 The week in review
The AI chip rout deepened this week as semiconductor heavyweights suffered double-digit declines, overshadowing a record quarter from AMD and a surge in data centre investor NextDC. Nvidia fell 10.25%, AMD 10.85%, Broadcom 10.63% and ASML 10.14% amid reports that Nvidia is tightening tracking of AI GPUs in Southeast Asia over China smuggling concerns. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 4.13% and the S&P 500 3.31%. NextDC soared 81.66% after a Qatar fund and Brookfield backed a UK data centre project, offsetting class action investigations.
Software and cloud stocks were resilient. Amazon rose 3.66% on reports of a potential 1 billion pound Home Office cloud deal. WiseTech Global and Xero jumped 11.06% and 17.82% respectively. Microsoft edged up 0.92%. OpenAI's CFO reiterated continued investment in AI data centres. Robotics names also fell: Tesla dropped 10.51%, Symbotic 7.46% and Fanuc 4.94%. Intuitive Surgical gained 3.08%. The Global X Robotics and AI ETF fell 5.19%. Cryptocurrencies declined modestly. The ASX 200 rose 1.60% while European indices were mixed. |