Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet, Amazon Earnings Were Strong. Why the Stock Market Slipped Into a Correction Anyway.

Technology stocks slumped into correction territory this past week, after a wave of poorly received earnings reports from some of the world’s largest companies. On Wednesday and Thursday, the Nasdaq Composite fell 4.1%, the tech-heavy index’s worst two-day stretch of the year. The index has fallen 12% since July.

But here’s the issue: The Street has been thinking that Google would leverage its prowess in AI software to boost its share of the cloud market. Google has unveiled a flurry of AI tools and services in recent months, including the Bard chatbot, which you can now use to search not just the web but also your own documents and emails. In fact, Google had been viewed as having deeper expertise in AI than rival Amazon Web Services.

Cloud leader Amazon Web Services is growing more slowly than both of its smaller rivals. AWS sales increased 12.3% in the quarter to $23.1 billion, about in line with Wall Street estimates. That’s no disaster, but it’s hardly a blowout. Advertising is buzzing. Or at least, it was: Alphabet and Meta each posted strong growth in their most important business—selling online ads. Google Search ad revenue rose 11%, while YouTube ads increased 12%. Meta’s ad revenue grew 28%, with ad impressions up 30%.

AI is a two-sided coin: For Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon, generative AI is a high-stakes, no-limit poker game that requires not just capital but also labor—in particular, costly coders. Meta finished its September quarter with head count down 24%, as part of its “year of efficiency” push; its operating margin in the quarter was 40%, up from 20% a year earlier.

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