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☆ Here's the state of the AI trade after a great first-quarter run for many of our portfolio stocks
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-01 | by ( Zev Fima | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

As the second quarter begins, we're taking stock of the AI trade. Microsoft leads There's no denying Microsoft's execution, which paved the way for generative AI to go mainstream and the company to then make money from the emerging technology. Alphabet may have messed up by letting Microsoft leap ahead on generative AI, but the company has years of experience in artificial intelligence research. That alone should tell you just how big these companies are betting that generative AI will indeed be transformative — on par with smartphones or the internet itself. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio.

Persons: Jefferies, There's, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Siri can't, Claude, Claude 3, That's, Meta, Jim Cramer's, Jim Cramer, Jim, Peter Dasilva Organizations: Microsoft, Jefferies, Google, Apple, Developers Conference, Amazon, CNBC, Olympus, Facebook Locations: Siri, U.S, Meta, Mountain View , California

☆ Meta to Require Campaigns to Disclose AI-Altered Political Ads
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-08 | by ( Salvador Rodriguez | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Meta said advertisers that it determines didn’t make disclosures as required will have their ads rejected. Photo: Peter DaSilva/ReutersMeta Platforms on Wednesday announced that it will require advertisers to disclose when they run political ads with media that has been digitally altered by artificial intelligence or other software ahead of the U.S. presidential election in 2024. The Facebook parent company said the new policy will go into effect at the start of the new year. Political advertisers will have to disclose when an ad contains an image, video or audio that was digitally created or altered significantly.

Persons: Meta, Peter DaSilva Organizations: Reuters, U.S, Facebook

A view of the main lobby of building BV200, during a tour of Google's new Bay View Campus in Mountain View, California, U.S. May 16, 2022. The California settlement requires Google to pay $93 million, and disclose more about how it tracks people's whereabouts and uses data it collects. Money from Google's $62 million settlement with private plaintiffs would, after deducting legal fees, go to court-approved nonprofit groups that track internet privacy concerns. Last November, Google agreed to pay $391.5 million to resolve similar allegations by 40 U.S. states. Lawyers for the private plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Persons: Peter DaSilva, Rob Bonta, cy, Jonathan Stempel, Leslie Adler, Daniel Wallis Organizations: REUTERS, Google, Alphabet Inc, Thomson Locations: Mountain View , California, U.S, California, View , California, Arizona, Washington, New York

A view of the main lobby of building BV200, during a tour of Google's new Bay View Campus in Mountain View, California, U.S. May 16, 2022. REUTERS/Peter DaSilva/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsCompanies Alphabet Inc FollowSept 14 (Reuters) - Google will pay California $93 million to resolve a lawsuit accusing the search engine company of misleading consumers about its location tracking practices. The Mountain View, California-based company did not admit liability in agreeing to settle. Last November, Google agreed to pay $391.5 million to resolve similar allegations by 40 U.S. states. Some states including California chose to sue Google on their own.

Persons: Peter DaSilva, Rob Bonta, Google, Bonta, Jonathan Stempel, Leslie Adler Organizations: REUTERS, Google, California, Alphabet Inc, Thomson Locations: Mountain View , California, U.S, California, View , California, Arizona, Washington, New York

☆ Meta starts process to end news access in Canada over law on paying publishers
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Morning commute traffic streams past the Meta sign outside the headquarters of Facebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc in Mountain View, California, U.S. November 9, 2022. REUTERS/Peter DaSilva/File PhotoAug 1 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms (META.O) has begun the process to end access to news on Facebook and Instagram for all users in Canada, it said on Tuesday, in response to a legislation requiring internet giants to pay news publishers. The Online News Act, passed by the Canadian parliament, would force platforms like Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL.O) and Meta to negotiate commercial deals with Canadian news publishers for their content. Canada's legislation is similar to a ground-breaking law that Australia passed in 2021 and had triggered threats from Google and Facebook to curtail their services. But on the Canadian law, Google has argued that it is broader than those enacted in Australia and Europe as it puts a price on news story links displayed in search results and can apply to outlets that do not produce news.

Persons: Peter DaSilva, Rachel Curran, Meta's, Pascale St, Meta, Justin Trudeau, Chavi Mehta, David Ljunggren, Ismail Shakil, Arun Koyyur Organizations: Facebook, Meta, REUTERS, Canadian Heritage, Google, Canadian, Thomson Locations: Mountain View , California, U.S, Canada, Australia, Europe, Bengaluru, Montreal, Ontario

[1/2] A view shows a cooked piece of cultivated chicken breast created at the Upside Foods plant, where lab-grown meat is cultivated, in Emeryville, California, U.S. January 11, 2023. Difficulty competing with conventional meat on price has plagued the plant-based meat sector, which has failed to meet market share expectations. To be price competitive, cultivated meat must reach a production cost of $2.92 per pound, Goncalves said. Last year, governments spent about $635 million on alternative proteins, about $167 million of which was for cultivated meat, according to the group. China Chilcano's chefs said the product behaved very similarly to conventional chicken and offered some improvements, like rapid absorption of marinades.

Persons: Peter DaSilva, Matthew Walker, Leticia Goncalves, Goncalves, Andrew Noyes, Jose Andres's, Gustavo Burger, Believer, Steve Cahillane, Alan Grublauskas, Noyes, chefs, Leah Douglas, Tom Polansek, Josie Kao Organizations: REUTERS, WASHINGTON, U.S . Department of Agriculture, Food and Drug Administration, S2G Ventures, Daniels, Midland, Washington , D.C, Food Institute, Kellogg, Reuters, Food Forum, Thomson Locations: Emeryville , California, U.S, Jose Andres's China, Washington ,, Chicago, China, San Francisco, Washington

[1/3] A view shows a cooked piece of cultivated chicken breast created at the Upside Foods plant, where lab-grown meat is cultivated, in Emeryville, California, U.S. January 11, 2023. REUTERS/Peter DaSilva/File PhotoJune 21 (Reuters) - Two companies, Upside Foods and Good Meat, can sell cell-cultivated meat to U.S. consumers for the first time after the U.S. Department of Agriculture granted them final approval on Wednesday, the companies said. The companies are the first to complete a multi-step approval process for cultivated meat that involves signoff from both the USDA and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. "It is a dream come true," said Uma Valeti, CEO of Upside, in an interview. Reporting by Leah Douglas; editing by Jonathan OatisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Peter DaSilva, Uma Valeti, Leah Douglas, Jonathan Oatis Organizations: REUTERS, U.S . Department of Agriculture, USDA, U.S . Food, Drug Administration, Thomson Locations: Emeryville , California, U.S, United States, Singapore

☆ Meta Platforms' return to growth index highlights annual Russell refresh
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Chuck Mikolajczak | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

REUTERS/Peter DaSilvaNEW YORK, June 21 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms (META.O) will return to its former status as a full growth stock after financial data provider FTSE Russell finishes its annual shakeup of its stock index components on Friday. Every year, FTSE Russell reconstitutes, or refreshes, the components across its indexes, such as the Russell 2000 (.RUT) index of small cap stocks and Russell 1000 (.RUI) index of large-cap names. There are also style indexes such as the Russell 1000 Growth (.RLG) and Russell 2000 Value (.RUJ). FTSE Russell says about $12.1 trillion is currently benchmarked to the Russell US equity indexes. "The growth indexes look more like growth benchmarks and the value indexes look more like cyclical value indices," said Steven DeSanctis, equity analyst at Jefferies in New York.

Persons: Peter DaSilva, Russell, FTSE Russell reconstitutes, RUI, Goldman Sachs, Stocks, Goldman, Bryant VanCronkhite, VanCronkhite, Catherine Yoshimoto, Steven DeSanctis, You've, Thomas Martin, Chuck Mikolajczak, Alden Bentley, Matthew Lewis Organizations: Facebook, Meta, REUTERS, Russell, FTSE, FTSE Russell, London Stock Exchange, Allspring Global Investments, Walmart, Jefferies, Nasdaq, New York Stock Exchange, Globalt Investments, Thomson Locations: Mountain View , California, U.S, Menomonee Falls , Wisconsin, New York, Atlanta

[1/3] A logo of The UPSIDE Foods plant, where lab-grown meat is cultivated, is seen in Emeryville, California, U.S. January 11, 2023. On June 8, California-based Good Meat became the first company to receive the USDA label approval. Both Good and Upside are still awaiting a site inspection from USDA, the final step in the regulatory approval process before their cultivated chicken can go to market. Upside was the first company to receive a green light for its cultivated chicken from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last year. Cultivated meat is made from a small sample of livestock cells collected from living animals, which are then fed a nutrient mix and grown inside steel vats.

Persons: Peter DaSilva, ”, Uma Valeti, Leah Douglas, Jonathan Oatis, Matthew Lewis Organizations: REUTERS, U.S . Department of Agriculture, USDA, U.S . Food, Drug Administration, FDA, Thomson Locations: Emeryville , California, U.S, United States, California, Washington

☆ Meta hit by record 1.2 bln euro fine by EU over U.S. data transfers
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

[1/2] A security guard stands watch by the Meta sign outside the headquarters of Facebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc in Mountain View, California, U.S. November 9, 2022. REUTERS/Peter DaSilvaDUBLIN, May 22 (Reuters) - Meta (META.O) was hit on Monday with a record 1.2 billion euro ($1.3 billion) fine by its lead privacy regulator in the European Union for its handling of user information and given five months to stop transferring users’ data to the United States. The fine imposed by Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) concerned Meta's continued transferring of personal data and topped the previous 746 million euro record EU privacy fine by Luxembourg on Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) in 2021, according to a DPC statement. Reporting by Padraic HalpinOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Leading AI developers, including Anthropic, Google, Hugging Face, NVIDIA Corp (NVDA.O), OpenAI, and Stability AI, will participate in a public evaluation of their AI systems. Shortly after Biden announced his reelection bid, the Republican National Committee produced a video featuring a dystopian future during a second Biden term, which was built entirely with AI imagery. Such political ads are expected to become more common as AI technology proliferates. In February, Biden signed an executive order directing federal agencies to eliminate bias in their AI use. The Biden administration has also released an AI Bill of Rights and a risk management framework.

☆ Elizabeth Holmes’s Prison-Reporting Date Is Delayed
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Meghan Bobrowsky | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Photo: Peter DaSilva/ShutterstockElizabeth Holmes , the disgraced Theranos founder convicted of criminal fraud, doesn’t have to report to prison Thursday. Ms. Holmes appealed her guilty verdict to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in December and this week asked it directly if she could stay out of prison while her case makes its way through the appeals process, according to a legal filing Wednesday. The request automatically puts Ms. Holmes’s reporting date on hold while the court considers her request.

☆ Samsung stock little changed as it reports profits plunged 95% in Q1 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

For the current quarter, Samsung said it expected limited recovery for memory chips as major data center firms invested more conservatively in servers. The South Korean tech giant’s chip division — normally its most reliable cash cow — reported a 4.58 trillion won loss compared to an 8.45 trillion won profit a year earlier. Despite the record loss in chips, Samsung said it spent 10.7 trillion won in capital expenditures during Q1, the highest for the first quarter of any year. Samsung’s mobile business was a brighter spot, reporting 3.94 trillion won profit in Q1, up from 3.82 trillion won a year earlier. Samsung shares have risen about 16% year-to-date as investors anticipate a memory chip recovery in the second half of this year.

[1/3] Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes arrives to attend her fraud trial at federal court in San Jose, California, U.S., December 16, 2021. REUTERS/Peter DaSilva/File PhotoNEW YORK, March 23 (Reuters) - A key prosecution witness whose testimony helped convict Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes of fraud sued Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) on Thursday over a recent Hulu miniseries that he says defamed him by portraying him as corrupt. Rosendorff said the character, Mark Roessler, covered up Theranos' fraud by ordering the destruction of damaging lab results, falsifying records and engaging in other dishonest and unethical conduct. "At the time of the trial, (Rosendorff) was considered a heroic whistle-blower, a witness who was instrumental in the jury’s verdict convicting Holmes," the filing said. The case is Rosendorff v Hulu LLC et al, New York State Supreme Court, New York County, No.

Google (GOOGL), which for years ranked as the top company to work for in the United States, laid off thousands of workers by e-mail. During her early years there, she worked in marketing and became known as the “The Bard of Google” for the internal emails she sent celebrating the company’s culture. Google employee affected by January layoffs“The problem was, suddenly, you didn’t work for a company that was sending stuff to space or building autonomous cars,” Rout said. Hundreds of Google employees in Switzerland staged a walkout last week to protest layoffs, partly out of frustration with the lack of transparency. About a month before the January layoffs, one former employee said Google painted “You Belong” on one of the walls in their working area.

☆ Google makes changes to Android in India after antitrust setbacks
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Aditya Kalra | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Hoping to block the implementation of the CCI directives, Google had approached the Supreme Court, warning that growth of its Android ecosystem will stall. The court had also said a lower tribunal - where Google first challenged the Android directives - can continue to hear the company's appeal and must rule by March 31. The U.S. search giant also said it is updating the Android compatibility requirements to introduce changes for partners to build non-compatible variants of Android. In Europe, Google was fined for putting in place what the Commission called unlawful restrictions on Android mobile device makers. Regarding in-app billing, Google said it will start offering users choice billing to all apps and games starting next month which will help developers offer an option to choose alternative systems alongside Google's when purchasing in-app digital content.

But to reach its ultimate destination - supermarket shelves - cultivated meat faces big obstacles, five executives told Reuters. California-based cultivated meat company GOOD Meat already has an application pending with the FDA, which has not been previously reported. Regulatory approval is just the first hurdle for making cultivated meat accessible to a broad swath of consumers, executives at UPSIDE, Mosa Meat, Believer Meats, and GOOD Meat told Reuters. But it will take hundreds of millions of dollars for GOOD Meat, for example, to build bioreactors of the size needed to make its meat at scale, Tetrick said. But cultivated meat companies have the advantage that they can claim their product is real meat, Tetrick said.

☆ Top Wall Street analysts pick these stocks to celebrate the new year
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-08 | by ( Tipranks.Com Staff | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

To help the process, here are five stocks chosen by Wall Street's top analysts, according to TipRanks, a platform that ranks analysts based on their track record. (See Apple Dividend Date & History on TipRanks) The analyst reiterated a Buy rating on AAPL stock with a price target of $210. "AAPL is on our Research Focus List and in our Focus Opportunity Portfolio," emphasized Feinseth, who holds the #269 position among more than 8,000 analysts on TipRanks. The analyst's ratings have been profitable 59% of the time and each rating has generated average returns of 10.5%. Despite reducing the near-term price target to $27 from $30, Kelley maintains a Buy rating on Bumble.

[1/4] Traffic navigates around downed tree limbs along 19th Avenue after a new bout of rainstorms threatens to flood San Francisco, in California, U.S. January 4, 2023. Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, and state officials urged Californians to avoid travel during the storm. Crews in San Francisco spent the night cleaning up debris from felled trees that blocked roadways. The area lies in the heart of the Sonoma Wine Country, a tourist magnet just north of San Francisco. Nearly 100 flights were canceled at San Francisco International Airport on Wednesday, and an additional 15 had already been canceled on Thursday.

☆ Irish privacy regulator fines Meta more than $400 mln
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] A security guard stands watch by the Meta sign outside the headquarters of Facebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc in Mountain View, California, U.S. November 9, 2022. REUTERS/Peter DaSilvaDUBLIN, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Ireland's data privacy regulator fined Meta (META.O) 390 million euros ($414 million) on Wednesday for breaches at its Facebook and Instagram services and said both must reassess the legal basis on how they run advertising based on personal data in the European Union. Ireland's Data Privacy Commissioner (DPC), which is the lead privacy regulator for many of the world's largest technology companies within the EU, directed Meta to bring its data processing operations into compliance within three months. The penalties brought the total fines levied against Meta to date by the DPC to 1.3 billion euros. The DPC said that as part of its decision, the EU's privacy watchdog had purported to direct the Irish regulator to conduct a fresh investigation that would span all of Facebook and Instagram's data processing operations.

"As counterintuitive as it may sound, this layoff left me in a really good position," the 24-year-old said. U.S. tech giants including Meta, Microsoft (MSFT.O), Twitter and Snap (SNAP.N) have purged more than 150,000 staff, according to Layoff.fyi, which tracks technology job losses. Day One Ventures, an early stage venture fund in San Francisco, launched a new initiative in November to fund startups founded by people who had been laid off from their tech jobs, touting the slogan "Funded, not Fired". Silicon Valley investor U.S. Venture Partners and Austrian VC firm Speedinvest have meanwhile earmarked a similar amount for newly founded companies. Fong told Reuters that experience in Big Tech firm gave founders a "strong brand that can be leveraged to meet investors, potential customers, and recruit team members".

☆ Nearly half Meta job cuts were in tech, execs say
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/3] Morning commute traffic streams past the Meta sign outside the headquarters of Facebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc in Mountain View, California, U.S. November 9, 2022. REUTERS/Peter DaSilva/File PhotoNov 11 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms (META.O) told employees on Friday that 54% of the 11,000 jobs it cut earlier this week were business roles and the rest were in technology. The Facebook parent said on Wednesday it was slashing 13% of its workforce, the first mass layoffs in the company's 18-year history. Following the layoffs, Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg had addressed employees, saying that revenue was much lower than he expected. Like its peers, Meta aggressively hired during the pandemic to meet a surge in social media usage by stuck-at-home consumers.

☆ Alphabet salaries revealed: See how much Google bets like Waymo, Wing, and Intrinsic pay engineers, managers, and thousands of other employees
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Hugh Langley | Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Alphabet companies such as Wing, Waymo, and Verily are hiring. Insider analyzed H-1B visa applications to learn how much Alphabet pays employees. Like Google, other Alphabet companies, such as self-driving car unit Waymo and life sciences unit Verily, slowed down hiring earlier this year, but they're still recruiting in key areas. Through the hundreds of disclosed salaries that represent engineers, managers, and more, we found out how much Alphabet is paying employees at these companies. It also doesn't account for all roles inside these companies, only those for which Alphabet hired employees on visas.

☆ How to pick the best MacBook so you're not overspending for what you don't need
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-12 | by ( Sofia Pitt | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

There's the new MacBook Air, for example, but Apple also sells its older 2020 MacBook Air. The 2020 MacBook Air has an 18-hour battery life, similar to the 2022 MacBook Air. 2022 MacBook Air with M2, $1,199Kif Leswing/CNBCThis is the best MacBook for most people. MacBook Pro 13-inch with M2, $1,299Apple 13-inch MacBook Pro with M2 AppleThe new MacBook Pro is a little confusing. 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Pro or M1 Max, $1,999Apple MacBook Pro Source: Apple

☆ Apple's new MacBook Air is a near-perfect update, but don't rule out the older model
▼ + stars: | 2022-07-14 | by ( Todd Haselton | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

In this article AAPLA new MacBook Air running M2 chip is seen displayed during Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, California, June 6, 2022. The 2022 MacBook Air offers the biggest redesign to the MacBook since 2010. What's goodApple typically sends a high-end MacBook Air for testing, but this year it sent me the entry-level $1,199 model. It's back to the tried-and-true version from that of the M1 MacBook Air. You don't need to upgrade if you have the M1 model, but it's definitely a big bump from the older Intel versions.

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