Comcast Corp. unloaded even more of its BuzzFeed Inc. stake in recent days, capitalizing on a surging share price for the publishing company.
The media conglomerate disclosed Monday that it sold 5.1 million shares of BuzzFeed
BZFD,
+2.80%
between Feb. 2 and Feb. 6. That comes after the company sold upward of 5.7 million shares between Jan. 30 and Feb. 1, in a series of transactions that were disclosed earlier this month.
Comcast
CMCSA,
-1.15%,
which made a $200 million equity investment in BuzzFeed back in 2015, now owns 15.9% of the company’s outstanding shares, according to its latest filing.
BuzzFeed has found itself in Wall Street’s good graces recently given a clamoring for companies that play into artificial intelligence — and specifically those that have links to ChatGPT, the trendy chatbot that OpenAI debuted late last year.
See also: Microsoft makes new ‘multibillion-dollar’ investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI
BuzzFeed’s stock closed at 95 cents Jan. 25, the day before the Wall Street Journal reported that company planned to use ChatGPT in various forms, including to enhance the site’s trademark quizzes. Shares had risen 300% to $3.87 by the end of trading on Jan. 27, though they’ve since pulled back to $2.29 as of Monday’s close.
Read: ChatGPT to charge $20 a month for premium subscriptions, as chatbot grows faster than TikTok
Shares rose 2.8% in Monday’s regular trading, but they were off 2.3% in aftermarket action.
BuzzFeed’s stock is up 219% to start 2023. Shares of C3.ai Inc.
AI,
+6.45%,
an enterprise AI company, have rallied 146% to kick off the year.
Larger companies are getting in on the action as well, in a big way. Mentions of artificial intelligence, or AI, have spiked on earnings calls in 2023 relative to the same period a year ago. Executives at Alphabet Inc.
GOOG,
-1.66%
GOOGL,
-1.79%,
which just announced plans to roll out a ChatGPT rival, were among the chattiest.
