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Rani Molla

$2T is the new $1T

It looks like Alphabet might soon join the $2T market cap club, thanks to renewed investor confidence in its AI strategy, following its presentation of enterprise AI tools at its cloud computing conference this week. That confidence had been dashed following a string of AI mishaps, including being late to launch its own generative AI chatbot and releasing a genAI image generator that churned out nazis of color and other historical inaccuracies.

It’s worth noting that two of the other three companies in the $2T club, Nvidia and Microsoft, have also benefited from their proximity to the very buzzy AI industry. Apple, which has appeared to lag the others in AI development (it’s reportedly in talks with Google and Baidu to outsource genAI), has seen its stock decline this year. Don’t worry though, Apple is still worth a lot.

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Microsoft shares have biggest single-day drop since March 2020

Yesterday, Microsoft reported strong earnings and revenue for its second quarter, but the stock plunged after-hours. Investors seem to have been concerned about so much of Microsoft’s booked contracts coming from one company — OpenAI — as well as its slowing cloud growth.

Today, it got worse. Microsoft shares sank 10%, suffering their largest single-day drop since the start of the Covid lockdown in March 2020.

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Western Digital beats Wall Street estimates for Q2 sales, EPS

Western Digital posted better-than-expected quarterly sales and earnings-per-share figures after the close Thursday, though the shares slipped after-hours. 

Here’s how the results looked:

  • Fiscal Q2 revenue of $3.02 billion vs. the $2.93 billion consensus analyst expectation, per FactSet.

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $2.13 vs. the $1.93 analysts predicted.

  • Fiscal Q3 guidance for adjusted EPS of $2.15 to $2.45 vs. analyst estimates of $1.99.

  • Guidance for Q3 sales of $3.1 billion to $3.3 billion vs. estimates of $2.98 billion.

Western Digital — and rival Seagate Technology Holdings — were among the market’s best performers last year, rising 282% and 219%, respectively, as data storage became a key bottleneck for hyperscalers. 

The shares are romping into 2026 as well, with both stocks up more than 60% in January through the close of trading on Thursday. 

Sandisk fiscal Q2 earnings results

Sandisk blows past quarterly earnings expectations, forecasts blockbuster Q3 numbers

It was the best performer in the S&P 500 last year. It’s already doubled in January. And shares are soaring after-hours.

Southwest Airlines Announces It's Ending Its Open Seating

Southwest logs its biggest gain since 1978 as it says bag fees and seating changes will quadruple profit

Southwest shares closed up 19% on Thursday, their biggest daily gain in nearly half a century.

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