What's up: Tech’s trillion-dollar bet on AI goes global; rare-earth companies are having their day; Australia sues Microsoft over AI pricing

Good morning. AI is already encouraging companies to limit job growth. Recent company actions and statements to that effect are mounting, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing positions taken by JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Walmart and Airbnb. The scale of investment going into AI is pushing companies to be highly selective when it comes to hiring, even if the overall impact of AI on work is still on the horizon.

“The desire to avoid hiring or filling jobs reflects a growing push among executives to see a return on their AI spending,” the WSJ reports. “On earnings calls, mentions of ROI and AI investments are increasing, according to an analysis by AlphaSense, reflecting heightened interest from analysts and investors that companies make good on the millions they are pouring into AI.

Many executives hope that software coding assistants and armies of digital agents will keep improving—even if the current results still at times leave something to be desired.”

Such caution is frustrating job seekers and leaving those who have a job to feel stuck, the WSJ says. Has AI investment compelled your company to change its approach to creating or filling jobs? Let us know.

Starting today, Nvidia will hold its first GTC event in Washington. It’s a sign of the times as the tech company and rival AMD agreed in August to give the federal government a 15% cut of AI chip sales to China. “The Trump administration will receive 15% of the sales as part of a deal to approve exports of Nvidia’s H20 AI chip to China,” the WSJ reported at the time. AMD struck a similar deal.

The WSJ Leadership Institute will be there, eager to see how the export policy works, given intense debates over whether cutting China off from U.S. advanced technology would stunt its development or simply encourage it to compete even more intensely. We’re also curious to see how CEO Jensen Huang manages the company’s closer ties with the federal government.

Regulations requiring tech companies to process local data domestically has made some less-wealthy nations beneficiaries of the AI boom, as Big Tech pours billions into AI infrastructure and talent development, WSJ reports. 

Google recently committed $15 billion over five years to build an AI center in India. Amazon Web Services is investing $5 billion to increase infrastructure in Thailand.

Data centers in Indonesia earned $374 million in revenue last year, said research firm Mordor Intelligence, a figure estimated to sextuple by 2030.

AI is lifting companies in Europe too...

European tech companies, led by semiconductor equipment manufacturer ASML, are beating expectations in the third quarter, thanks to demands linked to AI. Bloomberg reports that the MSCI Europe Technology index has recorded earnings-per-share growth of 16% for the third quarter, above pre-season expectations of 4.2% growth.

Amazon Web Services said it would invest more than $1.63 billion in the Netherlands over the next three years to bolster its cloud-computing and retail businesses in the country, the latest commitment from the tech giant to expand its offering in Europe, WSJ reports.

And in Saudi Arabia...

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is betting on a massive data center expansion that, according to The New York Times, could enable the kingdom to handle about 6 percent of the world’s A.I. workload, up from less than 1 percent today.

China’s shock tactics around limiting access to certain minerals critical in high-tech manufacturing, have catalyzed a revival of the Western rare-earth industry, much as U.S. efforts to restrict advanced semiconductor exports to China have turbocharged Chinese efforts to catch up with the U.S. in chips, WSJ reports.

In recent days, Orion Resource Partners, an investment firm specializing in metals, announced a $1.8 billion investment consortium to secure critical minerals for the U.S. and its allies. Earlier last week, President Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed an agreement to fund critical-mineral and rare-earth projects.

Australia’s consumer watchdog is suing Microsoft, alleging the U.S. tech giant didn’t clearly tell existing Microsoft 365 subscribers how to opt out of paying for Copilot AI tools when their annual plans renewed, WSJ reports. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission on Monday said the lack of pricing clarity violates Australian consumer law.

AI chatbots are 50% more sycophantic than humans according to a new analysis, a level of flattery sure to draw customers, but risky in areas of biology and medicine," where wrong assumptions can have real costs,” one study participant tells Nature.

President Javier Milei scored a decisive political win Sunday, strengthening his position in Argentina’s Congress and securing a lifeline for his audacious free-market revolution backed by President Trump. (WSJ)

Stock futures and Asian equities rallied after U.S. and Chinese negotiators touted constructive trade talks ahead of a leaders' summit later this week. (WSJ)

Some 1,300 Afghans are in limbo at an American camp in Qatar, unable to continue to the U.S. but in danger if they go back home. (WSJ)

French police have made their first arrests in connection to the heist at the Louvre Museum, according to prosecutors, including one man who was intercepted before he could board a flight to flee France. (WSJ)

The WSJ CIO Journal Team is Steven Rosenbush, Isabelle Bousquette and Belle Lin.

The editor, Tom Loftus, can be reached at thomas.loftus@wsj.com.