Business Technology News Roundup: Jul 04, 2025

OpenAI has inked a monumental $30 billion-a-year deal with Oracle to rent 4.5 gigawatts of data center capacity across the US, marking one of the largest cloud infrastructure agreements in history. This partnership, part of OpenAI’s Stargate initiative, is designed to supercharge the development of next-generation AI models by providing unprecedented computing power. Oracle will expand its data center footprint in states like Texas (notably Abilene), Michigan, Wisconsin, Wyoming, New Mexico, Georgia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The deal is expected to start in 2028, giving Oracle time to build 47 new data centers and invest up to $25 billion in capital expenditures this year alone. This move positions Oracle as a serious contender against cloud giants like AWS and Azure, potentially doubling its infrastructure revenue and accelerating the AI arms race in the US. OpenAI, meanwhile, continues to diversify its infrastructure, maintaining partnerships with Microsoft Azure, CoreWeave, and Google, while also pursuing its own self-built data centers.

Microsoft announced a sweeping round of layoffs, affecting approximately 9,000 employees across multiple divisions, including Xbox, sales, and marketing. This follows a previous cut of 6,000 jobs in May, bringing the year’s total layoffs to over 15,000. The primary driver is Microsoft’s aggressive $80 billion investment in AI infrastructure for fiscal 2025—up $25 billion from the previous year. The company is reallocating resources to fuel its AI ambitions, particularly in data center upgrades and AI-driven automation. Notably, the layoffs hit the gaming division hard, with studios like Turn10 (Forza Motorsport) losing nearly half their staff and several projects being canceled. Microsoft’s pivot to AI is reshaping its workforce: traditional software engineering roles are being reduced as AI tools take over code generation and debugging, while new positions in AI governance, ethics, and cybersecurity are emerging. Despite the upheaval, Microsoft’s financial performance remains robust, with its market cap now trailing only NVIDIA.

In a decisive move, the US Senate voted 99-1 to strike down a provision in President Trump’s major tax and spending bill that would have imposed a 10-year federal moratorium on state-level AI regulation. The original measure, which would have prevented states from enacting their own AI laws, faced bipartisan opposition and criticism from governors and state officials. Some lawmakers attempted to compromise by reducing the ban to five years and allowing certain exceptions (such as protections for children and artists), but these efforts were ultimately abandoned. The Senate’s action preserves the ability of states to address issues like deepfakes, online safety, and political manipulation at the local level, signaling a strong push for tailored oversight rather than a one-size-fits-all federal approach. The tech industry, including companies like Google and OpenAI, had lobbied for federal preemption to avoid a patchwork of state laws, but the Senate prioritized citizen protections and state autonomy.

Apple is actively negotiating with OpenAI and Anthropic to power a new, more advanced version of Siri, signaling a significant shift from its long-standing preference for in-house development. The talks involve training customized large language models (LLMs) that could run on Apple’s own cloud infrastructure, with the goal of making Siri more competitive with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. This comes after a tepid response to Apple’s recent WWDC announcements, which focused on design updates and practical AI features like real-time phone call translation, but lacked major breakthroughs. Earlier this year, Apple admitted that significant AI improvements to Siri would be delayed until 2026 and underwent a leadership shake-up in its AI division. By tapping third-party AI leaders, Apple aims to close the gap in conversational intelligence and reassert its position in the smart device ecosystem. The news has already buoyed Apple’s stock, reflecting investor optimism about the company’s AI direction.

Amazon has reached a historic milestone by deploying its one-millionth robot across its global operations, underscoring the company’s relentless drive toward automation. The new robots, now present in more than 300 fulfillment centers worldwide, range from simple guided carts to advanced mobile robots like Proteus and robotic arms such as Sparrow, which can pick individual items—a notoriously difficult task in logistics. Amazon also introduced a generative AI foundation model called “DeepFleet” to make its robotic fleet smarter and more efficient, improving travel time by 10% and further speeding up deliveries. The company’s robot population is now approaching parity with its 1.56 million human employees, and nearly half its workforce has been “upskilled” to work with advanced technologies. While Amazon insists that robots are meant to assist rather than replace workers, the surge in automation is creating new roles in maintenance, engineering, and robotics apprenticeships, reshaping the future of work inside Amazon’s vast logistics empire.