Micron’s (MU) third quarter earnings on Wednesday delivered a powerful signal to AI trade skeptics, lifting the chipmaker’s stock 17% in premarket trading and buoying the broader markets.
Micron beat analysts’ expectations on the top and bottom lines and surpassed estimates for the company’s Q4 revenue outlook. Micron also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.15 per share.
Overall, tech stocks whipsawed on Thursday. Apple stock (AAPL) fell more than 4% after the company said it was raising prices on iPads and MacBooks due to the memory shortage but kept iPhone prices the same. That weighed on the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC), which turned lower.
On the semiconductor front, IBM (IBM) stock rose after the company said it could produce chips smaller than 1 nanometer. Qualcomm (QCOM) also surged after the company raised its non-handset revenue target to $40 billion by fiscal year 2029.
Meanwhile, shares of Alibaba (BABA) fell to a 16-month low after Anthropic (ANTH.PVT) sent a letter to several senators and White House officials, accusing the company of “illicitly” accessing its AI model.