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Elsewhere, Bank of America raised its price target on Nvidia, calling for more than 25% upside. 7:07 a.m.: Deutsche Bank deals latest blow to regional bank after earnings disappoint Deutsche Bank joined the post-earnings dogpile on New York Community Bank . Analyst Bernard von-Gizycki downgraded the regional bank to hold from buy and slashed to price target to $7 from $15. Analyst Alicia Yap upgraded the consumer internet stock to buy from neutral and raised her price target by $6 to $50. — Alex Harring 5:45 a.m.: Bank of America hikes Nvidia price target Don't expect Nvidia to lose momentum anytime soon, according to Bank of America.

Persons: Goldman Sachs, Bernard von, Gizycki, — Alex Harring, There's, Alicia Yap, Sea's, Shopee, Alex Harring, what's, Tim Cook, Brandon Nispel, AAPL's, AAPL, Morgan Stanley, Erik Woodring, we're, Tim Long, Piper Sandler, Harsh Kumar, Meta, Ross Sandler, Benjamin Black, Mark Kelley, Bernstein, Mark Shmulik, LSEG, Rufus, Eric Sheridan, Brian Nowak, outsized, Brad Erickson, Vivek Arya, Fred Imbert Organizations: CNBC, Apple, Bank of America, Nvidia, Deutsche Bank, New York Community Bank, von, Investors, Traders, Citi, Nasdaq, Conference, Barclays, Vision, Meta, Wall Street, Amazon, RBC Capital, Enterprise, SAP, VMWare, Dell Locations: Wall, New, Thursday's, Friday's premarket, China, genAI, CY25

☆ Amazon set to report fourth-quarter earnings after the bell
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-01 | by ( Annie Palmer | In Annierpalmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Amazon is slated to report fourth-quarter earnings Thursday after the closing bell. In January, Amazon said it would let go of employees across units including Prime Video, MGM Studios, Twitch, Audible and Buy with Prime. In November, Amazon launched "Q," an AI chatbot for businesses, as well as new Trainium chips for AI applications. Discovery 's Max by introducing ads to Prime Video programming. Amazon will discuss the report on a conference call with analysts at 5:30 p.m.

Persons: Andy Jassy, Amazon, Evercore, Jassy's, Brian Olsavsky, Max Organizations: Web, Amazon, MGM Studios, Revenue, National Retail Federation, Netflix, Disney, Hulu, Warner Bros, Citi Locations: Ukraine

Amazon on Thursday reported better-than-expected revenue and profits for the fourth quarter, driven by strong consumer spending during the holiday shopping season. The Seattle-based e-commerce company said it earned $170 billion in revenue and $10.6 billion in profits during the last three months of 2023, beating expectations from analysts surveyed by FactSet. In a statement, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy called it a “record-breaking” holiday shopping season for Amazon. The company said its online retail business earned $70.5 billion in revenue during the quarter, a 9% jump compared to $64.53 billion during the same period in 2022. Roughly an hour before it released its earnings on Thursday, Amazon announced a new generative AI-powered shopping assistant called Rufus.

Persons: Andy Jassy, Rufus, – Organizations: FactSet, Amazon, San Locations: Seattle, San Francisco

☆ The cloud is back at Amazon, putting the stock on a path back to Covid-era record highs
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-01 | by ( Jeff Marks | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Would you look at the quarter Amazon just delivered. One of the main highlights came from its cloud unit, Amazon Web Services (AWS), where revenue growth finally accelerated. Better yet, management's comment about how it expects accelerating AWS revenue trends to continue through 2024 should keep the bulls happy. If the AWS revenue growth acceleration continues and the company continues its progress on expanding margins, the stock should get back there. Driving this accelerating revenue growth was an increase in larger new deals while the cost optimization headwind "continued to attenuate," the company said.

Persons: Amazon's, we're, Amazon, Jim Cramer's, Jim Cramer, Jim, Mike Segar Organizations: Amazon, Revenue, LSEG, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, AWS, Management, Prime, Subscription Services, CNBC Locations: North America, Robbinsville , New Jersey

☆ Live updates: Amazon to report 4th-quarter earnings
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-01 | by ( Business Insider | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Amazon reports fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday. Investors will be watching growth in the AWS cloud unit and profitability levels in the retail division. The company's stock is up 2.3% in 2023, slightly outpacing the market. AdvertisementAmazon will report fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday after the closing bell. Amazon's stock was up 2.3% year-to-date through Wednesday's close, slightly outpacing the S&P 500 's 1.8% gain.

Persons: — Organizations: Service, Wall Street

☆ In cloud, there's AI (which is hot) and everything else (which is not)
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-01 | by ( Alistair Barr | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

There's an "AI Cloud" future that excites investors. So far, Microsoft is winning the "AI Cloud" future. There's the "AI Cloud" future, where Nvidia GPUs and large language models form the foundation of new generative AI services delivered and rented over the internet. Then there's the existing "Cloud 1.0" business, where CPUs and more traditional servers support apps, websites and other software services. Microsoft's Azure cloud business saw revenue grow 28% in its latest quarter (fiscal Q2, calendar Q4).

Persons: —, Mark Schilsky, Schilsky, Goldman Sachs, Bernstein Organizations: AWS, Microsoft, Service, Nvidia, Amazon, Services, Bernstein Research Locations: OpenAI

☆ Amazon cloud unit speeds up revenue growth as clients adopt AI services
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-01 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Amazon Web Services CEO Adam Selipsky speaks at the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston, Texas, on March 7, 2023. Amazon said on Thursday that its cloud division grew revenue 13% year over year in the fourth quarter, exactly in line with analysts' projections. The company pointed to growing traction in cloud services for artificial intelligence. Revenue from Azure and other cloud services at Microsoft rose 30%, and Alphabet's Google Cloud revenue, which includes Google Workspace productivity software subscriptions, increased about 26%. The Amazon cloud group turned over $7.17 billion in operating income.

Persons: Adam Selipsky, Amazon, StreetAccount, Brian Olsavsky, Jensen Huang, Huang, Mark Mahaney Organizations: Amazon Web, P Global, AWS, Microsoft, Google, Nvidia, Accor, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Locations: Houston , Texas, Las Vegas, Accor S.A

☆ Amazon revenue climbs 14% during holiday quarter
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-01 | by ( Catherine | Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —Amazon saw a sharp jump in sales last quarter, driven by robust consumer spending during the holiday shopping season. The e-commerce leader on Thursday reported revenue of $170 billion for its quarter ending in December, beating Wall Street’s estimates. Amazon’s profits during this past holiday quarter also come as its business enters 2024 in much better shape than a year ago. This past quarter marked “a record-breaking Holiday shopping season and closed out a robust 2023 for Amazon,” Jassy said in a statement Thursday accompanying the earnings. Amazon Web Services, a longtime money maker for the company, saw revenue climb 13% last quarter to $24.2 billion.

Persons: Wall, Andy Jassy, ” Jassy, Jassy, “ Rufus ”, Rufus Organizations: New, New York CNN, Amazon, Web Services, ” Locations: New York

☆ We're raising our Alphabet price target after earnings that shouldn't have dinged the stock
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-30 | by ( Zev Fima | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

Alphabet delivered better-than-expected fourth-quarter sales and earnings after the closing bell Tuesday. Total revenue rose 13.5% year-over-year to $86.31 billion, outpacing the $85.33 billion expected, according to estimates compiled by LSEG. However, it wasn't enough to jump over the high expectations that come with a stock trading at all-time highs. Google Search sales in Q4, by far the largest contributor to overall revenue, gained 12.7% to a lower-than-expected $48.02 billion. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio.

Persons: Copilot, Ruth Porat, We're, Jim Cramer's, Jim Cramer, Jim, Michael M Organizations: LSEG, Wall Street, Google, Management, NFL, Microsoft, Google Network, Google Services, Web Services, CNBC, Washington, Santiago, Getty Locations: Hudson Square, New York City

☆ Amazon shares are running into stiff resistance ahead of earnings, according to the charts
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-30 | by ( Todd Gordon | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Amazon (AMZN) is set to report earnings this Thursday after the bell with the stock on a roll and expectations high. However, there are signs that the impressive run may be headed for overhead resistance, according to the charts. Further, there are signs within the consumer discretionary sector that recent underperformance compared to the rest of the 'growth trade' may persist. The consumer discretionary space has been showing signs of weakness relative to the other growth/offensive sectors like technology and communications that continue to power ahead. If so, the sub-mega cap companies in consumer discretionary may have their work cut out for them.

Persons: It's, XLY, Gordon, AMZN Organizations: Edge, Netflix Locations: AMZN, TSLA, Tesla

☆ Here are Tuesday's biggest analyst calls: Amazon, Tesla, Goldman Sachs, Meta, Salesforce, Boeing, Spotify & more
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-30 | by ( Michael Bloom | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

JPMorgan initiates Light & Wonder as outperform JPMorgan initiated the Australian gambling company with an overweight and said it has earnings momentum. Evercore ISI reiterates Meta as outperform Evercore said it's bullish on Meta heading into earnings later this week. " Evercore ISI reiterates Amazon as outperform Evercore said it's bullish heading into Amazon earnings later this week. We are upgrading Bank of America (BAC) to OW from EW, upgrading Citigroup (C) to OW from UW, upgrading Goldman Sachs (GS) to OW from EW, and upgrading BNY Mellon (BK) to EW from UW. Bank of America reiterates Uber as buy Bank of America raised its price target on the stock to $73 per share from $68.

Persons: Oppenheimer, Raymond James, CrowdStrike, Mizuho, Evercore, it's, Morgan Stanley, Instacart, Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Raymond James downgrades, McDonald's, Wells, Baird, Tesla, TSLA, BTIG, Jefferies, Masimo, MASI, Uber Organizations: Accenture, Mizuho, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citi, Citigroup, BNY Mellon, BK, UW, Trust, AMD, Salesforce Inc, UBS, Spotify, sss, Western Alliance, WAL, Boeing, Olema Oncology, Breast Cancer, " Bank of America, Netflix, Seaport Locations: OW, UW, Wells Fargo

☆ Here are Monday's biggest analyst calls: Nvidia, Netflix, Apple, Micron, Hershey, Dollar Tree, Qualcomm & more
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-29 | by ( Michael Bloom | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

JPMorgan upgrades Dollar Tree to overweight from neutral JPMorgan said in its upgrade of the stock that it's a "self-help" story. Bernstein upgrades Hershey to outperform from market perform Bernstein said in its upgrade of the chocolate maker that market share trends are improving. " Goldman Sachs reiterates Nvidia & Micron as buys Goldman said it's standing by shares of Nvidia and Micron. Bank of America upgrades ZoomInfo to buy from neutral Bank of America said the software company is a "self-help" story. Bernstein reiterates Qualcomm as outperform Bernstein said it's bullish heading into Qualcomm earnings later this week.

Persons: Wells, Jefferies, it's, Evercore, Bernstein, Hershey, Goldman Sachs, Goldman, Raymond James, Sherwin, Williams, Morgan Stanley, William Blair, Morgan Stanley downgrades Brown, Forman Organizations: UBS, Amazon, Amazon Web Services, Citi, Air, Deutsche Bank, TFI, Deutsche, JPMorgan, Warner Brothers Discovery, Microsoft, Meta, YouTube, Nvidia, Micron, MU, Netflix, Barclays, Apple, Colgate, Palmolive, " Bank of America, of America, Beam Therapeutics, Bank of America, Builders, Devices, AMD, Qualcomm Locations: Norfolk Southern, Atlanta

☆ 10 of our stocks report earnings next week. Here's what we want to see from each
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-27 | by ( Zev Fima | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +16 min

All three major averages posted gains for the third consecutive week, lifted by solid quarterly earnings and positive economic data. Earnings season ramps up next week, with five of the Super Six mega-cap stocks delivering results. Employment numbers are the most important economic data, with Friday's January nonfarm payrolls report carrying the most weight. The January ISM Manufacturing report on Thursday and December's factory orders report Friday are expected to show the sector still in contraction mode. But earnings and commentary this week from peer Sartorious made us encouraged about a return to growth in 2024.

Persons: nonfarm, December's, Sartorious, We've, Stanley Black, Decker, We're, We'd, Royal Philips, Crane, Woodward, ServisFirst, Cadence Bancorporation, CADE, Johnson, Phillips, Avery Dennison, Columbus McKinnon, Robinson, SIRI, Cardinal Health, Parker, DOV, Pitney Bowes, Ferrari N.V, CSW, COLM, W.W, Grainger, Dwight Co, Jim Cramer's, Jim Cramer, Jim, Tim Cook, Justin Sullivan Organizations: Gross, Procter, Gamble, Gillette, Super, Consumer, JPM Healthcare, Amazon, Microsoft, Honeywell, Aerospace, Solutions, Apple Watch, Masimo, Vision Pro, Franklin Resources, Resource Partners, Bank of Marin Bancorp, Bank7 Corp, Pacific Premier Bancorp Inc, Provident Financial Holdings, Dynex, Cliffs Inc, Nucor Corp, Whirlpool Corp, F5 Networks, Capital Southwest Corp, Harbors Investment Corp, Crane Co, Payne, Equity, Heartland Financial, Cadence, FinWise Bancorp, Five Star Bancorp, PotlatchDeltic Corporation, Sanmina Corporation, Pfizer, General Motors Corp, United Parcel Service, JetBlue Airways Corporation, Smith Corp, Marathon Petroleum Corp, HCA Healthcare, Oshkosh Corporation, SYSCO Corp, Danaher Corp, Johnson Controls, M.D.C . Holdings, Commvault Systems Inc, Hope Bancorp, Hubbell Incorporated, Malibu Boats, Polaris Industries, Inc, Camden National Corp, Cambridge Bancorp, Microsoft Corp, Starbucks Corp, Devices, Electronic Arts Inc, Juniper Networks, Stryker Corp, Lending, Canadian, Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited, Mondelez, Chubb Corporation, Modine Manufacturing, Partners, Management, Hawaiian Holdings, Manhattan Associates, Unum Group, UNM, Axos, Enova, Boston Properties, Boeing Co, Novo Nordisk, Mastercard Inc, Roper Technologies, Boston Scientific Corporation, MarketAxess Holdings, Fisher, Aptiv PLC, Hess Corp, Nasdaq, United Microelectronics Corp, Rockwell Automation, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd, Avery, Avery Dennison Corp, Extreme Networks, Otis Worldwide Corporation, OTIS, Columbus, Columbus McKinnon Corp, Central Pacific Financial Corp, Brinker International, Fortive Corporation, Qualcomm, Technology, Metlife, Hanover Insurance, Barn Holdings, CONMED Corporation, DLH Holdings Corp, Meritage Homes Corporation, Honeywell International, Eaton Corp, Altria, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd, Merck, Co, Enterprise Products Partners, Dorian LPG, SiriusXM Holdings, Cardinal, Hannifin Corporation, Allegheny Technologies Incorporated, Tractor Supply Company, Trane Technologies, Dover Corp, Huntington Ingalls Industries, Brunswick Corporation, Dickinson, Canada Goose Holdings, Kirby Corp, WEC Energy Group, WestRock Company, Allegro MicroSystems, Ball Corporation, Broadridge Financial, BrightSphere Investment Group, CMS Energy Corp, Lancaster Colony Corp, Rogers Communications Inc, Sanofi, Apple, Atlassian Corporation, United States Steel Corp, Corp, Adtalem Global, Homes, DXC Technology Company, Eastman Chemical Company, Gen, Post Holdings, America, Columbia Sportswear Company, Exxon Mobil Corp, Chevron Corporation, Myers Squibb Co, CIGNA Corp, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Charter Communications, AON, Cboe, Dwight, Banco Santander, Jim Cramer's Charitable, CNBC, Apple Vision, Getty Locations: China, East, United States, Europe, Cleveland, Alexandria, California, Corning, Canadian Pacific, Teradyne, TER, Novo, Hanover, PBI, Skechers U.S.A, Bristol, Chile

☆ Here are Friday's biggest analyst calls: Apple, Tesla, Coinbase, Amazon, Alphabet, Pinterest, Snap & more
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-26 | by ( Michael Bloom | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Oppenheimer reiterates Apple as outperform Oppenheimer said it's bullish on Apple's future in gaming. Bank of America reiterates Alphabet as buy Bank of America raised its price target on the stock to $175 per share from $166. Bank of America reiterates Apple as buy Bank of America said it's standing by its buy rating Apple. Bank of America reiterates Amazon as buy Bank of America said Amazon is "well positioned." RBC downgrades Northrop Grumman to sector perform from outperform RBC downgraded the stock after its earnings earnings and says upside is limited.

Persons: Oppenheimer, it's, Tesla, TD Cowen, Needham, headwinds, JPMorgan downgrades Dow, Piper Sandler, Piper, UBS downgrades Archer, Daniels, Northrop, Goldman Sachs, Goldman, Jabil, Wedbush, Evercore Organizations: Seagate, Apple, Bank of America, JPMorgan, Airlines, American Airlines Group, UBS, Humana, Intel, SEC, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche, SNAP, Bancorp, Daniels Midland, Price Target, RBC Locations: Mexico

☆ Ex-Shopify merchants built a no-code platform to simplify e-commerce. Check out the 13-slide pitch deck Krepling used to raise $3.3 million.
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-25 | by ( Madeline Stone | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Brothers Liam, 23, and Travis Gerada, 20, were Shopify merchants before they decided to get into the more technical side of e-commerce. They found that running a modern e-commerce business requires many different software integrations that often don't share data with each other, making it difficult to manage and make decisions. Some use Shopify or other platforms like WooCommerce, while others have used Krepling to grow from the ground up. "We found that merchants were typically expanding their e-commerce stack to optimize the cost to reach different consumers across many different channels. Take a look at the 13-slide pitch deck that Krepling used to raise its seed round:

Persons: Liam, Travis Gerada, they're, Krepling, Jason Calacanis, Liam Gerada, Gerada Organizations: Business, Bull City Venture Partners, Ventures, Tribes Ventures, Colabora Ventures, Broadshade Investments Locations: GMV

☆ Here are Thursday's biggest analyst calls: Tesla, Apple, Boeing, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, Rivian, Amazon & more
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-25 | by ( Michael Bloom | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Goldman Sachs reiterates Apple as buy Goldman said it's standing by the tech giant heading into earnings on February 1. Bank of America reiterates Meta as buy Bank of America raised its price target on Meta to $425 per share from $405. Piper Sandler reiterates Microsoft as overweight Piper warned investors in a note on Thursday not to "sleep" on Microsoft Cloud. Bank of America downgrades Boeing to neutral from buy Bank of America said in its downgrade of the stock that it sees too much regulatory scrutiny. Bank of America upgrades Heico to buy from neutral Bank of America said investors should buy the dip in the aerospace and electronics aftermarket company. "

Persons: Needham, Rivian, Morgan Stanley, Tesla, Goldman Sachs, ServiceNow, Goldman, it's, TAL, BTIG, Jefferies, Wells, Piper Sandler, Piper, JPMorgan downgrades Hertz, JPM, Hertz Organizations: Bank of America, IBM, Revenue, Apple, JPMorgan, Tal, Bloom Energy, Gray Customers, Amazon, " Bank of America, Meta, DuPont, Microsoft, Deutsche Bank, Avis, Deutsche, Boeing, Alaska Airlines, of America Locations: ServiceNow, China, Bloom

☆ Here are Wednesday's biggest analyst calls: Apple, Netflix, Nvidia, Uber, Tesla, Microsoft, Amazon & more
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-24 | by ( Michael Bloom | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Here are Wednesday's biggest calls on Wall Street: Citi reiterates Chipotle as buy Citi raised its price target on Chipotle to $2,699 per share from $2,292. "We are launching coverage of NKLA with an Outperform rating and a $2 price target." Polestar : On a Road to Nowhere - Initiating Coverage with a target price of $1.15, Underperform." Citi upgrades Sunoco to buy from neutral Citi said the oil and gas company is "compelling." Citi reiterates Microsoft as buy Citi raised its price target on the stock to $470 per share from $432 and said "ramping GenAI should keep growth accelerating."

Persons: Chipotle, Daiwa, Wells, Morgan Stanley, it's, Baird, Nikola, Bernstein, Biogen, Webster, Redburn, Tesla, Apple, Morgan Stanley downgrades PagerDuty, Gordon Haskett downgrades Uber, Gordon Haskett, Oppenheimer, PulteGroup, Wolfe Organizations: Citi, Verizon, Netflix, Amazon, EV, Devices, AMD, UBS, Apple, Uber, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche, Barclays downgrades, Barclays, Microsoft, BMO, HSBC, Stellantis, Entertainment, Nvidia, Wolfe Alpha, Valero, Phillips Locations: H1'24, Nowhere, China

☆ Apple, Zuck, Elon, and the lesson of Microsoft Windows
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-24 | by ( Alistair Barr | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

However, this person has been investing for more than 2 decades and sold a startup to a big tech company in the first dot-com boom. "The lesson of Microsoft Windows"Then this hedge funder schooled me on the "lesson of Microsoft Windows." He also pointed out that if you don't own a big platform, your life kinda sucks. AdvertisementThe biggest betsThis is why big tech companies are investing 100s of billions of dollars to find the next big platforms. Big Tech is all about winning our attention and being the first "funnel" that sends us out into the world.

Persons: Mark Zuckerberg, —, Apple, Tesla, it's, Mark Gurman, I've, Matthew Ball, Zuckerberg, Ball, OpenAI, Nora Naughton, Elon Musk Organizations: Apple, Service, Apple's, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, Android, Amazon, Google, Big Tech, Tesla, Software, GM, Ford, Meta Locations: American

☆ Nvidia and its stock may go through an Apple-like transformation. What it would mean for investors
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-22 | by ( Kevin Stankiewicz | In Kevinstankiewicz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

We agree wholeheartedly, having cheered Nvidia's software push for nearly a year . Software and services "Nvidia's business is evolving faster ... and software sales can help smooth out volatility," Melius analysts argued. In December, analysts at Piper Sandler also struck a bullish tone on Nvidia's software opportunity. The core of Nvidia's software strategy is DGX Cloud, an AI supercomputer accessible through a web browser, that the company rolled out in March 2023. The differentiated aspect of the DGX Cloud is it also has additional AI software and tools, such as pre-trained models, data libraries and access to Nvidia service representatives.

Persons: Jim Cramer's, OpenAI's, Piper Sandler, DGX, Melius, —, Jim Cramer, Jim, Hsun Huang, Patrick T Organizations: Nvidia, Melius Research, Software, Apple, DGX, Club, Microsoft, Research, Oracle, Google, Amazon, Amazon Web Services, CNBC, Nvidia Corp, Mobile, Fallon, Bloomberg, Getty Locations: Los Angeles , California

☆ Amazon's AWS to invest $15 billion to expand cloud computing in Japan
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-19 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

An US giant Amazon employee passes by its logo on the opening day of the new distribution center in Augny, eastern France, on September 23, 2021. (Photo by SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP) (Photo by SEBASTIEN BOZON/AFP via Getty Images)Amazon Web Services, or AWS, said on Friday it plans to invest 2.26 trillion yen ($15.24 billion) in Japan by 2027 to expand cloud computing infrastructure that serves as a backbone for artificial technology, or AI, services. The Amazon.com unit is spending to expand facilities in the metropolises of Tokyo and Osaka to meet growing customer demand, it said in a statement.

Persons: SEBASTIEN BOZON Organizations: Amazon, Getty, Web Services Locations: Augny, France, AFP, Japan, Tokyo, Osaka

☆ What the global elite are saying about AI behind closed doors
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-19 | by ( Matt Turner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

AdvertisementThe annual World Economic Forum just wrapped up in Davos, Switzerland, and talk of artificial intelligence was just about everywhere. AdvertisementPlenty of companies touted their AI wares at the World Economic Forum in Davos this year. Related storiesAt Automation Anywhere, which, as its name suggests, works on automating work, the customer-service team shrank when AI was implemented. Others I spoke to agreed: Many businesses have small-scale AI experiments running, often with promising results so far. These AI projects are expensive, and not every company has the financial or human capital to pursue an ambitious AI strategy.

Persons: Matt Turner, —, Sam Altman, Rob Goldstein, copilots, Jason Girzadas, he'd, Oliver Wyman, Deb Cupp, Mihir Shukla, Ana Kreacic, Shukla, Becky Frankiewicz, Lareina Yee, WEF, Satish H.C, Mustafa Suleyman, DeepMind, Kapilashram, Azeem Azhar, Dan Vahdat Organizations: Economic, Service, Tech, Infosys, IBM, Builder.ai, Cisco, Qualcomm, Salesforce, BlackRock, Deloitte, Microsoft, Oliver Wyman Group, Standard Chartered, McKinsey, Huma Therapeutics Locations: Davos, Switzerland

☆ Today's GenAI models are cost and energy pigs. Quantum tech could fix that.
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-19 | by ( Julie Bort | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Zapata, a startup spun out of Harvard, uses quantum physics math to train GenAI models with less data. AI models must be regularly fed. AI models also require hefty, energy-consuming GPU chips. Since founding that year, Zapata has 18 patents and patents pending on its AI tech, it says. And quantum tech could be among the alternatives.

Persons: Zapata, Andretti, —, Guido Appenzeller, Christopher Savoie, Mario, Michael Andretti's SPAC, it's, GenAI Zapata, OpenAI, hasn't Organizations: Andretti Racing, Service, America, Intel's Data, CNBC, Nvidia, Andretti Global, Andretti, Corp, Zapata, BMW, Computer, Fujitsu, Google, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, Comcast Ventures, Ventures, Bloomberg Locations: Harvard, Zapata, Savoie

☆ Amazon names logistics head as new AWS CFO
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-18 | by ( Annie Palmer | In Annierpalmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Amazon said Thursday John Felton, the company's top logistics executive, will take over as chief financial officer of its AWS cloud computing unit. In a blog post, Doug Herrington, Amazon's worldwide retail chief, said Felton would take on a new role as senior vice president and Amazon Web Services CFO. Udit Madan, Amazon's vice president of transportation, will replace Felton. Felton has been with Amazon for nearly two decades, most recently serving as the head of its worldwide operations division. Felton will replace AWS' current CFO Richard Puccio.

Persons: John Felton, Doug Herrington, Felton, Udit Madan, Andy Jassy's, I'm, Richard Puccio, Puccio, shakeup Organizations: Amazon, Amazon Web, AWS, Street, CNBC Locations: He's

☆ Amazon employees fear increased 'quiet firing' tactics and a 'brain drain'
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-13 | by ( Eugene Kim | Ashley Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Silent sacking, Garrison told BI, "is how Amazon is going to reduce operational costs without negatively affecting the stock price. Some Amazon employees recently took to Slack to announce their resignations specifically over the return-to-hub policy. Another AWS employee told BI they feel like they are "doing the job of three people." Any suggestion to the contrary is untrue," the Amazon spokesperson said. Are you an Amazon employee or do you have insight to share?

Persons: they're, Justin Garrison, Garrison, wasn't, URA, hasn't, that's, Slack, RTO, we'd, They've Organizations: Service, Amazon, Business, BI, Amazon Web Services

☆ Google challenges cloud rivals by making it free for customers to transfer data when they leave
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-11 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

"Starting today, Google Cloud customers who wish to stop using Google Cloud and migrate their data to another cloud provider and/or on premises, can take advantage of free network data transfer to migrate their data out of Google Cloud," Amit Zavery, a Google cloud vice president, wrote in the post. In 2018, Cloudflare announced the Bandwidth Alliance, a group of companies, including some cloud providers, that reduce or eliminate those data transfer, or egress, fees. "Restrictive licensing practices remain a far bigger issue to customers who want the choice of working with their preferred cloud provider," the spokesperson said. By making transfer free, Google could be pressuring rivals to follow suit or risk losing out on new business prospects. Last year Google expressed concerns about Microsoft's cloud practices to officials in the U.S. and the European Union.

Persons: Amit Zavery, Cloudflare, Zavery, Thomas Kurian Organizations: Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Bandwidth Alliance, Oracle, Amazon Web Services, European, European Union Locations: Virginia, U.S

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