Daily Tech & GNSS News Digest - February 27, 2026

The AI industry reached historic milestones today as OpenAI closed the largest private funding round ever, while the technology’s impact on employment became starkly visible with Block’s massive workforce reduction. Meanwhile, a high-stakes standoff between Anthropic and the Pentagon over military AI use reached its deadline with significant implications for the entire tech industry.

Tech News

OpenAI Secures Record $110 Billion at $730 Billion Valuation

OpenAI has closed the largest private funding round in history, raising $110 billion at a $730 billion pre-money valuation. The landmark round brings together an unprecedented coalition of tech giants: Amazon leads with $50 billion (initially $15 billion with an additional $35 billion tied to certain conditions), NVIDIA commits $30 billion, and SoftBank invests $30 billion, bringing its total OpenAI stake to $64.6 billion representing roughly 13% ownership.

The funding comes with major strategic partnerships. OpenAI is expanding its AWS agreement by $100 billion over eight years, with AWS becoming the exclusive third-party cloud distribution provider for OpenAI’s enterprise platform Frontier. The company will also receive 3 gigawatts of dedicated inference capacity and 2 gigawatts of training capacity on NVIDIA’s Vera Rubin systems.

Notably absent from the round is longtime backer Microsoft. OpenAI now boasts 900 million weekly active users, 50 million consumer subscribers, and 9 million paying business users, positioning the company for an anticipated mega-IPO later this year.

Block Slashes Half of Workforce in Historic AI-Driven Layoff

Jack Dorsey’s Block announced it is cutting more than 4,000 employees—nearly half its global workforce—in what marks one of the most significant AI-driven workforce reductions in S&P 500 history. The company, which operates Square, Cash App, and Afterpay, will shrink from over 10,000 workers to just under 6,000.

Dorsey attributed the cuts directly to the company’s AI implementation, stating the business remains strong with growing gross profit. “I think most companies are late. Within the next year, I believe the majority of companies will reach the same conclusion and make similar structural changes,” Dorsey wrote on X. Investors responded enthusiastically, sending Block shares up more than 24% in after-hours trading.

U.S. employees receive 20 weeks salary plus one week per year of tenure, equity vested through May, six months of healthcare, corporate devices, and $5,000 in transition assistance. Block has invested heavily in AI tools, including its internal system called Goose.

Anthropic Defies Pentagon Deadline, Declared Supply Chain Risk

The standoff between AI company Anthropic and the Pentagon reached its climax Friday as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared the company a “supply chain risk to national security” after Anthropic refused to remove restrictions on military use of its Claude AI system.

The Pentagon sought unrestricted use of Claude for “all lawful purposes,” but Anthropic maintained two red lines: no use in autonomous weapons and no mass surveillance of U.S. citizens. CEO Dario Amodei stated, “We cannot in good conscience accede to their request,” adding that “some uses are also simply outside the bounds of what today’s technology can safely and reliably do.”

Hegseth’s declaration prohibits any military contractor, supplier, or partner from conducting commercial activity with Anthropic, though the company argues the Secretary lacks statutory authority to enforce the restriction beyond Defense Department contracts. The dispute has significant implications for the relationship between Silicon Valley and the Pentagon, with OpenAI, Google, and xAI already allowing their AI tools for any “lawful” military scenarios.

Additional Headlines

IDC Forecasts Smartphone Market Crash: The global smartphone market will contract 12.9% in 2026 to 1.12 billion units due to memory chip shortages, with prices rising 14% to a record $523 average—the steepest annual decline in the market’s history.
Stellantis Eyes Chinese EV Tech: The automaker is considering tapping electric-vehicle technology from its Chinese partner Leapmotor to lower costs across European brands including Fiat, Opel, and Peugeot.
Asia Tech Defies Global AI Gloom: Asian chip stocks continue to outperform as the region’s concentration of advanced semiconductor manufacturers attracts investors betting on AI infrastructure demand.

GNSS News

Thales has announced a €55 million ($63 million) investment to expand its industrial sites in Châtellerault and Valence, France, addressing increasing demand for resilient navigation solutions in both civilian and military sectors. The investment, scheduled between 2025 and 2028, will quadruple production capacity for inertial navigation systems at Châtellerault by 2028.

The expansion responds to growing GNSS jamming and spoofing threats. Thales’s solutions combine inertial navigation with GNSS reception, including the TopAxyz inertial navigation system for autonomous capability and TopStar-M receivers with TopShield anti-jamming technology. Mass production of TopStar-M receivers and TopShield systems begins in 2026 at Valence, which will also introduce a new production line for inertial MEMS sensors.

The sites currently employ more than 800 workers, with plans to hire an additional 150 staff by 2028. The initiative is supported by France’s Directorate General of Armaments under the OMEGA program for modernization of GNSS equipment.

Topcon Partners with Fixposition for Visual-Aided Positioning

Topcon Positioning Systems and Fixposition announced a collaboration agreement at Geo Week 2026 in Denver to integrate visual-aided positioning technology into future GNSS products. Fixposition specializes in Visual RTK and vision-based positioning using AI-enabled sensor fusion.

“We see this AI-enabled technology as an innovative integration with our next-generation GNSS solutions,” said Topcon’s Ron Oberlander. Fixposition’s xFusion technology combines vision and multi-modality fusion positioning to enhance GNSS performance in challenging environments where satellite signals may be degraded.

The partnership reflects broader industry trends toward sensor fusion approaches that combine traditional GNSS with cameras, IMUs, and AI processing to maintain positioning accuracy in urban canyons, under foliage, and other difficult environments.

Key Takeaways

AI Funding Reaches Unprecedented Scale: OpenAI’s $110 billion round demonstrates that despite market volatility and concerns about AI spending, major tech companies are doubling down on foundation model investments.
AI-Driven Workforce Disruption Accelerates: Block’s 40% workforce reduction signals that AI automation is moving from theoretical concern to corporate reality, with Dorsey predicting similar cuts across most companies within a year.
Resilient Navigation Investment Intensifies: Thales’s €55 million expansion and Topcon’s visual-positioning partnership reflect growing urgency around GNSS security and multi-sensor fusion as jamming and spoofing threats increase globally.