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Claire Yubin Oh2h

SoftBank’s OpenAI investment gains drive fourth consecutive profitable quarter

SoftBank is up 4% in premarket trading on Thursday as the Japanese conglomerate announced a net profit of ¥248.6 billion ($1.6 billion) in its fiscal third quarter, buoyed by a $4.2 billion valuation gain in its OpenAI investment.

SoftBank marked its fourth consecutive quarter of profits, swinging from a ¥369 billion ($2.4 billion) loss in the same quarter the year before.

The Masayoshi Son-led firm has invested a total of $34.6 billion in OpenAI so far, amounting to an ~11% stake in the startup, per its earnings presentation. The company is also reportedly looking to invest as much as $30 billion more in the ChatGPT-maker in a funding round that would value it at up to $830 billion.

SoftBank is accumulating more dry powder to fund its investments in OpenAI and other AI-adjacent ventures. Management shared on Thursday that they sold $12.7 billion worth of T-Mobile shares between June and December 2025, offloading an additional $2.3 billion in January of this year. In addition, they borrowed another $400 billion via a margin loan that uses SoftBank Corp. shares in December.

Since SoftBank started investing in OpenAI through the end of 2025, the company has enjoyed a $19.8 billion investment gain in total. The OpenAI investment, alongside other investments in its second tech-heavy Vision Fund, drove a $6.5 billion increase in fair value for the quarter — helping to outweigh a $4.1 billion loss in its first Vision Fund, “primarily due to share price declines of Coupang and DiDi.”

Softbank — Source: Company filing

BTIG analyst Jesse Sobelson estimates that the ChatGPT maker now represents 30% of SoftBank’s net asset value. The company’s stock has also almost doubled in the past year as retail investors piled into SoftBank to get pseudo-exposure to the now-private OpenAI.

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Nebius tumbles after Q4 results trail estimates

Nebius is down in premarket trading after reporting underwhelming Q4 results.

In the final three months of the year, revenues of $227.7 million were shy of the $247.5 million consensus estimate. Adjusted EBITDA of $15 million also trailed expectations for $22.55 million.

Founder and CEO Arkady Volozh indicated that the neocloud ended 2025 with roughly 170 megawatts of active power capacity, ahead of its 100 MW target, and “is on track to end the year with annualized run-rate revenue of $7 billion to $9 billion.”

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Memory stocks jump after Japanese chipmaker posts robust guidance

Memory stocks have their mojo back after Japanese chipmaker Kioxia gave strong forecasts along with positive color on AI-driven demand.

The company, which specializes in NAND flash memory, provided guidance for full-year operating income and sales that exceeded analysts’ expectations.

While Kioxia normally signs agreements for customers on a 12-month basis, management indicated that some now want to lock in supply for 2027 and 2028, a testament to the seeming longevity of the supply/demand imbalance in memory. That imbalance is also prompting the company to enjoy “a very sharp increase in selling price,” per CFO Hideki Hanazawa.

Sandisk, a NAND seller which recently extended its joint venture with Kioxia for manufacturing, is the biggest premarket gainer in the memory chip space. Micron, Western Digital, and Seagate Technology Holdings are also trading to the upside.

Memory stocks had previously seen some of the steam come out of their terrific start to 2026, after popular momentum trades came under pressure and investors tried catching a fallen knife in beaten-down parts of the market, eroding some enthusiasm for the cohort. But they’ve rebounded smartly in the past couple of sessions, thanks to fresh bad news for software companies; Micron indicating that shipments of next-gen, high-bandwidth chips have started ahead of schedule; and now this positive read-through from Kioxia.

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AST SpaceMobile slides on $1B convertible note offering, debt repurchase, and stock sale

AST SpaceMobile has slumped 8% in pre-market trading after the company unveiled a trio of financing moves aimed at raising fresh capital to expand its satellite network while paying down existing, costlier loans.

After Wednesday’s close, the satellite network company said it intends to raise $1 billion through a private offering of convertible senior notes due 2036 to qualified institutional buyers. Initial purchasers may also buy up to $150 million in additional notes by February 20, 2026. The proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes, including accelerating AST’s global satellite deployment, investing in US government space opportunities, and reducing higher-interest debt, per the release.

In a separate press release, AST also said it intends to repurchase up to $300 million of its existing convertible senior notes due 2032, including $50 million of its 4.25% notes and $250 million of its 2.375% notes. The buybacks will be funded through concurrent issuances of class A common stock.

All transactions were “subject to market conditions and other factors,” the company added.

Earlier on Wednesday, AST shares had briefly climbed after the company announced it had successfully completed the “unfolding of its next-generation BlueBird 6 satellite.” However, the multi-layered financing plan announced later in the day appears to have spooked investors, pushing the stock lower in after-hours trading and into today.

A festive meal based on mean, green, hairy creature fueled McDonald’s biggest day of sales on record

“Am I eating this just because I’m bored?”

Santa Claus tours Valparaiso Bay by boat

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Matt Phillips16h

Cisco beats expectations for Q2 sales and EPS; Q3 margin forecast is light

Cisco is dropping in Thursday’s premarket, down 8% at 4:45 a.m. ET, after a middling Q3 margin forecast offset sales and earnings beats in its second-quarter results yesterday.

For the fiscal second quarter of 2026, the computer networking equipment giant reported:

Non-GAAP earnings per share of $1.04 vs. the $1.02 expected by Wall Street analysts, according to FactSet.
Sales of $15.35 billion vs. the $15.11 billion consensus expectation.
AI infrastructure orders from hyperscalers of $2.1 billion vs. $1.3 billion in the previous quarter.
Revenue guidance for fiscal Q3 of between $15.4 billion and $15.6 billion vs. $15.19 billion consensus estimate.
Adjusted gross margin guidance for fiscal Q3 of 65.5% to 66.5%, compared with analysts’ forecasts for 68.2%.
Fiscal year 2026 sales guidance of $61.2 billion to $61.7 billion vs. previous guidance of between $60.2 billion and $61.0 billion.

Along with other companies like Lumentum, Corning, and new S&P 500 member Ciena, which provide things like the wiring and networking equipment needed to connect server racks, Cisco shares had been enjoing a strong start to 2026 as the AI data center boom continues to roll.

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