Gamescom Show Opens With New ‘Call of Duty' And 'Lego Batman' Announcements
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 will come out on Nov. 14, while Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, which is once again being produced by UK-based TT Games, will arrive sometime in 2026, according to announcements at the event Tuesday in Cologne, Germany.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
13 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Here's What Sent Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) Higher
Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its 'Baron Opportunity Fund' second-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the second quarter, the fund posted solid returns, rising 23.27% (Institutional Shares), exceeding the Russell 3000 Growth Index's (the Benchmark) 17.55% gain and the S&P 500 Index's 10.94% gain. The Fund appreciated 8.52% for the first half, compared to 5.80% and 6.20% returns for the indexes. In addition, you can check the fund's top 5 holdings to determine its best picks for 2025. In its second-quarter 2025 investor letter, Baron Opportunity Fund highlighted stocks such as Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is a multinational software company that develops and supports software, services, devices, and solutions. The one-month return of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) was 0.77%, and its shares gained 20.19% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On August 19, 2025, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) stock closed at $509.77 per share, with a market capitalization of $3.789 trillion. Baron Opportunity Fund stated the following regarding Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter: "Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is the world's largest software and cloud computing company. Microsoft was traditionally known for its Windows and Office products, but over the last five years it has built a $160 billion run-rate cloud business, including its Azure cloud infrastructure service and its Office 365 and Dynamics 365 cloud delivered applications. Shares outperformed on the back of a strong March quarter, driven primarily by its Azure business accelerating 400 basis points to 35% constant-currency growth, well ahead of expectations. For the June quarter, management guided Azure growth to hold at the 34% to 35% level, again above expectations of 31% to 32%, commenting that 'whereas they hoped to have supply demand in balance by end of the fiscal year, they now expect to be AI constrained past June as planned demand is growing a bit faster,' Microsoft remains well positioned across the overlapping software, cloud computing, and AI landscapes." A development team working together to create the next version of Windows. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is in second position our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 284 hedge fund portfolios held Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) at the end of the first quarter compared to 317 in the previous quarter. In the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2025, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) reported revenue of $76.4 billion, representing an 18% increase, or 17% when adjusted for constant currency. While we acknowledge the potential of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. In another article, we covered Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and shared the list of trending AI stocks in focus. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors. READ NEXT: The Best and Worst Dow Stocks for the Next 12 Months and 10 Unstoppable Stocks That Could Double Your Money. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Forbes
16 minutes ago
- Forbes
AI's Momentum: How Startups Are Redefining Enterprise Adoption
Pradeep Kumar Muthukamatchi is a Principal Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft and a passionate advisor to numerous startups. For startups, in particular, AI has transcended innovation budgets to become a fundamental operational imperative, driving tangible value and reshaping entire industries. I work daily with agile startups, and what I'm seeing on the ground confirms a significant shift: AI is being applied with aggressive intent and remarkable results. To give founders a more nuanced look at what's top of mind for enterprise buyers today, we'll cast light on just how boldly the AI revolution is reshaping startup strategy—and the surprises don't stop there. AI Budgets Are Exploding: From Experiment To Essential Remember when AI was primarily funded through 'innovation budgets'—discretionary pools for speculative projects? Those days are rapidly fading. We're now witnessing AI spend move directly into core operational IT line items. According to PwC's May 2025 AI agent survey, nearly 88% of responding executives indicated their companies plan to increase AI-related budgets during the year because of agentic AI. This surge reflects a newfound confidence in AI's ROI. Startups, with their inherent need for efficiency and rapid scalability, are leading this charge. They're investing heavily in AI solutions to automate, optimize and differentiate. Fine-Tuning Takes A Back Seat: The Power Of Prompt Engineering One of the most surprising yet impactful shifts is the decreasing criticality of extensive fine-tuning. Newer, more intelligent models with longer context windows are capable of delivering similar or even better results through advanced prompt engineering alone. This is a game changer for startups. Fine-tuning models can be a resource-intensive and time-consuming process, requiring significant data preparation and computational power. By relying on sophisticated prompt engineering, startups can achieve strong model performance with far less effort and cost. This agility also reduces model lock-in, allowing for greater portability across different models and providers. Synthesia—a London-based startup that allows users to produce AI-generated videos with digital avatars, eliminating the need for cameras, actors or editing software—uses prompt engineering to direct its AI in script generation, avatar selection and adjusting tone and delivery rather than retraining models for each scenario. According to TechCrunch, Synthesia's prompt-first strategy has attracted more than 60,000 customers, including major enterprises, and helped the company raise $330 million in funding, reaching a valuation of over $2 billion. Multimodel Is The New Norm: Strategic Selection For Optimal Performance The 'one-size-fits-all' approach to AI models is quickly becoming obsolete. Enterprises, particularly agile startups, are now embracing a multimodel strategy, often deploying five or more different models in production for various use cases. This is a strategic necessity driven by a clear goal: optimizing both cost and performance. Different AI models inherently excel at different tasks. For instance, some models are designed for robust, in-depth, complex question-answering systems and intricate data analysis, offering a broad understanding and deep contextual comprehension. Other models are better suited for creative brainstorming, content generation or rapid ideation thanks to their conversational fluency and ability to produce diverse outputs. Harvey, a legal tech startup, integrates multiple AI models across its platform. One model specializes in summarizing dense legal documents, another in drafting client communications and yet another in extracting structured data from scanned contracts. This multimodal strategy allows Harvey to serve roughly 400 law firms globally, including one-third of the top 100 U.S. firms. Rising Stakes: AI's Deeper Integration Making Switching More Complex The 'easy come, easy go' era for AI models is fading. While simple AI tasks once allowed for seamless model interchange, the rise of agentic workflows is changing the game. These sophisticated, multistep AI processes, such as an AI autonomously drafting an email, researching a recipient and scheduling a follow-up, demand deep integration. Many companies are now investing heavily in custom guardrails and precision prompting for these intricate workflows. This commitment creates significant switching costs. I worked with one leader who noted that extensive prompts are meticulously tuned for specific models, often spanning 'lots of pages of instruction.' Changing a model now means a massive reengineering effort, as even a small tweak can disrupt complex, interdependent workflows. The difficulty of ensuring reliable results with a new model makes businesses, especially startups, far more reluctant to switch, effectively anchoring them to their chosen AI partners. The Shift From 'Build' To 'Buy': Accelerating Innovation The AI application ecosystem has matured at an unprecedented pace, leading to a significant shift from 'build' to 'buy' strategies within enterprises—especially among startups. Off-the-shelf, AI-native applications are often outperforming internal builds, proving more efficient, reliable and easier to maintain. Many startups, with their focus on rapid iteration and market fit, are keenly aware that their core competency might not be in building foundational AI infrastructure from scratch. Instead, they can leverage purpose-built AI apps to innovate faster, leading to better outcomes, happier users and a stronger ROI. Instead of building a fraud detection system from scratch, SentiLink—a fintech startup tackling synthetic identity fraud—developed a hybrid approach using prebuilt AI models enhanced with human insight. Its system flags suspicious applications by analyzing patterns across Social Security numbers, addresses and behavioral data. This buy-plus-optimize strategy enabled SentiLink to scale rapidly, serving over 300 financial institutions—including major fintechs and seven of the top 15 U.S. banks. The Bottom Line: Real Impact, Real Opportunity Enterprise AI is moving at lightning speed. What we're observing in the startup ecosystem is not merely experimental investment but a profound integration of AI into core business functions. Real budgets, real traction, a real focus on value and real, powerful tools are driving this transformation. This creates an enormous opportunity for startups to create significant impact, reshape industries and deliver unprecedented value to their customers. The lessons learned from these agile pioneers—strategic model selection, the power of prompt engineering and the embrace of a robust AI app ecosystem—are invaluable for any enterprise looking to harness the true potential of AI. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
Bloomberg
16 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Tech Investor Prosus Plans to Raise $2 Billion from Selling Off Stakes
Technology investor Prosus NV plans to raise $2 billion through asset sales as part of Chief Executive Officer Fabricio Bloisi's plans to streamline the company around key brands. The Euronext-listed company has already raised $780 million from selling various holdings in the past four months, setting $2 billion as a near-term target, Bloisi said during the company's annual general meeting on Wednesday. It has been selling down a mix of listed equities, and part of its stake in Chinese food-delivery app Meituan, Bloomberg previously reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
