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☆ These stocks had the biggest earnings surprises because of A.I.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-08 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

As second-quarter earnings season winds down, RBC Capital Markets is looking back at some companies that experienced the biggest earnings surprises due to the latest technology trend transforming the globe. "Artificial Intelligence remains a key focus for many companies, with significant investments in AI technologies and services," wrote RBC analyst Jonathan Atkin. AI discussion dominated the earnings of companies across industries, including technology, with some companies posting strong quarterly surprises as a result of the trend. In its latest earnings, Amazon touted some of its AI plans, including custom AI chips and its Bedrock platform . Many Wall Street analysts have cheered the Facebook and Instagram parent's recent cost-cutting initiatives and AI investments, in addition to a rebound in its advertising business.

Persons: Jonathan Atkin, Wall, workloads, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: RBC Capital Markets, Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, RBC, Amazon, Intel, Oracle

☆ AI is being held up by a shortage of powerful chips
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-06 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —The crushing demand for AI has also revealed the limits of the global supply chain for powerful chips used to develop and field AI models. The latest sign of a potentially extended shortage in AI chips came in Microsoft’s annual report recently. In its May earnings call, Nvidia said it had “procured substantially higher supply for the second half of the year” to meet the rising demand for AI chips. AMD, meanwhile, said Tuesday it expects to unveil its answer to Nvidia’s AI GPUs closer to the end of the year. The chip shortage is expected to ease as more manufacturing comes online and as competitors to Nvidia also expand their offerings.

Persons: Microsoft’s, Sam Altman, Samuel Altman, OpenAI, Win McNamee, ” Altman, Raj Joshi, could’ve, ” Joshi, “, Joshi, ”, Lisa Su, we’ve, Sid Sheth, Biden, can’t, ” Sheth, Sheth Organizations: CNN, Microsoft, Privacy, Technology, Moody’s Investors Service, Nvidia, Intel, AMD Locations: Microsoft’s, Washington ,

☆ Microsoft warns of service disruptions if it can’t get enough A.I. chips for its data centers
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-28 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp., during the company's Ignite Spotlight event in Seoul, South Korea, on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022. Microsoft is emphasizing to investors that graphics processing units are a critical raw material for its fast-growing cloud business. OpenAI relies on Microsoft's Azure cloud to perform the computations for ChatGPT and various AI models, as part of a complex partnership. Those efforts and the interest in ChatGPT have led Microsoft to seek more GPUs than it had expected. Microsoft has begun looking outside its own data centers to secure enough capacity, signing an agreement with Nvidia-backed CoreWeave, which rents out GPUs to third-party developers as a cloud service.

Persons: Satya Nadella, chatbot, Jensen Huang, ChatGPT, Amy Hood, Rowe's Dom Rizzo Organizations: Microsoft Corp, Microsoft, Nvidia, AMD Locations: Seoul, South Korea

☆ Buyout barons feast on excesses of last boom
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-21 | by ( Jonathan Guilford | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

That opens up plenty of potential loopholes which could allow borrowers to keep their old loans even after a deal. Lenders explicitly allow a company’s so-called “permitted holders” - typically its management or long-time investors - to assume responsibility for the debt. For example, one definition of a change of control is where the majority of board seats change hands. That means the company’s debt can stay put, news service 9fin reported. Interest rates for loans provided by private lenders have risen from 6.2% to 11.6% over a similar time frame.

Persons: Clayton, Rice, Breakingviews, 9fin, Cooper’s, Blackstone, Datacenters, Murray, dealmakers, Peter Thal Larsen, Sharon Lam, Streisand Neto Organizations: YORK, Reuters, Partners, P, Reuters Graphics Reuters, Cornerstone, Focus Financial, Stone, Point, Smart, Securities, Exchange, NRG Energy, QTS Realty Trust, Foresight Energy, American Consolidated Natural Resources, Foresight, P Global Market Intelligence, Thomson, & $ Locations: Dubilier, Delaware

☆ Across rural America, data center development booms as investors race to cater to artificial intelligence
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-21 | by ( Daniel Geiger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Data center development is booming and AI is expected to stoke already growing demand. Demand is sapping power grids in major markets and pushing data center development across the US. The project's neighbors include Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon – all of whom have similar plans, or are already underway with major data center projects. The message came after a torrid period of growth by the data center industry in that region. Wes Swenson, Nova's CEO, said the Reno region was becoming increasingly popular for data center development because of its access to power.

Persons: Matt McCollister, Martin Peck, Lincoln Rackhouse, Peck, Blackstone, Jonathan Gray, Drew Angerer, Bard, Gray, Pat Lynch, Robbie Sovie, Sovie, Georgia Power, Skybox, Rob Morris, Morris, George Frey, Novva, Wes Swenson, Nova's, Swenson, CBRE, Lynch Organizations: stoke, Lincoln Property Company, Harrison Street, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Lincoln, Carrier, QTS, Dominion Energy, Dominion, Washington DC, APS, QuadReal, Georgia, Reuters, Data Centers, CIM Group Locations: Ohio, New Albany, Columbus, Northern Virginia, Dallas, Phoenix, Silicon Valley, Chicago, Virginia, Loudoun County, Washington, Arizona, Southwest, Lithia Springs , Georgia, Atlanta, Vancouver, Hutto , Texas, Austin, Eagle Mountain , Utah, Reno , Nevada, Storey County, Reno, Silicon, Salt Lake City, West Jordan , Utah, CBRE

☆ Here's an unusual derivative play off the A.I. boom
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-22 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

One liquid cooling stock could be an unexpected beneficiary of the artificial intelligence boom as datacenters power stronger workloads, according to RBC Capital Markets. Liquid cooling demand could add one percentage point of annual growth for the company over the next five years, according to RBC. "Rising electricity prices, cost-effectiveness, space optimization through higher densities, AI growth, and ESG considerations are among the key market drivers," Dray said. "As the digital landscape continues to evolve, liquid cooling is poised to play a pivotal role in meeting the escalating cooling demand of modern datacenters." He also highlighted Dover , Eaton and Wesco as names with exposure to liquid cooling.

Persons: Deane Dray, Dray, CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: RBC Capital Markets, RBC, datacenters, Digital Realty Trust Locations: Pentair, Dover, Eaton

Brookfield and DigitalBridge are leading opposing bidding consortia in the auction for privately held DigitalBridge, the sources said, adding an outcome is expected by next month. The terms of Compass' debt allow for it to be taken over by a new owner without it being refinanced, one of the sources said. The Deal reported in February that Compass Datacenters was exploring a sale. Compass Datacenters, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and DigitalBridge declined to comment. During the same month, Brookfield Infrastructure also acquired freight container lessor Triton International Ltd (TRTN.N) for about $4.7 billion.

Persons: Dealmaking, Brookfield, Milana Vinn, Anirban Sen, Daniel Wallis Organizations: Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, DigitalBridge, RedBird Capital Partners, Ontario, Azrieli, Brookfield Infrastructure, Reuters, Triton International, Boca, Thomson Locations: Brookfield, Dallas , Texas, Data4, Boca Raton , Florida, New York

☆ Tech giants are pouring money into A.I. as they cut costs elsewhere
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

He said Google is using AI to improve the conversion rate of ads and reduce the amount of "toxic text" that goes into AI models. "There will be a small number of companies that want to invest that time and money and we will be one of them at Amazon," Jassy said. A concept he's particularly excited about is "AI agents," which often refer to AI programs that can carry out goals. "At this point we are no longer behind in building out our AI infrastructure," Zuckerberg said. Zuckerberg said the company would need to "continue investing," but would do so after it launches its generative AI products and gets a better grasp on the resources required.

☆ Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says he's confident he can get costs under control in shareholder letter
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Annie Palmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +38 min

Further, as machine learning adoption has continued to accelerate, customers have yearned for lower-cost GPUs (the chips most commonly used for machine learning). While some areas of the economy have struggled over the past few years, Amazon Business has thrived. Some people have never heard of Amazon Business, but, our business customers love it. For years, Amazon customers had asked us when we'd offer them an online pharmacy as their frustrations mounted with current providers. More recently, a newer form of machine learning, called Generative AI, has burst onto the scene and promises to significantly accelerate machine learning adoption.

☆ Nvidia vs. TSMC: Wall Street pros name their favorite stock as chip battle heats up
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Zavier Ong | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has dumped most of its stake in TSMC, just months after buying the Taiwanese chipmaker's stock. TSMC TSMC, meanwhile, is sometimes seen as a barometer of the strength of the U.S. consumer, with Apple among its biggest customers. This is a Game of Thrones battle and AI is here to stay with Nvidia a great play on that front. TSMC is a global chip recovery play that is well positioned with Nvidia in the left lane of innovation," he told CNBC Pro. "TSMC is the short-term play with Nvidia more of the longer-term AI bet."

☆ Microsoft cloud outage hits users around the world
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Akriti Sharma | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/5] Microsoft Teams app is seen on the smartphone placed on the keyboard in this illustration taken, July 26, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationJan 25 (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) on Wednesday was hit with a networking outage that took down its cloud platform Azure along with services such as Teams and Outlook, potentially affecting millions of users globally. "We've determined the network connectivity issue is occurring with devices across the Microsoft Wide Area Network (WAN)," Microsoft said. During the outage, users faced problems in exchanging messages, join calls or use any features of Teams application. Among the other services affected were Microsoft Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, according to the company's status page.

☆ Bernstein downgrades AMD as personal computer market worsens
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Alex Harring | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Despite continued dominance in the server space, Bernstein said sliding computer and new parts demand has made Advanced Micro Devices hard to be excited about. Analyst Stacy Rasgon downgraded the semiconductor stock to market perform from outperform. He also cut the price target by $15 to $80, implying a more modest 4.5% upside from where the stock closed Monday. Rasgon said AMD's new client parts have been available at deeper discounts in less time than the prior generation because Intel 's "semidestructive behavior" resulted in an oversaturated parts market. He said AMD has potential for some risk to growth margins beyond what was expected to come as a result of broader market worries because of the sliding demand paired with rising costs.

[1/2] A logo for Amazon Web Services (AWS) is seen at the Collision conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada June 23, 2022. REUTERS/Chris HelgrenNov 30 (Reuters) - French IT consulting firm Atos (ATOS.PA) is making Amazon.com's (AMZN.O) cloud services division its preferred partner for migrating its clients' workloads to the cloud, it said on Wednesday. The enhanced partnership will allow Amazon Web Services (AWS), the world's number one cloud computing services provider, access to more than 800 of Atos' infrastructures services customers globally and lead to the training of 20,000 employees on AWS' technology at Atos. The AWS-Atos partnership will allow Atos' customers with large infrastructure outsourcing contracts to quicken their workload migrations to the cloud, Atos said in its statement. Atos said it would consult with over 800 customers to offer a new hybrid cloud service with the option to move selected workloads to AWS.

Cloud services for years has been one of the largest and most dependable sources of growth for some of the biggest tech companies, including during the pandemic as people worked and studied from home. Growth in Amazon Web Services (AWS), the firm's lucrative cloud unit serving enterprises, has ticked down consistently in the past four quarters, adjusted for changes in forex. "The AWS slowdown is a clear sign that businesses are beginning to trim costs, so this will likely put more of a squeeze on Amazon's bottom line in the coming quarters," said Andrew Lipsman, principal analyst at Insider Intelligence. Alphabet's Google Cloud revenue grew 38% in the quarter, beating estimates. Cloud services typically help companies save money so budget cuts in this sector could be especially worrying, indicating that companies think cost is king going into tougher times.

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