Overview of Major Overnight Developments on May 4

Western Digital's CFO strongly supports AI storage demand, stating that hyperscale cloud providers are continuously expanding capital expenditures and are already discussing supply needs for 2030 to 2031. Although the company’s quarterly results exceeded expectations and profit guidance was raised, capital expenditures more than doubled compared to the same period last year, putting pressure on free cash flow. This has raised concerns in the market about the sustainability of investment returns in AI data centers, causing the stock to close down by about 3% on Friday.

Meta AI chief Alexandr Wang stated that Muse is available to regular users for free and that Meta has no plans to introduce advertisements. Meta plans to offer paid services to enterprises, but specific pricing and launch timeline have not been disclosed. He also mentioned that Meta's proprietary infrastructure, security systems, and data centers provide Muse with a competitive advantage that is difficult for rivals to replicate.

According to media reports, the Trump administration plans to exempt certain Canadian agricultural and forestry products from the 50% tariff, with an announcement as early as this Friday. To maintain the overall scale of tariffs, this tax reduction may be offset by imposing additional tariffs on other Canadian goods. The move is mainly intended to help Maine Senator Susan Collins retain her seat in the midterm elections, while it could also benefit other Republican candidates in trade-dependent states.