Alphabet has cut contractual ties with Appen, the artificial intelligence data firm that helped train Google’s chatbot Bard, Google Search results and other AI products.
After a “strategic review process,” Alphabet notified Appen over the weekend of the termination, which will go into effect March 19, according to a filing from Appen. The company said it had “no prior knowledge of Google’s decision to terminate the contract.”
Alphabet accounted for roughly one-third of Appen’s revenue, meaning the decision to end the relationship will impact “at least two thousand subcontracted Alphabet workers,” according to a statement Monday from the Alphabet Workers Union.
Appen, based in Australia, has helped train AI models for a star-studded list of tech behemoths. Five customers — Microsoft, Apple, Meta, Google and Amazon — have in the past accounted for 80% of Appen’s revenue. Appen has a platform of about 1 million freelance workers in more than 170 countries.
In 2023, revenue from work with Alphabet totaled $82.8 million of Appen’s $273 million in sales for the year, according to Monday’s filing.
Despite Appen’s enviable client list and its nearly 30-year history, the company has struggled in recent years with a loss of customers, a string of executive departures and plummeting financials — even as generative AI tools increased demand for training data. Revenue dropped 30% in 2023, after declining 13% a year earlier, which the company attributed in part to “challenging external operating and macro conditions.”
In August 2020, Appen’s shares peaked at AU$42.44 ($27.08) on the Australian Securities Exchange, sending its market cap to the equivalent of $4.3 billion. Now, the stock is trading at around AU$0.28, down more than 99% since its peak.
Former employees, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation, told CNBC in September that the company’s current struggle to pivot to generative AI reflects years of weak quality controls and a disjointed organizational structure.
Appen’s past work for tech companies has been on projects like evaluating the relevance of search results, helping AI assistants understand requests in different accents, categorizing e-commerce images using AI, and building out map locations of electric vehicle charging stations, according to public information and interviews conducted by CNBC.
Appen has also touted its work on search relevance for Adobe and on translation services for Microsoft, as well as in providing training data for lidar companies, security applications and automotive manufacturers.
But large language models of today operate differently. The underlying LLMs behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard are scouring the digital universe to provide sophisticated answers and advanced images in response to simple text queries. Companies are spending far more on processors from Nvidia and less on Appen.
Google and Appen have had conflicts in the past, namely a dispute about wages. In 2019, Google said its contractors would need to pay their workers $15 an hour. Appen didn’t meet that requirement, according to public letters written by some workers.
In January 2023, after months of organizing, raises went into effect for Appen freelancers working on the Bard chatbot and other Google products. The rates went up to between $14 and $14.50 per hour.
But labor issues persisted. In June, Appen faced charges from the U.S. National Labor Relations Board after allegedly firing six freelancers who spoke out publicly about frustrations with workplace conditions. The workers were later reinstated.
Appen wrote in Monday’s filing that it will focus on managing costs, turning the business around and providing customers with quality AI data.
“Appen will immediately adjust its strategic priorities following the notification of the Google contract termination and provide further details in its FY23 full year results on 27 February 2024,” the company wrote.
Tencent on Thursday posted 15% year-on-year revenue growth, with AI boosting the Chinese tech giant’s performance in advertising targeting and gaming.
Here’s how Tencent performed in the third quarter of 2025, per earnings released on Thursday:
Revenue: 192.9 billion Chinese yuan ($27.12 billion), surpassing the 189.2 billion Chinese yuan expected analysts, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Operating profit: 63.6 billion yuan, versus 58.01 billion yuan expected by the street.
Tencent boosted its capital expenditure earlier this year as it ramped up AI and eyed European expansion for its cloud computing services, which would compete against market leaders Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure. It has its own AI foundational model in China called Hunyuan, however it also uses DeepSeek in some products.
Tencent shares are up 56.7% year-to-date.
This is a breaking news story. Please refresh for updates.
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Nov. 12, 2025 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
The divergence between the performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite on Wednesday stateside reinforces the suggestion that there are two markets operating in the U.S.: one of an artificial intelligence and another of “everything else.”
Not only did the Dow rise, it also secured its second consecutive record high and closed above the 48,000 level for the first time.
The index, which comprises 30 blue-chip companies, is typically seen as a marker of the “old economy.” That is to say, it is mostly made up of large, well-established companies driving the U.S. economy, such as banks, healthcare and industrials, before Silicon Valley became a minisun powering everything.
To be sure, new and flashy names, such as Nvidia and Salesforce, constitute the Dow too. But as the index is price-weighted, meaning that companies with higher share prices influence the Dow more, tech companies don’t exert as much gravity on it.
That’s in contrast to the Nasdaq, which is weighted by companies’ market capitalization, and dominated mainly by technology firms. The tech-heavy index fell as shares like Oracle and Palantir slipped — even Advanced Micro Devices’ 9% pop on its growth prospects couldn’t rescue the Nasdaq from the red.
It’s not necessarily a warning sign about overexuberance in AI.
“There’s nothing wrong, in our view, of kind of trimming back, taking some gains and re-diversifying across other spots in the equity markets,” said Josh Chastant, portfolio manager of public investments at GuideStone Fund.
But what investors would really like is if fork in the road merges into one. That tends to be the safer path to take.
What you need to know today
And finally…
People walk by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on June 18, 2024 in New York City.
Private equity firms are facing a new reality: a growing crop of companies that can neither thrive nor die, lingering in portfolios like the undead.
These so-called “zombie companies” refer to businesses that aren’t growing, barely generate enough cash to service debt and are unable to attract buyers even at a discount. They are usually trapped on a fund’s balance sheet beyond its expected holding period.
Cisco Systems shares spiked higher Wednesday evening after the networking company delivered a quarterly beat and outlook raise. Another quarter of double-digit order growth proves Cisco is an underrated winner from the AI infrastructure buildout. Revenue in the company’s fiscal 2026 first quarter, which ended Oct. 25, increased 8% year over year to $14.88 billion, exceeding the LSEG-complied analyst consensus estimate of $14.76 billion. Non-GAAP earnings increased 10% on an annual basis to $1 per share, beating expectations of 98 cents, LSEG data showed. GAAP stands for generally accepted accounting principles. CSCO YTD mountain Cisco Systems YTD Look at the shares of Cisco go. They surged more than 7% in after-hours trading to just about $80 per share. That’s on top of a 3% move in regular trading hours. If the stock can take out $80.06, it will make its first all-time high since March 2000. Shares, as of Wednesday’s close, rose roughly 25% year to date. Bottom line It’s a deserving move after an excellent quarter, highlighted by accelerating product order growth, especially from artificial intelligence customers. During the post-earnings call, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins attributed the strength in AI orders to a “deepening” relationship with existing customers. The company also called out that a “major multi-year, multi-billion-dollar campus networking refresh cycle” is underway. It wasn’t all perfect, however, as the security business missed estimates, with revenue falling year over year. According to management, some revenue recognition timing issues need to be sorted out. Security weakness was our main concern ahead of the quarter. The business also missed revenue estimates in the prior quarter, and we didn’t think a quick turnaround was likely. Our fear of this repeat was the main reason why we took some profits in this position Monday at around $71. Even though we were right to be cautious on security, the market was turning a blind eye to this issue because of how fast networking is growing. A rebound in security also isn’t needed for management to hit on its outlook, which was raised well above Street estimates Wednesday evening. Another concern of the bears entering earnings was that Cisco would be negatively impacted by the government shutdown due to its large federal agencies business. Despite the closed government, Robbins noted this business managed to grow orders by a high single-digit percentage in the quarter. He’s anticipating upside in orders once the government reopens. Why we own it Cisco Systems is an enterprise networking equipment provider that has made big strides to appeal to cloud customers. The company has also increased its presence in the security market through its acquisition of Splunk. In addition, Cisco’s long-term transition toward subscription software sales, which are sticky and come with higher margins, should help improve the stock’s undemanding price-to-earnings multiple. Competitors : Arista Networks , Hewlett Packard Enterprise , Juniper Networks Most recent buy : Aug. 19, 2025 Initiated : July 17, 2025 The story remains that Cisco has turned into a sleeper AI play thanks to the billions of dollars it is taking in from hyperscaler customers. That surge of orders is converting to big revenue. In fiscal year 2025, Cisco recognized roughly $1 billion of AI revenue from hyperscalers, which are the biggest of the Big Tech names, such as the major cloud companies. On the call, Robbins said he expects to recognize roughly $3 billion from hyperscalers in fiscal year 2026. Despite this accelerating growth and subscription revenue making up more than half of its total revenue, the stock still trades at a reasonable price-to-earnings multiple of about 19.5 times based on the new midpoint of management’s full-year adjusted earnings-per-share (EPS) outlook. We’re reiterating our 2 rating because we don’t like to chase stock spikes, but we are increasing our price target to $85 per share from $78. Commentary Total Product orders increased 13% year over year – an acceleration from 7% growth in the prior quarter – with growth across all geographies and customer markets. When we review Cisco, we always focus on orders because that’s the best leading indicator of where revenue is headed. Product revenue grew 10% year over year to $7.77 billion, beating estimates of about $7.47 billion. Starting with the Networking sub-segment, product orders increased by a high teens rate, representing the fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. AI infrastructure orders from hyperscaler customers were a big driver of that growth. Cisco took in $1.3 billion of orders in the quarter, an acceleration from the more than $800 million in the prior quarter. The company also saw strong orders for enterprise routing, campus switching, wireless, industrial IoT, and servers. Credit Cisco’s close relationships with portfolio name Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices for its recent AI success. Last month, Cisco announced the N9100, which they called the first Nvidia partner developed data center switch based on Nvidia Spectrum-X Ethernet switch silicon. “The N9100, available in the second half of fiscal year 2026, will provide the operational consistency and flexibility needed for sovereign and neocloud providers to build and manage AI at scale,” Robbins explained. Neoclouds are next-generation specialized clouds for accelerated computing. CoreWeave , which rents cloud-based Nvidia chips for AI tasks, is an example of a neocloud. Cisco is also helping G42, leading United Arab Emirates AI firm, with powering, connecting, and securing its large-scale AI clusters with AMD graphics processing units (GPUs) The enterprise AI story is starting to emerge, too. Cisco experienced strong demand for switching, routing, and wireless products, which Robbins said is an indication of customers “investing in the connectivity needed for AI deployments.” Across sovereign, neocloud, and enterprise customers, Robbins called out a growing pipeline above $2 billion for its high performance networking products. This comes after Cisco booked $200 million of orders in its fiscal first quarter from these customers. By division, Networking revenue increased 15% to $7.77 billion, beating estimates. The largest driver of this increase in sales was from service provider routing, which is mostly from AI infrastructure. Data center switches and enterprise routing were also up double digits, while campus switching revenue increased by a high single digit percentage. In the Security division, revenue fell 2% year over year and missed analysts’ forecasts again. It’s disappointing to see a sizeable miss in back-to-back quarters, but management attributed the decline to a timing issue. Robbins explained that more customers are using Splunk’s offerings through cloud subscriptions instead of on-premise deals, leading to a timing change of when revenue is recognized. Ultimately, this transition isn’t a bad thing. The company is in favor of more subscription-based revenue. Cisco completed its $28 billion acquisition of Splunk in March 2024. “We are actually pleased to see more cloud subscriptions for Splunk as they enable greater adoption and expansion, and allow us to deliver innovation faster to enable customers to unlock value from AI Now ” Robbins explained on the call. More broadly. Cisco said it continued to see order growth for some of it newer and refreshed security products, which make up about one third of the portfolio, while its order products are in decline. Importantly, management doesn’t believe Security’s stumbles will last long. They expect revenue growth to accelerate and end the year at a much higher rate. But even if that doesn’t happen and the results don’t materially improve from here, Cisco said it’s still confident in its ability to deliver on its fiscal Q2 and full year 2026 outlook. The Collaboration and Observability units saw revenue drop 3% and rise 6%, respectively, with Collaboration missing estimates and Observability matching expectations. Services revenue increased 2% year over year to $3.81 billion, slightly beating estimates. As always, we appreciate Cisco’s consistent approach to returning cash to shareholders. The company repurchased $2 billion worth of shares in the quarter at an average price of $68.28. That looks like a great trade since the stock is knocking on the door of $80 in after-hours trading. It has $12.2 billion remaining under its authorization. Cisco stock, as of Wednesday’s closing price, has a 2.2% annual dividend yield. Guidance Cisco expects fiscal 2026 second-quarter revenue of $15 billion to $15.2 billion, which is well above the consensus estimate of $14.62 billion. It also sees non-GAAP EPS of $1.01 to $1.03 cents, which is nicely above the consensus estimate of 98 cents. For full year 2026, Cisco now expects revenue of $60.2 billion to $61 billion, which is about a $1 billion increase from the prior outlook of $59 billion to $60 billion. This revised outlook exceeds the consensus estimate of $59.64 billion. On the bottom line, management raised its EPS forecast to $4.08 to $4.14 from its prior outlook of $4.00 to $4.06. This new midpoint of $4.11 is better than the consensus analyst estimate by 7 cents. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long CSCO, NVDA. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
