AI-related companies lost $190 billion (roughly Rs. 15,77,620 crore) in stock market value late on Tuesday after Microsoft, Alphabet and Advanced Micro Devices delivered quarterly results that failed to impress investors who had sent their stocks soaring.

The selloff following the tech giants’ reports after the bell underscored investors’ elevated expectations following an AI-fueled stock market rally in recent months that propelled their shares to record highs with the promise of incorporating the technology across the corporate landscape.

Alphabet dropped 5.6 percent after the Google-parent’s December-quarter ad revenue missed expectations.

Alphabet also said its spending on data centers to support its AI plans would jump this year, highlighting the costs of its fierce competition against AI rival Microsoft.

While Google Cloud revenue growth slightly topped Wall Street targets, boosted by interest in AI, Microsoft’s Azure grew faster.

Microsoft beat analyst estimates for quarterly revenue as new AI features helped attract customers to its cloud and Windows services. However, its stock fell 0.7 percent in extended trade after briefly hitting an intra-day record high earlier on Tuesday.

Optimism about AI pushed Microsoft’s stock market value above $3 trillion (roughly Rs. 2,49,10,515 crore) this month, eclipsing Apple.

Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices tumbled 6 percent after its forecast for first-quarter revenue missed estimates, even as it projected strong sales for its AI processors.

Shares of Nvidia, which have surged 27 percent in January after more than tripling last year on AI optimism, also gave back some of those gain in extended trade, last down over 2 percent.

Server maker Super Micro Computer, another company that has benefited from AI-related demand, dropped over 3 percent. Earlier on Tuesday, it had climbed to a record high after delivering blowout quarterly results the day before.

© Thomson Reuters 2024

iQOO 12 was unveiled in China in November 2023 with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC and a dedicated Q1 gaming chipset. It runs on Android 14-based OriginOS 4 in China out-of-the-box. For global and Indian users, the phone ships with FuntouchOS 14 based on Android 14. In September this year, Vivo and iQOO smartphones started receiving the Android 15-based FuntouchOS 15 update. A report now suggests that the FuntouchOS 15 update for iQOO 12 has started rolling out to global users. The phone launched in India in December last year. 

iQOO 12 Android 15-Based FuntouchOS 15 Update

According to a GSMArena report, iQOO 12 users in select global markets have started receiving the FuntouchOS 15 update based on Android 15. The 2.5GB over-the-air (OTA) update carries the software version PD2307CF_EX_A_15.1.9.1.W20 and comes with the October security patch, the report states.  

iQOO 12 FuntouchOS 15 update changelog includes a priority scheduling algorithm and a rapid dynamic effect engine which reportedly helps allocate performance resources based on requirements, thus, increasing smoothness. It has a new Origin animation that “incorporates principles from human factors research and integrates the natural laws of the physical world into the dynamic effect design.”

The FuntouchOS 15 update for iQOO 12 global users is said to include several new static and immersive wallpapers. Local videos on the handset can be used as live wallpapers as well. The update introduces new clock widgets and reportedly allows users to keep large folders on the home screen. 

With the FuntouchOS 15 update, iQOO 12 users get an Ultra Game Mode with multiple quick setting options as well as an improved screenshot capture feature. The report adds that the Smart sidebar provides access to Google Lens for quick translations of on-screen content, while Notes offers additional text editing capabilities and the ability to export in Word format. The Settings section reportedly comes with better categorisation and hierarchies.

Among AI features, the FuntouchOS 15 update for iQOO 12 includes Live Transcribe, Circle to Search, and an AI erase tool which helps users get rid of unwanted things or people in their photos. The Albums app is also said to get AI-backed Cleanup suggestions to reduce storage issues. 

For gesture improvements, the global iQOO 12 users with FuntouchOS 15 can reportedly drag a split-screen to the middle of the screen to switch to a small window and drag a small window to the edge of an app to change to split-screen mode. The startup gestures for both split-screen and small window modes are said to have been improved. Users can swipe up from the bottom to the upper left or right corner to quickly enter split screen or small window mode with this update, according to the report.

Dell XPS 13 and Dell Inspiron 14 Plus were launched in India as the first Copilot+ PCs by the company on Tuesday (July 16). The refreshed laptops are equipped with the Snapdragon X series chipsets that come with a dedicated neural processing unit (NPU) offering up to 45 trillion operations per second (TOPS). These devices will also get Microsoft Copilot artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot integrated within the Windows 11 operating system. These will also come with other AI features such as Cocreator, Live Captions, and Windows Studio effects.

Dell XPS 13, Inspiron 14 Plus Price and Availability

The Dell XPS 13 price starts at Rs. 1,39,990. The highest-end variant is priced at Rs. 1,69,990. The laptop will be available in three different chipset and storage variants, however, the company did not specify them. On the other hand, the base variant of the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus is priced at Rs. 1,15,590 whereas the top-end model can be purchased at Rs. 1,19,590. The laptop will be available in two variants.

Both Copilot+ PCs are available to purchase across the company website, Croma, Reliance Retail, Vijay Sales, and Amazon. Dell is also offering a one-year extended warranty worth Rs. 4,999 and cashback worth Rs. 10,000 with leading banks with XPS 13. With Inspiron 14 Plus, consumers will get a one-year extended warranty worth Rs. 999 and cashback worth Rs. 5,000 with leading banks.

Dell XPS 13, Inspiron 14 Plus Specifications

The refreshed Dell XPS 13 and Inspiron 14 Plus laptops are equipped with Snapdragon X series chipsets. The XPS 13 will be available with either Snapdragon X1 Plus (10 cores and up to 3.4GHz clock speed) or Snapdragon X1 Elite (12 cores and up to 4.0GHz clock speed) processors. On the other hand, the Inspiron 14 Plus will feature either an X Elite SoC with 12 cores and up to 3.4GHz clock speed or an X Plus SoC with 10 cores and up to 3.4GHz clock speed.

The chipsets will also feature Qualcomm Hexagon NPU capable of delivering up to 45 TOPS, and Qualcomm’s Adreno GPU. The XPS 13 will be configured with up to 64GB LPDDR5X RAM and up to 2TB M.2 2280 Gen4 PCIe NVMe SSD storage. The Inspiron 14 Plus will be paired with up to 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM and up to 1TB of M.2 2230 Gen 4 PCIe NVMe SSD storage.

Coming to the display, the Inspiron 14 Plus features a 14-inch QHD+ (2560×1600 pixels) touch screen display with a 60Hz refresh rate. The XPS 13 features a 13.4-inch OLED 3K (2880×1800 pixels) touch screen display with a 60Hz refresh rate. It is also available in an IPS LCD configuration.

For connectivity, the XPS 13 comes with 2 USB Type-C ports. The Inspiron 14 Plus has a USB 3.2 Type-A port, two USB Type-C ports, and an audio jack for headphones and microphones. The former is backed by a 55Whr battery while the latter gets a 54Whr battery.

India will offer up to $5 billion (roughly Rs. 42,221 crore) in incentives to companies to make components locally for gadgets from mobiles to laptops, two government officials said, in a bid to bolster the burgeoning industry and wean off supplies from China.

India’s electronic production has more than doubled in the last six years to $115 billion (roughly Rs. 9,71,095 crore) in 2024, led by growth in mobile manufacturing by global firms such as Apple and Samsung. It is now the world’s fourth-largest smart phone supplier.

But the sector faces criticism for its heavy reliance on imported components from countries such as China.

“The new scheme will incentivise production of key components like printed circuit boards that will improve domestic value addition and deepen local supply chains for a range of electronics,” one of the two officials said.

The incentives are likely to be offered under a new scheme expected to be launched in two to three months, said the officials, who asked not to be identified as details of the scheme are not yet public.

The scheme is likely to offer incentives totalling between $4-$5 billion to global or local firms which qualify.

The plan, designed by the India’s electronics ministry, has identified components eligible for incentives and is in its final stages.

The finance ministry will approve the scheme’s final allocation soon, the first official added, with the sources expecting it to be launched in the next 2-3 months.

India’s electronics ministry and finance ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

India is aiming to expand its electronics manufacturing to $500 billion (roughly Rs. 42,22,075 crore) by the fiscal year 2030, including production of components worth $150 billion (roughly Rs. 12,66,629 crore), according to the government’s top policy think tank Niti Aayog.

India imported electronics, telecoms gear, and electrical products worth $89.8 billion (roughly Rs. 7,58,334 crore) in the fiscal year 2024, with more than half sourced from China and Hong Kong, according to an analysis by private think tank GTRI.

“This scheme is coming at a time when it is critical to promote component manufacturing that will help us aim for a global-scale of electronics production,” Pankaj Mohindroo, head of India’s Cellular and Electronics Association, said.

© Thomson Reuters 2024

Layoffs plagued the global tech industry last year, and 2024 has not seen an improvement so far. As per reports, more than 2,40,000 jobs were lost in tech firms in 2023. The total count included mass layoffs by Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Nokia, Accenture, and others. India has also suffered its brunt with tech firms such as Paytm, Sharechat, Dunzo, and Byju conducting large-scale job cuts. Several experts highlighted surplus hiring during the pandemic, high inflation, and poor consumer demand as the reason for these firings. But one month into 2024, layoffs are continuing with the same unbridled fervour.

According to data compiled by tech layoff tracker Layoffs.fyi, a total of 2,62,595 employees were sacked in 2023 by 1189 companies. This was the worst year in terms of job cuts in recent history and witnessed an increase of more than 50 percent compared to 2022 (1,64,969 layoffs by 1064 tech companies) when the global layoff spree first started. 2024 has also started in a similar fashion, with 30,375 employees being handed the pink slip by 115 tech firms.

Notably, the biggest announcement came from logistics giant United Parcel Service (UPS), which revealed in its fourth-quarter earnings report that it was letting go of 12,000 staffers to align resources in 2024. CEO Carol Tomé said the move will save the company $1 billion in costs. The German software giant SAP also announced a massive restructuring exercise affecting a total of 8,000 employees, as per a Reuters report. The firm has said that it will push towards gen AI capabilities and automation, and the employees will either be trained with AI skills or let go through voluntary redundancy programs. Alongside, PayPal, the online payments company, is reported to hand the pink slip to 9 percent of its workforce, or 2,500 employees, to reduce headcount.

After conducting various smaller job cuts, Google has already announced two separate layoffs in January 2024. The first affected more than 1,000 employees across its Pixel, Fitbit, Nest, and Google Assistant teams, as per the company’s statement, and the latter is said to affect a few hundred people in its sales and advertising unit, Business Insider reported. Separately, YouTube also announced laying off 100 employees in a restructuring exercise, initially reported by Tubefilter.

After multiple job cuts in 2023, Microsoft has continued the trend and handed the pink slip to 1,900 employees at Activision Blizzard and Xbox in January, which is roughly 8 percent workforce of the Microsoft Gaming division, as per a report by The Verge. Another tech conglomerate to join the tech giants is Amazon, which has laid off “several hundred” employees in its Prime Video and MGM Studios division, citing shifting of focus as the reason, reported The Information.

Social media platforms were also not untouched by the trend. In 2024, Twitch revealed in a post that it had let go of 500 employees in the company due to the size of the organisation being unsustainable. Discord joined the race by sacking 170 people across various departments, a massive 17 percent of its workforce. CEO Jason Citron cited the reason as overexpanding the workforce in an internal memo obtained by The Verge. Finally, NPR reported that TikTok had also fired 60 employees, mostly from sales and marketing, in January 2024.

Apart from these, several other tech firms also made the headlines for trimming their workforce. Unity, the video game engine developer, revealed in an SEC filing that it was laying off around 1,800 roles to improve its financial performance. Wayfair, the online furniture retailer, was reported to fire 16 percent of its workforce, 1,650 employees, due to going “overboard” with corporate hiring during the pandemic. TechCrunch reported that Disney-owned Pixar is preparing for a round of layoffs that could impact as much as 20 percent of its 1,300 large workforce. Another shocking report came from software giant Salesforce, which is laying off 7,00 employees, as per the Wall Street Journal.

Further, E-commerce platform eBay revealed its plans to sack 1,000 employees, citing the ongoing economic condition. Shutting down its e-commerce used car marketplace on January 22, Vroom laid off 800 people, a whopping 90 percent of its workforce, as per a regulatory filing. Publisher of popular game titles such as League of Legends and Valorant, Riot Games, in a post, revealed that it had handed the pink slip to 530 employees, 11 percent of its workforce, to sharpen its focus on high-impact projects. Amazon-owned audiobook firm Audible also laid off 5 percent of its staff, as per a leaked email obtained by Business Insider.

Block, the Jack Dorsey co-founded fintech firm that owns platforms like Square and Cash App, revealed in a memo obtained by Business Insider that it would be laying off 1,000 employees or 10 percent of its workforce due to growth of the organisation outpacing that of its revenue. Okta, a San Francisco-based identity and access management firm, is reported to fire 400 employees due to high costs.

While the global tech companies were dealing with this crisis, the situation closer to home was not ideal either. Various Indian tech companies also conducted layoffs. Ahead of its planned IPO move, food delivery giant Swiggy was reported to fire 400 employees or around 6 percent of its total workforce, calling it a corporate alignment process. Walmart-owned Flipkart can let go of as many as 1,000 employees in an annual restructuring exercise, as per a report.

And on January 31, just two days ago, Wipro joined the list as it is in the process of sacking “hundreds of mid-level roles onsite” to improve its margins, a report by the Economic Times stated. It is not expected to be the last tech firm this year to lay off employees, and with 11 more months to go, the people impacted by the relentless workforce resizing can reach a scary number.

The common thread in all these layoffs are corporate buzzwords such as “restructuring”, “improving efficiency”, “focus on sustainability”, and “surplus hiring.” But the real picture is clear to see. Most tech firms operate online and immensely benefitted during the lockdowns that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the revenue skyrocketed, so did the expansion plans and a high number of people were hired. However, now that the pandemic is gone, life is returning to normal, and people are spending time outdoors and in offline institutions. This is not good news for the online-first companies who are losing their business and user ‘time spent’ on platforms to retailers and the real world.

Another big factor that played a role in this was the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI). With numerous AI products and tools to automate tasks within organisations popping up, companies now have another way to reduce expenditure and become more efficient. Notably, Paytm CEO said while announcing a job cut that affected 1,000 employees, “We will be able to save 10-15% in employee costs as Artificial Intelligence (AI) has delivered more than we expected it to.”

The impact of “pandemic hiring” is bound to stop at some point, as the majority of the large tech firms have conducted large-scale layoffs since 2022 and are likely to have brought the workforce under control by now. Startups and MNCs also joined the race in 2023, but it can go on for some more time. The one thing which is not going anywhere is the emergence of AI. The launches in 2023 were mostly new products based on a technology that was not fully explored. AI tools are expected to become more polished and enterprise-ready in the next few years and enter a wider range of industries. Google, for example, is already testing AI models for music generation (MusicLM), image generation (Vertex AI), and text-to-video generation with realistic motion (Lumiere).

According to a 2020 report by the World Economic Forum, workforce automation by technology can display as many as 85 million (8.5 crores) job roles by 2025. While the number seems quite unrealistic in 2024, even if just one percent of this comes true in the next five years, 8.5 million (85 lakhs) people will lose employment. To highlight how massive this will be, the entire layoff spree between 2022 and now only amounts to a little less than half a million (4,57,939).

Samsung’s much-awaited Galaxy S25 series will launch in the first half of 2025. Like the previous lineups, the upcoming Galaxy S family is expected to come with vanilla, Plus and Ultra models. While we wait for the official reveal, the Galaxy S25+ variant has showed up on Geekbench benchmarking site suggesting key details. Past leaks had hinted that Samsung will offer Snapdragon processors for all Galaxy S25 phones all around the world.

A Samsung handset was spotted on the Geekbench database with model number SM-S936B, which is most likely a Galaxy S25+ prototype. As seen in the listing, it managed to get a single-core score of 2,359 and a multi-core score of 8,141. The handset in question has 10.72GB of RAM. This could translate to 12GB on paper. The Samsung handset is running Android 15.

Samsung Galaxy S25+ Could Run On Exynos 2500

Further, the listing suggests that a ten-core chipset with a motherboard codenamed ‘s5e9955’ will power the phone. The CPU has a 1+2+5+2 architecture and the listing shows a prime CPU core with 3.30GHz clock speed, two cores capped at 2.75GHz, and five cores at 2.36GHz. Lastly, the CPU also has two cores capped at 1.80GHz. These CPU speeds are associated with the Exynos 2500 chipset.

Both single-core and multi-core scores put the Exynos 2500 significantly behind Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC. A few months back the US variant of Galaxy S25 Ultra with Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC (SM-S938U) was listed on Geekbench with 3,069 points in single-core testing and 9,080 points in multi-core testing.

Samsung is speculated to use the Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC chipsets in the Galaxy S25 lineup. It offered the Galaxy S24 series with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 SoC processor in selected markets and an Exynos 2400 chip for the rest of the world. In 2023, the brand shipped all Galaxy S series phones with Snapdragon processors across the world.