This week brought major developments in the tech space as interest rate speculation impacted the market and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) saw developments in its high-stakes antitrust battle.
Meanwhile, Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) made waves with new artificial intelligence (AI) integrations, and earnings reports impacted shares of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC).
Meanwhile, the EU continued its regulatory push against Apple (NASDAQ:APPL) and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META).
Read on to dive deeper into this week’s top stories.
1. DOJ pushes for radical remedies in Google’s antitrust trial
This week, federal attorneys presented possible remedies before Judge Amit Mehta in the Google search antitrust case, following his August 2024 ruling that Google is illegally monopolizing the search market.
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) recommended that Google be forced to share its user data with rivals and advocated for the sale of Google’s Chrome business, arguing that the divestiture would give other companies a fighting chance in the search engine market. As the week progressed, executives from OpenAI, DuckDuckGo, Perplexity and Yahoo said they would consider acquiring Chrome if Mehta were to force a sale.
“Google can compete, but they simply don’t want to compete on a level playing field,” DOJ attorney David Dahlquist said during his opening remarks on Monday (April 21). He added, “Google is now fearful of competing against rivals who will only get stronger with the proposed remedies in place.” Dahlquist also called for forward-looking remedies that would prevent future monopolization in the burgeoning field of AI-powered search and related AI services, proposing that Google be banned from making deals with phone manufacturers that make Google Search the default search.
Google’s attorney, John Schmidtlein, said the proposal is “fundamentally flawed” and argued that it is a “wishlist” for competitors that would immediately benefit from technology that Google has spent years developing.
In a blog post on Sunday (April 20), Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs, wrote, “At trial, we will show how DOJ’s unprecedented proposals go miles beyond the Court’s decision, and would hurt America’s consumers, economy, and technological leadership.” Mulholland contends that the DOJ’s antitrust proposals would hinder user access to preferred services, raise costs, slow innovation, jeopardize privacy, impede AI development and undermine the functionality and security of key platforms like Chrome and Android.
Illustrating the challenge that Google’s competitors face, Dmitry Shevelenko, head of product for Perplexity AI, said that on on Android devices, the process of setting Perplexity AI as the default AI assistant over Google’s pre-set Gemini is like navigating a “jungle gym.’ However, he also expressed concern that forcing Google to sell Chrome to a competitor, like OpenAI, could lead to the discontinuation of Chrome’s open-source model, which many developers rely on.
Google presented ongoing arguments that users choose Google Search because of its high-quality results, not as a result of anticompetitive practices. The defense also presented evidence that OpenAI, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Meta have sought deals with Samsung Electronics (KRX:005930) to put their AI chatbots onto Samsung phones.
This week’s proceedings laid bare starkly contrasting visions for the future of the search market. The result of the trial will be a pivotal moment and could lead to a major shake-up in the tech world.
2. Motorola to enhance smartphones with multi-partner AI integration
Motorola announced a strategic move on Thursday (April 24) to enhance its smartphones through key partnership agreements with Google, Meta, Microsoft and Perplexity. The company’s new deal takes a “best-of-breed” approach by integrating specialized technologies from each partner into Moto AI.
The Perplexity app will be pre-installed on the new Razr series, allowing users to access Perplexity’s search and assistant capabilities directly within Moto AI. Other Motorola devices launched after March 3, 2025, will receive this feature via a future update. The deal will make Motorola the first smartphone brand to fully integrate Perplexity.
Besides Perplexity, Motorola’s partnership with Google integrates Gemini and Gemini Live models for on-device AI features. Meta’s Llama model will enhance on-device processing, providing notification summaries and enabling mixed-reality notifications and app viewing. Microsoft’s Copilot serves as another option for a conversational chatbot.
Motorola introduced its newest lineup of Razr phones on Thursday. They are equipped with four new features that leverage the specific strengths of each partner: Next Move for recommendations, Playlist Studio for curated music, Image Studio for text-to-image generation and Look and Talk (exclusive to Razr 60 Ultra) for hands-free AI activation.
3. Tesla, IBM, Intel and Alphabet release results
This week brought Q1 earnings releases from prominent tech firms Tesla, IBM and Intel.
The market’s reaction to these reports often sets the tone for the broader market sentiment and trading activity, underscoring the intense scrutiny these updates now hold.
Tesla released its report after markets closed on Tuesday (April 22), showing lower-than-expected revenue and earnings. Despite that news, the company’s share price moved upward on Wednesday. During an earnings call, CEO Elon Musk said that he will begin reducing his time spent at the White House overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency and spend more time at Tesla, news that likely contributed to this upward momentum.
Musk also highlighted a focused approach to bringing robotaxis to Austin by June, with more cities to follow, alongside piloting automated Cybercab production for next year. While 2025 delivery targets were unspecified, he reaffirmed the affordable vehicle’s development and ongoing Full Self-Driving progress.
Conversely, IBM’s stock price fell by over 6 percent on Thursday after the company reported its results after Wednesday’s closing bell; the decline came even after it beat analysts’ estimates for both revenue and earnings. This negative reaction has been attributed to a slowdown in IBM’s consulting businesses, sparking concerns about the company’s future growth. Cautious language regarding the economic outlook may have also weighed on investor sentiment.
Tesla and IBM performance, April 22 to 25, 2025.
Chart via Google Finance.
Meanwhile, Intel’s Thursday release of its Q1 results revealed flat revenue and lower earnings per share alongside a lower-than-expected outlook for Q2. The report resulted in a decline in Intel’s stock price, erasing earlier gains that followed a Fortune report that the company planned to lay off 20 percent of its workforce.
Intel and Alphabet performance, April 22 to 25, 2025.
Chart via Google Finance.
Finally, Alphabet shares rose in after-hours trading following its earnings release on Thursday, closing higher on Friday (April 25) as investors reacted positively to a strong report that revealed increases across the board.
4. EU hits Apple and Meta with DMA fines
The European Union fined Apple and Meta on Wednesday on the grounds that the companies have breached the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Apple was fined 500 million euros after the European Union found that the company imposed restrictions that prevented app developers from informing users about offers available outside of Apple’s App Store, thereby breaching the DMA’s “anti-steering” obligation. Additionally, the European Commission issued a cease-and-desist order to Apple, giving the iPhone maker 60 days to comply with the DMA.
Meta was fined 200 million euros for allegedly violating the DMA’s rules on user consent for data usage with its “pay or consent” model, which requires either personalized advertising or a subscription for ad-free service.
Both companies have said they plan to appeal.
“We have spent hundreds of thousands of engineering hours and made dozens of changes to comply with this law, none of which our users have asked for. Despite countless meetings, the Commission continues to move the goal posts every step of the way,” a representative for Apple told CNN.
Meanwhile, Meta told the Wall Street Journal that the penalties amount to “a multibillion-dollar tariff on Meta while requiring us to offer an inferior service.”
5. Apple plans iPhone manufacturing shift
Apple is reportedly planning a significant shift in its iPhone manufacturing strategy, aiming to move the assembly of iPhones destined for the US market from China to India as early as next year, according to a Thursday report in the Financial Times. This potential move signals a considerable departure from Apple’s longstanding dependence on China as its primary iPhone production hub. The impetus behind this strategic realignment is largely attributed to the escalating trade tensions between the US and China, which have compelled numerous multinational corporations to re-evaluate and diversify their global supply chains to mitigate risks.
Apple’s efforts to establish a manufacturing footprint in India have been underway for several years, with a gradual increase in iPhone production in the South Asian nation. However, the latest reports suggest a much more ambitious plan. Insiders familiar with the matter have indicated to the Financial Times that Apple’s ultimate objective is to transfer its entire iPhone production capacity for the US market to India by the end of 2026.
This would represent a complete overhaul of Apple’s current manufacturing arrangement and a major boost to India’s aspirations of becoming a global electronics manufacturing center.
Securities Disclosure: I, Meagen Seatter, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.