AI Chips

Both TSMC and ASML reported strong quarterly earnings driven by AI chip demand. However, muted Wall Street reactions highlight immense market expectations. TSMC’s profits surged 58%, with AI chips dominating revenue. ASML’s shares dipped despite positive results and revised guidance, as projections met existing expectations. This suggests the semiconductor sector faces challenges managing high investor outlooks.

Nvidia’s stock is surging, driven by massive demand for its AI chips from tech giants. The company boasts a $1 trillion GPU order backlog through 2027, with data center revenue now dominating its business. Recent announcements at GTC, including new chip architectures and a focus on quantum computing, further solidify its industry leadership. Nvidia also denied acquisition rumors concerning PC manufacturers.

Intel’s stock is experiencing a historic rally, surging 56% on strategic wins. Key partnerships with Google for Xeon 6 CPUs and Elon Musk’s Terafab project, aimed at AI chip production, are fueling investor confidence. This integrated device manufacturing model, coupled with government and Nvidia investments, positions Intel for significant growth in the AI and advanced computing sectors.

TSMC reported record first-quarter revenue of NT$1.13 trillion, driven by soaring demand for AI chips. The company’s March revenue surged 45.2% year-on-year. Despite geopolitical concerns, the AI segment is a key growth driver. TSMC’s advanced manufacturing capabilities, coupled with recent price increases, contributed to its strong financial performance, surpassing analyst expectations and reinforcing its dominant position in the semiconductor industry.

Broadcom shares rose on significant AI chip deals with Google and Anthropic. The agreements solidify Broadcom’s role in AI, with the Anthropic deal granting substantial computing capacity and the Google partnership ensuring future AI chip production and revenue commitments. These deals boost Broadcom’s stock amid a challenging start to the year, reinforcing analyst optimism and a projected AI chip revenue exceeding $100 billion by 2027.

Samsung Electronics’ stock surged following preliminary earnings guidance predicting a record quarterly profit. Driven by soaring demand for AI chips, particularly HBM, the company anticipates an operating profit of 57.2 trillion won. This exceptional performance, fueled by its memory chip business, highlights Samsung’s strategic success in the AI revolution and its efforts to regain market leadership.

Broadcom has secured significant AI chip manufacturing deals with Google and expanded its partnership with Anthropic. These agreements highlight the intense demand for AI infrastructure to power generative AI models. Broadcom’s role in manufacturing Google’s AI processors and supplying compute capacity to Anthropic positions it as a key player in the rapidly growing AI market.

Despite ambitious AI chip development, Huawei’s external cloud revenue declined 3.5% in 2025, contrasting with competitors’ growth. This occurs as China races for AI self-sufficiency amid U.S. chip restrictions. While overall cloud revenue and R&D investment increased, Huawei’s core ICT infrastructure segment saw slower growth. This lags behind rivals like Alibaba and Tencent, and ByteDance’s rapidly growing AI cloud business.

South Korean AI chip startup Rebellions has secured $400 million in funding, valuing the company at $2.34 billion. The company aims to challenge Nvidia in the AI inference chip market with its Rebel-Quad technology, focusing on energy efficiency and performance. The funding will support expansion into the U.S. market, targeting research labs like Meta and xAI, and prepare for a potential IPO. Strategic investors, including Samsung and SK Hynix, are helping Rebellions navigate memory chip supply challenges.

Arm Holdings is pivoting from IP licensing to chip manufacturing with its new AGI CPU, targeting the booming agentic AI market. CEO Rene Haas projects $25 billion in annual revenue by 2031, a significant leap from current figures, with Meta as the first customer. This strategic shift aims to capture greater value in the AI hardware sector, offering customers more choice and expanding Arm’s addressable market.