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Shareholders vote in favour of Musk's pay package
Tesla shareholders voted in favour of a US$1 trillion (A$1.534 trillion) compensation plan for Elon Musk, which could give the world’s richest man the largest corporate payout in history and potentially make him the first ever trillionaire. While the pay package was initially opposed by several high-profile investors, 75% of investors voted in favour of the plan, in a testament to shareholders' confidence in Musk. The vote did not include the 15% of the company Musk already owns. The crowd at the meeting celebrated the results with cheers and chants when they were announced. “I super appreciate it,” Musk said. While Musk doesn't take any salary, the approved package would give him as many as 423.7 million additional Tesla shares over the next 10 years. For Musk to qualify for the full potential payout, which would amount to around US$1 trillion, the company would need to reach a US$8.5 trillion market cap and a series of other operational or financial targets. Reaching the US$8.5 trillion market cap is a lofty goal that would require the company’s shares to jump 466% from today’s stock price. The goal is also 70% higher than the world’s most valuable company, Nvidia, which hit a record US$5 trillion market cap
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Microsoft apologises, refunds overcharged customers
Microsoft has apologised and begun refunding customers after a consumer watchdog called the company out for misleading around 2.7 million Australians. This was in response to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) suing the tech giant for allegedly misleading Australian customers over its Microsoft 365 subscriptions. In an apology, Microsoft said it “fell short of [its] standards” and has contacted all affected subscribers. “Today we began reaching out to our Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers in Australia regarding a subscription alternative that we could have communicated more clearly when we changed our pricing in October 2024,” the company said. “In our email to subscribers, we expressed our regret for not being clearer about our subscription options, shared details about lower-priced alternatives that come without AI and offered a refund to eligible subscribers who wish to switch.” In its lawsuit, the ACCC said that Microsoft failed to disclose a cheaper plan that didn’t include its AI assistant Copilot. Microsoft allegedly told subscribers they must accept the integration of Copilot and pay a higher price for their personal or family plan, or cancel their subscription. The i
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Gaming, data centre sales drive AMD Q3 earnings beat
AMD posted a record third-quarter revenue of US$9.25 billion, climbing 36% year-over-year on surging demand for its EPYC server processors and Instinct AI accelerators. The chipmaker reported diluted earnings per share of $1.20 on a GAAP basis, a beat of 3 cents, while revenue also comprehensively exceeded the $8.74 billion expected by Wall Street. GAAP net income jumped 61% to $1.24 billion compared to Q3 last year, as gross margin reached 52%. Operating expenses expectedly climbed 30% to $3.5 billion as the company ramps up investment in AI product development. AMD CFO Jean Hu highlighted record free cash flow generation, reflecting what she called "disciplined execution" of the company's AI and high-performance computing investments. “Our continued investments in AI and high-performance computing are driving significant growth and position AMD to deliver long-term value creation.” The data centre division pulled in $4.34 billion, gaining 22% year-over-year and beating consensus of $4.13 billion, fuelled by strong uptake of 5th Gen EPYC processors and the MI350 Series GPUs. Worth noting - Q3 results didn't include any revenue from Instinct MI308 GPU shipments to China due to U.S. export restrictions. That
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Microsoft will expand workforce again, says CEO Nadella
Microsoft will begin hiring again after several rounds of layoffs, with CEO Satya Nadella saying the company will now have more “leverage” due to artificial intelligence. Microsoft laid off around 6,000 employees, or around 3% of its workforce, in May, and another 9,000 in July. The cuts affected workers across teams and global locations. “I will say we will grow our headcount, but the way I look at it is, that headcount we grow will grow with a lot more leverage than the headcount we had pre-AI,” said Nadella on investor Brad Gerstner’s BG2 podcast. The company is aiming for employees to relearn their work processes while making greater use of AI, according to Nadella. “It's the unlearning and learning process that I think will take the next year or so. Then the headcount growth will come with max leverage,” he said. Nadella said Microsoft will provide the AI features in its Microsoft 365 software to all employees, as well as OpenAI and GitHub’s GitHub Copilot AI coding assistant. Other major technology companies have also pursued significant layoffs this year. Amazon said last week it would cut 14,000 employees, which CEO Jeff Bezos credited to excess layers of employees and management, and Meta fired 600 worke
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Apple shares hit new high after record quarter, year
Shares in Apple soared to their highest level after the technology giant set records across a range of financial measures in the fourth quarter and 2025 financial year (FY25). The world’s third-largest company said net income climbed 86% to US$27.466 billion (A$41.9 billion) and diluted earnings per share (EPS) increased 90% to $1.85 on revenue, which rose 8% to $102.5 billion in the three months ended 27 September 2025. The company, whose products include the iPhone, Mac, iPad, Apple Watch and AirPods, said diluted EPS rose 13% in the September quarter when adjusted for a one-off income tax charge related to the impact of the reversal of a European court decision. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said records were set in Q4 for group, iPhone and Services revenue.Source: Apple“These results reflect the tremendous customer enthusiasm for Apple products and services, as well as our deep commitment to innovation,” Cook said on an earnings call. “We are incredibly excited about the strength we're seeing across our products and services, and we expect the December quarter's revenue to be the best ever for the company and the best ever for iPhone.” Chief Financial Officer Kevan Parekh said the September quarter results ca

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Amazon up 10% after-hours on Q3 earnings beat
Amazon shares have jumped 10% in after-hours trading after reporting a Q3 earnings per share of US$1.95, beating Street expectations of $1.57, capping a turbulent period marked by a major outage and mass layoffs. Revenue hit $180.2 billion - up 13% year-over-year - topping the $177.8 billion Wall Street projection, though $4.3 billion in one-time charges from the FTC settlement and severance costs complicated the profitability picture. AWS delivered 20.2% revenue growth to $33 billion after several quarters of deceleration, marking the fastest pace since 2022 but still trailing Microsoft Azure's 40% expansion and Google Cloud's 34% growth reported days earlier.Credit: AmazonAdvertising climbed 24% to $17.7 billion, maintaining its position alongside AWS as the company's most profitable business and its continued momentum in Amazon's high-margin revenue streams. Operating income landed at $17.4 billion, missing the $19.7 billion consensus - yet stripping out the $2.5 billion FTC penalty for Prime subscription practices and $1.8 billion in severance expenses revealed to the market an adjusted operating income of $21.7 billion. Net income of $21.2 billion included a $9.5 billion gain from Amazon's Anthropic investment as
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Microsoft shares slide after first quarter results
Microsoft shares eased despite the company reporting a 12% increase in net income to $27.7 billion (A$42.16 billion) in the first quarter of the 2026 financial year (Q1 FY26). The technology giant said diluted earnings per share (EPS) grew 13% to $3.72 and operating income jumped 24% to $38.0 billion on revenue, which rose 18% to $77.7 billion in the three months ended 30 September. Microsoft shares (NASDAQ: MSFT) closed 52 cents (0.096%) lower at $541.55 before the result, capitalising the company at $4.03 trillion, and they slid a further 3.2% in after-market trading to $524.20. Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said the company delivered a strong start to the fiscal year and exceeded expectations for revenue, operating income and EPS.Source: Microsoft“Continued strength in the Microsoft Cloud reflects the growing customer demand for our differentiated platform,” Hood said in a press release. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said Microsoft continued to increase its investments in AI to meet “the massive opportunity ahead”. Microsoft Cloud revenue grew 26% to $49.1 billion, and commercial remaining performance obligations increased 51% to $392 billion. Revenue in Pro
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Apple rings up US$4tn valuation on iPhone boost
Apple joined an exclusive club when its market capitalisation hit the US$4 trillion (A$6.1 trillion) mark on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT). The technology giant became the third company to reach this valuation when its share price passed $269.70, joining NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA), which passed the mark on 9 July, and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), which reached that level on 31 July. The share price of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), whose products include the iPhone, Mac, iPad, Apple Watch and AirPods, closed up 19 cents (0.071%) at $269.00, capitalising it at $3.99 trillion (A$6.06 trillion), after peaking at $269.89. The price has risen 13% since the 9 September launch of the iPhone 17, whose sales have helped to address worries that the company was falling behind in the artificial intelligence (AI) race and concerns about United States tariffs. "The iPhone accounts for over half of Apple's profit and revenue and the more phones they can get into the hands of people, the more they can drive people into their ecosystem," Northlight Asset Management Chief Investment Officer Chris Zaccarelli was quoted as saying in a Reuters story. While it took Apple 38 years from its 1980 initial public offering to be valued at $1 trillion on 2 August 20
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Amazon to cut 30,000 jobs in largest cull since 2022
Amazon plans to axe around 30,000 white-collar positions beginning 28 October - the e-commerce giant's most significant headcount cull since late 2022. Three people briefed on the matter, according to Reuters, confirmed the bloodletting, which strips nearly 10% from Amazon's 350,000-strong corporate workforce, though just 2% of total headcount across the company's 1.55 million employees. The axe will fall across divisions, including human resources (internally called People Experience and Technology), devices and services, operations, plus cloud infrastructure and logistics units. The Seattle tech giant declined to comment, and shares climbed 1.3% on the back of the news.Unwinding pandemic bloatThe workforce cuts represent Amazon's continued retreat from its pandemic-era hiring spree, when exploding e-commerce demand prompted rapid expansion of its professional ranks. Previous yet smaller-scale trimming has occurred across units like devices, communications and podcasting over the past two years. Team managers completed training sessions Monday on breaking the news to affected staff before termination emails begin rolling out Tuesday morning. The precise scope remains fluid and may shift with changing financial p