Nvidia snapped back to a record close on Friday, pushing its market value above $5 trillion for the first time since October as investors rushed back into AI chips ahead of next week’s earnings from the hyperscalers. The stock rose 4.3 percent to $208.27, capping a run that has turned Nvidia into the market’s most important AI bellwether.
The catalyst was a much bigger-than-expected report from Intel, whose shares surged 24 percent in their best day since 1987 and helped lift the whole chip complex. AMD jumped 14 percent and Qualcomm climbed 11 percent, while Nvidia’s own chips remain central to the workloads of Google, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon, plus model developers such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
That leaves the sector with a fresh test of whether this rally has staying power or is just a pre-earnings burst. Large-cap tech had been under pressure when oil prices spiked on the Iran war and related supply disruptions, but the recent rebound has put semiconductor names back in favor as demand for AI infrastructure keeps running hot.
Next week’s hyperscaler results will show whether the spending cycle is still broadening, especially with Alphabet preparing new chips that will compete with Nvidia later this year. If the cloud giants keep buying aggressively, Nvidia’s run may have room to extend; if not, Friday’s record could look more like a milestone than a launchpad.
