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- California is home to 199 billionaires, and many have begun to exit before the tax takes effect in November. - 5% of Larry Page's wealth would exceed $ 12 billion, and he is unwilling to give that up in taxes. - Delaware, Nevada, Florida & Texas have become the new wealth destinations.
- Following a Guardian investigation, Google quietly stopped AI responses for medical test searches. - AI Overviews might be delaying doctor visits by misleading users with oversimplified medical information. - Health advocate Vanessa Hebditch says AI shouldn't be part of health searches at all.
- Google announced its new AI shopping agent tools on January 11. - The new tech has major retailers such as Kroger, Lowe’s, and Papa John's on board. - Google's Agentic commerce tech is ready to compete with OpenAI and Microsoft (new shopping features in ChatGPT and Copilot).
- Emails, phone numbers, and physical addresses of 17.5 million Instagram users leaked on the dark web and BreachForums. - Free scan to check if your data is in the leaked data (by Malwarebytes). - Meta is yet to respond to the data breach. In the meantime, here's how you can protect yourself.
Jerome Powell is accused of misleading Congress on the cost of the Fed's headquarters renovation. Jeanine Pirro will authorise the investigation. President Donald Trump is actively assessing the issue and wants Powell fired, re-igniting the conflict between the two.
- Pramila Srinivasan accuses Sridhar of transferring assets to sister Radha Vembu (owns 47.8% stake in Zoho). - The court froze assets and ordered to pause the major asset transfer. - A court-appointed receiver to assume temporary control on selling and moving assests.
- The U.S. plans to enact legislation to penalise Russian oil buyers. - The agenda is to cut money to Russia and stop the war in Ukraine. - It's a trade dilemma for India, and it must choose.
- ChatGPT Traffic seems to have fallen to 158 million from 200 million Daily Visits in January 2026. - Google puts Gemini everywhere to bridge the gap with ChatGPT, say experts. - The AI tool competition is to blame for this.
- It's the second time in less than a month that Warner Bros said "no" to Paramount. - Paramount's $108 billion deal is clearly risky due to excessive debt and no clear contractual protections. - Netflix now sounds paramount to Warner Bros, and could be it this time around.
- Despite strong financial results, Microsoft may still lay off employees. - Reports suggest that the third week of January may be the week of layoffs at Microsoft. - The Gaming, Azure, and Sales departments are likely to be affected.
- Grok AI is under fire for generating fake, vulgar Images of women and children on X. - India's IT Ministry (MeitY) issued a legal notice to X, setting a deadline to remove the illegal content. - Ashley St. Clair is all set to sue xAI and Grok.
- Rajat Patidar's net worth jumped from INR 16–17 crore to around ₹25 crore. - He earns through multiple sources, including RCB's 11 Crore, brand deals, and BBCI fee. - Born in a business family, still maintains a low-key lifestyle and does not own luxury cars.
- The PMLA court has issued a notice to Raj Kundra for a trial on January 19. - ED alleges Kundra holds 285 Bitcoins worth over INR 150 crore under money laundering. - Raj Kundra claims that he is just a mediator.
- Employees’ 6-hour office shift, 3 days a week, will be strictly monitored by Wipro. - If not followed, it can directly affect the leaves (effective from January 1). - Total working hours remain unchanged at 9.5 hours (be it work from the office or home).
- Trent shares fell over 8% at market open on January 6, 2026. - The fall erased over INR 13,000 crore from Trent's market value. - Radhakishan Damani suffered a ₹162 crore paper loss in just two minutes.
- Senior Google engineer Jaana Dogan says ‘not joking’ in a series of posts on 'X.' - She clarified why big techs like Google take longer to build systems. - Although Claude Code built the systems in an hour, they were not perfect.
- Banking services may be impacted for four days amid the January 27 Strike Call. - UFBU promises bank work hours won’t be reduced after the 5-day workweek. - Employees have agreed to work an additional 40 minutes per day.
- The Indian rupee opened the week at 90.24 (weakened) against the U.S. dollar. - Investors are withdrawing funds from the Indian market out of panic. - All eyes are on the RBI’s $10 billion dollar-rupee swap on January 13.
- The new rules are putting pressure on the Indian IT companies in the U.S., cutting H-1B applications by 30–50%. - More roles are expected to shift from the U.S. to India.
- Warner Bros’ board is set to reject Paramount’s $108.4 billion offer. - Paramount’s deal has weakened after Affinity Partners exited the financing, reports say. - The board will likely recommit to Netflix's $72 billion.
- China, which controls up to 70% of global silver supply, is tightening exports from 2026. - After January 1, the silver shortage could increase to more than 2,500 tonnes annually. - India is aggressively buying physical silver, importing over 1,700 tonnes in October alone.
- It has fallen by more than 5% this year, marking a major psychological and economic milestone. - The government says the situation is under watch but not alarming. - However, foreign investors are withdrawing money from Indian stocks already.
- A rare mega-acquisition signals TCS’s aggressive push into AI, cloud and data centre expansion. - TCS is funding this deal with its $5.49B in free cash flow for FY 2024-25. - The deal is expected to close by 31 January 2026.
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