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A worker delivers Amazon packages in San Francisco, California, US, on Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022. Amazon’s Prime Early Access Sale is on through Oct. 12 to boost sales among cost-conscious consumers who are expected to start their holiday shopping even earlier this year.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Amazon shoppers appear to have shrugged off promotions for discounted phone chargers and air fryers during this week’s Prime Day-like sales bonanza.

The 48-hour event, dubbed the Prime Early Access sale, ran through Wednesday. For Amazon, the event tested how members of its Prime subscription program would respond to two major discount events in the same year, after the company’s main Prime Day sale in July.

Amazon on Thursday said that tens of millions of Prime members ordered more than 100 million items from third-party vendors. It disclosed little else about the results, such as sales figures.

But data collected by third-party analysts gives a deeper look into how the Prime Day sequel went over with shoppers compared to Amazon’s sales event in July.

Sales during this week’s event seemed “lighter” compared to Prime Day in July, Bank of America analysts said. They estimate Amazon brought in $5.7 billion in revenue from the Prime Early Access Sale vs. $7.5 billion in July.

Commerce data company Klover said it observed slower spending and volume, noting transaction frequency was down 30% between the July event and October event.

The average spend per order during the Prime Early Access Sale was $46.68, down from $60.29 on Prime Day, according to market research firm Numerator. Meanwhile, most categories saw a decline in sales relative to the July sale — exceptions included toys; baby items; and books, video and other media, Numerator found.

Not everyone is convinced that the Amazon sale was a flop. Even if the 48-hour event failed to exceed Prime Day sales, Amazon still likely saw more sales on Tuesday and Wednesday than it would on a typical day, said Juozas Kaziukenas, founder of research firm Marketplace Pulse.

“I think it did fine for what Amazon was trying to do, which was to reduce the amount of products they have in their warehouses,” Kaziukenas said.

Amazon, Walmart, Target and many other major retailers are grappling with a glut of inventory after long-delayed orders of items that were hot sellers during the pandemic arrived, only to be passed over by shoppers whose habits have since shifted. Companies are now opting to kick off holiday sales sooner than ever with the hope that it will help clear out unwanted inventory.

Those challenges may have pushed more brands to run promotions during the sale. For example, Peloton, which has wrestled with excess inventory, was one of the top-selling items.

Amazon may also be looking to juice sales as it confronts slowing revenue growth and what’s likely to be a lackluster holiday shopping season. Online spending throughout the holiday season is expected to grow 2.5%, according to Adobe, marking the slowest growth since the firm began tracking the figure in 2015.

Discount events such as the Prime Early Access sale are a relatively low cost way to goose sales, Kaziukenas said.

“The only cost is the discount, which is either coming from sellers or brands,” he said. “In terms of putting up the actual event, it’s a cheap thing for them to do. They could do it every month if they wanted to.”

WATCH: Amazon gets in front of holiday shopping with second Prime Day of the year

Amazon gets in front of holiday shopping with second Prime Day of the year

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Intel issues weak guidance, says it will slash expenses this year

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Intel issues weak guidance, says it will slash expenses this year

The Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, California, US, on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. Intel Corp. is scheduled to release earnings figures on April 24.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Intel reported first-quarter results on Thursday that beat analysts’ estimates, while issuing disappointing guidance and announcing plans to slash operational and capital expenses in the coming year, the first under CEO Lip-Bu Tan. The stock fell 7% in extended trading.

Here’s how the company did, versus LSEG consensus estimates:

  • EPS: 13 cents, adjusted vs. 1 cent estimated
  • Revenue: $12.67 billion vs. $12.3 billion estimated

Intel said it expects revenue for the current quarter of $11.8 billion dollars at the midpoint of the range, lower than the average analyst estimate of $12.82 billion. The company said earnings will be breakeven, while analysts were looking for profit of 6 cents per share.

Intel said its second-quarter guidance reflected elevated uncertainty driven by the macro environment.

For the first quarter, Intel reported a net loss of $800 million, or 19 cents per share, due to higher costs of sales and some writedowns. That compares with net income of $2.7 billion, or 63 cents per share, last year.

It’s the chipmaker’s first earnings report since Tan over as CEO in March, after Pat Gelsinger stepped down in December under pressure from board members and investors. Gelsinger’s tenure was highlighted by the company’s inability to effectively compete in artificial intelligence and its efforts to move into semiconductor manufacturing for other companies, including competitors.

“The first quarter was a step in the right direction, but there are no quick fixes as we work to get back on a path to gaining market share and driving sustainable growth,” Tan said in a statement.

Intel said on Thursday that it was planning to cut operational and capital expenses, removing management layers, in order to become more efficient. The company said it expected $17 billion in operational expenses this year, down from a previous target of $17.5 billion, and that it would target $18 billion in capital expenses in 2025, down from a previous target of $20 billion.

Intel said it hasn’t included restructuring charges in its guidance. Finance chief David Zinsner told CNBC’s Kristina Partsinevelos that the reduction in operating expenses would include job cuts, especially for managers, but that Intel has not yet finalized a number of cuts.

“There is no way around the fact that these critical changes will reduce the size of our workforce,” Tan said in a memo to employees that was published by Intel on its website. He said that the cuts would begin this quarter.

Intel’s investors hope Tan can turn around a company that’s been losing market share in its core processor business, and doesn’t have a competitive AI chip to Nvidia, which dominates the fast-growing sector.

Tan has already started to shape his team, last week naming networking chief Sachin Katti to be the company’s chief technology officer and head of AI, leading Intel’s overall AI strategy and product release plans. Tan said on Thursday in a memo that Intel employees would have to work four days per week in the office by September.

Intel’s data center group reported $4.1 billion in sales, which was up 8% year-over-year. Intel said it had merged its networking and edge computing group, previously led by Katti, into its data center organization.

The company’s other big business, chips for PCs, is reported under the Client Computing Group, and it fell 8% on an annual basis to $7.6 billion in sales.

Intel’s burgeoning foundry business reported $4.7 billion in revenue, although most of those sales come from Intel’s other divisions to manufacture its chips.

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Meta lays off employees working on virtual reality in Reality Labs division

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Meta lays off employees working on virtual reality in Reality Labs division

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg presents Orion AR Glasses as he makes a keynote speech during the Meta Connect annual event at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on Sept. 25, 2024.

Manuel Orbegozo | Reuters


Meta has laid off employees in its Reality Labs division that is tasked with developing virtual reality, augmented reality and related wearable devices.

The cuts affected an unspecified number of employees working in the division’s Oculus Studios unit, which develops VR and AR games and content for Meta’s Quest VR headsets, a company spokesperson told CNBC.

“Some teams within Oculus Studios are undergoing shifts in structure and roles that have impacted team size,” the spokesperson said. “These changes are meant to help Studios work more efficiently on future mixed reality experiences for our growing audience, while still delivering great content for people today.”

Employees working on the Supernatural VR workout app were impacted, the spokesperson said.

“We’re deeply saddened to share that these changes have resulted in the loss of some of our incredibly talented team members,” the company said in a statement posted to the Supernatural official Facebook group. “Their contributions have been instrumental in shaping our journey and yours, and their absence will be deeply felt.”

The cuts to Reality Labs come after Meta in February laid off 5% of its overall workforce that it deemed to be its lowest performers.

Meta’s Reality Labs division logged an operating loss of $4.97 billion while scoring $1.1 billion in sales during the fourth quarter, the company said in January.

The social media company reports earnings on Wednesday.

The Verge reported the layoffs earlier on Thursday.

WATCH: Mark Zuckerberg takes witness stand on first day of antitrust trial.

Mark Zuckerberg takes witness stand on first day of antitrust trial

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Alphabet to report Q1 earnings results after the bell

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Alphabet to report Q1 earnings results after the bell

Alphabet, the parent company of Google and YouTube, is set to report first-quarter earnings after the bell Thursday.

Here’s what analysts are expecting.

  • Revenue: $89.12 billion, according to LSEG
  • Earnings per share: $2.01, according to LSEG
  • YouTube advertising revenue: $8.97 billion, according to StreetAccount
  • Google Cloud revenue: $12.27 billion, according to StreetAccount
  • Traffic acquisition costs (TAC): $13.66 billion, according to StreetAccount

Google finds itself at the center of an artificial intelligence arms race where its position may be threatened pending mounting regulation and competition from generative AI companies, including OpenAI and Anthropic. The company is also among those bracing for the potential impact from President Donald Trump‘s tariffs, which could result in a pullback in advertiser spending due to tighter budgets.

Alphabet shares have dropped more than 17% in 2025 so far.

Wall Street is expecting Alphabet to report 10% year-over-year revenue growth for the first quarter, which included a slew of AI announcements, its largest-ever acquisition, cost cuts and regulatory hurdles.

In March, Google released Gemini 2.5, its “most capable” artificial intelligence model suite yet, and Gemma 3, the company’s latest open model. The timing of Gemini 2.5 and Gemma 3 comes after DeepSeek in January released its R1 model, which caused a rift in Silicon Valley after the Chinese startup claimed its AI model was trained at a fraction of the cost of other leading models.

Google AI chief Demis Hassabis told employees at an all-hands meeting in February that he was not worried about DeepSeek and that Google has superior AI technology.

“We’re very calm and confident in our strategy, and we have all the ingredients to maintain our leadership into this year,” Hassabis said, calming concerns from investors and employees alike. He added, however, he thinks the Chinese company is still “something to be taken seriously.”

Google this quarter also announced new personalization features for Gemini, allowing the chatbot to reference users’ search histories, and users can also connect Gemini to other Google apps, including Calendar, Notes, Tasks and Photos.

During the quarter, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced it would be partnering with Google’s Gemini products, giving the company high praise.

“No company is better at every single layer of computing than Google and Google Cloud,” Huang said.

Alphabet also had a number of announcements in autonomous driving.

In March, Waymo began offering robotaxi rides in Austin, Texas, through the Uber app and opened up a waitlist in Atlanta. Those markets are just two of several more expected expansions in the U.S. this year.

Alphabet also made its largest acquisition ever in March when it agreed to buy Wiz for $32 billion in cash, almost $10 billion more than it offered for the startup in 2024, and said it expects the deal to close next year, subject to regulatory approvals. With the acquisition, Google will seek to bolster its cloud division’s security offerings. Google is behind Amazon and Microsoft in cloud market share, which may help the company’s argument to obtain regulatory approval.

Google this quarter also faced a slew of regulatory and legal challenges.

Last week, a federal judge ruled that Google held illegal monopolies in online advertising markets due to its position between ad buyers and sellers. The ruling represents a second major antitrust blow for Google. Last August, a judge determined the company has held a monopoly in its core market of internet search.

In April, the company reached a settlement with its employee union, where it agreed to reverse a policy forbidding employees from discussing antitrust litigation. The settlement, which marked a major victory for Google staffers, came ahead of Google’s remedy trial, which will determine the consequences of the search monopoly ruling over the next few weeks.

Education tech company Chegg in February filed a lawsuit against Google. Chegg claimed that Google’s “AI summaries” feature in search have hurt the online education company’s traffic and revenue. Similarly, Reddit in February claimed that Google’s search algorithm caused some “volatility” with user growth in the fourth quarter, but the company’s search-related traffic has since recovered, CEO Steve Huffman said.

WATCH: DOJ targets Google’s AI ambitions in high-stakes antitrust trial

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