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Alphabet Might Invest Roughly $75 Billion On Capital Projects

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said the company is planning another big year of spending as it continues to build out its artificial intelligence offering.

TakeAway Points:

  • Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Alphabet, stated that his business intends to make roughly $75 billion in capital expenditures this year.
  • During Alphabet’s fourth-quarter results report, the announcement was made.
  • China said on Tuesday it will launch an investigation into Google over alleged antitrust violations.
  • The statement followed closed on the heels of China announcing additional tariffs on select U.S. goods.

$75 billion to be invested in 2025

“We are confident about the opportunities ahead, and to accelerate our progress, we expect to invest approximately $75 billion in capital expenditures in 2025,” Pichai said in Tuesday’s earnings release announcing the investment plan.

The capex figure came in ahead of the $59.73 billion consensus estimate for Google, according to Visible Alpha.

On its earnings call, Alphabet said it expects $16 billion to $18 billion of those expenses to come in the first quarter. Overall, the expenditures will go toward “technical infrastructure, primarily for servers, followed by data centers and networking,” finance chief Anat Ashkenazi said.

Alphabet’s announcement came alongside a mixed fourth-quarter earnings report. Shares fell 8% after the company topped Wall Street’s earnings estimates by 2 cents per share, but fell short on revenue expectations.

Alphabet and its megacap tech rivals are rushing to build out their data centers with next-generation AI infrastructure, packed with Nvidia’s graphics processing units, or GPUs. Last month, Meta said it plans to invest $60 billion to $65 billion this year as part of its AI push. Microsoft has committed to $80 billion in AI-related capital expenditures in its current fiscal year.

The recent rise of China’s DeepSeek open-source models has led to some concerns about whether companies need to invest as heavily in their buildouts. Those fears rocked financial markets early last week, spurring a sell-off that contributed to the worst one-day market value loss for a company in history.

Many technology CEOs have called attention to the Chinese startup and its implications for U.S.-based tools. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said DeepSeek is showing “real innovations,” while Palantir CEO Alex Karp told CNBC last week that competing AI models means the U.S. needs an “all-country effort” to develop the technology faster.

In addition to infrastructure purchases, Alphabet said it expects headcount growth in 2025 “in key investment areas such as AI and cloud.”

China to launch probe into Google over alleged antitrust violations

China said Tuesday it will launch an investigation into Google over alleged antitrust violations.

The country’s State Administration for Market Regulation said that it would initiate an investigation into the technology giant because of alleged violations of China’s anti-monopoly law, according to a Google translation of the official statement.

The statement followed closed on the heels of China announcing additional tariffs on select U.S. goods.

China’s finance ministry said it will levy tariffs of 15% on coal and liquified natural gas imports from the U.S., starting Feb. 10. It will also impose 10% higher duties on American crude oil, farm equipment and certain cars and trucks.

Google stopped its internet and search engine services in China in 2010, but continues some operations, including helping Chinese businesses looking to advertise on Google platforms abroad.

The Google investigation could end without any penalties, Julian Evans Pritchard, head of China economics at Capital Economics, said in a note.

Google is facing regulatory scrutiny in several countries, including the U.S.

The company lost a lawsuit in August filed by the U.S. government in 2020. It accused the firm of having a monopoly in the general search market by creating strong barriers to entry.

Following the ruling, the U.S. Department of Justice pushed in November for Google to divest its Chrome browser. The department also argued that Google should not be allowed to enter into exclusionary agreements with third parties such as Apple and Samsung.

Google is also currently being investigated by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority over whether it has “strategic market status” under a new UK law.







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Ex-Google Engineer Faces New US Charges 

Former Google software engineer Linwei Ding was charged by U.S. authorities on Tuesday with stealing trade secrets related to artificial intelligence for two Chinese companies he was covertly employed by. The indictment was enlarged to 14 counts.

TakeAway Points:

  • U.S. prosecutors on Tuesday unveiled an expanded 14-count indictment accusing former Google software engineer Linwei Ding of stealing artificial intelligence trade secrets to benefit two Chinese companies he was secretly working for.
  • Snap beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly profit on Tuesday, benefiting from improvements to the Snapchat parent’s advertising platform, sending its shares up 6% in extended trading.

New case on stolen AI secrets 

Ding, 38, a Chinese national, was charged by a federal grand jury in San Francisco with seven counts each of economic espionage and theft of trade secrets.

Each economic espionage charge carries a maximum 15-year prison term and $5 million fine, while each trade secrets charge carries a maximum 10-year term and $250,000 fine.

The defendant, also known as Leon Ding, was indicted last March on four counts of theft of trade secrets. He is free on bond. Lawyers for Ding did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Ding’s case was coordinated through an interagency Disruptive Technology Strike Force created in 2023 by the Biden administration.

The initiative was designed to help stop advanced technology from being acquired by countries such as China and Russia or potentially threatening national security.

Prosecutors said Ding stole information about the hardware infrastructure and software platform that lets Google’s supercomputing data centers train large AI models.

Some of the allegedly stolen chip blueprints were meant to give Google an edge over cloud computing rivals Amazon.com and Microsoft, which design their own, and reduce Google’s reliance on chips from Nvidia.

Prosecutors said Ding joined Google in May 2019 and began his thefts three years later, when he was being courted to join an early-stage Chinese technology company.

Ding allegedly uploaded more than 1,000 confidential files by May 2023 and later circulated a PowerPoint presentation to employees of a China startup he founded, saying that country’s policies encouraged development of a domestic AI industry.

Google was not charged and has said it cooperated with law enforcement.

According to court records describing a Dec. 18 hearing, prosecutors and defense lawyers discussed a “potential resolution” to Ding’s case, “but anticipate the matter proceeding to trial.”

Snap Surpass Profit Estimates On Advertising Platform 

Snap exceeded Wall Street projections for quarterly profit on Tuesday, benefiting from improvements to the Snapchat parent’s advertising platform, pushing its shares up 6% in extended trade.

Social media firms and advertisers are navigating an uncertainty around a possible ban of popular short video app TikTok in the U.S. that could help Snap, analysts have said.

“Overall environment of uncertainty (around TikTok) is benefiting our business. Advertisers are very focused on contingency planning and diversifying their spend,” CEO Evan Spiegel said on a post-earnings call.

Snap could increase the price of its Snapchat+ subscription service to boost average revenue per user, Spiegel added. In the fourth quarter, Snapchat+ subscribers doubled to 14 million.

The company has been investing in artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to help create more personalized ads.

It has focused on direct response ads that are designed to prompt specific actions like app downloads or website visits, at a time when there is some weakness in brand awareness ads.

That has helped Snap tap small- and mid-sized businesses, making them the largest contributor to the company’s ad revenue growth in 2024.

Snaps—video ads and Promoted places

The company will roll out Sponsored Snaps—video ads that appear in users’ inboxes—and Promoted Places, a feature that highlights business locations on Snap Map, to additional markets.

“Snap’s diligent work on its ad platform and in diversifying its revenue streams through subscriptions have paid off,” said Jasmine Enberg, principal analyst at eMarketer.

Snap reported adjusted earnings per share of 16 cents for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, beating analysts’ average estimate of 14 cents, according to LSEG-compiled data.

Daily active users of Snapchat increased 9% to 453 million, beating estimates of 450.8 million.

The company forecasts first-quarter revenue of $1.33 billion to $1.36 billion, the mid-point of which was slightly above estimates of $1.33 billion.

It also expects adjusted EBITDA of $40 million to $75 million in the quarter, below expectations of $78.1 million.

Revenue in the quarter jumped 14% to $1.56 billion, marginally beating the average estimate of $1.55 billion.







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