“OpenAI enttäuscht. Tech-Aktien down.” - Coca-Cola-Boom, Airbnb oder Booking?

The episode opens with a roundup of earnings news. Coca-Cola posted a 12% revenue increase, beating expectations, driven by a smart pricing strategy of selling smaller bottles and cans at higher per-liter prices without raising list prices. The hosts note that Coca-Cola's results reflect the 'K-shaped economy': premium brands like Fairlife are thriving among higher-income consumers, while cheaper segments are struggling. The stock rose 5%.

UPS reported solid numbers but only confirmed rather than raised its annual targets, which the market interpreted as a sign of uncertainty. The stock lost slightly despite the company saving $600 million in costs this quarter through automation, with a total savings target of $3 billion. Swedish industrial giant Atlas Copco fell 5% after mixed results: its vacuum systems division serving chipmakers saw 30%+ order growth, but compressor and industrial technology divisions disappointed. Novartis dropped slightly after a 5% revenue decline and steeper profit fall, largely due to U.S. patent expirations on key drugs like Entresto, which saw a 40% sales drop, with some other drugs losing 60-65% of sales due to generic competition.

A major geopolitical development: the UAE announced it is leaving OPEC and the OPEC+ alliance after 60 years of membership, effective May 1st. The split stems from long-standing tensions with Saudi Arabia over production quotas, and the UAE's desire to produce more oil. This could pressure oil prices downward if the UAE significantly increases output.

On the topic of executive compensation, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe received approximately $400 million in total compensation in 2025, compared to around $15 million in prior years. The vast majority is in stock options and equity awards, with a $1 million base salary. In a best-case scenario, his compensation could reach $4.5 billion over 10 years if Rivian achieves a $175 billion market cap — currently it sits at under $20 billion. For comparison, GM and Ford CEOs earn around $25 million, and VW's CEO earned $8.5 million while selling 9 million cars versus Rivian's 42,000.

In Germany, Bayer's stock fell 5% following unfavorable U.S. Supreme Court hearings related to glyphosate litigation. Diagnostics company QIAGEN dropped 10% on weak results, while IT company INIT surged 10% after winning a large contract in Australia for public transit systems.

In tech, the biggest story was a Wall Street Journal report that OpenAI has failed to meet its internal user and revenue targets. The company's CFO is reportedly concerned about OpenAI's ability to fulfill existing infrastructure commitments at its current growth pace. Competition from Gemini and Claude is cited as a key reason. This hit OpenAI-adjacent stocks hard: Oracle, which has a $300 billion compute deal with OpenAI, and SoftBank, a major OpenAI investor, both fell around 10%.

Spotify disappointed by projecting only 6 million new premium subscribers this quarter, falling short of the 300 million milestone investors anticipated. Advertising revenue also missed expectations. Spotify acknowledged spending heavily on AI while reducing headcount, using AI to develop new features — a strategy that pressures near-term margins even if it promises long-term growth. With a P/E of around 30, investors were not forgiving of the weak near-term metrics. Corning, whose stock had risen 250% over the past year due to a $6 billion fiber-optic cable deal with Meta, fell 10% after reporting that while its fiber segment grew 40%, the rest of the business was largely stagnant.

The final segment covers Airbnb's strategic expansion into hotels. After years of decelerating growth (from 40% in 2022 to 10% last year), CEO Brian Chesky announced efforts to diversify. Airbnb began listing small hotels in New York, LA, Paris, and Madrid in October, promising lower fees than Booking.com and Expedia (which charge 15-30% commission) and introducing a dedicated hotel manager. The move aims to recover revenue lost in cities like New York, where strict short-term rental laws have cost Airbnb millions of bookings, and to tap into the lucrative business traveler market. Hotel bookings currently represent a low single-digit share (estimated ~5%) of Airbnb's total nights, but are growing twice as fast as the core business. Even under optimistic assumptions, it would take about eight years for hotels to reach 10% of bookings. The hosts compare Airbnb (P/E ~30, $80B market cap) unfavorably to Booking.com (P/E ~17, $140B market cap), noting Booking has grown faster over the last three years and may represent the better value for investors who aren't worried about AI disruption of the travel booking space.