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By Haripriya Suresh and Sai Ishwarbharath B BENGALURU (Reuters) -Tata Consultancy Services, India's top software-services exporter, beat second-quarter revenue estimates on Thursday, aided by strength in its banking, financial services and insurance segment, and said it expects better growth in the second half of the fiscal year. The results boosted optimism around the country's $283 billion IT sector, which has been dealing with cautious client spending amid economic uncertainties, especially in North America, its largest market. "If there are no more tariff-related surprises, Indian IT should slowly recover from this quarter," Centrum Broking analyst Piyush Pandey told Reuters, noting that TCS' revenue and operating margins were above expectations. TCS CEO K Krithivasan told analysts that the number of projects getting deferred or paused has reduced compared to the preceding quarter. "We have had better growth compared to Q1. Macros have not changed much, but our deep engagement with clients, AI solutions – all of this gives confidence that we will improve the growth momentum compared to the first half," he said. Sales in the September quarter rose 2.4% to 657.99 billion rupees ($7.4 billion), beating analysts' average estimate of 650.86 billion rupees, according to data compiled by LSEG. Revenue at its core banking, financial services and insurance segment, which accounts for about a third of the company's business, rose 1%, while revenue from its consumer, healthcare and manufacturing verticals fell 2.9%, 2.2% and 1.1%, respectively. Profit rose 1.4% to 120.75 billion rupees, but missed analysts' average estimate of 126.29 billion rupees, hurt by 11.35 billion rupees in severance costs. In July, TCS announced its plans to shed 2% of its workforce in fiscal 2026, affecting about 12,200 middle and senior management jobs. The company's employee count fell by 19,755 sequentially, the steepest-ever decline in a quarter. TCS's total order bookings stood at $10 billion during the second quarter, versus $9.4 billion in the first quarter and $8.6 billion in the year-ago period, bringing some cheer to the sector that has been facing many challenges, including a proposed 25% tax on outsourcing payments and an H-1B visa crackdown that is expected to upend the industry's playbook. The company also said it would set up a new business entity to build AI infrastructure, including a 1 GW data centre in India, over a period of five to seven years. "When functional, 1GW in capacity will make TCS among the Top-5 data center operators in India and will possibly entail capex of US $5bn," analysts at Jefferies said. ($1 = 88.7910 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Haripriya Suresh and Sai Ishwarbharath B; Editing by Sonia Cheema, Mrigank Dhaniwala, Dhanya Skariachan and Shinjini Ganguli)

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(Reuters) -Harvard University said on Wednesday that its graduate medical school has entered a licensing agreement with Microsoft, granting the tech company access to its consumer health content on specific diseases and wellness topics. Microsoft will pay Harvard a licensing fee, a university spokesperson said in a statement, adding that the agreement was made through Harvard Health Publishing, the consumer health division of Harvard Medical School. The agreement comes as part of the company's broader strategy to reduce its dependence on ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news earlier in the day, said the partnership will help enhance Microsoft's Copilot AI assistant with health-related content. The latest version of Copilot, expected to launch as early as this month, will utilize content from Harvard Health Publishing to provide answers to user questions on medical and wellness topics, the university said. Copilot has so far relied primarily on OpenAI's models to power tools across its productivity suite, including Word and Outlook. Microsoft has recently begun integrating Anthropic's Claude and is also developing its own AI models, as it looks to diversify its artificial intelligence strategy. (Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal and Rajveer Singh Pardesi in Bengaluru; Additional reported by Mrinmay Dey; Editing by Shailesh Kuber, Alan Barona and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

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(Reuters) -Harvard University said on Wednesday that its graduate medical school has entered a licensing agreement with Microsoft, granting the tech company access to its consumer health content on specific diseases and wellness topics. Microsoft will pay Harvard a licensing fee, a university spokesperson said in a statement, adding that the agreement was made through Harvard Health Publishing, the consumer health division of Harvard Medical School. The agreement comes as part of the company's broader strategy to reduce its dependence on ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news earlier in the day, said the partnership will help enhance Microsoft's Copilot AI assistant with health-related content. The latest version of Copilot, expected to launch as early as this month, will utilize content from Harvard Health Publishing to provide answers to user questions on medical and wellness topics, the university said. Copilot has so far relied primarily on OpenAI's models to power tools across its productivity suite, including Word and Outlook. Microsoft has recently begun integrating Anthropic's Claude and is also developing its own AI models, as it looks to diversify its artificial intelligence strategy. (Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal and Rajveer Singh Pardesi in Bengaluru; Additional reported by Mrinmay Dey; Editing by Shailesh Kuber, Alan Barona and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

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By Chris Kirkham, Rachael Levy and Abhirup Roy LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -When Tesla directors offered Elon Musk the biggest executive pay package in corporate history in September, it reassured investors that he would have to achieve the equivalent of “Mars-shot milestones” to earn $878 billion in Tesla stock over 10 years.  The board’s proposal said Musk would have to “completely transform Tesla and society as we know it” in robotics and autonomous driving as well as stock value and profits. Conversely, Musk would get “zero” unless he meets those “incredibly ambitious” goals. Yet Musk could reap tens of billions of dollars without meeting most of those targets, according to a Reuters analysis of his performance goals and more than a dozen experts in executive pay, company valuations, robotics and automotive trends including autonomous driving. He could collect more than $50 billion by hitting a handful of the board’s easier goals that won’t necessarily revolutionize Tesla’s products or business, the Reuters review found. Even hitting just two of the easiest targets, along with modest stock growth, would net Musk $26 billion, more than the lifetime pay of the next eight best-paid CEOs combined, a group that includes Meta Platforms' Mark Zuckerberg, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, Apple's Tim Cook, and Nvidia's Jensen Huang, according to an analysis for Reuters by research firm Equilar.  Musk’s vehicle sales goals are exceptionally easy to achieve, according to four automotive experts. If Musk sells 1.2 million cars a year over the next decade, on average, he earns $8.2 billion in stock if Tesla’s market value grows from $1.4 trillion today to $2 trillion in 2035, well under long-term market-average growth. That’s a half-million fewer cars per year than Tesla sold in 2024. On Tuesday, Tesla unveiled lower-cost versions of its best-selling Model Y SUV and Model 3 sedan to reverse falling sales. Three other product-development goals are written in vague language that could provide Musk hefty payouts without significantly boosting profit, according to six robotics or autonomous-driving industry experts who reviewed Musk’s goals for Reuters. Tesla and Musk did not respond to requests for comment. In a statement, a spokesperson for the Tesla board said: "The proposed pay package is actually worth zero to our CEO unless and until the shareholders see the value of the company nearly double and an operational milestone is met." The board’s pay proposal requires Musk to remain a Tesla executive for at least seven-and-a-half years to collect any stock compensation. Musk, however, would get the voting rights associated with the share awards as soon as he earns them. Musk said last month on his social media platform X that the package is “not about ‘compensation,’ but about me having enough influence over Tesla to ensure safety if we build millions of robots.” In its proposal, the board said Musk is “motivated by more than just conventional forms of compensation.” SELF DRIVING CARS, ROBOTAXIS AND ROBOTICS Each goal grants Musk 1% of Tesla stock if he also reaches valuation milestones between $2 trillion and $8.5 trillion. One goal requires 10 million subscriptions to Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” software, which can’t currently drive itself without human intervention. The goal contains no requirement that Tesla make the system fully autonomous, instead requiring only an “advanced driving system.” That’s a “made-up term” with no industry-standard definition, said William Widen, a University of Miami law professor specializing in autonomous driving. Autonomous-driving experts say the subscription target might be easily met by dropping the price, currently $8,000 upfront or $99 a month. Tesla’s leading electric-vehicle rival, China’s BYD, already offers a similar system for free. “If I were Musk’s personal employment lawyer, I would like these definitions,” said Matthew Wansley, a professor at New York’s Cardozo School of Law who focuses on autonomous driving. Another goal requires one million robotaxis in commercial operation and specifies cars “without a human driver in the vehicle.” That’s a potentially more restrictive definition but four autonomous-vehicle experts said it could be interpreted to allow for humans controlling vehicles remotely or from the passenger seat – as Tesla does now in its first small-scale robotaxi test in Austin, Texas.  Musk’s employment deal also sets a target of one million robots, an apparent reference to the Optimus humanoid robots Musk has long promised. But the goal doesn’t specify "humanoid" and could be interpreted broadly, two robotics-industry experts said. It defines "bot" as "any robot or other physical product with mobility using artificial intelligence."  “It’s a totally vague formulation,” said Christian Rokseth, an analyst with market research firm Humanoid.guide specializing in robotics and artificial intelligence. Investors, he said, are expecting a humanoid robot.  MODEST TARGETS WORTH BILLIONS Hitting any two product goals in a decade, along with a $2.5 trillion valuation, pays Musk $26.4 billion in stock. Hitting three targets and a $3 trillion valuation pays him $54.6 billion. That means Musk could earn these amounts without delivering driverless Teslas, the signature product he’s promised for a decade. Gene Munster, managing partner at Tesla investor Deepwater Asset Management, said that despite the loose language in his performance agreement, investors would ultimately hold him accountable for delivering transformational products. “If people start smelling there’s something goofy here, he's in trouble,” Munster said. In its pay proposal, Tesla’s board declared Musk the only person capable of transforming Tesla into an artificial-intelligence juggernaut. The board added that Musk, during negotiations, raised the prospect of “prioritizing other ventures” if he and the board couldn’t agree on compensation. Corporate governance experts said the board is taking a huge risk by so explicitly staking its future on one leader. Wei Jiang, vice dean at Emory University’s business school, said Tesla’s board has granted Musk a “monopoly” on Tesla’s top job. Good corporate governance, she said, requires embracing a “competitive and fluid market for CEOs.” THE HARD PART: PROFITS Musk’s hardest performance targets are likely those involving profit, a measure with no room for interpretation. The directors set eight profit goals between $50 billion and $400 billion in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, compared to Tesla’s 2024 earnings of $16.6 billion. Tesla’s EV business, which accounts for almost all its revenue, is deteriorating with aging models facing fierce competition. Its only newer model, the Cybertruck, has flopped. The way Musk’s compensation is structured, however, allows for massive payouts without hitting any profit target. Every goal combined with a market-value increase offers the same 1% stock payout. So Musk gets the same pay for meeting the relatively easy vehicle sales and FSD-subscription goals, for instance, as he would for boosting earnings five-fold to $80 billion.  The board’s valuation goals may prove far easier than its profit targets. Tesla’s value could hit $2 trillion, for instance, if shares grow a modest 6.4% annually over the decade following the board’s Sept. 3 pay-package approval. That’s slower growth than the S&P 500’s 8.5% annual average over the past 30 years and less than half the Nasdaq’s 13.2% average. Seth Goldstein, a Morningstar analyst who tracks Tesla, said its valuation could easily hit $3 trillion or more over a decade with market-average performance. He pointed out, however, that Tesla’s value is already largely based on “future products that don’t exist today.” For Musk to claim the biggest payouts o…

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By Raphael Satter WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Google said on Thursday that dozens of companies have been affected by an ambitious hacking campaign that targeted Oracle's suite of business products, an early assessment that could portend wide-ranging damage. Google, a unit of Alphabet, said in a statement that "mass amounts of customer data" were stolen in an operation it said may have begun as early as three months ago. "This level of investment suggests the threat actor(s) responsible for the initial intrusion likely dedicated significant resources to pre-attack research," the email said. Google said the hackers targeted Oracle's E-Business Suite of applications, which Oracle clients use to manage customers, suppliers, manufacturing, logistics, and other business processes. Oracle did not immediately return an email seeking comment. Previouisly, the company had confirmed that there was extortion activity aimed at its clients. Google noted in a blog post on Thursday that the group believed to be at the center of the intrusions, CL0P, has a long history of wide-ranging compromises against third party software or service providers. "This latest campaign targeting Oracle EBS marks a continuation of this successful and high-impact operational model," the blog said. CL0P did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Previously, the hacker group said it would soon be clear that Oracle had "bugged up their core product." (Reporting by Raphael Satter; Editing by David Gregorio)

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By Alexander Hübner and Amy-Jo Crowley MUNICH (Reuters) -Germany's PSI Software is close to being taken over, with several financial investors circling the maker of software for energy networks, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. One of the sources said PSI, which is recovering from a cyberattack last year, is seeking funding for next-generation product development. Among the competing suitors are technology investors Thoma Bravo, HgCapital and Warburg Pincus, and a decision on a sale could be made within the next few days, the sources said. PSI, whose software helps run power and gas transmission grids as well as factories, last year posted a loss before interest and tax of 15.2 million euros ($17.62 million), as it was hobbled for weeks by the cyberattack. Valued at close to 400 million euros on the stock exchange, the group posted 260.8 million euros in sales in 2024. German utility E.ON, which is PSI's second-largest investor, with almost 18% of the shares, and also a major customer, intends to hold on to its stake. German businessman and newsletter publisher Norman Rentrop is PSI's largest shareholder with a 23% stake. PSI, Norman Rentrop's investment holding as well as investment firm Thoma Bravo did not immediately respond to a request for comment. E.ON, HgCapital and Warburg Pincus declined to comment. ($1 = 0.8625 euros) (Additional reporting by Tom KaeckenhoffWriting by Ludwig BurgerEditing by Miranda Murray)

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By Zaheer Kachwala (Reuters) -Electronic Arts is betting on the latest "Battlefield" title to do what the last one could not – restore the franchise's reputation and loosen the dominance of "Call of Duty" on the first-person shooter genre. Releasing on Friday, "Battlefield 6" will test the ability of EA's intellectual property to draw gamers, weeks after it agreed to a $55 billion sale to a Saudi-backed investor group, a deal fueled by its prized gaming portfolio. EA's other shooters, including "Apex Legends", "Titanfall" and "Star Wars Battlefront", have lost steam, forcing it to rely on one of its best-known franchises to attract consumers who are sticking with proven titles amid tariff-led economic worries. "Battlefield 6 is a make-or-break release," said Joost van Dreunen, games professor at NYU's Stern School of Business. "For EA to really get through this coming period, it needs a solid win, and Battlefield 6 has to deliver in a kind of tough time in the industry and in a very cluttered category." EARLY PROMISE The title gathered more than 521,000 concurrent PC players in its beta test in August – a franchise record that surpassed "Call of Duty's" all-time peak of around 491,000 players, according to Steam charts data. The test also averaged 10.6 million daily active users, peaking at 12 million in its first weekend, according to cross-platform data from Newzoo compiled for Reuters. Gamers have been attracted by "Battlefield 6's" modern-era setting, large-scale open combat and advanced graphics. The title was developed by four in-house studios and led by "Call of Duty" veterans Vince Zampella and Byron Beede. The wealth of experience is meant to avoid the missteps that doomed "Battlefield 2042", which EA admits underperformed. The 2021 title was launched with technical issues and resulted in a drop in player base within months. Critics have said the game strayed too far from the franchise's identity: dropping a single-player campaign and the traditional four-class system for specialists who could use any weapon or gadget, which erased clear team roles and balance. "Battlefield 6" has brought back the class system. "The biggest complaint was just around that specialized character system, and it just was not that Battlefield-esque and the core players didn't resonate with that," said Wedbush Securities analyst Alicia Reese. CALL OF DUTY FATIGUE Aiding EA is also the gamer fatigue with "Call of Duty", after 21 mainline entries and around two decades of annual releases. The franchise, published by Microsoft-owned Activision-Blizzard, has sold more than half-a-billion copies, but its rising focus on in-game monetization has irked some fans. The revenue strategy of "Call of Duty" has leaned on selling cosmetic bundles and licensing pop-culture tie-ins, from Snoop Dogg and Nicki Minaj to Beavis and Butt-Head skins, which many say dilutes the gritty realism of the series. "Black Ops 7", the latest title in the series releasing in November, has faced backlash on social media. Its initial reveal trailer, launched on August 19, got more than 534,000 dislikes on YouTube and just 69,000 likes, according to third-party estimates. The "Battlefield 6" reveal trailer, which premiered in July, received over 543,000 likes and 5,000 dislikes. YouTube no longer displays the number of dislikes under videos and Reuters could not independently verify the third-party projections. YouTube-owner Google did not immediately respond to a request for the video data. "There's some really big questions around the setting of this Call of Duty: has it gone too far into the realm of fiction and sci-fi?" said Chris Hewish, a former Activision executive who is now president of gaming fintech firm Xsolla. While its popularity will likely ensure it sells millions of copies and draws thousands of players on Microsoft's Xbox service, its developers acknowledged criticism in an August post: "Some of you have said we've drifted from what made Call of Duty unique in the first place. We hear you." (Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni and Arun Koyyur)

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(Reuters) -Fintech firm Younited, which provides personal loans and credit, announced it secured a 400 million euros ($464.48 million) warehouse financing facility with U.S. bank Citi, backed by French and Italian consumer loans. Warehouse financing is a short-term financing option in which businesses can use their inventory as collateral. WHY IT'S IMPORTANT: Younited's latest financing comes as Europe tries to free up more capital for lending and boost its underdeveloped securitisation market in order to spur sluggish economic growth. Moreover, in recent years, fintech companies and neo-banks, with their digital technologies, have gained market share from older, more established players. KEY QUOTE: "The signing of this warehouse financing facility complements Younited's significant retail deposit funding base and provides significant diversification, while adding balance-sheet flexibility towards continued regular use of the public ABS (asset-backed securities) market for refinancing transactions," said Xavier Pierart, Deputy CEO of Younited. ($1 = 0.8612 euros) (Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Vijay Kishore)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Alphabet-owned Google said dozens of companies have been affected by an ambitious hacking campaign that targeted Oracle's suite of business products. The company said in a blog post Thursday that 'mass amounts of customer data' were stolen in the process. (Reporting by Raphael Satter)

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By Jaspreet Kalra and Ashwin Manikandan MUMBAI (Reuters) -At the world's largest gathering for the financial technology sector in Mumbai this week, more than 800 speakers tip-toed around two topics that have captured attention globally: cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. About 100,000 participants converged for the three-day conference starting October 7 in India's financial capital, headlined by the prime ministers of India and the United Kingdom, and drawing regulators, investors and industry executives from more than 100 countries. The annual conference kicked off just as bitcoin catapulted to an all-time high above $125,000 but that milestone found no mention at the conference on the back of India's regulatory caution around the sector. India is leaning towards not creating legislation to regulate the sector, Reuters reported last month. "AVOID CRYPTO REMARKS" "Please avoid political, crypto, religious, or personal remarks on stage or at the venue," read a document containing guidelines for speakers, a copy of which was shared with Reuters by a participant. Organisers for the event, the Payments Council of India, National Payments Corporation of India and the Fintech Convergence Council did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment. The warning highlights a contrast with other Asian economies and regions such as Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore, which have made efforts to establish themselves as regional hubs for cryptocurrency and stablecoins. Instead, regulators spotlighted India's central bank digital currency, called the e-rupee, with the Reserve Bank of India launching pilots for deposit tokenisation and a sandbox for fintechs. All told, more than 50 products debuted at the event, including PayPal's global wallet platform, biometric authentication for payments via India’s Unified Payments Interface, and the India launch of U.K.-based Revolut’s payment platform. "The policy ambivalence has a chilling effect on the development of commercial use cases for stablecoins in India," said Mandar Kagade, founder of Delhi-based Black Dot Public Policy Advisors. LITTLE APPETITE FOR CRYPTO VENTURES At least six industry executives on the sidelines of the event said that while entering into the crypto sector could offer fresh business lines and help attract investment, there is little appetite in the absence of regulatory blessing. "There is cause for fair degree of caution (on stablecoins)," said Sahil Kini, the CEO of Reserve Bank of India Innovation Hub, while addressing a session on Tuesday. "I don’t think this kind of stance changes overnight." India's fintech sector raised a total of $3.5 billion last year, the lowest since 2020 and well off the peak of $9.2 billion in 2021, per data from Tracxn. "Regulators need to have an iterative approach instead of the complete aversion they have towards stablecoins currently," said Joseph Sebastian, vice president for investments at Mumbai-based venture capital firm Blume Ventures. The first step can be allowing inward remittances via U.S. dollar stablecoins as the regulatory grey-zone also complicates the picture for startups and investors, he noted. Globally, U.S. dollar stablecoins have amassed a market capitalisation of over $300 billion, while the overall market cap of crypto tokens has climbed to more than $4 trillion, according to industry data provider CoinGecko. "It’s becoming real whether we like it or not, so it's imperative to figure out how to engage with it," said Vivekdeep Gupta, an independent consultant focused on digital assets who advises half a dozen startups. There is a "huge amount of energy but lack of regulatory clarity is also causing brain-drain," Gupta said, pointing to a preference for companies in the sector to incorporate overseas. (Reporting by Jaspreet Kalra and Ashwin Manikandan in Mumbai)

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