Apple shares slump after China sales fall, Volvo to stop Polestar investment
Apple shares slumped in after-hours trading – driven by disappointing iPhone sales in China and a warning that future revenues will fall well short of expectations on Wall Street. The gloomy market reaction overshadowed an otherwise strong financial performance in Apple’s first fiscal quarter. In the three months to 30 December, the tech giant reported sales of $120bn (£94bn) and profit per share of $2.18 (£1.71) – comfortably beating targets set by analysts. However, Apple’s chief financial officer has warned that revenue in this current quarter will be at least £5bn (£3.9bn) less than the same period a year ago. Sky News
Meta shares soared 15% in after-hours trading following a strong fourth-quarter earnings report released the day after CEO Mark Zuckerberg took a beating in a contentious congressional hearing. The company also announced it will pay a 50 cent-per-share dividend to investors for the first time, and has authorized a $50bn share buyback program. Overall, Meta reported fourth-quarter revenue of $40.1bn, beating the predicted $39.18bn and up 25% year-over-year. The Guardian
Apple will release its Vision Pro headset to consumers in the US on Friday, in a test of chief executive Tim Cook’s ability to create a groundbreaking product with mass appeal that can power a new phase of growth at the tech giant. The device is the iPhone maker’s biggest product launch since the Apple Watch nearly a decade ago. But the Vision Pro is the chief executive’s boldest project since he was promoted to lead the company shortly before co-founder Steve Jobs’ death in 2011. FT.com
Volvo Cars is set to stop funding Polestar and is evaluating redistributing its shares in the spin-off company to its shareholders. Electric-only performance brand Polestar was founded in 2017 as a joint venture between Volvo Cars and Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, which also owns Volvo. Currently, Volvo Cars holds a 48.3% stake in Polestar, which was listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange in 2022. Volvo announced the plan to end the funding of Polestar as part of its 2023 financial results. Autocar
Artificial Intelligence (AI) will not be a “mass destroyer of jobs” and human workers will learn to work with new technologies, the governor of the Bank of England has told the BBC. Governor Andrew Bailey said while there are risks with AI, “there is great potential with it”. The Bank says businesses expect to see the benefits to productivity soon. Almost a third told the Bank they’d made significant AI investments in the past year. Mr Bailey added “Economies adapt, jobs adapt, and we learn to work with it.” BBC
BAE Systems is developing a new generation of heavy-lift military drones that can evacuate wounded troops and deliver supplies after snapping up a fast-growing British manufacturer. The FTSE 100 defence giant on Thursday sealed a takeover of Malloy Aeronautics for an undisclosed sum, The Telegraph can reveal. Berkshire-based Malloy is behind drones that the UK government has bought and supplied to Ukraine during the country’s war with Russia. Telegraph
Google might have been late to the Generative AI party, but it is bringing some meaningful improvements to its products with Generative AI. After launching the Google Bard chatbot last year, the company is improving the Google Maps experience with Generative AI. These new AI features are currently only rolling out to Local Guides in the USA. You can find and discover new places by asking the chatbot inside the app a question in your natural language, and it will come up with matching results. SamMobile
