Consumer Tech (June 29-July 2): Microsoft Announces Layoffs, Meta & Google Sued In Several States & More

The Government of India has expressed concerns over Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: META ) introducing usernames on its messaging platform, WhatsApp, citing a potential increase in cybercrime.

Meta suffered a significant legal setback after a federal judge allowed most claims in a lawsuit brought by 29 state attorneys general over the alleged addictive design of Facebook and Instagram to proceed.

The European Union’s top court has upheld the record antitrust fine of €4.1 billion ($4.67 billion) levied on Alphabet Inc. ‘s (NASDAQ: GOOGL ) (NASDAQ: GOOG ) Google over alleged anti-competitive practices.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said it will vote July 22 on a sweeping Space Modernization Order that aims to cut satellite licensing timelines from more than a year to weeks or months, potentially accelerating the rollout of next-generation space broadband.

Germany has reportedly requested that the U.S. allow an increase in the production of American weapons on German soil.

The Donald Trump administration declared a power emergency as a heat wave that could affect millions of people looms over the U.S., but Economist Robert Reich points to blue-collar workers bearing the worst of the effects.

A class action filed June 25 in the U.S.

District Court for the Northern District of California accuses Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU ), Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (OTC: SSNLF ) and SK hynix Inc. of unlawfully coordinating production to restrict DRAM supply and drive prices higher.

Australia’s competition watchdog has sued Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN ), alleging the e-commerce giant used unfair subscription terms to force more than one million annual Prime members to either watch advertisements on Prime Video or pay extra to remove them.

Semiconductors & Softwares In a move to support artificial intelligence (AI) startups, Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA ) has introduced a new initiative that provides access to high-performance computing infrastructure through a revenue-sharing and credit-support model.

Haleon plc (NYSE: HLN ) has entered into a new five-year collaboration with Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT ) to expand its digital, data, and artificial intelligence capabilities as the consumer health company looks to accelerate its global "Win as One" strategy.

Microsoft is reportedly preparing to announce another round of layoffs next week, with thousands of employees across sales, consulting and its Xbox gaming business expected to be affected.

Broadline Retail & Interactive Media The U.S.

Department of Justice said that Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE: BABA ) and U.S.-based payment processor AUS Merchant Services agreed to pay $600 million under a non-prosecution agreement to resolve allegations they failed to stop illegal pharmaceuticals and banned goods from reaching U.S. buyers through Alibaba’s online marketplaces.

Amazon is ramping up its efforts to produce custom chips for its key consumer devices, as revealed by the company’s top hardware executive.

Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing unit of Amazon.com, has declared a $1 billion investment in a novel Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) unit.

Meta said the company is developing a cloud computing business aimed at monetizing its vast artificial intelligence infrastructure, prompting Jim Cramer to argue the initiative could add significant value to the stock.

Sony Group Corp ‘s (NYSE: SONY ) plan to kill physical PlayStation discs by 2028 adds pressure on GameStop Corporation (NYSE: GME ), a franchise scrambling to diversify beyond game sales.

Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL ) closely guarded supply chain for its upcoming iPhone 18 Pro models has reportedly been exposed after hackers allegedly leaked confidential documents and internal test images stolen from key manufacturing partner Tata Electronics.

Bitcion & AI Coinbase Global Inc. (NASDAQ: COIN ) CEO Brian Armstrong warned that the U.S. constitutional framework lacks built-in fiscal constraints, arguing that this gap has contributed to surging federal debt now exceeding $39 trillion and rapidly rising interest payments.

Coinbase CEO said artificial intelligence (AI) will strengthen cybersecurity by enabling defenders to detect vulnerabilities across entire codebases before software is released.

Palantir (NYSE: PLTR ) CEO Alex Karp slammed the token-based pricing model used by OpenAI and Anthropic, as rising costs push enterprises toward lower-cost, open-weight models.

Palantir CEO also argued that many enterprise customers are growing increasingly skeptical of frontier AI companies, warning that businesses fear sacrificing their intellectual property and competitive advantage in exchange for AI services.

Anthropic announced that the U.S.

Department of Commerce has lifted export controls on its Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 artificial intelligence models.

OpenAI is reportedly considering offering the U.S. government a 5% equity stake as part of a broader effort to deepen ties with the Trump administration and secure financial backing.

SoftBank Group Corp. (OTC: SFTBF ) (OTC: SFTBY ) has reportedly revived negotiations for a $10 billion loan backed by its OpenAI stake after restructuring the proposal to include a corporate repayment.

Box Inc. (NYSE: BOX ) CEO Aaron Levie said the future balance of power in AI will depend on whether open-source models can stay close enough to frontier systems to challenge the dominance of closed AI platforms.

Automobile, Drones & Spacecraft The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has announced it will be closing a probe into 695,000 Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA ) vehicles over an automatic braking issue.

Tesla reported second-quarter vehicle deliveries of 480,126 on Thursday, a 25% increase from about 384,122 vehicles delivered a year earlier.

Deliveries also rose 34% from 358,023 vehicles in the first quarter.

Tesla said that the company’s production line in Fremont, California, for the sunsetted Model S and Model X vehicles has b