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Christopher Young, executive vice president of business development at Microsoft Corp., speaks during the GeekWire Summit in Seattle, Washington, U.S., on Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021. The GeekWire Summit brings together business, tech and community leaders for discussions about the future.

David Ryder | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Microsoft‘s head of business development Chris Young, who helped orchestrate the software giant’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, is resigning from his post after about four years on the job, the company said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday. No successor was named.

Young joined Microsoft in 2020 after almost three years as CEO of McAfee, where he ran the effort to separate the company from Intel. Previously, he held executive positions at Cisco and RSA.

At Microsoft, Young sat on the company’s senior leadership team alongside CEO Satya Nadella and finance chief Amy Hood. He reported to Nadella. As one of the highest paid Microsoft employees, Young received $12 million in total compensation in the 2024 fiscal year, according to a filing.

Young’s organization included the M12 corporate venture capital unit, which has invested in startups like Innovaccer, Outreach, PsiQuantum, Skedulo and Typeface. In 2023, M12 said that going forward, it would work more closely with Microsoft to better assist portfolio companies.

Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of video game publisher Activision, its largest deal ever, closed in 2023. Young also played a role in Microsoft’s expansion of its partnership with artificial intelligence startup OpenAI and its ad deal with Netflix.

Young, one of the most prominent Black executives at Microsoft, “provided thought leadership on the importance of diversity and inclusion in the technology industry,” the company said in a 2023 filing.

While Microsoft hasn’t made any recent comments about its diversity, equity and inclusion programs, there has been a broader industry rollback since President Donald Trump’s reelection in November. Amazon said it’s halting some of its DEI programs, and Meta’s are being canceled.

In December, Microsoft’s chief diversity officer said the company’s work in the area was “more important than ever.”

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Broadcom earnings primer: AI chip demand and growth are key

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Broadcom earnings primer: AI chip demand and growth are key

Broadcom CEO Hock Tan.

Lucas Jackson | Reuters

Broadcom is scheduled to report earnings for its fiscal third quarter after the close of regular trading on Thursday.

Here’s what analysts are expecting, according to a consensus from LSEG.

  • Earnings per share: $1.65
  • Revenue: $15.83 billion

Broadcom, which develops custom chips for Google and other huge cloud companies and also makes networking gear needed to tie thousands of artificial intelligence chips together, is expected to report revenue growth of 21% from $13.07 billion a year ago.

Analysts project revenue growth will hold steady the rest of this year and accelerate a bit in 2026.

Broadcom has been one of the chief beneficiaries of the AI boom thanks largely to its accelerator chips, which the company calls XPUs. The processors are generally simpler and less expensive to operate than Nvidia’s graphics processing units, or GPUs, and they’re designed to run specific AI programs efficiently.

Analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald wrote in a report last week that they expect to see increased signs of demand from Google and Meta.

“Additionally, all eyes will turn towards any visibility of current AI Custom Silicon engagements converting into customers with high-volume ramps in sight,” wrote the analysts, who recommend buying the stock.

The analysts estimate that custom silicon could generate $25 billion to $30 billion in revenue for Broadcom next year and more than $40 billion by around 2027. The company generated total revenue of $51.6 billion in the latest fiscal year.

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Shares of Broadcom are up 30% this year and have almost doubled in the past 12 months, lifting the company’s market cap to $1.4 trillion.

In the fiscal second quarter, AI revenue jumped 46% from a year earlier to more than $4.4 billion, with 40% from networking. CEO Hock Tan said that number should reach $5.1 billion in the third quarter, “as our hyperscale partners continue to invest.”

Some of Broadcom’s expansion has been fueled by acquisitions, most notably the purchase of server virtualization software vendor VMware for $61 billion in 2023. VMware is key to Broadcom’s infrastructure software business, which accounted for 44% of sales in the most recent quarter.

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Salesforce slump deepens as stock drops 7% on disappointing guidance

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Salesforce slump deepens as stock drops 7% on disappointing guidance

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff attends the 55th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 23, 2025.

Halil Sagirkaya | Anadolu | Getty Images

A bad year just got worse for Salesforce.

Following a disappointing revenue forecast in its quarterly earnings report late Wednesday, Salesforce’s stock slumped 8%, bringing its decline for 2025 to 28%. That’s the worst performance in large-cap tech.

Revenue increased 10% in the fiscal second quarter from a year earlier, cracking double-digit growth for the first time since early 2024. Sales of $10.24 billion topped the average analyst estimate of $10.14 billion, and earnings per share also exceeded expectations.

However, for the fiscal third quarter, Salesforce said revenue will be $10.24 billion to $10.29 billion, while analysts were expecting $10.29 billion, according to LSEG.

Salesforce regularly touts its investments in artificial intelligence and the advancements in its software as a service, or SaaS, but the company hasn’t been lifted by the AI boom in the same way as many of its tech peers — particularly those focused on infrastructure.

There’s also a concern on Wall Street that AI is going to eat away at much of the software sector.

“While the investor community oozes angst over the future of SaaS, the here and now from Salesforce, while impressive at scale, is not enough to reshape the narrative,” wrote analysts at KeyBanc Capital Markets, in a report on Wednesday. The analysts have a buy rating on the stock.

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Salesforce is dealing with challenges selling marketing and commerce products, Robin Washington, the company’s president and chief operating and financial officer, said on a conference call with analysts.

In its earnings release, Salesforce said it closed over 12,500 total deals for Agentforce, which can automate the handling of customer service questions. That includes 6,000 paid deals. The company said that over 40% of bookings for Agentforce and its data cloud came from existing customers.

CEO Marc Benioff maintained his optimistic tone, downplaying concerns about the AI threat to software and telling analysts on the earnings call that “we are seeing one of the greatest transformations” in the space.

“To hear some of this nonsense that’s out there in social media or in other places, and people say the craziest things, but it’s not grounded in any customer truth,” Benioff said.

Salesforce kept its full-year revenue outlook but now sees higher earnings. The company is targeting $11.33 to $11.37 in adjusted earnings per share on $41.1 billion to $41.3 billion in revenue.

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Figma’s stock slumps 18% after first earnings report to lowest since IPO

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Figma's stock slumps 18% after first earnings report to lowest since IPO

Figma shares continue to plunge on debut earnings call

Figma shares plummeted nearly 20% on Thursday, falling to the lowest price since the design software vendor’s IPO in July after the company reported earnings for the first time as a public company.

Results for the second quarter were largely inline with expectations, as Figma had issued preliminary results a little over a month ago. Revenue increased 41% from a year earlier to $249.6 million, slightly topping analyst estimates of $248.8 million, according to LSEG.

Analysts at Piper Sandler described the report as “largely a non-event,” but noted that the “shares have witnessed hyper-volatility” following their 250% surge in the trading debut.

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Since closing at $115.50 on its first day, the stock has lost more than half its value, lowering the company’s market cap to about $27 billion.

For the third quarter, Figma forecasted revenue of between $263 million and $265 million, which would represent about 33% growth at the middle of the range. The LSEG consensus was $256.8 million.

Figma’s IPO was significant for Silicon Valley and the tech sector broadly as it represented one of the highest-profile offerings in years and signaled Wall Street’s growing appetite for growth. The market had been in a multiyear lull that began in early 2022, when inflation was soaring and interest rates were on the rise.

Figma reported a 129% net retention rate, a reflection of expansion with existing customers. The figure was down from 132% in the first quarter.

— CNBC’s Jordan Novet contributed to this report.

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