Alphabet Cloud Doubles, DoorDash Buys Instacart for $17B, and More

AI

Alphabet Q3 2026: Google Cloud Doubles, but Stock Takes a Hit

Alphabet posted Q3 revenue of $127.6 billion, up 25% year-over-year, marking its 13th consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth. Search revenue grew 12%, and year-over-year query growth hit a five-year high.

Google Cloud revenue reached $30.7 billion, up 103%, accounting for roughly a quarter of total revenue for the first time. TPU system sales contributed meaningfully to the growth. Operating margin stood at 31.8%, with net income of $26.2 billion and EPS of $2.12.

Despite the strong numbers, the stock dropped roughly 12% following the report, approaching its worst-ever post-earnings decline. Heavy AI infrastructure capital expenditure fueled profitability concerns among investors.

Microsoft Q1 FY2027: Azure AI Powers an Earnings Beat

Microsoft reported fiscal Q1 2027 results (July-September 2026) with GAAP diluted EPS of $4.92, up 32%, well above the Street consensus of $4.71. Non-GAAP EPS came in at $4.89, up 18%.

Microsoft Cloud revenue hit $63.9 billion, growing 30%. Surging Azure and AI service demand drove the beat. CFO Amy Hood said results exceeded expectations on revenue, operating income, and EPS. In contrast to Alphabet, the market reacted positively.

Big Tech

DoorDash Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Instacart for $17 Billion

DoorDash has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Instacart at $65 per share, roughly $17 billion in equity value. The price represents a 26% premium over Instacart’s October 22 closing price. Shareholders can elect cash, DoorDash stock, or a mix, with stock capped at 25% of total consideration.

Instacart’s board unanimously approved the deal. The cash portion is backed by cash on hand and a JPMorgan bridge loan commitment, and the deal has no financing condition. Uber’s talks with Instacart were reportedly no longer active before the agreement.

Combining food delivery with grocery delivery could reshape the US on-demand market. Regulatory review and shareholder vote timelines have not been disclosed.

Samsung Q3 Operating Profit Hits 107.4 Trillion Won, a Korean Record

Samsung Electronics posted Q3 operating profit of KRW 107.4 trillion (roughly $80 billion), up 783% year-over-year. It became the first Korean company to surpass KRW 100 trillion in quarterly operating profit. Revenue reached KRW 195 trillion, up 127%.

Memory was the engine. HBM shipments jumped roughly 50% quarter-over-quarter, and DRAM prices continued rising at double-digit rates. The memory division alone generated an estimated KRW 110 trillion in operating profit.

Mobile (MX) is a different story: analysts estimate an operating loss of around KRW 500 billion, while display (DX) losses widened past KRW 1 trillion. Both Samsung and Micron expect memory supply to remain tight through 2028.

Startups

FuriosaAI Nears ~$600M Series D at $3B Valuation

South Korean AI chip startup FuriosaAI is nearing completion of a roughly KRW 800 billion (~$600M) Series D targeting a KRW 4 trillion (~$3B) valuation. Bloomberg reported that Morgan Stanley and Mirae Asset Securities are co-managing the round.

The funds will go toward mass production of FuriosaAI’s second-generation RNGD inference chip, positioned as an alternative to NVIDIA GPUs. The company raised $125 million in its Series C in July 2025. An IPO is under consideration for as early as 2027.

Upwind Raises $300M Series C at $3.8B Valuation

Israeli cloud security startup Upwind has closed a $300 million Series C at a $3.8 billion valuation, led by Bessemer Venture Partners and TCV with participation from Salesforce Ventures, Greylock, and Craft Ventures.

Upwind’s runtime-first cloud security platform has grown rapidly since its $250 million Series B in January 2026 at a $1.5 billion valuation. In nine months the company’s valuation has jumped 2.5x, and total funding now exceeds $430 million.

Open Source

Ghostty 1.4.0: First Non-Kitty Terminal with 100% Kitty Graphics

GPU-accelerated terminal emulator Ghostty, created by HashiCorp co-founder Mitchell Hashimoto, has shipped version 1.4.0. The release makes Ghostty the first terminal outside of Kitty itself to fully implement the Kitty graphics protocol, including animation and relative placements.

Memory usage and rendering performance also saw significant improvements. Ghostty entered the Ubuntu 26.04 LTS official repository in April 2026, installable via apt install ghostty. It is quickly establishing itself alongside Kitty and Alacritty as a leading modern terminal.

JetBrains ThinkRail: Open-Source Agentic IDE with Git Worktree Isolation

JetBrains InnovationHub has released ThinkRail, an Apache 2.0-licensed agentic IDE. Built on the open-source Pi coding agent, it integrates a Monaco editor, terminal, and diff views into a unified workbench.

The standout feature is that each chat session runs in an isolated Git worktree, preventing agents from interfering with each other’s work. ThinkRail runs as a desktop app or via the thinkrail CLI, supports MCP servers and Agent Skills, and currently ships at v0.2.0 (embedding Pi 1.2.0).

Gaming

World of Warcraft: Forever Launches November 4

Blizzard’s World of Warcraft: Forever launches globally on November 4 at 3:00 p.m. PT. The Classic+ expansion adds over 1,000 new quests, three new zones, and nine dungeons to the original vanilla World of Warcraft framework.

Current WoW subscribers get access at no extra cost. The Forever Epic Edition includes 3-day early access. The level cap is 60, with raids (Barrow Deeps, Hyjal Summit, Onyxia’s Lair) unlocking on December 9. Hardcore servers are planned for winter 2026.

Queen’s Domain Launches Today on PC, PS5, Xbox, and Switch 2

Freshly Baked Games’ first-person retro-fantasy action RPG Queen’s Domain launches today on PC, PS5, Xbox Series, and Nintendo Switch 2. Published by Future Friends Games, it is a solo exploration-focused game inspired by the King’s Field series. A free demo is available on Steam.

References

1. Alphabet Q3 2026 Earnings Release (SEC 8-K) — SEC
2. Microsoft Q1 FY2027 Earnings Release (SEC 8-K) — SEC
3. Schwab Market Update — Charles Schwab
4. DoorDash-Instacart Merger Agreement (SEC 8-K) — SEC
5. DoorDash in talks to buy Instacart — CP24/Reuters
6. Samsung Q3 2026 Operating Profit Record — TrendForce
7. Samsung First Korean Firm to Top $80B Quarterly Profit — Korea Times
8. Samsung Q3 Profit on Track — SamMobile
9. FuriosaAI Series D Nears Completion — AI Market Watch
10. FuriosaAI Plans $500M Round — Bloomberg
11. FuriosaAI IPO Timeline — DatacenterDynamics
12. Upwind $300M Series C — Globes
13. Upwind $250M Series B — TechCrunch
14. Ghostty 1.4.0 Release Notes — Ghostty
15. Ghostty on Ubuntu 26.04 — OMG! Ubuntu!
16. JetBrains ThinkRail Spec — BrainDetox
17. JetBrains ThinkRail GitHub — GitHub
18. World of Warcraft: Forever Announcement — Blizzard
19. WoW: Forever Roadmap — Gfinity
20. Queen’s Domain Release — RPGamer
21. Queen’s Domain Platforms — RPG Site
22. Queen’s Domain on Nintendo — Nintendo