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Alphabet is down roughly 10-11% after reporting third-quarter net revenue of $111.2 billion, short of consensus, with search and advertising the soft spots. Google Cloud grew triple digits, but free cash flow went negative alongside new borrowing and share issuance — exactly the combination investors have stopped forgiving. The move dragged Nasdaq-100 futures down about 1% premarket.
Microsoft beat on both lines, with Azure revenue up 48% to $33.2 billion against guidance of 44-45%. GAAP EPS rose 32% to $4.92, free cash flow came in at $18.6 billion, and OpenAI-related revenue hit about $10 billion for the quarter — bigger than Bing or Xbox. Shares popped as much as 4% after hours and were holding a smaller gain, under 1%, in Thursday premarket.
Marvell is reportedly near terms to acquire optical components maker Lumentum, with Lumentum carrying roughly an $83 billion market cap against Marvell's $221 billion. Marvell fell about 11% on the report while Lumentum rose about 5% — a classic acquirer-punished reaction given the size. Worth noting: Nvidia has been both a Lumentum customer and a roughly $2 billion shareholder since March.
Meta's equity offerings — an initial $35 billion tranche inside a plan to raise up to $95 billion — are set to close today. Nvidia is committing $3 billion and AMD $1 billion, tied to expanded work on Meta's Muse models and broader Nvidia hardware and networking deployment. Meta also lifted full-year capex guidance to $135-$145 billion on Q3 revenue of $64.6 billion, up 26%, and the stock sold off on negative free cash flow.
The FOMC left the funds rate at 3.75%-4.00% in a 10-2 vote, with Governor Cook and Cleveland's Hammack dissenting in favor of a quarter-point hike. The statement upgraded activity to "expanding at a strong pace" while calling inflation "elevated," and the 10-year closed near 5.03%. CME FedWatch now puts December 9 hike odds at 87.5%, up from 73% on Tuesday — a real headwind for long-duration AI growth names.
Anthropic filed publicly for a Nasdaq listing under ticker ANT with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley leading, targeting a pre-Thanksgiving debut. The filing showed second-quarter revenue of $11.56 billion versus $787 million a year earlier, roughly $132 billion in cash and short-term investments at the end of June, and very large first-half losses. Some investors have marked the deal nearer $1.5 trillion, down from about $2 trillion a week earlier, while OpenAI races to close a roughly $30 billion round at north of $1.4 trillion.
Amazon reports after the bell, call at 5 p.m. Eastern. Consensus sits near $202.2 billion in revenue and EPS of roughly $1.96 to $2.02, with AWS growth expected in the 38-41% range. The pressure point is cash: the 2026 capex plan rose to about $220 billion from $200 billion, and trailing free cash flow has already turned negative at roughly minus $7.6 billion.
Micron jumped 5.5% Wednesday to about $980 after SK Hynix told investors its HBM, DRAM and NAND capacity is essentially sold out, with HBM commitments stretching toward 2029. Pricing backs it up: SK Hynix raised DRAM about 30% sequentially and Samsung more than 40%. Thursday's premarket was less kind — optical, neocloud and storage names all leaked lower with the broader AI complex.
Voters in 10 states will weigh measures to restrict data center development on Election Day, with Ohio alone seeing 21 proposals across more than a dozen jurisdictions. It's the first broad electoral test of local resistance to the power and water demands of AI infrastructure. Any meaningful wins for the restriction side become a siting and timeline risk for hyperscalers and the neocloud group.
Rosenblatt raised its Palantir price target to $260 from $225, keeping a Buy, on continued AI platform momentum ahead of the company's next report. Baird is at $250 and Goldman Sachs recently moved to Buy with a $230 target, though the consensus 12-month target still sits closer to $209. Shares slipped about 2% on the session despite the raise.
