It’s time to crown a winner: defending champion Emily Flippen faces off against Cinderella challenger Loren Horst in the Market Cap Madness World Championship.
It’s time to crown a winner: defending champion Emily Flippen faces off against Cinderella challenger Loren Horst in the Market Cap Madness World Championship.
In this episode of Rule Breaker Investing, David Gardner hosts the finale to this year’s Market Cap Madness between our Motley Fool analysts, with defending champion Emily Flippen facing off against Cinderella challenger Loren Horst. From elevators to hotel loyalty programs to th
In this episode of Rule Breaker Investing, David Gardner hosts the finale to this year’s Market Cap Madness between our Motley Fool analysts, with defending champion Emily Flippen facing off against Cinderella challenger Loren Horst. From elevators to hotel loyalty programs to th
As four of the Magnificent Seven tech giants rolled out results late Wednesday, Alphabet is distinguishing itself as the big winner in the cloud space. Shares popped more than 6% in extended trading. Alphabet's stock outperformed those of its Big Tech peers Amazon , which was up 3%, and Meta Platforms , down more than 6%. Microsoft was little changed. All four of the companies posted quarterly ear...
As four of the Magnificent Seven tech giants rolled out results late Wednesday, Alphabet is distinguishing itself as the big winner in the cloud space. Shares popped more than 6% in extended trading. Alphabet's stock outperformed those of its Big Tech peers Amazon , which was up 3%, and Meta Platforms , down more than 6%. Microsoft was little changed. All four of the companies posted quarterly earnings after the bell. These companies are competing through various artificial intelligence products, pipelines and partnerships, but their hugely capital-intensive cloud businesses are the arena where they're coming head-to-head. Not only was Google's cloud revenue bump the biggest in this growing market — it surpassed $20 billion in the first quarter, reflecting a 63% increase year over year — analysts also think the company's cloud platform is taking business from its competitors. "It looks like Google's taking market share across all these clouds," Brent Thill, Jefferies senior software analyst, told CNBC. "Google really stood out." Dan Nathan, principal of RiskReversal Advisors, concurred. "They are taking market share," he told CNBC after the close. As the massive capital expenditures push among the hyperscalers continues, Wall Street wants to see solid monetization of the clouds, comprising Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure. Amazon's cloud unit reported 28% revenue growth in the first quarter, compared to the year-ago period. AWS segment sales reached $37.59 billion. Microsoft's cloud revenue increased by 40%, with the Intelligent Cloud segment that includes Azure notching $34.68 billion in revenue for the fiscal third quarter. Google cloud sales were $20.03 billion versus an $18.05 billion StreetAccount consensus estimate. The result is up from $12.3 billion a year ago. Alphabet said this growth was led by an increase "across enterprise AI Solutions and enterprise AI Infrastructure, as well as core [Google Cloud Platform] services." Thi...
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) executives emphasized strong first-quarter 2026 growth across Search, Cloud, and subscriptions, pointing to rising demand for AI-driven products and infrastructure as a key driver of both revenue expansion and higher capital spending. Management also highlighted accelerating e
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) executives emphasized strong first-quarter 2026 growth across Search, Cloud, and subscriptions, pointing to rising demand for AI-driven products and infrastructure as a key driver of both revenue expansion and higher capital spending. Management also highlighted accelerating e
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) executives highlighted accelerating growth in AWS, record operating margins, and continued heavy investment in AI infrastructure and satellites during the company’s first-quarter 2026 earnings call on April 29. Quarterly results and profitability CEO Andy Jassy said Amazon
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) executives highlighted accelerating growth in AWS, record operating margins, and continued heavy investment in AI infrastructure and satellites during the company’s first-quarter 2026 earnings call on April 29. Quarterly results and profitability CEO Andy Jassy said Amazon
CEO Mark Zuckerberg is planning to spend more on infrastructure in 2026 than Meta did in all of 2024 and 2025. Meta's stock fell 6% in after-hours trading.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg is planning to spend more on infrastructure in 2026 than Meta did in all of 2024 and 2025. Meta's stock fell 6% in after-hours trading.
Shares of Amazon rose after the tech giant reported stronger-than-expected first-quarter results, driven by a continued acceleration of growth in its Amazon Web Services unit. Revenue increased 17% year over year to $181.52 billion, beating the consensus analyst estimate of $177.3 billion, according to LSEG data. Earnings per share based on generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) increased...
Shares of Amazon rose after the tech giant reported stronger-than-expected first-quarter results, driven by a continued acceleration of growth in its Amazon Web Services unit. Revenue increased 17% year over year to $181.52 billion, beating the consensus analyst estimate of $177.3 billion, according to LSEG data. Earnings per share based on generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) increased 75% to $2.78, beating the $1.64 estimate, per LSEG. However, it's not a great comparison because the results included pre-tax gains of $16.8 billion in non-operating income related to the company's investment in Anthropic. Operating income increased 30% year over year to $23.85 billion, beating the $20.82 billion consensus forecast. Why we own it Amazon may be widely known for online shopping, but its cloud business is the real breadwinner. Advertising is another fast-growing business with high margins. Investment in robust e-commerce logistics infrastructure makes its online storefront the place to be. Prime offers free shipping, video streaming, and tons of other perks to keep users paying every month. Competitors : Walmart , Target , Microsoft , and Alphabet Most recent buy : April 15, 2025 Initiated : February 2018 Bottom line After a slow start to 2026, Amazon stock has come back to life, gaining roughly 26% in April to new all-time highs. What changed? The market quickly realized that Amazon's close relationship with Anthropic would likely spur AWS growth, making management's ambitious $200 billion capex program well worth the spend. The rally set a high bar heading into Wednesday's print, but the company's results resoundingly cleared it, sending shares up about 4% in after-hours trading. Stepping back, we were pleased to see Amazon deliver its highest operating margin quarter across all segments in company history. Yes, AWS is a crucial part of the story, but the margin improvement across North America and International operations shows the company is operating mor...
Earnings Call Insights: Aware, Inc. (AWRE) Q1 2026 Management View CEO Ajay Amlani said Q1 revenue came in below internal expectations and tied the miss to product and market-readiness gaps: "Revenue for the first quarter was $3.4 million, which was below our expectations." He added, "we underestimated the pace at which the market was shifting and the degree to which our existing product infrastru...
Earnings Call Insights: Aware, Inc. (AWRE) Q1 2026 Management View CEO Ajay Amlani said Q1 revenue came in below internal expectations and tied the miss to product and market-readiness gaps: "Revenue for the first quarter was $3.4 million, which was below our expectations." He added, "we underestimated the pace at which the market was shifting and the degree to which our existing product infrastructure and architecture needed to evolve to meet it." CEO Ajay Amlani described an operating reset tied to a platform-first strategy and cost actions: "we took deliberate steps during the quarter to further align the business with our platform-first strategy." He said this "included removing approximately $4 million in expenses and simplifying our go-to-market operating model," calling it "a meaningful reset of our cost structure." CEO Ajay Amlani said Aware is consolidating around one platform, repositioning the product portfolio, and adjusting legacy investment levels: "We are now in step 2, focusing the company around a single scalable platform strategy." He added, "We are moving away from a fragmented portfolio of components and SDKs and toward a unified biometric orchestration platform" and "downshifting investment in certain legacy product areas, including portions of our law enforcement-focused offerings while continuing to fully support our existing customers." CFO David Traverse summarized Q1 performance drivers and expense items: "Revenue for the quarter was $3.4 million compared to $3.6 million in the prior year period." He said the change "reflects lower perpetual software license revenue" and that operating expenses rose, including "onetime severance costs of $700,000" and "higher compensation costs related to hires we made in 2025." Outlook CEO Ajay Amlani framed the near-term operating environment as volatile while the company transitions to a single-platform approach: "As we move through this transition, we expect near-term variability to continue." He added,...