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**BETA FINCH PODCAST SCRIPT**

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ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown where we decode the numbers that move markets. I'm Alex, and joining me as always is Jordan. Today we're diving into UPS's Q4 2025 earnings call - and wow, there's a lot to unpack here.

But before we get started, I need to share an important disclaimer: This podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

Jordan, this was quite the call. UPS is in the middle of what they're calling their "Amazon accelerated glide down" - essentially deliberately shrinking their network while trying to improve profitability. How'd they do in Q4?

JORDAN: Alex, the headline numbers actually look pretty solid considering they're in the middle of this massive transformation. Q4 revenue came in at $24.5 billion with operating profit of $2.9 billion - that's an 11.8% operating margin. For the full year 2025, they hit $88.7 billion in revenue with $8.7 billion in operating profit.

But here's what's really interesting - they exceeded their own internal expectations despite deliberately reducing Amazon volume by about 1 million pieces per day. That tells you something about the quality improvements they're seeing.

ALEX: Right, and that's the key theme here - this isn't just about getting smaller, it's about getting more profitable per package. What stood out to you in terms of revenue quality improvements?

JORDAN: The numbers are actually quite impressive. U.S. revenue per piece grew 7.1% year-over-year, and in Q4 specifically it jumped 8.3% - that's their strongest fourth quarter revenue per piece growth in four years. They're also seeing their customer mix improve dramatically. Small and medium business penetration hit 31.8% of total volume, and B2B grew to 42.3% - both record highs.

CEO Carol Tomé made a point of saying this isn't a "shrink-the-company strategy" but rather growing in the best parts of the market. They're essentially trading low-margin Amazon volume for higher-margin enterprise and SMB business.

ALEX: Let's talk about the costs though, because this transformation isn't free. They took some pretty significant charges this quarter, right?

JORDAN: Absolutely. They took a $137 million after-tax write-off for their MD-11 aircraft fleet - they're accelerating the retirement of these older, less efficient planes and replacing them with newer Boeing 767s. CFO Brian Dykes mentioned they had about $50 million in incremental lease costs in Q4 just to replace that capacity, and that'll roughly double in 2026.

They also delivered $3.5 billion in savings from network reconfiguration - they closed 93 buildings in the U.S., removed 26.9 million labor hours, and cut 48,000 positions. It's a massive operational overhaul.

ALEX: Now, one of the most interesting developments was around their economy product called "Groundsaver." They're basically handing some of that delivery back to the U.S. Postal Service. What's the story there?

JORDAN: This is actually a reversal of something they did previously. UPS had been doing more of this economy delivery in-house, which was costing them big - we're talking about $400-500 million in headwinds in 2025. Now they're going back to having USPS handle the final mile for some of these packages, which should improve their economics significantly.

Brian Dykes said they expect to see benefits start materializing in the second half of 2026, though the full benefit might not come until 2027. They're using what they call "density matching technology" to decide which packages UPS delivers versus which ones go to USPS.

ALEX: Let's talk guidance because 2026 sounds like it's going to be a tale of two

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**BETA FINCH — UnitedHealth Group (UNH) Q2 2026 Earnings Breakdown**

ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown. I'm Alex, joined as always by Jordan, and today we're digging into UnitedHealth Group's second quarter 2026 results — a quarter that, honestly, marks a pretty big turnaround story.

JORDAN: Big turnaround is right. But before we get into it — quick reminder for everyone listening.

ALEX: Right, this podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

JORDAN: Good, now let's get into it.

ALEX: So let's start with the headline numbers, because they're strong. Adjusted EPS came in at $6.38, up from $4.08 a year ago — that's a huge jump. Revenue was about $112 billion, roughly flat year-over-year, but operating earnings grew 55%. And they raised full-year guidance to a range of $19.50 to $20 a share.

JORDAN: What jumps out to me is the medical care ratio — that's basically the percentage of premium revenue that goes out the door in medical claims. It dropped to 86.7% from 89.4% last year. Lower is better for the insurer. Part of that is $860 million in favorable prior-period development, meaning they overestimated costs in prior periods and get to release some of that reserve now. But even stripping that out, the underlying trend is improving.

ALEX: And this is really the story CEO Stephen Hemsley told at the top of the call — this is a company about a year into a restructuring after a rough stretch, and he was pretty clear: "we will remain restless." He's not declaring victory, but the discipline is showing up in the numbers.

JORDAN: Let's talk segments, because the picture is genuinely split. Medicare Advantage was the star of the quarter. Membership retention beat expectations, they now expect MA enrollment to decline by only about 1.1 million instead of more, and Medicare margins are tracking above 3% for the year. Medical trend also came in below their original 10% estimate — helped by benefit redesign, network curation, and honestly, a milder flu season.

ALEX: Meanwhile, commercial is the soft spot. Cost trends are running modestly above 11%, worse than they'd hoped. Management pointed to two specific culprits: the No Surprises Act's arbitration process — which they say is being exploited, with average payouts to out-of-network providers now 11 times what Medicare would pay — and more aggressive provider billing and coding practices.

JORDAN: That arbitration point was one of the more eye-opening moments in the Q&A. Executive Dan Kueter said roughly 60% of all arbitration cases are now brought by just five entities, and 40% of claims entering the process are actually ineligible to begin with. It's clogging the system and driving costs up. The upshot: commercial margin recovery, which they'd hoped to complete by 2027, is now going to take longer. Not derailed, in their words — just delayed.

ALEX: Medicaid, meanwhile, is basically playing out as planned — margins pressured, expected to land between -1% and -1.7% for the year, as state reimbursement rates lag behind medical cost growth. Nothing new there, just a slow grind toward better alignment with states.

JORDAN: Now let's flip to Optum, the services side of the business, because that's where a lot of the AI story lives. Optum Health — their value-based care arm — is showing real improvement: a roughly 10% reduction in hospitalizations in regions where they've rolled out new care transition programs, and patient satisfaction up about 5% year-over-year.

ALEX: Optum Rx, the pharmacy benefit manager, is leaning hard into transparency — they're on track to have more than 95% of clients on 100% rebate pass-through by year-end.

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**Beta Finch Podcast Script: United Health Group Q1 2026 Earnings**

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**ALEX:** Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown. I'm Alex.

**JORDAN:** And I'm Jordan. Today we're diving into United Health Group's Q1 2026 results, and wow - this was a strong quarter across the board.

**ALEX:** Before we jump in, I need to mention that this podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

**JORDAN:** Absolutely. So Alex, UNH just reported adjusted earnings per share of $7.23 for Q1, which was well ahead of expectations. They're now guiding for full-year adjusted EPS above $18.25. That's a pretty confident raise this early in the year.

**ALEX:** It really is. And what I found interesting is that all four of their major business segments exceeded their internal plans. Revenue came in at $111.7 billion, which is 2% growth year-over-year. Now, that might seem modest, but remember - they've been very focused on disciplined pricing over growth this year.

**JORDAN:** Right, and that strategy seems to be paying off. Their medical care ratio improved to 83.9% from 84.8% last year. CEO Andrew Witty was pretty clear that 2026 was about "margin recovery and product stability" rather than chasing membership growth. Sometimes you've got to take a step back to take two steps forward.

**ALEX:** Exactly. And speaking of stepping back, they've made some major strategic moves. They completed their exit from all non-U.S. businesses and refreshed nearly half of their top 100 leadership roles. This is clearly a company that's refocusing on its core strengths.

**JORDAN:** The OptumHealth story is particularly interesting here. They reported $1.3 billion in adjusted earnings, which was significantly higher than expected. CFO Wayne DeVeydt mentioned that all segments exceeded their internal plans, but OptumHealth really stood out.

**ALEX:** What caught my attention was how they're improving their value-based care model. Krista Nelson from OptumHealth gave a great example - in their West Region, they increased clinical reviews by over 50% and saw a 35% reduction in skilled nursing facility admissions compared to last year. That's the kind of operational improvement that directly impacts the bottom line.

**JORDAN:** And it makes sense from a patient care perspective too. They're serving over 20 million people in their OptumHealth care models, with 4 million in fully value-based arrangements. The research they cited showed 24% fewer hospital admissions and 29% fewer ER visits for patients in value-based care versus traditional Medicare.

**ALEX:** Now let's talk about the elephant in the room - medical cost trends. This has been a big concern for the entire managed care industry. Tim Noel, who runs UnitedHealthcare, said trends are "progressing in line with expectations" and they're seeing "modest favorability in government programs."

**JORDAN:** That's key because they've been dealing with elevated medical trends running around 7-8% in Medicare Advantage, and they priced for about 10% increases coming into 2026. If trends are coming in a bit better than expected, that's a real positive for margins going forward.

**ALEX:** Let's pivot to their AI strategy because this is where things get really interesting for the long term. They're investing nearly $1.5 billion in AI-related initiatives in 2026. That's not just throwing money at the latest tech trend - they're being very strategic about it.

**JORDAN:** Sandeep Dadlani broke down how they're spending that $1.5 billion - about a third goes to software products and platforms, accelerating OptumInsight's transition to AI-first services. The other two-thirds is spread acr

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# Beta Finch Podcast Script: UnitedHealth Q4 2025 Earnings

**ALEX:** Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown where we turn corporate speak into plain talk. I'm Alex.

**JORDAN:** And I'm Jordan. Today we're diving into UnitedHealth's Q4 2025 results, and wow - there's a lot to unpack here.

**ALEX:** Before we get started, I need to mention that this podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

**JORDAN:** Right, and speaking of unpacking - UnitedHealth just delivered what I'd call a "everything but the kitchen sink" quarter. They beat expectations slightly with adjusted EPS of $16.35, but there's this massive $1.6 billion charge lurking underneath.

**ALEX:** Yeah, that charge is wild. It's like getting three different bills at once - $800 million related to that cyberattack cleanup, a $440 million gain from selling off assets, and then a whopping $2.5 billion restructuring charge. It's clear they're doing some serious spring cleaning.

**JORDAN:** What caught my attention is how transparent CEO Stephen Hemsley was about this being a "new age" for the company. They're essentially admitting they need to get back to basics while investing heavily in AI - we're talking $1.5 billion in 2026 alone.

**ALEX:** Let's talk numbers first. Revenue hit nearly $448 billion, up 12% year-over-year, which is solid. But the real story is in the 2026 guidance - they're projecting adjusted EPS of greater than $17.75, which represents at least 8.6% growth.

**JORDAN:** That guidance is interesting because it's what I'd call "cautiously optimistic." They're expecting double-digit improvements at UnitedHealthcare but only low-to-high single-digit growth across the Optum segments. It tells me they're being realistic about their turnaround timeline.

**ALEX:** The Medicare Advantage story is probably the biggest concern for investors. Tim Noel basically said they're planning to lose 1.3 to 1.4 million Medicare Advantage members in 2026. That's not a typo - they're intentionally shrinking to focus on profitability over growth.

**JORDAN:** And then yesterday's rate notice for 2027 was apparently even worse than expected. Noel called it "disappointing" and warned of "meaningful benefit reductions" for seniors. When a healthcare executive is that blunt about government rates, you know it's bad.

**ALEX:** What's their strategy to deal with this? It sounds like they're doubling down on margin recovery. They expect Medicare margins to improve by about 50 basis points in 2026, but they're essentially trading membership for profitability.

**JORDAN:** The Optum turnaround is where things get really interesting. Patrick Conway, the new Optum CEO, outlined some pretty dramatic changes. They've narrowed their provider network by 20%, streamlined risk membership by 15%, and consolidated down from 18 different electronic medical record systems to just three.

**ALEX:** That EMR consolidation alone shows you how scattered they were. Imagine trying to implement AI tools across 18 different systems - it's like trying to conduct an orchestra where every musician is reading different sheet music.

**JORDAN:** Speaking of AI, they claim 80% of member calls now use AI tools, and they're expecting nearly $1 billion in AI-enabled cost reductions in 2026. That's not just efficiency gains - that's transformational if they can pull it off.

**ALEX:** Now let's talk about what came up in the Q&A, because that's where executives sometimes reveal what they're really thinking. One analyst asked about the bottom of the Medicare Advantage cycle, and you could sense the frustration in management's response.

**JORDAN:** Right, they're clearly

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# Beta Finch Podcast Script: UnitedHealth Group Q4 2025 Earnings

**ALEX:** Welcome back to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown where we dive deep into the numbers that move markets. I'm Alex, and I'm here with my co-host Jordan to break down UnitedHealth Group's latest quarterly results.

Before we get started, I need to mention that this podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

**JORDAN:** Thanks Alex. And wow, what a quarter to dissect. UnitedHealth just reported their Q4 2025 results, and there's a lot to unpack here. This is a company in the middle of a major transformation, dealing with some serious headwinds while trying to get back to their historical performance levels.

**ALEX:** Absolutely. Let's start with the headline numbers, Jordan. Revenue came in at over $113 billion for the quarter - that's 12% year-over-year growth, which sounds impressive on the surface.

**JORDAN:** Right, but the devil's really in the details here. While revenue grew nicely, driven by domestic membership expansion of over 780,000 lives year-to-date, the medical care ratio tells a different story. It jumped to 89.9% from 85.2% in the same quarter last year. For listeners not familiar with this metric, that's essentially how much of every premium dollar goes to paying medical costs - and higher is definitely not better for insurers.

**ALEX:** That's a massive increase, Jordan. And it really highlights the core challenge UnitedHealth is facing - medical cost trends that CEO Stephen Hemsley described as "historically high." What's driving this?

**JORDAN:** From the call, it sounds like it's a perfect storm. Tim Noel from UnitedHealthcare pointed to more aggressive provider coding and billing practices, higher-cost sites of service being used when lower-cost options are available, and just generally more service intensity per patient encounter. They're seeing more specialists rounding per hospital stay, more services being attached to ER visits - essentially, providers are maximizing every billable moment.

**ALEX:** And this is hitting them across all their business lines. In Medicare Advantage, they're forecasting about 7.5% medical cost trend for the full year 2025, but they're planning for 10% trend in 2026. That's brutal when you consider they're also dealing with nearly $50 billion in industry-wide Medicare cuts from the previous administration.

**JORDAN:** The response has been pretty dramatic, Alex. They're essentially retreating from underperforming markets. In Medicare Advantage alone, they expect to lose about 1 million members in 2026 - that includes exiting plans covering 600,000 members and competitive pressure on the rest.

**ALEX:** Let's talk about their ACA business because the numbers there are eye-popping. They've filed rate increases averaging over 25% and expect to reduce ACA enrollment by approximately two-thirds. That's not a trim - that's a wholesale retreat.

**JORDAN:** It really shows how challenging these markets have become. When you have to raise rates by 25% and still expect margins below your target range, that tells you the underlying cost structure has fundamentally shifted. They're basically saying "we'd rather have a much smaller, profitable book than a large, money-losing one."

**ALEX:** Now, let's shift to Optum, which has been their growth engine for years. Patrick Conway, the Optum CEO, was pretty candid about what went wrong with Optum Health.

**JORDAN:** Yeah, it was refreshing to hear that level of honesty. He basically said they strayed from their original value-based care model during their rapid expansion phase. The provider network got too large, they relied

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BETA FINCH — Uber Technologies (UBER) Q2 2026 Earnings Breakdown

ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown. I'm Alex.

JORDAN: And I'm Jordan. Today we're digging into Uber's second quarter 2026 results — and Alex, this was a loaded call. Delivery Hero, autonomous vehicles, a Waymo update — there's a lot here.

ALEX: There really is. But before we get into it, quick disclaimer: this podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

JORDAN: Good, let's get into the numbers.

ALEX: So gross bookings came in at more than $58 billion, up 22% year-over-year — that's above the high end of guidance, and it's the fourth straight quarter above 20% growth. Non-GAAP EPS was up 35%, and trailing 12-month free cash flow crossed $10 billion for the first time ever.

JORDAN: That free cash flow number is the headline for me. Ten billion trailing twelve months — that's real operating leverage, not just top-line growth. And it's giving them room to do something pretty aggressive: the agreement to acquire Delivery Hero.

ALEX: Right, and that deal basically doubles the number of markets where Uber can run both mobility and delivery side by side — pushing them toward nearly 100 markets. CFO Balaji Krishnamurthy laid out the integration timeline: assuming a close in the second half of 2027, they'd spend 2028 planning, then execute the core platform migration in 2029.

JORDAN: That's a long runway. And notably, they actually pivoted about $4 billion of capital toward that deal in Q2 — buying Delivery Hero stock on the open market to be ready to move fast. That's part of why buybacks slowed to $3.5 billion so far this year instead of hitting their usual 50%-of-free-cash-flow pace. Balaji said they're "steadily" rebuilding repurchases — and when pushed on timing, he said months, not quarters.

ALEX: Let's talk autonomous vehicles, because Dara Khosrowshahi spent a lot of time here. Uber's live in seven cities with AV partners right now, on track for 15 by year-end — Zoox in Vegas, Wayve in London and Tokyo, a Nuro-Lucid launch in the Bay Area, Baidu, Pony, more.

JORDAN: What stood out to me is how he framed the whole AV landscape — comparing it to the foundation model race. Instead of one company winning everything, you get multiple players — Waymo, Zoox, Wayve, Nuro, Rivian, NVIDIA — and Uber's positioning itself as the commercialization layer underneath all of them, not betting on a single winner.

ALEX: Which matters given the Waymo headlines lately. Dara addressed it directly — said Waymo remains an important partner, they'll keep operating in Austin and Atlanta into next year, but Uber's deliberately diversifying so they're not dependent on one AV provider.

JORDAN: And the scale context he gave was useful — AVs are doing hundreds of thousands of trips per week against Uber's total of 300 million weekly trips. That's under half a percent of volume. So this is very much still an early-innings story, even with all the partnership headlines.

ALEX: There was also a really interesting tidbit on the economics — Dara said Uber's built-in demand drives utilization of mid-to-high-20s, even low-30s trips per vehicle per day for AV partners. That's a meaningful data point on how Uber's platform accelerates the monetization case for these robotaxi partners.

JORDAN: On the U.S. mobility side, Balaji broke down what's driving the acceleration everyone's been watching for — insurance cost savings being reinvested into markets like California, product innovation on both ends of the spectrum — Uber Reserve and Black on the premium side, Wait & Save on the value side — and then sparse markets, where less than 10% of eligible U.S. consumers have used Uber in the past year, versus over

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# Beta Finch Podcast Script - Uber Q1 2026 Earnings

**ALEX:** Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown where we dive deep into the numbers that matter. I'm Alex.

**JORDAN:** And I'm Jordan. Today we're breaking down Uber's Q1 2026 earnings, and wow - this was a quarter that really showed the breadth of what Uber has become.

**ALEX:** Absolutely, Jordan. And before we dive in, I need to mention that this podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

**JORDAN:** Thanks Alex. Now, let's get into these numbers because they were genuinely impressive. Uber delivered 21% year-over-year growth in gross bookings - that's the total value of all transactions on their platform.

**ALEX:** And what I love about this quarter is how balanced the growth was. Mobility hit 20% growth with record margins, Delivery grew 23% driven by grocery and retail, and here's the kicker - Freight returned to growth for the first time in nearly two years.

**JORDAN:** That Freight turnaround is huge, Alex. That's been a drag on their numbers for a while. But the real standout for me was the profitability story. Non-GAAP earnings per share jumped 44% year-over-year - that's more than twice as fast as their bookings growth.

**ALEX:** Exactly! And they returned a record $3 billion to shareholders through buybacks this quarter. But let's talk about some of the strategic milestones because there were some big ones.

**JORDAN:** Oh absolutely. They crossed 50 million Uber One members - that's their subscription service - and hit 10 million drivers and couriers globally. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi mentioned that Uber One members now account for over 50% of their total bookings and spend three times more than non-members.

**ALEX:** That subscription moat is becoming really powerful. They added 20 million Uber One members in just one year, going from 30 million to 50 million. And speaking of strategic moves, they made some big announcements at their GO-GET event.

**JORDAN:** Right - they're expanding into hotel bookings through a partnership with Expedia, adding 700,000 hotels to the platform. It's a classic Uber move - they're already huge in airport trips, which represent about 15% of their mobility bookings, so hotels are a natural extension.

**ALEX:** And the numbers support this strategy. Khosrowshahi mentioned that 40% of US riders take trips outside their home city, and globally they had over 1.5 billion trips happening outside users' home cities last year. That's a massive travel audience to tap into.

**JORDAN:** But let's talk about what's really driving growth in their core business - insurance cost savings. This is huge for their US operations, Alex.

**ALEX:** Absolutely. CFO Balaji Krishnamurthy said they expect hundreds of millions in insurance savings this year. And here's the key - they're passing those savings back to consumers through lower prices, which is driving trip acceleration, especially in California markets like LA and San Francisco.

**JORDAN:** The elasticity story is working. Lower prices are translating directly to more trips, and LA - which had the biggest insurance headwinds over recent years - is now seeing significantly better growth trends than the rest of California and the country.

**ALEX:** Now, we have to talk about autonomous vehicles because that dominated a lot of the Q&A session. They have over 30 AV partners now and their autonomous mobility trips grew more than 10x year-over-year.

**JORDAN:** And they're on track to be live in up to 15 cities by year-end. But what's interesting is how they're positioning this not as a threat to their driver network, but as expanding the entire market. Khosrowshahi pointed out that in San Francisco and LA, where

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**BETA FINCH PODCAST SCRIPT**

**ALEX**: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown. I'm Alex, and I'm here with Jordan to dive into Uber's Q4 2025 earnings call. Jordan, this was quite the packed call - we had leadership changes, major autonomous vehicle updates, and some pretty impressive numbers.

**JORDAN**: Absolutely, Alex. But before we dig into all that excitement, I need to mention our standard disclaimer.

**ALEX**: Right - this podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

**JORDAN**: Thanks, Alex. Now, let's talk about those numbers because Uber really delivered. They hit a $15 billion annual run rate for their platform, grew monthly active users to over 200 million, and saw gross bookings jump 22% year-over-year. But what really caught my eye was that free cash flow number - $9.8 billion, up 42%.

**ALEX**: That's massive, Jordan. And it sounds like this was their fifth consecutive year of over 20% gross bookings growth. But the big story here isn't just the financials - it's the leadership transition and their autonomous vehicle strategy. Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah is stepping down as CFO, and Balaji Krishnamurthy is stepping up. What's your read on that?

**JORDAN**: It seems like a smooth transition, honestly. Prashanth mentioned he's moving on to serve America in some capacity - probably a government role. And Balaji isn't new to the company; he's been working closely with CEO Dara Khosrowshahi for years. The timing makes sense too, with Uber in such a strong cash position to make strategic investments.

**ALEX**: Speaking of strategic investments, let's talk about the elephant in the room - autonomous vehicles. Dara was pretty bullish about AVs, saying they expect to be in 15 cities by the end of 2026. But there's been this ongoing debate about whether AVs will hurt or help Uber's business model.

**JORDAN**: This is fascinating, Alex. Dara made some compelling points. He said that in markets where AVs have been deployed - like San Francisco, Austin, and Atlanta - Uber's overall bookings have actually accelerated. The key insight is that AVs aren't replacing traditional rideshare; they're expanding the total market. Plus, vehicles on Uber's platform are seeing 30% higher utilization than standalone AV services.

**ALEX**: That utilization stat is crucial. It suggests Uber's marketplace advantage - their ability to match supply and demand efficiently - extends to autonomous vehicles too. But what about the competitive threat? What happens when Tesla or Waymo ramp up their own AV services in major cities?

**JORDAN**: Dara addressed this head-on. He pointed out that only 30% of Uber's bookings come from major cities, and 75% of their US profits actually come from outside the top 20 markets. These smaller, less dense markets are unlikely to see AV competition anytime soon. Plus, 60% of their mobility business is international, which gives them even more insulation.

**ALEX**: That's a great point about geographic diversification. And they're not just sitting back waiting for AVs to arrive - they're actively investing. They mentioned partnerships with Waymo, NVIDIA, and newer players like Wabi and Avride. What's their capital strategy here?

**JORDAN**: This is where it gets really interesting. They're taking an asset-light approach, similar to how Marriott doesn't own all its hotels. Uber is making strategic investments in AV companies - like guaranteeing the first 25,000 vehicles from Wabi will be exclusive to their platform - but they're also working with financial institutions to create a financing ecosystem. Think private equity, banks, fleet partners. They want to avoid being overly capital-intensive.

**ALEX**: Smart approach. Now, beyo

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ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown for the companies moving the market. Today we're digging into Texas Instruments' second quarter 2026 results — and there's a lot going on, including a CFO transition. Before we get into it, quick note: this podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

JORDAN: And there's plenty to unpack here, Alex. TI just posted $5.5 billion in revenue, up 13% sequentially and 23% year-over-year. That's a really strong beat — they actually came in above their guided range.

ALEX: Right, and it wasn't just one segment carrying the load. Analog grew 26% year-over-year, Embedded Processing grew 16%. Gross margin jumped 340 basis points sequentially to 61%. Operating profit was $2.3 billion, up 48% from a year ago. Net income landed at $2 billion, or $2.14 a share — and that included a nice little tax-related bonus of about five cents that wasn't in the original guide.

JORDAN: What really stands out to me is the breadth. Industrial was up around 30% year-over-year, data center literally doubled year-over-year, and automotive — which had been the laggard — suddenly accelerated to mid-teens growth. CEO Aviv Alon said it best: this used to be an industrial-and-data-center story, and now automotive is joining the party.

ALEX: Yeah, and he had an interesting theory on why automotive picked up so fast — inventory at customers had gotten so lean that even a small uptick in demand exposed the shortage. Combine that with EV and hybrid strength out of China, and you get this sudden inflection.

JORDAN: There's also a CFO changing of the guard here. Rafael Lizardi, who's been CFO for nearly a decade, is retiring at the end of August. Julie Knecht, a 25-year TI veteran and the outgoing chief accounting officer, steps in August 1st. Rafael got a nice send-off on the call — sounded like an emotional moment for him.

ALEX: Definitely bittersweet. But let's talk guidance, because that's where it gets exciting. TI guided Q3 revenue to $5.65 to $6.15 billion and EPS of $2.23 to $2.57 — that's an above-seasonal guide, and management basically said the strength is broad-based across industrial, data center, automotive, and even personal electronics, which is typically TI's seasonal Q3 driver anyway.

JORDAN: One thing analysts kept probing on was pricing. Management confirmed prices were flat — stable — through the first half, which is actually notable since prices typically erode a couple points a year at TI. Now they're starting to push through price increases, customer by customer, mostly concentrated in Analog for now, with Embedded pricing conversations pushed more toward next year's annual negotiations. But they were clear Q3's growth is overwhelmingly unit-driven, not price-driven.

ALEX: The data center story is fascinating too. It's already doubled year-over-year, and when asked about long-term growth rates there, Aviv wouldn't pin a number on it — he framed it as "we want to outgrow the market," pointing to their power tree and signal chain content, plus the shift toward higher-voltage architectures like 800 volts, which actually creates more conversion stages and more silicon opportunity for TI.

JORDAN: And capacity is a big differentiator this cycle. Unlike the last upcycle, where clean room construction was the bottleneck, TI says they now have clean room space ready to go at Sherman and Richardson, plus Lehigh 2 coming online by year-end. CFO commentary reinforced the 2026 capex guide stays at $2 to $3 billion, possibly trending toward the higher end given demand.

ALEX: On the capital return side, trailing-twelve-month free cash flow was $6.5 billion, way up from $1.8 billion

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# Beta Finch Podcast Script: Texas Instruments Q4 2025 Earnings

**ALEX:** Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown. I'm Alex, and I'm here with my co-host Jordan to dive into Texas Instruments' fourth quarter 2025 results. This podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

**JORDAN:** Thanks Alex. Texas Instruments just delivered some really interesting numbers that caught a lot of people's attention. The big story here isn't just what happened in Q4, but what they're projecting for the first quarter of 2026.

**ALEX:** Absolutely. So let's start with the headline numbers. TI reported $4.4 billion in revenue for Q4, which was up 10% year-over-year but down 7% sequentially. That sequential decline is pretty typical for the fourth quarter. But Jordan, what really stood out to you?

**JORDAN:** The guidance is what's really fascinating here. They're projecting Q1 revenue between $4.32 billion and $4.68 billion, which would represent the first sequential growth in a first quarter in about 15 years. That's a huge departure from normal seasonality where you'd typically see a decline.

**ALEX:** That's remarkable. And when you look at the segment performance, you can see why management is optimistic. Their industrial business was up 18% year-over-year, automotive grew in the upper single digits, but the real star was data center - up around 70% year-over-year.

**JORDAN:** The data center story is particularly compelling. CEO Haviv Ilan mentioned they're now at about $450 million per quarter in data center revenue, and this market has been growing for seven consecutive quarters. They've repositioned data center as one of their five key end markets, which tells you how strategic this has become.

**ALEX:** Speaking of strategic positioning, let's talk about their manufacturing investments. They're nearing the end of what they called a "six-year elevated CapEx cycle." Rafael Lizardi, their CFO, mentioned they expect CapEx between $2-3 billion in 2026, but here's the kicker - with the new 35% investment tax credit from the CHIPS Act, they're getting significant offsets.

**JORDAN:** That's huge for their economics. They're also expecting up to $1.6 billion in direct CHIPS Act funding as they hit various milestones. But what I found most impressive was their free cash flow story - it nearly doubled to $2.9 billion in 2025, representing 17% of revenue.

**ALEX:** And they're returning that cash to shareholders aggressively. They returned $6.5 billion over the past twelve months through dividends and buybacks, plus they increased their dividend by 4% - marking 22 consecutive years of dividend increases.

**JORDAN:** Now let's dig into what's driving this unusual Q1 strength. Management was very clear this isn't about pricing - in fact, they expect overall pricing to be down low single digits, which is pretty typical for them. Instead, they're seeing genuine order strength.

**ALEX:** Right, and during the Q&A, executives mentioned they saw orders improving throughout Q4, with stronger month-to-month progression and building backlog. They're also seeing elevated "turns business" - customers wanting immediate shipments - which suggests real underlying demand rather than just inventory building.

**JORDAN:** The industrial recovery story is interesting too. Even with that strong 18% growth, Haviv Ilan pointed out they're still about 25% below their 2022 peaks in industrial. So there's potentially a lot more room to run as that market normalizes.

**ALEX:** And their inventory position seems to be a real competitive advantage right now. They built up $4.8 billion in inventory - 222 days - which sounds high but manageme

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