Daily Archives: April 29, 2024

The two tech giants - Alphabet and Microsoft - report strong quarterly earnings that surpass market expectations, propelling their stocks to soar. Investors maintain optimism toward their respective core businesses, which have been powered by the advance of AI.

The US big tech companies once again demonstrated their strong momentum in the first quarter, with the Google parent company, Alphabet, and its rival Microsoft, both surpassing market expectations in their quarterly earnings reports. Alphabet's stocks surged by more than 10%, and Microsoft's shares rose nearly 5% in after-hours trading. The two tech giants are widely seen as the main flag bearers for artificial intelligence (AI), thus providing optimism to the sector. Below are the details of their earnings results and the performance of their respective core businesses in the first quarter.

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, demonstrated robust growth in its core business of advertising sales, propelled by an improved macroeconomic environment and heavy investments in AI technology. Its Google advertising revenue accelerated by 13% year on year to $61.66 billion (57.4 billion), which accounts for 77% of the overall revenue. The companys total revenue increased by 15% from a year ago, the fastest quarterly growth in two years.

Alphabet reported earnings per share of $1.89 on revenue of $80.54, topping the estimated $1.51 and $78.59 respectively. The two bottom line segments, YouTube advertising, and Google Cloud revenue recorded $8.09 billion and $9.57 billion, beating market expectations of $7.72 billion and $9.35 billion, respectively. The Google Cloud revenue jumped 28% from the same quarter last year.

Investors cheered for Google Clouds acceleration as the division generated operating income of $900 million, a substantial increase from $191 million a year ago. Google Cloud holds the third position in market share, trailing behind Amazon's AWS and Microsoft's Azure, Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat expressed enthusiasm, stating, The main thing is, we are really excited about the benefit from AI for our cloud customers. Google invested $12 billion in AI infrastructure, primarily focused on data centres, during the first quarter. CEO Sundar Pichai conveyed confidence in effectively managing the transition to monetisation following these substantial investments.

Another catalyst contributing to the surge in Alphabet's stock is the announcement of its inaugural cash dividend of 20 cents per share and a $80 billion share buyback plan.

In the third quarter of fiscal year 2024, Microsoft's core business, the Intelligent Cloud, experienced a notable resurgence. The segment's revenue surged by 21% to reach $26.71 billion (24.9 billion), primarily buoyed by Azure's 31% year-on-year growth. This significant growth indicates that the company's strategic adoption of AI is yielding substantial returns. Notably, Azure's growth had previously dipped below 30% since the third quarter of fiscal year 2023. However, Microsoft anticipates Azure's growth to maintain a steady pace, projecting it to range between 30% and 31% for the current quarter. Analysts had anticipated a 29% increase in Azure's revenue for both the last quarter and the current one.

Microsoft's remarkable progress in AI has propelled it to surpass Apple, claiming the title of the world's largest market cap company. The company's overall revenue exceeded expectations, with earnings per share reaching $2.94 on revenue of $61.86 billion, surpassing market forecasts of $2.82 and $60.80 billion, respectively. In addition to the Intelligent Cloud division, both of Microsoft's other segments have seen expansion. Revenue in productivity and business processes, which includes Office software, LinkedIn, and Dynamics 365, grew by 12% year-on-year to $19.6 billion. Meanwhile, revenue in More Personal Computing increased by 17% year-on-year to $15.6 billion. Revenue in More Personal Computing was up 17% year on year to $15.6 billion. Notably, its Xbox revenue surged by 62%, driven primarily by 61 points of net impact from the Activision acquisition.

This diversification and robust growth across its divisions underscore Microsoft's strong position in the market and its effective utilisation of AI advancements. In the earnings conference call, CEO Satya Nadella highlighted Azure's market share gains, noting that it has been capturing market share from competitors. He specifically mentioned that approximately 60% of Fortune 500 companies are utilising Copilot.

Snap and Intel have also released their first-quarter earnings, with divergent outcomes. Snap's shares soared by more than 20% following an earnings beat and a promising outlook. In contrast, Intel's stocks plummeted nearly 8% due to revenue falling short of expectations and weaker-than-anticipated forecasts for the current quarter.

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Tech titans soar: Alphabet and Microsoft ride high on AI-driven wave - Euronews

A group of prominent tech executives will join the Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security Board, a panel tasked with advising the federal government on the use of AI in critical infrastructure.

The Wall Street Journal reported the development today. According to the paper, the panel comprises not only representatives of the tech industry but also academics, civil rights leaders and the chief executives of several critical infrastructure companies. In all, the Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security Board will have nearly two dozen members.

Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Satya Nadella, Nvidia Corp. CEO Jensen Huang and OpenAIs San Altman are among the participants. They will be joined by their counterparts at Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Amazon Web Services Inc., Anthropic PBC, Cisco Systems Inc., Google LLC and IBM Corp.

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas is leading the panel. According to the Journal, the Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security Board will advise the Department of Homeland Security on how to safely apply AI in critical infrastructure. The panels members will convene every three months starting in May.

Besides providing advice to the federal government, the panel will also produce AI recommendations for critical infrastructure organizations. The effort is set to focus on companies such as power grid operators, manufacturers and transportation service providers. The panels recommendations will reportedly focus on two main topics: ways of applying AI in critical infrastructure and the potential risks posed by the technology.

Multiple cybersecurity companies have observed hacking campaigns that make use of generative AI. In some of the campaigns, hackers are leveraging large language models to generate phishing emails. In other cases, AI is being used to support the development of malware.

The Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security Board was formed through an executive order on AI that President Joe Biden signed last year. The order also called on the federal government to take a number of other steps to address the technologys risks. The Commerce Department will develop guidance for identifying AI-generated content, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology is working on AI safety standards.

The executive order established new requirements for private companies as well. In particular, tech firms developing advanced AI must now share data about new models safety with the government. This data includes the results of so-called red team tests, evaluations that assess neural networks safety by simulating malicious prompts.

Several of the AI ecosystems largest players have made algorithm safety a focus of their research efforts. OpenAI, for example, in December revealed that its developing an automated approach to addressing the risks posed by advanced neural networks. The method involves supervising an advanced AI models output using a second, less capable neural network.

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CEOs of Microsoft, Nvidia and other tech giants join federal AI advisory board - SiliconANGLE News

Key Takeaways

Artificial intelligence (AI) was in focus as Meta Platforms (META), Google-parent Alphabet (GOOGL), and Microsoft (MSFT) reported earnings this week, but investors werent easily impressed despite better-than-expected results posted by all three tech giants.

Meta shares plunged after the company emphasized increased spending to invest in AI. Meanwhile, Alphabet shares surged and Microsoft shares gained as cloud strength seems to ease investors' concerns about the increased AI spending.

Big tech earnings demonstrated that companies' enterprise customer businesses were key to AI monetization last quarter. The emphasis on enterprise offerings persisted with a focus on cloud segments.

Meta's earnings beat was overshadowed by the company's plans to increase spending on AI investments which sent the stock tumbling more than 10% on Thursday following the late-Wednesday earnings release. The worry for investors in the near term was perhaps how quickly the investment would yield returns, even as analysts said it could boost Meta's position in the long term.

However, investors didn't seem to feel that way about Meta's counterparts.

Alphabet noted increased spending fueled by AI investments. AI-related growth in Google Cloud and YouTube "support the notion that Google is seeing AI tailwinds across the business," analysts at Raymond James wrote.

Microsoft's chief financial offer Amy Hood said the company expects "capital expenditures to increase materially on a sequential basis driven by cloud and AI infrastructure investments," during the company's earnings call.

Hood said while the company expects capital expenditures to be higher in the 2025 fiscal year than in 2024, "these expenditures over the course of the next year are dependent on demand signals and adoption of [Microsoft's] services."

In reaction to their earnings reports, Alphabet shares jumped 10% and Microsoft rose 1.8% on Friday,

While Meta has highlighted its early success in leveraging its AI tech, analysts say investors are looking for more clarity on how it can contribute to the company's existing structure.

"Upside in the near term may be limited," Wedbush analysts wrote in a note, adding that investors are waiting for "more clarity on potential 2025 spending levels," evidence that the company can meet growth expectations despite harder comparables, and sustainable user and advertiser engagement with new AI offerings.

The company generates almost all of its revenue from advertising and has been increasingly looking at ways to leverage AI to boost that revenue. Meta reported that 30% of the content users see on Facebook and 50% on Instagram is delivered by its AI recommendation engines which improve engagement and increase ad efficiency.

Alphabet also has set its sights on AI-driven advertising revenue growth. The companys Chief Business Officer (CBO) Philipp Schindler spoke during its earnings call about how generative AI helps advertisers target their audience better, and tools like Gemini could also aid in creating the images and text they need for those ads.

At Alphabet's recent Google Cloud Next conference, hundreds of the company's enterprise customers spoke about using the cloud platform's genAI tools, with some notable business users including Mercedes Benz and Walmart (WMT).

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said the company is "committed to making the investments required to keep [it] at the leading edge in technical infrastructure" as increased capital expenditures "will fuel growth in Cloud, help [the company] push the frontiers of AI models, and enable innovation across our services, especially in Search."

Pichai outlined the company's "clear paths to AI monetization through Ads and Cloud." He said the "cloud business continues to grow as we bring the best of Google AI to enterprise customers."

While AI initiatives are top of mind for investors, Microsoft's cloud strength fueled its third-quarter earnings beat.

"Cloud and AI continued to fuel upside for Microsoft," Bank of America analysts wrote, saying they "believe Azure strength is enough to drive total revenue growth higher for now."

Microsofts Hood said "I know it isn't as exciting as talking about all the AI projects," but Azure "is still really foundational" to the company's enterprise customers.

UPDATEApril 28, 2024: This article has been updated with stock price information.

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What We Learned From Big Tech Earnings Last Week - Investopedia

(GeekWire File Photo)

Amazon is making another big move into the sports world with a reported deal in place with the NBA to stream games for at least a decade.

The Athletic reported Friday that Amazon and the NBA have the framework for a deal that would begin in the 2025-26 season.

The deal would be a huge addition to Amazons growing sports streaming catalog, which already includes the NFLs Thursday Night Football and live action from several other leagues and teams.

This week Amazon announced that Prime subscribers will get access to Seattle Kraken games as part of a new deal with the NHL franchise in its hometown of Seattle where the NBA could be arriving soon as part of expansion plans.

Its not yet known how much Amazon is paying for the NBA rights. The NBA is wrapping up nine-year deals worth about $2.6 billion with ESPN and TNT Sports that end after the 2024-25 season.

The NBA offers its own streaming services called League Pass.

Asmore people cut the cord, sports leagues are increasingly engaging with tech companies as their existing deals with traditional cable providers expire. Those companies are hungry for valuable content such as live sports one of the most-watched telecaststo draw more subscribers to their respective platforms.

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Report: Amazon will stream NBA games in latest major sports deal for tech giant - GeekWire

The swift passage this week of legislation to force the sale or ban of TikTok was the first time a federal tech law has been approved in years.

And after a logjam of dozens of bills to rein in the business practices and power of tech giants, it appeared some momentum was building for further regulation.

In February, the Senate revived and passed an online child safety bill. This month, lawmakers introduced a sweeping privacy bill with the most bipartisan support yet. Leading lawmakers promise broad legislation to protect users of artificial intelligence.

But experts on tech legislation say that the unique speed of the passage of the TikTok legislation a rare unified effort that took seven weeks from start to finish is highly unlikely to be repeated. Lawmakers continue to squabble over the details on legislative proposals, and congressional leaders havent pushed their momentum. Silicon Valleys powerful lobbying armies have waged war simultaneously, stalling the efforts. And conditions for any momentum are likely to worsen before the November election, when legislators will try not to rock the boat.

The law on TikTok, driven by the Biden administration and intelligence concerns that the apps Chinese parent company, ByteDance, presents a national security threat, created a rare bipartisan moment of movement, the experts said. The House also combined the bill with a $95.3 billion must-pass aid package for Ukraine and Israel to prompt the Senate to pass it.

TikTok was unique, said Stewart Verdery, a former staffer for Senate Republican leadership and now chief executive of the lobbying group Monument Advocacy. It was a perfect storm of being an insanely popular product in the U.S., that is bipartisanly disliked for its harms to kids, and with a unique national security problem.

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TikTok Broke the Tech Law Logjam. Can That Success Be Repeated? - The New York Times

Cutting through the noise, GlobalDatas analysts are on the ground at Auto China 2024 to help you identify the risks, the opportunities, and the hyperbole.

Which brands and models are going global? Any planned production facilities? Are solid state vehicles really imminent? Whats happening to the foreign brands in China? All this and more will be assessed by our team of analysts at the event and will help shape our global forecasts.

All major markets around the world will be impacted one way or another by the announcements made in Beijing over the next couple of weeks. We start below with John Zengs take on Chinas next-generation smart cars.

Can Chinas tech giants succeed where Apple failed? From electrification to intelligence

The China auto market is booming. In 2023, domestic passenger car sales increased by 4.5% to 22.5 million units, and exports exceeded 4 million for the first timesurpassing Japan to become the worlds largest exporter. The growing power of local automakers overseas is placing increasing pressure on international brands worldwide, leaving some international brand manufacturers wondering how to respond. If any action is to be taken, it should be done quickly, as we expect the China auto industry will maintain its high growth rate this year, with Q1 domestic increasing by 6% year-on-year and Q1 exports increasing by 34% to 1.09 million units.

So, what are the drivers? Well, one point to note is that March saw the official launch of Xiaomi SU7. This marked a competitive shift within Chinas passenger car market from electrification to intelligence. The Internet of Everything ecosystem brought by Xiaomi Auto has set a very high entry threshold for other car manufacturers. At present, Huawei and Xiaomi have become the leading autonomous vehicle players in the Chinese market. Huawei has set a clear goal of achieving Level 4 and Level 5 autonomous driving by 2025 and 2030, respectively. Relevant data shows that in 2023, the penetration rate of L2 assisted driving in the Chinese market has exceeded 35%.

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From the perspective of the global automotive industry, only in the Chinese auto market can internet giants successfully enter the automotive industry and quickly seize their right to speak. In Europe and the US, such giants are largely abandoning their plans to build, making it possible for the Chinese market to grow into a smart car market independent to the rest of the world. Consequently, the automotive supply chain will be quickly reshaped.

John Zeng, Director, Asian Forecasting, GlobalData

As part of GlobalDatas coverage of Auto China 2024, we are offering a complimentary edition of our China Automotive Monthly Market Update report. This report provides up-to-date analysis of current demand and assessments of OEM strengths and weakness in China, helping you to understand and track the latest market changes.

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This article was first published on GlobalDatas dedicated research platform, theAutomotive Intelligence Center.

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Can China's tech giants succeed where Apple failed? - just-auto.com

In brief: Tech companies continue to pour billions of dollars into artificial intelligence-related areas, from hardware and software to general investments and acquisitions. But reaping the financial rewards is taking longer than expected. Meta's announcement that it is spending more on AI while profitability remains a long way off has spooked investors, and other companies are feeling the same pressure.

Meta said that it would be spending billions of dollars more on its AI efforts, raising expenditure forecasts in this area from $30 - 37 billion to $34 - 40 billion for the year. It cited heavy investment in AI infrastructure such as data centers, chip designs, and research and development for the increase. Meta also predicted that revenue for the current quarter would be lower than expected.

During an earnings call with investors, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that profitability from generative AI will take years, but asked for patience. "Smart investors see that the product is scaling and that there is a clear monetizable opportunity there even before the revenue materializes," he said. Zuckerberg also pointed to the energy costs of generative AI for Meta's higher spending.

Zuckerberg has experience when it comes to assuring investors that new tech costing the company a fortune will eventually pay off. Meta's Reality Labs, the VR/AR business responsible for its metaverse ambitions, has hemorrhaged more than $42 billion since the end of 2020, but Zuckerberg continues to insist that the metaverse will make billions or even trillions of dollars after 2030.

Meta's not the only one spending more on AI. New Street Research analysts predict Google parent Alphabet will see its full-year capital expenses increase to about $45.9 billion, up from previous estimates of $42.7 billion, partly as a result on spending in this field, writes Reuters.

Microsoft has also spent billions in this area, including the more than $10 billion investing in OpenAI. Like Alphabet, Microsoft said earlier this year that it expects its AI-related costs to keep rising.

Despite Meta's income growing 27% YoY in the first quarter to $36.5 billion, beating Wall Street's predictions, and profit more than doubling to $12.4 billion, the high spending and lower-than-expected revenue for the current quarter saw the company's stock crash 16%. Microsoft is down 2%, Alphabet fell 3%, and Nvidia was down 1.4% as a result.

Meta AI assistant was pushed out across the company's suite of apps last week. It's currently free to use, but Meta believes there are plenty of ways to monetize the feature, such as enabling people to pay to use bigger AI models and access more compute. Zuckerberg also believes AI will improve app engagement, leading to more ad money. Whether that will calm nervous investors looking for near-term gains remains to be seen.

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Tech giants are spending more on AI amid slow returns, and that's spooking investors - TechSpot

Robinhood, Autodesk, Ripple are ramping up Canadian hires.

The landscape of tech giants is expanding rapidly. Recent data from Pitchbook indicates that during the first quarter of 2024, a record 37 startups globally achieved unicorn statuseach valued at over $1 billion USD, representing the largest increase in these valuations over the past year.

A wave of potential exits is also on the horizon. Adena Friedman, CEO of Nasdaq, indicated earlier this year that approximately 100 companies have confidentially filed to initiate initial public offerings (IPO).

Amidst this growth, several of these tech behemoths in the United States, both unicorns and those that have already exited, are setting their sights on expanding their teams, particularly in the Canadian market.

Here are three US tech giants that are currently hiring in Canada. Check out all the organizations recruiting at Jobs.BetaKit for more opportunities.

Stock-trading app Robinhood officially attained unicorn status when it raised $110 million USD in 2017, later going public on the Nasdaq in July 2021. The FinTech company is currently seeking out a security software developer in Toronto to join its security authentication platform team.

This individual will be responsible for creating large-scale systems and technical solutions to power Robinhoods end-user authentication, as well as improve system performance and security.

The company is looking for a candidate with at least three years of experience working in software engineering, a bachelors degree in computer science or a related field, proficiency in Go or Python, and expertise with cloud-native platforms, as well as container and orchestration technologies.

Read more about the role on Robinhoods job board.

San Francisco-based Autodesk has been a public company since 1985. Currently, the firm employs more than 10,000 people and provides software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries.

Autodesk is looking for a principal software engineer to join its graphics platform team in Toronto. The role can be based out of Montreal, Vancouver, or remotely in Canada.

The Autodesk Graphics Platform is a shared graphics system used by many Autodesk applications. The individual hired for this role will support a complete modernization of the Graphics components. The roles responsibilities include designing and writing code, producing unit tests and developer documentation for new code, debugging subsystems, and optimizing code.

The successful candidate should have a minimum of 12 years of experience delivering professional software, a bachelors degree in computer science or an equivalent field, and strong experience with computer graphics application development.

The starting annual salary for this role is between approximately $131,000 and $180,000. The company also offers annual cash bonuses, stock grants, and a comprehensive benefits package.

Autodesk is hiring more roles on its job board.

San Francisco-based Ripple, which is currently exploring an IPO, is reportedly valued at an eye-popping $11 billion. The crypto firm put down roots in Toronto in 2022, and has been growing its Canadian presence ever since. The company is currently looking for a senior manager of software engineering to join its Toronto team.

This hire will be responsible for providing technical and strategic leadership for RippleX, which is Ripples payments platform. The selected candidate will create and deliver roadmaps, guide the professional and technical development of their team, and ensure detailed execution in building scalable and reliable blockchain software and systems.

Those interested in the position should have at least eight years of experience in software development leadership, as well as experience in building highly scalable distributed systems in C++, and developing open-source software.

Ripple is hiring more roles on its job board, which can be found here.

Feature image courtesy of Unsplash. Photo by Rivage.

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These three US tech giants are hiring in Canada - BetaKit - Canadian Startup News

Key Takeaways

Bitcoinsprice rally hastaken a pausebut tech darling Tesla has also underwhelmed Wall Street with its first quarter results.The multi-year drop in Tesla revenue followed the ambitious announcement by the carmaker to roll out the next generation of affordable EVs. The development pulledTeslasstock price upbutit is still unmatched to Bitcoin returns.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin has also outpaced Google and Microsoft in the last year.

Teslas financial health has shown signs of strain in its first quarter report. The car makersfirst-quarter earnings for 2024 reported a 9% drop in sales and a 48% decline in year-on-year adjusted profit. In response, the Elon Musk-led company has said that a plan for more affordable models is in queue for 2024.

Thecompanysshare price surged by at least 12% following the announcement. At the same time, Bitcoin price in the post-halving week has slowed down. On April 25, BTC was down around 5%. Despite this, the Bitcoin return against Tesla stocks is unmatched.

Thismeans thatTeslais seeing a setback in its core automotive business while making significant strides as a Bitcoin investor.The company is currently the third-largest public holder of Bitcoin, with a total of 9,720 BTC,accordingto Bitcoin Treasuries.The investment has been a relatively brightspotasTSLAhasa 35% YTD drop.

Since reporting its Bitcoin holdings in early 2021, Tesla benefitted from a Bitcoin price rise of around 64%. Teslas stock price has decreased by 43% in USD terms during the same period.

The relative performance against Bitcoin is even more telling, withTeslasstock price falling by 65% compared to Bitcoin.

Bitcoinsperformance, particularly in comparison to company returns, is notable.

In one year, betweenGoogle, Microsoft, Tesla, and Nvidia, only the AI chipmaker has outperformed Bitcoin.In the category,Google registered a 47% gainwhileBitcoin gained 124%.Microsoft gained close to 40%whileTeslas gains were worst in the category at 2%.

Outside the tech universe, thestock of mining company Marathon Digital Holdings has underperformed to Bitcoin by at least 28% since 2021. Coinbase Global stocks against Bitcoin are down 68%.

Stocks of Canada-based Hut 8 Mining Corp are down 41% against Bitcoin. Meanwhile, Bitcoin is witnessing occasional volatility as April concludes.

Recently,CoinSharesreported that Bitcoin experienced an outflow of $192m, indicating more investors withdrew their investments than added new funds.The report also underlined thatthe$18b trading volumeof ETPsmade up 28% of all Bitcoin trading volume.However, a monthagothe percentage was 55%.

However,Bitcoinsability to outperform major corporate entities like Tesla highlights its potential as a diversifying asset in broader investment portfolios. Especiallyover a longer term on the sidelines of geopolitical tensions.

The tale ofBitcoinversus Tesla is one of underlying strength over alongerperiod. While Tesla continues to innovate, it faces financial headwinds. Stocks of several crypto players like mining giants Marathon and Hut, along with Nasdaq-listed exchange Coinbase, have stayed behind Bitcoin in price returns.

Portfolio losses also partly subsided with investment in BTC for these companies. Therefore,Bitcoinsrise in value does show its resilience as an alternative investment asset.

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Bitcoin Price Outperforms Google, Microsoft, and Elon Musk's Tesla - CCN.com

Photo: Beck Diefenbach ( Reuters )

Google parent Alphabet crossed the $2-trillion threshold for market capitalization on Friday, thanks to a stock surge powered partly by its work with generative artificial intelligence.

Are self-driving cars safe enough yet?

The tech giants stock was one the markets star performers on Friday, as Alphabet Class A shares and Alphabet Class C shares each hit new 52-week highs. Both stocks were up about 10% shortly before markets closed, making Google the top performer in the Nasdaq on Friday and one of the top stocks in the S&P 500. That pushed Googles market cap to about $2.14 trillion on Friday afternoon.

Alphabet stock is up more than 23% so far this year and more than 59% over the last 12 months.

Prior to Alphabet, only Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia had joined the $2-trillion club. Googles latest milestone comes following the release of its quarterly results Thursday, which beat analysts expectations. The company reported a surge in profits of nearly 60% in the first quarter of this year versus the same period a prior year.

Our results in the first quarter reflect strong performance from search, YouTube, and cloud, CEO Sundar Pichai said in a statement Thursday. We are well underway with our Gemini era and theres great momentum across the company. Our leadership in AI research and infrastructure, and our global product footprint, position us well for the next wave of AI innovation.

Another factor boosting Alphabet stock: its announcement of a first-ever cash dividend of 20 cents per share, to be paid to investors this summer. Alphabets sales shot up, too, by 15% to $80.5 billion.

Wall Street thinks Google stock will keep surging after a brief stall in February and March. Analysts from Jefferies, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Raymond James on Friday all raised their price targets for Google to $200 per share from previous price targets between $165 and $180 after Googles strong earnings report a day earlier.

Laura Bratton contributed to the article

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AI just powered Google to a $2 trillion market cap - Quartz