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In May, tech layoffs reached their highest single-month total in years, with AI being the most-cited cause. Yet, engineering positions have proven more resilient: hiring for these roles dropped just 11% compared to pre-pandemic levels (2019), while overall tech hiring declined by 25%. Engineers now make up 55% of new hires across major tech companies in 2025, a significant jump from their 46% share in 2019. Early-stage startups have also increased engineering headcount by 7%, showing the continued demand for software developers despite industry-wide layoffs.
Top Google researchers are leaving for Anthropic and OpenAI, including those pivotal to Gemini's development. This exodus signals a shift in AI talent dynamics as companies prepare for public listings. The departure of DeepMind’s director adds fuel to the fire, highlighting the intense competition for top-tier AI expertise. Researchers like the one who left after 20 years at Google are now eyeing equity-rich opportunities elsewhere. Let's dive deeper…
In today's ContentBuffer update:
8 Texas activists sentenced to up to 100 years for alleged Antifa ties
Microsoft's New Budget Surfaces: $849 for Pro, $949 for Laptop
AI chip shortage boosts Micron’s revenue to $41.45B
Passkeys: The Gold Standard Many Apps Ignore
5 new AI tools & 5 new AI jobs
More tech news
Latest Development
Job-market-trends
Image source: techcrunch.com
Summary: Tech layoffs hit record highs in May, with AI taking the blame. But engineering roles are bucking the trend, growing faster than other functions.
Key Points:
May saw a record high of tech layoffs, with AI cited as the top reason for cuts
Engineering hiring dropped just 11% from pre-pandemic levels (2019), compared to a 25% decline in overall tech hiring
Engineers now make up 55% of new hires across major tech companies in 2025, up from 46% in 2019
Early-stage startups increased engineering headcount by 7% since 2019, showing continued demand for software developers
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang argues that AI is making engineers busier rather than redundant
Why it matters: Despite widespread layoffs in tech, engineering roles remain resilient. Engineers now make up a larger share of new hires across major companies and startups alike. This trend suggests that while AI may be disrupting other areas, it's actually boosting demand for skilled software developers.
Talent-migration
Image source: techcrunch.com
Summary: Google's AI brain drain intensifies as key researchers jump ship to Anthropic and OpenAI. This trend could reshape the talent market in 2024.
Key Points:
Top Google researchers, including those behind Gemini, are leaving for Anthropic and OpenAI.
DeepMind’s director is among the latest departures, joining Anthropic after winning a Nobel Prize.
Google's brain drain includes a researcher who spent 20 years at the company before switching to OpenAI.
Anthropic and OpenAI are gearing up for public listings, attracting talent with promises of equity.
The AI talent market is heating up as companies compete for top researchers.
Why it matters: If you're a developer or researcher in AI, this shift could impact your career trajectory. Companies like Anthropic and OpenAI are aggressively recruiting, offering significant equity stakes to lure top talent away from established players like Google.
Cybersecurity
Image source: platform.theverge.com
Summary: Eight Texas activists were sentenced to up to 100 years in prison for alleged Antifa ties, setting a harsh legal precedent for protest-related charges. The sentences include attempted murder and providing material support to terrorists over zines and rioting.
Key Points:
One defendant received 100-year sentence including attempted murder and firearm discharge during violent crime
Two activists sentenced to 50 years each for rioting and material support to terrorists
Another activist got 30 years for moving a box of zines at a fair, accused of providing 'material support'
FBI director remains committed to identifying and dismantling Antifa networks across the country
15 people indicted in Minnesota on charges including conspiracy to impede federal officers during protests
Why it matters: The sentencing of Texas activists for alleged Antifa ties sets a precedent that could affect how protest-related activities are prosecuted. Activists and organizers need to be aware of the potential legal ramifications, especially when using platforms like Signal to coordinate mutual aid distributions.
Laptops
Image source: platform.theverge.com
Summary: Microsoft slashes prices on its Surface devices by reducing RAM to 8GB. The 12-inch Pro starts at $849, while the Laptop costs $949 but lacks Copilot Plus support.
Key Points:
The new 12-inch Surface Pro starts at $849 with 8GB of RAM and 256GB storage.
The 13-inch Surface Laptop now begins at $949, also featuring 8GB RAM and 256GB storage.
Both devices lack support for Copilot Plus due to the reduced memory capacity.
In April 2026, Microsoft raised prices to $1,049 for Pro and $1,199 for Laptop.
The MacBook Neo disrupts the laptop market with its speedy performance at $599.
Why it matters: If you're on a tight budget but need a powerful device, the new Surface models might seem appealing. However, they lack Copilot Plus support and are more expensive than alternatives like the MacBook Neo. This move could impact teams looking to upgrade their hardware without breaking the bank.
Hardware
Image source: techcrunch.com
Summary: Micron's Q3 revenue quadrupled due to AI-driven memory chip shortage; expect higher costs for consumers and developers alike.
Key Points:
Micron's Q3 revenue surged to $41.45 billion, up from $9.86 billion a year ago
Market cap reached over $1.2 trillion in early 2024
Shares closed at $1,048.51 after trading around $83 in early 2024
Fourth-quarter revenue forecasted between $49B and $51B
Supplied memory chips to AI lab Anthropic for its Claude model
Why it matters: If you're building an AI system, expect higher costs due to the ongoing shortage of memory chips. Micron's Q3 revenue quadrupled to $41.45 billion as prices rise across the board. For teams relying on cutting-edge hardware, this means budget adjustments and potential delays in deployment.
Authentication
Image source: techcrunch.com
Summary: One in four major internet services don't offer passkeys, leaving users at risk. Whynopasskeys.com highlights the issue with names like Netflix and Spotify missing out on this security feature.
Key Points:
Passkeys are considered the gold standard for securing accounts against hackers (source: whynopasskeys.com).
One in four major internet services lack passkey support, leaving users vulnerable to phishing attacks (whynopasskeys.com).
Meta products like Facebook and WhatsApp offer passkeys, but Instagram does not unless linked with a Facebook account.
Netflix and Spotify do not currently provide passkey options for their users, despite the benefits of enhanced security.
Passkeys can be stored automatically in password managers, making them convenient to use without remembering anything.
Why it matters: If you're using services like Netflix or Spotify, your account might lack a crucial layer of protection against phishing attacks. Passkeys are supported by major players like Apple, Google, and Microsoft but ignored by others, leaving millions of users vulnerable.
New Tools & Job
Sakana Marlin - Sakana Marlin is Sakana AI's first commercial product: an autonomous 'Ultra Deep Research' agent positioned as a Virtual Chief Strategy Officer. Given a research topic, Marlin works autonomously for up to roughly eight hours, forming hypotheses, gathering and reconciling information from online sources, and synthesizing a detailed strategy report up to ~100 pages plus executive-summary slides. It builds on Sakana AI research including AB-MCTS (NeurIPS 2025 Spotlight) and The AI Scientist (published in Nature). A closed beta ran from April 2026 with ~300 professionals across finance and consulting.
Upsolve AI - Upsolve AI is an Agent Studio for data teams to build, deploy, and evaluate grounded, governed, and trustworthy analytics agents. It layers institutional context (warehouse tables, validated SQL patterns, semantic models, KPI definitions, and business rules from sources like Notion, Slack, and email) on top of 30+ SQL database connectors so end users can ask questions in natural language and get accurate, traceable answers. Every conversation is fully traced end-to-end (tool calls, SQL, agent output), a built-in evaluation agent grades performance, and context monitoring surfaces gaps so accuracy improves with use. Agents deploy to Slack, Teams, Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, or embed in your own product via MCP/SDK.
Buddy - Buddy is an AI design agent that lives in the Figma canvas. Chat to generate screens, flows, components, and variants using your existing design system; paste a public URL or drop an HTML file to recreate live websites as editable Figma layers; and run batch edits and layer organization across files. Supports multiple LLMs (Opus, Sonnet, GPT, Gemini, Codex). Works on any Figma plan including Free.
Tyto - Tyto by ai-coustics is a monitoring and diagnostics layer for Voice AI. It produces a single real-time risk score that predicts speech-to-text, voice-activity-detection, and turn-taking failures before they occur, scoring six qualities of incoming audio so teams can catch audio issues before they impact voice agents in production.
Adapt - Adapt is one shared context layer for every employee and every agent. It connects to the tools a company runs on, holds live context, answers questions, and takes action that does the work and cites its sources, in Slack and on the web. Data stays private and is never used to train models.
Machine Learning Solutions Engineer – Robotics - <p>The next frontier for AI is the physical world. At Scale, we're pioneering this shift, moving artificial intelligence from digital spaces into robotics.</p> <p>Our Robotics team builds the critical infrastructure that empowers the most sophisticat…
Solutions Architect, AI/Cloudflare Developer Platform - <div class="content-intro"><div><strong>About Us</strong></div> <div> <p>At Cloudflare, we are on a mission to help build a better Internet. Today the company runs one of the world’s largest networks that powers millions of websites and other Interne…
Senior Manager, Solutions Architecture, AI & Developer Platform - <div class="content-intro"><div><strong>About Us</strong></div> <div> <p>At Cloudflare, we are on a mission to help build a better Internet. Today the company runs one of the world’s largest networks that powers millions of websites and other Interne…
People Team Intern - HR Operations & AI Innovation (Fall 2026) - <div class="content-intro"><div><strong>About Us</strong></div> <div> <p>At Cloudflare, we are on a mission to help build a better Internet. Today the company runs one of the world’s largest networks that powers millions of websites and other Interne…
Head of GTM, AI Inference - <div class="content-intro"><div><strong>About Us</strong></div> <div> <p>At Cloudflare, we are on a mission to help build a better Internet. Today the company runs one of the world’s largest networks that powers millions of websites and other Interne…
Research Engineer, Domain Scaling - <div class="content-intro"><h2><strong>About Anthropic</strong></h2> <p>Anthropic’s mission is to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. We want AI to be safe and beneficial for our users and for society as a whole. Our team is a q…
Manager - Tech Solutions (Big Data / AI) - <h3>CSQ127R179</h3> <h3><strong>Mission</strong></h3> <p>The Manager (Data & AI) for Technical Solutions Engineering will be responsible for<strong> leading and growing a regional team of Data & AI technical experts in India</strong>, focused…
Program Manager, Agentic Commerce Go-to-Market - <h2><strong>Who we are</strong></h2> <h3><strong>About Stripe</strong></h3> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Stripe is a financial infrastructure platform for businesses. Millions of companies - from the world’s largest enterprises to the most ambi…
Staff Data Scientist, Engagement Ecosystem - <div class="content-intro"><p><strong>About Pinterest:</strong></p> <p>Millions of people around the world come to our platform to find creative ideas, dream about new possibilities and plan for memories that will last a lifetime. At Pinterest, we’re…
Research Engineer, Economic Research Data Platform - <div class="content-intro"><h2><strong>About Anthropic</strong></h2> <p>Anthropic’s mission is to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. We want AI to be safe and beneficial for our users and for society as a whole. Our team is a q…
Technical Program Manager, CX Intelligence & AI - <div class="content-intro"><p>Ready to do the most impactful work of your career? At <a href="https://www.coinbase.com/?utm_campaign=mt_o_m_w_m_m__coi_0_jd-onchain&utm_source=coinbase">Coinbase</a>, we are uncompromising on our mission to in…
Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Customer Support Engineering - <div class="content-intro"><p><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Airbnb was born in 2007 when two hosts welcomed three guests to their San Francisco home, and has since grown to over 5 million hosts who have wel…
Delivery Solutions Architect - Communications, Media, Entertainment & Games - <p data-pm-slice="1 1 []">CSQ427R103</p> <p>At Databricks, we are on a mission to empower our customers to solve the world's toughest data problems by utilizing the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform. As a Delivery Solutions Architect (DSA), you w…
Staff Fullstack Engineer, Agentic Applications - <p>P-1477</p> <p>The Agentic Applications team at Databricks is on an ambitious journey to transform how we run the business. Our mission is to build resilient, in-house platforms and AI-powered capabilities that provide a genuine competitive a…
Staff Fullstack Engineer, Agentic Applications - <p>P-1477</p> <p>Databricks is transforming how it builds and operates People Technology — moving from traditional SaaS configuration toward an AI-native, agentic stack. You'll be the technical anchor of the People Tech pod, driving the architectural…
Senior Staff Backline Engineer - Data & AI - <h4><strong>P-1381</strong></h4> <p>At Databricks, we are passionate about enabling Data & AI teams to solve the world's toughest problems - from making the next mode of transportation a reality to accelerating the development of medical breakthr…
Research Engineer, Pretraining Scaling - <div class="content-intro"><h2><strong>About Anthropic</strong></h2> <p>Anthropic’s mission is to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. We want AI to be safe and beneficial for our users and for society as a whole. Our team is a q…
Applied AI Architect, Partnerships - <div class="content-intro"><h2><strong>About Anthropic</strong></h2> <p>Anthropic’s mission is to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. We want AI to be safe and beneficial for our users and for society as a whole. Our team is a q…
Staff Software Engineer, AI Reliability - <div class="content-intro"><h2><strong>About Anthropic</strong></h2> <p>Anthropic’s mission is to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. We want AI to be safe and beneficial for our users and for society as a whole. Our team is a q…
Lead Data Scientist, Platform Product - <div class="content-intro"><h2><strong>About Anthropic</strong></h2> <p>Anthropic’s mission is to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. We want AI to be safe and beneficial for our users and for society as a whole. Our team is a q…
QUICK HITS
Microsoft's Quantum Claims Under Fire in New Nature Paper - Microsoft's Majorana 1 chip is under scrutiny after a Nature paper questions its breakthroughs, sparking debate over the future of topological qubits.
AI Spending Spree Cools Down as Companies Reassess Value - Accenture tightens AI spending as companies question token costs and ROI. Promotions at risk for excessive basic task automation.
Congresswoman Denies Using AI for Defense Bill Amendment - Congresswoman denies using AI for defense bill amendment; users speculate on X; clarification: only used for spellcheck.
Slate Switches to LFP Batteries for $24,950 EV Pickup - Slate swapped out pricey NMC batteries for cheaper LFP cells in its new $24k electric pickup, aiming for affordability and accessibility.
GTA VI Goes Digital-Only With No Physical Release - Rockstar Games skips physical release of GTA VI, going digital-only with a download code inside the box. This could set a new industry standard and impact how gamers access their games.
Google Dumps 30% Play Store Fee for $1M+ Apps - Google drops the Play Store fee to 20% for high-revenue apps and 10% for subscriptions over $1M/year, part of its settlement with Epic Games. Indie devs can breathe easier too.
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