AI is fundamentally reinventing computing and enterprise operations, shifting value from coding to domain expertise and intent-driven problem-solving. Organizations are urged to experiment broadly with AI, focus on their most impactful work, and embed AI into core processes to remain competitive. Based on NVIDIA Corporation [NVDA] Cisco AI Summit 2026 Audio Transcript — Feb. 4 2026
AI is fundamentally reinventing computing and enterprise operations, shifting value from coding to domain expertise and intent-driven problem-solving. Organizations are urged to experiment broadly with AI, focus on their most impactful work, and embed AI into core processes to remain competitive. Based on NVIDIA Corporation [NVDA] Cisco AI Summit 2026 Audio Transcript — Feb. 4 2026
Tencent Holdings’ aggressive red-packet blitz to promote its artificial intelligence chatbot Yuanbao ran into a roadblock on Wednesday from the company’s own super app WeChat, dealing a blow to a US$144 million effort to acquire users for the emerging AI app. WeChat, known as Weixin on the mainland, announced on Wednesday that it would restrict Yuanbao links from opening directly within WeChat, ef...
Tencent Holdings’ aggressive red-packet blitz to promote its artificial intelligence chatbot Yuanbao ran into a roadblock on Wednesday from the company’s own super app WeChat, dealing a blow to a US$144 million effort to acquire users for the emerging AI app. WeChat, known as Weixin on the mainland, announced on Wednesday that it would restrict Yuanbao links from opening directly within WeChat, effective immediately, in response to “user feedback and complaints”, according to a statement. Yuanbao, which aimed to give out 1 billion yuan (US$144 million) in cash in the campaign via digital red packets, encouraged users to share the packets via WeChat to boost their rewards. Advertisement However, WeChat said in a statement that the approach “induces users to share links to WeChat groups in high frequency, disrupting the platform’s ecosystem, impacting user experience and causing harassment to the community”. Users attempting to open the links saw a message about “induced sharing” starting from Wednesday morning. Beijing resident Jiang Ruipeng said he was “a bit surprised” to find out about the dispute as “Yuanbao and WeChat both belong to Tencent”. Advertisement As an active participant in the campaign who has earned roughly 40 yuan (US$6), Jiang said the change had restricted his WeChat contacts from opening the red packets he shared, which could limit the amount he could earn. The move, coming just four days after the launch of the red-packet campaign, could hinder Tencent’s ambitions to catch up in the crowded AI market. The campaign relied heavily on WeChat, which has more than 1.4 billion monthly active users globally, to share referral links and cash out.
According to a new report AMD is shifting its Radeon focus to 8GB graphics cards, and for its RDNA 4 lineup that only means a single GPU. TL;DR: AMD is shifting its Radeon GPU focus to 8GB models like the RX 9060 XT due to rising DRAM prices that are affecting 16GB variants. Radeon GPU prices increased 5-10% in early 2026, with further hikes expected soon, affecting supply and market dynamics. Acc...
According to a new report AMD is shifting its Radeon focus to 8GB graphics cards, and for its RDNA 4 lineup that only means a single GPU. TL;DR: AMD is shifting its Radeon GPU focus to 8GB models like the RX 9060 XT due to rising DRAM prices that are affecting 16GB variants. Radeon GPU prices increased 5-10% in early 2026, with further hikes expected soon, affecting supply and market dynamics. According to new information from the China-based Board Channels forums (via Videocardz), a regular source of gaming GPU news on supply and pricing, AMD is shifting its Radeon GPU focus toward 8GB graphics cards. For the company's new RDNA 4 generation, that's a single model, the mainstream Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB. 2 VIEW GALLERY - 2 IMAGES At the time of the Radeon RX 9060 XT's launch in 2025, the focus was on the 16GB model, with the 8GB cards primarily reserved for system integrators. This is why our review coverage only includes Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB models, which consistently outperformed NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5060 8GB GPU, especially for 1440p gaming. Popular Popular Now: Logitech says if its new mouse doesn't 'change the way you play' you'll get a full refund This new report mirrors similar reporting on the GeForce RTX 50 Series, where unprecedented DRAM price increases are disrupting the PC gaming GPU market. Specifically, models with 16GB or more of VRAM. For AMD and China, this means a focus on the Radeon RX 9060 XT and Radeon RX 7650 GRE GPUs, both of which feature 8GB of GDDR6 memory. The good news is that AMD's partners will still be able to obtain 16GB cards, but the focus will be placed on the Radeon RX 9070 XT, with the baseline Radeon RX 9070 seeing its production "significantly reduced." In addition to the shift in focus to 8GB cards, the report notes that a 5-10% price increase for Radeon GPUs occurred in January 2026 for AMD's AIB partners purchasing GPU and memory bundles, and another price increase is coming soon. So soon that it could take effect as early ...
Traders have become been skeptical about software stocks due to fears about the potential destruction to be wrought by artificial intelligence. Bloomberg's Annabelle Droulers breaks down the situation and explains how Asian markets are responding. (Source: Bloomberg)
Traders have become been skeptical about software stocks due to fears about the potential destruction to be wrought by artificial intelligence. Bloomberg's Annabelle Droulers breaks down the situation and explains how Asian markets are responding. (Source: Bloomberg)
Alex Pretti had courage and empathy. This, not Maga’s conception of male power, is what we must teach young men The first thing that grabbed me about the Rapture’s 2011 song It Takes Time to be a Man was the warbly, analogue fuzz of its recurring guitar and piano riff. Once that drew me in, what kept me listening were the lyrics’ hard-marriage of masculinity and empathy. In the final verse , Luke ...
Alex Pretti had courage and empathy. This, not Maga’s conception of male power, is what we must teach young men The first thing that grabbed me about the Rapture’s 2011 song It Takes Time to be a Man was the warbly, analogue fuzz of its recurring guitar and piano riff. Once that drew me in, what kept me listening were the lyrics’ hard-marriage of masculinity and empathy. In the final verse , Luke Jenner tells us that: “Well there’s room in your heart now / for excellence to take a stand / And there’s tears that need shedding / it’s all part of the plan”. For the past year , rightwing voices have waged war on empathy. According to Elon Musk, empathy is “the fundamental weakness of western civilisation”. Others go further , calling it “toxic”, “suicidal” and even “sinful”. Certainly, the macho wing of the Maga right sees no place for it amid its (mis)appropriation of medieval history and imagery that is visible everywhere from the face paint and horned headdress of the “ QAnon shaman ”, convicted for his role in the US Capitol siege, to the tattooed arms and body of Donald Trump’s secretary of war, Pete Hegseth. And yet, consider the ideal of chivalry held by medieval knights: generosity and suspicion of profit, courtesy, honesty and the bind of your word, hospitality, abiding by the rules of combat and granting mercy to your adversary – whose life a knight takes only as a last resort. I say this not because I think the medieval knight should be the new standard for modern men, but to point out that Maga men would fail, miserably so, to live up to their own ideals. Alexander Hurst is a Guardian Europe columnist. His memoir, Generation Desperation , is published in January 2026 Continue reading...
I booked an online appointment with a gynaecologist in Karachi during the pandemic. I had a severe urinary tract infection and needed immediate relief. Everything felt routine at first: the doctor joined the video call late, held her phone awkwardly and asked about my symptoms. I explained, she prescribed medication, and then came the expected questions: Was I married? For how long? Any children? ...
I booked an online appointment with a gynaecologist in Karachi during the pandemic. I had a severe urinary tract infection and needed immediate relief. Everything felt routine at first: the doctor joined the video call late, held her phone awkwardly and asked about my symptoms. I explained, she prescribed medication, and then came the expected questions: Was I married? For how long? Any children? When I said “no,” her tone shifted as she asked, “Bachay tou chaihiye na aap ko?” (You do want children, right?). It felt subtly menacing – the assumption was clear: not wanting kids meant something was wrong. What shocked me more was my own response. “Ji, ji, bilkul,” (Yes, yes, of course) I mumbled. Later, I was furious with myself for crumbling under pressure – for not being honest. I live in a country where a woman’s value is often measured by her ability and willingness to become a mother. People casually throw around words like baanjh (infertile) even when a woman is simply choosing to wait. And when she openly says she doesn’t want kids at all? That’s seen as selfish, even threatening. Everyone, from distant relatives to strangers, feels entitled to pry. “What are you waiting for? It’s been X months since your marriage!” they say, with no regard for privacy. Some declare that children are your only legacy or support in old age. Others recommend fertility clinics, religious clerics, hakeems (a wise man or traditional healer) – even therapists, as though choosing not to have children is a mental illness that needs to be “fixed”. Once, an older driver who used to pick me up from work asked if I had kids. When I said no, he stared at me through the rear-view mirror and began invasive questioning about my and my husband’s reproductive health. I changed the subject multiple times but to no avail. As I was getting out he was still at it: “Do remind me on WhatsApp. I’ll give you the number of a hakeem who fixed someone with the same problem.” This pro-natalist rhetoric is a ...
The UK economy would be 3.6% smaller by 2040 if net migration fell to zero, forcing the government to raise taxes to combat a much bigger budget deficit, a thinktank has predicted. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said falling birthrates in the UK and a sharp decrease in net migration last year had led it to consider what would happen if this trend continued to the en...
The UK economy would be 3.6% smaller by 2040 if net migration fell to zero, forcing the government to raise taxes to combat a much bigger budget deficit, a thinktank has predicted. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said falling birthrates in the UK and a sharp decrease in net migration last year had led it to consider what would happen if this trend continued to the end of the decade. In this scenario the UK population would stop growing at about 70 million in 2030. The latest official figures showed the UK population was 69.3 million in 2024. Dr Benjamin Caswell, a senior economist at NIESR, said: “Net zero migration leaves the economy 3.6% smaller by 2040 and this reflects slower employment growth and a smaller workforce.” The thinktank said that initially real wages and disposable income would rise as firms would be forced to use more machinery and become more productive, with GDP per capita rising by 2% by 2040. However, these gains would come at the cost of weaker growth in the economy overall as a smaller and ageing population would lead to fewer tax revenues, opening up the gap between public spending and receipts and causing the government to borrow more. “Imagine it as like freezing the population where it is, and then just having a continually ageing population,” Caswell said. “In the short to medium term, it’s not too detrimental, but over 20 years this gap [in spending and receipts] becomes continually larger and larger.” The thinktank said the government would fill this gap by borrowing, which would cause the budget deficit to increase by about 0.8% of GDP, or £37bn, by 2040. This forecast is based on the assumption that government spending and tax rates up to 2030 follow the path estimated by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the UK’s official forecaster, and then the share of government spending as a ratio of GDP remains constant thereafter. The thinktank said that certain payments, such as child benefit or jobse...
Pets trained to bite, hold and release on command are growing ever more popular in the UK. But why – and at what cost to the animals and their owners? Even if you’re not afraid of dogs, you might be a little intimidated by Butch Cassidy. His tail may be wagging, but the Belgian shepherd weighs 40kg and moves with awesome agility. Even a casual brush of his body could knock you off your feet if you...
Pets trained to bite, hold and release on command are growing ever more popular in the UK. But why – and at what cost to the animals and their owners? Even if you’re not afraid of dogs, you might be a little intimidated by Butch Cassidy. His tail may be wagging, but the Belgian shepherd weighs 40kg and moves with awesome agility. Even a casual brush of his body could knock you off your feet if you weren’t expecting it. “I don’t for a minute think he’s going to bite anyone,” said his owner Grahame Green earlier. “Although he would, if I asked him to.” Now Green’s about to demonstrate. He brings Cassidy to heel, and gets him to sit. Facing them is another man, Florin, already braced and wearing a protective arm sleeve. The dog is visibly quivering with excitement, so keen is his anticipation for what comes next. Green gives a one-word command, in German. Cassidy darts forward, an auburn arrow, and in that split-second clamps on to Florin’s forearm. Florin is engaging every muscle to remain upright, but Cassidy does not let go until Green gives the word. Continue reading...
The seaside city of Southend-on-Sea, on England’s east coast, looks grey on a winter afternoon in term-time. Its cobbled high street, bordering the university campus, is sparsely populated with market stalls, vape shops and discount retailers, and feels unusually quiet. “There used to be lots of shops, restaurants and youth clubs around here,” says 23-year-old Nathan Doucette-Chiddicks. Now, the c...
The seaside city of Southend-on-Sea, on England’s east coast, looks grey on a winter afternoon in term-time. Its cobbled high street, bordering the university campus, is sparsely populated with market stalls, vape shops and discount retailers, and feels unusually quiet. “There used to be lots of shops, restaurants and youth clubs around here,” says 23-year-old Nathan Doucette-Chiddicks. Now, the city is about to lose something else that it can scarcely do without. Just before Christmas, Essex University announced that it would close its Southend campus this summer due to a big fall in international students, who pay much higher fees. The move will affect 800 students, as well as staff, but it will also have a huge impact on a city that has come to depend on the university in many ways. Doucette-Chiddicks, a student on the adult nursing course, describes himself as Southend “through and through”. He wears Southend United merchandise from head to toe and has lived in the town all his life. View image in fullscreen ‘It’s a big loss,’ says Nathan Doucette-Chiddicks, 23, a student nurse at the Southend campus His mother was one of the university’s first students when it opened in 2008. “She used to sneak me into the computer labs so she could study,” he recalls. The campus is just a few doors from his home and, for him, has long symbolised possibility for the people who live here. His mother is now an A&E nurse and he wants to follow in her footsteps. “It’s a big loss,” he says. “Not just for students – for the city as a whole.” Q&A What is the Against the tide series? Show Over the next year, the Against the Tide project from the Guardian’s Seascape team will be reporting on the lives of young people in coastal communities across England and Wales. Young people in many of England's coastal towns are disproportionately likely to face poverty, poor housing, lower educational attainment and employment opportunities than their peers in equivalent inland areas. In the most d...
To get John Authers’ newsletter delivered directly to your inbox, sign up here . Today’s Points: US stocks had a bad day, as potential losers from AI grew clearer; Oil is rising on fears over Iran , but there’s space to go much higher; Unnoticed, China’s currency is now at its strongest in 30 months; Ahead of Japan’s election, the yen is churning and stocks are surging; AND: Be not afraid , it’s M...
To get John Authers’ newsletter delivered directly to your inbox, sign up here . Today’s Points: US stocks had a bad day, as potential losers from AI grew clearer; Oil is rising on fears over Iran , but there’s space to go much higher; Unnoticed, China’s currency is now at its strongest in 30 months; Ahead of Japan’s election, the yen is churning and stocks are surging; AND: Be not afraid , it’s Mendelssohn’s birthday. Iran’s So Far Away The US shot down an Iranian drone that was “aggressively approaching” an aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea on Tuesday, while Iranian gunboats threatened to board a US tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. It’s an alarming escalation of a situation that is already in many ways terrifying. The Iranian regime is trying to deal with possibly the biggest street insurrection of its 47-year history. The US, which already bombed the country’s nuclear facilities last year, is threatening to intervene. And a huge American military force is gathering — including the USS Abraham Lincoln, alleged target of the drone — as Iranian politicians warn that any attack will lead to a regional war . They appear determined to up the game of brinkmanship. “These are very provocative moves by Iran that I think are meant to signal to the US administration that the Iranian regime is not intimidated by the US force presence in the Gulf,” said former CIA official Joe Zacks in a report by Academy Securities. In anything like usual times, such a crisis would have monopolized the agenda for the last month. Instead, the gusher of news stories and crises produced by Washington have relegated it from the headlines. This is how references to Iran and Gaza in stories from all sources published on the Bloomberg terminal have moved since the Hamas attacks on Israel in October 2023 started the current era of Middle East tension: An end to the Iranian regime could profoundly affect the global balance of power, but for financial markets it matters because of the potential to in...
Ben Harburg celebrated after his football team, Al Kholood, won a seven-goal thriller to make the semi-finals of the King’s Cup knockout competition for the first time. It was the sort of moment that Saudi Arabian football had coveted: The first foreign owner of a team in the kingdom celebrating a milestone as the Saudi Pro League seeks global recognition. The sport is a key pillar of Crown Prince...
Ben Harburg celebrated after his football team, Al Kholood, won a seven-goal thriller to make the semi-finals of the King’s Cup knockout competition for the first time. It was the sort of moment that Saudi Arabian football had coveted: The first foreign owner of a team in the kingdom celebrating a milestone as the Saudi Pro League seeks global recognition. The sport is a key pillar of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s vision to modernize the country as it prepares to host the World Cup in 2034. “The Harburg Group brings proven international football experience,” a Saudi Ministry of Sports spokesman said. Al Kholood’s performance this season, “shows they are already adding value,” he said. In a league that’s spent billions to bring in star players with worldwide appeal, though, the 42-year-old American is little known even within the confines of the football industry. In fact, picking Harburg as its inaugural foreign owner was perhaps a gamble for Saudi Arabia. A tall, globe-trotting financier with a liking for unbuttoned shirts, Harburg said his career includes founding a major South Asian commodities trading firm and making investments in some of the world’s most prominent tech startups. He also owns a stake of about 6% in Spanish team Cadiz FC, and helped revamp the club’s media strategy. Yet Harburg’s list of achievements and connections appear to have been embellished in various interviews and podcasts over the years, from his trading career to his father’s role in international relations , according to more than a dozen people who have worked directly with the investor. His successful start with Al Kholood has also started to falter. A shirt sponsorship deal with Muzz , a Muslim dating and marriage app, was cancelled after one match following protests by fans. Despite progress in the cup , the club is placed just above the relegation zone in the league. “In a much shorter timeframe than we anticipated, we have delivered on much of what we targeted,” Harburg sa...
Upgrade to get full access to all premium news on Yahoo Finance and get more great articles like this free preview. Banks are tapping investors such as insurance companies and private credit funds as they try to find buyers for tens of billions of dollars of loans tied to Oracle's (ORCL) vast data centre projects. At least $56bn worth of data centre construction loans — supported by the software c...
Upgrade to get full access to all premium news on Yahoo Finance and get more great articles like this free preview. Banks are tapping investors such as insurance companies and private credit funds as they try to find buyers for tens of billions of dollars of loans tied to Oracle's (ORCL) vast data centre projects. At least $56bn worth of data centre construction loans — supported by the software company’s future leases as part of its $300bn deal with OpenAI — have been given investment-grade ratings, according to people familiar with the deals. These ratings, which are relatively rare for infrastructure construction loans, have allowed banks to attract a much broader base of investors than usual for project finance debt. While banks have mostly tended to fund project finance loans for the construction of toll roads and airports themselves, the massive deal sizes of recent data centre projects have overwhelmed this source of demand, leaving tech giants keen to find new sources of capital. “We basically tapped every single project finance bank possible, but there are only so many banks,” said a banker familiar with Oracle’s fundraising. “Banks will have to offload that risk if they want to keep lending.” Getting investment-grade ratings for data centre construction loans was “transformational” as it opens up a new pool of institutional money that previously saw these assets, which are not yet operational, as too risky, the banker said. Initial discussions with credit rating agencies began two years ago, the banker added. The attempts to find buyers for the debt come amid a rapid increase in debt issuance by Big Tech companies, with half of the 10 largest borrowers in the US investment-grade bond market set to be so-called hyperscalers by 2030. Investor concerns have been growing about Oracle’s aggressive commitment to AI spending, as it bids to compete with rival tech groups, and its debt pile. The software company on Monday separately raised another $25bn in the bond...
This is the forum for daily political discussion on Seeking Alpha. A new version is published every market day. Please don't leave political comments on other articles or posts on the site. The comments below are not regulated with the same rigor as the rest of the site, and this is an 'enter at your own risk' area as discussion can get very heated. If you can't stand the heat... you know what the...
This is the forum for daily political discussion on Seeking Alpha. A new version is published every market day. Please don't leave political comments on other articles or posts on the site. The comments below are not regulated with the same rigor as the rest of the site, and this is an 'enter at your own risk' area as discussion can get very heated. If you can't stand the heat... you know what they say... More on Today's Markets: Moderation Guidelines: We remove comments under the following categories: Personal attacks on another user account Anti-Vaxxer or covid related misinformation Stereotyping, prejudiced or racist language about individuals or the topic under discussion. Inciting violence messages, encouraging hate groups and political violence. Regardless of which side of the political divide you find yourself, please be courteous and don't direct abuse at other users. For any issue with regards to comments please email us at : moderation@seekingalpha.com. Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.
MicroStockHub/iStock via Getty Images Alphabet Q4 earnings preview According to Visible Alpha consensus, Alphabet Inc.'s ( GOOG ) ( GOOGL ) total revenues expected for Q4 2025 have increased to $111.4 billion from $108.8 billion last quarter, driven by resilience in its ad business and potential strength in Google Cloud. In addition, the Q4 consensus expectations for operating income and EPS have ...
MicroStockHub/iStock via Getty Images Alphabet Q4 earnings preview According to Visible Alpha consensus, Alphabet Inc.'s ( GOOG ) ( GOOGL ) total revenues expected for Q4 2025 have increased to $111.4 billion from $108.8 billion last quarter, driven by resilience in its ad business and potential strength in Google Cloud. In addition, the Q4 consensus expectations for operating income and EPS have also increased, due to a higher Cloud margin expectation. Since July 2025, the Google Cloud margin has expanded from 19.4% to 23%. Questions have been emerging about the impact of AI on its core search business and have started to impact overall top line growth estimates. However, consensus EPS of $2.64/share ranges from $3.01 to $2.43 for Q4, driven by differing assumptions around costs, particularly in its Cloud business. It will be interesting to hear what Alphabet says about the outlook. We are closely monitoring the trend of the Cloud business. The operating profit margin has been trending better. Looking ahead to Q1 2026, analysts now expect the Cloud business to generate a 22.0% operating profit margin, up 400 bps year over year but 100bps lower since last quarter. However, the estimates range from $1.9 billion to $4.4 billion in Q1 2026, signaling divergent views about the performance of this business. Longer term, analysts are also split in their views. For the Cloud business, Visible Alpha consensus expects the operating profit margin to hit 24.1% in FY 2026 but with a significant range of estimates. If the core Search and Ads business remains resilient, the performance of Alphabet stock is likely to be driven by the Cloud segment. We are closely watching what the company will say about its investments into AI, as Alphabet’s FY 2026 CapEx numbers have continued to increase. According to consensus projections, CapEx estimates have nearly quadrupled from $32.3 billion in FY 2023 to $120.8 billion in FY 2026. Alphabet stock has traded up 35.0% since the October relea...