Arm Holdings PLC soared again on Monday, extending a three-day rally that has driven its value up almost 100 percent, after a blockbuster earnings report last week showed artificial intelligence (AI) spending is bolstering sales.
The chip designer’s shares rose 29 percent on Monday to close at a record on volume that was more than 10 times the average over the past three months. The advance pushed the stock’s gains to more than 90 percent in the three trading sessions since Arm’s results were released after markets closed on Wednesday last week.
“What you’re seeing here is a feeding frenzy for anything to do with AI,” Triple D Trading Ltd trader Dennis Dick said. “Algos are getting involved, retail traders are getting involved, people are buying options. All that is just snowballing.”
Photo: Bloomberg
Arm is benefiting from a push beyond smartphone technology, helping fuel growth and profitability. Last week, the company projected revenue of US$850 million to US$900 million for the March quarter, far surpassing the average analyst estimate at US$778 million. Chief executive officer Rene Haas said opportunities presented by AI are still in the early stages.
So far, Nvidia Corp has been the biggest beneficiary of AI-driven demand for computing power. The chipmaker’s shares more than tripled last year amid a surge in revenue and profits related to sales of its so-called AI accelerator chips. Nvidia’s rally has continued this year, sending the stock up another 46 percent and briefly pushing its market value past that of Amazon.com Inc.
Nvidia rose almost 0.2 percent, closing with a market value of about US$1.78 trillion. While Amazon fell 1.2 percent, it ended with a closing valuation of US$1.79 trillion. The chipmaker did surpass the e-commerce and cloud-computing company during the regular session, temporarily making it the fourth most valuable US-listed company, sitting below Alphabet Inc’s US$1.84 trillion market capitalization. Microsoft Corp weighs in at US$3.09 trillion and Apple Inc at US$2.89 trillion.
Arm and Nvidia were once destined to merge as part of a US$40 billion deal announced in September 2020, but they ultimately dropped the plans. The merger faced opposition from the start with Arm’s own customers scorning the idea and regulators vowing to give it close scrutiny.
Arm has nearly tripled since its shares debuted in September last year and now has a market value of more than US$150 billion, making it more valuable than Boeing Co and AT&T Inc.
The Cambridge, England-based company is still 90 percent owned by Softbank Group Corp, which acquired the business in 2016 for US$32 billion.
“We’re getting to a point where it is moving parabolic, and that means serious market cap is being put in, because this was a fairly large company to begin with,” Dick said.
Semiconductor business between Taiwan and the US is a “win-win” model for both sides given the high level of complementarity, the government said yesterday responding to tariff threats from US President Donald Trump. Home to the world’s largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Taiwan is a key link in the global technology supply chain for companies such as Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp. Trump said on Monday he plans to impose tariffs on imported chips, pharmaceuticals and steel in an effort to get the producers to make them in the US. “Taiwan and the US semiconductor and other technology industries
SMALL AND EFFICIENT: The Chinese AI app’s initial success has spurred worries in the US that its tech giants’ massive AI spending needs re-evaluation, a market strategist said Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek’s (深度求索) eponymous AI assistant rocketed to the top of Apple Inc’s iPhone download charts, stirring doubts in Silicon Valley about the strength of the US’ technological dominance. The app’s underlying AI model is widely seen as competitive with OpenAI and Meta Platforms Inc’s latest. Its claim that it cost much less to train and develop triggered share moves across Asia’s supply chain. Chinese tech firms linked to DeepSeek, such as Iflytek Co (科大訊飛), surged yesterday, while chipmaking tool makers like Advantest Corp slumped on the potential threat to demand for Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators. US stock
The US Federal Reserve is expected to announce a pause in rate cuts on Wednesday, as policymakers look to continue tackling inflation under close and vocal scrutiny from US President Donald Trump. The Fed cut its key lending rate by a full percentage point in the final four months of last year and indicated it would move more cautiously going forward amid an uptick in inflation away from its long-term target of 2 percent. “I think they will do nothing, and I think they should do nothing,” Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis former president Jim Bullard said. “I think the
SUBSIDIES: The nominee for commerce secretary indicated the Trump administration wants to put its stamp on the plan, but not unravel it entirely US President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the agency in charge of a US$52 billion semiconductor subsidy program declined to give it unqualified support, raising questions about the disbursement of funds to companies like Intel Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電). “I can’t say that I can honor something I haven’t read,” Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, said of the binding CHIPS and Science Act awards in a confirmation hearing on Wednesday. “To the extent monies have been disbursed, I would commit to rigorously enforcing documents that have been signed by those companies to make sure we get
RSS