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Market Data Table

Breakfast News: Workday’s AI Moat Gets Larger

May 22, 2026

Thursday's Markets
S&P 500 7,446 (+0.17%)
Nasdaq 26,293 (+0.09%)
Dow 50,286 (+0.55%)
Bitcoin $77,611 (-0.03%)

With markets closed Monday for Memorial Day, Breakfast News will be back in your inbox on Tuesday, May 26.

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Bar chart showing Workday's gross profit growth over the past three years, rising steadily from $1.34 billion in the third quarter of 2023 to $2.13 billion in the second quarter of 2026.

1) WDAY Jumps Over 10% on World Model Success

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) rocketed 11% higher ahead of the opening bell after quarterly results beat expectations, with artificial intelligence (AI) demand surging thanks to its proprietary database engine, with annualized revenue from AI solutions approaching $500 million.

"For AI, the world model is like the holy grail": Gerrit Kazmaier, the president for product and tech, detailed how the engine -- known as the world model -- builds off the 80 million users under contract and approximately 1.4 trillion transactions annually to give Workday "a set of data and context that no other competitor can replicate."
"Our core business is strong, our AI strategy is working, and we're moving with the speed…to lead": CEO Aneel Bhusri also noted core operations are performing well, with subscription revenue up 14.3% year over year (YOY). The stock is recommended by Team Rule Breakers and Team Hidden Gems.

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2) Thursday's Earnings From Team Rule Breakers Recs

Take-Two Interactive (NASDAQ:TTWO) popped over 6% before the market opened due to the quarterly loss narrowing significantly, with solid mobile and sports gaming performances. The highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI is still slated for release in November.
Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) was little changed in pre-market trading due to a mixed bag of results. Earnings beat expectations thanks to areas such as the U.K. and Brazil, but concerns around a slowing overall growth trajectory weighed on the stock.
Zoom (NASDAQ:ZM) rose 8% before the opening bell after earnings beat forecasts and full-year guidance was hiked, based on strong enterprise growth and rapid customer adoption of new AI tools. The stock is also recommended by Team Hidden Gems.

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3) Quantum Stocks Soar on Government Grants

IBM (NYSE:IBM) closed 12% higher yesterday, the largest single-day gain in over a year, alongside a 15% jump in GlobalFoundries (NASDAQ:GFS), as the U.S. government announced new grants for selected companies in exchange for equity stakes.

Nine companies related to quantum computing selected: The move shows the growing interest in quantum computing with regards to national security, with a spread of companies receiving between $38 million and $1 billion in funding.
IBM awarded $1 billion to go toward building a chip foundry: The largest beneficiary is IBM, which will be adding $1 billion of its own cash to the new project, based out of a semiconductor research center in New York.

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4) Anthropic Eyes Microsoft Maia AI Chips

CNBC reports Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is in talks with Anthropic to supply custom AI chips, as Anthropic continues to diversify away from its heavy historical leaning on Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) hardware.

Custom chips likely to be based on the second-gen Maia product: Microsoft announced the latest Maia 200 processor back in January, offering a 30% improvement in the tokens per dollar cost. The processor will be used to run OpenAI's GPT 5.2 model.
Anthropic widens provider base to expand compute potential: Earlier in May, CEO Dario Amodei said the business has had some difficulties with compute, with any potential Microsoft deal building on the Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) chip deal agreed upon last month.

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5) Your Take

When a dividend yield shrinks because the stock has run so hard, how does that change your view? Does the capital appreciation make up for the lost income potential?

Debate with friends and family, or become a member to hear what your fellow Fools are saying!

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