The Olympic rings are seen on the Eiffel Tower Friday, June 7, 2024, in Paris. The Paris Olympics organizers mounted the rings on the Eiffel Tower on Friday as the French capital marks 50 days until the start of the Summer Games. The 95-foot-long and 43-foot-high structure of five rings, made entirely of recycled French steel, will be displayed on the south side of the 135-year-old historic landmark in central Paris, overlooking the Seine River. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) --
The first Olympic Esports Games are set to be added soon to the IOC's portfolio of events as it seeks to attract and retain young audiences.
The International Olympic Committee said Friday it will ask members to approve a proposal to create a video game Olympics when they meet next month in Paris on the eve of the Summer Games.
The Olympic body said it was in "advanced discussions with a potential host" that should be announced soon after the July 23-24 meeting in Paris.
"The IOC is taking a major step forward in keeping up with the pace of the digital revolution," its president Thomas Bach said in an online briefing.
The Esports Olympics will build on an IOC-backed week of video game competitions held last year in Singapore. It was a mix of physical simulations of Olympic sports and traditional video games.
The IOC said 75 percent of viewers engaging with Singapore events were between the ages of 13 to 34.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks during the Microsoft Ignite conference, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)
Microsoft Corp. said Wednesday that its profit for the October-December quarter grew 10% from the same time last year as it works to capitalize on the huge amounts of money it has spent to advance its artificial intelligence technology.
But while its overall profits and revenue beat Wall Street expectations, it slightly missed projections for its closely-watched cloud computing business, a centerpiece of its AI efforts.
The company reported net income for the quarter of $24.1 billion, or $3.23 per share, beating Wall Street expectations of $3.11 per share. The Redmond, Washington-based software maker posted revenue of $69.6 billion in the quarter, up 12% from the previous year, also beating expectations.
Analysts polled by FactSet Research expected Microsoft to generate revenue of $68.87 billion in the last three months of the year, and currently project revenue of $69.81 billion for the January-March quarter.
Sales from Microsoft's cloud-focused business segment grew 19% from the same time last year to $25.5 billion, which was less than the $25.83 billion forecast by FactSet analysts.
Microsoft's productivity business segment, which includes its Office suite of email and other workplace products, grew 14% to $29.4 billion.
Its personal computing business, led by its Windows division, remained steady at $14.7 billion.
Microsoft shares dropped slightly in after-hours trading Wednesday but were still higher than Monday, when the tech giant was hit by a broader tech stock sale caused by a frenzy over the new ChatGPT competitor developed by Chinese tech startup DeepSeek.
Microsoft is a close partner of ChatGPT maker OpenAI and also sells its own AI chatbot services, branded as Copilot. Part of what drove the Wall... Read More
