logo
Microsoft becomes second company to reach US$4T valuation after Nvidia

Microsoft becomes second company to reach US$4T valuation after Nvidia

Photo: Depositphotos/tang90246
Microsoft became the second company to reach a US$4 trillion (S$5.20 trillion) market valuation on Thursday, after strong earnings showed the tech giant's hefty investments in artificial intelligence (AI) are paying off. Reuters reported that Microsoft's shares rose as much as 8%.
In early July, Nvidia became the first publicly traded company to reach a US$4 trillion market value after its shares rose 2.8% to US$164.42 (S$210.34).
Just this week, Reuters reported that Microsoft forecast a record US$30 billion in capital spending in the first quarter of the current financial year, driven by growing demand for AI. The company reported strong sales in its Azure cloud computing business and said its Copilot AI tools have surpassed 100 million monthly active users.
Its capital expenditure forecast, which is the company's largest for a single quarter, has put it on track to potentially outspend its rivals over the next year.
Gerrit Smit, lead portfolio manager of Stonehage Fleming Global Best Ideas Equity Fund, said Microsoft is becoming more of a cloud infrastructure business and a leader in enterprise AI, 'doing so very profitably and cash generatively' despite hefty AI capital expenditures.
The Redmond, Washington-headquartered company first reached a US$1 trillion valuation in 2019. /TISG
Read also: Microsoft launches first Southeast Asia AI research lab in Singapore
Featured image by Depositphotos (for illustration purposes only) document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => { const trigger = document.getElementById("ads-trigger"); if ('IntersectionObserver' in window && trigger) { const observer = new IntersectionObserver((entries, observer) => { entries.forEach(entry => { if (entry.isIntersecting) { lazyLoader(); // You should define lazyLoader() elsewhere or inline here observer.unobserve(entry.target); // Run once } }); }, { rootMargin: '800px', threshold: 0.1 }); observer.observe(trigger); } else { // Fallback setTimeout(lazyLoader, 3000); } });
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Singapore ranks 2nd worldwide in AI readiness but falls behind in AI innovation
Singapore ranks 2nd worldwide in AI readiness but falls behind in AI innovation

Independent Singapore

time6 hours ago

  • Independent Singapore

Singapore ranks 2nd worldwide in AI readiness but falls behind in AI innovation

Photo: Freepik/ (for illustration purposes only) SINGAPORE: Singapore ranked second globally for artificial intelligence (AI) readiness, based on Salesforce's Global AI Readiness Index, which looked at 16 countries across five key dimensions: enabling AI regulatory frameworks, AI diffusion and adoption, AI innovation, AI investment, and human capital, AI talent, and skills. Singapore received an overall index score of 26.5 out of 50, above the global average of 22.1. Each of the five dimensions was equally weighted at 10 points. The city-state also kept its lead in the Asia Pacific after ranking as the region's most AI-ready nation in Salesforce's 2021 and 2023 Asia Pacific AI Readiness Index, Singapore Business Review reported. Singapore ranked highest in enabling regulatory frameworks, scoring 9.8, backed by its Model AI Governance Framework and National AI Strategy 2.0. Meanwhile, it scored 8.0 in AI diffusion and adoption, driven by its Smart Nation vision and Public Sector AI Playbook, which guides AI use in transport, urban planning, and public services. For AI investment, Singapore scored 2.3, higher than the global average but way behind the US, which scored 8.8. The city-state also scored above the global average in terms of fostering AI talent; however, it trails behind Germany (6.2) and the US (6.0). Interestingly, Singapore scored weakest in AI innovation with only 0.7, below the global average of 1.7. The report noted that while the city-state has a largely enabling environment for AI, its innovation remains concentrated, with less focus on emerging areas like agentic AI. It added that Singapore is taking a lighter-touch approach by encouraging voluntary guidelines, industry self-regulation, and ethical AI principles to strike a balance between innovation and responsible AI use. Photo: salesforce /TISG Read also: Microsoft cuts jobs again as AI costs climb, to let go of about 9,000 employees () => { const trigger = if ('IntersectionObserver' in window && trigger) { const observer = new IntersectionObserver((entries, observer) => { => { if ( { lazyLoader(); // You should define lazyLoader() elsewhere or inline here // Run once } }); }, { rootMargin: '800px', threshold: 0.1 }); } else { // Fallback setTimeout(lazyLoader, 3000); } });

Trump fires BLS commissioner, raising concerns about economic data quality
Trump fires BLS commissioner, raising concerns about economic data quality

CNA

time10 hours ago

  • CNA

Trump fires BLS commissioner, raising concerns about economic data quality

WASHINGTON: United States President Donald Trump fired the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Commissioner Erika McEntarfer on Friday (Aug 1) after data showed weaker-than-expected employment growth in July and massive downward revisions to the prior two months' job counts. Trump accused McEntarfer, who was appointed by former president Joe Biden, of faking the jobs numbers. There is no evidence to back Trump's claims of data manipulation by the BLS, the statistical agency that compiles the closely watched employment report, as well as consumer and producer price data. The US economy created only 73,000 jobs in July. Data for May and June were revised sharply down to show 258,000 fewer jobs created than had been previously reported. "We need accurate Jobs Numbers. I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY. She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified," Trump said in a post on Truth Social. The BLS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. William Wiatrowski, the deputy commissioner, will serve as acting commissioner. The Trump administration's recent mass layoffs of federal government workers have raised concerns about the quality of US economic data, long seen as the gold standard. Economists, labour unions and Democratic Party leaders criticised the firing as an attempt by the Trump administration to manipulate data and warned of lasting damage to the economy. "The civil servants at BLS are not political actors. They are professionals committed to producing accurate, independent data, regardless of who is in power," said American Federation of Government Employees national president Everett Kelley. McEntarfer had worked in the federal government for more than two decades under multiple administrations, Kelley said. Trump-aligned Republicans were supportive of the BLS firing, calling McEntarfer a "Biden holdover". DATA CREDIBILITY NOW IN QUESTION "Politicising economic statistics is a self-defeating act," said Michael Madowitz, principal economist at the Roosevelt Institute's Roosevelt Forward. "Credibility is far easier to lose than rebuild, and the credibility of America's economic data is the foundation on which we've built the strongest economy in the world. Blinding the public about the state of the economy has a long track record, and it never ends well." Earlier this year, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick disbanded two expert committees that worked with the government to produce economic statistics. Lutnick has also floated the idea of stripping out government spending from the gross domestic product report, claiming "governments historically have messed with GDP". The BLS has already reduced the sample collection for consumer price data as well as the producer price report, citing resource constraints. The government surveys about 121,000 businesses and government agencies, representing approximately 631,000 individual worksites for the employment report. The response rate has declined from 80.3 per cent in October 2020 to about 67.1 per cent in July. "In my opinion, today's Jobs Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad," Trump wrote in another Truth Social post, without offering any evidence. Economists attributed the near-stall in job growth to Trump's trade and immigration policies. They said uncertainty about where Trump's tariff level would settle had made it difficult for businesses to plan long-term. More clarity has emerged as the White House has announced trade deals, but economists said the effective tariff rate was still the highest since the 1930s. Trump slapped dozens of trading partners with steep tariffs on Thursday, including a 35 per cent duty on many goods from Canada.

China state media asks Nvidia to prove H20 chips are secure
China state media asks Nvidia to prove H20 chips are secure

Business Times

time13 hours ago

  • Business Times

China state media asks Nvidia to prove H20 chips are secure

[HONG KONG] China state media is calling for Nvidia to prove that its H20 chip is secure, saying it cannot allow flawed chips into the country. China's top Internet watchdog summoned Nvidia representatives earlier this week to discuss what Chinese officials called significant security vulnerabilities in the H20. The Cyberspace Administration of China said that Nvidia would need to explain potential security risks and provide documents as needed, citing comments by US lawmakers about the need to install tracking capabilities on advanced chips being exported. 'As soon as 'backdoors' in chips are triggered, we can encounter a 'nightmare',' the People's Daily, a mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party, said in a commentary on Friday (Aug 1). 'We need to maintain the security of the cyberspace and we cannot allow 'infected' chips to be put to work.' More scrutiny of the artificial intelligence (AI) chip would throw a wrench China's already-contentious trade talks with the US. Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia had designed the H20 to comply with US export controls on its technology, and the company was hoping to start sales after the US granted a license. 'Cybersecurity is critically important to us,' Nvidia said on Thursday. 'Nvidia does not have 'backdoors' in our chips that would give anyone a remote way to access or control them.' US and Chinese officials met in Stockholm this week to discuss trade terms in talks that Chinese state media said that 'deepened mutual trust', though the two sides still have several disagreements over the potential new tariffs. The warning in People's Daily may signal that Chinese officials don't find H20s, which are less powerful than Nvidia's most high-end chips, to be worthy offerings. The Trump administration in April barred Nvidia from selling H20s to China in an escalation of the ongoing tech war between the world's two largest economies. Trump officials then pledged to lift those restrictions in July as part of a trade deal for China to allow more sales of rare-earth magnets needed to make a range of high-tech products. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had touted the resumption of sales of the H20 as a breakthrough that came from bilateral discussions in London, framing it as a concession to China. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, meanwhile, said earlier this week that the magnet issue has been 'solved'. However, it is unclear whether Nvidia has received licenses to resume shipping those semiconductors. Nvidia boss Jensen Huang himself recently concluded a high-profile visit to Beijing, where he feted national Chinese champions such as DeepSeek and celebrated the country's rising prowess in AI. The billionaire had denied Nvidia installed backdoors in its product, saying that would not make business sense. BLOOMBERG

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store