Business
Meta Platforms Stock Jumps 7% Today as Bloomberg Reports Company Plans to Enter the Cloud Business
Meta Platforms shares surged more than 7% Wednesday morning after Bloomberg reported the social media giant is developing plans to sell its artificial intelligence computing capacity to external customers, a move that would transform the company’s massive data center buildout from a pure cost center into a new revenue-generating business and position it as a direct competitor to Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.
Meta Platforms shares jumped as much as 8% Wednesday morning following a Bloomberg report that the tech giant plans to enter the cloud infrastructure market by selling its excess AI computing capacity. The move sets up direct competition with established hyperscale giants like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.
Shares of the Menlo Park, California-based company were trading at $603.00 as of 9:52 a.m. EDT, up $39.71, or 7.05%, on the day, building on Monday’s 2.36% advance and pushing the stock back toward levels it had occupied before a difficult stretch earlier in June.
The move would transform Meta’s sprawling and expensive data center buildout into a direct revenue-generating business. The announcement did not come entirely out of nowhere. CEO Mark Zuckerberg had signaled at Meta’s annual shareholder meeting in late May that selling excess compute capacity was “definitely on the table,” and today’s reporting indicates those plans have since taken concrete shape.
The cloud business plan represents the most significant potential strategic evolution for Meta since it pivoted its public identity around the metaverse before ultimately refocusing on artificial intelligence. Meta has been among the most aggressive spenders in the technology sector on AI infrastructure, guiding toward full-year 2026 capital expenditures of between $125 billion and $145 billion, a figure that has repeatedly drawn investor scrutiny over whether the company can generate returns commensurate with that level of spending. The cloud business announcement is a direct answer to that concern, suggesting Meta sees a path to monetizing the infrastructure it has been building rather than simply absorbing the costs internally.
Adam Crisafulli, analyst and founder of Vital Knowledge, detailed the sharply contrasting viewpoints driving market sentiment following the news. On the positive side, Crisafulli noted the shift directly answers long-standing investor concerns regarding Meta’s aggressive capital expenditures. “Meta has been one of the heaviest spenders and many feared it was building way more capacity than it could ever use internally, so this external cloud business will help monetize all that infrastructure, bolstering revenue, margins, and cash flow,” Crisafulli wrote. “Since the industry in aggregate still seems to be capacity constrained, this Meta compute infrastructure will likely be quickly utilized by others.”
The cloud entry also positions Meta to compete in one of the technology sector’s most valuable and fastest-growing markets. Cloud infrastructure services generated roughly $400 billion in annual revenue globally in 2025 according to industry estimates, with AWS, Azure and Google Cloud holding the dominant share of that market. Meta’s entry, backed by the extraordinary computing infrastructure the company has built specifically for AI model training and inference, could give it a credible offer for enterprise and AI-focused customers, particularly given that Meta’s hardware investments have centered on the same Nvidia GPU clusters that AI companies across the sector depend on most heavily.
While the news sent Meta shares surging, it weighed heavily on other hyperscaler and neocloud stocks as a major new competitor entered the arena. Shares of CoreWeave, a GPU cloud provider that went public earlier this year, slipped in early trading as investors reassessed the competitive implications of a company with Meta’s infrastructure scale entering the market for AI computing capacity.
Wednesday’s rally comes after a difficult stretch for Meta heading into the final week of June. A federal judge ruled on June 29 to allow a multi-state child addiction lawsuit to proceed against the company, adding to a string of legal headwinds that have shadowed Meta’s stock throughout 2026. The company has also faced mounting scrutiny over its decision to replace some human content moderation with generative AI systems, a transition that independent reporting indicated had experienced systemic glitches in its initial rollout. Those concerns had weighed on the stock during June, contributing to a period in which Meta’s shares declined even as the broader technology sector strengthened.
Meta faces challenges in the first half of 2026, with a 15% decline in stock price amidst a strong push into AI. The company is exploring cloud services to monetize excess AI capacity, while legal troubles continue to mount regarding its platforms’ impact on children.
Against that backdrop, Wednesday’s cloud business announcement offers a narrative reset for a company whose investment story had started to center more heavily on costs and legal risks than on growth opportunities. Meta’s most recent quarterly results showed revenue of $47.5 billion for the second quarter, up from a year earlier, with capital expenditures of $17 billion for the quarter alone, reflecting the scale of infrastructure spending that the cloud business plan is now designed to partially offset.
The company’s next earnings report is scheduled for July 29, a date that will give investors their first structured opportunity to hear management discuss the cloud strategy in detail alongside the company’s advertising revenue trends, AI product development timeline and broader financial outlook for the back half of the year. Analysts widely expect the earnings call to be heavily focused on the cloud business announcement, with questions about pricing strategy, target customer segments, the competitive moat Meta can build relative to established hyperscalers and the timeline for generating meaningful cloud revenue likely to dominate investor questioning.
Wall Street’s consensus view on Meta heading into Wednesday remained broadly bullish, with the average 12-month price target across major research firms sitting well above the stock’s pre-announcement trading range. Wednesday’s rally, if sustained, would help repair some of the technical damage Meta’s chart accumulated during a difficult June and position the stock more favorably heading into what many analysts expect will be a pivotal second-half earnings season for the broader artificial intelligence sector.
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Barstool Sports founder and President Dave Portnoy blasted New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s socialist agenda, warning the city is headed in a dangerous direction and saying some progressive politicians ‘hate America.’
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy is keeping the door open to a potential run for New York City mayor as he ramps up criticism of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, arguing the candidate’s economic message and political alliances are cause for concern.
He joined FOX Business’ Stuart Varney on “Varney & Co.” to discuss New York City politics, the state of the Democratic Party and why he believes voters should pay close attention to the views of candidates seeking public office.
Barstool founder and CEO Dave Portnoy (Michael Hickey / Getty Images)
After Varney asked if he would challenge Mamdani in a run for NYC Mayor, Portnoy responded, “It depends what day you wake me up.”
“You show me a clip like that, Stuart, my blood starts to boil.” Portnoy said responding to a clip of Mamdani defending his economic agenda, arguing that raising taxes on wealthy New Yorkers and embracing socialist principles would help address the city’s financial challenges.
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., joins ‘Varney & Co.’ to warn Zohran Mamdani’s rent freeze and socialist agenda are worsening New York City’s housing crisis while defending free-market solutions.
Portnoy went on to criticize Mamdani’s comments about balancing the city’ finances.
“This guys’ unbelievable. You didn’t balance anything. You just took money, you robbed Peter to pay Paul. Like what are we doing here?” Portnoy said.
Portnoy also left the door open to a potential political run in a recent interview with Fox News Digital. When asked whether he would consider running against Mamdani, Portnoy said, “maybe I’m the guy to do it.”
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., joins ‘Varney & Co.’ to discuss Speaker Mike Johnson’s warning on rising socialism, Democrats’ leftward shift and concerns over anti-Semitism in New York City.
In addition, he pointed to several progressive political figures and argued voters should take candidates at their word when evaluating past statements and policy positions before Election Day.
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“These are anti-American, they hate America,” Portnoy said. “I trust what people say a lot before they’re elected. When they get elected, a lot of these people are deleting their tweets… It’s garbage, and it’s scary.”
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Although Portnoy acknowledged he has floated the idea of entering politics himself, he said he understands the personal costs that come with seeking office.
“I’d hate to get into politics because it’s the worst people, it’s the worst life, you can’t enjoy your life,” he said. “I don’t know what’s going on in this country and if somebody isn’t gonna step up… It’s a very scary place where we’re going.”
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Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Seeking Alpha’s Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.
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Kroger announced Wednesday it will acquire regional supermarket chain Giant Eagle in a $1.65 billion deal, marking the grocery giant’s first major acquisition since regulators blocked its proposed $25 billion merger with Albertsons nearly two years ago.
The acquisition will strengthen Kroger’s presence across several Midwestern and Mid-Atlantic markets as traditional grocery chains compete with Walmart and Amazon while consumers continue searching for lower prices after years of elevated inflation.
“We evaluated the opportunity carefully, and the strategic fit is clear,” Kroger CEO Greg Foran said in a statement. “Giant Eagle expands our reach into attractive adjacent markets.”
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Kroger announced Wednesday it will acquire regional supermarket chain Giant Eagle in a $1.65 billion deal. (Shelby Tauber/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Giant Eagle operates about 197 supermarkets and 11 standalone pharmacies across northern Ohio, western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and Indiana. Kroger currently operates roughly 2,700 supermarkets and multi-department stores, along with about 2,200 pharmacies, across 35 states.
The transaction includes $1.25 billion in cash and the assumption of approximately $400 million in Giant Eagle’s outstanding liabilities.
Giant Eagle operates about 197 supermarkets and 11 standalone pharmacies across northern Ohio, western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and Indiana. (Allison Farrand/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The acquisition follows the collapse of Kroger’s proposed merger with Albertsons in late 2024, when courts blocked the deal over antitrust concerns, prompting the nation’s largest traditional supermarket operator to pursue other avenues for growth.
The grocery industry remains fiercely competitive as retailers battle for market share amid persistent pressure on household budgets. Kroger has sought to keep prices competitive as shoppers remain price-conscious, while Walmart has continued to gain grocery market share and Amazon has expanded its online grocery offerings.
Kroger said it expects the Giant Eagle acquisition to increase adjusted earnings beginning in the second full year after the transaction closes, which is expected in 2027.
A Kroger grocery store in Covington, Kentucky, on June 2, 2024. (Jeffrey Dean/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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The deal also reflects a broader wave of consolidation across the consumer sector, with companies pursuing acquisitions to gain scale and navigate inflationary pressures, changing consumer preferences and heightened competition.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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Sony is ending production of physical discs for all new PlayStation game releases beginning in January 2028, marking a significant step in the gaming industry’s ongoing transition to digital distribution.
Sony Interactive Entertainment announced the decision Wednesday in a post on its official PlayStation Blog, saying all new games released after January 2028 will be available through the PlayStation Store and retailers in digital formats only.
The company said the move reflects changing consumer behavior as more players purchase and download games digitally rather than buy physical copies.
“As consumer preferences and the broader entertainment industry continue to shift away from physical discs to digital, physical game disc production for all new games releasing on PlayStation consoles will be discontinued starting January 2028,” Sony said in the announcement.
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Sony is ending production of physical discs for all new PlayStation game releases beginning in January 2028. (Emanuele Cremaschi/Getty Images)
The change will not affect games that have already been released or titles scheduled to launch on disc before January 2028.
The decision represents another milestone in the entertainment industry’s broader migration away from physical media. Music, movies and PC gaming have increasingly embraced digital distribution over the past decade, reducing manufacturing, packaging and shipping costs while giving consumers instant access to purchases.
The change will not affect games that have already been released or titles scheduled to launch on disc before January 2028. (Jim Vondruska/Reuters)
Sony said games will continue to be available through both the PlayStation Store and retailers, though new releases after January 2028 will be sold in digital formats rather than on physical discs.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SONY | SONY GROUP CORP. | 20.21 | +0.15 | +0.75% |
The company said the transition will allow it to better align with how most players access games today while continuing to give customers flexibility in where they purchase new titles.
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“We’ll continue to prioritize our resources to drive innovation in how players can access games and provide choices as to where players prefer to purchase new games, whether that’s at retailers or PlayStation Store,” Sony said. “We remain committed to delivering a world-class gaming experience to our fans and we thank you for your continued support.”
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