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Other than Apple, it was a brutal earnings week for Big Tech.

Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft combined lost over $350 billion in market cap after offering concerning commentary for the third quarter and the remainder of the year. Between slowing revenue growth — or declines in Meta’s case — and efforts to control costs, the tech giants have found themselves in an unfamiliar position after unbridled growth in the past decade.

Third-quarter results this week came against the backdrop of soaring inflation, rising interest rates and a looming recession. Apple bucked the trend after beating expectations for revenue and profit. The stock on Friday had its best day in over two years.

On the opposite end of the spectrum was Meta, which has seen its stock price collapse in 2022. Facebook’s parent came up short on earnings, recorded its lowest average revenue per user in two years and said sales in the fourth quarter will likely decline for a third straight period.

“There are a lot of things going on right now in the business and in the world, and so it’s hard to have a simple ‘We’re going to do this one thing, and that’s going to solve all the issues,'” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on the company’s earnings call on Wednesday.

Meta’s stock had its worst week since the company’s IPO in 2012, plunging 24% over the past five days. Microsoft fell 2.6% for the week, due to a 7.7% decline on Wednesday after the company gave weak guidance for the year-end period and missed estimates for cloud revenue.

Things were also bleak at Amazon, which dropped 13%. A gloomy fourth-quarter forecast along with a dramatic slowdown in its cloud-computing unit were largely to blame for the sell-off.

While Amazon Web Services saw expansion slow to 27.5% from 33% in the prior period, Google’s cloud group, which is significantly smaller, sped up to almost 38% growth from around 36%. Google plans to keep spending in cloud even as it intends to rein in headcount overall growth in the next few quarters.

“We are excited about the opportunity, given that businesses and governments are still in the early days of public cloud adoption, and we continue to invest accordingly,” Ruth Porat, Alphabet CFO, said on a conference call with analysts on Tuesday. “We remain focused on the longer-term path to profitability.”

However, results from the rest of Google parent Alphabet were less impressive. The company’s core advertising business grew just slightly, and YouTube’s ad revenue dropped from the prior year. The reverse was true for Amazon, which is playing catchup to Google and Facebook in digital advertising. In Amazon’s ad business, revenue growth accelerated to 30% from 21%, topping analysts’ estimates.

“Advertisers are looking for effective advertising, and our advertising is at the point where consumers are ready to spend,” said Brian Olsavsky, the company’s finance chief. “We have a lot of advantages that we feel that will help both consumers and also our partners like sellers and advertisers.”

Analyst Aaron Kessler at Raymond James lowered his price target on Amazon stock to $130 from $164 after the results. But he maintained his equivalent of a buy rating on the stock and said the company’s “robust advertising growth” has the potential to help Amazon fatten up its margin.

As investors continue to rotate away from tech, they’re finding money-making opportunities in other parts of the market that had previously lagged behind software and internet names. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 3% this week, the fourth weekly gain in a row for the index. Prior to 2021, the Dow had underperformed the Nasdaq for five straight years.

WATCH: Wall Street set to open in the red as investors digest disappointing tech earnings

Wall Street set to open in the red as investors digest disapointing tech earnings

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Uber beats on revenue, announces $20 billion stock buyback

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Uber beats on revenue, announces  billion stock buyback

Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box outside the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 22, 2025.

Gerry Miller | CNBC

Uber reported second-quarter results on Wednesday that beat on revenue and announced the authorization of a $20 billion stock buyback.

Here’s how the company did versus analysts’ estimates compiled by LSEG:

  • Earnings per share: 63 cents vs. 63 cents expected.
  • Revenue: $12.65 billion vs. $12.46 billion expected.

Here are the key segment numbers:

  • Mobility (gross bookings): $23.76 billion, up 18% year over year
  • Delivery (gross bookings): $21.73 billion, up 20% year over year

Uber’s revenue increased 18% from $10.7 billion a year earlier. For the quarter ending June 30, net income rose to $1.36 billion, or 63 cents per share, from $1.02 billion, or 47 cents per share, a year ago.

Gross bookings rose 17% to $46.8 billion, and the company reported adjusted earnings of $2.12 billion.

Uber’s “monthly active platform consumers” increased 15% to 180 million in the second quarter. The company said users booked around 3.3 billion trips during the period, up 18% from a year earlier.

CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in prepared remarks that Uber sees “enormous potential in better serving families across all stages of life.”

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In the second quarter, Uber launched Senior Accounts, including an “app experience” that features larger text and icons, and other features that allow family organizers to book and manage rides for others.

The company also recently started testing a new feature in the U.S. that allows women riders or drivers to avoid being paired with men in their ride when possible.

In some international markets, Uber Eats’ food delivery service is more popular than ride hailing, and the company is working to increase “cross-platform activity” to drive sales growth, Khosrowshahi said.

Uber shares are up 48% this year as of Tuesday’s close, while the Nasdaq has gained about 8% over that stretch.

Executives will go over results and the company’s outlook on a call with analysts at 8 a.m. ET.

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Lyft and Baidu look like perfect partners for the robotaxi business: Analyst

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Musk says Tesla is training an upgraded Full Self-Driving model which could be released next month

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Musk says Tesla is training an upgraded Full Self-Driving model which could be released next month

The Tesla Motors Inc. logo.

Michael Short | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Tesla is now training a new Full Self-Driving model boasting “big” video improvements and size upgrades, CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday on social media.

“Tesla is training a new FSD model with ~10X params and a big improvement to video compression loss. Probably ready for public release end of next month if testing goes well,” the tech billionaire said in an update on the X social media platform.

FSD is a partially automated driving system that seeks to enable Tesla vehicles to navigate and maneuver in driving situations with minimal driver assistance. Owners must keep their hands on the wheel, and remain ready to take over steering or braking at any time. It also serves as an upgrade to the company’s Autopilot driver assistant, which is already available in Europe and China.

The system is based on an artificial intelligence model that helps the car’s cameras and sensors perceive the world around it. Musk’s comment on “10X params” refers to a larger parameter size. In the case of AI models, that usually means it is a bigger model that is trained on more data and is more capable.

FSD has been a central pillar of Musk’s strategy for Tesla’s revenue growth and tech advancement in the increasingly competitive electric vehicle market, where Chinese automakers have stepped up to the plate.

Tesla bulls expect the company’s future will be in autonomy as Musk’s automaker focuses on ramping up its offering of self-driving features.

Tesla launched its robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, this year.

But right now, the market is focused on how Tesla’s core business of selling cars is doing. And it has been challenging. Tesla most recently reported a 16% decline in automotive revenue in the second quarter and has also been notching steep declines in its European sales.

The company’s stock has taken a bruising this year that has been exacerbated by reputational damage from Musk’s now-severed relationship with the White House administration. Tesla shares were down 23.55% this year as of Wednesday morning.

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U.S. charges two Chinese nationals for illegally shipping Nvidia AI chips to China

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U.S. charges two Chinese nationals for illegally shipping Nvidia AI chips to China

China is one of Nvidia’s largest markets, particularly for data centers, gaming and artificial intelligence applications.

Avishek Das | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Two Chinese nationals in California have been arrested and charged with the illegal shipment of tens of millions of dollars worth of AI chips, including from Nvidia, the Department of Justice said Tuesday. 

Chuan Geng, 28, and Shiwei Yang, 28, exported the sensitive chips and other technology to China from October 2022 through July 2025 without obtaining the required licenses, the DOJ said.

The illicit shipments included Nvidia’s H100 general processing units, according to a criminal complaint provided to CNBC. The H100 is amongst the U.S. chipmaker’s most cutting-edge chips used in artificial intelligence applications. 

The Department of Commerce has placed such chips under export controls since 2022 as part of broader efforts by the U.S. to restrict China’s access to the most advanced semiconductor technology. 

This case demonstrates that smuggling is a “nonstarter,” Nvidia told CNBC. “We primarily sell our products to well-known partners, including OEMs, who help us ensure that all sales comply with U.S. export control rules.”

“Even relatively small exporters and shipments are subject to thorough review and scrutiny, and any diverted products would have no service, support, or updates,” the chipmaker added.

Geng and Yang’s California-based company, ALX Solutions, had been founded shortly after the U.S. chip controls first came into place. 

According to the DOJ, law enforcement searched ALX Solutions’ office and seized phones belonging to Geng and Yang, which revealed incriminating communications between the defendants, including those about evading U.S. export laws by shipping sensitive chips to China through Malaysia.

The review also showed that in December 2024, ALX Solutions made over 20 shipments from the U.S. to shipping and freight-forwarding companies in Singapore and Malaysia, which the DOJ said are commonly used as transshipment points to conceal illicit shipments to China.

ALX Solutions did not appear to have been paid by entities they purportedly exported goods to, instead receiving numerous payments from companies based in Hong Kong and China.

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security and the FBI are continuing to investigate the matter.

The smuggling of advanced microchips has become a growing concern in Washington. According to a report from the Financial Times last month, at least $1 billion worth of Nvidia’s chips entered China after Donald Trump tightened chip export controls earlier this year. 

In response to the report, Nvidia had said that data centers built with smuggled chips were a “losing proposition” and that it does not support unauthorized products.

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