Are Bots in Business Leading to Layoffs?

AI Layoffs, Stocks Rally on Software Rebound, China Trims US Bonds, Japan PM Supermajority Alphabet's 100 Year Bond

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The Tech Buzz
February 10, 2026

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WHAT’S INSIDE:

Feature: Are Bots in Business Leading to Layoffs?

Top Tech News: Stocks rally on Japan election, software sector rebound, China trims US Treasuries, Taiwan rejects 40% chip shift to US, Alphabet's 100-year sterling bond

Company Watch: Apollo's $3.4B xAI loan for Nvidia chips, Crypto.com $70M AI.com purchase, US IPO record, Amazon $200B capex plan, Netflix DOJ probe, Intel GPUs

Buzzy Tools: iPhone 17e + Siri upgrade + CarPlay AI opening,Claude Opus 4.6 Fast, Goldman Sachs AI accounting agents, Meshy AI 3D generator, Supabase x Claude

Buzzy Tech: neuron bioprocessors, Taiwan frigates, Axiom AI solves theoretical Math problem, SpaceX Moon city shift, China Shenlong reusable spacecraft

Crypto: Bitcoin down 50% from $126k peak, Bernstein maintains $150k target citing institutional support, Bithumb 2,000 BTC error causes 10% crash

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Top Technology News

Stocks Rally — World stocks rallied on Monday on Japanese election results and a tech rebound. The Dow closed above 50,000 again & S&P 500 and Nasdaq gained.

Software Rebound — The Tech-Software Sector ETF gained 3% and Oracle rose ~10% as analysts dismissed AI disruption fears over Claude “software killer” tools.

China Trims US Risk — The USD fell as Chinese banks were advised to cut U.S. Treasury bonds amid volatility concerns. Though investors are more likely to hedge than exit U.S. assets entirely.

Chip Shift Standoff — Taiwan's Vice Premier declared moving 40% of semiconductor capacity to the U.S. "impossible," stressing Taiwan's crucial ecosystem.

Japan's Tax Cut Path — Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi secures a supermajority, paving the way for tax cuts like the suspension of the 8% food tax.

Alphabet's Century Bond — Alphabet Inc. plans to issue a rare 100-year bond in sterling, marking the first by a tech company since the late 1990s.

Are Bots in Business Leading to Layoffs?

U.S. equities have hit an all-time high 38 times in 2025, the S&P returning 16.39%. But one element to that story has hit headlines more times than we can count: the labor market. Normally, a strong year of economic growth leads to ample hiring, but that isn’t happening currently. 2005 was the worst year for job gains outside of a recession since 2003. Back then, the economy was still in a “jobless recovery” phase after the dot-com bubble burst, while we are at all time highs in the markets.

I won’t dive into economic theory or fiduciary responsibilities of the government, but it’s important to know that the Federal Reserve has two objectives on the back burner at all times: maximum employment and stable prices. So why, as of early February 2026, is the U.S. unemployment rate at 4.4%? 

A lot of tech companies have been laying off employees. This is not just attributable to the ‘AI Bubble’. A publicly traded company has one overarching goal: maximize shareholder value. Revenue growth and growing margins is one way to do that, but so is cutting costs. Actually, the two are not mutually exclusive. Amazon, Intel, Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Salesforce have all reported job cuts in the range of thousands. All in the name of discarding weak performing sections of the company. It’s like cutting off an arm to save the body. This arm, however, has led to speculation that these cuts feed into the larger narrative of AI taking over our jobs. 

As AI automates roles and more companies are pulling back on hiring, recent consumer data shows that Americans hit rock-bottom confidence in landing a job. Executives are just as pessimistic. Many are saying they anticipate huge changes from AI, and are making cuts in advance to be prepared. AI was reportedly cited in the announcements of more than 50,000 layoffs in 2025, according to research firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

A notable example of this trend was Amazon’s announcement of 16,000 further corporate job cuts in January, completing a plan for around 30,000 ​since October, while leaving open the possibility of further reductions. Amazon is going heavy on robotic automation of its factories, and now appears to be extending this strategy across its corporate workforce. In a June blog post, CEO Andrew Jassy, admitted that in the next few years he expected that AI would “reduce our total corporate workforce.” However, he later walked back the connection between layoffs and A.I., claiming the reason for most of the cuts was reducing bureaucracy.

So there’s no doubt that AI and robotics are contributing to GDP growth. But to what extent is it contributing to job losses? For those of you worried that AI will reason better than you and thus replace you as human capital, Apple have indicated otherwise. In the recent paper; The Illusion Of Thinking: Understanding The Strengths And Limitations Of Reasoning Models Via The Lens Of Problem Complexity, the company highlighted the limitations of Large Reasoning Models (which many have seized on to back up the claim that AI is still only capable of augmenting humans rather than replacing them. The current trends don’t really seem to back this up, but perhaps over time companies will realise the true value of human employees is far more than that of reasoning models.

That leads to the key layer to this story, the shift in what companies now value most: efficiency over expansion. Once upon a time, growth meant hiring new people and opening new divisions. But in the post-AI Boom economy, efficiency has become the new growth. Firms are learning that automation might not only cut costs, but also increase productivity. It’s no longer the case that a company needs to hire 12 more employees; it can augment (or replace) existing ones with AI models that are proving useful in so many ways. Marketing teams use generative AI for copywriting, finance departments rely on algorithms and machine learning for forecasting, and even software engineers are competing with code-writing models that can debug faster than their human counterparts. This is quite a recalibration of what “skilled labor” means.

Breaking News: Ending Hunger is Now Public!

The first crypto 501c4 nonprofit (WYDE: END HUNGER $EAT) using trade fees to feed those who are hungry has recently:

  • Hit it’s all time high market cap following a new year surge to $14.4M FDV 

  • Reached the milestone of funding 5000 meals through Food charities

  • Secured Charitable Status as Tax-exempt (the 1st U.S. exchange to do so)

Companies To Watch

Latest deals and trending companies

Open Deal: The Wyoming Exchange Building the "New York Stock Exchange for Nonprofits." Watch an investor talk by co-founders on WYDE’s mission & news.

Apollo Global Management — Approaching a $3.4B loan to acquire Nvidia chips for Elon Musk's xAI, supporting the development of orbital data centers.

Crypto.com — Purchased the AI.com domain for $70M, the highest domain purchase to date. Launched a personal AI agent with a Super Bowl ad on Sunday.

MrBeast's Beast Industries — Acquiring Step, a financial services app for youth targeting the financial literacy gap among Gen Z.

Harvey — The Legal AI startup is reportedly raising at an $11B valuation just months after it raised at an $8B valuation and announcing $190M in ARR in Dec.

Amazon — Plans to invest $200B in capex this year, exceeding expectations by $50B. CEO Andy Jassy highlighted rapid AI monetization and strong ROI potential.

Netflix — The DOJ is scrutinizing Netflix's proposed acquisition of Warner Discovery's studios and HBO Max for anticompetitive practices.

Intel — Announced plans to enter the GPU market, challenging Nvidia. CEO Lip-Bu Tan revealed this at the Cisco AI Summit, focusing on gaming and AI chips.

ElevenLabs — Raised $500M led by Sequoia, boosting its valuation to $11B. Existing backers a16z and Iconiq increased their stakes to support global expansion.

Buzzy Tools & Tech

The Latest Trending Tools & Cutting Edge Technology Developments

Buzzy Tools

Buzzy Tools To Watch and Try Today

Apple — iPhone 17e with A19 chip; new Siri and budget MacBook for enterprise. Also: Opens CarPlay to third-party AI.

Anthropic — Claude Opus 4.6 Fast is 2.5X faster than the base model.

Goldman Sachs & Anthropic — AI agents for automated accounting, onboarding.

Meshy AI — AI 3D model generator transforms text/images into models.

Supabase — Official Claude AI connector for web and desktop platforms.

Perplexity — Model Council runs three AI models for enhanced output.

Buzzy Technology

Buzzy Tech Discoveries and Breakthroughs Trending Today

FinalSpark — Neuron-based bioprocessors outperform silicon.

Taiwan Naval Upgrade — Builds 10 frigates, buys 10 C-130J planes.

Laser Scanning — Raman spectroscopy ids preservation fluids in jars.

Axiom AI — Solves Fel’s conjecture, first AI theoretical math solution.

U.S. IPO Market — Expected to reach a record $160B in proceeds by 2026.

Space Race

SpaceX Moon City — Musk shifts focus from Mars to a self-growing Moon city

Shenlong — China advances reusable spaceflight with fourth Shenlong mission.

Cryptocurrency News

The Latest News in Crypto & Blockchain

Open Deal: The Wyoming Exchange Building the "New York Stock Exchange for Nonprofits." Watch an investor talk by co-founders on WYDE’s mission & news.

Crypto Downturn — Bitcoin has plummeted nearly 50% from its October peak of over $126,000, reflecting market volatility despite optimism under Trump.

Bitcoin Outlook — Bernstein analysts label the bear case as the “weakest ever”, maintaining a $150k target for 2026 citing institutional support and the lack of structural issues.

Bithumb Blunder — A South Korean crypto exchange, mistakenly distributed 2,000 BTC instead of 2,000 KRW as a reward, causing a 10% price crash on the exchange.

MegaETH — Just launched its mainnet, pushing Ethereum toward real-time execution and new kinds of onchain experiences.

Senate Crypto Bill — The Senate Agriculture Committee advanced a crypto market structure bill aiming for a national regulatory framework under the CFTC.

Breaking News: $EAT hits All-Time High Marketcap and Meals Funded ($14.4M MC & 5000 meals)

Ending Hunger is public!

The first crypto 501c4 nonprofit (WYDE: END HUNGER $EAT) that has aimed to use trade fees to feed those who are hungry has just hit it’s all time high ($14.4M FDV) the same day it reached the milestone of funding 6000 meals.

Coinbase Listing: $EAT

It was launched on the Wyoming Decentralized Exchange and is now tradable on Coinbase.

About WYDE: END HUNGER($EAT)

  • Tradable on Coinbase - TRADE

  • The first cause coin with an organizational structure behind it (DUNA 501c4 federally approved tax exempt organization).

  • The $EAT team is working with some of the most well-respected nonprofits in America

  • Every trade funds verified food banks and operators who impact their local community.

  • Holding $EAT provides you with governance in the organization (coming soon)

  • Fair launched and fully decentralized.

  • Meals Funded so far: 5,100 / Next Milestone: 10,000

  • Current number of holders: 548

Visit www.wyde.org for more information on Wyoming Decentralized Exchange

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