The stock market rally hit new highs on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, fueled by an OpenAI deal with Advanced Micro Devices and bullish comments from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing reported strong September sales.
Investors quickly shrugged off a negative report about Oracle. However, the Dow Jones and Russell 2000 fell modestly. Tesla launched cheaper, stripped-down versions of the Model Y and Model 3 and rolled out FSD V14, the latest version of its driver-assist software.
AI-Led Stock Market Mixed
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit record highs, as investors cheered good news for Advanced Micro Devices and bullish comments from Nvidia and shrugged off a negative Oracle report. But the Dow Jones and Russell 2000 fell. Gold topped $4,000 an ounce while Bitcoin topped $126,000 for the first time, but both later pared gains.
TSMC Beats Views With Monthly Sales
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing finished the third quarter on a positive note, with September sales coming in well above estimates. The contract chipmaker, better known as TSMC, generated revenue of 331 billion New Taiwan dollars, or $10.9 billion, in September. Analysts had expected sales of about 302 billion New Taiwan dollars. In local currency, TSMC sales rose 31.4% year over year in September. Shares fell on the news but rose solidly for the week. Taiwan Semi makes chips for Nvidia, AMD and many others.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Wednesday that AI demand is "substantially" higher than it was six months ago. The U.S. government also gave Nvidia final clearance to export several billion dollars in AI chips to the United Arab Emirates. Nvidia stock rose solidly to a new high.
OpenAI Partners With AMD
Artificial intelligence software leader OpenAI signed a strategic partnership with Advanced Micro Devices. With the deal, OpenAI secures a second source of AI chips after Nvidia. OpenAI intends to deploy 6 gigawatts of AMD AI processors over a multiyear, multi-generation period. It will start with 1 gigawatt of AMD Instinct MI450 Series processors in the second half of 2026. As part of the arrangement, AMD granted OpenAI a warrant for up to 160 million shares of AMD stock that will vest as milestones are achieved. AMD shares rocketed on the news.
ChatGPT To Integrate Popular Apps
At its annual developers conference, OpenAI showed how third-party software apps can be integrated with its ChatGPT AI engine. Pilot partners for apps in ChatGPT include Booking, Canva, Coursera, Expedia, Figma, Spotify and Zillow. But shares of the publicly-traded pilot partners mostly retreated after the OpenAI event as analysts see disruption to the app store business model. OpenAI is offering companies a software developer kit called Apps SDK for building apps into ChatGPT.
Tesla Releases Cheap Models, FSD v14
The EV giant released new stripped-down versions of the Models Y and 3, priced at a substantial discount to the old base variants. In the U.S., the low-end EVs are more expensive than what the base models were with the $7,500 tax credit until that expired Sept. 30. Meanwhile, Tesla rolled out FSD V14, the latest version of its driver-assist software. NHTSA regulators opened a new FSD safety probe.
Tesla stock rose 1.6%.
Oracle Shrugs Off Negative Report
Oracle initially tumbled but rebounded for weekly gains following a report that the company has slim profit margins on its cloud AI training offering. The tech collected roughly $900 million in revenue but only $125 million in gross profit from renting cloud-based servers with Nvidia chips to other businesses during its August-ended quarter, according to The Information, which cited internal documents. Oracle lost money on some servers with Nvidia Blackwell chips, the report added. Fox Business said the article was off base. Analysts said they would look for further clarity at Oracle's annual customer conference, which starts Oct. 13.
IBM Teams Up With AI Startup Anthropic
The Dow tech giant announced a partnership with the OpenAI rival. Anthropic's Claude AI large language models will be infused into IBM's software portfolio, starting with IBM's "integrated development environment" offering for software development. IBM also worked with Anthropic to develop a guide that helps enterprises build and operate AI agents. Shares briefly broke out of a base on the news, but were little changed for the week.
Delta Air Beats On Travel Rebound
The airline reported a 14% EPS gain on a 4% revenue rise, both beating. Delta Air guided higher for Q4 as well. CEO Ed Bastian said that industry fundamentals have improved and momentum is continuing, which sets up Delta for top-line growth, margin expansion, and improved earnings. Meanwhile, airports across the U.S. are facing flight delays and staffing shortages amid the government shutdown. Delta stock jumped on earnings, but pared gains.
Space Stocks Soar On News
Rocket Lab rallied more than 18% to extend its record highs after the SpaceX rival signed another multi-launch deal with Japan-based satellite manufacturer, Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space (iQPS). The deal makes Rocket Lab the primary launch provider to deploy iQPS' commercial Earth-imaging constellation, and includes three missions that will launch no later than 2026. The company currently has a total of seven upcoming launches with Rocket Lab. AST SpaceMobile soared more than 20% after the space-based cellular broadband provider announced an agreement with Verizon. Meanwhile, AST Space will provide direct-to-cellular service as needed for Verizon customers starting in 2026. AST is competing with the likes of SpaceX's Starlink, which has a text-only service with T-Mobile. Elsewhere, the Space Force last Friday doled out over $1 billion in launch contracts for seven military missions starting in 2027. SpaceX was awarded $714 million for five launches. The United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing, was awarded $428 million for two launches.
Stock Market News In Brief
Verizon Communications named former PayPal Chief Executive Dan Schulman as the company's new CEO in a surprise move on Monday. Shares of Verizon and fellow telecom giants AT&T and T-Mobile fell.
Spruce Biosciences skyrocketed almost 1,400% on Monday after the Food and Drug Administration granted its drug a breakthrough designation. The biotech is working on a treatment for Sanfilippo syndrome type B, a rare disorder that impacts the brain and the nervous system.
Fifth Third Bancorp will buy Comerica in a $10.9 billion all-stock deal, the superregional banks announced Monday. Fifth Third stock fell while Comerica jumped more than 13.5%.
AppLovin plunged after Bloomberg reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the mobile advertising tech company's data collection practices.
Dell Technologies increased its long-term sales and earnings growth estimates, thanks to surging demand for AI computers. Dell stock jumped.
Ferrari dived after the Italian sports carmaker lowered long-term forecasts and slashed 2030 EV targets.
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