Driven by strong expectations of a surge in CPU demand fueled by the AI agent wave, AI chip stocks in the U.S. market mostly rose on May 22. Qualcomm surged nearly 9%, Advanced Micro Devices gained over 3%, NXP Semiconductors and IBM climbed more than 2%, and Intel rose over 1%. This rally signals that the semiconductor investment focus is shifting from a singular GPU computing power race to a full-stack AI infrastructure approach.
Qualcomm's stock price extended gains to as much as 9%-10% after the company confirmed its return to the data center CPU market and its collaboration with Nvidia on developing AI cluster solutions. Advanced Micro Devices also saw significant gains, with CEO Lisa Su stating that global CPU demand, driven by the proliferation of AI inference and agent AI, is far exceeding expectations, leading to ongoing supply tightness.
With the explosive growth of AI agent tools like OpenClaw, the CPU is evolving from a supporting role to the central orchestrator of AI systems. Morgan Stanley predicts the total addressable market for server CPUs could grow to $82.5-$110 billion by 2030, with a potential compound annual growth rate of 38% over the next five years.
Simultaneously, optical interconnect and memory chips are also emerging as major beneficiaries. Microsoft, as a core buyer of AI computing power, maintained a firm stock price, while Cisco gained about 0.40% benefiting from data center interconnect demand. Analysis indicates that AI investment hotspots are spreading across the entire chain, including CPUs, memory, and PCBs, with AI chip leadership diffusing from Nvidia's dominance to a more diversified landscape including Qualcomm and Advanced Micro Devices.
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