During Apple’s earnings call this week, CEO Tim Cook revealed that the company faced $900 million in tariff-related costs over the past quarter. Despite the financial pressure from these tariffs, Cook notably refrained from announcing any immediate increases to product pricing.
In other significant funding news, defense technology startup Mach Industries, founded by 21-year-old Ethan Thornton, is reportedly finalizing a substantial $100 million investment round. This funding boost will push the startup’s cumulative capital raised to around $185 million.
Meanwhile, Alibaba expanded its AI capabilities by unveiling the Qwen3 family of artificial intelligence models. The company claims their new hybrid models surpass those offered by current industry leaders OpenAI and Google, although these advanced models are not yet available for public download.
Amazon marked an important milestone in its ambitious Project Kuiper initiative, successfully deploying its first 27 internet satellites into orbit this week. This forms an early step towards meeting the US Federal Communications Commission’s requirement of deploying half of its satellite internet network by mid-2026.
Meta joined the AI race by launching a standalone application for its AI technology, designed to compete against platforms like ChatGPT. The announcement was a central highlight at the company’s very first LlamaCon event.
In regulatory news, an Indian court has ordered a nationwide block on Proton Mail. The ruling arose following a complaint by M Moser Design Associates, which alleged their staff received offensive emails originating from Proton Mail accounts.
Popular AI platform Cluely, which positions itself as an enabler for academic dishonesty, gained attention for its brazen marketing approach. However, a number of startups promptly countered, launching software aimed at detecting and exposing users who employ Cluely’s services to cheat.
During Amazon’s latest earnings discussion, CEO Andy Jassy highlighted growth metrics for Amazon’s enhanced virtual assistant, Alexa+, stating that the upgraded service now reaches approximately 100,000 users. Alexa+ is being developed to facilitate more fluid and natural conversations, ultimately encompassing third-party app integrations.
Airbnb is venturing cautiously into AI-powered customer support, quietly launching a chatbot service in the U.S. market last month. CEO Brian Chesky previously indicated that AI integration would start gradually, focusing first on service-related interaction before expanding into travel planning and booking functions.
In an ongoing high-profile legal battle, Epic Games secured an important victory against Apple. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers recently ruled that Apple had significantly breached a 2021 injunction by continuing to enforce anti-competitive pricing strategies. Consequently, Fortnite could potentially return to Apple’s platform as soon as next week. Amid the legal spotlight, payment platform Stripe publicly distributed instructions for developers on circumventing Apple’s commission structure in the App Store.
For users of its Ray-Ban Meta glasses, Meta sent notifications this week alerting individuals that AI features will be enabled by default, prompting users to review privacy settings closely. These automated features involve AI analysis of photos and videos taken through the device.
Lastly, OpenAI faced backlash after implementing an update to its GPT-4o language model powering ChatGPT, which led to complaints about overly agreeable and excessively validating responses. The organization quickly decided to roll back this update, explaining that the problematic adjustments had been overly influenced by immediate, short-term user feedback. OpenAI pledged future improvements to prevent such issues from recurring.
