Big Tech

Big Tech
Amazon outage cripples major websites across the globe
A massive outage from Amazon Web Services (AWS) caused much of the internet, including sites like Snapchat and Reddit to shut down overnight. The disruption was the largest since last year’s CrowdStrike malfunction took down technology systems in hospitals, banks and airports, and has highlighted the vulnerability of the world’s interconnected technologies. Following the internet meltdown, AWS was struggling to recover. After nine hours of disruptions, some of the applications were gradually coming back. However, some applications like Lambda, one of AWS’s computing services, were experiencing errors due to issues with an internal subsystem. AWS said the issue originated within he “EC2 internal network”, which provides on-demand cloud capacity within AWS and is used by businesses to run virtual servers that they need to develop, launch and host applications, and can scale up or down on capacity as required. While some apps like Reddit and Roblox were largely stabilised, outage tracking website Downdetector and others, including Snapchat, PayPal’s Venmo and Duolingo, were showing a resurgence in issues.
Big Tech
China iPhone sales drives Apple near US$4tn valuation
Apple shares jumped to an all-time high on Monday, climbing 4.2% to US$262.90 as robust early sales data for the iPhone 17 series pushed the tech behemoth closer to becoming the third company ever to crack a $4 trillion market valuation. The run-up handed Apple a market capitalisation of roughly $3.9 trillion, cementing its spot as the world's second most valuable company behind AI chip leader Nvidia. The catalyst stems from impressive figures released by research firm Counterpoint, which showed that the iPhone 17 series outsold its predecessor by 14% during the first 10 days of availability in China and the United States - Apple's two biggest markets. The base model iPhone 17 showed sales nearly doubling in China compared to the iPhone 16 during the same window. "The base model iPhone 17 is very compelling to consumers, offering great value for money," Counterpoint Senior Analyst Mengmeng Zhang said. The refreshed device packs an improved A19 chip, sharper display, higher base storage and selfie camera upgrades - all at the same price point as last year's model. Apple rolled out the new lineup in September, including the slimmer iPhone Air model, while holding the line on pricing despite ongoing U.S. tariff head
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Intel reveals new Panther Lake computer processors
Intel has unveiled its new Core Ultra series 3 processors for computers, also known as Panther Lake, as it prepares to ramp up production at its new factory in Arizona. The processors will be able to power consumer and commercial PCs, as well as robotics and gaming devices. It will be Intel’s first product built with its 18A node, which includes up to 15% better performance per watt. “We are entering an exciting new era of computing, made possible by great leaps forward in semiconductor technology that will shape the future for decades to come,” said Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan. “Our next-gen compute platforms, combined with our leading-edge process technology, manufacturing and advanced packaging capabilities, are catalysts for innovation across our business as we build a new Intel.” Panther Lake chips feature an Intel Arc graphics processing unit capable of more than 50% faster graphics performance than previous generation units. The chips' performance-cores and efficient-cores provide more than 50% faster CPU performance over previous generations. The processors will begin shipping later in 2025, the company said. The company will also launch its new Xeon 6+ server processor, known as Clearwater Forest, in the first hal
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Oracle falls due to lower than expected profit margin
Oracle shares have tumbled following a report that the software maker's profit margin in its cloud computing business is lower than many on Wall Street have been estimating. Oracle had 14% gross margins on US$900 million in sales of its Nvidia cloud business three months ending August, according to a report from The Information. This is significantly lower than Oracle’s overall gross margin of around 70%. The Information also reported that the company only managed about $125 million in gross profit in the three months ending in August. The report also found that Oracle’s recent transformation into one of the most important cloud and AI companies could run into profitability challenges due to the high costs of Nvidia chips and aggressive pricing on its AI chip rentals. Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) shares fell 2.52% on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT) to $284.24, and Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) stocks were down 0.3% to $185.04.
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Google lays off over 100 employees in cloud unit
Google has laid off over 100 employees in its cloud computing unit, continuing its efforts to lower its staff headcount. The layoffs largely affected U.S.-based roles in design and user experience, according to Business Insider and CNBC. Google Cloud’s revenue and operating income both saw major growth last quarter. “Its annual revenue run-rate is now more than $50 billion,” Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in the company’s second quarter earnings release. “With this strong and growing demand for our Cloud products and services, we are increasing our investment in capital expenditures in 2025 to approximately $85 billion and are excited by the opportunity ahead,” Pichai said. Google Cloud’s quantitative user experience research and platform & service experience teams were heavily impacted by the layoffs, per CNBC. More than 200 contractors working on Google’s artificial intelligence products were also dismissed in multiple rounds of layoffs in August, Wired reported. These contractors were employed by digital engineering companies like GlobalLogic, and trained Google’s chatbots and other AI features. Google reportedly told employees in August that it had cut managers overseeing teams of fewer than four

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Intel shares jump 7% on AMD foundry deal discussions
Intel shares surged as much as 7% on Wednesday after reports emerged that the chipmaker is in early-stage discussions with AMD to manufacture chips at its struggling foundry business. The discussions, reported by Semafor and CNBC, remain preliminary and may not result in a deal - both companies declined to comment. Intel closed up 5.5% during Wall Street trade, extending year-to-date gains to a whopping 77%, while AMD finished the session up just over 1%. AMD currently has its chips made primarily by Taiwan's TSMC, while Intel lacks the technology to manufacture AMD's most advanced, profitable processors – meaning any initial arrangement would likely involve less sophisticated products.Major customer huntFor Intel's foundry business, which has been actively seeking major clients, landing AMD represents a substantial win. According to Intel's July 2025 10-Q filing, Intel Foundry Services has been "unsuccessful to date" in attracting external demand, generating just US$50 million in revenues from outside buyers year-to-date. The division posted an operating loss of $3.17 billion in Q2 on sales of $4.42 billion, up 3.2% year-on-year - the loss was exacerbated by a $800 million impairment charge for equipment. An AMD
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CoreWeave lands US$14.2bn Meta infrastructure deal
CoreWeave shares jumped 13% Tuesday after announcing a US$14.2 billion computing power agreement with Meta, running through December 2031 with options extending to 2032. The deal came just days after CoreWeave expanded its OpenAI agreement by US$6.5 billion, bringing that total contract to US$22.4 billion.The neocloud playCoreWeave operates what investors call "neoclouds" - data centres packed with Nvidia graphics processing units that get rented out to AI developers. Build data centres full of Nvidia's latest chips (in this case, the GB300 systems), then lease that computing power to companies racing to train and run massive AI models. Meta's been pouring tens of billions into AI infrastructure, with 2025 expenses expected between US$114 billion and US$118 billion. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is building superclusters the size of Manhattan. The company's Hyperion facility is expected to cover a significant part of Manhattan's footprint, whilst Meta aims to have 1.3 million GPUs operational by year-end.DiversificationCoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator admits the company got dinged during their IPO for customer concentration - Microsoft historically accounted for 71% of revenue in the June quarter. This Meta deal changes that
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Intel reportedly seeking investment from Apple
Intel has reportedly approached Apple seeking an investment, as Intel looks to revive its struggling finances. Apple and Intel have also discussed ways to collaborate more closely in early-stage talks, Bloomberg News reported. Intel announced a US$5 billion investment from Nvidia last week, and $2 billion from SoftBank in August. The United States government also agreed to purchase a 9.9% stake in Intel last month. It “will make an $8.9 billion investment in Intel common stock, reflecting the confidence the Administration has in Intel to advance key national priorities and the critically important role the company plays in expanding the domestic semiconductor industry,” Intel wrote. Intel has struggled in recent months, reporting a $2.9 billion net loss last quarter. It has lost market share to AMD in the personal computer chips sector, and has largely been unable to capitalise on the AI boom. Apple previously included Intel’s chips in products like the MacBook, though it has largely transitioned to its own in-house chips since 2020. Apple’s processors are built by TSMC. Apple has also massively increased its investments in the U.S. this year, often being urged to do so by the U.S. government. It said last month tha
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NVIDIA chips in US$100bn for OpenAI expansion
NVIDIA cemented its position as the world’s valuable company, hitting a record high after announcing it would invest up to US$100 billion (A$151 billion) in OpenAI and supply it with computer chips for a major data centre expansion. The technology giants announced a letter of intent for a strategic partnership to deploy at least 10 gigawatts of NVIDIA systems for OpenAI to train and run its next generation of artificial intelligence (AI) models, marking the latest development in the global AI boom. This is equal to between four million and five million graphics processing units (GPUs), the same volume as NVIDIA will ship this year and twice as much as last year, Founder and CEO Jensen Huang was quoted in a CNBC article as saying in an interview. NVIDIA is understood to be paying current market prices for its stake in OpenAI, the privately-owned developer of the ChatGPT program that simulates a conversation with a person. “To support this deployment including data centre and power capacity, NVIDIA intends to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI as the new NVIDIA systems are deployed,” the companies said in a press release. The first phase is targeted to come online in the second half of 2026 with the details to be fin