Only 35% of Airbnb’s listings were occupied in 2022

In today’s top stories, Morgan Stanley downgrades Airbnb on falling demand, TSMC announces that it will triple investment in its US plant, and Microsoft tries to sweeten its proposed deal with Activision Blizzard. MongoDB’s share price soars on positive earnings results, and Tesla delivers 100 electric trucks to PepsiCo.

Morgan Stanley downgrades Airbnb

The short-term rental market is under pressure as inflation sees fewer people taking holidays. Morgan Stanley has downgraded Airbnb [ABNB] from equal weight to underweight with analyst Brian Nowak citing “occupancy headwinds and lower room night demand” as the reason. The investment firm calculated that its 2022 occupancy rate has been 35%, in line with 2021, but believes it had previously been too optimistic about its forward demand for 2023 and 2024. 

TSMC triples Arizona investment

President Biden hailed Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TMSC) [TSM] as a “game-changer” when he visited the chipmaker’s Arizona plant on Tuesday. The visit coincided with TSMC’s announcement that it was tripling its investment at the facility to $40bn. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple [AAPL], TSMC’s biggest customer, says the investment will help “usher in a new era in advanced manufacturing” in the US semiconductor industry, reported the Financial Times. 

Microsoft offers Sony 10-year deal

All eyes in the gaming world are on whether Microsoft [MSFT] will acquire Activision Blizzard [ATVI]. If it does, then it’s willing to offer Sony [6758.T] a 10-year contract to make releases of video game ‘Call of Duty’ available on the Playstation platform. A similar agreement with Nintendo [7974.T] was announced on Tuesday. Serkan Toto, CEO of consultancy Kantan Games, told CNBC that the offer to Sony “might calm down [antitrust] regulators” concerned about the Microsoft-Activision deal.

Speed bumps ahead for Tesla’s electric truck

EV maker Tesla has delivered the first of 100 electric trucks ordered by PepsiCo [PEP] back in 2017. “If you’re a trucker and you want the most badass rig on the road, this is it,” exclaimed Elon Musk at a launch event last week. However, the Wall Street Journal has pointed out that the long-range truck will have to “fill up on subsidies,” and even then it could be too expensive. Short-range trucks are more likely to be a commercial success, the paper’s writers argued.

MongoDB’s adjusted profit surprise

After disappointing results from software companies, MongoDB [MDB] has surprised with its earnings. Adjusted profit was $0.23 per share versus a loss of $0.17 as expected by analysts. President and CEO Dev Ittycheria said strong numbers were a result of “Atlas [cloud database] consumption trends and continued strength in new business activity.” The MongoDB share price was up as much as 30% in pre-market trading on Wednesday.