Microsoft lays off 3% of workforce; Nvidia to sell AI chips to Saudi Arabia; Android unveils design, Gemini updates
Microsoft is laying off 6,000 workers, which is around 3% of its workforce in the biggest job cut announced by the company in more than two years. Most of the affected employees were from Washington, the headquarters of the company with 1,985 workers losing jobs. The Satya Nadella-led company said that although the job cuts will be across teams and globally but they are being done with the goal to reduce the number of managers. The company released their earnings recently showing robust sales and profits that beat market expectations for the quarter. Earlier in January, Microsoft had announced a smaller round of layoffs based on performance. The last round of massive job cuts was in 2023 when the company fired 10,000 workers or almost 5% of its workforce. Company CFO, Amy Hood had said during the earnings call that they were looking to 'increase agility by reducing layers with fewer managers.' The layoffs will also be from the XBox and LinkedIn businesses. The company also has a $80 billion budget for the fiscal year ending June for building AI infrastructure and data centers.
Nvidia to sell AI chips to Saudi Arabia
AI chipmaker Nvidia will be shipping 18,000 chips to Saudi Arabia after announcing a partnership with a sovereign wealth fund-owned AI startup Humain. The news sent Nvidia shares soaring with CEO Jensen Huang's net worth touching around $120 billion. The deal is one of the many partnerships that have been announced as U.S. President Donald Trump is on a tour to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE. Nvidia's advanced Blackwell AI chips will be used will be used in a 500-megawatt data centre there, the Saudi Arabia-U.S. Investment Forum in Riyadh said. Nvidia said that the first set of chips deployed will be the GB300 Blackwell chips, which were announced earlier this year. Qualcomm also signed a deal with Humain to build a data centre central processor (CPU). AMD is also among the chipmakers that have signed an agreement with Humain. The Lisa Su-led company plans to invest up to $10 billion to deploy 500 megawatts of AI hardware infrastructure over five years. Additionally, Saudi Arabian firm DataVolt will be investing $20 billion in AI data centres in the U.S.
Android unveils design, Gemini updates
Android has announced a host of updates to its design and new features for better user experience, personalisation and efficiency across platforms, along with more integrations with Gemini. Users will have new colour themes, more responsive interface components and emphasised typography not just on Android smartphones and tablets but also on Wear OS. The upgraded home screen is more organised has quick settings for tailored access and more efficient software updates without lesser battery life. There will also be 'glanceable live updates' so users can track orders easily and get real-time information directly. Google's AI model Gemini will also be a core part of Android now with Gemini Live and more integrations with camera and screen sharing. Gemini will also bring its conversational AI feature to smartwatches, Google TV, Android Auto and Android XR platforms making actions more intuitive.
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