With this, Dell could add more than $80 billion to its market value.

The company reported first-quarter revenue of $43.8 billion for its 2027 fiscal year, far ahead of analyst expectations of about $35 billion.

Earnings also came in stronger than expected, with adjusted earnings per share reaching $4.86 compared with forecasts of roughly $2.94. Net income climbed 256% year-on-year to $3.44 billion.

The strongest growth came from Dell’s Infrastructure Solutions Group, the division responsible for servers and data-centre systems. Revenue in that business jumped 181% to $29 billion as companies continued spending heavily on AI infrastructure.

Dell noted that AI server sales alone reached $16.1 billion during the quarter, up 757% from a year earlier.

The company also booked $24.4 billion in new AI server orders, pushing its backlog to $51.3 billion. That means Dell still has tens of billions of dollars’ worth of systems waiting to be delivered over the coming quarters.

Investors focused heavily on the growing backlog because it gives Dell unusual visibility into future demand at a time when many technology companies still find it difficult to predict how long the AI spending wave will last.

Following the results, Dell raised its full-year revenue forecast to between $165 billion and $169 billion, up from earlier guidance of $138 billion to $142 billion.

The company now expects AI server revenue to hit roughly $60 billion this year, compared with its previous estimate of $50 billion.

Adjusted earnings per share guidance also increased to $17.90 from $12.90.

Dell’s recent growth has been tied to Nvidia, whose graphics processors power most of the company’s AI systems. The results came only days after Nvidia itself reported record data-centre revenue of $75.2 billion, up 92% from a year earlier.

Together, the numbers from both companies point to aggressive spending on AI infrastructure by major technology firms and cloud providers.

Dell has benefited from orders linked to companies including Alphabet, Amazon and CoreWeave, as well as large AI data-centre projects in Europe.

The company has also expanded its partnership with Nvidia through Project Helix, an initiative designed to help businesses build and deploy AI systems more quickly.

The latest earnings added to signs that demand for enterprise AI infrastructure remains strong across the industry. Lenovo recently reported strong AI server growth, while Super Micro Computer continues expanding manufacturing for GPU-based servers.

Technology companies are expected to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on AI data centres this year as competition around AI services intensifies.

Before the recent shares surge, Dell spent years being seen mainly as a PC and storage company. Now, investors view it as one of the major suppliers benefiting from the global vision to build AI infrastructure.

The company expects operating income of €630 million for Q2, below analyst estimates of €684 million. It also forecast 299 million premium subscribers, falling short of the 302 million expected in the market.

Revenue guidance of €4.8 billion remains broadly in line with forecasts, while monthly active users are projected at 778 million, slightly above expectations.

Investors reacted quickly. Shares dropped about 6% after the outlook was released, as investors focused on slowing growth in paid subscriptions, particularly in Europe and North America, where recent price increases appear to be limiting further expansion.

In contrast, the first quarter showed stronger financial performance. Spotify reported revenue of €4.53 billion, up 8% year on year and in line with expectations. Operating income reached a record €715 million, supported by lower payroll-related costs. Gross margin rose to 33%, one of its highest levels to date.

User growth also held firm in Q1. Monthly active users climbed to 761 million, beating forecasts. Premium subscribers rose to 293 million, up 9% year on year, although slightly below market estimates.

Leadership is still under co-chief executives Gustav Söderström and Alex Norström following the transition earlier in the year, when Daniel Ek moved into the role of executive chairman.

Spotify is enhancing its artificial intelligence features to support engagement and retention. Tools such as AI DJ, AI Playlist, and Prompted Playlist have expanded across music and podcasts, while newer recommendation features aim to deepen personalisation.

Competition is intense, with Apple Music and Amazon Music both expanding similar AI-driven discovery tools, while streaming platforms more broadly are relying on recommendation systems to sustain user engagement.

Per Bloomberg, discussions are still at an early stage and there is no certainty a deal will happen. Both companies declined to comment.

Shortly after, PayPal shares rose 6.7% to $47.02 in New York on Tuesday. That gives the company a market value of about $43.3 billion.

Stripe, which is still privately held, recently confirmed a $159 billion valuation in an employee tender offer. The company was founded by brothers Patrick Collison and John Collison. It has grown into one of the most valuable financial technology firms in the world.

Speaking this week, Patrick Collison said: “PayPal has had, obviously, a tough time over the past few years and the landscape has changed quite a bit with Apple Pay and Google Pay and everything like that. I can’t talk about any, you know, M&A hypotheticals but they’ve definitely had a tough time.”

PayPal was founded in the late 1990s and helped build early online payments. In recent years, however, it has faced slower growth.

Digital wallets such as Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay and Alphabet Inc.’s Google Pay have taken market share. The company’s fourth-quarter revenue and profit fell short of analysts’ estimates. Payment volumes have also slowed.

At the same time, PayPal is changing its leadership. Enrique Lores will become president and chief executive on March 1, replacing Alex Chriss, who was removed earlier this month. David Dorman has been appointed board chair.

Stripe, meanwhile, has continued to expand. The company processed $1.9 trillion in payment volume in 2025. It has also secured a US national bank trust charter for its stablecoin subsidiary, Bridge, showing plans to strengthen its role in regulated digital payments.

If the acquisition of PayPal by Stripe proceeds, the transaction could rank among the largest deals in the financial technology sector.

The deal ranks among the biggest mergers in a sector still adjusting to slower growth after the pandemic surge.

Under the terms of the agreement, Udemy shareholders will receive 0.8 shares of Coursera for each Udemy share they own. Based on recent market prices, that puts Udemy’s valuation at roughly $930 million and represents a notable premium on its recent trading levels. 

The transaction is expected to close in the second half of next year, subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals.

This deal brings together two platforms with different strengths at a time when scale counts more than ever. Coursera has built its reputation through partnerships with universities and institutions, providing degrees and professional certificates. 

Udemy, by contrast, runs a large marketplace of independent instructors selling courses to individuals and companies. Together, they are betting that breadth, brand and reach will help them win more corporate clients and lock in steadier subscription revenue.

Growth in consumer enrolments has cooled, while employers are becoming more selective about where they spend on training. Both companies are now positioning the combined platform as a go-to destination for workforce skills in areas such as data, software development and emerging technologies.

Greg Hart, Coursera’s chief executive, described the merger as a response to fast-changing job demands. “We’re at a pivotal moment in which AI is rapidly redefining the skills required for every job across every industry. Organisations and individuals around the world need a platform that is as agile as the new and emerging skills learners must master,” he said.

Udemy’s Chief Executive, Hugo Sarrazin, said the tie-up would extend the company’s reach and speed up product development. “Through this combination with Coursera, we will create meaningful benefits for our learners, enterprise customers, and instructors, while delivering significant value to our shareholders, who will participate in the substantial upside potential of the combined company,” he said.

Financially, the companies expect the merger to enhance their cost base. They project more than $1.5 billion in combined annual revenue and estimate cost savings of about $115 million a year within two years of closing. Coursera has also indicated it plans to pursue a sizeable share buyback programme after the deal is completed.

The boards of both companies have unanimously approved the transaction. Once closed, Coursera shareholders are expected to own about 59 per cent of the combined company, with Udemy shareholders holding the remaining 41%. 

The enlarged group will operate under the Coursera name, trade on the New York Stock Exchange, and be headquartered in Mountain View, California. Udemy’s shares will be delisted from Nasdaq.

Online education stocks have lagged broader indices this year, weighed down by pricing pressure and doubts about long-term returns from new technology investments. Udemy shares are down sharply year-to-date, while Coursera has also fallen, leaving both well below their post-listing highs.

The Santa Clara-based chipmaker’s stock climbed nearly 5% in premarket trading on Wednesday, briefly touching $4.94 trillion before settling around $4.89 trillion in market value.

The rally followed Chief Executive Jensen Huang’s announcement of $500 billion in AI chip bookings and plans to build seven new supercomputers for the U.S. government.

Speaking at Nvidia’s developer conference in Washington, Huang disclosed that one of the supercomputers will be developed in partnership with Oracle and powered by 100,000 of Nvidia’s advanced Blackwell chips. 

The firm also confirmed a $100 billion partnership with OpenAI to develop GPU supercomputers and a $2 billion equity investment in Elon Musk’s xAI.

Nvidia’s transformation from a niche graphics card maker into the backbone of the artificial intelligence ecosystem has been commendable. The company now sits ahead of Apple, Microsoft, and Alphabet in valuation growth.

“In many ways, everything that could have gone right for the firm, has gone right over the last sort of 24 hours,” said Michael Brown, senior research strategist at Pepperstone.

For its fiscal second quarter of 2026, Nvidia reported revenue of $46.7 billion, a 56% increase year-on-year, with data-centre GPUs accounting for 88% of sales. The company’s stock added roughly $230 billion in value within a single day, illustrating its market-moving power.

Analysts, however, warn that Nvidia’s valuation, trading at about 50 times forward earnings, leaves little room for error. Given its dominant weighting in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100, any major price movement could send ripples through pension funds, ETFs, and technology portfolios across global markets.

Beyond the markets, Nvidia has also become an important player in U.S.–China technology diplomacy. Its Blackwell processors are at the heart of Washington’s export restrictions, aimed at limiting China’s access to advanced AI computing systems. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he might raise the issue of the high-end chips when he meets Chinese President Xi Jinping.

To remain compliant with these export rules, Nvidia is designing modified versions of its chips for overseas markets, a strategy to sustain demand while scaling through geopolitical pressure. This could ultimately speed up the $5 trillion valuation reach for Nvidia.

Figures from the Nigerian Exchange show that investors traded 2.7 billion shares worth N85.2 billion in 127,284 deals, compared with 3.2 billion shares valued at N99.7 billion in 132,711 deals a week earlier.

The Financial Services sector led activity by volume with 1.9 billion shares worth N37.8 billion across 56,026 deals.

This represented 69.8% of total equity turnover volume and 44.4% of value. The ICT sector followed with 184.87 million shares valued at N6.19 billion in 12,893 deals, while the Services sector ranked third with 176.51 million shares worth N813.25 million in 6,011 deals.

Abbey Mortgage Bank, Fidelity Bank, and United Bank for Africa were the top three traded equities, accounting for 875.82 million shares worth N16.42 billion in 11,389 deals. Together, they represented 32.02 percent of total volume and 19.27% of value.

Despite the lower turnover, the NGX All-Share Index and Market Capitalisation appreciated by 1.12%, closing the week at 140,545.69 points and N88.9 trillion, respectively.

According to a regulatory filing, Musk acquired 2.57 million Tesla shares last week through The Elon Musk Revocable Trust, spending close to $999 million at prices between $371.90 and $396.36 per share. 

This is his first open-market purchase since 2020, a move analysts interpret as both a vote of confidence and a calculated step to strengthen control ahead of an important shareholder meeting in November.

With this acquisition, Musk’s trust directly holds 96 million Tesla shares and indirectly controls more than 413 million, tightening his grip on the company as it prepares to vote on a proposed $1 trillion performance-based compensation package. 

The plan, set for 6 November, ties Musk’s payout to extraordinary milestones such as delivering 20 million vehicles, reaching an $8.5 trillion market cap, and deploying one million robotaxis and humanoid robots. If approved, Musk’s stake could rise to as much as 29%.

Tesla’s stock closed at $395.94 on Monday, up 7.36% and reversing its year-to-date decline of around 2%. Options activity also spiked, with more than 120,000 contracts trading around the $360 strike price, reflecting heightened bullish sentiment despite lower implied volatility. The rally extends a rebound in September, lifting Tesla’s shares nearly 10% month-to-date.

Still, the company’s operational realities are fraught. Global EV sales are down 10% this year. Europe has seen a sharp 40% decline, while China has slipped 6%. In the U.S., temporary strength is being fuelled by consumers rushing to take advantage of the $7,500 federal tax credit before it expires. 

Tesla’s American market share dropped to 38% in August, the lowest in eight years, a contrast to the 80% it held in 2020. Analysts warn that the third-quarter gains may prove short-lived once incentives fade.

Internally, there have been questions over Musk’s political involvement and its effect on Tesla’s brand. Board chair Robyn Denholm objected these concerns on Friday, saying: “It’s up to him” and adding that Musk is now “front and center” at Tesla after several months at the White House.

Investors exchanged 8.564 billion shares worth N99.936 billion in 177,870 deals, compared with 8.736 billion shares valued at N134.577 billion in 180,290 deals the previous week.

For the week ended August 15, 2025, the Financial Services Industry led activity with 6.916 billion shares worth N56.716 billion traded in 84,589 deals. This represented 80.75% of total equity turnover volume and 56.75% of value.

The Oil & Gas Industry followed with 387.647 million shares worth N8.502 billion in 11,249 deals, while the Agriculture Industry ranked third with 315.540 million shares valued at N6.019 billion in 11,747 deals.

Key performance indicators weakened as the NGX All-Share Index (ASI) and Market Capitalisation fell 0.51% each.

The index shed 746.59 basis points to close at 144,620.44, while Market Capitalisation declined by N472.36 billion to settle at N91.50 trillion.

The stock market decline was driven by profit-taking in medium- and large-cap stocks, including NEM, CONAHLLPLC, ELLAHLAKES, MTNN, and 35 others. The Insurance sector led the losses among major indices.

On a weekly basis, the market dropped 0.78%, wiping out N718 billion in investors’ wealth. Trading activity also weakened as total volume and value of trades fell by 43.93% and 36.80%, respectively.

U.S. shares rose 7% on Thursday, with a further 2.6% gain after hours, while Frankfurt-listed shares climbed 3.6% on Friday. Investors are betting that government backing could provide much-needed stability for the struggling chipmaker.

The potential investment was first reported by Bloomberg, noting discussions that followed an 11 August meeting between President Donald Trump and Intel’s Chief Executive Officer, Lip-Bu Tan. 

The talks reportedly focused on how Washington could accelerate domestic semiconductor manufacturing, with the delayed Ohio mega-fab project expected to be a central part of the plan.

The development comes amid one of Intel’s most challenging periods in decades. The company posted a $2.9 billion net loss in the second quarter of 2025, driven by $1.9 billion in severance costs and $800 million in asset impairments. 

A restructuring plan has seen 25,000 jobs cut and major chip fabrication projects in Germany, Poland, and Ohio scrapped or delayed.

Trump’s involvement with Intel has been far from smooth. Days before the reported stake talks, he called for Tan to resign over what he described as “highly conflicted” ties to Chinese firms. 

His comments followed a letter from Senator Tom Cotton, alleging Tan’s investments in over 100 Chinese technology companies, including at least eight linked to the People’s Liberation Army.

Tan’s past leadership of Cadence Design Systems has also resurfaced in political debate. In July 2025, the company admitted to illegally exporting chip design software to a Chinese military university, paying $140 million in fines.

Despite political issues, Intel aims to continue cooperating with the White House. “Intel is deeply committed to supporting President Trump’s efforts to strengthen U.S. technology and manufacturing leadership,” a company spokesperson said. 

“We look forward to continuing our work with the Trump Administration to advance these shared priorities, but we are not going to comment on rumours or speculation.”

Tan has also made it apparent that there will be no return to unchecked spending. “There are no more blank cheques. Every investment must make economic sense,” he said.

Intel has already secured nearly $8 billion in federal subsidies through the CHIPS and Science Act, placing it among the largest beneficiaries of U.S. semiconductor funding.

Analysts suggest a direct government stake could help stabilise Intel’s finances and restore competitiveness against rivals Nvidia, AMD, and TSMC.

Complex regulations, high minimum investment thresholds, and limited access to international brokerage platforms have frequently made it difficult for individuals on the continent to engage in the growth of global companies.

However, recent innovations in fractional investing are breaking down these barriers. Instead of requiring investors to buy whole shares, which can be prohibitively expensive, fractional investing allows users to purchase parts of shares starting from as little as R150 ($8.34).

This approach lowers the entry barrier, enabling everyday Africans to invest in iconic companies like Apple, Tesla, Amazon, and Google without the need for large sums of capital.

Security and trust remain paramount when investing internationally. Leading platforms now prioritise bank-level encryption, two-factor authentication, and investor protection schemes to safeguard user assets.

These measures offer peace of mind and confidence for investors venturing into global markets.

One such platform, Bamboo, is at the forefront of this movement. It offers access to over 3,000 US-listed stocks, representing a combined market capitalisation of more than $21 trillion.

Bamboo’s mobile-first platform offers users a simplified investment process that allows users to sign up quickly.

Investors can buy and sell stocks instantly, track their portfolios, and stay updated on market trends, all from the convenience of their smartphones.

By democratising access to global investments, Bamboo is assisting individuals across Africa in growing their wealth while contributing to broader economic empowerment throughout the continent. Increased participation in international markets promotes financial inclusion, wealth creation, and ultimately, more robust economies.

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