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Herman Narula, co-founder and CEO at Improbable, speaks during a session at the Web Summit in Lisbon.

Henrique Casinhas | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Virtual reality startup Improbable said Wednesday that it reduced losses by 85% in 2022, a year that saw the company pivot its focus to powering new “metaverse” experiences.

The British company said in a press release that its revenues more than doubled last year to £78 million ($95 million), as its work on metaverses expanded significantly.

It recorded a loss of £19 million in the 2022 fiscal year, but this compared to a £131 million loss the year prior.

Improbable CEO Herman Narula said the company had reported its “best financial year” on record which reflected how its bet on the metaverse had paid off.

Improbable has historically burned through lots of money as it attempts to make its vision for vast virtual worlds a success. Critics have raised questions about the commercial sustainability of the business.

Improbable said that part of the reason behind the company’s reduction in losses was a dramatic reduction in the cost of running mass-scale virtual events.

Whereas initially it took millions of pounds to host one event, it now takes hundreds of thousands of pounds, the company said, and it anticipates this to continue to fall.

The year also saw Improbable divest two of its games studios, Inflexion Games and Midwinter Entertainment, and sell off a business unit focused on servicing defense clients.

Improbable finished the year with £140 million cash in the bank, signaling ongoing support from shareholders, the company said.

Improbable’s backers include the likes of SoftBank, Andreessen Horowitz.

Full accounts for Improbable are yet to be released on Companies House, the U.K.’s official register of companies.

Metaverse pivot

In 2022, Improbable unveiled its ambition to become a major player in the so-called “metaverse” — the concept for a vast world, or worlds, in the digital sphere where people can work, buy and sell things, or just hang out.

The company has been working with players in the digital asset sphere, including Yuga Labs, which it worked with to build out the Otherside metaverse, where people can make their own digital avatars, attend events, and more.

The company doubled down on its metaverse strategy earlier this year with a white paper detailing its vision for MSquared, a “network of interoperable Web3 metaverses.”

MSquared, which is a separate business entity from Improbable, raised $150 million from investors last year.

The service — a complex piece of technical engineering with significant computing requirements — is intended to be accessible via cloud streaming, meaning you won’t have to download any software to jump into one of its worlds, similar to how movies and TV shows are accessed on Netflix

It’s drawn interest from big names in sports and entertainment, like Major League Baseball (MLB).

The company struck a major deal with MLB to launch a new virtual ballpark based on Improbable’s metaverse technology. People in the MLB metaverse can choose any seat they’d like to watch a game, or pick a camera spot to focus on a particular player.

The tech industry has been betting that virtual and augmented reality will prove to be something of a “paradigm” shift in technology akin to the invention of the internet or the smartphone.

Some are calling it the technology’s “iPhone moment,” in reference to effect Apple’s now ubiquitous handset had on consumers and businesses globally.

Apple recently announced its first virtual and augmented reality headset, called the Vision Pro, while Meta unveiled its Quest 3 headset in June. 

Improbable is taking a different route to companies like Apple, Meta, and Microsoft, which is behind the HoloLens mixed reality products.

For one, you won’t need a headset to enter an MSquared space, as the software will be desktop-based. The experience is also intended to be more decentralized and interoperable, with the ability to take content from one metaverse to another.

Founded in 2012, Improbable has for years been attempting to build vast, continuously rendering worlds in which thousands of people can play games and interact with each other.

The London-headquartered firm, one of Japanese tech investment giant SoftBank’s biggest bets in Britain, was founded by Cambridge computer science students Narula and Rob Whitehead with the ambition of developing large-scale computer simulations and “synthetic environments.”

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Zscaler jumps 8% on strong results fueled by AI growth

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Zscaler jumps 8% on strong results fueled by AI growth

Zscaler rings the opening bell at the Nasdaq exchange in New York, March 16, 2018.

Source: Nasdaq

Zscaler shares jumped 8% Friday after reporting stronger-than-expected results in the third fiscal quarter driven by artificial intelligence and widespread adoption of its zero-trust security platform.

“The proliferation of AI in all aspects of business is increasing the need for our AI security,” said CEO Jay Chaudhry in a release. “We empower customers to securely adopt both public GenAI apps and their own private AI apps, and we are increasing our investments in this area.”

The cloud security software company said revenues grew 23% to $678 million from about $553 million in the year-ago period. That topped the LSEG estimate of $666 million.

Zscaler reported adjusted earnings of 84 cents per share, topping the adjusted EPS of 75 cents per share expected by LSEG. Billings rose 25% to about $785 million, ahead of a $760 million estimate from StreetAccount.

Zscaler’s earnings come as a hopeful sign for a cybersecurity industry that has shown some pockets of weakness in a volatile macroeconomic environment. SentinelOne dropped after lowering its outlook, while Palo Alto Networks shares declined after missing on gross margin.

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The report “echoes the strength we noted in our preview, and begins to prove out the reacceleration story that the company has been pointing to over the past few quarters,” wrote Morgan Stanley’s Keith Weiss.

Zscaler reported a net loss of $4.1 million, or a loss of 3 cents per share, for the quarter. Last year, net income came in at $19.1 million, or 12 cents per share.

The company issued upbeat adjusted EPS guidance for the fiscal fourth quarter. Zscaler expects adjusted earnings to range between 79 cents and 80 cents a share, versus the 77 cents expected by LSEG.

Along with its earnings, Zscaler appointed Kevin Rubin as its chief financial officer.

WATCH: Zscaler CEO Jay Chaudhry weighs in on China hacking the U.S. Treasury

Zscaler CEO Jay Chaudhry weighs in on China hacking the U.S. Treasury

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Musk-Altman AI rivalry is complicating Trump’s dealmaking in Middle East

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Musk-Altman AI rivalry is complicating Trump's dealmaking in Middle East

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, is seen through glass during an event on the sidelines of the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris, Feb. 11, 2025.

Aurelien Morissard | Via Reuters

Elon Musk tried to derail a major artificial intelligence infrastructure deal in the Middle East after learning that his startup, xAI, would be excluded from the initiative, CNBC has confirmed.

Earlier this month, OpenAI, OracleNvidiaCisco and Emirati firm G42 announced plans to build a sweeping Stargate AI campus in the United Arab Emirates. Musk was frustrated that OpenAI, led by personal rival Sam Altman, was tapped for the deal, and he intervened in an effort to get xAI involved, said a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named in order to speak freely.

Musk argued that President Donald Trump would not approve the deal, the person said. The announcement was delayed by several days as stakeholders, including the White House, dealt with blowback from Musk, who has been engaged in a public and legal spat with Altman and OpenAI.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that Musk attempted to block the deal.

In a statement to CNBC, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt didn’t mention the dustup.

“The United States and the UAE signed a groundbreaking framework agreement establishing the first AI acceleration partnership,” Leavitt said. “The framework advances the buildout of AI infrastructure in the United States and the UAE. This was another great deal for the American people, thanks to President Trump and his exceptional team.” 

Musk wasn’t in the UAE when the deal was signed, but was with the president in Saudi Arabia during an earlier part of the Middle East trip, according to a senior White House official. The official said Musk has relayed his concerns about the government fairly treating all AI companies.

OpenAI declined to comment. Musk didn’t respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Musk, who is also CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is a complicating character in Trump’s effort to solidify U.S. leadership in AI. Musk spent close to $300 million to send President Trump back to the White House, and has since been leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), slashing the size of the federal workforce. His time as a special government employee is coming to an end this month.

When it comes to AI, Musk has in recent years been a vocal critic of Altman, a former friend and colleague. The pair helped form OpenAI as a research lab in 2015, but Musk later had a public break with the project and has consistently criticized its structure and close alliance with Microsoft.

While xAI has been building its commercial efforts, acquiring Musk’s social media company X in March and this week partnering with Telegram to roll out its Grok chatbot, Musk has been trying to thwart OpenAI’s effort to convert into a for-profit entity.

Musk has sued OpenAI for breach of contract and to try and stop the conversion, and a Musk-led investor group made an unsuccessful bid to buy control of the startup for $97.4 billion in February. 

It’s also not the first time Musk has been critical of Stargate.

In January, Trump unveiled the Stargate project, with OpenAIOracle and Softbank committing an initial $100 billion, and up to $500 billion, of investment in AI infrastructure in the U.S. over four years. Musk was quick to cast doubt on the financing behind the project.

“They don’t actually have the money,” Musk wrote in response to an OpenAI post on his social platform X. He later added that SoftBank had “well under” $10 billion secured.

Two months later, SoftBank led a $40 billion investment in OpenAI at a $300 billion valuation.

— CNBC’s Eamon Javers contributed to this report.

WATCH: Elon Musk tried to block Sam Altman’s big AI deal in the UAE

Elon Musk tried to block Sam Altman's big AI deal in the UAE

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Dell shares climb after company raises full-year profit outlook on AI demand

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Dell shares climb after company raises full-year profit outlook on AI demand

A Dell Technologies sign is seen in Round Rock, Texas, on June 2, 2023.

Brandon Bell | Getty Images

Shares of Dell Technologies rose on Thursday in extended trading after the company raised its full-year earnings forecast and issued a stronger-than-expected forecast for the current quarter.

However, Dell’s adjusted earnings per share came up short versus LSEG estimates on in-line revenue.

Here’s how the computer maker did versus LSEG consensus estimates:

  • Earnings per share: $1.55 adjusted vs. $1.69 estimated
  • Revenue: $23.38 billion vs. $23.14 billion estimated

Dell said it expects $2.25 in adjusted earnings per share for the current quarter, with between $28.5 billion and $29.5 billion in revenue. That was significantly higher than LSEG expectations.

Company officials attributed the strong guidance to $7 billion in artificial intelligence systems that are expected to ship during the quarter, which are higher-margin than other Dell systems.

For the full year, Dell still expects about $103 billion in revenue, in line with LSEG expectations, but it raised its forecast for full-year adjusted earnings to $9.40, which was a 10 cent increase from the company’s prior outlook.

Dell is one of Nvidia’s primary vendors that builds systems around the chipmaker’s AI graphics processing units. Dell said on Thursday that it was seeing “unprecedented demand” for AI systems, especially for second-tier cloud providers, such as Coreweave.

Texas-based Dell said that it has $14.4 billion in confirmed orders for AI systems in its backlog that will ship in the coming quarters. It recorded $12.1 billion in confirmed AI orders during the first quarter, the company said. These numbers will turn into recorded revenue when Dell ships the system to its clients. In February, Dell said it expected $15 billion in AI server sales during its fiscal 2026, up from $10 billion last year.

Overall, Dell’s revenue grew 5% on an annual basis. It said it expects revenue to grow 8% during the fiscal year.

Dell’s server business is reported as part of its Infrastructure Solutions Group, which had $10.3 billion in sales during the quarter, a 12% rise. Of that, $6.3 billion was sales for servers and networking, and $4 billion was for computers that store data.

The company’s laptop and PC business, its Client Solutions Group, recorded $12.5 billion in sales as the global PC market is expected to recover this year after several slumping years.

The computer maker also said it significantly stepped up its shareholder capital return during the quarter, spending $2.4 billion on share repurchases and dividends during the period. It spent $2.58 billion on share repurchases for all of its fiscal 2025, which ended in January.

WATCH: Nvidia’s inference growth engine

Nvidia's inference growth engine

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