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☆ Apple will avoid ban by selling latest Apple Watches without blood oxygen feature
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-17 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Apple will remove the blood oxygen feature from its latest Apple Watches, a move that will allow the company to continue importing and selling the devices in the U.S. as it battles with Masimo in court. Modified versions of the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 will go on sale Thursday, Apple said in a statement. "These steps include introducing a version of Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 in the United States without the Blood Oxygen feature. There is no impact to Apple Watch units previously purchased that include the Blood Oxygen feature." WATCH: Apple again banned from selling watches in U.S. with blood oxygen sensor

Persons: Masimo, Apple Organizations: Apple Inc, Apple, Steve Jobs, International Trade Commission, ITC, Apple Watch, CNBC Locations: Cupertino , California, U.S, United States

Apple smartwatches ads are displayed as customers take a look at smartwatch accessories at the Apple store in New York, U.S., December 26, 2023. Apple will again be barred from selling watches with blood oxygen sensors beginning Thursday, a federal appeals court said Wednesday. The decision is a blow to Apple, which was previously forced to remove the latest Apple Watches from its U.S. stores for several days in December. Apple may be forced to remove a blood oxygen sensor feature on its latest devices in order to keep the smartwatches on the U.S. market. If Apple must continue to keep its latest smartwatches from U.S. stores, it could complicate repairs at Apple stores, which often swap broken devices with replacements.

Persons: Masimo Organizations: Apple, U.S, Appeals, Federal Circuit, International Trade Commission, Apple Watch Locations: New York, U.S

☆ AMD shares jump 8% to highest close since 2021 on AI chip demand
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-16 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Lisa Su displays an AMD Instinct MI300 chip as she delivers a keynote address at CES 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Jan. 4, 2023. Tom O'Malley, an analyst at Barclays, raised his price target on AMD to $200 from $120, saying AMD could post $4 billion in AI chip sales this year. KeyBanc analysts also increased their price target for AMD to $195 and Nvidia to $740 on Tuesday, due to strong demand for AI servers. Nvidia , which has the vast majority of the market for AI chips and was the best-performing stock in the S&P 500 last year, advanced 3% to $563.82. Analysts see AMD improving its AI software and expect major chip buyers such as cloud providers and tech giants to look hard at using AMD GPUs.

Persons: Lisa Su, Tom O'Malley, O'Malley, Jim Breyer, Breyer, NVDA Organizations: AMD, Microsoft, Google, Barclays, AMD's, Nvidia, Venture, CNBC Locations: Las Vegas , Nevada

☆ Here's what Apple had to change as a result of the Epic Games legal battle
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-16 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Apple changed the rules of its U.S. App Store on Tuesday in what appears to be the final result from the long-running Epic Games antitrust challenge against Apple. The shift is the most tangible result from Epic Games' legal challenge to the App Store. However, it doesn't go far enough for Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, he said in a statement on Tuesday. "The court battle to open iOS to competing stores and payments is lost in the United States," Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said. You will be responsible for addressing such issues with customers," Apple said in the email.

Persons: Tim Cook, Apple, Tim Sweeney, Sweeney Organizations: Apple Inc, Apple Worldwide Developers, Apple, U.S, Supreme, Epic Games, Epic Locations: San Jose , California, U.S, United States, Netherlands, South Korea

☆ GPT and other AI models can't analyze an SEC filing, researchers find
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-19 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Patronus AI co-founders Anand Kannappan and Rebecca Qian Patronus AILarge language models, similar to the one at the heart of ChatGPT, frequently fail to answer questions derived from Securities and Exchange Commission filings, researchers from a startup called Patronus AI found. "That type of performance rate is just absolutely unacceptable," Patronus AI co-founder Anand Kannappan said. It feels like just testing by inspection," Patronus AI co-founder Rebecca Qian said. Here's some examples of questions in the dataset, provided by Patronus AI: Has CVS Health paid dividends to common shareholders in Q2 of FY2022? How the AI models did on the test

Persons: Anand Kannappan, Rebecca Qian Patronus, OpenAI's, ChatGPT, they're, Rebecca Qian, FinanceBench, Qian Organizations: Securities, Exchange, CNBC, SEC, Bloomberg, JPMorgan, McKinsey, Microsoft, Facebook, Meta, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Patronus, CVS, AMD, Coca

☆ Apple's market cap closes above $3 trillion
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-05 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Apple CEO Tim Cook greets customers purchasing Apple’s new iPhone 15 during a launch event at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store in New York City on Sept. 22, 2023. Apple's market cap closed at about $3 trillion for the first time since August after its shares climbed 2% to $193.42 per share on Tuesday. Apple's value officially crossed the $3 trillion mark for the first time in June, and briefly touched $3 trillion in December 2022 during intraday trading. Apple stock hit its all-time high July 31 and it remains the most valuable publicly traded U.S. company. In Apple's fiscal 2023, which started in October, Apple reported $383.29 billion in total revenue, down about 3% from the prior year.

Persons: Tim Cook, Apple Organizations: Apple, Fifth, U.S, Apple Watch, CNBC PRO Locations: New York City, buybacks, China

☆ Nvidia CEO: Senior executives don't need pampering, career guidance
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang offered a glimpse into his unusual management style, including having "50 direct reports," in an interview with CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin on Wednesday. Huang says that he has so many direct reports — most executives only have 10 or so — because it keeps Nvidia from developing unnecessary layers of management. "The more direct reports a CEO has, the less layers are in the company. "The people that report to the CEO should require the least amount of pampering and so I don't think they need life advice. I don't think they need career guidance," Huang said.

Persons: Jensen Huang, CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin, Huang, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg Organizations: New York Times, Jazz, Lincoln Center, Nvidia, AMD Locations: New York City, China

Sam Altman, chief executive officer (CEO) of OpenAI and inventor of the AI software ChatGPT, joins the Technical University of Munich (TUM) for a panel discussion. Microsoft will have a non-voting board seat at OpenAI, the company announced on Wednesday. OpenAI's outlook has been intertwined with Microsoft since the software giant invested $13 billion into OpenAI and integrated its AI models into Office and other Microsoft programs. Previously, Microsoft did not have official representation on the board of directors that controlled the startup, allowing it to be surprised when Altman was first fired. A Microsoft spokesperson declined to identify the person who will join OpenAI board meetings but will not have a vote.

Persons: Sam Altman, Altman, OpenAI, Bret Taylor, Larry Summers, Adam D'Angelo, Mira Murati, Greg Brockman, Taylor Organizations: Technical University of Munich, Microsoft Locations: OpenAI

☆ Apple is trying to unwind its Goldman Sachs credit card partnership
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-28 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

It would also mean that Apple would need to find a new financial partner for its popular credit card, Apple Card, and its high-yield savings accounts under the Apple brand. While Apple offers both its credit card and savings account through the wallet app on iPhones, the banking backend is handled by Goldman Sachs. When Apple first launched the Apple Card in 2019, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon was in attendance at a glitzy Apple launch event at its California campus. But the partnership has been rocky in recent years as Goldman Sachs, under CEO David Solomon, has retreated from its previous consumer banking ambitions as costs stacked up. Earlier this year, Goldman Sachs said that it would "consider strategic alternatives" for its consumer banking business.

Persons: David Solomon, Goldman Sachs, The Beverly Hilton, CNBC's Leslie Picker, Goldman, It's, Apple, Steve Kovach Organizations: Milken Institute Global, The Beverly, The Beverly Hilton Hotel, Apple, CNBC, Wall Street Locations: Beverly Hills , California, California

(Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai on Tuesday confirmed that Google pays Apple 36% of Safari search revenue, under the terms of a default search agreement that is core to the Justice Department's antitrust claims. Pichai was testifying in a separate lawsuit filed against Google by Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite. The Epic attorney then alleged that Google pays Samsung, Android's largest hardware partner, less than half of what it pays to Apple. Google's TAC costs include all of Google's payments to companies like Apple and Samsung to place its search engine in front of users. Apple, Google and Samsung did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment on Pichai's testimony.

Persons: Sundar Pichai, Mandel NGAN, MANDEL NGAN, Pichai, Google's, Kevin Murphy, Murphy, Connolly, John Schmidtlein, Leswing Organizations: Artificial Intelligence, Getty, Google, Apple, Epic Games, Washington , D.C, Samsung, Google's TAC, University of Chicago, Williams, Department, D.C Locations: Washington ,, AFP, Virginia, Washington

☆ Nvidia unveils H200, its newest high-end chip for training AI models
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-13 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Jensen Huang, president of Nvidia, holding the Grace hopper superchip CPU used for generative AI at the Supermicro keynote presentation during Computex 2023. Nvidia on Monday unveiled the H200, a graphics processing unit designed for training and deploying the kinds of artificial intelligence models that are powering the generative AI boom. The new GPU is an upgrade from the H100, the chip OpenAI used to train its most advanced large language model, GPT-4. The H200, which is expected to ship in the second quarter of 2024, will compete with AMD's MI300X GPU. AMD's chip, similar to the H200, has additional memory over its predecessors, which helps fit big models on the hardware to run inference.

Persons: Jensen Huang, Raymond James, it's Organizations: Nvidia, Monday, Big

☆ Apple will pay $25 million in DOJ discrimination settlement
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-09 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Apple will pay $25 million in back pay and civil penalties to settle a matter over the company's hiring practices under the Immigration and Nationality Act, the Department of Justice announced Thursday. Apple has agreed to pay $6.75 million in civil penalties and establish an $18.25 million fund for back pay to eligible discrimination victims, the DOJ said in a release. The DOJ said that it believed that Apple followed procedures that were designed to favor current Apple employees holding temporary visas who wanted to become permanent employees. PERM jobs are typically used to hire international graduates from U.S. universities. When we realized we had unintentionally not been following the DOJ standard, we agreed to a settlement addressing their concerns," an Apple spokesperson told CNBC.

Persons: Tim Cook, Joe Biden, Apple Organizations: Apple, White, Washington , D.C, Immigration, Department of Justice, DOJ, Labor, CNBC, PERM Locations: Washington ,, PERM, U.S, United States

☆ Former Apple designers launch $700 Humane AI Pin as smartphone replacement
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-09 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The Humane AI Pin is designed to replace your smartphone, allowing the user to make calls, send texts and look up information through voice controls. Humane said it will begin taking orders for the AI Pin on Nov. 16. The AI Pin has a built-in speaker and camera, and a light flashes when those functions are turned on. Users can access AI services from the internet, rather than downloaded apps. Microsoft, Google , OpenAI, and other companies are contributing AI services, the company said.

Persons: Imran Chaudhri, Bethany Bongiorno, Chaudhri, Sam Altman, Marc Benioff, Bongiorno, Brad Gerstner Organizations: Apple, Mobile, Microsoft, Tiger Global, Qualcomm, Qualcomm Ventures, Google

☆ Arm reports first post-IPO earnings and the stock is down 7%
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-08 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Arm CEO Rene Haas cheers as Arm holds an initial public offering at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York on Sept. 14, 2023. Arm reported a net loss of $110 million, or 11 cents per share. It also sells licenses to more complete chip designs, saving chipmakers time and effort, which are recorded as licensing revenue. But Arm licensing sales were $388 million, up 106% from the same period last year. Arm said that firms including Google , Meta and Nvidia were developing artificial intelligence-capable chips with its technology.

Persons: Rene Haas, LSEG Organizations: Nasdaq, Semiconductor, SoftBank, Nvidia, Google, CNBC PRO Locations: New York, That's

Google is headed back to court for its second antitrust trial in two months, this time in defense of its Android Play Store. The trial involving Epic, which begins Monday, revolves around Google's treatment of third-party mobile developers, and will be closely watched by Apple , which operates the rival iPhone App Store. It could allow Epic to get its store pre-installed on devices, potentially making it easier for users to bypass Google's store to download games. Epic sued both companies, seeking to allow direct billing and the unfettered ability to install the Epic store on smartphones. Epic’s suit against Apple went to trial in 2021 and was appealed earlier this year.

Persons: Fortnite Organizations: Google, Department of Justice, Washington , D.C, Epic Games, Apple, Epic Locations: Washington ,, San Francisco

☆ Apple now has $162 billion in cash on hand, slightly less than last quarter
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-02 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Apple now has $162.1 billion in cash on hand, according to the company's fiscal fourth-quarter earnings report released Thursday. The figure is below the company's cash pile from its fiscal third quarter of 2023, when it reported $166.5 billion. Apple had around $166.3 billion in cash during its fiscal second quarter in 2023. The company regularly maintains one of the largest cash piles in the U.S.Analysts expected Apple to post its fourth-consecutive quarter of revenue decline Thursday. The company reported $89.50 billion in revenue and $1.46 in earnings per share for its fiscal fourth quarter.

Persons: Tim Cook, Apple, Kif Leswing Organizations: Apple Inc, Apple, U.S, Wall Locations: Cupertino , California

☆ Apple lacks a clear path to growth this holiday season after four straight quarters of shrinkage
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-02 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Apple CEO Tim Cook looks on during an Apple event at their headquarters in Cupertino, California, September 7, 2022. Apple indicated on Thursday that investors shouldn't expect revenue growth in the December quarter, the busiest and most important time of the year for its business. Still, revenue fell about 1% from a year ago to $89.5 billion, marking a fourth straight quarter of shrinkage. That's the first time Apple has experienced such a stretch since before the iPhone was launched in 2007. Instead, Maestri said revenue for the current quarter will be "similar" to where it was last year, suggesting the company faces some challenges during the all-important holiday season.

Persons: Tim Cook, Luca Maestri, Apple doesn't, Maestri Organizations: Apple Locations: Cupertino , California

☆ Apple set to report fourth-quarter earnings after the bell
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-02 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Apple will report fourth-quarter earnings after the bell on Thursday. Analysts expect Apple to report its fourth straight quarter of overall revenue decline, but many hope that finance chief Luca Maestri will signal a return to growth on the earnings call. Here's what Wall Street expects, per LSEG (formerly Refinitiv) consensus estimates:EPS : $1.39 estimated: $1.39 estimated Revenue : $89.28 billion estimated: $89.28 billion estimated iPhone revenue: $43.81 billion estimated$43.81 billion estimated Mac revenue : $8.63 billion estimated: $8.63 billion estimated iPad revenue: $6.07 billion estimated$6.07 billion estimated Other Products revenue: $9.43 billion estimated$9.43 billion estimated Services revenue : $21.35 billion estimated: $21.35 billion estimated Gross margin: 44.5% estimatedThe quarter will include about a week or so of iPhone 15 sales. Apple's fiscal fourth quarter period typically includes a little bit of back-to-school laptop and tablet spending that benefits its Mac and iPad divisions. But Apple warned in August that it expected Mac and iPad revenue to decline by "double-digit" percentages during the quarter.

Persons: Tim Cook, Luca Maestri Organizations: Apple, Huawei Locations: Cupertino , California, China

☆ Apple expected to post fourth consecutive quarterly sales decline Thursday
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-01 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Apple is expected to post its fourth consecutive quarterly revenue decline when it reports earnings after the bell Thursday. They will also be paying close attention to any clues about how demand for the iPhone 15 lineup is faring. The September quarter isn't Apple's biggest or slowest quarter of the year and only includes about a week or so of iPhone 15 sales. Apple's fiscal fourth quarter period typically includes a little bit of back-to-school laptop and tablet spending benefitting its Mac and iPad divisions. The mood among analysts, especially in regard to expectations for the fourth quarter, is changing.

Persons: Tim Cook, haven't, They'll, Apple hasn't, Luca Maestri, Morgan Stanley, Erik Woodring, Samik Chatterjee Organizations: Apple Inc, Apple Locations: New York, China

☆ Qualcomm gives strong forecast, signaling chip slump recovery
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-01 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Qualcomm reported fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday that beat expectations for sales and earnings, despite big year-over-year declines, and gave a strong forecast for the current quarter. Net income during the quarter was $1.49 billion or $1.32 per share, a 48% decrease from last year's $2.87 billion or $2.54 per share. Revenue during the quarter declined 24% year-over-year from $11.39 billion last year. Handset chip sales declined 27% to $5.46 billion, above Street Account expectations of $5.34 billion. Qualcomm said it spent $400 million on share repurchases and $900 million on dividends during the quarter.

Persons: Cristiano Amon, They're, It's, Wall Organizations: Qualcomm Incorporated, CNBC, New York Stock Exchange, Qualcomm, Revenue, Qualcomm's Locations: New York, QCT

☆ AMD stock jumps more than 8% on strong 2024 AI chip projections
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-01 | by ( Jake Piazza | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

AMD stock spiked more than 8% Wednesday, a day after the company beat top and bottom-line earnings estimates and gave a promising 2024 forecast for its AI chip business. The chipmaker posted an earnings per share of 70 cents, adjusted, narrowly beating the LSEG, formerly Refinitiv, estimate of 68 cents per share. Wall Street analysts like AMD's prospects in the AI market, which is currently dominated by Nvidia . Still, AMD is one of only a handful of companies capable of making high-powered graphics processing units (GPUs) that power AI models. Analysts at Raymond James lowered their price target from $145 to $125 but kept AMD as a "strong buy" largely due to its AI business.

Persons: Lisa Su, Raymond James, Jeffries, CNBC's Kif Leswing, Michael Bloom Organizations: Devices Inc, AMD, Revenue, Wall Street, Nvidia, Bank of America Locations: San Francisco , California, U.S, Q4E, CY24E, 1Q24

☆ AMD gives soft fourth-quarter guidance, but expects to sell $2 billion of AI chips next year
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-31 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

AMD Chair and CEO Lisa Su speaks at the AMD Keynote address during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on January 4, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. AMD reported third-quarter earnings on Tuesday that beat analyst expectations, though the chipmaker issued a weaker-than-expected forecast. AMD said its forthcoming AI chips, the MI300A and MI300X, are "on track" for volume production in the current quarter. Data center, which includes AMD's server processors and AI chips called GPUs, reported $1.6 billion in sales, flat from a year earlier. On the call, Su also mentioned recent AI acquisitions and improvements in the company's AI software suite.

Persons: Lisa Su, Su, Matt Bryson Organizations: AMD, Consumer Electronics, Nvidia, Revenue, Intel Locations: Las Vegas , Nevada

Apple announced new PC chips, MacBook Pro laptops, and a new iMac model at an unusual night-time launch event on Monday. The new computers, including MacBook Pro and iMac models, go on sale next week, and have the same designs as last year's models only with new chips. Apple's iMac hadn't been refreshed since April 2021, and its MacBook Pro models got a chip upgrade back in January. Apple executives at the launch event on Monday emphasized that the machines are significantly faster and more efficient than Intel -based Macs, which started being phased out in 2020. Apple also cut the price of its entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro, from at least $1999 to $1599, although it gets a less powerful M3 chip, instead of the "Pro"-level chip on last year's model.

Persons: Apple Organizations: Apple, MacBook, Intel

☆ Earnings playbook: Your guide to trading another busy week of reports, including Apple and Pfizer
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-29 | by ( Fred Imbert | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

About 30% of the S & P 500 is set to report earnings this week, bringing the reporting past the halfway mark. Monday McDonald's is set to report earnings before the bell, followed by a call with management at 8:30 a.m. What CNBC is watching: Pfizer is coming into this latest earnings report limping. What history shows: Starbucks only beats earnings expectations 55% of the time, according to Bespoke, but the stock averages a 0.5% gain on earnings days. What history shows: Apple shares tend to do well on earnings days, averaging a 1.3% advance, according to Bespoke.

Persons: It's, Oppenheimer, Brian Bittner, PFE, Kif Leswing, Cowen, Andrew Charles, bode, Tim Cook, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: Apple, Pfizer, Meta, CNBC, Investment, AMD, Nvidia, Starbucks, Corporate Locations: U.S, Covid, China

☆ Intel pops 10% after earnings beat shows progress toward $3 billion in cost savings
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-27 | by ( Jake Piazza | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Intel stock jumped 10% on Friday morning after the company beat Wall Street expectations for profit and sales. It posted $14.16 billion in revenue for the quarter, ahead of analyst expectations of $13.53 billion, but down 8% from the year-ago quarter. Intel is also on track to hit its goal of $3 billion in savings for the year, according to CEO Pat Gelsinger. JPMorgan analysts praised the savings in an investor note. "The team is also executing well against its cost saving initiatives and indicated that they are on track with their plans for $3B in savings to COGS/Opex in 2023," JPMorgan analysts wrote.

Persons: Intel's premarket, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Pat Gelsinger, Intel's, —, Leswing, Michael Bloom Organizations: Intel, Nvidia, Arm, JPMorgan, CNBC

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