Good morning. Satya Nadella has everyone talking, and no, it’s not about layoffs.
The Microsoft CEO recently published a think piece outlining how the AI business model encourages “information asymmetry”—that is, you share hard-earned proprietary knowledge with the AI provider in order to realize AI’s value, but receive little benefit from giving away the farm (so to speak).
What to do about this “reverse information paradox,” as he calls it? Nadella offers several technical solutions that add up to the user sharing their data but retaining their knowledge—a clarion call on behalf of the millions of companies that Microsoft serves (and the millions that haven’t yet signed up for its Copilot AI suite).
“In consuming intelligence, you are creating intelligence,” he wrote. “And what you create should belong to you.”
Or as Limestone Digital CEO Mark Ajzenstadt put it: “Satya Nadella just published the most important essay in enterprise AI this year. Also the most self-serving.”
The news, below. —Andrew Nusca
Want to send thoughts or suggestions to Fortune Tech? Drop a line here.
Almost 200 economists warn of AI-driven job displacement
A group of nearly 200 economists and other prominent tech folk have signed a statement calling for legislators to race to confront the powerful societal effects of artificial intelligence.
“AI may become radically more powerful over the next 10 years,” the group wrote. “This could drive an unprecedented transformation of our economy, larger than the Industrial Revolution, but unfolding over a vastly shorter time frame. It could bring risks, including large-scale job displacement, as well as opportunities such as major gains in living standards.”
Therefore, they added, “economists, policymakers and technology leaders must act now to understand the economics of transformative AI and to build the incentives, guardrails, and institutions needed to steer AI in a direction that complements humans and benefits society.”
Among those who signed the statement, which is entitled “We Must Act Now” and hosted by the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, are 15 Nobel laureates, Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark, OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar, former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, and former Meta chief AI scientist Yann LeCun.
(Signees of the digital document also include a who’s who of Fortune Brainstorm participants, including venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, Stanford’s Erik Brynjolfsson, Relativity Space CEO Eric Schmidt, Greylock’s Reid Hoffman, Google’s Jeff Dean, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, former Amazon consumer chief Jeff Wilke, and McKinsey’s Michael Chui.)
There are few clashes more contentious in tech right now than the debate over whether AI is to be embraced, feared, or something in between. One side argues that AI is a geopolitical race to be won and that any limitations merely serve to slow down progress. Another side argues that AI adoption without regulation will rapidly destabilize the economy.
Both may be right. The history of tech transformation predicts short-term pain (job destruction) and long-term gain (job creation). But we’re never seen a revolution move like this—and that’s why the luminaries above are so concerned. —AN
Global smartphone shipments fall to the lowest Q2 levels since 2013
As a reader of this newsletter, by now you surely know about the global memory shortage, how we got here, and how long it will last.
We’re already seeing its effects. Apple hiked prices for many of its larger devices two weeks ago. Sony and Microsoft did, too, for their game consoles. Quarterly profits for the trio of companies that dominate memory chip manufacturing—SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron—are off the charts.
But what about device sales? When will we start seeing the adverse effects of higher prices in a difficult economy?
According to Counterpoint Research, right now.
Global smartphone shipments in the second quarter fell 11% from the same time a year ago. That’s the lowest Q2 level in 13 years. (Why Q2 specifically? Because smartphone sales are highly seasonal and not evenly distributed over the year.)
That’s not to say some phonemakers aren’t successfully growing sales. Samsung (24% market share) and Apple (20% share) successfully grew shipments and share despite profit margin pain. Samsung benefited from better product availability, fewer price hikes, and aggressive summer promotion, Counterpoint says; Apple won by resisting price hikes altogether (though it hasn’t lasted).
Chinese phonemakers Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo weren’t so lucky. “Each recorded double-digit percentage YoY shipment declines in Q2 2026,” Counterpoint writes, leading their collective share to drop from 35% to 31%.
What to expect for Q3 and beyond? More memory shortages into 2027 and continued global smartphone shipment declines. Watch for fewer new models, more focus on old models, and continued suffering for anyone catering to price-sensitive customers. —AN
EU blacklists Russian cyber spies for hacks going back 15 years
There are a lot of great acronyms in tech and business, many rather salty. RTFM: Read the…flippin’ manual. JFDI: Just…friggin’ do it.
But my favorite? FAFO. (“Fool Around and Find Out,” the polite version goes. I’m not polite, though.)
That’s what happened to members of a Russian intelligence group on Monday after they were blacklisted by the European Union for allegedly spying on and hacking targets as far back as 2010.
EU officials said the “Centre 16” group in Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, directed the activities of a state-sponsored hacking group called Turla, which in turn conducted “a wide range of malicious cyber activities” targeting governments, infrastructure, and industry throughout Europe.
Nine individuals and four entities have been sanctioned, including intelligence officers, “cybercriminals, self-proclaimed hacktivists and private companies that contribute to Russia’s efforts to destabilize the EU, its member states and international partners,” officials said.
The EU sanctions include travel bans and asset freezes.
Meanwhile the United Kingdom on Monday announced its own sanctions, but for 24 individuals and entities with Russian intelligence ties.
Turla is believed to have compromised unclassified email systems at its defense ministry in 2017, breached the French embassy in Moscow in 2018, and stolen industrial information from a private tech company in 2025. Meanwhile, Centre 16 is formally recognized as the group behind a December 2025 attempt to sabotage power plants in Poland.
“The U.K. and EU are sending a clear message that Russia cannot hide behind its use of these proxy groups,” the U.K.’s foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said in a statement. “From directing criminals to targeting businesses, and striking Poland’s energy grid in the depths of winter, the Russian state is sinking to new lows in its attempts to undermine European security.” —AN
More tech
—OpenAI: Still committed to a device reveal this year, despite Apple’s lawsuit.
—Anthropic hires Tom Blomfield, a Monzo co-founder and Y Combinator partner, to join its compute team.
—This fall, the EU will propose a “social media start date for minors” with “gradual access.”
—Meta promises to spend an extra $40 billion on its almost 4,000-acre data center campus in Louisiana.
—12 U.S. states file an antitrust lawsuit to block Paramount's Warner Bros. Discovery merger.
—Helsing raises $1.8 billion. The fantastically named Munich defense tech startup is now valued at $18 billion.
—AI chatbots are undermining health professionals when it comes to care for eating disorders.
