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By Manya Saini (Reuters) -PayPal saw a slowdown in payments activity in September that continued into October across both the U.S. and Europe, as consumers became more selective in their purchases, CFO Jamie Miller told analysts on a call. Shares of the company, which had initially jumped 17% after PayPal announced a partnership with OpenAI and reported blowout results, pared some gains during the conference call as investors digested Miller's comments. The stock was last up 10%. U.S. companies across industries are feeling the squeeze from a widening gap between lower-income and affluent consumers, with tariffs adding further uncertainty, as seen in third-quarter earnings reported so far. "We're seeing basket sizes just trade down. Average order value being down, particularly in retail where you know consumers are just being more selective, and that behavior has continued into October," Miller said. The shift, echoed by major retailers and consumer goods companies, points to a slowdown in discretionary purchases, even as everyday spending remains steady, leaving the payments sector largely on firm footing. PayPal forecast current-quarter adjusted EPS between $1.23 and $1.27, below Street expectations of $1.31 according to estimates compiled by LSEG. "Worries over a weaker jobs market in the U.S., signs of financial strain among lower-income families and the slower-than-hoped rate of interest rate cuts from the U.S. Federal Reserve have all added a cyclical element to more structural concerns," said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell. However, the year-end holiday season, typically a strong period for retailers and payment firms, could help lift spending in the next couple of months. Retailers typically rely on the fourth-quarter holiday season for a large portion of annual sales, with spending during Christmas, Black Friday and Thanksgiving helping boost purchases. "The holiday season is very back-end loaded. So it's something we're watching," Miller added. (Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)

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(Reuters) -OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman is not getting a stake in the newly restructured company, the ChatGPT maker said on Tuesday. (Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)

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MILAN (Reuters) -Ride-hailing service Uber has signed on as a sponsor for next year's Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, organisers said on Tuesday, as they prepare for a Games where transportation is likely to be one of the key challenges. Uber said it would work with 5,000 local drivers to help transport people to and from venues during the Olympics and Paralympics where events will be held across a large area of northern Italy. Dedicated pick-up and drop-off zones will be available for Uber passengers at venues. These arrangements will be complemented by detailed in-app directions and real-time mapping to minimise congestion and wait times. "Italy will welcome an extraordinary number of visitors, and for the Organising Committee, it is essential to offer all possible transportation alternatives," Nevio Devide, Chief Revenue Officer of Milano-Cortina 2026, said in a statement. Milan, which will stage the opening ceremony and indoor events such as ice hockey and figure skating, is more than 400 kilometres (250 miles) from co-host Cortina d'Ampezzo in the Dolomite mountains. Organisers said in September that they had raised 450 million euros ($525 million) of local sponsorship and were aiming for a target of 550 million euros. The Winter Olympics run from February 6-22, and the Paralympics from March 6-15. Uber announced in July that it would serve as the official rideshare and on-demand delivery partner of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, as well as Team USA. ($1 = 0.8575 euros) (Reporting by Keith Weir, editing by Alvise Armellini and Ed Osmond)

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By Stephen Nellis and Deborah Mary Sophia (Reuters) -Microsoft and OpenAI reached a deal to allow the ChatGPT maker to restructure itself into a public benefit corporation, valuing OpenAI at $500 billion and giving it more freedom in its business operations. The deal removes a major constraint on raising capital for OpenAI that has existed since 2019, when it signed a deal with Microsoft that gave the tech giant rights over much of OpenAI's work in exchange for costly cloud computing services needed to carry it out. As its ChatGPT service exploded in popularity, those limitations became a notable source of tension between the two companies. Microsoft will still hold a stake of about $135 billion, or 27%, in OpenAI Group PBC, which will be controlled by the OpenAI Foundation, a nonprofit, the companies said.  The Redmond, Washington-based firm has invested $13.8 billion in OpenAI, with Tuesday's deal implying that Microsoft had generated a return of nearly ten times its investment. Microsoft shares rose 2.5%, sending its market value above $4 trillion again.   The deal keeps the two firms intertwined until at least 2032 with a massive cloud computing contract and with Microsoft retaining some rights to OpenAI products and AI models until then even if OpenAI reaches artificial general intelligence (AGI), the point at which AI systems can match a well-educated human adult. With more than 700 million weekly users as of September, ChatGPT has exploded in popularity to become the face of AI for many consumers after OpenAI's founding as a nonprofit AI safety group. As the company grew, the Microsoft deal constrained OpenAI's ability to raise funds from outside investors and secure computing contracts as the crush of ChatGPT users and its research into new models caused its computing needs to skyrocket.  "OpenAI has completed its recapitalization, simplifying its corporate structure," Bret Taylor, the OpenAI Foundation's board chair, said in a blog post. "The nonprofit remains in control of the for-profit, and now has a direct path to major resources before AGI arrives." Microsoft's previous 2019 agreement had many provisions that rested on when OpenAI reached that point, and the new deal requires an independent panel to verify OpenAI's claims it has reached AGI. "OpenAI still faces ongoing scrutiny around transparency, data usage, and safety oversight. But overall, this structure should provide a clearer path forward for innovation and accountability," said Adam Sarhan, CEO of 50 Park Investments. Gil Luria, head of technology research at DA Davidson, said the deal "resolves the longstanding issue of OpenAI being organized as a not-for-profit (organization) and settles the ownership rights of the technology vis-à-vis Microsoft. The new structure should provide more clarity on OpenAI's investment path, thus facilitating further fundraising." Microsoft also said that it has secured a deal with OpenAI where the ChatGPT maker will purchase $250 billion of Azure cloud computing services. In exchange, Microsoft will no longer have a right of first refusal to provide computing services to OpenAI. Microsoft also said that it will not have any rights to hardware produced by OpenAI. In March, OpenAI bought longtime Apple design chief Jony Ive's startup io Products in a $6.5 billion deal. (Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru and Stephen Nellis in Washington; Editing by Devika Syamnath and Franklin Paul)

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By Jaspreet Singh (Reuters) -Palo Alto Networks is expanding its artificial intelligence-powered cybersecurity offerings, as clients seek to secure their business operations from rising hacking incidents. Palo Alto's AI tools, combined with its planned acquisition of Israeli peer CyberArk Software, are deepening its security offerings amid a wave of high-profile cyberattacks that has hit global companies, including F5 and UnitedHealth Group. Chief Executive Nikesh Arora said some recent breaches underscore how back-end infrastructure compromises can expose thousands of customers by revealing vulnerabilities in shared source code. Palo Alto launched new versions of its cloud security platform, Cortex Cloud, and AI application security platform Prisma AIRS on Tuesday. The company said Prisma AIRS 2.0 integrates technology from its recently acquired Seattle-based startup Protect AI, creating a combined platform to secure AI applications from development to deployment. It also uses AI systems to automatically find loopholes in other such systems. The Cortex Cloud 2.0 now incorporates agentic platform Cortex AgentiX and a cloud command center, its unified view of cloud assets to showcase risks and threats across cloud services of multiple providers. Customers will have the ability to tailor those agents for specific user roles, Arora said, adding the pricing of the new agentic AI offerings would be consistent with the company's existing Cortex XSOAR platform that unifies and automates incident response across all security tools. "We're not going to take actions where the customers can't reverse them, or the customers can't have that a human in the middle type of activity. So most of our agents will have humans in the middle," he added. The agents are trained on 1.2 billion real-world security incident responses. Palo Alto's standalone AgentiX platform is expected to launch early next year, the company said. (Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

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By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Europe's biggest telecommunications companies urged the head of the European Commission on Tuesday to loosen EU merger rules, a move they said would boost much-needed investments in digital infrastructure and help them compete with U.S. and Asian peers. The call by the chief executives of Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica, TIM, Vodafone, Nokia and Ericsson comes as the Commission is set to announce a legislative proposal to revamp the sector. The Digital Networks Act, currently scheduled to be unveiled in November, aims to take a more comprehensive approach to help ramp up digital infrastructure across Europe. It hit a stumbling block last week, however, when an internal Commission body issued a negative opinion on the legislation, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. "The Digital Networks Act is a crucial opportunity," the CEOs wrote in a joint letter to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. "Unless the Commission takes bold action with a clearly stated intent to address the need for scale, European industries will continue to lack the strength to invest at the same pace as their competitors in the United States, Asia and other markets," they wrote. The telecoms industry has voiced concern the DNA will ignore their calls to ease the path for large mergers, particularly those which reduce the number of players in a market from four to three. Antitrust regulators have long viewed that level of consolidation as a precursor to price hikes considered harmful to consumers. "The Commission must act boldly to recognise the link between scale and investment, and a much simplified regulatory framework that increases investment capacities," the executives said. Other signatories to the letter included BT Group, CK Hutchison Group Telecom, KPN, Liberty Global, FiberCop, Swisscom and Telenor. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Joe Bavier)

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By Stephen Nellis and Deborah Mary Sophia (Reuters) -Microsoft said on Tuesday it has reached a deal with OpenAI to allow the ChatGPT maker to restructure itself into a public benefit corporation, following which Microsoft would hold a stake of about $135 billion – or 27% – in the AI startup. Microsoft shares jumped 4% on the deal, which could clear the way for OpenAI to become publicly traded in the future. Microsoft also said that it has secured a deal with OpenAI where the ChatGPT maker will purchase $250 billion of Azure cloud computing services. In exchange, Microsoft will no longer have a right of first refusal to provide computing services to OpenAI. Microsoft's earlier agreement with OpenAI gave it intellectual property rights to OpenAI's products and models until 2030, or until OpenAI achieved artificial general intelligence (AGI). Microsoft said that its product and model rights now extend to 2032 and that those rights will continue until then even if a panel of independent experts verifies a declaration by OpenAI that it has achieved AGI. (Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru and Stephen Nellis in Washington; Editing by Devika Syamnath and Franklin Paul)

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(Reuters) -Apple topped $4 trillion in market value for the first time on Tuesday, the third Big Tech company to hit the milestone, as robust demand for its latest iPhone models allayed fears over its slow progress in the AI race. Apple's shares have gained about 13% since the new launches on September 9, in a remarkable turnaround that pushed the stock into positive territory for the first time this year.  "The iPhone accounts for over half of Apple's profit and revenue and the more phones they can get into the hands of people, the more they can drive people into their ecosystem," said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Northlight Asset Management, ahead of the milestone. Apple shares had struggled earlier this year on concerns over tough competition in China and uncertainties around how the company would navigate high U.S. tariffs on Asian economies such as China and India, its major manufacturing hubs.  The latest smartphones, including the iPhone 17 line-up and the iPhone Air, wooed back customers from Beijing to Moscow within the first few weeks of launch, while the company has swallowed the high costs from the tariffs. Analysts said the iPhone Air's slim design could help fend off rivals such as Samsung Electronics, while early sales of the iPhone 17 outperformed its predecessor by 14% in the U.S. and China, data from research firm Counterpoint showed. Brokerage Evercore ISI expects the strong demand for Apple's latest iPhones to help it surpass market expectations for the three-month period ending in September and issue upbeat forecasts for the quarter ending in December. Apple is the third company to hit the $4 trillion mark after Nvidia and Microsoft. Nvidia currently tops the table with a market value of more than $4.5 trillion. Apple's cautious approach to AI had fueled concerns it could lose out on what could be the industry's biggest growth catalyst in decades. Recent reports also indicate that the company is losing a number of its senior artificial intelligence executives to Meta. The company was slow to roll out its Apple Intelligence suite, including a ChatGPT integration, while an AI upgrade to its voice assistant Siri has been delayed until next year. Apple has explored several tie-ups with Alphabet's Gemini AI, Anthropic and OpenAI, according to reports. "The lack of a well-understood artificial intelligence strategy is clearly one of the things that is an overhang for the stock. If they could figure out how to incorporate artificial intelligence in a way that would excite consumers and the market, you'd see a whole different company," Zaccarelli said. Apple reported its strongest quarterly results in years during the April-June period, with double-digit growth across key segments and its forecasts were better than analysts' expectations. The company is expected to announce its fourth-quarter results on October 30. The iPhone maker's shares trade at 33.2 times its earnings projected for the next 12 months, higher than the 27.42 for Nasdaq 100, according to data compiled by LSEG. Apple shares have gained more than 7% this year, widely underperforming the tech-heavy Nasdaq's about 22% gain. (Reporting by Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

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By Stephen Nellis and Deborah Mary Sophia (Reuters) -Microsoft said on Tuesday it has reached a deal with OpenAI to allow the ChatGPT maker to restructure itself into a public benefit corporation, following which Microsoft would hold a stake of about $135 billion – or 27% – in the AI startup. Microsoft shares jumped 4% on the deal, which could clear the way for OpenAI to become publicly traded in the future. Microsoft also said that it has secured a deal with OpenAI where the ChatGPT maker will purchase $250 billion of Azure cloud computing services. In exchange, Microsoft will no longer have a right of first refusal to provide computing services to OpenAI. Microsoft's earlier agreement with OpenAI gave it intellectual property rights to OpenAI's products and models until 2030, or until OpenAI achieved artificial general intelligence (AGI). Microsoft said that its product and model rights now extend to 2032 and that those rights will continue until then even if a panel of independent experts verifies a declaration by OpenAI that it has achieved AGI. (Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru and Stephen Nellis in Washington; Editing by Devika Syamnath and Franklin Paul)

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(Reuters) -OpenAI will offer its ChatGPT Go subscription free to users in India for one year starting November 4, the Microsoft- backed startup said on Tuesday, as it seeks to boost adoption in its second-largest market. The plan, which was first launched in India in August, is OpenAI's most affordable offering and is currently priced at 399 rupees ($4.54) per month. The move comes amid sweeping new rules proposed by the Indian government earlier this month to regulate artificial intelligence, proposing that AI and social media firms clearly label AI-generated content to tackle the spread of deepfake and misinformation. India is OpenAI's second-largest market by user base after the United States and may soon become its biggest, CEO Sam Altman said earlier this year. Rival Perplexity is offering a year of free access to its premium plan to Indian users through a tie-up with mobile carrier Bharti Airtel, while Google has made its Gemini AI Pro free for students for the same period. ($1 = 87.8950 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Aleef Jahan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)

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