Increased demand for cloud computing and AI services has propelled revenue growth of 18 percent to $77.7 billion for Microsoft for its fiscal Q1, ending September 30. Net income was $27.7 billion for the quarter, an increase of 12 percent year-over-year. “Our planet-scale cloud and AI factory, together with Copilots across high value domains, is driving broad diffusion and real-world impact,” said Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella, noting “It’s why we continue to increase our investments in AI across both capital and talent to meet the massive opportunity ahead.” The news coincides with OpenAI’s next steps in becoming a for-profit company and an update in Microsoft’s stake in the AI startup. Read more

Meta Platforms shares fell by more than 7 percent despite record revenue of $51.2 billion in an adverse reaction to accelerated AI spending. Sales were up 26 percent year-over-year, but net income of $2.7 billion was far below analysts’ expectations. The company attributed the net income miss to accounting changes resulting from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act even as it advised analysts of “aggressive” capital expenditure increases to come. Meta’s 2025 capital expenditure forecast grew from the existing estimate of $66 billion to $72 billion. Most of that will be spent on data centers and researchers, Meta said, indicating 2026 capex would be “notably larger” and could reach as high as $100 billion. Read more

To coincide with Adobe MAX 2025 in Los Angeles, Adobe has released a new version of its generative AI tool Firefly, calling it “your all-in-one creative AI studio.” Firefly now offers under one subscription a collection of models that include not only Firefly Image Model 5 (in public beta) but those from partners including Google, OpenAI, Luma AI, ElevenLabs, Topaz Labs, and more. From concept to final product, Firefly is attempting to support every phase of the workflow with AI to generate music, narration and video clips, while supporting areas such as ideation and editing, Adobe says. Read more

YouTube is strengthening its Community Guidelines around online gambling and graphic violence in gaming. Starting November 17, existing rules prohibiting content linking to online gambling sites or applications that are not certified by Google will also include links to sites involving digital goods with “monetary value,” including video game skins, cosmetics and NFTs. “Our policies are designed to evolve alongside the digital world,” Google says, explaining that the changes “keep pace with new trends, like gambling with digital goods, and to more closely align our guidelines for mature content with industry standards.” Read more

Three major North American music performing rights organizations, or PROs, have decided to allow registration of musical compositions that are “partially generated using artificial intelligence tools.” ASCAP, BMI and the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) have agreed to accept direct registration within their individual societies. For registration purposes, all three PROs define a partially AI-generated musical work as “one that combines elements of AI-generated musical content with elements of human authorship.” Musical compositions that are entirely created using AI continue to be ineligible for registration in these groups. Read more