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OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman & and Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella.

Hayden Field | CNBC

The past few days have been chaotic for the AI industry, with technology experts weighing what this could mean for the nascent sector and some of its key players.

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT which launched AI into the mainstream late last year, said Friday that it was removing its CEO Sam Altman and making its technology chief Mira Murati interim CEO in his place.

But before the weekend was even over, OpenAI appeared to change course, announcing that former Twitch chief Emmett Shear would take over from Altman instead, at least on a temporary basis.

Meanwhile, Altman himself has already found a new role leading a new advanced AI research team at Microsoft, where he will be joined by former OpenAI Board Chair Greg Brockman and several other employees.

But Altman’s move could simply be a case of “damage control” for Microsoft, according to Richard Windsor, founder of digital research company Radio Free Mobile. This is linked to Microsoft’s immense investments in OpenAI, he said on CNBC’s “Street Signs Europe” Monday.

Microsoft began investing in OpenAI as early as 2019, initially with around $1 billion. That figure has ballooned since to an amount reported to be closer to $13 billion. Microsoft has also integrated OpenAI’s technologies in products like search engine Bing and various softwares.

“A large amount of that value is tied up in the founders and in the engineers that are inside the company,” Windsor said.

Meanwhile, other tech experts have been backing Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s swift move to hire Altman in-house.

Analyst discusses Sam Altman's ouster and implications for Microsoft

“Incredible execution by Satya in one of the most dynamic situations in tech history,” Aaron Levie, CEO of cloud-sharing and management company Box, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Aviral Bhatnagar, an investor at Venture Highway, had a similar view.

“You now understand why Satya Nadella is one of the greatest tech CEOs of this generation,” he said in a post on X.

“Kept Altman in the fold, kept the transition as neat as possible, managed the chaos and the wild board decision making, didn’t destroy OpenAI. What a boss move.”

OpenAI’s future

The chaotic developments have also been criticized by Shear himself, the new interim CEO of OpenAI.

“It’s clear that the process and communications around Sam’s removal has been handled very badly, which has seriously damaged our trust,” he said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, in which he also confirmed he would step in as interim CEO.

Shear suggested he would launch an investigation to examine the process that led to the recent events and produce a report on them within his first thirty days at OpenAI.

This has been echoed by experts, including Windsor, who said that the situation could severely damage the company’s reputation and undermine public confidence in the company.

Microsoft's relationship with OpenAI is 'absolutely critical': RBC Capital Markets

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CrowdStrike falls 9% on disappointing earnings forecast

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CrowdStrike falls 9% on disappointing earnings forecast

George Kurtz, co-founder and CEO of CrowdStrike Holdings Inc., during a Bloomberg Technology television interview at the RSA Conference in San Francisco on April 26, 2023.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

CrowdStrike shares dropped nearly 9% in extended trading on Tuesday after the cybersecurity software provider issued disappointing earnings guidance.

Here’s what the company reported compared to LSEG estimates:

  • Earnings per share: $1.03. The number doesn’t to appear to be comparable to analysts’ estimates.
  • Revenue: $1.06 billion vs. $1.03 billion

Revenue increased 25% from $845.3 million a year earlier, and the company posted a net loss of $92.3 billion, or 37 cents per share. In the year-ago period, the company posted net income of $53.7 million, or 22 cents per share.

For the year, CrowdStrike said it expects earnings, excluding some items, to range between $3.33 and $3.45 per share, falling short of the $4.42 expected by analysts polled by LSEG. First-quarter earnings are expected to be between 64 cents and 66 cents per share, versus the average estimate of 95 cents.

Despite the after-hours drop, CrowdStrike topped some metrics from Wall Street. The company posted $4.24 billion in annual recurring revenue, reflecting 23% growth. That topped the $4.21 billion estimate from analysts surveyed by StreetAccount and included $224 million in net annual recurring revenue.

Revenue guidance was roughly in line with estimates. CrowdStrike said it expects revenue of between $4.74 billion and $4.81 billion for the year, versus an LSEG estimate of $4.77 billion.

The earnings release comes almost eight months after a technology update from the company led to a global IT outage that grounded flights, disrupted businesses and led to class action lawsuits.

CEO George Kurtz said in the press release that artificial intelligence is becoming more important in stopping cyberattacks.

“As businesses of all sizes rapidly adopt AI, stopping the breach necessitates cybersecurity’s AI-native platform,” Kurtz said.

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Okta pops more than 20% on strong earnings and guidance beat

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Okta pops more than 20% on strong earnings and guidance beat

Todd McKinnon, CEO of Okta Inc., smiles during a Bloomberg Technology television interview in San Francisco on April 4, 2022.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Okta shares soared 22% on Tuesday after the cloud-based identity management company delivered strong fourth-quarter earnings and beat estimates on guidance.

The move put the stock on pace for its best day in more than a year.

Okta posted adjusted earnings late Monday of 78 cents per share, while revenue increased 13% from a year earlier to $682 million. That beat the average analyst estimates of 73 cents per share in earnings and $669.6 million in revenue, according to LSEG.

First-quarter revenue should come in between $678 million and $680 million, which also topped estimates.

On the company’s earnings call, CEO Todd McKinnon called it a “blowout quarter” as bookings topped $1 billion in a single period for the first time.

“We’re excited about the momentum we’ve built going into FY 2026 and are taking the right steps to advance our position as the leader in the identity market,” McKinnon said. “More and more customers are looking to consolidate their disparate and ineffective identity systems, and Okta is there to meet them with the most comprehensive identity security platform in the market today,” McKinnon added.

Okta allows companies to manage employee access or devices by providing tools such as single sign-on and multifactor authentication. Shares have rallied about 35% this year, including Tuesday’s pop, after slumping 13% in 2024. In late 2023, Okta suffered a high-profile data breach that gave access to client files through a support system.

Some Wall Street firms turned more positive on the stock after the latest results, with both D.A. Davidson and Mizuho upgrading their ratings. D.A. Davidson called the likelihood of double-digit growth “durable” as the company shows signs of stabilization.

Mizuho’s Gregg Moskowitz said the firm “underestimated” the upside to committed remaining performance obligations, or subscription backlog that the company expects to recognize as revenue over the next year.

“More broadly, OKTA continues to be a clear leader in the critically important identity management market,” Moskowitz wrote. “And we now have a higher confidence level that OKTA will increasingly benefit from its group of newer products that have already begun to drive a meaningful contribution.”

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Okta CEO Todd McKinnon goes one-on-one with Jim Cramer

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‘Music to our ears’: Qualcomm CEO welcomes TSMC’s $100 billion investment to boost U.S. chipmaking

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'Music to our ears': Qualcomm CEO welcomes TSMC's 0 billion investment to boost U.S. chipmaking

We're at the beginning of a 'significant upgrade' for AI smartphones, Qualcomm CEO says

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.‘s $100 billion commitment to expand manufacturing in the U.S. is “great news,” Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon told CNBC on Tuesday, adding it helps with diversification of chipmaking locations.

Amon also addressed U.S President Donald Trump’s tariff policy, suggesting longer term technology trends would outweigh any short term uncertainty.

Trump announced on Monday that TSMC would invest $100 billion in the U.S. which would go toward building more chip fabrication plants in Arizona. TSMC is the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturer and supplies chips to the likes of Qualcomm, Apple and Nvidia.

The U.S., under leadership of both Trump and former President Joe Biden, has sought to bring more cutting-edge chip manufacturing to American soil on the grounds that it is a matter of national and economic security to have these advanced technologies made closer to home.

Many in the technology industry have backed these plans, including Qualcomm.

“Look, this is great news,” Amon said. “It shows that semiconductors are important. It’s going to be important for … the economy. Economic security means access to semiconductors. More manufacturing is music to our ears.”

Amon said that some of Qualcomm’s chips are already manufactured in TSMC’s existing plants in Arizona and in the future, the company will get more semiconductors made in the U.S.

“TSMC is a great supplier of manufacturing for Qualcomm. They have a facility in Arizona. We already have chips built in Arizona. The more capacity that they put we’re going to use it, same way we’ve been using in Taiwan, we’re going to use it in other locations,” Amon said.

Global companies are also digesting the imposition of tariffs by the U.S. on Mexico and Canada as well as additional duties on China.

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon speaks at the Computex forum in Taipei, Taiwan, June 3, 2024.

Ann Wang | Reuters

Amon said it’s currently difficult to predict the impact on Qualcomm from the tariffs.

“It’s hard to tell because you don’t know exactly how this is going to go. The interesting thing is we’re big
exporters of chips. We’re not an importer of chips … Chips are going to devices. They’re made all over the world, and it’s hard to really know what is happening,” Amon said.

“We’re just is going to navigate based on whatever the outcome is.”

The Qualcomm CEO said there are a number of key technology trends that are likely to support the U.S. giant’s business in the long term, over the short term tariff uncertainty.

We are right at the “beginning of a significant upgrade for AI smartphones. We’re seeing PCs changing to AI PCs. Cars are becoming computers. That’s what’s driving our business, not necessarily what we’re going to see in the short term,” Amon said.

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