May 11 2025: Markets Consolidate Ahead Of US-China Talks

Last week, Dow Jones fell 0.2%, S&P 500 lost 0.5%, Nasdaq composite was down 0.3%. eToro is targeting a US$4 billion valuation in its U.S. IPO, aiming to raise up to US$500 million amid improving market conditions. CoreWeave, which faced investor concerns over its heavy debt during its recent IPO, and reduced its IPO target from US$2.7 billion to US$1.5 billion is now exploring additional debt financing. OpenAI abandoned plans to fully separate its for-profit subsidiary from its nonprofit parent after legal challenges, opting instead to restructure into a public benefit corporation. DoorDash expanded internationally through a US$3.8 billion acquisition of Deliveroo and a US$1.2 billion purchase of hospitality software firm SevenRooms. Palantir raised its full-year guidance following strong Q1 results, driven by surging demand for AI analytics software. AMD reported robust 36% quarterly revenue growth fueled by its data-center business, despite ongoing competition from Nvidia. Super Micro issued weak guidance, citing ‘economic uncertainty and tariff impacts’. Rivian cut its 2025 delivery forecast amid tariff-driven disruptions. Disney reported ad revenue gains driven by live sports. Apple announced plans to integrate AI-powered search into Safari, threatening Google’s dominance, while also hinting AI could eventually replace the iPhone within a decade. Apple is also reportedly planning to introduce Meta Ray-Ban style smart glasses around 2027. Uber expanded its robotaxi partnerships. Robinhood plans to launch a blockchain-based platform enabling European investors to trade U.S. securities, underscoring fintech’s growing global reach. In Canada, Shopify reported strong Q1 earnings, posting revenue of US$2.36 billion, a 27% increase y/y despite ongoing trade tensions. Sophic Capital Client, Kraken Robotics subsidiary 3D At Depth completed its 1,000th subsea metrology project, showcasing advanced LiDAR technology and operational efficiency.

Shopify (SHOP-NASDAQ, SHOP-TSX) posts solid Q1 2025 earnings amid trade war but anticipates slight profit dip.

Shopify posted strong earnings in Q1 2025, beating its forecast for revenue growth with a slightly deflated outlook for profit next quarter as it navigates the impacts of a United States (US) trade war on its merchant clients. Shopify achieved US$2.36 billion in Q1 revenue, a 27-percent growth rate year-over-year, slightly beating its forecast for the quarter. This marks eight straight quarters of 25 percent or more revenue growth, excluding the sale of Shopify’s logistics business in 2023. The e-commerce giant’s gross profit grew 22 percent compared to Q1 2024, hitting US$1.1 billion and surpassing its expected high-teens percentage growth. “Our Q1 results confirm two clear facts. First, we are delivering both growth and profitability at scale. Second, businesses perform better on Shopify, regardless of market conditions,” Shopify president Harley Finkelstein said in a statement. “We built Shopify for times like these. We handle the complexity so merchants can focus on their customers. We ship products faster than anyone else, giving merchants the edge they need to succeed.” Shopify attained US$74.75 million in gross merchandise volume this quarter, marking a 22-percent year-over-year increase from Q1 2024. Shopify’s free cash flow hit US$363 million in Q1 2025, more than a 50-percent increase year-over-year, with a 15-percent free cash flow margin, continuing a seven-quarter double-digit streak. https://tinyurl.com/7srshdcy

Sophic Client Kraken Robotics (PNG-TSXV, KRKNF-OTC) subsidiary 3D At Depth completes 1,000th subsea metrology.

3D At Depth announces the successful completion of its 1,000th subsea metrology project. This significant milestone underlines the company’s commitment to innovation, precision, and excellence in the underwater technology and engineering sector. 3D at Depth was contracted by an Engineering, Procurement, and Construction contractor to perform a LiDAR spool metrology for TotalEnergies in 1,350 meter water depth at the Girassol oil field, located in Angola, West Africa. A remotely operated vehicle was mobilized with 3D at Depth’s Subsea LiDAR in two hours. Total operational time for the two-position scan metrology was four hours and deliverables were provided to the end client within 24 hours. “Not only does the support of advanced technologies and touchless solution provide TotalEnergies with the ability to de-risk inspection, maintenance, and repair, the increased efficiency and rapid acquisition allows us to continue to reduce our environmental impact,” said Maïwenn Keryell-Even, Survey Engineer, and Simon Olive, Product Owner Survey and Positioning, TotalEnergies. https://tinyurl.com/c44uppfw

Unblocked raises $27.5 million Series A to make sure developers actually understand their code.

Vancouver-based Unblocked has secured US$20 million in Series A funding as its platform increasingly helps programmers understand code generated using artificial intelligence (AI). While Unblocked originally built its core offering to keep track of the intent behind historical developer decisions, the increase in AI-generated code is further widening the gap between code authorship and code understanding, according to the company. https://tinyurl.com/y5cvz692

Retail trading platform eToro targets US$4 billion valuation in US IPO.

Israel’s eToro said on Monday it was targeting a valuation of up to US$4 billion in its U.S. initial public offering, as the retail trading platform moves ahead with its long-awaited New York flotation. Bnei Brak-based eToro and some existing stockholders are seeking up to US$500 million by offering 10 million shares priced between US$46 and US$50 each. Stock markets have regained some poise in recent days amid signs of easing trade tensions, opening the window for companies to go public. eToro’s listing on the tech-heavy Nasdaq will be a litmus test of investor appetite for first-time share sales in the aftermath of the tariff-driven turmoil. The company had delayed investor presentations for its IPO last month due to market conditions, Reuters reported. “Given how early we are in the IPO revival cycle, investors are often looking for large discounts,” said Jeff Zell, senior research analyst at IPO Boutique. https://tinyurl.com/3n64bkv2

CoreWeave reportedly looks to raise US$1.5 billion in debt as IPO disappoints.

According to the Financial Times, CoreWeave is holding a roadshow this week with bankers at JPMorgan for debt options. The company’s executives intend to use the meetings to gauge investor interest. New Jersey-based CoreWeave listed its shares in March, initially targeting a US$2.7 billion fundraise. The company was forced to slash that total to US$1.5 billion following investor concern about its large debt burden and a weakening market for AI infrastructure. CoreWeave, which has customers including Microsoft, raised US$12.9 billion of debt in the past two years to build data centers. The company had about US$8 billion of total debt on its balance sheet as of December 2024, and is facing debt and interest payments of US$7.5 billion by the end of 2026, the Financial Times previously reported. https://tinyurl.com/3skvud3k

OpenAI decides not to split from its nonprofit, handing Musk a partial victory.

OpenAI Chair Bret Taylor said Monday that the artificial intelligence firm will no longer move its for-profit arm, which develops ChatGPT, out from under the control of a nonprofit board. Taylor said OpenAI reversed course after conversations with the attorneys general of Delaware and California, which oversee nonprofits like OpenAI. OpenAI hatched the plan to convert itself into a full-fledged for-profit firm in the wake of the firing and rehiring of CEO Sam Altman by the nonprofit board in 2023. Elon Musk, who helped start the OpenAI nonprofit but now runs a rival AI firm, sought to block the conversion in court, arguing OpenAI was betraying its original nonprofit mission and misled early funders like him by starting a for-profit subsidiary in 2019. (Musk is still suing OpenAI over that 2019 decision.) Delaware AG Kathy Jennings said in a statement that she had expressed concerns to OpenAI about its earlier reorganization plan and would review its new plan to turn the for-profit subsidiary into a public benefit corporation that aims to balance profits with societal goals. OpenAI said it will also go through with its plan to change the for-profit unit’s equity to traditional stock rather than shares that give current holders the right to its future profits. It will also end the cap it put on investors’ financial returns, which was put in place during the 2019 for-profit formation. https://tinyurl.com/396ax8h2

DoorDash finalizes Deliveroo purchase and acquires software firm.

DoorDash finalized a deal to buy British restaurant meal and grocery delivery firm Deliveroo for 2.9 billion pounds, or US$3.8 billion at current exchange rates, deepening the delivery firm’s European presence. At the same time, DoorDash announced a US$1.2 billion purchase of software firm SevenRooms, which makes software for the hospitality industry. Both acquisitions are in cash. The Deliveroo purchase expands DoorDash’s international presence, building on top of the purchase of the Finland-based Wolt in 2022. Deliveroo’s markets include Britain and Ireland, France, Italy and the United Arab Emirates. SevenRooms expands DoorDash’s existing software business, which serves restaurants, giving DoorDash both more software revenue and a way to sign up more restaurants. DoorDash meanwhile reported first quarter earnings, showing 21% higher revenue of US$3.03 billion. The company reported an operating profit of US$155 million, compared with an operating loss a year earlier, and free cash flow of just under US$500 million. DoorDash turns more of its revenue into free cash flow than Deliveroo, which gives the U.S. company a chance to increase Deliveroo’s profitability. https://tinyurl.com/48rhnmbv

Palantir raises full-year outlook as revenue surpasses guidance.

Palantir said Monday that first-quarter revenue rose 39% year over year to US$884 million, fueled by strong demand from U.S. businesses and government agencies for its data-analytics software. U.S. commercial revenue grew 71% to US$255 million, while U.S. government revenue grew 45% to US$373 million. The results surpassed Palantir’s forecast for US$860 million in total revenue. In a letter to shareholders, CEO Alex Karp said Palantir benefited from surging interest in using new AI models, which can analyze large amounts of text and spoken data, to make large organizations more efficient. “The rush towards large language models … has turned into a stampede,” he said. The strong results prompted Palantir to raise its full-year revenue outlook to around US$3.9 billion, or 36% growth year over year. The company said it expects around US$936 million in revenue in the second quarter, a 38% increase from the second quarter of 2024. Palantir shares fell by roughly 5% following the announcement. The company is one of the most highly valued public companies relative to its earnings, with a price-to-earnings ratio of 656. It’s up more than 64% this year. https://tinyurl.com/36r2hj5c

AMD reports 36% revenue growth.

Shares in Advanced Micro Devices rose slightly in after-hours trading after the firm reported quarterly revenue at the high end of its earlier guidance for the quarter that ended in March. AMD’s revenue in the quarter was US$7.4 billion, up 36% from the same period a year earlier. The company projected US$7.4 billion in revenue for the quarter that ends in June, plus or minus US$300 million, which would be up around 28% from the year prior. AMD generated US$3.7 billion in revenue from its data center unit, which includes sales of its MI300 chip that competes with Nvidia’s artificial intelligence server chips. AMD is still a much smaller competitor to Nvidia, which generated US$35.6 billion in data center revenue in the three months ended in January. AMD CEO Lisa Su told analysts in the quarterly earnings call that one of the “largest frontier [AI] model developers” is using its chips for its “daily inference traffic.” https://tinyurl.com/3p43rxmu

Super Micro issues weak guidance, cites ‘economic uncertainty and tariff impacts’.

Super Micro issued disappointing guidance on Tuesday, a week after the server maker provided preliminary results for the latest quarter that fell shy of Wall Street’s expectations. The stock slid about 4% in extended trading. The macroeconomic environment is likely to weigh on performance, the company said, following President Donald Trump’s announcement in early April of sweeping new tariffs on imported goods During the fiscal third quarter, Super Micro saw “a customer waiting and evaluating AI platforms between the current Hopper and the upcoming Blackwell GPUs, leading to a delayed commitment,” CEO Charles Liang said on a conference call with analysts. He said he expects the commitment to come in the June and September quarters. Liang said the company is not giving fiscal 2026 guidance because of tariff-related uncertainty. It has been a treacherous past year for Super Micro. Prior to that, the stock had been on a tear due to the company’s position in the artificial intelligence market, selling servers packed with Nvidia’s graphics processing units. As of Tuesday’s closing bell, Super Micro had gained 9% so far in 2025, while the S&P 500 index had declined 4%. https://tinyurl.com/8maepu57

Disney reports ad revenue gains driven by live sports.

The ad market is healthy if you have live sports—at least according to Disney leadership during the company’s fiscal second-quarter earnings call on Wednesday. Disney said domestic ad revenue for ESPN, its sports segment, grew 29% year over year, driven by airing more NFL and college football playoff games during the three months ending in March. Disney is preparing to launch a new, all-streaming version of ESPN later this year. Disney CEO Bob Iger said ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro will unveil the name of the streaming service and its pricing next week. Disney CFO Hugh Johnston said the company continues to see “robust” interest from advertisers heading into this year’s TV upfronts, when advertisers negotiate billions of dollars in ad-spending deals for the coming year. Restaurants and healthcare advertisers are continuing to spend, though some of that demand is offset by there being more streaming ad inventory available in the market, he said. Disney expects its overall ads business to grow by more than 3% this year, he added. Disney’s entertainment streaming business also continues to see momentum, ending the company’s fiscal second-quarter with US$6.1 billion in revenue and a profit of US$336 million—the latter up from US$47 million during the same quarter last year. The increase in revenue and profits were driven in part by price increases to Disney+ and its other streaming services, the company said. Disney+ ended the quarter with 126 million global subscribers, up 1% from the previous quarter. Disney’s domestic Hulu subscription service (excluding its live, cable-TV like service) surpassed 50 million subscribers. https://tinyurl.com/ytnw2zwy

AppLovin posts strong ad growth.

Mobile app ad firm AppLovin’s business continued to soar in the first quarter of 2025, with revenue rocketing 40% from the first quarter last year to US$1.48 billion. The overall revenue number was better than AppLovin’s own projections. AppLovin stock jumped 14% in after-hours trading. The advertising company’s business and stock have been on a tear since late last year, when the company began pivoting into ecommerce advertising, a departure from the company’s core gaming business. Free cash flow was US$826 million in the first quarter, a nearly 19% rise since the fourth quarter of last year. In the first quarter ad revenue rocketed 71%, although that growth was offset by a 14% decline in its apps revenue. AppLovin executives noted on a call with investors on Wednesday that ecommerce ad revenue remains a small minority of its total ad business. AppLovin’s gaming apps business has shown more volatility than advertising. The app business suffered a drop in revenue in 2023 before stabilizing last year. AppLovin has said it has been finetuning its portfolio of apps, including by cutting marketing spending, to reduce costs. In February it announced it had tentatively reached a deal to sell its mobile gaming business for US$900 million in cash and stock although today the company detailed revised terms for the sale involving less cash in what it called a “definitive agreement.” The ad business has continued growing quickly despite a number of Wall Street short seller reports earlier this year which questioned the effectiveness of its advertising technology. The company has hired a law firm to investigate the short sellers. https://tinyurl.com/2fa9ea27

Instacart stock falls on Simo departure.

Instacart shares fell 4% on Thursday morning, hours after the grocery-delivery firm confirmed that CEO Fidji Simo was stepping down, with her successor yet to be named. OpenAI announced late Wednesday night Simo, a member of the AI company’s board, was joining in the newly created position of CEO of OpenAI Applications. Simo is staying at Instacart for a couple of months, she said in a letter to staff posted on Instacart’s web site. She added that her successor would be announced soon adn would be an “existing member of our management team.” Since going public in 2023, Instacart has reported relatively slow growth—revenue rose 11% in 2024 and 9% in the first quarter of this year—as competition from companies such as DoorDash increases. https://tinyurl.com/dj6x5z9p

OpenAI plans to slash revenue share to Microsoft after restructuring.

As OpenAI seeks to overhaul its corporate structure, it also expects to slash the revenue share Microsoft receives by at least half by decade’s end, The Information reported. Microsoft, whose servers power OpenAI products, hasn’t yet agreed to the changes, according to a person who spoke with a senior Microsoft executive involved in the negotiations. Under its current deal, OpenAI agreed to give Microsoft 20% of its revenue through 2030—a year it expects to make $174 billion. But in recent financial projections shared with investors, OpenAI projected sharing just 10% with commercial partners, including Microsoft, by then. It’s unclear if OpenAI’s current deal with Microsoft applies to future products. Some OpenAI leaders want those to be exempt, said an OpenAI employee. This would keep the overall revenue share OpenAI gives to partners to around 20% by decade’s end, according to the report. https://tinyurl.com/yck4n47e

Rivian earnings: EV maker cuts delivery guidance because of Trump’s tariffs and trade wars.

Rivian said in its earnings report Tuesday it will likely deliver fewer vehicles this year than previously forecasted due to President Trump’s tariffs and other regulatory changes, making it the latest automaker to be affected by the new administration’s chaotic economic policies. The company said Tuesday it expects to deliver between 40,000 and 46,000 EVs by the end of 2025. That’s despite Rivian saying one month ago that it was still holding to its estimate of delivering 46,000 to 51,000 vehicles across this year. Rivian raised its capital expenditure guidance to between US$1.8 billion and US$1.9 billion due to the expected impact from tariffs. The company’s previous capex guidance was between US$1.6 billion to US$1.7 billion, according to its 2024 shareholder letter. Rivian’s earnings announcement comes days after both Ford and General Motors pulled their guidance for the year, citing economic uncertainty related to Trump’s tariffs. Ford said it expects the tariffs to add US$2.5 billion in costs across 2025, while GM told investors it expects the impact to be around US$5 billion. https://tinyurl.com/bnsdxypc

Apple’s plan to offer AI search options on Safari a blow to Google dominance.

Apple’s plans to add AI-powered search options to its Safari browser are a big blow to Google, whose lucrative advertising business relies significantly on iPhone customers using its search engine. The news slammed shares of Google-parent Alphabet, opens new tab, which closed down 7.3%, wiping off roughly US$150 billion from its market value. The iPhone maker was “actively looking at” reshaping Safari, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters, citing Apple opens new tab executive Eddy Cue who was offering testimony at an antitrust case on Wednesday over Google’s dominance in online search. Cue said searches on Safari fell for the first time last month due to users increasingly turning to AI, according to the source. Apple stock closed down 1.1%. Google said that it continued to see growth in the overall number of search queries, including “total queries coming from Apple’s devices and platforms,” according to a statement posted on the company’s blog. “People are seeing that Google Search is more useful for more of their queries — and they’re accessing it for new things and in new ways,” the company wrote. https://tinyurl.com/cvjdncdf

Apple’s Eddy Cue: ‘You may not need an iPhone 10 years from now’.

Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services, gave an ominous warning that the iPhone could go the way of the iPod 10 years from now. And the reason, as one might guess, is artificial intelligence. Cue’s remarks came during the Google Search antitrust remedies trial today while discussing how AI has the potential to reshape the tech industry and open the door to new entrants. Incumbents have a hard time … we’re not an oil company, we’re not toothpaste — these are things that are going to last forever … you may not need an iPhone 10 years from now. Cue went on to say that the best thing Apple did was kill the iPod, a move he said was bold. “Why would you kill the golden goose,” he added. That may seem like a silly thing for Apple to say, given that more than half of its revenue is iPhone sales. But Cue calls AI a “huge technological shift,” and suggests that such shifts can humble companies that once seemed unassailable. “When I got to Silicon Valley,” he said, “all the best companies or the most successful companies” — he mentioned HP, Sun Microsystems, and Intel — “either don’t exist today or are significantly smaller and much less impactful.” Some companies have already tried — and so far, failed — to replace smartphones with AI gadgets. Those early attempts haven’t worked out yet, but they’ve tried to put users in touch with an AI assistant that’s divorced from smartphones, like Meta AI in the Ray-Ban Meta glasses. Apple is rumored to be working on its own similar solutions that would see users interacting with AI through auxiliary devices like smartwatches, future AirPods, and yes, smart glasses. https://tinyurl.com/4vxtxbjj

Apple reportedly planning to introduce Meta Ray-Ban style smart glasses around 2027.

Mark Gurman reports for Bloomberg News that Apple is developing a chip intended for smart glasses that could come to market in the next two years. However, these smart glasses may not be the highly advanced augmented reality glasses that Apple envisions making someday. Instead, Apple has set its sights on competing with Meta and its camera-equipped Ray-Ban smart glasses. According to Gurman, the non-AR smart glasses will use a class of chip comparable to what’s inside the Apple Watch today. Based on Apple’s plans to mass produce the chip at the end of next year or in 2027, Gurman believes we could see the hardware arrive in the next two years. https://tinyurl.com/bder4d4a

Uber and WeRide to expand robotaxi partnership to 15 more cities.

Ride-hailing platform Uber and Chinese robotaxi company WeRide are expanding their partnership to 15 more cities in the next five years, according to Uber. The two companies started a robotaxi service earlier this year in Abu Dhabi and have plans to launch later this year in Dubai. Uber has made deals with multiple autonomous driving companies in the U.S. and abroad to offer robotaxis on its app. It has partnered with Waymo, Lyft, Avride, Nuro and May Mobility in major American cities for both food and passenger delivery. Some of the locations with WeRide will be in Europe, according to the company. https://tinyurl.com/5n6whvvx

Uber and Pony AI to start robotaxi partnership.

Uber has partnered with Chinese robotaxi company Pony AI to offer autonomously driven rides on Uber’s ride-hailing app. The two will initially launch in a city in the Middle East and have goals to expand to other countries. In the duo’s initial pilot phase, the robotaxis will have safety drivers present in the car. Pony AI, which went public in the U.S. last November, was founded in 2016 by two former Baidu employees. The company had a permit to test autonomous cars in California without safety drivers, but lost it in May 2022 when the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles revoked it following an incident where a driverless Pony AI car hit a traffic sign. It currently is approved to test in the state with a safety driver. https://tinyurl.com/3ft5mvdd

The department of justice argues for breakup in Google adtech case.

The government wants Google to sell two of its advertising technology businesses as a remedy to a Virginia court’s April ruling that Google operates a monopoly in the buying and selling of advertising on independent websites. In a court filing late Monday night, the Department of Justice argued that Google should be forced to immediately sell its advertising exchange business, which helps run auctions that decide which ad appears when someone loads a webpage. The DOJ also argued that Google should sell its ad server, a technology that helps publishers manage the sales of ads on their websites, in a three-step process. Before selling it, the DOJ wants Google to make the ad server’s code available on an open source basis. Aside from divestitures, the DOJ recommended a variety of other behavioral remedies, including forcing Google to share data signals gleaned from the advertising technology businesses. In a separate anti-trust case around Google’s search business, the government is also arguing Google needs to share search data. Google filed its own set of proposed remedies on May 5, arguing that a divestiture was not legally necessary nor technically feasible. Instead, Google suggested it would unlink the exclusive relationship between the server and the exchange, which the judge said was illegal tying. A judge will adjudicate on the remedies after a trial in September. https://tinyurl.com/yzrazw4p

TikTok fined 530 million euros by EU regulator over data protection. 

TikTok was fined 530 million euros (US$600 million) by its lead EU privacy regulator on Friday over concerns on how it protects user information and was ordered to suspend data transfers to China if its processing is not brought into compliance within six months. Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) said TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, failed to show that EU users’ personal data, some of which is remotely accessed by staff in China, was afforded the high level of protection provided for under EU law. As a result, the short-video platform did not address potential access by Chinese authorities to the data under counter-espionage and other laws identified by TikTok as materially diverging from EU standards, the DPC said in a statement. https://tinyurl.com/bdecz755

Robinhood plans blockchain to trade US assets in Europe.

Robinhood Markets Inc. is developing a blockchain-based platform that will allow retail investors in Europe to trade US securities such as stocks, according to two people familiar with the matter. The venture will be likely launched through a partnership with a digital-asset firm, according to the people. Arbitrum, a blockchain that is overlaid on Ethereum, and Solana, another popular blockchain, have both been under consideration for the partnership, they said. Discussions are still ongoing and an agreement has not yet been finalized, one person with direct knowledge said. https://tinyurl.com/yfwct2fn

Trump to rescind Biden’s global AI chip restrictions.

President Donald Trump is planning to rescind a Biden-era plan to restrict exports of advanced artificial intelligence chips to countries around the world, the Commerce Department told Bloomberg. Nvidia and other chip firms said the plan, an executive order issued by President Joe Biden in January that was set to take effect May 15, would hurt their businesses. The regulation aimed to keep more AI chips inside the U.S. or its closest allies while capping the percentage of Nvidia chips that could be sold elsewhere, from Malaysia to India. Critics of the rules, including Nvidia, said they might encourage foreign companies or governments to use chips made by U.S. adversaries, such as China, to develop AI. (Trump has increased restrictions on the sale of U.S. AI chips to China.) The Trump administration said it is considering introducing a “simpler” rule that “unleashes American innovation and ensures American AI dominance,” according to a statement the Commerce Department provided to Bloomberg. That would be welcome news for small cloud providers such as Oracle, which were concerned the Biden executive order would greatly impact their global data center plans. https://tinyurl.com/2x8r66y4