BP removed its chairman of eight months over governance and conduct concerns, adding to years of boardroom instability.
 

BP removed its third chairman in three years with immediate effect. The board cited serious concerns about governance standards, oversight, and conduct. Albert Manifold, who had been in the role for just eight months, was replaced by interim chair Ian Tyler while BP searches for a permanent successor.

Manifold pushed back publicly, saying he accepted the board's decision but rejected what he called lies about his conduct, noting that no one at the company had raised any issues with him directly during his time in the role. The dismissal adds another chapter to a turbulent stretch at BP as the company executes a major strategic pivot back to oil and gas and away from renewables. New CEO Meg O'Neill, who took the role in April, remains in place, and the board says the company's strategic direction is unchanged.

Alphabet is raising $80 billion in equity to fund an AI spending race.
 

Alphabet is raising $80 billion to fund an AI spending race that is outpacing the cash the business generates. The Google parent is structuring the raise in three parts: a $10 billion private placement with one of the world's most respected investment firms, $30 billion in underwritten public offerings, and a $40 billion program to sell shares gradually into the open market starting in the third quarter.

The scale of the spending is hard to overstate. CEO Sundar Pichai has said compute capacity is what keeps him up at night, and the numbers back that up. Alphabet updated its investment spending forecast for this year to as much as $190 billion, and its finance chief has said spending in 2027 will be significantly higher still, with some estimates putting it near $300 billion. That would exceed the company's operating cash flow, meaning Alphabet is pouring more money than it can make to build the infrastructure it believes AI demand requires.

Nvidia is entering the PC market with a new chip designed to bring AI agent capabilities to everyday computers

Nvidia is entering the personal computer market with a new processor called the RTX Spark. It combines two types of processors into one device, handling both graphics and general computing tasks. It debuts this fall in laptops and desktops from six major PC brands. The chip uses less power than the processor design that has powered most Windows PCs for decades, enabling thinner, lighter machines. It is also designed to run AI models directly on the device rather than sending that work to a data center.

For Nvidia, the move extends its dominance in AI chips beyond the data center and into the hands of everyday users. CEO Jensen Huang called it the start of a PC shake-up that could rival the arrival of the smartphone, a self-described milestone for a company whose quarterly sales now roughly match the combined annual totals of its two largest PC chip rivals.

McDonald's unveiled a new global growth strategy built around better food, service, technology, and restaurant design.

McDonald's unveiled its new global growth strategy, called McDonald's Next, at its biennial convention for franchisees in Las Vegas. The plan centers on four areas: improving food and drink quality, listening more closely to customers' needs, upgrading restaurant design to streamline operations, and training employees to deliver better hospitality.

The fast food giant is also testing an AI-powered ordering system at five drive-thru locations, part of a broader effort to free up employees for customer-facing work.

McDonald's faces a more competitive landscape, but has held its ground with four straight quarters of same-store sales growth.