AI business digest: Barclays, Striveworks, Anthropic

Barclays is cutting about 5,000 roles, or 5% of its workforce, and is linking the reductions to AI and technology that lowers fixed costs. This edition of the AI business digest, dated October 22, 2026, covers the bank's move alongside a defense AI contract, a copyright lawsuit against Anthropic and a free game update.

AI business: job cuts, defense contracts and legal action

Barclays cuts about 5,000 roles

Barclays disclosed the plan with its third-quarter results on October 22, when pre-tax profit reached £2.3 billion, up 12% year on year. According to the Barclays report published by Euronext, around 60% of the reductions fall on support functions, and 1,000 positions have already been eliminated. The rest are due to be completed by the end of the year. Group income of £7.4 billion missed the £7.61 billion analysts had estimated, and return on tangible equity dropped to 11.7% from 16.1%. Barclays also booked a further £201 million in structural cost actions during the quarter.

Striveworks enterprise contract rises tenfold to $700 million

Striveworks reported that its enterprise contract with the U.S. Army grew from $70 million to $700 million over five years, extending its Chariot AI platform into more units and missions. The company stated in its PR Newswire release that the work moves AI from headquarters pilots into operational units. A separate five-year, $200 million award covers Next Generation Command and Control modernization. Two smaller task orders add $4.57 million for the Army Intelligence Data Platform and $9.75 million for U.S. Army Europe and Africa.

Newspaper publishers sue Anthropic in Ontario

Postmedia, Torstar, The Globe and Mail and The Canadian Press have sued Anthropic in an Ontario court, alleging that Claude was trained on their journalism without a valid licence. The CBC report on the statement of claim says the publishers also allege breaches of website terms and circumvention of paywall-style technological protection measures. The claim seeks recovery under unjust enrichment, and the allegations have not been tested in court. The reviewed material contains no comment from Anthropic.

Cyberpunk 2077 Update 2.5 adds dual-wielding

CD Projekt RED released Cyberpunk 2077 Update 2.5 as a free patch on October 22, adding dual-wielding and official console mod support. The Gematsu report notes that the Double Trouble perk in the Cool skill tree lets V equip two Power-category pistols or revolvers at once. The update also adds two side quests and works on the base game without the Phantom Liberty expansion.

Also on our site

SAP cloud backlog climbs to €24.1 billion

SAP reported a cloud backlog of €24.1 billion for the third quarter of 2026, up 26% at constant currencies, and raised its full-year outlook. The company cites adoption of its Joule AI assistant as a key driver, while the share of growth that comes from AI remains unquantified. Total quarterly revenue passed €10 billion for the first time, according to the company, and cloud revenue rose 25%. Read more in our SAP cloud backlog report.

ChatGPT Locked Chats add a PIN gate

OpenAI began rolling out Locked Chats on October 20, 2026, with access expanding gradually by account. The feature hides selected conversations behind a 4-digit PIN, or Face ID, Touch ID and Android device unlock on supported phones. OpenAI's help-center guide states that the feature is not end-to-end encryption and leaves retention and model-training settings unchanged. Details are in our ChatGPT Locked Chats article.

Meta free cash flow turns negative

Meta Platforms reported third-quarter revenue of $64.6 billion, up 26% year over year, while free cash flow fell to about -$2.12 billion as AI capital expenditure reached $34.9 billion. Operating income fell 37% to $13 billion, which includes a $10 billion settlement with state attorneys general over youth safety. Read more in our Meta free cash flow report.

✔Human Verified

Researched and cross-referenced against primary sources by the Bytevyte editorial team. This article was generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by the Bytevyte editorial team.