Wall Street: Wall Street shares close up as megacap tech stocks rally

NEW YORK, – U.S. stocks closed higher on Friday, buoyed by a rally in megacap growth stocks following robust quarterly results from technology heavyweights Alphabet and Microsoft in addition to moderate inflation data. Investors cheered Alphabet’s first-ever dividend, its $70 billion stock buyback program, and better-than-expected first-quarter results. Its shares jumped 10% and reached a … Read more

Alphabet: Alphabet heads toward $2 trillion with investors cheering AI moves

New York: Investors are becoming more optimistic about Alphabet’s artificial intelligence strategy, after a run of glitches and misfires that sent its shares tumbling. The stock is heading back toward what would be a record $2 trillion market value – a milestone surpassed only by Microsoft, Apple and Nvidia in the United States. It has … Read more

Waymo Will Bring Autonomous Taxis to Los Angeles—Its Biggest Challenge Yet

Paid autonomous vehicle service is coming to Los Angeles, thanks to a decision by California regulators today to allow Alphabet subsidiary Waymo to operate in the city. Under the new ruling, Waymo is also permitted to launch service in a large section of the San Francisco Peninsula. The decision by the California Public Utilities Commission … Read more

Google’s Flagship Gemini AI Model Gets a Major Upgrade

Alphabet’s Gemini AI model has been public for only two months, but the company is already releasing an upgrade. Gemini Pro 1.5, launching with limited availability today, is more powerful than its predecessor and can handle huge amounts of text, video, or audio input at a time. Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, which developed … Read more

Google Parent Alphabet’s Spending on Acquisitions Cratered in 2023

Pennies were pinched in Mountain View last year. For much of its existence as a public company, Google had made a headline-grabbing acquisition at least once a year as it used the profits from its surging ads business to bet on new frontiers. Billions of dollars went to scooping up Motorola, Nest, HTC, and Fitbit … Read more

The EV Stock Bubble Is Bursting

Good morning! It’s Monday, January 22, 2024, and this is The Morning Shift, your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. Here are the important stories you need to know. Walter Isaacson On Elon Musk(s) 1st Gear: Electric Vehicle Stocks Are Down Bad Tesla’s stock is having a … Read more