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Apple reports fourth-quarter earnings after the bell Thursday. It’s the end of Apple’s fiscal year, and it’s the first quarter with sales from the September launch of the iPhone 16.

Here’s what to expect, according to LSEG consensus estimates:

  • Earnings per share: $1.60
  • Revenue: $94.58 billion

The most critical item will be what Apple signals to investors about its December quarter, which is its largest seasonal sales period of the year. That will set the tone about the current iPhone sales cycle and whether it represents a chance for revenue growth driven by the launch of Apple Intelligence.

Apple doesn’t provide official guidance, but it typically offers forecast data points on a call with analysts that suggest whether the company expects sales growth and how some of its product lines might fare — especially the iPhone, which still accounts for a majority of Apple’s sales.

Without Apple’s official guidance and sales, investors parse surveys and shipping dates on Apple’s website to get a clue.

Some analysts are pointing to signs so far as “mixed.”

“To be clear, we have not heard of any iPhone build cuts in our checks, but after a month of tracking iPhone 16 demand indicators, we’d characterize iPhone demand as mixed,” wrote Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring in a note Oct. 22.

Other analysts are watching for when exactly Apple Intelligence will start to boost sales. Apple Intelligence is rolling out in pieces over the next few months. It’s available in American English now, but will add support for German, Italian, Korean, Chinese, French, Japanese and Spanish next year, Apple says.

“While iPhone sales will be on everybody’s mind when AAPL reports, the stream of data points indicates that there is little reason to believe an upgrade cycle has started,” wrote D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria in a note this week. “That should be expected, as Apple Intelligence features (the only reason to upgrade)
have yet to be rolled out in a significant way.”

U.S. carriers, including AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, have also seemed unexcited about an Apple Intelligence upgrade cycle.

“We’re still waiting, obviously, for the software release and whether or not that software release drives interest in the consumer base,” AT&T CEO John Stankey said on an earnings call last week.

Sales in greater China were one of the weakest parts of Apple’s most recent quarterly report, declining 6% in the face of increased pressure from Chinese rivals.

“We believe even with new iPhone launch, Apple still faces pressure from Huawei, and we don’t expect the competition to ease any time soon,” Citi analyst Malif Atik wrote in a note this week.

But research firm Counterpoint Research told CNBC in October that iPhone sales, especially for the lower-priced devices, were strong in China.

“We’re seeing strong iPhone 16 series unit sales in China, up 20% compared to iPhone 15 series during its first three weeks of sales last year,” a Counterpoint representative said.

Investors will also look closely at Apple’s “wearables” category, which includes its Apple Watch and AirPods headphones. Both of those product lines saw new models hit store shelves during the quarter, including Apple Watches with bigger screens and low-end AirPods with noise canceling.

The new products could reverse the trend of Apple’s wearables sales declining on a year-over-year basis for four straight quarters.

Overall, analysts polled by LSEG expect about 5.6% revenue growth on an annual basis to about $95 billion in revenue.

That’s in line with what Apple signaled in August. Apple also said at the time that its services unit — the company’s catch-all, high-margin unit that includes everything from Major League Soccer subscriptions to Google search deals and extended iPhone warranties — would rise about 14% during the quarter, continuing its steady growth.

Thursday’s report will also likely be the last with CFO Luca Maestri. Apple said in August that Maestri will step down Jan. 1 and be replaced by longtime lieutenant Kevan Parekh. Maestri won’t be leaving Apple, though, and will retain oversight of some teams focusing on IT, real estate, and security.

WATCH: Apple Intelligence rollout could be an inflection point, says Futurum Group CEO’s Daniel Newman

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Google hires Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan, others in latest AI talent deal

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Google hires Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan, others in latest AI talent deal

Chief executive officer of Google Sundar Pichai.

Marek Antoni Iwanczuk | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Google on Friday made the latest a splash in the AI talent wars, announcing an agreement to bring in Varun Mohan, co-founder and CEO of artificial intelligence coding startup Windsurf.

As part of the deal, Google will also hire other senior Windsurf research and development employees. Google is not investing in Windsurf, but the search giant will take a nonexclusive license to certain Windsurf technology, according to a person familiar with the matter. Windsurf remains free to license its technology to others.

“We’re excited to welcome some top AI coding talent from Windsurf’s team to Google DeepMind to advance our work in agentic coding,” a Google spokesperson wrote in an email. “We’re excited to continue bringing the benefits of Gemini to software developers everywhere.”

The deal between Google and Windsurf comes after the AI coding startup had been in talks with OpenAI for a $3 billion acquisition deal, CNBC reported in April. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The move ratchets up the talent war in AI particularly among prominent companies. Meta has made lucrative job offers to several employees at OpenAI in recent weeks. Most notably, the Facebook parent added Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang to lead its AI strategy as part of a $14.3 billion investment into his startup. 

Douglas Chen, another Windsurf co-founder, will be among those joining Google in the deal, Jeff Wang, the startup’s new interim CEO and its head of business for the past two years, wrote in a post on X.

“Most of Windsurf’s world-class team will continue to build the Windsurf product with the goal of maximizing its impact in the enterprise,” Wang wrote.

Windsurf has become more popular this year as an option for so-called vibe coding, which is the process of using new age AI tools to write code. Developers and non-developers have embraced the concept, leading to more revenue for Windsurf and competitors, such as Cursor, which OpenAI also looked at buying. All the interest has led investors to assign higher valuations to the startups.

This isn’t the first time Google has hired select people out of a startup. It did the same with Character.AI last summer. Amazon and Microsoft have also absorbed AI talent in this fashion, with the Adept and Inflection deals, respectively.

Microsoft is pushing an agent mode in its Visual Studio Code editor for vibe coding. In April, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said AI is composing as much of 30% of his company’s code.

The Verge reported the Google-Windsurf deal earlier on Friday.

WATCH: Google pushes “AI Mode” on homepage

Google pushes "AI Mode" on homepage

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Nvidia’s Jensen Huang sells more than $36 million in stock, catches Warren Buffett in net worth

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Nvidia's Jensen Huang sells more than  million in stock, catches Warren Buffett in net worth

Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, holds a motherboard as he speaks during the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, on June 11, 2025.

Gonzalo Fuentes | Reuters

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang unloaded roughly $36.4 million worth of stock in the leading artificial intelligence chipmaker, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The sale, which totals 225,000 shares, comes as part of Huang’s previously adopted plan in March to unload up to 6 million shares of Nvidia through the end of the year. He sold his first batch of stock from the agreement in June, equaling about $15 million.

Last year, the tech executive sold about $700 million worth of shares as part of a prearranged plan. Nvidia stock climbed about 1% Friday.

Huang’s net worth has skyrocketed as investors bet on Nvidia’s AI dominance and graphics processing units powering large language models.

The 62-year-old’s wealth has grown by more than a quarter, or about $29 billion, since the start of 2025 alone, based on Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. His net worth last stood at $143 billion in the index, putting him neck-and-neck with Berkshire Hathaway‘s Warren Buffett at $144 billion.

Shortly after the market opened Friday, Fortune‘s analysis of net worth had Huang ahead of Buffett, with the Nvidia CEO at $143.7 billion and the Oracle of Omaha at $142.1 billion.

Read more CNBC tech news

The company has also achieved its own notable milestones this year, as it prospers off the AI boom.

On Wednesday, the Santa Clara, California-based chipmaker became the first company to top a $4 trillion market capitalization, beating out both Microsoft and Apple. The chipmaker closed above that milestone Thursday as CNBC reported that the technology titan met with President Donald Trump.

Brooke Seawell, venture partner at New Enterprise Associates, sold about $24 million worth of Nvidia shares, according to an SEC filing. Seawell has been on the company’s board since 1997, according to the company.

Huang still holds more than 858 million shares of Nvidia, both directly and indirectly, in different partnerships and trusts.

WATCH: Nvidia hits $4 trillion in market cap milestone despite curbs on chip exports

Nvidia hits $4 trillion in market cap milestone despite curbs on chip exports

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Tesla to officially launch in India with planned showroom opening

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Tesla to officially launch in India with planned showroom opening

Elon Musk meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Blair House in Washington DC, USA on February 13, 2025.

Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images

Tesla will open a showroom in Mumbai, India next week, marking the U.S. electric carmakers first official foray into the country.

The one and a half hour launch event for the Tesla “Experience Center” will take place on July 15 at the Maker Maxity Mall in Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai, according to an event invitation seen by CNBC.

Along with the showroom display, which will feature the company’s cars, Tesla is also likely to officially launch direct sales to Indian customers.

The automaker has had its eye on India for a while and now appears to have stepped up efforts to launch locally.

In April, Tesla boss Elon Musk spoke with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss collaboration in areas including technology and innovation. That same month, the EV-maker’s finance chief said the company has been “very careful” in trying to figure out when to enter the market.

Tesla has no manufacturing operations in India, even though the country’s government is likely keen for the company to establish a factory. Instead the cars sold in India will need to be imported from Tesla’s other manufacturing locations in places like Shanghai, China, and Berlin, Germany.

As Tesla begins sales in India, it will come up against challenges from long-time Chinese rival BYD, as well as local player Tata Motors.

One potential challenge for Tesla comes by way of India’s import duties on electric vehicles, which stand at around 70%. India has tried to entice investment in the country by offering companies a reduced duty of 15% if they commit to invest $500 million and set up manufacturing locally.

HD Kumaraswamy, India’s minister for heavy industries, told reporters in June that Tesla is “not interested” in manufacturing in the country, according to a Reuters report.

Tesla is looking to recruit roles in Mumbai, job listings posted on LinkedIn . These include advisors working in showrooms, security, vehicle operators to collect data for its Autopilot feature and service technicians.

There are also roles being advertised in the Indian capital of New Delhi, including for store managers. It’s unclear if Tesla is planning to launch a showroom in the city.

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