The CEOs of Amazon, Apple, GM and more on the economy and AI

This week was a huge one for quarterly financial results from some of the biggest companies in the US. In fact, one-third of the entire S&P 500 reported earnings this week.

Beyond the numbers, CEOs of the reporting companies had choice words about the US economy and AI. We’ve rounded up five quotes that stuck with us.

General Motors $GM chief Mary Barra told investors in a letter Tuesday that “[c]onsensus is growing that the US economy, the job market and auto sales will continue to be resilient.”

The company’s fourth quarter earnings report beat analyst forecasts and sent its stock up 8% to $38.30 per share in the mid-morning trading following the results—the stock’s highest price in about six months.

“We’ve made a lot of progress on our vision for advancing AI and the metaverse,” Meta $META CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on a conference call with analysts and investors on Thursday.

The key word there is “metaverse.” It’s a word that has taken a back seat to generative AI—Apple $AAPL didn’t even mention the metaverse when it released its Vision Pro headset last year—but now it’s back.

“We’ve moved from talking about AI to applying AI at scale,” Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft $MSFT, told investors on Jan. 30.

Microsoft’s bottom line is thriving. In the last three months ending Jan. 30, the company recorded revenue of $62.0 billion, up 18% from the same period last year.

“Across different teams, we have wound down some non-priority projects, which will help us invest and operate well in our growth areas,” Alphabet $GOOGL CEO Sundar Pichai said in a call with investors on Tuesday.

There’s one place that extra money is going—right into new projects around AI.

“Which are the best cold weather rain jackets?” That’s a question Amazon $AMZN CEO Andy Jassy told investors on Thursday that the company’s new AI shopping helper, Rufus, can answer.

The feature is currently available to a small number of app users in the US, but will be rolled out to more customers in the coming weeks.