TechCheck

Capital spending among the megacaps is now surging as Microsoft, Google and Meta all outline plans for tens of billions of dollars a quarter in AI investments. We dig into what’s in store for Amazon as it gets set to report tonight.

The IPO market is "back," according to Colin Stewart, a top Morgan Stanley banker who led the Reddit and Astera Labs debuts. He expects 10-15 more tech IPOs to come this year, and an even better 2025, especially as the market gets more comfortable with paying for growth again. We chat with him about startup valuations, how the presidential election might impact IPO timing, and more.

Over the past year, Mark Zuckerberg has transformed Meta - and himself. He has gone from a brash young CEO to trained MMA fighter, and a trendsetter with his fur jackets and chains. And thanks to his year of efficiency and stellar stock performance, he's now a Wall Street darling, with Meta outperforming Apple and Alphabet, trailing only Nvidia among the Mag 7. But Meta's latest earnings report has shown it's continuing to bleed cash, and Zuckerberg is now facing a moment of truth. Can he deliver on generative AI, the most important platform shift in decades? This week on TechCheck, the reinvention of Zuck and the arrival of his "show me" moment.

Shares of the software maker Rubrik are up about 20% since its debut on the NYSE yesterday. That success is being cheered in Silicon Valley as the latest sign the public market waters are safe to wade into. Plus, Alphabet and Microsoft shares are both popping after the companies beat on the top and bottom lines. The tech giants emphasized the growth of their respective AI businesses, but that also comes at a big cost.

At the heart of the battle over TikTok is its algorithm - one that overhauled social media, captivated Gen Z, and continues to engage them more than copycats like YouTube Shorts or Instagram Reels. But without it, a sale of TikTok would be a very different proposition, and interested buyers like Steve Mnuchin have said that he would rebuild the app if there’s no technology transfer.

Two Google alumni are among those now turning up the pressure on their former employer. Aravind Srinivas of Perplexity and Dario Amodei of Anthropic are both leading upstart gen AI native companies. This time around, they have less to lose and are unafraid of taking on the giants. Plus, Softbank is reportedly now sinking nearly a billion dollars into developing a new generative AI model -- but is it too little, too late?

This earnings season, could we see Amazon and Alphabet follow Meta’s lead and issue a dividend or boost buybacks? Free cash flow has jumped across the six megacaps in the last two years, with Nvidia and Amazon seeing the biggest increases. In Amazon’s case, it was hard to imagine the tech giant doing so under Jeff Bezos. But CEO Andy Jassy is friendlier to Wall Street and has talked about focusing on profits and efficiency.

Google has been the poster child among big tech for having a more cuddly environment, with kombucha on tap or massuesses on staff. That also applies to what was once an openness for employees to bring social and political causes to work and mix ethics and business. But we're increasingly seeing a tougher Google and CEO Sundar Pichai. In the wake of multi-city protests across the company, he reminded employees in his latest memo that "this is a business."

: The latest bottleneck in the AI boom might not be chips anymore - it's energy. Computing for AI requires way more power than traditional data centers, and CEOs including Elon Musk, Andy Jassy and Sam Altman are all sounding the alarm. Plus, the AI race is on -- and it's now faster and more competitive than ever. Meta says its just-released latest AI model, the Llama 3, is the most powerful model that's also freely accessible. Meta is also teaming up with Google to include search results with its new AI chatbot, Meta AI, in a show of force against ChatGPT.

The practice of stack ranking might be making a comeback in Silicon Valley. Sometimes called “rank and yank,” it’s becoming increasingly popular among tech companies during what’s turning into the multiple years of efficiency, with big tech cutting costs and trimming their workforce. The type of merit-based, competitive culture has been around since the 80s, popularized by Jack Welch of GE, and is alive and well in other sectors including banking.

Microsoft is making a major investment into the Abu Dhabi-based AI firm G-42 -- $1.5 billion dollars for a minority stake and just the latest in several foreign AI and cloud investments Microsoft has made, designed to continue its head start in AI and lock up another major customer for its cloud service Azure. Plus, HSBC is making a big call on AMD today, arguing in a new note that it shouldn’t be overlooked as an AI play because of its upcoming AI accelerator chip series, and because its non-AI business segments are improving.

Apple and Tesla are the only two stocks in the Magnificent Seven that are still in the red this year, and shares of both are also sinking today on news that Tesla is laying off 10% of its workforce and Apple smartphone shipments are slumping. But it’s not just the stock declines that the two have in common. Some parallels are even more fundamental to the companies, including increased competition from China, both reportedly killing major car projects, and highly anticipated events this summer with a lot at stake.

Box is going all in on AI. The cloud management company just crossed $1 billion in annual revenue, and says there’s still a lot more opportunity ahead. We chat with CEO Aaron Levie on how regulators should tackle AI, how AI will impact jobs and hiring, Google’s AI strategy, and more. Plus, with sticky inflation increasing the chances of higher rates for longer, Silicon Valley investors are now paying close attention to what it means for their privately-held portfolios. We dig into what VCs have been saying and the divergence between AI startups and the rest of tech.

The state of Amazon speaks to the state of big tech right now: keeping up with AI competition while keeping costs in check. We break down the tightrope that CEO Andy Jassy has to walk, from investing in startups while building models, to M&A while keeping an eye on regulators.

Adam Neumann, former CEO of WeWork, sits down with CNBC’s Deidre Bosa to discuss the launch of his new Florida-based real estate startup, Flow, his bid to buy back WeWork, and more.

A new leg of the cloud wars has begun - one where access to the best AI models and tools is key. On the consumer side, Google’s strategy remains uncertain. But on the enterprise side, Google can afford to go on the offensive, and that’s happening in the cloud. CNBC's Deirdre Bosa sat down exclusively with Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian on competition, monetization, the partnership with Anthropic, and more.

There's a new fund that now allows retail investors to get in on the hottest tech startups, including Stripe, OpenAI and SpaceX. But it comes with some risk. The Destiny Tech100 fund has soared more than 500% since its launch two weeks ago but is tanking 40% today. We break down the risks and the rewards. Plus, Intel and Google both announced new and more powerful chips. Intel is introducing its Gaudi 3, which they say is better at inferencing and power efficiency than Nvidia’s H100 chip -- the main choice among companies building AI system. And Google’s Axion is the megacap’s latest expansion into custom chips, which the company says is capable of a range of tasks from powering Google’s search engine to AI-related work.

After a two-year slump, the health care funding market could finally be picking up as AI gets leveraged in the sector. We speak with Amir Dan Rubin, managing partner and CEO of the VC firm Healthier Capital and former CEO of Amazon-acquired primary care provider One Medical on the state of health care startups and funding. Plus, some of the most advanced chips in the world will now be made in America, but by a foreign firm. Taiwan Semi is the largest chip manufacturer in the world and has secured $6.6 billion in subsidies from the CHIPS Act in addition to $5 billion in low-cost government loans. But how does that impact American chipmakers like Intel?

Samsung is said to be the latest company to make a big investment in chip manufacturing in the United States. The company reportedly planning to double its total semiconductor investment in Texas to $44 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal. Plus, Move over AI.. robots are emerging as the next big battleground for Big Tech. Apple – is said to be the latest mover.. joining Amazon, Tesla, Nvidia and Google

Trae Stephens is a partner at the prestigious VC firm Founders Fund, co-founder of the defense startup Anduril, and an early Palantir employee. He joins us for a rare interview on investing in defense technology, the thawing IPO market, whether an AI bubble is brewing, and more. Plus, Google’s dominance was built on free products - Gmail, Drive, Maps, Search. But now, in what would be a huge change from that model, the tech giant is reportedly considering charging for AI search features, adding them to its premium subscription services. One could argue it signals some desperation as it struggles to play catchup in the AI race, and a lack of commitment to disrupt its cash cow, Search.