Tata Technologies IPO; Alibaba’s Course Correction; Microsoft Board Seat

Slam Dunk IPO for Tata Technologies

The share price of Tata Technologies [TATATECH:NS] more than doubled on its trading debut Thursday, climbing as high as ₹1,400, versus an offer price of ₹500, before closing at ₹1,313. The IPO of the engineering research unit of Tata Motors [TATAMOTORS:NS] was oversubscribed 69 times and raised a total of ₹30.4bn.

Alibaba’s Rude Awakening

The Chinese e-commerce behemoth looks set to be overtaken by upstart rival PDD [PDD], owner of Temu and Pinduoduo. After more than a decade of predominance, Alibaba [BABA] was on track to close Thursday below PDD, Bloomberg reported. On Wednesday, founder Jack Ma had praised PDD in an internal company forum, and urged his company’s staff to “correct course”.

Microsoft Consolidates Influence at OpenAI

OpenAI has announced that Microsoft [MSFT] will have a non-voting seat on its board. The software giant is a leading backer of the artificial intelligence (AI) start-up, having invested $13bn in it and integrated its AI models into core products. After a tumultuous few weeks, Sam Altman has been reinstated as CEO, while Mira Murati, who briefly served as interim CEO, is once again Chief Technology Officer, and Greg Brockman is back as president.

Robinhood to Open in UK

In its international debut, Silicon Valley-headquartered Robinhood Markets [HOOD] is set to roll out commission-free stock trading in the UK. The firm will enable trading of more than 6,000 US-listed stocks as of 2024. In an interview with Bloomberg, Co-founder and CEO Vlad Tenev said: “We’d like to help lower fees for all customers in the UK, just like we did in the US back in 2019, right before Covid”.

SNOW’s Day in the Sun

Data warehousing giant Snowflake’s [SNOW] share price rose 9% Wednesday in after-hours trading, after posting third-quarter (Q3) results that beat expectations. Product revenue was the stand-out, coming in at $698.5m, up 34% year-over-year, and above analysts’ predicted $675.3m. The firm expects Q4 revenue to be between $716m and $721m.