MORNING NEWS

Campbell’s said weak demand for snacks continued to pressure sales in the latest quarter, but the company is seeing some signs of progress in efforts to connect with consumers. Chief Executive Mick Beekhuizen said snacks consumption was soft in the quarter due to efforts to stabilize fresh bakery operations, including work to improve availability and customer fill rates. Beekhuizen also cited weak demand for salty snacks like chips and pretzels. “I recognize that our performance remains well below expectations,” Beekhuizen said during a call with analysts.

Google has agreed to rent data-center capacity from SpaceX, expanding the rocket company’s artificial-intelligence business ahead of its initial public offering. Google will pay SpaceX $920 million a month from October 2026 to June 2029 in a deal that includes the computing capacity of at least 110,000 Nvidia NVDA chips, according to a SpaceX securities filing on Friday. The deal will ramp up over the summer, and Google has the right to cancel the agreement in October if SpaceX doesn’t provide the promised chips, SpaceX said. Either party can cancel the agreement starting next year with 90 days’ notice. This is the second major deal SpaceX has made in recent months to rent out computing capacity to a competitor.

Lululemon cut its outlook for the year, citing fresh challenges, including a spike in negative commentary around the brand and a lackluster response to new products. The headwinds derailed what the athleisure company said were some budding signs of positive traction in the fiscal first quarter as it worked to improve results in North America, its largest market.

Broadcom declined late Wednesday as guidance failed to impress, overshadowing the semiconductor company’s better-than-expected results. For the fiscal second quarter, Broadcom notched record quarterly earnings and revenue, amid supercharged growth in its artificial intelligence chip business. Still, Broadcom shares were down 6.1% in after-hours trading after ending Wednesday’s regular session down 0.5% to $479.23. Broadcom reported adjusted earnings of $2.44 a share for the quarter ended May 3, compared with $1.58 a share a year ago and above Wall Street’s expectation of $2.40 a share. Revenue grew 48% to $22.19 billion, edging by the analyst consensus call for $22.13 billion, according to FactSet.

Palo Alto Networks reported higher revenue in the third quarter and lifted its outlook as customers continued to beef up their cybersecurity in the face of heightened threats from artificial-intelligence models. Chief Executive Officer Nikesh Arora said the results should demonstrate that fears of a so-called “SaaS-Pocalypse,” in which AI-native firms will come to displace legacy software incumbents, are misplaced as applied to the cybersecurity industry. “Actually, the capabilities of these models, especially in the cyber space, are causing a renewed interest from our customers to go ahead and deploy much more modern solutions, acting more as a tailwind to the cybersecurity industry as opposed to the death of the cybersecurity industry,” Arora said in an interview.

Anthropic, the artificial intelligence lab recently valued at nearly $1 trillion, said Monday it has filed confidentially for an initial public offering, setting up a blockbuster year for IPOs. The filing could put the company behind the Claude AI model on a path to go public this fall. Elon Musk’s SpaceX is preparing to stage what is likely to be the largest IPO ever next week. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Anthropic’s chief rival, OpenAI, was preparing to submit its own IPO filing imminently.

Universal Music Group rejected Bill Ackman-led Pershing Square Capital’s bid to buy the world’s largest music company for about $65 billion Friday, after Universal’s largest shareholder voiced opposition. UMG’s board of directors assessed Pershing Square’s unsolicited offer and found that it “fundamentally and materially undervalues UMG and will not deliver superior value creation.” “UMG has built an unrivalled position in the music industry through clear vision and execution,” said board Chairman Sherry Lansing in a statement, adding that the board has “full confidence” in Chief Executive Lucian Grainge and his team.

Amazon Web Services has signed up cloud storage company Snowflake as its latest chips customer, as the proliferation of artificial intelligence agents continues to drive high levels of demand for computing hardware. Snowflake SNOW plans to pay $6 billion over the next five years for access to Amazon’s AMZN Graviton chips inside AWS data centers. Graviton, which AWS released in 2018, is a central processing unit, or CPU—the main computer brains that power everything from personal devices like smartphones and laptops to car computers, data center servers and advanced AI systems.

Quantinuum, Honeywell’s quantum computing subsidiary, finalized the terms of its initial public offering on Tuesday. Under the terms, nearly 21.1 million shares are to be sold at a price range of $45 to $50 per share. At the midpoint of the target range, Quantinuum would generate net proceeds of $941.7 million. This amount could rise to approximately $1.09 billion if the over-allotment option is exercised.

The Zug-based investment firm Partners Group intends to take legal action against the U.S. investment firm Grizzly Research. This was announced by Chairman of the Board Steffen Meister in an interview with the “NZZ am Sonntag.” In a report released in late April, Grizzly Research had circulated serious allegations against Partners Group. “We have decided to take legal action against those responsible at Grizzly Research,” said Meister.