Microsoft outperformed analyst predictions in its latest quarterly earnings report, revealing on Tuesday that its revenue was up 15% year-over-year. But growth of the company’s closely watched Azure cloud computing services failed to meet expectations and shares in Microsoft fell as much as 7% in after-hours trading.The company was expected to report steady growth in its fourth quarter earnings report, mostly on the back of its cloud services. Revenue from those services grew 29%, lower than the 30% to 31% ...

Wall Street suffered its worst day of trading in 19 months as disappointment around earnings from Tesla and Google challenged the recent big-tech rally.The benchmark S&P 500 index dropped 2.3% as a sell-off triggered its biggest single-day fall since December 2022.The technology-focused Nasdaq retreated 3.6%, its largest single-day decline since October 2022.Shares in Tesla sank 12% after it reported a 45% slump in quarterly profits amid discounting by electric carmakers. Alphabet, the owner of Google and Y ...

Google’s parent company, Alphabet, outperformed analysts’ expectations on Tuesday, reporting second-quarter earnings of $1.89 per share, the same as its first quarter results.Alphabet’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, touted the results as proof that the company’s investments across different areas of its tech empire were seeing positive returns.“Our strong performance this quarter highlights ongoing strength in Search and momentum in Cloud. We are innovating at every layer of the AI stack,” Pichai stated in the earnin ...

The international success of hits including Baby Reindeer and Bridgerton helped Netflix gain another quarter of revenue increases, as the streaming giant continued to draw in subscribers with ad-supported subscriptions and live events streaming.The largest streaming service in the world added 8 million subscribers in the latest quarter, making its total subscriber count 277.7 million worldwide. Revenue grew 17% during the quarter, reaching $9.5bn.The company said the revenue growth was driven primarily by a ...

Hacktivists claim to have stolen more than a terabyte of data from Disney’s internal chat platform and are leaking the information online in a protest against what they say is the company’s anti-artist stance.The group, which calls itself NullBulge, has been active since at least May. It claims to be motivated by a desire to “protect artists’ rights and ensure fair compensation for their work”. On Friday, it published the entirety of Disney’s internal Slack channel online through the decentralised BitTorren ...

Core Viewpoint - The European Union has accepted Apple's commitment to open its "tap to pay" iPhone payment system to competitors, resolving an antitrust case and avoiding significant fines [1][2]. Group 1: Regulatory Actions - The European Commission has made Apple's commitments legally binding, addressing concerns over its dominant position in mobile payments [1][2]. - Apple was accused of limiting access to its mobile payment technology, which led to the investigation initiated in 2022 [1][3]. Group 2: Changes in Payment System - Apple will allow third-party mobile wallet and payment service providers access to the contactless payment function in its iOS operating system [1][2]. - Users will be able to set a default wallet of their choice, and mobile wallet developers can utilize iPhone verification functions like Face ID [3]. Group 3: Financial Implications - Analysts suggest that companies will have financial incentives to use their own wallets instead of Apple Pay, potentially leading to cost savings for consumers [3][5]. - Apple charges banks 0.15% for each credit card transaction processed through Apple Pay, which could be reduced if alternative wallets are adopted [3]. Group 4: Implementation Timeline - Apple must implement these changes across the EU's 27 countries, as well as Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein, by July 25 [4]. - The changes will be monitored for a decade to ensure compliance with EU competition laws [5]. Group 5: Benefits to Banks and Consumers - Supporting alternatives to Apple Pay could significantly reduce fees for issuing banks, which may lead to benefits for consumers such as cashback or loyalty rewards [5]. - Companies using their own apps for payments would gain full visibility of customer transactions, allowing for enhanced brand loyalty and personalized services [6].

Google’s goal of reducing its climate footprint is in jeopardy as it relies on more and more energy-hungry data centres to power its new artificial intelligence products. The tech giant revealed Tuesday that its greenhouse gas emissions have climbed 48% over the past five years.Google said electricity consumption by data centres and supply chain emissions were the primary cause of the increase. It also revealed in its annual environmental report that its emissions had risen by 13% year-on-year.The tech comp ...

Tesla’s global sales fell for the second straight quarter despite price cuts and low-interest financing offers, another sign of weakening demand for the company’s products and electric vehicles overall.The Austin, Texas, company said Tuesday that it sold 436,956 vehicles from April through June, down 4.8% from 466,140 sold the same period a year ago. The sales were better than the 436,000 figure that analysts had expected.Demand for EVs worldwide is slowing, but they’re still growing for most automakers. Te ...

When Jensen Huang spoke at the Nvidia annual general meeting last week, he made no mention of a share price slide.The US chipmaker, buoyed up by its key role in the artificial intelligence boom, had briefly become the world’s most valuable company on 18 June but the crown slipped quickly. Nvidia shed about $550bn (£434bn) from the $3.4tn (£2.68tn) peak market value it had reached that week, as tech investors, combining profit-taking with doubts about the sustainability of its rocketing growth, applied the b ...

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has breached the EU’s new digital laws with an advertising model that charges users for ad-free versions of Facebook and Instagram, according to the European Commission.Meta launched a “pay or consent” model last year in an effort to comply with the bloc’s data privacy rules, under which users pay a monthly fee for an ad-free version of Facebook or Instagram that does not use their personal data for advertising purposes. Users who do not pay consent, as part of the signing up process ...