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Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives at federal court in San Jose, California, Dec. 20, 2022.

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European regulator Thierry Breton shared a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday urging the billionaire to be “vigilant” about removing disinformation on his company’s platforms during the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict and ahead of upcoming elections.

Breton, European commissioner for the internal market, said the European Union has been seeing an increase in illegal content and disinformation on “certain platforms” following the Hamas attack on Israel. Meta owns popular social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook, as well as Threads, the company’s competitor for X, formerly known as Twitter.

Under the EU’s newly enacted Digital Services Act, Meta is responsible for monitoring and removing illegal content like terrorist content or illegal hate speech. The company also has to detail its protocols for doing so. Failure to comply with the European regulations around illegal content could result in fines worth 6% of a company’s annual revenue.

“I urgently invite you to ensure that your systems are effective,” Breton wrote in the letter, asking Zuckerberg to respond within the next 24 hours.

“After the terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israel on Saturday, we quickly established a special operations center staffed with experts, including fluent Hebrew and Arabic speakers, to closely monitor and respond to this rapidly evolving situation,” a Meta spokesperson told CNBC. “Our teams are working around the clock to keep our platforms safe, take action on content that violates our policies or local law, and coordinate with third-party fact checkers in the region to limit the spread of misinformation. We’ll continue this work as this conflict unfolds.”

Breton shared a similar letter addressed to Elon Musk, the owner of X, on Tuesday, which included a stern warning for Musk. Breton wrote that his office has “indications” that groups are spreading misinformation and “violent and terrorist” content about the Israel-Hamas conflict on the platform.

The letter to Musk came after numerous researchers, news organizations and other groups documented a rise of misleading, false and questionable content on X that contributed to confusion about the events.

In addition to disinformation surrounding the conflict in Israel, Breton wrote that the EU had received reports of manipulated content and deepfakes on Meta’s platforms ahead of the recent election in Slovakia. He said that misinformation about elections is taken “extremely seriously” under the DSA.

Breton asked Zuckerberg to share details of how Meta is addressing deepfakes and noted that elections are also approaching in Poland, Romania, Austria, Belgium and other countries.

“The DSA is here to protect free speech against arbitrary decisions, and at the same time protect our citizens and democracies,” Breton wrote in a post on Bluesky, another X competitor.

Correction: Slovakia held an election recently. An earlier version misstated the timing.

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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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