Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day:
1. And just like that
2. $600 billion ‘bromance’
U.S. President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman pose for a group photo during the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 13, 2025.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
3. More tech layoffs
A sign is seen at the Microsoft headquarters on July 3, 2024, in Redmond, Washington.
David Ryder | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Microsoft is laying off 3% of its total workforce — about 6,000 people — the company said Tuesday. The cuts across all levels, teams and geographies likely represent the tech giant’s largest round of layoffs since 2023, when it eliminated 10,000 roles, and follow a small round of performance-based cuts in January. “We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company for success in a dynamic marketplace,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC. One objective of the new round of cuts, which are not related to performance, is to reduce layers of management, the spokesperson said.
4. IPO plans
Pavlo Gonchar | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Fintech company Chime filed paperwork on Tuesday to go public on the Nasdaq, and it wants to make one thing clear: “Chime is a technology company, not a bank,” the digital banking firm said in its prospectus. The company brought in $518.7 million in revenue in the March quarter with 8.6 million active members, about 23% more users than the same time last year. Chime, which plans to file under the ticker symbol “CHYM,” is only the latest emerging tech company to test the market’s appetite for new offerings. Digital physical therapy startup Hinge Health said Tuesday it plans to raise up to $437 million in its upcoming IPO, while stock brokerage platform eToro priced its IPO above its expected range at $52 a share. CoreWeave, which reports its first-quarter earnings results after the bell Wednesday, debuted on the Nasdaq at the end of March.
5. ‘Good at bad stuff’
The logos of Google Gemini, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Claude by Anthropic, Perplexity, and Bing apps are displayed on the screen of a smartphone in Reno, United States, on November 21, 2024.
Jaque Silva | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Experts are sounding the alarm about the safety of artificial intelligence — or the lack thereof. As companies like Meta, Google and OpenAI race to stay competitive, AI players have shifted from focusing on cutting-edge research to prioritizing the development of revenue generating, consumer-ready AI services. In the process, they’re increasingly taking shortcuts when it comes to the safety testing of their models, experts say. “The models are getting better, but they’re also more likely to be good at bad stuff,” said James White, CTO at cybersecurity startup Calypso.
— CNBC’s Brian Evans, Yun Li, Jesse Pound, Kevin Breuninger, Natasha Turak, Kif Leswing, Lora Kolodny, Jordan Novet, Samantha Subin, Ashley Capoot, Hayden Field, Jonathan Vanian and Jennifer Elias contributed to this report.
