AMD and Super Micro surge on blowout earnings as chip sector powers S&P to record, SOXX +5%

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Super Micro Computer Inc. delivered back-to-back earnings beats that rippled across the chip sector, lifting the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index 5.0% and pushing the S&P 500 to a fresh record close of 7,365. Optimism over a potential U.S.-Iran de-escalation provided a second tailwind; the Nasdaq gained 2.02% and SOXX closed at $506.87, its strongest session since early April.

Today's biggest movers

Ticker	Close	Day	1mo	YTD
$SMCI	$34.66	+24.54%	+48.31%	+11.95%
$AMD	$421.39	+18.61%	+81.77%	+88.57%
$ARM	$237.30	+13.63%	+59.36%	+106.83%
$BIDU	$140.59	+11.37%	+23.86%	-6.46%
$DELL	$238.80	+10.39%	+28.75%	+86.85%
$NOW	$89.05	-3.22%	-8.64%	-39.61%
$CRM	$181.19	-3.10%	+2.73%	-28.56%
$CRWD	$468.07	-1.78%	+9.74%	+3.19%
$PLTR	$133.79	-1.56%	-4.95%	-20.30%
$DDOG	$143.71	-1.39%	+23.36%	+7.43%

Super Micro surges 25% on earnings beat, legal cloud lingers

Super Micro Computer Inc. (NASDAQ: SMCI) jumped 24.5% after reporting fiscal third-quarter results that beat profit estimates by a wide margin. The San Jose server maker earned $0.84 per share on a non-GAAP basis, against the $0.61 LSEG consensus, a 38% outperformance. Revenue of $10.24 billion missed the $12.33 billion estimate, but management attributed the gap to power and networking readiness delays at customer data centres; the company characterised the shortfall as timing rather than demand. Forward guidance dominated sentiment: Super Micro guided Q4 revenue to $11 billion to $12.5 billion, raised its full-year fiscal 2026 target to $38.9 billion to $40.4 billion, and guided Q4 adjusted EPS to $0.65 to $0.79 against a $0.55 consensus, as reported by CNBC.

Legal risk remains an open variable. Co-founder and SVP Wally Liaw faces charges of conspiring to route approximately $2.5 billion in Nvidia-chipped servers to Chinese buyers in violation of U.S. export controls, Fortune reported. CEO Charles Liang said on the earnings call that he was confident no other employees beyond those indicted were involved. A securities-fraud class action has a May 25 lead-plaintiff deadline, a date institutional holders are marking.

AMD rockets 19% as data centre revenue surges 57%

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD) logged its largest single-session gain in roughly two years, closing up 18.6% after reporting Q1 2026 revenue of $10.3 billion. Data centre was the engine: $5.8 billion in segment revenue, up 57% year over year, driven by strong EPYC server processor shipments and the continuing ramp of Instinct GPU volumes. Non-GAAP EPS of $1.37 cleared the $1.25 consensus. AMD guided Q2 revenue to approximately $11.2 billion, ahead of analyst estimates. "We delivered strong first-quarter results with record data centre revenue," CEO Lisa Su said in AMD's earnings release published on the company's investor relations site.

The print carries implications for the entire AI compute ecosystem. AMD's data centre beat provides evidence that hyperscalers are actively multi-sourcing their GPU and CPU spend, and that EPYC is taking share alongside NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA). Investors who had followed the stock will recall it had dropped 5% in the session ahead of this report as some participants grew wary of elevated expectations; today's clean beat-and-raise resolved that overhang decisively.

ARM climbs 14% ahead of closely watched results

ARM Holdings plc (NASDAQ: ARM) gained 13.6%, carried higher by AMD's results and by investor positioning ahead of ARM's own quarterly report, due after the market close today. The LSEG consensus stands at $0.58 EPS on $1.47 billion in revenue; ARM has beaten estimates in each of its last eight quarters. Analyst sentiment is broadly constructive: Wells Fargo holds a Buy rating with a $220 price target; Susquehanna rates it Buy at $210; Morgan Stanley sits at a more cautious Hold with a $191 target, per Benzinga. The stock is up more than 106% year-to-date, reflecting in part ARM's announcement last month that it shipped its first production-ready silicon chip in the company's 35-year history as a licensing business, a move that broadens the company's economic model beyond royalties.

Baidu and Dell ride the AI infrastructure wave

Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) added 11.4% after Benchmark raised its price target on the Chinese AI company, per Reuters via TradingView. The move also reflects improved global risk appetite and rotation into China-AI exposure following AMD's results. Baidu reports Q1 2026 results on May 18; analysts project a roughly 27% year-over-year decline in EPS, though the company's recent rollout of its GenFlow 4.0 AI agent and the expansion of Apollo Go robotaxi operations to Dubai provide narratives management may draw on when framing longer-term positioning.

Dell Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) gained 10.4%, operating primarily as a read-across from Super Micro's server demand commentary. Enterprise AI server buyers typically source from multiple vendors, and a robust SMCI Q4 outlook is broadly positive for DELL's order pipeline. Dell is not scheduled to report until May 28; in its most recent quarter, reported in February, the company posted Q4 fiscal 2026 revenue of $33.4 billion, up 39% year over year, and guided fiscal 2027 revenue growth to 23% at the midpoint.

Notable but quieter

NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) rose 5.8% to $207.83, extending its recovery ahead of Q1 fiscal 2027 results on May 20. The analyst consensus price target sits near $271 per MarketBeat, suggesting substantial implied upside from current levels; a new multiyear commercial partnership with Corning for U.S.-based optical connectivity production adds a supply-chain dimension to the NVDA story. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (NYSE: TSM) advanced 6.4% to $419.50; as the primary foundry for leading-edge AMD and Nvidia chip designs, TSMC benefits directly from any upward revision to AI compute volumes. Lam Research Corp. (NASDAQ: LRCX) gained 7.8% and ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ: ASML) rose 7.1%, both chip-equipment names continuing to price in the deeper wafer-processing and lithography demand that flows from a larger AI data-centre buildout. As noted in yesterday's session recap, equipment names have been among the most consistent outperformers as hyperscaler capex timelines extend further into 2026 and 2027.

On the losing side, Salesforce Inc. (NASDAQ: CRM) fell 3.1% and ServiceNow Inc. (NASDAQ: NOW) dropped 3.2%, continuing a 2026 de-rating driven by investor concern that AI agents will commoditize key portions of enterprise SaaS spend. CRM is off 29% year-to-date; NOW is down 40%. Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE: PLTR) slipped 1.6%, giving back recent gains ahead of its next earnings release.

What to watch

ARM Holdings reports after the close today; the $0.58 EPS consensus will set the tone for chip names when markets open Wednesday. NVIDIA announces Q1 fiscal 2027 results on May 20, the next major single-stock catalyst for the sector. Baidu reports Q1 2026 on May 18, a date that has become a focal point for investors assessing China-AI monetisation progress. Dell Technologies follows on May 28. The Federal Reserve is expected to signal rate guidance this week; any shift in the pace-of-cuts outlook will be parsed for implications on growth-stock discount rates across the AI universe. For context on how quickly sector sentiment has shifted, the May 1 recap captured Nasdaq closing at a then-record, a level the index has now extended further.

Not investment advice.