Groq’s $6.9B move — and Microsoft’s $30B UK AI bet 💥

From AI hardware wars to landmark copyright deals — get the inside scoop on what’s shaping tech and hiring this month.

Hey there,

AI is moving fast — and so is the money. From China blocking Nvidia chips to Microsoft’s $30 billion UK AI pledge, the supply chain and infrastructure bets just keep getting bigger. Meanwhile, content creators are cashing in on AI training rights, and consumer hardware keeps blending health, social, and real-time translation. Here’s what matters and what to do next.

What’s inside

• Quick Hits — recent tech articles that caught our eye

• Spotlighted Jobs — trending roles on Haystack

• Career Corner — practical upskilling you can start this week

• Hiring Signals — sharper plays for TA & hiring managers

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⚡ Quick Hits

China vs Nvidia chips – Beijing reportedly told firms to stop buying Nvidia’s repurposed RTX Pro 6000D AI chips, reinforcing a drive toward homegrown hardware.
→ Read the article

Groq hits $6.9 B valuation – The Nvidia challenger raised $750 M to scale its low-latency Language Processing Units. Inference hardware just got interesting.
→ Read the article

Anthropic pays $1.5 B to authors – A landmark settlement compensates writers for AI training data, setting a precedent for the entire industry.
→ Read the article

Business Insider greenlights AI drafts – Reporters can now use AI to write story drafts without flagging it to readers — raising fresh transparency debates.
→ Read the article

Google accused of lifting content – People.com’s CEO says Google is using its material for AI products without proper licensing.
→ Read the article

Reddit wants a better AI deal – Reddit is pushing Google for more cash in exchange for access to its data for AI training and answers.
→ Read the article

Microsoft’s $30 B UK AI investment – A four-year plan for cloud/AI infrastructure (including a 23,000-GPU supercomputer) and nationwide skills training.
→ Read the article

Revolut expands in the UK – Fintech giant plans to deepen its UK financial services presence, strengthening London’s global role.
→ Read the article

AirPods Pro 3 lands with health + AI – New Apple buds bring heart-rate sensing and live translation powered by Apple Intelligence.
→ Read the article

Meta’s next smart glasses – Ray-Ban frames now pack a display and wristband controller for subtle, glanceable AI interactions.
→ Read the article

Jack Altman’s lightning fundraise – The Lattice co-founder raised a $275 M early-stage fund in a single week.
→ Read the article

Airbuds social music surge – Five million monthly users and $5 M funding for an app turning your listening history into a social feed.
→ Read the article

Flying cars collide in China – Two Xpeng AeroHT flying cars clipped during rehearsal. No injuries, but a reality check for eVTOL hype.
→ Read the article

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Opencast is on a major hiring spree, scaling its UK-wide consultancy that builds complex, high-impact digital services for government, health, and enterprise. They run collaborative, low-ego teams, work in modern stacks (Java, AWS, Azure, React, Node), and give people room to grow.

They’re currently hiring through Haystack for:

🔥 Software Developers
🔥 DevOps Engineers
🔥 Data Analysts

and much more…

Check out their full company profile here.

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Other trending employers on Haystack

✅ Aluma - hiring Backend Engineers and Junior Devs

✅ Leonardo - hiring Embedded Engineers, C++ Engineers, Systems Engineers and more

✅ Pixel - hiring iOS developers and Frontend Engineers

✅ Tribe Connect - hiring Android Developers

✅ Bellwade - hiring PHP Developers

P.S. These employers are all actively hiring and responding to applicants via Haystack.

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📈 Career Corner: actionable moves for tech job seekers

Small, targeted steps that compound fast — whether you’re actively interviewing or just staying market-ready.

1. Build a visible side project in public
   Ship a small but complete app or tool in 2–3 weeks. Document every step on GitHub and LinkedIn. Recruiters love seeing end-to-end ownership and clear technical storytelling.

2. Get fluent in vector databases
   AI products live or die on retrieval speed and relevance. Free courses for Pinecone, Weaviate or open-source Milvus can give you a differentiator for data-heavy roles.

3. Practice prompt chaining and evaluation
   Go beyond single prompts. Try LangChain or OpenAI’s new structured outputs to build short, auditable agent flows. Document tests and failure modes in a GitHub repo.

4. Level up observability skills
   Grafana, OpenTelemetry, and distributed tracing are now must-haves for SRE and backend roles. Spend a weekend instrumenting one of your side projects.

5. Audit your online footprint
   Search your name + GitHub + LinkedIn. Tighten old code repos, clean up outdated profiles, and add a short pinned post that explains who you are and what you’re building next.

6. Run a live mock interview with an AI coach
   Use tools like Pramp, Interview Warmup, or ChatGPT voice mode for behavioural drills. Focus on timing, clarity, and trade-off reasoning.

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📣 Hiring Signals: the state of tech hiring now

Five data-backed moves for talent leaders to sharpen hiring strategy.

1. Layoffs + sector shifts = opportunity for selective hiring
   Major layoffs across tech, logistics and manufacturing are creating sudden pools of top talent. Move quickly and offer stability to win quality hires.
   → Forbes

2. AI roles are surging — but soft skills now carry equal weight
   AI/ML job postings are up 184% year-over-year, and 92% of hiring managers rate adaptability and communication on par with coding skill.
   → Motion Recruitment midyear report

3. Uncertainty is the new normal — build agility into hiring plans
   Clients are cautious and permanent hiring is muted. Modular, stage-gated hiring plans (e.g. initial contracts with review points) help balance flexibility and delivery.
   → Bullhorn

4. Hybrid is the new baseline, not full-remote freedom
   Indeed data shows 85% of “hybrid” UK postings now expect at least two office days a week. Adjust job specs and compensation to match this shift.
   → Indeed / UK job posts

5. Algorithmic hiring ≠ automatic fairness
   New research finds “balanced” AI shortlists still reflect human reviewer bias unless models are explicitly tuned for diversity. Don’t assume your AI sourcing is neutral.
   → Algorithmic hiring & bias

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