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CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz speaks at the Wall Street Journal Tech Live conference in Laguna Beach, California, on Oct. 21, 2019.

Martina Albertazzi | Bloomberg | Getty Images

CrowdStrike shares rose 4% in extended trading on Wednesday after the cybersecurity software maker reported strong fiscal second-quarter results but reduced full-year guidance in the wake of a global outage.

Here is how the company did compared to LSEG consensus:

  • Earnings per share: $1.04 adjusted vs. 97 cents expected
  • Revenue: $963.9 million vs. $959 million expected

CrowdStrike’s revenue grew 32% year over year in the quarter, which ended on July 31, according to a statement. The company recorded net income of $47 million, or 19 cents per share, compared with $8.47 million, or 3 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago.

Annual recurring revenue was $3.86 billion, just above the StreetAccount consensus of $3.85 billion.

On July 19, CrowdStrike distributed a flawed content configuration update for its Falcon sensor to computers running Microsoft Windows operating systems, with the intent to gather data on new attacks. The error caused millions of computers to crash, leading to flight cancelations, delayed packaged deliveries and postponed medical appointments. Administrators had to manually reboot affected computers.

CEO George Kurtz apologized to clients and partners and said the company had rolled out a fix. Meanwhile, investors were pushing down CrowdStrike’s share price. Shareholders have filed suit against the company, and Delta Air Lines, which cited $380 million in lost revenue and $170 million in costs because of the incident, said it will seek damages. Travelers have filed class-action suits against the CrowdStrike as well.

“All customers are looking for some kind of discount,” Gray Powell and Trevor Rambo of BTIG, with the equivalent of a hold rating on CrowdStrike shares, wrote in an Aug. 23 note.

With respect to guidance, CrowdStrike called for adjusted net earnings of 80 cents to 81 cents per share on $979.2 million to $984.7 million in revenue.

For the 2025 fiscal year, CrowdStrike now sees $3.61 to $3.65 in adjusted earnings per share and $3.89 billion to $3.90 billion in revenue. That’s down from management’s June forecast for adjusted earnings per share of $3.93 to $4.03 and revenue between $3.98 billion to $4.01 billion.

The full-year revenue guidance includes a negative subscription revenue impact of $30 million in each quarter and professional services revenue in the high-single-digit millions of dollars for the second half of the fiscal year, because of incentives for a customer commitment package, according to the statement. The adjusted guidance excludes costs related to the outage, CrowdStrike said.

Before CrowdStrike issued the earnings report, its stock was up about 4% this year, while the S&P 500 index has gained 17% over that period.

Executives will discuss the results with analysts on a conference call starting at 5 p.m. ET.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

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Figma CEO says AI superintelligence is not a looming threat to the company

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Figma CEO says AI superintelligence is not a looming threat to the company

Figma CEO Dylan Field on IPO debut: Design is going public today

Figma co-founder and CEO Dylan Field said Thursday that artificial intelligence doesn’t pose a serious threat to the future of the design software company, which is on the verge of debuting on the public markets.

“We’re in this moment where you might, if you’re singularity-pilled, go, ‘Hey, superintelligence is coming and it’ll be able to do things that no human can do,” Field told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “I have a harder time believing that we’re going to approach that really quickly right now, but that doesn’t mean it’s out of the picture.”

Figma is slated to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “FIG” on Thursday. Last week, the company estimated that it would price shares in the range of $25 to $28, and on Wednesday it priced above that range at $33 a share.

The offering values Figma, which ranked No. 45 on this year’s CNBC Disruptor 50 list, at $19.3 billion.

The company was supposed to be acquired by Adobe for $20 billion, but the deal was scrapped in December 2023 after regulators objected.

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So-called “superintelligence,” a type of artificial intelligence that would be more powerful than the human brain, has recently become a growing focus among technology companies.

Field told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin that the company’s “complex” graphics engine and other aspects of its technology make it difficult to be replaced by superintelligence.

“I think that’s not stuff that you can learn from looking at code and sort of various places on the internet,” Field said. “It’s not part of the pre-training data mix. I believe that doing that at scale — it’s quite difficult.”

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been especially vocal about the potential for superintelligence, declaring in a Wednesday memo that the technology will serve as a tool for “individual empowerment” over automation and efficiency.

Meta recently created a lab to pursue superintelligence, and Zuckerberg has poured billions of dollars into building a roster of top AI talent.

— CNBC’s Jordan Novet contributed reporting to this story.

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Roblox stock soars 16% after revenue beat, strong user growth

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Roblox stock soars 16% after revenue beat, strong user growth

Thiago Prudêncio | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Roblox stock soared 16% Thursday after the company reported second-quarter revenue that beat expectations amid strong user growth.

The gaming platform saw $1.44 billion in net bookings, up 51% over the year prior. Analysts polled by LSEG expected $1.24 billion in net bookings for the quarter.

User and engagement numbers were also strong for the company, with daily active users at 111.8 million, up 41% year-over-year, and hours engaged at 27.4 billion, up 58% year-over-year.

StreetAccount expected 106 million DAUs.

“Our year on year growth this quarter is a reflection of our strategic investments in infrastructure and performance, discovery, and the virtual economy, which continue to create fertile conditions for creators to thrive as part of a healthy, interconnected ecosystem,” said CEO David Baszucki in a release.

Baszucki added that the company is looking to grab 10% of the global gaming content market.

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Roblox raised its booking guidance for the third quarter and now expects between $1.59 billion and $1.64 billion. FactSet expected $1.42 billion in third-quarter bookings.

The gaming platform did report a net loss of $279.38 million, a loss of 41 cents per share. Roblox had a net loss of $205.88 million, a loss of 32 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago.

The platform rolled out new age verification tools two weeks ago, as the broader gaming industry and app stores have faced regulatory pressure to improve safety for young users and limit access to certain types of content.

Roblox Chief Safety Officer Matt Kaufman said the age-estimation tools will help keep younger users from accessing “something that should be limited to an older audience — 13 and over.”

Kaufman said having more mature content opportunities will help teens and adults stay on Roblox instead of moving to other platforms.

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Meta, Microsoft roar higher on strong earnings as AI spending booms

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Meta, Microsoft roar higher on strong earnings as AI spending booms

META CEO Mark Zuckerberg (L) and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

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Shares of Meta soared 12% and Microsoft popped 5% on Thursday, after the companies reported better-than-expected earnings that beat on top and bottom lines.

Microsoft topped the $4 trillion market cap benchmark with the move, joining Nvidia in the club.

Both Meta and Microsoft have been investing heavily in artificial intelligence infrastructure in recent years, and the companies said they expect to continue to shell out billions in capital expenditures.

Meta said capital expenditures will range between $66 billion and $72 billion for the full year, raising the low end of the company’s previous estimate of between $64 billion and $72 billion. Microsoft sees over $30 billion in fiscal first quarter capital expenditures and assets acquired through finance leases, while analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha had expected $24.23 billion.

Analysts at Citi said the companies’ increased capital expenditures will likely be a boon for chipmakers. Microsoft makes up roughly 8% of Advanced Micro Devices‘ sales, while Meta makes up about 2% of Broadcom’s sales, the analysts said.

“We believe AVGO and AMD will be the primary beneficiaries of Microsoft’s and Meta’s increased capex,” they wrote in a Thursday note.

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In addition to increased capital expenditures, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been on an AI hiring blitz, highlighted by a $14.3 billion investment into the data-labeling startup Scale AI and the launch of its new Meta Superintelligence Labs unit.

Morgan Stanley analysts said they “applaud the effort” and are pleased with the state of Meta’s core business, but they remain a little wary of Zuckerberg’s AI spending.

“On one hand, the core business is so strong that it’s paying for all the new AI talent and infra several times over, but on the other hand the cavalier nature by which Zuckerberg is throwing money around is a bit unnerving, especially if things don’t come together as planned with the new superintelligence team,” the analysts wrote.

Barclays analysts said Microsoft’s generative AI scaling is still playing out, but the strong demand for its data center infrastructure continues to point to ongoing momentum for the quarters ahead. They maintained their overweight rating on the stock.

“With its strong Q4 FY25 results, MSFT confirmed its unique status in the software space and will likely continue to be one of the core holdings by investors,” they wrote in a note Wednesday.

Microsoft reported $76.44 billion in revenue for its fiscal fourth quarter, up 18% year over year. The company said net income increased to $27.23 billion, or $3.65 per share, from $22.04 billion a year ago.

Meta reported $47.52 billion in revenue for its second quarter, up 22% year over year. Its net income rose 36% year over year to $18.34 billion, or $7.14 per share.

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