① Micron Technology’s fiscal fourth-quarter sales outlook exceeded expectations, with shares rising more than 10% after hours.
② Qualcomm announced that its third-generation artificial intelligence chips are planned for launch in 2027.
③ Jensen Huang stated boldly that the question of AI investment returns “already has an answer.”
Market Dynamics
As of the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 182.06 points, or 0.35%, to 51,848.90. The Nasdaq fell 110.40 points, or 0.43%, to 25,476.64. The S&P 500 dropped 7.24 points, or 0.10%, to 7,358.22.
The 11 sectors of the S&P 500 closed mixed. Industrials gained 1.18%, telecom fell 0.61%, information technology/tech declined 0.64%, and energy dropped 1.73%.
Most U.S. equity sector ETFs closed higher. The Global Airlines ETF rose 4.17%, while the Biotech Index ETF, Regional Banks ETF, Consumer Discretionary ETF and Utilities ETF gained up to 1.93%. The Semiconductor ETF fell 0.35%, the Tech Sector ETF declined 0.62%, and the Energy Sector ETF dropped 1.63%.
Hot Stock Performance
Major tech stocks were broadly lower. Amazon rose 0.07%, Google fell 0.24%, Apple declined 0.41%, Nvidia dropped 0.52%, Meta fell 0.81%, Tesla slid 1.59%, Microsoft dropped 2.27%, and SpaceX fell 1.01%.
Sunrun, a U.S. residential solar service provider, surged 12.6% after the company announced a partnership with Tesla and Renew Home to supply power to data centers and utilities.
Wendy’s soared more than 25%. Analysts attributed the trigger to a post on Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum calling for the rescue of Wendy’s.
AI chip design company Cerebras Systems plunged 19.6% after its first earnings report since going public forecast a full-year profit margin below its first-quarter level.
Hertz Global Holdings tumbled 40.7% after the company projected second-quarter adjusted core profit near the lower end of its forecast range and announced plans to issue $100 million of common stock.
Popular Chinese concept stocks were broadly lower. The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index fell 1.77%. Bilibili rose 3.45%, Xpeng fell 2.2%, JD.com dropped 2.45%, Alibaba declined 2.73%, Pinduoduo fell 1.07%, NetEase dropped 1.35%, Baidu fell 2.11%, and NIO slid 3.73%.
Company News
[Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Says the Question of AI Investment Returns ‘Already Has an Answer’]
In the early hours of Thursday Beijing time, Nvidia, the world’s most valuable listed company, held its annual shareholder meeting.
AI industry leader Jensen Huang stated at the shareholders meeting that the question of AI investment return “already has an answer.” In the business update, Huang repeatedly emphasized that AI data centers are “factories that manufacture tokens,” and tokens can become code, answers, designs, actions, and services, so every token is a profit unit. This includes his most market-moving remark of the session: useful AI has arrived and is already capable of making money. Huang also emphasized that Nvidia systems may not have the lowest purchase price, but they can produce the lowest-cost tokens and the highest token throughput—and the highest revenue.
Micron Technology’s fourth-quarter sales outlook exceeded expectations. Micron reported third-quarter adjusted revenue of $41.46 billion, compared with $9.30 billion a year earlier and an estimate of $35.69 billion; third-quarter adjusted operating income of $33.68 billion, compared with $2.49 billion a year earlier and an estimate of $27.86 billion; third-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $25.11, compared with $1.91 a year earlier and an estimate of $20.49. Micron expects fourth-quarter adjusted revenue of $49 billion to $51 billion, versus market expectations of $43.24 billion, and expects fourth-quarter adjusted EPS of $30 to $32, versus market expectations of $25.31. Qualcomm announced that its third-generation AI chip is planned for launch in 2027. Qualcomm’s data center head said the third-generation AI chip is scheduled for 2027, a data center CPU will be launched in mid-2028, and a second-generation HBC chip will be introduced in 2028. Microsoft will deploy Qualcomm’s high-bandwidth computing chips in Azure data centers. Meta plans to use the C1000 CPU in its data centers. Qualcomm said data centers will generate billions of dollars in revenue in fiscal 2027. Qualcomm is acquiring Modular for nearly $4 billion to accelerate its shift toward AI software and data centers. Qualcomm said on Wednesday that it will acquire AI startup Modular in an all-stock transaction valued at close to $4 billion, obtaining a software technology that can run AI models across chips without writing separate code for each processor. The move will allow Qualcomm to directly challenge the CUDA ecosystem at the software level, which has long supported Nvidia’s dominance in AI, locking millions of developers into the chip ecosystem of the $5 trillion company and building a strong technical barrier.Under the terms of the transaction, Qualcomm expects to issue up to approximately 19.2 million shares of common stock to Modular shareholders. Based on Qualcomm’s closing price on Tuesday, the transaction is valued at $3.92 billion.
