A parcel is prepared for shipment at Amazon’s warehouse in Hemel Hempstead, England.
Getty Images
Amazon warehouse workers could soon be joined by a couple new co-workers: Ernie and Bert.
Those are the names of the new robots Amazon is testing with the goal of reducing strenuous movements for workers.
While the introduction of robots to the workplace often raises questions about whether human jobs will be replaced, Amazon argues they simply allow workers to focus on tasks that most need their attention while minimizing their potential for injury. Amazon said it’s added over a million jobs around the world since it began using robotics in its facilities in 2012.
In May, Amazon announced a goal of reducing recordable incident rates by 50% by 2025. It plans to invest over $300 million into safety projects this year.
Amazon described in a blog post Sunday four robots it’s testing to move items across its fulfillment centers and closer to workers.
Ernie helps remove items from a robotic shelf so employees don’t have to. The process doesn’t save time, Amazon said in the post, but testing has so far indicated it could make work safer for employees.
Bert is one of Amazon’s first Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs), made to navigate facilities independently, even while workers are moving around. Unlike other robots, Bert would not need to remain in a restricted space, meaning workers could ask it to take items across a facility. Amazon said Bert could eventually move heavier items.
Scooter and Kermit are two other AMRs under development that transport carts. Amazon said these types of robots could take over workers’ tasks of moving empty packages across facilities so they can focus on activities requiring critical thinking skills and reduce physically strenuous work.
Kermit, which follows magnetic tape to move empty totes, is further along in development, Amazon said, and will be introduced in at least a dozen North American sites this year. Amazon said it plans to deploy Scooter in at least one facility this year.
Lyft logo is seen in this illustration taken June 27, 2022.
Dado Ruvic | Reuters
U.S. ride-hailing firm Lyft on Wednesday announced that it’s buying European taxi app Free Now in a 175 million euro ($199 million) deal.
The company said that the acquisition — Lyft’s first in Europe — is expected to close in the second half of 2025, and that, once combined, the two companies will serve over 50 million combined annual users.
Founded in 2009 as myTaxi, Free Now is a ride-hailing platform headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. The company has been jointly owned by German automotive giants BMW and Mercedes-Benz since 2019.
The app is available in over 150 cities across nine countries, including Ireland, the U.K., Germany and France. Beyond traditional taxi and ride-hailing services, Free Now also offers other mobility options including e-scooters, e-mopeds and e-bikes.
Free Now has been joint-owned by German automotive giants BMW and Mercedes-Benz since 2016.
The startup is earnings-positive on the basis of Earnings Before Interest, Debt and Amortization, generating gross bookings over 1 billion euros in 2024, according to a company fact sheet.
Acquiring Free Now will give Lyft a route to expand into the highly competitive European ride-hailing market, where it will come up against the likes of Uber, Estonia’s Bolt and Israel’s Gett.
Lyft’s closest domestic rival, Uber, has a lengthy head start on the firm, having first launched in the U.K. back in 2012. It has since been beset by a series of regulatory issues.
London’s transport regulators tried to ban Uber two times over safety concerns. The company was eventually awarded a fresh license to continue operating in the city in 2022.
Olly Curtis | Future Publishing | via Getty Images
LONDON — Google is being sued for over £5 billion ($6.6 billion) in potential damages in the U.K. over allegations that the U.S. tech giant abused its “near-total dominance” in the online search market to drive up prices.
A class action lawsuit filed Wednesday in the U.K. Competition Appeal Tribunal claims that Google abused its position to restrict competing search engines and, in turn, bolster its dominant position in the market and make itself the only viable destination for online search advertising.
It is being brought by competition law academic Or Brook on behalf of hundreds of thousands of U.K.-based organizations that used Google’s search advertising services from Jan. 1, 2011, up until when the claim was filed. She is being represented by law firm Geradin Partners.
“Today, UK businesses and organisations, big or small, have almost no choice but to use Google ads to advertise their products and services,” Brook said in a statement Tuesday. “Regulators around the world have described Google as a monopoly and securing a spot on Google’s top pages is essential for visibility.
“Google has been leveraging its dominance in the general search and search advertising market to overcharge advertisers,” she added. “This class action is about holding Google accountable for its unlawful practices and seeking compensation on behalf of UK advertisers who have been overcharged.”
Google was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.
A 2020 market study from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) — the U.K.’s competition regulator — found that 90% of all revenue in the search advertising market was earned by Google.
The lawsuit claims that Google has taken a number of steps to restrict competition in search, including entering into deals with smartphone makers to pre-install Google Search and Chrome on Android devices and paying Apple billions to ensure Google is the default search engine on its Safari browser.
It also alleges Google ensures its search management tool Search Ads 360 offers better functionality and more features with its own advertising products than that of competitors.
Big Tech under fire
It is the latest legal challenge for the American technology giant. U.S. Big Tech firms ranging from Google to Meta have been hit with a multitude of lawsuits, regulatory investigations and fines over concerns surrounding their sheer power and influence.
In 2018, Google was fined 4.3 billion euros ($4.9 billion) by the European Union for abusing the dominance of its Android mobile operating system by forcing smartphone makers to pre-install Chrome and Search in a bundle with its Play app store. Seven years on, Google is still appealing the antitrust penalty.
This week, an antitrust lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission against Meta officially entered the courtroom in a landmark trial that could ultimately force the social media giant to sell its Instagram and WhatsApp platforms.
That came after a class action lawsuit filed in December 2024 accused Microsoft of unfairly overcharging customers of rival cloud companies. The claimant in the case, competition lawyer Maria Luisa Stasi, is seeking more than £1 billion in compensation for firms affected.
Dutch semiconductor equipment firm ASML on Wednesday missed on net bookings expectations, suggesting a potential slowdown in demand for its critical chipmaking machines.
ASML reported net bookings of 3.94 billion euros ($4.47 billion) for the first three months of 2025, versus a Reuters reported forecast of 4.89 billion euros.
Here’s how ASML did versus LSEG consensus estimates for the first quarter:
Net sales: 7.74 billion, against 7.8 billion euros expected
Net profit: 2.36 billion, versus 2.3 billion euros expected
In comments accompanying the results, ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet said that the demand outlook “remains strong” with artificial intelligence staying as a key driver. However, he added that “uncertainty with some of our customers” could take the company into the lower end of its full-year revenue guidance.
ASML is estimating 2025 revenue of between of 30 billion euros to 35 billion euros.
Fouquet said that tariffs are “creating a new uncertainty” both on a macroeconomic level and with respect to “our potential market demands.”
“So this is a dynamic I think we have to watch very carefully,” Fouquet said. “Now this being said, where we are today, we still see basically our revenue range for 2025 being between basically €30 and €35 billion.”
Global chip stocks have been fragile over the last two weeks amid worries about how U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff plans will affect the semiconductor supply chain.
Last week, the U.S. administration announced smartphones, computers and semiconductors would be temporarily exempted from his so-called “reciprocal” duties on counterparties. But on Sunday, Trump and his top trade officials created confusion with comments that there would be no tariff “exception” for the electronics industry, and that these goods were instead moving to a different “bucket.”
On Tuesday, a federal government notice announced that the U.S. Commerce Department was conducting a national security investigation into imports of semiconductor technology and related downstream products. The probe will examine whether additional trade measures, including tariffs, are “necessary to protect national security.”
