Highlights of the week: Apple rushes to the top, Google, Meta and Burry challenge Nvidia

Meta discusses a multi-billion dollar deal to buy Google processors, which increases competition for Nvidia and provokes volatility in its shares. Apple, on the back of a strong iPhone 17 launch and a new round of upgrades, could overtake Samsung to become the global smartphone market leader for the first time in 14 years. Fintech giant Revolut cemented its status as Europe's most expensive startup. The main events of November 24-28 are in our review.

On Friday, November 28, trading in futures and options was halted at the world's largest derivatives exchange CME. The reason was a failure in the cooling of the data center owned by CyrusOne, which began the previous evening in the United States and remained unresolved on Friday ahead of the opening of U.S. markets. Close to 15:00 CET, CME Group's website reported that all of its markets were open and trading had resumed.

The CME is the world's largest exchange for derivatives, derivative financial instruments. Investors rely on CME futures to hedge their positions in markets ranging from U.S. Treasury Department treasuries to stocks in the S&P 500 index. The CME's disruption disgruntled traders as millions of contracts tied to the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq 100 failed to trade because of the disrupted session, Bloomberg wrote.

Nvidia has found itself at the center of a controversy after investor Michael Burry accused the company of stock dilution, inflated graphics processing unit (GPU) amortization periods, and "circular" schemes that create the illusion of demand. In response, the company sent a seven-page memo to Wall Street analysts refuting Burry's criticism of stock "dilution," the scale of the buyback and inflated amortization periods for AI chips, Barron's reported. Nvidia argues that Burry's calculations are wrong: the amount of shares bought back is less than the financier calculated. In addition, Nvidia said that GPUs actually last 4-6 years, and that six-year-old A100 processor models are still being used at high utilization and generating meaningful revenue.

Burry disagrees with the arguments and believes the tech giants are artificially improving reporting by stretching out depreciation. He also accuses Nvidia of "circular deals" with customers and warns that actual end demand is less than it appears. His fund bet on Nvidia's stock falling, buying put options. In another letter about the chipmaker, he said he sees serious risks in the rapid obsolescence of hardware - while confirming that he holds put options on the fall of not only Nvidia but also another Wall Street AI darling, Palantir, a military AI developer.

What else is there to read about it?

- Michael Burry has actually announced a new downgrade game in two weeks - now against the AI boom. Journalist Ekaterina Smirnova investigated why the legendary investor sees a bubble again and whether he is right in the article "Downgrade Game 2: Michael Burry vs. Artificial Intelligence".

- Another tech giant, Oracle, is also rapidly increasing its investments in AI. Oninvest columnist Mikhail Overchenko discussed why the company's story is similar to the AI sector itself, where, after a rapid rally, concerns about the risk of a bubble are growing, in his column "$300 billion of debt and collapsed quotes: how Oracle's bet on AI turns out for it.

Meta Platforms is in talks to buy Google's AI chips (Tensor Processing Units, TPUs) for billions of dollars and could install them in data centers in 2027, The Information has learned. A possible deal with one of the world's largest customers of AI power would be a major win for Google and strengthen TPU's position as an alternative to Nvidia's chips, Bloomberg believes. On the day of publication - November 25 - shares of the chipmaker fell by 2%, and momentarily lost 7%, while the securities of Google and its Asian partners - rose sharply.

Bloomberg analysts estimate that about half of Meta's planned capex of at least $100 billion for 2026 will be spent on AI chips. At the same time, Meta's interest in TPU indicates that Google is likely to become an additional supplier of chips for AI models for neural network developers. Meta representatives declined to comment to Bloomberg, while Google did not respond to a request.

Two days after The Information was published, Nvidia said its AI chips are still "a generation ahead." According to Bernstein analyst Stacey Rasgon, the AI hardware market has probably not yet reached a "mature, saturated" stage, and it's market size, not market share, that matters.

Two large Novo Nordisk studies showed that the tablet version of Ozempic failed to slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease. The company has decided to discontinue the trials. In trading in Copenhagen on Monday, Nov. 24, Novo's shares fell more than 12% in momentum, hitting their lowest since 2021. The company's ADRs fell 5.5% in New York.

The news deprived Novo Nordisk of one of the last opportunities to quickly strengthen its position amid growing competition: the company has already lost its leadership in the market of obesity drugs to American Eli Lilly. Analysts note that the proven efficacy of semaglutide in Alzheimer's could have provided Novo with a significant advantage and up to $5 billion in additional revenue per year. Despite the failure of the trials, Wall Street maintains a positive outlook: the consensus rating for Novo's stock is Overweight, which means a buy recommendation.

Revolut completed the stock sale at a new valuation of $75 billion, a sharp increase from $45 billion a year earlier, Bloomberg writes. The round was led by investment firms Coatue and Dragoneer, venture capital fund Greenoaks and management company Fidelity, with a16z, T. Rowe Price, Franklin Templeton and NVentures (the venture capital arm of Nvidia) also participating. Revolut spent months raising the round, which cemented its status as Europe's most valuable startup, Bloomberg noted. As part of the deal, employees were able to sell some of their shares.

The growth of Revolut's valuation is accompanied by impressive financial results: in 2024, the company's revenue grew by 72% to $4 billion, pre-tax profit by 149% to $1.4 billion, and the number of retail customers exceeded 65 million. Revolut is preparing to enter 30 new markets and continues to seek a banking license in the UK, a process delayed by the regulator's questions about risk management during rapid expansion. In parallel, the company is strengthening its international presence: it has obtained a full banking license in Mexico and a crypto license in Cyprus, which opens access to the entire EU.

According to CounterpointResearch, iPhone shipments will grow by 10% in 2025 and Apple's global market share will reach 19.4% - enough to overtake Samsung for the first time since 2011. Strong demand for the iPhone 17 lineup, calm trade relations between the U.S. and China, and an active wave of device updates following the pandemic have helped the company accelerate sales.

Apple has previously noted that sales growth is exceeding its expectations, and the holiday quarter could push revenue closer to a record $140 billion. Apple is also preparing to expand its lineup from a foldable iPhone to a more affordable version of the iPhone 17e, which would help it maintain its lead through the end of the decade.

On the stock market, the reaction was moderately positive: on November 25, Apple securities rose 1.6% and reached an all-time high of $280.3 before pulling back. Since the beginning of the year, the company's capitalization has grown by about 10%, but the Wall Street consensus forecasts growth of only about 3% from current levels.

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