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SoftBank Group will lay off nearly 20% of its Vision Fund team globally as it shifts resources to founder Masayoshi Sons large-scale artificial intelligence bets in the United States, according to a memo seen by Reuters and a source familiar with the plan. The cuts mark the third round of layoffs at the Japanese investment conglomerates flagship fund since 2022. Vision Fund currently has over 300 employees globally. Unlike previous rounds, when the group was saddled with major losses, the latest reductions come after the fund last month reported its strongest quarterly performance since June 2021, driven by gains in public holdings such as Nvidia and South Korean e-commerce firm Coupang. The move signals a pivot away from a broad portfolio of startup investments. While the fund will continue to make new bets, remaining staff will dedicate more resources to Sons ambitious AI initiatives, such as the proposed $500 billion Stargate project an initiative to build a vast network of U.S. data centers in partnership with OpenAI, the source added. A Vision Fund spokesperson confirmed the layoffs without commenting on the details, and said in a statement: We continually adjust the organization to best execute our long-term strategy making bold, high-conviction investments in AI and breakthrough technologies, and creating long-term value for our stakeholders. The restructuring marks a return to Sons classic high-risk, high-reward approach of making massive, concentrated wagers, moving on from the sprawling venture capital model that defined the last era of the Vision Fund, and a period in which the group was forced to de-risk, sell assets and rebuild credibility after incurring billions in losses on its once high-flying bet on the office-sharing startup WeWork. This shift toward capitalintensive AI infrastructure reflects where Son who made his name with outsized bets and was an early champion of AI sees the path back to the top. He is now aggressively pursuing new investments in foundation models and the infrastructure layer, sometimes at premium valuations. In the past 12 months, Son has invested $9.7 billion in OpenAI through Vision Fund 2, which manages about $65.8 billion in total. SoftBank is also plotting a capital-intensive infrastructure strategy centered on its crown jewel, chip designer Arm. It has acquired chip firms Graphcore and Ampere Computing and taken stakes in Intel and Nvidia. These moves aim to build an ecosystem spanning chips, data centers, and models to support future AI adoptions. The capital-intensive strategy carries execution risk, underscored by recent delays in both the U.S. Stargate project and a similar joint venture with OpenAI in Japan, Reuters reported this week. SoftBank CFO Yoshimitsu Goto said the company held a very safe level of cash of 4 trillion yen ($27 billion) on the company’s most recent earnings call in August. Krystal Hu, Reuters
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Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon opened their late-night shows Thursday using a mix of humor and solidarity with suspended ABC host Jimmy Kimmel.Stewart opted for satire to critique ABC suspending “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” indefinitely following comments he made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Colbert took a more serious approach, calling his suspension “blatant censorship.” Fallon praised Kimmel and vowed to keep doing his show as usual. Then an announcer spoke over him and replaced most of his critiques about President Donald Trump with flattery.Their guests the day after Kimmel’s suspension which also came two months after CBS said it would cancel Colbert’s show varied widely. Fallon’s guests were actor Jude Law, journalist Tom Llamas and actor and singer Jonathan Groff none of whom addressed Kimmel’s situation.Stewart and Colbert interviewed guests who could address censorship concerns raised by Kimmel’s suspension. Journalist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maria Ressa spoke to Stewart.When Stewart asked Ressa, the author of “How to Stand Up to a Dictator,” tips on coping with the current moment, Ressa recounted how she and her colleagues at the news site Rappler “just kept going” when she was faced with 11 arrest warrants in one year under Philippine then-President Rodrigo Duterte.“We just kept doing our jobs. We just kept putting one foot in front of the other,” Ressa said. Stewart makes special appearance to skewer Kimmel suspension Stewart’s show opened with a voice-over promising adherence to the party line.“We have another fun, hilarious administration-compliant show,” it said.He lavished praise on the president and satirized his criticism of large cities and his deployment of the National Guard to fight their crime.“Coming to you tonight from the real (expletive), the crime-ridden cesspool that is New York City. It is a tremendous disaster like no one’s ever seen before. Someone’s National Guard should invade this place, am I right?” Stewart said.“The Daily Show” set was refashioned with decorative gold engravings, in a parody of gold accents Trump has added to the fireplace, doorway arches, walls and other areas of the Oval Office.Stewart fidgeted nervously as though he was worried about speaking the correct talking points. When the audience members reacted with an “awww” he whispered: “What are you doing? Shut up. You’re going to (expletive) blow this for us.”He took on a more stilted tone when he started describing Trump’s visit to the United Kingdom, calling the president “our great father.”“Gaze upon him. With a gait even more majestic than that of the royal horses that prance before him,” he said.Stewart normally hosts only on Mondays. The Emmy winner helmed “The Daily Show” from 1999 through 2015, delivering sharp, satirical takes on politics and current events and interviews with newsmakers. He returned to host once a week during the run-up to the 2024 U.S. presidential election.Fallon opened his “Tonight Show” monologue addressing Kimmel’s suspension. “To be honest with you all, I don’t know what’s going on. And no one does. But I do know Jimmy Kimmel, and he’s a decent, funny and loving guy, and I hope he comes back.” Swift suspension after remarks on Kirk’s assassination Kimmel made several remarks about the reaction to Kirk’s killing on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Monday and Tuesday nights, including that “many in MAGA land are working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk.”ABC suspended Kimmel’s show after a group of ABC-affiliated stations said it would not air the show, and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said his agency had a strong case for holding Kimmel, ABC and network parent Walt Disney Co. accountable for spreading misinformation.Kimmel has not commented. His supporters say Carr misread what the comic said and that nowhere did he specifically suggest that Tyler Robinson the man Utah authorities allege fatally shot Kirk was conservative.In July, CBS said it would cancel “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” next May. The network said it shut down the decades-old TV institution for financial reasons. But the announcement came three days after Colbert criticized the settlement between President Donald Trump and Paramount Global, parent company of CBS, over a “60 Minutes” story. ‘The Late Show’ hosts past and present address suspension Colbert started his monologue on Thursday with the animated song “Be Our Guest” from Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” but replaced the lyrics with “Shut your trap. Shut your trap.”He later addressed Kimmel directly, saying that he stands with him and his staff.“If ABC thinks that this is going to satisfy the regime, they are woefully naive,” he said.He also responded to remarks Carr made that it is important for broadcasters to push back on Disney programming “they determine falls short of community values.”“Well, you know what my community values are, buster? Freedom of speech,” Colbert said to loud applause from his audience.When Colbert talked with New Yorker editor David Remnick about Kimmel’s suspension, he said: “What we are seeing now is the government acting at the direction of the president of the United States to put pressure on, to manipulate, to silence and even to shut down institutions of the free word.”David Letterman, Colbert’s predecessor on “The Late Show,” lamented the networks’ moves.“I feel bad about this, because we all see where see this is going, correct? It’s managed media,” Letterman said during an appearance Thursday at The Atlantic Festival 2025 in New York. “It’s no good. It’s silly. It’s ridiculous.”He added that people shouldn’t be fired just because they don’t “suck up” to what Letterman called “an authoritarian” president. Audrey McAvoy and Hallie Golden, Associated Press
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Haifa Smoked Fish, a seafood smokehouse facility based in Jamaica, Queens, has issued a recall after the discovery of Listeria monocytogenes in its cold smoked salmon and cold smoked sea bass. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), food inspectors at the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets sampled fish sold by the company. An analysis of the samples in a food laboratory confirmed the disease-causing bacterias presence. According to the FDA, Listeria monocytogenes is an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Infections in pregnant people can cause miscarriages or stillbirths. Healthy individuals can experience short-term symptoms, including nausea, a high fever, and abdominal pain. As further noted by the Mayo Clinic, “Listeria bacteria can survive refrigeration and even freezing,” which makes vigilance especially important for people at higher risk. No illnesses have been reported to date in connection with the recalled fish. What products are affected? The impacted smoked fish packets are both eight ounces and vacuum packed between a paper board and a plastic covering. The recall includes one lot of each fish: Cold Smoked Salmon, lot number 219 Cold Smoked Seabass, lot number 212 A sticker that reads Haifa 212 or 219 should be present on the packaging of any impacted fish. Example photos of the products are available on the FDAs website. Where and when was the product sold? The recalled smoked salmon and sea bass were directly delivered to both retail stores and distributors nationwide. The FDA hasnt shared a specific timeframe during which the recalled fish was sold or a list of specific retailers. Fast Company has reached out to Haifa Smoked Fish for more details. We will update this post if we hear back. However, the FDA urges anyone who has bought a recalled lot to return it to the same store and get a full refund.
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