Internet

• Spotify hikes U.S. Premium subscription price months after last rate increase - Co-founder Daniel Ek recently stepped down as CEO, with co-CEOs Gustav Söderström and Alex Norström now at the helm of the music streamer.
• Amazon launches its 'sovereign' cloud in Europe and plots expansion - The Amazon Web Services (AWS) European Sovereign Cloud will be "physically and logically separate" from other AWS regions, the company said.
• Elon Musk's xAI probed by California DOJ over Grok's deepfake explicit images - Musk's Grok AI chatbot faces investigations from India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Ireland, Australia, the UK and France as well.
• Google launches Personal Intelligence feature in Gemini app, challenging Apple Intelligence - Google has been bolstering its AI offerings as it takes on OpenAI, and is now going directly at Apple.
• Meta's VR layoffs, studio closures underscore Zuckerberg's massive pivot to AI - Meta began laying off employees in its Reality Labs division focused on virtual reality and shut down several VR studios as it pushes resources towards AI.
• Meta names former Trump advisor Dina Powell McCormick as president, vice chair - Powell McCormick will serve as a member of Meta's management team and will help guide its strategy and execution, the company said.
• Behind Anthropic's stunning growth is a sibling team that may hold the key to generative AI - Daniela Amodei has helped build Anthropic into a serious AI player by betting on safety and enterprise adoption.
• Amazon plans first big-box retail store in Chicago suburb - Amazon has submitted plans for a large-format store near Chicago that would be larger than a Walmart Supercenter.
• OpenAI and SoftBank announce $1 billion investment in SB Energy as part of massive AI buildout - OpenAI and SoftBank agreed to invest $1 billion into a SoftBank-backed energy provider as the companies prepare for a massive buildout of AI data centers.
• Meta signs nuclear energy deals to power Prometheus AI supercluster - Meta said it secured agreements with energy companies Vistra, TerraPower and Oklo, which are all working on nuclear power technologies.