Google has been moderating and removing employees’ internal election-related conversations, CNBC has learned.
Ahead of Tuesday’s U.S. elections, Google executives warned employees to keep political opinions and statements away from a popular internal discussion forum called Memegen, according to correspondence viewed by CNBC. Despite the warnings, employees continued posting memes related to the election and criticizing the company’s policies on Tuesday.
The most recent leadership guidance shows the company is taking expanded action to temper internal political discussions. Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Monday sent a memo reminding employees that people turn to the company’s services for “high-quality and reliable information.” That includes through the company’s Google Search, Google News and YouTube services.
“Whomever the voters entrust, let’s remember the role we play at work, through the products we build and as a business: to be a trusted source of information to people of every background and belief,” Pichai wrote. “We will and must maintain that.”
As one of the most important tech leaders in the U.S., Pichai himself has been pulled into the broader political discussions of late. Republican nominee Donald Trump claimed to have multiple phone calls with Pichai in recent weeks.
Google has been cracking down on internal conversations since 2019 when the company introduced a policy barring employees from making statements that “insult, demean, or humiliate” their colleagues. The rules also discouraged employees from engaging in a “raging debate over politics or the latest news story.”
That policy signaled a significant culture shift for the company. Some employees pushed back against the restrictions, saying they were too broad, and in 2020, the company said it was expanding its internal content moderation practices, requiring employees to more actively moderate internal discussions, CNBC found at the time.
Since 2021, Google has dealt with internal dissent regarding Project Nimbus, which is a $1.2 billion joint contract with Amazon to provide the Israeli government and military with cloud computing and AI services. Google briefly shut down an internal message board this March after employees posted comments about the company’s Nimbus contract.
In a 2019 settlement, the U.S. National Labor Board ordered Google to post a list of employee rights at its headquarters that included the right to discuss workplace conditions. That came after a former Google employee filed a complaint alleging that the company restricted free speech and fired him for expressing conservative views, which Google refuted.
The company declined to comment.
Banning political discussions
Google announced more updates to its Memegen guidelines in September that included broadening the forum’s restrictions against political discussions, according to internal documents viewed by CNBC. The company also said it would ban employees from the platform if they violate policies three times, and Google said that it would also also use artificial intelligence technology to better detect violative content.
“Memegen will no longer allow posting of personal political opinions, including national policy/events, geopolitical content (eg, international relations, military conflicts, economic actions, territorial disputes, and other international affairs unrelated to Google), or sharing related news with or without commentary,” one document said.
Political debates have driven the “vast majority” of content removals, one document of the expanded policies said.
“Memegen isn’t a place for personal political opinions or statements,” reads a yellow banner that Google recently added at the top of Memegen, according to images viewed by CNBC.
One employee wrote that Google’s internal community management team, or ICMT, took down their meme, which they didn’t feel was violative. Many memes viewed by CNBC included messages such as “sending support” and “encouragement” to fellow employees. Others poked fun at the company’s expanded policy and the ICMT.
“This meme is a political statement please report to ICMT immediately,” one meme said. Another read: “Make Election Day a holiday to give ICMT a break.” Another meme just said “aaaaaaaa” overlaid on a black void.
Read Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s full memo to employees below
Hi Googlers, Tomorrow is election day here and many in the U.S. will be heading to the polls to vote for everything from school board to judges to the Congress and President.
Teams across Google and YouTube have been working hard to make sure our platforms provide voters with high-quality and reliable information, just as we’ve done for so many other elections around the world — in fact, dozens of countries have held major, hotly contested elections this year, from France to India to the UK to Mexico and many more, with well over a billion people casting votes in 2024.
We should be proud of our work, and also of our teams’ efforts to keep campaigns secure, to deliver accurate information on where and how to vote, and to provide digital advertising solutions to campaigns. Thanks to everyone working around the clock on these efforts throughout the campaign season and as votes are tallied.
As with other elections, the outcome will be a major topic of conversation in living rooms and other places around the world. And of course, the outcome will have important consequences. Whomever the voters entrust, let’s remember the role we play at work, through the products we build and as a business: to be a trusted source of information to people of every background and belief. We will and must maintain that. In that spirit, it’s important that everyone continue to follow our Community Guidelines and Personal Political Activity Policy.
Beyond election day, our work to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful will continue. Al has given us a profound opportunity to make progress on that mission, build great products and partnerships, drive innovation, and make significant contributions to national and local economies. Our company is at its best when we’re focused on that.
Alibaba announced plans to release a pair of smart glasses powered by its AI models. The Quark AI Glasses are Alibaba’s first foray into the smart glasses product category.
Alibaba
Alibaba on Thursday announced pricing for its upcoming artificial intelligence glasses and launched a new chatbot powered by its latest AI models.
The Chinese technology giant said the Quark AI Glasses will go on pre-sale on Oct. 24 on Alibaba’s e-commerce platform Tmall. The pre-sale price will start at 4,699 Chinese yuan ($659.4) but after applying various discounts, will cost 3,999 yuan.
Alibaba will begin shipping the product from December.
The Hangzhou-headquartered firm also unveiled AI Chat Assistant, a new chatbot mode within its existing Quark app.
The latest moves are part of Alibaba’s aggressive AI push this year which has seen the company release updated models and a drive to reinvigorate sales at its cloud computing business through which it sells much of this technology to businesses.
But the glasses and chatbot product highlight an increasing area of focus for Alibaba — AI that is aimed at consumers.
Alibaba’s shares closed nearly 1.7% higher in Hong Kong and its U.S.-listed stock also rose in premarket trade.
Alibaba AI glasses
Alibaba first announced the Quark AI Glasses in July. It’s the first product of its kind from the Chinese giant and the eyewear is powered by the company’s Qwen large language model and its Quark AI assistant.
The glasses support functions such as hands-free calling, music streaming and real-time language translation.
Many tech companies see wearables, specifically glasses, as the next frontier in computing, alongside the smartphone. The Quark AI Glasses are Alibaba’s answer to Meta’s smart glasses that were designed in collaboration with Ray-Ban.
The Chinese tech giant will also now compete with Chinese consumer electronics player Xiaomi who this year released its own AI glasses.
New AI assistant
Quark is Alibaba’s main consumer-facing AI app. Alibaba on Thursday unveiled a product called AI Chat Assistant, which is a new AI chatbot powered by its latest Qwen3 models.
The new mode allows users to switch to a chatbot style interface and have conversations via text or voice. Alibaba said the new feature allows “AI search and conversation” in one interface. The idea is that users can do everything they need in one application.
Alibaba said some of the functions include photo editing, “photo-based problem solving” and AI writing.
The product is Alibaba’s answer to the growing number of chatbot products out there from OpenAI’s ChatGPT to DeepSeek.
The world of enterprise AI is dominated by U.S. names from Microsoft to Salesforce, but Europe has a major player that is pushing hard into the space: SAP.
In an exclusive interview with CNBC’s “Europe Early Edition,” SAP CEO Christian Klein said that AI is “the number one reason” why customers are signing deals with the firm.
“After we close Q4, actually, 80, 85% of our revenue for next year is already done. So, [a] good pipeline for Q4 and with that, when we close out the year, our customers, also our investors, can expect there’s also very positive output,” he said.
SAP’s cloud backlog rose 23% in the third quarter to 18.8 billion, the company said in an earnings statement published late on Wednesday.
“I was pretty optimistic last night, and I’m still optimistic as the pipeline looks good,” Klein said. “We actually now have our biggest quarter.”
Revenue rose 7% to 9.08 billion euros ($10.53 billion), slightly below expectations of 9.15 billion euros, according to consensus figures compiled by LSEG. However, it saw gains of 22% in its cloud revenue, with Klein citing increasing AI and data cloud market share as the reason for the revenue jump.
Deutsche Bank said the firm remains a “top pick” in the European tech and global software sector, however it noted that SAP is now guiding toward the lower-end of its forecast for cloud revenue of 21.6 billion euros to 21.9 billions euros this year.
“Against an environment of lengthening deal cycles and pushouts … SAP continues to execute very well, in our view, even if delays in deal closings have led the company to guide to the lower end of its Cloud revenue growth range for FY25,” Deutsche Bank analysts said in a note led by Johannes Schaller.
SAP’s shares were initially 2% higher at the start of the trading session on Thursday, but later pared gains to trade 2.5% lower. The stock is down 3% year-to-date.
Europe’s AI playbook
SAP briefly became Europe’s most valuable company in March, riding the tailwinds of enthusiasm and gains in the German stock market.
The European Union has faced criticism for its legislative approach to AI, with some businesses calling for deregulation in efforts to catch up in the global AI race. Klein said he’s not sure if the bloc is adopting the right strategy compared with the U.S. approach of, “give me your AI, let’s test it, let’s refine it, let’s optimize it over time.”
The chief executive said he is laser-focused on creating value, explaining that it is “100%” what customers are looking for. It echoes the message of other AI firms and investors in Europe, given that the U.S. and China currently dominate the training of large language models, which is the infrastructure needed for AI. However, the general sentiment is that Europe has a chance to be a leader in putting it to use.
The training large language models is now a “commodity,” Klein said, adding that he expects the application of AI will become an increasing priority for businesses and SAP’s bet on this will be reflected in its share price in the future.
“It’s super important that we are not only selling into a hype, but that we see real adoption,” Klein said.
SAP has some exposure to China through partnerships that allow it to work “in China, for China,” due to geopolitical tensions, Klein noted. The country’s speed of AI development, low regulation and talent pool makes it hard to ignore, he said.
The company offers cloud solutions, expenses, and supply chain management and analytics to corporates. It underwent a large restructure in 2024 and pivoted towards AI services, which is now being used across the likes of finance and supplier sourcing.
Parts of the IBM Quantum System Two are displayed at IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York on June 6, 2025.
Angela Weiss | Afp | Getty Images
The Trump administration is in talks with several quantum-computing firms about giving the Commerce Department equity stakes in exchange for federal funding, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
The Journal, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter, said the companies include IonQ, Rigetti Computing and D-Wave Quantum. Other firms, such as Quantum Computing Inc. and Atom Computing, are considering similar arrangements, it added.
IonQ and D-Wave shares each jumped 9% in early trading Thursday. Rigetti added 7%. Quantum Computing was up 11%.
The news aligns with recent efforts by Washington to take stakes in major companies within industries seen as vital to U.S. national security, especially those receiving public funds.
One of the earliest examples under U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term came when the Defense Department invested $400 million in American rare earths company MP Materials for about a 15% stake in the company.
A month later, the government took a roughly 10% stake in semiconductor firm Intel — the only American company capable of making advanced AI processors on U.S. soil.
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IonQ, 1 day
The stakes in quantum computing companies would come with minimum funding awards of $10 million each, according to the Journal, citing people familiar with the matter. Other technology companies are also expected to compete for the grants.
An interventionist shift in Washington
The U.S. government’s growing interest in taking stakes in private companies is quite unprecedented in recent decades, especially outside of a financial crisis, signaling an ideological shift toward greater intervention in certain industries.
However, the Trump administration will not take stakes in nonstrategic industries, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC in an exclusive interview on Oct. 15. “We do have to be very careful not to overreach,” he said.
Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have argued that the government should benefit from a company’s success in cases where federal funds have played a role in its growth.
The targeted industries also appear to reflect Washington’s focus on technological and economic competition with China.
The U.S. stake in MP Materials, for example, came after China restricted exports of rare earth elements —essential components in high-tech products — prompting Washington to boost efforts to build its domestic supply chain.
Intel’s funding also aligns with U.S. efforts to strengthen its domestic semiconductor industry to support its broader race for dominance in artificial intelligence.
Quantum computing, which utilizes quantum mechanics to solve problems beyond the capabilities of today’s most supercomputers, is likely viewed as one of the next strategically critical technologies for Washington to focus on, due to its massive economic and security implications.
Experts believe that the advanced tech could revolutionize fields including medicine, finance, and materials science by solving complex problems currently impossible for traditional computers, and pose major cybersecurity threats if it falls into the hands of adversaries.