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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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SpaceX’s Starship explodes during routine test in Texas

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SpaceX's Starship explodes during routine test in Texas

A SpaceX Starship is seen in Boca Chica, Texas in 2023.

Patrick T. Fallon | Afp | Getty Images

A SpaceX Starship rocket on Wednesday exploded at the Starbase facility in Texas during routine testing in preparation for a launch flight, according to local authorities and live stream footage.

The rocket “experienced a major anomaly while on a test stand at Starbase” at 11 p.m. local time, SpaceX said on social media, noting “a safety clear area around the site was maintained throughout the operation and all personnel are safe and accounted for.”

Local authorities said that Starship “suffered a catastrophic failure and exploded,” with no injuries reported at the time of writing and an investigation is now underway. Live stream footage of Starbase showed the rocket burst into flame, shooting a large fireball into the sky.

Another Starship launch was expected to take place by the end of this month.

It’s been a tempestuous ride for Elon Musk’s mammoth Starship, after three flight launch attempts devolved in fiery glory and air-traffic stopping debris this year to date. Notably, the rocket model has taken off successfully in previous instances, but its vast scale — standing 120 meters (394 feet) tall when factoring in the Super Heavy booster — has raised concerns over its overall reliability and requirements for orbital refueling once in flight.

Yet Musk has clinched his hopes on Starship as the key vehicle for both NASA’s third and fourth Artemis missions — part of a broader plan to return humans to the Moon — due to take place over 2027-2028. The rocket is also set to play a role in launching the Starlab private space station in the transition to commercial space orbiting labs once the International Space Station retires after 2030.

Critically, Starship is also central to Musk’s — and former ally U.S. President Donald Trump’s — broader ambitions to colonize Mars. The rocket is set to ferry Optimus robots to the red planet by the end of 2026, with Musk in March saying, “If those landings go well, then human landings may start as soon as 2029, although 2031 is more likely.”

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Apple looking to make ‘premium’ priced folding iPhones starting next year, analyst says

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Apple looking to make 'premium' priced folding iPhones starting next year, analyst says

People look at iPhones at the Apple Fifth Avenue store in New York City on May 23, 2025.

Adam Gray | Reuters

Apple has plans to make a folding iPhone starting next year, reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said on Wednesday.

Kuo said Apple’s folding phone could have a display made by Samsung Display, which is planning to produce as many as eight million foldable panels for the device next year. However, other components haven’t been finalized, including the device’s hinge, Kuo wrote. He expects it to have “premium pricing.”

Kuo is an analyst for TF International Securities, and focuses on the Asian electronics supply chain and often discusses Apple products before they’re launched.

He wrote in a post on social media site X that Apple’s plans for the foldable iPhone aren’t locked in yet and are subject to change. Apple did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Apple’s iPhone makes up over half of Apple’s business and remains an incredibly profitable product, accounting for $201 billion in sales in the company’s fiscal 2024. But iPhone revenue peaked in 2022, and Apple is constantly looking for ways to attract new customers and convince its current customers to upgrade to more expensive devices.

The Flex S is another concept device Samsung showed off at MWC. It folds in a more zigzag-like way to make an “S” shape.

Ryan Browne | CNBC

Several of Apple’s rivals, including Huawei and Samsung, have been releasing folding smartphones since 2019.

The devices promise the screen size of a tablet in a format that can be stored in pants pockets. But folding phones still have hardware issues, including creases in the display where it is folded.

Folding phones also have yet to prove they drive significant demand after the novelty wears off.

Research firm TrendForce said last year that only 1.5% of all smartphones sold can fold. Counterpoint, another research firm tracking smartphone sales, said earlier this year that the folding market only grew about 3% in 2024 and is expected to shrink in 2025.

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Scale AI not ‘winding down’ following Meta deal, interim CEO tells employees and customers

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Scale AI not 'winding down' following Meta deal, interim CEO tells employees and customers

FILE PHOTO: Jason Droege speaks at the WSJTECH live conference in Laguna Beach, California, U.S. October 22, 2019.

Mike Blake | Reuters

Scale AI’s Interim CEO Jason Droege said in a memo on Wednesday that the artificial intelligence startup is not changing course following Meta’s multibillion-dollar investment in the company last week.

“Unlike some other recent tech deals you might have heard about in the AI space, this is not a pivot or a winding down,” Droege wrote in a post directed at customers, employees and investors.

Meta has a 49% stake in Scale after its $14.3 billion investment, though the social media company will not have any voting power. Scale AI’s founder Alexandr Wang, along with a small number of other Scale employees, will join Meta as part of the agreement.

“Scale remains, unequivocally, an independent company,” Droege wrote. “This deal rewards many of the people who helped build Scale into what it is today, but more importantly to me, it’s also a validation of the course we’re on.”

Scale AI appointed Droege, the company’s chief strategy officer, to serve as its interim chief executive following the deal. Droege wrote that Scale AI is still “a well-resourced company” that has “multiple promising lines of business.”

Founded in 2016, Scale AI rose to prominence by helping major tech companies like OpenAI, Google and Microsoft prepare data they use to train cutting-edge AI models. Meta has been one of Scale AI’s biggest customers.

Droege said the company is “not slowing down” and remains committed to its data and application business units. Scale will also continue to be model agnostic, he added.

“The need for high-quality data for AI models remains significant, and with the largest network of experts training AI, we are set up well to help model builders keep pushing the frontier of what’s possible,” Droege wrote.

But some of Scale AI’s tech customers may be having doubts.

OpenAI confirmed to CNBC on Wednesday that it has been wrapping up its work with Scale AI over the past six to 12 months. The company said it’s looking to work with other data providers that have kept pace with innovation, and that its decision to wind down its work with Scale wasn’t influenced by the Meta partnership.

Google is also reportedly cutting ties with Scale following the company’s deal with Meta, according to a report from Reuters. Google declined to comment.

WATCH: Scale AI CEO departs for Meta in Zuckerberg’s latest AI gambit

Scale AI CEO departs for Meta in Zuckerberg’s latest AI gambit

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