Zomato hikes platform fee; Microsoft unveils MAI-Image-2

Hello,

Remember Amazon’s Fire Phone? Most people don’t and that’s kind of the point. More than a decade after that 2014 flop crashed out in just over a year, Amazon is quietly taking another shot at smartphones. 

This time, it’s building a personalised device, codenamed ‘Transformer’, designed to stay in sync with Alexa and keep Amazon plugged into users’ daily lives from morning to night.

At the same time, Meta is sharpening its grip on what happens across its platforms. The company says it will use more advanced AI to better detect and remove harmful posts, scams, and illegal content before they spread, while also cutting down on over-enforcement that wrongly takes down legitimate content.

In the AI world, ChatGPT maker OpenAI is planning to acquire Astral, a company that specialises in high-performance tools for the Python programming language. The move comes as the ChatGPT maker aims to accelerate the growth of Codex, its coding agent for software development.

And in gaming, China’s ByteDance has agreed to sell ‌Shanghai Moonton Technology, the studio behind popular mobile game Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, to a Riyadh-based gaming firm owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Zomato hikes platform fee
• Microsoft unveils MAI-Image-2 in AI push
• Flipkart Group CFO steps down

Here’s your trivia for today: Where is the world's largest oil refinery?

Foodtech

Zomato hikes platform fee

Food delivery platform Zomato has raised its platform fee by 19.2% to Rs 14.90, passing on rising energy costs to consumers as food delivery economics remain under pressure. The move comes even as rival magicpin said it will hold fees steady for now to keep delivery affordable.

Money matters: 

• The company has increased its platform fee from Rs 12.50 to Rs 14.90, marking another hike since September 2025.
• The fee increase underscores how higher energy and delivery costs are forcing platforms to look for ways to protect margins.
• Zomato rival Swiggy has been charging a platform fee of Rs 14.99 inclusive of GST from its users.

Insight

Microsoft unveils MAI-Image-2 in AI push

Microsoft has unveiled MAI-Image-2, its latest in-house text-to-image model, underscoring a broader push to build proprietary AI capabilities while reducing dependence on external providers. The launch strengthens Microsoft’s multi-model strategy, where internal and partner systems work together across products like Copilot and Bing Image Creator.

The big picture: 

• MAI-Image-2 reflects the company’s growing focus on building its own advanced AI models across image, voice, text, and robotics.
• Microsoft is positioning MAI-Image-2 around photorealism, reliable text rendering, and handling complex scenes, making it suited for commercial and creative workflows.
• Microsoft continues to offer OpenAI models through Azure, but MAI-Image-2 shows it wants greater control over core AI capabilities within a broader multi-model ecosystem.

News

Flipkart Group CFO steps down

Flipkart’s Group Chief Financial Officer Sriram Venkataraman is stepping down, marking a key leadership transition as the Walmart-owned company prepares for a potential public listing.

Venkataraman will stay on with the company for a transition period, while Ravi Iyer, currently CFO of Flipkart’s core marketplace business, will take charge of the broader finance organisation.

News & updates

• Solar Energy: Tesla is looking to purchase about $2.9 billion worth of equipment from Chinese suppliers, including Suzhou Maxwell Technologies, to manufacture solar panels and cells. The move comes as CEO Elon Musk pushes to add 100 gigawatts of solar capacity in the US.
• Social Media: Social media apps such as Instagram and TikTok, which encourage algorithm-driven scrolling, are worse for mental health than platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp, which prioritise social connection, according to an annual barometer of global happiness.

Where is the world's largest oil refinery?

Answer: Jamnagar, Gujarat

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