Consumer Tech News (Oct 27-31): Nvidia Surpasses $5T Market Cap, Trump-Xi Meeting Concludes, Big Tech Report Earnings & More

The much-awaited meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday concluded with significant decisions on trade, soybeans, and resources.

OpenAI reportedly projects that the U.S. economy could see substantial gains by 2030, provided the government invests heavily in AI infrastructure.

The U.S. government has entered into a $1 billion partnership with Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) to develop two next-generation supercomputers, a move aimed at cementing America's technological leadership in high-performance computing.

Earnings Results

Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:STX) reported quarterly earnings of $2.61 per share, which beat the analyst estimate of $2.37, and revenue came in at $2.62 billion, which beat the Street estimate of $2.54 billion.

Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $102.47 billion, beating analyst estimates of $102.17 billion and earnings of $1.85 per share, beating analyst estimates of $1.76 per share.

United Microelectronics Corporation (NYSE:UMC) reported revenue of $1.94 billion (59.13 billion New Taiwanese dollars), marking a 2.2% decrease year-on-year. The figure topped the analyst consensus estimate of $1.92 billion.

Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) reported quarterly revenue growth of 1.5% year-over-year (Y/Y), reaching $33.8 billion, which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $34.3 billion. Adjusted EPS of $1.21 topped the analyst consensus estimate of $1.19.

Google parent Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) posted third-quarter revenue of $102.35 billion, beating analyst estimates of $99.64 billion and earnings of $2.87 per share, beating estimates of $2.33 per share.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) reported third-quarter net sales of $180.2 billion, up 13% year-over-year. The sales total beat the Street consensus estimate of $177.8 billion.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) reported first-quarter revenue of $77.7 billion, beating the Street consensus estimate of $75.3 billion and earnings per share of $4.13, beating the Street's estimate of $3.67.

Broadline Retail & Financial Services

Amazon disclosed an investment of over €1.4 billion ($1.6 billion) in the Netherlands over the next three years aimed at boosting the company's e-commerce and Amazon Web Services (AWS) operations in the region.

Amazon will cut up to 30,000 positions from its corporate workforce, starting Tuesday, as part of efforts to streamline operations and address hiring that ballooned during pandemic-era demand spikes.

Amazon’s cloud computing unit has committed to investing a minimum of $5 billion in South Korea by 2031 to establish new artificial intelligence (AI) data centers.

PayPal Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) announced a deal with OpenAI to integrate its digital wallet into ChatGPT.

Smartphones

In a bid to enhance the performance of its iPad Pro, Apple is reportedly planning to incorporate a vapor chamber into the device. This feature has been instrumental in improving the performance of the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max models.

A class action lawsuit that alleged Apple’s monopoly over the iPhone app market involving millions of customers has been decertified by a U.S. federal judge.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company set a record for iPhone upgrades in September, noting that demand for its latest iPhone 17 lineup is so strong that several models remain constrained.

Technology & Semiconductor

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly had a private meeting with Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier this year before the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) antitrust case against Meta went to trial.

GlobalFoundries (NASDAQ:GFS) jolted investors Tuesday by announcing a 1.1 billion euros expansion in Dresden alongside the sudden departure of its CFO.

NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) supplier Foxconn Technology Group, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd, has announced a significant investment in artificial intelligence (AI) and supercomputing infrastructure.

NVIDIA agreed to invest $1 billion for a 2.9% stake and partner on AI networking in Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK).

NVIDIA announced a deal to supply more than 260,000 of its cutting-edge AI chips to the South Korean government and some of the country's major corporations.

NVIDIA, in partnership with Oracle Corp. (NYSE:ORCL), will build the U.S. Department of Energy’s largest artificial intelligence supercomputer using more than 100,000 GPUs. 

NVIDIA surges past $5 trillion in market capitalization, and several prominent analysts have reacted to the stock's unrelenting rally, amid growing concerns regarding its sustainability and speculations of an AI bubble.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) teamed up with Google to resurrect an Iowa-based nuclear power plant that was decommissioned five years ago.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd.'s (NYSE:TSM) Japan arm, Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing (JASM), has signed an agreement with the government of Kikuyō Town in Kumamoto Prefecture to build its second wafer fabrication plant for $13.9 billion.

Super Micro Computer Inc (NASDAQ:SMCI) set new world records in the STAC-M3 financial analytics benchmark by collaborating with Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC) and Micron Technology, Inc (NASDAQ:MU), demonstrating its high-performance computing moat for quantitative trading.

Automotive

In an announcement on Monday, NHTSA said that it was expanding its probe into General Motors Co.‘s (NYSE:GM) 6.2-liter L87 V-8 engines based on 1,157 reports the agency received.

General Motors reportedly laid off close to 3,400 workers at its production facilities in Ohio and Michigan as the company scales back EV efforts.

Ford Motor (NYSE:F) CEO Jim Farley said that President Donald Trump‘s tariffs have impacted the automaker with over $2 billion in additional costs.

Xpeng Inc. (NYSE:XPEV) has announced it will expand into new markets in Europe as well as Asia, as it joins several Chinese automakers looking to bolster global footprints.

Toyota Motor Corp (NYSE:TM), the world’s largest automaker, announced a growth in its production figures for the fourth-straight month in September on the back of strong U.S. demand.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) and Lumen Technologies Inc. (NYSE:LUMN) have announced a "formative" multi-million dollar partnership to embed PLTR's Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) into Lumen's network infrastructure, a move executives say will unclog America's "data super highways" and accelerate AI adoption for businesses.

Palantir has filed a lawsuit against two former employees, alleging they carried out a scheme of deceit and theft to support the creation of a rival AI firm.