March 9 – 15, 2026

Caitlin Kalinowski, OpenAI's head of robotics and consumer hardware, resigned following the company's partnership with the Pentagon. Her departure highlighted growing internal tensions at AI companies over defence collaboration.

Google Maps introduced "Ask Maps" for conversational natural-language place searching and "Immersive Navigation" with AI-analysed imagery for enhanced driving routes. The update rolled out on Android and iOS in the US and India — the largest Maps overhaul in over a decade.

Australian software company Atlassian laid off approximately 1,600 employees (10% of its workforce) to redirect nearly $236 million toward AI development. The company also replaced its CTO with two AI-focused CTOs.

Google officially completed its acquisition of cloud security platform Wiz for $32 billion, integrating AI-powered security tools into Google Cloud. Wiz is used by 40% of Fortune 500 companies.

Advanced Machine Intelligence Labs, chaired by Meta AI chief Yann LeCun, secured a $1.03 billion seed round co-led by Cathay Innovation, Greycroft, Hiro Capital, and Bezos Expeditions. The startup focuses on "world models" that learn physical laws rather than relying on language model approaches.

Morgan Stanley published a report warning that a "Transformative AI" breakthrough is expected in the first half of 2026, projecting a US power shortfall of 9–18 gigawatts through 2028 as data centres strain energy infrastructure.

Anthropic announced the Claude Partner Network with a $100 million commitment for 2026 to help consulting firms and system integrators deploy Claude in enterprise settings. Claude also gained cross-application capabilities for Excel and PowerPoint workflows.