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WPP taps Microsoft exec Cindy Rose to rebuild ad group

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Britain’s advertising giant WPP named Cindy Rose, a senior Microsoft executive and current board member, as its new CEO on Thursday. Rose will take over from Mark Read on September 1, four months earlier than initially planned, as WPP faces the challenge of recovering from a major profit warning that sent its shares to a 16-year low.

Rose, who has served on WPP’s board since 2019, brings nearly a decade of senior leadership experience from Microsoft, where she most recently served as Chief Operating Officer, Global Enterprise. She also led Microsoft’s UK business and has past experience at Vodafone and Virgin Media.

WPP Chairman Philip Jansen praised Rose’s expertise in digital transformation and artificial intelligence, highlighting her role in helping large enterprises adopt new business models and revenue streams. He noted that her skills will be crucial as WPP navigates industry disruptions and macroeconomic challenges.

WPP is currently struggling with client spending slowdowns, loss of major accounts, and reduced new business, all of which contributed to the recent downgrade in profit outlook. The group, which lost its status as the world’s largest advertising firm to France’s Publicis last year, is also adapting to the rise of AI tools that empower clients to create and manage their own marketing campaigns.

Rose stated, “We have and continue to build market-leading AI capabilities, alongside an unrivalled reputation for creative excellence and a preeminent client list.”

Nvidia briefly hits $4 trillion market value, cementing AI leadership

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Nvidia (NVDA.O) briefly reached a market capitalization of $4 trillion on Wednesday, becoming the first company ever to hit this milestone and reaffirming its dominance in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector. Shares surged as much as 2.8% to an all-time high of $164.42 before closing up 1.8%, giving Nvidia a market value of approximately $3.97 trillion.

This milestone reflects Wall Street’s strong confidence in Nvidia’s leading role in powering AI innovation, with its high-performance chips crucial to advancements in the technology. Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth, remarked that the rally “highlights the fact that companies are shifting their asset spend in the direction of AI,” which he sees as the future of technology.

Nvidia’s stock has seen a remarkable recovery after a slow start in 2025, which was rattled by competition from Chinese AI models like DeepSeek. The company reached a $1 trillion valuation in June 2023 and has since nearly quadrupled in value within about a year—outpacing other tech giants like Apple and Microsoft, the only other U.S. firms with market caps above $3 trillion.

Microsoft, the second most valuable U.S. company, closed Wednesday at $503.51 per share with a $3.74 trillion market cap. Nvidia’s rally has lifted it by approximately 74% from its April lows, coinciding with renewed optimism about U.S. trade relations.

Currently, Nvidia represents 7.3% of the S&P 500 index, slightly more than Apple’s 7% and Microsoft’s 6%. Its valuation now surpasses the combined stock market value of Canada and Mexico, as well as all publicly listed companies in the UK.

Despite its high valuation, Nvidia’s 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratio stands at 32, below its three-year average of 37.

While Nvidia’s GPUs dominate AI workloads, rivals such as Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and others are seeking to chip away at its market share by offering more affordable alternatives. Meanwhile, major customers like Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet face investor pressure to moderate their AI spending.

Nvidia posted $44.1 billion in revenue for the first quarter of 2025, a 69% increase year-on-year. For the second quarter, the company projects revenue around $45 billion, plus or minus 2%, with earnings due on August 27.

Year-to-date, Nvidia’s stock is up about 22%, outperforming the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index’s roughly 15% gain.

Microsoft saves $500 million with AI amid job cuts, Bloomberg reports

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Microsoft (MSFT.O) saved over $500 million last year in its call centers alone by leveraging artificial intelligence, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday. This comes as the tech giant announced plans to cut nearly 4% of its workforce to control costs amid heavy investments in AI infrastructure. In May, Microsoft disclosed layoffs affecting around 6,000 employees.

AI tools have boosted productivity across various departments, including sales, customer service, and software engineering. According to Microsoft’s Chief Commercial Officer Judson Althoff, AI is now managing interactions with smaller customers, a nascent effort already generating tens of millions of dollars in savings, Bloomberg reported citing an insider.

Althoff also revealed that AI contributed to 35% of the code for new products, speeding up launch times. Microsoft declined to comment on the report when contacted by Reuters.

This fiscal year, Microsoft has allocated $80 billion in capital spending, primarily to expand data centers to address capacity constraints for AI services. As big tech companies ramp up AI investments, they are simultaneously cutting costs in other areas to maintain profitability.