May 4, 2025: Key Earnings, Tariff Hopes Raise Market

Last week, Dow Jones rose 3%, S&P 500 gained 2.9%, Nasdaq composite was up 3.4%. Tesla’s Chair denied reports of a plan to look for new CEO. Jeff Bezos plans to sell up to US$4.75 billion worth of Amazon shares over the next 12 months. Amazon successfully launched its first Project Kuiper satellites. Waymo and Toyota are exploring a partnership to develop an autonomous vehicle platform for personally owned vehicles. Meta Platforms on Tuesday released a standalone smartphone app for its Meta AI assistant. Apple has officially approved the first app with links to external payment options in the United States with Spotify. Apple also further shifted its supply chain away from China, significantly increasing reliance on U.S.-manufactured chips and expanding iPhone production in India. OpenAI is incorporating more shopping features into ChatGPT search results. Visa launched AI agent payments tools. Temu has discontinued its direct-from-China shipping model. In news pertaining to Sophic clients, Kraken Robotics grew 2024 revenue 31% y/y to $91.3 million, driven by subsea battery sales, with net income rising sharply to $20.1 million from $5.5 million. Kraken also announced new orders totaling nearly $60 million and the opening of a Nova Scotia production facility in 2025. Ionik reported a 28% increase in annual revenue to US$179.1 million. American Aires achieved a quarterly sales record of $8.6 million in Q4 (130% increase y/y YoY). Aires reaffirmed 2025 guidance projecting revenues of $28–$32 million and EBITDA of $2 million loss to a $2 million gain. Plurilock reported annual revenue at $59.1 million, driven by software and services, improving gross margin to 13.1% from 8.5%. Legend Power Systems secured a significant repeat order for eight additional SmartGATE systems, highlighting strong customer ROI and operational benefits. Cybeats expanded its cybersecurity contracts with Emerson Electric and renewed a key deal with a major U.S. security agency, emphasizing increasing demand for software supply chain security.

Sophic Client Kraken Robotics (PNG-TSXV, KRKNF-OTC) reports 2024 financial results.

Financial Highlights for year ended December 31, 2024: Consolidated revenue increased 31% to $91.3 million, compared to $69.6 million in 2023. Product revenue increased 26% to $66.3 million, compared to $52.6 million in the prior year and was driven by significant growth in our SeaPower™ subsea battery business offset by lower revenue in our sensor business. Service revenue was $25.0 million, a 47% increase compared to 2023 and was driven by an increased number of Sub-Bottom Imager™ and Acoustic Corer™ projects. Gross profit for the year increased 32% to $44.7 million, compared to $34.0 million in 2023, implying a gross profit margin percentage of 49%, unchanged from the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA for the year increased 47% to $20.7 million, compared to Adjusted EBITDA1 of $14.1 million in 2023. Adjusted EBITDA margin improved to 22.7% compared to 20.3% in the comparable year. Total assets were $162.6 million on December 31, 2024, compared to $76.4 million on December 31, 2023. Cash at the end of the year totaled $58.5 million, compared to $5.2 million in the prior year, while working capital totaled $94.4 million, compared to $3.6 million in the prior year. Capital expenditures/intangible assets purchased were $5.1 million for the year, compared to $7.6 million in 2023. Net income for the year increased to $20.1 million, compared to $5.5 million in the prior year. Diluted earnings per share of $0.09 compared to $0.03 in the prior year. Net income in the year benefited from a deferred tax recovery of $9.7 million. Since the end of Q3, Kraken Robotics announced: Several meaningful new orders, including almost $60 million in subsea battery orders. Plans to open new battery production facility in Nova Scotia to meet increasing defense market demand. The acquisition of subsea LiDAR company 3D at Depth. The introduction of KATFISH synthetic aperture sonar service for the global offshore energy market. 2025 Financial Guidance. For 2025, we currently expect revenue between $120 million and $135 million and Adjusted EBITDA margin in the $26 million to $34 million range. The midpoint of guidance represents 40% revenue growth and 45% Adjusted EBITDA growth. Capital expenditures in 2025 are expected to range from $13 million to $17 million with approximately $10 million of this spending related to a new subsea power manufacturing facility that is expected to be operational in Nova Scotia near the end of 2025. Kraken’s sales funnel pipeline currently stands at ~ $2 billion, more than double year over year from the $900 million we reported in February 2024. https://t.co/84zR3tWogQ

Sophic Client Ionik (INIK-TSXV, INIKF-OTCQX) announces record fourth quarter and fiscal 2024 results.

(All figures in US dollars, unless otherwise indicated). Fiscal 2024 Annual Financial Highlights: Record revenue of $179.1 million during its fiscal year 2024, as compared to $140.4 million for the prior twelve months ended December 31, 2023, an increase of 28%. Revenue growth was primarily driven by the acquisitions of Shift44, Inc. (“SHIFT44”) in Q4 2023 and Nimble5, LLC (“Nimble5”) and Rise4 Inc. (“Rise4”) in 2024. Record gross profit of $67.3 million in its fiscal year 2024 ($55.5 million for the prior twelve months), representing a 21% increase from the comparable period in the prior year, driven by the increase in revenue. Gross margin percentage of 38% in fiscal year 2024 (40% for the prior twelve months). Record Adjusted EBITDA of $23.1 million ($17.2 million for the prior twelve months), an increase of 34%. Adjusted EBITDA growth was predominantly related to the three acquisitions as well as operating expense reductions. Financial Highlights for the Fourth Quarter 2024: Revenue of $48.4 million, an increase of 10% versus $44.0 million for the prior quarter with growth driven by the acquisitions of Nimble5 in September and Rise4 in November 2024. Gross profit of $19.2 million (40% margin), compared to $17.1 million (39% margin) for the prior quarter and $17.4 million (46% margin) for the same period of 2023 (“Q4 2023”). Adjusted EBITDA of $7.3. million, compared to $6.0 million for the prior quarter, with growth derived from 2024 acquisitions. Adjusted Free Cash Flow of $4.8 million (65% Adjusted Free Cash Flow conversion rate), compared to $5.5 million (92% Adjusted Free Cash Flow conversion rate1) for the prior quarter and $5.3 million (95% Adjusted Free Cash Flow conversion rate) for Q4 2023. Net loss after tax from continuing operations of $16.9 million, versus $2.9 million net loss for the prior quarter and $44.7 million net loss for Q4 2023. The Q4 2024 net loss was primarily driven by $14.0 million impairment of intangible assets and goodwill recorded in fourth quarter 2024. The Q4 2023 net loss was primarily driven by a $41.3 million impairment of intangible assets and goodwill recorded in the fourth quarter 2023. Cash as at December 31, 2024 was $14.6 million compared to $15.3 million at September 30, 2024, and $7.4 million at December 31, 2023. During the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2024 the Company generated cash flow from operations of $7.2 million and $12.2 million respectively. At December 31, 2024, the Company had not drawn on its revolving facility of $10.0 million. Management believes that its current capital position is sufficient to execute its current business and operational strategies. Total undiscounted debt as at December 31, 2024 was $126.5 million, including $88.0 million of senior lender debt, $28.8 million of convertible debt, $6.8 million in a vendor take-back loan, and $3.0 million in a working capital note compared to $127.7 million in total debt as at September 30, 2024. The increase mainly resulted from the additional draw for the acquisition of Rise4 reduced by the principal payments of $3.7 million on the senior debt term facility in the quarter. Senior debt net of cash was $73.4 million at December 31, 2024, compared to $67.9 million at September 30, 2024 and $57.6 million at June 30, 2024. Ionik continues to execute on its integration strategy and enhancement of the Ionik Marketing Cloud platform following the recent acquisitions of Nimble5 in September 2024 and Rise4 in November of 2024. https://t.co/CdAP2o6A3y

Sophic Client American Aires (WIFI-CSE, AAIRF-OTCQB) announces record Q4 and annual 2024 order volume.

Q4/2024 set a new quarterly sales record of $8.6 million, a 130% increase (from non-GAAP 3.7 million reported a year ago on a combined Aires + HUCK basis) and continued our strong year-over-year revenue growth trend. Gross profit margin improved 400 basis points to 63% (from non-GAAP 59% reported a year ago on a combined Aires + HUCK basis), largely due to certain cost cutting measures undertaken in early 2024, as well as a more strategic and measured approach to discounting. Certain non-cash accounting changes in Q4/2024 resulted in marketing expenses being approximately $1.1 million higher for Q4/2024 than indicated in preliminary results announced on January 27, 2025. As a result, the adjusted EBITDA loss for Q4/2024 was $1.6 million versus a non-GAAP gain of $0.08 million reported last year (on a combined Aires + HUCK basis). Excluding the impact of the non-cash accounting change mentioned above, Q4/2024 adjusted EBITDA would have been a loss of $0.5 million versus the EBITDA loss of $0.3 million previously announced as part of the preliminary, unaudited non-IFRS metrics disclosed on January 27, 2025. On an annual basis, sales increased 73% year-over-year to $18.0 million (from non-GAAP $10.4 million in 2023 on a combined Aires + HUCK basis7), while gross profit margin improved 100 basis points to 62% (from non-GAAP 61% a year earlier on a combined Aires + HUCK basis). Adjusted EBITDA loss for 2024 increased to $4.5 million (from an adjusted EBITDA loss of $1.5 million in 2023). Excluding the previously mentioned non-cash accounting change effected in Q4/2024, adjusted EBITDA would have been a loss of $3.4 million. Aires exited 2024 with $1.5 million of cash and cash equivalents and $0.76 million dollars of debt. The Company closed two private placements during 2024: one for gross aggregate proceeds of $3,999,999 and the other for gross aggregate proceeds of $3,770,465. Reiterating 2025 Guidance. On January 27, 2025, the Company provided 2025 financial guidance of sales in the range of $28 million to $32 million and adjusted EBITDA in the range of -$2 million loss to $2 million profit. https://tinyurl.com/4uthtx2u

Sophic Client Plurilock (PLUR-TSXV, PLCKF-OTCQB) reports fiscal 2024 financial results.

Total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2024, was $59,124,540 (audited) as compared to $59,390,101 (audited) for the year ended December 31, 2023. Revenue for the year ended December 31, 2024, is lower than the comparative period as a result of the timing on a few large orders and lower volume of re-sell revenue from the Integra acquisition (“INC”) offset partially by growth in professional services sales. Comparable gross sales booking1 under previous accounting interpretations would have been $81,247,713 (unaudited) and $70,420,131 (unaudited), for the year ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. Contracted backlog2 was $56,679,292 (unaudited) for the year ended December 31, 2024. This compares to contracted backlog of $27,063,000 (unaudited) for the year ended December 31, 2023. Hardware and systems sales revenue for the year ended December 31, 2024, totalled $8,755,823 (audited) compared to $18,865,698 (audited) respectively in the prior year ended December 31, 2023. Software, license, and maintenance sales revenue for the year ended December 31, 2024, was $41,690,864 (audited) compared to $37,082,412 (audited) in the prior year ended December 31, 2023. Professional services revenue was $8,677,853 (audited) for the year ended December 31, 2024, compared to $3,441,991 (audited) in the prior year ended December 31, 2023. Hardware and systems sales revenues for the year ended December 31, 2024, accounted for 14.8% of total revenues compared to 31.8% for the year ended December 31, 2023. Software, license and maintenance sales revenues for the year ended December 31, 2023, accounted for 70.5% compared to 62.4% for the year ended December 31, 2023. Professional services revenue for the year ended December 31, 2024, accounted for 14.7% of total revenues, compared to 5.8% for the year ended December 31, 2023. Gross margin for the year ended December 31, 2024, was 13.1% compared to 8.5% for the year ended December 31, 2023. Adjusted EBITDA for the year ended December 31, 2024 was $(3,605,378) compared to $(4,179,192) in the prior year ended December 31, 2023. Cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash on December 31, 2024 was $1,419,463 compared to $2,058,193 on December 31, 2023. During the year ended December 31, 2024, the Company used $7,056,064 of cash from operating activities compared to $1,870,194 in the prior year. https://tinyurl.com/4a9mp39n

Sophic Client Legend Power Systems Inc. (LPS-TSXV, LPSIF-OTC) secures repeat purchase order for eight additional SmartGATE systems.

Legend Power® Systems announced a new purchase order for eight additional SmartGATE systems from a major commercial real estate organization. This latest order marks the fourth large-scale purchase by this customer in as many years, bringing their total SmartGATE purchases to over 50 systems across their portfolio in the past five years. This order revises the previous order and not only increases the previous number of SmartGATE systems from 10 to 18 but also shifts installation responsibilities to the customer’s preferred contractor. As a result, the total order value increases significantly while also enhancing overall margins due to the exclusion of lower-margin installation services. Additionally, SmartGATE-only transactions are governed by improved payment terms, increasing upfront deposits from 25% to 50% and accelerating overall cash collection. What began as a two-system pilot project has grown into a systematic, portfolio-wide rollout, demonstrating the scalability and long-term impact of Legend Power’s SmartGATE technology. By adopting a phased implementation strategy, this customer has been able to continuously improve power quality across multiple properties, achieving significant operational and financial benefits at each stage. A senior executive for the customer stated: “The results from dozens of previous SmartGATE deployments made the decision to expand an easy one. With over a 15% ROI, lower operating costs, and a dramatic reduction in building issues, we’re seeing stronger building performance across the board. SmartGATE is a win for our tenants, our employees, our bottom line, and our portfolio valuations.” https://t.co/dSzexy3waZ

Sophic Client Cybeats Technologies Corp. (CYBT-CSE,CYBCF-OTCQB) secures new enterprise contract with Emerson, a global leader in industrial automation.

Cybeats announced a significant contract expansion with Emerson Electric Co. (NYSE: EMR) (“Emerson”), a global leader in industrial automation and electrical solutions. As part of the new agreement, Emerson has doubled the number of software assets it manages through Cybeats. This expanded engagement reflects Emerson’s continued commitment to advancing its cybersecurity posture. “The regulatory landscape is evolving rapidly, and organizations must be proactive in securing their product supply chain. Cybeats’ SBOM Studio delivers the visibility and automation required to address these challenges at scale. After expanding our license with Cybeats twice, we’re pleased to further deepen our collaboration with Cybeats to help reinforce the security of our products and software supply chain. Cybeats has been incredibly responsive to our needs and has become a key technical supplier for our SBOM management strategy.” said Dave Berndt, Product Security Officer for measurement instrumentation at Emerson. Cybeats continues to see clients scale their engagements, progressing from initial adoption to enterprise-wide deployments. Emerson’s expanded agreement from April 1, 2025 reflects this trend, reinforcing Cybeats’ ability to drive recurring revenue growth and sustain long-term value at scale. This pattern of increasing contract sizes and deeper adoption is a key factor in the Company’s 148% net revenue retention rate, underscoring the trust and impact of Cybeats’ solutions. As cybersecurity risks intensify in frequency and severity2, and regulatory scrutiny increases across industrial and critical infrastructure sectors, forward-looking companies like Emerson are strengthening their software supply chain defenses with Cybeats. In fact, over the course of the relationship, Emerson has expanded its license with Cybeats twice highlighting the growing importance of scalable SBOM (Software Bill of Materials) management in securing the software supply chain. https://t.co/DjXnoGoeYT

Sophic Client Cybeats Technologies Corp. (CYBT-CSE,CYBCF-OTCQB) renews and expands contract with U.S. government security agency.

Cybeats announced a contract renewal with a major U.S. security agency, with an expanded contract. Due to the highly sensitive nature of this engagement, specific details regarding Cybeats’ client and contract terms remain confidential in order to safeguard national interests and uphold the operational security of the client. With global cybersecurity threats intensifying, regulatory bodies and national security initiatives are advancing Software Bill of Material (SBOM) adoption across a number of agencies and sectors. Throughout the U.S., organizations spanning critical infrastructure sectors-including energy, industrial control systems, healthcare, and defense-are increasingly prioritizing software transparency and risk mitigation, reinforcing Cybeats’ role as a trusted partner in cybersecurity and compliance. https://tinyurl.com/2hapn8y9

Apollo invested US$25 billion during tariff turmoil.

Apollo Global Management invested US$25 billion during the turmoil in April following President Donald Trump’s tariff announcements, making it one of the most active buyers in the market, CEO Marc Rowan said on an earnings call. Apollo has a history of investing during market downturns. In the early days of the pandemic, it lent money to Airbnb and teamed up with Silver Lake to make a US$1.2 billion investment in Expedia. Rowan said Apollo was looking for opportunities in public bond markets, where he expects “extreme price volatility, to the point where sometimes public markets offer better returns on a risk-adjusted basis than private markets.” The firm’s available capital increased a record US$43 billion in the first quarter. Apollo manages US$785 billion and has targeted reaching US$1.5 trillion in assets under management by 2029. https://tinyurl.com/4n2pkwds

XAI in talks to raise US$20 billion.

Elon Musk’s XAI Holdings, formed from merging his xAI startup with social media company X, is in talks to raise US$20 billion, Bloomberg News reported. The new investment could value the combined company at US$120 billion, the report said. The giant round could be used to pay down some of the debt that X, then called Twitter, took on when Musk took it private in a leveraged buyout three years ago. XAI, the maker of chatbot Grok, has previously raised about $13 billion from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, BlackRock and sovereign wealth funds MGX and Qatar Investment Authority. https://tinyurl.com/3j3933pz

Wall Street banks offload last of twitter debt.

A group of Wall Street banks sold the final tranches of debt it lent Elon Musk in 2022 for his takeover of Twitter, now called X, The Wall Street Journal reported. The US$1.2 billion sale marks the end of a long-running headache for the banking syndicate that lent a total of US$13 billion to Musk. Interest rates shot up in the period between when Musk launched the deal and when it finally closed, making investors wary of taking on the debt from the banks. Some banks marked down the value of the loans, the newspaper said. Ultimately the group, which included Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, ended up selling the most recent tranche of debt close to the price the banks paid, at 98 cents on the dollar. Banks generally sell leveraged buyout debt to investors in order to avoid holding more capital against the loans for regulatory purposes, which crimps earnings. Optimism about Musk’s corporate empire since the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president, and the return of advertisers to X, helped the banks offload roughly US$11 billion in loans since February, the report said. https://tinyurl.com/3f7cbfdt

Palo Alto Networks to buy cybersecurity startup Protect AI.

Palo Alto Networks said Monday that it has agreed to buy Protect AI, a three-year-old startup that develops cybersecurity software for artificial intelligence applications. The deal speaks to the growing demand for software that guards against hacks of AI applications. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, though tech publication Geekwire said Palo Alto Networks was paying more than US$500 million. Seattle-based Protect AI raised more than US$108 million, most recently at a valuation of US$460 million last year, from investors including Evolution Equity Partners and Salesforce Ventures. Palo Alto Networks said in a statement that the acquisition will help the company develop Prism AIRS, a cybersecurity product for AI that it also announced on Monday. Prism AIRS is intended to block prompt injections, or attacks where a large language model is tricked into following malicious instructions, and help developers conduct automated red-teaming to find security vulnerabilities in their AI applications. “You can’t have AI deployed at the enterprise without security,” said Ed Sim, founder of Boldstart Ventures, which co–led Protect AI’s seed funding round and participated in the company’s Series A and Series B funding rounds. “I’ve never seen a market move from nothing to something so fast.” https://tinyurl.com/3tv9ddch

Roku is buying Frndly TV, a subscription video streaming service that offers live cable TV channels including A&E, Hallmark and Lifetime, for US$185 million in cash.

Roku said the move is in part to help drive “Roku-billed subscriptions” on its streaming TV operating system. The acquisition of Frndly TV should also help grow Roku’s “platform revenue” segment, which generates revenue from advertising as well as when users purchase subscriptions to streaming services or buy or rent movies and TV shows from their Roku accounts. That segment generated US$880.8 million in revenue during the first quarter of 2025, up 17% year over year. (Roku posted first-quarter earnings on Thursday.) Platform revenue also accounts for a vast majority of Roku’s overall business. The company’s other business segment, “devices revenue,” generated US$139.9 million during the first quarter, up 11% year over year—but at a gross profit loss of US$19.3 million. Based in Denver, Frndly TV was founded in 2019 and offers more than 50 live cable TV channels at subscriptions starting at US$6.99 per month. Roku said the acquisition is expected to be completed in the second quarter. Of the US$185 million purchase price, it said US$75 million will be held back and tied to performance goals over the next two years. https://tinyurl.com/3z2fs3j9

Meta’s revenue rises 16% in the first quarter.

Meta Platforms on Wednesday reported first-quarter revenue of US$42.3 billion, up 16% from a year earlier. That exceeded its own forecast of US$39.5 billion to US$41.8 billion, showing the strength of its digital advertising business, but marked a slowdown from fourth-quarter growth of 21%. (If foreign exchange movements are taken into account, revenue growth was a healthier 19%, however). Meta’s forecast for second-quarter revenue suggested growth of between 9% and 16%, including a one percentage point boost from foreign exchange movements. Chief Financial Officer Susan Li said that there was “uncertainty, obviously, in how the macro[economic] environment will evolve over time” and that the company had “seen some reduced spend in the U.S. from Asia-based e-commerce exporters, which we believe is in anticipation of the de minimis exemption going away.” But she added that generally trends so far in April were “healthy.” The parent of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp raised its estimate for capital expenditures this year to US$64 billion to US$72 billion, which means its expenses could grow as much as 83% from a year earlier. Meta said that it was making “additional data center investments to support [its] artificial intelligence efforts” and that it expected “infrastructure hardware,” like the chips used to train and run AI models, to become more expensive. Meta also lowered its estimate for total expenses this year to US$113 billion to US$118 billion, down from a previous forecast of US$114 billion to US$119 billion. Li said that the company had updated its expectations for employee compensation and other operating expenses, which was “partially offset” by higher costs related to infrastructure and Reality Labs, its augmented and virtual reality unit. Meta’s first-quarter profits rose 35% to US$16.6 billion. The company’s share price rose in after-hours trading, at one point spiking more than 5%. https://tinyurl.com/kp58v4e5

Apple posts 5% higher revenues as iPhone sales rise slightly.

Apple reported 5% higher revenue of US$95.4 billion for the March quarter, thanks to a 2% lift in iPhone revenues and a 12% increase in services revenue. Apple’s net income rose 5% to US$24.78 billion. Apple shares were trading down 2.5% in after-hours trading. The slight increase in the iPhone business may have been influenced by a rush of iPhone purchases around the end of March as consumers tried to beat the imposition of tariffs on Chinese imports which was expected to sharply raise the price of iPhones. The Trump administration ended up temporarily exempting smartphones and other electronics from the tariffs. Apple’s results showed a slight decline in revenue from China, suggesting the company’s loss of smartphone market share in the country has continued. Apple has been losing share in China to local phone makers. https://tinyurl.com/4uk34wmj

Amazon reports steady first quarter results, including 9% sales growth.

Amazon reported largely steady results for the first quarter of 2025, including 9% overall revenue growth to US$155.7 billion. The company also projected sales growth of 7% to 11% for the second quarter. Amazon’s first quarter North America sales, which include e-commerce but excludes Amazon Web Services, grew 8%, while international sales rose 5%. AWS revenue was up 17%, a slight deceleration from 19% growth in the preceding three quarters. The company also added new language to the financial guidance section of its earnings release, noting that “tariff and trade policies” could materially affect its performance in the second quarter. President Donald Trump’s tariff policies have upended many parts of the e-commerce industry, and the White House criticized Amazon on Tuesday following a report that the company planned to display some tariff costs on its website. https://tinyurl.com/yc4rw8c3

Microsoft reports 13% revenue growth, faster cloud growth than expected.

Microsoft said Wednesday that its revenue grew 13% in the three months ending in March, a slightly faster rate than the quarter prior. Meanwhile, its revenue in its Azure cloud computing unit grew 33%, slightly higher than the growth the company had forecasted, reversing a slight slowdown in recent quarters. Shares jumped more than 5% in after-hours trading. The growth would have been two percentage points higher if not for foreign exchange fluctuations, the company said. CEO Satya Nadella attributed the uptick in sales to customers who are using Microsoft’s cloud and AI software to “reduce costs and accelerate growth.” Microsoft has previously touted its rapid growth in AI products, including selling access to software from OpenAI and other AI providers to Microsoft cloud customers. Microsoft said on Wednesday that its AI business growth was driven in part by a new Azure commitment from OpenAI, while its overall Azure growth was bolstered by higher than expected sales of traditional, non-AI cloud services. The company’s capital expenditures were US$21.4 billion in the most recent quarter, slightly down from US$22.3 billion in the quarter prior. Microsoft has said it’s on track to spend US$80 billion in capex this year as it builds out new data centers, but more recently the company said it was slowing data center expansion in certain regions. CFO Amy Hood said on Wednesday that its capex will grow in the coming year, although at a slower rate than in the year prior. The moderation comes as one of Microsoft’s biggest customers, OpenAI, recently embarked on a new data center that will be built by Oracle, after previously relying solely on Microsoft for cloud computing. https://tinyurl.com/42xf8md5

Spotify lifts revenue 15% despite soft ad pricing.

Spotify reported 15% growth in revenue to 4.2 billion euros, driven by its premium subscription business. Advertising revenue grew 8%, although excluding the impact of foreign exchange changes, growth in advertising was just 5%. Spotify said pricing in podcast ad inventory was soft. The quarter shows how the music streaming-and-podcasting firm has benefited from raising prices on its premium subscription offering. The number of premium subscribers rose 12% but premium revenue expanded 16%. Meanwhile operating income more than doubled to 509 million euros, helped by lower staffing and marketing costs. But the profit was below the company’s forecast. Spotify shares were trading down 5.5% in pre market trading. https://tinyurl.com/y72zjuva

Jeff Bezos to sell up to US$4.75 billion in Amazon stock.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos plans to sell up to US$4.75 billion worth of shares in the ecommerce company over the next 12 months, regulatory filings revealed on Friday. Bezos, who stepped down as Seattle-based tech group’s chief executive in mid-2021, will sell up to 25,000,000 shares via an orderly trading plan running through to the end of May 2026. At Thursday’s closing price of US$190, the stake is worth about US$4.75 billion. The trading plan was set up in early March, according to Amazon’s latest quarterly filing. The disclosure came hours after Amazon warned on Thursday evening of the impact of Donald Trump’s global trade war, forecasting that net sales and operating income could come in below Wall Street’s forecasts. Bezos previously offloaded more than US$13.4 billion of Amazon stock over the course of 2024, a year in which the company’s market cap rose beyond US$2 trillion, fuelled by investor excitement over the artificial intelligence. https://tinyurl.com/4pajtrwe

Snap shares fall on Q2 ‘headwinds’.

Snap revenue rose 14% to US$1.36 billion during the first three months of the year, but the company said it couldn’t provide financial guidance for the second quarter due to uncertain “macro economic conditions” which could hurt demand for advertising. “While our topline revenue has continued to grow, we have experienced headwinds to start the current quarter,” Snap wrote in a letter to investors. Snap shares fell more than 15% in after-hours trading on Tuesday. The Snapchat parent company also lost 1 million users in North America during the first quarter compared to a year earlier and the prior quarter. But its global daily users grew 9% to 460 million year over year. The company now has more than 900 million monthly active users. https://tinyurl.com/2s3u79ra

Tesla Chair denies report on plans to look for new CEO. 

Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm on Thursday denied a Wall Street Journal report that said the electric car maker’s board of directors contacted executive search firms to look for a replacement for Elon Musk as the company’s CEO. In a post on Tesla’s X account, Denholm called the Journal’s report “absolutely false” and said the board is “highly confident” in Musk’s ability as CEO. The Journal earlier reported that Tesla’s board reached out to several executive search firms about a month ago. Around the time that the conversations with those firms began, board members told Musk—who was working on the Trump administration’s government efficiency initiatives—that he needed to spend more time at Tesla, according to the Journal. https://tinyurl.com/2y4w96dv

Waymo and Toyota ink autonomous car partnership.

Waymo and Toyota are exploring a partnership to develop an autonomous vehicle platform for personally owned vehicles, Waymo said Tuesday. The automaker’s mobility technology subsidiary, Woven by Toyota, may join the potential partnership. Tekedra Mawakana, co-CEO at Waymo, said the partnership could bring Toyota vehicles into Waymo’s ride-hailing fleet. Woven by Toyota was previously the advanced development arm of Toyota’s Research Institute. It acquired Lyft’s self-driving unit in 2021 for US$550 million. Discussions between Waymo and Toyota are still on-going and the scope of the potential partnership has not been finalized, the companies said. https://tinyurl.com/yc5jdmve

Amazon’s first project Kuiper satellites launch.

Amazon’s efforts to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service finally got off the ground. On Monday afternoon, 27 satellites for the Amazon service, known as Project Kuiper, launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard an Atlas V rocket operated by United Launch Alliance. In 2023, ULA launched two test satellites for the project, but Monday’s launch represents the first that will be used in the commercial deployment of the Kuiper service. Amazon has a long way to go to achieve its plans for a satellite internet that can compete with Starlink. Amazon has an agreement with ULA to deliver more than half of the 3,200 satellites currently planned for Project Kuiper over 38 launches. The company has agreements with Arianespace, SpaceX and Blue Origin—Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ space company—to deliver the remainder of the satellites to space over 30 other launches. Starlink has over 6,750 satellites currently in orbit. https://tinyurl.com/mn6wzsd9

Huawei to test new AI chip.

Huawei Technologies is talking to Chinese tech companies about a powerful new artificial-intelligence chip it has developed, The Wall Street Journal reported. Huawei is aiming for the chip to replace some high-end products from Nvidia, the U.S. chipmaker that dominates AI chips, the Journal said. The new chip, called the Ascend 910D, is still in early stages of development and will require testing before it can be shipped to customers. Huawei expects to get the first of the new chips in about a month, the Journal reported. The company hopes the chip will be more powerful than Nvidia’s H100. Huawei is aiming to help China become self-sufficient in high-end chips. The U.S. is trying to prevent that from happening by cutting off China from buying chip-making gear and from high-end chips like those from Nvidia. Nvidia took a US$5.5 billion charge this month when Washington restricted sales in China of its H20 chip. That had been the top processor the company could sell inside China without a license. Restrictions like these have pushed China to develop its own technologies. Huawei has already released a high-end smartphone with domestically made chips. https://tinyurl.com/yc83ucyr

Alibaba launches new generation of open-source AI models.

Alibaba Group on Tuesday released Qwen 3, a new generation of its open-source artificial intelligence foundation models. The company said the largest one among the new models outperforms competitors’ popular existing models like DeepSeek’s R1 and OpenAI’s o1 based on multiple industry benchmarks. The launch of Qwen 3, a suite of eight open-source models that come in various sizes and specifications, is the Chinese tech giant’s latest effort to stay competitive after the rapid rise of DeepSeek, whose R1 model released in January shocked the world with its high performance and low cost. Alibaba’s new models could further disrupt the global market by offering more open-source alternatives to costly proprietary AI models. Alibaba said the largest of its eight new Qwen 3 models, Qwen3-235B-22B, outperforms DeepSeek’s R1 in benchmark evaluations of coding, math and other capabilities. DeepSeek, meanwhile, has been working on the development of new models such as the successor to R1. Alibaba said Qwen 3 can switch between “thinking mode” when performing complex tasks like math and coding, and “non-thinking mode” for quick responses to simpler prompts, depending on users’ preferences. The company also said Qwen 3 supports 119 languages, a sharp increase from 29 languages supported by its previous-generation Qwen 2.5 models. https://tinyurl.com/3zrzvfmt

Meta release standalone app for Meta AI assistant.

Meta Platforms on Tuesday released a standalone smartphone app for its Meta AI assistant. The new app is a modified version of its Meta View app, which owners of its Ray-Ban smart glasses used to manage the device. It gives Meta’s AI assistant more ways to reach people, putting it on par with AI assistants from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and xAI, all of which have their own apps. Meta previously relied on offering its AI assistant through its social media apps—Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. The new app includes a social feed where people can share how they are using artificial intelligence. People can still use the app to manage their smart glasses, as well as “other kinds of AI devices that we’re going to be building in the future,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post on Instagram. Meta AI has almost 1 billion monthly active users across Meta’s social media apps, Zuckerberg said on Tuesday, up from more than 700 million in January. Some of that usage is thought to be unintentional, which the company has previously attributed to people still learning how to use the assistant on its social media apps. https://tinyurl.com/bdd6kyvx

Apple approves Spotify app update with external payment links.

Apple has officially approved the first app with links to external payment options in the United States. After submitting its update to Apple, Spotify says that Apple has approved a new version of the app that takes advantage of the latest changes to the App Store Guidelines. In an injunction handed down on Wednesday, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers barred Apple from charging commission or otherwise interfering with developers’ ability to direct customers to payment methods outside of the App Store. “In a victory for consumers, artists, creators, and authors, Apple has approved Spotify’s U.S. app update. After nearly a decade, this will finally allow us to freely show clear pricing information and links to purchase, fostering transparency and choice for U.S. consumers. We can now give consumers lower prices, more control, and easier access to the Spotify experience. There is more work to do, but today represents a significant milestone for developers and entrepreneurs everywhere who want to build and compete on a more level playing field. It’s the opening act of a new era, and we could not be more ready for the show.” https://tinyurl.com/2s3efm7z

Spotify paid out US$100 million to podcasters in first quarter.

Spotify said on Monday that it paid out more than US$100 million to podcast creators and publishers globally during the first quarter. The company said the payouts include both ad revenue generated by audio and video podcasts as well as payments Spotify makes to certain creators and publishers in its Spotify Partner Program based on the time users spend watching podcasts on its ad-free service. Monthly earnings for creators in the program increased 29% from February to March, the company said. Spotify has been placing a huge emphasis on video podcasts as it tries to convince more podcasters that its platform can generate meaningful revenue. However, it still has a long way to go to catch up to the biggest streaming platform when it comes to revenue sharing: In February 2024, YouTube CEO Neal Mahon said the video giant had paid out US$70 billion over the previous three years to creators, media companies and other owners of video channels in its YouTube Partner Program. While Spotify continues to grow its overall business, it has struggled to get ad revenue to take off, as The Information previously reported. Part of the issue is that the popularity of Spotify’s ad-free subscription service inherently limits the number of listeners it can deliver ads to. https://tinyurl.com/5n63xdu8

OpenAI adds shopping features to search results.

OpenAI is incorporating more shopping features into ChatGPT search results, the company said Monday. For web searches, ChatGPT will now include links to products with images and reviews. The links open up another avenue of competition with Google, whose browser-based shopping feature returns paid product listings above typical search results. Google, which has raced to introduce consumer AI products after the success of ChatGPT, also shows product links to some users in its AI Overview search results. OpenAI said the links won’t include ads or paid results, and it isn’t taking a cut of purchases for now. Instead, ChatGPT will base its results on a variety of online sources, including traditional publishers like product review and news sites, as well as user forums like Reddit, and users will be able to instruct ChatGPT which kinds of reviews to prioritize. More brands and retailers are starting to revamp their websites and product listings so that chatbots can reference them more easily in their results. While other AI search companies like Perplexity have added the ability to purchase products directly in their search results, users will still have to navigate from ChatGPT to merchants’ sites in order to check out. OpenAI’s search product lead Adam Fry told Wired that the company’s main priority right now is providing high quality recommendations and that the company might test various affiliate revenue models later. OpenAI has forecast that new products including “free user monetization” will generate US$25 billion in 2029, or one-fifth of all revenue. https://tinyurl.com/5ydjfa8s

Temu asks China-based merchants to fulfill orders on their own.

Temu has discontinued its direct-from-China shipping model and now requires China-based merchants to fulfill orders on their own when selling to the U.S. market. The shift marks the online bargain seller’s latest attempt to keep its site stocked as sky-rocketing tariffs make it uneconomical for Temu to send orders to the U.S directly. Temu has already been aggressively recruiting U.S.-based sellers since March last year, as threats of a favorable duty-free import provision disappearing were building, but hasn’t signed up enough U.S.-based sellers who can fill the void left by China-based ones. Temu introduced the new model, dubbed Y2, because the platform “needs a lot of listings,”. In order to attract merchants to sign up to the Y2 model, Temu allows sellers to set up new storefronts that inherit sales records and reviews from the direct-from-China stores, according to the livestream. While Temu still dictates the pricing of listings, it told merchants they can submit listing prices at four to five times of the direct-from-China model. Last month, Temu said it will hike prices for goods sold on its platform. https://tinyurl.com/3crfzsej

Visa launches AI agent payments tools.

Visa unveiled new tools to facilitate purchases made by artificial intelligence agents Wednesday, following a similar announcement by rival Mastercard earlier this week. Visa will create tokenized cards agents can use for purchases, to encrypt sensitive information like card numbers and demonstrate to retailers that users have authorized agents to buy things. Payment companies and retailers are starting to focus on preventing fraud and verifying transactions made by AI agents, as more shoppers use the automated AI tools to find and buy products. They’re also looking at ways to make shoppers more confident about sharing their sensitive payment information with agents, while also reducing the likelihood of shoppers disputing charges made by AI agents. The tools, known as Visa Intelligent Commerce, also include a personalization API that will allow users to share data about previous purchases with agents to improve their product recommendations and selections. They will also allow shoppers to set spending limits and for Visa to ensure that transactions match user instructions, as well as handle disputes and fraud. Visa said it partnered with companies including Anthropic, IBM, Microsoft, Mistral AI, OpenAI, Perplexity, Samsung and Stripe on the new features. https://tinyurl.com/mtczmb9n

Apple to source billions of US-made chips in supply chain shift.

Apple plans to source more than 19 billion chips from the US this year, part of a global supply chain shift to gradually lessen its reliance on China and elevate India for iPhone production. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook talked about leaning more heavily on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which is expanding its Arizona operations to half a dozen plants. He also affirmed expectations that Apple will in future make the vast majority of its US-bound iPhones in India — reducing output from China as the Donald Trump administration threatens to slap punitive tariffs on its Asian rival. India was mentioned almost as many times as China on Thursday’s post-earnings conference call, reflecting its rising importance. https://tinyurl.com/2495cv3d