CB Insights - upcoming: big tech earnings

Hi there,

Happy Monday! Here's what we're watching in business and tech news this week: 

• More than a third of the companies in the S&P 500 are due to report earnings this week, including: Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Qualcomm, Apple, Amazon, and Twitter. Google and Facebook are expected to have been hit by a plunge in ad spending, while Amazon is likely to emerge the winner as orders surged amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
   

• Another $310B in government loans will be disbursed this week to small businesses — but industry experts expect the funds to be depleted in days. The website crashed within minutes of its launch this morning. JPMorgan and Bank of America say that they already have tens of thousands of applications queued up, while alternative lenders are also facing newfound risks and opportunities. We take a look at what SMBs' cash flow crisis means for fintech here. 
   

• The US government will report the largest quarterly economic contraction since early 2009, many experts believe. The first quarter’s GDP results will be announced on Wednesday. While forecasts warn the contraction will deepen in Q2’20, some are optimistic about a path toward recovery in the latter half of the year.
   

• Expect delivery robots to gain traction as Sacramento and other cities use the tech to help ensure safe, contactless delivery of everything from food to medical supplies. Autonomous delivery co Nuro is shuttling food and PPE in Sacramento. Meanwhile, other startups are scrambling to ramp up manufacturing while navigating regulatory red tape. From drones to cloud kitchens, Expert Intelligence clients can take a look at  50+ startups transforming last-mile delivery here.

Warning signs 
 

Investor activity in China in Q1’20 is a bellwether for startup funding across the rest of the globe. 

Take a look at how the Covid-19 outbreak impacted startup funding in China here.

Prime wisdom

Jeff Bezos’ annual letter typically sheds insights on his business strategy, priorities, and more. His 2019 letter, however, addresses how Amazon is tackling Covid-19. 

Read all of Bezos’ letters to Amazon shareholders — and the lessons we gleaned from them — here.

First they did surgery on a grape…

Lab-on-a-chip technology refers to putting a mini biomedical/chem lab on a small chip, allowing for rapid diagnosis. 

Expert Intelligence clients can take a look at 5 startups leveraging lab-on-a-chip technology for infectious disease diagnosis here. 

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