Tech Express | November 12, 2026: Tencent Denies 50% Layoff Talk as Half of Its Staff Move to AI Work

Sources: Lianhe Zaobao, Mashable, The Paper, The Verge, MyDrivers, 8world, Ars Technica, 9to5Google, The Register

1. Tencent denies 50% layoff talk, says half of staff will move to AI-native work

Source: Lianhe Zaobao

Tencent has pushed back on rumors that it plans to cut 50 percent of its workforce as it marks its 28th anniversary. Zhang Jun, the company's public relations director, said in a Weibo post on November 12 that the claim was a "misunderstanding and a rumor," and that Tencent is simply reallocating resources for the AI era.

Zhang said management expressed its determination to speed up organizational change during a livestream marking the anniversary: 50 percent of employees will act like an army, "holding the ground" and improving efficiency in existing core businesses, while the other 50 percent will act like a navy, embracing the wave and exploring AI-native businesses.

He stressed that this is a reallocation of resources, and that the "army and navy" framing was "mostly an analogy" that may have been misread as a 50 percent cut. "That claim is completely untrue," he said. Talk of the layoffs spread online on November 11 and related hashtags trended on Weibo. According to Bloomberg, Tencent had 115,927 employees as of June, up 4,706 from a year earlier.

2. GTA 6 preorders top $1 billion eight days before launch

Source: Mashable

Eight days before its November 19 release, GTA 6 has already topped $1 billion in preorders, according to an estimate from market research firm Sensor Tower. The firm also estimates that players worldwide have preordered more than 10 million digital copies for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, with about three out of every four orders for PS5.

Publisher Take-Two Interactive has yet to share its own tally, though CEO Strauss Zelnick said in a release on Monday that orders were reaching "unprecedented levels." Both Sony and Microsoft said it is already the most preordered game in the history of their digital stores. For comparison, GTA V hit the same $1 billion milestone three days after it went on sale in 2013.

Rockstar opened preloads on November 10. The first trailer, released in December 2023, drew more than 90 million YouTube views in 24 hours and set a Guinness World Record; it had 302 million views as of November 11, 2026. The official album drops alongside the game on November 19, and two days later Rockstar and PlayStation will host a music festival in Miami with performances from Cardi B, Travis Scott and Justice.

3. Zhang Yiming: ByteDance may not match OpenAI and Anthropic until 2029 or 2030

Source: The Paper

ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming has again addressed the company's AI business internally, according to The Paper, which cited multiple people familiar with the matter on November 12. At an all-hands meeting for its AI team, Zhang said ByteDance is capable of competing with OpenAI and Anthropic, but that truly catching up with the frontier would take "until 2029 or 2030 at the earliest."

Zhang acknowledged that the pre-training data sets for ByteDance's Seed series models remain smaller than those of top overseas AI companies, calling that the most pressing issue for its AI efforts. Foreign media have reported that the Seed team is pre-training a model with up to 10 trillion parameters, a scale comparable to Anthropic's most advanced models.

It is not the first time Zhang has weighed in on the company's AI path. He previously told insiders that model building requires long-termism and delayed gratification, rather than using other companies' outputs to chase a short-lived spot on a leaderboard.

4. Google's Tabletop experiment builds custom collaboration apps from a prompt

Source: The Verge

Google has built a new experimental AI tool called Tabletop that generates customized collaborative hubs to help people coordinate with family and friends. The platform looks visually similar to workplace management apps like Asana and Monday, but its built-in AI lets users "vibecode" personalized interactive tools by describing them, such as savings trackers, chore charts and event plans.

"Just add in your links, files and ideas, then prompt @tabletop — or pick a starter template — to generate custom interactive trip itineraries, dinner polls, expense splitters and tournament brackets," Google Labs design and engineering lead Roman Nurik said in a blog post. "Once your space is ready, drop the invite link in your group chat to let everyone jump in and use it at the same time like a Google Doc."

Access to the Tabletop beta is rolling out via a waitlist and is currently limited to people over 18 in the US. Some of the use cases Nurik demonstrates would clearly require giving kids or teens access, so the age requirement may only apply during public testing.

5. Adobe Max shows off four AI experiments, from walking through photos to interviewing characters

Source: The Verge

Adobe used its annual Max conference to unveil a batch of experimental features, or "sneaks": tools that transform images into explorable 3D scenes, design AI characters by talking to them, and turn photo editing into a copy-and-paste process.

The strangest is Project Screen Test, which is meant to make AI-generated characters easier to develop for video. Instead of describing how a character should sound and behave in text prompts, the tool lets you talk to the character in an audition-like environment, starting with base personality traits and a voice, then expanding its backstory, temperament, goals, flaws, fears and movement quirks before generating animated screen tests. Project Sight Span turns flat images into 3D environments you can navigate and reposition, generating objects and backgrounds outside the original frame before restoring resolution at your chosen angle.

Project Sound Bender lets you describe a sound in a text prompt — "bubbling sci-fi cauldron noises," for example — and adjust it in real time on a square sound canvas, with a different AI-generated effect assigned to each corner. Project Rinse Repeat, built around Photoshop, copies edits and automatically applies them to other objects or people in the same photo, with the changes remaining fully editable.

6. Memory prices too high: Nvidia reportedly cancels RTX 5080 24GB, keeps 16GB model

Source: MyDrivers

Nvidia has reportedly cancelled plans to launch a 24GB version of the RTX 5080 because 3GB GDDR7 memory chips are too expensive, making the card's cost hard to control, according to a November 11 report from Board Channels. Nvidia has notified add-in card partners that the launch, originally set for January 2027, is off, with no clear new timeline.

The 24GB card was to swap 2GB GDDR7 chips for 3GB modules, raising capacity from 16GB to 24GB — a 50 percent increase — while keeping the 256-bit bus. But 3GB GDDR7 chips currently cost about three times as much as 2GB versions, sharply raising memory procurement costs. Earlier reports suggested the 24GB card could have sold for close to $2,000, roughly double the $999 suggested retail price of the 16GB Founders Edition.

Nvidia has therefore chosen to keep buying 2GB GDDR7 and continue producing the 16GB RTX 5080 rather than discontinuing it as originally planned. The RTX 50 Super series was also reportedly delayed over GDDR7 costs. Nvidia has not officially announced the 24GB model or confirmed the cancellation.

7. Samsung to supply HBM4 for AMD's MI455X chips

Source: 8world

Samsung Electronics may end up a beneficiary as Nvidia grapples with its latest controversy, according to a Bloomberg report cited by 8world. The Korean chipmaker has reached a preliminary agreement with AMD to supply next-generation AI memory and cooperate on advanced computing technology.

In a joint statement, the two companies said Samsung will become a major supplier to AMD, providing its MI455X AI chips with HBM4, the newest generation of high-bandwidth memory. AMD CEO Lisa Su and Samsung co-CEO Jun Young-hyun signed the agreement in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, and the companies also agreed to explore opportunities in foundry.

AMD is Nvidia's main rival in the AI chip market and has been trying to break the latter's dominance in the fast-growing segment. In recent years AMD has built a multi-billion-dollar AI business that has driven revenue and profit growth.

8. Apple is closing its 28-year-old support community forum

Source: Ars Technica

Apple announced on the night of November 11 that the Apple Support Community forum will close permanently on November 20, 2026. The site stopped accepting new posts immediately and is now read-only.

For 28 years the forum gave Apple users a way to get quick technical advice, usually from fellow users, though Apple employees occasionally chimed in. It dates to 1998, when it was known as Apple Tech Exchange; two years later Apple renamed it Apple Discussions. In 2011 Apple revamped the forum, adding dedicated communities for specific devices and the ability to track responses, and renamed it Apple Support Communities. By 2022 it was called Apple Support Community.

Apple told MacRumors that it is shutting the forum after evaluating its support strategy and customer needs. Based on the announcement, Apple now appears to prefer that customers rely on official employees for technical support. The forum may also have become less popular as rival communities such as Reddit, MacRumors and AppleInsider grew.

9. Google Wallet rolls out digital home keys on Android

Source: 9to5Google

Google Wallet for Android is rolling out support for digital home keys if you have a compatible smart lock set up in Google Home. After adding a home key, you can tap to unlock with your phone; the feature uses NFC and, by default, "works even when your phone screen is locked." Verification settings in the Wallet app can be adjusted to require a screen lock or biometrics. Android 9 or later is required.

Unlock on Approach is also supported with an Aliro Ultra Wideband-compatible Android phone and a matching lock. Wear OS watches are not supported at launch. The digital key is linked to the Google Home app rather than a single lock, so "each of your compatible Aliro locks will work with a single key," and it automatically syncs across compatible Android phones signed into the same Google Wallet account.

Locks supported at launch include the Aqara u400 (UWB and NFC), the Schlage Sense Pro (NFC at launch, with UWB to follow) and the Nuki Keypad 2 NFC, with more models coming. The rollout starts with the Google Home Public Preview before reaching all users "over the coming weeks."

10. Voyager 1 hits a light-day from Earth, and NASA wants you to flash a light

Source: The Register

Voyager 1 will become the first human-made object to reach one light-day from Earth next week, and NASA wants the public to mark the occasion by flashing lights at the sky. NASA puts the crossing at 05:16:07 EST (10:16:07 UTC) on Wednesday, November 18. A light-day is 16,094,799,096 miles, or 25,902,068,356 kilometers.

For the event, called "Shine Bright for Voyager's Light-Day," participants are invited to flash the mission's three-letter designation — VGR — in Morse code after sunset on November 17, using a flashlight or NASA's website. According to the agency, this will create "a symbolic wave of golden light encircling the planet after sunset."

The spacecraft, which suffered a communications hiccup last month, is traveling at approximately 38,000 mph (61,000 kph) and will mark the 50th anniversary of its launch next year. It won't be able to detect any flashlights, however: its cameras were turned off decades ago, after the famous Pale Blue Dot image was captured. Its twin, Voyager 2, is not expected to reach the same milestone for another nine years.