Microsoft Corp – TheNewsHub

Canadian news companies challenge OpenAI over alleged copyright breaches

Aseem — Fri, 29 Nov 2024 19:00:28 +0000

Five Canadian news media companies filed a legal action on Friday against ChatGPT owner OpenAI, accusing the artificial-intelligence company of regularly breaching copyright and online terms of use.

The case is part of a wave of lawsuits against OpenAI and other tech companies by authors, visual artists, music publishers and other copyright owners over data used to train generative AI systems. Microsoft is OpenAI’s major backer.

In a statement, Torstar, Postmedia, The Globe and Mail, The Canadian Press, and CBC/Radio-Canada said OpenAI was scraping large swaths of content to develop its products without getting permission or compensating content owners.

“Journalism is in the public interest. OpenAI using other companies’ journalism for their own commercial gain is not. It’s illegal,” they said.

A New York federal judge dismissed a lawsuit on Nov. 7 against OpenAI that claimed it misused articles from news outlets Raw Story and AlterNet.

In an 84-page statement of claim filed in Ontario’s superior court of justice, the five Canadian companies demanded damages from OpenAI and a permanent injunction preventing it from using their material without consent.

“Rather than seek to obtain the information legally, OpenAI has elected to brazenly misappropriate the News Media Companies’ valuable intellectual property and convert it for its own uses, including commercial uses, without consent or consideration,” they said in the filing.

“The News Media Companies have never received from OpenAI any form of consideration, including payment, in exchange for OpenAI’s use of their Works.”

In response, OpenAI said its models were trained on publicly available data, grounded in fair use and related international copyright principles that were fair for creators.

“We collaborate closely with news publishers, including in the display, attribution and links to their content in ChatGPT search, and offer them easy ways to opt out should they so desire,” a spokesperson said via email.

The Canadian news companies’ document did not mention Microsoft. This month, billionaire Elon Musk expanded a lawsuit against OpenAI to include Microsoft, alleging the two companies illegally sought to monopolize the market for generative AI and sideline competitors.

OpenAI gets new $1.5 billion investment from SoftBank, allowing employees to sell shares in a tender offer

Aseem — Wed, 27 Nov 2024 13:49:08 +0000

Sam Altman, chief executive officer of OpenAI, during an event in Seoul, South Korea, on Friday, June 9, 2023.

SeongJoon Cho | Bloomberg | Getty Images

OpenAI is allowing employees to sell about $1.5 billion worth of shares in a new tender offer to SoftBank, CNBC has learned.

The new financing will allow the Japanese tech conglomerate to get an even larger slice of the AI startup and allow current and former OpenAI employees to cash out their shares, two people familiar with the matter told CNBC.

Employees will have until Dec. 24 to decide if they want to participate in the new tender offer, which has not previously been reported, one of the people said. The deal was spurred by SoftBank billionaire founder and CEO Masayoshi Son, who was persistent in asking for a larger stake in the startup after putting $500 million into OpenAI’s last funding round, one of the people said.

The tender offer is not related to OpenAI’s potential plans to restructure the firm to a for-profit business, one of the people said.

OpenAI and SoftBank declined to comment.

The deal, which the people familiar with the matter said was carried out through SoftBank’s Vision 2 fund, underscores Son’s interest in the AI space and in backing the most valuable private players. SoftBank was an early investor in semiconductor company Arm, and Son said at a conference in October that he’s saving “tens of billions of dollars” to make the “next big move” in artificial intelligence. He previously invested in Apple, Qualcomm and Alibaba.

SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 recently invested in AI startups Glean, Perplexity and Poolside. SoftBank has about 470 portfolio companies and $160 billion in assets across its two vision funds.

The OpenAI investment matches SoftBank’s eagerness to deploy cash, with a capital-intensive business model, a person close to Son told CNBC.

Even without SoftBank’s deep pockets, OpenAI has had no trouble raising billions in cash. Its valuation has climbed to $157 billion in the two years since it launched ChatGPT. OpenAI has raised about $13 billion from Microsoft, and it closed its latest $6.6 billion round in October, led by Thrive Capital and including participation from chipmaker Nvidia, SoftBank and others.

The company also received a $4 billion revolving line of credit, bringing its total liquidity to more than $10 billion. OpenAI expects about $5 billion in losses on $3.7 billion in revenue this year, CNBC confirmed in September with a person familiar with the situation.

reported Tuesday.

OpenAI took a more restrictive approach to tender offers in the past, with rules allowing the company to determine who gets to participate in stock sales, CNBC reported in June. Current and former OpenAI employees previously told CNBC that there was growing concern about access to liquidity after reports that the company had the power to claw back vested equity.

But the company reversed its policies toward secondary share sales in June, and it now allows current and former employees to participate equally in annual tender offers.

The company expects to allow more of these secondary sales, and it will need to tap private markets again in the future based on demand from investors and the capital-intensive nature of the business, according to a person familiar with the new tender offer.

OpenAI has faced increasing competition from startups such as Anthropic and tech giants such as Google. The generative AI market is predicted to top $1 trillion in revenue within a decade, and business spending on generative AI surged 500% this year, according to recent data from Menlo Ventures.

In October, OpenAI launched a search feature within ChatGPT, its viral chatbot, that positions the high-powered AI startup to better compete with search engines such as Google, Microsoft’s Bing and Perplexity.

WATCH: OpenAI is the definitive consumer brand for AI at this point, says Bedrock Capital’s Geoff Lewis

How President-elect Donald Trump's policies may affect investors in these 8 market sectors

Harsh — Tue, 26 Nov 2024 19:22:18 +0000

President-elect Donald Trump at a viewing of a test-flight launch of the SpaceX Starship rocket in Brownsville, Texas, Nov. 19, 2024.

Brandon Bell | Getty Images News | Getty Images

As Inauguration Day nears, investors are trying to unravel what booms or busts lay ahead under President-elect Donald Trump.

Trump’s campaign promises — from tariffs to mass deportations, tax cuts and deregulation — and his picks to lead federal agencies suggest both risks and rewards for various investment sectors, according to market experts.

Republican control of both chambers of Congress may grant Trump greater leeway to enact his pledges, experts said. However, their scope and timing is far from clear.

More from FA Playbook:

Here’s a look at other stories impacting the financial advisor business.

“There’s so much uncertainty right now,” said Jeremy Goldberg, a certified financial planner, portfolio manager and research analyst at Professional Advisory Services, which ranked No. 37 on CNBC’s annual Financial Advisor 100 list.

“I wouldn’t be making large bets one way or another,” Goldberg said.

tailpipe-emissions rule expected to push broader adoption of EVs and hybrids. He also intends to kill consumer EV tax credits worth up to $7,500 — although states such as California may try to enact their own EV rebates, blunting the impact.

Losing the federal credit would make EVs more costly, driving down sales and perhaps making “per unit economics even less favorable” for automakers, John Murphy, a research analyst at Bank of America Securities, wrote in a Nov. 21 research note.

Some companies seem well-positioned, though: Ford Motor, for example, “has a healthy pipeline of hybrid vehicles as well as traditional [internal combustion engine] vehicles to supplement the EV offerings,” Murphy wrote.

Tariffs and trade conflict pose threats to the auto industry, since the U.S. relies heavily on other nations to manufacture cars and parts, said Callie Cox, chief market strategist at Ritholtz Wealth Management.

They “could affect the cost and availability of cars we see in the U.S. market,” Cox said.

Economists expect tariffs and other Trump policies to be inflationary.

In that case, the Federal Reserve may have to keep interest rates higher for longer than anticipated. Higher borrowing costs may weigh on consumers’ desire or ability to buy cars, Cox said.

However, lower EV production could be a boon for companies that manufacture traditional gasoline cars, experts said.

Trump has also called for a “drill, baby, drill” approach to oil production. Greater supply could reduce gas prices, supporting demand for gas vehicles, experts said. But trade wars and sanctions on Iran and Venezuela could have the opposite impact, too.

— Greg Iacurci

CNBC FA 100 list.

“The larger banks probably benefit more from that,” Spinelli said.

Less regulation — combined with the prospect that interest rates could stay higher — will provide a net positive for the bank industry, since banks may be able to lend out more risk-based capital, said David Rea, president of Salem Investment Counselors in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, which is No. 8 on the 2024 CNBC FA 100 list.

One issue that emerged this year that could resurface is concern about regional banks’ exposure to commercial real estate, Spinelli said.

“It wasn’t that long ago, and I don’t think those problems disappeared,” Spinelli said. “So you question, is that still looming out there?”

— Lorie Konish

housing market has been “frozen” in recent years by high mortgage rates, said Cox, of Ritholtz.

Lower rates would likely be a “catalyst” for housing and associated companies, she said.

However, that may not materialize — quickly, at least — under Trump, she said. If policies such as tariffs, tax cuts and mass deportations stoke inflation, the Federal Reserve may have to keep interest rates higher for longer than anticipated, which would likely prop up mortgage rates and weigh on housing and related sectors, she said.

The whims of the housing market affect retailers, too: Home goods stores may not fare well if people aren’t buying, renovating and decorating new homes, Cox said.

That said, deregulation could be “absolutely huge” for the sector if it accelerates building timelines and reduces costs for developers, Goldberg said.

Trump has called for opening public land to builders and creating tax incentives for homebuyers, without providing much detail.

Housing policy will be “one of the most-watched initiatives coming out of the next administration,” Cox said. “We haven’t gotten a lot of clarity on that front.”

“If we see realistic and well-thought-out policies, you could see real estate stocks and related stocks” such as real estate investment trusts, home improvement retailers and home builders respond well, Cox said.

— Greg Iacurci

$100,000 benchmark before its recent runup ended.

As president, Trump is expected to embrace crypto more than any of his predecessors.

Notably, he has already launched a crypto platform, World Liberty Financial, that will encourage the use of digital coins.

Those developments come as new ways of investing in crypto have emerged this year, with the January launch of spot bitcoin ETFs, and more recently, the addition of bitcoin ETF options.

Yet financial advisors are hesitant, with only about 2.6% recommending crypto to their clients, an April survey from Cerulli Associates found. Roughly 12.1% said they would be willing to use it or discuss it based on the client’s preference. Still, 58.9% of advisors said they do not expect to ever use cryptocurrency with clients.

“The No. 1 reason why advisors aren’t investing in cryptocurrency on behalf of their clients is they don’t believe it’s suitable for client portfolios,” said Matt Apkarian, associate director in Cerulli’s product development practice.

Even for advisors who do expect they may use crypto at some point, it’s “wait and see,” particularly regarding how the regulatory environment plays out, Apkarian said.

However, investors are showing interest in cryptocurrency, with 90% of advisors receiving questions on the subject, according to research from Christina Lynn, a certified financial planner and practice management consultant at Mariner Wealth Advisors.

For those investors, exchange-traded funds are a good starting place, Lynn said, since there’s less chance of falling victim to one of crypto’s pitfalls such as scams or losing the keys, the unique alphanumeric codes attached to the investments. Because crypto can be more volatile, it’s best not to invest any money you expect you’ll need to pay for near-term goals, she said.

Investors would also be wise to think of cryptocurrency like an alternative investment and limit the allocation to 1% to 5% of their overall portfolio, Lynn said.

“You don’t need to have a lot of this to have it go a long way,” Lynn said.

— Lorie Konish

repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, a law enacted under Biden that includes clean energy incentives.

If Trump continues to make it easier to create more oil supply, that might not be a great thing for oil companies, according to Adam, of Raymond James.

“Because there’s more supply, it may tamp down on the price of oil, and that’s one of the biggest drivers of that sector,” Adam said.

Eagle Global Advisors, a Houston-based investment management firm that specializes in energy infrastructure, is “cautiously optimistic” about Trump’s impact on the sector, according to portfolio manager Mike Cerasoli. Eagle Global Advisors is No. 35 on the 2024 CNBC FA 100 list.

“We would say we’re probably more on the optimistic side than the cautious side,” Cerasoli said. “But if we know anything about Trump it’s that he’s a wild card.”

A lot of the Inflation Reduction Act may stay intact, since the top states that benefited financially from the law also handed Trump a victory in the election, according to Cerasoli.

When Biden won in 2020, there was a lot of panic about the outlook for energy, oil and gas. Cerasoli recalls writing in a third-quarter letter that year, “I don’t think it’s going to be as bad as you think.”

Four years later, he has the same message for investors on the outlook for renewables. In the days following Trump’s inauguration, Cerasoli expects there may be a deluge of executive orders.

“Once you get past that, you’ll get a sense of exactly how he’s going to treat energy,” Cerasoli said. “I think people will realize that it’s not the end of the world for renewables.”

— Lorie Konish

big vaccine makers such as Merck, Pfizer and Moderna, said David Weinstein, a portfolio manager and senior vice president at Dana Investment Advisors, No. 4 on CNBC’s annual FA 100 ranking.

Cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, are also likely on the table to reduce government spending and raise money for a tax-cut package, experts said.

Publicly traded health companies such as Centene, HCA Healthcare and UnitedHealth might be affected by lower volumes of Medicaid patients or consumers who face higher health-care premiums after losing ACA subsidies, for example, Weinstein said.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during the UFC 309 event at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Nov. 16, 2024.

Chris Unger | Ufc | Getty Images

Medical tech providers — especially those that supply electronics with semiconductors sourced from China — could be burdened by tariffs, he added.

Conversely, deregulation might help certain pharmaceutical companies such as Thermo Fisher Scientific and Charles River Laboratories, which may benefit from faster approvals from the Food and Drug Administration, Goldberg said.

Vivek Ramaswamy, a former biotech executive whom Trump appointed as co-head of a new advisory panel called the “Department of Government Efficiency,” has called for streamlined drug approvals. But Kennedy has advocated for more oversight.

“There’s a real dichotomy here,” Weinstein said.

“Where do we end up? Maybe where we are right now,” he added.

— Greg Iacurci

how the policies are structured.

Home Depot, Lowe’s and Walmart, for example, source a relatively big chunk of their goods from abroad, Weinstein said.

Home Depot CEO and President Ted Decker said Nov. 12 during the firm’s third-quarter earnings call that the company sources more than half its goods from the U.S. and North America, but “there certainly will be an impact.”

“Whatever happens in tariffs will be an industrywide impact,” Decker said. “It won’t discriminate against different retailers and distributors who are importing goods.”

It’s a good idea for investors to own “high quality” retailers without a lot of debt and with diversified inventory sources, Goldberg said. He cited TJX Companies, which owns stores including TJ Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods, as an example.

“Direct imports are a small portion of [its] business and TJX sources from a variety of countries outside of China,” Lorraine Hutchinson, a Bank of America Securities research analyst, wrote in a Nov. 21 note.

Deregulation may be positive for smaller retailers and franchises, which tend to be more sensitive to labor laws and environmental and compliance costs, Goldberg said.

— Greg Iacurci

Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla.

Even broadly diversified investors may find it difficult to escape those names, as they are among the top weighted companies in the S&P 500 index.

Information technology — which includes all those stocks except Amazon and Google parent Alphabet — comprises the largest sector in the S&P 500 index, with more than 31%.

Trump is poised to have an influence on looming antitrust issues, amid considerations as to whether Google’s influence on online search should be limited.

Any tariffs put in place may also prompt some sales to decline or the cost of raw materials to go up, said Rea of Salem Investment Counselors.

Nevertheless, Rea said his firm continues to have a “pretty heavy” tech allocation, with strong expectations for generative artificial intelligence. However, the firm does not own Tesla, due to its expensive valuation, and has recently been selling software company Palantir, a winning stock that may have gotten ahead of itself, he said.

Technology valuations are trading well into the high double digits on a price-to-earnings basis, which often signals forward returns will decline, according to Halbert Hargrove’s Spinelli.

Consequently, prospective investors who come in now would basically be buying high, he said.

“If you think you’re going to get the same double-digit returns in the next five years, sure, it could happen on a one-year basis,” Spinelli said. “But your chances historically have been that your returns come down.”

— Lorie Konish

I want to thank shortsighted stock traders for allowing us to win the long game

Aseem — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 01:26:36 +0000

It’s time to give thanks. I want to give thanks to all of the traders out there who create opportunities every day with their scalping, their dumping, and their insistence that small caps stocks are going to roar or that midcaps will stall or that the “Magnificent Seven” are magnificent no more. I used to trade for a living. I was pretty good at it. I used to go on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” as a guest. Every Wednesday. Back then, anchor Mark Haines ruled the roost. Mark, now long since passed, was a glorious curmudgeon. I was trying to get TheStreet.com, the financial website that I had started three years before in 1996, a little more exposure. At that point, Disney had a stake in TheStreet.com, and part of the deal included two segments a week on “Good Morning America” about the economy and business. Those were serious shows before TikTok, Instagram, podcasts and streaming. We had just installed a television in the trading room because FNN, the Financial News Network, a somewhat helpful amalgam of programming, had been replaced by CNBC, a much more rigorous outfit. The keystone of the network? Haines, along with two foils, Joe Kernen and David Faber. “Squawk Box” filled the time slot now run by Kernen, Andrew Ross Sorkin and Becky Quick, whom I first brought over from The Wall Street Journal as the stand-in for my old friend Larry Kudlow, the other half of the duo called “Kudlow & Cramer.” Anchors could own stocks back then, before the post-dotcom purge conducted by lawyers who decided that disclosure wasn’t enough — that it couldn’t cure the taint of the trades done by on-air talent. Haines annoyed me. He was always buying the oils — loved Rowan and Transocean . He infuriated me with his smugness. So, I shot off emails as I screamed at the television when I knew he was off-base, arrogant son of a bitch that I was. Haines was cursory and clipped in his responses as befitting the way you would answer a pain-in-the-ass viewer. Then one day I got an email that changed pretty much everything. He wrote that if I thought I was so hot, such a good stock picker, I had to come on the show or stop emailing him. I got sheepish. I was conscious that I had been doing the hits on GMA, and they were fabulous. But I started thinking it might make more sense to promote TheStreet.com by co-hosting “Squawk Box.” I weighed about 205 pounds back then, thirty pounds more than now, and I had no hair. I told Haines that I didn’t know if he wanted a fat, bald, noisy sidekick for three hours. He came back and said that was okay, it would be one and done if I pissed him off. That was Haines. So, I came in hot. I wasn’t content to be a co-host. I wanted to be the host. I interrupted him when Haines said his name. I said this would be a different show, not like those before me, one that would tell it like it is, not some economic gasbag analysis. Shoot, I was like that even then. We proceeded to have a giant play of fun, a caustic, comical, angry, peeved three hours. At the end, still on air, Haines said, when are you coming back, and I knew I had passed the test. The next time I came on he said he had been thinking a lot about me and he realized that I wasn’t an investor. I was a trader, a fast trader, maybe the fastest ever. He said I had no loyalty whatsoever to anything or maybe anyone and that people needed to know that. That’s why my new name was “The Reverend Jim Bob of the Church of What’s Happening Now.” Except for a stint where I helped build Fox Business News, I became a fixture on CNBC until I got my own show, “Kudlow & Cramer.” I was always Reverend Jim Bob from my own church, and I was the exclamation point every week, a foil for all of the buy-and-holders that would fill up the time every other day of the week. In the twenty-six years since those appearances, many have joined my church, and now we have a network brimming with reverends of their own flock. They are fun, and opinionated — and they, too, have no more loyalty than you can throw their ideas out there only to experience the jarring discovery that was liked last time is now despised. No Charitable Trust consistency on these shows. No matter, they are as fun with a brilliant cast of characters with quick sermons, making themselves of apostates of their last appearances. These are the people who have helped create the notion of the new thesis with a shelf life less than that of whole milk left out on the picnic table on a hot day. They, as a collection, stoked to be as opinionated as Reverend Jim Bob, are constantly giving eulogies for whatever was so young and alive the day before. Everything, of course, hinges on whatever Federal Reserve governor spoke last because that might be the governor that matters or the most — or not. The torque of each trade is not even noticed anymore. But the wake that they cause? It’s enough to change the animal spirits as the network has taken on a major role each session. The sermons are all different, but I find there’s a preponderance of thought that revolves around two theses: (1) You have to sell the “Magnificent Seven” because they are now dead, and (2) you have to buy the Mag 7 because they have never been more in vogue, more alive, more able to bring home the bacon. I lost my church years ago, defrocked by the desire to teach through “Mad Money” and the Investing Club. I find these obits and Lazarus-like comebacks totally fatuous. There is no death, there isn’t even a near-death experience for the Mag 7 — individually Apple , Alphabet, Amazon , Meta Platforms , Microsoft , Nvidia, and Tesla . The Investing Club owns them all except Tesla. Yes, small caps or midcaps or the “Russell whatevers” get their mid-afternoons in the sun. Alphabet ‘s Google gets shot down by an antitrust official, and an Nvidia gets dinged by an ill-advised story about how its latest chips are overheating causing it to miss the quarter. Such a shame the latter is not true. But what are we supposed to do? I hear you: Didn’t you do that at TheStreet.com? Hmm, if we got it wrong, we owned it, or I would figuratively rip your lungs out. Here’s what the traders don’t understand: The Mag 7 doesn’t end. They are the stocks you reach for when there’s chatter that the big slowdown is here. A new crop comes in and buys them — not trade, but to invest in. Plus, index money fuel gets sprayed on them causing regular bonfires. The traders give us these opportunities. They don’t know how not to because things are always fluid. There’s always a new reason to sell, a new reason to buy. Sometimes in the same day. There’s no buyers’ or sellers’ remorse. Who has time for that? Here’s what, though, they are missing. These companies can’t be classified as a group of seven except by the con men who create ETFs (exchange-traded funds) for fees and nothing more. What the heck does a chip that helps accelerated computing (made by Nvidia) have to do with a consumer of that chip (take your pick of names because everyone wants as much as they get their hands on) who pays a fortune for it. What’s good for the goose is bad for the gander. They can all be pitted against each other. Some are counter-cyclical and get bought when they are literally pronounced dead. Others defy characterization. Against them are segments that go in and out of favor depending upon a missed quarter in the cohort or Fed speak meant to curse a segment. It’s beyond stupidity. That’s why I want to thank the traders for the opportunities they give us each time they squawk at their viewers. The reverends all have something poignant to say, and their sermons change by the minute. They create their own opportunities to sell and buy. And, as long as you recognize that the original Reverend had his time, then you know what allows you to be so right and they so wrong, provided you have conviction and time your buys correctly. Thank you, traders. I don’t know what we would do without you. (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.

Jim Cramer.

Rob Kim | NBCUniversal

It’s time to give thanks.

Here's a rapid-fire update on what Trump will mean for all 33 portfolio stocks

Harsh — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 20:19:15 +0000

Qualcomm pops on chipmaker's earnings and revenue beat

Aseem — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 22:19:33 +0000

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon speaks at the Computex forum in Taipei, Taiwan, June 3, 2024.

Ann Wang | Reuters

Qualcomm reported fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday that beat Wall Street expectations for earnings and revenue, and the company guided to a strong December quarter.

The shares rose 10% in extended trading at one point before falling to a gain of about 4%.

Here’s how the company did versus Refinitiv consensus expectations for the quarter ending Sept. 29:

Earnings per share: $2.69, adjusted $2.56 expected
Revenue: $10.24 billion versus $9.90 billion expected

Qualcomm said it expects revenue in the current quarter of between $10.5 billion and $11.3 billion, with the midpoint of that range beating LSEG consensus expectations of $10.59 billion.

The company reported $2.92 billion in net income, or $2.59 per share, a sharp jump from last year’s $1.49 billion, or $1.23 per share. Qualcomm reported $33.19 billion in total revenue in its fiscal 2024, a 9% increase from 2023.

Qualcomm’s fortunes have historically been tied to the smartphone industry, where the company provides a range of chips to handset makers, including system-on-a-chip processors, modems, and antennas. The company makes the chip at the heart of most high-end Android devices, and many lower-end phones as well. Qualcomm also sells modems and related chips to Apple for its iPhones, and last year said its contract for 5G chips ran through 2026.

Qualcomm reported a 12% increase in handset chip sales to $6.1 billion, in line with FactSet estimates. Qualcomm introduced its high-end chip for 2025, called Snapdragon 8 Elite, in October.

“In handsets we delivered greater than 20% year-over-year growth in Android revenues,” said Qualcomm CFO Akash Palkhiwala on a call with analysts.

Under CEO Cristiano Amon, the company has diversified away from being a smartphone supplier and has introduced and invested heavily in producing chips for PCs, cars, and industrial machines.

“We will continue to transform Qualcomm from a wireless communications company into a connected computing company for the age of AI,” Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said on an earnings call with analysts.

Qualcomm has also made efforts to brand itself as a leader in AI, having developed smartphone chips with specialized parts for machine learning since 2017. But unlike Nvidia, the company doesn’t produce the kind of graphics processors for data centers that are used for big AI programs like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

The automotive business grew 86% on an annual basis to $899 million in sales. Qualcomm says it has billions of dollars in business with automakers currently in its development pipeline, and highlighted it was the fifth consecutive quarter of growth. Qualcomm said that it expected automotive sales in the current quarter to rise 50% on an annual basis.

The company’s “internet of things” business includes both chips for industrial purposes as well as the chips Meta uses in its Quest handsets and Ray-Ban Smart Glasses. It also includes the new business selling chips for laptops running Microsoft Windows. The division reported $1.68 billion in revenue, a 22% increase from a year earlier.

Qualcomm’s chip business, including its handset, automotive, and other chips, which together is reported as QCT, saw sales rise 18% during the quarter to $7.37 billion in total.

The company’s profitable technology licensing business, QTL, reported $1.52 billion in revenue, a 21% increase over the same period last year.

Qualcomm said its board had approved $15 billion in additional buybacks. During the fourth quarter, it repurchased $1.3 billion worth of shares and paid out $947 million in dividends.

WATCH: CNBC’s full interview with Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon

Boeing union backs sweetened contract offer that could end strike, sets vote for Monday

suimt — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 18:41:54 +0000

Boeing workers from the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 gather on a picket line near the entrance to a Boeing production facility on the day of a vote on a new contract proposal during an ongoing strike in Renton, Washington, U.S. October 23, 2024.

David Ryder | Reuters

Boeing and its machinists’ union have agreed on a new negotiated offer to raise worker pay and potentially end a crippling strike that began seven weeks ago with a vote on the new proposal set for Monday.

The union urged workers to approve the contract. Getting workers back into factories is urgent for Boeing as it faces mounting losses.

“In every negotiation and strike, there is a point where we have extracted everything that we can in bargaining and by withholding our labor,” the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 said Thursday. “We are at that point now and risk a regressive or lesser offer in the future.”

The new proposal includes 38% general wage increases over four years, up from a previous offer for 35%, bringing the compounding pay increases to close to 44%, the union said Thursday. It also gives workers the option of a $12,000 one-time ratification bonus or to choose a previous offer for a $7,000 ratification bonus and a $5,000 401(k) contribution.

The union said that asking its members to stay on strike longer “wouldn’t be right as we have achieved so much success.”

Boeing’s more than 32,000 machinists, mostly based in the Seattle area, walked off the job on Sept. 13 after turning down a tentative agreement. They rejected another proposal earlier this month, extending the strike.

Boeing said Thursday that at the end of the contract, machinist pay will average $119,309.

“It’s time we all come back together and focus on rebuilding the business and delivering the world’s best airplanes,” Boeing’s CEO Kelly Ortberg said in a note to staff on Friday. “There are a lot of people depending on us.”

He urged workers to vote “since the results of the vote will affect all of us.”

The Biden administration has gotten involved in negotiations during the strike, which has halted most aircraft production at Boeing, a top U.S. exporter. Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su met with the company and the union this week.

The Boeing strike took a bite out of U.S. employment numbers in October, according to Friday’s U.S. jobs report, the last before the Nov. 5 presidential election.

President Joe Biden congratulated the union and Boeing for the new contract proposal.

“Machinists at Boeing have sacrificed over the years and deserve a strong contract,” he said in a statement on Friday, shortly after the jobs report was released.

Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO

Palo Alto shares helped by contract news, Abbott Labs braces for lawsuit ruling

Harsh — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 18:50:48 +0000

Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street. Markets: Wall Street is under pressure Thursday, led to the downside by the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite , which dropped more than 2%. The S & P 500 is down more than 1%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost about 260 points, or 0.6%. Selling in Microsoft and Meta Platforms following their Wednesday evening earnings results weighed on the Nasdaq and S & P 500. Also adding to the weakness: The yield on the closely watched 10-year Treasury note continued its climb higher, topping 4.3% at one point in the session. Investors are gearing up for Friday morning’s nonfarm payrolls report, which is expected to show the U.S. economy added 100,000 jobs in October while the unemployment rate remain unchanged at 4.1%. But many expect noise in the numbers due to the impact of the recent hurricanes and Boeing strike. The data will help shape Wall Street’s expectations around the path of Federal Reserve policy. Currently, traders are pricing in a roughly 95% chance of a quarter-point interest rate cut at the central bank’s meeting next week. Earlier Thursday, the Fed’s favorite inflation gauge, the PCE price index, matched expectations, rising 2.1% in September . Cyber deal: Morgan Stanley put out a note Thursday morning on Club holding Palo Alto Networks that caught our eye, discussing reports of the cybersecurity leader landing a five-year, roughly $1 billion software licensing agreement with the Department of Defense. An executive at Palo Alto Networks also posted about it on LinkedIn , without mentioning the dollar amount and duration. “While timing of bookings or revenue recognition isn’t clear yet, we think this could provide multi-year tailwinds,” Morgan Stanley analysts wrote to clients. These headlines could be helping support shares of Palo Alto in Thursday’s down market. The stock rotated between slight gains and losses, holding up much better than an exchange-traded fund that tracks the cybersecurity industry , which dropped more than 1% in the session. Shares of our other cyber holding, CrowdStrike , were down nearly 4% Thursday. To be sure, Morgan Stanley sought to temper expectations on the reported Palo Alto deal. The firm noted, for example, that the contract was awarded through software reseller Carahsoft, which means it “likely includes ~15% reseller margin for Carahsoft.” Nevertheless, analysts said they “think this contract award … suggests the large but elusive DoD opportunity could finally be coming into fruition.” Palo Alto did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the licensing agreement. The company experienced some softness in its federal government business earlier this year and also tamped down expectations about the next few quarters, which added to the messiness in its February earnings report. More recently, on an August earnings call, Palo Alto CEO Nikesh Arora said the company continued to have “a muted set of expectations” around its federal government business due to the election. Trial decision looms: We’re bracing ourselves for a verdict soon in Abbott Labs ‘ latest trial over allegations that its specialized premature infant formula causes an intestinal illness commonly abbreviated as NEC. The company has strongly denied the claims, and recently received the backing of major U.S. health agencies, which in a statement earlier this month came out in support of using the formulas like Abbott’s to treat premature infants. “There is no conclusive evidence that preterm infant formula causes NEC,” the agencies wrote. However, the judge in Abbott’s trial — held in the 22nd Judicial Circuit of Missouri — did not allow that statement to be shown to jurors in the case . For that reason, we’re not expecting the Club holding to receive a favorable verdict. A loss in the case could ding the stock, but that could represent a buying opportunity, according to Director of Portfolio Analysis Jeff Marks. The reason is that while Abbott faces additional lawsuits over its formula, we expect the statement from U.S. health agencies will be allowed as evidence in future cases. Up next: Apple , Amazon and Coterra Energy are set to report quarterly results after the closing bell Thursday. Outside the portfolio, we’ll also hear from Intel , U.S. Steel and Juniper Networks . As mentioned, the big event Friday is the October nonfarm payrolls report. Chevron , Exxon Mobil and chemical maker LyondellBasell Industries are among the notable earnings reports Friday. (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.

Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street.

Healthy Returns: Weight loss, diabetes drugs may reduce alcohol and opioid use

Harsh — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 18:43:46 +0000

Boxes of Ozempic and Wegovy made by Novo Nordisk are seen at a pharmacy in London, Britain March 8, 2024.

Hollie Adams | Reuters

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Healthy Returns newsletter, which brings the latest health-care news straight to your inbox. Subscribe here to receive future editions.

Yet another study shows that blockbuster GLP-1 drugs may offer health benefits beyond diabetes and weight loss.

This time, more research is showing that they may significantly curb addictive behaviors.

Drugs such as Novo Nordisk‘s highly popular diabetes injection Ozempic can cut drug and alcohol abuse by around half, according to a new study published last week in the scientific journal Addiction. That suggests Ozempic and similar medications could potentially become a new treatment for opioid and alcohol use disorder.

“This study not only contributes to the evolving landscape of substance use therapy but also opens avenues for more comprehensive and effective treatment strategies for those affected by” the two disorders, the study authors wrote.

Here’s why that’s important.

More tools are needed to address the ongoing U.S. opioid epidemic, which was declared a public health emergency in 2017. In 2021, an estimated 2.5 million people ages 18 or above in the U.S. had opioid use disorder in the past year, but only 22% received medications to treat it, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Opioids are a factor in around 72% of overdose deaths in the U.S., the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics says.

Meanwhile, nearly 29 million people ages 12 and above had alcohol use disorder in the past year, according to a 2023 national survey. Excessive alcohol use is the leading preventable cause of death in the U.S., as about 178,000 people die from it each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Let’s dive into the new data.

Researchers from Loyola University Chicago examined the electronic health data of more than 500,000 people with a history of opioid use disorder, 8,000 of whom were taking either GLP-1s or similar treatments called GIPs, such as Eli Lilly‘s weight loss treatment Mounjaro. Mounjaro mimics GLP-1 and another gut hormone called GIP to tamp down appetite and regulate blood sugar, while Ozempic only targets GLP-1.

People taking GLP-1s or GIPs had a 40% lower rate of opioid overdose compared with those who didn’t, the study found. Similarly, an analysis of more than 5,000 people with a history of alcohol use disorder and who took those treatments had a 50% lower rate of intoxication compared with those who didn’t take them.

The results are no surprise. It’s consistent with other studies showing the potential of GLP-1s and GIPs to reduce substance-seeking behaviors such as alcohol and nicotine use. Other research has also shown their promise in treating kidney failure, fatty liver disease, Alzheimer’s disease and obstructive sleep apnea.

Novo Nordisk’s weight loss drug Wegovy also won approval in the U.S. in March for slashing the risk of serious cardiovascular complications in adults with obesity and heart disease.

But more research is likely needed to confirm the findings of the new study. Researchers have called for more clinical trials that randomly assign patients with a substance use disorder to receive a GLP-1 or a placebo, to confirm the potential treatment benefits of drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro.

We’ll continue to monitor what other research in this area comes out, so stay tuned for our coverage.

Feel free to send any tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Annika at annikakim.constantino@nbcuni.com.

coverage on Sunday, generative AI dominated my discussions, much like it did last year. However, the focus was less about the promise or potential of the tech, and more about practical, near-term use cases for the technology. If you’re still skeptical about whether health systems are serious about AI, the answer is undoubtedly yes.

Providers want AI tools that will drive real returns for their organization, both from cost-savings and efficiency standpoints. They’re not willing to wait long to start seeing results. Providers are also looking for guidance about how to effectively evaluate and implement the hundreds of solutions that have exploded onto the market. And investors are asking tougher questions about what a viable business model for a health-care AI company actually looks like.

There was a big focus on how AI could help to reduce the mountains of documentation that doctors and nurses are responsible for, which is a major cause of burnout in the industry. This has been a hot topic all year, so it wasn’t a surprise to me. Microsoft, Google, GE HealthCare and Amazon all introduced new tools to address the issue, for instance.

“Primary care has always been plagued by administrative tasks. This is pervasive in health care, but it’s especially acute in primary care,” Dr. Andrew Diamond, chief medical officer at Amazon’s primary care business One Medical, told CNBC. “AI holds tremendous promise to automate or streamline a huge amount of that work.”

But while AI for administrative burnout was certainly popular, other themes also started to emerge. There was lots of talk about AI agents, for example, which can help users answer questions, automate processes and perform specific tasks. Several companies are also working on AI tools that can help identify and streamline relevant clinical trials for patients. Microsoft and GE HealthCare both announced early stage tools in these areas.

AI isn’t going to change the industry overnight, but I was told over and over again that the innovation is happening fast – especially by the standards of health care, which has a reputation for being slow to adopt new tech.

These companies are trying to tackle complex problems, but there was a real sense of optimism on the floor. Providers, large tech incumbents and startups all seem to agree that AI is here to stay, and they clearly intend to use it.

Feel free to send any tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Ashley at ashley.capoot@nbcuni.com.

Nvidia, Google, Microsoft and more head to Las Vegas to tout health-care AI tools

Harsh — Sat, 19 Oct 2024 13:00:01 +0000

Visitors check out Nvidia’s AI technology at the 2024 Apsara Conference in Hangzhou, China, on September 19, 2024.

Costfoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Nvidia, Google, Microsoft and dozens of other tech companies are descending on Las Vegas next week to showcase artificial intelligence tools they say will save doctors and nurses valuable time.

Sunday marks the official start of a health-care technology conference called HLTH, which is expected to draw more than 12,000 industry leaders this year. CNBC will be on the ground. Based on the speaking agenda and announcements leading up to the conference, AI tools to conquer administrative burdens will be the star of this year’s show.

Doctors and nurses are responsible for mountains of documentation as they work to keep up with patient records, interface with insurance companies and comply with regulators. Often, these tasks are painstakingly manual, in part because health data is siloed and stored across multiple vendors and formats.

The daunting administrative workload is a major cause of burnout in the industry, and it’s part of the reason a nationwide shortage of 100,000 health-care workers is expected by 2028, according to consulting firm Mercer. Tech companies, eager to carve out a piece of a market that could top $6.8 trillion in spending by the decade’s end, argue that their generative AI tools can help.

Alex Schiffhauer, group product manager at Google, speaks during the Made By Google event at the company’s Bay View campus in Mountain View, California, Aug. 13, 2024.

Josh Edelson | AFP | Getty Images

Google, for instance, said it’s working to expand its health-care customer base by tackling administrative burden with AI.

On Thursday, the company announced the general availability of Vertex AI Search for Healthcare, which it introduced in a trial capacity during HLTH last year. Vertex AI Search for Healthcare allows developers to build tools to help doctors quickly search for information across disparate medical records, Google said. New features within Google’s Healthcare Data Engine, which helps organizations build the platforms they need to support generative AI, are also now available, the company said.

Google on Thursday released the results of a survey that said clinicians spend nearly 28 hours a week on administrative tasks. In the survey, 80% of providers said this clerical work takes away from their time with patients, and 91% said they feel positive about using AI to streamline these tasks.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks at a company event on artificial intelligence technologies in Jakarta, Indonesia, on April 30, 2024.

Dimas Ardian | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Similarly, Microsoft on Oct. 11 announced its collection of tools that aim to lessen clinicians’ administrative workload, including medical imaging models, a health-care agent service and an automated documentation solution for nurses, most of which are still in the early stages of development.

Microsoft already offers an automated documentation tool for doctors through its subsidiary, Nuance Communications, which it acquired in a $16 billion deal in 2021. The tool, called DAX Copilot, uses AI to transcribe doctors’ visits with patients and turn them into clinical notes and summaries. Ideally, this means doctors don’t have to spend time typing out these notes themselves.

Nurses and doctors complete different types of documentation during their shifts, so Microsoft said it’s building a separate tool for nurses that’s best suited to their workflows.

AI scribe tools such as DAX Copilot have exploded in popularity this year, and Nuance’s competitors, such as Abridge, which has reportedly raised more than $460 million, and Suki, which has raised $165 million, will also be at the HLTH conference.

Dr. Shiv Rao, the founder and CEO of Abridge, told CNBC in March that the rate at which the health-care industry has adopted this new form of clinical documentation feels “historic.” Abridge received a coveted investment from Nvidia’s venture capital arm that same month.

Nvidia is also gearing up to address doctor and nurse workloads at HLTH.

Kimberly Powell, the company’s vice president of health care, is delivering a keynote Monday that will explain how using generative AI will help health-care professionals “dedicate more time to patient care,” according to the conference’s website.

Nvidia’s graphics processing units, or GPUs, are used to create and deploy the models that power OpenAI’s ChatGPT and similar applications. As a result, Nvidia has been one of the primary beneficiaries of the AI boom. Nvidia shares are up more than 150% year to date, and the stock tripled last year.

The company has been making steady inroads into the health-care sector in recent years, and it offers a range of AI tools across medical devices, drug discovery, genomics and medical imaging. Nvidia also announced expanded partnerships with companies such as Johnson & Johnson and GE HealthCare in March.

While the health-care sector has historically been slow to adopt new technology, the buzz around administrative AI tools has been undeniable since ChatGPT exploded onto the scene two years ago.

Even so, many health systems are still in the early stages of evaluating tools and vendors, and they’ll be making the rounds on the HLTH exhibition floor. Tech companies will have to prove they have the chops to tackle one of health care’s most complex problems.