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Big Tech in April 2026: the light and the dark

April 2026: Tim Cook steps down, trillion-yen AI and space bets from Microsoft and Amazon, 16,000 job cuts, and Iran's threats reach data centers.

First published in Japanese: May 7, 2026
English edition: November 2, 2026

Read the Japanese original on note「GAFAMニュース 2026年4月のまとめ」

April 2026 was a turning point for GAFAM: Apple CEO Tim Cook announced his departure, an investment race worth trillions of yen broke out over AI infrastructure, and the situation in Iran reached all the way to data centers, the very real buildings behind the cloud. As the battle for dominance in cloud, space communications and AI chips entered a new phase, job cuts and geopolitical risk were shaking every company at the same time.

The light side

Microsoft invests ¥1.6 trillion in Japan and aims to train 1 million AI workers

Microsoft announced it will put about ¥1.6 trillion (about $11 billion) into Japan, expanding its AI data centers and training AI talent on the scale of 1 million people.[1] It will jointly develop AI infrastructure with Sakura Internet and SoftBank, and it is also setting up grants for researchers in Japan.[2] This is one of the largest commitments Microsoft has ever made to the Japanese market, and it could quickly reshape the balance of power in Japan’s cloud market and how freely research talent moves.

Amazon adds up to ¥4 trillion to its Anthropic stake and supplies its own AI chips

Amazon announced a major partnership with the AI company Anthropic: an additional investment of up to $4 billion (about ¥4 trillion), plus a supply of its in-house AI chips, Trainium and Inferentia.[3] At the end of the month, after OpenAI and Microsoft revised their exclusive agreement, Amazon also began offering OpenAI models through Amazon Bedrock.[4] For Japanese companies on AWS, too, this sharply widens the range of generative AI options.

Amazon buys satellite operator Globalstar for ¥1.8 trillion and moves into space broadband in earnest

Amazon signed a deal to acquire the satellite communications company Globalstar for about ¥1.8 trillion (about $7 billion), speeding up the rollout of Project Kuiper.[5] It amounts to stepping into a space infrastructure war in direct confrontation with SpaceX’s Starlink, and in the same month Delta Air Lines decided to install Amazon’s satellite service on 500 aircraft.[6] For aviation, logistics and communications on Japan’s remote islands, a new option is starting to look real.

Meta set to beat Google in ad revenue for the first time and expands its own AI chip network

Meta was reported to be on track to top Google in digital advertising revenue for the first time, with AI and vertical video as its weapons.[7] It also extended its collaboration with Broadcom through 2029, and revealed plans to build a gigawatt-class data center network around its own AI chip, MTIA.[8] For advertisers in Japan, too, the move to rethink how much budget goes to Reels and Threads is likely to speed up.

Google launches Gemma 4 and Pixel 10a, and home AI arrives in Japan

Google released Gemma 4, a new AI model anyone can use for free, and announced the Pixel 10a, a mid-range phone with a dual camera for under ¥80,000 (roughly $510).[9][10] In Japan, early access to Gemini for Home began, and in the same month Google announced Gemini integration in Chrome and free AI features in YouTube and Gmail.[11][12] AI assistants making their way right into the home has become a good deal more real in Japan as well.

Apple heads into its next 50 years with a refreshed AirPods Max 2 and a standalone Watch

As Apple marked its 50th anniversary, it launched AirPods Max 2, the first refresh in five years, and an Apple Watch you can use without an iPhone from ¥385 a month (roughly $2.40).[13][14] At the end of the month, it also became clear what the leadership under incoming CEO John Ternus will look like, along with a “personal AI” vision that consciously returns to Steve Jobs’s roots.[15] For Apple Watch users in Japan, this makes family plans and use by children feel much closer to hand.

The dark side

Apple CEO Tim Cook steps down after 15 years, facing an AI lag

Apple announced that Tim Cook, its chief for 15 years, will step down, and that John Ternus will succeed him.[16] Over the 15 years of the Cook era, Apple returned more than ¥160 trillion (roughly $1.0 trillion) to shareholders in cumulative dividends and buybacks. In AI, though, it has had to run a roughly 200-person bootcamp to make up for delays in Siri development, and the new leadership faces tough regulation and an AI lag.[17] In Japan, too, the image of Apple that lasted through the long Cook era is moving into a next chapter that puts hardware first.

Microsoft and Meta cut 16,000 jobs as AI spending comes first, and workers bear the cost

Microsoft and Meta moved to cut about 16,000 jobs combined, making clear a strategy that puts AI infrastructure investment above everything else.[18] Meta in particular was reported to be planning 8,000 layoffs, described as the first wave of its 2026 restructuring.[19] For Japanese companies’ digital transformation and talent strategies, this is a useful reference point: a landing on the staircase, so to speak, where the way we work pauses before the next climb in the age of generative AI.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards target 18 US firms including GAFAM, and an Amazon facility catches fire

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps threatened cyberattacks on 18 US companies, including Apple, Google and Amazon, and a fire broke out at an Amazon data center in Bahrain.[20][21] Amazon and Oracle facilities were reportedly named as targets of retaliatory attacks, and in the dispute over restrictions on passage through the Strait of Hormuz, Amazon was singled out for criticism for supporting the US military.[22][23] For Japanese companies that entrust their business foundations to AWS, Azure and Google Cloud, this became a prompt to rethink how they factor in geopolitical risk.

Microsoft falls “behind” in AI as Anthropic eats into business software in six months

Microsoft’s AI-related shares plunged within half a year, in a reversal that saw rival Anthropic gain share in the enterprise business software market.[24] On top of that, a zero-day vulnerability in Defender was exploited just three days after the patch was released, and two of the flaws are still unpatched.[25] Critics have also pointed to “brand sprawl,” with the Copilot brand swelling to more than ten variants, and Microsoft 365 users in Japan, too, need a clearer, more organized message.

Amazon pulled pricier-than-elsewhere items from the cart, court documents show

Documents made public in a court case revealed that Amazon ran an algorithm that deliberately removed items from the cart when they were priced higher than on other sites.[26] At first glance this looks good for consumers, but it has become an antitrust issue as a tactic that in effect limits price competition from other companies and strengthens Amazon’s market power. In Japan, too, this overlaps with the Japan Fair Trade Commission’s (JFTC) discussions about monitoring e-commerce, and it is likely to affect sellers’ pricing strategies.

Google scans “all your photos” for Gemini training, opted in by default

It came to light that Google had included every image in Google Photos in what Gemini can learn from, and the setup, which treats users as having agreed by default, drew criticism.[27] In the same month, AI Overviews was also said to be generating misinformation on the order of tens of millions of answers an hour, raising again the question of how to balance convenience and reliability.[28] For Google Photos users in Japan, too, going into the settings and choosing not to let your photos be used for training has become a practical little act of self-defense.

For GAFAM, April 2026 was a month when leadership changes, huge investments and geopolitical risk piled on top of one another, and each company began redrawing the outline of its next ten years. On every front, from cloud to space communications to AI chips, the balance of power has clearly started to shift. When an owl 🦉 crosses the dark night, it gauges where it is using everything at once: the position of the moon, the sound of the wind, the shadows on the ground. This month’s GAFAM looked much the same to me, reading not just earnings and stock prices but the swells of geopolitics, regulation and talent all at once, and carefully deciding which branch to land on next.