Tech 24 - July 31, 2026

Products & Infra • Yesterday

Amazon's first $200 billion quarter, powered by the cloud

Amazon just booked its biggest quarter ever. Sales hit $200.6 billion, up 20%, the first time the company has crossed $200 billion in three months.

The engine is AWS. Cloud revenue rose 37% to $42.2 billion, its fastest growth in 18 quarters. AWS operating income jumped to $16.6 billion at a 39% margin. Total operating income rose 43%.

Demand is the story. AWS now sits on $496 billion in signed work not yet delivered. Companies are locking in AI compute years out, and Amazon is the one taking the orders.

Consumer • Yesterday

Apple sets a June record as the iPhone roars back

Apple had its best June quarter ever. Revenue reached $109.4 billion, up 16% from a year ago and ahead of Wall Street. Earnings per share rose 29% to $2.02.

The iPhone did the heavy lifting, with sales up about 22% to $54.25 billion. Services set a record too, at $30.7 billion. Apple has looked slow in AI. This quarter says the core business is anything but slow.

Artificial Intelligence • Yesterday

Europe opens a $30 billion bid for its own AI hubs

Europe wants its own AI compute. The EU opened bids for up to seven AI gigafactories. Brussels is putting in 10 billion euros, about $11.4 billion, and expects private money to roughly double that, for more than 30 billion euros total. Each site would host tens of thousands of AI chips.

Bids close November 12. Winners get picked by early 2027, with sites live within 18 months of signing. Europe watched the US and China build the compute. Now it is paying to catch up.

Robotics • Yesterday

DoorDash gets its wings

DoorDash is flying now. The company launched DoorDash Air, its own drone delivery service. It cleared the hard part first: an FAA Part 135 certification to run commercial drone flights. That puts DoorDash in a small club with Alphabet's Wing and Amazon's Prime Air.

The pitch is speed on small orders. Cold medicine, a hot coffee, a meal to a nurse after a long shift. DoorDash built the system in-house through its robotics lab. Fewer drivers per order means lower costs, and that is the point.

Robotics • Yesterday

Waymo is back on the highway

Waymo's robotaxis are driving freeways again. The company restarted highway trips in Phoenix after a two-month pause. It stopped in the spring to improve how the cars handle fast roads. Freeways are the hardest test for self-driving. Higher speeds leave less room to react.

Getting back on them matters for the business. Highway routes are faster and cover more ground per trip. That makes each ride cheaper to run. Robotaxis only pay off when they go where people actually need to go.

Consumer • Yesterday

Reddit's sales are soaring, its US growth stalled

Reddit is printing money and losing momentum at the same time. Revenue rose 61% to $805 million, the eighth straight quarter above 60% growth. Net income nearly tripled to $253 million.

The catch is users. Daily uniques grew 18% worldwide, but US daily users rose just 6%. That flat home market spooked investors, and the stock fell more than 9% after hours. Reddit is squeezing more from each user. Wall Street wants the crowd to keep growing too.

Robotics • Yesterday

Watch a robot use its whole body

Google DeepMind showed off Gemini Robotics 2, and the demo is worth two minutes. A humanoid walks, crouches, and cleans a messy room on its own. The old model moved arms and hands. This one runs the entire body, feet to fingertips.

It hit a 92% success rate unscrewing a light bulb, a task that needs balance and touch at once. Three models ship together, including one that runs on the robot itself. Watch the footage and decide how close home robots really are.