Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the quiet part out loud this week, predicting AI will reduce its workforce.
At least he’s honest about it, even if he trotted out the “free up workers for higher-value work” cliche. Microsoft is reportedly laying off 3% of its staff too, no doubt for partly the same reason.
Can Mark Zuckerberg vault Meta into the top tier of AI providers via acquihire? He sure seems to be trying. Meantime, Google kept up its recent stream of new models coming with an entry-level edition, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite.
Continuing a recent series of Silicon Valley tech companies chasing the opportunity in government technology, OpenAI won a hefty defense contract. Speaking of big money in AI, Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab reportedly raised $2 billion on a $10 billion valuation. And in late-breaking news, Apple reportedly has held internal discussions about acquiring Perplexity.
Two enterprise tech stalwarts attempted to position themselves to take advantage of customers’ focus on AI and data and the evolving mix of public and private cloud services needed for that. For one, Broadcom announced the general availability of VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0, the latest iteration of its private cloud platform. Pure Storage also introduced its Enterprise Data Cloud, a rethink of enterprise storage aimed at recasting itself not just as a storage vendor but as a platform for autonomous data operations.
At its re:Inforce conference this week, Amazon Web Services issued a raft of new features all aimed at making cybersecurity simpler, led by a preview release of a new version of AWS Security Hub.
Texas Instruments joined the pack of chipmakers promising to build much more domestic factory capacity, saying it will invest $60 billion in U.S. fabs, though the time frame is not clear.
Meanwhile, the Intel shakeup continued with several new executives … and several thousand fewer factory workers.
Here’s all the news this week from News and beyond:
AI and data: The downsides of gen AI
Top news and analysis
Must-read for anyone wondering what’s next for data and data platforms: Ali Ghodsi’s data intelligence playbook: Turning data into agentic advantage
The Wall Street Journal’s Christopher Mims joins others on cautioning against assuming AGI is around the corner: Why superintelligent AI isn’t taking over anytime soon Maybe a good thing given the dangers even OpenAI admits: OpenAI exec warns of growing risk that AI could aid in biological weapons development
Moreover, it appears that ChatGPT isn’t so great for learning, at least initially: Study finds that LLM use leads to ‘likely decrease’ in learning skills
Meanwhile, on the job front: Andy Jassy says generative AI will reduce Amazon’s workforce in the coming years He even used the canonical argument that these agents will free up human staff to take on more creative roles. But since Jassy is saying Amazon will have fewer employees as a result of AI, it appears that some will have to find those creative roles somewhere else. Of course, AI, like many new technologies, will also create new jobs, but it’s not yet clear how many. Amazon partner Anthropic predicts even more sweeping layoffs coming.
Agentic AI is the disruption du jour at this year’s TM Forum DTW Ignite conference
Report: Apple has held internal discussions about acquiring Perplexity
Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab valued at $10B after $2B fundraising (per Financial Times)
New models and services
Google updates Gemini 2.5 LLM series with new entry-level model, pricing changes
Midjourney debuts new V1 video generation model
Domino Data Lab introduces new AI governance, data management features
Nurix AI launches enterprise-grade human-like voice AI agents with NuPlay
Money matters
Vehicle intelligence startup Applied Intuition raises $600M at $15B valuation
OpenAI bags $200M Pentagon contract to explore defense industry AI applications
Healthcare technology startup Commure raises $200M ahead of IPO
AI startup Tennr raises $101M to revolutionize patient referrals
Clay reportedly raises new funding led by CapitalG on a $3B valuation
Maven AGI, which aims to unify the full “customer journey,” raised $50M in Series B funding
Traversal launches with $48M to tackle site reliability and observability with AI
Wildfire detection startup Pano AI raises $44M (per WSJ)
Browserbase reels in $40M for its browser automation tools
Sedai raises $20M to optimize cloud environments with AI agents
Tadaweb raises $20M to scale open-source intelligence platform enhanced with AI
Extend gets $17M in funding to boost the speed and accuracy of document processing with AI models
Diskover gets $7.5M from Snowflake, NetApp and others to facilitate unstructured data discovery for AI
Startup Typedef gets $5.5M seed funding to build customized data pipelines for AI model workloads
There’s even more AI and big data news on News
Around the enterprise: Broadcom’s AI cloud ambitions
New products and services
Broadcom says VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 recognizes the ascendancy of private cloud And our analysis: VCF 9 goes live: Recapping the execution roadmap for Broadcom’s AI and cloud infrastructure vision
Pure Storage launches unified data management cloud and new flash arrays
AWS to introduce updated server CPU, new AI training chip
Vibe coding, platform power and the new face of AppDev – theCUBE Research analysis
Mixpanel expands analytics platform with metric trees, AI insights and experimentation tools
Trend Micro debuts data center appliances with built-in cybersecurity software
Key takeaways from Cisco Live 2025
Money matters
Texas Instruments to invest $60B+ in US fab network
Amazon to invest nearly $13B in data centers in Australia
Coralogix gets $115M in funding to pioneer agentic AI-powered observability
Defense technology startup Mach Industries raises $100M
PostHog raises $70M to simplify software development projects
Clinical AI startup Nabla to focus on agentic automation after raising $70M in funding
With $27M in funding, Fleet wants to bring more freedom to enterprise device management
Onebrief, a platform for operational planning and military staff workflows, reaches $1.1B valuation with $20M Series C extension, nearly doubling in 3 months
Tensec to deliver real-time, cross-border payments to smaller businesses after raising $10M in funding
We have lots more news on cloud, infrastructure and apps
Cyber beat: AWS aims to simplify cloud security
Attack & response
Security researchers find 16B stolen credentials from malware in open cloud storage
UBS confirms employee data leak after ransomware attack on supplier
INKY warns of new QR code phishing tactic using embedded JavaScript
New services
AWS focuses on simplifying cloud security at re:Inforce 2025 conference
CrowdStrike launches Falcon for AWS Security Incident Response at re:Inforce 2025
Operant AI expands Gatekeeper platform with MCP Gateway for AI runtime security
New Commvault and Kyndryl partnership focuses on hybrid cloud recovery and regulatory compliance
Apiiro report reveals industry differences are shaping generative AI risk profiles
Kusari debuts AI-powered pull request security tool for software supply chain protection
Cyolo updates privileged access platform with tools to monitor unmanaged vendor connections
Dashlane adds AI phishing alerts to Omnix platform to bolster credential protection
Money matters
Base44 joins Wix in $80M deal to support natural language software development
Bitdefender to acquire Mesh Security to bolster email protection for managed service providers
Neovera acquires Greenway Solutions to expand fraud testing capabilities
More cybersecurity news here
Elsewhere around tech: Waymos hit NYC
Waymo’s robotaxis will soon hit the streets of New York City
Trump will push TikTok deadline another 90 days
SpaceX competitor Eutelsat raising €1.35B in new funding
And check out more news on emerging tech, blockchain and crypto and policy
Comings and goings
Amar Subramanya, head of engineering for Google’s Gemini chatbot, is leaving the company, employees were told in a reorganization announced last week. Separately, Mat Velloso, the head of product for Google DeepMind’s AI developer platform, has also left Google. (per The Information)
Intel named 20-plus-year company veteran Greg Ernst chief revenue officer. Also, Srinivasan Iyengar, Jean-Didier Allegrucci and Shailendra Desai are joining Intel in key engineering leadership roles.
Meantime, Intel will lay off 15% to 20% of its factory workers, according to an internal memo (per The Oregonian)
Microsoft reportedly planning new round of layoffs, with sales roles likely to be hit
Report: Meta targets former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman to boost its AI research efforts
Character.AI named a new CEO: Karandeep Anand, former president of Brex and before that an exec at Meta and Microsoft.
Lockheed Martin appointed former Cohesity Chief AI Officer Craig Martell chief technology officer
Plume, which provides an AI-powered platform for internet service providers, appointed former OMERS Ventures Principal Dave Wechsler chief business officer.
What’s next
Events
June 23-26: HPE Discover, Las Vegas. News will have the news.
Earnings
June 24: BlackBerry
June 25: Micron
Image: News/Reve
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