Thanks for reading The Briefing, our nightly column where we break down the day’s news. If you like what you see, I encourage you to subscribe to our reporting here.
Greetings!
This is our first of what we plan to be a regular Sunday evening Briefing, looking out at the coming week. And what a week this promises to be. Nvidia is holding one of its GTC events for developers and customers in Washington Monday through Wednesday—which leather jacket will Jensen Huang wear onstage this time? (For more on GTC, see below.) We’ve also got a flood of earnings reports. Meta Platforms, Google and Microsoft are reporting on Wednesday afternoon, while Apple, Amazon, Coinbase and others are checking in on Thursday. Let’s not forget that President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet China’s President Xi Jinping on Thursday to discuss trade—hopefully we’ll get clarityon TikTok (The Information is also holding its annual WTF conference on Tuesday and Wednesday.)
For investors, tech earnings will dominate. We’re never clear why companies decide to report at the same time as each other: One possibility is they know fewer people can pay close attention. The good news is that we can more quickly see trends in the numbers. There are a couple of key businesses we’ll be monitoring. One is how the cloud units of Microsoft, Google and Amazon are faring. Last quarter, you might recall, Google Cloud and Microsoft’s Azure both showedaccelerating growth, each above 30%, while industry leader Amazon Web Services lagged well behind with growth of 18%. Since then, Google Cloud in particular has struck a number of deals, including with Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic.
Some of these may not show up in the third-quarter numbers, mind you, but Google Cloud’s performance is sure to be closely watched. Amazon shareholders, who’ve had to watch as the stock has stalled this year while others have risen 20% or more, will be watching to see whether AWS can pick up the pace. (This Bloomberg story on Friday highlighted that issue).
Of course, how much these companies are spending on capital expenditures will be closely monitored. That also goes for Meta, which doesn’t have a public cloud business but is spending money on new data centers as though it did. Meta’s quarterly update generally will be fascinating. The company’s ad revenue has been on a tear, helping it finance massive spending on capex and operating expenses related to AI. Any slowdown in revenue growth, combined with higher costs, could dampen profits. Speaking of advertising, Google’s search ad growth rate will also be under the microscope for any sign the drift of consumers to ChatGPT is having an impact.
Then there’s Apple, which is expected to report a pickup in iPhone sales driven by its new iPhone 17 line. But signs that buyers preferred the cheaper entry-level iPhone 17 to the Pro version suggest revenue growth could lag expectations, as we discussed last week. Also reporting this week is Coinbase, PayPal, Reddit, Roku and a slew of others. By Friday night, we’ll all deserve a break!
Here’s what analysts are expecting in revenue and profits from the big names, courtesy of S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Apple
Revenue: $102.088 billion +7.5%
Earnings per share: $1.76 +81%
Microsoft
Revenue: $75.387 billion +14.9%
EPS: $3.66 +10.9%
Alphabet
Revenue: $100.11 billion +13.4%
EPS: $2.27 +7%
Meta Platforms
Revenue: $49.388 billion +21.7%
EPS: $6.72 +11.4%
Amazon
Revenue: $177.7 billion +11.8%
EPS: $1.56 +9%
Nvidia Takes GTC to Washington
Elon Musk isn’t the only tech CEO followers regard as a rock star. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s frequent onstage appearances, both at industry events and Nvidia’s frequent GTC conferences, have the feel of something organized by Walt Disney Co. Check out this video of Huang’s keynote from last March’s GTC for a sense of the tone. Far more than Musk, Huang has a gift for entertaining an audience.
That gift will be on display on Tuesday, when Huang takes the stage for his keynote at this week’s GTC in Washington. These events are aimed at people in the AI ecosystem—developers, customers and business partners. While the main GTC is in San Jose, Calif., every spring, the company holds others elsewhere, including one this year in Paris.
Don’t expect skepticism about the uncertain cost-benefit ratio of the huge investments in AI underway. Nvidia is one of AI’s great boosters, which makes sense given how much its business of designing chips has taken off thanks to the AI revolution. Still, these events are a good time to catch up with the latest AI trends. And we look forward to how Huang will kick off his appearance.
In Other News
• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday that President Donald Trump and China’s leader, Xi Jinping, could this week “consummate” a long-anticipated deal to keep TikTok operating in the U.S., as the leaders prepare to meet Thursday in South Korea.
• JPMorgan Chase has hired veteran technology banker Kevin Brunner from Bank of America as global chair of investment banking and mergers and acquisitions, according to a memo viewed by The Information.
• The U.S. National Highway Safety Administration says it has contacted Tesla to gather more information about a new setting on its driver assistance software that makes its vehicles move faster and more aggressively.
• Chinese humanoid robot maker AgiBot on Friday unveiled a “robot content creation platform” that allows users to upload videos of human movements so a humanoid can accurately mimic them.
Friday on The Information’s TITV
Check out our latest episode of TITV in which we speak with the CEO of Crusoe about putting data centers in outer space.
Recommended Newsletter
Introducing: Applied AI. This new newsletter explores how businesses and leaders are using AI to innovate, improve efficiency, and foster collaboration. Stay ahead with insights and stories on the transformative power of AI. Sign up here.
