| The Information is hosting an event on the impact of AI on the IPO market in San Francisco on November 14th, with speakers from NYSE, Citi and J.P. Morgan. How is the IPO market shaping up for tech and what will AI's impact be? More details & request an invite here. Greetings! Nothing particularly frightening emerged from the two big tech goliaths that reported September quarterly results tonight, Apple and Amazon. But they offered nothing particularly cheery, either. For both companies, the updates had a mix of good and bad news. Apple, for instance, reported 6% top-line growth for the September quarter, its best quarterly growth number in two years. That was thanks to 5.5% growth in iPhones, twice the improvement of the year-earlier period, which suggests the iPhone 16 series may have done better so far than we all think. Still, Apple quickly squelched any optimism that news might have sparked by projecting slower growth—in the "low to mid single digits" range—for the December quarter. Based on a projection Apple gave for how fast its services segment would grow in the quarter, the guidance implied that revenue from its hardware products—iPhones, Macs, iPads and wearables—will barely grow (and could decline) in the period. Apple shares were trading down 1.5% in after-hours trading, after falling nearly 2% during regular trading. Amazon, for its part, reported 11% growth in revenue, faster than in the second quarter—but not by much. E-commerce was mixed: While growth accelerated a bit in online store sales, it slowed in both advertising and revenue from services for outside merchants, both of which have been important sources of growth in the past. Overall, Amazon Web Services remains the star of Amazon's show. The cloud unit's operating profit expanded a whopping 50% to $10.5 billion, on 19% higher revenue. Artificial intelligence services appear to be contributing: CEO Andy Jassy said Amazon's AI services are a "multibillion-dollar business that's growing [in] triple-digit percentages." But there's a cost for that growth—in higher capital expenditures for servers needed to handle the AI services. Amazon's capex so far this year is up 48% to just over $51 billion, and Jassy projected it would reach $75 billion by year's end and likely rise further in 2025. That number didn't seem to scare any investors, who are perhaps getting used to these huge investments. Amazon stock was trading up 5% in after-hours trading. Beware of a TV executive pitching you on a cable spin-off. Comcast president Michael Cavanagh revealed on an earnings call on Thursday that the company was considering spinning off its cable channels—which include USA Network, Syfy, MSNBC, CNBC and Bravo—into a separate company that Comcast shareholders would get stock in. Cavanagh did his best to frame this possibility in positive terms. Comcast was considering whether a spin-off would position the cable channels "to take advantage of opportunities in the changing media landscape and create value for our shareholders." What opportunities are there for cable channels nowadays, other than to die slowly? The cable universe is in a steady decline as households switch from cable packages to streaming services. That shift is devastating the hundreds of cable channels owned primarily by big companies like Comcast, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global. These were once a license to print money and remain very profitable, but as subscriber numbers decline, the end is in sight. Cavanagh was likely referring to the possibility that as a separate company, the cable channel business could combine with a similar operation spun off by one of the other TV firms. Whether such a deal would "create value" is debatable, given that even at a greater size such a cable company would face the same long-term threat. Still, it's good to see a company coming out and talking frankly about what it's up to. • Microsoft said Thursday it had hired Jay Parikh, a former Facebook engineering leader who was recently CEO of cybersecurity startup Lacework, to report to CEO Satya Nadella in an unspecified role. Microsoft "will share more on his role and focus in the next few months," Nadella said in a blog post. • Peloton Interactive has appointed a former Apple and Time Warner Cable executive, Peter Stern, as its new CEO, effective Jan. 1. Stern succeeds Barry McCarthy, who stepped down in May after a two-year stint at the fitness firm. • Uber lifted revenue 20% to $11.2 billion in the third quarter as higher advertising revenues in its Uber Eats delivery service offset weakening gross bookings on its ride-hailing operation. Uber forecast a slightly higher rate of growth in its gross bookings for the fourth quarter. • Intel posted a third-quarter loss of $16.6 billion stemming largely from its ongoing restructuring efforts. Revenue fell 6% from a year earlier to $13.3 billion. • OpenAI said Thursday it had added more web search capabilities to ChatGPT, putting it in greater competition with Google as consumers increasingly use chatbots to partially replace traditional searches. More than 100,000 readers rely on The Information's Creator Economy newsletter for coverage of the creator startups making waves, big tech companies' social media playbooks, and scoops on the sector's biggest hires. 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