Big Tech in September 2025: the light and the dark

September marks the start of the new-hardware season, and Apple led the way with its new iPhones. The race to invest heavily in new technology and infrastructure also stood out. At the same time, regulators keep tightening their watch on antitrust, privacy and more.

So once again this month, let’s take a careful look at both sides of each GAFAM company.

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The light side

Apple unveils the iPhone 17 and other new products

At its September 9 event, Apple announced new products including the iPhone 17 series, the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and AirPods Pro 3.

Across the iPhone lineup, prices stayed largely the same while the phones moved steadily forward, with bigger screens and faster chips. The model that drew the most attention was the new iPhone 17 Air, redesigned from the ground up to be remarkably thinner and lighter than anything before it.

AirPods Pro 3 has a built-in heart-rate sensor for the first time, which should make it more useful for keeping track of your health.

The new models went on sale around the world, including in Japan, in late September. [1]

Meta unveils Meta Ray-Ban Display, smart glasses with a built-in display

At an event in September 2025, Meta announced Meta Ray-Ban Display, smart glasses with a small display built into the right lens.

They are controlled with the Meta Neural Band, a wristband-style controller, through gaze and gestures, and can show notifications, messages, translations and more.

Battery life is up to 6 hours for the glasses alone and up to 30 hours with the charging case. Prices start at $799, with US sales beginning at the end of September. Unfortunately, there is no release date yet for Japan.

The product is seen as a first concrete step toward a new category, glasses-style AI devices, and it has the potential to start pulling people away from smartphones. Competition with Apple and Google looks set to heat up from here. [2][3]

Is Apple considering working with Google to bring an AI search engine to Siri?

Apple was reported to be planning to build its own AI-powered search tool, World Knowledge Answers, into its voice assistant Siri as early as next year.

On top of that, Apple is reportedly considering using Google’s next-generation AI model, Gemini, to make Siri smarter. If that happens, it would be a historic partnership between the two companies.

If Siri can respond more intelligently and naturally in many languages, Japanese included, the user experience would improve dramatically. It could also help Apple, which has been lagging somewhat in the generative AI race, catch up. [4]

Google expands its renewable energy sourcing in Japan

To power its data centers in Japan with clean energy, Google partnered with the major power company JERA and with West Holdings and signed long-term contracts to buy renewable electricity.

The contracts are for its data center in Inzai, Chiba Prefecture, which will be supplied with solar and other renewable power. Google has set a goal of running all of its operations worldwide on renewable energy around the clock by 2030, and this effort in Japan is part of that.

Growing demand for renewable power in Japan is expected to energize the energy market, and it also helps reduce environmental impact. [5]

Meta builds an Asian subsea cable with SoftBank and others

Meta announced that, together with SoftBank and other partners in Asia, it will lay Candle, a subsea communications cable stretching 8,000 km.

The cable is planned to enter service in 2028 and will link Japan (Chiba, Hokkaido and Fukuoka) with Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia over high-speed lines. Made up of 24 fiber pairs, it is a high-capacity cable built to handle surging data traffic and the demands of the generative AI era, and it will help make internet connections more reliable.

Because it will also have landing stations in Japan, it should strengthen the resilience of the country’s own communications, and over time it is likely to become infrastructure that underpins economic and technological growth across Asia. [6]

The dark side

Google hit with antitrust remedies but avoids a forced breakup

In the search monopoly lawsuit brought by the US Department of Justice, a federal district court ordered Google to share some of its search data with competitors.

The court also barred Google from exclusive contracts with Apple and others that make its search engine the default on smartphones and browsers.

On the other hand, the court ruled that there was no need to spin off the Chrome web browser or the Android operating system, as had been demanded, so Google escaped the worst-case remedy of a breakup.

After the ruling, Alphabet’s stock soared, and so did Apple’s, since Apple receives huge fees for making Google its search engine. The data-sharing order aims to encourage search competition from AI startups, and the ruling is drawing attention as a challenge to the dominance of the tech giants. [7]

Amazon faces a record-scale class action

In the US, a nationwide consumer class action accusing Amazon of unfairly inflating the prices of third-party products has been allowed to proceed.

The plaintiffs argue that Amazon’s rules, which restrict third-party sellers from selling more cheaply on other sites, ended up making shoppers pay higher prices.

In August, a federal court in Seattle certified the consumer class at a record-breaking scale, covering 288 million people and billions of transactions, and allowed the case to move forward.

Amazon denies the claims and is appealing, but criticism of how it runs its dominant platform keeps growing, and scrutiny of its marketplace practices could intensify in Japan as well. [8]

Privacy concerns at Meta as unauthorized photo scanning comes to light

Reports that Meta (Facebook) may be scanning the photos on users’ phones without their permission set off a wave of privacy concerns.

When users turn on “camera roll suggestions,” a new feature in the Facebook app, even images on the device that they have never posted are automatically analyzed, and AI then suggests collages and edits. Meta says the feature only works if users opt in, giving explicit consent, but some users reported that the setting had been switched on without their knowledge, and criticism grew over the risk of personal photos being analyzed without people realizing it. [9]

In Japan, too, the issue has sparked debate from a personal data protection standpoint, and users are being advised to check their settings and opt out. [10]

Is Apple “monopolizing” next-generation chips?

According to reports, Apple is expected to secure about half of TSMC’s production capacity for chips on its cutting-edge 2-nanometer (nm) process, starting in the second half of 2025.

The industry believes the capacity is for A-series chips that will go first to iPhones and Macs. Other companies, such as rival Android makers that design their own chips and firms that need AI chips, may be forced into a fierce scramble for the little 2nm capacity that remains.

Locking up the most advanced chips makes Apple’s own products stronger, but some point out that its edge in the supply chain could end up hindering competition, and the market is watching Apple’s moves closely. [11]

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From hardware to software, and from energy to communications infrastructure, GAFAM spent September pushing on many fronts to shape the future.

At the same time, regulation and social concerns are casting their shadows. How to balance technological progress with responsibility is a question that will only grow sharper from here.

…As an owl, the further I turn my head, the more both the light and the shadow come into view. But perhaps my job is to keep watching until I have seen the whole picture.

References

[1] Apple launches slim iPhone 17 Air, new AirPods and Watch in holiday refresh | Reuters

[2] Meta unveils its first smart glasses with a built-in display, aiming for “superintelligence” (Reuters) (in Japanese)

[3] Meta Ray-Ban Display: AI Glasses With an EMG Wristband

[4] Apple Plans AI-Powered Web Search Tool for Siri to Rival OpenAI, Perplexity

[5] Google signs a 15MW virtual PPA with JERA for its data center in Inzai (Data Center Café) (in Japanese)

[6] SoftBank, Meta, and Partners Launch 8,000 km Subsea Cable Project - CoinCentral

[7] Google need not sell Chrome but must share data, judge rules in antitrust case (Bloomberg) (in Japanese)

[8] Amazon must face US nationwide class action over third-party sales | Reuters

[9] Meta Might Be Accessing Your Camera Roll Without Permission — Here’s the Fix

[10] Facebook may be scanning the photos on your phone without permission (GIGAZINE) (in Japanese)

[11] Apple Secures Half of TSMC’s 2nm Chip Capacity for 2025 iPhones, Macs