Paytm Turns Profitable with Strong Q1 Boost from AI and Merchant Growth

Paytm surprised many by clocking a ₹122.5 crore profit in Q1, a sharp rebound from its hefty ₹838.9 crore loss during the same time last year. Backed by strong merchant growth and trimmed employee costs, the company clocked ₹1,917 crore in revenue and ₹72 crore in EBITDA. What’s really driving this? Smart use of AI, disciplined spending, and deeper monetisation through device subscriptions. Financial services doubled too, hinting Paytm’s lending game is maturing. It’s early days, but this feels like more than just a lucky quarter — the full-stack strategy might finally be clicking.

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Blinkit Bets on Owning Inventory for Better Margins

Blinkit, Eternal’s quick commerce arm, is shifting from a marketplace model to full inventory ownership. Instead of just listing sellers, Blinkit will now stock products itself—aiming for better margins, smoother operations, and more control. This bold move could improve availability and fill rates, but it also means higher working capital. With over 1,500 dark stores and aggressive expansion plans, Blinkit’s eyeing profitability. Margins improved slightly this quarter, and leadership seems confident. It’s a risky play in a cutthroat space, but owning the supply chain might just give Blinkit the edge it needs.

Credit: YourStory

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Perplexity Partners with Airtel to Expand AI Reach in India

Perplexity is going all-in on India! The AI search startup just teamed up with Airtel to give 360 million users a free 12-month Perplexity Pro plan (worth $200). This exclusive deal boosts its presence in a market where OpenAI still leads in numbers. Downloads in India surged 600% in Q2, and active users grew even faster. Perplexity’s earlier tie-up with Paytm and CEO Aravind Srinivas’ $1M India commitment show it’s serious about growth here. Though revenue lags behind ChatGPT, smart partnerships like this could help Perplexity win big in price-sensitive India.

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Zoho Unveils Zia LLM to Power Smarter AI for Businesses

Zoho has rolled out its own large language model, Zia LLM, built fully on NVIDIA’s AI tech. Announced at Zoholics India, the model is tailored for real business tasks like summarizing data, code generation, and smart retrieval. With three models (up to 7B parameters), it balances speed, cost, and performance. Unlike ChatGPT, Zia runs on Zoho’s own servers, ensuring better data privacy. It also introduced Hindi-English speech recognition, no-code AI agent tools, and over 25 pre-built Zia agents.

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Wipro’s Profit Jumps 11% in Q1, But Revenue Stays Flat

Wipro started FY26 on a steady note, posting a ₹3,330 crore profit in Q1 — up 11% from last year. The boost came mainly from trimming expenses and benefiting from favorable currency movements. However, revenue didn’t move much, staying around ₹22,135 crore. The company booked big deals worth $5 billion, but its outlook for the next quarter feels cautious. CEO Srini Pallia is still hopeful about a stronger second half. AI is now a key focus, and Wipro plans to hire 10,000 freshers this year. They also declared a ₹5 dividend, keeping up with their promise of regular payouts.

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UAE’s Nvidia AI Chip Deal Hits Pause Over U.S. Security Concerns

A high-stakes deal allowing the UAE to buy billions in AI chips from Nvidia and other U.S. chipmakers has reportedly been put on hold over national security concerns. U.S. officials fear the chips might be smuggled to China, despite earlier assurances from the UAE and Saudi Arabia about strict controls. As tensions around tech exports rise, the U.S. is also eyeing restrictions on Malaysia and Thailand, while Malaysia just introduced a new permit rule for chip exports. Honestly, this pause shows how deeply AI hardware has become a geopolitical battleground — and how even allies are facing tighter scrutiny now.

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Uber Bets Big on Robotaxis with Massive Deal Involving Lucid and Nuro

Uber is making a bold move into the robotaxi space by investing hundreds of millions in Lucid and Nuro, planning to launch 20,000+ autonomous SUVs starting in 2026. Lucid’s luxury Gravity SUV will be fitted with Nuro’s Level 4 self-driving tech, available exclusively through the Uber app. Honestly, this is a huge gamble, especially when both Lucid and Nuro have faced financial trouble lately. Still, Uber’s aggressive bet shows it’s serious about leading the autonomous ride market. If they pull this off, it could finally push robotaxis out of test mode and into reality — something the industry has long overpromised.

Credit: The Verge

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Scale AI Lays Off 200 Staff, Shifts Focus After Meta Deal Shakeup

The data-labeling startup just laid off 200 employees and dropped 500 global contractors, about a month after Meta hired its CEO in a $14.3 billion deal. According to a memo, interim CEO Jason Droege admitted the company scaled too fast in its original data-labeling business. Now, Scale plans to refocus on enterprise and government sales. The timing’s tough — with major clients pulling back after Meta’s investment, Scale seems to be paying the price of rapid growth. Like other AI firms that peaked too soon, it’s now scrambling for a second act.

Credit: Bloomberg

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Cognition Acquires Windsurf to Boost AI Engineering Future

Cognition has officially acquired Windsurf, the agentic IDE, bringing in its product, IP, brand, and talented team. With $82M ARR, 350+ enterprise clients, and a rapidly growing user base, Windsurf strengthens Cognition’s mission to revolutionize software engineering. The Windsurf team will continue operations for now, while their tools and IP will soon integrate into Cognition’s offerings like Devin. Notably, all Windsurf employees will benefit financially and receive full equity vesting. This move signals a major leap toward the future of autonomous software development, positioning Cognition as a powerful force in the evolving AI engineering landscape.

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Windsurf Deal Slips From OpenAI’s Grasp, Google Wins in the AI Talent War!

In a surprise twist, OpenAI’s $3B deal to acquire AI coding startup Windsurf has collapsed — and Google swooped in smartly. Instead of buying the company, Google acqui-hired key Windsurf talent, including CEO Varun Mohan, for $2.4B. They also secured a non-exclusive license to Windsurf’s tech. The rest of Windsurf stays independent under a new interim CEO. This clever move gives Google DeepMind top AI coding brains without full acquisition hassles. Meanwhile, OpenAI is left empty-handed. The race for elite AI talent is heating up, and Google just played a masterstroke.

Credit: CNBC

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