What we’re reading (10/30)
“Big Tech Is Spending More Than Ever On AI And It’s Still Not Enough” (Wall Street Journal). “Silicon Valley’s biggest companies are already planning to pour $400 billion into artificial intelligence efforts this year. They all say it’s nowhere near enough. Meta Platforms says it is still running up against capacity constraints as it tries to train new AI models and power its existing products at the same time. Microsoft says it is seeing so much customer demand for its data-center-driven services that it plans to double its data-center footprint in the next two years. And Amazon.com says it is racing to bring more cloud capacity online as soon as it can.”
“Amazon Q3 Earnings Beat On Top And Bottom Lines As AWS Growth Sends Stock Higher” (Yahoo! Finance). “Amazon (AMZN) reported its third quarter earnings after the bell on Thursday, beating on the top and bottom lines as its cloud business grew faster than expected. The results come just a day after rivals Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG, GOOGL) announced their own results, with both companies saying they'll spend more on AI data centers going forward.”
“Meta Stock Plunges More Than 10% As Analysts Cut Price Targets On Sky-High AI Spending” (Yahoo! Finance). “Meta (META) stock took a beating on Thursday after the company said during its third quarter earnings report that it plans to further hike AI spending for the rest of this year and in 2026. Shares of Meta fell more than 11% by the close, as Wall Street analysts and investors digested the news. CEO Mark Zuckerberg summed up the spending plan as a means to keep up with the demand for AI, but he said that if the company overbuilds, it can absorb the extra computing capacity in the future.”
“Coinbase Earnings Top Estimates, Helped By Robust Trading Volume” (CNBC). “Coinbase shares ticked up nearly 3% Thursday as the digital assets company posted better-than-expected financial results, largely fueled by a resurgence in retail and institutional crypto trading on its platform, even as tokens are now just one of several assets at the center of its ‘everything exchange’ vision.”
“‘Bond King’ Jeff Gundlach Slashed His Investment In Gold After Its Vicious Sell-Off, And Says You Should Too” (Business Insider). “Jeffrey Gundlach, the famed fixed-income investor and CEO of DoubleLine Capital, said he was cutting his holdings of gold in his portfolio — and urged investors to do a similar ‘rebalance.’ That's because gold's latest rally burned too hot — and the correction in the precious metal likely has more room to go, he said, speaking in a recent interview with CNBC.”
