Artificial intelligence drove higher cloud spending this past quarter, and that in turn drove earnings upside for the likes of Google, Microsoft and SAP.

Less so, however, for Intel, IBM, ServiceNow and Meta, which haven’t yet seen the AI bump they hope to get or, in Meta’s case, are spending big on it well ahead of the revenue opportunity. That was the gist of a mixed week for tech’s first big slug of earnings reports, with more coming next week: Amazon, Advanced Micro Devices, Samsung, Qualcomm and others.

Another positive sign this week for the entire tech industry ecosystem was Rubrik’s IPO, after which its shares jumped 16% in their public market debut. IPOs, in a long drought lately, are what drive returns that are then invested back into startups, not to mention Teslas, local restaurants and already overpriced homes.

Meanwhile, IBM bought saved HashiCorp for $6.4 billion, and Nvidia dug under the cushions of its cash-flow couch to buy GPU clustering startup Run:ai for $700 million. But Salesforce decided spending multiple billions on Informatica didn’t pencil out.

As concerns rise about the cost and time to train and run AI models, many companies are offering smaller and more efficient models — a trend that’s only likely to grow in coming months.

Lots of action on the policy front this week, as President Biden signed the ByteDance sell-or-ban bill, raising the distinct possibility that TikTok could exit the United States — though there’s a lot of legal wrangling to come before that happens. Two other big policy dictums came down as well: The FCC reinstated net neutrality rules that Trump ended, and the FTC banned noncompete clauses.

This and other news will be discussed in much more depth on John Furrier’s and Dave Vellante’s weekly podcast theCUBE Pod, out now on YouTube. Also, don’t miss Vellante’s weekly deep dive, Breaking Analysis, due out this weekend.

Here’s this week’s roundup of those and other important tech stories on SiliconANGLE and beyond:

Generative AI on the cheap

A wide variety of AI and data leaders are looking to reduce the cost and speed the deployment of AI with smaller and more efficient models:

Snowflake is taking on OpenAI, Google, Meta and others with its open-source Arctic AI model

Microsoft open-sources Pi-3 Mini small language model that outperforms Meta’s Llama 2

OpenAI enhances security, control and cost management for enterprise API users

Monster API uses generative AI to help anyone build generative AI

Apple researchers open-source OpenELM language model series

AWS updates Amazon Bedrock with new foundation models, AI management features And Zeus Kerravala’s dive into the details: New Amazon Bedrock offerings provide a new way to fast-track generative AI apps and experiences

And new gen AI services keep proliferating:

WhyLabs enhances real-time generative AI monitoring to forestall inaccurate and toxic outputs

Oracle generative AI drumbeat continues with new customer experience features

Salesforce makes its Einstein Copilot generative AI assistant generally available

Salesforce wants to help banks resolve transaction disputes faster with generative AI

Fullstory’s new platform enables harnessing customer behavioral data as a standalone source

Datorios enhances data streaming visibility to support more reliable real-time AI systems

JFrog unveils MLflow integration to enhance machine learning model management

A new standard for graph databases could be a big deal: Neo4j CTO says new Graph Query Language standard will have ‘massive ripple effects’

Money matters

Nvidia acquires GPU cluster optimization startup Run:ai for reported $700M

Secretive AI coding assistant startup Augment raises $227M to rival GitHub’s Copilot

Perplexity AI lands $63M funding for generative AI search at $1B valuation

Parloa nabs $66M for AI-powered customer service platform

FlexAI launches with $30M in seed funding to unlock ‘universal compute’ for AI workloads

The cost of all these investments, however, extends beyond dollars and cents: UK launches probe into Microsoft and Amazon’s partnerships with AI firms

CEOs of Microsoft, Nvidia and other tech giants join federal AI advisory board

Cloud drives a mixed tech earnings kickoff week

In the first big tech earnings week of the quarter, a mixed bag — but cloud is driving upside at a lot of companies, and AI in turns is driving that cloud (and hardware) growth: 

Google parent Alphabet’s stock spikes on strong cloud profits, AI demand and first cash dividend

IBM misses on revenues but foresees rapid growth from HashiCorp purchase

Strong cloud growth boosts Microsoft earnings and stock price

Intel’s stock slides on weak forecast

Shares of SAP rise as AI fuels cloud transition plans

Meta delivers strong earnings, but weak guidance and heavy AI spending prompt investors to bail

Generative AI drives strong revenue growth for ServiceNow, but light guidance weighs on stock

Check Point delivers strong quarterly revenue growth but stock drops

Tesla shares climb over 10% amid plans for new, more affordable models next year

SK Hynix returns to profit after a five-quarter losing streak

Western Digital earnings beat targets but shares push lower

Seagate shares rise on earnings beat, upbeat guidance

Juniper’s adjusted profit falls on 16% lower revenue as it awaits HPE acquisition late this year or early next

Pegasystems lags Q1 earnings and revenue estimates

Mobileye’s Q1 revenue falls 48% as supply chain resets

Snap’s revenue and earnings beat forecasts, shares surge over 20%

Other money matters

IBM expands hybrid cloud portfolio with $6.4B acquisition of HashiCorp

Reports: Salesforce abandons plans to acquire Informatica

HR software maker Rippling closes $200M round at $13.5B valuation

Irish startup Tines raises $50M to expand no-code automation tools

As expected, Micron gets $6.1B to build three new facilities (from the WSJ) And no less than “Chip Wars” author Chris Miller says the CHIPS Act that provided funding to Micron and others has been “surprisingly successful so far.”

In other enterprise tech news

TSMC debuts 1.6-nanometer process with new power distribution technology

Crowdbotics announces collaboration with Microsoft, launches new platform to accelerate code development

HubSpot debuts new AI-powered marketing and customer service tools

HPE debuts new IoT-optimized Wi-Fi 7 access points

Cyber beat: Rubrik runs, Darktrace exits

Money matters

A positive sign for enterprise tech IPOs: Rubrik’s stock jumps 16% above IPO price after company raises $752M

Cybersecurity provider Darktrace to be acquired by Thoma Bravo for $5.3B

Veeam acquires Coveware to bolster its ransomware incident response capabilities

ThreatLocker raises $115M Series D

Nagomi launches with $30M to optimize enterprises’ cybersecurity toolkits

Dropzone AI nabs $16.85M for its automated breach investigation platform

French startup BforeAI raises $15M for US expansion and service enhancement

New services

New Ionix service integrates cloud and on-premises security for broader risk management

Fortanix launches Key Insight for enhanced multicloud cryptographic visibility and compliance

New Torq HyperSOC leverages AI for threat investigation and remediation

New Oleria service aims to tackle modern identity challenges in cybersecurity

Bitsight and Moody’s team up to offer new ‘Implied Cyber Threat’ risk management tool

Attacks and warnings

Cisco warns of state-sponsored cyberattacks targeting government networks

Zscaler report warns of AI’s growing role in sophisticated phishing attacks

Google Mandiant report finds surprising fall in time to detect cyber intrusions

Coalition reveals uptick in cyber insurance claims driven by ransomware in 2023

Elsewhere in tech: Net neutrality returns, noncompetes depart

That took awhile: FCC reinstates net neutrality rules for internet providers

That took awhile too: FTC bans noncompete clauses that prevent US workers from changing jobs

This will be a long battle, and the fact that there’s such a battle over an algorithm, essentially, suggests that there’s good reason to be cautious about China’s intentions: TikTok reportedly plans to challenge potential US ban in court and Biden signs law requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok or face US ban And the EU is circling too: EU opens probe into ‘toxic’ TikTok Lite and addiction concerns

Robotics heats up again: AI investors turn their attention — and deep pockets — to robotics (from The Information) and Pudu Robotics rolls out robots for navigating industrial environments

Amazon grounds Prime Air drone deliveries in California, shifts focus to new markets

Carv raises $10M to build blockchain data layer for gaming and AI

Movement Labs raises $38M to add Facebook’s Move to Ethereum blockchain

Mixed reality’s future slowly gets more real:

Meta makes its Horizon OS mixed reality operating system available to third parties

Swave Photonics debuts Holographic eXtended Reality display with tiny-pixel technology

Augmented reality creation platform Trace launches with $2M

Comings and goings

Automation Anywhere named Tim McDonough, formerly Intel’s VP and chief marketing officer of its AI and data centers, as its new CMO.

Jeff Reed, formerly Google Cloud’s VP of product for security, has joined security firm Vectra AI as its first chief product officer.

Atlassian co-founder and co-CEO Scott Farquhar is leaving the job in August but will remain a special adviser and board member. Mike Cannon-Brookes will become sole CEO. Atlassian also reported on April 25 that earnings and revenue topped estimates but its stock fell 6% in extended trading.

Dataminr’s new president is former Armis President Brian Gumbel.

Christophe Fouquet replaced Peter Wennink as CEO of chipmaking gear maker ASML.

Oracle is moving its headquarters from Austin to Nashville… for the healthcare industry concentration there, so it says.

What’s next

Another big earnings week coming, led by Amazon and Apple:

Monday, April 29: Samsung, NXP Semi and F5

Tuesday, April 30: Amazon, AMD, Commvault and Supermicro

Wednesday, May 1: Qualcomm, Informatica, Extreme Networks, Tenable, Freshworks and Fastly

Thursday, May 2: Apple, Cloudflare, Coinbase, Block, Fortinet and Five9 

Coming from theCUBE next week: What to expect during the MongoDB.local NYC event: Join theCUBE May 2

And a busy week of event coverage coming from theCUBE and SiliconANGLE:

What to expect at Red Hat Summit: Join theCUBE May 6-8

What to expect during the RSA Conference: Join theCUBE May 6-9

What to expect during Boomi World: Join theCUBE May 8-9

Image: SiliconANGLE/Microsoft Designer