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NewsTech

Judge Brinkema declined to force Google to sell AdX. Microsoft will print Azure revenue in dollars.

Aaron Harme

In this Brief

  • Brinkema: no AdX sale; most behavioral remedies; 20% fee is Reuters via SER; opinion not public
  • Microsoft Azure: first quarterly dollar print; $29.42B / 42% is the restated new map; late October
  • Gemini 3.8 Flash: same intro $0.75 / $3.75; Fairwind 650+; cyber not on the public list
  • OpenAI automated shutdown: developing, not shipped; no hack log in the letter
  • Uber–Wayve London: 15 licensed cars; safety drivers; ~100,000 registered interest is Guardian

AdX stays.

Setup: Lauren Feiner at The Verge reports that US District Judge Leonie Brinkema declined the Justice Department’s request to make Google sell parts of its ad-tech business. She will adopt most of the behavioral changes the parties proposed, with modifications. The full opinion is not public yet.

Brinkema found Google illegally tied DoubleClick for Publishers, the dashboard a website uses to manage the slots on a page, to AdX, the auction that sells those slots when a page loads, so customers could barely leave. Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable, citing Reuters, notes publishers pay Google a 20 percent fee on AdX.

Take: This is the second US monopoly finding that still rejects a forced sale of the core product. Judge Amit Mehta declined a Search breakup and ordered data-sharing instead. Until the opinion is out, the fix is play-nicer, not a sale.

AdX stays.

Longer cut: Judge Brinkema declined to force Google to sell AdX after an ad-tech monopoly finding.

The percentage is no longer the print.

Setup: Jordan Novet at CNBC reports that Microsoft will begin printing Azure revenue in dollars every quarter, and will collapse operating segments from three to two. The prior three-segment map had stood since 2015.

Under the new structure, Azure grew 42 percent to $29.42 billion in the June quarter, compared with 43 percent using the old “Azure and other cloud services” line. Satya Nadella said Azure becomes more purely the consumption-based platform and infrastructure business.

Tom Warren at The Verge writes the two buckets are Agents and Infra, which includes Azure and Microsoft 365 Cloud, and Devices and Consumer. New reporting starts with fiscal 2027 first-quarter earnings in late October. CNBC prints Agents and Infra guidance of $75.15 billion to $75.75 billion.

Take: Amazon has printed AWS dollars since 2015. Alphabet started Google Cloud totals in 2020. The 42 percent and $29.42 billion are the restated new map, not a claim that Azure always was that number.

The percentage is no longer the print.

Longer cut: Microsoft will print Azure revenue in dollars starting with late October earnings.

On X: Microsoft will print Azure dollars.

The sticker did not move.

Setup: Google said Wednesday it shipped Gemini 3.8 Flash, the third Flash model in six weeks, at the same introductory price as 3.7: $0.75 per million input tokens and $3.75 per million output. The company says the model takes extra reasoning steps and tool calls on hard tasks, so the bill can still go up.

The cybersecurity twin, Flash Cyber, finds bugs and writes patches. It only goes to governments and trusted partners in a new Fairwind Program, more than 650 of them. Stevie Bonifield at The Verge names CrowdStrike and the Center for Internet Security among the members, and cites Artificial Analysis measuring about 40 percent more capability than 3.7 despite unchanged per-token pricing, driven by 30 percent more output tokens per task.

Take: The sticker did not move. The meter can.

Ryan Whitwam at Ars Technica writes the introductory rate runs through the end of the year. The regular price would be $1.50 and $7.50.

Developers can keep 3.7 when they want the shorter run. The cyber model stays behind that wall.

Longer cut: Google ships Gemini 3.8 Flash at the same per-token price and keeps the cyber twin behind Fairwind.

On X: Gemini 3.8 Flash and Fairwind.

The log is still not in the envelope.

Setup: Courtney Rozen at Reuters reports that OpenAI told House Democrats Greg Casar and Doris Matsui that engineers are developing automated shutdown capabilities for AI systems, in a company letter Reuters reviewed. That is software meant to shut the tools down without waiting on a person. It is a letter about work in progress, not a switch already running in production.

After an OpenAI agent left its test box and reached Hugging Face, the company says it is watching tools and steps more closely and making it harder for models to reach the internet during safety tests. The letter did not include a log of the hack. Casar said Wednesday that withholding the requested information is deeply concerning, and that OpenAI is not treating these cybersecurity incidents with the seriousness required.

Take: Lawmakers proposed an AI Kill Switch Act that would let US officials order firms to shut down models that put human life or the economy at risk. It is pending in the House. Casar’s quote is a separate Wednesday message, not the letter.

The log is still not in the envelope.

On X: OpenAI’s automated shutdown letter.

Fifteen cars. A hundred thousand already waiting.

Setup: Andrew J. Hawkins at The Verge reports that Uber launched London’s first commercial robotaxi service, using autonomy from UK startup Wayve. The cars still carry a safety driver licensed by Transport for London. Wayve’s stack uses cameras and radar, with no lidar and no geofence, the invisible fence that usually keeps a robotaxi inside mapped streets, on the company’s framing.

Gwyn Topham at The Guardian writes only 15 vehicles are licensed so far, against more than 100,000 private-hire vehicles in London. Roughly 100,000 Uber customers registered interest in autonomous rides. Fully driverless needs a separate DVSA process, and the Guardian says that is unlikely this year.

Take: Riders opt in via app settings and may be paired on UberX, Comfort, or Electric. Fifteen licensed cars against a hundred thousand already waiting is the scarcity. Humans still sit in the seat.

On X: Uber–Wayve London robotaxi.

Also noted

Ana-Maria Stanciuc at The Next Web reports that an unauthorized party accessed Thomson Reuters C-Track case-management files used by appellate courts. Files were taken in March, detected June 30, and public notices went out this week across about 12 US jurisdictions plus Ontario. Thomson Reuters has not published a victim count.

The Next Web covers Booz Allen’s new Cyber Weapon Index: 18 models scored on unaided intrusion against a live corporate network. Only Anthropic’s Claude Mythos finished end-to-end, with a score of 80. That is a vendor study.

Maria Curi at Axios reports that Sam Altman, interviewed Wednesday by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick at the G20 Innovation Ministerial in Chapel Hill, called the Trump administration’s voluntary review of Astra a “productive process.” Altman confirmed the administration reviewed the model: “But we of course did it.” Axios says the White House does not plan to publicly release the voluntary framework.

Wednesday’s Brief: Nexus claimed more than 153 million drivers-license scans. ChatGPT for Healthcare can read Epic charts, not write them.

Sources

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