Articles from WebProNews

In a courtroom showdown that could set precedent for how smartphone makers manage their proprietary hardware worldwide, Apple is locked in an escalating dispute with Brazilian banks over access to the iPhone’s near-field communication (NFC) chip — the tiny piece of technology that makes tap-to-pay transactions possible. The stakes extend far beyond Brazil’s borders, touching on antitrust enforcement, platform control, and the future of mobile payments in markets where regulators are increasingly willing to challenge Big Tech.

A new startup is making a provocative wager: as companies deploy dozens or even hundreds of AI agents across their operations, they will need a dedicated management layer to hire, monitor, evaluate, and even fire those digital employees. Reload, an AI employee agent management platform, has raised $2.275 million in pre-seed funding and launched what it calls the first AI employee designed to manage other AI agents the way a human resources department manages people.

The artificial intelligence company that began as a nonprofit research lab is on the verge of closing the largest private funding round in history — a $100 billion deal that would value OpenAI at more than $850 billion, according to multiple reports. The sheer scale of the transaction dwarfs anything previously seen in private markets and signals a new era in how capital flows toward AI development.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is dramatically expanding its cloud computing and data infrastructure through a sweeping partnership with Microsoft, a move that has drawn sharp criticism from civil liberties organizations and raised pointed questions about the scope of government surveillance capabilities in the United States.