Tech 5: AMD, Alphabet, Amazon and More Report Results as Big Tech Earnings Roll Out

1. Chipmakers AMD, Qualcomm and Arm release results

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) (NASDAQ:AMD) reported its Q4 and full-year financial results on Tuesday (February 4), revealing US$7.66 billion in quarterly revenue and earnings per share of US$1.09, both above estimates.

For Q1 of this year, the company is forecasting revenue of about US$7.1 billion.

However, data center sales, which were up 69 percent year-on-year to US$3.86 billion, missed projections of US$4.14 billion. AMD shares opened over 9 percent lower on Wednesday (February 5) on the news.

CEO Lisa Su is predicting a decline in data center sales of roughly 7 percent in Q1 due to seasonal fluctuations and increased competition in the GPU space. Shares of AMD closed down 5.47 percent for the week.

Qualcomm’s (NASDAQ:AVGO) results for its first fiscal quarter of 2025, also surpassed figures projected by analysts They show quarterly revenue of US$11.7 billion and a profit of US$3.41 per share.

The company’s automotive sector outperformed others in its CDMA technologies segment, with 61 percent year-on-year growth in revenue. Comparatively, phone-related sales increased just 13 percent, to US$7.57 billion.

CFO Akash Palkhiwala said the company expects the overall smartphone market to be either flat in 2025, or increase in the low single digits, which is in line with projections from analyst firm IDC.

His comments preceded a drop in Qualcomm’s share price of over 4.5 percent on Thursday (February 6) morning. Shares of the company are down 0.57 percent this week as a whole.

The departure of one of Qualcomm’s biggest customers, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), adds a layer of complexity to the company's outlook in 2025. Apple has used Qualcomm’s modem chip in the iPhone since 2011, but is working to replace that component with an in-house version. Apple’s overhaul of its more affordable model, the iPhone SE, is reportedly slated for release later this month, and will be the first with an Apple-made modem.

Chip designer Arm Holdings (NASDAQ:ARM) unveiled financial results for its third fiscal quarter of 2025 on Wednesday, revealing 19 percent annual revenue growth to US$983 million for the quarter.

The rise was driven by increased adoption of Armv9 architecture, increased usage of Arm-based chips in data centers and market expansion for smart sensors. During the company’s earnings call, CFO and Executive Vice President Jason E. Child suggested that Arm is gaining a larger share of the smartphone chip market thanks to its advanced technology and strategic partnerships, even if the overall market is not growing as quickly as expected.

Shares of Arm opened 6.5 percent lower on Thursday, but ended the week ahead by 5.5 percent.

2. Alphabet and Amazon earnings fall short

Cloud providers Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) also reported their earnings this week, both highlighting capacity constraints as impediments to higher revenue.

Alphabet's Q4 and full-year financial results, shared on Tuesday, show that the company's revenue for the quarter reached US$96.5 billion, slightly below analysts' projections of US$96.67 billion.

Quarterly sales reached US$81.6 billion compared to the US$82.8 billion projected by analysts for Bloomberg. Earnings per share were marginally higher than what analysts were expecting at US$2.15 compared to US$2.13.

Cloud revenue was US$11.96 billion, up 30 percent year-on-year, but missing expectations of US$12.2 billion.

At the same time, the company announced US$75 billion in capital expenditure in 2025, with 11 data centers planned to expand its artificial intelligence (AI) strategy, fueling growing concerns that expenses might outpace revenue.

Traders sent shares down over 7 percent in extended trading.

In an earnings call that followed, CFO Anat Ashkenazi alluded to capacity constraints as one reason for the downshift in cloud revenue, a sentiment that was shared by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.

Amazon’s sales for Q4 2024 that beat Wall Street estimates on Thursday, boosted by a strong performance in its retail business, but revenue from the company’s cloud computing unit, Amazon Web Services (AWS), fell short.

AWS revenue rose by 19 percent year-on-year to US$28.79 billion, slightly below the US$28.87 billion projected by LSEG analysts. Total revenue was US$187.8 billion compared with the average analyst estimate of US$187.3 billion.

On an upbeat note, earnings per share came in at US$1.86 per share, compared with expectations of US$1.49.

Amazon was the last of the market’s three major cloud providers to report its earnings, and its results, like those of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Alphabet, showed slower cloud revenue growth and greater CAPEX spending in 2025 than analysts had anticipated; during an earnings webcast, Amazon CRO Brian Olsavsky said the company will increase CAPEX spending to US$100 billion in 2025, primarily to support AWS, “including to support demand for our AI services, as well as tech infrastructure to support our North America and international segments.”

Shares of Amazon pulled back by over 2.5 percent in extended trading on Thursday afternoon, and fell as low as US$228.06 on Friday (February 7), 4.84 percent lower than Thursday’s intraday high ahead of the report's release.

3. Strategy reports mixed earnings, emphasizes Bitcoin

Strategy (NASDAQ:MSTR), formerly known as MicroStrategy, announced its Q4 2024 financial results this week as well, revealing a continued focus on Bitcoin amid a mixed financial performance.

The company reported total revenue of US$120.7 million for the period, a 3 percent decrease year-on-year and a slight miss on analysts' expectations of US$123 million. While Strategy's current subscription billings rose by 57 percent year-on-year, the tech firm's overall software revenue declined by 3 percent during that time.

Strategy's results also show it has been making significant moves to solidify its position in the Bitcoin market. It currently holds 471,107 Bitcoins, acquired through a US$20 billion investment.

To further emphasize its commitment to Bitcoin, the company has introduced new key performance indicators, including BTC yield (74.3 percent in 2024), BTC gain (40,538 Bitcoins for 2024) and BTC $ gain (US$13.1 billion for 2024).

4. SoftBank to invest in OpenAI, acquire Ampere

SoftBank Group (OTC Pink:SOBKY,TSE:9984) continues to position itself to capitalize on the transformative potential of AI, making a major investment and a potential acquisition this week.

On Monday, it made another massive commitment to OpenAI, pledging an annual investment of US$3 billion in OpenAI's services. This follows reports last week of SoftBank's commitment to lead a US$40 billion funding round for OpenAI, which recently added a groundbreaking AI agent, Deep Research, to its product lineup.

Deep Research is reportedly capable of conducting multi-step research tasks online to generate comprehensive reports on par with human analysts. It is powered by the company’s advanced o3 model.

The investment is part of a broader strategic partnership between SoftBank and OpenAI, which have formed a joint venture called SB OpenAI Japan to market OpenAI's enterprise technology to major Japanese companies.

Later, on Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that SoftBank was in talks to acquire Ampere Computing, a startup backed by Oracle that makes processors for data center machinery based on Arm’s architecture.

The deal would value Ampere at US US$6.5 billion, according to sources for Bloomberg.

5. Apple faces antitrust scrutiny in China

Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that antitrust regulators in China may be preparing to open an investigation into Apple's policies and fees. Sources told the news outlet that regulators are concerned about Apple’s “unreasonably high” fees and the company’s policy of barring third-party app stores and payment methods.

This is the latest challenge for Apple’s business in China. Earlier this year, it was revealed that Apple has lost ground in the country’s smartphone market as sales of local brands ramp up.

The iPhone maker had a volatile trading week, and closed down 1.15 percent on Friday.