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Headphones are seen in front of the Discord app logo in this illustration taken March 29, 2021.

Dado Ruvic | Reuters

Discord co-founder and CEO Jason Citron is stepping down from the gaming-focused social messaging service, the startup said Wednesday.

Citron will be replaced by former Activision Blizzard Vice Chairman Humam Sakhnini, who will assume the reigns as Discord CEO and join the company’s board on Monday. Citron will remain on Discord’s board and become an advisor to the CEO, the company said.

In a public memo to employees, Citron said “it feels like the right time” to move on from the executive role and that the company has a “clear strategy, new business lines to grow into, love and passion from our users, and an incredible team of people working tirelessly to deliver for them.”

“The job of a CEO is constantly evolving, and over the years I have continuously ‘hired myself out of a job,'” Citron wrote. “Usually that means delegating work and then taking on different leadership challenges. However, as I look at what is needed of Discord’s CEO over the next few years, I realize that it’s time for me to literally ‘hire myself out of a job.'”

Citron credited Sakhnini’s 15-year experience in the video game industry as helping steer the startup he co-founded alongside Chief Technology Officer Stanislav Vishnevskiy in 2012, when it was initially a gaming studio before its 2015 pivot to online communications.

At Activision Blizzard, Sakhnini helped oversee major gaming franchises such as World of Warcraft, Call of Duty and Candy Crush, the company said. Vishnevskiy will remain Discord’s CTO.

Discord’s executive change comes amid media reports that it met with investment bankers to discuss a possible initial product offering as soon as this year. A Discord spokesperson told CNBC in a statement that it does “not comment on rumors or speculation” and that it is focused on “delivering the best possible experience for our users and building a strong, sustainable business.”

A member of CNBC’s Disruptor 50 list, Discord has roughly 200 million global monthly active users who access its “servers” to discuss shared interests using text, voice or video. Discord has raised a total of $1.1 billion and is valued at around $14.7 billion, according to PitchBook.

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SK Hynix quarterly profit soars 158% to top estimates as chip demand surges on AI boom

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SK Hynix quarterly profit soars 158% to top estimates as chip demand surges on AI boom

Illustration of the SK Hynix company logo seen displayed on a smartphone screen.

Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

South Korea’s SK Hynix on Thursday topped quarterly revenue and operating profit estimates, with demand for its high bandwidth memory offerings used in generative artificial intelligence chipsets remaining robust.

Here are SK Hynix’s first-quarter results versus LSEG SmartEstimates:

  • Revenue: 17.64 trillion won ($12.36 billion) vs. 17.26 trillion won
  • Operating profit: 7.44 trillion won vs. 6.62 trillion won

Revenue rose about 42% in the March quarter compared with the same period a year earlier, while operating profit surged 158%, year on year.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, revenue dropped 11%, while operating profit fell 8% from a record high in the December quarter.

The company warned that macroeconomic uncertainties including tariff policy have created demand volatility that will impact the second half of the year.

SK Hynix is a leading supplier of dynamic random access memory — a type of semiconductor memory found in PCs, workstations and servers that is used to store data and program code.

In its earnings release, SK Hynix said that its first-quarter profits demonstrated AI’s impact in the memory market as well as company’s leading position.

The memory chipmaker expects Big Tech’s spending on AI to continue, with the ecosystem’s expansion to be driven by open-source AI model offerings, and “sovereign AI projects” that will stoke memory demand.

SK Hynix has benefitted from a boom in artificial intelligence servers as a key supplier of high bandwidth memory, or HBM — a type of DRAM used in artificial intelligence servers — to clients such as the U.S. AI darling Nvidia. Micron Technology and Samsung Electronics are the other players in the space.

A report from Counterpoint Research earlier this month said that SK Hynix had captured 70% of the HBM market by revenue share in the first quarter.

This HBM dominance helped it overtake Samsung in the overall DRAM market for the first time ever, with a 36% global market share as compared to Samsung’s 34%, the report added.

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Trump meme coin surges 50% after top holders offered dinner with the president

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Trump meme coin surges 50% after top holders offered dinner with the president

A cartoon image of US President-elect Donald Trump with cryptocurrency tokens, depicted in front of the White House to mark his inauguration, displayed at a Coinhero store in Hong Kong, China, on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. 

Paul Yeung | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The $TRUMP meme coin jumped more than 50% on Wednesday after the top 220 holders of the token were promised dinner with the president.

“Have Dinner in Washington, D.C. With President Trump,” reads a message on the front page of the Trump coin’s website. The dinner — black tie optional — is scheduled for May 22, with a reception for the top 25 wallets. A “VIP White House Tour” will take place the following day, the site says.

The price spike gives the $TRUMP coins in circulation a total value of $2.7 billion. It had by far the biggest move of any cryptocurrency, outpacing Sui, which is up 23%, according to CoinMarketCap.

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The Trump coin debuted in January, just ahead of the inauguration, offering an early indication of the president’s willingness to embrace crypto and the wealth creation it offers him and his family. The project’s market cap soared to $15 billion almost instantly, fueled by Trump’s posts on Truth Social and X declaring, “It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING!” Within days it had lost most of its value.

First Lady Melania Trump launched her own coin — $MELANIA — as well. It briefly topped $2 billion in market value before crashing alongside $TRUMP.

Shortly after the launch of the $TRUMP and $MELANIA coins, the SEC issued guidance stating that meme tokens don’t qualify as securities, effectively shielding the projects from immediate regulatory scrutiny.

So far, just 20% of $TRUMP’s supply has been available to trade. The remaining 80% — held by insiders — remains locked under a three-year vesting schedule. The first tranche is scheduled to unlock soon, freeing up millions of dollars worth of tokens for sale and potentially allowing President Trump and project insiders to cash in on Wednesday’s pop.

As with most meme coins, there is no underlying product or service. The project’s website claims that 80% of the token supply is held by the Trump Organization and affiliated entities.

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IBM beats on earnings and revenue, maintains full-year guidance

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IBM beats on earnings and revenue, maintains full-year guidance

IBM CEO Arvind Krishna speaks at the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas, on March 11, 2025.

Andy Wenstrand | Sxsw Conference & Festivals | Getty Images

IBM reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue for the first quarter on Wednesday.

Here’s how the company performed:

  • Earnings per share: $1.60 adjusted vs. $1.40 expected
  • Revenue: $14.54 billion vs. $14.4 billion expected

Revenue increased 0.6% in the quarter from $14.5 billion a year earlier, according to a statement. Net income slid to $1.06 billion, or $1.12 per share, from $1.61 billion, or $1.72 per share, in the same quarter a year ago.

For 2025, IBM reiterated its expectation for $13.5 billion in free cash flow and 5% revenue growth at constant currency. At current exchange rates, currency will provide 150 basis points of benefit for 2025 growth, down from the company’s forecast of 200 basis points in January.

Management called for $16.4 billion to $16.75 billion in second-quarter revenue. The middle of the range, $16.58 billion, is ahead of the LSEG consensus of $16.33 billion.

“We remain bullish on the long-term growth opportunities for technology and the global economy,” IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said in the statement. “While the macroeconomic environment is fluid, based on what we know today, we are maintaining our full-year expectations for revenue growth and free cash flow.”

In the first quarter, software revenue rose 7% to $6.34 billion, in line with the consensus among analysts polled by StreetAccount. The hybrid cloud software category that includes Red Hat grew 12%, compared with 16% in the fourth quarter.

IBM’s consulting unit contributed $5.07 billion in revenue, which was down 2% and slightly above StreetAccount’s $5.05 billion consensus.

The company’s infrastructure division, which includes mainframe computers, posted a 6% decline in revenue to $2.89 billion, higher than the $2.76 billion consensus. Earlier this month, IBM introduced its z17 mainframe. Infrastructure revenue growth generally picks up as customers adopt the next generation and then drifts down late in the cycle.

During the first quarter, IBM said it had settled its lawsuits with chip manufacturer GlobalFoundries. IBM also closed its $6.4 billion acquisition of cloud software maker HashiCorp and announced plans to buy data storage software startup DataStax for undisclosed terms.

IBM has been an outperformer this year as the broader market has sold off due largely to concerns around President Donald Trump’s tariffs and their potential impact on the economy. As of Wednesday’s close, IBM shares were up 11%, while the Nasdaq was down almost 14%.

The stock slipped 6% in extended trading.

No one is immune from fallout from President Trump’s tariffs on imported goods, the company’s finance chief, Jim Kavanaugh, said in an interview with CNBC’s Jon Fortt.

IBM’s customers are prioritizing efficient spending and the preservation of cash, Kavanaugh told the Wall Street Journal. The U.S. Department of Governmental Efficiency had delayed or nixed 15 federal contracts, he told Bloomberg.

Executives will discuss the results with analysts on a conference call starting at 5 p.m. ET.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

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