Business
Meta reported record quarterly revenue of $34.1bn, of which sales from advertising made up 98.5%. Net profit rose by 164%, to $11.6bn. Mark Zuckerberg noted the savings made from his “year of efficiency”, and said that artificial intelligence was improving the business. The good results were tempered by news that dozens of American states are suing Meta, alleging that its apps, such as Facebook, are deliberately designed to be addictive to children.
Surging revenue from cloud computing contributed to a 27% jump in Microsoft’s quarterly net profit, year on year. Satya Nadella, the CEO, said the company was reaping the gains from using AI models developed by OpenAI for its platforms. Alphabet’s cloud division, by contrast, underperformed in the quarter. However, overall revenue and profit at Google’s parent company came in above forecasts, driven by digital-ad sales.
Open AI, in which Microsoft has a 49% stake, could be valued at as much as $86bn after a possible sale of shares, according to reports. That would make the developer of ChatGPT one of the most valuable privately held firms in the world, behind the likes of SpaceX and ByteDance.
2023-10-26 07:35:33
Post from www.economist.com
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