Thursday's Pre-Market: Snowflake, Taiwan Semiconductor, Putin's Next Move, NVIDIA, and Salesforce

Snowflake says Frank Slootman is retiring as CEO, stock plunges more than 20%

Snowflake said CEO Frank Slootman, who took the company public in 2020, is retiring.
The stock dropped in extended trading.
Snowflake said product revenue in the first quarter will be between $745 million and $750 million, lower than the $759 million analysts were expecting.

Water shortages could impact semiconductor firms like TSMC, the world’s largest contract chip maker, S&P Global Ratings said in a Monday report.
However, TSMC’s dominance in the chip industry could allow it to charge higher prices if supplies dip.
“Customers’ dependence on its supply allows TSMC to lock in end demand and compensate for lower unit sales with price rises,” said S&P.

Speculation is mounting that Russian President Vladimir Putin could use his annual address to Russian lawmakers Thursday to announce that Russian troops will be sent to “protect” the pro-Russian, breakaway region of Transnistria in Moldova.
The self-proclaimed pro-Russian authorities of Transnistria on Wednesday asked Moscow to implement measures to protect the region and its economy against an alleged threat from Moldova.
Putin delivers his State of the Nation address — an overview of the current situation in the country Russia’s goals at home and abroad — on Thursday.

Since 2017 Chinese car conglomerate Geely’s founder and chairman Eric Li has been building Ecarx, that offers software and chip systems for digital car cockpits and driver-assist.
Ecarx co-founder and CEO Ziyu Shen told CNBC that Nvidia currently has an edge when it comes to AI-based autonomous driving systems, but that Ecarx is aiming for the mass market and is about to announce products that compete directly with Nvidia’s offerings.
Ecarx plans to benefit from selling to local Chinese companies that need to buy from domestic firms due to geopolitical reasons, Shen said.
He expects the overseas market to be a growing business for the company as well and something that offers it an edge over Chinese competitors such as Huawei.

Salesforce’s results surpassed estimates for the fiscal fourth quarter, but fiscal 2025 revenue guidance came in weak.
The business software company started bringing its products to Amazon’s cloud marketplace during the quarter.