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Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba‘s cloud business unit has launched its second data center in Dubai, it said on Tuesday, nine years after its first, as it expands its global cloud computing services to meet growing demand. Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and artificial intelligence division, said in a statement the launch was part of the technology major’s pledge to invest 380 billion yuan ($53 billion) over three years. No financial details were disclosed in Tuesday’s statement. “The Middle East’s advantageous position in fast-tracking AI adoption and its collaborative ecosystem are crucial enablers for private and public sector companies to thrive,” said E…

Chinese tech company Alibaba on Wednesday released a new version of its Qwen 2.5 artificial intelligence model that it claimed surpassed the highly-acclaimed DeepSeek-V3. The unusual timing of the Qwen 2.5-Max’s release, on the first day of the Lunar New Year when most Chinese people are off work and with their families, points to the pressure Chinese AI startup DeepSeek’s meteoric rise in the past three weeks has placed on not just overseas rivals, but also its domestic competition. “Qwen 2.5-Max outperforms … almost across the board GPT-4o, DeepSeek-V3 and Llama-3.1-405B,” Alibaba’s cloud unit said in an announcement posted on its official WeChat account, referr…

In a new bag from Freitag, every part—from the fabric to the zipper, straps, buckles, and the thread that holds everything together—is made from a single material. The product is the latest example of a “monomaterial” design approach that some brands are beginning to use for a simple reason: It means that the products can actually be recycled when they eventually wear out. Right now, a typical backpack or bag has components made from multiple different materials. Dismantling everything at the end of its life is too time-consuming and expensive to be feasible. But using one material makes it essentially as simple as recycling a plastic water bottle. “You can basic…

Tests of ByHeart infant formula tied to a botulism outbreak that has sickened dozens of babies showed that all of the company’s products may have been contaminated. Laboratory tests of 36 samples of formula from three different lots showed that five samples contained the type of bacteria that can lead to the rare and potentially deadly illness, the company said Monday on its website. “Based on these results, we cannot rule out the risk that all ByHeart formula across all product lots may have been contaminated,” the company wrote. At least 31 babies in 15 states who consumed ByHeart formula have been sickened in the outbreak that began in August, according to …

Meghan Markle has been teasing the launch of her lifestyle brand, now called As Ever, for a while now, and Markle finally revealed its product line earlier this week. But while followers of the Duchess of Sussex are just now learning what her brand will offer, Markle’s fledging business has already faced its fair share of controversy. In the spring of 2024, Markle dropped the first hint at a potential business in the form of several artisanal jars of jam sent to various celebrity friends, each branded with the name “American Riviera Orchard.” The next update didn’t arrive until this February, when Markle announced on Instagram that she had scrapped the “American Rivie…

The Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY) just got a new logo, and there’s more to it than meets the eye. The updated logo dropped just in time for the upcoming Super Bowl, when an influx of out-of-state fans will bustle through MSY on their way to the Caesars Superdome arena. MSY is taking advantage of the increased publicity, using it as an opportunity to scrap its old logo—a blobby, clunky take on the fleur-de-lis that’s more of an eyesore than an homage—for a sleeker, more intriguing graphic. From left: The new logo outshines its predecessor [Image: courtesy Louis Armstrong International Airport] Called the “Plane de Lis,” the new mark is …

The long battle over control of Warner Bros. Discovery took another turn Monday when Paramount Skydance announced a hostile bid for the entertainment giant, following Warner’s acceptance of a competing offer from Netflix last week. Paramount, which many once deemed the frontrunner in the original bidding war, announced a tender offer that tops the Netflix bid by $2.25 per share, appealing directly to shareholders. That adds another layer of complexity to the deal, which will see a significant consolidation of Hollywood’s power players, no matter who ends up on top. With all the back and forth, it’s easy to have lost track of who’s proposing what. Here’s a rundown …

Google-parent Alphabet beat Wall Street estimates for third-quarter revenue on Wednesday, as both its core advertising business and cloud computing unit showed steady growth. Shares of the company rose 6% in extended trading. The company reported total revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $99.89 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. The cloud services and AI giant raised its capital expenditure forecast for the year to between $91 billion and $93 billion, compared with the estimates of $80.67 billion. Google Cloud remained one of Alphabet’s fastest-growing segments, benefiting from surging enterpris…

Google‘s corporate parent on Monday announced an agreement to buy data center energy specialist Intersect for $4.75 billion as part of its effort to secure the vast amounts of electricity needed to power artificial intelligence technology. Alphabet, which depends on Google’s search engine and other online services for most of its revenue, is buying out Intersect in its entirety after purchasing a stake in the San Francisco-based startup a year ago. Intersect had previously raised $2.1 billion from Google and other early investors. After the acquisition is completed during the first half of next year, Alphabet intends to allow Intersect to operate independently whi…

Shares in Google’s parent company, Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOG), are down nearly 7% in premarket trading at the time of this writing. The fall comes a day after Google announced its fourth-quarter 2024 earnings results. Here’s what you need to know about those results and the likely reasons why GOOG stock is falling this morning. Google Q4 2024 results were a mixed bag Google saw both its revenue and earnings per share (EPS) increase in Q4 versus the quarter a year earlier. For the Q4 2024 quarter, Google posted nearly $96.5 billion in revenue—12% growth from Q4 2023. However, in that previous Q4 2023 quarter, Google’s revenue growth had been 13%, suggesting that growth…

The great power competition in the AI Age will probably be between OpenAI and Google, and one of the main battles may be over advertising dollars. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman seemed to describe the world in those terms during an appearance on the Big Technology podcast Monday. OpenAI, which is not yet profitable, is reportedly getting set to sell ads within ChatGPT in an effort to monetize the many free users on its platform. ChatGPT now has an impressive 800 million weekly active users, but only 35 million of them buy subscriptions. The ads, which could help pay for OpenAI’s plan to spend $115 billion on infrastructure by 2029, could show up as soon as early 2026. As …

How is it that no matter how much you intend to get to bed earlier, you never do? And morning mercilessly comes at the same time no matter how little sleep you’ve gotten. If you struggle with the evening slide where you stay up too late to get things done, or to have some “me” time, you’re not alone. It’s a common issue that I see with my time management coaching clients. Here are three of the strategies that I’ve found most effective to stop the evening slide, get to bed on time, and still get everything done. Keep the Dominos Up Getting to bed late is often the final block in a chain effect that began much earlier in the day. So to beat the evening slide,…

Michael Long is not the typical neuroscience guy. He was trained as a physicist, but is primarily a writer. He coauthored the international bestseller The Molecule of More. As a speechwriter, he has written for members of Congress, cabinet secretaries, presidential candidates, and Fortune 10 CEOs. His screenplays have been performed on most New York stages. He teaches writing at Georgetown University. What’s the big idea? Dopamine is to blame for a lot of your misery. It compels us to endlessly chase more, better, and greater—even when our dreams have come true. Thanks to dopamine, we often feel restless and hopeless. So no, maybe it’s not quite accurate to call it…

It’s time to celebrate your favorite singers and musical acts by tuning into the American Music Awards tonight (Monday, May 26, 2025) at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT. Unlike the Grammy Awards, the AMAs put the power in the hands of the fans. As explained on the AMA website, nominations are based on “key fan interactions” such as record sales, number of streams, and tour revenue, while the winners are voted on by the public at large. While most of the polls are closed, there is still time to cast your vote for the Collaboration of the Year and Social Song of the Year. Let’s get up to speed so you can enjoy all the music. Have the AMAs always been on Memorial Day? …

Amazon is pushing deeper into the grocery aisle with the launch of Amazon Grocery, a food brand that keeps most prices under $5. The idea of buying much of anything for $5 seems like a distant memory for most shoppers these days, as The President’s tariffs and persistent inflation keep the price of everyday consumer goods high with little relief in sight. Keenly aware of that, Amazon is looking to undercut the competition’s prices with its own newly unified private label brand for everything from eggs and pre-made salads to ground beef and olive oil. The company plans to expand its offerings to more grocery staples like frozen pasta, granola and cakes in the coming mo…

Workers at an Amazon warehouse in North Carolina rejected a proposal to unionize, becoming the latest group of the company’s employees to side against union representation. About three-quarters of employees at an Amazon fulfillment center in Garner, a town located near Raleigh, voted against joining a grassroots labor organization called Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment, the National Labor Relations Board announced Saturday. The federal labor agency said 2,447 workers cast ballots against union representation while 829 voted in favor of joining the independent union, which is made up of former and current Amazon workers. The NLRB had said …

Amazon is rolling out kiosks that let patients get their prescriptions while they are still at the doctor’s office. Starting in December 2025, the tech behemoth will be stepping up its efforts to become a bigger presence in the pharmaceutical market by launching in-office pharmaceutical kiosks stocked with medicine. The kiosks will initially be launched at certain One Medical locations (which Amazon acquired in 2023 for $3.9 billion), including in Downtown Los Angeles, West Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Long Beach, and West Hollywood. The company claims that the kiosks will help combat pharmacy deserts across the U.S., and help patients who don’t or can’t fil…

Amazon ushered in a new era for television advertising when it converted Prime Video into an ad-supported experience by default in 2024. By the middle of this year, some 130 million U.S. viewers were on Prime Video’s ad tier, watching between four and six minutes of ads per hour, according to an Adweek report. The move is part of the company’s long-term plan to dominate television advertising as viewership shifts from traditional broadcast and cable TV to streaming platforms. “The digital advertising landscape is rapidly evolving with streaming TV becoming mainstream,” says Kelly MacLean, VP of Amazon DSP, the company’s ad-buying platform. Under MacLean, Amazon’s…

The Bezos vs. Musk battle for satellite internet service is heating up In what’s rapidly becoming the new space race: Amazon will start testing its high-speed internet service that it’s building out to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink service. With a broader rollout planned for next year, Amazon announced on Monday some updates to its Leo network—including a new program that will see select businesses taking part in an “enterprise preview” of the forthcoming service. In turn, Amazon can collect feedback to tailor services for specific industries. “Amazon Leo represents a massive opportunity for businesses operating in challenging environments,” Chris Weber, vic…

Amazon is leading the U.S. stock market on Friday to the finish of another winning week and month. The S&P 500 was virtually flat after giving up a modest gain from the morning. The index is still near its all-time high set on Tuesday, and it’s on track to close a third straight winning week and a sixth straight winning month, which would be its longest monthly winning streak since 2021. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 102 points, or less than 0.2%, as of 1 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.4% higher. Amazon led the way after jumping 10.3%. The retail giant was by far the strongest force pushing upward on the market after reportin…

Amazon reached a $2.5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Thursday over whether the e-commerce giant used “deceptive methods” to sign up consumers for Prime subscriptions, then made it “exceedingly difficult” to cancel. The agency argued Amazon enrolled millions of customers in Prime subscriptions without their consent, and knowingly made it difficult for consumers to get out of the agreement. That settlement, which comes just three days into the civil trial in federal court in Seattle, included a whopping $1 billion civil penalty, the highest in history, and a $1.5 billion fund to refund Prime users harmed by the deceptive enrollment pra…

If you signed up for an Amazon Prime membership between June 23, 2019, and June 23, 2025, Amazon might owe you as much as $51. This comes after the online retail giant entered into a settlement agreement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over allegations that the company used deceptive practices to enroll customers in its Prime membership. Here’s what you need to know. What’s happened? Amazon and the FTC have agreed to a settlement over allegations that the online retailer used deceptive practices to enroll people in its Amazon Prime membership, while also making it difficult for those same individuals to cancel the membership. The settlement was rea…