The European Commission is set to fine Apple about 500 million euros ($539 million) over alleged breaches of EU competition law, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing unnamed sources with knowledge of the matter.
Brussels first launched an investigation into allegations that Apple hindered third-party music services on its devices and favored its own Apple Music service, after Spotify filed a formal complaint to regulators in 2019.
In most regions, Apple’s App Store rules prohibit companies such as Spotify from billing users for subscriptions directly within the app, making them instead use Apple’s App Store billing service, which takes a cut of up to 30%.
Brussels formally charged Apple in an anti-competitive probe in 2021, but narrowed the scope of the investigation last year, abandoning a charge of pushing developers to use its own in-app payment system.
The latest version of the probe focused on whether Apple had restricted apps from informing users about cheaper subscription alternatives outside of its native App Store and thus violated EU competition laws.
The findings of the investigation will lead to the Commission accusing Apple of abusing its powerful position and banning its “unfair trading conditions” regarding its music service subscription policies, sources told the FT.
If imposed, the fine would be one of the most substantial financial penalties the EU has imposed on a major technology company. It follows a series of large contested fines against Google.
While Apple has faced fines for antitrust behavior before — such as the €1.1 billion penalty in France that was later reduced to €372 million on appeal — this would mark its first such fine from Brussels.
The reported fine is part of a broader crackdown in the EU and comes ahead of the enactment of the bloc’s landmark Digital Markets Act set for March. The new law aims to address anti-competitive practices from big tech players deemed as “gatekeepers,” including companies such as Apple, Amazon and Google.
Smaller internet firms and other tech businesses, such as Spotify, have long complained of being unfairly limited by these tech giant’s business practices.
In Apple’s case, the Digital Markets Act will require it to allow third-party developers to distribute apps outside the iOS Store and for those apps to bill their customers directly.
Apple has made moves to address EU regulations by announcing changes to its iOS, Safari and the App Store in the EU, and announced that it will soon allow software developers to distribute their apps to Apple devices via alternative stores.
In a separate antitrust case, the European Commission is looking into the way Apple restricts rivals from accessing its Apple Pay mobile system. Apple has already made concessions in relation to the case.
The timing of the Commission’s announcement on the fines has not yet been set, but that will not change the direction of the antitrust investigation, according to the FT report.
Apple has the right to appeal the decision in EU courts. The tech giant declined to comment on the report, referring CNBC to a previous statement that it was pleased regulators narrowed the focus of the probe.
Alibaba‘s Hong Kong-listed shares surged on Wednesday to reach their highest point since 2021 after the company said it will invest more in artificial intelligence and rolled out new AI products and updates.
Shares of the company jumped over 6%, while its total gains year to date rose above 107%.
The tech giant plans to increase spending on AI models and infrastructure development, on top of the 380 billion yuan ($53 billion) over three years it announced in February, Chief Executive Officer Eddie Wu said Wednesday at Alibaba Cloud’s annual flagship technology conference.
“We are vigorously advancing a three-year, 380 billion [yuan] AI infrastructure initiative with plans to sustain and further increase our investment according to our strategic vision in anticipation of the [artificial superintelligence] era,” Wu said.
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Alibaba shares surge after CEO unveils plans to boost AI spending
So-called ‘artificial superintelligence’ refers to AI that would hypothetically surpass the power and intelligence of the human brain, with the hypothetical benchmark becoming a growing focus of major AI companies.
Alibaba also officially unveiled the latest version of its Qwen large language models — the Qwen3-Max — on Wednesday, along with a series of other updates to its suite of AI product offerings.
Wu highlighted that Alibaba Cloud is strategically positioned as a “full-stack AI service provider,” delivering the computing power required for training and deploying large AI models on the cloud through its own data centers.
“The cumulative investment in global AI in the next five years will exceed $4 trillion, and this is the largest investment in computing power and research and development in history,” he added.
Venezuelan Bolivar and U.S. Dollar banknotes and representations of cryptocurrency Tether are seen in this illustration taken Sept. 8, 2025.
Dado Ruvic | Array
Tether, the issuer of the largest stablecoin, is planning to raise as much as $20 billion in a deal that could put the crypto company’s value on par with OpenAI, according to a report from Bloomberg News.
The crypto company is looking to raise between $15 billion and $20 billion in exchange for a roughly 3% stake through a private placement, the report said, citing two individuals familiar with the matter. The transaction would involve new equity rather than existing investors selling their stakes, the people told the news service.
The report said that one person close to the matter warned that the talks are in an early stage, which means that the eventual details, including the size of the offering, could change.
However, the deal could ultimately value Tether at around $500 billion, according to the report. That would mean the crypto giant’s valuation would rival some of the world’s biggest private companies, including SpaceX and OpenAI. OpenAI’s fundraising round earlier this year valued the tech company at $300 billion.
Tether, which was once accused of being a criminal’s “go-to cryptocurrency,” has been furthering its plans to return to the U.S. in recent months, given President Donald Trump’s pro-crypto stance. The company earlier this month named a CEO for its U.S. business and launched a new token for businesses and institutions in the U.S. called USAT, which will be regulated in the U.S. under the GENIUS Act.
Stablecoin USD Tether (USDT) is pegged to the U.S. dollar with a market cap that recently surpassed $172 billion. In second place is Tether rival Circle’s USDC stablecoin, which is worth about $74 billion.
A person walks by a sign for Micron Technology headquarters in San Jose, California, on June 25, 2025.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
Micron reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue on Tuesday as well as a robust forecast for the current quarter.
The stock rose in extended trading.
Here’s how the company did in comparison with the LSEG consensus:
Earnings per share: $3.03, adjusted, vs. $2.86 expected
Revenue: $11.32 billion vs. $11.22 billion expected
Micron said revenue in the current period, its fiscal first quarter, will be about $12.5 billion, versus the $11.94 billion average analyst estimate per LSEG.
The company said it had $3.2 billion, or $2.83 per share in net income, versus $887 million, or 79 cents in the year-ago period.
Micron shares have nearly doubled so far in 2025. The company makes memory and storage, which are important components for computers. Micron has been one of the winners of the artificial intelligence boom. That’s because high-end AI chips like those made by Nvidia require increasing amounts of high-tech memory called high-bandwidth memory, which Micron makes.
“As the only U.S.-based memory manufacturer, Micron is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the AI opportunity ahead,” Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said in a statement.
Overall company revenue rose 46% on a year-over-year basis during the quarter.
Micron’s largest unit, which sells memory for cloud providers, reported $4.54 billion in sales during the quarter, more than tripling on a year-over-year basis.
However, the company’s core data center business unit saw sales decline 22% on an annual basis to $1.57 billion in revenue.