Alphabet, Alibaba, WeRide, BHP Group and M&C Saatchi

Shares in Google-parent Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) were up 2.7% in pre-market trading on Monday, extending gains from Friday’s session.

The latest rise in shares comes as Google Cloud announced on Monday a multimillion-dollar deal with the NATO Communications and Information Agency to deliver AI-enabled sovereign cloud capabilities.

“This partnership will enable NATO to decisively accelerate its digital modernisation efforts while maintaining the highest levels of security and digital sovereignty,” said Tara Brady, president of Google Cloud EMEA.

Alphabet shares have advanced in recent days following the launch of Google’s latest AI model, Gemini 3.

The recent news that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B, BRK-A) has taken a stake in Alphabet worth just over $4bn has also boosted shares.

Hong Kong-listed shares in Alibaba (9988.HK) popped 5% on Monday, after the Chinese tech giant said that its Qwen AI app had topped 10 million downloads within a week of its relaunch.

Alibaba shared the news in a WeChat blog post on Monday, which comes just a day before the company is set to release its half-year results.

Earlier this year, Alibaba announced that it planned to invest at least $53bn (£41bn) in AI and cloud infrastructure over the next three years.

In the company’s first quarter results, released in August, CEO Eddie Wu said that its “strategic focus on consumption and AI+cloud delivered strong growth”.

Alibaba reported 26% growth in revenue from its cloud intelligence arm in the first quarter, with AI-related product revenue achieving triple-digit growth for the eighth consecutive quarter.

Hong Kong-listed shares in autonomous driving technology company WeRide (0800.HK) jumped nearly 10% on Monday, on the back of its third-quarter results.

WeRide posted revenue of 171 million yuan (£18.4m) for the third quarter, which was up 144% year-on-year. The company had also shrunk its losses, reporting a net loss of 307.3 million yuan for the quarter, down from 1.04 billion yuan for the same period last year.

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Tony Han, CEO of WeRide, said: “As we progress toward our goal of deploying hundreds of thousands of robotaxis by 2030, WeRide is well-positioned to capitalise on the autonomous driving opportunity.

“The depth of our technology stack, breadth of our global partnerships, and strength of our regulatory relationships position us to capture significant value as autonomous mobility transforms transportation worldwide.”

The results come just days after WeRide announced its robotaxi had received a driverless permit in Switzerland, making it the only company with vehicles holding autonomous driving permits in eight countries.

On the London market, miner BHP Group (BHP.L) announced on Monday that it had dropped its bid for rival Anglo American (AAL.L).

BHP said in a statement that while it “continues to believe that a combination with Anglo American would have had strong strategic merits and created significant value for all stakeholders, BHP is confident in the highly compelling potential of its own organic growth strategy.”

Shares in BHP and Anglo American edged less than 1% higher on Monday morning on the back of the announcement.

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Derren Nathan, head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Anglo has already inked a merger deal with Canada’s Teck resources subject to shareholder and regulatory approval. The market has warmed to the idea of the copper focussed combination, meaning that Anglo’s valuation is looking fuller than it has for some time.“

He pointed out that BHP’s share price has, meanwhile, drifted in line with iron ore prices over the past couple of years.

At the same time, Nathan said that BHP has “some attractive organic growth opportunities as it seeks to diversify into other commodities. It’s one to keep an eye on but as with the broader sector the fast-moving macroeconomic environment carries significant short-term risks.”

Shares in advertising agency M&C Saatchi (SAA.L) slid more than 9% on Monday, after the company warned of lower revenue and operating profit for the year.

In an update on Monday morning, M&C Saatchi said that trading in the second half of the year had been impacted by the US government shutdown.

The company said that while there had been no impact on any relationship or contract agreements, or the longer-term growth of the business, it did not expect to recover lost revenue in the current fiscal year.

As a result, the agency said it now expects to report a like-for-like net revenue decline of around 7%. M&C Saatchi said it expected operating profit to be in the range of £26m ($34m) to £28m, indicating a margin of around 12.5% to 13%, which would be below the expectation set out in the company’s interim results.

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