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PayPal has launched its cryptocurrency service in the U.K.
PayPal

LONDON — PayPal is launching its cryptocurrency service in the U.K.

The U.S. online payments giant said Monday it would let British customers buy, hold and sell digital currencies, starting this week.

It marks the the first international expansion of PayPal’s crypto product, which first launched in the U.S. in October last year.

“It has been doing really well in the U.S.,” Jose Fernandez da Ponte, PayPal’s general manager for blockchain, crypto and digital currencies, told CNBC. “We expect it’s going to do well in the U.K.”

PayPal’s crypto feature lets customers buy or sell bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum or litecoin with as little as £1. Users can also track crypto prices in real-time, and find educational content on the market.

Like the U.S. version of the product, PayPal is relying on Paxos, a New York-regulated digital currency company, to enable crypto buying and selling in the U.K. PayPal said it has engaged with relevant U.K. regulators to launch the service.

A spokesperson for the Financial Conduct Authority, Britain’s financial services watchdog, was not immediately available for comment on the announcement.

Growing adoption

PayPal’s crypto service is similar to one from U.K. fintech firm Revolut. As is the case with Revolut, PayPal users can’t move their crypto holdings outside the app. Although Revolut recently started testing a feature that lets users withdraw bitcoin to their own personal wallets.

PayPal says its foray into crypto is about making it easier for people to participate in the market. “The tokens and coins have been around for a while but you had to be a relatively sophisticated user to be able to access that,” da Ponte said. “Having that on a platform like ours makes a really good entry point.”

The payments processor is one of many large finance companies taking a leap into the mostly unregulated world of cryptocurrencies. Despite ongoing concerns about price volatility, consumer protection and potential money laundering in the industry, major firms including Mastercard, Tesla and Facebook have been warming to crypto lately.

Bitcoin, the world’s biggest digital currency, hit a record high of nearly $65,000 in April before tumbling below $30,000 in July as Chinese regulators extended a crackdown on the market. It has since recovered to a price of $48,400.

While PayPal started with crypto trading, the company is betting digital currencies will take a greater role in e-commerce in the long run. Earlier this year, PayPal started letting U.S. consumers use crypto to pay at millions of its online merchants globally. The firm also expanded crypto buying and selling to Venmo, its popular mobile wallet.

“We definitely have ambitions to continue to expand the product range in the U.S., the U.K. and other markets,” da Ponte said.

“We are very deliberate about starting with initial functionality, and then we’ll see where the market is going to take us. Different markets have different appetite for products.”

‘Britcoin’

The launch of PayPal’s crypto service in the U.K. also comes as regulators become increasingly wary about the rise of digital currencies. In June, the FCA banned the British subsidiary of Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, citing a failure to meet money-laundering requirements.

“It makes sense that, as there is increased consumer interest and increased volume, the regulators are putting more attention into this space,” da Ponte said, adding that PayPal has built “strong regulatory relations.”

Meanwhile, central banks are exploring the potential issuance of their own digital currencies, as cash use in a number of developed countries dwindles rapidly. In April, the U.K. Treasury and Bank of England said they would evaluate the potential launch of a digital version of the British pound, dubbed “Britcoin” by the U.K. press.

Da Ponte said central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, were a “fantastic prospect” but it would take policymakers some time to iron out the key issues involved.

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Amazon’s advertising business grew 19% in the third quarter

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Amazon's advertising business grew 19% in the third quarter

Dominika Zarzycka | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Amazon’s online advertising business brought in $14.3 billion in the third quarter, up 19% year over year, in line with analysts’ estimates of $14.3 billion.

The Seattle tech giant revealed the financial results of its growing advertising unit as part of its latest earnings report Thursday. Amazon’s overall third-quarter sales were $158.9 billion, ahead of analysts’ estimates of $157.2 billion.

Amazon’s online advertising business is still a fraction of the company’s overall business, but its growth over the years has made it a major competitor to Alphabet and Meta, which lead the digital advertising market. Alphabet’s Google currently represents 27.7% of the worldwide digital advertising market, followed by Meta at 22.8% and Amazon with 8.8%, according to data provided to CNBC by Emarketer.

Meta’s third-quarter advertising revenue came in at $39.9 billion, which was up 19% compared with the year prior. That was slightly ahead of analysts’ expectations of $39.49 billion, according to StreetAccount. Ads accounted for 98.3% of Meta’s overall third-quarter revenue.

Alphabet generated $65.85 billion in third-quarter ad revenue, the company reported Tuesday. That was up 10% from $59.65 billion the year prior. Additionally, advertising sales for the company’s YouTube unit rose 12% year over year to $8.92 billion.

Jefferies' Brent Thill on Microsoft & Meta earnings: AI expectations for investors got overinflated

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Intel shares jump 9% on earnings beat, uplifting guidance

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Intel shares jump 9% on earnings beat, uplifting guidance

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger holds an artificial intelligence processor as he speaks during the Computex conference in Taipei, Taiwan, on June 4, 2024.

Annabelle Chih | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Intel shares rose 9% in extended trading on Thursday after the chipmaker reported better-than-expected revenue and issued quarterly guidance that topped estimates.

Here’s how the company did in comparison with LSEG consensus:

  • Earnings per share: Loss of 46 cents adjusted
  • Revenue: $13.28 billion vs. $13.02 billion expected

Intel’s revenue declined 6% year over year in the quarter, which ended on Sept. 28, according to a statement. The company registered a net loss of $16.99 billion, or $3.88 per share, compared with net earnings of $310 million, or 7 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago.

As part of its cost reduction plan, Intel recognized $2.8 billion in restructuring charges during the quarter. There were also $15.9 billion in impairment charges.

Intel has been mired in an extended slump due to market share losses in its core businesses and an inability to crack artificial intelligence. CEO Pat Gelsinger revealed plans during the quarter to turn the company’s foundry business into an independent subsidiary, a move that would enable outside funding options.

CNBC reported that Intel had engaged advisors to defend itself against activist investors. In late September, news surfaced that Qualcomm reached out to Intel about a possible takeover.

The Client Computing Group that sells PC chips recorded $7.33 billion in revenue, down about 7% from a year earlier and below the $7.39 billion consensus among analysts surveyed by StreetAccount.

Revenue from the Data Center and AI segment came to $3.35 billion, which was up about 9% and more than the $3.17 billion consensus from StreetAccount.

Intel called for fiscal third-quarter adjusted earnings of 12 cents per share and revenue between $13.3 billion and $14.3 billion. Analysts had expected 8 cents in adjusted earnings per share and $13.66 billion in revenue.

During the quarter, Intel announced the launch of Xeon 6 server processors and Gaudi artificial intelligence accelerators.

As of Thursday’s close, Intel shares were down about 57% in 2024, while the S&P 500 index had gained 20%.

Executives will discuss the results with analysts on a conference call starting at 5 p.m. ET.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

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Microsoft’s stock has worst day in two years after disappointing forecast

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Microsoft's stock has worst day in two years after disappointing forecast

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks at a company event on artificial intelligence technologies in Jakarta, Indonesia, on April 30, 2024.

Dimas Ardian | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Microsoft‘s better-than-expected earnings report wasn’t enough to prevent the stock’s steepest sell-off in two years, as investors instead focused on the company’s forecast for the current period.

Microsoft shares fell 6% on Thursday and headed for their worst day since Oct. 26, 2022, when they dropped 7.7%. That was a month before the public release of ChatGPT from Microsoft-backed OpenAI, a launch that set the stage for a boom in artificial intelligence investments.

For the period ending in December, Microsoft called for revenue in the range of $68.1 billion to $69.1 billion, implying 10.6% growth at the middle of the range. Analysts surveyed by LSEG were looking for $69.83 billion in revenue.

Revenue in Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure business, Azure, increased 33%. CFO Amy Hood said on a call with analysts that growth, in constant currency, will come in at 31% to 32% in the fiscal second quarter.

On Tuesday, Google reported 35% annual growth in its rival cloud business to $11.35 billion. Amazon, which leads the cloud infrastructure market, is scheduled to report results after the close on Thursday.

“We view Q1 results as solid across the core Azure and Office growth businesses, though tempered by a softer Q2 outlook,” analysts at BofA Global Research wrote in a report on Thursday. They still recommend buying the stock.

Fiscal first-quarter revenue increased 16% from a year earlier to $65.59 billion, exceeding the average analyst estimate of $64.51 billion, according to LSEG. Earnings per share of $3.30 topped the $3.10 average estimate.

Net income rose 11% to $24.67 billion from $22.29 billion in the year-ago quarter.

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Outside suppliers are late in delivering data center infrastructure to Microsoft, meaning the company won’t be able to meet demand in the fiscal second quarter.

“I feel pretty good that going into the second half of even this fiscal year, that some of that supply-demand will match up,” CEO Satya Nadella said on the earnings call.

Microsoft’s AI investments continue to be a major focus for investors, as the company builds out its infrastructure and ramps up chip spending to handle heftier workloads. Microsoft has invested close to $14 billion in OpenAI, which was valued at $157 billion in a financing round earlier this month.

Hood said on the call she expects the company to take a $1.5 billion hit to income in the current period, mainly because of an expected loss from its investment in the AI startup.

Meanwhile, spending on property and equipment grew 50% year over year to $14.92 billion. The consensus among analysts polled by Capital IQ was $14.58 billion.

As of Thursday’s close, Microsoft shares were up a little over 8% for the year, while the Nasdaq has risen 21% during the same period.

— CNBC’s Ari Levy contributed to this report.

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