Microsoft takes $3.1 billion hit from OpenAI investment
Microsoft Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella (L), speaks with OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman, who joined by video during the Microsoft Build 2025, conference in Seattle, Washington on May 19, 2025.
Jason Redmond | AFP | Getty Images
Microsoft took a $3.1 billion hit to its net income in the first quarter due to the software company’s hefty investment in OpenAI.
In its earnings report on Wednesday, Microsoft said the drop in profit reflected an “equity method investment,” resulting in a 41-cent decline in earnings per share. Net income still rose to $27.7 billion, or $3.72 per share, from $24.67 billion, or $3.30 per share, a year ago.
Since first backing OpenAI in 2019, Microsoft has committed to invest $13 billion in the company, with $11.6 billion already funded as of the end of September, according to a filing.
The announcement comes a day after OpenAI announced that it completed a recapitalization, cementing its structure as a nonprofit with a controlling stake in its for-profit business. The nonprofit, now called the OpenAI Foundation, holds an equity stake worth about $130 billion in its for-profit arm.
Under the new structure, the OpenAI Foundation will hold a 26% stake in the for-profit, with 47% held by current and former employees and investors.
Microsoft now holds an investment in the public benefit corporation that’s valued at $135 billion, or roughly 27% of the company on an as-converted diluted basis.
Microsoft said that under the agreement, “OpenAI has contracted to purchase an incremental $250 billion of Azure services,” and that Microsoft will no longer have the right of first refusal as a compute provider.
On Wednesday’s earnings call, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella called the relationship “one of the most successful partnerships and investments our industry has even seen,” adding that “we continue to benefit mutually from each other’s growth across multiple dimensions.”
While Microsoft and OpenAI have been partners for over half a decade, long preceding the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, the companies are increasingly competing in various parts of the AI market.
Over a year ago, Microsoft added OpenAI to the list of competitors in the company’s latest annual report, a roster that has included megacap peers Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta.
In that filing, Microsoft identified OpenAI, the creator of the ChatGPT chatbot, as a competitor in AI offerings and in search and news advertising. Just ahead of that disclosure, OpenAI announced a prototype of a search engine called SearchGPT.
Microsoft has largely relied on OpenAI’s models to power AI features in its key products. But in August, Microsoft said that it had begun publicly testing a homegrown AI model that could lead to enhancements to its Copilot assistant for consumers.
Microsoft reported better-than-expected earnings and profit on Wednesday. Its big growth driver remains the Azure cloud, which saw 40% revenue expansion, topping estimates.
Cheng Xin | Getty Images
Okta on Tuesday topped Wall Street’s third-quarter estimates and issued an upbeat outlook, but shares fell as the company did not provide guidance for fiscal 2027.
Shares of the identity management provider fell more than 3% in after-hours trading on Tuesday.
Here’s how the company did versus LSEG estimates:
- Earnings per share: 82 cents adjusted vs. 76 cents expected
- Revenue: $742 million vs. $730 million expected
Compared to previous third-quarter reports, Okta refrained from offering preliminary guidance for the upcoming fiscal year. Finance chief Brett Tighe cited seasonality in the fourth quarter, and said providing guidance would require “some conservatism.”
Okta released a capability that allows businesses to build AI agents and automate tasks during the third quarter.
CEO Todd McKinnon told CNBC that upside from AI agents haven’t been fully baked into results and could exceed Okta’s core total addressable market over the next five years.
“It’s not in the results yet, but we’re investing, and we’re capitalizing on the opportunity like it will be a big part of the future,” he said in a Tuesday interview.
Revenues increased almost 12% from $665 million in the year-ago period. Net income increased 169% to $43 million, or 24 cents per share, from $16 million, or breakeven, a year ago. Subscription revenues grew 11% to $724 million, ahead of a $715 million estimate.
For the current quarter, the cybersecurity company expects revenues between $748 million and $750 million and adjusted earnings of 84 cents to 85 cents per share. Analysts forecast $738 million in revenues and EPS of 84 cents for the fourth quarter.
Returning performance obligations, or the company’s subscription backlog, rose 17% from a year ago to $4.29 billion and surpassed a $4.17 billion estimate from StreetAccount.
This year has been a blockbuster period for cybersecurity companies, with major acquisition deals from the likes of Palo Alto Networks and Google and a raft of new initial public offerings from the sector.
Okta shares have gained about 4% this year.
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Marvell Technology Group Ltd. headquarters in Santa Clara, California, on Sept. 6, 2024.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Semiconductor company Marvell on Tuesday announced that it will acquire Celestial AI for at least $3.25 billion in cash and stock.
The purchase price could increase to $5.5 billion if Celestial hits revenue milestones, Marvell said.
Marvell shares rose 13% in extended trading Tuesday as the company reported third-quarter earnings that beat expectations and said on the earnings call that it expected data center revenue to rise 25% next year.
The deal is an aggressive move for Marvell to acquire complimentary technology to its semiconductor networking business. The addition of Celestial could enable Marvell to sell more chips and parts to companies that are currently committing to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on infrastructure for AI.
Marvell stock is down 18% so far in 2025 even as semiconductor rivals like Broadcom have seen big valuation increases driven by excitement around artificial intelligence.
Celestial is a startup focused on developing optical interconnect hardware, which it calls a “photonic fabric,” to connect high-performance computers. Celestial was reportedly valued at $2.5 billion in March in a funding round, and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan joined the startup’s board in January.
Optical connections are becoming increasingly important because the most advanced AI systems need those parts tie together dozens or hundreds of chips so they can work as one to train and run the biggest large-language models.
Currently, many AI chip connections are done using copper wires, but newer systems are increasingly using optical connections because they can transfer more data faster and enable physically longer cables. Optical connections also cost more.
“This builds on our technology leadership, broadens our addressable market in scale-up connectivity, and accelerates our roadmap to deliver the industry’s most complete connectivity platform for AI and cloud customers,” Marvell CEO Matt Murphy said in a statement.
Marvell said that the first application of Celestial technology would be to connect a system based on “large XPUs,” which are custom AI chips usually made by the companies investing billions in AI infrastructure.
On Tuesday, the company said that it could even integrate Celestial’s optical technology into custom chips, and based on customer traction, the startup’s technology would soon be integrated into custom AI chips and related parts called switches.
Amazon Web Services Vice President Dave Brown said in a statement that Marvell’s acquisition of Celestial will “help further accelerate optical scale-up innovation for next-generation AI deployments.”
The maximum payout for the deal will be triggered if Celestial can record $2 billion in cumulative revenue by the end of fiscal 2029. The deal is expected to close early next year.
In its third-quarter earnings on Tuesday, Marvell earnings of 76 cents per share on $2.08 billion in sales, versus LSEG expectations of 73 cents on $2.07 billion in sales. Marvell said that it expects fourth-quarter revenue to be $2.2 billion, slightly higher than LSEG’s forecast of $2.18 billion.
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