Adobe Surges as AI Optimism Fuels Annual Revenue Forecast

Figurines are seen in front of the Adobe logo in this illustration taken June 13, 2022. (Reuters)
Figurines are seen in front of the Adobe logo in this illustration taken June 13, 2022. (Reuters)
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Adobe Surges as AI Optimism Fuels Annual Revenue Forecast

Figurines are seen in front of the Adobe logo in this illustration taken June 13, 2022. (Reuters)
Figurines are seen in front of the Adobe logo in this illustration taken June 13, 2022. (Reuters)

Adobe shares soared 16% on Friday, putting the Photoshop-maker on track for its best day in more than four years, after the company raised its annual revenue forecast as more customers turned to its AI-powered editing tools.

The forecast allayed investor fears that Adobe, a major player in the market for editing tools for photos and videos, could lose customers to AI startups such as Dall-E maker OpenAI that allow users to generate images with simple text prompts, Reuters reported.

"Generative artificial intelligence adoption should help drive growth over the next several quarters," Morningstar analysts said in a note.

Results showed Adobe's AI efforts, including the Firefly image-generating software it rolled out last year, were paying off, with senior executive David Wadhwani saying existing users were moving to higher-priced plans to gain access to Firefly.

At $528.81, the company's shares hit their highest level since March 14, and if the gains hold, Adobe was set to add more than $30 billion to its market value.

Its shares have lost about 23% of their value this year, compared with a nearly 14% gain for the S&P 500 index.

The company raised the midpoint of its fiscal 2024 revenue forecast to $21.45 billion on Thursday, compared with its prior midpoint of $21.40 billion.

It reported $3.91 billion as revenue from its digital media business, which made up about 74% of its total second-quarter revenue of $5.31 billion. Analysts had expected total sales of $5.29 billion.



Google Reportedly Weighs Large Data Center in Vietnam

FILE PHOTO: The logo for Google is seen at the Google Store Chelsea in Manhattan, New York City, US, November 17, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The logo for Google is seen at the Google Store Chelsea in Manhattan, New York City, US, November 17, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
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Google Reportedly Weighs Large Data Center in Vietnam

FILE PHOTO: The logo for Google is seen at the Google Store Chelsea in Manhattan, New York City, US, November 17, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The logo for Google is seen at the Google Store Chelsea in Manhattan, New York City, US, November 17, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo

Alphabet's Google is considering building a large data center in Vietnam, a person briefed on the plans said, in what would be the first such investment by a big US technology company in the Southeast Asian nation.
Google is weighing setting up a "hyperscale" data center close to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's southern economic hub, the source said, declining to be named because the information is not public.
The investment, the size of which the source did not specify, would be a shot in the arm for Vietnam which has so far failed to attract major overseas capital in data centers due to its patchy infrastructure, with large tech companies preferring to house their centers in rival nations in the region.
According to Reuters, it was not clear how quickly Google will reach a decision on an investment but the source said internal talks are on and the data center could be ready in 2027.
A spokesperson for Google declined to comment about the data center plan.
Hyperscale centers are the largest in the industry, with power consumption usually similar to that of a big city.
A hyperscale data center with power consumption capacity of 50 megawatts (MW) could cost between $300 million and $650 million, according to estimates based on data published by real estate consultant Jones Lang LaSalle in a report this year on data centers in Vietnam.
Google's move was motivated by the large number of its domestic and foreign cloud services clients in Vietnam and the country's expanding digital economy, the source said, noting the Southeast Asian nation was one of the fastest-growing markets for YouTube, Google's popular online video sharing platform.
Currently the top data center operators in Vietnam, based on computing space, are industrial investment firm IDC Becamex and telecommunications company VNPT, both Vietnamese state-owned enterprises, according to an internal market report by an industrial park in Vietnam seen by Reuters.
The Nikkei reported in May that Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba was considering building a data center in Vietnam. Alibaba did not reply to a request for comment.