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The Google logo is seen outside a building housing Google offices in Beijing on February 4, 2025. China on February 4 said it would probe US tech giant Google over violations of anti-monopoly laws after Washington slapped 10 percent levies on Chinese goods.

Greg Baker | Afp | Getty Images

Alphabet shares rose 6% in premarket trading on Wednesday as investors viewed the result of Google’s antitrust case as broadly favorable to the tech giant.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) had proposed a sort of break-up of Google, which included divesting its Chrome browser, in an antitrust case that began in September 2023.

While Google was last year found to hold an illegal monopoly in its core market of internet search, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled against the most severe consequences that were proposed by the DOJ.

Google will not have to divest Chrome. The company can also still make payments to companies to preload products, but it cannot have exclusive contracts that condition payments or licensing.

That means Google will still be able to pay Apple the billions of dollars it does to be the default search engine on iPhones. 

Apple shares were also higher in premarket trade.

Google antitrust case: What the ruling means for Alphabet and Apple

“This is a monster win for Cupertino and for Google its a home run ruling that removes a huge overhang on the stock,” Daniel Ives, global head of technology research at Wedbush Securities, said in a note on Tuesday.

Google has been facing rising competition to its core search business from the likes of Perplexity and OpenAI. But the company has so far fended off challenges with its advertising business still growing.

Google has pinned its hopes of becoming a major artificial intelligence player on Gemini, its suite of AI models and the chatbot that goes by the same name.

“Following today’s announcement, we are increasingly constructive in the longer-term durability of Google’s Search business and are raising our estimates accordingly,” Ives said, adding that he now has a new price target of $245 for Alphabet’s stock.

The ruling also means Google will not have to divest the Android operating system that it develops.

Android is seen as a key tool for Google to increase the number of users for Gemini given that around 70% of smartphones globally run the operating system, giving the U.S. technology giant an existing base of users.

CNBC’s Jennifer Elias contributed to this report.

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Waymo to begin testing at San Jose airport this fall

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Waymo to begin testing at San Jose airport this fall

Waymo partners with Uber to bring robotaxi service to Atlanta and Austin.

Uber Technologies Inc.

Alphabet’s Waymo unit will begin test-driving robotaxis at its first California-based airport, the company said Thursday.

The autonomous car unit has been cleared to begin testing driverless rides at the San José Mineta International Airport in San Jose, California, this fall. Waymo said it plans to offer paid rides at the airport later this year.

“With San José at the epicenter of the biggest sporting events of 2026, Waymo is an ideal mode of transportation that will help visitors move around the area smoothly and safely,” San José Mayor Matt Mahan said in a release.

The vehicles will pick up passengers at the Ground Transportation Centers in Terminal A or B and roll out to locations in Waymo’s San Francisco Bay Area service area, according to the release.

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Once fully operational, it will be the second international airport where the company has service.

In 2023, Waymo launched at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, which has become the most popular Waymo destination in its Phoenix metropolitan service area, a Waymo spokesperson said Thursday.

Waymo has continued to expand its driverless, ride-hailing service across the U.S. after already launching commercial operations in Austin, Texas, as well as Atlanta, San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles.

In March, Waymo expanded its service to include an additional 27 square miles of coverage around the San Francisco Bay Area, including Mountain View, Palo Alto and San Jose.

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Ex-Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor’s Sierra is the latest $10 billion AI startup

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Ex-Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor's Sierra is the latest  billion AI startup

Bret Taylor, chairman of the board of directors of OpenAI, attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.

David A. Grogan | CNBC

Bret Taylor’s artificial intelligence startup Sierra has just joined an exclusive club: The company sports a new $10 billion valuation after raising $350 million in fresh capital.

Sierra is one of just a handful of AI startups, including OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Safe Superintelligence and Thinking Machines that are valued at or above $10 billion.

Investors are pouring money into this competitive group of companies in the hopes that they’ll eventually hit the public markets.

Taylor is the chairman of OpenAI’s board, and previously served as co-CEO of Salesforce alongside Marc Benioff. Taylor co-founded Sierra in 2023. The company builds and implements AI agents for customer service. AI agents can carry out tasks autonomously on behalf of their users.

Shares of Salesforce fell 5% Thursday after the company reported weak guidance and concerns lingered about how AI is affecting software companies.

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Sierra said its agents are already being used by “hundreds of millions of people” to help with tasks like refinancing homes, ordering lunch, delivering furniture, understanding insurance deductibles and fixing technology, among other things.

Greenoaks led Sierra’s latest funding round, the company said. Its valuation more than doubled from its most recent raise in October.

“We’re in this for the long term,” Sierra said in a blog post on Thursday.

The company said it will use its fresh funding to invest in its platform and focus on domestic and international expansion.

Sierra’s funding follows a flurry of other major AI raises in Silicon Valley. Earlier this week, Anthropic announced it had closed a $13 billion funding round at a $183 billion post-money valuation.

WATCH: Sierra co-founder Bret Taylor on AI agents’ role in an evolving global landscape

Sierra co-founder Bret Taylor on AI agents' role in an evolving global landscape

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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.

WATCH: Nvidia has best percentage of revenue from AI

Nvidia will be the ‘best beneficiary’ of AI spending, says Morgan Stanley’s Joseph Moore

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