29/10/2025

BIZ & FINANCE WEDNESDAY | OCT 29, 2025

/thesuntelegram FOLLOW / Malaysian Paper

ON TELEGRAM m RAM

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Amazon to cut up to 30,000 corporate jobs

Musk launches Grokipedia to rival Wikipedia NEW YORK: Elon Musk’s company xAI launched Grokipedia on Monday to compete with online encyclopedia Wikipedia, which he has accused of ideological bias. The site dubbed version 0.1 had more than 885,000 articles by Monday evening, compared to Wikipedia’s more than seven million in English. The launch came with the promise of a newer version 1.0, which Musk said would be“10X better” than the current live site, which he claimed is already “better than Wikipedia.” “The goal of Grok and Grokipedia.com is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. We will never be perfect, but we shall nonetheless strive towards that goal,“ he said on X following the launch. Grokipedia’s release had been marked down for the end of September, but was delayed by the US entrepreneur to“purge out the propaganda,“ Musk said in a separate X post. Musk has been a regular critic of Wikipedia. In 2024, he accused the site of being “controlled by far-left activists” and called for donations to the platform to cease. In August, he said“Wikipedia cannot be used as a definitive source for Community Notes, as the editorial control there is extremely left-biased.” The content of Grokipedia is generated by artificial intelligence (AI) and the generative AI assistant Grok. A Grokipedia article dedicated to Musk states that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has “influenced broader debates on technological progress, demographic decline, and institutional biases, often via X,“ amid what the page says are“criticisms from legacy media outlets that exhibit systemic left-leaning tilts in coverage.” – AFP Citi partners Coinbase to boost institutional digital payments NEW YORK: Citigroup and cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase plan to collaborate on digital asset payment solutions for the US bank’s institutional clients, to expand the offering to global clients in the future. The partnership will initially focus on enabling users to deposit and withdraw traditional currencies (commonly referred to as“fiat”in crypto) through Coinbase’s services, marking a significant step as it allows smooth transitions between traditional money and digital assets like cryptocurrencies, the two companies said in a joint statement on Monday. Additionally, the collaboration will streamline payment operations, Citi said. “By combining their reach with Coinbase’s leadership in digital assets, we’re creating solutions that can simplify and expand access to digital asset payments,“ said Brian Foster, global head of Crypto as a Service at Coinbase. Citi said more details on specific features, including exploring ways to convert traditional currency into stablecoins, will be disclosed in the coming months. Stablecoins are digital tokens designed to keep a constant value. They are often backed by traditional assets such as the US dollar or government debt. They have surged in popularity, and their demand is expected to increase further after the US passed its GENIUS Act in July that sets federal rules for stablecoins. Dealmaking within the digital assets industry has picked up pace this year as a crypto-friendly Trump administration encourages companies to expand their business in the US, providing a favourable environment for growth and investment. – Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO: Amazon is planning to cut as many as 30,000 corporate jobs beginning yesterday, as the company pares expenses and compensates for overhiring during the peak demand of the pandemic, according to three people familiar with the matter. The figure represents a small percentage of Amazon’s 1.55 million total employees, but nearly 10% of its roughly 350,000 corporate employees. This would mark Amazon’s largest job cut since late 2022, when it started to eliminate around 27,000 positions. An Amazon spokesman declined to comment. Amazon has been trimming smaller numbers of jobs over the past two years across multiple divisions including devices, communications and podcasting. The cuts beginning this week may affect a variety of divisions including human resources, known as People Experience and Technology or PXT; operations, devices and services; and Amazon Web Services, the people said. Managers of impacted teams were asked to undergo training on Monday for how to communicate with staff following email notifications that started going out yesterday morning, the people said. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is undertaking an initiative to reduce what he has described as an excess of bureaucracy including by reducing the number of managers. He installed an anonymous complaint line for identifying inefficiencies that has elicited some 1,500 responses and over 450 process changes, he said earlier this year. Jassy said in June that the

o AI gains and cost reductions drive tech giant’s biggest layoffs since 2022, hitting HR, operations and AWS units

the company. Layoffs.fyi, a website tracking tech job cuts, estimated that about 98,000 jobs have been lost so far this year among 216 companies. For all of 2024, the figure was 153,000. Amazon’s largest profit centre, cloud computing unit AWS, reported second-quarter sales of US$30.9 billion (RM130 billion), a 17.5% increase that was well below gains of 39% for Microsoft’s Azure and of 32% for Alphabet’s Google Cloud. Estimates indicate that AWS will have boosted third-quarter sales by about 18% to US$32 billion, a slight slowdown from last year’s 19% increase. AWS is still reeling from a roughly 15-hour internet outage last week that felled many of the most popular online services, like Snapchat and Venmo. Amazon appears to be expecting another big holiday selling season. It plans to offer 250,000 seasonal jobs to help staff warehouses, among other needs, the same as in the prior two years. Amazon on Friday also announced a reorganisation of a segment of its PXT unit focused on diversity initiatives, a memo reviewed by Reuters showed. The changes largely involved promoting people to new roles. Amazon shares rose 1.2% to US$226.97 on Monday. The company plans to report third quarter earnings on Thursday. – Reuters

increased use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools would likely lead to further job cuts, particularly through automating repetitive and routine tasks. “This latest move signals that Amazon is likely realising enough AI-driven productivity gains within corporate teams to support a substantial reduction in force,” said Sky Canaves, an eMarketer analyst. “Amazon has also been under pressure in the short-term to offset the long-term investments in building out its AI infrastructure.” The full scope of this round of job cuts was not immediately clear. The people familiar with the matter said the number could change over time as Amazon’s financial priorities shift. Fortune earlier reported that the human resources division could be targeted with a cut of roughly 15%. A program begun early this year to bring employees back in the office five days per week, among tech’s most stringent, has failed to generate sufficient attrition, said two of the people, citing that as another reason for the size of the layoff. Some of the employees who are not swiping in daily because they live far from corporate offices, or for other reasons, are being told they have voluntarily quit Amazon and must leave without severance, a savings for

Unpaid air traffic staff shortages worsen delays, deepening US airport chaos. – UNSPLASH PIX

US flight delays near 7,000 as govt shutdown hits Day 27

WASHINGTON: US air travel turmoil deepened as nearly 7,000 flights were delayed nationwide on Monday, with air traffic controller absences surging as the federal government shutdown reached its 27th day. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) cited staffing shortages and imposed ground delay programs affecting Newark Airport in New Jersey, Austin Airport in Texas and Dallas Fort Worth International Airport on Monday. Flights in the southeast were delayed earlier because of significant staffing shortages at the Atlanta Terminal Radar Approach Control. Roughly 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers must work without pay after a budget impasse between Republican President

according to FlightAware. A US Department of Transportation official said 44% of Sunday’s delays stemmed from controller absences — up sharply from the usual 5%. The mounting delays and cancellations are fueling public frustration and intensifying scrutiny of the shutdown’s impact, raising pressure on lawmakers to resolve it. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was in Cleveland meeting with controllers on Monday, while the National Air Traffic Controllers Association union plans events at numerous airports on Tuesday to highlight the first missed paycheck. The FAA is about 3,500 air traffic controllers short of targeted staffing levels and many had been working mandatory overtime and six-day weeks even before the shutdown. – Reuters

Donald Trump and congressional Democrats triggered the shutdown. The Trump administration has warned flight disruptions will increase as controllers miss their first full paycheck on Tuesday. More than 8,800 flights were delayed on Sunday. Southwest Airlines had 47%, or 2,089, of its flights delayed on Sunday, while American Airlines had 1,277, or 36%, of its flights delayed, according to FlightAware, a flight-tracking website. United Airlines had 27%, or 807, of its flights delayed and Delta Air Lines had 21%, or 725, of its flights delayed. On Monday, Southwest had 34% of flights delayed, American 29%, Delta 22% and United Airlines 19% as of 11.30pm. ET (0330 GMT),