Good morning. Fortune released its new Global 500 yesterday. For the unfamiliar, it’s our annual ranking of the world’s largest companies by revenue—not to be confused with the famous Fortune 500, which is limited to the U.S.
Who’s up and who’s down in Techlandia? Glad you asked. Walmart tops the list, as it has for more than a decade, while rival Amazon is an ever-closer second. But the latter is growing at twice the rate, so get your popcorn ready.
Elsewhere, Apple came in at No. 8 (down one spot), Alphabet at No. 13 (up by four), Microsoft at No. 22 (up by four), Meta at No. 41 (up by 25 spots), and Nvidia at No. 66 (up by an astonishing 156).
Tesla was the only Magnificent 7 tech giant to fail to crack the top 100, landing at No. 106 (up by 4). Then again, it’s only been on the list four years—a fraction of the duration of most of its Big Tech peers.
Play around with the list and see what surprises emerge. Today’s tech news below. —Andrew Nusca
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The EU has a bone to pick with Temu
The European Union on Monday accused Chinese retailer Temu of breaking its rules by not doing enough to protect consumers from dangerous products.
“Evidence showed that there is a high risk for consumers in the EU to encounter illegal products on the platform,” wrote the European Commission in a preliminary finding.
So-called non-compliant products include anything that doesn’t satisfy the EU’s safety and regulatory requirements.
On the safety front, that could mean use of hazardous chemicals, concern about a choking hazard, or risk of electrical shock. On the regulatory front, that could mean insufficient labeling or documentation.
In its preliminary finding, the EC specifically cited baby toys and small electronics.
The EC has been investigating Temu since October 2024. The retailer is technically headquartered in Boston and its parent company, PDD Holdings, is officially based in Dublin, but most consider Shanghai its functional home base. (PDD refers to Pinduoduo.)
Temu has about 94 million monthly active users in the EU, where it has operated since 2023. The company said it would “continue to cooperate fully with the commission.”
The EC process will next allow Temu to respond to its findings. If the company is still found to be in violation of the law, it could be fined as much as 6% of the company’s total worldwide annual revenue. —AN
Daniel Ek isn’t happy with Spotify’s ad business
The price of Spotify shares dropped by more than 10% yesterday after the audio streaming giant released its second quarter financial results.
On the audience front, things looked good. The Swedish company recorded 696 million monthly active users, or MAUs, up by 11% and besting its own forecast by seven million. (Why: Traction in Latin America, Europe, and other less mature markets.)
Paid subscribers also impressed. Those were up by 12% to 276 million, topping its own estimates by 3 million. CEO Daniel Ek said subscribers year to date have grown faster than last year.
Things were less good on the financial front. The company posted a net loss of about $100 million in Q2, quite a bit less than the roughly $316 million profit it recorded at the same time last year. Analysts weren’t expecting the red ink.
The reason? Higher costs for talent, services, and marketing.
But according to Ek, lackluster ad revenue didn’t help Spotify offset its expenses as much as it could have.
“It’s really an execution challenge, not a problem with the strategy,” he told investors, “and while I’m unhappy with where we are today, I remain confident in the ambitions we laid out for this business.” —AN
Palo Alto Networks could acquire Israel’s CyberArk
Palo Alto Networks is reportedly in talks to acquire an Israeli cybersecurity company that would make it one of the biggest tech deals of the year.
The Silicon Valley company’s target, according to the Wall Street Journal: CyberArk Software, headquartered in Petach-Tikva and specializing in identity security.
A deal could come “as soon as later this week,” according to the Journal, that values the 26-year-old company “well above its roughly $20 billion market value.”
CyberArk has been public since 2014 and trades as CYBR on the Nasdaq. Its shares jumped 15% on the news. (Palo Alto’s dropped 5%.)
The cybersecurity industry is in a period of consolidation as players reach for additional muscle that comes with scale and customers ask for streamlined solutions rather than an array of specific tools. The rise of AI—on both sides of the perpetual cyber war—has only accelerated that need.
Nikesh Arora, Palo Alto Networks’s chief executive, called it “platformization” on an investor call early last year.
Indeed, the biggest tech deal of 2025 (so far) comes from the cybersecurity category: Alphabet-Wiz, for $32 billion, in March. —AN
More tech
—AI is the new search, but not the new work, according to a poll of U.S. workers.
—U.S. mulled charging patent holders for value. Between 1% and 5%, per a new report.
—Anthropic’s new valuation could be $170 billion if the ascendant AI firm raises the $5 billion it reportedly seeks.
—The next Apple Card partner might be JPMorgan Chase.
—Cohere is making money: $200 million annualized by year’s end, a big jump from the year’s beginning.
—Runway’s new revenue stream. Cars and robots are more promising than film, according to the AI company.
—SEC approves in-kind redemptions for crypto ETFs. Get ready for “a more efficient market,” per the feds.
Endstop triggered
