Source: Xbox Game Pass currently has about 30M subscriptions; document: Microsoft had projected Game Pass subscriptions would reach around 77M this year (Ben Fritz/Wall Street Journal)

https://www.wsj.com/tech/microsoft-layoffs-xbox-59e7f6df?st=PDtsc4&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
http://www.techmeme.com/260706/p27#a260706p27

A term sheet shows Tencent is seeking to raise as much as $1.55B in a selldown of part of its stake in short-video app operator Kuaishou through a block trade (Julia Fioretti/Bloomberg)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-06/tencent-seeks-to-sell-up-to-1-6-billion-stake-in-kuaishou
http://www.techmeme.com/260706/p26#a260706p26

Tencent releases Hy3, a 295B-parameter model that it says is competitive with GLM-5.1 and 5.2, under the Apache 2.0 license, following a preview launch in April (Sam Witteveen/VentureBeat)

https://venturebeat.com/ai/tencents-apache-licensed-hy3-takes-on-glm-5-2-at-half-the-size-and-wins-everywhere-except-coding
http://www.techmeme.com/260706/p25#a260706p25

Source: Mercor hit over $2B in gross revenue run rate in June, double its pace in April, and is profitable on a free cash flow basis (Julia Hornstein/The Information)

https://www.theinformation.com/briefings/exclusive-mercor-hit-2-billion-gross-annualized-revenue
http://www.techmeme.com/260706/p24#a260706p24

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signs SB 315, a bill requiring annual third-party safety audits of leading AI companies; OpenAI and Anthropic backed the bill (Adam Harrington/CBS News)

https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/pritzker-to-sign-illinois-bill-aimed-artificial-intelligence-accountability/
http://www.techmeme.com/260706/p23#a260706p23

Nintendo plans to stop selling the original Switch, Lite, and OLED in Europe from mid-February 2027 and update the Switch 2 to comply with new EU battery rules (Andrew Webster/The Verge)

https://www.theverge.com/games/961632/nintendo-switch-europe-discontinued
http://www.techmeme.com/260706/p22#a260706p22

Filing: Strategy sold 3,588 bitcoin for ~$216M between June 29 and July 5 to replenish its USD reserve; its holdings have an $11.4B paper loss at current prices (James Hunt/The Block)

https://www.theblock.co/post/407217/strategy-bitcoin-digital-energy
http://www.techmeme.com/260706/p21#a260706p21

Memo: Xbox CEO Asha Sharma says the unit will divest five studios, including Ninja Theory, alongside 3,200 job cuts, to streamline the business, in a "reset" (Bloomberg)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-06/microsoft-s-xbox-to-cut-3-200-jobs-divest-five-studios-in-major-overhaul?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc4MzM0NDcyNSwiZXhwIjoxNzgzOTQ5NTI1LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUSFI5TDNSS1YyVUIwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJCMUVBQkI5NjQ2QUM0REZFQTJBRkI4MjI1MzgyQTJFQSJ9.GkKCpYChItTAK0DnHlnx9gDO4R_U7cjUu8jLzfs63dU
http://www.techmeme.com/260706/p20#a260706p20

Memo: Microsoft is laying off ~4,800 employees, or ~2.1% of its workforce; most layoffs are in Xbox, where ~8% are being cut, rising to 15% in this fiscal year (Tom Warren/The Verge)

https://www.theverge.com/news/961528/microsoft-layoffs-july-2026-sales-xbox?view_token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpZCI6IjF6dlc3Vmw1VTQiLCJwIjoiL25ld3MvOTYxNTI4L21pY3Jvc29mdC1sYXlvZmZzLWp1bHktMjAyNi1zYWxlcy14Ym94IiwiZXhwIjoxNzgzNzc2NjMyLCJpYXQiOjE3ODMzNDQ2MzJ9.HkCv3K6oLW-VWU0GRiIAGHen5yS8Di1QBdL2CKGz1ow&utm_medium=gift-link
http://www.techmeme.com/260706/p19#a260706p19

Reddit says its AI-powered content moderation systems caught 25K "spammy posts and comments" per day in Q1, reducing users exposure to such content by 20% YoY (Natalie Lung/Bloomberg)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-06/reddit-is-cracking-down-on-ai-marketing-slop-with-its-own-ai
http://www.techmeme.com/260706/p18#a260706p18

Broadcom agrees to expand its Apple partnership through 2031 to develop and supply custom chips; in 2023, the companies announced a multibillion-dollar deal (Akash Sriram/Reuters)

https://www.reuters.com/technology/broadcom-apple-extend-chip-partnership-through-2031-2026-07-06/
http://www.techmeme.com/260706/p17#a260706p17

Anthropic signs a 20-year, $19B lease to use a TeraWulf data center in Kentucky, set to have a ~400MW capacity, with the first power delivery in H2 2027 (CNBC)

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/06/anthropic-terawulf-data-center-ai.html
http://www.techmeme.com/260706/p16#a260706p16

AI agent training platform Bespoke Labs raised $40M across a seed led by 8VC and a Series A led by Wing, saying the funding gives it almost two years of runway (Natalie Breymeyer/Axios)

https://www.axios.com/pro/enterprise-software-deals/2026/07/06/bespoke-labs-training-ai-agents
http://www.techmeme.com/260706/p15#a260706p15

Filing: Brookfield-backed data center company Csquare seeks to raise up to $1.35B in an IPO, selling 50M shares at $23 to $27 each for an up to $4.18B valuation (Ryan Vlastelica/Bloomberg)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-06/brookfield-s-data-center-firm-csquare-seeks-1-35-billion-in-ipo
http://www.techmeme.com/260706/p14#a260706p14

How Masayoshi Son is remaking SoftBank in his own image, betting on AI; SoftBank trades at a ~50% discount to its net asset value, as some question the strategy (David Keohane/Financial Times)

https://www.ft.com/content/a29a698c-3fb6-4e6f-ab02-1b7843786066
http://www.techmeme.com/260706/p13#a260706p13

A profile of Samsung union leader Choi Seung-ho, who helped win a ~$26B bonus package for chip employees, as he tries to resolve the rift over bonus gaps (Yoolim Lee/Bloomberg)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-07-05/samsung-s-ai-bonus-deal-a-short-lived-victory-for-millennial-union-leader
http://www.techmeme.com/260706/p12#a260706p12

Q&A with Agility Robotics CEO Peggy Johnson on why the startup is going public via SPAC, the physical layer as its proprietary advantage, safety, and more (Connie Loizos/TechCrunch)

https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/05/this-humanoid-robotics-company-is-going-public-but-its-ceo-isnt-promising-a-robot-in-your-home-anytime-soon/
http://www.techmeme.com/260706/p11#a260706p11

AI-driven drops in labor income and gains in capital income could hit Ireland's tax base, with 6%+ of its workforce in tech and heavy exposure to US companies (Olivia Fletcher/Bloomberg)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-06/meta-tiktok-jobs-cuts-in-ireland-augur-further-ai-disruption
http://www.techmeme.com/260706/p10#a260706p10

Some US voters are using AI tools as nonpartisan researchers, seeing them as a viable alternative to traditional news coverage, voter guides, and social media (Jennifer Medina/New York Times)

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/04/us/politics/voters-ai-chatbots-elections.html?unlocked_article_code=1.vFA.TTCt.7KuPI81ZZaDz&smid=url-share
http://www.techmeme.com/260706/p9#a260706p9

Ripple secures CASP authorization from Luxembourg's financial regulator, making it fully MiCA-compliant to offer crypto services across 30 EEA countries (Brian Danga/The Block)

https://www.theblock.co/post/407207/ripple-secures-full-mica-casp-authorization-for-crypto-services-across-30-eea-countries
http://www.techmeme.com/260706/p8#a260706p8