US tech stocks steady as Micron earnings loom and Nvidia expands into biomedical AI
Micron prepares for critical quarterly results while Alphabet joins the Dow Jones and Oracle accelerates capital expenditure on data centres.
US technology shares stabilised on Wednesday following a volatile session driven by investor concerns over artificial intelligence spending and potential Federal Reserve rate hikes. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index has surged 246 per cent over the past 14 months, surpassing the peak growth seen during the dot-com bubble, according to Creative Planning chief market strategist Charlie Bilello. This extreme growth has prompted caution among some analysts, with Bilello noting that while history does not repeat, extremes tend to rhyme.
Micron Technology shares fell ahead of its third-quarter earnings report, which is expected to provide insights into AI-driven data centre demand. The company announced a strategic agreement with Anthropic to supply memory and storage chips for data centre goals. UBS analyst Melissa Weathers raised Micron’s price target to $1,500 per share, citing demand for DRAM outpacing supply growth. Consensus estimates expect earnings per share of $20.39 on revenue of $35.5 billion, representing a significant year-over-year increase.
Nvidia shares rose slightly ahead of its annual shareholder meeting, where the company launched the BioNeMo Agent Toolkit, a new software tool for biomedical research. The tool is designed to equip AI agents with specific medical and scientific knowledge to improve efficiency in research tasks. Nvidia vice president of healthcare Kimberly Powell explained that the toolkit acts as a crash course for AI agents, reducing the time and computational resources required to answer highly specialised questions.
Alphabet stock climbed after being added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, replacing Verizon to better reflect the growing sectors of the US economy. The company also announced that Alphabet researcher John Jumper, a Nobel prize-winning AI researcher, departed for rival Anthropic. Additionally, Google is investing $75 million into independent film studio A24 to create new tools for movie production and distribution using DeepMind AI.
Oracle announced significant job cuts and massive capital expenditure on AI infrastructure, reducing its full-time employee count to 141,000 while spending $55.7 billion on capital expenditures in fiscal 2026. Meta launched new AI-powered smart glasses, dubbed "Meta Glasses," priced at $299, designed in-house but launched in partnership with EssilorLuxottica. Meanwhile, SpaceX shares declined following its recent initial public offering, with the company confirming its first-ever bond issuance to repay bridge loan borrowings.
