Nvidia’s Strong Earnings Signal Sustained AI Demand, Salesforce Surges
Nvidia beats expectations, signals sustained AI demand; Salesforce surges; Meta settles for $18B.
As AI moves out to the network edge, Nvidia has a huge looming opportunity. The company is reportedly considering acquiring AI code hosting firm Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, investing in Perplexity, teaming with Cisco on rack-scale AI data centers, and announcing new robotics hardware and an inference accelerator chip to speed AI agents.
Meanwhile, AI’s impact on software-as-a-service appears less dire than feared. Salesforce’s stock rocketed almost 23% Thursday as it crushed earnings expectations, ahead of its Dreamforce conference next month. Workday also performed well, though investors weren't that impressed.
AI anxiety still intensifies weekly. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he thinks control of AI is concentrated in too few hands, while Bill Gates issued a stark warning about AI's impact on humanity in a 6,000-word manifesto. OpenAI and about a hundred other companies warned that AI-driven cyberattacks are about to explode before countermeasures are ready.
In addition, Meta Platforms settled charges that it addicted kids to social media by paying an $18 billion fine over 10 years, but this won't end with Meta.
Next week brings key earnings from Dell, Broadcom, HPE, Snowflake, UiPath, MongoDB, Palo Alto Networks, Zscaler and more, shedding light on the AI bubble buildout. The fall conference season begins with VMware Explore and CrowdStrike Fal.Con, both in Las Vegas Monday.