Consumer Tech (Oct 26-30): Meta Donation Sparks Backlash, Nvidia Deal Draws DOJ Scrutiny, Chipmakers Report Earnings

Republican California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton criticized Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg over the company’s $1 million donation to Democratic candidate Xavier Becerra.

The Trump administration is reportedly preparing a new national security measure aimed at limiting Chinese telecom companies’ access to American phone numbers and disrupting scam-related robocalls.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called on Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang and the company’s board to answer to Congress after a report that he was targeted by a suspected Chinese spy.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to resume three-way peace negotiations with Ukraine and the United States as President Donald Trump intensifies efforts to end the war, though major disagreements over a potential settlement remain unresolved.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is reportedly scrutinizing Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) over its planned $12.93 billion acquisition of Hugging Face.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to resume three-way peace negotiations with Ukraine and the United States as President Donald Trump intensifies efforts to end the war, though major disagreements over a potential settlement remain unresolved.

Software, Semiconductor & Technology

• Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) beat third-quarter expectations but issued a fourth-quarter outlook well below Wall Street estimates, raising concerns about PC demand, rising memory costs and the company’s ability to sustain growth in its data center and foundry businesses.
• Sandisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) reported fiscal first-quarter earnings of $49.51 per share, topping the analyst estimate of $46.36. Revenue came in at $11.03 billion, ahead of the $10.70 billion consensus and up from $2.31 billion a year earlier.
• Stryker Corp. (NYSE:SYK) revenue for the quarter came in at $6.52 billion, missing the analyst estimate of $6.61 billion by 1.36%. Still, net sales rose 7.7% year over year. Adjusted earnings per share were $3.52, missing the $3.55 expected by 0.85%.
• Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) revenue rose 25% year over year to $127.6 billion, roughly in line with the $127.9 billion consensus. Earnings of $2.12 per share missed the roughly $2.94 consensus.
• Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) remains in focus after stronger-than-expected quarterly results and guidance reinforced confidence in Azure and enterprise software growth.
• Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) reiterated its fiscal 2030 forecasts of more than $225 billion in revenue and earnings of more than $21 per share.
• ServiceNow Inc. (NYSE:NOW) raised its artificial-intelligence sales target for the second time this year on Wednesday. Investors responded by wiping out nearly a quarter of its market value.
• STMicroelectronics N.V. (NYSE:STM) reported revenue of $3.76 billion, up 17.9% from a year earlier and ahead of the analyst consensus estimate of $3.72 billion, according to Benzinga Pro.
• Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) reported adjusted earnings of 91 cents per share, beating analysts’ consensus estimate of 86 cents. Revenue increased 20% year over year to $2.08 billion, exceeding Wall Street expectations. 
• Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (OTC:SSNLF) posted record third-quarter operating profit late Wednesday, up nearly ninefold as AI-driven demand pushed memory chip prices higher, but it came in below analyst estimates. Shares fell nearly 6% in Seoul.
• Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) reported better-than-expected second-quarter fiscal 2027 results and raised its full-year forecast, supported by strong demand for AI infrastructure.
• SK hynix Inc. (NASDAQ:SKHY) is drawing bullish analyst calls as strong AI-related memory demand, rising pricing and tight supply push estimates higher and support expectations for an extended upcycle.
• Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:STX) beat analyst estimates on the top and bottom lines in its fiscal first quarter, reporting revenue of $4.23 billion versus estimates of $4.14 billion, and adjusted earnings of $7.68 per share versus estimates of $7.42 per share.
• BigBear.ai, Inc. (NYSE:BBAI) reported third-quarter revenue of $43.58 million, beating analyst estimates of $38.94 million, according to Benzinga Pro. The company reported a quarterly loss of three cents per share, beating expectations for a loss of six cents per share.
• NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) announced Tuesday an expanded artificial intelligence partnership focused on Meta’s Muse family of AI models. NVIDIA also plans to invest $3 billion in Meta’s equity offering.

Retail, Telecom, Media

• Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) operating profit beat forecasts by about $1.8 billion. Even so, EPS landed at $1.89, below the $1.96 analysts had penciled in. A 7-cent miss in a quarter where the core business outperformed calls for a closer look below the operating line. CEO Andy Jassy said the company now has more than a million robots in its fulfillment network and expects many repetitive jobs that people do to be handled by robots, but noted that Amazon will “always have a lot of teammates” in its fulfillment centers.
• Amazon is expanding its Bedrock AI platform with China’s Kimi and GLM open models, while CEO outlined ambitions for the service to eventually match Amazon’s massive EC2 cloud business.
• Reddit, Inc. (NYSE:RDDT) shares are trading lower premarket on Friday after the company reported third-quarter results that topped expectations. At the same time, weaker-than-expected guidance and declining search traffic weighed on sentiment.
• DoorDash, Inc. (NASDAQ:DASH) disclosed plans to acquire Maplebear Inc. (NASDAQ:CART), which does business as Instacart, for $65 per share, valuing the company at approximately $17 billion.
• Shopify Inc. (NASDAQ:SHOP) CEO Tobi Lütke converted an underused wine cellar into an AI computing hub, using personal health and calendar data to discover which meetings he finds most stressful.

Space, Automobile

• Elon Musk’s SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX) has agreed to nearly $28 billion in wireless spectrum deals. But telecommunications expert William Webb estimates it could need another $120 billion to $130 billion to compete with T-Mobile US Inc. (NASDAQ:TMUS) and America’s other major carriers.
• Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) CEO Dan Schulman says Space Exploration could face a bill of up to $500 billion if it wants to compete directly with U.S. wireless carriers.
• Space Exploration Technologies ambitious target of 10,000 annual Starship launches applies exclusively to its planned Louisiana spaceport, suggesting the company’s broader launch ambitions extend significantly beyond that figure.
• Musk quoted a post that shared a video of Microsoft Corp‘s (NASDAQ:MSFT) AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman, who quoted former Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) CEO Larry Page that he would be "exploring the galaxies at the head of a Von Neumann probe" by the "end of the century."
• Billionaire Elon Musk-led Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:SPCX) slammed legacy telecom operators like T-Mobile US Inc. (NASDAQ:TMUS) in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over the agency’s proposed spectrum rule changes.
• General Motors Co. (NYSE:GM) agreed Thursday to pay $220 million to settle allegations that it sold millions of drivers’ location and driving-behavior data to brokers, who then sold the information to insurers that used it in part to set rates, sometimes increasing premiums.
• Rivian Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIVN) reported third-quarter revenue of $2.155 billion, which beat the analyst expectations of $1.984 billion. Rivian also reported an EPS loss of 48 cents per share, which also exceeded market consensus of 72 cents per share.
• Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F) posted Q3 earnings of 49 cents per share, beating analyst estimates of 41 cents per share. Ford’s $49.53 billion Q3 revenue also exceeded market expectations of $46.24 billion.
• Ford has produced more than 5,000 giant aluminum castings for its $28,350 Fathom electric pickup, adopting a manufacturing approach popularized by Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) as Ford prepares for a 2027 launch.

Finance, Bitcoin & AI

• Strategy Inc. (NASDAQ:MSTR) posted its third-quarter fiscal 2026 results after Thursday’s closing bell. Founder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor said, "We’re at the beginning of the next Bitcoin bull market."
• Steve Eisman believes the AI boom has a weak link: OpenAI and Anthropic are spending billions on computing power, but cheaper rival models could force them to cut prices, threatening their ability to keep spending.
• Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency empire turned an early bet on Anthropic into a $1.3 billion windfall. However, the startup’s reported IPO ambitions suggest the stake could have been worth much more than that amount if FTX had held on.
• The Anthropic IPO is now official, and it arrives at a delicate moment for AI stocks. Anthropic filed its S-1 on October 26 at a reported valuation of up to $2 trillion. Markets cheered on day one, but the case that this deal is a late-cycle signal deserves a serious look.

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