Big Tech in March 2025: the light and the dark

The Owl here, with a short rundown of the main GAFAM news from March 2025.

In March, the companies made their presence felt by strengthening their AI technology and launching new products, but they also ran into tighter regulation and ethical problems. Stock prices were shaky across the board, and tech stocks, GAFAM included, showed signs of a correction. As technology sinks deeper into society, balancing convenience with responsibility, and deciding how to deal with the wider economy, look set to matter more than ever.

The light side

First, following the iPhone 16e it announced last month, Apple launched new products in quick succession: the 11th-generation iPad, an iPad Air with the M3 chip, and a MacBook Air and Mac Studio with the M4 chip, bringing a fresh breeze to the spring Mac market. [1] [2] [3] The iPad and MacBook Air draw a lot of attention in Japan too, and these upgrades should help them spread further in education and creative work.

Amazon reportedly plans to build AI from Anthropic into Alexa+, the new version of its voice assistant. [4] If it is true that Amazon is taking a flexible approach, bringing in the best outside AI instead of insisting on its own technology, the new Alexa could lead an AI revolution in the smart home market and speed up that market’s growth even more. It will probably be a while before it reaches Japan, but I’m looking forward to it.

Google, too, keeps steadily rolling out AI updates. This month it added a new feature that lets Gemini access your Google search history, so it can give more personalized answers. [5] It also announced its latest models, the Gemini 2.5 series, with stronger reasoning and coding performance, and it looks like generative AI will keep evolving faster still. [6]

Microsoft made an announcement that puts it a step ahead in error suppression for quantum computers. It says its new chip, Majorana 1, greatly reduces the instability that stands in the way of practical quantum computing. [7] Plenty of hurdles remain on the roadmap, but practical, general-purpose quantum computers may not be all that far off. Soaring quantum computing stocks have also been in the news lately. I can’t help sensing Microsoft’s intent to make its presence felt in this field too, since it may turn out to be “the next thing after AI.”

The dark side

Several problems surfaced this month that are hard to overlook. First, there were reports that Google had been scanning photos stored on Android devices without users’ permission, drawing heavy criticism as a possible invasion of privacy. [8] It may have been meant to make things more convenient for users, but collecting information without transparency only shakes trust, so the company will be held to account even more strictly.

The EU also issued a preliminary view that Google may be in breach of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The problem is Google favoring its own services on Android, and if a breach is formally confirmed, it could face a huge fine or be forced to change how it does business. [9] Moves like this are not limited to Europe. They are part of a worldwide trend toward tighter regulation of the tech giants, and they may influence lawmaking in Japan too.

Apple has been putting its environmental efforts front and center, but this month it was sued on the grounds that those efforts are “greenwashing” (environmental friendliness for show). [10] Consumer groups questioned the basis for its claims of zero CO2 emissions, and companies’ PR can expect much closer scrutiny over how far it reflects reality.

Finally, let’s touch on stock prices.

US stocks have done well for the past few years, but lately they have been a little off. The S&P 500 hit an all-time high in mid-February, then fell about 10% over roughly the following month. It seemed to recover for a while, but toward the end of March it turned down again. Is this a temporary correction, or a real turning point? Trump’s remarks on tariffs are said to be the main cause, but worries about a recession in the real economy are hard to shake off too.

Looking at this from GAFAM’s point of view, one thing catches my eye. From the end of February to the end of March, the S&P 500 fell about 5.75%, but the GAFAM companies (except Microsoft) fell by much more than that. This may be a sign that the overheated AI bubble is finally starting to cool.

One-month price moves to March 31, 2025:

Name	Price	Change	Change (%)
Alphabet Inc Class C	$156.23	−$15.99	−9.28%
S&P 500	5,611.85	−342.65	−5.75%
Amazon.com Inc	$190.26	−$22.02	−10.37%
Meta Platforms Inc	$576.36	−$91.84	−13.74%
Microsoft Corp	$375.39	−$21.60	−5.44%

Source: Google Finance.

Either way, if stock prices keep falling, whatever the reason, I expect layoffs that simply can’t be put off. GAFAM employees getting laid off by the very AI they built: the day that not-so-funny story comes true may be close. The direction of the economy is something to keep a close eye on.

…AI and quantum both seem ready to take off all at once. But to fly on into a night we still can’t see through, it may be wiser to calm our hearts a little first.

References

[1] https://wired.jp/article/apple-ipad-air-and-ipad-2025/ (in Japanese)

[2] https://www.bloomberg.co.jp/news/articles/2025-03-04/SSLSJPDWX2PS00 (in Japanese)

[3] https://www.businessinsider.jp/article/2503-apple-m4-macbookair-macstudio/ (in Japanese)

[4] https://jp.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/article-93CH-1028189 (in Japanese)

[5] https://forbesjapan.com/articles/detail/78003 (in Japanese)

[6] https://gigazine.net/news/20250326-google-gemini-2-5-pro/ (in Japanese)

[7] https://wired.jp/article/microsoft-just-claimed-a-quantum-breakthrough-a-quantum-physicist-explains-what-it-means/ (in Japanese)

[8] https://forbesjapan.com/articles/detail/77470 (in Japanese)

[9] https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOGR19DIZ0Z10C25A3000000/ (in Japanese)

[10] https://www.nikkei.com/prime/gx/article/DGXZQOUC283XT0Y5A220C2000000 (in Japanese)