child-protection legislation that would require accounts belonging to users under the age of 18 on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to be set to private by default.
YouTube is rolling out a restriction that prevents background video playback in third-party mobile browsers, even when users rely on Picture-in-Picture mode. The change mainly affects people who access YouTube through mobile web browsers instead of the official app — and may push them toward installing the native app or subscribing to YouTube Premium.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced that it will release hundreds of millions of sterile, fluorescent New World screwworm flies along the Texas–Mexico border to maintain a barrier preventing the parasitic fly from spreading north. The move comes in response to a growing outbreak in Mexico and the serious threat the pest poses to livestock, the agricultural economy, and public health.
A US federal vaccine advisory committee has announced that it will re-assess all existing vaccination recommendations. Statements from its new chair have triggered strong reactions from the public-health community, which warns that a shift in the committee’s operating philosophy could accelerate declines in vaccination coverage and increase outbreaks of infectious diseases in the United States.
Oracle is reportedly considering cutting between 20,000 and 30,000 jobs and selling parts of its assets in order to raise funds for a rapid build-out of data-center infrastructure for artificial intelligence projects. The scale of the potential layoffs would rank among the largest in the company’s history.
Madhu Gottumukkala, the acting director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), has become the focus of controversy after uploading government documents marked “For Official Use Only” to the public version of ChatGPT.
The French government has decided to roll out its own secure video-conferencing platform, Visio, on a large scale, making it the default communication tool across the public sector. The move is part of a broader strategy to strengthen digital sovereignty and reduce dependence on U.S. technology providers.
Microsoft has confirmed that the latest January security updates for Windows 11 can cause some computers to fail to boot properly after installation, adding another issue to the growing list of problems following Patch Tuesday.
Amazon is planning another major round of layoffs among its corporate staff, expected to begin as early as next week and affect thousands of positions. The move is part of a broader plan to cut nearly 30,000 roles across its global corporate workforce, representing close to 10% of all white-collar employees at the company. If fully implemented, it would mark the largest round of job cuts in Amazon’s history.