The Aussie Byte

The ASX release indicates that Megaport Limited has made a change to its board of directors, which is a common occurrence in the tech sector where companies often refresh their boards to bring in new expertise or perspectives.

On February 5, 2024, KPMG was pitching to land an $18 million-a-year contract to audit Telstra, Australia's largest telecommunications company. The firm's partners would present their pitch to Telstra's executive team in just over two months and then to the board, chaired by Craig Dunn, six days later. This is the context for a breach at KPMG that has compromised the integrity of its work on this project. KPMG's partners were set to present their pitch in late March 2024.

Amazon's shares surged more than 15 per cent after reporting its fifth quarter of cloud revenue growth, led by Amazon boss Andy Jassy who said the company is 'unusually well-positioned' for the artificial intelligence inflection point. This news comes as six out of seven megacap US tech companies have reported results, with a consensus that AI investments will be profitable. Apple's shares dropped in contrast to Amazon's surge, but the overall market rallied due to Amazon's performance.

Apple shares fell nearly 10% on Friday after a disappointing forecast showed the iPhone maker was struggling to secure enough components due to the AI-driven data centre boom straining global supply chains. The drop would mark the stock's worst day since March 2020 and erase nearly $US500 billion ($711 billion) from Apple's market capitalisation, potentially returning the crown of the world's most valuable company to Nvidia.

Apple's Q3 earnings beat estimates, with net sales increasing 16.4% year over year to $109.42 billion and earnings rising 28.7% to $2.02 per share. The company's iPhone and Mac segments drove top-line growth, setting June-quarter records across every geographic segment. Apple's installed base exceeded 2.5 billion active devices, reaching an all-time high across major product categories and geographic segments.

Microsoft's stock price surged 16% on Friday, adding $US450 billion to its market capitalisation and breaking the record for the largest single-day gain by any stock. This comes after the company reported a 43% surge in revenue for its Azure cloud unit during the fiscal fourth quarter. The move was part of a broader rally in US markets, with the S&P 500 rising 1.7% and the Nasdaq composite jumping 2.8%. Asian markets also saw significant gains, with South Korea's KOSPI leaping 17% and Japan's Nikkei advancing nearly 4%. Meanwhile, Australian mining stocks rallied, led by BHP's 2% gain and Rio Tinto's 1.3% increase.

Microsoft's stock has led a 'furious rally' on Wall Street following the company's release of 'upbeat' earnings results, indicating strong financial performance and investor confidence in the tech giant.

Microsoft's stock has surged in a 'furious rally' on Wall Street following the company's release of upbeat earnings results, indicating strong financial performance and investor confidence.

Amazon shares surged more than 15% after reporting its fifth quarter of cloud revenue growth, with CEO Andy Jassy stating that the company is 'unusually well-positioned' for the AI inflection point. This marks a positive note among the US tech industry's megacap companies, which have been investing heavily in artificial intelligence. The news comes as six out of the seven megacap companies have reported results, with Amazon's performance offsetting Apple's drop on Wall Street.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) granted Zoox, Amazon's autonomous vehicle unit, a temporary two-year exemption from several Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, allowing the company to deploy up to 2,500 purpose-built robotaxis annually in Las Vegas and other markets. The approval enables Zoox to begin charging passengers for rides, initially in Las Vegas, with expansion to San Francisco and other markets subject to state and local approvals. The exemption is limited in scope, but establishes a pathway for autonomous vehicle manufacturers developing vehicles from the ground up rather than modifying conventional passenger cars. Zoox's electric robotaxi can operate without a steering wheel, brake pedal or accelerator, despite those features being required under existing regulations. The company must report crashes and incidents to NHTSA, which retains authority to suspend or revoke the exemption if significant safety concerns emerge during commercial operations.

Amazon shares jumped over 9% in after-hours trading after the company beat expectations for quarterly cloud revenue growth and lifted its annual capital spending forecast to USD220 billion from USD200 billion. Amazon Web Services revenue rose 37% to USD42.2 billion, against a consensus estimate of about 31%. Group revenue grew 20% to USD200.6 billion and net income was USD62.2 billion, both ahead of estimates. Chief executive Andy Jassy warned that even at the increased capital spending level, Amazon would still not have enough capacity to meet all demand in 2026, with this dynamic also expected to be true in 2027.

Moonshot AI, a Beijing-based startup, used approximately 20,000 Nvidia Hopper generation chips via Alibaba to train its Kimi K3 model, which recently rivalled the performance of top US-developed systems from OpenAI and Anthropic. The arrangement highlights the complex web of partnerships and technological workarounds in global AI development. Moonshot's use of Nvidia's Hopper chips has caused internal friction at Alibaba, with some factions reportedly disappointed by Kimi's superior performance metrics compared to Alibaba's own Qwen AI products. Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, has accused Moonshot of illegally acquiring and using Nvidia's heavily restricted Blackwell accelerators to train K3. The US government suspects these chips were accessed via an unnamed third party in Thailand.

Tesla is considering separating its China business in preparation for a potential merger with SpaceX, according to the Wall Street Journal. This move would involve Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory, which has become the company's largest and most productive site globally, producing over 950,000 vehicles annually and accounting for more than half of global vehicle deliveries in 2025. The factory has also enabled Tesla to source over 95% of components locally, reducing manufacturing costs and logistical disruptions. Despite facing increasing competition from Chinese automakers like BYD, Tesla's China-made vehicle deliveries rose for an eighth consecutive month in June, driven by demand in overseas markets including Europe.