Latest news with #AzureAI
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Can Intel Be Leaner & More Agile by Laying Off 529 Employees?
Intel Corporation INTC is reportedly laying off 529 employees across four locations in Oregon to minimize operating costs and reduce organizational complexity to better serve customers. These include software and hardware engineers, developers, managers, scientists and other domain specialists with backgrounds in artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing. A lion's share of the job cuts is taking place at Intel's Jones Farm Campus, which focuses on chip design work as well as research and development (R&D). The other facilities that are witnessing job cuts include the Aloha, Hawthorne Farm and Ronler Acres campuses, which support semiconductor research and boasts the largest number of Intel's facilities and workforce, with about 22,000 employees. By trimming its huge employee base, the company aims to eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy levels and become leaner and more agile, regaining its competitive edge. This follows a similar exercise a few days back, when the company decided to wind up its automotive architecture business as part of a broader restructuring process to trim operating costs and boost liquidity. Intel expects to free up significant resources by winding down this peripheral unit, thereby making more money available for R&D funding in the core PC and data center has been investing in expanding its manufacturing capacity to accelerate its IDM 2.0 (Integrated Device Manufacturing) strategy. Interim management is committed to keeping the core strategy unchanged despite efforts to drive operational efficiency and agility. The company is emphasizing the diligent execution of operational goals to establish itself as a leading foundry. It is focusing on simplifying parts of its portfolio to unlock efficiencies and create value. Microsoft Corporation MSFT has laid off 6,000-7,000 employees as part of a broader restructuring strategy focused on boosting AI innovation and reducing organizational layers. The job cuts are purportedly aimed at reducing redundancy, particularly in middle management and support functions. Microsoft is reallocating the freed-up resources toward high-growth AI areas like Azure AI, Copilot and custom silicon. In addition to some non-core roles within the Azure cloud, Microsoft laid off employees from its legacy hardware operations and gaming Platforms, Inc. META has conducted multiple smaller rounds of layoffs this year, affecting around 3,600 employees across departments. A majority of the job cuts occurred in Meta's metaverse division, Reality Labs, as the company trimmed roles in hardware, AR/VR and software development that were deemed non-core. In addition, Meta eliminated various non-essential jobs while prioritizing AI-powered discovery businesses. Intel shares have declined 30% over the past year against the industry's growth of 23.5%. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Going by the price/sales ratio, the company's shares currently trade at 1.97 forward sales, lower than 14.95 for the industry. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Earnings estimates for 2025 have decreased 6.7% to 28 cents per share over the past 60 days, while the same for 2026 have declined 6.3% to 74 cents. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Intel stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Intel Corporation (INTC) : Free Stock Analysis Report Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Meta Platforms, Inc. (META) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research Sign in to access your portfolio
Business Wire
09-07-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Valorem Reply Brings AI-powered Image Recognition to Art Basel's Global Fairs
TURIN, Italy--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Valorem Reply, part of the Reply Group and focused on delivering innovative digital solutions with Microsoft technologies, partnered with Art Basel – a premier international art fair that hosts shows in Basel, Hong Kong, Miami Beach, Paris and Qatar – to enhance the visitor experience. In partnership with Microsoft, they developed Art Basel Lens, a feature within the Art Basel Companion app that uses image recognition to provide real-time information about artworks directly to visitors' smartphones, making it easier to explore and engage with the art on display. By scanning an artwork, visitors receive structured content about the piece, the artist, and the gallery. The feature supports a more autonomous and fluid exploration of the fair, helping users engage with the artworks that catch their attention and optionally share them on social media with automatic attribution. Valorem Reply led the development of the AI image recognition pipeline, using Azure AI to train and host models for image embedding and cropping, with the contribution of another Reply company, Concept Reply. Azure AI Search powers the retrieval of visual matches through vector-based search. The backend infrastructure was built using Azure App Service and Azure Functions to manage image processing workflows, and Azure Blob Storage for secure and scalable asset handling. After being piloted during the Miami Beach edition of the fair to evaluate its performance in a live environment, the feature was scaled for use at the events in Basel, Paris, Hong Kong, and Qatar, ensuring consistency across each location. With Art Basel Lens, digital interaction becomes an unobtrusive layer that supports discovery and deepens engagement, without interfering with the physical experience of the fair. Click here to discover more about the project. Art Basel Founded by gallerists in 1970, Art Basel is the leading global platform connecting collectors, galleries, and artists. Art Basel's fairs in Basel, Hong Kong, Paris, Miami Beach and Qatar, as well as its Online Viewing Rooms, are a driving force in supporting galleries as they nurture the careers of artists. Their publication, The Art Market, co-published with the Lead Partner UBS, is a commitment to increasing the transparency of the art market. Art Basel's Initiatives strive to create unique artist-led experiences and strengthen local art scenes. Valorem Reply Valorem Reply, part of the Reply group, is a prioritized Microsoft Cloud Solutions Partner focused on transforming businesses into intelligent enterprises and helping nonprofits achieve more with AI enabled, cloud native solutions, strategic business outcome focus and user-led design. Through our teams of elite practitioners, our passion for doing good and the power of Microsoft technologies, we securely and rapidly transform the way our clients do business.
Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Will Microsoft's AI Services Help Maintain Its Cloud Growth Momentum?
Microsoft MSFT has been expanding its Azure platform and AI services to support the growing demand for intelligent tools and automation. The company continues to integrate AI into its offerings. These offerings are built on Azure infrastructure and help organizations create and deploy their own AI agents. In the third quarter of fiscal 2025, over 10,000 organizations had used Agent Service, and more than 1 million custom agents were created across Microsoft platforms, up 130% quarter over quarter. Microsoft also processed more than 100 trillion tokens in the quarter, up 5 times year over year. Recently, Microsoft introduced the MU language model, which now powers the new AI agent in Windows 11 Settings. The agent allows users to interact with system settings using natural language. The technology, which is powered by Azure AI, shows how Microsoft is using its AI services to power real-world features across its ecosystem. The launch of the MU model and its integration into Windows is expected to increase usage of Azure's AI tools and services. As more users and organizations adopt these agent-based features, Azure cloud consumption is likely to rise. This supports Microsoft's ongoing focus on bringing AI into mainstream productivity and enterprise workflows. In the third quarter of fiscal 2025, Microsoft's Intelligent Cloud segment generated $26.8 billion in revenues, up 21% year over year. It accounted for 37.9% of MSFT's total revenues. Azure and other cloud services grew 33%, with AI services contributing 16 percentage points to that growth. Our model estimate for the Intelligent Cloud segment's revenues in fiscal 2025 is pegged at $105.3 billion, indicating 20.4% growth year over year. Microsoft is facing tough competition from Amazon AMZN and Alphabet GOOGL, ramping up agentic AI AWS is making it easier to build agentic AI with tools like Agents for Bedrock, AWS App Studio and Amazon Q that help developers create AI agents that work across apps and data. With built-in support for orchestration and reasoning, Amazon's AWS is becoming a strong platform for next-gen AI tools. Alphabet's Google Cloud is pushing into agentic AI with tools like Agent Builder. With built-in orchestration and support for Gemini models, Alphabet is making agent development faster and more accessible for real-world use. MSFT shares have gained 17.7% in the year-to-date (YTD) period, outperforming the Zacks Computer – Software industry and the Zacks Computer and Technology sector's growth of 13.5% and 4.5%, respectively. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research From a valuation standpoint, MSFT stock is currently trading at a forward 12-month Price/Sales ratio of 11.70X compared with the industry's 9.59X. MSFT has a Value Score of D. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fourth-quarter fiscal 2025 earnings is pegged at $3.35 per share, which has remained steady over the past 30 days, indicating 13.56% year-over-year growth. Microsoft Corporation price-consensus-chart | Microsoft Corporation Quote The consensus mark for fiscal 2025 earnings is pegged at $13.36 per share, which has remained steady over the past 30 days. The estimate indicates 13.22% year-over-year currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Inc. (AMZN) : Free Stock Analysis Report Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research
Yahoo
23-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Will IBM's Growing AI Prowess Deliver Sustainable Growth?
International Business Machines Corporation IBM has positioned itself as a major player in the expanding AI landscape worldwide. Its breakthrough innovations, hybrid cloud and AI are utilized by clients across 175 countries to streamline business processes, optimize cost and gain a competitive edge. The company boasts a vast client base across multiple industries, including financial services, telecommunications, healthcare, retail and recently introduced the industry's first integrated software that combines its industry-leading AI security and AI governance. IBM is a well-known tool that directs, manages and monitors an organization's AI to support responsible, transparent AI use cases. IBM Guardium-AI security secures AI agents and AI models, facilitating trustworthy AI deployments. Comprehensive AI governance is not automatically equal to security. Hence, IBM has integrated these two traits into a cutting-edge software tool to augment the security posture of enterprises' generative-AI systems. The company also enhanced the capabilities of the Guardium AI security tool. The new feature, developed in collaboration with detects new AI use cases in cloud environments, code repositories and embedded systems. This ensures greater visibility and protection of an increasingly decentralized AI is also collaborating with SAP to tap generative-AI technology within the retail industry. In collaboration with The All England Lawn Tennis Club, IBM is developing a new fan feature to drive fan engagement during the Wimbledon championships. Per an IDC report, the global AI market, which was $235 billion in 2024, is expected to reach $631 billion by 2028 with a compound annual growth rate of 27%. With a strong focus on innovation combined with strategic collaborations with key industry leaders in specific sectors, IBM is poised to gain from this emerging market trend. IBM faces stiff competition in most of its markets. Microsoft Corporation MSFT is accelerating generative-AI development with its extended partnership with OpenAI. With Azure AI, Microsoft is building out the app server for the AI wave, providing access to the most diverse selection of models to meet customers' unique cost, latency and design considerations. The company has more than 60,000 Azure AI customers. Microsoft copilot is also gaining solid market traction as companies are rushing to boost the productivity of internal processes, leveraging AMZN has developed its own generative-AI platform called Amazon Bedrock. The platform offers a streamlined way to build and scale generative-AI applications with foundational models from AI21 Labs, Anthropic, Cohere, DeepSeek, Luma, Meta, Mistral AI and others. Amazon Bedrock offers comprehensive data protection and privacy. Moreover, the Amazon Bedrock Guardrails offer configurable safeguards that ensure responsible and trustworthy AI deployments. Its cutting-edge capabilities with flexibility and scale can challenge IBM in the AI domain. IBM has surged 60.6% over the past year compared with the industry's growth of 5.8%. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Going by the price/earnings ratio, IBM's shares currently trade at 24.9 forward earnings, above the industry's value 21.74. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research The Zacks Consensus Estimate for IBM's earnings for 2025 has risen over the past 60 days. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research IBM currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Inc. (AMZN) : Free Stock Analysis Report Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) : Free Stock Analysis Report International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
India.com
01-06-2025
- Business
- India.com
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella finally breaks silence on sacking 6000 employees, says they were not fired....
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella- File image Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on recent layoffs: In a massive statement after Microsoft laid off 6,000 jobs, CEO Satya Nadella has clarified that the recent layoffs were not linked to employee performance, but the actual reason behind the layoffs was organizational restructuring. Here are all the details you need to know about the recent statement of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. CEO Satya Nadella stated that the layoffs were done with a clear focus on accelerating the company's Artificial Intelligence (AI)-first strategy. The CEO emphasized that Microsoft's vision is now centered on AI transformation. Reports have it that Microsoft's plan includes reallocating resources and talent to areas aligned with emerging business priorities. Microsoft aims to boost AI innovation in India In another significant development for Microsoft, Microsoft and Yotta Data Services, India's leading sovereign cloud infrastructure and platform services provider recently partnered to accelerate artificial intelligence (AI) adoption in India. The partnership enables Microsoft and Yotta to engage with IndiaAI Mission participants, government agencies, IITs, startups, enterprises, and software development companies to leapfrog AI innovation, a report by IANS news agency said. Microsoft said it would bring its AzureAI services to Shakti Cloud, Yotta's AI cloud platform, to offer cutting-edge AI capabilities to developers, startups, enterprises, and public sector organisations across India. 'Our partnership with Yotta to power Shakti Cloud will help unlock AI innovation at scale. Microsoft is honoured to play its part in helping the country realise its AI ambitions through innovation that reflect India's unique needs and priorities,' said Puneet Chandok, President, Microsoft India and South Asia. In January this year, Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella announced a collaboration with IndiaAI, a division of Digital India Corporation, to advance AI and emerging technologies in the country, and established AI Centre of Excellence and AI Productivity Labs to foster inclusive growth. (With inputs from agencies)
