Technology companies faced a blend of legal hurdles, executive compensation setbacks, and strategic AI shifts. Meta and TikTok are defending against major state legal challenges, while Oracle deals with data center delays and underwater executive stock options. Meanwhile, Qualcomm secured a extended patent agreement with Apple, even as software providers like Twilio saw sharp analyst downgrades.
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Oracle Shares Drop Following Report of Force Majeure Notice on Data Center
Oracle issued a force majeure notice to Blue Owl regarding its 165 billion dollar Project Jupiter in New Mexico. The notice allows Oracle to pause rent payments if the 2.45-gigawatt facility misses its 2028 completion target. Project Jupiter is designed to supply computing capacity for OpenAI under the Stargate initiative, but it faces severe permitting delays and local opposition. Regulatory hurdles have blocked pipeline approvals and air permits for the site's Bloom Energy fuel cells, pushing the timeline toward 2029 or 2030. These delays have stressed 18 billion dollars in loans tied to the campus, which are trading below 90 cents on the dollar. Blue Owl shares fell 4 percent following the report, while Bloom Energy dropped 6 percent before later recovering.
New Mexico Jury Finds Meta Misled Consumers Over Cambridge Analytica
Channelnewsasia.com reports that a New Mexico jury found Meta Platforms misled state residents in a lawsuit stemming from the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. The verdict follows a two-week trial over a 2021 complaint brought by the state attorney general, who accused the tech company of misrepresenting how user data was shared and how it handled hate speech. Judge Francis Mathew will determine the monetary penalties Meta must pay for the violations. The trial follows an earlier March case in which a Santa Fe jury ordered Meta to pay $375 million in civil penalties over youth safety on its platforms. A subsequent judge's ruling in that matter directed the company to pay $567 million into a teen mental health fund. Meta later reached a settlement with 47 US states, agreeing to pay a maximum of about $16.7 billion to resolve claims regarding youth addiction while paying $459 million to a handful of states to resolve privacy claims related to Cambridge Analytica. New Mexico declined to join that settlement, allowing its own case to proceed to trial.
First US Trial Against TikTok Begins Over Teen Mental Health Claims
Channelnewsasia.com reports that an Alabama jury will hear claims that TikTok and its parent company ByteDance made the platform addictive to young users in the first US trial against the company over teen mental health. The trial is scheduled to kick off Monday in Montgomery state court and is expected to last two to three weeks. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall filed the lawsuit last year, joining at least 27 other states and Washington, D.C., in similar litigation. TikTok argues that Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act shields online platforms from liability over user-generated content. Alabama claims the platform pushes young users toward intense content about violence and self-harm, contributing to a mental health crisis. The lawsuit also accuses TikTok of misleading consumers about safety features and data access by the Chinese government. Meta Platforms, Snap Inc, and Alphabet's YouTube face similar lawsuits, though Meta recently reached a $17.1 billion settlement with 47 states, Washington, D.C., and US territories.
Disney Seeks Director of AI Enablement Amid Companywide AI Push
The Walt Disney Company is shrinking its legal and global affairs department and posting for a director of enablement to automate contract review and legal research. Chief legal and global affairs officer Horacio Gutierrez told employees on September 18 that the division will become a much smaller organization through automated workflows, self-service models, and outsourcing. A week later, Disney opened applications for a director of AI enablement and legal engineering to evaluate internal builds versus vendor purchases and measure return on investment. The restructuring follows April layoffs of roughly 1,000 workers across studio and television units. CFO Hugh Johnston stated in May that the company is shifting human and financial toward areas driving higher shareholder returns. Disney reported $25.2 billion in last quarter while planning to spend at least $9 billion on share this fiscal year. The company's stock is down 5 percent so far this year and nearly 40 percent since 2021. Corporate functions face direct staffing reductions as Disney ties operational redesigns to technological adoption.
Oracle Granted Executives $1 Billion in Stock Options That Ended Underwater
Oracle awarded founder Larry Ellison and its co-CEOs stock packages with a combined grant-date value of $988 million in fiscal 2026, Fortune reported. By the end of the fiscal year on May 31, every one of those options sat underwater after the stock was priced near its peak. Ellison's award was valued at $117.8 million at grant with a strike price of $280, while co-CEOs Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia received packages valued at $621.7 million and $248.7 million, respectively, with a strike price of $308. Oracle shares closed at $137 on Friday, leaving the stock down 53 percent in the past 12 months. The board stated in its proxy that the lack of proves the options are working as intended, and the company took no special actions to compensate executives for the losses. Meanwhile, cloud rose 39 percent to $34 billion, cloud infrastructure revenue grew 77 percent to $18.1 billion, and overall revenue reached $67.4 billion. Remaining performance obligations climbed to $638 billion from $138 billion in the prior fiscal year, while dropped to negative $23.7 billion. To fund its expansion, Oracle spent $55.7 billion in expenditures last fiscal year, sold $43 billion of senior notes, and issued $20 billion of stock at $141 a share during the summer. Despite the sliding share price, Ellison and the co-CEOs each collected $4.9 million in cash bonuses, and Ellison's base salary was raised to $950,000 from $1. In contrast, total compensation for the median global employee fell to $94,740 in fiscal 2026 from $98,899 in fiscal 2025, and staff faced layoffs. Shareholders will vote on the executive pay plan on Nov. 18.
Twilio Shares Fall Following HSBC Downgrade to Reduce
Twilio shares fell nearly 8% on Friday after HSBC downgraded the cloud communications provider to Reduce from Hold, citing an overextended tied to Meta Platforms' Muse agent. HSBC analyst Sameer Lam kept his price target unchanged at $211, arguing that investors have priced in more infrastructure demand than Twilio is likely to capture. The stock dropped to $275.80 at the regular-session close, under pressure after climbing roughly 30% since Meta launched Muse on September 8. HSBC modeled that even a tenfold increase in daily Muse users with regular calls would generate only $49.2 million in additional , representing just 0.8% of the bank's fiscal 2026 estimate for Twilio. The brokerage noted that while AI agents will increase call, message, and authentication volumes, Twilio faces intense competition from rivals like Bandwidth and Sinch, alongside the risk that Meta bypasses intermediaries to connect directly with wholesale carriers. Twilio enters the period with a 41.4 multiple and strong recent fundamentals, having posted second-quarter of $0.72 per share against a $0.59 estimate. The company is scheduled to report its next quarterly results on October 29, 2026.
Qualcomm and Apple Extend Global Patent License Agreement for Chips
Qualcomm renewed its global patent licensing agreement with Apple, securing a long-term stream starting April 1, 2027. The agreement extends a commercial relationship previously established by a 2019 settlement that ended a two-year global legal battle over wireless-patent royalties and modem-chip supply. Apple is currently transitioning to its own in-house cellular chips to reduce reliance on external hardware, but Qualcomm owns foundational patents for modern cellular connectivity. This extension ensures Qualcomm will continue collecting intellectual property fees even as future iPhones adopt Apple silicon. Qualcomm shares ticked up 0.2% in the prior session following the announcement.
Legal exposure and inflated AI valuations are testing tech sentiment despite durable hardware licensing deals. The open question is whether corporate automation and AI integrations can generate enough real earnings to offset rising state-level liabilities and shifting market ratings.
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