NVIDIA (NVDA) ranked first in Thursday's US stock trading volume, closing down 1.77% with a turnover of $44.496 billion. The company reported its first-quarter earnings after the market close on Wednesday.
Goldman Sachs believes NVIDIA's earnings report validates a key thesis: the upcycle in AI computing power expenditure is far from over, and investment sustainability is improving. NVIDIA is driving down token costs by over 70% annually, while cloud service providers maintain stable selling prices, leading to significantly wider unit profits. This, in turn, supports their continued increase in capital expenditures, forming a positive cycle.
NVIDIA delivered a strong quarterly report: its second-quarter revenue guidance significantly exceeded market expectations, and it announced a substantial increase in shareholder returns.
Goldman Sachs noted in its earnings commentary that the key highlights of this report lie not only in the better-than-expected data but also in the improved sustainability of AI investment and the significant enhancement in capital return. In Goldman's view, the upcycle in AI computing capital expenditure is far from over, making NVIDIA's future growth path clearer and more predictable, and providing a more solid foundation for its stock price.
Micron Technology (MU) ranked second, closing up 4.11% with a turnover of $31.596 billion. Reports indicate that Micron recently initiated HBM design role recruitment in South Korea, targeting top semiconductor talent potentially available due to labor tensions at Samsung. This move is seen as a strategic layout by Micron to catch up with competitors in the HBM4 race.
Analysis points out that Micron has fallen behind competitors in the HBM4 competition, making this talent poaching effort in South Korea a strategic move to strengthen its talent pool.
Western Digital (WDC) ranked third, closing up 10.75% with a turnover of $20.273 billion. The US memory chip sector was broadly stronger on Thursday. In related news, Western Digital CEO David Goeckeler told investors on Wednesday that the flash memory market will face supply shortages "for a very long time," creating an excellent opportunity for the memory maker to transform its business.
As memory chips become a key component in the AI industry boom, Western Digital is shifting towards signing multi-year agreements, providing clearer expectations for the company and its buyers regarding future orders and spending. Goeckeler stated at a JPMorgan conference that this model should help stabilize this once highly cyclical industry.
Apple (AAPL) ranked fifth, closing up 0.91% with a turnover of $13.034 billion. According to a media report on Thursday, the US Office of Government Ethics disclosed that Donald Trump executed over 3,600 stock trades in the first quarter of this year, averaging nearly 50 per day, with transaction amounts potentially exceeding $100 million. The trades involved NVIDIA ($6 million), Apple, Boeing, Tesla, and defense contractors like Lockheed Martin.
Amazon.com (AMZN) ranked ninth, closing up 1.30% with a turnover of $9.689 billion. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos stated in a recent interview that the concept of deploying AI data centers in space is difficult to realize in the short term due to obstacles like high costs. Simultaneously, Bezos confirmed that his commercial space company, Blue Origin, is considering external investment for the first time.
Intuit (INTU) ranked thirteenth, closing down 20%, marking its largest single-day decline since March 2003, with a turnover of $6.867 billion. The company reported its third fiscal quarter results on Wednesday, with revenue of $8.56 billion and adjusted earnings per share of $12.80. Analysts surveyed by LSEG had expected revenue of $8.61 billion and EPS of $12.57.
Notably, for the third fiscal quarter ended April 30 (after the tax filing deadline), the company's revenue grew 10% year-over-year, the slowest pace since 2024. Net profit increased approximately 9% to $3.06 billion.
Wal-Mart (WMT) ranked fourteenth, closing down 7.27% with a turnover of $6.436 billion. Wal-Mart released its earnings report: despite first-quarter revenue exceeding expectations, its profit guidance for the second quarter fell short of market forecasts, primarily impacted by sustained fuel cost increases squeezing profit margins.
Wal-Mart expects second-quarter adjusted EPS to be between $0.72 and $0.74, below the consensus estimate of $0.75. It forecasts net sales growth of 4% to 5% for the quarter, also below the analyst expectation of 5.09%. However, the company reaffirmed its full-year target for net sales growth of 3.5% to 4.5%.
IBM (IBM) ranked sixteenth, closing up 12.43% with a turnover of $6.436 billion. Reports indicate that IBM has secured US government funding, committing $2 billion to a quantum computing chip project. The report states that to strengthen US leadership in quantum computing, the administration has agreed to provide IBM with $1 billion in funding to build a quantum computing chip manufacturing facility. IBM stated in a Thursday announcement that it will also invest $1 billion in a quantum chip production company named Anderon.
NEBIUS (NBIS) ranked twentieth, closing up 14.65% with a turnover of $5.025 billion. In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, NEBIUS stated that its subsidiary had entered into a Master Fuel Cell Capacity Agreement and related system orders with Bloom Energy Corp (BE) on May 14.
During the agreement term, NEBIUS will pay monthly service fees, totaling up to $2.6 billion, for the purchase of power system capacity and electricity. The provided power capacity is expected to be deployed in three phases, with a guaranteed capacity of approximately 250 megawatts and a system installed capacity of about 328 megawatts. Bloom Energy will be responsible for installing, operating, and maintaining the power supply system.
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