1. Netflix on Tuesday reported strong fourth-quarter results, shortly after striking its 72 billion deal for Warner Bros.Discovery's studios and the HBO Max streaming service. Warner also released financial details on the cable-networks business it plans to spin off.
The all-cash deal of 27.75 per share replaces Netflix's previous cash-and-stockdeal. The offer comes as rival bidder Paramount continues pushing its own all-cash offer for all of Warner Discovery. The value of Netflix's offer remains 72 billion.
Netflix increased revenue and profit from the prior-year quarter and beat analyst forecasts, with popular series such as the final season of "Stranger Things" boosting viewership. The company attributed its growth to increases in subscribers, prices, and advertising revenue. Netflix reported revenue of 12.05 billion, up almost 18% from the same period a year earlier. Net income was 2.42 billion, a roughly 29% rise from the fourth quarter of 2024. It also said it surpassed 325 million paid memberships.
Netflix reported earnings on the same day that it announced a new all-cash deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery's studios and the HBO Max streaming service for 27.75 a share. The value of Netflix's offer remains 72 billion. Meanwhile, rival media company Paramount Skydance continues to push for its 77.9 billion hostile offer for all of Warner.
Inits shareholder letter on Tuesday, Netflix said Warner Bros. and itself are "highly complementary businesses and together be able to offer more opportunities to creators and strengthen the entire entertainment industry."
Netflix said it would pause share buybacks to accumulate cash for the Warner deal. The deal is subject to regulatory approval. Netflix projected revenue of 50.7 billion to 51.7 billion in 2026 and said it expects ad revenue to nearly double. For the full year of 2025, Netflix reported revenue of 45.18 billion and net income of 10.98 billion. Netflix said that its objectives for 2026 include closing its acquisition of Warner Bros. and expanding into more content categories, such as video podcasts. Netflix stock has dropped about 15% since its deal with Warner was announced. Shares of Netflix fell about 5% in their after-hours trading on Tuesday.
2. Nvidia is investing in a customer of its AI chips, followed by Baseten, a startup specializing in AI inference. The startup company raised 300 million at a 5 billion valuation, more than doubling its valuation. The round was led by venture-capital firm IVP and CapitalG, Alphabet's independent growth fund, with participation from Nvidia. Nvidia is investing 150 million into the company as part of the deal.
The chip-making company is aggressively pushing startups focused on inference as the industry shifts its focus from training models to powering them at scale. It is also the latest example of Nvidia investing in a customer of its AI chips. Founded in 2019, San Francisco-based Basten helps companies like Cursor, an AI code editor, and Notion, a note-taking platform, deploy and run large AI models. It raised 585 million to date, including the new capital.
Startups focused on inference are seeing a new wave of investor interest. Fireworks AI, a startup that provides AI inference infrastructure to developers, raised 250 million in October 2025 at a valuation of 4 billion, and Cerebras, another startup that has designed chips specifically for inference, is in talks to raise 1 billion at a 22 billion valuation following a multibillion-dollar partnership with OpenAI.