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Figmas fourth-quarter earnings report arrived on Wednesday afternoon with a notable claim from one of its top executives: AI should complement, not replace, employees. Its a bold statement from the leader of a tech company at a moment when many are scaling back. We don’t see it as a tool that replaces our talent, but rather how can we augment the team that we already have, Figma CFO Praveer Melwani said during Figma’s earnings call. So we will continue to hire, but we will be able to complement that with efficiency gained by some of the tools out there as well. The comment came in response to an analysts question about how AI might impact Figmas research and development. Figma is enjoying better-than-expected growth According to Figmas fourth-quarter earnings report, the strategy just might be working. The company reached $303.8 million in revenue, a 40% increase year over year. It also beat Wall Streets expectation of $293.15 million, according to consensus estimates cited by CNBC. Figma further predicts that it will reach $315 to $317 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2026. This result would bring an average of 38% year-over-year growth. In response, shares of Figma Inc. (NYSE: FIG) rose over 16% in after-hours trading. By midday Thursday, the stock’s price was still up almost 8%. Software companies have faced falling stocks amid AI fears Melwanis call to not overly rely on AI tools comes as the company has faced sliding share prices around that very topic, with investors growing worried about the impact of AI tools on software platforms. Figma opened at $85 per share during its IPO last July, reaching over $115 on its first day. However, it started a mostly downward trajectory soon after. February has seen Figmas shares hover in the low- to mid-$20sfalling more than 79% since that first day and over 35% year to date. Artificial intelligence plays a significant part in Figmas offerings. The company launched Figma Make last year, a prompt tool with AI-powered design capabilities, along with a range of AI features. Figma offers AI credits based on each users plan and will allow the purchase of additional credits starting March 11. Teams can track their credit usage in a shared billing dashboard.
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E-Commerce
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday invited leaders of some of the top artificial intelligence companies to gather on stage as part of a commitment to build more inclusive and multilingual AI around the world. And they did. But what caught some of the audience’s attention, and later went viral on social media, was an awkward interaction between two rival tech leaders: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Modi, host of the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, clasped hands with those closest to him Altman to his left and Google CEO Sundar Pichai to his right and beckoned all 13 tech leaders to lift their hands up in a chain, like theater actors at the end of a show. Everyone was holding hands except for Altman and Amodei, who stood next to each other but for several seconds awkwardly avoided hand contact. Both eventually put up their fists instead. The interaction quickly became a visual symbol of the deep rivalries in the AI industry, particularly between OpenAI and Anthropic, though Altman sought to brush off any deeper meaning. I didn’t know what was happening, Altman later said in a video interview with Indian media outlet Moneycontrol. He said he was confused, like when (Modi) grabbed my hand and put it up, and I just wasnt sure what we were supposed to be doing. Anthropic declined to comment. The two AI developers have a history, one that predates the creation of OpenAI’s hit product, ChatGPT, and Anthropic’s competing chatbot Claude. Amodei worked at OpenAI before he and a group that included his sister, Daniela Amodei, quit to form Anthropic in 2021. The newer company promised a clearer focus on the safety of the better-than-human technology called artificial general intelligence that both San Francisco firms aim to build. OpenAI first released ChatGPT in late 2022, revealing the huge commercial potential of AI large language models that could help write emails and computer code and answer questions. Anthropic followed with its first version of Claude in 2023. Their different approaches spilled over into public debate earlier this month in the United States when Anthropic aired TV commercials during the Super Bowl that ridiculed OpenAI for the digital advertising its beginning to place in free and cheaper versions of ChatGPT. While Anthropic has centered its revenue model on selling Claude to other businesses, OpenAI has opened the doors to ads as a way of making money from the hundreds of millions of consumers who get ChatGPT for free. Altman took to social media to criticize the TV commercials as dishonest. Sheikh Saaliq and Matt O’Brien, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
On the heels of his recent political hit song “Streets of Minneapolis,” about President Donald Trump’s deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents into that city, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band have announced the spring 2026 dates for their “Land of Hope and Dreams” tour, dubbing it the “No Kings” tour (in reference to a series of massive nationwide anti-Trump protests). The tour kicks off in Minneapolis on March 31. Last month, Springsteen performed his political single there, during a live benefit concert organized by former Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello. Springsteen also dedicated his song “Promised Land” to Renee Good during a recent concert in his home state of New Jersey, and spoke out against the president and ICE. “Right now, we are living through incredibly critical times,” Springsteen told the audience. “The values and the ideas [of the United States] have never been as endangered as they are right now.” Springsteen continued: “If you believe in democracy, in liberty, if you believe truth still matters, and it’s worth speaking out and worth fighting for, if you believe in the power of law and that no one stands above it, if you stand against heavily armed masked federal troops invading an American city, using gestapo tactics against our fellow citizens . . . send a message to this president . . . ICE should get the fuck out of Minneapolis.” Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on January 7, and ICU nurse Alex Pretti, also 37, was fatally shot by two federal agents on January 24. The movement is growing, and were glad to have the Boss join the chorus,” said Eunic Epstein-Ortiz, a national spokesperson for the “No Kings” organizing group. “He understands what Americans know: We dont do kings. What are the dates for Bruce Springsteen’s “No Kings” tour? Springsteen’s tour dates are as follows: March 31: Minneapolis, MN Target Center April 3: Portland, OR Moda Center April 7: Inglewood, CA Kia Forum April 9: Inglewood, CA Kia Forum April 13: San Francisco, CA Chase Center April 16: Phoenix, AZ Mortgage Matchup Center April 20: Newark, NJ Prudential Center April 23: Sunrise, FL Amerant Bank Arena April 26: Austin, TX Moody Center April 29: Chicago, IL United Center May 2: Atlanta, GA State Farm Arena May 5: Belmont Park, NY UBS Arena May 8: Philadelphia, PA Xfinity Mobile Arena May 11: New York, NY Madison Square Garden May 14: Brooklyn, NY Barclays Center June 6: New York, NY Madison Square Garden June 19: Pittsburgh, PA PPG Paints Arena June 22: Cleveland, OH Rocket Arena June 24: Boston, MA TD Garden June 27: Washington, D.C. Nationals Park Tickets go on sale Friday, February 20, and Saturday, February 21. When is the next “No Kings” protest? The third “No Kings” nationwide protest is scheduled to take place in a little over a month, on March 28. More than 1,000 locally organized events in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., are already confirmed, including gatherings in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Organizers predict the March event will be even larger than the previous ones. In June, more than 5 million people attended the first “No Kings” protests. The movement grew to over 7 million people at the second “No Kings” protests in October.
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