Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, speaks during The Wall Street Journal’s WSJ Tech Live conference in Laguna Beach, California, on Oct. 17, 2023.
Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images
It’s official: ChatGPT is no longer stuck in time.
OpenAI, the company behind the viral chatbot, has officially launched real-time internet browsing for ChatGPT, three weeks after reintroducing the beta version of the capability — but it has been a significantly bumpy ride.
For the majority of ChatGPT’s existence, it has been limited to data sets that end in September 2021. When users asked it about more current events, it would respond to the tune of, “I don’t have the ability to browse the internet in real time.” But one of OpenAI’s goals has been to expand ChatGPT’s data — and search engine capabilities — into the here and now.
In March, the company experimented with a ChatGPT web-browsing plugin for a limited number of users. In May, OpenAI debuted Browse with Bing, but in June, the company put the feature on ice after some users discovered it could be used to bypass paywalled content. The company has been slowly rolling out the feature again, after allowing site owners to opt out of the web crawling. As of Tuesday, Browse with Bing is officially out of beta and, it seems, here to stay.
Also as of this week, ChatGPT can generate images using OpenAI’s DALL-E 3, the buzzy new version of its image-generation artificial intelligence model, but the capability has only rolled out to certain users in beta mode.
“From a simple sentence to a detailed paragraph, ask ChatGPT what you want to see and it will translate your ideas into exceptionally accurate images,” OpenAI wrote in its release notes.
After launching last November, ChatGPT became the fastest-growing consumer application ever recorded, according to a UBS study, with about 100 million monthly active users in two months. Since then, it has kicked off an AI arms race of sorts, inspiring tech giants to race to develop new features, apps and UX experiences to set their chatbots apart from the rest. Two of the foremost competitors in that race are OpenAI with ChatGPT and Google with its competitor, Bard.
Earlier this year, Microsoft’s expanded investment in OpenAI — an additional $10 billion — made it the biggest AI investment of the year, according to PitchBook. In April, the startup reportedly closed a $300 million share sale at a valuation between $27 billion and $29 billion, with investments from firms such as Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz.
Teladoc Health Inc. signage on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Dec. 31, 2024.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Teladoc Health shares fell in extended trading on Wednesday after the company reported a wider loss than analysts expected and issued disappointing quarterly guidance.
Here’s how the company did, compared to analysts’ consensus estimates from LSEG:
Loss per share: 28 cents vs. 24 cents expected
Revenue: $640.5 million vs. $639.6 million expected
Revenue at the telehealth company decreased 3% in the fourth quarter from $660.5 million during the same period last year, according to a release. Teladoc’s net loss widened to $48.4 million, or 28 cents per share, from a loss of $28.9 million, or 17 cents per share, a year ago.
Teladoc is in the middle of a deep slump, with its stock price dropping in each of the past four years due to hefty competition in remote health, challenges at mental health division BetterHelp and high operating costs.
When Teladoc acquired digital health company Livongo in 2020, the companies had a combined enterprise value of $37 billion. Teladoc’s market cap was around $1.9 billion as of market close on Wednesday.
“As we look forward in 2025, execution will continue to be a top priority as we advance efforts to unlock growth opportunities and position the company for long term success,” Teladoc CEO Chuck Divita said in the statement. “We will also remain focused on our cost structure, building on the significant improvements achieved in 2024 over the prior year.”
Teladoc reported adjusted earnings of $74.8 million in its fourth quarter, a 35% decrease from a year ago. Adjusted earnings for the company’s Integrated Care segment declined 5% to $53.2 million, and BetterHelp saw adjusted earnings drop 63% to $21.7 million.
For the first quarter, Teladoc said it expects revenue of between $608 million and $629 million, while analysts were expecting $632.9 million. The company said adjusted earnings will be between $47 million and $59 million for the period.
Earlier this month, Teladoc announced it will acquire preventative care company Catapult Health in an all-cash deal for $65 million. Teladoc said its outlook includes the anticipated contribution from the deal but not the effect of potential impairments or purchase accounting. Teladoc said the acquisition should close at the end of the month.
Teladoc will host its quarterly call with investors at 4:30 p.m. ET.
— CNBC’s Bertha Coombs contributed to this report.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff appears at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 23, 2025.
Halil Sagirkaya | Anadolu | Getty Images
Salesforce reported weaker-than-expected quarterly revenue on Wednesday and issued a forecast that fell short of analysts’ estimates. The stock price slipped 4% in extended trading.
Here’s how the company did compared with LSEG consensus:
Earnings per share: $2.78 adjusted vs. $2.61 expected
Revenue: $9.99 billion vs. $10.04 billion expected
Revenue increased 7.6% from a year ago in the quarter that ended Jan. 31, according to a statement. Net income rose to $1.71 billion, or $1.75 per share, from $1.45 billion, or $1.47 per share, a year earlier.
The top category of subscription and support revenue was service, at $2.33 billion. The figure was up about 8% and below the $2.37 billion consensus among analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha. In the sales category, Salesforce generated $2.13 billion in revenue, up 8% and also trailing Visible Alpha’s consensus of $2.17 billion.
During the quarter, the company introduced its second-generation Agentforce artificial intelligence agent technology, which answers employee questions in the Slack team communications app.
Salesforce said it has completed more than 3,000 paid deals involving Agentforce since October. Agentforce has gotten involved in 380,000 conversations through Salesforce’s help website, with humans getting involved in 2% of cases, according to the statement.
“A lot of other vendors are talking about their agent capabilities, but few are able to show that they’ve got this really running at scale,” co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff said on a conference call with analysts.
Agentforce will make a modest contribution to revenue in fiscal 2026, with a larger effect in the following year, said Amy Weaver, Salesforce’s outgoing finance chief.
Benioff referred to a forthcoming product in the area of information technology service management, where ServiceNow operates.
The U.S. Department of Government Efficiency is using Slack, Benioff said.
“We’ll work closely with the government,” he said. “We’ll do anything we can to help them succeed.”
The company called for $2.53 to $2.55 in adjusted earnings per share for the fiscal first quarter, with $9.71 billion to $9.76 billion in revenue. Analysts polled by LSEG had anticipated adjusted earnings of $2.61 per share, with $9.9 billion in revenue.
For fiscal 2026, Salesforce is targeting $11.09 to $11.17 in adjusted earnings per share on $40.5 billion to $40.9 billion in revenue, implying 7.4% growth. The LSEG consensus was for adjusted earnings per share of $11.18 on $41.35 billion in revenue.
As of Wednesday’s close, Salesforce shares are down about 8% so far in 2025, while the S&P 500 index has gained about 1%.
Instacart‘s stock had its worst day on record, slumping 12% after the grocery delivery company posted a fourth-quarter revenue miss and offered light guidance for the current period.
Prior to Wednesday’s move, the stock’s biggest one-day slump came in November, when it dropped 11%.
Instacart reported fourth-quarter revenue of $883 million, falling short of the $891 million average analyst estimate, according to LSEG. The company said it anticipates adjusted earnings of between $220 million and $230 million for the first quarter, below a consensus forecast of $237.1 million.
Gross transaction value, which measures the value of products sold, will come in between $9 billion and $9.15 billion in the quarter, compared to a FactSet estimate of $9 billion. Instacart said it expects average order growth to decline due to restaurant orders and its $0 delivery fee on minimum $10 baskets.
When Instacart held its Nasdaq debut in September 2023, it became the first notable venture-backed company to go public in the U.S. in about two years, as the market adjusted to soaring inflation and rising interest rates.