AMD surges as traders hope that new AI chips will spur faster growth

Advanced Micro Devices is the best-performing member of the S&P 500 around midday as investors belatedly cheer its ambition to challenge Nvidia in the AI chip space, with Wall Street warming to its prospects. Over 682,000 call options on AMD have already changed hands as of 11:48 a.m. ET, more than double the 20-day average of 283,337.

At an event last week, the chipmaker said its latest AI processors are better than Nvidia’s, which could leave it well positioned to capture a bigger chunk of what CEO Lisa Su thinks will be a $500 billion market by 2028.

Piper Sandler hiked its price target on the stock to $140 from $125 on Monday, calling for “a snapback” in GPU sales in Q4 and saying it was “enthused with the product launches” at AMD’s Advancing AI event.

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Max Knoblauch32m

Ford has added $10 billion of market cap in 2 days on bullish trading around its energy business

Ford shares are having another banner day. The stock is up 7% intraday Thursday, after closing up more than 13% on Wednesday (the company’s best trading day since March 2020). The activity has added about $10 billion to Ford’s market cap since Tuesday’s close, according to Bloomberg data.

About 268,000 call options have changed hands as of 10:50 a.m. ET on Wednesday, roughly 3x the 20-day average for a full session.

Optimism around Ford Energy, the company’s new energy business, appears to still be driving the price action. The company will sell US-assembled battery systems to “utilities, data centers, and large industrial and commercial customers in the United States” and is licensing tech from Chinese battery giant CATL.

In a Tuesday evening note, Morgan Stanley analysts said Ford Energy could be worth $10 billion. Analyst Andrew Percoco said there is a “fairly high likelihood” Ford signs a supply agreement with a large commercial customer, and potentially hyperscalers, in the next few months.

Ford’s new subsidiary is similar to Tesla’s energy storage business and will add revenue through both sales (of its large 20-foot battery container systems) and service. Detroit rival GM is doing something similar and retooled its Tennessee EV battery plant to make energy storage batteries.

Ford surges on bullish options activity, Morgan Stanley praises its battery business

Helena Cheng1h

Fermi jumps as management touts increased interest in its data center project

Fermi, a Texas-based energy and AI infrastructure company, reported a net loss of $189 million in Q1 as it heavily accelerated capital investments.

During the conference call, co-President Anna Bofa offered some encouraging news, saying that the firm has “hosted multiple prospective tenants and strategic partners” at its Project Matador data-center site, sending shares sharply higher.

Fermi funneled $441 million into property, plant, and equipment in Q1, bringing its gross balance to approximately $1.4 billion.

Its big investment push coincided with the substantial expansion of Project Matador at its development site in Texas. The company officially secured over 2 gigawatts of power generation capacity across its owned and contracted assets.

The company plans to have secured a tenant for this location and delivered power to it within the next 90 days. It’s poised to be a busy quarter for Fermi: another goal during this span includes hiring its next CEO.

To continue supporting the build-out plans, Fermi closed $785 million in new equipment finance facilities this quarter, anchored by a $500 million facility from MUFG. Fermi also received a $156 million financing commitment secured with Yorkville.

Helena Cheng2h

Klarna surges on $1 billion in Q1 revenue and user growth

Klarna is climbing Thursday after the fintech company reported a strong start to 2026, swinging to a net profit of $1 million.

The company’s revenue for Q1 landed at $1 billion, above estimates, with earnings per share increasing by $0.25 to $0.01. The revenue beat helped drive adjusted operating profit up to $68 million, a leap from just $3 million in the same period a year ago. Operating income also turned positive at $17 million, reversing a $99 million operating loss from the first quarter of 2025. Meanwhile, active Klarna users jumped by 21% year on year to 119 million.

Klarna did give a weaker-than-expected outlook for the upcoming quarter, projecting revenue to land between $960 million and $1 billion, missing the $1.05 billion target analysts had modeled. Despite the soft current-quarter guidance, management reiterated its full-year 2026 growth and profitability projections, highlighting that its short loan durations allow it to effectively manage credit risk and adapt to market shifts in real time.

“Klarna is spend-centric, not lend-centric,” Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO and cofounder of Klarna, wrote in a statement. “The FY26 framework is unchanged — these results give us confidence in the trajectory we laid out.”

The stock has dropped over 45% since the start of 2026.

Helena Cheng3h

Ondas surges as Q1 revenue beats estimates, guidance raised

Ondas is surging in premarket trading after posting record Q1 revenue Thursday morning that exceeded analysts’ estimates.

Key numbers:

Revenue of $50.1 million (estimate: $39.36 million).
Adjusted EBITDA loss of $10.9 million (estimate: $19.53 million).

The company ended the first quarter with a pro forma order backlog of $457 million, up sharply from $68.3 million at the end of 2025.

The primary catalyst for this backlog expansion is the company’s aggressive integration of newly secured defense and autonomy contracts. One driver is Ondas’ recently finalized $175 million acquisition of Mistral, which directly injected $264 million in contracted backlog and established Ondas as a prime contractor for the US Army and Special Operations.

Furthermore, the company’s newly formed ONBERG Autonomous Systems joint venture is actively positioning Ondas to capture upcoming critical infrastructure and drone defense contracts across Germany and Ukraine.

“Looking ahead, we believe Ondas is well positioned for the remainder of 2026 and beyond,” said Eric Brock, chairman and CEO of Ondas. “Recent global developments continue to underscore the urgency driving accelerated adoption of our solutions, reinforcing our long-term thesis and validating the strategic actions we have taken to position the Company for a multi-decade growth cycle.”

Ondas raised its full-year 2026 revenue target to at least $390 million, compared with analysts’ forecasts for $377 million.

Before Thursday, the stock had fallen about 9% year to date after surging in 2025.

Max Knoblauch3h

Take-Two climbs on reports that “GTA 6” pre-order dates were leaked by a Best Buy email

Gaming publisher Take-Two is up about 6% in premarket trading on Thursday following reports that the preorder date for “Grand Theft Auto 6,” its juggernaut title 13 years in the making, was accidentally leaked overnight.

According to several accounts on X, an email purported to be from Best Buy to affiliates has revealed May 18 as the preorder date. “GTA 6” is currently set to release on November 19. A May preorder date would put to rest fears of another delay to the game, which some analysts expect to sell more than 25 million copies on day 1.

In a Thursday morning X post, Insider Gaming owner Tom Henderson wrote, “Insider Gaming has been able to independently verify that the GTA 6 Pre-Order from Besy Buy is legitimate.”

Take-Two shares climbed earlier this month on a note from Bank of America stating that it believes “GTA 6” will have an $80 price tag.

Take-Two declined to comment on the rumors in an email to Sherwood News. Best Buy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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