Google Workers Demand End to Ties with ICE and CBP Amid Violence
- Employee Coalition Statement: Over 900 Google workers signed an open letter condemning the violence by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), urging the company to disclose its dealings with these agencies and divest from them, highlighting a strong concern for the company's ethical responsibilities.
- Condemnation of Violence: The letter cites recent fatal actions by ICE against Keith Porter, Renee Good, and Alex Pretti, with employees expressing shock at Google's role in these incidents and asserting that the company plays a significant part in perpetuating surveillance and violence, reflecting deep dissatisfaction with corporate policies.
- Call for Safety Measures: Employees demand that Google implement urgent measures to protect worker safety, including flexible work-from-home policies and immigration support, emphasizing that employee safety and well-being should be prioritized in the current political climate, showcasing strong expectations for corporate governance.
- Increasing Industry Pressure: The release of this open letter coincides with mounting pressure on tech CEOs to publicly oppose ICE, indicating that employees seek to leverage collective action to drive the company towards ethical and policy changes.
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- Stock Price Fluctuation: Alphabet's stock closed at $331.25, down 0.54%, as investors assessed the company's plan to increase AI capital expenditures to approximately $180 billion by 2026, indicating market concerns over future cash flow and AI growth.
- Surge in Trading Volume: Trading volume reached 87.1 million shares, about 136% above the three-month average of 36.8 million shares, reflecting heightened investor interest in the company's future prospects.
- Earnings Beat Expectations: In Q4, Alphabet reported sales and earnings per share growth of 18% and 31%, respectively, surpassing Wall Street's consensus, with Google Search and YouTube showing steady growth rates of 17% and 9% each.
- Cloud Business Highlight: The cloud backlog surged 55% sequentially, more than doubling from Q4 2024, indicating strong demand in the cloud services sector, while management's confidence in AI-related spending continues to grow.
Stock Performance: Broadcom's shares have fallen 10% in 2026, continuing a negative trend from 2025, but the outlook remains positive due to increased spending in the hyperscaler sector.
Future Spending Projections: Alphabet, Broadcom's largest chip partner, expects to spend between $175 billion and $185 billion on capital expenditures in 2026, significantly higher than previous estimates, which could boost Broadcom's revenue.
Partnership with Meta: Broadcom is likely to benefit from its partnership with Meta, which is expected to increase its spending on AI-related projects, further supporting Broadcom's growth outlook.
Market Positioning: Despite recent declines, Broadcom shares are seen as undervalued, with analysts suggesting a potential upside of around 41%, indicating a favorable investment opportunity.
- Stock Price Pressure: Microsoft has had a rough start to 2026, with its stock down 11% year-to-date, including a 10% drop in a single day following its second-quarter earnings report, complicating its ability to outperform the market this year.
- Cloud Growth Potential: Azure, Microsoft's cloud computing division, achieved a remarkable 39% revenue growth in Q2 2025, while the overall growth rate was 17%, underscoring the central role of cloud computing in the company's strategy.
- Competitive Advantage Analysis: Although Microsoft does not separately disclose Azure's profits, its operating margins are estimated to be between 25% and 35%, which may be lower than Microsoft's overall operating margin of 47%, compared to competitors AWS and Google Cloud.
- Future Outlook: With the ongoing demand for cloud computing, Microsoft is positioned to achieve stronger market performance in the coming years through its Azure platform, despite current stock price pressures, as the potential of cloud computing remains a key to its strategic success.
- Azure Growth Momentum: Microsoft's Azure cloud computing division achieved a remarkable 39% revenue growth in Q2 2025, highlighting its critical role in the company's overall 17% growth, indicating that cloud computing will continue to drive Microsoft's future development.
- Market Competition Analysis: Although Microsoft does not disclose Azure's financials separately, its operating margins are likely between 25% and 35%, compared to competitors Amazon AWS and Google Cloud's margins of 35% and 24%, respectively, which may exert some pressure on overall profitability.
- Investment Opportunity: Microsoft's expansion in the cloud computing sector presents a significant market opportunity, especially as demand for AI surges, leading enterprise clients to prefer renting data centers rather than building them, thus fueling Azure's rapid growth.
- Stock Market Performance Challenges: Despite Microsoft's stock price dropping 11% at the start of 2026, Azure's strong growth could help it outperform the market in the future, particularly as the broader market has only risen by 1%, providing Microsoft with a chance to regain its market position.
- Elevated Safety Standards: Waymo's VP Srikanth Thirumalai stated in an interview that the standards for autonomous driving should exceed human capabilities, emphasizing that safety is paramount, with future efforts focused on reducing sensor costs and improving software quality to ensure product safety.
- Sensor System Optimization: Currently, Waymo employs a comprehensive system with 29 cameras, 5 lidars, and 6 radars to enhance AI perception, planning to reduce the number of sensors in future robotaxi models while iterating and innovating to lower costs and improve software performance.
- Tesla's AI Perspective: Tesla's VP of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, emphasized at the ScaledML Conference that autonomous driving should rely on cameras rather than sensors, arguing that the challenge lies in AI capabilities rather than sensor technology, highlighting the importance of information extraction.
- Ongoing Industry Debate: Despite differing views on autonomous driving technology, both Waymo and Tesla acknowledge the challenges in achieving fully safe autonomous driving, indicating that the debate within the industry continues to evolve.
- Musk Ordered to Testify: A federal judge has ruled that Elon Musk must testify regarding his role in dismantling USAID, rejecting his legal team's attempt to avoid questioning, which could impact Musk's reputation and future business endeavors.
- Alphabet Beats Earnings Estimates: Alphabet reported fourth-quarter revenue of $113.83 billion, surpassing the Street consensus estimate of $111.31 billion, with earnings per share of $2.82 exceeding expectations of $2.63, indicating strong performance in advertising and cloud services that may drive stock price increases.
- Amazon Delivery Milestone: Amazon announced it delivered over 13 billion items globally in 2025, with more than 8 billion items reaching U.S. Prime members the same or next day, a speed enhancement that will further strengthen its competitive position in the e-commerce market.
- Tesla's New Model Launch: Tesla unveiled a new All-Wheel Drive variant of the Model Y in the U.S. and Puerto Rico following Elon Musk's announcement of discontinuing the Model S and X, which could attract more consumers and enhance market share.











