There’s no escaping AI trading during big tech earnings season.

Big Tech’s latest earnings season ended as quickly as it began. Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), AMD (AMD), Apple (AAPL), Intel (INTC), Meta (META), and Microsoft (MSFT) all released their latest financial reports within the same week. The remaining major player, Nvidia (NVDA), is expected to release details about its performance later this month.

All companies except Intel met or exceeded Wall Street expectations in terms of revenue and bottom line profits. However, investor reaction to this announcement was far from uniform. And that can be largely thanks to AI. While the technology has helped boost revenue for some companies, others have spooked investors with concerns about AI slowing down.

Here’s an overview.

Meta and Microsoft reported better-than-expected numbers, and both companies say AI is contributing to broader revenue. But the companies also said they plan to spend billions more building out AI, with social media giant Meta’s chief financial officer Susan Lee saying the company expects to “expend capital expenditures by 2025.” “We continue to expect significant increases.”

Meanwhile, Microsoft said it would continue spending to continue building data centers to power its AI services. Microsoft’s capital spending totaled $20 billion in the first quarter, with much of it going toward AI, according to CFO Amy Hood. Additionally, she expects spending to increase this quarter.

Meanwhile, Alphabet spent $13 billion in the third quarter, mostly on servers, data centers and networking equipment, and expects to spend about the same amount in the fourth quarter. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company plans to make a total of $75 billion in capital spending in 2024, with even more next year to support the Amazon Web Services unit’s generative AI plans. He said there was.

Wall Street didn’t take too kindly to Meta and Microsoft’s spending announcements, sending their stock prices down, but ignored Alphabet’s and Amazon’s own big-ticket plans, pushing their prices higher.

AMD and Intel went in the opposite direction as well. AMD stock fell following the company’s earnings report, in which the company shared an expectation that it would deliver a profit of $7.2 billion to $7.8 billion for the current quarter. The midpoint was $7.5 billion, with analysts expecting $7.55 billion. AMD stock fell 9% on the news as investors wondered if the company’s AI revenue growth was starting to slow.

Meanwhile, Intel’s stock price soared after the company said it expects fourth-quarter revenue to be between $13.3 billion and $14.3 billion (midpoint is $13.8 billion). Wall Street had expected $13.6 billion. The stock’s move came even as Intel reported worse-than-expected earnings per share last quarter and said it expects revenue in its data center and AI divisions to be flat quarter-over-quarter.

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The company also said it has signed on with two new customers for its next-generation 18A chips, without disclosing their names. Intel previously announced that it is manufacturing chips using 18A technology for Amazon and Microsoft. After months of disappointing news, investors appear to have jumped on the prospect of positive developments from the chipmaker.

Then there’s Apple, which has had more complicated earnings announcements than its competitors. On the surface, the company posted significantly lower earnings per share. It was $0.97 compared to expectations of $1.59. However, this shortfall was actually the result of $13 billion in additional taxes Apple paid to Ireland following a European General Court ruling.

After subtracting this payment, Apple’s EPS jumped to $1.64, well above Wall Street expectations.

Analysts wanted more information about whether the company’s Apple Intelligence platform was driving iPhone sales. But Apple CEO Tim Cook largely avoided providing details about how the platform would impact iPhone sales in the fourth quarter. Instead, he said, upgrading to iOS 18.1, the version of the iPhone operating system that includes Apple Intelligence, is twice as fast as upgrading to iOS 17.1 last year. But that was it.

Unlike previous iPhone cycles, where the phone’s essential features were available from day one, Apple Intelligence will roll out slowly over the remainder of 2024 and into 2025. This means consumers may hold off on purchasing the iPhone 16 until Apple Intelligence capabilities are sufficient. To make your purchase worthwhile.

Finally, Nvidia is scheduled to report earnings after the bell on November 20th. Nvidia’s announcement, the biggest beneficiary of the AI ​​trade, will impact similar chip stocks as well as stocks of software companies such as Microsoft.

Thanks to the company’s leadership in AI chips, NVIDIA stock is up 178% since the beginning of the year and 206% in the past 12 months. And while rivals AMD and Intel are trying to catch up, there’s still a long way to go before they can challenge Nvidia for the throne.

If Nvidia beats analyst estimates for the quarter, the AI ​​company’s stock could rise. However, a drop in performance could spell trouble for the broader AI industry.

Until then, Wall Street will be on edge awaiting Nvidia’s results. As it turns out, the obsession with AI isn’t going away anytime soon.

Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@yahoofinance.com. Follow @DanielHowley on Twitter.

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