Microsoft Corporation remains in focus after its most recent quarterly earnings update and ongoing AI push around Azure and Copilot. Investors are watching how cloud growth and AI-related spending shape margins and revenue trends for the tech heavyweight. Microsoft Corporation stays in the spotlight after its latest quarterly earnings release highlighted continued strength in cloud and artificial ...
Microsoft Corporation remains in focus after its most recent quarterly earnings update and ongoing AI push around Azure and Copilot. Investors are watching how cloud growth and AI-related spending shape margins and revenue trends for the tech heavyweight. Microsoft Corporation stays in the spotlight after its latest quarterly earnings release highlighted continued strength in cloud and artificial intelligence services, alongside solid demand in its productivity and business segments. The company’s Azure cloud platform and AI products, including Microsoft Copilot, remained central growth drivers, according to coverage of the recent quarterly report published in April 2026 by major financial media such as Reuters as of 04/25/2026 and technology-focused outlets tracking the company’s results. As of: 21.05.2026 By the editorial team – specialized in equity coverage. At a glance Name: Microsoft Microsoft Sector/industry: Software and cloud services Software and cloud services Headquarters/country: Redmond, United States Redmond, United States Core markets: Global enterprise software, cloud, productivity tools Global enterprise software, cloud, productivity tools Key revenue drivers: Cloud (Azure), Office and productivity, Windows, gaming Cloud (Azure), Office and productivity, Windows, gaming Home exchange/listing venue: Nasdaq (ticker: MSFT) Nasdaq (ticker: MSFT) Trading currency: US dollar (USD) Microsoft Corporation: core business model Microsoft Corporation operates one of the world’s largest software and cloud businesses, spanning operating systems, productivity applications, developer tools, and infrastructure services. The company’s traditional core has been Windows and Office, but over the past decade its center of gravity shifted towards recurring subscription revenue, especially through Microsoft 365 and cloud-based offerings. This transition has been reflected in the mix of revenue reported in recent fiscal years, where cloud-related segments have steadily con...
Iskandar Zulkarnaen/iStock via Getty Images By Min Joo Kang , Senior Economist, South Korea and Japan Exports increased for major products and markets, especially to the EU and China Japan’s exports rose a stronger-than-expected 14.8% year-on-year in April (vs. 11.7% in March, 9.2% market consensus, 11% ING). Major product items such as machinery (12.5%), electrical machinery (28.6%), and transpor...
Iskandar Zulkarnaen/iStock via Getty Images By Min Joo Kang , Senior Economist, South Korea and Japan Exports increased for major products and markets, especially to the EU and China Japan’s exports rose a stronger-than-expected 14.8% year-on-year in April (vs. 11.7% in March, 9.2% market consensus, 11% ING). Major product items such as machinery (12.5%), electrical machinery (28.6%), and transport equipment (6%) recorded increases. By destination, exports to the US (9.5%), China (15.5%), the EU (26.9%), and Taiwan (27.6%) all rose firmly. The global AI boom and the expansion of power generation facilities are among the main drivers of these strong outcomes. Although Japan is not a leading chip manufacturer, it benefits from strong demand and supply shortages, with exports up 41.6%. Chip exports remained strong throughout Asia, especially to Taiwan and China (88.6%). We expect Asian countries involved in global chip supply chains to continue benefiting from the AI boom. It’s worth noting that exports to the EU have remained robust throughout the year. There was a significant increase in exports of power-generating machines (up 113.5%) and continued strength in vehicle exports (up 48.2%). We think this is related to the US tariffs on autos. Following the implementation of US tariffs on cars, Japanese exports to the EU grew steadily, while those to the US (-2.3%) stayed weak. Exports firmly rose in May, with notable growth in semiconductors and machineries (Source: CEIC) Japan increased US energy imports quite sharply, but only partially replaced Middle East supply shortages Imports also rose 9.7% YoY in April (vs. 10.9% in March, 8.5% market consensus), but the rise was modest. We found that despite the higher global commodity prices, the drop in import volumes should lead to a limited rise in imports. Mineral fuels imports dropped sharply by 19.3%. Within the category, petroleum and LNG imports fell both in value and volume terms. Meanwhile, petroleum spirits and no...
Stocks were on track to rise Thursday as investors digested strong results from artificial intelligence chip maker Nvidia and hoped for progress in the peace talks between the U.S. and Iran. The three major indexes snapped a three-session losing streak on Wednesday after President Donald Trump said the U.S. was in the final stage of negotiations with Iran to end the war in the Middle East. Moves e...
Stocks were on track to rise Thursday as investors digested strong results from artificial intelligence chip maker Nvidia and hoped for progress in the peace talks between the U.S. and Iran. The three major indexes snapped a three-session losing streak on Wednesday after President Donald Trump said the U.S. was in the final stage of negotiations with Iran to end the war in the Middle East. Moves early Thursday suggest that the market has concluded that Nvidia’s first-quarter earnings were good, but not good enough to keep the AI rally going.
pawinp/iStock via Getty Images Markets were mixed throughout the quarter with small-cap stocks advancing to start the year before retreating in March as the conflict in Iran unfolded. Small caps outperformed large caps during the period, and value broadly outperformed growth. Our portfolio posted positive returns but underperformed the value benchmark. The industrials, technology, and consumer dis...
pawinp/iStock via Getty Images Markets were mixed throughout the quarter with small-cap stocks advancing to start the year before retreating in March as the conflict in Iran unfolded. Small caps outperformed large caps during the period, and value broadly outperformed growth. Our portfolio posted positive returns but underperformed the value benchmark. The industrials, technology, and consumer discretionary sectors weighed on portfolio performance. Concentrix ( CNXC ), a provider of customer experience solutions, was the largest detractor, as investors focused on the potential impact of generative AI and short-term margin pressure from capacity investments ahead of new contract wins. The company continues to win business with its AI solutions, and the stock remains very attractive even with its relatively wide range of outcomes. Cabinetmaker American Woodmark ( AMWD ) also detracted, as tariff headwinds and softer end-market demand weighed on sentiment, although we believe the longer-term normalization opportunity remains intact and are optimistic that the merger with MasterBrand ( MBC ) will drive savings. Specialty vehicle manufacturer Aebi Schmidt ( AEBI ) also detracted from portfolio performance, as weaker demand for walk-in vans in North America pressured earnings. The strongest contributions came from the basic materials, financials, and consumer staples sectors. Auto parts retailer Advance Auto Parts ( AAP ) was the top individual contributor, as the company's turnaround continued to gain traction with better inventory management and cost control supporting margins and improving operating execution. Consumer products company Spectrum Brands ( SPB ) contributed as strength in its Global Pet Care business along with encouraging signs for its Home & Garden business offset ongoing weakness in Home Appliances and Personal Care. Chemical producer Olin ( OLN ) benefitted from stronger fundamentals tied to higher oil prices at the end of the quarter, which supported...
China’s robotics pioneers are rapidly expanding beyond the usual factory surroundings and into more challenging terrains: the unstructured, dynamic and complex world of domestic household chores. GigaAI unveiled the country’s first general-purpose household humanoid robot model on Wednesday, the SeeLight S1, in collaboration with Hubei Humanoid Robot Innovation Centre and Hubei Humanoid Robotics I...
China’s robotics pioneers are rapidly expanding beyond the usual factory surroundings and into more challenging terrains: the unstructured, dynamic and complex world of domestic household chores. GigaAI unveiled the country’s first general-purpose household humanoid robot model on Wednesday, the SeeLight S1, in collaboration with Hubei Humanoid Robot Innovation Centre and Hubei Humanoid Robotics Industry Alliance. The robot will be given to families to test free of charge in Wuhan, the capital of China’s central Hubei province, as early as the first half of 2027, said Zhu Zheng, GigaAI’s CEO, according to an article published on Thursday in local newspaper Changjiang Daily. Advertisement In a demonstration video published on the company’s WeChat account, the two-armed, wheeled robot was seen chopping vegetables, frying eggs, loading a washing machine, hanging laundry, making a bed and opening curtains. The developer aimed to lower the hardware price to below 100,000 yuan (US$14,700) by June 2027, halving its current cost, Zhu said. He said he expected household robots to make significant breakthroughs in both commercialisation and embodied AI model capabilities by 2028. Advertisement Unlike humanoid robots that work on factory production lines and rely on hard-coded algorithms and pre-configured routines – the most common deployment of robots at present – the S1 is designed to autonomously understand tasks and plan its execution trajectory with the help of embodied artificial intelligence models. A fleet of 100 S1s will be trialed at housing reserved for employees in hi-tech industries starting later this month, before the pilot in Wuhan households next year – which will focus on families that have elderly members, children or pets.
Nvidia forecasts $91bn Q2 FY27 revenue with no China data centre compute assumed in outlook. Credit: Mijansk786/Shutterstock.com. Nvidia reported net income of $58.3bn for the first quarter ended 26 April 2026 (Q1 FY27), an increase of 211% from $18.8bn in the same period last year. Diluted earnings per share rose 214% to $2.39 from $0.76. Revenue grew 85% to $81.6bn compared to $44.1bn in the pri...
Nvidia forecasts $91bn Q2 FY27 revenue with no China data centre compute assumed in outlook. Credit: Mijansk786/Shutterstock.com. Nvidia reported net income of $58.3bn for the first quarter ended 26 April 2026 (Q1 FY27), an increase of 211% from $18.8bn in the same period last year. Diluted earnings per share rose 214% to $2.39 from $0.76. Revenue grew 85% to $81.6bn compared to $44.1bn in the prior-year quarter. Nvidia’s operating income reached $53.5bn, up 147% from $21.6bn in the previous year. GAAP operating expenses were $7.6bn, up 52% year-on-year. During the reported quarter, Nvidia said that it recorded strong growth across a diverse end-customer base, including hyperscalers, model builders, AI Clouds, enterprise on-premise, and sovereign customers. Nvidia claimed that the Blackwell platform was adopted and deployed by all major hyperscalers, every cloud provider, and model builder. The company identified agentic AI and reinforcement learning as new opportunities for CPU growth. The chipmaker stated its AI infrastructure delivers the lowest token cost and highest token throughput, as shown in recent MLPerf and InferenceX benchmarks. The company began production of Nvidia Dynamo 1.0, open source software that improves generative and agentic inference on Blackwell GPUs by up to 7x, with global adoption. Nvidia’s Data Centre segment revenue in Q1 FY27 was $75.2bn, up 92% year-on-year and 21% sequentially. Within this total, Data Centre compute revenue was $60.4bn, up 77% from a year ago, and Data Centre networking revenue was $14.8bn, up 199% compared to the same period last year. Nvidia reported that the Vera Rubin platform is on track for launch in the second half of the year, beginning in the third quarter. The platform includes the Vera CPU, a processor purpose-built for agentic AI, and BlueField-4 STX, accelerated storage infrastructure to support agentic AI factories. The company also announced product launches and collaborations such as Nvidia NemoClaw f...
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Meta has reportedly notified thousands of employees that they’ve been laid off as the company attempts to compensate for its hefty AI investments. In an email from Meta management shared by Business Insider, impacted staffers were told that the planned headcount reduction was part of the company’s “continued ef...
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Meta has reportedly notified thousands of employees that they’ve been laid off as the company attempts to compensate for its hefty AI investments. In an email from Meta management shared by Business Insider, impacted staffers were told that the planned headcount reduction was part of the company’s “continued effort to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we’re making.” Reports of an upcoming wave of layoffs started circulating in March, though at that time Meta was believed to be cutting up to 20 percent of its total company headcount. According to a recent memo shared in May, the layoffs are now believed to be impacting approximately 8,000 people, around 10 percent of Meta’s 78,000 employees. The layoffs follow Meta forecasting in January that it will spend $115 billion-$135 billion in capital expenditures in 2026, which would be used to “support our Meta Superintelligence Labs efforts and core business.” That’s almost double the $72.22 billion spent by the company in 2025 by comparison. Alongside cutting active roles, Business Insider reports that Meta is moving more than 7,000 staffers to work on new AI initiatives, and 6,000 open roles are being closed, according to Bloomberg. “We want to say again that we’re grateful for your contributions. Your impact at Meta has been an important part of our story,” Meta said in closing the memo to laid off employees. Some of those impacted have postedaboutbeing laid off on LinkedIn, showing their Meta employee badges and confirming that the cuts are now underway. One former employee mentions she was let go alongside “8,000 metamates.” We have reached out to Meta to confirm how many employees were affected.
(RTTNews) - European stocks were flat to slightly higher on Thursday as investors digested Nvidia's strong earnings and monitored peace talks between the United States and Iran. As Iran reviews a new U.S. proposal to resolve the Middle East conflict, U.S. President Donald Trump said that negotiations could yield a deal within days or collapse into renewed strikes. The pan-European STOXX 600 edged ...
(RTTNews) - European stocks were flat to slightly higher on Thursday as investors digested Nvidia's strong earnings and monitored peace talks between the United States and Iran. As Iran reviews a new U.S. proposal to resolve the Middle East conflict, U.S. President Donald Trump said that negotiations could yield a deal within days or collapse into renewed strikes. The pan-European STOXX 600 edged up by 0.2 percent to 21.30 after rallying 1.5 percent on Wednesday amid hopes that the Middle East conflict will be resolved soon. The German DAX gained 0.2 percent and France's CAC 40 inched up 0.1 percent while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was marginally lower, dragged down by energy stocks like BP Plc and Shell after a sharp fall in crude oil prices overnight. Swedish educational group Cedergrenska jumped nearly 7 percent after reporting strong revenue and margin growth in Q3. German pharma major Bayer fell nearly 1 percent. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted priority review to its supplemental New Drug Application for Kerendia. British pub group Mitchells & Butlers plummeted 8 percent after reporting slower sales growth and flat underlying profits for the first half. Banking and wealth management group Investec rallied 5.1 percent after reporting sharply higher annual profit for its latest fiscal year. BT Group shares tumbled nearly 3 percent. The telecommunications company logged lower revenue for fiscal 2026 due to a decline in its international business. No-frills airline EasyJet rose over 1 percent despite widening its first-half loss due to higher fuel costs and elevated legal provisions. Swiss pensions and insurance group Swiss Life Holding gained 1 percent after reporting strong financial results for the first quarter of 2026. The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
Key Points Elon Musk's SpaceX confidentially filed to go public about a month ago. SpaceX is reportedly targeting an IPO valuation of as much as $2 trillion. Jim Cramer recently highlighted some risks about the structure and narrative around SpaceX's IPO. These 10 stocks could mint the next wave of millionaires › As the longtime host of CNBC's Mad Money, Jim Cramer is known for delivering fast-pac...
Key Points Elon Musk's SpaceX confidentially filed to go public about a month ago. SpaceX is reportedly targeting an IPO valuation of as much as $2 trillion. Jim Cramer recently highlighted some risks about the structure and narrative around SpaceX's IPO. These 10 stocks could mint the next wave of millionaires › As the longtime host of CNBC's Mad Money, Jim Cramer is known for delivering fast-paced stock picks, market commentary, and colorful rants to his audience every night. Although his reputation is mixed, investors pay attention because Cramer's endorsements often spark buying frenzies while his warnings can trigger sell-offs. I'll admit that Cramer has an eye for spotting sentiment extremes and structural risks. That said, his advice alone should never be a substitute for independent analysis of business fundamentals, valuation, and risk tolerance. Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue » Cramer's recent cautionary take on the planned SpaceX initial public offering (IPO) caught my eye. He brought up some interesting topics that I think are being overshadowed by the hype surrounding Elon Musk's space empire. Let's explore what Cramer has to say. Will SpaceX stock go to the moon? Cramer's primary concern revolves around the structure of the SpaceX offering. Numerous media reports peg SpaceX's target IPO valuation at $1.75 trillion to $2 trillion. Although this would immediately make SpaceX one of the most valuable companies in the world, Cramer argues the real danger lies in the offering's float -- the sliver of shares that are actually made available to the public. If underwriters release only a small percentage of the company's total shares outstanding to satisfy retail and institutional demand, SpaceX stock could detach sharply from any reasonable valuation fundamentals. Cramer thin...