A Microsoft executive said the company’s broad voluntary separation plan is not intended to cut 60,000 jobs. According to Sina Finance, citing IT Home and Business Insider, Microsoft’s CFO Amy Hood said in an internal memo that the plan gives employees who want to leave the choice to decide how to do so, and that only a “very small number” were expected to accept. Microsoft later said no more than 3,000 employees, or 5% or less of those eligible, were expected to take the offer. Earlier this year, about one-third of employees accepted a voluntary retirement plan based on age and tenure. Microsoft later conducted layoffs, and some employees who had declined the retirement offer were dismissed. In response to concerns about further cuts, the company said future staffing would depend on business needs and priorities. Executives said the new plan differs from the earlier one: some departing employees’ roles may be filled by new hires rather than eliminated. Charles Lamanna, who oversees AI, Office and Word, made employees across his departments eligible to apply, with plans to hire for key vacancies. In Microsoft’s Cloud and AI division, the Azure hardware systems and infrastructure team and the cloud operations and innovation team did not participate. Most other teams offered eligibility, and some roles could be refilled. An executive said replacing senior employees with less-experienced hires could reduce labor costs, but a Microsoft spokesperson said this was not the company’s official position. An anonymous executive also said the plan may address complaints from employees who were ineligible for the earlier offer, and that Microsoft did not intend to cut 60,000 workers or replace everyone with AI. The U.S. government recently suspended Microsoft’s eligibility for a federal employer sponsorship program that allows companies to sponsor foreign employees seeking U.S. permanent residency. The White House accused Microsoft of laying off U.S. employees while hiring lower-paid foreign workers; Microsoft denied the allegation.

A series of large, unusual wagers on US horse races placed in London saddled some of the city’s betting parlors with hefty losses, and the betting coup remains unsolved, according to Bloomberg. Lisa Lazarus, the top cop in US horse racing, received calls and emails this summer from UK regulators seeking help after the wagers were placed the previous day.

Venture capital, artificial intelligence, financing, anonymous interviews with frontline investors and entrepreneurs: Who is forcing whom to chase consensus? Golden Finance: No one genuinely enjoys chasing consensus, yet most people are doing it.

Ansem said crypto markets may already have peaked ahead of U.S. stocks in this cycle. According to ChainCatcher, he said that if the recent rebound is countertrend and U.S. stocks are beginning a broader correction, crypto could face another decline. Ansem noted that risk appetite in this cycle has been driven largely by AI and the performance of U.S. stocks, making it worth considering whether crypto and traditional markets peaked at different times. He said he was not certain this scenario would unfold and would remain open-minded, watching how both asset classes respond near key price levels. He added that even if crypto and U.S. stocks continue to fall in the short term, Bitcoin could bottom before the broader stock market.

BTC, Wall Street, Satoshi Nakamoto, Bloomberg: 18th Anniversary of the Bitcoin White Paper – Has it Truly Matured After Being Accepted by Wall Street? Golden Finance: Bitcoin is Entering Adulthood. At least in terms of age, it certainly is.

On Oct 31, 2026, 07:40 AM(UTC). According to Binance Market Data, BNB has dropped below 700 USDT and is now trading at 699.890015 USDT, with a narrowed 1.42% decrease in 24 hours.

Confidence supports financing, and financing supports investment; once confidence weakens, the contraction of funds will in turn dampen investment and growth expectations.

Africa, Stablecoins, Crypto Market, Chainalysis Report: Sub-Saharan Africa Becomes the Fastest Growing Crypto Region Globally. Golden Finance reports that the sub-Saharan African crypto market has surpassed $100 billion, with South Africa leading the way.

The shareholder-return ratio at five U.S. tech giants has fallen to a 15-year low amid AI spending, while their buybacks have been cut by 83%. According to Sina Finance, citing Reuters, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Oracle devoted 9.3% of cash generated by their businesses to dividends and buybacks in the first three quarters of this year, down from 27.4% a year earlier; operating cash flow rose 29% to a record $542.9 billion. Their capital expenditures doubled to $556.9 billion, exceeding the cash flow the companies had generated since data became available in 2011. Their combined free cash flow swung to a $14 billion deficit from a $143.5 billion surplus a year earlier. Buybacks fell to $13.6 billion from $81.8 billion a year earlier. Alphabet and Meta have made no buybacks so far in 2026, after repurchasing $66.5 billion of shares in the first nine months of last year. Amazon pays no dividend and has not repurchased shares since 2022. Microsoft accounted for nearly all of the five companies’ remaining buybacks, cutting repurchases in its September quarter to $4.4 billion from $5.7 billion a year earlier. Amazon’s third-quarter capital expenditure was $75.9 billion, nearly 80% more than the $42.4 billion it generated from operations, and it raised $48.1 billion in long-term debt during the quarter. Alphabet also had negative free cash flow and raised about $12.4 billion through share sales and $29 billion through debt issuance. Ellen Stanhope, co-head of investment management at Franklin Templeton, said companies had increasingly returned surplus capital to shareholders through buybacks and dividends over the past 15 years. She said the current trend may involve increasing equity and debt issuance as a way to seek funds from investors.

ICE's official account has deleted a post about its partnership with Trade.xyz but still retains a repost of Trade.xyz promotional content. According to Odaily, the companies plan to launch perpetual futures products on Hyperliquid for regulated U.S. markets, subject to regulatory approval. The markets would have separate clearing, customer identity verification and anti-money laundering systems, and the products would be linked to stock indexes, commodities and currency prices.

Elon Musk, Changpeng Zhao, Binance; Musk seemingly subtly criticizes Binance; Binance hack alarms Trump; Intel stock price plummets; former Intel engineer posts article; Jinse Finance: What have KOLs on X been talking about in the past 24 hours?

Jinse Finance launches its daily cryptocurrency and blockchain news bulletin, "Jinse at 8 AM," issue 3228, providing you with the latest and fastest news on the digital currency and blockchain industry.

Anthropic has filed for an IPO, with an expected valuation of $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion. Looking at the revenue and gross margin in the prospectus, is a large-scale model company a good business?

SlowMist Security Team Recapsulates the $783,000 ZKLink Theft: Arbitrator's arbitrary external calls superimposed on uncleaned transient storage, allowing attackers to exploit multiple vulnerabilities.

Jinse Finance launches the "Jinse Web3.0 Daily," providing you with the latest and fastest news on AI, DeFi, DAO, NFT, and the metaverse industry.

Buying a 5-year default insurance policy on $1 million of Oracle debt costs $31,500 a year; CoreWeave costs $114,500. The credit alarm bells for AI are ringing.