Good morning. I almost forgot to mention that we’re closing out Fortune Brainstorm Tech next week with the very first human to receive Neuralink’s brain-computer interface.
Noland Arbaugh will chat with Fortune’s Jessica Mathews on Wednesday—plus play a bit of chess with the delightful Anna Cramling of YouTube fame.
Stoked for it. Today’s tech news below; have a wonderful weekend. —Andrew Nusca
P.S. Please do carve out some time for Sharon Goldman’s dive into Anthropic’s so-called Red Team, whose mission is to break the company’s AI.
Want to send thoughts or suggestions to Fortune Tech? Drop a line here.
Google stock hits all-time high
Alphabet’s shares surged to a record high Thursday after U.S. regulators stepped back from a proposed set of new restrictions on large AI platforms.
Alphabet’s stock closed up 8% to $231.10, an all-time record.
But while regulatory relief is one factor, analysts say the real driver behind Google’s market-breaking rally lies in the success of its competitors.
In fact, that’s what the judge in Google’s antitrust case said, too.
In his 230-page ruling, Judge Amit Mehta wrote that the emergence of generative AI has “changed the course of this case,” which began in 2020, several years before the mainstream release of ChatGPT fundamentally changed the tech sector.
“The money flowing into this space, and how quickly it has arrived, is astonishing,” he wrote.
What surprised many on Wall Street was how much Google appears to benefit indirectly from the rapid progress of its rivals.
Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic have spent billions elevating user expectations in AI-powered search, work software, and creative tools. Each breakthrough has ignited wider adoption of AI across industries, demand that has spilled over into Google’s own ecosystem of services and cloud infrastructure.
In a note, Bank of America Research wrote that AI is actually expanding the search market, and that could become a “potential net positive for Google.” The bank added that it has noticed an improving position for Google’s AI and search products year to date despite strong growth at emerging generative AI competitors. —Nick Lichtenberg
ADP issues rare warning about ‘AI disruptions’
America’s private employers added only 54,000 jobs in August, much lower than economists’ already modest expectations of 68,000.
That data comes courtesy of payroll processor ADP and marks a steep slowdown from July’s upwardly revised 106,000, underscoring how fragile employment momentum has become halfway through 2025.
“The year started with strong job growth, but that momentum has been whipsawed by uncertainty,” Nela Richardson, ADP’s chief economist, said in the press release.
She cited a mix of factors “including labor shortages, skittish consumers, and AI disruptions.”
That last one is important. ADP’s August report is among the first to name-check AI disruptions, a rare admission that artificial intelligence is now beginning to reshape hiring sentiment.
The top-line figure hides stark divides across the economy. Almost all of August’s gains came from leisure and hospitality; remove those and private payrolls came out essentially flat, with job losses in manufacturing (-7,000), health and education (-12,000), and trade, transportation, and utilities (-17,000).
Wage growth showed signs of cooling but remained stronger for job-switchers. Pay for job-stayers rose 4.4% year over year in August, while job-changers’ ticked up 7.1%.
August’s sluggish private‑sector hiring has added new fuel to the expectation that the Fed will ease monetary policy at its Sept. 16–17 meeting. Markets are now pricing in a nearly 90%–98% probability of a 25‑basis‑point rate cut. —Eva Roytburg
Analysts want Apple to buy Perplexity. It has other plans
Analysts have increasingly urged Apple to make bold acquisitions in the wake of poor reception for its homegrown solutions in Siri and Apple Intelligence.
But the tech giant has other plans, reportedly working on its own AI-powered search solution for the web, like Perplexity or ChatGPT.
The system, said to function like an “answer engine” similar to ChatGPT and Google’s AI overviews, would provide summarized responses to search queries.
Prominent analysts, led by Wedbush Securities’ Dan Ives, have repeatedly called for Apple to acquire Perplexity, the fast-growing AI search engine that could cost about $30 billion.
The acquisition would provide Apple with an immediate AI search capability that could transform both Siri and Safari, giving the company a legitimate competitor to Google’s search dominance. (Perplexity even has its own web browser now, called Comet.)
Apple has historically preferred organic growth and smaller, technology-focused acquisitions rather than large strategic purchases. Its largest acquisition to date remains the $3 billion purchase of Beats in 2014.
But the AI revolution may require Apple to abandon this cautious approach.
While Apple shares have rebounded recently, only down roughly 2.5% year to date, the company remains the worst performer among all “Magnificent 7” big tech stocks and the only one with a negative return so far this year.
The timeline for Apple’s internal AI search solution suggests the company believes it can compete without major acquisitions. If successful, the March 2026 launch of enhanced Siri capabilities will demonstrate that patience in AI can still yield competitive results. —Dave Smith
More tech
—Big Tech commits to AI education. Grants, courses, and free software from Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Code.org, IBM, and others.
—Ramp ramps up. $1 billion in annualized revenue for the fintech firm. (CEO Eric Glyman will speak at Brainstorm Tech next week.)
—Amazon's Project Kuiper signs up JetBlue. Its first airline customer for satellite internet service.
—Anthropic to halt China-adjacent sales. It will stop selling AI services to majority Chinese-owned groups.
—Atlassian to acquire The Browser Co. $610 million for a web browser with AI features.
—Stripe and Paradigm debut Tempo. It’s a Layer-1 blockchain for stablecoins.
—Sesh raises $40 million. “Nicotine pouch startup” is giving me “Juul in 2018” vibes.
—Warner Bros. Discovery sues Midjourney. Allegations of copyright infringement.
—Sierra is now worth $10 billion. The AI agent startup cofounded by OpenAI’s chairman doubles its valuation.
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