Semiconductor shares rallied after Anthropic filed to go public, while neocloud companies fell and Meta’s planned $95bn share sale highlighted mounting AI infrastructure costs.
US tech shares rose and fell sharply on Tuesday as investors rotated between artificial intelligence infrastructure names and companies linked to more speculative growth themes, with semiconductor stocks leading the advance after Anthropic filed for an initial public offering. Nvidia, Broadcom, AMD, Micron and SK Hynix’s US-listed shares all moved higher, helping the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index post its biggest gain since 21 September, although the benchmark remained down 12.2% so far this month.
The rally in chips contrasted with weakness in several neocloud names. CoreWeave, Nebius and Iren all slipped after Elon Musk wrote on X that more than 200 neocloud firms could face a severe shake-out. The comments added pressure to a corner of the market that has benefited from enthusiasm around AI computing capacity, but remains vulnerable to fears of overcapacity and heavy capital spending.
Meta Platforms fell after it said it plans to raise as much as $95bn through the sale of common and preferred shares to expand AI-related data-centre and cloud-computing capacity. The company’s move underscored how aggressively large technology groups are still investing in the infrastructure required to support generative AI, even as investors have become more selective about the pace and financing of that spending.
Tesla was one of the day’s strongest large-cap gainers, rising 5.2% to its highest level in more than three months after Barclays upgraded the stock to overweight from equal weight and lifted its target price from $370 to $450. Dan Levy, the Barclays analyst, said improvement in Tesla’s electric vehicle business, progress in robotaxi development and the possibility of an acquisition premium linked to a merger with SpaceX could support the shares. Musk said last week, during SpaceX’s earnings call, that both companies had set up special committees to discuss a possible tie-up.
Bloomberg said analysts covering Tesla have turned more positive as the prospect of a SpaceX combination appears to be moving closer, though the deal remains far from certain. SpaceX shares eased 0.4% after the company agreed a roughly $40bn equipment-financing lease with Apollo Global Management to help fund chip purchases needed for AI development. Microsoft also gained 1.54% as it moved ahead with a voluntary redundancy programme covering 60,000 employees, while Apple fell 1.1% amid reports of customer complaints that the screen on its first foldable iPhone, the iPhone Duo, has been cracking after only hours or days of use.
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