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Business Follow Follow The Verge’s latest insights into the ideas shaping the future of work, finance, and innovation. Here you’ll find scoops, analysis, and reporting across some of the most influential companies in the world. Our coverage also includes interviews with innovators and policy makers at the frontiers of business and technology on Editor-in-Chief Nilay Patel’s Decoder ; a behind-the-curtain look at Silicon Valley with Alex Heath’s Command Line ; and exclusive reporting on Microsoft’s strategy in Tom Warren’s Notepad . Play Siemens CEO Roland Busch’s mission to automate everything Roland Busch on AI-powered factories, tariffs in the Trump era, trade, and the future of NATO. Nilay Patel Feb 9 How the men in the Epstein files defeated #MeToo Elizabeth Lopatto Feb 6 OpenAI Frontier is a single platform to control your AI agents Robert Hart Feb 5 AI Let’s talk about Ring, lost dogs, and the surveillance state Nilay Patel Two hours ago Let’s talk about Ring, lost dogs, and the surveillance state Nilay Patel Two hours ago After spooking Hollywood, ByteDance will tweak safeguards on new AI model Jess Weatherbed 11:29 AM UTC After spooking Hollywood, ByteDance will tweak safeguards on new AI model Jess Weatherbed 11:29 AM UTC OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger is joining OpenAI Terrence O'Brien Feb 15 OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger is joining OpenAI Terrence O'Brien Feb 15 I hate my AI pet with every fiber of my being Robert Hart Feb 15 I hate my AI pet with every fiber of my being Robert Hart Feb 15 AI can’t make good video game worlds yet, and it might never be able to Jay Peters Feb 15 AI can’t make good video game worlds yet, and it might never be able to Jay Peters Feb 15 My uncanny AI valentines Victoria Song Feb 14 My uncanny AI valentines Victoria Song Feb 14 View All Decoder View All Play Let’s talk about Ring, lost dogs, and the surveillance state Nilay Patel Two hours ago Play The surprising case for AI judges Nilay Patel Feb 12 Play Siemens CEO Roland Busch’s mission to automate everything Nilay Patel Feb 9 Play Podcasts Let’s talk about Ring, lost dogs, and the surveillance state Nilay Patel Two hours ago Play Podcasts The surprising case for AI judges Nilay Patel Feb 12 Play Podcasts Siemens CEO Roland Busch’s mission to automate everything Nilay Patel Feb 9 Latest In Business J Jess Weatherbed Feb 10 Link Spotify finished 2025 on a high note. In its Q4 earnings report , the audio streaming service said it’s gained 38 million monthly active users (MAU) and nine million paying subscribers since its last quarter. Spotify now has 751 million MAUs and 290 million subscribers globally. Previous Next 1 / 2 Here you can see the comparison between all active monthly users and paying subscribers over time. Graph by Spotify N Instagram Nilay Patel Feb 5 Link Why does Docusign employ 7,000 people? We interviewed Docusign CEO Allan Thygesen on Decoder this week, and one standout moment was when I asked Allan about his headcount. Docusign now employs around 7,000 people, which is a staggering number of employees for a company with a core product many think of as straightforward and simple. But as you’ll hear Allan explain, the business of Docusign is actually quite a bit more complex than it appears, and he says the company needs a lot more people than you might think. D External Link Dominic Preston Feb 5 Link The tech companies Epstein invested in. Even after his 2008 conviction as a sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein still had friends in Silicon Valley. The New York Times details the companies that took his money — including Coinbase, wearable manufacturer Jawbone, and Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures — along with more he considered investing in, including Palantir, SpaceX, and Spotify. Jeffrey Epstein’s Money Mingled With Silicon Valley Start-Ups [ The New York Times ] R Richard Lawler Feb 5 Link Is the SpaceX / xAI / X public offering just going to be a bailout funded by index funds? Maybe combining Musk’s companies is really about space AI data centers . But reports from Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal indicate that SpaceX’s IPO pursuit includes a push to have major index providers find a way around the usual waiting periods before they’ll add newly listed companies. Sam Altman responds to Anthropic’s ‘funny’ Super Bowl ads Richard Lawler and Hayden Field Feb 4 R Quote Richard Lawler Feb 4 Link Kalshi called a report on bettors’ losses “extortion” before backing off. A report from Bloomberg lays out how the prediction market reportedly directly contacted Juice Reel CEO Ricky Gold, pressuring him to say the data his firm had provided to an analyst was inaccurate. The analysis from Jordan Bender, an equity research analyst at Citizens, found that in their first three months, users on sites like Kalshi were losing more money than on established gambling sites like FanDuel and DraftKings, at least in proportion to the amount wagered. This cuts against Kalshi’s claims that it offers a customer-friendly way to bet on real-world events. Elon Musk is merging SpaceX and xAI to build data centers in space — or so he says SpaceX is profitable, while xAI is burning about $1 billion a month. Is this another case of Musk bailing out himself? Andrew J. Hawkins Feb 3 E External Link Emma Roth Feb 3 Link PayPal replaces its CEO with the former head of HP. Enrique Lores will head up PayPal after spending over six years as the president and CEO of HP, according to an announcement on Tuesday. Lores is taking over for Alex Chriss, who became the CEO of PayPal in 2023 as part of the company’s push into crypto. PayPal Appoints Enrique Lores as Chief Executive Officer [ PayPal Investor Relations ] D External Link Dominic Preston Feb 3 Link Palantir’s government growth. The company sells its tech to ICE , among other government departments , and business is booming: its annual revenue from the US government grew 55 percent, to $1.855 billion, over the last year. That growth is speeding up, with $570 million of government revenue from the last quarter alone. Palantir Q4 2025 Financials [ Palantir ] Waymo raises $16 billion to take its robotaxi business ‘global’ Andrew J. Hawkins Feb 2 Will Elon Musk’s emails with Jeffrey Epstein derail his very important year? Andrew J. Hawkins Feb 2 E External Link Emma Roth Feb 2 Link AT&T completes its $5.75 billion deal for Lumen’s fiber-to-home business. The acquisition includes “substantially all” of Lumen’s consumer fiber business, according to AT&T’s announcement. The company says it will add more than 1 million fiber customers across Denver, Seattle, Salt Lake City, and other cities as a result of the acquisition. AT&T Completes Acquisition of Lumen’s Mass Markets Fiber Business [ AT&T ] Play Docusign’s CEO on the dangers of trusting AI to read, and write, your contracts Docusign’s Allan Thygesen says ‘not providing an AI service isn’t really an option.’ Nilay Patel Feb 2 T Quote Thomas Ricker Feb 2 Link Apple no longer dominates global supply chains. Prices could increase (or profits thinned) once Apple’s current stock of components like DRAM, NAND, and advanced chips runs out, according to The Wall Street Journal : Artificial-intelligence companies are writing huge checks for chips, memory, specialized glass fiber and more, and they have begun to outduel Apple in the race to secure components. Suppliers accustomed to catering to Apple’s every whim are gaining the leverage to demand that the iPhone maker pay more. Apple’s second biggest acquisition ever is an AI company that listens to ‘silent speech’ Richard Lawler Jan 29 Everything is gambling now: the latest news on prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi Verge Staff Feb 13 Play Netflix is eating Hollywood — because it has to What the bidding war over Warner Bros. Discovery says about the future of Hollywood, with Puck’s Julia Alexander. Nilay Patel Jan 29 Microsoft reports strong cloud earnings in Q2 as gaming declines Tom Warren Jan 28 Spotify says it paid out $11 billion in royalties in 2025 Terrence O'Brien Jan 28 Snap is turning its smart glasses team into its own company Jess Weatherbed Jan 28 T Thomas Ricker Jan 28 Link Amazon shutters palm reading tech for retail. The closure of its physical Amazon Go and Fresh stores also brings an end to the Amazon One palm ID service by June 3rd for retail locations, including over 500 Whole Foods stores , with all biometric data deleted. Amazon One will continue to function at healthcare facilities “until further notice.” Image: Amazon T Quote Thomas Ricker Jan 28 Link Amazon is cutting another 16,000 jobs. The previously-rumored cuts follow an accidental calendar invite sent last night. They come after 14,000 corporate jobs were cut in October, attributed partially to advances in AI. This latest round of layoffs is less than 5 percent of Amazon’s 350,000 corporate workforce. We’ve been working to strengthen our organization by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy. While many teams finalized their organizational changes in October, other teams did not complete that work until now. T External Link Thomas Ricker Jan 28 Link Will the stars align for a SpaceX IPO? Mr. 420 hopes to raise $50 billion by taking SpaceX public with the largest initial public offering in history. The target date is mid-June, near Elon Musk’s 55th birthday on June 28th, and June 8th and 9th “when Jupiter and Venus will appear very close together, known as a conjunction, for the first time in more than three years.” SpaceX wants the extra funds to help develop its beefier Starship rocket system, expand its Starlink constellation, and to put data centers into space . SpaceX weighs June IPO timed to planetary alignment and Elon Musk’s birthday [ Financial Times ] T Thomas Ricker Jan 28 Link TCL about to unseat Samsung in TVs. Samsung has been the leading TV maker globally for 20 years. China’s TCL is this close to unseating the South Korean champ after posting a 20 percent surge in year-over-year global TV shipments, according to Counterpoint Research . That Sony x TCL deal all but guarantees a new leader should it go through. R Youtube Richard Lawler Jan 28 Link Report claims Ubiquiti’s gear serves “a critical communications need of the Russian military, including in drone operations.” Today’s reports from Hunterbrook Media and Pablo Torre Finds Out claim the company’s hardware is seemingly easily obtained and popularly used in Russia’s war effort through already-sanctioned distributors and other middlemen. Ubiquiti, which was fined $500k in 2014 over “reckless disregard” for Iran sanctions, did not respond to a request for comment. S Quote Stevie Bonifield Jan 27 Link Politico reports France’s government will “ban” non-European videoconferencing software like Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet. According to Politico , a notice will tell state officials to instead use the “secure and sovereign” French-made Visio platform . David Amiel, Minister Delegate for the Civil Service and State Reform, announces the generalization of “Visio”, a tool developed by the Interministerial Directorate for Digital Affairs (DINUM), to all State services by 2027. The objective: to put an end to the use of non-European solutions, to guarantee the security and confidentiality of public electronic communications by relying on a powerful and sovereign tool. Pinterest cuts workforce by around 15 percent to focus on AI Jess Weatherbed Jan 27 N Instagram Nilay Patel Jan 26 Link “We’re not Palantir.” Alex Lintner, Experian’s CEO of tech and software solutions, came on Decoder this week. When I asked Alex whether he thought the average person likes Experian as a company, he gave me one of the most memorable answers we’ve ever gotten. Check out the clip below , and catch the full interview here on The Verge . OpenAI is working out how much to charge for ChatGPT ads Stevie Bonifield Jan 26 Payment processors were against CSAM until Grok started making it Elizabeth Lopatto Jan 26 Play Experian’s tech chief defends credit scores: ‘We’re not Palantir’ Alex Lintner, head of tech for the global credit reporting company, on AI, privacy, and what data brokerages really do. Nilay Patel Jan 26 The TikTok deal is done, finally Richard Lawler Jan 23 E External Link Emma Roth Jan 22 Link Intel reports a $600 million net loss. The chipmaker’s Q4 2025 earnings report reveals that it earned $13.7 billion in revenue over the past few months, a dip from the $14.3 billion it made at the same time last year. Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan says the company is “working aggressively to grow supply” of chips built on its 18A process, including its new Panther Lake laptop CPUs . Intel stock falls 6% after company offers soft first-quarter guidance [ CNBC ] M External Link Mia Sato Jan 21 Link Does AI save workers time? A survey of 5,000 white collar workers suggests experiences differ greatly between CEOs and non-management employees. Forty percent of workers say it saves them no time each week to use AI and just two percent say it saves them more than 12 hours. Meanwhile, two percent of executives say they don’t save any time, and 19 percent say it saves them more than 12 hours a week. CEOs Say AI Is Making Work More Efficient. Employees Tell a Different Story. [ The Wall Street Journal ] M External Link Mia Sato Jan 20 Link More K-beauty is coming to stores near you. Sephora is partnering with Korean beauty retailers Olive Young to bring more K-beauty products to international consumers in-store and online. In the last decade, K-beauty has had a meteoric rise outside of Korea; the industry has especially thrived in the TikTok social media era, where new products and releases are used to relentlessly drive beauty trends. Now US retailers are in an “arms race” to cash in on the popularity. Exclusive: Sephora Partners with Olive Young [ The Business of Fashion ] Amazon’s CEO says tariffs are starting to ‘creep into’ pricing Emma Roth Jan 20 Netflix revises Warner Bros. bid to an all-cash offer Jess Weatherbed Jan 20 Play Gamers will learn to love AI, says Razer CEO Razer’s Min-Liang Tan says the backlash to AI slop is understandable, but that he sees a future where AI can “help game developers make better games.” Nilay Patel Jan 19 I saw the future of retail, and it’s all AI From window shopping and browsing to reviews and recommendations, retailers and tech companies envision a future filled with artificial intelligence — whether shoppers want it or not. Mia Sato Jan 16 E Twitter Elizabeth Lopatto Jan 15 Link Bluesky advertises a solution to X’s Grok undressing people. The solution is using Bluesky, of course. Naturally, a user with a blue check next to their name told Grok to put a bikini on the butterfly and the AI did — which seems like an even stronger advertisement for Bluesky than the one Bluesky itself posted. Most Popular Most Popular Why are Epstein’s emails full of equals signs? OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger is joining OpenAI The Poc