Amazon

Amazon's Echo devices will send all voice recordings to cloud from March 28

The move is seen as connected to the launch of its generative AI-powered Alexa Plus, which is slated to be released later this month

How Brazil is chopping down Amazon rainforest to build highway for COP30 Summit

Brazil’s Belém is set to play host to around 50,000 people during the COP30, the UN’s annual climate summit, in November. Ironically, it turns out that the government is cutting down thousands of acres of protected rainforest in the Amazon to build a highway to the host city

Brazil just fell thousands of trees to make way for grand COP30 climate summit

The Brazilian government has defended the decision, saying the highway would be “sustainable”. The secretary of the state government's infrastructure said the highway will include wildlife crossings for animals, bike lanes, and solar lighting once completed

Remove gender pronouns, says Deloitte US. How big companies are abandoning DEI initiatives

Major corporations including Google, Amazon, McDonald's, Boeing and IBM have significantly scaled back their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, with Deloitte instructing staff working on contracts for the US government to remove pronouns. The shift comes amid increasing legal challenges, including lawsuits over race-based hiring and promotions, and heightened scrutiny from the Trump administration

Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta to spend well over $300 billion on AI in 2025, fearing China

Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet each saw sharp stock declines following their fourth-quarter earnings reports, which revealed steep increases in AI-related capital spending. Microsoft and Google’s market values dropped by $200 billion as their cloud divisions reported weaker growth

Amazon, Microsoft say they can’t keep up with AI demand, could face capacity constraints

Despite Amazon's plans to invest nearly $100 billion in cloud infrastructure this year, CEO Andy Jassy has cautioned that delays in accessing hardware constraints may hinder growth. Microsoft is facing similar issues, having reported that a shortage of data centres

Amazon's drone services hit a snafu following two crashes, deliveries suspended

Amazon has paused all commercial drone deliveries for the foreseeable future, with one of the drones even catching fire after the crash. According to Amazon, the crashes were caused by a software issue triggered by light rain during the tests

US lawmakers set to investigate Big Tech over their donations to Trump's inauguration

The donations made to Trump’s inauguration fund stand in stark contrast to those made for Joe Biden’s inauguration just four years ago. Back then, Meta didn’t contribute anything, Google gave $337,500, and Apple donated a much smaller $43,200

Trump impact? Meta, Amazon modify hiring policy amid growing political risks

Several companies have modified their hiring policies since the electoral victory of Donald Trump in the US presidential election in November 2024. In its memo, Meta cited a "shifting legal and policy landscape" as the main reason behind its latest decision.

Amazon plans to enter internet service business in the UK with their satellite broadband plan

The satellite internet industry is becoming a competitive battleground, with companies rushing to deploy clusters of low-Earth orbit satellites. Amazon’s Project Kuiper aims to deploy 3,000 satellites, taking on SpaceX’s Starlink