Big Tech companies like Meta, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft aren't getting any smaller.
These companies not only represent many of the world's most valuable publicly traded companies by market capitalization, they also represent the cutting edge of both technological innovation as well as existing strength and global reach. It has become.
And most of these Big Tech giants are American-made companies that benefit from international network effects.
That's why PYMNTS on Thursday (April 18) unraveled Europe's digital winter of the past 30 years, revealing that of the 69 digital businesses worth more than $10 billion as of December 2023, the European Union (EU) He pointed out that it accounted for 21% of that amount. Only five of his companies accounted for global GDP: Spotify, Adyen, Revolut, Adevinta, and Checkout.com.
As Big Tech develops, much of the business environment, including payments and commerce, is changing as well. But the juxtaposition of US-led disruption and the EU's own private sector was not the only notable news this week. From upcoming legislation to product launches, partnerships and more, read on to see the events shaping the Big Tech landscape as tracked by PYMNTS.
The tug of war between innovation and regulatory technology continues
News broke on Wednesday (April 17) that Canada's parliament is considering a tax on digital services revenue that would impact some of the world's biggest technology companies. U.S. lawmakers have called for trade retaliation if the bill passes, as it would primarily hurt U.S. companies including Alphabet and Meta.
Also on Wednesday, the EU told Meta that privacy cannot be put behind a paywall, and in an opinion from the European Data Protection Board (EDPB), platforms must give users a “choice” when it comes to the use of their personal data. I explained that I shouldn't be pressured into it.
Meanwhile, Google announced last Friday (April 12) that it would be able to provide news content in California ahead of a pending news-centric bill called the California Journalism Protection Act (CJPA) that would require Google to pay for providing news content. They announced that they would be adding links to the site.
In Apple news, Japan is reportedly considering new legislation to curb the power of big tech companies, including Apple, which could allow the company to charge fines worth up to 20% of its sales. It is said that there is a possibility.
This follows the news that Altstore PAL, Apple's first approved third-party app store, is now available for download in the EU in accordance with the requirements of the EU's Digital Markets Law.
Big Tech and large-scale computing are driving the AI revolution
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy released his 2023 letter to shareholders last Thursday (April 11), highlighting how the company is changing and how it's focused on AI and AWS. Outlined future goals centered on web services).
As evidence of that, Amazon Web Services announced on Tuesday (April 16) that Japan's fastest supercomputer, Fugaku, will be “virtualized” on AWS.
“For these scientific achievements to be disseminated and create real impact in society…we are deploying this supercomputing environment directly to the cloud to scale applications and create applications much larger than a single machine. ” said Dr. Matsuoka, director of Japan's RIKEN. Center for Computational Science (R-CCS).
And on Tuesday, Intel joined with several other industry partners to accelerate secure and cost-effective GenAI deployments for enterprises, making AI an increasingly top priority for enterprises.
That's because, also on Tuesday, Amazon announced that its Amazon Bedrock now includes all three versions of Anthropic's Claude 3 artificial intelligence (AI) model. This makes Bedrock the first and so far only managed service to make all three of his models of Claude 3 (Opus, Sonnet, and Haiku) generally available.
On the same day, Microsoft announced that it had invested $1.5 billion in Abu Dhabi-based AI company G42. The partnership will also see Microsoft President Brad Smith join the G42 board, and the companies will create a $1 billion fund for AI developers.
And on Thursday, Cisco announced the launch of HyperShield, a new security product that uses AI to protect applications, devices, and data across data centers, clouds, and physical locations.
“Cisco Hypershield is one of the most important security innovations in our history,” said Chuck Robbins, Cisco Chairman and CEO.
Job cuts at high-tech companies
The AI revolution will be expensive, and Big Tech companies are looking for the best ways to streamline their operations in order to invest as much as possible in the technology industry's next great innovation.
Google will lay off an unspecified number of employees and move some roles to other countries as part of its ongoing efforts to cut costs, the company announced Wednesday, as other tech companies follow suit with layoffs this year. It is carried out.
On April 5, it was reported that Apple would lay off 614 employees in its first major layoffs since the pandemic. It's not clear which projects the affected employees were working on, but the layoffs come about a month after Apple was reported to have canceled its electric car project.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced on April 3 that it will eliminate hundreds of roles across two organizations to focus on other areas. These job cuts will impact hundreds of roles in the company's sales, marketing and global services organizations, as well as hundreds of brick-and-mortar technology teams.
Ripple effects of big tech market movements
Nothing is static in the Big Tech industry, and PYMNTS covers how Salesforce is reportedly in talks to acquire data management software provider Informatica, while in B2B News, Thursday's announcement reported that Apple's AirPlay is now available at select IHG Hotels & Resorts properties. .
And Apple is reportedly considering building a manufacturing facility in Indonesia, CEO Tim Cook said Wednesday after a meeting with President Joko Widodo.
In other regions, ads will appear on Meta's Threads platform sooner than expected, as early as later this year, according to a report Thursday.
According to Amazon News, the company is still promoting its Just Walk Out payment technology even as it retires its grocery store checkout system. The move comes as the tech giants vie for ownership of Click-and-Mortar™ grocery stores. experience.
And on Tuesday, Amazon Live launched an interactive and shoppable channel called FAST Channel on Prime Video and Amazon Freevee.
PYMNTS Intelligence finds that consumers want an integrated shopping and entertainment experience that allows them to watch their favorite live streaming series on their mobile devices and shop for the clothing and jewelry worn by actors on screen. discovered.
