As this week winds to a close, earnings season momentum that pushed stocks up is slowly subsiding. That’s partially because almost every member of the Magnificent 7 has reported Q4 2024 earnings, with the exception of Nvidia (NVDA) , which isn’t scheduled to report until February 26.
💰💸 Don’t miss the move: SIGN UP for TheStreet’s FREE Daily newsletter 💰💸
Yesterday, Amazon (AMZN) posted mixed earnings, exceeding Wall Street expectations on both earnings-per-share (EPS) and revenue, but also reported disappointing guidance, sending shares down. An Evercore analyst describes this as an “expectations correction,” though, rather than a more serious “fundamentals correction.”
One clear takeaway from the Amazon earnings report is that the company is focused on ramping up its artificial intelligence (AI) spending, much like most of its Magnificent 7 peers.
But that’s not the only theme throughout this earnings season. Several CEOs of leading tech companies shared their takes on a new AI model that recently disrupted their industry.
Magnificent 7 CEOs leave no mystery as to where they stand on DeepSeek
Late in January 2025, previously unknown Chinese startup DeepSeek captured the attention of the financial world. The fact that its an AI model had been trained for only $5.6 million and built with less advanced AI chips triggered a selloff on Wall Street as chipmakers like Nvidia plunged.
Since then, many questions have risen as to how this new model will impact the tech industry and if companies in the space should be worried. Prior to the recent earnings reports, some experts speculated that big tech leaders could dial back their AI spending as a result but the numbers are in and that thesis has been disproven.
Related: Analysts rework Amazon stock price targets after Q4 earnings surprise
That said, the dust may still be settling from the DeepSeek breakthrough. Meta Platforms (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated on the recent earnings call that he thinks there “a number of novel things that they did that I think we're still digesting.”
He added that there are elements in the DeepSeek R1 model that he hopes Meta will be able to incorporate in the near future. This will likely be doable, as DeepSeek’s models are completely open source.
Other Magnificent 7 CEOs expressed similar sentiments regarding DeepSeek. Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Satya Nadella described the company as “having some real innovation,” comparing the AI market’s trajectory to that of the “regular compute cycle.”
Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, noted that his company is impressed with DeepSeek’s accomplishments, specifically “some of the training techniques” and added that the company sees a “once-in-a-lifetime type of business opportunity” in AI.
Sundar Pichai of Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) downplayed any threat that the new model pay pose to his company, crediting DeepSeek’s leaders as being a "tremendous team” and praising their work. That said, he did note that he sees Google’s Gemini AI models as being able to match the efficiency of DeepSeek’s.
Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook stated on his company’s earnings call that he believes “innovation that drives efficiency is a good thing,” which is how he sees DeepSeek’s technology.
- Intel faces a major threat to its plans
- The EU sends stern warning to high-profile tech companies
- Mark Cuban delivers a shocking take on Donald Trump's trade war
This mindset makes sense from Apple’s CEO. As TheStreet reports, DeepSeek’s model could end up directly benefiting Apple, helping usher in an AI market in which models can run more efficiently on smartphones and no longer require powerful computer servers.
Elon Musk has been much more quiet than his peers on DeepSeek
One of the most prominent CEOs didn’t weigh in on DeepSeek during his company’s Q4 earnings call, despite the fact that he is also the founder of a fast-growing AI startup.
Tesla’s Elon Musk has been busy recently, particularly with his responsibilities as head of the new U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), taking actions that are seen by some as both illegal and unethical.
Related: Apple's AI strategy is looking pretty smart
Musk has expressed doubt regarding DeepSeek’s claims, though his comments on X posts praising it have been vague. This may be because models like DeepSeek’s R1 are likely to force other AI companies to approach building and training models differently, including Musk’s xAI.
Despite Musk’s negative outlook on DeepSeek, the consensus from most tech leaders seems to be that most big tech CEOs aren’t threatened by the rise of DeepSeek and see it as ultimately being beneficial for their industry.
Other AI experts have expressed similar views, which further support Zuckerberg’s optimistic take that certain DeepSeek elements can benefit the AI models being built by other companies.
“This is a massive breakthrough in the LLM world – one that significantly lowers the cost of Generative AI from a user perspective,” states Evident Insights CEO Alexandra Mousavizadeh. “Because DeepSeek has made everything open source, it’s inevitable that other LLMs will study these techniques and consider how they integrate them into their own models.”
Related: Veteran fund manager issues dire S&P 500 warning for 2025
