Top stories today:

1. MacBook Pro lineup updated by Apple with M4 chips
2. Microsoft Cloud helps boost quarterly revenue +16% YoY to $65.6B
3. Meta falls short on user growth, CAPEX grows faster than net income
4. GDP increases at 2.8% ahead of president election
5. FTX’s Nishad Singh gets no jail time for role in crypto fraud

0. Data and calendar

Listen to our AI-generated podcast summarizing today’s newsletter (beware the few hallucinations):

1. MacBook Pro lineup updated by Apple with M4 chips

• M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max options.

• 12MP Center Stage camera.

• Thunderbolt 5 on the M4 Max models for faster data transfers.

• Nano-texture display option.

• Nov. 8: shipments will start in the U.S. and other initial markets.

• $1,599 starting price for the 14-inch MacBook Pro M4 and $2,499 for the 16-inch one.

Apple has launched the M4 Max as its top-end chip with a 16-core CPU, up to 40-core GPU, and up to 128GB RAM

Additionally, Apple has made 16GB RAM as the base option for the MacBook Air M2 and M3 models

• Pricing unchanged, starting at $999.

2. Microsoft Cloud helps boost quarterly revenue +16% YoY to $65.6B, operating income +14% to $30.6B

• +20% YoY in Microsoft’s cloud revenue in Q1 FY25 to $24.1B.

• “AI business on track to surpass an annual revenue run rate of $10B next quarter,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said during its earnings call.

Microsoft partially attributed its $683M equity investment expenses in Q1 to OpenAI stake losses

• $1.5B impact on income is expected in this quarter, mainly due to OpenAI’s ongoing losses.

• $13B in total funding commitments to OpenAI, Microsoft disclosed in its filing.

Microsoft’s stock was -3.7% to $416.41 ($3.21T market cap) in trading after the bell on weak guidance

• $68.1B–$69.1B revenue, +10.6% growth, estimated for the current quarter, vs. $69.8B analysts expected.

4. Meta falls short on user growth, CAPEX grows faster than net income

+5% YoY in Q3 DAUs to 3.29B but below estimates of 3.31B: