Nvidia shares surged to a record close, lifting the company’s market value above $5 trillion and snapping a stretch that had kept the stock below its prior peak since October. The move came as investors rushed back into semiconductors after Intel delivered a surprisingly strong quarter and sent chip stocks higher across the board.
Intel’s 24 percent jump was the spark, but the bigger story is that money is again chasing AI infrastructure after an early-month pullback driven by the Iran war and higher oil prices. Nvidia’s 4.3 percent rise to $208.27 came even as Alphabet is preparing custom chips of its own, a reminder that the AI buildout is getting more crowded, not less.
That put pressure on laggards to catch up: AMD rose 14 percent and Qualcomm climbed 11 percent, while the Nasdaq is now up 15 percent in April and on pace for its best month since April 2020. For investors, the message was clear, the chip trade still has room to run if earnings from the hyperscalers next week keep showing that AI spending is intact.
The next test is whether Microsoft, Amazon, Meta and other major buyers of Nvidia’s GPUs reinforce that demand when they report, or whether Alphabet’s new chips and tighter spending plans start to bite. If those numbers disappoint, the market’s sudden faith in semis could cool just as quickly as it returned.
