microsoft

#Google parent company Alphabet has become the fourth Big Tech group to hit a $4tn market value, fuelled by investor optimism that its #AI models can compete with rivals such as OpenAI.

Alphabet shares closed 1 per cent higher in New York on Monday, after jumping earlier in the day following news of a deal with #Apple that will entail Google’s GeminiAI models powering a revamped version of Siri, the iPhone’s virtual assistant.

The move capped a more than 6 per cent rise in the past month and carried the company over a threshold already surpassed by Nvidia, Microsoft and Apple.

At the start of last year, Alphabet’s shares had been lagging behind the broader AI-driven rally in Big Tech stocks, amid fears its cash-cow search engine would be overshadowed by new apps such as #chatgpt and Perplexity.

Investors were also concerned US regulators were seeking to break up the Silicon Valley-based company.

But the shares have more than doubled since April, as Demis Hassabis, co-founder of DeepMind, Google’s AI arm, led the group’s effort to make inroads on ChatGPT.

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Google’s parent company Alphabet has become the fourth Big Tech group to hit a $4tn market value, fuelled by investor optimism that its AI models can compete with rivals such as OpenAI.

Alphabet shares closed 1 per cent higher in New York on Monday, after jumping earlier in the day following news of a deal with Apple that will entail Google’s Gemini AI models powering a revamped version of Siri, the iPhone’s virtual assistant.

The move capped a more than 6 per cent rise in the past month and carried the company over a threshold already surpassed by Nvidia, #Microsoft and Apple.

At the start of last year, Alphabet’s shares had been lagging behind the broader AI-driven rally in Big Tech stocks, amid fears its cash-cow search engine would be overshadowed by new apps such as ChatGPT and Perplexity.

Investors were also concerned US regulators were seeking to break up the Silicon Valley-based company.

But the shares have more than doubled since April, as Demis Hassabis, co-founder of DeepMind, Google’s AI arm, led the group’s effort to make inroads on ChatGPT.

Google and Apple on Monday said the two companies had “entered into a multiyear collaboration”. Google’s Gemini models and cloud services will “help power future Apple Intelligence features”, including a long-delayed update to Siri that is expected to be released this year.

“After careful evaluation, Apple determined that Google’s Al technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models and is excited about the innovative new experiences it will unlock for Apple users,” the two companies said.

CNBC first reported the deal. Apple had previously worked with OpenAI to incorporate ChatGPT into its Siri assistant, underscoring how Google’s rival has staged a comeback against the start-up.

The latest partnership between the two is not exclusive, as the iPhone maker will continue to partner with OpenAI to use its models.

Apple experienced a faltering rollout of its suite of AI features, which it dubbed “Apple Intelligence” after its launch in June 2024. Those features included integrating ChatGPT into search and writing assistant functions on newer models of the iPhone.

But a widely anticipated AI makeover for Siri was delayed and high-profile departures from its in-house AI team last year compounded investor concerns that the company was falling behind.

In December, former Microsoft executive Amar Subramanya replaced Apple’s longtime AI chief John Giannandrea.

In the meantime, the competition to offer the most advanced AI models has heated up. Last month, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman declared a “code red” over the need to improve its products, after Google released its Gemini 3 model, which is considered to have leapfrogged rivals on industry benchmarks.

At the time, Koray Kavukcuoglu, Google’s AI architect and DeepMind’s chief technology officer, said the Big Tech group had “pushed our performance quite significantly” by training its AI models using Google’s own bespoke chips. The company also said it was integrating its latest AI models into products immediately.

Alphabet shares have also been propelled since it showed investors its advertising revenues were growing strongly despite the threat from chatbot rivals.

The company’s quarterly revenues grew 16 per cent in the third quarter to surpass $100bn for the first time, it said in October, boosted by its booming cloud computing business and YouTube ads. Its Gemini app has grown rapidly to 650mn monthly users.

Investors have also become more bullish on Google’s prospects after US courts signalled they were unwilling to break up the Big Tech group.

Last year, a US federal judge said the Department of Justice’s request for Alphabet to spin off elements of its advertising business would not be “easily enforceable”, despite a court in April finding the company had an illegal monopoly in digital ads.

In a separate DoJ case over Google search, the company was spared from a court order that could have prohibited it from making payments to Apple to distribute its products to its more than 2bn global users. Apple and Google have long maintained a deal under which Google is the default search engine on Apple’s browser.

Microsoft has officially entered the next era of intelligent commerce with a full suite of agentic AI tools designed to automate retail operations from merchandising to fulfillment. The launch positions Microsoft as a leader in AI-powered retail, with implications extending beyond traditional markets into the crypto ecosystem.
Key Features Driving Retail Automation
Copilot Checkout – U.S. consumers can now complete purchases directly within Copilot conversations, bypassing traditional checkout pages. This conversational AI feature is expected to boost conversions for partner retailers.
Brand Agents for Shopify – AI assistants trained on product catalogs provide brand-voiced customer support, handle queries, offer product comparisons, and make post-purchase recommendations to increase engagement.
Catalog Enrichment and Store Operations Agents – Public preview tools can extract product data from images and manage inventory through natural language commands, streamlining operations.
Partners for this rollout include PayPal, Shopify, Stripe, and retailers such as Etsy and Urban Outfitters, signaling strong ecosystem integration.
Strategic Rollout and NRF Showcase
These AI solutions debut ahead of NRF 2026 (January 11–13, New York) at booth #4503, alongside partners like Adobe and Coca-Cola. Microsoft Corporate VP Kathleen Mitford emphasized the goal of unifying retail chains with AI to enhance efficiency across the entire value chain.
Market Impact and Crypto Relevance
Microsoft’s stock (MSFT) trades at a P/E of 34.47, with earnings due January 28, 2026—investors will watch for AI-driven revenue growth as adoption spreads.
While no direct crypto integrations were announced, the rise of agentic AI opens blockchain synergies:
Autonomous trading agents on platforms like BNB Chain could leverage AI for real-time strategy execution.
Privacy-focused arbitrage using fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) may benefit from AI-driven analysis, offering new DeFi opportunities.
AI-crypto narratives are becoming a growing sector for speculative traders, particularly in tokens related to AI services, retail automation, or smart contract optimization.
Trading Insight: MSFT momentum could influence correlated AI-focused crypto assets, offering potential volatility plays for risk-tolerant traders. $BTC and major altcoins may see secondary impact from increased institutional AI adoption, especially if it drives retail payment flows or DeFi integrations.

#AI #Microsoft #Crypto

☢️ "The Nuclear Silicon Valley": Why are small modular reactors (SMRs) the only solution to save artificial intelligence from starvation?

After decades of neglect, nuclear energy is experiencing a moment of "renaissance". The reason is not environmental love, but "fear of the dark".
Artificial intelligence data centers consume electricity at a rate twice as fast as global energy growth, and solar and wind (intermittent) have failed in the mission.

The American corporation Microsoft announced its final cessation of operations in Russia. The subsidiary 'Microsoft Rus' filed for bankruptcy in the Arbitration Court of Moscow, as reported on the 'Fedresurs' portal. This step culminated the gradual winding down of business that began in the spring of 2022 after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Although the company's legal presence was maintained, in 2024-2025 Microsoft closed branches in 13 Russian cities, including Moscow and St. Petersburg.