Crowd of businessmen with multiple expressions

“We’re actually trying a totally different AI strategy to a lot of companies. We’re doubling down on agentic AI, yeah” (Getty Images)

Corporate America won’t shut up about agentic AI, or AI in general

In fact, executives are saying the word “AI” more than they’re saying “earnings” on earnings calls.

Hyunsoo Rim, David Crowther

3/17/26 1:35PM

At Nvidia’s annual developer conference Monday, CEO Jensen Huang unveiled a jaw-dropping number that briefly sent the chip designer’s shares soaring: at least $1 trillion in expected revenue from its next-generation AI chips through 2027.

The demand, Huang said, is largely driven by the rise of “AI natives” like OpenAI and Anthropic, which have pushed computing demand for Nvidia’s GPUs “off the charts.”

Indeed, boardrooms have been consumed by AI for a while now, with executives increasingly talking about the two-letter technology more than the results they’re there to discuss. According to Bloomberg data, S&P 500 executives said the word “AI” nearly 5,000 times on S&P 500 calls in the first quarter alone, outpacing the word “earnings” by more than 1,200 mentions.

But for C-suite folks looking to juice their stock price, it’s not enough to be talking about chatbots or generative AI. The AI term you have to work into your conference call spiel is agentic AI — that is, systems that don’t just answer your questions, but actually do things for you, from booking a meeting to filing an expense report.

Pointing to OpenClaw — the viral open-source tool that lets anyone build and run AI agents — Huang called it “the new computer,” adding that “every company in the world today needs to have an OpenClaw strategy.” Nvidia, for its part, unveiled its own NemoClaw on Monday, a more secure, enterprise-ready version that allows companies to deploy agents safely.

And Corporate America is catching on fast. While mentions of “AI agents” and “agentic AI” on S&P 500 earnings calls were virtually nonexistent until late 2024, now they’re in the hundreds, rising more than fivefold over the last five quarters to 245 mentions in Q1 2026, per Bloomberg data.

Reducing agents

Wall Street likes talk of “agents” because the implication is fewer employees. Just recently, we’ve seen a big round of layoffs at Block, 10% of jobs slashed at Atlassian, and reports of huge cuts at Meta, with AI-powered efficiency gains promised in each case.

Mastercard recently launched an agentic AI tool to provide small businesses with C-suite-level solutions. Meanwhile, JPMorgan Chase’s chief analytics officer told CNBC last September that the bank’s end goal is one where “every process is powered by AI agents,” with internal demos already generating a full investment banking deck in 30 seconds. Major retailers have also jumped in, with Walmart, Target, and Home Depot having partnered with tech providers to deploy agentic AI tools across their operations, from pricing to inventory. PepsiCo, maker of Cheetos, Lay’s, and Mountain Dew, wants to be completely agentic first.

Even the companies most bruised by the agentic AI wave are trying to embrace it. After a massive sell-off in software stocks earlier this year on fears that AI agents could displace traditional software-as-a-service (SaaS) models, Nvidia said on Monday it’s teaming up with a slate of software firms — including Adobe, SAP, and Salesforce — to build and run AI agents using its Agent Toolkit platform. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em... or at least ask your AI agent what to do next.

Matt Phillips1h

AI server cluster maker Penguin Solutions takes flight

Small cap AI server-cluster maker Penguin Solutions surged Thursday, after posting better-than-expected Q2 revenue and profit numbers Wednesday after the close, along with an increase in full-year sales and profit guidance.

The company — which was known as Smart Global Holdings until July 2024 — has positioned itself as a provider of “end-to-end AI infrastructure solutions.”

Its Advanced Computing division designs and sells computers, cabling, and coolings systems, the server racks and clusters of racks AI data centers need. Its other main division sells flash and DRAM memory products.

It’s a pretty small company, with a fully diluted market cap of just over $1 billion and roughly 2,900 employees, according to FactSet.

The stock is volatile. Penguin dove during last year’s tariff tantrum that followed Liberation Day in April. Then it turned tail and doubled through early October, amid a surge of call options activity that tends to reflect retail interest. From the October peak, it then plunged by about 50%, before Thursday’s renaissance.

For what it’s worth, call options activity in Penguin is pretty busy today too — relatively speaking — with roughly 2,625 traded as of about 1:15 pm ET. That’s the most since early January, when the company last reported quarterly numbers. The average volume over the previous 25 trading sessions is about 325 calls a day, according to FactSet data.

Penguin Solutions Stock Takes Off On AI Bolstered Outlook

The company — which was known as Smart Global Holdings until July 2024 — has positioned itself as a provider of “end-to-end AI infrastructure solutions.”

It’s a pretty small company, with a fully diluted market cap of just over $1 billion and roughly 2,900 employees, according to FactSet.

Luke Kawa4h

Momentum returns to optics stocks as the release valve for AI optimism

Potentially imminent end to the war? Buy optics stocks.

Maybe not? Buy optics stocks anyway.

Effectively all the juice left in the AI trade is coming from optics (and memory) stocks. And the latter group is taking a bit of a breather today while the former continues to surge.

Shares of Ciena Corp., Lumentum, and Coherent are building on recent big gains and among the biggest gainers in the S&P 500 near midday, while Applied Optoelectronics is also surging on Thursday.

These companies all provide solutions that help information move around in data centers, and thus are key beneficiaries of the aggressive capex plans of hyperscalers. Nvidia has invested $2 billion apiece in Coherent and Lumentum in deals that also include purchase commitments.

Matt Phillips5h

Space stocks rip during a topsy-turvy day for the equity market

Satellite-services-from-space stocks surged Thursday after reports that Amazon is in talks to buy Globalstar, which provides voice and connectivity services from its satellite network. It also can’t hurt that the general mood around space is ebullient, following the successful launch of Artemis II on Thursday.

Planet Labs and ViaSat also soared on the news.

The gains for EchoStar — seen as a backdoor play at pre-IPO SpaceX exposure — and Rocket Lab were more muted, perhaps because a deep-pocketed competitor like Jeff Bezos getting serious about space services could complicate the plans of the two largest commercial space launch companies.

Rocket Lab and SpaceX see launch services as key to their aspirations of being major providers of voice and data services from low-Earth orbit satellites.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s SpaceX is the dominant provider of such services, and the early rumors on the company’s planned IPO — expected to be the largest ever — suggest the market is very excited about the prospects for the industry.

Elsewhere in the space stock world, Intuitive Machines — a maker of space infrastructure that provides services to NASA for lunar missions — also rose.

Globalstar surges after FT reports that Amazon is in talks to buy the satellite group

Rocket Lab and SpaceX see launch services as key to their aspirations of being major providers of voice and data services from low-Earth orbit satellites.

Elsewhere in the space stock world, Intuitive Machines — a maker of space infrastructure that provides services to NASA for lunar missions — also rose.

Hyunsoo Rim, David Crowther

Can Sandisk do the double?

The S&P 500 just had its worst quarter in years. Here are the biggest winners and losers.

Sandisk and energy stocks soared while software names sank amid a broad sell-off in tech stocks.