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Goodbye, Calibri.

Microsoft has named the next default font for its productivity applications, such as Word and Outlook, after testing five candidates it introduced in 2021. Since then, it’s been called Bierstadt. Now it’s getting a new name: Aptos.

The move amounts to a subtle refinement for some of the most popular software in the world. Microsoft doesn’t take such steps lightly, because its Office products fetch almost 24% of its revenue. They’re growing faster than other parts of the business, such as video game content and search advertising, as Microsoft seeks to line up more end users and get existing clients to spend more.

If the core applications look fresh, Microsoft can make a better argument when the time comes to renew subscriptions to Microsoft 365, formerly known as Office 365. The company is now ready to do that, after accepting input from end users about the five new fonts.

“Today we begin the final phase of this major change where Aptos will start appearing as the new default font across Word, Outlook, PowerPoint and Excel for hundreds of millions of users,” Si Daniels, principal program manager for Office design at Microsoft, wrote in a blog post published Thursday. “And, over the next few months it will roll out to be the default for all our customers.”

Aptos will remain available in the font list under the old Bierstadt name for people who are accustomed to it. Users can also choose to set any other font as the default. That includes older standards, such as Times New Roman, Arial or even Calibri, which has been the default since 2007, before the launch of Office 365 in 2011. Many people perceive Microsoft as a friendlier place since Satya Nadella replaced Steve Ballmer as its CEO in 2014, but that updated identity isn’t necessarily reflected when someone starts writing an email in Outlook with a font that predates Nadella.

In 2019, Microsoft asked font designer Steve Matteson to develop a font in the grotesque sans-serif style that includes the classic Helvetica. The company didn’t let on that it was considering it as a possible successor for Calibri, Matteson said in an interview with CNBC this week.

At the time, Matteson was still working for the font company Monotype, and he and his colleagues gave Microsoft four or five proposals to look at, without including the names of the contributors. That’s important because the designers didn’t want his connection to Microsoft to influence the software maker’s decision, he said.

Matteson’s work with Microsoft goes back to the 1990s. He helped with Microsoft’s TrueType fonts for Windows 3.1 and created the Segoe font Microsoft uses for its current logo and marketing materials. He also contributed to the aptly named font Curlz. That was not his proudest moment, he said.

Of the bunch that Matteson and his colleagues sent to Microsoft, they picked his, which at that point was dubbed simply Grotesque No. 2. Then Microsoft gave it a codename, Koyuk. Then he came up with the name Bierstadt, taking the name of a mountain in Colorado, where he lives. In German, Bierstadt means “beer city.”

Some people didn’t take the name seriously and Microsoft decided to come up with a new one for the font, Matteson said. Aptos, an unincorporated town in Santa Cruz County, California, came to his mind.

“Aptos has this unique coastal climate, where it’s a beach, and all the way up to the redwoods,” he said. “It’s what I loved about California is the diversity, and it kind of told me that there’s all these different moods and experiences you can have. Similarly, with Aptos, you have all these different voices you can speak in without distorting the message.”

Matteson came up with a serif version of the font, along with a monospace version that can work for typing out code. He’s worked on monetary symbols and support for Greek and Cyrillic languages. He collaborated with Microsoft to ensure it will work well in different scenarios. If one were to convert cells in an Excel spreadsheet from Calibri to Aptos, it’s unlikely that numbers in a cell will overflow into the one next to it, he said.

He hasn’t seen every response to the font. But he has observed people saying that in Bierstadt, a lowercase L and a capital I can’t be mistaken for each other.

Still, Matteson has nothing but respect for Calibri and its creator, Lucas de Groot.

“I can understand Microsoft wanting to, you know, make a change, but I don’t think there’s ever been anything wrong with Calibri,” he said.

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Palantir is soaring while its tech peers are sinking. Here’s why

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Palantir is soaring while its tech peers are sinking. Here's why

Alex Karp, chief executive officer of Palantir Technologies Inc., speaks during the AIPCon conference in Palo Alto, California, US, on March 13, 2025.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Tech stocks have struggled in 2025, as recession and trade war fears sap investor appetite for riskier assets.

Palantir is the exception.

Against a volatile market backdrop, the software maker’s stock has gained 45% and is the best performer among companies valued at $5 billion or more, according to FactSet. The closest tech names are VeriSign, up 33%, Okta, up 30%, Robinhood, up 29%, and Uber, up 29%.

President Donald Trump‘s frenzy of government department overhauls is partially to thank for the pop.

“When you think about macroeconomic concerns, you as a company need to be more efficient, and this is where Palantir thrives,” said Bank of America analyst Mariana Pérez Mora.

Palantir has set itself apart in the software world for its artificial-intelligence-enabled tools, gaining recognition for its defense and software contracts with key U.S. government agencies, including the military. In the fourth quarter, its government revenues jumped 45% year-over-year to $343 million.

Read more CNBC tech news

Companies have faced immense volatility in 2025 as tariffs threaten to jeopardize global supply chains and halt day-to-day manufacturing operations by hiking costs. Those fears have brought the broad market index down about 7% this year, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite has slumped 11%.

Tech’s megacap companies — Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Tesla — are all down between 7% and 31% so far this year.

At the same time, the Trump administration has clamped down on government spending, giving Tesla CEO Elon Musk‘s Department of Government Efficiency freedom to slash public sector costs. Some administration officials have touted shifting dollars from consulting contracts to commercial software providers like Palantir, said William Blair analyst Louie DiPalma.

“Palantir’s business model is highly aligned with the priorities of the Trump administration in terms of increasing agility and being very quick to market,” he said.

That’s put Palantir in the league with major contractors such as Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, which have outperformed in this year’s downdraft. Many companies in the space are also looking to partner with the firm and tend to flock to defense during recessionary times, DiPalma said.

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Palantir vs. the Nasdaq Composite

CEO Alex Karp has also been a vocal supporter of American innovation and the company’s central role in helping prop up what he called the “single best tech scene in the world” during an interview with CNBC earlier this year. Karp also told CNBC that the U.S. needs an “all-country effort” to compete against emerging adversaries.

But the ride for Palantir has been far from smooth, and shares have been susceptible to volatile swings. Shares sold off nearly 14% during the week that Trump first announced tariffs. Shares rocketed 22% one day in February on strong earnings.

Its inclusion in more passive and quant funds over the years and the growing attention of retail traders has added to that turbulence, DiPalma said. Last year, the company joined both the S&P and Nasdaq. Palantir trades at one of the highest price-to-earnings multiples in software and last traded at 185 times earnings over the next twelve months. That puts a steep bar on the stock.

“There really is no margin for error,” he said.

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NXP Semi shares sink on tariff concerns, CEO Kurt Sievers to step down

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NXP Semi shares sink on tariff concerns, CEO Kurt Sievers to step down

Kurt Sievers, chief executive officer of NXP Semiconductors NV, during the Federation of German Industries (BDI) conference in Berlin, Germany, on Monday, June 19, 2023.

Liesa Johannssen-Koppitz | Bloomberg | Getty Images

NXP Semiconductor Inc. fell about 8% on Monday after the chip company announced that CEO Kurt Sievers will step down as part of its latest earnings.

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

  • Earnings per share: $2.64 adjusted vs. $2.58 expected
  • Revenue: $2.84 billion vs. $2.83 billion expected

Sievers will retire at the end of the year, with Rafael Sotomayor stepping in as president on April 28, 2025.

The company beat expectations on the top and bottom lines but cited a “challenging set of market conditions” looking forward.

“We are operating in a very uncertain environment influenced by tariffs with volatile direct and indirect effects,” Sievers said in an earnings release.

Sales in NXP’s first quarter declined 9% year over year.

The company posted $1.67 billion in auto sales during the first quarter, trailing analyst estimates of $1.69 billion.

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NXP Semi said that second-quarter sales would come in at a midpoint of $2.9 billion, ahead of the $2.87 billion that analysts were projecting. Second-quarter adjusted EPS will be $2.66, in line with analyst estimates.

The company logged first-quarter net income of $490 million, which was a 23% year-to-year drop from $639 million.

NXP’s net income per share was $1.92 compared to $2.47 during the same time a year ago. A drop of 22%.

This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.

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Microsoft says U.S. can’t afford falling behind China in quantum computers

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Microsoft says U.S. can't afford falling behind China in quantum computers

Microsoft President Brad Smith speaks during signing ceremony of cooperation agreement between the Polish Ministry of Defence and Microsoft, in Warsaw, Poland, February 17, 2025.

Kacper Pempel | Reuters

The U.S. cannot afford to fall behind China in the race to a working quantum computer, Microsoft President Brad Smith wrote Monday.

President Donald Trump and the U.S. government need to prioritize funding for quantum research, or China could surpass the U.S., endangering economic competitiveness and security, Smith wrote.

“While most believe that the United States still holds the lead position, we cannot afford to rule out the possibility of a strategic surprise or that China may already be at parity with the United States,” Smith wrote. “Simply put, the United States cannot afford to fall behind, or worse, lose the race entirely.”

Microsoft’s position is the latest sign that research into quantum computing is starting to heat up among big tech companies and investors who are looking for the next technology that could rival the artificial intelligence boom.

Smith is calling for the Trump administration to increase funding for quantum research, renew the National Quantum Initiative Act and expand a program for testing quantum computers by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA. The Microsoft executive is also calling on the White House to expand the educational pipeline of people who have the math and science skills to work on quantum machines, fast-track immigration for Ph.D.s with quantum skills and for the government to buy more quantum-related computer parts to build a U.S. supply chain.

Microsoft did not detail how China surpassing the U.S. in quantum computing technology would endanger national security, but a National Security Agency official last year discussed what could happen if China or another adversary surprised the U.S. by building a quantum computer first.

The official, NSA Director of Research Gil Herrera, said that if such a “black swan” event happened, banks might not be able to keep transactions private because a quantum computer could crack their encryption, according to the Washington Times. A working quantum computer could also crack existing encrypted data that is usually shared publicly in a scrambled fashion, which could reveal secrets on U.S. nuclear weapon systems.

In February, Microsoft announced its latest quantum chip called Majorana, claiming that it invented a new kind of matter to develop the prototype device. Last year, Google announced Willow, a new device the company claimed was a “milestone” because it was able to correct errors and solve a math problem in five minutes that would have taken longer than the age of the universe on a traditional computer.

While the computers people are used to use bits that are either 0 or 1 to do calculations, quantum computers use “qubits,” which end up being on or off based on probability. Experts say that quantum computers will eventually be useful for problems with nearly infinite possibilities, such as simulating chemistry, or routing deliveries.

But the current quantum computers are far away from that point, and many computer industry participants say it could take decades for quantum computers to reach their potential.

Microsoft’s chip, Majorana, has eight qubits, but the company says it has a goal of least 1 million qubits for a commercially useful chip. Microsoft needs to build a device with a few hundred qubits before the company starts looking at whether it’s reliable enough for customers.

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