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Thanks for reading The Briefing, our nightly column where we break down the day’s news. If you like what you see, I encourage you to subscribe to our reporting here.
Greetings! Satya Nadella, take a bow! Microsoft finished the week as the most valuable company in the world, worth $3.235 trillion, above Apple, long the market leader, which closed Friday with a market capitalization of $3.07 trillion. It’s no mystery why: Microsoft shares have outperformed all year, and this week they rallied strongly following the company’s solid March-quarter profit report on Wednesday. Apple shares, in contrast, have traded much more weakly all year and fell Friday in the wake of its earnings update. Investors have had good reasons to sell Apple shares for a while now, given that the stock has maintained a premium valuation despite several years of stagnant sales. But the company’s rich cash flow and stranglehold over the smartphone market has kept the bears at bay. President Donald Trump’s tariffs have really changed the picture. Apple is one of the most exposed of the big tech companies to the tariff regime, given how reliant it is on imported hardware. For the year to date, Apple stock is down 18%, according to Koyfin data, more than the decline suffered by most other big tech names, including Nvidia. That chipmaker has its own set of troubles with export controls eroding sales of its chips to China. (On that subject, see our scoop today.) Of the big tech names, only Tesla has fallen further than Apple, at 29%. In contrast, Microsoft is up 3.27% in the year to date, making it the best-performing of the biggest tech companies. (Netflix, the perfect stock to own for a recession, is up 30%.) And Microsoft’s shares are still cheaper than Apple’s or Nvidia’s, measured as a multiple of next year’s expected earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to enterprise value. Microsoft is far from the fastest-growing tech companies around, but it is proving a winner in this year’s highly volatile environment. One of the most colorful tech stories of recent months has been the corporate espionage battle between human resources software firms Rippling and Deel. This week we revealed the central role played by Deel shareholder Andreessen Horowitz in advising the firm on how to push back at Rippling’s accusations.
- In the artificial intelligence sector, we held a conference that showcased the financing issues for the fast-growing industry (see our coverage here and here). Snowflake set a $100 million revenue target for its AI software business this year. Amazon wants a piece of the AI coding business, which would put it more directly into competition with Cursor and Windsurf.
- Former OpenAI executive Mira Murati has learned a lesson from her time at the ChatGPT creator. In her startup Thinking Machines, Murati will control boardroom votes on key decisions, we revealed this week.
- Nvidia is responding to the latest curbs on exports of its chips to China by planning another chip tailor-made for the Chinese market, we reported.
- The Trump administration has closed an import duty loophole that allowed China-affiliated online shopping services Temu and Shein to flourish. While shoppers may be upset, another group of people may have a different reaction: This week Theo Wayt exposed the squalid conditions of people working for a delivery contractor that handles parcels for cut-price shopping services.
- A new export rule due to take effect in mid-May will limit how many advanced AI chips U.S. cloud firms can place in their overseas facilities. Firms like Oracle are scrambling to get ahead of the new rule, we reported.
- Palantir has become a favorite of investors, thanks to its unabashedly patriotic stance. This week we looked at how the company’s culture and organizational structure drives its business.
- Crypto fundraising is picking up—a little. Meanwhile, TV and streaming advertising—at least for entertainment and news programming—is expected to drop 10% in the coming year thanks to economic uncertainty.
- Start the weekend off with our deep dive looking at how sports leagues have learned to love creators.
• Mozilla earned $570 million in revenue last year, 85% of which came from Google. the chief financial officer of the internet nonprofit testified on Friday. That’s a result of a deal under which Mozilla has to share ad revenue from Google search queries coming via Mozilla’s Firefox browser. • Temu has discontinued its direct-from-China shipping model and now requires China-based merchants to fulfill orders on their own when selling to the U.S. market. The shift marks the online bargain seller’s latest attempt to keep its site stocked as skyrocketing tariffs make it uneconomical for it to send orders directly to the U.S. • Apple is working with Anthropic to incorporate the AI startup’s Claude Sonnet model into the next version of Apple’s Xcode programming tool, in a move to help its internal developers write and edit code faster and more efficiently, Bloomberg reported. • Apollo Global Management invested $25 billion during the turmoil in April following President Donald Trump’s tariff announcements, making it one of the most active buyers in the market, CEO Marc Rowan said on an earnings call. AI Agenda by Stephanie Palazzolo separates hype from reality and explains how AI is transforming industries. The 4x/week newsletter details the innovation and disruption happening in AI, from the AI startup funding frenzy to the major technological breakthroughs that will set the agenda for decades to come. Sign up today. |
