Connect with us

Published

on

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.”

Read more CNBC tech news

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.

Don’t miss these exclusives from CNBC PRO

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

Continue Reading

Technology

CNBC Daily Open: A murky past and uncertain future trouble traders

Published

on

By

CNBC Daily Open: A murky past and uncertain future trouble traders

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Nov. 13, 2025 in New York City.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images

U.S. markets had their worst day since Oct. 10. That marks a sharp reversal for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which shed 1.65% to settle at 47,457.22, a day after it closed above 48,000 for the first time. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 lost 1.66% and the Nasdaq Composite tumbled 2.29%.

The slump in stocks can partly be traced to a turnaround in sentiment regarding artificial intelligence. Tech behemoths such as Nvidia, Broadcom and Oracle slumped, with the last losing more than one-third in value since it rocketed 36% in September.

Investors, it seems, are growing worried over the high valuations of tech names, as well as the gigantic amount of capital expenditure they are committing to — with some, like Oracle, having to take on debt to fulfil those obligations.

Uncertainty over an interest rate cut in December is also putting a downer on Wall Street. It’s a coin toss as to whether the U.S. Federal Reserve will ease monetary policy then, according to the CME FedWatch tool. That’s a huge difference from a month ago, when traders were pricing in a 95.5% chance of a December cut.

Not having October’s employment and inflation numbers, and possibly never getting them, means the Fed lacks visibility into the state of the economy — and whether it should try to support the labor market or continue reining in inflation.

After all, flying blind makes it hard to see where you’ll land. As of now, that applies both to the Fed and investors trying to navigate the still-hazy ambitions of tech companies.

What you need to know today

And finally…

Tan Su Shan, chief executive officer of DBS Group Holdings Ltd., speaking at the Singapore Fintech Festival in Singapore, on Nov. 12, 2025.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

CEO of Southeast Asia’s largest bank says AI adoption already paying off: ‘It’s not hope, it’s now’

“The proliferation of generative AI has been transformative for us,” DBS CEO Tan Su Shan told CNBC on the sidelines of Singapore Fintech Week. She adding that the company was experiencing a “snowballing effect” of benefits thanks to machine learning. 

Tan expects AI adoption to bring DBS an overall revenue bump of more than 1 billion Singapore dollars (about $768 million) this year, compared to SG$750 million in 2024. That assessment is based on about 370 AI use cases powered by over 1,500 models throughout its business. 

— Dylan Butts

Continue Reading

Technology

‘Vibe revenue’: AI companies admit they’re worried about a bubble

Published

on

By

‘Vibe revenue’: AI companies admit they’re worried about a bubble

Eakarat Buanoi | Istock | Getty Images

LISBON, Portugal — Top tech executives told CNBC they’re concerned about a bubble forming in the artificial intelligence sector, underscoring growing unease within the industry over soaring valuation.

In recent weeks, markets have been reckoning with the notion that too much capital is pouring into the AI boom, clouding the outlook on revenue and actual profit and putting high valuations into question.

Up to now, warnings around overstretched valuations have mostly come from investors and leaders in the world of finance. Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon and Morgan Stanley’s Ted Pick have warned of potential corrections as valuations of some major tech firms reached historic highs.

The concerns have been crystallized by famed ‘Big Short’ investor Michael Burry, who this week accused major AI infrastructure and cloud providers, or ‘hyperscalers’ of understating depreciation expenses on chips. Burry warned that profits at the likes of Oracle and Meta may be vastly overstated. He recently disclosed put options that bet against Nvidia and Palantir.

However, CEOs of companies who are themselves developing AI, expressed their concerns this week during interviews with CNBC at the Web Summit tech conference in Lisbon.

“I think the evaluations are pretty exaggerated here and there, and I think there is signs of a bubble on the horizon,” Jarek Kutylowski, CEO of German AI firm DeepL, told CNBC on Tuesday.

DeepL CEO: Signs of AI bubble on the horizon

The sentiment was echoed by Picsart CEO Hovhannes Avoyan.

“We see lots of AI companies raising … tremendous valuations … without any revenue,” Avoyan told CNBC on Tuesday, adding that it is a “concern.”

The market values smaller startups with “just some noise and vibe revenue,” he said, referring to companies being backed even though they have minimal sales.

Vibe revenue is a play on “vibe coding,” a term that refers to using AI to code without needing deep technical expertise.

AI demand growing

Even with concerns over valuations, the technology industry remains bullish on the long term potential of AI.

Lyft CEO David Risher said there are reasons to be optimistic given the potential impact of AI but acknowledged the risks.

“Let’s be clear, we are absolutely in a financial bubble. There is no question, right? Because this is incredible, transformational technology. No one wants to be left behind.”

Risher went on to argue that there is a difference between the financial bubble and the industrial outlook.

“The data centers and all the model creation, all of that is going to have a long, long life, because it’s transformational. It makes people’s lives easier. It makes people’s lives better… On the other hand, you know, the financial side, it’s a little risky right now.”

The tech CEOs also addressed their outlook on AI demand for 2026 from businesses, as investors look for any clues as to what this will look like.

“I think there’s a lot of demand, and there’s a lot of interest. I think everybody understands that AI can do magical things to businesses, and… we can all operate on another level when it comes to efficiency,” Kutylowski said.

Still, businesses are “strugging in adopting” AI. “We’re going to get further, but I don’t think we’re that we’re going to be in a place where we can say, like every enterprise, every organization, has it figured out totally,” Kutylowski said.

Picsart CEO: Market values smaller startups with vibe revenue

DeepL’s core product is an AI translation tool but it recently launched a more general purpose “agent” designed to be able to carry out tasks on behalf of employees.

Francois Chadwick, the chief financial officer of Cohere, a company that is also focused on enterprise AI, told CNBC on Tuesday that “demand is definitely there.”

$4 trillion capex outlook

Despite the concerns over overstretched valuations and huge capex spend, the investment into artificial intelligence doesn’t appear to be slowing down. A report from venture capital group Accel released this week showed that the buildout of new AI data center capacity is forecast to reach 117 gigawatts by 2030 which translates into about $4 trillion worth of capital expenditure over the next 5 years.

About $3.1 trillion worth of revenue is required to pay back that capex, according to the Accel report.

Already this year, there have been a slew of deals worth billions announced by the likes of Nvidia and OpenAI as they look to develop data center capacity around the world in a bid to keep up with demand.

Philippe Botteri, a partner at Accel, said that three major factors will drive that revenue — more powerful AI models that require capacity to be trained, the use of new AI services and the “agentic revolution in the enterprise.”

“Agentic” is often a term used to describe a type of AI tool that can automatically carry out tasks on behalf of users.

Probably over-exuberance around data centers, says investor

But not everyone believes that the large amount of spending is necessary.

Ben Harburg, managing partner at Novo Capital says the figures being discussed by large tech firms for future investment may be overblown.

“We hear these crazy headline numbers about how much energy is going to be needed, how many chips are going to be needed, although, again, I think that there is probably more of a bubble brewing there than on kind of the front end, the actual product front,” Harburg told CNBC on Tuesday.

“I think we’re starting to realize that there’s been probably over exuberance around data centers. Even Sam [Altman], I think, would privately admit that they need fewer chips than they originally set out, they need less capital than they originally set out. They need less energy than they originally set out.”

Continue Reading

Technology

CEO of Southeast Asia’s largest bank says AI adoption already paying off: ‘It’s not hope, it’s now’

Published

on

By

CEO of Southeast Asia's largest bank says AI adoption already paying off: ‘It’s not hope, it’s now’

Tan Su Shan, chief executive officer of DBS Group Holdings Ltd., speaking at the Singapore Fintech Festival in Singapore, on Nov. 12, 2025.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

SINGAPORE – Amid fears of an artificial intelligence bubble, much has been made of recent reports suggesting that AI has yet to generate returns for companies investing billions into adopting the tech. 

But that’s not what the chief executive of Southeast Asia’s largest bank is seeing — she says her firm is already reaping the rewards of its AI initiatives, and it’s only just the beginning. 

“It’s not hope. It’s now. It’s already happening. And it will get even better,” DBS CEO Tan Su Shan told CNBC  on the sidelines of Singapore Fintech Week, when asked about the promise of AI adoption.  

DBS has been working to implement artificial intelligence across its bank for over a decade, which helped prepare its internal data analytics for recent waves of generative and agentic AI. 

Agentic AI is a type of artificial intelligence that relies on data to proactively make independent decisions, plan and execute tasks autonomously, with minimal human oversight.

Tan expects AI adoption to bring DBS an overall revenue bump of more than 1 billion Singapore dollars (about $768 million) this year, compared to SG$750 million in 2024. That assessment is based on about 370 AI use cases powered by over 1,500 models throughout its business. 

“The proliferation of generative AI has been transformative for us,” Tan said, adding that the company was experiencing a “snowballing effect” of benefits thanks to machine learning. 

A major area in which DBS has applied AI is in its financial services to institutional clients, with AI used to collect and leverage data for clients in order to better contextualize and personalize offerings. 

According to Tan, this has resulted in “faster and more resilient” teams. The CEO believes that these uses of AI have contributed to a recent uptick in the bank’s deposit growth as compared to competitors’.

The company also recently launched a newly enhanced AI-powered assistant for corporate clients known as “DBS Joy,” which assists clients with unique corporate banking queries around the clock. 

ROI concerns 

Despite Tan’s strong convictions about AI, recent evidence suggests that many companies are struggling to turn their AI investments into tangible profits. 

MIT released a report in July that found 95% of 300 publicly disclosed AI initiatives, encompassing generative AI investments of $30–$40 billion, had failed to achieve real returns. 

However, at least in the banking sector, there are signs that the tides are turning. 

While DBS doesn’t differentiate spending in generative AI from other in-house investments, other major banks have recently offered this comparison. 

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon stated in an interview with Bloomberg TV last month that the bank is already breaking even on its approximately $2 billion of annual investments in AI adoption. That represents “just the tip of the iceberg,” he added.

Those expectations are shared by DBS, which plans to continue to accelerate its AI development to become an AI-powered bank.

The ultimate goal, according to Tan, is for its generative AI to develop into a trusted financial advisor for clients, including retail users who are expected to interact with personalized AI agents through the DBS banking app. 

The bank already has over 100 AI algorithms that analyze users’ data to provide them with personalized “nudges,” such as alerts on incoming shortfalls, product recommendations, and other insights. 

Continued AI investments 

While DBS may already be reaping rewards from its AI adoption, Tan acknowledged that it will require continued investments, not only in capital, but in the time needed to reskill employees. 

The company has launched several AI reskilling initiatives across departments this year and has even deployed a generative AI-powered coaching tool to support these efforts. 

This will help the company automate mundane work and refocus its staff on building and maintaining human-to-human relationships with customers, rather than reducing headcount, Tan said. 

“We’re not freezing hiring, but it does mean reskilling. And that’s a journey. It’s a never-ending journey … a constant evolution.”

Continue Reading

Trending