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Oct 22, 2025
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Happy Wednesday! Anthropic and Google are discussing a multi-billion-dollar cloud deal. OpenAI unveils ChatGPT Atlas, an AI-powered web browser. Netflix posts 17% revenue growth.
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Anthropic is in talks with Google to access additional computing power in a deal in the high tens of billions of dollars, according to a person with knowledge of its plans. Talks are still early, and deal terms could change. Google is an existing cloud provider for Anthropic, which recently completed a $13 billion fundraise at a $170 billion valuation and is on track to hit $7 billion in annualized revenue this month. Google also has previously invested in the company. Bloomberg earlier reported on the Anthropic-Google cloud deal. Meanwhile, rival OpenAI has also struck deals to increase its computing capacity, including an agreement to pay Oracle for computing capacity worth $300 billion over five years starting in 2027. The ChatGPT maker over the summer projected spending over $450 billion on computing power through 2030.
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OpenAI on Tuesday unveiled ChatGPT Atlas, a web browser that allows users to search the web alongside a companion ChatGPT sidebar, confirming earlier reporting from The Information. The browser heightens OpenAI’s competition with Google, which handles most search questions on the web, including via its AI-powered Chrome browser. Shares of Google-parent Alphabet shares fell 2% after the announcement. People using ChatGPT Atlas can ask ChatGPT to summarize web pages or ask questions directly in a split-screen view, eliminating the need to switch between tabs. Another
feature, dubbed “cursor chat,” enables people to edit sentences in line with a click of a button. ChatGPT Atlas can also complete tasks on behalf of users, such as ordering groceries or inputting data into task management software, through a feature known as “Agent Mode.” The browser can offer a personalized experience for users based on the person’s search history and preferences. The browser gives ChatGPT a new way to access the chatbot. Users’ browser data could also help OpenAI improve its AI models and develop new products. Perplexity, which operates an AI-powered search engine, launched its browser Comet AI earlier this summer. ChatGPT Atlas is available for Mac users across the world starting on Tuesday, while agent mode is only available for ChatGPT Plus users. Access for Windows and mobile users is coming soon, according to the company.
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Netflix reported 17% higher revenue of $11.5 billion, right in line with its projection issued in mid-July, while operating income rose 28% to $3.2 billion. The company’s shares fell 6% in after-hours trading, perhaps because of investor disappointment that Netflix didn’t exceed its projection. The video streaming giant projected a similar rate of growth for the fourth quarter, citing increase in membership, higher pricing and growing ad revenue. In its shareholder letter, Netflix said it was “on track to more than double our ads revenue in 2025,” off a relatively small base. The company this year has cut back on its disclosure, making it difficult to assess how much of its growth is coming from new subscribers and how much from pricing or advertising. Netflix reported that half of its revenue came from the
U.S. and Canada, growing at the same rate as the overall company. The only region to lag the overall growth rate was Latin America, where revenue grew just 10%.
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Warner Bros. Discovery’s board of directors said it had begun a “review of strategic alternatives” as a result of “unsolicited interest the company has received from multiple parties for both the entire company and Warner Bros.” The announcement comes a few weeks after news reports said David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance had approached WBD about a possible acquisition. Paramount is acting before WBD completes a split of the company in two, separating its film studio and streaming operations from its lucrative but slowly declining TV channel business. The board’s announcement reveals that WBD has also had approaches for just the film studio. CNBC reported that Netflix and Comcast were among the companies showing interest. The board said it would consider a “broad range of strategic options,” including a separation of the two sides under which Warner Bros. could be acquired while the Discovery businesses could be spun off to shareholders.
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Sequoia Capital’s former chief operating officer, Sumaiya Balbale, resigned from her job this summer after partner Shaun Maguire made posts on X she considered Islamophobic, according to the Financial Times, which cited people with knowledge of the situation. In July, Maguire accused New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani of advancing an “Islamist agenda” and said he came “from a culture that lies about everything.” The posts prompted a group of tech entrepreneurs to publish an open letter pushing Sequoia to denounce Maguire’s remarks. Balbale, a practicing Muslim who had worked at the firm for five years, had complained to senior partners at the firm, the report said. Roelof Botha, the current steward of Sequoia, held a company wide meeting to address the issue. But Balbale left after the partners declined to take action. Maguire later walked back some of his remarks. Botha has previously has described Sequoia’s stance on politics as “institutional neutrality” and says partners can express their own views.
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Amazon aims to avoid significantly growing its U.S. workforce while doubling the volume of products it sells by 2033, the New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing internal company documents. Without robotics and automation, the company would expect to need to hire more than 600,000 more people during that period, according to the report. The numbers reported by the Times would continue an existing trend at Amazon, which has continued to grow its e-commerce business without expanding overall headcount. At the end of 2021, Amazon employed 1.61 million people globally,
a figure that included both corporate employees and people in its warehouses. That number stood at 1.56 million at the end of 2024, according to securities filings. Over the same period, Amazon’s North America sales climbed to $388 billion from $277 billion, a figure that’s made up primarily of e-commerce sales and excludes cloud revenue. An Amazon spokesperson said the numbers in the Times story “appear to reflect the perspective of just one team and don’t represent our overall hiring strategy across our v | | | |
