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Luke Kawa

OpenAI-AMD pact adds fuel to boom, boosting AI stocks

The news of the day — OpenAI’s megadeal with Advanced Micro Devices that will see the former purchase tens of billions’ worth of AI GPUs and receive up to a 10% equity stake in the latter — is cascading out through markets, providing a lift to other companies in the ecosystem.

  • Nuclear energy firm Oklo is now an even more valuable zero-revenue company thanks to this news.

  • Server company Super Micro Computer also added to its advance, rising as much as 8% in early trading.

  • The world’s most important foundry company, TSMC, got a boost from this news, up more than 4%.

  • So-called “neocloud” Nebius jolted upward on this announcement, while peer CoreWeave (which is much more closely tied to Nvidia, which is down on the news) dipped, but has since reversed that drop to even outperform its counterpart.

  • Bitcoin miners turned data center companies IREN and Cipher Mining built on their early gains in response, though the latter has now given back most of that rise.

In other words, the deal is providing the same kind of reassurance on the strength of the AI boom that was seen in the wake of Microsoft and Meta’s most recent earnings announcements, which underscored their commitment to the AI data center build-out.

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Blackstone and Invitation Homes get hammered as Trump calls for ban on Wall Street buying single-family homes

Shares of Blackstone and Invitation Homes dove early Wednesday afternoon after President Trump called on Congress to pass a law banning large institutional investors from buying single-family homes.

Blackstone and Invitation Homes are some of the largest owners of private homes in the country. Homebuilders including PulteGroup, DR Horton, and Lennar also stumbled on the news.

Nationwide, institutional investors own a small share — less than 1%, according to the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute — of US single family homes, which has led some to argue that they have had a relatively small impact on housing prices. But their concentration in particular markets, such as Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and Charlotte, has prompted others, like center-left think tank Third Way, to argue that their purchases can have an effect on specific markets, neighborhoods, or certain types of houses.

Blackstone and Invitation Homes are some of the largest owners of private homes in the country. Homebuilders including PulteGroup, DR Horton, and Lennar also stumbled on the news.

Nationwide, institutional investors own a small share — less than 1%, according to the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute — of US single family homes, which has led some to argue that they have had a relatively small impact on housing prices. But their concentration in particular markets, such as Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and Charlotte, has prompted others, like center-left think tank Third Way, to argue that their purchases can have an effect on specific markets, neighborhoods, or certain types of houses.

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Intel surges amid CES announcements, Mobileye news

Intel surged to a new 52-week high in early trading, though it gave back a large chunk of the early gains by the afternoon. There were few headlines that could clearly explain the run-up of gains, which peaked around 11%.

One potential driver of the move might be optimism surrounding the company’s unveiling of a new line of processors at the Consumer Electronics Show on Tuesday.

Another possible candidate was the reflected glow of a deal announcement from Mobileye, the autonomous driving company that Intel holds a significant stake in.

Mobileye initially rose after buying Mentee — an artificial intelligence robotics company — for $900 million in cash and stock in a deal that’s expected to close this quarter.

(Intel spun off Mobileye in 2022, but retained a controlling stake in the company.)

Finally, news that Qualcomm is perhaps looking to use contractors outside Taiwan for its next-generation chip — though it’s reportedly speaking to Korea’s Samsung for that, not Intel — may be raising hopes that chipmakers looking to diversify away from Taiwan could become customers for Intel’s troubled contract chipmaking division.

But again, there’s no clear reason to point to for its outperformance on Wednesday.

Mobileye initially rose after buying Mentee — an artificial intelligence robotics company — for $900 million in cash and stock in a deal that’s expected to close this quarter.

(Intel spun off Mobileye in 2022, but retained a controlling stake in the company.)

Finally, news that Qualcomm is perhaps looking to use contractors outside Taiwan for its next-generation chip — though it’s reportedly speaking to Korea’s Samsung for that, not Intel — may be raising hopes that chipmakers looking to diversify away from Taiwan could become customers for Intel’s troubled contract chipmaking division.

But again, there’s no clear reason to point to for its outperformance on Wednesday.

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