Redmond

Microsoft has fired two employees who organized an unauthorized vigil at the company's headquarters for Palestinians killed in Gaza during Israel's war with Hamas.

The two employees told The Associated Press they were fired by phone call late on Oct. 24, several hours after a lunchtime event they organized at Microsoft's campus in Redmond, Washington.

Microsoft joined Apple on Jan. 24 as a $3 trillion company, as its big bet on artificial intelligence continued to impress Wall Street.

Now second to Apple as the world's biggest company by market capitalization, Microsoft's shares were up 1.31 percent at $404.

Microsoft briefly dethroned its rival Apple to become the world's most valuable company Thursday, illustrating the contrast between a firm driven by artificial intelligence and another whose iPhone sales are a cause for concern.

Microsoft beat market expectations on Jan. 25 with strong quarterly performance in cloud computing and software, still benefitting from the pandemic's online shifting of work, play, shopping and learning.

Seattle-based company Picnic has announced that it has developed a module that can make up to 300 medium-sized pizzas per hour and 180 large ones.

"We are delighted to unveil the first ever intelligent food platform," the company said in a statement.

One of the most prestigious global programming and IT students' competitions, "Imagine Cup", will be organized for a 12th consecutive year by Microsoft.

This year, 15 Bulgarian teams are participating in the local round of the competition, with the top 3 making it to the final in Redmond, Washington, Dariknews revealed.