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Apple iMac with M4

Apple

Apple on Monday announced an updated iMac with the company’s latest M4 chip. It starts at $1,299 and is available to order ahead of its release on Nov. 8.

Apple’s Mac family remains a large business segment even though it is less important to the company than the iPhone. In the June quarter, Apple reported $7 billion in Mac sales, up about 2% on an annual basis.

Unlike on the iPhone, where only phones released in the past two years will support Apple Intelligence, all of Apple’s computers with the M1 chip and newer since 2020 can run the company’s artificial intelligence. Still, Apple is marketing the new Macs with a focus on AI to build momentum around its new offering.

Apple Intelligence will allow users to rewrite, proofread or summarize text. For example, you might highlight the text of an email and use Apple Intelligence to make it sound more professional or more concise. It also lets users type to Siri, which now provides more answers about Apple products. Apple plans to release another version of Apple Intelligence in December that adds OpenAI’s ChatGPT support into writing tools and Siri.

The M4 iMac comes in new shades including green, yellow, orange, pink and purple. It is also still available in silver. All four USB-C ports on the back also support the fastest Thunderbolt 4 standard, which means you can transfer large videos and other files faster. It supports up to two additional 6K displays. It comes with an updated Magic Mouse and Magic Keyboard with USB-C charging, too, replacing the older Lightning port.

iMac M4

Apple

The new iMac maintains the same 24-inch 4.5K Retina display launched in earlier models but now adds a new nano-texture display option that helps prevent reflections and glare.

Apple could still announce more new Macs over the coming days. Apple’s chief marketer Greg Joswiak posted Thursday on social media site X to “Mac your calendars” for an exciting “week of announcements.”

Apple first introduced the M4 in May in Apple’s iPad Pro. At the time, Apple said the chip had additional AI capabilities, a better graphics processor and that it used TSMC’s 3-nanometer manufacturing process. Apple says the M4 uses half the power as the M2, first released in 2022.

In September, Apple announced new iPhones, Apple Watches and AirPods. The Mac announcements this week are likely Apple’s last major hardware announcements for the year.

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Qualcomm pops on chipmaker’s earnings and revenue beat

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Qualcomm pops on chipmaker's earnings and revenue beat

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

Ann Wang | Reuters

Qualcomm reported fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday that beat Wall Street expectations for earnings and revenue, and the company guided to a strong December quarter.

The shares rose 10% in extended trading at one point before falling to a gain of about 4%.

Here’s how the company did versus Refinitiv consensus expectations for the quarter ending Sept. 29:

  • Earnings per share: $2.69, adjusted $2.56 expected
  • Revenue: $10.24 billion versus $9.90 billion expected

Qualcomm said it expects revenue in the current quarter of between $10.5 billion and $11.3 billion, with the midpoint of that range beating LSEG consensus expectations of $10.59 billion.

The company reported $2.92 billion in net income, or $2.59 per share, a sharp jump from last year’s $1.49 billion, or $1.23 per share. Qualcomm reported $33.19 billion in total revenue in its fiscal 2024, a 9% increase from 2023.

Qualcomm’s fortunes have historically been tied to the smartphone industry, where the company provides a range of chips to handset makers, including system-on-a-chip processors, modems, and antennas. The company makes the chip at the heart of most high-end Android devices, and many lower-end phones as well. Qualcomm also sells modems and related chips to Apple for its iPhones, and last year said its contract for 5G chips ran through 2026.

Qualcomm reported a 12% increase in handset chip sales to $6.1 billion, in line with FactSet estimates. Qualcomm introduced its high-end chip for 2025, called Snapdragon 8 Elite, in October.

“In handsets we delivered greater than 20% year-over-year growth in Android revenues,” said Qualcomm CFO Akash Palkhiwala on a call with analysts.

Under CEO Cristiano Amon, the company has diversified away from being a smartphone supplier and has introduced and invested heavily in producing chips for PCs, cars, and industrial machines.

“We will continue to transform Qualcomm from a wireless communications company into a connected computing company for the age of AI,” Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said on the earnings call with analysts.

Qualcomm has also made efforts to brand itself as a leader in AI, having developed smartphone chips with specialized parts for machine learning since 2017. But unlike Nvidia, the company doesn’t produce the kind of graphics processors for data centers that are used for big AI programs like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

The automotive business grew 86% on an annual basis to $899 million in sales. Qualcomm says it has billions of dollars in business with automakers currently in its development pipeline, and highlighted it was the fifth consecutive quarter of growth. Qualcomm said that it expected automotive sales in the current quarter to rise 50% on an annual basis.

The company’s “internet of things” business includes both chips for industrial purposes as well as the chips Meta uses in its Quest handsets and Ray-Ban Smart Glasses. It also includes the new business selling chips for laptops running Microsoft Windows. The division reported $1.68 billion in revenue, a 22% increase from a year earlier.

Qualcomm’s chip business, including its handset, automotive, and other chips, which together is reported as QCT, saw sales rise 18% during the quarter to $7.37 billion in total. 

The company’s profitable technology licensing business, QTL, reported $1.52 billion in revenue, a 21% increase over the same period last year.

Qualcomm said its board had approved $15 billion in additional buybacks. During the fourth quarter, it repurchased $1.3 billion worth of shares and paid out $947 million in dividends.

WATCH: CNBC’s full interview with Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon

Watch CNBC's full interview with Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon

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Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is more than $2 billion richer after post-election stock pop

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Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is more than  billion richer after post-election stock pop

Brian Armstrong, co-founder and chief executive officer of Coinbase Inc., speaks during the Singapore Fintech Festival, in Singapore, on Friday, Nov. 4, 2022. 

Bryan van der Beek | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Election Day proved hugely successful for the crypto industry. Nobody was a bigger winner than Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.

Coinbase shares soared 31% on Wednesday, their best day on record, as investors celebrated the company’s victorious efforts to get pro-crypto candidates into office. Fairshake, the Coinbase-backed PAC, says that of the 58 candidates it supported, 46 won, with the remaining contests 12 still undecided.

Armstrong, who co-founded Coinbase in 2012 and took it public in 2021, remains the crypto exchange’s biggest investor, with ownership of well over 10% of the company’s outstanding shares. As of the latest proxy filing, he owned 34.8 million Class A and Class B shares, a stake that jumped by about $2.1 billion in value on Wednesday to almost $9 billion.

“Being anti-crypto is simply bad politics,” Armstrong wrote in a post on X, after Ohio Republican Bernie Moreno was declared the winner in his state’s Senate race over incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown.

In a lengthier follow-up post on Wednesday, Armstrong said “no matter how you slice it, this election was huge win for crypto.”

Bitcoin jumped over 9.5%, reaching a record of over $76,400.

A Coinbase spokesperson declined to comment further.

We're in a good position for liquidity cycles for crypto, says Neoclassic Capital's Michael Bucella

Some $40 million of crypto money was directed at defeating Brown, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. One PAC paid for five ads designed to boost awareness of Moreno, a blockchain entrepreneur with very little name recognition entering the race.

The Stand With Crypto Alliance, which Coinbase launched last year, gave Brown an “F” grade, while it issued Moreno an “A.”

Moreno flipped the seat, winning 50.3% of votes cast to 46.3% for Moreno, according to NBC News. His win helped ensure a majority for the Republicans in Senate, alongside Republican nominee Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential contest.

“I am so grateful to Ohioans for their resounding support in this race,” Moreno said in a statement Tuesday night. “I look forward to working with the new Republican Senate majority to fix our economy, secure our border, and return to American strength at home and abroad.”

Moreno’s statement made no mention of crypto, despite the fact that the industry bankrolled his campaign.

Politics pays off

For Armstrong, politics has become a big part of the job as his company fights for a friendlier Washington and more amenable regulatory environment.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler sued Coinbase last year over claims that it sells unregistered securities. A judge has since ruled that the case should be heard by a jury. Coinbase has fought back vociferously, and has also said that it wants to work with regulators to come up with a proper set of laws governing the nascent industry.

Republican nominee for U.S. Senate Bernie Moreno addresses supporters at Brecksville Community Center on November 4, 2024 in Brecksville, Ohio. 

Stephen Maturen | Getty Images

Armstrong told CNBC in September that his visits to the nation’s capital used to take place once or twice a year. Then it got to be at least a quarterly occasion. And the pace has only increased.

“In the beginning, a lot of people didn’t know what crypto was,” Armstrong said of his earlier trips. Now, “the discussion has advanced, really, to, how do we pass clear rules, create legislation in the United States?”

In the 2024 election cycle, Coinbase was one of the top corporate donors, giving more than $75 million to Fairshake and its affiliate PACs, including a fresh pledge of $25 million to support the pro-crypto super PAC in the 2026 midterms. Armstrong personally contributed more than $1.3 million to a mix of candidates up and down the ballot.

Coinbase stayed out of the presidential contest and focused its finances exclusively on congressional races, in an effort to assemble a group of lawmakers with favorable views of the industry.

Coinbase’s big post-election pop more than makes up for the 15% drop in the stock last week after the company reported disappointing quarterly results due to lower transaction revenue and a drop in subscriptions services revenue.

Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief legal officer, attended multiple fundraisers for Trump in the months before the election. As the results were rolling in Tuesday, Grewal said in a post on X that he hopes the SEC “understands what has happened tonight.”

“Stop suing crypto,” Grewal wrote. “Start talking to crypto. Initiate rulemaking now. There’s no reason to wait.”

Armstrong reposted the Grewal’s comments, adding one word of his own: “True.”

WATCH: Next congress will be ‘most pro-crypto congress’ ever

Next congress will be 'most pro-crypto congress' ever, says Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong

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Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman, Sundar Pichai and other tech leaders congratulate Trump on election win

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Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman, Sundar Pichai and other tech leaders congratulate Trump on election win

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, attends the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland, January 18, 2024 (L), and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos speaks during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, Britain, November 2, 2021.

Reuters

Leaders of major technology companies congratulated President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance on their victory in the U.S. presidential election Wednesday.

The messages were similar, with CEOs remarking that they wish Trump success when he returns to the Oval Office, and look forward to working with his administration.

Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos celebrated Trump’s win in a post on X, calling it an “extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory.”

Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post and founded space company Blue Origin, has had a rocky relationship with Trump and was a frequent target of the former president during his first term. Trump repeatedly took aim at Bezos’ ownership of the Post, Amazon’s tax record and its relationship with the Postal Service. Bezos also took swings at Trump, remarking in a 2015 social media post, “#sendDonaldtospace.” Bezos recently struck a more conciliatory tone and in July praised Trump for his “courage under literal fire” following the attempted assassination of Trump at a Pennsylvania rally that month. Bezos has posted twice on X this year, with both posts mentioning Trump.

Andy Jassy, who took the helm from Bezos when he stepped down as Amazon’s CEO in 2021, also extended his congratulations to Trump.

“Congratulations to President-elect @realDonaldTrump on a hard-fought victory,” Jassy wrote in a post on X. “We look forward to working with you and your administration on issues important to our customers, employees, communities, and country.”

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a post on X that he hopes Trump will see “huge success in the job.” In a follow up post, he wrote, “it is critically important that the US maintains its lead in developing AI with democratic values.”

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg called Trump’s election win a “decisive victory” and said he looked forward to forward to working with the Trump administration. “We have great opportunities ahead of us as a country,” Zuckerberg wrote in a post on Threads, Meta’s rival to Elon Musk’s X app. The two men have also had a rocky relationship at times. In 2021, Facebook banned Trump for two years shortly after the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Musk, who also runs electric vehicle maker Tesla, space exploration company SpaceX, and brain tech startup Neuralink, also unsurprisingly cheered Trump’s win.

Musk has been a key ally for Trump in his campaign for the White House, with the former president promising prior to his election to appoint Musk as the head of a government efficiency commission. Musk also contributed nearly $75 million to America PAC, a pro-Trump super political action committee that he established earlier in the year. Tesla shares rallied more than 13% on Wednesday afternoon as investors were optimistic that a Trump win would benefit the vehicle maker.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google parent Alphabet, also congratulated Trump on his victory and said he’s committed to working with the president-elect’s administration.

Microsoft CEO Sundar Pichai said: “Congratulations President Trump, we’re looking forward to engaging with you and your administration to drive innovation forward that creates new growth and opportunity for the United States and the world.”

Cisco founder and CEO Chuck Robbins wrote in a post on X that the company looks forward to working with Trump and Congress on policies around “connectivity, innovation, cybersecurity, and more.”

Box CEO Aaron Levie also sent his good wishes to Trump. He wrote in a post on X, “Wild ride. Congrats to @realDonaldTrump on becoming President again. What’s great about America is that we’re on a rocket ship right now and can keep accelerating with the right policies and execution.”

Michael Dell, CEO and chairman of Dell Technologies, added his own congratulations in a post on X.

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