For three weeks, the market treated every artificial intelligence hardware stock as guilty until proven innocent.
On Wednesday, the verdict came from an unexpected witness: a rocket company.
AI Hardware Stocks Rebound After SpaceX’s Blowout Results
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:SPCX) rose 7.3% in premarket trading after its third-quarter report showed its AI business turning profitable.
Chip, server and memory stocks rallied in its wake, from Seoul to New York.
Over the past month, 26 of the largest U.S.-listed AI hardware stocks lost roughly $1.6 trillion in combined market value, according to Benzinga calculations based on TradingView data.
Wednesday’s premarket gains put back about $274 billion, or roughly 17% of what was lost.
The PHLX Semiconductor Index closed Tuesday 14.6% below its Oct. 6 close. The iShares Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SOXX) rose 1.6% before the bell.
What SpaceX Actually Reported
SpaceX reported third-quarter revenue of $14.6 billion, up 161% from a year earlier, against expectations of $12.7 billion.
The surprise came from its superintelligence segment, which includes a cloud business renting AI computing power to companies such as Anthropic.
Segment revenue nearly tripled to $7.56 billion, and it swung to an operating profit of $431 million from a $1.26 billion loss in the second quarter.
“We could rent out our compute several times over if we said yes to everyone,” CEO Elon Musk said on the earnings call.
Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen said new data centers pay for themselves in less than a year at current prices.
The selloff was built on fear that AI spending would never pay back.
Super Micro Gives the Rally a Second Engine
Super Micro Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:SMCI) jumped 11.2% in premarket trading after an upbeat sales outlook and better-than-expected margins.
If it holds, it would be the stock’s biggest one-day gain since Aug. 12.
Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL) rose 5.1%, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. (NYSE:HPE) gained 4.4% and Vertiv Holdings Co. (NYSE:VRT) added 5.1%.
Amkor Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:AMKR) climbed 8.2% after Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) said the chip packager will expand advanced packaging capacity by more than 300% by the end of 2028.
Seoul Moved First
South Korea’s KOSPI rose 3.3% on Wednesday. SK Hynix Inc. (NASDAQ:SKHY) gained 5.8% and Samsung Electronics Co. (OTC:SSNLF) rose 5.7%.
“All the signs suggest that traders are prepared to buy the dip once again,” David Morrison, senior market analyst at Trade Nation, said in a note.
One Good Day Is Not a Bottom
The semiconductor index snapped an eight-session losing streak on Monday.
LPL Financial’s Adam Turnquist found the index has fallen at least seven straight sessions only 16 times since 1994. Three-month gains after those streaks averaged 9.5%.
“History suggests that this alone is not an all-clear signal,” Turnquist said.
The Rebound Has a Long Way to Go
| Company | Past month | Premarket |
|---|---|---|
| CoreWeave Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV) | -28.7% | +1.8% |
| Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) | -23.7% | +1.9% |
| Sandisk Corp. (NASDAQ:SNDK) | -21.5% | +2.8% |
| Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) | -15.9% | +2.5% |
| Nvidia Corp. | -5.2% | +2.0% |
CoreWeave would need to rise about 40% to recover its one-month loss, and Intel about 31%.
Even after its premarket jump, SpaceX trades about 21% below its record close of $201.80, set on June 16.
Tonight Decides Whether the Witness Holds Up
Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) reports after the close, with earnings expected at $6.54 per share on $63.34 billion in revenue. Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) is expected to earn 45 cents per share on $28.06 billion.
SpaceX showed that renting out AI capacity can pay. Meta has to show that building it can, too.
Photo: courtesy of SpaceX.
