NVIDIA, ranked first in Tuesday's US stock trading volume, closed up 1.16% with a turnover of $32.838 billion. AI startup Thinking Machines Lab announced a multi-year collaboration agreement with NVIDIA, which includes a significant investment from NVIDIA. The startup also committed to purchasing at least 1 gigawatt of NVIDIA's next-generation processors for training and operating its advanced AI models. However, specific financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Under the agreement, the company—founded last year by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati—will begin deploying NVIDIA's upcoming Vera Rubin systems early next year. These computing resources will primarily be used to train the company's AI models. Industry executives noted that building computing infrastructure at the 1-gigawatt scale could cost approximately $50 billion. This partnership will help Thinking Machines compete with larger rivals in developing powerful AI systems, highlighting the industry-wide rush to expand computing capacity.
Tesla, the second most actively traded stock, closed up 0.14% with a turnover of $23.735 billion. Elon Musk announced that the social media platform's digital payment system, X Money, will begin early public access next month, as the billionaire pushes to transform X into a "super app." This move comes as the Tesla CEO seeks to leverage the platform's large user base and the growing trend of digital and in-app financial transactions to create new revenue streams for X. Last year, X partnered with payment company Visa to offer direct payment services to users of the social app. Since acquiring the platform formerly known as Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, Musk has promoted plans to turn X into an "everything app," offering a wide range of features including streaming, messaging, images, videos, and payments.
Micron, ranked third, closed up 3.54% with a turnover of $13.622 billion. Applied Materials announced a collaboration with Micron Technology to combine the R&D capabilities of Applied Materials' EPIC R&D Center and Micron's Innovation Center. The partnership aims to develop next-generation DRAM, high-bandwidth memory (HBM), and NAND storage technologies. It also includes advancing packaging technologies to enable high-bandwidth, low-power memory solutions.
SanDisk, ranked fifth, closed up 5.12% with a turnover of $11.116 billion. US memory-related stocks rallied on Tuesday after market research firm IDC stated that the AI boom is straining supply, turning the memory chip shortage into an "unprecedented crisis." AI infrastructure development continues to accelerate, with major tech companies expected to spend up to $650 billion in 2026—an 80% increase from last year's record level. Even if memory chip manufacturers ramp up production, shortages are unlikely to ease until at least a year from now, if not longer.
Palantir, ranked ninth, closed down 3.38% with a turnover of $7.165 billion. Recent reports indicate that Anthropic's partnership with Palantir is facing challenges following a Pentagon decision.
Lumentum Holdings, ranked 14th, closed up 4.89% with a turnover of $4.886 billion. S&P Dow Jones Indices announced that Lumentum will officially join the S&P 500 Index on March 23, triggering passive buying from index funds. Additionally, on March 2, NVIDIA announced a multi-year strategic agreement with Lumentum, including a $2 billion investment and procurement commitment, to accelerate the development of AI optical interconnect technologies.
Intel, ranked 18th, closed up 2.63% with a turnover of $3.985 billion. Intel's CEO stated that the sharp increase in memory prices may not ease until 2028. Relevant data shows that the cost structure of a smartphone is highly concentrated in core components: memory + storage (18.1%), processors (18.6%), and displays (15.8%) collectively account for over 52% of the total cost, making them critical to both performance and pricing. Among these, memory and storage—key determinants of device smoothness, multitasking capability, and data capacity—directly impact daily user experience. Their specifications and performance are now crucial to overall smartphone performance. The recent price increases in smartphones are primarily driven by the surge in memory costs. Data indicates that compared to Q4 2025, memory prices have surged by 80%-90% as of Q1 2026. Intel CEO Charles Liang predicts that this tight supply situation may not ease until 2028.
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