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The Microsoft Teams app on a laptop arranged in New York, US, on Tuesday, June 25, 2024.

Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The European Union on Friday said it has accepted commitments from Microsoft to unbundle its Teams workplace communication platform from its popular productivity apps.

The decision essentially exempts Microsoft from receiving a potentially hefty antitrust fine after the company was last year accused by the European Commission — the executive body of the EU — of breaching competition rules with the “abusive” bundling of its Teams and Office products.

“With today’s decision, we make binding for seven years or more Microsoft’s commitments to put an end to its tying practices that may be preventing rivals from effectively competing with Teams,” Teresa Ribera, executive vice-president for clean, just and competitive transition, said in a statement.

Under the commitments, which Microsoft first unveiled in May, the U.S. software giant will make versions of its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 software suites available at a reduced price without Teams, as well as allow customers with long-term licenses to switch to suites without Teams.

The company will also provide interoperability between tools that compete with Teams and certain Microsoft products and allow clients to move data out of Teams to competing products.

Microsoft has subsequently also offered to make further commitments to resolve its competition concerns after the European Commission market-tested the firm’s initial pledges.

They included increasing the price difference between some Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites without Teams and those with Teams by 50% and clarifying that Microsoft websites advertising a suite with Teams should display the corresponding offer without it.

“We appreciate the dialogue with the Commission that led to this agreement, and we turn now to implementing these new obligations promptly and fully,” Nanna-Louise Linde, vice president of European government affairs, said in a statement Friday.

The EU first opened an antitrust investigation into Microsoft in July 2023 following a complaint by Salesforce-owned Slack, which has a rival chat service to Teams. Slack was acquired by Salesforce for $27.7 billion in 2021.

Slack was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.

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Lambda, Microsoft agree to multibillion-dollar AI infrastructure deal with Nvidia chips

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Lambda, Microsoft agree to multibillion-dollar AI infrastructure deal with Nvidia chips

In this photo illustration, a person is holding a smartphone with the logo of US GPU hardware company Lambda Inc. (Lambda Labs) on screen in front of website.

Timon Schneider | SOPA Images | AP

Cloud computing startup Lambda announced on Monday a multibillion-dollar deal with Microsoft for artificial intelligence infrastructure powered by tens of thousands of Nvidia chips.

The agreement comes as Lambda benefits from surging consumer demand for AI-powered services, including AI chatbots and assistants, CEO Stephen Balaban told CNBC’s “Money Movers” on Monday.

“We’re in the middle of probably the largest technology buildout that we’ve ever seen,” Balaban said. “The industry is going really well right now, and there’s just a lot of people who are using ChatGPT and Claude and the different AI services that are out there.”

Balaban said the partnership will continue the two companies’ long-term relationship, which goes back to 2018.

A specific dollar amount was not disclosed in the deal announcement.

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Founded in 2012, Lambda provides cloud services and software for training and deploying AI models, servicing over 200 thousand developers, and also rents out servers powered by Nvidia’s graphics processing units.

The new infrastructure with Microsoft will include the NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 systems, which are also deployed by hyperscaler CoreWeave, according to a release.

“We love Nvidia’s product,” Balaban said. “They have the best accelerator product on the market.”

The company has dozens of data centers and is planning to continue not only leasing data centers but also constructing its own infrastructure as well, Balaban said.

Earlier in October, Lambda announced plans to open an AI factory in Kansas City in 2026. The site is expected to launch with 24 megawatts of capacity with the potential to scale up to over 100 MW.

OpenAI signs $38B deal with Amazon: Here's what to know

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Tesla faces widening federal probe into door handle safety issues

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Tesla faces widening federal probe into door handle safety issues

Tesla models Y and 3 are displayed at a Tesla showroom in Corte Madera, California, on Dec. 20, 2024.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Tesla has been ordered to provide records to U.S. federal auto safety regulators to comply with a sweeping investigation into possible safety defects with the company’s flush-mounted, retractable door handles that can lead to people getting trapped.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a letter to Elon Musk‘s automaker that the agency continued to receive complaints from Tesla owners after the regulators initiated a probe in September.

Owners said they were unable to enter or exit their cars due to battery power loss and other situations impeding normal use of the doorhandles.

In some cases, owners’ children were trapped inside hot vehicles, requiring first responder interventions or breaking windows to open the doors.

NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigations said they had “received 16 reports of exterior door handles becoming inoperative due to low 12VDC battery voltage in certain MY 2021 Tesla Model Y vehicles,” as of October 27, 2025.

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The agency began the electronic door handles investigation into Tesla following a Bloomberg report bringing incidents to light. The news agency reported that people were injured or died after becoming trapped in Tesla vehicles after collisions or battery power losses that prevented doors from opening normally.

Tesla design leader Franz Von Holzhausen has said in subsequent press interviews that the company would change the design of its door handles.

Tesla competitors, including Rivian, are also reconsidering flush-mounted, or retractable door handle designs.

Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schäfer recently said his company’s customers don’t even want the flush-mounted, electronic doorhandles and VW has no plans to adopt them.

Meanwhile, China is expected to implement new vehicle safety standards around door handles, including a requirement to have more clearly marked, accessible and easier-to-use emergency, interior door release mechanisms.

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has released draft standards and comments are open through November 22.

The NHTSA Tesla probe seeks records concerning all model year, “2021 Tesla Model Y vehicles manufactured for sale or lease in the United States,” as well as “peer vehicles,” including Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles from model years 2017 to 2022, and “systems related to opening doors including, door handles, door latches, 12VDC batteries, software,” and other components.

Tesla has until Dec. 10 to provide the records.

While Tesla can seek an extension on the deadline from NHTSA, it may face fines of “$27,874 per violation per day, with a maximum of $139,356,994” if the company either fails to or refuses to “respond completely, accurately, or in a timely manner” to NHTSA’s information requests, the agency cautioned in its letter.

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Cramer: Amazon-OpenAI cloud deal puts an exclamation point on a remarkable few days

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Cramer: Amazon-OpenAI cloud deal puts an exclamation point on a remarkable few days

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