Nvidia earnings, outlook top Wall Street forecasts as CEO Jensen Huang touts 'light speed' AI advances

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Nvidia earnings, outlook top Wall Street forecasts as CEO Jensen Huang touts 'light speed' AI advances. 🚀 The company reported its fourth quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday, beating analysts' expectations on the top and bottom lines and issuing solid Q1 guidance. Nvidia's stock swung between small gains and losses early on Thursday as investors digested the report. Shares were up less than 1% in premarket trading. Yahoo Finance reports.

🚀 Amazon is joining the quantum race with its new ‘Ocelot’ chip: The tech giant debuted its first ever quantum computing chip, joining a growing number of Big Tech names entering the quantum chip space. Called Ocelot, the chip, according to Amazon, helps solve a key problem for quantum computing systems, which could speed up the push to practical quantum computers. Yahoo Finance reports.

🛒 eBay Stumbles as Shoppers Tighten Wallets: E-commerce firm eBay forecast first-quarter revenue below Wall Street estimates on Wednesday, as economic uncertainty compelled unaffluent buyers to cut discretionary spending, sending its shares down nearly 9% in extended trading. Reuters reports.

💉 Eli Lilly makes a significant $27B investment in U.S. expansion: Investing at least $27 billion, Eli Lilly will build four new manufacturing sites in the U.S. as demand for its blockbuster weight loss and diabetes injections soars, while also developing new drugs for other conditions. Reuters reports.

💾 Microsoft pushes for relaxed AI chip export restrictions: Microsoft will call for U.S. officials to ease the limits on chips used in data centers for training AI models, so restrictions no longer apply to a group of U.S. allies. Reuters reports.

🚗 Mercedes-Benz plans major job cuts in China to reduce costs by 2027: To achieve its goal of reducing workforce costs in its biggest market by a quarter by 2027, Mercedes-Benz is cutting jobs in China, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. Reuters reports.

☁ Salesforce shares drop following weaker-than-expected earnings and cautious forecast: Salesforce reported lower-than-expected quarterly revenue on Wednesday and issued a forecast that fell short of analysts’ estimates. The stock price slipped 4% in extended trading. CNBC reports.

(All pricing and percent gains are based on Early Pre-Market from 4:00 AM to 7:00 AM Eastern Time)
Benzinga reports.

1) $ULY: Urgently
Total gain: +88.9%

2) $NIXX: Nixxy
Total gain: +55.06%

3) $ICCT: iCoreConnect
Total gain: +50.45%

4) $CPOP: Pop Culture Group
Total gain: +45.95%

5) $VMAR: Vision Marine Technologies
Total gain: +35.99%

The real reason behind the DeepSeek hype, according to AI experts

DeepSeek turned the tech world on its head last month – and for good reason, according to artificial intelligence experts, who say we’re likely only seeing the beginning of the Chinese tech startup’s influence on the AI field.

DeepSeek grabbed headlines in late January with its R1 AI model, which the company says can roughly match the performance of Open AI’s o1 model at a fraction of the cost. Tech stocks tumbled as DeepSeek briefly unseated ChatGPT to become the top app in Apple’s App Store.

The achievement pushed US tech behemoths to question America’s standing in the AI race against China – and the billions of dollars behind those efforts. While Vice President JD Vance didn’t mention DeepSeek or China by name in his remarks at the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris on Tuesday, he certainly emphasized how big of a priority it is for the United States to lead the sector.

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Time (ET) / Report / Period

8:30 AM - Initial jobless claims - Feb. 22
8:30 AM - Durable-goods orders - Jan.
8:30 AM - Durable-goods minus transportation - Jan.

“Over time, superior businesses will outperform average ones, even if their stock prices seem high at first glance.”

- Philip A. Fisher

Sourced in: “Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits”, by Philip Fisher, published in 1958