SentinelOne shares sank 8% as the cybersecurity company laid off 8% of its full-time workforce to focus on artificial intelligence and data investments.

“This is not a reactive measure, it is a deliberate evolution to reduce complexity, raise the performance bar, and build a leaner, more agile SentinelOne,” CEO Tomer Weingarten told analysts on the earnings call Thursday.

Over the last few months, he said SentinelOne has restructured its teams and already seen “meaningful productivity” gains from ramped AI use.

In a securities filing, the company said it expects a one-time $25 million charge tied to the layoffs. The company had over 3,000 employees at the end of April.

Tech companies are increasingly slashing headcount as AI forces businesses to reallocate resources to keep pace with innovation. New AI tools are also allowing businesses to automate workloads.

Earlier this week, Israel-based web developer Wix slashed a fifth of its workforce due to AI and the strength of the Israeli shekel. Cisco downsized its headcount by nearly 5% earlier this month and Block roughly halved its workforce in February. Software firm Atlassian cut about 1,600 jobs in March.

SentinelOne’s workforce cuts also came alongside lackluster guidance for the current quarter and full year.

The company said it anticipates between $289 million and $291 million in revenue, versus the $292 million expected by LSEG analysts. SentinelOne reiterated its full-year outlook, expecting revenue between $1.195 billion and $1.205 billion. That came up short of a $1.21 billion forecast.

“Combined with growing criticalness of category, this should have been a Q where it sustained recent gains; lack of material guidance raise leaves in holding pattern,” wrote analysts at Morgan Stanley.

Cybersecurity companies are in the middle of a significant inflection, spurred by Anthropic’s Mythos model and the rise of autonomous AI agents that are capable of exploiting vulnerabilities faster than ever before. That’s forcing businesses to scale their security defenses and invest in newer tools.

At the same time, some cybersecurity stocks have sold off this year, getting swept up in broader market fears that new AI tools will displace software businesses.

DETROIT – General Motors is laying off hundreds of salaried employees in its information technology operations as the automaker reevaluates its workforce needs and cuts costs, CNBC has learned.

The global reductions began Monday and will impact about 500 to 600 employees, largely in Austin, Texas, and Warren, Michigan, according to a person familiar with the plans who was not authorized to speak publicly about the layoffs.

GM confirmed the cuts, which were first reported by Bloomberg News, but declined to give specific details about the actions.

“GM is transforming its Information Technology organization to better position the company for the future. As part of that work, we have made the difficult decision to eliminate certain roles globally. We are grateful for the contributions of the employees affected and are committed to supporting them through this transition,” the automaker said in an emailed statement.  

GM reported employing about 68,000 salaried workers globally as of the end of last year, including 47,000 white-collar employees in the U.S.

Despite Monday’s cuts, GM is still hiring IT workers. The company has 82 open IT positions that include jobs working in artificial intelligence, motorsports and autonomous vehicles, according to the Detroit automaker’s careers website.

GM in recent years has routinely reevaluated its salaried workforce, based on expected needs and skill sets. In October, the company laid off more than 200 Computer-Aided Design, or CAD, engineers due to “business conditions.”

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway trimmed more of its Apple stake and began a new position in The New York Times in the fourth quarter, according to a new securities filing.

The Omaha-based conglomerate disclosed that it pared its position in the iPhone maker by 4.3% to $61.96 billion, per data from InsiderScore. Even with the cut, Apple remains by far Berkshire’s largest equity holding.

Berkshire revealed that it trimmed its stake in Apple and started a stake in fellow “Magnificent Seven” name Alphabet in the third quarter. The conglomerate had also cut its equity holding of Apple in the second quarter of last year after slashing its stake by two-thirds in 2024.

While Apple posted its third consecutive winning year in 2025, rising around 9%, it still underperformed the S&P 500, which gained more than 16% last year. The stock has been lagging even more this year, falling about 3%. In fact, it experienced its worst day since April 2025 just last week.

It’s unclear whether the moves were done by Buffett or investment managers Todd Combs and Ted Weschler. Buffett has viewed Apple as more of a consumer products company rather than a pure technology play, and the moves may reflect Buffett making the portfolio more easily manageable for his successor.

In addition to the cut in its Apple holding, Berkshire disclosed a relatively small $351.7 million stake in The New York Times. The position is ranked 29th out of its 41 total positions.

The fourth quarter marked the last quarterly period with Buffett at the helm of Berkshire, as Greg Abel – who had been serving as vice chairman of non-insurance operations at the company – took the reins as CEO at the start of the new year.

Prior to Buffett’s departure, structural changes were announced at the company, including one involving Combs. After resigning in December, the former Berkshire investment manager and Geico CEO joined JPMorgan Chase as head of its new Security and Resiliency Initiative in January.

Buffett first announced at Berkshire’s annual meeting last May that he was going to ask Berkshire’s board to have Abel replace him. Though Buffett is no longer the chief executive, he remains chairman of the board.

BEIJING — Shares in Labubu-maker Pop Mart continued to tumble Friday, after Morgan Stanley removed the stock from a focus list and state media called for stronger regulation for “blind box” toys.

The Chinese toymaker first gained popularity with its “blind box” concept, in which consumers buy unmarked boxes — which can cost from about $5 to $10 each — for a chance at getting a unique figurine and building a collection.

People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party’s official newspaper, on Friday criticized the “blind box” phenomenon, advocating for stricter regulation. The article did not mention Pop Mart by name and focused more on children and young people who were spending heavily on unmarked packets to collect cards.

China’s customs agency this month also highlighted several times on social media how it stopped cases of Labubu copycats from crossing the border.

Pop Mart’s Hong Kong-listed shares were last down more than 5%, extending their slide from the previous session when they had slumped 5.3%. That’s put the high-flying stock on track for its first negative week since early May — with losses of more than 13% so far. Its year-to-date gains stand at over 160%.

Morgan Stanley said in a note late Wednesday it was replacing Pop Mart with insurance company PICC P&C in the firm’s China and Hong Kong focus list.

The investment bank did not elaborate on why it removed Pop Mart shares. The firm on June 10 had raised its price target on the toy company to 302 Hong Kong dollars ($38.47), up from 224 HKD, on expectations that Pop Mart still had room to grow in the long term.

“We think the market has fully factored in Pop Mart’s exponential growth in 2025 but may not have strong conviction on the long-term outlook,” equity analyst Dustin Wei and a team said in the June 10 report.

“That said, in view of its lofty valuation, we do not expect this level of outperformance to continue in the next few quarters,” the report said.

Pop Mart shares hit a record intra-day high of 283.40 HKD on June 12.

The Beijing-based toy company has rapidly expanded overseas with online sales platforms and physical stores, including in the U.S. and U.K.

In the last few months, the company’s “Labubu” series of toys featuring an elf-like character have become a global phenomenon, even drawing the attention of fashion and culture-focused New York Magazine and The New York Times.

Pop Mart has also released Labubu stuffed toys, pillows and related merchandise to capture demand. A 4-foot-tall Labubu sold for the equivalent of $170,000 at an auction in Beijing earlier this month. Many of the more affordable versions of the figurine subsequently went out of stock in mainland China.

“We’ve seen certain trends like that before … There seems to always be some cute thing that people have to have,” Jacob Cooke, co-founder and CEO of WPIC Marketing + Technologies, told CNBC on Friday. The company helps foreign brands — such as Vitamix and iS Clinical — sell online in China and other parts of Asia.

He pointed to interest last year in capybara stuffed toys. Chinese retailer Miniso, which also has stores in the U.S. and other countries, was one of the main sellers of the stuffed animal.

Cooke saw Pop Mart as “more lucky than anything,” although he pointed out it reflects growing interest in toys not just for children but also adults.

Indicating the soaring popularity of its toys, Pop Mart’s overseas sales in 2024 have already surpassed the company’s overall sales in 2021.

The company reported total sales, primarily domestic, of 4.49 billion yuan ($624.6 million) in 2021. In 2024, overseas sales alone surpassed that to hit 5.1 billion yuan, up 373% from a year ago, while mainland China sales climbed to 7.97 billion yuan.

Denim-crazed consumers are turning to Levi Strauss & Co for new jeans, but the company’s overall business is being dragged down by its Dockers brand, which the company is now considering selling off, it announced Wednesday. 

Sales at Levi’s brand were up 5% during its fiscal third quarter — the biggest gain in two years — but overall revenue came in flat and lower than Wall Street had expected. 

Shares of Levi’s fell more than 8% in extended trading Wednesday.

Here’s how the denim-maker performed compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

• Earnings per share: 33 cents adjusted vs. 31 cents expected 
• Revenue: $1.52 billion vs. $1.55 billion expected

The company’s reported net income for the three-month period that ended Aug. 25 was $20.7 million, or 5 cents per share, compared with $9.6 million, or 2 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, Levi’s posted earnings of $132 million, or 33 cents per share. 

Sales came in at $1.52 billion, up slightly from $1.51 billion a year earlier. 

With one quarter left to go in the fiscal year, Levi reaffirmed its full-year adjusted earnings per share guidance of $1.17 to $1.27, in line with expectations of $1.25, according to LSEG. It expects earnings per share to come in at the midpoint of that range.

It trimmed its revenue guidance and is now expecting sales to grow 1%, compared to a previous range of between 1% and 3%. That’s below the 2.3% growth that analysts had expected, according to LSEG.

Berkshire Hathaway trimmed its gigantic Bank of America holding for the first time in 4½ years following the bank’s strong 2024 run.

Warren Buffett’s conglomerate sold 33.9 million shares of Bank of America for almost $1.5 billion in separate sales on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at an average selling price of $43.56, a regulatory filing showed.

It marked the first time since the fourth quarter of 2019 that the Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate has reduced the stake. Still, Bank of America remains Berkshire’s second-largest equity position after Apple, holding 999 million shares with a market value of almost $43 billion. Meanwhile, Berkshire is still Bank of America’s largest shareholder with a 10.8% stake.

Berkshire could be taking some profits as Bank of America has rallied 27.4% so far this year to its highest levels since March 2022. In the first quarter, Buffett trimmed Berkshire’s Apple holding by 13% for tax reasons following sizable gains.

Shares of Bank of America dipped slightly on Monday following the news.

Bathtub idea

The Oracle of Omaha’s purchase of Bank of America has become one of the most endearing Wall Street tales. In 2011, the legendary investor bought $5 billion worth of the bank’s preferred stock and warrants to shore up confidence in the lender as it grappled with losses related to subprime mortgages in the aftermath of the financial crisis.

Buffett later revealed that he got the idea while taking a bath in his tub.

“Incidentally, that BofA purchase, it literally was true that I was sitting in the bathtub when I got the idea of checking with … BofA, whether they’d be interested in that preferred,” he said at Berkshire’s annual meeting in 2017, when he first converted the warrants and added the bank stock to his portfolio.

The 93-year-old investor said he was attracted to CEO Brian Moynihan’s leadership and the profit-generating abilities of the franchise.

Moynihan later recalled that Buffett initially tried to reach him through Bank of America’s public phone line, but got rejected by the call center. Despite the snafu, the deal still came together within hours, he said.