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Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Alphabet Inc., during Stanford’s 2024 Business, Government, and Society forum in Stanford, California, US, on Wednesday, April 3, 2024.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

As tech’s behemoths get set to report earnings this week, they do so facing a mountain of drama.

At Google, there have been protests and restructurings, while Tesla just announced mass layoffs, price cuts and a Cybertruck recall. Microsoft’s OpenAI relationship faces fresh scrutiny and Facebook parent Meta’s major rollout of its new artificial intelligence assistant last week didn’t go so well.

The troubling news comes alongside a generative AI gold rush, as Big Tech players race the new technology into their vast portfolios of products and features to ensure they don’t fall behind in a market that’s predicted to top $1 trillion in revenue within a decade.

Wall Street has been openly jittery about the upcoming results, pushing the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite down 5.5% last week, the steepest weekly slump since November 2022. Nvidia, which has emerged as an AI darling, plunged 14%, leading the slide.

“Whether this tech sell-off continues, I think really depends on how the mega-cap tech reports,” said King Lip, chief strategist at BakerAvenue Wealth Management, in an interview with CNBC’s “Closing Bell” on Monday. “Valuations have definitely been more reasonable now, now that we’ve had a little bit of a correction.”

Lip said that in the last couple of weeks his firm has “trimmed some of our tech exposure.”

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Tech companies have been pouring record sums into emerging generative AI startups and investing heavily in Nvidia’s processors to build AI models and run massive workloads. While that market is growing rapidly, investors are growing anxious that other issues at hand could lead to a pullback in spending.

On this week’s earnings calls, companies are likely to continue highlighting their efforts to cut costs and bolster profits, an efficiency theme that’s been running across the industry since early last year.

Tesla kicks off tech earnings season after the close of trading on Tuesday, with shares of the electric vehicle maker trading at their lowest since January 2023. Meta, coming off its biggest weekly stock slide since August, follows on Wednesday. Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet report on Thursday, giving Wall Street a close look at how businesses are planning their budgets for AI infrastructure.

Here are some of the biggest issues facing the Big Tech companies in their reports this week.

Tesla

A Tesla Cybertruck sits on a lot at a Tesla dealership on April 15, 2024 in Austin, Texas. 

Brandon Bell | Getty Images

Tesla shares fell for a seventh straight day on Monday and are now down 43% year to date. Elon Musk’s EV company is expected to report a decline in sales of about 5%, which would be the first year-over-year revenue drop since 2020, when the Covid pandemic disrupted operations.

Tesla’s earnings follow a bruising quarterly deliveries report and additional price cuts to the company’s vehicles and its premium driver assistance system.

Last week, the EV maker said it was laying off more than 10% of its workforce, and the same day executives Drew Baglino and Rohan Patel announced their departures.

“As we prepare the company for our next phase of growth, it is extremely important to look at every aspect of the company for cost reductions and increasing productivity,” Musk wrote in a memo announcing the layoffs.

Two days later, Musk informed employees via email that the company had sent out “incorrectly low” severance packages to some laid-off workers. And on April 12, Tesla issued a voluntary recall of more than 3,800 Cybertrucks to fix a “stuck pedal” issue depicted in a viral TikTok video.

“Since late 2023, sentiment on Tesla (TSLA) has deteriorated,” wrote John Murphy, an analyst at Bank of America, in a note on Monday.

Meta

Meta will generate more ad dollars than its competition, says Jefferies Brent Thill

Meta has been a good bet for investors this year despite last week’s slip. The stock is up 36% in 2024 after almost tripling last year, when CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Wall Street that 2023 would be the company’s “year of efficiency.”

But Meta still faces plenty of questions. For one, its Reality Labs division, which houses all of the virtual reality technologies for the nascent metaverse, is expected to show a quarterly loss of over $4 billion for a second straight period.

When it comes to AI, Meta debuted its assistant — Meta AI — on WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Messenger last week. It was the company’s biggest-ever AI initiative and is set to go up against OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google‘s Gemini.

But Meta AI quickly led to controversy. The assistant reportedly joined a private parents’ group on Facebook and claimed to have a gifted and disabled child, sounding off in the comments about its experiences with New York-area educational programs. In another case, it reportedly joined a Buy Nothing forum and tried to do free giveaways for nonexistent items.

Now, Meta has to show that it’s ready for what’s certain to be a heated election season, as President Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump prepare to square off for a second time. Dating back to Trump’s successful presidential bid in 2016, Facebook has been a problematic place for political discourse and misinformation.

Meta is expected to report revenue growth of 26% from a year earlier to $36.16 billion, according to LSEG. That would mark the fastest rate of expansion for any period since 2021.

Alphabet

Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Alphabet Inc., during Stanford’s 2024 Business, Government, and Society forum in Stanford, California, US, on Wednesday, April 3, 2024. 

Loren Elliott | Bloomberg | Getty Images

On a busy Thursday for tech earnings, Alphabet is likely to capture the most attention.

Last week, finance chief Ruth Porat announced a restructuring of Google’s finance department, a move that will include layoffs and relocations, as the company drives more resources toward AI.

On the same day, Google terminated 28 employees, according to an internal memo viewed by CNBC, following a series of protests against labor conditions and the company’s contract to provide the Israeli government and military with cloud computing and artificial intelligence services.

The dismissals came after nine Google workers were arrested on trespassing charges Tuesday night, staging a sit-in at the company’s offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California, including a protest in Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian’s office. The arrests, livestreamed on Twitch by participants, coincided with rallies outside Google offices in New York, Sunnyvale and Seattle, which attracted hundreds of attendees, according to workers involved.

On Thursday, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai announced a consolidation of the company’s AI teams, including responsible AI and related research teams, under the Google DeepMind umbrella. He said in a memo that “this is a business” and employees should not “attempt to use the company as a personal platform, or to fight over disruptive issues or debate politics.”

Pichai has struggled to quell employee discontent on a host of matters since the pandemic, as the company has been forced to reckon with slower growth than in years past and an investor base that’s become increasingly concerned with costs.

Analysts expect a first-quarter revenue increase of 13%, which would mark a second straight quarter of year-over-year growth in the low teens. For four straight periods, between mid-2022 and mid-2023, expansion was in single digits as advertisers pulled back due to soaring inflation and rising interest rates.

Alphabet shares are up 12% this year, topping the S&P 500, which has gained 5.1%.

Microsoft

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (R) speaks as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (L) looks on during the OpenAI DevDay event on November 06, 2023 in San Francisco, California. Altman delivered the keynote address at the first ever Open AI DevDay conference. 

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

As for Microsoft, the company seemed to narrowly avoid a European Union antitrust probe into its relationship with OpenAI, after EU regulators had pointed to the possibility earlier this year.

Microsoft has invested more than $10 billion in OpenAI, whose ChatGPT chatbot kicked off the generative AI boom in late 2022. AI has been a major focus of Microsoft’s earnings calls since then, as the company serves as OpenAI’s key technology partner through its Azure cloud infrastructure.

Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in AI startup Anthropic as well, and has taken stakes in Mistral, Figure and Humane.

The company’s position in AI has been the biggest driver behind its ascent to $3 trillion in market cap, passing Apple as the most valuable U.S. company. However, the stock is only up 6.8% this year, trailing many of its peers, and some analysts see potential weakness in parts of Microsoft’s customer base, notably small and medium-sized businesses.

“MSFT has more SMB and consumer exposure than any other stock we cover,” wrote analysts at Guggenheim, in a note dated April 21. “And while those cohorts have held up surprisingly well during this soft macro period, we are starting to see some indications of weakening demand from them.”

Microsoft is expected to report sales growth of 15% in the first quarter, according to LSEG, but analysts are projecting a slowdown over each of the next three periods.

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There's more room for downside in tech stocks, says BakerAvenue's King Lip

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How TikTok’s rise sparked a short-form video race

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How TikTok’s rise sparked a short-form video race

TikTok’s grip on the short-form video market is tightening, and the world’s biggest tech platforms are racing to catch up.

Since launching globally in 2016, ByteDance-owned TikTok has amassed over 1.12 billion monthly active users worldwide, according to Backlinko. American users spend an average of 108 minutes per day on the app, according to Apptoptia.

TikTok’s success has reshaped the social media landscape, forcing competitors like Meta and Google to pivot their strategies around short-form video. But so far, experts say that none have matched TikTok’s algorithmic precision.

“It is the center of the internet for young people,” said Jasmine Enberg, vice president and principal analyst at Emarketer. “It’s where they go for entertainment, news, trends, even shopping. TikTok sets the tone for everyone else.”

Platforms like Meta‘s Instagram Reels and Google’s YouTube Shorts have expanded aggressively, launching new features, creator tools and even considering separate apps just to compete. Microsoft-owned LinkedIn, traditionally a professional networking site, is the latest to experiment with TikTok-style feeds. But with TikTok continuing to evolve, adding features like e-commerce integrations and longer videos, the question remains whether rivals can keep up.

“I’m scrolling every single day. I doom scroll all the time,” said TikTok content creator Alyssa McKay.

But there may a dark side to this growth.

As short-form content consumption soars, experts warn about shrinking attention spans and rising mental-health concerns, particularly among younger users. Researchers like Dr. Yann Poncin, associate professor at the Child Study Center at Yale University, point to disrupted sleep patterns and increased anxiety levels tied to endless scrolling habits.

“Infinite scrolling and short-form video are designed to capture your attention in short bursts,” Dr. Poncin said. “In the past, entertainment was about taking you on a journey through a show or story. Now, it’s about locking you in for just a few seconds, just enough to feed you the next thing the algorithm knows you’ll like.”

Despite sky-high engagement, monetizing short videos remains an uphill battle. Unlike long-form YouTube content, where ads can be inserted throughout, short clips offer limited space for advertisers. Creators, too, are feeling the squeeze.

“It’s never been easier to go viral,” said Enberg. “But it’s never been harder to turn that virality into a sustainable business.”

Last year, TikTok generated an estimated $23.6 billion in ad revenues, according to Oberlo, but even with this growth, many creators still make just a few dollars per million views. YouTube Shorts pays roughly four cents per 1,000 views, which is less than its long-form counterpart. Meanwhile, Instagram has leaned into brand partnerships and emerging tools like “Trial Reels,” which allow creators to experiment with content by initially sharing videos only with non-followers, giving them a low-risk way to test new formats or ideas before deciding whether to share with their full audience. But Meta told CNBC that monetizing Reels remains a work in progress.

While lawmakers scrutinize TikTok’s Chinese ownership and explore potential bans, competitors see a window of opportunity. Meta and YouTube are poised to capture up to 50% of reallocated ad dollars if TikTok faces restrictions in the U.S., according to eMarketer.

Watch the video to understand how TikTok’s rise sparked a short form video race.

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Elon Musk’s xAI Holdings in talks to raise $20 billion, Bloomberg News reports

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Elon Musk's xAI Holdings in talks to raise  billion, Bloomberg News reports

The X logo appears on a phone, and the xAI logo is displayed on a laptop in Krakow, Poland, on April 1, 2025. (Photo by Klaudia Radecka/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Elon Musk‘s xAI Holdings is in discussions with investors to raise about $20 billion, Bloomberg News reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The funding would value the company at over $120 billion, according to the report.

Musk was looking to assign “proper value” to xAI, sources told CNBC’s David Faber earlier this month. The remarks were made during a call with xAI investors, sources familiar with the matter told Faber. The Tesla CEO at that time didn’t explicitly mention any upcoming funding round, but the sources suggested xAI was preparing for a substantial capital raise in the near future.

The funding amount could be more than $20 billion as the exact figure had not been decided, the Bloomberg report added.

Artificial intelligence startup xAI didn’t immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment outside of U.S. business hours.

Faber Report: Elon Musk held call with current xAI investors, sources say

The AI firm last month acquired X in an all-stock deal that valued xAI at $80 billion and the social media platform at $33 billion.

“xAI and X’s futures are intertwined. Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent,” Musk said on X, announcing the deal. “This combination will unlock immense potential by blending xAI’s advanced AI capability and expertise with X’s massive reach.”

Read the full Bloomberg story here.

— CNBC’s Samantha Subin contributed to this report.

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Alphabet jumps 3% as search, advertising units show resilient growth

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Alphabet jumps 3% as search, advertising units show resilient growth

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai during the Google I/O developers conference in Mountain View, California, on May 10, 2023.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Alphabet‘s stock gained 3% Friday after signaling strong growth in its search and advertising businesses amid a competitive artificial intelligence environment and uncertain macro backdrop.

GOOGL‘s pace of GenAI product roll-out is accelerating with multiple encouraging signals,” wrote Morgan Stanley‘s Brian Nowak. “Macro uncertainty still exists but we remain [overweight] given GOOGL’s still strong relative position and improving pace of GenAI enabled product roll-out.”

The search giant posted earnings of $2.81 per share on $90.23 billion in revenues. That topped the $89.12 billion in sales and $2.01 in EPS expected by LSEG analysts. Revenues grew 12% year-over-year and ahead of the 10% anticipated by Wall Street.

Net income rose 46% to $34.54 billion, or $2.81 per share. That’s up from $23.66 billion, or $1.89 per share, in the year-ago period. Alphabet said the figure included $8 billion in unrealized gains on its nonmarketable equity securities connected to its investment in a private company.

Adjusted earnings, excluding that gain, were $2.27 per share, according to LSEG, and topped analyst expectations.

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Alphabet shares have pulled back about 16% this year as it battles volatility spurred by mounting trade war fears and worries that President Donald Trump‘s tariffs could crush the global economy. That would make it more difficult for Alphabet to potentially acquire infrastructure for data centers powering AI models as it faces off against competitors such as OpenAI and Anthropic to develop largely language models.

During Thursday’s call with investors, Alphabet suggested that it’s too soon to tally the total impact of tariffs. However, Google’s business chief Philipp Schindler said that ending the de minimis trade exemption in May, which created a loophole benefitting many Chinese e-commerce retailers, could create a “slight headwind” for the company’s ads business, specifically in the Asia-Pacific region. The loophole allows shipments under $800 to come into the U.S. duty-free.

Despite this backdrop, Alphabet showed steady growth in its advertising and search business, reporting $66.89 billion in revenues for its advertising unit. That reflected 8.5% growth from the year-ago period. The company reported $8.93 billion in advertising revenue for its YouTube business, shy of an $8.97 billion estimate from StreetAccount.

Alphabet’s “Search and other” unit rose 9.8% to $50.7 billion, up from $46.16 billion last year. The company said that its AI Overviews tool used in its Google search results page has accumulated 1.5 billion monthly users from a billion in October.

Bank of America analyst Justin Post said that Wall Street is underestimating the upside potential and “monetization ramp” from this tool and cloud demand fueled by AI.

“The strong 1Q search performance, along with constructive comments on Gemini [large language model] performance and [AI Overviews] adoption could help alleviate some investor concerns on AI competition,” Post wrote in a note.

WATCH: Gemini delivering well for Google, says Check Capital’s Chris Ballard

Gemini delivering well for Google, says Check Capital's Chris Ballard

CNBC’s Jennifer Elias contributed to this report.

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