Microsoft Announces AI Accelerator Expansion; Micron Boosts Buyback Authorization
The S&P 500 is slightly lower ahead of third-quarter earnings season as technology and consumer discretionary stocks drag. Energy stocks are up, with the Energy SPDR ETF hitting an intraday high due to rising oil prices from Middle East tensions. Microsoft announced it will scale its Azure Maia AI accelerators next year, potentially reducing reliance on Nvidia GPUs. Despite this news, Nvidia shares fell as customers continue favoring their chips for performance and revenue potential per gigawatt of power. Meta introduced Muse Wonder, a new AI model with state-of-the-art results in key benchmarks. Micron Technology's board approved an additional $33 billion in share repurchases, increasing the total authorization to $35.16 billion. The expanded buyback plan will take effect on December 9 when restrictions under the CHIPS Act expire.
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Topics: AI developments consumer discretionary stocks energy ETFs Meta AI models Micron share buybacks Microsoft Azure Maia Nvidia oil prices S&P 500 technology sector