Microsoft’s LinkedIn Accused of Sharing Private Messages Without Permission to Train AI

/ / Technology /

Microsoft’s (MSFT) LinkedIn was accused of sharing customers’ private messages without permission in a lawsuit filed late Tuesday. The lawsuit, filed in US District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges the company disclosed its Premium customers’ private messages to third parties without permission to train artificial intelligence models. The communications included “incredibly sensitive and potentially life altering information about employment, intellectual property, compensation and other personal matters,” the lawsuit said. It added that customers’ data was now permanently embedded in AI systems and that the company had not offered to delete it from existing AI models after giving users an option to opt out of the practice. The lawsuit was filed by a LinkedIn Premium user on behalf of all paying customers.

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U.S. Stocks Extend Gains on AI, Netflix

/ / Consumer Discretionary /

U.S. stock indexes add to their recent rally helped by gains in AI-linked stocks after the leaders of SoftBank, Oracle and OpenAI, standing alongside President Trump, pledge $500 billion in artificial-intelligence investment in the U.S. Nvidia and Microsoft, which will also be involved, rise over 4% and ARM jumps 16%. Netflix rises 9.7% after the streaming company reports strong earnings. Procter & Gamble gains 1.9% after posting solid results while Johnson & Johnson loses 1.9% as its sales outlook disappoints. DJIA rises 130 points, or 0.3%, to 44156, the S&P 500 gains 0.6% to 6086 and the Nasdaq jumps 1.3% to 20009.

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Forget the $500 Billion. Trump’s Energy Pledge Is Key to Project Stargate.

/ / Technology

This article is from the free weekly Barron’s Tech email newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered directly to your inbox. Energy Unlock. Hi everyone. The prospects for a massive AI infrastructure buildout in 2025 are getting brighter and brighter. In fact, it’s already taking a starring role in the new White House. On Tuesday, President Trump and executives from OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank announced the creation of a new initiative called The Stargate Project. It intends to spend $500 billion over the next four years building new AI infrastructure in the U.S. “We will deploy $100 billion immediately,” OpenAI said in a blog post. “This infrastructure will secure American leadership in AI.” SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX, an investment vehicle backed by the United Arab Emirates, are the initial equity backers in Stargate. While the hundred-billion-dollar investment figure has received much of the attention, I’d argue an off-the-cuff

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Netflix Worth More Than Disney, Paramount, Comcast, Fox Combined

/ / Consumer Discretionary /

Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) stock hit all-time highs Wednesday on the heels of a quarterly financial report that beat analyst estimates and saw record subscriber growth. With the stock price gains, Netflix is now worth more than the media companies that own the four U.S. broadcast networks and several other streaming companies combined. What Happened: Netflix reported 18.9 million net new paid subscribers in the fourth quarter, setting a new company record. The company ended the quarter with 301.6 million global paid subscribers, continuing its dominance in the streaming sector. Along with dominating the streaming sector, Netflix is also dominating the overall entertainment sector taking time away from traditional broadcasters and cable networks. The company is also seeing its valuation rise while other media companies have had falling stock prices over the last year. Netflix is now worth more than the four broadcast network parent companies combined as shown below. CBS, owned byParamount

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GE Aerospace Earnings Are Up Next. Why Production Matters More Than Results.

/ / Industrials /

When GE Aerospace reports earnings on Thursday morning, the fourth-quarter numbers will matter, but the company’s outlook should matter more. This year, ideally, will be pivotal for commercial aerospace, with the industry set to dig out from years of underproduction. For the fourth quarter, Wall Street is looking for sales of $9.5 billion, operating profit of $1.7 billion, and earnings per share of $1.04, according to FactSet. It’s difficult to compare results to previous quarters. GE spun off GE Vernova, GE’s power-generation technology business, on Apr. 2. In the third quarter of 2024, GE Aerospace reported sales of $8.9 billion, an operating profit of $1.8 billion, and earnings of $1.15 a share. As for 2025 overall, Wall Street is looking for sales of about $39 billion, up about 12% compared with 2024; operating profit of about $8 billion, up 15%; and EPS of about $5.23, up 21%. How GE Aerospace’s

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Berkshire Hathaway Stock Had a Bad Day. There Are Lots of Reasons.

/ / Financials /

Berkshire Hathaway had one of its worst days of relative performance versus the S&P 500 during the past year. Its Class A shares fell 1.6% Wednesday, compared with a 0.6% gain for the broader market. A variety of relatively minor factors, rather than a single piece of major news, seem to be behind the decline. While Reuters reported that Berkshire’s Pilot unit, the country’s largest operator of truck stops, was pulling out of the oil-trading business, that isn’t likely to have moved the needle. Even if there were some trading losses in that unit, they would likely be insignificant for Berkshire given its $1 trillion market value. Pilot had no immediate comment on any possible losses. It said it is “focused on delivering reliable fuel supply to our travel centers and wholesale customers across North America.” Berkshire’s Class A stock finished at $691,500, down 1.6% while the Class B shares

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Dan Ives Raises Tesla Price Target To $550, Sees ‘Golden Era’ For Elon Musk Under Trump, Sees Bull Case Upside Of Over 56% If Optimus Robot Counted In Valuation

/ / Consumer Discretionary /

Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives has raised Tesla Inc.’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) price target to $550, signaling growing confidence in the electric vehicle manufacturer’s demand and autonomous potential under President Donald Trump’s administration. What Happened: Ives characterized the emerging landscape as a “golden era” for CEO Elon Musk and Tesla heading into 2025. The price target increase comes amid complex market dynamics, including challenges in vehicle deliveries and potential policy changes. Tesla’s U.S. deliveries declined 5.6% in 2024 to 633,762 units, yet the company remains the dominant electric vehicle brand nationwide. Simultaneously, debates around Tesla’s future have intensified. Investor Gary Black cautioned against inflated expectations for the Optimus robot program, estimating it could add only $0.70 to earnings per share by 2027. Bank of America analyst John Murphy valued the Optimus segment between $14 billion and $95 billion, representing just 2% of Tesla’s total estimated value. We do not include Optimus yet in our valuation. Bull case is $650 — Dan

Dan Ives Raises Tesla Price Target To $550, Sees ‘Golden Era’ For Elon Musk Under Trump, Sees Bull Case Upside Of Over 56% If Optimus Robot Counted In Valuation Read Post »

Nvidia to Deliver Solid Q4 Results Amid ‘Overblown’ Investor Worries, UBS Says

/ / Technology /

Nvidia (NVDA) will likely post strong Q4 results and Q1 guidance as recent investor worries about a “near term ‘air-pocket’ are overblown,” UBS said in a note to clients emailed Tuesday. Nvidia has “essentially tread water since last earnings” amid supply chain concerns and worries surrounding the ramp of Blackwell server racks, the investment firm said. However, “Blackwell chipset/compute board yields have inflected higher, and mix in both FQ4 (Jan) and FQ1 (Apr) is shifting very rapidly to Blackwell and away from Hopper,” said UBS analysts including Timothy Arcuri. Also, Nvidia “recognizes revenue when ODMs/OEMs take title of compute boards and we believe that in many cases end customers like the big hyperscalers are using a buy and sell model to leverage ODMs or their suppliers’ working capital, and in some instances may be providing bridge financing for this inventory,” the note said. In addition, the main hardware issue has

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Alphabet Stock Has Tesla-Like Catalysts, and It’s on the Rise

/ / Technology /

Two leaders have emerged in autonomous-driving technology: Tesla and Alphabet. It’s helping both of their stocks. Tesla plans to launch a self-driving robotaxi service at the end of 2025. Alphabet’s self-driving robotaxi company Waymo already operates in four cities — Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Austin — completing more than 150,000 self-driving taxi rides a week. It plans to launch a robotaxi service in Atlanta in 2025. “We now model Waymo adding three cities in 2026 (Miami and two others), four in 2027, five in 2028, six in 2029, and seven in 2030,” wrote Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak in a Monday evening report. He sees Waymo recording one billion self-driving miles by the end of the decade. Through September 2024, Waymo had driven about 33 million miles with a passenger, but no human driver, in the car. (Americans drive some 3 trillion miles annually.) Autonomous cars can give

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Qorvo Stock Rises on an Upgrade. How an Activist Could Boost Shares by 20%.

/ / Technology /

Qorvo stock could get a boost on the back of an activist’s involvement, Morgan Stanley analysts said as they upgraded shares of the chip maker to Overweight from Equal Weight. Shares of Qorvo climbed 4.1% to $87.66 as analysts led by Joseph Moore upgraded the stock and raised the price target to $106 from $90, suggesting a potential 22% upside. “We have seen value in QRVO stock, and have unsuccessfully tried to capture it a couple of times with upgrades that worked only modestly,” Moore wrote. The most recent catalyst for an upgrade came as Qorvo announced that Starboard Value, a New York-based hedge fund, had taken a 7.7% stake in the company, according to a filing on Friday. Qorvo’s core business centers on the design and production of radio frequency (RF) technologies for mobile, infrastructure, and the defense and aerospace markets. The company counts Apple among its biggest customers.

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Costco’s Union Is Ready to Strike. What Workers Are Asking For.

/ / Consumer Discretionary /

Close to 20,000 Costco Wholesale employees are poised to go on strike at the end of the month. The contract between the company and the union representing the workers, Costco Teamsters, expires Jan. 31. If an agreement isn’t reached by then, more than 18,000 union members across six states are prepared to go on strike, Costco Teamsters said. The strike authorization vote passed with an 85% margin, the union said. Costco Teamsters is asking the company to improve wages and benefits such as pensions and job security. A spokesman for the union declined to say how much of a wage increase workers were asking the company for, noting that negotiations were continuing and “fluid.” Costco’s average hourly rate was approximately $31 an hour at the close of the fiscal year ended Sept. 1, according to the company’s latest annual 10-k filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That is some

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Roku Stock Climbs on New Outperform Rating. Analysts See Room to Grow.

/ / Telecommunications /

While Roku has secured its position as the top streaming platform in the U.S., it still has further room to grow, JMP Securities analysts argued as they initiated coverage on the stock. Shares of the technology company jumped 7.3% to $81.42 as analysts led by Matthew Condon rated Roku at Outperform and set a price target of $95, suggesting a potential upside of 17%. The company offers an operating system as well as Roku-branded streaming devices. Its flagship Roku Channel provides a gateway to free, ad-supported television, or FAST TV. Condon noted Roku boasts the leading TV operating system in the U.S., while the The Roku Channel is the number-three app on its platform by streaming time, according to Nielsen data. The company surpassed 90 million global streaming households this month and is approaching coverage of half of all U.S. broadband households. Roku is enhancing integrations with third-party ad-buying platforms,

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