Amazon has experienced the fastest growth in cloud services since 2022
IBMjust announced 750 new full-time jobs at its Chicago tech hub. The coolest part is that they have committed to hiring 1/3 of qualified graduates from a new City Colleges of Chicago apprenticeship program. Way to go, IBM! Pay attention to where IBM is putting the headcount: AI, quantum computing, cybersecurity, and data science. This is much bigger than Chicago. One of the largest tech employers in the world just told you exactly what skills will future-proof your career. If you're job hunting, career switching, or advising someone who is, that list is your cheat code. Share to spread the word. Bravo, IBM!
Ford just reported Q1 2026, and I want to share five things worth knowing. 🛻 F-Series is closing on its 50th year as America’s #1 truck. Transit is #1 van. Explorer is #1 three-row SUV. Mustang up 50%, outselling the entire non-premium sports car segment combined. Highest Q1 share of U.S. revenue in 5 years. 📈 Revenue up 6% to $43.3B. $3.5B in adjusted EBIT. We grew because customers chose Ford — not because we paid them to. Incentive spend below key competitors. 🔧 Cost gap closing, methodically. On target to deliver $1B in warranty and material cost improvement this year. J.D. Power named Ford #4 in customer satisfaction, our best in nearly 30 years. ⚡ Ford Pro: $1.7B in EBIT, up $0.4B YoY on underlying strength. 879K paid software subscriptions, up 30%, software gross margins above 50%. 🏗️ Raised full-year adjusted EBIT guidance to $8.5B–$10.5B. Refreshing 80% of our North American portfolio by 2029 — next-gen F-150, Super Duty, our Universal EV platform in Louisville, and Ford Energy.
Meta delivered a solid Q1 earnings result, but shares tumbled in extended trading after the AI spending bill rose again, leaving investors feeling a little uneasy. Revenue jumped 33% year on year to US$56.3 billion, ahead of expectations of US$55.5 billion and the fastest top-line growth Meta has delivered in nearly five years. Ad impressions rose 19%, average price per ad lifted 12%, and operating income climbed 30% to US$22.9 billion. The ad business, which has always been the engine, is firing on all cylinders. EPS came in at US$10.44, although a US$8 billion one-off tax benefit flatters that number, with underlying EPS closer to US$7.31, still ahead of the US$6.79 consensus. Meta raised its 2026 capital expenditure guide to US$125-145 billion, up from US$115-135 billion previously, citing higher memory chip prices and additional data centre costs. That's around an 8% increase to a number that was already high, and for a market that has been concerned over sky-high spending, this wasn’t the message investors wanted to hear. This also feels like something of a flashback. The market is still living with scars from the metaverse era, when Zuckerberg spent tens of billions on a vision that never materialised. The fear now is that this AI cycle could go the same way, with capex rising faster than returns can catch up. To be clear, AI spending feels far more justified, but these numbers are still eye-watering. The fact that Meta also confirmed it is cutting 8,000 jobs to help offset some of the spending only adds to the sense that the company is having to scramble to keep margins intact. To give Meta some credit, the early signs of AI monetisation are genuinely encouraging. AI is helping drive better ad targeting and content recommendations, and the ad business numbers back that up. The recent release of Muse Spark, Meta's new foundation model, also shows that the company is finally producing tangible results from its AI investment. However, the gap between what Meta is spending and what is showing up in earnings remains wide, and tonight's reaction tells you the market wants that gap to start closing. Meta has got some leeway because the ad business keeps delivering, but every time the capex bill goes up without a clear monetisation story attached, that leeway gets a little shorter. For now, the ad business is keeping the lights on, but if Q2 doesn't deliver the same level of ad strength alongside any sign that the AI spend is starting to translate into something measurable, the market's patience will start to wear thin.
MSFT Earnings: Microsoft Posts Q3 Beat on Strong Cloud Demand Microsoft ($MSFT) dipped in after‑hours trading despite delivering another quarter of double‑digit growth across revenue, operating income, and earnings. Q3 revenue rose 18% to $82.9B, topping expectations, while adjusted EPS came in at $4.27, beating the $4.06 consensus. Cloud and AI were the clear standouts. - Microsoft Cloud revenue jumped 29% to $54.5B - Productivity & Business Processes climbed 17% to $35B - Commercial and Consumer Cloud revenue rose 19% and 33%, respectively - Intelligent Cloud hit $34.7B, up 30%, with Azure growing 40% as enterprises scale AI workloads Microsoft also reported a massive 99% surge in commercial remaining performance obligations, reaching $627B — a strong signal of long‑term cloud and AI demand.
Microsoft shares dipped after the company reported strong Q3 earnings post-market on Wednesday, posting sales of $82.9 billion for the quarter, beating FactSet analyst estimates of $81.4 billion. Earnings per share were $4.27, handily beating estimates of $4.05. In a closely watched number, Microsoft’s Azure cloud business increased 40% on year, just above the 39.7% estimated. The closely-watched metric technically beat expectations, but may not be the beat investors were looking for. Total capital expenditure for the quarter was $31.9 billion, up 49% year on year, above estimates of $27.5 billion and down from Q2’s $37.5 billion. Microsoft reported a $627 billion backlog of commercial bookings (known as RPO), growing 99%. Breaking down the results by the company’s business lines: ☁️ 🤖 “Intelligent Cloud” (Azure, server products): $34.7 billion in revenue, up 30% year on year. 📝 📊 “Productivity and Business Processes” (Microsoft 365, LinkedIn, Dynamics): $35 billion in revenue, up 17% year on year. 💻 🎮 “More Personal Computing” (Windows, Xbox, Bing): $13.2 billion in revenue, down 1% year on year. Microsoft CFO Amy Hood said in the earnings release: “We delivered results that exceeded expectations across revenue, operating income, and earnings per share, reflecting strong execution and growing demand for the Microsoft Cloud.”
With Wall Street on tenterhooks to see whether massiveAI spendingwould pay off, Amazon's quarterly earningssurpassed expectations. Revenue was up 28% year over year in the key Amazon Web Services business — thefastest growthin almost four years — and 17% overall to$181.5 billionin the first quarter. The tech giant has been adding data center capacity and making deals with the likes ofOpenAIandAnthropic. Spending of $44.2 billion during the quarter was more than analysts expected.
AMZN Earnings: Amazon Stock Down despite Smashing Q1 Expectations Amazon (AMZN) traded lower in after‑market trading despite beating expectations on both revenue and earnings. The pressure came from a sharp drop in free cash flow to $1.2B, down from $25.9B a year ago, driven by a $59.3B surge in property and equipment spending tied to Amazon’s aggressive AI infrastructure build‑out. The core business, however, delivered a standout quarter: - Revenue up 17% to $181.5B, topping estimates - EPS of $2.78, well above the $1.63 consensus - Results included $16.8B in gains from Amazon’s investment in Anthropic - Strong growth across North America, International, and a reaccelerating AWS AWS Reclaims Momentum AWS revenue jumped 28% to $37.6B, its fastest growth in 15 quarters. Operating income rose to $14.2B, and demand for Amazon’s custom silicon — Graviton, Trainium, and Nitro — pushed the chips business past a $20B annual run rate, growing at triple‑digit rates. CEO Andy Jassy highlighted rising enterprise adoption of AI workloads and Amazon’s expanding leadership in accelerated compute. Looking Ahead For Q2, Amazon expects $194B-$199B in revenue (16%-19% growth) and %20B–$24B in operating income, with Prime Day included in the quarter.
Q1 earnings are in: 2026 is off to a terrific start thanks to our partners + employees around the world. Our AI investments and full-stack approach are lighting up every part of the business: Search queries are at an all-time high with AI continuing to drive usage. Google Cloud revenue grew 63%, Gemini models have incredible momentum, and it was our strongest quarter ever for consumer AI subs, driven by the Gemini app. Overall, the number of paid subscriptions has now reached 350 million, with YouTube and Google One being the key drivers. Beyond the topline numbers - a few other highlights that show the progress: - Faster results: Even as we’ve brought new AI features into our results page, we’ve reduced Search latency by more than 35% over the past 5 years. - Enterprises’ agentic era is here: Over the past 12 months, 330 Google Cloud customers each processed over 1T tokens, while 35 reached the 10T token milestone. And in Q1, Gemini Enterprise paid monthly active users grew 40% quarter-over-quarter. - Twice the rides: Waymo has doubled the amount of fully autonomous rides in less than a year, now operating in 11 US cities.
Google is upping its already-high capex spend for the year, but Wall Street is taking it in stride after a new cloud surge. Parent company Alphabet beat Wall Street’s expectations for revenue, growing 20% from last year and marking its highest rate of growth for any quarter since 2022. Google Cloud recorded a whopping 63% increase in revenue from a year ago. The cloud unit houses most of the company’s AI services and products. “Our enterprise AI solutions have become our primary growth driver for cloud for the first time in Q1,” CEO Sundar Pichai told analysts on the earnings call. Gemini Enterprise’s paid monthly active users grew 40% from the previous quarter, Pichai said. The company also updated its 2026 capital expenditure guidance range to $180 billion to $190 billion, up from its previous estimate of $175 billion to $185 billion. Alphabet said in December it would acquire Intersect, a data center company, for $4.75 billion in cash and the assumption of debt. CFO Anat Ashkenazi also said it expects the company’s 2027 CapEx to “significantly increase” compared to 2026. Despite the increase, Google shares held steady at a 6% rise.
Ford just reported Q1 2026, and I want to share five things worth knowing.
🛻 F-Series is closing on its 50th year as America’s #1 truck. Transit is #1 van. Explorer is #1 three-row SUV. Mustang up 50%, outselling the entire non-premium sports car segment combined. Highest Q1 share of U.S. revenue in 5 years.
📈 Revenue up 6% to $43.3B. $3.5B in adjusted EBIT. We grew because customers chose Ford — not because we paid them to. Incentive spend below key competitors.
🔧 Cost gap closing, methodically. On target to deliver $1B in warranty and material cost improvement this year. J.D. Power named Ford #4 in customer satisfaction, our best in nearly 30 years.
⚡ Ford Pro: $1.7B in EBIT, up $0.4B YoY on underlying strength. 879K paid software subscriptions, up 30%, software gross margins above 50%.
🏗️ Raised full-year adjusted EBIT guidance to $8.5B–$10.5B. Refreshing 80% of our North American portfolio by 2029 — next-gen F-150, Super Duty, our Universal EV platform in Louisville, and Ford Energy.
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