Regulation, innovation and AI define Big Tech this week

Big tech companies like Meta, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft aren't getting any smaller.

These companies not only represent many of the world's most valuable publicly traded companies by market capitalization, but also increasingly represent the cutting edge, both in technological innovation but also in existing strength and global reach. Masu.

And most of these Big Tech giants are American-made companies that benefit from international network effects.

That's why PYMNTS on Thursday (April 18) unraveled Europe's digital winter of the past 30 years, revealing that of the 69 digital businesses worth more than $10 billion as of December 2023, the European Union (EU) He pointed out that it accounted for 21% of that amount. Only five of his companies accounted for global GDP: Spotify, Adyen, Revolut, Adevinta, and Checkout.com.

As Big Tech develops, so too does much of the business landscape, including payments and commerce. But the juxtaposition of US-led disruption and the EU's own private sector was not the only news that caught our attention this week. From upcoming legislation to product launches, partnerships and more, read on to see the events shaping the Big Tech landscape as tracked by PYMNTS.

The tug of war between innovation and regulatory technology continues

News broke on Wednesday (April 17) that Canada's parliament is considering a tax on digital services revenue that would impact some of the world's biggest technology companies. U.S. lawmakers are calling for trade retaliation if the bill passes, primarily because it would hurt U.S. companies such as Alphabet and Meta.

Also on Wednesday, the EU told Meta that paywall privacy is not acceptable, and platforms will be forced to make a choice between users when it comes to using their personal data, in an opinion from the European Data Protection Board (EDPB). I explained that it shouldn't be done.

Meanwhile, Google announced last Friday (April 12) that news sites in California would have to pay for news content ahead of a pending news-centric bill called the California Journalism Protection Act (CJPA) that would require Google to pay for news content. It was announced that the link would be increased.

In Apple news, Japan is reportedly considering new legislation to curb the power of big tech companies, including Apple, which could allow the company to charge fines worth up to 20% of its sales. It is said that there is a possibility.

This comes on the heels of news that Altstore PAL, the first Apple-approved third-party app store, is now available for download in the EU due to the requirements of EU Digital Markets Law.

Big Tech and large-scale computing are driving the AI ​​revolution

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy released his 2023 letter to shareholders last Thursday (April 11), highlighting how the company is changing and how AI and AWS (Amazon He outlined future goals centered on web services.

As evidence of that, Amazon Web Services announced on Tuesday (April 16) that Japan's fastest supercomputer, Fugaku, will be virtualized on AWS.

In order for these scientific achievements to be disseminated and create real impact on society, this supercomputing environment can be deployed directly to the cloud to scale applications and have a far greater impact than a single machine. said Dr. Matsuoka, director of the RIKEN Center for Computational Science. CCS).

And on Tuesday, Intel, along with several other industry partners, announced the Open Platform for Enterprise AI ( There was also news that they were collaborating on a sandbox project called OPEA, which is increasingly a top priority for companies.

Because, also on Tuesday, Amazon announced that Amazon Bedrocknow is powered by all three versions of the AnthropicsClaude 3 artificial intelligence (AI) model. This makes Bedrock the first and to date the only managed service to generally offer all three Claude 3 models: Opus, Sonnet, and Haiku.

On the same day, Microsoft announced that it had invested $1.5 billion in Abu Dhabi-based AI company G42. The partnership will also see Microsoft President Brad Smith join the G42 board, and the companies will create a $1 billion fund for AI developers.

And on Thursday, Cisco announced the launch of HyperShield, a new security product that uses AI to protect applications, devices, and data across data centers, clouds, and physical locations.

Cisco Hypershield is one of the most important security innovations in the company's history, said Chuck Robbins, Cisco Chairman and CEO.

Job cuts at high-tech companies

The AI ​​revolution will be costly, and Big Tech companies are looking for the best ways to streamline their operations in order to invest as much as possible in the technology industry's next great innovation.

Google is laying off an unspecified number of employees and transferring some roles to other countries as part of its ongoing efforts to cut costs, the company announced Wednesday, as other tech companies follow suit this year. We are reducing staff.

On April 5, it was reported that Apple had laid off 614 employees in its first major layoffs since the pandemic. It's not clear which projects the affected employees were working on, but the layoffs come about a month after Apple was reported to have canceled its electric car project.

On April 3, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced it would eliminate hundreds of roles across two organizations to focus on other areas. These job cuts will impact hundreds of roles in the company's sales, marketing and global services organizations, as well as hundreds of brick-and-mortar technology teams.

Ripple effects of big tech market movements

Nothing is static in Big Tech, and PYMNTS reported how Salesforce is reportedly in talks to acquire data management software provider Informatica. Meanwhile, in B2B news, Apple's AirPlay is now available at select IHG Hotels & Resorts properties, according to an announcement Thursday.

And Apple is reportedly considering building a manufacturing facility in Indonesia, CEO Tim Cook said Wednesday after a meeting with President Joko Widodo.

In other regions, ads will arrive on the Metas Threads platform sooner than expected, as early as the second half of this year, according to a report on Thursday.

According to Amazon news, the company is rolling back its checkout system in its grocery stores, but is still promoting sales of its Just Walk Out payment technology. The move comes as tech giants race to dominate the click-and-mortar grocery experience.

And Amazon Liveon Tuesday launched an interactive and shoppable channel called FAST Channel on Prime Video and Amazon Freevee.

PYMNTS Intelligence says consumers want an integrated shopping and entertainment experience that allows them to watch their favorite live streaming series on their mobile devices and shop for the clothing and jewelry worn by actors on screen. I discovered.

More information: AI, Amazon, Apple, Artificial Intelligence, Big Tech, Cisco, European Union, Google, Layoffs, Law, Meta, Microsoft, News, PYMNTS News, Regulation, Salesforce, Taxes

Sources 1/ https://Google.com/ 2/ https://www.pymnts.com/big-tech/2024/regulations-innovations-and-ai-define-this-week-in-big-tech/ The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article

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