All three major US stock indexes were down in late-morning trading Thursday, as Alphabet (GOOG) and Tesla (TSLA) stocks were down after the two tech giants announced increased spending in artificial intelligence.
In company news, Alphabet reported Q2 earnings late Wednesday of $9.11 per diluted share, up from $2.31 a year earlier, and above the FactSet consensus analyst estimate of $2.88. Q2 revenue was $119.80 billion, up from $96.43 billion a year ago and above the FactSet consensus of $117.06 billion. Alphabet's Q2 capital expenditure doubled year over year to $44.92 billion from $22.45 billion, bringing total capital spending for the first six months of the year to $80.60 billion. The company revised its 2026 capital expenditure forecast to between $180 billion and $190 billion in April, up from its previous estimate of $175 billion to $185 billion. Alphabet shares were down 7% around midday.
On Thursday, Alphabet's Google was fined a total of 890 million euros ($1.04 billion) by the European Commission after the regulator found the company violated the Digital Markets Act. The Commission fined Google 460 million euros over its Google Search practices and 430 million euros for restricting app developers from steering users to alternative purchasing channels outside Google Play. The European Commission ordered Google to end the violations within 60 days by treating third-party services fairly in search rankings and allowing app developers to freely communicate and promote offers outside Google Play, with failure to comply resulting in periodic penalty payments of up to 5% of Google's total worldwide turnover. The company said it is reviewing the decision and evaluating all options, including an appeal.
Tesla (TSLA) reported Q2 adjusted earnings late Wednesday of $0.33 per diluted share, down from $0.40 a year earlier and below the FactSet consensus analyst estimate of $0.55. Q2 revenue was $28.24 billion, up from $22.50 billion a year ago and above the FactSet consensus of $26.42 billion. Operating expenses jumped 47% on a yearly basis to $4.35 billion and rose sequentially as well. The auto manufacturer ended the quarter with a negative free cash flow as capital expenditures "more than doubled" from the previous three-month period, Chief Financial Officer Vaibhav Taneja said during an earnings call,. The company continues to expect its capital expenditures to be at over $25 billion this year, the CFO added. "[Capital expenditures] will grow for the next two or three years as we expand our Robotaxi fleet, expand our production capacity for Optimus, make investments for semiconductor fab, install solar manufacturing capacity and AI compute infrastructure in addition to all the other expansions we'll do for other manufacturing for automotive," Taneja told analysts. Tesla shares were down 14%.
Intel (INTC) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) are signing longer-term contracts to sell data center processors, or chips, to China-based server customers, Reuters reported Thursday, citing two unnamed sources familiar with the talks. China is also building out data centers, which require not only advanced chips, but also memory chips and central processing units, according to the report. China-based chip buyers are looking to lock in supplies in one- to two-year supply contracts, which do not fix prices, the report said. Intel shares were down 1.8%, while AMD shares were down 2.3%.
RTX (RTX) reported Q2 adjusted earnings Thursday of $1.89 per diluted share, up from $1.56 a year earlier, and above the FactSet consensus analyst estimate of $1.66. Q2 net sales were $24.71 billion, up from $21.58 billion a year earlier and above the FactSet consensus of $22.89 billion. The company raised its 2026 adjusted EPS guidance to between $7.10 and $7.25, from the previous range of $6.70 to $6.90. Analysts polled by FactSet expect $6.95. RTX shares were up 7.5%.
IBM (IBM) said Thursday that it signed a definitive agreement to acquire research and development institution HRL Laboratories from joint owners Boeing (BA) and General Motors (GM). Financial terms were not disclosed. Boeing and GM will continue to partner with IBM on quantum applications and advanced technology development. HRL's expertise in silicon-spin qubits and quantum sensing will support IBM's quantum computing plans, IBM said. The transaction is expected to close by the end of Q3. IBM shares were up 0.7%, Boeing shares were 0.3% lower, and General Motors shares were down 3.3%.
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