Technology

News on tech innovations and their impact on businesses and markets.

Technology
Cochlear lifts full year profit, sees more growth
Cochlear has announced a 9% increase in statutory net profit after tax (NPAT) and a 1% increase in underlying NPAT for the 2025 financial year (FY25). The medical device company said NPAT was $388.9 million and statutory NPAT was $391.6 million in the 12 months ended 30 June 2025. The company, which is best known for its hearing implants, said underlying earnings per share rose 1% to $5.98 on sales revenue which grew 4% to $2.356 billion in FY25. Directors declared an 85% franked final dividend of $2.15 per share to be paid on 13 October to shareholders registered on 19 September, compared with $2.10 a year earlier, bringing the full year payment to $4.30 versus $4.10. The company also said it expected to deliver underlying NPAT of $435 million to $460 million in FY26, an 11-17% increase on FY25. Sales revenue growth included strong contributions from cochlear and acoustic implants and was moderated by a decline in Services revenue. It expected strong revenue growth in developed markets from the launch of the new Nucleus Nexa implant, moderated by lower growth in emerging markets revenue with overall revenue and earnings growth weighted to the second half. “As we look to the future, we remain confident of the
Technology
Trump administration considers stake in Intel
Intel stock has grown 7% since it was reported that the Trump administration was in talks with the chipmaker to have the United States government take a stake in the struggling company. The deal would help shore up Intel’s planned factory hub in Ohio that the company once promised to turn into the world’s largest chip company, according to people familiar with the plan. It also comes as President Donald Trump calls for more chips and high technology to be manufactured in the U.S., with Intel being the only U.S. company capable of manufacturing the fastest chips on U.S. shores, despite certain rivals already having U.S. factories. This comes after Trump had called for Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan to step down as he accused him of being “highly conflicted” because of concerns about his earlier ties to China. Intel responded to this, saying Tan is “deeply committed to advancing U.S. national and economic security interests”. “We look forward to continuing our work with the Trump Administration to advance these shared priorities, but we are not going to comment on rumours or speculation,” the spokesperson said. Bloomberg first reported the news of the U.S. government potentially taking a stake in the chipmaker, which is the
Technology
Telstra and Infosys join forces via digital business
Telecommunications giant Telstra has formed a strategic partnership with technology consulting business Infosys through the sale of 75% of digital transformation company Versent Group for A$233 million (US$152 million). The company said the partnership was part of Telstra’s Connected Future 30 strategy to focus on core connectivity and consistent with the reset of its Enterprise business. The sale to Infosys, which consists of an $175 million up-front payment and deferred payments subject to performance and other conditions, is expected to be completed before the end of March 2026. It is not expected to result in a material gain or loss for Telstra, based on the carrying value of the Versent Group, which had revenue in the 2025 financial year of $397 million, subject to final adjustments. CEO Vicki Brady said the partnership reflected Telstra’s confidence in the value the two companies could unlock together. “Their global scale, deep industry knowledge, and culture of innovation and service excellence will be instrumental in accelerating Versent Group’s growth and impact across the region,” Brady said in a ASX announcement. Versent Group, which is the integration of Versent, Epicon, Telstra Purple Digital2 and as
Technology
Telstra rings up FY25 profit, forecasts more growth
Telstra has announced 31% increase in net profit after tax to A$2.343 billion (US$1.528 billion) for the 2025 financial year (FY25). Australia’s largest telecommunications company said the lift in profit was struck on a 0.9% lift in revenue and other income to $23.61 billion in the 12 months to 30 June 2025. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 14.3% to $8.607 billion. Directors declared a final fully franked dividend of 9.5 cents per share to be paid on 25 September to shareholders registered on 28 August, bringing the FY25 dividend to a fully franked 19 cents per share, compared with 18 cents in FY24. CEO Vicki Brady said FY25 was a strong year for Telstra as it continued to deliver for customers and shareholders. “We delivered our fourth consecutive year of underlying growth, reflecting momentum across our business, strong cost control and disciplined capital management,” Brady said in an ASX announcement. Reported growth was stronger than underlying growth because of significant one-off net costs of $715 million in the prior year, mostly related to impairments and restructuring associated with the reset of its Telstra Enterprise business. “Our underlying growth more ac
Technology
Cisco beats estimates with strong AI order growth
Cisco beat estimates last quarter, with double-digit percentage growth in income and a surge in artificial intelligence infrastructure orders. Revenue was up 8% year-over-year to US$14.67 billion, besting LSEG estimates of $14.62. Earnings per share were $0.99, rising 14% and above estimates of $0.98. “We delivered a strong close to fiscal 2025, driven by our accelerated innovation and solid execution,” said Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins. “The AI infrastructure orders we received from webscale customers in fiscal 2025 were more than double our original target, indicating a massive opportunity ahead as we lead the required architectural shift and build the critical infrastructure needed for the AI era.” “In Q4, revenue, gross margin and operating margin were at the high end of our guidance ranges, earnings per share was above the guidance range and we delivered solid operating cash flow,” said Cisco CFO Mark Patterson. Net income grew by 12% to US$4.0 billion. Operating income was $5 billion, rising 13%. Cisco’s product revenue was up 10% last quarter to US$10.89 billion, with product orders increasing by 7%. Services revenue was largely flat, growing from $3.78 billion to $3.79 billion. Revenue grew across geographic r

Technology
New wave of technology set to change daily life by 2030
Carrying a wallet and keys, queuing at the supermarket and forgetting passwords could be a thing of the past with new mobile technology, according to new research from the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA). A new report titled Future of Mobile: A Day in the Life shows how a new wave of technology could be embedded into every aspect of our day to day lives within five years and eliminate many hassles Australians have come to accept. From foldable, rollable iPads to artificial intelligence (AI) that can pick up health concerns before they begin, the future-casting commissioned by AMTA from Deloitte shows mobile technology will become even more essential for connected Australians. The research suggests that paying with digital wallets and wearables will become the norm by 2030, with cash use already down to 10% and that Aussies will no longer need to remember passwords due to new secure passkeys and biometrics. It also found that by 2030, digital alternatives will mean Australians will no longer need to carry house or car keys, queue unnecessarily or worry about dead batteries. AMTA CEO Louise Hyland said the new technologies would reshape how most Australians live and work. “Mobile infrastruc
Technology
AI startup makes pre-emptive bid for Chrome browser
Artificial-intelligence start-up Perplexity has made a pre-emptive bid to acquire Google’s Chrome browser ahead of a judge ruling later this month that is expected to force a sell-down after deeming that Google illegally monopolised the search market. Within coming days the U.S. District Judge who heard the case is expected to issue a ruling with remedies to prevent the technology giant from monopolising the online search market, including licensing search data to competitors. San Francisco-based Perplexity’s unsolicited US$34.5 billion bid to acquire Chrome follows previous interest in taking out the browser by rival artificial intelligence startup OpenAI. Meanwhile Yahoo and Apollo Global Management have also reportedly expressed interest in buying Chrome ,which is expected to have an enterprise value have ranging from US$20 billion to US$50 billion. In an attempt to avoid any antitrust concerns, Perplexity’s offer to Google does not have an equity component. Perplexity said its offer to buy Chrome is “designed to satisfy an antitrust remedy in highest public interest by placing Chrome with a capable, independent operator.” Following a US$100 million in capital raising earlier this year - which valued Perplexi
Technology
GitHub CEO exits, reporting shifts to Microsoft
GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke has stepped down to found a new company with the coding platform set to be integrated further into parent company Microsoft. Dohmke will not be replaced with GitHub’s leaders instead reporting to Microsoft, which acquired GitHub for US$7.5 billion (A$11.5 billion) in 2018. “My startup roots have begun tugging on me and I’ve decided to leave GitHub to become a founder again,” wrote Dohmke. “GitHub has never been stronger than it is today. We have seen more open-source projects with more contributions every year. AI projects have doubled in the last year alone. And our presence in companies of any size is unmatched in the market.” Dohmke did not provide details on his next company but he will depart at the end of 2025 after four years in the role. With Dohmke’s departure, Microsoft’s developer division head Julia Liuson will oversee GitHub’s revenue, engineering, and support. While GitHub is part of Microsoft’s CoreAI division, it has largely operated independently since its acquisition. CoreAI was launched in January 2025, and maintains Microsoft artificial intelligence (AI) products like Copilot. GitHub’s Copilot coding assistant uses AI to suggest or write code. Similar products like
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OpenAI's new GPT-5 AI models not at company's goals
OpenAI has launched its GPT-5 artificial intelligence models, which the company says include several new features but have still not reached its ideal benchmarks for intelligence. GPT-5 is now available for free to all ChatGPT users, and has been integrated into Microsoft Copilot. According to OpenAI, GPT-5 includes fewer factual errors and is better at coding than previous models, being able to produce apps or websites from text prompts. “GPT‑5 excels at writing, research, analysis, coding, and problem-solving. It delivers more accurate, professional responses and feels like collaborating with a smart, thoughtful colleague,” wrote OpenAI on the model’s release. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that while GPT-5 was an improvement on previous models, it has not achieved the company’s goals for artificial general intelligence. “This is not a model that continuously learns as it’s deployed from things it finds, which is something that, to me, feels like it should be part of AGI,” he said. The model was released alongside the faster variant GPT-5-mini, which can also be used for free. GPT-5-pro and GPT-5-thinking, more powerful models, are available to paid subscribers. According to OpenAI, GPT-5’s responses are 45% less l