Google Cloud vs Cohere

Revolut Outage Due to Google Cloud Power Failure

The online bank Revolut reported problems with several of its services since the morning, caused by a power outage at Google Cloud. The issue led to disruptions in Revolut's digital banking operations, affecting a range of services. The outage appears to be an infrastructure failure at Google Cloud, which is a key provider for Revolut's operations. This incident highlights the dependency of financial technology companies on cloud infrastructure and the potential impact on users when such providers experience outages. The article provides limited details due to a paywall, but the core event is clear: a Google Cloud power failure disrupted Revolut's services.

• Revolut reported problems with multiple services on the morning of October 20, 2026.
• The root cause was a power outage at Google Cloud.
• The outage affected Revolut's digital banking operations and service availability.

Google Cloud London outage disrupts Revolut, ING, Spotify

A major outage in Google Cloud's europe-west2 region in London on October 20, 2026, caused widespread service disruptions for several hours. Major financial services including Revolut, ING Germany, Lloyds, Halifax, HSBC, and the finance app Emma were affected, with users experiencing issues with account access and transactions. Spotify, DPD, Royal Mail, the NHS app, and British court livestreams also saw disruptions. Google attributed the issue to a 'power event,' apologized, and confirmed no cyberattack. ING stated its issues were unrelated to the outage. The exact cause and full extent are still under investigation. The incident highlights the fragility of relying on a few cloud providers, echoing a similar AWS outage a year prior, and underscores EU's DORA regulations requiring financial institutions to plan for such failures.

• Google Cloud outage in London (europe-west2) on October 20, 2026, caused by a power event.
• Affected services included Revolut, ING Germany, Lloyds, Halifax, HSBC, Emma, Spotify, DPD, Royal Mail, NHS app, and court livestreams.
• Google apologized and confirmed no cyberattack; exact cause and full extent still under investigation.

Jack Henry and Google Cloud Launch Tokenized Deposits

Jack Henry, a core banking technology provider, has expanded its collaboration with Google Cloud to enable banks and credit unions to offer tokenized deposits via Google Cloud Universal Ledger (GCUL). Jack Henry will be the first core provider to integrate with GCUL, a managed distributed ledger service for real-time, programmable settlement. The partnership, initially established in 2022, now extends to digital asset infrastructure. The integration aims to help community and regional financial institutions retain deposits, modernize payment offerings, and compete with larger banks and fintechs. Benefits include 24/7 settlement, capital efficiency, and reduced operational complexity. The announcement was made on October 16, 2026, with executives from both companies emphasizing accessibility of financial innovation.

• Jack Henry will integrate with Google Cloud Universal Ledger (GCUL), becoming the first core banking technology provider to do so.
• GCUL is a fully managed, distributed ledger service enabling tokenization and real-time settlement.
• The expanded collaboration aims to help banks and credit unions offer tokenized deposits.

Introducing North 2: AI without compromises

Cohere has announced North 2, its latest platform update with 15+ new features, positioned as enterprise AI without compromises.

North 2: Enterprise AI without compromises

Cohere's biggest upgrade yet — unifying enterprise-grade security, performance, and flexibility in one platform.

Aleph Alpha's Kolibri Lags Behind Open-Weight Leaders

Aleph Alpha has released Kolibri, a new open-source German-English AI model under the Apache-2.0 license, designed for mission-critical applications in public administration and industry. Kolibri features a Mixture-of-Experts architecture with 78 billion total parameters and about 3.46 billion active per token. Trained on 20 trillion tokens, with 23% in German and a German-optimized tokenizer, it supports context lengths up to one million tokens. The model excels in agentic workflows, RAG, and native tool calling, while emphasizing data sovereignty and compliance, including a blocklist of 4.5 million URLs and GDPR/EU AI Act adherence. Independent benchmarks, however, place it behind at least 20 other open-weight models. Aleph Alpha is merging with Cohere to form a transatlantic sovereign AI company, subject to regulatory approval. In a broader economic debate, Reid Hoffman argues AI infrastructure expansion is the 'only reason' the US avoids recession, though economists dispute this.

• Aleph Alpha released Kolibri under Apache-2.0, with 78B total parameters and ~3.46B active per token.
• Kolibri trained on 20T tokens, with 23% German data and a German-optimized tokenizer, supporting 1M context.
• Independent benchmarks rank Kolibri behind at least 20 other open-weight models.