ii Tech Focus: Applied Digital, IONQ, Nebius, Amazon, Alphabet

Tesla

It has been a busy week for tech earnings. Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares fell after quarterly earnings per share (EPS) hit 50 cents, below forecasts for 54 cents. Net income also plunged by 37% year-on-year driven by lower electric vehicle prices. Tesla is also facing higher costs associated with investing in artificial intelligence (AI and robotics and pressure from the expiration of electric vehicle tax credits. Analysts are mixed towards the stock with the consensus view a hold and target price 15% below the current share price of $438.97.

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Netflix

Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) shares fell sharply after third-quarter EPS of $5.87 missed expectations, blamed on an unexpected cost linked to a tax dispute in Brazil. Investors ignored the firm’s best quarter of ad sales and a rosy sales forecast for the full year. Netflix tried to shrug off the threat around AI, a key concern for investors, saying generative AI presents a ‘significant opportunity’ for the streaming platform. The jury is out on whether AI will work in Netflix’s favour or cannibalize its content.  

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Netflix shares are up around 25% year-to-date but down 7% over the past week. It has an average buy recommendation from the analyst community with a target price up 20% at $1,354.21.

Applied Digital

Applied Digital Corp (NASDAQ:APLD) announced a new $5 billion (£3.8 billion) deal with a US hyperscaler at its Polaris Forge 2 campus in North Dakota. Investors initially cheered the announcement, with the stock rallying pre-market on Wednesday, reflecting excitement about the AI data centre’s expansion of its AI computing capacity. However, the stock closing down nearly 6% on the back of broader declines in the US market following reports that President Donald Trump is considering new plans to curb software exports to China.

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Ionq Inc

Shares in IonQ Inc Class A (NYSE:IONQ), Rigetti Computing Inc (NASDAQ:RGTI), D-Wave Quantum Inc (NYSE:QBTS) and Quantum Computing Inc (NASDAQ:QUBT) surged on Thursday following press reports that President Trump’s administration is negotiating equity stakes in these businesses. The government is looking at becoming a shareholder in exchange for funding for these growing tech companies.

IonQ is a quantum computing firm that is one of the most-bought tech stocks on the ii platform so far this week (20-22 October). It sits on the list alongside some of the US tech giants such as Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), Netflix, Tesla and Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ:GOOGL), which all either reported earnings this week or will report next week.

Nebius

Nebius Group NV Shs Class-A- (NASDAQ:NBIS) shares have struggled this week after an explosive run since the announcement of its $17.4 billion AI infrastructure deal with Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) in early September, which sent shares up 53% in a single session. The Amsterdam-based AI infrastructure player split came about from a spin-off with Russia’s Yandex, with Nebius shares resuming trading around a year ago. Shares have surged by more than 425% over a one-year period. However, the share price is off the highs on 13 October, potentially driven by profit taking or concerns about AI overvaluations.

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Nebius is also on the most-bought list of tech stocks on the ii platform this week. Perhaps investors are seeing this pullback as an opportunity to buy the dip.

Source interactive investor, 20-22 October 2025

Week Ahead

Magnificent Seven earnings season takes centre stage next week at a time when there are growing concerns about an AI bubble. So, there’s a lot riding on these quarterly updates, given that the tech giants have been investing heavily in AI, driving most of the wider market gains. Meta Platforms Inc Class A (NASDAQ:META), Microsoft and Alphabet report on Wednesday, while Amazon and Apple release results on Thursday.

Amazon

According to Refinitiv, Amazon is expected to report Q3 revenue of $177.7 billion, up from $167.7 billion in Q2, while EPS is seen at $1.57 down from $1.68 quarter-on-quarter. Investors will be paying attention to its Amazon Web Services (AWS) revenue figure amid growing competition from Microsoft and Google in the cloud space, as well as its advertising sales which have been performing well.

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Investors hope its spending spree of up to $100 billion this year on AI data centres, software and robotics starts to show signs it is paying off, after the company’s light operating income guidance disappointed last quarter. The company could also share some insights into the impact of tariffs or a weakening US economy. Amazon might also discuss the recent outage at AWS that affected thousands of companies globally.

Amazon shares are flat year-to-date and are down 5% over the past three months. However, the stock has rebounded this week ahead of earnings. Analysts are bullish overall, with a consensus buy recommendation and $265.85 target price, more than 20% above the current share price.

Alphabet

Google owner Alphabet is expected to report Q2 revenue of $99.75 billion, up from $96.4 billion in the previous quarter. However, EPS is expected to dip slightly to $2.29 vs $2.31 in Q2. As always, focus will be on its core search and advertising business as well as cloud computing. But investors will want to see if its strong AI momentum is continuing via things like its AI chatbot Gemini, AI Mode and AI Overviews and AI Mode.

Last quarter, CEO Sundar Pichai said: “AI is positively impacting every part of the business”. Capex will be another area of focus after Alphabet said it plans to spend $85 billion on AI apps and infrastructure this year alone.

Earlier this month, Goldman Sachs raised its price target from $234 to $288, sticking to its buy rating thanks to strength in AI. Many see Alphabet as one of the best-positioned AI large caps in the US. Its shares are up by around a third this year and more than 50% over 12 months. It is a consensus buy among the analyst community.