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Tag: Alphabet

  • Google DeepMind agrees to sweeping research collaboration with the U.K. government | Fortune

    AI lab GoogleDeepMind announced a major new partnership with the U.K. government Wednesday, pledging to accelerate breakthroughs in materials science and clean energy, including nuclear fusion, as well as conducting joint research on the societal impacts of AI and on ways to make AI decision-making more interpretable and safer.

    As part of the partnership, Google DeepMind said it would open its first automated research laboratory in the U.K. in 2026. That lab will focus on discovering advanced materials including superconductors that can carry electricity with zero resistance. The facility will be fully integrated with Google’s Gemini AI models. Gemini will serve as a kind of scientific brain for the lab, which will also use robotics to synthesize and characterize hundreds of materials per day, significantly accelerating the timeline for transformative discoveries.

    The company will also work with the U.K. government and other U.K.-based scientists on trying to make breakthroughs in nuclear fusion, potentially paving the way for cheaper, cleaner energy. Fusion reactions should produce abundant power while producing little to no nuclear waste, but such reactions have proved to be very difficult to sustain or scale up.

    Additionally, Google DeepMind is expanding its research alliance with the government-run U.K. AI Security Institute to explore methods for discovering how large language models and other complex neural network-based AI models arrive at decisions. The partnership will also involve joint research into the societal impacts of AI, such as the effect AI deployment is likely to have on the labor market and the impact increased use of AI chatbots may have on mental health.

    British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement that the partnership would “make sure we harness developments in AI for public good so that everyone feels the benefits.”

    “That means using AI to tackle everyday challenges like cutting energy bills thanks to cheaper, greener energy and making our public services more efficient so that taxpayers’ money is spent on what matters most to people,” Starmer said.

    Google DeepMind cofounder and CEO Demis Hassabis said in a statement that AI has “incredible potential to drive a new era of scientific discovery and improve everyday life.”

    As part of the partnership, British scientists will receive priority access to Google DeepMind’s advanced AI tools, including AlphaGenome for DNA sequencing; AlphaEvolve for designing algorithms; DeepMind’s WeatherNext weather forecasting models; and its new AI co-scientist, a multi-agent system that acts as a virtual research collaborator.

    DeepMind was founded in London in 2010 and is still headquartered there; it was acquired by Google in 2014.

    Gemini’s U.K. footprint expands

    The collaboration also includes potential development of AI systems for education and government services. Google DeepMind will explore creating a version of Gemini tailored to England’s national curriculum to help teachers reduce administrative workloads. A pilot program in Northern Ireland showed that Gemini helped save teachers an average of 10 hours per week, according to the U.K. government.

    For public services, the U.K. government’s AI Incubator team is trialing Extract, a Gemini-powered tool that converts old planning documents into digital data in 40 seconds, compared to the current two-hour process.

    The expanded research partnership with the U.K. AI Security Institute will focus on three areas, the government and DeepMind said: developing techniques to monitor AI systems’ so-called “chain of thought”—the reasoning steps an AI model takes to arrive at an answer; studying the social and emotional impacts of AI systems; and exploring how AI will affect employment.

    U.K. AISI currently tests the safety of frontier AI models, including those from Google DeepMind and a number of other AI labs, under voluntary agreements. But the new research collaboration could potentially raise concerns about whether the U.K. AISI will remain objective in its testing of its now-partner’s models.

    In response to a question on this from Fortune, William Isaac, principal scientist and director of responsibility at Google DeepMind, did not directly address the issue of how the partnership might affect the U.K. AISI’s objectivity. But he said the new research agreement puts in place “a separate kind of relationship from other points of interaction.” He also said the new partnership was focused on “question on the horizon” rather than present models, and that the researchers would publish the results of their work for anyone to review.

    Isaac said there is no financial or commercial exchange as part of the research partnership, with both sides contributing people and research resources.

    “We’re excited to announce that we’re going to be deepening our partnership with the U.K. AISI to really focus on exploring, really the frontier research questions that we believe are going to be important for ensuring that we have safe and responsible development,” he said.

    He said the partnership will produce publicly accessible research focused on foundational questions—such as how AI impacts jobs or how talking to chatbots effects mental health—rather than policy-specific recommendations, though the findings could influence how businesses and policymakers think about AI and how to regulate it.

    “We want the research to be meaningful and provide insights,” Isaac said.

    Isaac described the U.K. AISI as “the crown jewel of all of the safety institutes” globally and said deepening the partnership “sends a really strong signal” about the importance of engaging responsibly as AI systems become more widely adopted.

    The partnership also includes expanded collaboration on AI-enhanced approaches to cybersecurity. This will include the U.K. government exploring the sue of tools like Big Sleep, an AI agent developed by Google that autonomously hunts for previously unknown “Zero Day” cybersecurity exploits, and CodeMender, another AI agent that can search for and then automatically patch security vulnerabilities in open source software.

    British Technology Secretary Liz Kendall is visiting San Francisco this week to further the U.K.-U.S. Tech Prosperity Deal, which was agreed to during U.S. President Trump’s state visit to the U.K. in September. In November alone, the British government said the pact helped secure more than $32.4 billion of private investment committed to the U.K tech sector.

    The Google-U.K. partnership builds on a £5 billion ($6.7 billion) investment commitment from Google made earlier this year to support U.K. AI infrastructure and research, and to help modernize government IT systems.

    The British government also said collaboration supports its AI Opportunities Action Plan and its £137 million AI for Science Strategy, which aims to position the UK as a global leader in AI-driven research.

    Jeremy Kahn

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  • Prediction: This Will Be the Largest Company By the End of 2026

    JHVEPhoto / iStock Editorial via Getty Images

    • Alphabet (GOOG) stock surged over 6% Monday and nearly 3% after-hours following the launch of Gemini 3.0.

    • Berkshire Hathaway made an investment in Alphabet last quarter.

    • Alphabet overtook Microsoft in market value as its shares rallied 85% over six months.

    • If you’re thinking about retiring or know someone who is, there are three quick questions causing many Americans to realize they can retire earlier than expected. take 5 minutes to learn more here

    It’s been an eventful month for the Magnificent Seven and the state of the AI trade, to say the least. With a painful correction sweeping through the tech scene, but some soothing words from a Fed official, it seems like there’s still a pretty good chance that the S&P 500 exits the month of November with gains intact, especially as some of the Magnificent Seven players start shining bright again.

    Though it’s too early to say where stocks head back after getting momentarily knocked to the canvas over extreme levels of AI bubble discussion among various pundits, including tech leaders, money managers, banks, and seemingly everyone else, I do think that investors shouldn’t discount the Magnificent Seven group, even as members of the cohort move in differing directions again.

    Undoubtedly, Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) has been the star of the seven this month, sidestepping the AI pullback, thanks in part to a surprising, but very much exciting investment from the Warren Buffett-led (he’s not retired yet!) Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-B).

    If Berkshire, a cash-flush firm that’s all about value investing, has a horse in the AI race with Alphabet, a broad-sweeping AI bubble thesis doesn’t hold up as much, in my humble opinion, especially when it comes to the profoundly profitable companies pouring ample cash into the effort.

    Timing the AI bubble is still timing the market, and it’s a move that might not lead to a satisfactory return compared to just staying invested and “owning the market.”  Cashing out or shorting some of the high-flyers in tech, I think, might be that much riskier now that there are some signs that the AI correction is healing, even if you’re proven right about overvaluations in the long term.

    In any case, we’ve seen some movement in the Mag Seven “leaderboard in recent weeks, with Alphabet pole-vaulting over Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), whose shares have really stalled of late. With Alphabet stock blasting off more than 6% on Monday while surging close to 3% in the after-hours session despite not getting slammed amid the recent AI pullback in the prior week, it seems like Alphabet shares are about to go into overdrive as investors look to price in the latest and greatest AI model, Gemini 3.0, which appears well ahead of the competition (including the likes of OpenAI’s ChatGPT).

    Perhaps. Either way, the AI race is going into overdrive, and unless OpenAI can pull the curtain on something soon, I think Alphabet might be the new AI champion to bet on, as the firm looks to monetize the technology in profound ways. With Gemini coming to Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) devices, I think Google’s AI business might leave its much-smaller rivals in the dust. Sure, some might think it’s too late to be chasing Alphabet stock after an 85% surge in six months.

    However, it seems like Gemini is just hitting an inflection point of sorts. And if Google can monetize the model (dare I say a hyper-monetization boom?), I think a strong argument can still be made that Alphabet stock is still cheap at 31.5 times trailing price-to-earnings (P/E), or just north of 27.0 times forward P/E.

    After an explosive move, it’s clear that prior AI search fears were unwarranted and that Google’s AI Mode has had its way with the competition. As impressive as Gemini 3.0 is (Marc Benioff had great things to say about the model), it’s shocking to think that it’s only going to get better from here.

    If the new model has Benioff switching from ChatGPT and saying things like he’s “not going back,” I think there’s a lot to take in as the man says things like “the world just changed, again.” I think Benioff is right on the money and wouldn’t bet against Alphabet as it takes the lead, with enough firepower to stay ahead in the AI race, perhaps for good.

    As Google advances Gemini further, while new monetization channels (like the deal with Apple) open up, I think the AI ROI fears might be put to rest, as Alphabet charges ahead to become the most valuable company on earth. Though it won’t be easy to top Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), I do think Alphabet will pull it off next year. There’s too much AI momentum behind it, and the multiple still remains too low.

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  • What to know about Trump’s draft proposal to curtail state AI regulations

    President Donald Trump is considering pressuring states to stop regulating artificial intelligence in a draft executive order obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, as some in Congress also consider whether to temporarily block states from regulating AI.

    Trump and some Republicans argue that the limited regulations already enacted by states, and others that might follow, will dampen innovation and growth for the technology.

    Critics from both political parties — as well as civil liberties and consumer rights groups — worry that banning state regulation would amount to a favor for big AI companies who enjoy little to no oversight.

    While the draft executive order could change, here’s what to know about states’ AI regulations and what Trump is proposing.

    What state-level regulations exist and why

    Four states — Colorado, California, Utah and Texas — have passed laws that set some rules for AI across the private sector, according to the International Association of Privacy Professionals.

    Those laws include limiting the collection of certain personal information and requiring more transparency from companies.

    The laws are in response to AI that already pervades everyday life. The technology helps make consequential decisions for Americans, including who gets a job interview, an apartment lease, a home loan and even certain medical care. But research has shown that it can make mistakes in those decisions, including by prioritizing a particular gender or race.

    “It’s not a matter of AI makes mistakes and humans never do,” said Calli Schroeder, director of the AI & Human Rights Program at the public interest group EPIC.

    “With a human, I can say, ‘Hey, explain, how did you come to that conclusion, what factors did you consider?’” she continued. “With an AI, I can’t ask any of that, and I can’t find that out. And frankly, half the time the programmers of the AI couldn’t answer that question.”

    States’ more ambitious AI regulation proposals require private companies to provide transparency and assess the possible risks of discrimination from their AI programs.

    Beyond those more sweeping rules, many states have regulated parts of AI: barring the use of deepfakes in elections and to create nonconsensual porn, for example, or putting rules in place around the government’s own use of AI.

    What Trump and some Republicans want to do

    The draft executive order would direct federal agencies to identify burdensome state AI regulations and pressure states to not enact them, including by withholding federal funding or challenging the state laws in court.

    It would also begin a process to develop a lighter-touch regulatory framework for the whole country that would override state AI laws.

    Trump’s argument is that the patchwork of regulations across 50 states impedes AI companies’ growth, and allows China to catch up to the U.S. in the AI race. The president has also said state regulations are producing “Woke AI.”

    The draft executive order that was leaked could change and should not be taken as final, said a senior Trump administration official who requested anonymity to describe internal White House discussions.

    The official said the tentative plan is for Trump to sign the order Friday.

    Separately, House Republican leadership is already discussing a proposal to temporarily block states from regulating AI, the chamber’s majority leader, Steve Scalise, told Punchbowl News this week.

    It’s yet unclear what that proposal would look like, or which AI regulations it would override.

    TechNet, which advocates for tech companies including Google and Amazon, has previously argued that pausing state regulations would benefit smaller AI companies still getting on their feet and allow time for lawmakers develop a country-wide regulatory framework that “balances innovation with accountability.”

    Why attempts at federal regulation have failed

    Some Republicans in Congress have previously tried and failed to ban states from regulating AI.

    Part of the challenge is that opposition is coming from their party’s own ranks.

    Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, said a federal law barring state regulation of AI was “Not acceptable” in a post on X this week.

    DeSantis argued that the move would be a “subsidy to Big Tech” and would stop states from protecting against a list of things, including “predatory applications that target children” and “online censorship of political speech.”

    A federal ban on states regulating AI is also unpopular, said Cody Venzke, senior policy council at the ACLU’s National Political Advocacy Department.

    “The American people do not want AI to be discriminatory, to be unsafe, to be hallucinatory,” he said. “So I don’t think anyone is interested in winning the AI race if it means AI that is not trustworthy.”

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  • Understanding YouTube TV’s New Disney Deal and the Future of Live Streaming TV

    YouTube TV’s latest deal highlights the growing tension between richer bundles and rising consumer fatigue. Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images

    The two-week standoff between YouTube TV and The Walt Disney Company may be resolved, but the frenemy dynamic between the Mouse House and the Alphabet-owned streamer remains as tangled as ever. YouTube TV is both a key distributor for Disney—helping channels like ESPN reach millions of additional viewers—and a direct competitor to Disney’s Hulu + Live TV bundle—and, for that matter, all Disney-owned networks for screen time.

    On Nov. 14, the two parties announced a new multi-year distribution agreement, restoring all Disney-owned channels to YouTube TV after a blackout over carriage fees (the payments a provider like YouTube TV makes to carry another company’s programming). The deal also adds the upcoming ESPN Unlimited package to YouTube TV’s base plan at no extra charge for subscribers through 2026.

    That addition is expected to raise YouTube TV’s programming costs, which may ultimately be passed on to consumers. The streamer may also still be feeling the effects of the blackout. To lure back customers who canceled, YouTube TV has reportedly offered targeted $60 welcome-back discounts—dropping some subscribers’ first month to roughly $22.99. It’s a pragmatic concession, but one that makes an eventual price hike even harder to avoid.

    For now, YouTube TV is holding steady at $82.99 a month. Any increase would mark its sixth since the service’s 2017 debut at $35 and push its annual cost past $1,000.

    Disney, meanwhile, gains more than just restored affiliate revenue. Keeping ESPN and ABC in front of YouTube TV’s sizable audience helps justify soaring sports-rights costs at a time when the traditional pay-TV base continues to erode. The agreement also secures YouTube TV’s ability to sell bundles of Disney+ and Hulu, creating additional pathways to bring viewers into Disney’s broader streaming ecosystem.

    How viewers respond to YouTube TV’s integration of ESPN Unlimited could be pivotal. The industry is about to learn whether consumers truly want a single, consolidated TV app—or whether they’ll tolerate juggling multiple apps to avoid a bundle that keeps getting more expensive.

    Streaming live sports has become so fragmented that fans may need three or more services just to follow a single team’s season. That patchwork experience forces viewers to juggle multiple apps and logins. ESPN’s own setup illustrates the divide: ESPN Unlimited offers essentially the full breadth of ESPN’s content, while the existing ESPN+ serves as a supplement—a curated add-on with select programming and live events.

    According to a recent survey from Hub Entertainment Research, more than 70 percent of sports fans say sports matter more to them than anything else on TV, and nearly as many (65 percent) say they’re frustrated by having to use multiple streaming services to watch games.

    Live streaming TV occupies a middle ground between legacy cable and on-demand apps like Netflix. Services like YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV mimic the traditional bundle—with cloud DVRs and linear channels—but without contracts or set-top boxes. The market remains concentrated: YouTube TV surpassed 10 million subscribers earlier this month, while Hulu + Live TV sits at just over 4 million. It’s still a small slice of the overall streaming piece—Netflix has more than 300 million subscribers globally, and Disney+ has more than 130 million.

    Understanding YouTube TV’s New Disney Deal and the Future of Live Streaming TV

    Andy Meek

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  • One Tech Tip: Annoyed by junk calls to your iPhone? Try the new iOS 26 call screen feature

    LONDON (AP) — iPhone users have a new tool to combat the scourge of nuisance phone calls: a virtual gatekeeper that can screen incoming calls from unknown numbers.

    It’s among the bevy of new features that Apple rolled out with last month’s release of iOS 26. The screening feature has been getting attention because of the ever-increasing amount of robocalls and spam calls that leave many phone users feeling harassed.

    Here’s a run-through of the new function:

    How to activate call screening

    First, you’ll need to update your iPhone’s operating system to iOS 26, which is available to the iPhone 11 and newer models.

    To switch call screening on, go into Settings–Apps—Phone. Scroll down and you’ll find a new option: Screen Unknown Callers.

    You’ll be presented with three choices. The Never option lets any unknown call ring through, while Silence sends all unidentified numbers directly to voicemail. What you want to tap is the middle option: Ask Reason for Calling.

    If the option isn’t there, try restarting your phone.

    I still couldn’t find it after updating to iOS 26, but, after some online sleuthing, I checked my region and language settings because I saw some online commenters reporting they had to match. It turns out my region was still set to Hong Kong, where I lived years ago. I switched it to the United Kingdom, which seemed to do the trick and gave me the updated menu.

    How it works

    Call screening introduces a layer between you and new callers.

    When someone who’s not in your contacts list dials your number, a Siri-style voice will ask them to give their name and the purpose of their call.

    At the same time, you’ll get a notification that the call is being screened. When the caller responds, the answers will be transcribed and the conversation will pop up in speech bubbles.

    You can then answer the call.

    Don’t want to answer? Send a reply by tapping one of the pre-written messages, such as “I’ll call you later” or “Send more information,” which the AI voice will read out to the caller.

    Or you can type out your own message for the computer-generated voice to read out.

    If you don’t respond right away, the phone will continue to ring while you decide what to do.

    Teething troubles

    In theory, call screening is a handy third way between the nuclear option of silencing all unknown callers — including legitimate ones — or letting them all through.

    But it doesn’t always work perfectly, according to Associated Press colleagues and anecdotal reports from social media users.

    One AP colleague said she was impressed with how seamlessly it worked. Another said it’s handy for screening out cold callers who found his number from marketing databases.

    “However, it’s not great when delivery drivers try to call me and then just hang up,” he added.

    Some internet users have similar complaints, complaining that important calls that they were expecting from their auto mechanic or plumber didn’t make it through. Perhaps the callers assumed it was an answering machine and didn’t seem to realize they had to stay on the line and interact with it.

    I encountered a different issue the first time it kicked in for me, when an unknown caller — whether mistakenly or not — threw me off by giving my name instead of theirs. So I answered because I assumed it was someone I knew, forgetting that I could tap out a reply asking them again for their name.

    The caller turned out to be someone who had obtained my name and number and was trying to get me to do a survey. I had to make my excuses and hang up.

    If you don’t like call screening, you can turn it off at any time.

    As for Android

    Apple is catching up with Google, which introduced a similar automatic call screening feature years ago for Pixel users in the United States.

    Last month, the company announced the feature is rolling out to users in three more countries: Australia, Canada and Ireland.

    If it’s not already on, go to your Phone app’s Settings and look for Call Screen.

    Google’s version is even more automated. When someone you don’t know calls, the phone will ask who it is and why they’re calling. It will hang up if it determines that it’s a junk call, but let calls it deems to be legit ring through.

    Google warns that not all spam calls and robocalls can be detected, nor will it always fully understand and transcribe what a caller says.

    Samsung, too, lets users of its Galaxy Android phones screen calls by using its AI assistant Bixby’s text call function, which works in a similar way.

    ____

    Is there a tech topic that you think needs explaining? Write to us at [email protected] with your suggestions for future editions of One Tech Tip.

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  • One Tech Tip: Keeping up with your Halloween trick-or-treaters with these tricks

    NEW YORK (AP) — For little ghosts, witches, KPop Demon Hunters and superheroes, Halloween is one of the most exciting nights of the year. But it’s also one of the busiest for parents as they try to keep track of their trick-or-treaters, give out candy and watch over their homes.

    Fortunately, there are some tech tricks out there that can help families stay safe this Halloween, and have a little more fun too.

    Keeping tabs on your kids

    If your children are outfitted with Apple or Google-branded smart phones or watches or tracking tags, you can use the Find My or Family Link apps to keep tabs on them as they embark on their candy journeys. But don’t think of these apps as basic. Because branded peripherals — like Apple Air Tags or Pixel smartwatches — are built to be used with Apple and Google platforms, their tracking platforms can be more reliable than some third-party services.

    One trick I discovered last Halloween is that I can set up a geofence with Find My. This gave my kids a little more freedom to navigate a set trick-or-treating area while I struggled to keep up with them. If anyone broke from the pack and left the designated area, I would get a notification. Here’s how to set it up:

    Go to the Find My app on your iPhone. Scroll and tap on the name of the person or device you want to be notified about. Below notifications, tap “Add,” then “Notify me.” Continue through the menu options until you get to a location option. Choose “New Location” and you will be given the option to set a location radius. Then you will be asked how often you wish to be notified if the tracked individual leaves the area.

    Next is a critical step if you wish to set a recurring notification. Unless it’s an air tag, your child must give a one-time authorization to the request. They will receive an alert asking for approval when they arrive at or leave the location you chose for the first time.

    Google users have a similar geofencing option. First, you need to set up a new Family Location in the Family Link app. Then select your child in the main menu of the app and tap Family Locations, add the place you just created and select how often you’d like to be notified when they enter or exit the area.

    Spookier doorbells

    If you have a smart doorbell installed on your front door, you can have a little extra fun with visiting trick-or-treaters by adding spooky messages and specialized chimes.

    For Ring doorbell users, head to your app and go to Menu-Devices. Select your doorbell. Then tap Smart Responses-Quick Replies-Quick Reply Message. You may need to toggle on Quick Replies if you hadn’t before, but you will see a list of Halloween-themed replies. Ours is set to “I’ll be right there to eat… I mean greet you!”

    For those with Eufy Doorbells, navigate to your app and select your doorbell. A Voice Response list should include selectable Halloween-themed effects and chimes. You can also take advantage of a message recording function in more recent doorbell models to create your own, hopefully scary, response.

    Nest and Google home users should be able to use their app to select a Halloween setting under Doorbell Themes (Google was updating Nest in October so your menu may be different from mine).

    One unrelated tip for smart doorbell users, you may want to lower your motion sensitivity just for Halloween. If your device isn’t hardwired, the extra motion from trick-or-treaters could drain your doorbell’s batteries quickly (as I discovered). You can also avoid a flood of notifications if you do so.

    Don’t forget the lights

    Smart phones have flashlights, sure, but they’re not the brightest nor are they the best option if you’re carrying jackets, candy baskets, water bottles or costume parts. Instead, give yourself or your children more portable lumens so they can see (and be seen) easily in the dark.

    There are plenty of options for all budget ranges, but I’m partial to lights that you can clip onto jackets or costumes to keep your hands free.

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  • Nvidia earnings clear lofty hurdle set by analysts amid fears about an AI bubble

    SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Nvidia’s sales of the computing chips powering the artificial intelligence craze surged beyond the lofty bar set by stock market analysts in a performance that may ease recent jitters about a Big Tech boom turning into a bust that topples the world’s most valuable company.

    The results announced late Wednesday provided a pulse check on the frenzied spending on AI technology that has been fueling both the stock market and much of the overall economy since OpenAI released its ChatGPT three years ago.

    Nvidia has been by far the biggest beneficiary of the run-up because its processors have become indispensable for building the AI factories that are needed to enable what’s supposed to be the most dramatic shift in technology since Apple released the iPhone in 2007.

    ARCHIVO – Varias personas miran los nuevos productos de Nvidia en la exhibición Computex 2025 en Taipéi, Taiwán, el miércoles 21 de mayo de 2025. (AP Foto/Chiang Ying-ying, Archivo)

    But in the past few weeks, there has been a rising tide of sentiment that the high expectations for AI may have become far too frothy, setting the stage for a jarring comedown that could be just as dramatic as the ascent that transformed Nvidia from a company worth less than $400 billion three years ago to one worth $4.5 trillion at the end of Wednesday’s trading.

    Nvidia’s report for its fiscal third quarter covering the August-October period elicited a sigh of relief among those fretting about a worst-case scenario and could help reverse the recent downturn in the stock market.

    “The market should belt out a heavy sigh, given the skittishness we have been experiencing,” said Sean O’Hara, president of the investment firm Pacer ETFs.

    The company’s stock price gained more than 5% in Wednesday’s extended trading after the numbers came out. If the shares trade similarly Thursday, it could result in a one-day gain of about $230 billion in stockholder wealth.

    Nvidia earned $31.9 billion, or $1.30 per share, a 65% increase from the same time last year, while revenue climbed 62% to $57 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet Research had forecast earnings of $1.26 per share on revenue of $54.9 billion. What’s more, the Santa Clara, California, company predicted its revenue for the current quarter covering November-January will come in at about $65 billion, nearly $3 billion above analysts’ projections, in an indication that demand for its AI chips remains feverish.

    Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks during a press conference at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO summit in Gyeongju, South Korea, Friday, Oct.31, 2025 (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

    Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks during a press conference at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO summit in Gyeongju, South Korea, Friday, Oct.31, 2025 (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

    The incoming orders for Nvidia’s top-of-the-line Blackwell chip are “off the charts,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in a prepared statement that described the current market conditions as “a virtuous cycle.” In a conference call, Nvidia Chief Financial Officer Collette Kress said that by the end of next year the company will have sold about $500 billion in chips designed for AI factories within a 24-month span Kress also predicts trillions of dollars more will be spent by the end of the 2020s.

    In a conference call preamble that has become like a State of the AI Market address, Huang seized the moment to push back against the skeptics who doubt his thesis that technology is at tipping point that will transform the world. “There’s been a lot of talk about an AI bubble. From our vantage point, we see something very different,” Huang insisted while celebrating “depth and breadth” of Nvidia’s growth.

    The upbeat results, optimistic commentary and ensuring reaction reflects the pivotal role that Nvidia is playing in the future direction of the economy — a position that Huang has leveraged to forge close ties with President Donald Trump, even as the White House wages a trade war that has inhibited the company’s ability to sell its chips in China’s fertile market.

    Trump is increasingly counting on the tech sector and the development of artificial intelligence to deliver on his economic agenda. For all of Trump’s claims that his tariffs are generating new investments, much of that foreign capital is going to data centers for AI’s computing demands or the power facilities needed to run those data centers.

    “Saying this is the most important stock in the world is an understatement,” Jay Woods, chief market strategist of investment bank Freedom Capital Markets, said of Nvidia.

    The boom has been a boon for more than just Nvidia, which became the first company to eclipse a market value of $5 trillion a few weeks ago, before the recent bubble worries resulted in a more than 10% decline. As OpenAI and other Big Tech powerhouses snap up Nvidia’s chips to build their AI factories and invest in other services connected to the technology, their fortunes have also been soaring. Apple, Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Amazon all boast market values in the $2 trillion to $4 trillion range.

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  • Microsoft partners with Anthropic and Nvidia in cloud infrastructure deal

    Microsoft said Tuesday it is partnering with artificial intelligence company Anthropic and chipmaker Nvidia as part of an AI infrastructure deal that moves the software giant further away from its longtime alliance with OpenAI.

    Anthropic, maker of the chatbot Claude that competes with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, said it is committed to buying $30 billion in computing capacity from Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform.

    As part of the partnership, Nvidia will also invest up to $10 billion in Anthropic, and Microsoft will invest up to $5 billion in the San Francisco-based startup.

    The joint announcements by CEOs Dario Amodei of Anthropic, Satya Nadella of Microsoft, and Jensen Huang of Nvidia came just ahead of the opening of Microsoft’s annual Ignite developer conference.

    “This is all about deepening our commitment to bringing the best infrastructure, model choice and applications to our customers,” Nadella said on a video call with the other two executives, adding that it builds on the “critical” partnership Microsoft still has with OpenAI.

    Microsoft was, until earlier this year, the exclusive cloud provider for OpenAI and made the technology behind ChatGPT the foundation for its own AI assistant, Copilot. But the two companies moved farther apart and their business agreements were amended as OpenAI increasingly sought to secure its own cloud capacity through big deals with Oracle, SoftBank and other data center developers and chipmakers.

    Asked in September if OpenAI could do more with those new computing partnerships than it could with Microsoft, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told The Associated Press his company was “severely limited for the value we can offer to people.”

    At the same time, Microsoft holds a roughly 27% stake in the new for-profit corporation that OpenAI, founded as a nonprofit, is forming to advance its commercial ambitions as the world’s most valuable startup.

    Anthropic, founded by ex-OpenAI leaders in 2021, said Claude will now be the “only frontier model” available to customers of the three biggest cloud computing providers: Amazon, which remains Anthropic’s primary cloud provider, and Google and Microsoft.

    AI products like Claude, ChatGPT, Copilotand Google’s Gemini are reshaping how many people work but take huge amounts of energy and computing power to build and operate. Neither OpenAI nor Anthropic has yet reported turning a profit, amplifying concerns about an AI bubble if their products don’t meet investors’ high expectations and justify the expenditures. As part of the deal, Nvidia said Anthropic will have access to up to a gigawatt of capacity from its specialized AI chips.

    Huang said he’s “admired the work of Anthropic and Dario for a long time, and this is the first time we are going to deeply partner with Anthropic to accelerate Claude.”

    At Microsoft’s Ignite conference, a showcase of its latest AI technology which opened Tuesday in San Francisco, Anthropic’s chief product officer Mike Krieger highlighted the budding partnership during an on-stage appearance.

    “From the beginning, it has seemed there has been a lot of shared DNA between our companies,” said Krieger, who was also the co-founder of Instagram.

    ——

    AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed to this report.

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  • Google unveils Gemini’s next generation, aiming to turn its search engine into a ‘thought partner’

    SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google is unleashing its Gemini 3 artificial intelligence model on its dominant search engine and other popular online services in the high-stakes battle to create technology that people can trust to enlighten them and manage tedious tasks.

    The next-generation model unveiled Tuesday comes nearly two years after Google took the wraps off its first iteration of the technology. Google designed Gemini in response to a competitive threat posed by OpenAI’s ChatGPT that came out in late 2022, triggering the biggest technological shift since Apple released the iPhone in 2007.

    Google’s latest AI features initially will be rolled out to Gemini Pro and Ultra subscribers in the United States before coming to a wider, global audience. Gemini 3’s advances include a new AI “thinking” feature within Google’s search engine that company executives believe will become an indispensable tool that will help make people more productive and creative.

    “We like to think this will help anyone bring any idea to life,” Koray Kavukcuoglu, a Google executive overseeing Gemini’s technology, told reporters.

    As AI models have become increasingly sophisticated, the advances have raised worries that the technology is more prone to behave in ways that jumble people’s feelings and thoughts while feeding them misleading information and fawning flattery. In some of the most egregious interactions, AI chatbots have faced accusations of becoming suicide coaches for emotionally vulnerable teenagers.

    The various problems have spurred a flurry of negligence lawsuits against the makers of AI chatbots, although none have targeted Gemini yet.

    Google executives believe they have built in guardrails that will prevent Gemini 3 from hallucinating or be deployed for sinister purposes such as hacking into websites and computing devices.

    Gemini 3 ‘s responses are designed to be “smart, concise and direct, trading cliche and flatter for insight — telling you what you need to hear, not just what you want to hear. It acts as a true thought partner,” Kavukcuoglu and Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google’s DeepMind division, wrote in a blog post.

    Besides providing consumers with more AI tools, Gemini 3 is also likely to be scrutinized as a barometer that investors may use to get a better sense about whether the massive torrent of spending on the technology will pay off.

    After starting the year expecting to spend $75 billion, Google’s corporate parent Alphabet recently raised its capital expenditure budget from $91 billion to $93 billion, with most of the money earmarked for AI. Other Big Tech powerhouses such as Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook parent Meta Platforms are spending nearly as much — or even more — on their AI initiatives this year.

    Investors so far have been mostly enthusiastic about the AI spending and the breakthroughs they have spawned, helping propel the values of Alphabet and its peers to new highs. Alphabet’s market value is now hovering around $3.4 trillion, more than doubling in value since the initial version of Gemini came out in late 2023. Alphabet’s shares edged up slightly Tuesday after the Gemni 3 news came out.

    But the sky-high values also have amplified fears of a potential investment bubble that will eventually burst and drag down the entire stock market.

    For now, AI technology is speeding ahead.

    OpenAI released its fifth generation of the AI technology powering ChatGPT in August, around the same time the next version of Claude came out from Anthropic.

    Like Gemini, both ChatGPT and Claude are capable of responding rapidly to conversational questions involving complex topics — a skill that has turned them into the equivalent of “answer engines” that could lessen people’s dependence on Google search.

    Google quickly countered that threat by implanting Gemini’s technology into its search engine to begin creating detailed summaries called “AI Overviews” in 2023, and then introducing an even more conversational search tool called “AI mode” earlier this year.

    Those innovations have prompted Google to de-emphasize the rankings of relevant websites in its search results — a shift that online publishers have complained is diminishing the visitor traffic that helps them finance their operations through digital ad sales.

    The changes have been mostly successful for Google so far, with AI Overviews now being used by more than 2 billion people every month, according to the company. The Gemini app, by comparison, has about 650 million monthly users.

    With the release of Gemini 3, the AI mode in Google’s search engine is also adding a new feature that will allow users to click on a “thinking” option in a tab that company executives promise will deliver even more in-depth answers than has been happening so far. Although the “thinking” choice in the search engine’s AI mode initially will only be offered to Gemini Pro and Ultra subscribers, the Mountain View, California, company plans to eventually make it available to all comers.

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  • Asian shares sink, tracking a tech-led sell-off on Wall Street

    BANGKOK (AP) — Asian shares tumbled on Tuesday, with benchmarks in Tokyo and Seoul sinking more than 3%, after Nvidia and other artificial-intelligence -related shares pulled U.S. stocks lower.

    U.S. futures dropped, with the contract for the S&P 500 down 0.6% while the future for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.4%.

    Computer chip giant Nvidia, at the center of the craze over AI, is due to report its earnings on Wednesday. Worries that stock prices of such companies have shot too high have roiled world markets recently, with big swings in places that rely heavily on trade in computer chips such as South Korea and Taiwan.

    Also hanging over the markets is the release due Thursday of U.S. employment data that was delayed by the prolonged government shutdown.

    Regional markets felt a chill after the yield on 30-year Japanese government bonds surged to 3.31%, reflecting rising risks as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi prepares to boost government spending and push back the timetable for bringing down Japan’s huge national debt.

    The yen was trading above 155 to the U.S. dollar, near its highest level since February. On Monday, the yen fell to its lowest level against the euro since 1999, when the unified European currency was launched.

    Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 was down 3% at 48,835.20 by midday, with selling of tech shares leading the decline. Chip maker Tokyo Electron shed 5.4%, while equipment maker Advantest dropped 4.6%.

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    In Seoul, the Kospi fell 3.1% to 3,960.82. Samsung Electronics dropped 2.9%, while chip maker SK Hynix shed 5.7%.

    In Taiwan, the Taiex fell 2.3% as TSMC, the world’s largest contract chip manufacturer, declined 2.4%.

    Chinese markets were not immune from heavy selling.

    Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 1.5% to 25,997.20, while the Shanghai Composite index slipped 0.6% to 3,949.83.

    In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gave up 2.1% to 8,452.50.

    On Monday, the S&P 500 fell 0.9% to 6,672.41, pulling further from its all-time high set late last month. The Dow industrials dropped 1.2% to 46,590.24, while the Nasdaq composite sank 0.8% to 22,708.07.

    Nvidia dropped 1.8%, though it is still up nearly 40% this year. Losses for other AI winners included a 6.4% slide for Super Micro Computer.

    Other areas of the market that had been high-momentum winners also sank. Bitcoin extended its decline, dragging down Coinbase Global by 7.1% and Robinhood Markets by 5.3%. Early Tuesday, it was down 2% at $90,110.

    Critics have been warning that the U.S. stock market could be primed for a drop because of how high prices have shot since April, leaving them looking too expensive.

    However, Alphabet gained 3.1% after Berkshire Hathaway said it has built a $4.34 billion ownership stake in Google’s parent company. Berkshire Hathaway, run by famed investor Warren Buffett, is notorious for trying to buy stocks only when they look like good values while avoiding anything that looks too expensive.

    Another source of potential disappointment for Wall Street is what the Federal Reserve does with interest rates. The expectation had been that the Fed would keep cutting interest rates in hopes of shoring up the slowing job market.

    But the downside of lower interest rates is that they can make inflation worse, and inflation has stubbornly remained above the Fed’s 2% target.

    Fed officials have also pointed to the U.S. government’s shutdown, which delayed the release of updates on the job market and other signals about the economy. With less information and less certainty about how things are going, some Fed officials have suggested it may be better to wait in December to get more clarity.

    A strong jobs report on Thursday would likely stay the Fed’s hand on rate cuts, while figures that are very weak would raise worries about the economy.

    In other dealings early Tuesday, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 42 cents to $59.49 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gave up 43 cents to $63.77 per barrel.

    The dollar fell to 155.08 Japanese yen from 155.26 yen. The euro rose to $1.1600 from $1.1593.

    ___

    AP Business Writers Stan Choe and Matt Ott contributed.

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  • Future data centers are driving up forecasts for energy demand. States want proof they’ll get built

    HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The forecasts are eye-popping: utilities saying they’ll need two or three times more electricity within a few years to power massive new data centers that are feeding a fast-growing AI economy.

    But the challenges — some say the impossibility — of building new power plants to meet that demand so quickly has set off alarm bells for lawmakers, policymakers and regulators who wonder if those utility forecasts can be trusted.

    One burning question is whether the forecasts are based on data center projects that may never get built — eliciting concern that regular ratepayers could be stuck with the bill to build unnecessary power plants and grid infrastructure at a cost of billions of dollars.

    The scrutiny comes as analysts warn of the risk of an artificial intelligence investment bubble that’s ballooned tech stock prices and could burst.

    Meanwhile, consumer advocates are finding that ratepayers in some areas — such as the mid-Atlantic electricity grid, which encompasses all or parts of 13 states stretching from New Jersey to Illinois, as well as Washington, D.C. — are already underwriting the cost to supply power to data centers, some of them built, some not.

    “There’s speculation in there,” said Joe Bowring, who heads Monitoring Analytics, the independent market watchdog in the mid-Atlantic grid territory. “Nobody really knows. Nobody has been looking carefully enough at the forecast to know what’s speculative, what’s double-counting, what’s real, what’s not.”

    Suspicions about skyrocketing demand

    There is no standard practice across grids or for utilities to vet such massive projects, and figuring out a solution has become a hot topic, utilities and grid operators say.

    Uncertainty around forecasts is typically traced to a couple of things.

    One concerns developers seeking a grid connection, but whose plans aren’t set in stone or lack the heft — clients, financing or otherwise — to bring the project to completion, industry and regulatory officials say.

    Another is data center developers submitting grid connection requests in various separate utility territories, PJM Interconnection, which operates the mid-Atlantic grid, and Texas lawmakers have found.

    Often, developers, for competitive reasons, won’t tell utilities if or where they’ve submitted other requests for electricity, PJM said. That means a single project could inflate the energy forecasts of multiple utilities.

    The effort to improve forecasts got a high-profile boost in September, when a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission member asked the nation’s grid operators for information on how they determine that a project is not only viable, but will use the electricity it says it needs.

    “Better data, better decision-making, better and faster decisions mean we can get all these projects, all this infrastructure built,” the commissioner, David Rosner, said in an interview.

    The Edison Electric Institute, a trade association of for-profit electric utilities, said it welcomed efforts to improve demand forecasting.

    Real, speculative, or ‘somewhere in between’

    The Data Center Coalition, which represents tech giants like Google and Meta and data center developers, has urged regulators to request more information from utilities on their forecasts and to develop a set of best practices to determine the commercial viability of a data center project.

    The coalition’s vice president of energy, Aaron Tinjum, said improving the accuracy and transparency of forecasts is a “fundamental first step of really meeting this moment” of energy growth.

    “Wherever we go, the question is, ‘Is the (energy) growth real? How can we be so sure?’” Tinjum said. “And we really view commercial readiness verification as one of those important kind of low-hanging opportunities for us to be adopting at this moment.”

    Igal Feibush, the CEO of Pennsylvania Data Center Partners, a data center developer, said utilities are in a “fire drill” as they try to vet a deluge of data center projects all seeking electricity.

    The vast majority, he said, will fall off because many project backers are new to the concept and don’t know what it takes to get a data center built.

    States also are trying to do more to find out what’s in utility forecasts and weed out speculative or duplicative projects.

    In Texas, which is attracting large data center projects, lawmakers still haunted by a blackout during a deadly 2021 winter storm were shocked when told in 2024 by the grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, that its peak demand could nearly double by 2030.

    They found that state utility regulators lacked the tools to determine whether that was realistic.

    Texas state Sen. Phil King told a hearing earlier this year that the grid operator, utility regulators and utilities weren’t sure if the power requests “are real or just speculative or somewhere in between.”

    Lawmakers passed legislation sponsored by King, now law, that requires data center developers to disclose whether they have requests for electricity elsewhere in Texas and to set standards for developers to show that they have a substantial financial commitment to a site.

    Electricity bills are rising, too

    PPL Electric Utilities, which delivers power to 1.5 million customers across central and eastern Pennsylvania, projects that data centers will more than triple its peak electricity demand by 2030.

    Vincent Sorgi, president and CEO of PPL Corp., told analysts on an earnings call this month that the data center projects “are real, they are coming fast and furious” and that the “near-term risk of overbuilding generation simply does not exist.”

    The data center projects counted in the forecast are backed by contracts with financial commitments often reaching tens of millions of dollars, PPL said.

    Still, PPL’s projections helped spur a state lawmaker, Rep. Danilo Burgos, to introduce a bill to bolster the authority of state utility regulators to inspect how utilities assemble their energy demand forecasts.

    Ratepayers in Burgos’ Philadelphia district just absorbed an increase in their electricity bills — attributed by the utility, PECO, to the rising cost of wholesale electricity in the mid-Atlantic grid driven primarily by data center demand.

    That’s why ratepayers need more protection to ensure they are benefiting from the higher cost, Burgos said.

    “Once they make their buck, whatever company,” Burgos said, “you don’t see no empathy towards the ratepayers.”

    ___

    Follow Marc Levy at http://twitter.com/timelywriter.

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  • Apple is ramping up succession plans for CEO Tim Cook and may tap this hardware exec to take over, report says | Fortune

    Apple’s board of directors and senior executives have been accelerating succession plans for Tim Cook, sources told the Financial Times.

    After serving as CEO for 14 years, Cook may step down as early as next year, the report said.

    Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, 50-year-old John Ternus, is widely seen as the most likely successor, but no final decisions have been made yet, sources told the FT.

    The engineer joined Apple’s product design team in 2001 and has overseen hardware engineering for most major products the tech company has launched ever since, according to Ternus’ LinkedIn profile.

    He has also played a prominent role during Apple’s most recent keynotes, introducing products like the new iPhone Air. Ternus had been rumored to be Cook’s potential successor, according to previous reports. 

    The company is unlikely to name a new CEO before its next earnings report in late January, and an early-year announcement would allow a new leadership team time to settle in before its annual events, the FT said. 

    The succession preparations have been long-planned and are not related to the company’s current performance, which is expecting strong end-of-year sales, people close to Apple told the FT.

    Apple did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment and declined to provide a comment to the FT.

    The $4 trillion company is expecting year-on-year revenue growth of 10% to 12% for its holiday quarter ending in December, fueled by the release of the iPhone 17 model in September.

    Ternus would take the helm of the tech giant at an important time in its evolution. Although Apple has seen sales success with iPhones and new products like Airpods over the past couple of decades, it has struggled to break into AI and keep up with rivals.

    Instead, Apple has even spending significantly less in AI investments compared to Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft. 

    Apple has been criticized by analysts this year for not having a clear AI strategy. And despite approving a multibillion-dollar budget to run its own models via the cloud in 2026, it was reported in June that Apple is even considering using models from OpenAI and Anthropic to power its updated version of Siri, rather than using technology the company has built in-house. 

    Its AI-enabled Siri, originally slated for 2025, will be delayed until 2026 or later due to a series of technical challenges, the company announced earlier this year.

    Apple has also lost a number of senior AI team members since January, many of whom have joined Meta’s AI and Superintelligence Labs during talent poaching wars this year. The exodus of Apple’s AI execs included Ruoming Pang, former head of Apple’s foundation models and core generative AI team, who joined Meta with a compensation package reportedly worth $200 million.

    The company is also dealing with increased competition from one of its most influential former employees.

    In May, Sam Altman’s OpenAI acquired startup io for about $6.5 billion, bringing in former Apple chief designer Jony Ive to build AI devices. The 58-year-old designer was instrumental in creating the iPhone, iPod, and iPad. 

    Cook, Apple’s former operations chief, turned 65 this month. He has grown the company’s market capitalization to $4 trillion from $350 billion in 2011, when he took over the CEO role from company co-founder Steve Jobs.

    Under Cook, Apple became the first publicly traded company to reach $1 trillion in market capitalization in 2018—then it became the first company to reach $3 trillion in market cap in 2022.

    But more recently, its stock price has been lagging behind Big Tech rivals Alphabet, Nvidia, and Microsoft, though Apple is trading close to an all-time high after strong earnings were reported in October.

    Apple has also dealt with tariff complications as U.S.-China trade tensions have disrupted its supply chain.

    Cook has previously said he’d prefer an internal candidate to replace him, adding that the company has “very detailed succession plans.”

    “I really want the person to come from within Apple,” Cook told singer Dua Lipa last year on her podcast At Your Service.

    Nino Paoli

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  • These are the 37 donors helping pay for Trump’s $300 million White House ballroom

    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says his $300 million White House ballroom will be paid for “100% by me and some friends of mine.”

    The White House released a list of 37 donors, including crypto billionaires, charitable organizations, sports team owners, powerful financiers, tech and tobacco giants, media companies, longtime supporters of Republican causes and several of the president’s neighbors in Palm Beach, Florida.

    It’s incomplete. Among others, the list doesn’t include Carrier Group, which offered to donate an HVAC system for the ballroom, and artificial intelligence chipmaker Nvidia, whose CEO, Jensen Huang, publicly discussed its donation.

    The White House hasn’t said how much each donor is giving, and almost none was willing to divulge that. Very few commented on their contributions when contacted by The Associated Press.

    A senior White House official said the list has grown since it was first released in October, but some companies don’t want to be publicly named until required to do so by financial disclosure regulations. No foreign individuals or entities were among the donors, according to the official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details that haven’t been made public.

    Here’s a look at the divulged donors:

    Tech giants (8):

    Amazon Background: Trump was once highly critical of company founder Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, but has been much less so lately. Amazon donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, an event attended by Bezos. Its video streaming service paid $40 million to license a documentary about first lady Melania Trump. Its cloud-based computing operation, Amazon Web Services, is a major government contractor.

    Apple Background: After an up-and-down relationship during Trump’s first term, CEO Tim Cook has sought to improve his standing with the president this time. Before returning to the White House, Trump hosted Cook at his Palm Beach estate, Mar-a-Lago, and said he had spoken with Cook about the company’s long-running tax battles with the European Union. Cook also donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. In the spring, Trump threatened the computing giant with tariffs after Apple announced plans to build manufacturing facilities in India. In August, Cook presented the president with a customized glass plaque with a gold base as the CEO announced plans to bring Apple’s total investment commitment in U.S. manufacturing over four years to $600 billion.

    Google Background: During his first term, Trump’s administration sued Google for antitrust violations. While a candidate last year, Trump suggested he might seek to break up the search engine behemoth. Once Trump won the election, Google donated $1 million to his inauguration, and its CEO, Sundar Pichai, joined other major tech executives in attending the ceremony. Google’s subsidiary, YouTube, agreed in September to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit with Trump after it suspended his account following the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. According to court filings, $22 million of that went to the Trust for the National Mall, which can help pay for ballroom construction.

    HP Background: An original Silicon Valley stalwart, the company donated to Trump’s inaugural fund. HP ‘s CEO, Enrique Lores, participated in a White House roundtable event in September. Lores also previously met with President Joe Biden at the White House on multiple occasions as top CEOs endorsed that administration’s economic plans.

    Meta Background: Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg had been critical of Trump going back to 2016, and Facebook suspended Trump for years after the Jan. 6 insurrection. This time around, Meta contributed $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, and Zuckerberg attended.

    Micron Technology Background: The producer of advanced memory computer chips announced an April 2024 agreement with the Biden administration to provide $6.1 billion in government support for Micron to make chips domestically. Then, in June, Micron pledged $200 billion for U.S. memory chip manufacturing expansion under Trump. But at least $120 billion of that involved holdovers first announced during Biden’s administration.

    Microsoft Background: The company donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, twice what it spent for Biden’s or for Trump’s first inauguration. CEO Satya Nadella has also met with Trump numerous times, as Microsoft has supported the administration’s relaxation of regulations on artificial intelligence. He met previously with Biden, too. Trump has called for Microsoft’s president of global affairs, Lisa Monaco, to be fired because she was a deputy attorney general under Biden when the Justice Department led several investigations against Trump.

    Palantir Technologies Background: Co-founded by billionaire libertarian Peter Thiel, the firm concentrates on artificial intelligence and machine learning. It has seen profits soar thanks to lucrative defense and other federal contracts.

    Crypto (5):

    Coinbase Background: The major cryptocurrency exchange was founded by Brian Armstrong, a top donor to a political action committee that helped Trump and other pro-crypto candidates in 2024. Armstrong attended the first crypto summit at the White House in March. Coinbase also hired Trump’s co-campaign manager, Chris LaCivita, to its Global Advisory Council.

    Ripple Background: In March, the Securities and Exchange Commission dropped a lawsuit filed during Trump’s first term, which accused the company of violating securities laws by selling XRP crypto coins without a securities registration. In his second term, Trump has eased regulations on digital assets, repealing an SEC accounting rule and a previous presidential executive order mandating more federal study and proposed changes to crypto regulations.

    Tether Background: A cryptocurrency company and major stablecoin issuer, Tether paid fines for misleading investors. CEO Paolo Ardoino has been to Trump’s White House, and, in April, the company hired former Trump administration crypto policy official Bo Hines to lead its domestic expansion efforts.

    Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss Background: Each Winklevoss twin is listed as a separate donor. Best known as Zuckerberg’s chief antagonists in “The Social Network,” the brothers founded the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange. Biden’s SEC sued Gemini for selling unregistered securities, but the case has been paused under Trump.

    Energy and industrial (4):

    Caterpillar Background: The equipment maker ‘s PAC has donated to candidates from both parties, but given more to Republicans. It has also said publicly that Trump’s tariffs, some of which the administration has now eased, could increase its costs and hurt earnings.

    NextEra Energy Background: NextEra is the world’s largest electric utility holding company. Trump says he’ll work to ensure tech giants can secure their own sources of electricity to power data centers, especially as they expand energy-hogging artificial intelligence operations. Google recently entered into an agreement to buy power from a shuttered nuclear power plant in Iowa owned by NextEra, which the company plans to bring back online in 2029.

    Paolo Tiramani Background: An American industrial designer who has donated to Trump’s political campaigns. Tiramani, with his son, runs BOXABL, a firm specializing in modular, prefabricated homes.

    Union Pacific Background: Trump has endorsed the company’s proposed $85 billion acquisition of Norfolk Southern, which would be the largest-ever rail merger. It also will be up to the president to appoint two more Republican members of the Surface Transportation Board, who will ultimately decide whether to approve the merger. In August, Trump fired one of the two Democratic members of the board.

    Philanthropy (3):

    Adelson Family Foundation Background: Founded to strengthen the state of Israel and the Jewish people, the foundation was created by Miriam Adelson, the majority owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, close Trump ally and longtime GOP megadonor. She’s also the widow of Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire founder and owner of Las Vegas Sands.

    Betty Wold Johnson Foundation Background: Based in Palm Beach, the foundation supports health, arts and culture initiatives, as well as environmental and educational programs. It’s named in honor of the mother of New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, who served as Trump’s ambassador to the United Kingdom during his first term.

    Laura & Isaac Perlmutter Foundation Background: The nonprofit based in Lake Worth Beach, near Palm Beach, focuses on promoting health care, social justice, the arts and community initiatives. Isaac is an Israeli American businessman and financier and former chair of Marvel Entertainment. He and his wife have donated to Trump’s presidential campaigns and affiliated PACs.

    Trump administration officials (3):

    Benjamin Leon Jr. Background: The Cuban American founder of Miami-based Leon Medical Centers is Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to Spain.

    Kelly Loeffler and Jeffrey Sprecher Background: A former Republican senator from Georgia, Loeffler heads Trump’s Small Business Administration. Her husband is CEO of the energy market Intercontinental Exchange Inc. and chairs the New York Stock Exchange. The couple faced scrutiny in 2020 for dumping substantial portions of their portfolio and purchasing new stocks, including in firms making protective equipment, after Congress received briefings on the severity of the coming coronavirus pandemic.

    Lutnick Family Background: Howard Lutnick is Trump’s commerce secretary. A crypto enthusiast, he once headed the brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald.

    Communications/entertainment (3):

    Comcast Background: The mass media and telecom conglomerate has often been criticized by Trump, including in April, when the president posted that Comcast was a “disgrace to the integrity of broadcasting.” The company owns NBC and is spinning off MSNBC. It could be interested in acquiring Warner Bros. Discover, and that would leave Comcast looking for government approval.

    Hard Rock International Background: A Florida-based gaming and tourism concern owned by the Seminole Tribe, the company operates a number of casinos, including the former Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Trump has for decades criticized federal exemptions allowing tribes to operate casinos.

    T-Mobile Background: The wireless carrier is indirectly linked to Trump Mobile, which the president’s family controls and offers gold phones and cell service in a licensing deal. Trump Mobile uses Liberty Mobile Wireless, a small, Florida-based network that T-Mobile says runs its operations on T-Mobile’s network. T-Mobile says that is unrelated to its decision to donate to Trump’s ballroom, which it says is meant to “restore and enrich the historic landmarks that define our nation’s capital.”

    Big Tobacco (2):

    Altria Group Background: The tobacco giant controls Philip Morris USA, maker of Marlboro. It has pressed for federal crackdowns on counterfeit and illegal vaping products. The company donated $50,000 to Trump’s inauguration.

    Reynolds American Background: With brands including Lucky Strike and Camel, the company has been active in lobbying to steer the Trump administration away from a Biden-proposed ban on menthol cigarettes.

    Defense/national security (2):

    Booz Allen Hamilton Background: A major defense and national security technology firm with extensive government contracts, it paid fines to settle lawsuits with the Justice Department under Biden. Booz Allen Hamilton agreed to pay more than $377 million in 2023 to settle allegations that it improperly billing costs to its government contracts. In January, it paid nearly $16 million to settle allegations that it submitted fraudulent claims in connection with government contracts.

    Lockheed Martin Corporation Background: The massive defense contractor has huge government contracts. It said in a statement that it “is grateful for the opportunity to help bring the President’s vision to reality and make this addition to the People’s House.”

    Individuals (7):

    Stefan E. Brodie Background: A biotech entrepreneur and co-founder of the chemical manufacturing company Purolite, Brodie and his family donated to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and affiliated committees. Brodie and his brother, Donald, were convicted in 2002 of circumventing U.S. sanctions on Cuba.

    Charles and Marissa Cascarilla Background: Charles Cascarilla is co‑founder of the blockchain firm Paxos. He and his wife are philanthropists who have advocated for financial technology sector deregulation.

    J. Pepe and Emilia Fanjul Background: Longtime Republican donors and Palm Beach residents, the couple controls U.S. sugar refining interests that includes the Domino brand.

    Edward and Shari Glazer Background: Members of the family that owns the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and has a controlling stake in the Manchester United football club, the couple donated to Trump’s campaign. Edward is the founder and CEO of US Property Trust, which operates shopping centers, and the car dealership company US Auto Trust.

    Harold Hamm Background: The billionaire oil tycoon and pioneer of hydraulic fracturing heads the oil producer Continental Resources. He’s praised the Trump administration for aggressively moving to purchase oil to replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve stockpile.

    Stephen A. Schwarzman Background: A Palm Beach resident and chair and CEO of the Blackstone Group, a global private equity firm he helped establish in 1985. Schwarzman has donated to Trump and his PACs previously and led his first-term President’s Strategic and Policy Forum.

    Konstantin Sokolov Background: Born in Russia, he immigrated to the U.S. and now heads the Chicago-based private equity firm IJS Investments. Sokolov has donated to many educational and charitable causes in the past, and to Trump’s political campaigns.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.

    ___

    This story has been updated to correct the first name of an individual who donated to the White House ballroom. He is Harold Hamm, not Howard Hamm.

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  • Anthropic, Microsoft announce new AI data center projects as industry’s construction push continues

    Artificial intelligence company Anthropic announced a $50 billion investment in computing infrastructure on Wednesday that will include new data centers in Texas and New York.

    Microsoft also on Wednesday announced a new data center under construction in Atlanta, Georgia, describing it as connected to another in Wisconsin to form a “massive supercomputer” running on hundreds of thousands of Nvidia chips to power AI technology.

    The latest deals show that the tech industry is moving forward on huge spending to build energy-hungry AI infrastructure, despite lingering financial concerns about a bubble, environmental considerations and the political effects of fast-rising electricity bills in the communities where the massive buildings are constructed.

    Anthropic, maker of the chatbot Claude, said it is working with London-based Fluidstack to build the new computing facilities to power its AI systems. It didn’t disclose their exact locations or what source of electricity they will need.

    Another company, cryptocurrency mining data center developer TeraWulf, has previously revealed it was working with Fluidstack on Google-backed data center projects in Texas and New York, on the shore of Lake Ontario. TeraWulf declined comment Wednesday.

    A report last month from TD Cowen said that the leading cloud computing providers leased a “staggering” amount of U.S. data center capacity in the third fiscal quarter of this year, amounting to more than 7.4 gigawatts of energy, more than all of last year combined.

    Oracle was securing the most capacity during that time, much of it supporting AI workloads for Anthropic’s chief rival OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT. Google was second and Fluidstack came in third, ahead of Meta, Amazon, CoreWeave and Microsoft.

    Anthropic said its projects will create about 800 permanent jobs and 2,400 construction jobs. It said in a statement that the “scale of this investment is necessary to meet the growing demand for Claude from hundreds of thousands of businesses while keeping our research at the frontier.”

    Microsoft has branded its two-story Atlanta data center as Fairwater 2 and said it will be connected across a “high-speed network” with the original Fairwater complex being built south of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The company said the facility’s densely packed Nvidia chips will help power Microsoft’s own AI technology, along with OpenAI’s and other AI developers.

    Microsoft was, until earlier this year, OpenAI’s exclusive cloud computing provider before the two companies amended their partnership. OpenAI has since announced more than $1 trillion in infrastructure obligations, much of it tied to its Stargate project with partners Oracle and SoftBank. Microsoft, in turn, spent nearly $35 billion in the July-September quarter on capital expenditures to support its AI and cloud demand, nearly half of that on computer chips.

    Anthropic has made its own computing partnerships with Amazon and, more recently, Google.

    The tech industry’s big spending on computing infrastructure for AI startups that aren’t yet profitable has fueled concerns about an AI investment bubble.

    Investors have closely watched a series of circular deals over recent months between AI developers and the companies building the costly chips and data centers needed to power their AI products. Anthropic said it will continue to “prioritize cost-effective, capital-efficient approaches” to scaling up its business.

    OpenAI had to backtrack last week after its chief financial officer, Sarah Friar, made comments at a tech conference suggesting the U.S. government could help in financing chips needed for data centers. The White House’s top AI official, David Sacks, responded on social media platform X that there “will be no federal bailout for AI” and if one of the leading companies fails, “others will take its place,” though he also added he didn’t think “anyone was actually asking for a bailout.”

    OpenAI CEO Sam Altman later confirmed in a lengthy statement that “we do not have or want government guarantees” for the company’s data centers and also sought to address concerns about whether it will be able to pay for all the infrastructure it has signed up for.

    “We are looking at commitments of about $1.4 trillion over the next 8 years,” Altman wrote. “Obviously this requires continued revenue growth, and each doubling is a lot of work! But we are feeling good about our prospects there.”

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  • Gemini AI to transform Google Maps into a more conversational experience

    Google Maps is heading in a new direction with artificial intelligence sitting in the passenger’s seat.

    Fueled by Google’s Gemini AI technology, the world’s most popular navigation app will become a more conversational companion as part of a redesign announced Wednesday.

    The hands-free experience is meant to turn Google Maps into something more like an insightful passenger able to direct a driver to a destination while also providing nearby recommendations on places to eat, shop or sightsee, when asked for the advice.

    “No fumbling required — now you can just ask,” Google promised in a blog post about the app makeover.

    The AI features are also supposed to enable Google Maps to be more precise by calling out landmarks to denote the place to make a turn instead of relying on distance notifications.

    AI chatbots, like Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, have sometimes lapsed into periods of making things up — known as “hallucinations” in tech speak — but Google is promising that built-in safeguards will prevent Maps from accidentally sending drivers down the wrong road.

    All the information that Gemini is drawing upon will be culled from the roughly 250 million places stored in Google Maps’ database of reviews accumulated during the past 20 years.

    Google Maps’ new AI capabilities will be rolling out to both Apple’s iPhone and Android mobile devices.

    That will give Google’s Gemini a massive audience to impress — or disappoint — with its AI prowess, given the navigation app is used by more than 2 billion people around the world. Besides making it even more indispensable, Google is hoping the AI features will turn into a showcase that help gives Gemini a competitive edge against ChatGPT.

    Prodded by OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT in late 2022, Google has been steadily rolling out more of its own technology designed to ensure its products continue to evolve with the upheaval being unleashed by AI. The changes have included an overhaul of Google’s ubiquitous search engine that has de-emphasized a listing of relevant web links in its results and increasingly highlighted AI overviews and conversational responses provided through an AI mode.

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  • Washington Trust Advisors Inc. Sells 5,938 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

    Washington Trust Advisors Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL – Free Report) by 3.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 172,728 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 5,938 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for about 2.5% of Washington Trust Advisors Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. Washington Trust Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $30,440,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

    Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 242.9% in the first quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 168 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. IMA Advisory Services Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet in the first quarter valued at about $28,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet in the first quarter valued at about $28,000. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 85.7% in the first quarter. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC now owns 195 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 36.4% in the second quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

    Analysts Set New Price Targets

    Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Melius Research upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $255.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. China Renaissance upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $207.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. CIBC upped their target price on shares of Alphabet to $315.00 in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Mizuho set a $325.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have issued a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $303.09.

    Get Our Latest Report on GOOGL

    Alphabet Stock Down 2.2%

    Alphabet stock opened at $277.54 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.36 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a 50 day moving average of $246.91 and a 200-day moving average of $202.13. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $291.59.

    Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. The company had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 36.08% and a net margin of 32.23%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

    Insider Transactions at Alphabet

    In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total transaction of $680,610.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 17,293 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,236,785. This represents a 13.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total transaction of $4,408,034.72. Following the transaction, the insider owned 42,985 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,635,348.70. The trade was a 29.30% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 190,896 shares of company stock valued at $45,092,175 over the last three months. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

    About Alphabet

    (Free Report)

    Alphabet Inc offers various products and platforms in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The Google Services segment provides products and services, including ads, Android, Chrome, devices, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube.

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    Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)



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  • Divergent Planning LLC Takes $6.91 Million Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

    Divergent Planning LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL – Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 39,189 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $6,906,000. Alphabet comprises approximately 1.2% of Divergent Planning LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest holding.

    Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 242.9% in the 1st quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 168 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. von Borstel & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter valued at $28,000. IMA Advisory Services Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter valued at $28,000. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 85.7% during the first quarter. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC now owns 195 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the period. Finally, Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter valued at $39,000. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

    Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

    A number of analysts have recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $306.00 target price (up from $255.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. BMO Capital Markets set a $294.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $330.00 price target (up previously from $285.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price target on Alphabet from $265.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have given a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $301.98.

    Check Out Our Latest Research Report on GOOGL

    Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

    In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total transaction of $4,408,034.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 42,985 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,635,348.70. This represents a 29.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.92, for a total transaction of $145,752.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 5,116 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,242,778.72. The trade was a 10.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders sold 246,150 shares of company stock valued at $55,805,379. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

    Alphabet Price Performance

    GOOGL opened at $281.31 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $291.59. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $244.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $199.68. The company has a market capitalization of $3.40 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.74, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

    Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. The company had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 36.08% and a net margin of 32.23%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

    About Alphabet

    (Free Report)

    Alphabet Inc offers various products and platforms in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The Google Services segment provides products and services, including ads, Android, Chrome, devices, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube.

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    Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)



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  • Disney content has gone dark on YouTube TV. Here’s what customers should know

    NEW YORK (AP) — Disney content has gone dark on YouTube TV, leaving subscribers of the Google-owned live streaming platform without access to major networks like ESPN and ABC.

    That’s because the companies have failed to reach a new licensing deal to keep Disney channels on YouTube TV. Depending on how long it lasts, the dispute could particularly impact coverage of U.S. college football matchups over the weekend — as well as NBA and NFL games — on top of other news and entertainment disruptions that have already arrived.

    In the meantime, YouTube TV subscribers who want to watch Disney channels could have little choice other than turning to traditional broadcasting or the company’s own platforms — which come with their own price tags.

    Here’s what we know.

    Why is Disney content not on YouTube TV today?

    Disney content was pulled from YouTube TV after a carriage agreement expired on Thursday. The two sides have been unable to reach a new deal to continue licensing Disney channels on the platform — resulting in the current blackout.

    YouTube TV says that Disney is proposing terms that would be too costly, resulting in higher prices and fewer choices for its subscribers. Google’s streamer has accused Disney of following through on “the threat of a blackout on YouTube TV as a negotiating tactic” — and claims that the move also benefits Disney’s own streaming products like Hulu + Live TV and Fubo.

    Meanwhile, Disney says that YouTube TV has refused to pay fair rates of its channels — and is therefore choosing “to deny their subscribers the content they value most.” The California entertainment giant also accused Google of “using its market dominance to eliminate competition and undercut the industry-standard terms we’ve successfully negotiated with every other distributor.”

    In a Friday note to employees, Disney Entertainment Co-Chairs Dana Walden and Alan Bergman and ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro added that YouTube TV pulled Disney content Thursday night “prior to the midnight expiration of our deal” — and noted the platform also deleted subscribers’ previously-recorded programming. The Associated Press reached out to Google for further comment.

    What channels are impacted?

    ESPN and ABC are among the biggest networks that YouTube TV subscribers can no longer access amid the dispute.

    And beyond those top sports and news offerings, other Disney-owned content that is now dark on the platform include channels specific to U.S. college athletic regions, like the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Southeastern Conference. NatGeo and FX are also impacted.

    Here’s a recap of the full list outlined by YouTube TV:

      1. ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNews and ESPN Deportes (Spanish Plan)

      2. ABC and ABC News Live

      3. Nat Geo, Nat Geo Wild and Nat Geo Mundo (Spanish Plan)

      4. Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Disney XD

      5. FX, FXX and FXM

      6. SEC Network and ACC Network

      7. Freeform

      8. Localish

      9. Baby TV Español (Spanish Plan)

    Google says that streamer adds-ons like 4K Plus and Spanish Plus are also affected.

    Where else can I watch ESPN and ABC?

    Consumers can continue to watch Disney’s sports programming on the company’s own ESPN offerings — but it will come with an additional cost. For streaming, the network launched its own platform earlier this year under the same ESPN name, starting at $29.99 a month.

    Other Disney content can be found on platforms like Hulu, Disney+ and Fubo. Again, those come with their own price tags. Disney also allows people to bundle ESPN along with Hulu and Disney+ for $35.99 a month — or $29.99 a month for the first year.

    Disney also directed customers to a website called KeepMyNetworks.com to explore other options, which includes more traditional broadcast services.

    But if you’re a YouTube TV subscriber and don’t have these streaming subscriptions or broadcast offerings, you might be left without access to this Disney content as long as the impasse lasts. YouTube TV said it would give subscribers a $20 credit if Disney content unavailable “for an extended period of time.”

    YouTube TV’s base subscription plan costs $82.99 per month. Beyond Disney content, the platform currently offers live TV from networks like NBC, CBS, Fox, BBC, PBS, Hallmark, Food Network and more.

    How long could the dispute last?

    YouTube TV and Disney have acknowledged that the disruption is frustrating — and both maintain that they’re still committed to finding a resolution. But only time will tell.

    The current blackout marks the latest in growing list of licensing disputes that impact consumers’ access to content.

    From sports events to awards shows, live programming that was once reserved for broadcast has increasingly made its way into the streaming world over the years — as more and more consumers ditch traditional cable or satellite TV subscriptions for content they can get online. But renewing carriage agreements can also mean tense contract negotiations, particularly amid growing competition in the space.

    YouTube TV and Disney have been down this road before. In 2021, YouTube TV subscribers also briefly lost access to all Disney content on the platform after a similar contract breakdown between the two companies. That outage lasted less than two days, with the companies eventually reaching an agreement.

    Some past impasses have been shorter and limited to a matter of hours — or found a way to temporarily ward of disruptions at the last minute. In August, for example, YouTube TV reached a “short-term extension” in its contract dispute with Fox, and the two later reached a new licensing deal.

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  • Disney pulls ABC, ESPN and more from YouTube TV as talks break down

    YouTube TV viewers can no longer see Disney channels including ABC and ESPN after the two sides failed to agree on a new content distribution deal.

    Other channels that vanished from Google’s pay TV platform include the Disney Channel, FX and Nat Geo.

    Google’s pay TV platform said in a blog post late Thursday that Disney had followed through on a threat to suspend its content amid the negotiations.

    The breakdown could impact coverage of some college football games on Saturday, as well as NBA, NFL and NHL games.

    YouTube is the largest internet TV provider in the U.S. with more than 9 million subscribers. Hulu, owned by Disney, is next, with about half that many subscribers.

    Viewers have become aware of the dispute in recent weeks because of warnings being scrolled across their screens.

    YouTube said Disney used the threat of a blackout as a negotiating tactic that would have resulted in higher prices for its subscribers. Disney’s move to take down its content also benefits its own streaming products Hulu + Live TV and Fubo, YouTube said.

    “We know this is a frustrating and disappointing outcome for our subscribers and we continue to urge Disney to work with us constructively to reach a fair agreement that restores their networks to YouTube TV,” it said.

    YouTube said it would give subscribers a $20 credit if Disney content unavailable “for an extended period of time.” YouTube TV’s base subscription plan costs $82.99 per month.

    Disney said that YouTube TV is refusing to pay fair rates for its channels and has chosen to “deny their subscribers the content they value most,” pointing out the number of Top 25 teams playing this weekend.

    “With a $3 trillion market cap, Google is using its market dominance to eliminate competition and undercut the industry-standard terms we’ve successfully negotiated with every other distributor,” Disney said. The company said that it was committed to reaching a resolution as quickly as possible.

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  • Apple delivers strong quarter despite trade war challenges and ongoing artificial technology issues

    SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple delivered financial results during its summertime quarter that exceeded analyst projections, despite being caught in the crosshairs of a global trade war at the same time the trendsetting company is scrambling to catch up to its Big Tech peers in the artificial intelligence race.

    The performance announced Thursday was driven largely by strong initial demand for its iPhone 17 lineup that went on sale last month.

    Although the iPhone 17 lacks the AI wizardry featured in rival devices recently introduced by Samsung and Google, Apple spruced up its latest models with a redesign highlighted by a sleek “liquid glass” appearance on the display screens.

    Apple also largely maintained its pricing on its latest iPhones, despite being squeezed by the tariffs that President Donald Trump has imposed on the U.S. devices that the company mostly makes in India and China. The tariffs cost Apple $1.1 billion during the past quarter and are expected to cost another $1.4 billion during the final three months of the year.

    The formula apparently was enough to win over consumers, particularly in the United States and Europe, helping to produce iPhone sales totaling $49 billion during the July-September period, a 6% increase from the same time last year. That was slightly below the 8% jump in iPhone sales that had been anticipated by analysts, and less than the 13% bump in sales during the April-June period.

    IDC estimates that 58.6 million iPhones were sold worldwide in the July-September quarter, putting Apple second behind Samsung at 61.4 million of their Android-powered phones sold worldwide in the quarter.

    Buoyed by the iPhone results, Apple earned $27.5 billion, or $1.85 per share, nearly doubling its profit from a year ago. Revenue climbed 8% from a year ago to $102.5 billion. Both the earnings and revenue eclipsed the analyst forecasts that steer the stock market.

    Apple shares surged 3% in extended trading after the numbers came out.

    In a conference call with analysts, Apple CEO Tim Cook indicated his belief that the iPhone 17 lineup will continue to do well, predicting even more of the devices will be sold during the final three months of the year. “As we head into the holiday season with our most powerful lineup ever, I couldn’t be more excited for what’s to come,” Cook said. He cited the iPhone 17’s popularity in most parts of the world except China, where sales of the device dipped by 4% from a year ago.

    The Cupertino, California, company expects its iPhone sales to increase at least 10% from last year’s holiday season, according to projections provided by Apple’s chief financial officer, Kevan Parekh. Total revenue is expected to rise at a similar rate.

    Apple’s stock has been on a tear since a report earlier this month from the research firm International Data Corp. telegraphed the quarterly results with a preliminary analysis that concluded the company had set a new July-September record for iPhone sales. The rally catapulted Apple’s market value above $4 trillion for the first time earlier this week and now the stage is set for the shares to hit another new high during Friday’s regular trading session.

    But Apple has been widely seen as a laggard in the AI craze, one of the reasons that Nvidia — a chipmaker whose processors power the technology — became the first company to be valued at $5 trillion earlier this week.

    Apple had promised a wide array of AI features would be rolling out on last year’s iPhone models, but was only able to deliver a few of them. The missing upgrades included a smarter and more versatile version of its frequently flummoxed Siri virtual assistant – a makeover that Apple now doesn’t expect to complete until next year.

    But Apple has a long history of late starts when technology starts to head in another direction before it finally catches up and emerges as a front-runner.

    If Apple can pull it off again by eventually implanting more AI features on the iPhone, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives believes those breakthroughs could boost the company’s market share by another $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion, translating into $75 to $100 per share.

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