Latest news with #AdvancingAIEvent
Business Insider
17 hours ago
- Business
- Business Insider
AI Daily: Meta invests in Scale AI, valuing startup at $29B
Catch up on the top artificial intelligence news and commentary by Wall Street analysts on publicly traded companies in the space with this daily recap compiled by The Fly: Confident Investing Starts Here: SCALE AI: Scale AI stated that, 'Scale AI announced a significant new investment from Meta Platforms (META) that values Scale at over $29 billion. The agreement will also substantially expand Scale and Meta's commercial relationship to accelerate deployment of Scale's data solutions. In addition, Scale's founder, Alexandr Wang, is joining Meta to work on Meta's AI efforts. Wang will continue to serve as a director on the Scale Board of Directors and support Scale's ongoing work to unlock the power of AI and keep human values at the forefront. Scale will utilize the proceeds of the deal to accelerate innovation and strengthen strategic partnerships with customers. 'In addition, Scale will distribute proceeds from Meta's investment to Scale shareholders and vested equity holders, providing them with substantial liquidity as well as the opportunity to continue participating in Scale's success as ongoing equity holders of the Company. Following its investment, Meta will hold a minority of Scale's outstanding equity.' INVESTING IN XAI: Two dozen venture capital firms and other investors are buying about $250M worth of shares in xAI, according to internal documents seen by The New York Times ' Ryan Mac and Kate Conger. Current and former employees of xAI could sell a portion of their shares to investors including TPG (TPG), ARK Invest and Sequoia Capital under a tender offer, which values xAI at $113B, the report stated. The tender offer is separate from other talks held by xAI, in which investors have discussed putting as much as $20B into the company at a valuation of up to $120B, the Times noted. xAI developed the chatbot Grok, which competes with Microsoft-backed (MSFT) OpenAI's ChatGPT and other AI offerings from Microsoft, Amazon (AMZN), Meta Platforms (META) and Alphabet (GOOGL). Elon Musk, who earlier this year merged xAI with X, the company formerly known as Twitter, is also the CEO of Tesla (TSLA). NEXT-BEST AI VENDOR: After having attended the Advancing AI Event in San Jose where AMD (AMD) provided an update to its end-to-end AI infrastructure platform, BofA analyst Vivek Arya said 'investor expectations might have been high,' but it highlights the company's continued execution in its AI roadmap, customer and ecosystem proliferation, and software maturity. AMD also doubled down on its partnerships with Meta (META), Oracle (ORCL) and Microsoft (MSFT), as well as xAI, OpenAI, and Saudi Arabia's Humain, though no new hyperscaler customer was officially announced, says the analyst, who thinks 'there may be an engagement' with Amazon's (AMZN) AWS given it was a key sponsor for the event, but adds that AWS often likes to announce its new instances and engagements at its own events. The firm, which sees AMD establishing itself as 'the next-best AI vendor,' maintains a Buy rating and $130 price target on the shares. AI CHIPS: Cloud computing startup Crusoe CEO Chase Lochmiller said the company plans to purchase roughly $400M worth of AI chips from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) to add to its portfolio of computing power, reported Reuters ' Max Cherney. Crusoe is aiming to build a data center to house the AMD AI chips in the U.S. and will rent them to customers for building AI models and running applications, notes the report, which adds that the artificial intelligence data center builder plans to purchase roughly 13,000 MI355X chips and use a liquid cooling system.
CNBC
a day ago
- Business
- CNBC
Here are Friday's biggest analyst calls: Nvidia, Apple, Tesla, Netflix, Adobe, Coinbase, Microsoft, Oracle & more
Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Friday: Oppenheimer reiterates Netflix as outperform Oppenheimer raised its price target and says it sees a "long subscriber runway" for Netflix . "Maintaining Outperform rating and increasing price target to $1,425 (was $1,200) based on 2030E." Goldman Sachs reiterates Adobe as buy Goldman says Adobe has "AI momentum" following earnings on Thursday. "We reiterate our Buy rating and $570 PT following Adobe's F2Q25 results." Morgan Stanley reiterates Tesla as overweight Morgan Stanley says Tesla remains extramely well positioned in "data, robotics, energy, AI, manufacturing and supporting infrastructure." "While there are a growing number of US efforts to push the boundaries of physical AI, we struggle to think of any other company as well positioned as Tesla in terms of data, robotics, energy, AI, manufacturing and supporting infrastructure (from fleet fulfillment to communications network, etc)." Wolfe downgrades GE Vernova to peer perform from outperform Wolfe downgraded the stock on valuation. "We are downgrading GEV from OP to PP rating." Oppenheimer reiterates Coinbase as outperform Oppenheimer said it's feeling even more bullish on the stock following the company's 2025 Coinbase State of Crypto Summit. "We believe COIN can command a valuation premium compared to HOOD, and will take advantage of current dislocation to get blockchain exposure." Bank of America reiterates Advanced Micro Devices as buy Bank of America says AMD is establishing itself as the "next-best AI vendor." "We attended AMD's Advancing AI Event in San Jose where AMD provided an update to its end-to-end AI infrastructure platform. Similar to last AI event in Oct-2024, investor expectations might have been high, but we highlight its continued execution in AI roadmap, customer/ecosystem proliferation, and software maturity." Bank of America upgrades Whirlpool to neutral from underperform Bank of America says the appliance maker is "relatively well positioned for appliance tariffs." "We upgrade Whirlpool to Neutral (from Underperform) and raise our PO to $94 (from $68) now based on 7.3x our 26E EV/EBITDA." Wells Fargo reiterates Microsoft as overweight Wells raised its price target on the stock to $565 per share from $515. "Recall MSFT disclosed $13B in AI revenue run-rate making it the clear outright leader in AI to date. MSFT benefits from having a vertically integrated approach towards AI, offering hardware (AI accelerators like Maia), infrastructure (Azure AI), and software (Copilots), where it can provide a full suite of AI services to customers." JPMorgan upgrades Newell Brands to overweight from neutral JPMorgan says it has renewed confidence in the consumer goods company. "We are upgrading Newell Brands (NWL) shares to Overweight rating from Neutral. We believe the combination of (1) increased speed of relevant innovation, (2) distribution gains in key retailers, (3) potential for market share improvement as most peers source from abroad, as NWL is tariff advantaged in more categories..." Read more . RBC initiates Air Products as outperform RBC says the turnaround is on for the industrial gas supplier. "We initiate coverage on Air Products at Outperform with a $355 PT, based on 27x our $13.15 FY26E EPS." Jefferies upgrades Darden to hold from underperform Jefferies says it sees Darden's "value appeal" restored. "We have become increasingly positive on DRI's ability to return its core Olive Garden brand to 'Every Day Affordable Price' (EDAP) leadership in casual dining and compete more effectively for traffic going forward." Wells Fargo upgrades ZScaler to overweight from equal weight Wells says it sees robust free cash flow for the cloud security company. "We believe Zscaler is well positioned to deliver $5B in ARR over the next ~2.5 years with a 25% OM [operating margin] and 29% FCF margin." Read more. Redburn Atlantic Equities downgrades United Rentals to neutral from buy The firm says it sees a more balanced risk/reward for the equipment rental company. "We downgrade United Rentals to Neutral as its consistent delivery has raised expectations and left the opportunity more balanced." UBS initiates Emcor as buy UBS says shares of the construction company have more room to run. "We initiate coverage of EME with a Buy rating and a $570 price target. We believe the visibility to continued strong earnings growth in 2026-27E is not sufficiently priced in." Raymond James initiates Constellation Energy as outperform Raymond James says the nuclear energy company is well positioned for growth. " Constellation Energy (CEG), the largest independent power producer, stands out as the nation's largest producer of clean energy, the largest nuclear fleet operator, and the largest commercialindustrial retail book holder, cementing an entrenched market leadership story." BMO upgrades Oracle to outperform from market perform BMO says it has "more confident in software and operating income." "Consistent with our preview, we have growing confidence that 1) Oracle can grow operating income dollars in FY26, and 2) P/E is a more appropriate valuation framework during accelerated cap ex spend periods." Read more. Wells Fargo upgrades Klaviyo to overweight from equal weight Wells Fargo says it's bullish on the marketing automation company's international opportunities. "We're upgrading KVYO to 'Overweight' (from Equal Weight) and raise our PT to $40 (from $32)." Citi downgrades Sherwin-Williams to neutral from buy Citi says it sees "challenging" homebuilder environment. "We downgrade SHW to Neutral on our more bearish outlook on housing, given our view of a delayed recovery stemming from the elevated rates, sluggish existing home sales, and a challenging homebuilder environment." Mizuho reiterates Nvidia as outperform Mizuho says the company is the leader in the AI race. CUDA is Nvidia's computing platform and programming model. "We continue to see NVDA leading the AI race with its fortress CUDA moat and strong hardware/networking performance for AI training and inference." Morgan Stanley reiterates Apple as overweight The investment bank says its Apple checks show iPhone and iPad estimates are tracking ahead. The firm also said the iPhone and iPad sell-thru in China are "positively surprising." "Furthermore, despite trending below normal seasonality, preliminary September qtr iPhone/iPad builds point to in-line to slightly better than expected September qtr iPhone/iPad shipments."
