Tesla is still on the hook for $243 million after a US judge rejected the EV maker’s bid to overturn a jury verdict from last year. On Friday, US District Judge Beth Bloom upheld the jury’s decision to hold Tesla partially responsible for a deadly crash that happened in 2019 and involved the self-driving Autopilot feature.
The judge added that there was enough evidence to support the jury’s verdict, which was delivered in August 2025 and ordered Tesla to pay millions in compensatory and punitive damages to the two victims in the case. Judge Bloom added that Tesla didn’t present any new arguments to dispute the decision.
While the case has been moving along recently, the incident dates back to several years ago when the driver of a Model S, George McGee, was using Tesla’s Autopilot feature while bending down to retrieve a dropped phone. The Model S then crashed into an SUV that was parked on a shoulder, where Naibel Benavides Leon and Dillon Angulo were standing aside. Benavides was killed in the crash, while Angulo was severely injured.
Tesla hasn’t publicly commented on Judge Bloom’s decision yet, but it won’t be a surprise to see the company appeal the latest ruling with a higher court. Tesla’s lawyers previously tried to pin the blame on the driver, claiming that the Model S and Autopilot weren’t defective. As this major case plays out, Tesla is also facing several investigations from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for both its Autopilot and Full-Self Driving features.
US courts have charged three individuals, including two ex-Google employees, regarding the theft of trade secrets in regards to Google’s efforts with Tensor chips in Pixel phones.
In a US court case (USA v. Ghandali, 26-cr-00071), three individuals have been charged with 14 felony counts of conspiracy and theft of trade secrets, as well as destroying evidence. There’s, of course, no word on what in particular was stolen.
The three… were charged in a US indictment unsealed Thursday on 14 felony counts of conspiracy and theft of trade secrets and destroying evidence.
Two of the three – Samaneh Ghandali and her sister, Soroor Ghandali – were formerly Google employees. Samaneh was a hardware engineer at Google while Soroor was an intern. Both went on to work at a different tech company later on. Samaneh’s husband, Mohammadjavad Khosravi, was also charged in the case and worked at yet another tech company, but had applied to work at Google multiple times.
Advertisement – scroll for more content
A Google spokesperson said in a statement:
We have enhanced safeguards to protect our confidential information and immediately alerted law enforcement after discovering this incident. Today’s indictments are an important step towards accountability and we’ll continue working to ensure our trade secrets remain secure.
This certainly isn’t the first time we’ve seen action taken around confidential information with Tensor. An intentional leak of a slide deck in 2024 revealed quite a few details about what would become Tensor G5 and a future Tensor G6 chipset, and Google later sued the leaker.
The consequences of this case, though, may be considerably more, as the three individuals charged could face “at least” 20 years in prison if “convicted on the most serious charges.”
President Donald Trump said Saturday that he was raising the global tariff he wants to impose to 15%, up from 10% he had announced a day earlier.
Trump said in a social media post that he was making the decision “Based on a thorough, detailed, and complete review of the ridiculous, poorly written, and extraordinarily anti-American decision on Tariffs issued yesterday,” by the U.S. Supreme Court.
After the court ruled he didn’t have the emergency power to impose many sweeping tariffs, Trump signed an executive order on Friday night that enabled him to bypass Congress and impose a 10% tax on imports from around the world. The catch is that those tariffs would be limited to just 150 days, unless they are extended legislatively.
Trump’s post significantly ratcheting up a global tax on imports to the U.S. yet again was the latest sign that despite the court’s check, the Republican president was intent on continuing to wield in an unpredictable manner his favorite tool to for the economy and to apply global pressure. Trump’s shifting announcements over the last year that he was raising and sometimes lowering tariffs with little notice jolted markets and rattled nations.
Saturday’s announcement seemed to a be a sign that Trump intends to use the temporary global tariffs to continue to flex.
“During the next short number of months, the Trump Administration will determine and issue the new and legally permissible Tariffs, which will continue our extraordinarily successful process of Making America Great Again,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social media network.
Under the order Trump signed Friday night, the 10% tariff was scheduled to take effect starting Feb. 24. The White House did not immediately respond to a message inquiring when the president would sign an updated order.
In addition to the temporary tariffs that Trump wants to set at 15%, the president said Friday that he was also pursuing tariffs through other sections of federal law which require an investigation by the Commerce Department.
Trump made an unusually personal attack on the Supreme Court judges who ruled against him in a 6-3 vote, including two of those he appointed during his first term, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett. Trump, at a news conference on Friday, said of the two justices: “I think it’s an embarrassment to their families.”
He was still seething Friday night, posting on social media complaining about Gorsuch, Coney Barrett and Chief Justice John Roberts, who ruled with the majority and wrote the majority opinion. On Saturday morning, Trump issued another post declaring that his “new hero” was Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who wrote a 63-page dissent.
He also praised Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, who were in the minority, and said of the three dissenting justices: “There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that they want to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Sarvam, an Indian AI startup focused on building models for local languages and users, on Friday launched its Indus chat app for web and mobile users, entering a fast-growing market dominated by global players including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.
Indus serves as a chat interface for its newly announced Sarvam 105B model, the company’s 105-billion-parameter large language model. The app’s launch comes two days after Bengaluru-based Sarvam unveiled its 105B and 30B models at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi earlier this week. At the summit, the startup also outlined enterprise initiatives and hardware plans and announced partnerships with companies including HMD to bring AI to Nokia feature phones and Bosch for AI-enabled automotive applications.
Currently available in beta on iOS, Android, and the web, the Indus app allows users to type or speak queries and receive responses in text and audio. Users can sign in using their phone number, Google or Microsoft account, or Apple ID, though the service appears to be limited to India for now.
Image Credits:Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch
The app currently comes with some limitations. Users cannot delete their chat history without deleting their account, and there is no option to turn off the app’s reasoning feature, which can sometimes slow response times. Sarvam has also warned that access may be restricted as it gradually expands its compute capacity.
“We’re gradually rolling out Indus on a limited compute capacity, so you may hit a waitlist at first. We will expand access over time,” Sarvam co-founder Pratyush Kumar wrote on X, adding that the company is seeking feedback from users.
Founded in 2023, Sarvam has raised $41 million to date from investors, including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Peak XV Partners, and Khosla Ventures as it builds large language models tailored for India.
Techcrunch event
Boston, MA | June 9, 2026
Sarvam is one of a small but growing group of Indian startups attempting to build domestic alternatives to global artificial intelligence platforms as India seeks greater control over its AI infrastructure.
Samsung’s 2025 was filled with new foldables, an ultra-thin new form factor and the launch of Google’s XR platform. After making some announcements at CES 2026, the company has announced its first Galaxy Unpacked of the year will take place on February 25, where it is expected to introduce the Galaxy S26 lineup. Official invites have been shared, but actual information on what devices are arriving then is still not completely confirmed. But as usual, we know a lot about what’s expected at Unpacked.
Engadget will be covering Galaxy Unpacked live from San Francisco next week, and we’ll most likely have hands-on coverage of Samsung’s new smartphones soon after they’re announced. While we wait for the full details, here’s everything we expect Samsung will introduce at the first Galaxy Unpacked event of 2026.
When is Unpacked 2026 taking place?
According to the official invite that Samsung shared on February 10, Unpacked will happen on February 25, 2026 in San Francisco. The keynote will start at 10AM PT (1PM ET) and be livestreamed on Samsung.com, as well as the company’s newsroom and YouTube channel. The announcement on February 10 also said this launch will mark “a new phase in the era of AI as intelligence becomes truly personal and adaptive.” It’s not a lot to go on, since we’ve heard a version of this from various companies over the last few years, but at least we won’t be shocked when we hear more about AI in just about two weeks.
Galaxy S26, S26+ and S26 Ultra
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra hands-on photo (Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget)
Samsung’s restrained approach to updating its phones will likely continue with the Galaxy S26. Based on leakedimages of the new lineup, the company is not expected to radically reinvent the look of the Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26+ or Galaxy S26 Ultra, and instead will stick with a similar design to what it used on the Galaxy S25. The phones will have a flat front screen and frame, with rounded corners and cameras housed in a vertical pill-shaped plateau on the back. Unlike Apple’s move from the iPhone 16 Pro to the iPhone 17 Pro, the biggest difference here will likely be internal components like the screens, chips and camera sensors Samsung uses.
Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip is expected to be in all Samsung Galaxy S26 phones, though Korean news site Yonhap News reports Samsung’s relatively new Exynos 2600 chip could be used in some phones in the lineup depending on the region, a strategy Samsung has deployed in the past. Either way the new phones should be more performant than the previous generation, and in the case of the models with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, particularly good at on-device AI processing.
One notable difference between the Galaxy S26 and the Galaxy S25 could be the phone’s screen. The new phone will reportedly feature a 6.3-inch FHD+ display according to specs shared by leaker Ice Universe, which makes it ever so slightly larger than the 6.2-inch display used on the Galaxy S25. The S26 will also allegedly come with 12GB of RAM, either 256GB or 512GB of storage and a slightly larger 4,300mAh battery. Samsung isn’t changing the cameras on the entry-level phone, though: leaks suggest it’ll feature the same 50-megapixel main camera, 12-megapixel ultrawide, 10-megapixel 3x telephoto and 12-megapixel selfie camera as the previous generation. Changes appear to be even more minor on the Galaxy S26+. Other than the new Snapdragon chip, the phone will reportedly feature the same 6.7-inch FHD+ screen, 4,900mAh battery, 12GB of RAM and the same camera array used on the base Galaxy S26.
The difference between the Galaxy S26 Ultra and Galaxy S25 Ultra is reportedly a bit clearer. According to Android Headlines, the new phone’s cameras will be slightly more raised, and stand out thanks to a new metallic finish. Samsung may also switch back to using an aluminum frame on the Galaxy S26 Ultra, after using titanium frames on both the Galaxy S24 and S25 Ultras. Most importantly, to make the phone actually support Qi2 rather than only technically work with the standard when a case is attached, rumors suggest Samsung will remove the S Pen digitizer layer in the phone and adopt a new method for accepting stylus input. It’s not clear what that new method will actually be, but it could let the Galaxy S26 Ultra more easily work with Qi2 accessories without losing its stylus.
Android Headlines also recently shared what appear to be full image renders of the S26 series, and they generally line up with what has already been rumored, leaked and reported so far. If these pictures are accurate, they give us a clearer look at the camera bump and two color variants of the S26 Ultra.
Fans of magnets may continue to be disappointed by Samsung if the latest rumors are accurate. Despite the launch of the Qi 2 wireless charging standard adding support for convenient magnetic alignment years ago, Samsung has yet to bring that feature to its phones. Though the S-series have the higher speed charging rates that the spec enables, Nieuwemobiel.nl is reporting that, due to images it received of cases with magnetic rings, the S26 series likely won’t have built-in magnets. Samsung has made these cases to add the magnetic capability to its S-series in the past, and the existence of the images of these accessories lends weight to the idea that the company will continue this approach.
Galaxy Buds 4
Galaxy Buds 3 Pro in case. (Engadget)
Samsung released the Galaxy Buds 3 and 3 Pro in 2024, with a major redesign that brought them much more in line with Apple’s AirPods. The Galaxy Buds 4 and Buds 4 Pro Samsung is rumored to be announcing soon won’t necessarily change that, though they will feature a more compact case and less angular stems, according to leaked images from the Samsung Tips app.
Support for head gestures to accept and decline calls, a feature Apple includes on the AirPods Pro 3 and AirPods 4, is also rumored to work on both versions of the new Galaxy Buds. SamMobile reports the Galaxy Buds 4 and 4 Pro may also ship with a new Ultra Wideband chip that will make them easier to find with Google’s Find Hub network.
Galaxy Z Trifold
Yes, the TriFold has a crease, two in fact. But they still don’t ruin the experience. (Sam Rutherford for Engadget)
Samsung announced the Galaxy Z TriFold in late 2025 without firm details of when the new smartphone-that-folds-into-a-tablet would be available in North America. That info came on January 27, when the company announced the TriFold would be available in the US on January 30, for a whopping $2,900. Considering we’ve already seen the device in person at CES 2026 and people are most likely to have had a chance to look at, if not buy the foldable for themselves by the time Unpacked rolls around, we don’t expect Samsung to spend too much time dwelling on it, if at all.
Galaxy S26 Edge
At just 5.8mm thick, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge is one of the thinnest smartphones ever made. (Sam Rutherford for Engadget)
When the Galaxy S25 Edge was announced in 2025, it seemed possible that Samsung could replace its “Plus” smartphone with a unique form factor, just like Apple has opted to do with the iPhone Air. There have been conflicting reports on the matter, but it seems like Samsung will not be doing that with the Galaxy S26 Edge.
Instead, the smartphone will reportedly remain another option, much like foldables are for customers not swayed by Samsung’s traditional smartphones. The Galaxy S26 Edge is rumored to feature a slightly different design than last year’s model, according to Android Headlines, with a large rectangular camera plateau that’s reminiscent of Google’s Pixel phones, and the raised oval Apple used on the iPhone Air. Beyond that, the phone is also expected to be ever so slightly thinner at 5.5mm than the 5.8mm Galaxy S25 Edge.
Bixby and other AI features
Samsung already acts as a first place Google can show off new AI features for Android, but the company is reportedly exploring other AI partnerships, too. In June 2025, Bloomberg reported that Samsung was nearing a deal with Perplexity to integrate its AI-powered search engine across OneUI and its homegrown mobile browser. Perplexity already has a deal with Motorola on its Razr phones, so the only thing that would make a deal with Samsung unusual is the close relationship the company already has with Google.
The company also accidentally announced a new version of its Bixby AI assistant, which will likely also be integrated with Perplexity and could serve as an alternative to Google Gemini. Both a new Bixby and a deeper integration with Perplexity seem like natural new software features to show off at Galaxy Unpacked.
On February 17, Samsung teased some mobile AI photography features ahead of Unpacked. These expand the S-series’ existing image-editing tools by bringing the ability “to turn a photo from day to night in seconds, restore missing parts of objects in images, capture detailed photos in low light, and seamlessly merge multiple photos into a single, cohesive result.” A lot of these things are already possible in other photo-editing apps or even in the Google Photos app, but we’ll have to wait to see them in action on the S26 phones for more details on whether they’re different or more effective.
Update, January 27 2026, 11:55AM ET: This story has been updated to reflect the latest news around the Galaxy Z TriFold’s price and availability in the US.
Update, January 30 2026, 12:45PM ET: This story has been updated to include the latest leaks on the possible dates for Unpacked 2026.
Update, February 02 2026, 11:30AM ET: This story has been updated to include the latest leaks with full image renders of the S26 trio of devices.
Update, February 03 2026, 11:00AM ET: This story has been updated to include the latest leaks about the possible lack of magnetic support on the S26 series.
Update, February 10 2026, 7:15PM ET: This story has been updated to include the official date of Galaxy Unpacked as Samsung announced it today. The intro was also edited to reflect that detail.
Update, February 17 2026, 4:55PM ET: This story has been updated to add Samsung’s teaser about its upcoming mobile AI photography tools. The intro was also edited for timeliness.
Google is getting rid of Android’s de facto Weather app in favor of Search results. This deprecation slowly started a few months ago, but is now picking up steam.
The Google app has long offered a fullscreen “Weather” experience that’s launched from a homescreen shortcut: sun and cloud badged by the ‘G’ icon.
Tapping takes you to a single feed with a search bar that lets you switch between saved cities. A Froggy background appears first with the current temperature, high/low, condition, and feels like.
Next is the Hourly forecast carousel and 10-day forecast that can be tapped for more details. Current conditions has cards for Wind, Humidity, UV Index, Pressure, and Sunrise & sunset. Precipitation, Wind, and Humidity graphs appear in Hour details.
Advertisement – scroll for more content
Old
In recent months, users tapping the Weather homescreen shortcut have instead been taken to a Google Search results page for “weather.”
Your home screen shortcut now leads to Google Search
This page was recently redesigned with the Froggy card pulling double duty for current conditions and hourly forecast. This is joined by a 10-day forecast carousel that you can tap on, as well as drop-downs for Precipitation, Wind, Humidity, and Air quality (which is new).
Google also makes use of AI Overviews to provide a summary of current weather conditions.
New
Those who received “The weather page has moved” notification no longer have a “View all details” button at the bottom that opens the fullscreen Weather experience. Scrolling down on this new experience shows web results.
Over the past few days, more and more of our devices have been migrated to this new experience, with the old Weather app no longer accessible. However, this has not fully rolled out yet.
Google presumably no longer wants to maintain two experiences and has picked Search to be its weather app.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.More.
Are you tonight’s lucky winner? Grab your tickets and check your numbers. The Mega Millions lottery jackpot continues to rise after someone won the $90 million prize on December 2.
Here are the winning numbers in Friday’s drawing:
15-40-48-58-63; Mega Ball: 2
The estimated jackpot for the drawing is $416 million. The cash option is about $193.1 million. If no one wins, the jackpot climbs higher for the next drawing.
According to the game’s official website, the odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350.
Players pick six numbers from two separate pools of numbers — five different numbers from 1 to 70 and one number from 1 to 25 — or select Easy Pick. A player wins the jackpot by matching all six winning numbers in a drawing.
Jackpot winners may choose whether to receive 30 annual payments, each five percent higher than the last, or a lump-sum payment.
Mega Millions drawings are Tuesdays and Fridays and are offered in 45 states, Washington D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Tickets cost $5 each.
If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
His KCRW show in which he interviewed authors was nationally syndicated until 2022. He was 73.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
When you start a book, you should read the first hundred pages in one sitting. That was one of Michael Silverblatt’s reading rules. For more than 30 years, he interviewed authors on his syndicated KCRW show Bookworm – Kurt Vonnegut, Toni Morrison, Joan Didion, many more. Silverblatt died this week. He was 73. NPR’s Andrew Limbong has our appreciation.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ANDREW LIMBONG, BYLINE: It’s 1996, and an author named David Foster Wallace has just published a wiry, ambitious tome of a novel titled “Infinite Jest.” He’s on Bookworm to talk about it, and here’s Michael Silverblatt’s first question.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
MICHAEL SILVERBLATT: Something came into my head that may be entirely imaginary, which seemed to be that the book was written in fractals.
DAVID FOSTER WALLACE: Expand on that.
SILVERBLATT: It occurred to me that the way in which…
LIMBONG: There’s no wind up trying to make the characters relatable to a general audience or hitting on some of the more universal themes of the book. We’re one minute into the interview – including that old and timey music intro – and it’s straight to business, talking about the form and the craft of writing with Silverblatt comparing the book to a repeating geometric pattern.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
SILVERBLATT: And I don’t know this kind of science, but it just – I said to myself, this must be fractals.
WALLACE: It’s – I’ve heard you are an acute reader. That’s one of the things structurally that’s going on. It’s actually structured like something called the Sierpinski gasket.
CONNIE ALVAREZ: He knew an author’s work.
LIMBONG: Connie Alvarez was a producer on the show for eight years. She said writers on the show respected that he not only read their latest book, but their first book and the books in between, and he read them deeply.
ALVAREZ: Here’s the thing about him. He didn’t write anything down (laughter). He just had this memory where he would say, on Page 83 of the previous – you know, your novel X-Y-Z, you said this. And then over here, in this current novel, you allude to it by this or that. And it was just amazing to see how he put all the pieces together without any notes.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
SILVERBLATT: There is, in the world of your books, some kind of intrinsic goodness.
LIMBONG: This is from Silverblatt’s interview with Ann Patchett in 2016 after she published her novel “Commonwealth.”
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
SILVERBLATT: There are threats from outside, always. That’s what makes a novel. But I was very happy to be shown yet again how people can save themselves.
ANN PATCHETT: I think that’s very true, and it’s one of the real benefits of…
LIMBONG: Silverblatt started the show in 1989, and it ran until he retired in 2022 for health reasons stemming from his diabetes. In those 30-plus years, he got raw and honest interviews out of authors, a lot of whom, under most circumstances, would be hard interviews. He told the “LA Review Of Books” podcast in 2015 how he got the most out of authors.
(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, “LA REVIEW OF BOOKS”)
SILVERBLATT: I don’t break my gaze when I’m talking to a writer. I learned that trick, and it is a trick from Joan Didion.
LIMBONG: It was something she learned interviewing Squeaky Fromme, one of Charles Manson’s most famous followers.
(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, “LA REVIEW OF BOOKS”)
SILVERBLATT: And it works better on novelists even than on girl members of gangs.
LIMBONG: Michael Silverblatt lived a book lover’s dream. And by that, I don’t mean he got to read and interview writers every day. I mean he had two apartments – one to live in, and another for his books.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
The creator economy is evolving fast, and ad revenue alone isn’t cutting it anymore. YouTubers are launching product lines, acquiring startups, and building actual business empires. In fact, MrBeast’s company bought fintech startup Step, and his chocolate business is outearning his media arm. This isn’t just one creator’s strategy. For many, it’s the new playbook.
On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Rebecca Bellan unpack how creators are diversifying beyond ads, whether their model can scale beyond the top 1%, everything happing at India’s AI Impact Summit, and more of the week’s headlines.
Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, is retiring, Satya Nadella has announced. Asha Sharma, the President of Microsoft’s CoreAI division is taking over Spencer’s role, while Sarah Bond, the current President of Xbox, is resigning.
“I am long on gaming and its role at the center of our consumer ambition, and as we look ahead, I’m excited to share that Asha Sharma will become Executive Vice President and CEO, Microsoft Gaming, reporting to me,” Nadella says. “Over the last two years at Microsoft, and previously as Chief Operating Officer at Instacart and a Vice President at Meta, Asha has helped build and scale services that reach billions of people and support thriving consumer and developer ecosystems. She brings deep experience building and growing platforms, aligning business models to long-term value, and operating at global scale, which will be critical in leading our gaming business into its next era of growth.”
In a thread on X, Spencer shared his thoughts on Sharma’s new position. “I’m excited for [Asha Sharma] as she steps into the CEO role,” Spencer wrote. “She’s joining an incredible group of people; teams full of talent, heart, and a deep commitment to the players they serve. Watching her lean in with curiosity and a real desire to strengthen the foundation we’ve built gives me confidence that our Xbox communities will be well supported in the years ahead.”
Alongside Sharma, Matt Booty, the current head of Xbox Game Studios, is getting promoted to Chief Content Officer, and will report to Sharma. Sarah Bond, who like Spencer served as a public face for the Xbox brand and was assumed to be his successor, is leaving Microsoft to “begin a new chapter.” Bond has yet to make a public statement about her resignation.
Spencer joined Microsoft in 1988, and has worked on Xbox since at least 2001. He assumed responsibility for Microsoft’s gaming brand and its various studios and associated subscription products in 2013, before becoming an Executive VP of Gaming in 2017 and later CEO of Microsoft Gaming in 2022. Spencer’s biggest impact on Xbox will likely be remembered as the creation of Game Pass, Microsoft’s “Netflix for Games” and the wave of studio acquisitions Microsoft completed from 2018 to 2022, which included smaller studios like Double Fine and the massive $68.7 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard King.
While Microsoft has plenty of developers and IP to fall back on, it’s struggled to compete with the likes of Sony and Nintendo during the current console generation. Microsoft’s gaming division has gone through widespread layoffs, its revenue continued to fall throughout 2025 and it raised the prices of both its consoles and Game Pass Ultimate, which likely won’t help things going forward. Sharma is in many ways inheriting a broken-down car.
As far as her plans go, Sharma’s email to staff that was included in Nadella’s announcement is light on details. Sharma says she plans to continue developing “great games,” wants to “recommit” to core Xbox fans and “invent new business models and new ways to play.” Whether that’s enough to turn Xbox’s fortunes around remains to be seen.
Update, February 20, 4:52PM ET: Added statement from Phil Spencer shared on X.
