Apple on Thursday reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue and earnings amid strong iPhone sales, driven in part by people pulling forward purchases to avoid tariffs.
Why it matters: Apple is seen as a bellwether for the tech industry, and its results are closely tied to the fortunes of a host of other companies, including component suppliers and wireless carriers.
Jen Easterly, the former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency during the Biden administration, said Thursday that her rescinded offer to teach at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point was "a casualty of casually manufactured outrage."
Why it matters: These are Easterly's first public comments since the Army decided to revoke her teaching role amid pressure from far-right activist Laura Loomer.
Microsoft has entered into the $4 trillion club alongside Nvidia. Apple, Amazon, Alphabet and Meta could be next.
Why it matters: With all but one member of the Magnificent 7 racing toward this record-high valuation, investors are growing uneasy about just how far Big Tech can run — and at what cost.
Microsoft released a study assessing jobs' vulnerability to being replaced by AI.
Zoom in: The study scores jobs' resilience through three categories: whether AI is currently being used for that work, how successfully it does so and how much of that occupation's total work can be done by AI.
Nuclear fusion startup Helion,whose backers include Sam Altman, has started site prep in Washington state for a reactor it hopes to have running by 2028.
Why it matters: Fusion companies are inching closer to bringing the tech, long considered a distant dream, into commercial reality.
Sensitive corporate data appeared in more than 4% of generative AI prompts and over 20% of uploaded files in the second quarter of this year, according to new research from Harmonic Security released Thursday.
The big picture: The problem isn't new, but as workplace genAI use increases, many employers still lack or don't enforce AI policies, causing employees to use bots in secret or without proper training.
Despite blowout earnings results from Meta and Microsoft, the Magnificent 7 — the seven megacap tech stocks once seen as the best way to ride the boom in artificial intelligence — are underperforming the S&P 500 year-to-date, raising fresh questions about how investors should trade the AI rally.
Why it matters: As performance within individual members of the Mag 7 varies, investors may need to look elsewhere to achieve the outsize returns associated with the AI boom.
The major sports leagues are confronting a potentially costly reality in sports gambling: If you embrace it, problems will come.
Why it matters: Recent investigations of pro baseball and basketball stars have raised fears about the integrity of sports, and whether certain plays, or even whole games, are being manipulated.
