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Luke Kawa

Chip stocks jump as Nvidia’s Jensen Huang asks TSMC to boost chip output

Talking about what’s coming out of Taiwan is a lot better for Nvidia than talking about what isn’t going into China.

On Saturday in Taiwan, CEO Jensen Huang said the company’s flagship Blackwell chips are seeing “very strong demand” — in case the $500 billion in orders he recently touted didn’t make that clear.

TSMC CEO and Chairman Dr. CC Wei, whose company just released its October sales numbers, added that his counterpart “asked for wafers” in light of this hot demand, declining to provide any further details.

Shares of Nvidia are up more than 3% in premarket trading on this seeming reaffirmation of the chip designer’s robust sales pipeline.

Optimism over a potential end to the government shutdown is buoying stocks this morning, and chip stocks in particular are in the green. In addition to Nvidia’s gains, Micron and Advanced Micro Devices are also up strongly as of 6:40 a.m. ET (5% and 3.6%, respectively).

Huang also said that there would be shortages of “different things” when asked about limited supply of memory chips, of which Micron is a major producer. Recent chatter of higher memory chip prices as demand outstrips supply has buoyed that cohort.

Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said last week’s downturn among tech stocks was a “short lived white knuckle moment,” and expects the cohort to more than repair those losses through year-end.

“We believe Nvidia’s earnings next week will be another major validation moment for the AI Revolution and be a positive catalyst for tech stocks into year-end as investors continue to underestimate the scale and scope of this transformational spending trend over the next few years,” he wrote.

The government shutdown certainly didn’t stop OpenAI from announcing more spending commitments. But, as was the case in March, when higher-beta AI momentum stocks bore the brunt of the market damage despite not being as sensitive to tariffs, this group has also lagged as of late despite not having much direct exposure to federal spending.

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Broadcom jumps after locking down Google as a customer for future generations of TPUs

Shares of Broadcom rose more than 3% in postmarket trading on Monday after its most important customer doubled down on the custom chip specialist’s ability to produce its most valuable commodity.

In a filing, Broadcom said that it entered into a long-term agreement with Google to supply future generations of TPUs (custom AI accelerator chips) as well as a supply assurance agreement for networking and other equipment “through up to 2031.”

Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon indicated that Broadcom’s investor relations team told him that Google’s long-term agreement “has revenue commitments that go along with it through the timeline.”

Gemini 3 launched to rave reviews in November. The model was trained on TPUs co-developed by Broadcom and Google.

The same Monday filing showed that Broadcom, Google, and Anthropic expanded a partnership that will see the Claude developer access 3.5 gigawatts of AI compute capacity beginning in 2027, powered by the TPUs co-designed by the custom chip specialist and the search giant.

Bernstein’s Rasgon added that Broadcom’s team suggested these 3.5 gigawatts are “only part of a larger partnership over time.” He thinks Broadcom’s fiscal year 2027 guidance for AI revenues of $100 billion “is looking increasingly light” thanks to this news.

For what it’s worth, the enhanced pact with Anthropic hinges upon the firm’s ability to afford AI compute. But based on the insane trajectory of its run-rate revenue that may not be a big hurdle to clear.

“Broadcom’s expanded agreements with Google and Anthropic add rare multi-year visibility, reinforcing a $40-$50 billion AI revenue opportunity tied to Anthropic’s 3.5 gigawatt deployment starting in 2027, while building on the previously disclosed 1GW ($10 billion) starting in 2H,” wrote Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Kunjan Sobhani and Oscar Hernandez Tejada.

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Health insurers surge after Medicare agrees to pay 2.48% more in 2027, a bigger-than-expected boost

Health insurance stocks are surging after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said it plans to boost Medicare Advantage and Part D payments by 2.48% in calendar year 2027.

The likes of CVS, Humana, UnitedHealth, Molina Healthcare, Oscar Health, and Elevance Health are gaining in postmarket trading.

Wall Street analysts had anticipated that rates for 2027 would go up between roughly 1% and 1.5%.

These stocks had gotten crushed in late January when the Trump administration proposed relatively flat federal payment rates.

Insurance companies that provide government-sponsored plans, like Medicare Advantage, faced headwinds from higher-than-expected costs in 2025.

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Iran war winners Dow, LyondellBasell downgraded by Bank of America

Dow, Inc. and LyondellBasell — two petrochemicals stocks that surged as markets priced in shortages due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz — should decline as investors focus on the long-term outlook for normalized petrochemical prices once the war resolves, Bank of America analysts wrote in a note downgrading the two stocks Monday.

BofA moved its rating on the shares from “neutral” to “underperform,” writing:

“Over time, as chemical markets normalize, we expect 1) investor focus to shiſt back to ‘normal’ or ‘sustainable’ earnings profiles and 2) the conflict to resolve without material asset rationalization, both of which likely bias shares lower over the next twelve months.”

Analysts also lowered their stance on another petrochemicals and building materials stock, Westlake, to “neutral” from “buy.”

While cutting those ratings, BofA actually raised its more near-term price targets for the shares. It upped LyondellBasell to $68 from $55, and Dow to $35 from $31.

But those price targets still imply declines of more than 10% compared to where both shares were trading late Monday morning. Both stocks are up roughly 30% since the start of the Iran war.

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