Highlights for the morning: Alphabet in the lead, Samsung's profits up 8x, $100 billion IPO

Alphabet was the winner in the cloud segment out of the four "Magnificent Seven" companies that reported at the same time. The U.S. Federal Reserve did not change its key rate amid steady inflation. The price of Brent crude oil broke through the $126 per barrel mark amid reports that the U.S. military is preparing options for action against Iran. About these and other topics - in our review of key events for the morning of April 30.

Alphabet was the leader in the cloud segment of the four tech giants that submitted their reports the day before. They are also Microsoft, Amazon and Meta. Alphabet's shares jumped more than 7% in extended trading - stronger than the others.

These companies compete with each other through various artificial intelligence products, developments and partnerships, but it's their extremely capital-intensive cloud businesses that are becoming a direct collision arena, CNBC notes. Not only did Google Cloud's revenue show the most significant jump in this growing market, up 63%, analysts also believe the company's cloud platform is pulling business from competitors.

"Google seems to be taking market share away from all these cloud providers," Brent Till, a Jefferies senior software analyst, told CNBC. - Google really stood out."

Alphabet said the growth was fueled by the expansion of its "enterprise AI solutions and enterprise AI infrastructure and core Google Cloud Platform services," meaning that demand for AI services from the world's largest companies seems to be starting to materialize, CNBC writes.

The US Federal Reserve kept the key rate at 3.5-3.75%, as expected by the market, against the backdrop of steady inflation. However, the meeting passed with a rare split: four people did not support the decisions at once - this is the maximum disagreement since 1992. Part of the Open Market Committee (FOMC) officials were against signaling a possible additional rate cut, pointing to persistent inflationary pressures amplified by rising energy prices.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has confirmed he will remain on the board of governors after stepping down as chairman - pending the outcome of an investigation into the renovation of the regulator's headquarters. Earlier Wednesday, the Senate Banking Committee approved the nomination of Kevin Warsh to head the Fed. If he is supported by the full chamber, he will succeed Powell on May 15.

Anthropic is discussing a new round of funding with a valuation of over $900 billion, potentially allowing it to surpass OpenAI and become the most expensive AI startup, Bloomberg reports. Negotiations are at an early stage, the company has not yet accepted offers, but investor interest is growing amid the success of products and preparations for a possible IPO in October, the agency points out. Previously, Anthropic raised funds from Google and Amazon at a valuation of $350 billion, they are ready to increase investment in the new round.

Samsung Electronics increased its operating profit more than eightfold to a record 57.2 trillion won ($39 billion) in the first quarter, beating analysts' expectations, CNBC reported. Revenue hit a new high of 133.9 trillion won ($90 billion) amid a surge in demand for memory for data centers and AI. The main driver was the chip division, which accounted for more than 90% of profit.

SoftBank plans to create a separate company in the field of artificial intelligence and robotics and to float it on the US stock exchange as early as this year, the Financial Times reports , citing sources. It will be called Roze and will focus on building data centers and using robots to improve the efficiency of deployment of AI infrastructure. The management, according to the FT interlocutors, is focused on a valuation of about $100 billion.

That said, the article notes that the estimate and timeline could change, and the plans themselves are considered ambitious within SoftBank - also because of the uncertainty surrounding the conflict in the Middle East.

Defense contractor L3Harris has filed a confidential application for the IPO of its Missile Solutions division, the parameters of the offering have not yet been disclosed, Reuters writes. The company will spin off the business into a separate structure, retaining a controlling stake.

At the same time, the U.S. government's investment of $1 billion will ensure stable demand for the products, the agency points out. The division produces engines and components for Patriot, THAAD and Tomahawk missiles.

- Japan's broad Topix index fell 1.6 percent, while the Nikkei 225 fell 1.2 percent.

- Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 1%, while mainland China's CSI 300 index was little changed.

- In South Korea, the Kospi index was down 1.2 percent and the Kosdaq was down 2.3 percent.

- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.5 percent.

- Futures on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were down 0.4 percent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.7 percent.

- Brent crude oil prices soared to a 4-year high after Axios reported that the U.S. military is preparing options for Donald Trump to act against Iran. Brent futures broke through the $126 mark at the moment. At the time of publication of this text, they were up 4.7% to almost $124 a barrel.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor