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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks at the Microsoft Build AI Day event in Bangkok, Thailand, on May 1, 2024.

Chalinee Thirasupa | Reuters

With about 10 minutes left until the market’s close, Microsoft’s stock was down for the week. It would’ve been the first eight-week losing streak since 2008.

But the shares popped just before the end of trading, pushing the stock up 0.7% for the week to close at $391.26. It’s still down 7% for the year.

The last time Microsoft had a weekly slump like its seen this year was between January and February 2008, when the country was in the midst of a financial crisis. Microsoft shares fell nine straight weeks.

Microsoft’s 2025 downdraft is notable as the company is viewed as central to the artificial intelligence boom. It has a hefty stake in OpenAI, is investing heavily in its Azure cloud infrastructure and has many products that are incorporating generative AI technologies.

Along with its megacap peers, Microsoft has seen a recent pullback on concerns that President Donald Trump’s tariffs and massive cost cuts will hurt the economy, possibly leading to a recession.

Since reaching a closing high of $467.56 in July 2024, Microsoft is down about 16%, pushing its market cap to $2.9 trillion. The company issued disappointing revenue guidance on Jan. 30.

Within cloud and AI, competition is heating up across the board from rivals like Amazon and Google as well as from emerging startups. Earlier this week, Google announced its intent to acquire cloud security startup Wiz for $32 billion.

WATCH: Trump’s FTC moves ahead with broad Microsoft antitrust probe, reports say

Trump's FTC moves ahead with broad Microsoft antitrust probe, reports say

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Crypto super PACs pump cash into Florida as GOP faces risk of thinning House majority

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Crypto super PACs pump cash into Florida as GOP faces risk of thinning House majority

Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis delivers remarks before Gov. Ron DeSantis took to the stage during his Don’t Tread on Florida Tour in Sarasota on Nov. 6, ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm election, 2022.

Tiffany Tompkins | Bradenton Herald | Tribune News Service | Getty Images

Fresh off its victories in the 2024 election cycle, the crypto industry is going big in Florida.

Affiliates of the Fairshake super PAC, a fundraising group that helped elect pro-crypto candidates up and down the ticket, is trying to boost Republican candidates in two Florida races, which could determine whether Republicans hold their thin House of Representatives majority.

The vacancies emerged after sitting Republican members left to join President Donald Trump’s second administration. One of them, former Congressman Matt Gaetz, withdrew his nomination for attorney general as he faced a number of legal controversies. The other, Michael Waltz, stepped down to become Trump’s national security adviser.

Fairshake is backing State Sen. Randy Fine with $1.16 million in ad spending, and investing another $345,000 to support Jimmy Patronis, Florida’s chief financial officer. Both have expressed support for digital assets.

Orlando school teacher Josh Weil is the Democratic nominee going up against Fine for the seat previously held by Waltz. Democrat Gay Valimont, a gun violence prevention activist in Pensacola,  is looking to take over Gaetz’s seat.

Early voting in Florida begins this weekend. Democrats are aiming to flip both seats in races that have brought in more than $16 million combined, with the vast majority of the cash going towards backing the challengers. The districts have historically leaned red, but Democrats see an opportunity to compete due to the market and economic volatility that have headlined President Trump’s first two months in office.

Fairhsake, which aims to shape Congress in a way that supports favorable crypto regulation, is backed by crypto companies including Coinbase and Ripple as well as venture firm Andreessen Horowitz. It emerged as a major political force in the 2024 House and Senate races, outraising sectors like oil and banking. Fairshake and its affiliates brought in around $170 million in the 2024 cycle, and have $116 million in cash on hand.

The House is currently operating four members short due to recent Democratic vacancies in Texas and Arizona. A sweep by Democrats in those races and the Florida contests could leave Republicans with just a one-seat majority.

WATCH: CNBC’s full interview with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong

Watch CNBC's full interview with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong following White House Digital Assets Summit

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StubHub files for IPO as companies start lining up to go public

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StubHub files for IPO as companies start lining up to go public

The StubHub logo is seen in a former store in New York City on April 18, 2024.

Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

StubHub, an online marketplace for reselling tickets, on Friday filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “STUB.”

In its prospectus for an initial public offering, the company said it had a net loss of $2.8 million on revenue of $1.77 billion for 2024, compared with a $405 million profit on $1.37 billion in revenue for 2023.

StubHub has been a longtime player in the ticketing industry since its launch in 2000. It was purchased by eBay for $310 million in 2007, but reacquired by its co-founder Eric Baker in 2020 for $4 billion through his new company Viagogo.

More than 40 million tickets were sold on StubHub’s marketplace last year from roughly 1 million sellers, the company said in its prospectus.

StubHub had eyed an IPO last year, but it shelved its plans due to stagnant market conditions, CNBC previously reported.

Online ticketing rival SeatGeek was evaluating a potential IPO last year, according to media reports. Bloomberg reported in June that Citigroup and Wells Fargo joined son the company’s planned listing. Other StubHub competitors include Vivid Seats, which was taken public via a special purpose acquisition company in 2021, and Live Nation.

After an extended IPO lull dating back to early 2022, the market is showing clear signs of thawing. Artificial intelligence infrastructure provider CoreWeave is expected to debut next week. Klarna, a provider of buy now, pay later loans filed its IPO prospectus last Friday. Earlier in March, Hinge Health, a provider of digital physical therapy services, filed with the SEC.

Cloud software vendor ServiceTitan hit the market in December, marking the first significant venture-backed tech IPO since Rubrik’s debut in April. A month before that, Reddit started trading on the NYSE.

There haven’t been many other tech IPOs of note in the U.S. since late 2021, when rising interest rates and soaring inflation pushed investors out of risky assets.

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Elon Musk tells Tesla employees ‘hang onto your stock,’ urges vandals to ‘stop being psycho’

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Elon Musk tells Tesla employees 'hang onto your stock,' urges vandals to 'stop being psycho'

Tesla CEO Elon Musk watches as President Donald Trump talks to the media, outside the White House in Washington, D.C., March 11, 2025.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

During Elon Musk’s two months in Washington, D.C., Tesla shares have been on a precipitous decline, losing over 40% of their value.

Protests and campaigns against Tesla, Musk and his work in the Trump White House have erupted around the world. Criminal acts of vandalism and arson have also targeted some Tesla electric vehicles, showrooms and charging stations in a string of incidents in the U.S. and across Europe.

At an all-hands meeting with Tesla employees on Thursday evening, Musk addressed some of those issues, while trying to reassure employees that they were still in good hands, and to “hang onto your stock.” The shares rose 4% on Friday.

“It’s very difficult like for people in the stock market, especially those that look in the rearview mirror — which is most people — to imagine a future where suddenly a 10 million vehicle fleet has five to ten times the usefulness,” Musk said, touting his vision for autonomous vehicles that he’s long promised. “It’s so profound and there’s no comparison with anything in the past that it does not compute. But it will compute in the future.”

In recent months, Tesla’s new vehicle sales have fallen in Europe and in parts of the U.S. and China. The company is facing trade uncertainty after multiple executive orders from President Trump imposed new tariffs on goods and materials from Canada, Mexico and China, home to crucial Tesla suppliers. National car shopping site Edmunds said this week that Tesla owners are trading in their electric vehicles at record levels.

“If you read the news it feels like, you know, Armageddon,” Musk said on the livestream on Thursday. “It’s like, I can’t walk past the TV without seeing a Tesla on fire. Like what’s going on? Some people, it’s like listen, I understand if you don’t wanna buy our product, but you don’t have to burn it down. That’s a bit unreasonable.”

He followed up saying, “This is psycho, stop being psycho!”

Employees laughed with him.

Elon Musk talks up Tesla's future at employee all-hands meeting

Musk spent much of the meeting hyping Tesla’s technology, or the prospects of it.

“What’s the most exciting future that you could possibly imagine?” he asked rhetorically. He answered that it’s “a future of abundance for all,” where robotaxis, artificial intelligence and robots now in development at Tesla will bring about a future “where you could literally just have anything you want.”

Musk celebrated the best-seller status of the Tesla Model Y, and said the electric SUV would be the “best-selling car on Earth again this year” and “available worldwide.” He boasted that the Cybertruck, Tesla’s angular steel pickup truck, had become the top-selling fully electric pickup. Despite a massive Cybertruck recall announced earlier on Thursday, Musk also lauded the vehicle because it had attained a 5-star rating for crash safety.

He thanked Tesla employees for the refreshed version of the Model Y, saying the company’s supply chains on three continents proved a challenge in getting the car to market.

Musk boasted about the forthcoming Cybercab, a two-seater with no steering wheel or brakes, and EVs that will be upgraded to have robotaxi capabilities with a software update. It’s a promise he’s been making for years. In 2016, Musk told Tesla owners that their cars would be able to make a driverless cross-country trip by the end of 2018.

On Tesla’s last earnings call, Musk said a driverless ride-hail service is coming to Austin, Texas in June, using existing Tesla vehicles and a version of the company’s FSD or “Full Self-Driving” software, which currently requires a driver at the wheel ready to steer or brake at any time.

Musk said on Thursday that the Cybercab will be produced in Austin, as will the company’s humanoid robot, dubbed the Optimus. The Optimus is now being assembled at the company’s Fremont, California factory, he said, and Tesla aims to produce about 5,000 units this year.

In both the robotaxi and humanoid robotics markets, Tesla faces stiff competition.

Alphabet’s Waymo is scaling its driverless ride-hailing offering in more U.S. markets, recently launching in Austin. And Chinese EV makers, including Zeekr, plan to make their equivalents to Tesla’s Autopilot and FSD available as standard options.

Meanwhile, a number of humanoid robotics developers, including Apptronik, Boston Dynamics and Unitree, are working to bring their models to market. Boston Dynamics, in partnership with RAI Institute, released a new video this week showing their electric Atlas humanoid robot walking, running, crawling, and doing gymnastics.

Still, Musk says Tesla’s Optimus is “the most sophisticated humanoid robot on Earth,” even though it’s now “learning to walk and catch balls” and in most of its major demonstrations has been operated by people.

Tesla employees will be first to get access to the robots, he said, adding that one day they’ll function like Star Wars characters R2-D2 and C-3PO.

“We will offer Optimus robots first to Tesla employees,” Musk said. “There are some pluses and minuses to that — probably have a few bugs. But it’s gonna be very cool.”

WATCH: Musk has neglected Tesla

Gerber Kawasaki CEO: Musk has neglected Tesla

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