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Yorkville Ives analysts pointed out that Microsoft's financial report shows its cloud computing capacity is sufficient to meet the enormous market demand. Microsoft Azure's revenue exceeded Wall Street expectations, becoming a key factor in stock performance.Before the financial report, the market had already seen AI-driven demand, but there were doubts about the speed of capacity release. Microsoft's promised future expenditure scale is $677 billion, with confirmed revenue expected to increase in the next 12 months. On Thursday before the market opened, Microsoft's stock price rose 2.7% against the trend.

Microsoft expects its Azure cloud business revenue to grow by 49% to 50% in the second fiscal quarter, with total revenue reaching between 96 billion and 97.1 billion dollars.Revenue from the Intelligent Cloud and Infrastructure segment is expected to be between 80.1 billion and 80.7 billion dollars, while revenue from the Devices and Consumer segment is projected to be between 15.9 billion and 16.4 billion dollars. Microsoft also anticipates that capital expenditures in the second fiscal quarter will exceed 50 billion dollars.

According to Gate market data, Microsoft (MSFT.O) rose by 6% in after-hours trading.

Microsoft announced that its quarterly cloud business revenue exceeded expectations, with Azure cloud computing revenue growing by 48% to reach $33.17 billion, surpassing the market expectation of $32.84 billion. The company's free cash flow was $18.6 billion, far exceeding the market expectation of $8.54 billion. Microsoft’s stock rose nearly 6% in after-hours trading.

Microsoft (MSFT.O) reported that for the three months ended September 30, revenue from its commercial arrangement with OpenAI was $10 billion.

Google and Microsoft will announce their financial reports after the U.S. stock market closes.

Former Microsoft executive Peter Sellis announced that he has joined Elon Musk's social platform X, responsible for product operations. He stated that he will promote improvements in X's product experience, as well as the growth of global users and business operations, and mentioned the goal of bringing online posting into the "interplanetary era."Peter Sellis previously led design, engineering, and growth in Microsoft's AI department and served as Senior Vice President of Product at Discord and Vice President of Product at Snap. X's former product head and Solana advisor Nikita Bier previously worked in Sellis's team at Discord.

Micron Technology, a memory manufacturer, recently signed a labor agreement with the Taichung Labor Union. Reports cite the Ministry of Economic Affairs explaining that over 80% of personnel will see salary adjustments of nearly 2.7 times, with production line staff's annual salary increasing from 630,000 to over 2 million.The Ministry of Economic Affairs also stated that the annual salary for entry-level engineers will rise from 1.45 million to 4 million, while mid-to-senior level engineers will see their salaries increase from over 2 million to 6 million. The union successfully negotiated an increase in the employer's contribution rate for labor retirement to 10%, which is above the industry standard; the day shift allowance for frontline production line staff has been adjusted from 1,500 to 4,500, tripling the original amount.

According to a report by Financial Associated Press, Microsoft announced on October 26 local time that it will offer a voluntary severance compensation plan to approximately 60,000 employees to reduce costs and adjust its workforce for the AI era. More than a quarter of the total employee count is eligible, marking the company's third round of workforce adjustments this year.A spokesperson stated that some vice presidents and below in the United States, Canada, India, and the United Kingdom are eligible to apply, and those who accept the plan will receive benefits similar to standard severance packages. According to informed sources, departments such as Xbox, Windows, Copilot, and finance will fully participate, while some employees in data centers, sales, marketing, cybersecurity, and quantum computing will not be eligible. Chief Human Resources Officer Amy Coleman mentioned in an internal letter that the plan provides an option for employees considering leaving to transition with the company's support, and it is another way for departments to adjust their teams. The spokesperson also noted that if top talent accepts the plan, the company will attempt to retain them in some cases.In April this year, Microsoft launched its first voluntary retirement program for about 8,750 eligible U.S. employees, with over 30% ultimately accepting; in July, it announced layoffs of approximately 4,800 people, accounting for about 2.1% of the total workforce. The spokesperson expects the number of acceptances this time to be far less than the voluntary retirement program. As of the end of June, Microsoft had a total of 223,000 employees. According to the financial report on July 29, capital expenditures for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2026 were $41 billion, a year-on-year increase of about 70%, and capital expenditures for the first quarter of fiscal year 2027 are expected to be about $50 billion.

According to Zhitong Finance, JPMorgan analyst Samik Chatterjee maintains a "Buy" rating on Microsoft with a target price of $625. The research report states that investors will closely monitor the business growth of Azure, the commercial version of Microsoft 365 Cloud, and Copilot.Chatterjee indicated that compared to the quarterly earnings report itself, the stock price reaction may be more determined by performance outlook, as investors hope to see sustainable signals of growth in cloud business and artificial intelligence.Yorkville Ives analyst Dan Ives maintained a "Outperform" rating on Microsoft with a target price of $615 on Friday, and listed Microsoft as one of his "Top 5 Tech Picks Before 2027." Ives stated that the concentrated earnings reports from large cloud providers like Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon are expected to soothe the highly volatile market.

Dongfang Gangwan Fund Chairman Dan Bin is making a "major adjustment" in the technology sector. According to statistics from Private Equity Ranking Network, as of the end of the third quarter of 2026, Dongfang Gangwan's overseas fund held a total of 13 U.S. stock targets, with a total market value of approximately $1.469 billion.From the perspective of industry distribution, AI remains a key focus for Dongfang Gangwan. As of the end of the third quarter, Google was the largest holding in Dongfang Gangwan's overseas fund. However, in terms of buying and selling actions, Dan Bin's preference for sub-sectors within the AI industry has changed significantly compared to the second quarter.According to statistics, in the third quarter of this year, Dongfang Gangwan's overseas fund reduced its holdings in targets such as Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Broadcom, and Lumentum, which were newly purchased in the second quarter, while increasing its positions in storage giant Micron Technology, SanDisk, as well as Nvidia, Google-C, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.

According to Sveriges Radio, the Swedish government office announced that starting from October 26 (Monday), ChatGPT and Claude will be banned on employee computers, with Microsoft Copilot approved as the only AI tool that has passed security review, and civil servants are required to switch to using Copilot.Mikael Wettercrantz, the agency's Director of Digitalization, stated in a post on the employee intranet that using AI services without a formal contract could "have consequences for our information security." He noted that multiple cases of improper use of open AI services have been identified, involving the sensitivity of the information inputted and the handling of AI-generated content. Due to the lack of formal agreements, consumer-grade AI tools send user queries to external company servers, and U.S. law allows authorities to request these companies to hand over data as required.Copilot is allowed to remain because the government office enhanced its security settings after review, while ChatGPT and Claude did not receive the same treatment. Some employees can still access these two banned tools through the AI platform built internally by the agency. Previously, the Swedish Tax Agency and the National Board of Health and Welfare had implemented similar bans, and the enforcement agency is also about to make a decision; an internal audit by the Transport Agency found about 10 AI services being "widely and at high risk" used.

Supermicro (SMCI.O) has launched the NVIDIA Vera CPU rack, which is a rack-level solution equipped with 256 CPUs and designed with 100% liquid cooling. It is compatible with the NVIDIA Vera Rubin platform and supports large-scale intelligent agent artificial intelligence applications.

According to Microsoft's 10-K filing for fiscal year 2026, as of June 30, 2026, the company had approximately 223,000 full-time employees, down from 228,000 the previous year, a decrease of about 5,000, marking the first decline in ten years.Among them, there are 121,000 employees in the United States and 102,000 employees overseas; approximately 77,000 employees are in research and development, a decrease of about 4,000 from the peak in 2024. During the same period, Microsoft's revenue for fiscal year 2026 increased by 18% year-on-year, reaching $331.8 billion.The above employee statistics do not include the new round of approximately 4,800 job cuts in July 2026. Microsoft previously stated that the eliminated positions would not be directly replaced by AI.

According to Gate market data, Super Micro Computer (SMCI.O) rose 16% in pre-market trading, after the company projected first-quarter revenue to exceed expectations.

Micron Technology plans to invest up to 3 billion dollars to strengthen the semiconductor supply chain in the United States.

The National Radio and Television Administration released the "China-ASEAN Micro Short Drama International Communication Development Report." The report states that micro short dramas, as a new form of online audio-visual content that originated in China, are becoming the fourth largest global audio-visual product form after American films, Japanese animations, and Korean dramas. The cooperation in micro short dramas between China and ASEAN is deepening, becoming an important carrier for China-ASEAN digital economy cooperation and cultural exchanges.The report indicates that the market size of micro short dramas in China continues to grow rapidly. By 2025, a total of 33,000 micro short dramas will be launched nationwide, and from January to September 2026, the number of launched micro short dramas will reach 490,000, which is 13 times that of the entire year of 2025. The user base of micro short dramas has reached 850 million, with monthly active users exceeding 600 million. By 2026, the overseas micro short drama market outside of China will exceed $6 billion, a year-on-year increase of 67% compared to 2025.The report also states that platforms with a Chinese background dominate the global market. From January to September 2026, all of the top 10 micro short drama apps in terms of downloads in overseas markets have a Chinese background, and among the top 10 platforms in terms of in-app purchase revenue, 9 are also of Chinese background.

According to a report by Reuters, Micron's Taoyuan union in Taiwan announced on October 20 that it plans to initiate a strike this Thursday to protest the dispute over employee bonuses and profit-sharing plans, and to support the Taichung union, which is currently in mediation negotiations with the company.Currently, the mediation between the Taoyuan union and Micron broke down in September, and the former received authorization from its members to strike in early October. The Taichung union represents Micron's largest operational department in Taiwan and is still negotiating with the company, having not yet voted on whether to strike. Micron has approximately 15,000 employees in Taiwan, primarily producing key components for AI servers, DRAM, and high-bandwidth memory (HBM). The Taoyuan union did not specify the duration of the strike, and Taiwan's regional leader Lai Ching-te called on both sides to negotiate sincerely last week.

Micron Technology Vice President Li Zhe stated at the Korea Semiconductor Exhibition SEDEX 2026 held at COEX in Seoul that the company is developing Edge Inference Memory (EIM) for physical AI. The industry expects this product to enter mass production in the second half of 2028. Micron is researching the use of EIM in LPDDR6 to meet the demand for low-power DRAM in applications such as autonomous driving and humanoid robots, and is in discussions with major customers regarding related products.According to a report by the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily, EIM is positioned between AI chips and memory, utilizing a method of stacking LPDDR on logic chips to process inference data at high speed, although the computing architecture has not been fully disclosed. Li Zhe mentioned that current robotic AI models have about 1 billion to 2 billion parameters, with low bandwidth requirements; however, as more advanced visual language models emerge, LPDDR alone will not suffice, and HBM will eventually be used for humanoid robots. Micron anticipates that future high-performance humanoid robots will require approximately 200 GB of DRAM and 4 TB of storage, while current service robots require about 12 GB of DRAM and 256 GB of storage.Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra stated that the storage capacity of a single humanoid robot is about 10 times that of an ordinary L2+ passenger vehicle. The storage industry may enter a period of sustained demand growth for several decades around 2030, driven by the need to synchronize data from hundreds of sensors and run large models locally for millisecond-level control. Counterpoint Research predicts that global DRAM demand for humanoid robots will increase from approximately 8,300 Tbit this year to about 172,000 Tbit by 2030.