As Thursday comes to a close, the fast-moving worlds of AI, consumer electronics, and gaming delivered another wave of major announcements—ranging from massive European infrastructure investments to global console price increases and enterprise AI deployments.
Here is your essential briefing on all the major tech and AI updates for July 30, 2026.
EU unveils €10 billion plan for seven AI “Gigafactories”
The European Commission announced a landmark initiative to fund seven AI gigafactories across the European Union with €10 billion ($11.5 billion) in public backing. Aimed at closing the compute gap with the US and China, the EU expects the public funding to mobilise over €20 billion in total private investments for supercomputing and high-capacity model training infrastructure.
Sony hikes PS5 Standard Edition price
Sony officially increased the price of the PlayStation 5 Standard (Disc) Edition in several markets, including India, where the price surged by Rs 15,000 to reach Rs 69,990 (a nearly 28% jump). Following previous global adjustments in the US, UK, and Europe, Sony cited ongoing RAM/memory component shortages—heavily squeezed by global AI infrastructure demand—and rising manufacturing costs as primary drivers for the price revision.
OpenAI confirms hardware devices and free academic access
OpenAI leadership officially confirmed that the company is actively developing a family of dedicated hardware platforms to offer new physical interaction points for its AI models. Concurrently, OpenAI launched a program providing academic researchers free access to advanced models to accelerate data-driven scientific discovery.
Google Pay launches ‘Ask Google Pay’
Google has launched ‘Ask Google Pay’, a Gemini-powered conversational AI assistant built into the app to help users check accounts, track spending, and navigate financial tools. This accompanies the nationwide arrival of Gemini Spark, a background personal AI agent designed for context-aware task management and voice automation.
Goldman Sachs: AI to boost India’s productivity more than displace jobs
A new report from Goldman Sachs highlights that generative AI adoption in India is set to significantly augment human capabilities rather than drive mass job displacement. Nearly half of India’s non-agricultural workforce is expected to see productivity gains through AI collaboration, with only a small fraction facing direct job substitution.
Cognizant launches flagship OpenAI Codex Hackathon across India
Cognizant partnered with OpenAI to host its first-ever global Codex Hackathon, bringing together 10,000 associates across six major Indian tech hubs (including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai). The event marks one of the largest enterprise efforts to date to build “Vibe Coding” capabilities and expand the pool of enterprise-ready AI engineers.
Apple eyes Siri-powered smart home ecosystem; Google teases Pixel 11
Apple is preparing a refreshed lineup of smart home devices centred around Siri AI, including updated HomePod units and a next-generation home hub controller.
Meanwhile, Google released an official teaser titled “The Next Obvious Move” for its upcoming Pixel 11 flagship smartphone ahead of its scheduled launch event.