The US supreme court grappled on Wednesday with a bid by Meta’s Facebook to scuttle a federal securities fraud lawsuit brought by shareholders who accused the social media platform of misleading them about the misuse of user data.The justices heard arguments in Facebook’s appeal of a lower court’s decision allowing the 2018 class action suit led by Amalgamated Bank to proceed. The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages in part to recoup the lost value of the Facebook stock held by the investors. It is one ...

Meta announced Monday that it would allow US national security agencies and defense contractors to use its open-source artificial intelligence model, Llama. The announcement came days after Reuters reported an older version of Llama had been used by researchers to develop defense applications for the military wing of the Chinese government.Meta’s policies typically prohibit the use of its open-source large language model for “military, warfare, nuclear industries or applications, [and] espionage”. The compa ...

Boeing workers will vote on a third contract agreement on Monday that could end a seven-week strike that has halted production at the troubled planemaker.Results are expected late Monday and workers could return to work as early as Wednesday following the approval of the new contract.The 33,000 workers, represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 and District W24, have been on strike since 13 September after rejecting Boeing’s final offer by 94% before their ...

Apple reported strong demand for the iPhone 16 in its quarterly earnings report on Thursday, though sales in China slightly decreased year-over-year. The company reported $94.9bn in revenue, up 6% year-over-year, and $1.64 in earnings per share (EPS). The company’s earnings slightly beat Wall Street projections of $94.4bn in sales and an EPS of $1.60.The company saw $46.2bn in revenue from iPhone sales, up from $43.8bn year-over-year. Fourth-quarter revenue from its services division, which include subscrip ...

Amazon became the latest of the “Magnificent Seven” tech giants to report quarterly earnings on Thursday, with all eyes once again on cloud computing and any sign of a return on vast AI investments. Shares in the e-commerce giant rose in after-hours trading.The company reported revenue of $158.9bn against analyst expectations of $157.2bn, and earnings per share of $1.43, compared to $1.16 expected by Bloomberg analysts.Amazon reported $27.5bn for the previous three months, a 19% increase, in line with analy ...

Meta’s blowout year continues after the company reported another stellar financial quarter on Wednesday. Shares fell in after-hours trading.Wall Street analysts had high expectations for the Instagram and WhatsApp parent company, projecting an 18% jump in sales year over year. The company reported $40.6bn in sales, a 19% increase year over year that outpaced investor expectations of $40.19bn. Meta, which saw a 25% jump in its share price over the past two months, reported $6.03 in earnings per share (EPS), ...

Microsoft reported better-than-expected earnings on Wednesday fueled by growth in its Azure cloud business, as five of the “Magnificent Seven” tech megacaps roll out quarterly earnings this week.“AI-driven transformation is changing work, work artifacts, and workflow across every role, function, and business process,” the company’s CEO, Satya Nadella, said in a press release. “We are expanding our opportunity and winning new customers as we help them apply our AI platforms and tools to drive new growth and ...

Alphabet, parent of Google and YouTube, saw a third straight quarter of gains as it reported earnings on Tuesday. The tech giant had largely exceeded analyst expectations for the previous two quarters, and Tuesday’s results showed growth in both digital advertising and demand for Google Cloud.“The momentum across the company is extraordinary. Our commitment to innovation, as well as our long-term focus and investment in AI, are paying off with consumers and partners benefiting from our AI tools,” said CEO S ...

Starbucks office workers will risk losing their jobs if they fail to comply with the company’s hybrid work requirement that employees are in the office three times a week.According to the Wall Street Journal an internal message sent to employees warns that an “accountability process” will start in January 2025. Consequences for non-compliance are “up to, and including, separation”, according to the company message.“We are continuing to support our leaders as they hold their teams accountable to our existing ...

Tesla shares closed up nearly 22% on Thursday – their biggest single-day gain in over a decade – as Elon Musk's bold forecast of surging sales reassured investors he was still looking to grow its core business of selling electric cars. At close, nearly $150bn was added to the company's market value. Musk forecast 20-30% in sales growth next year, promising to launch an affordable vehicle in the first half of 2025, and said efforts to slash production costs boosted margins in the third quarter. The stock ros ...