Technology

Super Micro shares pop after earnings beat, rosy revenue forecast

Published

2 years ago

January 30, 2024

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Super Micro CEO Charles Liang.

Source: Supermicro

Shares of Super Micro Computer popped more than 5% on Tuesday, a day after the company handily exceeded estimates and raised its full-year revenue outlook in its fiscal second-quarter earnings report.

Super Micro said revenue for the quarter came in at $3.66 billion, up from the $3.06 billion expected by analysts, according to LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv. The company reported adjusted EPS of $5.59, well above the $4.93 analysts were anticipating and even surpassing Super Micro’s own guidance from earlier in January.

The company issued preliminary financial results Jan. 18 that suggested adjusted earnings would be between $5.40 and $5.55 per share.

For the full fiscal year, Super Micro raised its revenue guidance to a range of $14.3 billion to $14.7 billion from its range of $10 billion to $11 billion. The company is expecting net sales of $3.7 billion to $4.1 billion in its fiscal third quarter.

Super Micro reported a net income of $296 million in its second quarter, up from $176 million in the same quarter in 2023.

Super Micro makes computers that companies use as servers for websites, data storage and other applications, including artificial intelligence algorithms. The company’s customers include major players in AI, including Nvidia, AMD and Intel.

CEO Charles Liang told CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Monday that he believes the revolution in AI technology will have a bigger impact than the Industrial Revolution. He said the technology will have both visible and invisible applications, improving things such as autonomous driving, industry automation, education and health-care systems.

Shares of Super Micro are already up more than 74% year to date, following a 246% jump in 2023 and an 87% pop in 2022.

Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that Charles Liang is the CEO of Super Micro Computer. A previous version misspelled Liang’s name.

Watch: Super Micro Computer CEO Charles Liang goes one-on-one with Jim Cramer

Technology

Figure AI sued by whistleblower who warned that startup’s robots could ‘fracture a human skull’

Published

2 hours ago

November 21, 2025

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$Figure AI sued by whistleblower who warned that startup's robots could 'fracture a human skull'$

Startup Figure AI is developing general-purpose humanoid robots.

Figure AI

Figure AI, an Nvidia-backed developer of humanoid robots, was sued by the startup’s former head of product safety who alleged that he was wrongfully terminated after warning top executives that the company’s robots “were powerful enough to fracture a human skull.”

Robert Gruendel, a principal robotic safety engineer, is the plaintiff in the suit filed Friday in a federal court in the Northern District of California. Gruendel’s attorneys describe their client as a whistleblower who was fired in September, days after lodging his “most direct and documented safety complaints.”

The suit lands two months after Figure was valued at $39 billion in a funding round led by Parkway Venture Capital. That’s a 15-fold increase in valuation from early 2024, when the company raised a round from investors including Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and Microsoft.

In the complaint, Gruendel’s lawyers say the plaintiff warned Figure CEO Brett Adcock and Kyle Edelberg, chief engineer, about the robot’s lethal capabilities, and said one “had already carved a ¼-inch gash into a steel refrigerator door during a malfunction.”

The complaint also says Gruendel warned company leaders not to “downgrade” a “safety road map” that he had been asked to present to two prospective investors who ended up funding the company.

Gruendel worried that a “product safety plan which contributed to their decision to invest” had been “gutted” the same month Figure closed the investment round, a move that “could be interpreted as fraudulent,” the suit says.

The plaintiff’s concerns were “treated as obstacles, not obligations,” and the company cited a “vague ‘change in business direction’ as the pretext” for his termination, according to the suit.

Gruendel is seeking economic, compensatory and punitive damages and demanding a jury trial.

Figure didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Nor did attorneys for Gruendel.

The humanoid robot market remains nascent today, with companies like Tesla and Boston Dynamics pursuing futuristic offerings, alongside Figure, while China’s Unitree Robotics is preparing for an IPO. Morgan Stanley said in a report in May that adoption is “likely to accelerate in the 2030s” and could top $5 trillion by 2050.

Read the filing here: