US President Donald Trump said American bombers struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites and threatened more attacks if Tehran doesn’t capitulate, pulling the US directly into the country’s conflict despite his longtime promises to avoid new wars.

Addressing the nation in a televised speech, Trump said Iran’s “key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.” He threatened “far greater” attacks if Iran doesn’t now make peace, raising the specter of even deeper US involvement.

Trump had said earlier in a social media post that a “payload of BOMBS” was dropped on Fordow, the uranium-enrichment site buried deep under a mountain and seen as vulnerable only to “bunker buster” munitions that the US possesses. Natanz and Isfahan, two other sites, were also struck.

“Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s No. 1 state sponsor of terror,” Trump said. “Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks will be far greater — and a lot easier.”

The move marks an extraordinary escalation by the president in the week since Israel began airstrikes across Iran and amounts to the most serious foreign-policy decision of his two terms so far. 

Live Blog: US Says It Launched Airstrikes on Iran Nuclear Sites

It goes against the advice of US allies in Europe as well as the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency, which has repeatedly warned that nuclear facilities must never be attacked given the potential threat to nuclear safety — not to mention radiation leaks.

Iran has said it doesn’t want a nuclear bomb, and Trump’s own intelligence agencies had assessed recently it still hadn’t committed to developing such a weapon. Trump, however, had dismissed those findings and had declined to rule out joining the Israeli strikes, which had also killed several prominent Iranian military officials and nuclear scientists.

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The US strikes could immediately open American assets in the Middle East to attack since Iran had warned it would retaliate if Trump ordered an attack. Trump’s combative language in the last couple of days had also triggered new threats from the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen and led Iranian officials to call the US Israel’s “partner in crime.”

Iran’s retaliation could also come in the form of cyber attacks against American or Israeli interests by hackers linked to the regime in Tehran. In a statement, the country’s nuclear agency, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said its atomic-energy industry would not be halted. 

Earlier Saturday, the State Department said the US had begun evacuating US citizens from Israel. The agency organized two flights to Athens from Tel Aviv with about 70 US citizens, family members and permanent residents, it said.

“I hope that the Iranians are measured in their response but there will be a response — this is an act of war by the United States against a foreign country, which has not attacked us lately,” said Barbara Slavin, a distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center. “Americans are at risk all over the Middle East, all over the world.”

Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency reported that authorities in Isfahan confirmed multiple simultaneous explosions in Natanz and Isfahan early Sunday, describing them as “aggressions” near the two nuclear facilities.

Israel was notified in advance of the strikes, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations. Trump spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the strikes, a senior White House official said.

Fears of an impending strike had eased after Trump’s team said on Thursday he would make a decision within two weeks. On Friday, the foreign ministers of France, Germany and the UK had met with Iranian officials  Geneva in a bid to prevent a US attack.

The continued fighting has evoked fears of a regional conflict that results in massive civilian casualties, and disrupts the flow of energy and other trade through the region. About a fifth of the world’s daily oil supply goes through the Strait of Hormuz, which lies between Iran and its Gulf Arab neighbors such as Saudi Arabia.

For days, Trump had faced conflicting advice from his supporters, after he campaigned for president on promises to keep the US out of foreign wars, pointing to American involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. MAGA allies including longtime Trump supporter Steve Bannon, have warned against any US intervention, insisting this is Israel’s fight to finish.

Read More: Trump’s Iran War Talk Testing His Ties With MAGA Loyalists

Other Republicans had been urging Trump to join the fight against Iran, arguing that Tehran was more vulnerable after days of air strikes by Israel, and there was an opportunity to deliver on the president’s long insistence the regime cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.

Trump and his advisers had suggested in recent days that any strike would be limited. Trump briefed Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson, according to people familiar with the matter.

“This is not the start of a forever war,” Senator Jim Risch, the Idaho Republican and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on X. “There will not be American boots on the ground in Iran. This was a precise, limited strike, which was necessary and by all accounts was very successful.”

Energy experts have raised concerns that crude flows in the region could be imperiled if Iran and its proxies retaliate in response to a US attack. Fears have focused on the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf that is a key transit point for 26% of the world’s oil trade. Houthis have previously disrupted Red Sea shipping, with attacks on ships in the Bab el Mandeb strait forcing vessels to reroute around Africa.

A broader attack — including potentially planting naval mines — on the Strait of Hormuz could have even wider consequences, since it’s such a vital artery for the region’s oil and gas output.

What If Iran Tries to Close the Strait of Hormuz?: QuickTake

US ally Israel had launched a surprise attack on Iran on June 13, saying the imminent threat of the regime in Tehran securing nuclear weapons had to be neutralized. Iran’s military infrastructure was seriously damaged and a number of its top generals and atomic scientists were killed. But Israel lacked the heavy bombs and B-2 stealth jets believed to be required to destroy nuclear sites buried deep underground.  

Tehran had responded to Israel’s strikes by firing waves of ballistic missiles and drones, breaching aerial defenses, striking several cities and causing unprecedented damage. But the number of projectiles launched by Iran dropped markedly after the first few days of the conflict, raising questions about the number of missiles left in its arsenal and its ability to launch them.

“Iran is going to be facing a real dilemma, because they’ve already been dramatically weakened,” said Dennis Ross, who served as President Bill Clinton’s Middle East envoy and is now a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “They will try to do something to show they didn’t just capitulate or submit, but they have their own interest in trying to limit this.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Apple Inc. executives have held internal discussions about potentially bidding for artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI, seeking to address the need for more AI talent and technology.

Adrian Perica, the company’s head of mergers and acquisitions, has weighed the idea with services chief Eddy Cue and top AI decision-makers, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The discussions are at an early stage and may not lead to an offer, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. 

Such a deal would help Apple develop an AI-based search engine, part of efforts to cope with the potential loss of a longstanding arrangement with Google. That partnership, which involves making Google the default browser on devices, generates roughly $20 billion a year for Apple — and is now under threat from US antitrust enforcers.

To date, Apple executives haven’t discussed a bid with Perplexity management. Bloomberg News reported earlier Friday that Meta Platforms Inc. tried to buy Perplexity earlier this year. 

“We have no knowledge of any current or future M&A discussions involving Perplexity,” the AI startup said in a statement. Apple declined to comment. 

Read More: Meta Discussed Buying Perplexity Before Investing in Scale AI

The Perplexity service provides real-time answers to questions using the latest information from the web. If Apple were to engage in talks to buy the startup, such a move likely wouldn’t happen until a decision is made in the Google antitrust trial. That’s when Apple would know whether its lucrative Google agreement may have to be unwound.

Google shares reversed gains and fell nearly 1% in late trading after Bloomberg reported on Apple’s Perplexity discussions.

Perplexity recently completed an investment round that valued it at $14 billion. A deal anywhere near that level would be the largest acquisition in Apple’s history. The company’s biggest transaction until now remains the $3 billion takeover of Beats in 2014 — though Apple made more recent billion-dollar deals for Intel Corp.’s modem unit and a stake in Chinese ride-sharing company DiDi.

After Meta failed to reach an agreement with Perplexity, it bought a 49% slice of Scale AI for $14.3 billion. That deal is part of Meta’s attempts to create a so-called superintelligence AI team, which will now include Scale co-founder Alexandr Wang.

Apple and Meta have been waging a broader fight for talent. Meta recently engaged in discussions to hire Daniel Gross, the co-founder of AI company Safe Superintelligence Inc. While the discussions between Meta and Gross are advanced, Apple has attempted to persuade him to join it instead.

In 2013, Gross sold a startup named Cue to Apple. That purchase helped form the basis of some early AI features in iOS, the operating system for the iPhone. And one of Gross’ Cue co-founders, Robby Walker, oversaw the Siri voice assistant until this year. Walker is now leading an Apple project dubbed Knowledge with the goal of creating a rival to OpenAI’s ChatGPT that can use data from the open web.

Gross didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Perica and Eddy Cue, who both report to Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook, are leading the AI acquisition and recruiting efforts.

The hunt for talent is part of a bid to catch up in generative AI. The company was slow to deliver its Apple Intelligence platform and still lags rivals in key features. A revamped Siri was delayed indefinitely this year, with the company now aiming to have it ready by next spring.

Read More: Apple Targets Spring 2026 for Release of Delayed Siri AI Upgrade

Apple unveiled a relatively meager slate of new AI enhancements at its Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month. The latest features include live translation capabilities and a deeper partnership with OpenAI on ChatGPT-based image generation.

Buying Perplexity would give Apple an infusion of AI talent, a known brand in the AI space and a consumer product. A deal could also potentially assist with future recruiting efforts.

Apple has also discussed an alternative plan: teaming up with Perplexity instead of buying it. A partnership would involve adding Perplexity as an AI search engine option in Apple’s Safari web browser and integrating it into Siri.

Apple has met multiple times in recent months with Perplexity, and its AI team has been actively evaluating the technology — a sign that it’s at least considering a close relationship with the company.

One major snag in the process could be an in-the-works deal between Perplexity and Samsung Electronics Co., which plans to announce a deep partnership with the startup. Samsung is Apple’s biggest competitor in smartphones, and AI features have become a critical new arena for the two rivals.

In its statement, Perplexity said it shouldn’t be surprising that top manufacturers want to offer the “best search and more accurate AI for their users.”

“That’s Perplexity,” the startup said.

Read More: Samsung Nears Wide-Ranging Deal With Perplexity for AI Features

Cue, whose department includes Apple’s streaming services and iCloud, previously expressed an interest in Perplexity. While testifying at the Google antitrust trial in May, he told jurors that the industry is shifting away from standard internet searches to AI tools. He outlined a scenario in which AI search engines could quickly supersede Google’s current offering.

“We’ve been pretty impressed with what Perplexity has done, so we’ve started some discussions with them about what they’re doing,” he said.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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After the air space across large swaths of the Middle East turned into a no-fly zone, the skies over Afghanistan have become increasingly crowded as airlines seek alternative flight paths to connect Asia with Europe and the US.

Flights over Taliban-controlled Afghanistan have surged by 500% over the past week, averaging 280 a day since Israel began its attack on Iran on June 13, according to data from Flightradar24. That compares with 50 flights on average traversing the country each day last month, the flight-tracking site said.

The conflict, as well as the risk of escalation as the US considers joining Israel in its bombardment of Iran, has made flying through Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran difficult, all but cutting off an important artery in one of the busiest zones for commercial aviation. Some carriers, including American Airlines Inc. and Air France-KLM, have cut back services to the region as the regional conflict enters a second week with little sign of abating. 

Read More: Airline Disruptions Reach Dubai, Qatar as US Mulls Iran Strike

Restrictions on flying over Afghanistan were eased in 2023, two years after the Taliban took control over the country and the US withdrew its troops, but many airlines have still largely avoided the airspace. Since late in 2023, more carriers started using the skies over Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, with daily flights over the Gulf nation — which lies just south of the closed-off air space — doubling this week to 1,400. 

The surge in overflights stands to bring a financial windfall to the cash-strapped Taliban, which charge a fee of $700 for each flight, collected via third-party intermediaries. That would translate in an inflow of more than $1 million over a week as a result of the increase in traverses.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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B-2 stealth bombers have taken off from the US and are headed over the Pacific, multiple news outlets reported, as President Donald Trump weighs American involvement in the war between Israel and Iran.

The moves, picked up by flight tracking services on Saturday, indicate that the administration is getting the Air Force bombers in position if needed for a strike on Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported. The planes, accompanied by refueling tankers, may be on their way to a base in Guam, according to the report.

Speculation about a potential US strike aimed at Iran’s nuclear program has focused on the B-2s, which would be needed to drop 30,000-pound bombs — so-called bunker busters — if Trump decided to target Iran’s heavily fortified uranium enrichment site at Fordow. Israel, which is seeking to destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities, does not have such weapons.

Read more: Bunker-Buster Bomb Draws Focus as Trump Weighs Iran Options

Multiple B-2s appeared to be airborne and heading across the Pacific from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, the New York Times reported. The Times cited flight trackers’ posts on social media and air traffic control communications.

The Pentagon did not immediately return a message seeking comment. 

Trump’s is scheduled to return to the White House Saturday and meet with his national security team.

Read More: Israel-Iran Trade Fresh Blows as B-2 Bombers Head Over Pacific

The US president has sent mixed signals, discounting European efforts to secure a diplomatic solution between Israel and Iran while keeping possible US involvement in the conflict on the table.

“I’m giving them a period of time,” Trump told reporters Friday. “I would say two weeks would be the maximum.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly said an interest-rate cut this fall looks more appropriate than moving when policymakers gather in July.

“For me, I look more to the fall,” Daly said Friday in an interview on CNBC. “By then, we’ll have quite a bit more information, and businesses are telling me that’s what they’re going to look to for some resolution.”

Daly called recent inflation data — which has come in unexpectedly tame for three straight months — “really good news,” but cautioned against moving too quickly.

“I wouldn’t be preemptive. I really look to balance the two goals we have,” she said, referring to the Fed’s employment and inflation mandates.

Earlier on Friday, Fed Governor Christopher Waller said he thinks the central bank can lower rates as early as July. The Fed’s next meeting is scheduled for July 29-30.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Ukraine has accumulated $43 billion for its defence industry so far this year between local funding and aid from allies, using it to ramp up the production and purchase of drones, artillery and other weaponry, said President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.  

Kyiv has also launched a “Build with Ukraine” program and announced new agreements to be signed this summer, including opening production lines in European countries. 

“We will provide the relevant technologies and will produce weapons in their countries for us and for them,” including drones, missiles and possibly artillery, Zelenskiy told reporters in Kyiv late Friday, adding that steps would be taken to prevent any of the technology ending up in Russian hands. 

Ukraine is looking to develop its domestic military capabilities as it attempts to repel Russia’s invasion, well into its fourth year, and wean off dependence on military aid from allies, especially the US. 

“It is our priority to maintain America’s support,” Zelenskiy said, adding that while some European counties have indicated they’ll stick with Ukraine at all costs, “the most difficult situation is without America’s participation.”  

Zelenskiy is expected to attend the NATO summit at The Hague that starts on Tuesday. He’s denied that Ukraine faces the destruction of many of the Patriot air defense systems supplied by the US and other allies since 2022, or lacks weaponry to successfully operate them.  

Read more: Russia Says It Struck Kremenchuk Oil Refinery in Ukraine 

Ukraine’s air defenses have also been shored up by the heavy use of interceptor UAVs, which can shoot down Shahed-type drones used by Russia, he said.  

Kremlin forces continue massive air bombardments across Ukraine. Moscow launched 272 drones and eight missiles overnight, according the regular update from Ukraine’s General Staff. Kremenchuk in the Poltava region, site of a key oil refinery, was again a target after sustaining new damage a week ago.  

Russia also continues to use glide bombs and other weaponry across the front line in Ukraine’s east, as well as in northeastern Sumy and Kharkiv, close to the nations’ border, and in Dnipropetrovsk and other regions. 

Read more: EU Abandons Proposal to Lower Price Cap on Russian Oil to $45

Zelenskiy repeated a call for energy restrictions like lower oil price caps on Russian oil — a plan shelved by the European Union this week — as well as sanctions against companies working directly and indirectly with Russia’s defense industry. 

Some 39 defense companies are involved in the production of Russia’s experimental Oreshnik ballistic missile, of which 21 aren’t currently sanctioned, he said. 

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Millions more Americans should be taking weight-loss drugs to prevent heart disease, according to the American College of Cardiology. 

Exercise and a clean diet aren’t always enough for heart health, the nation’s top cardiology organization said in new recommendations released on Friday. Weight-loss drugs should be used earlier, making them part of the first line of defense for obese patients, the group said.

Novo Nordisk A/S’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly & Co.’s Zepbound should be considered when choosing primary treatments to avert heart disease, the leading cause of death in the US, according to the new guidelines. The popular drugs are more effective than lifestyle changes and have fewer risks than surgery, the nonprofit medical association said.

“We have heard about the myriad of positive influences the drugs possess and to get this sort of props from the ACC is a big win,” Mizuho Securities’ Jared Holz wrote in a note to clients. 

Novo’s US-listed shares briefly spiked on Friday after the new guidelines were released, then dropped 1.1% as of 11:22 a.m. in New York. Lilly pared an earlier decline to fall 2.8%.

The ACC’s recommendation is a departure from its previous recommendation that advocated for lifestyle modifications before obesity medications. Patients shouldn’t have to “try and fail” before they are able to get the powerful medicines that have revolutionized weight loss and proven their ability to improve heart health, said Olivia Gilbert, a cardiologist at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center who led the work on the new guidelines. 

She was forthright in saying the change was intended to influence insurance companies and federal programs that decide which prescription drugs to cover. The support of cardiologists could lead more patients to embrace the medicines and signal broader insurance coverage for the drugs from Novo and Lilly, the two main companies vying for control of a market that Morgan Stanley analysts say is hurtling toward $150 billion in peak sales within a decade.

The new guidelines may have sweeping public health and policy implications that could reduce damage from heart disease, “and that’s incredibly exciting,” Gilbert said. 

Even so, people should “absolutely not” cancel their gym memberships, according to Gilbert. The drugs will help with weight loss and “if anything that should increase physical activity,” she said. “They’re meant to work in tandem.” 

More than 40% of adults in the US are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Uncertainty about insurance coverage is a significant barrier to treatment, the ACC said, noting there is “ongoing need to improve access to these therapies.”

Doctors can determine who is eligible for treatment to ward off heart complications based on body mass index, a calculation involving weight and height, or other risk factors, according to the new guidelines.

The link between obesity and heart health isn’t new, but patients need to lose 10% of their body weight to reduce their cardiovascular risk and 15% to slash related deaths, Gilbert said. Drug therapy may be the best and most accessible way to get there, she said. 

Many insurers don’t cover the medicines, which cost around $1,000 for a month’s supply without insurance but are also available at lower prices for consumers who buy them directly with cash. The new ACC guidance could influence negotiations with private insurance companies and Medicare and Medicaid, the US government insurance programs for the elderly and the poor, according to Gilbert. While most Medicare and Medicaid plans pay for weight loss drugs for diabetics, they aren’t currently covered for obesity.

In March last year, the Food and Drug Administration approved Novo’s Wegovy for reducing the risk of cardiovascular death, heart attacks and strokes in patients who are overweight and have heart disease, making it the first of the weight-loss drugs approved for preventing potentially fatal heart issues. While the agency hasn’t yet cleared Lilly’s Zepbound for treating cardiovascular disease, it did cut deaths from heart failure in a late-stage study last year.

Lilly welcomed the change, saying it reinforces the importance of treating obesity early and effectively. Novo applauded the ACC’s move as reflecting “today’s treatment landscape.”  

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Meta Platforms Inc. is going up-market with its surprise hit smart glasses, rolling out new models with Oakley that are aimed at athletes and include improved video recording. 

The company on Friday launched new models based on Oakley’s HSTN design, marking the company’s first expansion away from Ray-Ban for its display-free glasses. Like the original models, the Oakley versions can make and take phone calls, play music, take pictures and video and use Meta’s artificial intelligence to answer questions about the surrounding environment. 

The new versions, which start at $399 and go up to $499 for a limited edition model with gold-colored accents, include about double the battery life, video-recording at 3K resolution and water resistance.

“We are increasingly seeing performance use cases with the Ray-Bans like people wearing them on roller coasters, cycling and being around water, so we’re trying to lean into that,” says Alex Himmel, the company’s vice president in charge of wearables, in an interview. 

Arriving at its second glasses brand was far from a sure thing. Meta’s first glasses, the Ray-Ban Stories, flopped in 2021. But its follow-up version in 2023 was a massive success, giving the social networking giant a real potential hardware stronghold in the artificial intelligence race. 

“It was crazy. Popularity caught us by surprise a bit,” Himmel said. The Ray-Bans were “going to be the last display-less pair of glasses. We said we’ll take two swings at it, and if it doesn’t work we’ll go all-in on augmented reality.” 

Instead, beyond the latest Oakley model, the company has a multi-year road map for the display-less category and is planning a follow-up pair of Oakley glasses based on the Sphera design for later this year, according to people with knowledge of the matter. That pair will be aimed at cyclists and have a centered camera. Friday’s model has a camera positioned in the upper corner like the Ray-Ban version.

The display-free glasses are one component of the overall Meta AI hardware strategy. The company is planning to introduce higher-end glasses with a display to view notifications and the camera view finder later this year, Bloomberg News has reported. In 2027, it aims to roll out its first true augmented reality glasses, which will blend digital apps with the real world. 

Meta’s form-factor has caught on, with several other technology companies working on competitors. Apple Inc. is planning to introduce its first glasses product at the end of 2026, Bloomberg News has reported. That device will operate similarly to the Meta product but better synchronize with the rest of the Apple ecosystem. Amazon.com Inc. also sells glasses, but their current models lack cameras.

Himmel, who said Meta has sold millions of glasses and has a “nice, increasing multiple” of purchases on a year-over-year basis each week, attributed the increased popularity to the Ray-Bans improving across a large number of “small things.” He said the audio quality and microphones started to surpass standalone earbuds, while the camera and AI quality also improved. 

Still, Himmel said battery life remains the “number one complaint” about the Ray-Ban versions. The new Oakley models can run for 8 hours on a single charge, with the charging case holding 48 hours of juice. “You should expect a 40% bump with these” he says, attributing the improvement to new battery chemistry and software optimizations — not larger battery packs. 

Like Ray-Ban, Oakley is owned by EssilorLuxottica SA, which calls Oakley its second most popular brand after Ray-Ban. Himmel said Meta will roll out new brands under the EssilorLuxottica portfolio “as fast as we can. “We’re going to have to move very quickly because in the world of fashion, stuff moves very quickly,” he says. “The stuff that is a hit right now might not be a year from now. We need to be fast to hit all the brands that we’d like to.”

The first Oakley model, becoming available for pre-order on July 11, will be the $499 limited edition pair. The $399 versions — which come in grey, black, brown and clear colors — will be released in the coming months. There will be versions with clear, transition and polarized lenses. Like with the Ray-Bans, users can swap the lenses for prescription optics.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Thousands of private government consultants laid off during the Trump administration’s cost-cutting crusade are increasingly flooding a shrinking labor market. 

Job postings among seven of the 10 consulting companies singled out by the General Services Administration for contract cuts are down about 27% since 2023, and about 11% from a year ago, according to data scraped from job boards by labor market analytics firm Lightcast.

Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp. and Deloitte LLP had almost 1,200 and 8,200 fewer openings than last year, respectively, Lightcast data showed. Both announced job cuts this quarter.

“The job market is certainly not great for these people,” said Ron Hetrick, Lightcast’s principal economist. “If they lay off people, they’re probably not going to backfill them.”

Federal government employment shrank by 22,000 in May, bringing jobs lost since January to 59,000, according to the latest jobs report. That excludes those on paid leave or receiving ongoing severance pay. About 75,000 workers took an initial federal buyout deal that will pay them until September, with thousands more in another round of offers.

Recruitment company Beacon Hill has seen “a noticeable increase” in job seekers from the federal space in the first two quarters of the year because of job cuts and internal reorganizations, said Kim Ayers, a regional director who oversees the group’s government services business.

In response to queries about job cuts, Booz Allen referred to comments made during a recent earnings call, where Chief Operating Officer Kristine Martin Anderson said the company expects to “add significant headcount in the second half of the year.” Deloitte said it had nothing more to add to the statement it made in April, when it said it was “taking modest personnel actions based on moderating growth in certain areas, our government clients’ evolving needs, and low levels of voluntary attrition.”

Government contractors support public workers in a wide range of tasks, from producing content and developing software to helping draft regulations and handling administrative tasks. There were about 4.6 million contract workers at the start of this year, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta estimates, compared with 2.4 million directly employed by the federal government, excluding active duty military personnel, postal employees and temporary census workers. 

Job postings in Washington, DC, which has the largest concentration of federal workers, were down 17% in April versus Jan. 20, job portal site Indeed found. The biggest declines were in administrative assistance, human resources and accounting positions, typical functions in public agencies.  

Specifically, management consulting job postings in the Washington metro area fell 28% between February and May, Lightcast data showed.

While hiring is down, “it’s not non-existent,” Hetrick said in an interview. Companies are looking for individuals with skills to help them effectively use artificial intelligence. This may explain the 171,000 increase in job openings in professional and business services from March to April, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, even with 82,000 job cuts during the same period, he said. 

Some targets of federal contract cuts, including Accenture Plc and International Business Machines Corp., are hiring more than they did last year, Lightcast data showed.

Outside of federal services, demand remains strong for talent in areas such as health care, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and machine learning, said Emma Long Garber, a vice president overseeing sales and delivery in the Mid-Atlantic for employment company Insight Global. 

Hiring could pick up if the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates, boosting business activity, according to Hetrick. 

“It would be very difficult to sell your shareholders on why you would be hiring right now,” he said. “But it could improve. Policies change.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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OpenAI is phasing out the work it does with data-labeling startup Scale AI, cutting ties with the company days after Meta Platforms Inc. invested billions of dollars in it and hired its founder. 

Scale accounted for a small fraction of OpenAI’s overall data needs, according to an OpenAI spokesperson who confirmed the firm’s decision to phase out work with the company. The ChatGPT maker was already in the process of winding down its reliance on Scale before Meta, an OpenAI competitor, took a 49% stake in the firm, the spokesperson said, adding that OpenAI had been seeking other providers for more specialized data needed to support increasingly advanced artificial intelligence models. 

OpenAI’s plans inject new uncertainty into Scale’s business in the wake of Meta’s unusual deal. Meta is investing $14.3 billion in Scale and has poached the startup’s chief executive officer, Alexandr Wang, for a new so-called “superintelligence” unit, focused on building a more powerful, and hypothetical, form of AI software. Other Scale employees are expected to follow Wang to Meta to work on AI.

A Scale AI spokesperson declined to comment.

Founded in 2016, Scale signed up prominent customers, including Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Meta and OpenAI, providing them with the data needed to build AI models. However, Meta’s deal with Scale raised concerns that the social-media company may gain new visibility into its rivals’ AI development efforts. Google plans to cut ties with Scale, Reuters reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.

Right after the Meta deal was announced, OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar had signaled that the company intended to keep working with Scale. “We don’t want to ice the ecosystem because acquisitions are going to happen,” Friar said at the VivaTech conference in Paris last week.

Over the past six to 12 months, however, OpenAI had determined that Scale was not the best fit for it because the AI developer needed more data expertise than Scale could provide, the OpenAI spokesperson said. OpenAI has shifted to building more advanced AI models that can mimic the process of human reasoning, as well as agent-like models that can carry out tasks with limited input from users. Forbes previously reported OpenAI had been winding down its Scale work for months.

Scale initially focused on working with an army of contractors to do the grunt work of labeling text and images for earlier AI systems. Scale has gradually enlisted better-paid contractors with doctorates, nursing and other advanced degrees to help develop more sophisticated models.

Despite those efforts, OpenAI has increasingly relied on other data providers, including newer entrants like Mercor, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Mercor was previously known for using AI for recruiting tech employees, but now focuses on finding experts to help AI companies develop more advanced models. 

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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