Futures on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 advanced by as much as 0.7%, while those on the benchmark S&P 500 gained 0.4%. Contracts listed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 0.2%. For the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average, these are welcome gains after both indexes look to rebound from losses of over 1% each.

Among the major movers was cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which surged by 23% in premarket trading after it released a healthy outlook that indicated rising demand in the sector. Fellow cybersecurity stock Zscaler rose by almost 4%.

The post Tech Stocks Lift U.S. Futures Higher appeared first on theprimarymarket.com.

While daily active users of 414 million for the quarter actually beat estimates of 411.6 million users, full-year revenue remained stagnant at $4.6 billion, the same as the previous year. With the company focused on securing its growth in the new year, Snap announced that it would be retrenching 10% of its workforce or 528 employees.

Looking forward, Snap has forecast a revenue ranging between $1.1 billion and $1.14 billion for the first quarter of 2024, with analysts expecting around $1.1 billion. The company expects its daily active users to grow to 420 million.

The post Snap Shares Plummet 33% Following Disappointing Earnings appeared first on theprimarymarket.com.

The company’s net loss for the period was 70 million euros ($75.2 million), translating to a loss of 0.36 euros per share, failing to meet analysts’ expectations of a loss of 0.31 euros per share. Still, this is a marked improvement on the loss of 430 million euros, or 2.23 euros per share during the same period the previous year.

Total monthly active users of Spotify reached 602 million in the quarter, beating the company’s projection of 601 million users. This is also a 23% increase from the same period the previous year. With premium subscribers standing at over 224 million, the company expects this number to rise to 239 million during the first quarter of 2024.

The post Spotify Shares Jump Following Strong Earnings Report appeared first on theprimarymarket.com.

Having fluctuated between both sides of the flatline, Microsoft shares rose by 1% after the company’s second-quarter earnings beat expectations. Microsoft raked in earnings per share (EPS) of $2.93 on revenue of $62 billion, beating expectations of $2.78 EPS on revenue of $61.1 billion. The PC maker’s cloud business raked in $33.7 billion, beating Wall Street estimates of $33.2 billion in revenue.

Google’s parent company Alphabet slumped by 5% after the company reported fourth-quarter earnings that failed to meet expectations. While total revenue of $72 billion beat a projected $71 billion, investors appeared more focused on the company’s inability to meet ad revenue expectations of $65.8 billion, with Alphabet earning $65.5 billion. Chipmaker AMD was also down 2% after hours with its earnings falling largely in line with expectations. AMD reported revenue of approximately $5.4 billion.

The post Nasdaq Slips as Tech Earnings Roll In appeared first on theprimarymarket.com.

Operating income for the quarter was 2.8 trillion won ($2.1 billion)—24% short of estimates—while operating revenue fell to 67 trillion won. For the entirety of 2023, the company reported its slimmest operating profit over the past 15 years.

The tech giant’s declining profits come as the demand for smartphones and memory chips continues to remain sluggish, thereby dampening hopes of a market recovery for 2024. “This shows that the rebound is slower than we all thought,” Tom Kang, research director at Counterpoint Technology Market Research said of Samsung’s performance. “Prices are not rising that fast and the demand from certain sectors is not that strong.”

The post Samsung Suffers 35% Profit Decline Amid Weak Chip Market appeared first on theprimarymarket.com.

Falling 12.4%, Tencent stocks closed at HK$274; its lowest level since November 2022. The Hang Seng Index closed 1.7% lower this week following the major hit taken by gaming stocks. Brian Tycangco, an analyst at Stansberry Research, stated that the recent regulatory decision is highly threatening to Tencent and the industry at large.

“I’m confident we’ll get more clarity on these new rules in the coming days and weeks. But investors don’t want to wait around for the dust to settle. Better coordination between industry and regulators will benefit everyone in the future,” Tycangco observed.

The post Tencent Valuation Slumps By $43 Billion as China Proposes New Gaming Rules appeared first on theprimarymarket.com.

To date, OpenAI has raised $13 billion from Microsoft Corp. The company is also set to secure a tender offer in early January that would enable employees to sell their shares in the company at a combined value of $86 billion in a process led by Thrive Capital. Open AI has also held discussions with Abu Dhabi-based G42 to establish a new chip venture “to deliver cutting-edge AI solutions to the UAE and regional markets,” as explained during the announcement of the venture in October.

OpenAI’s increasing fundraising and business transactions come amid an AI frenzy, with Amazon.com Inc. and Google parent company Alphabet Inc. both investing billions into OpenAI-rival Anthropic. Salesforce has also entered into the AI race, investing $4.5 billion in Hugging Face.

The post OpenAI Looking to Raise Funding at Valuation of Over $100 Billion appeared first on theprimarymarket.com.

In response to Altman’s dismissal, several OpenAI employees threatened to resign from the company. While the board met their demand to allow the former CEO to return, they missed the 5 p.m. deadline set by the workers. Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president and former board chairman, resigned after Altman’s dismissal, as did several senior researchers, with reports emerging of further resignations in the works.

Following Altman’s dismissal, Microsoft, OpenAI’s largest investor, affirmed its commitment to the ChatGPT maker, however, investors were caught off guard by the decision given that no prior warning was given nor any opportunity to weigh in on the issue.

The post OpenAI in Discussions to Restore Sam Altman as CEO appeared first on theprimarymarket.com.

The company’s Intelligent Cloud segment was a particularly strong performer, generating $24.3 billion in revenue for the quarter. This beat analysts’ estimates of $23.6 billion. The revenue for Azure and other cloud services rose by 29%, outpacing estimates of a 27% growth.

“With copilots, we are making the age of AI real for people and businesses everywhere,” company CEO Satya Nadella announced in a statement. “We are rapidly infusing AI across every layer of the tech stack and for every role and business process to drive productivity gains for our customers.”

The post Microsoft Stocks Rise Following Q3 Earnings appeared first on theprimarymarket.com.

Masayoshi Son, founder and chief executive, is reportedly ready to invest tens of millions of dollars into AI according to two sources familiar with the matter. This could include entering into a strategic partnership with ChatGPT maker OpenAI, the Financial Times claimed on Saturday. Son, a frequent user of the ChatGPT AI-powered chatbot, has revealed that he speaks “almost every day” to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Aside from Open AI, SoftBank is exploring a range of options for entering into the AI realm, including the purchase of Graphcore, a UK-based AI chipmaker. This is the first time that the company is actively looking to expand after being in “defense mode” since May 2022 when tech valuations crashed as higher interest rates hit the global banking sector.

The post SoftBank Looking for More AI Deals Following Arm IPO appeared first on theprimarymarket.com.

Futures on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 advanced by as much as 0.7%, while those on the benchmark S&P 500 gained 0.4%. Contracts listed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 0.2%. For the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average, these are welcome gains after both indexes look to rebound from losses of over 1% each.

Among the major movers was cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which surged by 23% in premarket trading after it released a healthy outlook that indicated rising demand in the sector. Fellow cybersecurity stock Zscaler rose by almost 4%.

The post Tech Stocks Lift U.S. Futures Higher appeared first on theprimarymarket.com.

While daily active users of 414 million for the quarter actually beat estimates of 411.6 million users, full-year revenue remained stagnant at $4.6 billion, the same as the previous year. With the company focused on securing its growth in the new year, Snap announced that it would be retrenching 10% of its workforce or 528 employees.

Looking forward, Snap has forecast a revenue ranging between $1.1 billion and $1.14 billion for the first quarter of 2024, with analysts expecting around $1.1 billion. The company expects its daily active users to grow to 420 million.

The post Snap Shares Plummet 33% Following Disappointing Earnings appeared first on theprimarymarket.com.

The company’s net loss for the period was 70 million euros ($75.2 million), translating to a loss of 0.36 euros per share, failing to meet analysts’ expectations of a loss of 0.31 euros per share. Still, this is a marked improvement on the loss of 430 million euros, or 2.23 euros per share during the same period the previous year.

Total monthly active users of Spotify reached 602 million in the quarter, beating the company’s projection of 601 million users. This is also a 23% increase from the same period the previous year. With premium subscribers standing at over 224 million, the company expects this number to rise to 239 million during the first quarter of 2024.

The post Spotify Shares Jump Following Strong Earnings Report appeared first on theprimarymarket.com.

Having fluctuated between both sides of the flatline, Microsoft shares rose by 1% after the company’s second-quarter earnings beat expectations. Microsoft raked in earnings per share (EPS) of $2.93 on revenue of $62 billion, beating expectations of $2.78 EPS on revenue of $61.1 billion. The PC maker’s cloud business raked in $33.7 billion, beating Wall Street estimates of $33.2 billion in revenue.

Google’s parent company Alphabet slumped by 5% after the company reported fourth-quarter earnings that failed to meet expectations. While total revenue of $72 billion beat a projected $71 billion, investors appeared more focused on the company’s inability to meet ad revenue expectations of $65.8 billion, with Alphabet earning $65.5 billion. Chipmaker AMD was also down 2% after hours with its earnings falling largely in line with expectations. AMD reported revenue of approximately $5.4 billion.

The post Nasdaq Slips as Tech Earnings Roll In appeared first on theprimarymarket.com.

Operating income for the quarter was 2.8 trillion won ($2.1 billion)—24% short of estimates—while operating revenue fell to 67 trillion won. For the entirety of 2023, the company reported its slimmest operating profit over the past 15 years.

The tech giant’s declining profits come as the demand for smartphones and memory chips continues to remain sluggish, thereby dampening hopes of a market recovery for 2024. “This shows that the rebound is slower than we all thought,” Tom Kang, research director at Counterpoint Technology Market Research said of Samsung’s performance. “Prices are not rising that fast and the demand from certain sectors is not that strong.”

The post Samsung Suffers 35% Profit Decline Amid Weak Chip Market appeared first on theprimarymarket.com.

Falling 12.4%, Tencent stocks closed at HK$274; its lowest level since November 2022. The Hang Seng Index closed 1.7% lower this week following the major hit taken by gaming stocks. Brian Tycangco, an analyst at Stansberry Research, stated that the recent regulatory decision is highly threatening to Tencent and the industry at large.

“I’m confident we’ll get more clarity on these new rules in the coming days and weeks. But investors don’t want to wait around for the dust to settle. Better coordination between industry and regulators will benefit everyone in the future,” Tycangco observed.

The post Tencent Valuation Slumps By $43 Billion as China Proposes New Gaming Rules appeared first on theprimarymarket.com.

To date, OpenAI has raised $13 billion from Microsoft Corp. The company is also set to secure a tender offer in early January that would enable employees to sell their shares in the company at a combined value of $86 billion in a process led by Thrive Capital. Open AI has also held discussions with Abu Dhabi-based G42 to establish a new chip venture “to deliver cutting-edge AI solutions to the UAE and regional markets,” as explained during the announcement of the venture in October.

OpenAI’s increasing fundraising and business transactions come amid an AI frenzy, with Amazon.com Inc. and Google parent company Alphabet Inc. both investing billions into OpenAI-rival Anthropic. Salesforce has also entered into the AI race, investing $4.5 billion in Hugging Face.

The post OpenAI Looking to Raise Funding at Valuation of Over $100 Billion appeared first on theprimarymarket.com.

In response to Altman’s dismissal, several OpenAI employees threatened to resign from the company. While the board met their demand to allow the former CEO to return, they missed the 5 p.m. deadline set by the workers. Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president and former board chairman, resigned after Altman’s dismissal, as did several senior researchers, with reports emerging of further resignations in the works.

Following Altman’s dismissal, Microsoft, OpenAI’s largest investor, affirmed its commitment to the ChatGPT maker, however, investors were caught off guard by the decision given that no prior warning was given nor any opportunity to weigh in on the issue.

The post OpenAI in Discussions to Restore Sam Altman as CEO appeared first on theprimarymarket.com.

The company’s Intelligent Cloud segment was a particularly strong performer, generating $24.3 billion in revenue for the quarter. This beat analysts’ estimates of $23.6 billion. The revenue for Azure and other cloud services rose by 29%, outpacing estimates of a 27% growth.

“With copilots, we are making the age of AI real for people and businesses everywhere,” company CEO Satya Nadella announced in a statement. “We are rapidly infusing AI across every layer of the tech stack and for every role and business process to drive productivity gains for our customers.”

The post Microsoft Stocks Rise Following Q3 Earnings appeared first on theprimarymarket.com.

Masayoshi Son, founder and chief executive, is reportedly ready to invest tens of millions of dollars into AI according to two sources familiar with the matter. This could include entering into a strategic partnership with ChatGPT maker OpenAI, the Financial Times claimed on Saturday. Son, a frequent user of the ChatGPT AI-powered chatbot, has revealed that he speaks “almost every day” to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Aside from Open AI, SoftBank is exploring a range of options for entering into the AI realm, including the purchase of Graphcore, a UK-based AI chipmaker. This is the first time that the company is actively looking to expand after being in “defense mode” since May 2022 when tech valuations crashed as higher interest rates hit the global banking sector.

The post SoftBank Looking for More AI Deals Following Arm IPO appeared first on theprimarymarket.com.