MORNING NEWS

Applied Materials is looking to ramp up its manufacturing capacity to meet continued semiconductor solutions demand as the company’s profit and revenue grow.

Cisco Systems reported a jump in net income in the July quarter as the company continued to receive billions in orders from artificial intelligence hyperscalers. The network-equipment company on Wednesday reported a profit of $3.86 billion, or 97 cents a share, in the quarter ended July 25. That compares with a profit of $2.55 billion, or 64 cents a share, a year earlier.

The cloud-computing company CoreWeave reported its fifth consecutive quarter of record revenue and a sales backlog of $104 billion, a reflection of the continued strength of demand for artificial-intelligence computing. CoreWeave—which buys advanced AI chips known as graphics processing units from Nvidia, installs them in data centers and leases them to such companies as Microsoft MSFT and OpenAI—reported revenue of $2.58 billion for the quarter that ended in June. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected quarterly revenue of $2.55 billion.

Nvidia reached deals with some of Wall Street’s largest firms aimed at raising massive amounts of capital to help the chipmaker’s customers finance the cost of computing power. The chipmaker has signed agreements to partner with Apollo Global Management, Blackstone, BlackRock, Brookfield Asset Management, Goldman Sachs and KKR to establish “compute financing platforms,” the companies announced Monday. The firms aim to deploy over $500 billion of outside capital in the coming years.

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena said it is weighing options to preserve its integrity, as its chief executive questioned the impact of Intesa Sanpaolo’s ISP $35 billion takeover bid on the world’s oldest bank and Italy’s economy.

Airbnb raised its forecast for the year, citing an expansion in global demand as it uses artificial intelligence to improve its platform. The short-term-rental company said Thursday it now expects revenue to increase by at least a mid-teens rate this year, up from its prior projection for growth in the low- to mid-teens.

EBay lifted its full-year outlook after closing its acquisition of Depop and reporting revenue growth in the second quarter. The online marketplace said it now expects gross merchandise volume, which measures all paid transactions between eBay users, to grow between 11.5% and 12.5% in 2026, up from a previous projection of 7% to 7.5% growth.

SpaceX laid out $18.4 billion in capital investments during the April-to-June quarter, with most of the spending supporting artificial-intelligence efforts. In its earnings report Tuesday, the company recorded $15.8 billion in capital expenditures for AI during the period, with its space division and Starlink-focused unit tallying up almost $1.2 billion and $1.4 billion in capex, respectively.

Palantir shares rose as much as 13% in after-market trading after the company lifted its full-year outlook and reported accelerating growth in its U.S. commercial sales. Revenue nearly doubled in the second quarter, the technology company told investors Monday. Executives now expect between $8.15 billion and $8.16 billion in full-year revenue, including U.S. commercial revenue growing at least 134% to $3.42 billion.

America’s largest oil companies reported a blockbuster quarter after the Iran war caused a historic dislocation in global markets that sent energy prices soaring. At ExxonMobil, profits more than doubled from a year earlier to their highest level since 2022, while Chevron CVX reported its highest quarterly earnings on record.