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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Microsoft has launched its second major round of company-wide job cuts this year as the Big Tech group moves to cut costs. The Redmond, Washington-based company said it would eliminate just under 4 per cent of its workforce, equivalent to roughly 9,000 workers. The job losses will be spread across the company. Wednesday’s announcement follows Microsoft’s decision to cut roughly 6,000 roles in May and 2,000 roles in January for what it called “performance-related” reasons. These waves come on top of axing…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Bumble chief executive Whitney Wolfe Herd has criticised staff for “freaking out” after announcing the company would eliminate more than 160 roles in London, warning drastic cost-cutting measures were needed as “dating apps are feeling like a thing of the past”. The online dating group’s founder, who returned as chief executive in March, made the remarks while telling staff this week that its British office would bear the brunt of 240 planned job cuts that represents 30 per cent of its global…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the worldThe writer is head of public policy at Y CombinatorFor all its tough talk on Big Tech, the Trump administration is weighing a trade deal that would in effect pause enforcement of new European legislation designed to curtail the power of monopolies. If finalised, this move would send exactly the wrong message — that Washington is willing to undermine a landmark pro-competition law abroad to placate powerful corporations at home. At its core, Europe’s new Digital Markets Act (DMA) imposes…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Top venture capital firms are borrowing a strategy from the private equity playbook, pumping money into tech start-ups so they can “roll up” rivals to build a sector-dominating conglomerate.Among those deploying the approach is Thrive Capital, a backer of OpenAI and Stripe, which is involved in a new $72mn funding round for wealth management start-up Savvy Wealth. The investment values the New York-based group at $225mn, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The funding will go towards buying up smaller…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Artificial intelligence myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.A two-year-old Swedish artificial intelligence start-up that promises to make programming an app as easy as writing a few sentences is nearing a valuation of almost $2bn, in the latest sign of investor fervour for AI coding businesses. Lovable is set to attract more than $150mn in new funding less than six months after its previous round, according to people familiar with the deal, making it one of Europe’s fastest-growing AI start-ups. Venture capital group Accel was leading the round, with existing…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.German medical technology company Brainlab has postponed its planned stock market listing just two days before its scheduled debut, marking the latest setback for Europe’s struggling IPO market.Bookrunners had already signalled on Monday that the company’s initial public offering would price at the bottom of the indicated €80 to €100 range, which would have valued the company at €1.7bn. While the order book was said to be multiple times oversubscribed at that level, bankers had hoped Brainlab’s focus on artificial intelligence and…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the worldThe US Senate has voted down a proposed 10-year ban on states regulating artificial intelligence models, ending a controversial plan supported by Big Tech companies.Senators voted by a margin of 99 to one in favour of an amendment to remove the wording from Donald Trump’s flagship tax and spending legislation.The vote in the early hours of Tuesday morning came as part of a wider marathon voting session in the Senate over the US president’s “big, beautiful bill”.Proponents, including Big Tech…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Artificial intelligence myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.A note of threat has crept into the otherwise optimistic language of those who champion the adoption of artificial intelligence. You can hear it in the rhetoric of UK technology secretary Peter Kyle, who told workers and businesses this month: “Act now, and you will thrive into the future. Don’t, and I think that some people will be left behind.” You can hear it in the marketing spiel used by software companies such as Salesforce: “Companies that fail to leverage AI in…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The EU will set out plans on Wednesday to pool funding and expertise in quantum computing, in a bid to build a competitive European ecosystem in a technology seen as key to future economic leadership.The move attempts to address financing gaps that risk undermining Europe’s efforts to develop a potentially transformative technology, just as the sector emerges from research to look for market opportunities. Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission vice-president overseeing tech policy, told the Financial Times: “Quantum is something [in which]…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Artificial intelligence myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Meta’s use of millions of books to train its artificial intelligence models has been judged “fair” by a federal court on Wednesday, in a win for tech companies that use copyrighted materials to develop AI. The case, brought by about a dozen authors, including Ta-Nehisi Coates and Richard Kadrey, challenged how the $1.4tn social media giant used a library of millions of online books, academic articles and comics to train its Llama AI models.Meta’s use of these titles is protected under copyright…