Microsoft Ends Revenue Share Payments to OpenAI

Posted on April 29, 2026 by Olumide Adesina

Microsoft (MSFT) shares decreased on Monday as the tech giant and OpenAI (OPENAI) announced that their partnership has continued to develop and that OpenAI’s license will become non-exclusive. Microsoft stated on its website, ”

Miss/soft guidance on Copilot slowdown, higher-for-longer CapEx, or AI returns → another leg down, possibly testing $400 or lower (support levels discussed around there). This risk is highlighted in some Reddit and analyst chatter following the stock’s decline below $400 per share.

MSFT stock has faced pressure in 2026 (down significantly YTD from highs), with analysts mixed on AI spending, competition, and growth outlook. Some see the dip as a buying opportunity.

Today, we are announcing an amended agreement to simplify our partnership and the way we work together, grounded in flexibility, certainty, and a focus on delivering the benefits of AI broadly.

The amended agreement’s increased predictability enhances our combined capacity to develop and run AI platforms at scale while giving both businesses the freedom to explore new prospects. Microsoft will be OpenAI’s main cloud partner under the revised agreement, and OpenAI products will launch first on Azure.

A change has been made, though, stating that OpenAI may look elsewhere if Microsoft “cannot and chooses not to support the necessary capabilities.” Julian Lin is the head of the Best of Breed Growth Stock investing group.

Additionally, OpenAI can offer all of its products to clients via any cloud provider, including Amazon Web Services (AMZN). Additionally, Microsoft will have a non-exclusive license to use OpenAI’s intellectual property for its models and products through 2032.

Amazon shares lost 0.8 percent in late morning trading, giving up earlier gains. As part of the revised agreement, Microsoft will no longer give OpenAI a revenue share; however, OpenAI will continue to pay Microsoft revenue shares through 2030.

Oracle, CoreWeave Back OpenAI After Report Reveals Missed Sales and User Targets

Posted on April 29, 2026April 29, 2026 by Olumide Adesina

Oracle (ORCL) and CoreWeave (CRWV) supported OpenAI on Tuesday after the Wall Street Journal revealed that the AI developer had recently fallen short of user and sales goals, rekindling worries about excessive spending in the industry.

Shares of companies that partnered with the company plummeted following the report, indicating that OpenAI’s business was slowing. Oracle, a major software company, and CoreWeave, a provider of data centers, both experienced closures of about 4% and 5%, respectively

Oracle wrote, “We’re incredibly excited about our partnership with OpenAI and remain focused on building and delivering the capacity they need to support rapidly growing demand.”

CoreWeave expressed a similar sentiment that it had other partners. A CoreWeave representative stated, “OpenAI is a terrific partner, but not our only one.” The company has an “expanding set of customers like Meta Platforms, Anthropic, Microsoft, Google, IBM, Perplexity AI, Jane Street,

OpenAI has been on a spending binge due to CEO Sam Altman’s hasty acquisition of processing power. The missed metrics have rekindled concerns about the company’s rising costs amid intensifying competition.

The report comes at a crucial time because the company was reportedly preparing to go public this year. With commitments totaling $122 billion at $852 billion, OpenAI announced last month that it had closed its most recent funding round. That is more than the $110 billion the company reported raising in February, when its valuation was $730 billion.

Major Blow to Meta — China Forces Reversal of $2B AI Startup Takeover

Posted on April 28, 2026 by Olumide Adesina

China has decided to prohibit Meta Platforms Inc. from its $2 billion purchase of the agentic AI startup Manus, an unexpected move to end a contentious agreement that has drawn criticism over technology leaks to the US. In a brief statement on Monday, the National Development and Reform Commission issued an order to cancel the agreement.

Without providing further details, the influential state planner stated in a one-line notice that it has decided to forbid foreign investment in the startup in compliance with laws and regulations.

The decision, which surfaced weeks before a high-profile summit between US President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping, is expected to send a chill through China’s rapidly developing AI industry. Following the mostly finalized deal, Beijing has increased its scrutiny of important industry companies.

Although domestic critics have since bemoaned the loss of valuable technology to a geopolitical rival, the sale was initially praised as a model for startups with global aspirations.

The founders of Manus began in China, but in 2025, they moved their main office and important employees to Singapore. When the agreement was made public in December, it was unclear whether Beijing would use its power over a transaction that, in theory, happened outside of its borders.

According to Ke Yan, a tech analyst with DZT Research in Singapore, “the Manus block is a clarifying moment.”. “Manus was pulled back even though its founders were based in Singapore and it was incorporated here. Beijing’s message is that the location of the legal entity is not important. “As Meta looks to compete in AI against rivals from Microsoft Corp., the Manus decree may be a setback.” and Alphabet Inc., Google to Anthropic PBC and OpenAI. Manus was meant to assist Meta in taking the lead in the rapidly evolving field of AI agents, or services that employ AI to carry out tasks.

US Government Accuses DeepSeek of Stealing American AI Tech

Posted on April 28, 2026 by Olumide Adesina

The US State Department has ordered a global campaign to draw attention to what it claims are widespread attempts by Chinese businesses, including AI startup DeepSeek, to steal intellectual property from US AI labs.

“Warn of the risks of utilizing AI models distilled from US proprietary AI models, and lay the groundwork for potential follow-up and outreach by the US government,” according to the cable.

Distillation is the process of training smaller AI models using output from larger ones to reduce the cost of training a potent new AI tool. China’s increasing independence in the field was highlighted on Friday when DeepSeek, the Chinese startup whose low-cost AI model stunned the world last year, unveiled a sneak peek of a highly anticipated new model tailored for Huawei chip technology

Chinese AI companies Moonshot AI and MiniMax were also mentioned in the cable. Beijing “attaches great importance to the protection of intellectual property rights,” according to the Chinese Embassy in Washington, which referred to the White House’s similar accusations this week as “baseless allegations.”.

The cable instructs diplomatic personnel to discuss “concerns over adversaries’ extraction and distillation of US AI models” with their foreign counterparts. It was sent to diplomatic and consular posts worldwide on Friday.

According to the document, “a separate demarche request and message has been sent to Beijing for raising with China.” The unreported cable indicates that the Trump administration is paying attention to worries about the Chinese distillation of US AI models. “Foreign actors can release products that seem to perform comparably on specific benchmarks at a fraction thanks to AI models developed from covert, unauthorized distillation campaigns.”.

Nvidia Stock’s NVDA Record Highs Masks Mounting Valuation Risks Beneath the Surface

Posted on April 27, 2026April 28, 2026 by Skerdian Meta

Nvidia’s progress is seriously threatened by worries about overvaluation, geopolitical setbacks, and growing skepticism about the longevity of AI after it reached fresh all-time highs. Continue reading “Nvidia Stock’s NVDA Record Highs Masks Mounting Valuation Risks Beneath the Surface” →

Nvidia Tops $5 Trillion, Intel’s Best Day Since 1987

Posted on April 26, 2026 by Olumide Adesina

Nvidia’s shares closed at a record on Friday for the first time since October, as investors poured into the AI chip trade ahead of next week’s earnings from tech’s hyperscalers, pushing the company’s market cap over $5 trillion.

The stock closed at $208.27, up 4.3 percent. NVIDIA has grown more than 14 times since the end of 2022 due to the skyrocketing demand for AI models and services.

Model developers OpenAI and Anthropic, as well as Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon, depend on Nvidia’s graphics processing units. Chipmaker Intel, which has largely stayed out of the AI market until recently, reported better-than-expected earnings late Thursday, spurring Friday’s rally. Intel’s stock saw its best performance since 1987 with a 24% increase,

Qualcomm, a manufacturer of chips for mobile devices, increased 11%, while Advanced Micro Devices, a rival of Nvidia and Intel, increased 14%. investors had been reducing their holdings of large-cap technology stocks because of the Iran War and rising oil prices,

However, technology has recently gained popularity, and there is no indication that the demand for AI infrastructure will decline. With a 15% increase in April, the Nasdaq is on track to have its best month since April 2020. Alphabet, a significant Nvidia client, has revealed new chips that will compete with Nvidia’s products when they become available to cloud users later this year. NVIDIA does face growing competition in AI.

Intel Jumps as Analysts Hike Targets to $100 on AI Surge

Posted on April 25, 2026 by Olumide Adesina

The long-struggling chipmaker is benefiting from the massive build-out of artificial intelligence computing, as evidenced by Intel’s spectacular sales forecast that exceeded Wall Street expectations.

The stock surged to the $82-85 range intraday (hitting new highs, surpassing its .-com era peak in some sessions) after closing around $66.78 pre-earnings. The volume was very high. Citing AI CPU momentum, foundry advancement, and turnaround under CEO Lip-Bu Tan, some companies raised their ratings and targets following (or before) earnings: Roth Capital: Upgraded to Buy, target $100 (from $50). HSBC: Increased to $100 (from $95), on server CPU growth, buy rating.

The positive outlook indicates that CEO Lip-Bu Tan is moving forward with a difficult recovery plan. He is now fulfilling a pledge to enhance operations after securing significant investments in Intel last year, which strengthened the company’s balance sheet.

Great Hill Capital Chairman Thomas Hayes, an Intel investor, stated on Bloomberg Television that “everyone is starting to direct orders to Intel, and I think we are in the early days.” In a very short time, this has transitioned from hopelessness to exhilaration. The earnings report demonstrates the necessity of a data center.

. According to the earnings report, demand for Intel’s flagship Xeon server processors is rising because of the need for data center chips to support the massive expansion of AI. The central processing unit, or CPU, is a type of general-purpose semiconductor that businesses attempting to transform their AI software into profitable services are focusing on again. Tan stated in an interview that Intel produced a “solid result” that exceeded its expectations.

He stated that the company is “laser-focused” on boosting output from Intel’s factories, which are still unable to produce enough to fulfill all of its orders, and he anticipates that the robust demand for processors used in AI systems will grow.

China Slams Door on US Investors in Strategic Tech Companies

Posted on April 25, 2026 by Olumide Adesina

Chinese regulators intend to prohibit technology companies, including some of the nation’s best-known AI pioneers, from accepting US capital without government approval.

The contentious purchase of startup Manus. According to people familiar with the situation, agencies such as the National Development and Reform Commission have instructed several private companies in recent weeks to reject US-origin capital in funding rounds unless specifically authorized.

Moonshot AI, which is considering going public, was among the companies that received advice from the influential state planner. Another person claimed that StepFun, a fellow Chinese startup, was given similar instructions and asked to remain anonymous to discuss a private matter.

Regulators have also decided to impose comparable limitations on ByteDance Ltd. The most valuable startup in the nation, according to the people, is the owner of TikTok.

The main goal of the most recent regulations is to keep US investors from investing in delicate industries where national security is a top concern. The $2 billion Manus buyout earlier this year, which prompted a Beijing investigation into illicit foreign investment and tech exports soon after its December announcement, is the source of the previously unreported action.

Critics have since bemoaned the loss of important AI technology to a geopolitical rival, despite the deal’s initial praise as a model for startups with international goals. According to the people, the commission, a potent state planning agency with extensive policy-making authority, is currently leading a multi-agency investigation into the deal and its consequences that involves the Ministry of Commerce.

The new regulations run the risk of further cutting off China’s rebounding tech industry from the venture capital funding that has supported it for the past 20 years, a portion of which came from American endowments and pensions. Beijing’s decision to prohibit “red chips,” or Chinese companies incorporated abroad, from pursuing initial public offerings in Hong Kong threatens to disrupt a decades-old strategy that allowed Chinese businesses to access foreign capital by floating abroad.

Elon Musk Drops Fraud Claims Against OpenAI, Sam Altman Before Trial

Posted on April 25, 2026 by Olumide Adesina

Elon Musk narrowed the scope of his lawsuit against his business rivals by dropping his fraud claims against OpenAI and co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman. Only two of the 26 claims in Musk’s November 2024 complaint will go to trial after US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers granted his request to “streamline” the case on Friday.

In federal court in Oakland, California, jury selection is scheduled for Monday. Musk claims that after receiving billions of dollars in funding from Microsoft, the artificial intelligence startup abandoned its original goal of serving humanity as a nonprofit. and intended to reorganize it as a for-profit company

If he prevails in court, Musk wants up to $134 billion in damages, which he has requested be given to OpenAI’s charitable division. In addition, he wants a judge to order Altman and Brockman to resign from their positions and to restore the firm’s status as a nonprofit research organization.

OpenAI accused the richest person of a “legal ambush” and complained to the judge that Musk’s proposed remedies were an 11th-hour surprise. OpenAI, Altman, Brockman, and Microsoft have all refuted any misconduct, calling Musk’s allegations harassment. There will be two stages to the trial.

A jury will hear arguments and testimony regarding Musk’s accusations, which now center on two claims: breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment.

Gonzalez Rogers, who will ultimately determine whether Musk has proven his claims, will not be bound by the panel’s “advisory verdict.”. Gonzalez Rogers will hear arguments regarding the remedies Musk is requesting and render a decision during the second phase of the proceedings.

Along with Altman and others, Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015. However, in recent years, the former business partners have turned into fierce rivals. After leaving the OpenAI board in 2018, Musk co-founded the company in 2023.

Meta, Microsoft to Trim Thousands of Jobs Through Buyouts and Layoffs

Posted on April 24, 2026 by Olumide Adesina

Meta and Microsoft are planning layoffs or announcing buyouts that could impact up to 23,000 jobs to streamline operations and counteract significant spending on artificial intelligence. In an internal memo on Thursday, Meta informed staff that it intended to lay off 10% of its workforce, or about 8,000 workers, beginning on May 20.

Additionally, the social media company stated that it would not fill 6,000 open positions. Microsoft offered thousands of its US employees voluntary buyouts in a memo it released earlier in the day. A person familiar with the planning estimates that the buyouts will be available to about 7% of the US workforce.

The source, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss an internal issue, stated that the company has never carried out buyouts of this magnitude before. As of June 2025, Microsoft employed 125,000 people in the United States. Approximately 8,750 workers would then be qualified for the program.

Microsoft announced new AI investments in Australia and Japan this month as part of its race to build data centers worldwide. In the meantime, Meta has announced multiple multibillion-dollar agreements with AI partners in recent months and has predicted record capital expenditures this year. In recent years, both businesses have implemented multiple rounds of layoffs. The memo, written by Chief People Officer Janelle Gale, referenced Meta’s AI expenditures.

She stated in the note, “We’re doing this as part of our continued effort to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we’re making.”. The Reality Labs division and other teams have already experienced job cuts, which caused Meta employees to worry. According to Gale, the company was making the layoffs public early because information about the plan had already leaked. Earlier this month, Meta’s planned workforce reductions were first reported by Reuters.