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technology · international · severity 7
Technology Sector Earnings and AI Model Valuations Surge
Major tech companies reported Q1/Q4 2026 results with mixed performance. Datadog surged 31%+ on strong revenue growth and raised guidance; Nintendo raised Switch 2 prices and cut FY2027 sales forecasts due to memory chip costs; Sony reported gaming unit sales decline. AI model companies show explosive valuations: Anthropic weighs a $900B pre-money valuation funding round; Baidu's chip unit Kunlunxin plans dual IPO; startups like Core Automation raise at rapidly increasing valuations.
Sources
- Datadog closed up 31%+ after reporting Q1 revenue up 32% YoY to $1B and raising its FY revenue forecast, an outlier in the software industry amid the AI boom (Mike Wheatley/SiliconANGLE)
- Nintendo reports Q4 revenue of ~$2.60B, below ~$2.75B est., net profit of ~$416M, above ~$403.68M est., and forecasts a decline in FY 2027 Switch 2 unit sales (Arjun Kharpal/CNBC)
- Filing: Lime files for an IPO, reporting 2025 revenue of $886.7M, up from $686.6M YoY, and a net loss of $59.3M, up from $33.9M; it was valued at $510M in 2020 (Jordan Fitzgerald/Bloomberg)
- Nintendo to hike price of Switch 2 console due to memory chip prices
- Sony reports Q4 revenue of $19.4B, above ~$18.4B est., operating profit of ~$1.06B, below ~$1.7B est., and forecasts FY 2027 net profit to rise 13% to ~$7.4B (Kai Nicol-Schwarz/CNBC)
- Sony and TSMC announce a new JV to build next-gen image sensors for robots and cars, as Sony moves from in-house manufacturing to a more asset-light approach (Bloomberg)
- Nintendo says it will increase the price of the Switch 2 to $500, up from $450, globally from September 1, and offers a downbeat performance outlook for 2026 (Bloomberg)
- Sony reports 1.5M PS5 unit sales in Q4, down 46% YoY, and forecasts annual sales at its gaming business to fall 6% YoY to $1.69B, amid memory chip price surge (Sam Nussey/Reuters)
- Sources: Anthropic weighs raising as much as $50B at a ~$900B pre-money valuation, likely closing within two months; its annualized revenue is nearing $45B (Financial Times)
- Baidu's spun off chip unit plans dual listing in Shanghai and Hong Kong
- Filings: Baidu's AI chip unit Kunlunxin is planning a dual IPO on Shanghai's STAR Board and in Hong Kong; Baidu holds a 58% stake in Kunlunxin (Bloomberg)
- Mozilla says Anthropic's Mythos Preview and other AI models helped it identify and ship 423 Firefox security bug fixes in April, compared to 31 a year earlier (Russell Brandom/TechCrunch)
- OpenAI is rolling out GPT-5.5-Cyber, a security-focused variant of the model, in a limited preview capacity to vetted cybersecurity teams (Sam Sabin/Axios)
- Sources: AI model builder Core Automation, founded in March by Jerry Tworek, aims to raise $300M-$500M at a $4B valuation after raising $100M at a $1B valuation (The Information)