AI and semiconductor stocks surge after Nvidia's earnings beat
- Nvidia supplier TSMC jumped Thursday after Nvidia beat Wall Street's forecast for earnings and revenue on Wednesday.
- Shares of server component supplier Super Micro Computer and the Dutch chip equipment manufacturer ASML, which supplies TSMC lithography machines critical to chip making, also rose Thursday.
Artificial intelligence and semiconductor chip stocks rallied Thursday after U.S. chip design firm Nvidia beat Wall Street's expectations for fourth-quarter earnings and revenue on Wednesday and projected "continued growth" in 2025 and beyond.
Nvidia supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company closed up nearly 3% Thursday. TSMC is the world's largest contract chip maker and produces advanced processors for companies like Nvidia and iPhone maker Apple.
Shares of server component supplier Super Micro Computer closed up more than 32%. Dutch chip equipment manufacturer ASML, which supplies TSMC lithography machines critical to chip making, closed up more than 4%.
Following Nvidia's earnings report, rivals Advanced Micro Devices and SoftBank-backed U.K. chip designer Arm Holdings closed up more than 10% and more than 4%, respectively on Thursday.
Nvidia, which custom designs AI chips for the likes of Amazon, Microsoft and Google, saw skyrocketing demand for its graphics processing units thanks to the AI boom.
OpenAI's ChatGPT, which gained massive popularity worldwide in November 2022 for its ability to generate human-like responses to user prompts, is trained and run on thousands of Nvidia's GPUs. Nvidia shares closed up more than 16% Thursday.
Intel, Broadcom and Qualcomm, three U.S. chip makers, also saw increases in share prices in extending trading after Nvidia's report Wednesday. Broadcom and Qualcomm closed up more than 6% and 1% respectively on Thursday, but Intel reversed its gains and closed down more than 1%.
"Fundamentally, the conditions are excellent for continued growth" in 2025 and beyond, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told analysts on Wednesday in an earnings call. He added that demand for Nvidia GPUs will remain high due to generative AI and an industry-wide shift away from central processors to the accelerators that Nvidia makes.
"If I was going to just kind of put a stake in the ground relative to the conversation, whether it's related to market share or to their margins, I think they're going to surprise people," Gene Munster, managing partner of Deepwater Asset Management, told CNBC's "Street Signs Asia" on Thursday.