Highlights for the morning: Aramco's profit growth, Starbucks' change of plan in China, OpenAI contract

OpenAI signed a $38 billion contract with Amazon Web Services, diversifying its infrastructure and reducing its dependence on Microsoft. Saudi Aramco showed a 0.9% increase in profit to $28 bln thanks to an increase in oil production. These and other topics - in our review of key events for the morning of November 4.

Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil company, reported a 0.9% rise in third-quarter 2025 profit to 104.9 billion Saudi riyals ($28 billion), exceeding analysts' forecasts, CNBC reported. Revenue totaled 418 billion riyals on higher production and minimal incremental costs. The company also declared a base dividend of $21.1 billion and an additional dividend of $0.2 billion, to be paid in the fourth quarter.

Despite solid results, Aramco is facing pressure due to lower oil prices - Brent and WTI have fallen in price by 12-16% since the beginning of the year, the channel notes. This week, oil prices were supported by the decision of OPEC+, which announced a moderate increase in production in December, but will suspend the expansion of quotas in the first quarter of 2026.

OpenAI has signed an agreement with Amazon Web Services to purchase $38 billion worth of cloud capacity - the company's first major contract with AWS and a step toward reducing its reliance on Microsoft, CNBC reports. Under the terms of the deal, OpenAI will begin using AWS infrastructure now, gaining access to hundreds of thousands of Nvidia GPUs in the U.S. - with capacity expanding further.

The partnership with AWS will be part of OpenAI's strategy to diversify its partnerships: the company has previously entered into agreements with Oracle and Google, while its contract with Microsoft, which was on exclusive terms, is no longer valid. According to Sam Altman, the partnership with AWS will provide "scalable and reliable computing resources for the next era of artificial intelligence".

Palantir Technologies raised its full-year revenue guidance to $4.4 billion and beat analysts' expectations for its third-quarter results, reporting a 63% increase in sales to $1.18 billion, but investors are concerned about overleveraged capitalization, which reached $488 billion, and a stock multiple of 85, the highest in the S&P 500, Bloomberg writes.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp acknowledged that the company is "in the heady zone," but said it is delivering "the best results in the history of software players." Business growth is particularly strong in the US, with sales to commercial customers up 121% and government customers up 52%. In Europe, the pace is more modest, with Karp calling the region "stagnant."

Starbucks has announced the sale of 60% of its Chinese subsidiary to investment fund Boyu Capital in a deal valuing the business at $4 billion, Yahoo Finance writes. After it, Starbucks will retain 40% and expects that the total value of its operations in China, including license agreements, will exceed $13 billion.

CEO Brian Nichol said the partnership with Boyu and its local market knowledge will accelerate the chain's expansion into small towns and new regions. Starbucks now has 8,011 locations in China, with a long-term goal of 20,000. The deal is expected to close in the next fiscal quarter.

This is the first major strategy review since the company bought out the Chinese business outright in 2017, the publication notes. Starbucks is now returning to a partnership model, retaining control of the brand and betting on local expertise.

- Japan's broad Topix index was down 0.4 percent, while the Nikkei 225 was down 0.7 percent.

- Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.9 percent, while mainland China's CSI 300 Index fell 0.7 percent.

- In South Korea, the Kospi index collapsed 2.3 percent and the Kosdaq rose 1.5 percent.

- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.9 percent .

- S&P 500 futures fell 0.9 percent, Nasdaq 100 futures lost 1.2 percent and Dow Jones Industrial Average exchange-traded contracts fell 0.6 percent.

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