SoftBank’s $5B robot move + xAI’s $20B chip play 🤖
PLUS: Robots, chips, and ChatGPT everywhere. Plus: the latest tech hiring signals and why Leidos is one to watch.
Hey there,
Big moves this week — from SoftBank’s $5B robotics bet to Musk’s $20B chip grab. OpenAI keeps expanding, Square adds an AI voice twist, and defence tech takes the spotlight with Leidos. Scroll for quick hits, dev news, hiring signals, and fresh reads from across the tech world.
📰 Quick Hits
SoftBank drops $5.4B on ABB Robotics
SoftBank just acquired ABB’s robotics arm to double down on humanoid and industrial AI systems. It’s another bet that physical automation is the next trillion-dollar AI frontier.Musk’s xAI eyes a $20B raise
Fresh Bloomberg reports say xAI is closing in on a monster round, tightly linked to Nvidia’s next-gen silicon supply. The chip arms race isn’t slowing down anytime soon.OpenAI’s ChatGPT Go expands across Asia
The affordable ChatGPT tier is now live in 16 new countries, signalling OpenAI’s push to capture early-stage AI adoption globally - especially among mobile-first users.Base Power raises $1B for home batteries
Energy tech is heating up again. Base Power wants to make residential battery storage as mainstream as solar - with a $1B fundraise to back it.
🌐 Spotlight Company – Leidos
Leidos builds and runs mission-critical systems across national security, defence, and government — think secure-by-design platforms, data analytics, and cloud at serious scale. With 1,200+ people in the UK, they’re behind everything from MOD digital supply chains to next-gen air traffic systems.
Why employees enjoy Leidos:
Real-world impact in high-trust environments
Modern stacks with SC/DV clearance pathways
Work that blends cyber, cloud, and systems architecture
Trending roles at Leidos (UK):
🔥 Systems Test Engineer (Environments support)
And much more! Check out Leidos’ profile HERE.
Other trending roles on Haystack
✅ BP Energy- hiring Project Managers, Site Reliability Engineers and more
✅ Expedia - hiring Backend Software Engineers
✅ Softcat - Tech Internship (2026 Placement Opportunity for Graduates)
✅ Opencast - hiring Quality Assurance, Software Developers, DevOps Engineers, Data Analysts and more
✅ Boston Consulting Group - hiring AI Engineers, Principle Engineers, AI Software/Platform Engineers
P.S. These employers are all actively hiring.
📈 Job Market Signals
UK employers cut graduate hiring for second year in a row (FT / ISE survey)
Graduate recruitment in the UK fell ~8% last year, expected down ~7% this year, increasingly competitive for new grads.Fintech and AI drive London job vacancy growth
Although general hiring may be softening, fintech / AI roles in London are bucking the trend with ~9% YoY vacancy growth.Getting a job becomes harder with fewer vacancies - official ONS figures
ONS figures show job vacancies dropped for the sixth quarter in a row, signalling a tougher climate for candidates and slower hiring pace for employers.
While demand for niche tech roles remains resilient, most sectors are seeing longer decision cycles and tighter budgets — expect more selective, value-driven hiring through the end of 2025.
🔗 What we’re reading atm
Waymo plans fully autonomous taxi service launch in London (2026)
UK Digital Markets Regulator to monitor Google Search more closely
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🧠 Built by the team at Haystack – where UK tech talent discovers what’s next.