Overview Big Tech Q3 Earnings Release Nvidia joins Dow Jones Industrial Average SuperMicro Accounting Fraud Allegations OpenAI Plans In-House Chips OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Search Meta Developing Own Search Engine Meta 'LLaMA' Open Source Debate Chinese Military's Use of LLaMA Reddit Reports First Profit Apple MacBook Pro with M4
Highlights
1 Big Tech companies reported strong Q3 earnings, easing some profitability concerns. Cloud sector growth significantly boosted earnings:Google Cloud: 35% growth Microsoft Azure: 33% growth Amazon Web Services (AWS): 19% growth Alphabet and Amazon saw increased ad revenue, boosting their stock prices by nearly 5%. Despite solid earnings, Microsoft and Meta faced stock drops due to rising capital expenditure concerns.AI investment by the four companies rose 62% year-over-year. Apple exceeded expectations but paid $10.2 billion in European taxes , hurting profitability and lowering its stock price. AMD's weak guidance and tech gap with Nvidia led to a sharp stock drop .
2 Nvidia has officially replaced Intel in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), a stock market index comprising 30 prominent companies. Intel, which had been part of the DJIA since 1999, was removed after 25 years. This change is seen as a reflection of the shifting dynamics within the semiconductor industry.
3 Supermicro faces allegations of accounting fraud. The company's auditing firm, Ernst & Young (EY), withdrew without issuing an audit opinion. Supermicro's stock plummeted by over 30%. The U.S. Department of Justice began investigating the accounting fraud allegations last month. There are concerns this could become a major crisis impacting the entire New York Stock Exchange.
4 OpenAI is developing its own AI chips in partnership with Broadcom and TSMC, targeting initial production in 2026. While OpenAI initially considered building its own foundry, they decided against it due to excessive costs and time requirements. Instead, they will outsource manufacturing to TSMC while focusing their efforts on chip design. Industry observers note that moving away from TSMC's manufacturing capabilities is more challenging than reducing dependency on NVIDIA's chips.
5 OpenAI has launched 'ChatGPT Search,' integrating real-time information into its chatbot. The feature, previously tested as a separate SearchGPT app, has now been incorporated into the main ChatGPT platform. The service provides conversational access to real-time information including sports, stock prices, and weather updates.
Meta is developing its own search engine technology to maintain independence as AI capabilities advance. The move aims to prevent increasing dependency on competitors' search engines. The company has been working on web crawling and content analysis for at least 8 months.
The Open Source Initiative (OSI) recently released the Open Source AI Definition 1.0. According to this definition, an AI model is considered open source if it provides enough information for skilled individuals to reproduce the system using similar data. This includes transparency around training data, processes, and source code. Meta's LLaMA model does not meet these criteria and is not recognized as open source AI.
8 The Chinese People's Liberation Army reportedly developed military AI based on Meta's LLaMA model. This has raised significant concerns about the misuse of AI for military purposes. Meta claimed that such military use violates their licensing terms. However, Meta has not disclosed any specific actions they are taking in response.
9 Reddit has finally turned profitable in its first quarter since launching 20 years ago, sending its stock price soaring nearly 40% . The social platform now boasts nearly 100 million daily active users. Advertising revenue has seen substantial growth as user numbers climb. The company is also earning significant revenue from data licensing deals with Google and OpenAI.
10 Apple has unveiled new MacBook Pro models featuring their latest M4 chip . The new Neural Engine delivers over 3x performance improvement compared to previous generations. These are the first MacBook Pro models capable of running Apple Intelligence natively.
Other OpenAI CEO says GPT-5 unlikely this year, prioritizing o1 successor.xAI is raising additional funds just 5 months after $6B round, doubling valuation to $40B.xAI unveils 'Colossus' supercomputer; largest AI cluster with 100,000 H100 GPUs.Google expands 'AI Overview' to 100+ countries, reaching 1B+ monthly users.Meta launches 'MobileLLM' for on-device AI, optimized for small devices.Apple Intelligence reports hallucination issues on day one, mostly in Siri's notification summaries.Amazon delays new Alexa launch to 2025, citing technical challenges and quality concerns.
Chips ARM takes aggressive stance against its largest customer Qualcomm, initiating contract termination over license usage disputes.Trump promises tariffs on Taiwan-made chips if elected, claiming it will encourage U.S. manufacturing.TSMC 's Arizona plant secures major orders from AMD (5nm) and Apple (4nm), earning praise for advanced packaging and high yields.TSMC plans to install ASML's High-NA EUV equipment this year for post-2030 production, while Samsung follows early next year.TSMC ends Intel's 40% discount following repeated comments about Taiwan's geopolitical risks by Intel's CEO.Nvidia quietly renames its next-gen Blackwell GPU from B200 Ultra to B300.China is sourcing high-end GPUs through smuggling networks in India and Malaysia, potentially enough to build world's largest AI cluster..
Robotics Meta has unveiled 'Digit 360,' a robotic arm with tactile sensing capabilities.
Device/Hardware Apple starts iPhone 17 pilot production in India - a first outside China - while keeping Pro model testing in China.Google launches refurbished Pixel phone program, offering up to 40% discount off retail prices.
Commerce Singles' Day , China's biggest shopping festival, loses momentum as consumers grow weary of excessive promotions.
Content/Entertainment Netflix introduces scene bookmarking feature, allowing users to save and share specific moments with a single click.Apple acquires image editing app Pixelmator, signaling expanded AI integration for iPhone photo management and editing.
Trump Media 's market cap surges to $10.7B amid election season, surpassing X (formerly Twitter) despite quarterly revenue under $1M.Zhang Yiming , the 41-year-old founder of ByteDance, has become China's richest individual with a net worth of $49.3 billion.
EV/Autonomous Vehicles Waymo develops 'Emma,' a Gemini-based multimodal training model for robotaxis, marking first LLM integration in autonomous driving.BYD surpasses Tesla in quarterly revenue ($28B vs $25B), their first revenue lead after previous unit sales victories.Xiaomi unveils 350km/h electric sedan, breaking Nürburgring lap record and outpacing Porsche Taycan.Xiaomi 's electric sedan achieves 20,000 monthly sales in October, leading China's electric sedan market ahead of Tesla.Tesla board members, including the chairman and Musk's brother, sell shares worth $300M.Zoox founder criticizes Tesla's robotaxi plans, claiming FSD technology falls short of required safety standards.
Space Apple invests $1.5B in satellite company Globalstar, expanding emergency messaging capabilities in remote areas.
Etc Microsoft publicly accuses Google of covert lobbying activities aimed at hindering its business operations.AWS employees protest mandatory 5-day office return policy, challenging the lack of data-driven justification.Tesla acquires two Austin mansions worth $35M total, intended to house Musk and his 11 children.
