US Tech Giant Hewlett Packard Plans Up to 6,000 Job Cuts

The logo for The Hewlett-Packard Company is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, June 27, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
The logo for The Hewlett-Packard Company is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, June 27, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
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US Tech Giant Hewlett Packard Plans Up to 6,000 Job Cuts

The logo for The Hewlett-Packard Company is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, June 27, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
The logo for The Hewlett-Packard Company is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, June 27, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

PC-maker Hewlett Packard on Tuesday said it would layoff as many as 6,000 employees over the next three years as the slumping world economy continues to embroil the US tech sector.

HP, which has a payroll of about 61,000 people, said it aimed to secure $1.4 billion in annual savings through 2025 as it followed the cost-cutting path of other tech giants such as Facebook-owner Meta, Amazon and Twitter.

The plan "will enable us to better serve our customers and drive long-term value creation by reducing our costs and reinvesting in key growth initiatives to position our business for the future," HP CEO Enrique Lores said in a statement.

Meta said earlier this month it will lay off more than 11,000 of its staff and Twitter saw half of its 7,500-strong employees culled just days after the company was taken over by billionaire Elon Musk in late October.

"These are the toughest decisions we have to make, because they impact colleagues we care deeply about. We are committed to treating people with care and respect..." an HP spokesperson said in an email to AFP.

HP, which makes computer hardware and printers, announced the layoff plan as it announced an 11.2 percent fall in revenues to $14.8 billion for the final fiscal quarter of 2022.



Nvidia Overtakes Apple as World’s Most Valuable Company

 A man walks past the Nvidia logo at the company's AI Summit in Mumbai, India, October 24, 2024. (Reuters)
A man walks past the Nvidia logo at the company's AI Summit in Mumbai, India, October 24, 2024. (Reuters)
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Nvidia Overtakes Apple as World’s Most Valuable Company

 A man walks past the Nvidia logo at the company's AI Summit in Mumbai, India, October 24, 2024. (Reuters)
A man walks past the Nvidia logo at the company's AI Summit in Mumbai, India, October 24, 2024. (Reuters)

Nvidia dethroned Apple as the world's most valuable company on Friday, following a record-setting rally in the stock powered by an insatiable demand for its new supercomputing AI chips.

Nvidia's stock market value briefly touched $3.53 trillion, while that of Apple was $3.52 trillion, according to data from LSEG.

In June, Nvidia briefly became the world's most valuable company, before it was overtaken by Microsoft and Apple. The tech trio's market capitalizations have been neck-and-neck for several months. Microsoft's market value stood at $3.20 trillion.

Nvidia's stock has risen about 18% so far in October, with a string of gains coming after OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, announced a funding round of $6.6 billion. Nvidia provides chips used to train so-called foundation models such as OpenAI's GPT-4.

"More companies are now embracing artificial intelligence in their everyday tasks and demand remains strong for Nvidia chips," said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

"It is certainly in a sweet spot and so long as we avoid a big economic downturn in the United States, there is a feeling that companies will continue to invest heavily in AI capabilities, creating a healthy tailwind for Nvidia."

Nvidia's shares hit a record high on Tuesday, building on a rally from last week when TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, posted a forecast-beating 54% jump in quarterly profit driven by soaring demand for chips used in AI.

The next big test will be when Nvidia reports third-quarter results in November. Nvidia in August forecast third-quarter revenue of $32.5 billion, plus or minus 2%, compared with the current average analyst expectation of $32.90 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Morgan Stanley analyst Joseph Moore said in a note dated Oct. 10 that he remains "very bullish" about the company longer term, but the recent rally "raises the bar for earnings somewhat".

After a meeting with Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang, Moore noted the ramp up in production of its next-generation Blackwell chips appeared to be "quite strong" and are booked out for 12 months. The stock came under pressure in August after Nvidia confirmed reports that the production of Blackwell chips was delayed until the fourth quarter.

Shares of Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft have an outsized influence on the richly valued technology sector as well as the broader US stock market, with the trio accounting for about a fifth of the S&P 500 index's weightage.

Frenzy around the prospects of AI, expectations that the US Federal Reserve will considerably bring down interest rates, and most recently, an upbeat start to the earnings season, have pushed the benchmark S&P 500 to an all-time high last week.

Nvidia's massive gains have helped boost the stock's appeal for option traders and the company's options are among the most traded on any given day in recent months, according to data from options analytics provider Trade Alert.

The stock has surged nearly 190% so far this year as a boom in generative AI prompted the company to issue a series of blowout forecasts.

"The question is whether the revenue stream will last for a long time and will be driven by the emotion of investors rather than by any ability to prove or disprove the thesis that AI is overdone," said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane Investments, a family investment office in New Vernon, New Jersey.

"I think Nvidia knows that near term, their numbers are likely to be quite remarkable."