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Amazon slides as it misses on Q4 earnings, gives downbeat profit guidance

The tech giant also forecast it would spend $200 billion on capex in 2026.

Jon Keegan

Amazon shares are sliding after the company missed Wall Street’s expectations for fourth-quarter earnings, gave downbeat first-quarter profit guidance, and forecast a whopping $200 billion of capital expenditure this year.

The stock is down almost 8% in premarket trading, as of 5:50 a.m. ET.

For the fourth quarter, Amazon’s earnings per share came in at $1.95, falling short of analysts’ consensus estimate of $1.97, according to FactSet.

Sales grew 14% to $213.4 billion, ahead of analysts’ expectations of $211.43 billion.

The tech giant also forecast first-quarter operating income of $16.5 billion to $21.5 billion, well below the Wall Street forecast for $22.18 billion. It sees sales landing between $173.5 billion and $178.5 billion, compared with analysts’ expectations for $175.62 billion.

Amazon’s AWS cloud business saw revenue jump 24% year on year to $35.6 billion, powered by huge demand for AI. The Street was expecting $34.9 billion.

The company’s capital expenditure — a number that’s been watched closely in recent quarters as tech giants spend vast sums of money to build the infrastructure to power AI — totaled $39.5 billion, topping analysts’ forecasts of $34.37 billion.

Amazon continued a trend of Big Tech companies laying out plans for monster capital spending, saying it expects to invest about $200 billion in capital expenditure this year.

On the earnings call, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said that the company had a backlog of $244 billion worth of AWS revenue, up 40% year over year.

Some highlights for the quarter:

  • The Trainium and Gravitron custom AI chips have a combined annual revenue of over $10 billion, growing fast.

  • Trainium4 chips are expected to start delivery in 2027.

  • Physical-store sales came in at $5.85 billion.

  • Advertising revenue was $21.37 billion, up 23% year on year.

  • Subscription revenue (Amazon Prime, audiobooks, etc.) was up 14% year on year, at $13.1 billion for the quarter.

Last week, Amazon announced it would reduce its corporate workforce by an additional 16,000 employees, after laying off 14,000 workers in October.

Go Deeper: For hyperscalers like Amazon, how much capex is too much?

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CoreWeave reports modestly better than expected Q1 results, revenue backlog nearing $100 billion

CoreWeave is whipsawing in after-hours trading as investors digest whether its ho-hum earnings report can justify the 86% rally since late March.

In Q1, the neocloud firm reported:

  • Revenue: $2.1 billion (estimate: $2 billion)

  • Adjusted EBITDA: $1.2 billion (estimate: $1.1 billion)

As of March 31, its revenue backlog was $99.4 billion.

“We surpassed 1 GW of active power and believe we are well on our way to more than 8 GW by 2030, having positioned our capital structure to scale with the opportunity ahead," said CEO, co-founder, and Chairman Michael Intrator in a press release. “AI natives and enterprise customers are choosing CoreWeave because we sit between the models and the silicon, delivering the infrastructure, software, and expertise required to build and run AI at scale.”

At the end of the quarter, the company managed to close a unique debt deal backed by GPUs and what Meta is slated to pay for AI compute.

Since then, CoreWeave and its peers have been buoyed by a scramble for compute catalyzed by a seeming shortage for Anthropic, as the Claude developer aimed to beef up its footprint amid complaints around usage limits.

CoreWeave reached a multiyear deal with Anthropic to help power Claude, and also expanded its AI compute sales pact with Meta by $21 billion.

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Rocket Lab reports better-than-expected Q1 sales, stock rises

Retail favorite Rocket Lab rose late Thursday after reporting better-than-expected Q1 sales and offering up beat sales guidance for Q2.

Here’s how the company did:

  • Q1 revenue of $200.3 million vs. Wall Street’s expectation for $189.7 million, according to FactSet.

  • An adjusted loss per share of -$0.07 vs. the consensus estimate of a -$0.07 loss.

  • Adjusted EBITDA of -$11.8 million vs. analyst expectations of -$26.3 million.

  • Q2 sales guidance of between $225 million and $240 million ($232.5 million midpoint) vs. expectations for $205.3 million.

  • Q2 guidance for an EBITDA loss of between -$20 million and -$26 million (-$23 million midpoint) vs. the -$14.5 million analysts were penciling in.

Rocket Lab shares have surged roughly 2,000% over the last two years, as the company capitalized on investor enthusiasm for space.

Over the last year, Rocket Lab also rode growing excitement about companies that plan to use their ability to place clusters of satellites into low-earth orbit, and then sell data services to earthlings below — essentially the business model of Elon Musk’s Starlink.

Though it’s privately held for now, Musk’s space behemoth — SpaceX — remains the key source of excitement around the sector, enthusiasm which will likely grow as SpaceX moves forward with plans for what’s likely to be the largest public offering ever.

Rabid space enthusiasm aside, Rocket Lab remains a money-losing company that’s burning a lot of cash, though Wall Street analysts think it could break even in 2027.

We’ll see. That projection hangs on the company’s ability to get its larger Neutron rocket into its commercial launch cycle sooner rather than later. And given that Neutron’s maiden launch — originally slated for 2025 — has been delayed to the fourth quarter of 2026, that’s by no means assured.

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Opendoor Technologies reports better-than-expected Q1 results and touts key profitability milestone

Opendoor Technologies delivered a set of better-than-expected Q1 results while touting that it’s just achieved a key profitability milestone.

In Q1, the online real estate company reported:

  • Revenue: $720 million (estimate: $665.2 million)

  • Adjusted EBITDA: -$31 million (estimate: -$33.5 million)

In the press release, the company said it is adjusted EBITDA profitable on a 12-month go-forward basis as of April 1.

For Q2, management offered mixed guidance. The company expects sales of about $900 million (estimate: $1.13 billion) with adjusted EBITDA roughly flat (estimate: -$4.66 million).

Under its new leadership, the online real estate company has redoubled its efforts on aggressive home-flipping and adopted a “default to AI approach,” including using the technology for home assessments and in closings.

“Our 4Q25 and January 2026 cash acquisition cohorts have the best combination of margin, margin stability, and resale velocity of any corresponding cohort in company history (excluding the COVID-era cohorts),” said CEO Kaz Nejatian in a press release.

Opendoor’s share price, one of the most interesting things in the stock market for a couple months in 2025, has been decidedly boring in 2026. Since late January, it’s traded in a range of roughly $4.30 to $5.60.

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Saleah Blancaflor

US national average gas price rises 25 cents in a week once again to hit $4.55

Drivers have been seeing another increase at the pump, as the national average for a gallon of regular gas rose 25 cents for a second consecutive week.

Gas prices are currently $4.55 per gallon, which is $1.40 higher than it was about a year ago, according to the American Automobile Association. Gas prices have reached their highest level since 2022 when the national average peaked at $5.01 per gallon.

While crude oil prices dropped below $100 per barrel during ongoing negotiations to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, gas prices continue to face growing pressure from global supply concerns.

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(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

While crude oil prices dropped below $100 per barrel during ongoing negotiations to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, gas prices continue to face growing pressure from global supply concerns.

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(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

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