OpenSight News: Chips

US stocks have their worst day since April 2025 as an AI chip selloff hits the Nasdaq

Ari — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 00:00:00 GMT

US stocks had their worst day since April 2025 on Thursday. The Nasdaq Composite fell five and a half percent and is now in a correction, more than ten percent below its October record. The S&P 500 lost more than four percent and the Dow fell about 1,800 points. Investors sold chip and AI infrastructure stocks on fears that the new Democratic majority will slow the building of data centres.

The semiconductor sector had its worst day since March 2020. Nvidia fell about nine percent and Broadcom about ten percent. Memory and data-centre suppliers fell further, and smaller AI cloud providers lost between ten and seventeen percent. Senator Bernie Sanders has called for a national data-centre moratorium, and strategists at UBS estimate that about 30 percent of the data-centre capacity expected for 2028 is now at risk. That is a forecast, not a measured number. Asian markets followed on Friday, with Japan's Nikkei entering a bear market. Weekly US jobless claims fell to 189,000, which did little to lift the mood.

Sources

Dow drops 1,800 points; Nasdaq tumbles into correction territory on AI tech wreck — CNBC, 5 Nov 2026 (primary source)
The Stock Market Today, November 5, 2026, Closed Sharply Lower as the AI Chip Selloff Spread — Stock Titan, 5 Nov 2026

Qualcomm handset chip sales fall by a quarter as the company bets on cars and data centres

Ari — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Qualcomm's revenue from phone chips fell 26 percent to about five billion dollars in the quarter to September. The company blamed the end of its Apple modem business and pressure from memory prices on phone makers. Total quarterly revenue was about ten billion dollars, down eight percent from a year earlier. Its shares fell about nine percent on Thursday, in a day when all chip stocks were sold.

Other parts of the business grew. Car chips reached a record of about two billion dollars in a quarter, up almost 90 percent. Qualcomm also announced an AI data-centre partnership with Amazon and says its data-centre business is aiming for five billion dollars a year. For the current quarter it guides to revenue of between 10.4 and 11.2 billion dollars. It expects phones to be less than half of its sales in the new fiscal year. The company renewed long-term licence deals with Apple, Huawei and Transsion.

Sources

Qualcomm Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2026 Results — Qualcomm, 4 Nov 2026 (primary source)

AMD data centre sales nearly double and the chipmaker guides higher

Ari — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 00:00:00 GMT

AMD had a record third quarter. Revenue rose 45 percent on the year to about 13 and a half billion dollars, above the top of its own guidance. Its data centre business almost doubled to about eight and a half billion dollars. That unit now makes up nearly two thirds of the company's sales. AMD expects about 17 billion dollars in the fourth quarter, which would be growth of about two thirds on the year.

The company said demand for its EPYC server processors and the launch of its Instinct MI450 accelerators drove the quarter. Adjusted earnings per share were 2.09 dollars, ahead of analyst forecasts. The shares rose in late trading. The guidance is a company forecast, not a result. For the AI market it adds a second large supplier to the picture of data centre spending that is still growing fast.

Sources

AMD Reports Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results — AMD, 3 Nov 2026 (primary source)
AMD stock jumps on earnings as data center revenue nearly doubles — CNBC, 3 Nov 2026

Marvell agrees to buy Lumentum for about 115 billion dollars to own AI optics

Ari — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Chip designer Marvell has agreed to buy Lumentum, a maker of lasers and optical parts, in an all-stock deal. The deal values Lumentum at about 115 billion dollars including debt. Lumentum holders get four and a half Marvell shares for each share they own. The two companies say AI data centres need far more bandwidth than copper cables can carry, so links are moving to light.

The price is about 24 percent above Lumentum's share price before talks were reported. Marvell holders would own about two thirds of the combined company. The firms expect more than one billion dollars a year in cost savings. Closing needs approval from both sets of shareholders and from regulators, and is planned for the first half of 2028. Marvell shares had fallen sharply when the talks first leaked last week.

Sources

Marvell and Lumentum to Combine, Creating a Category Leader in AI Connectivity — US Securities and Exchange Commission, 2 Nov 2026 (primary source)
Stock market news for Nov. 2, 2026 — CNBC, 2 Nov 2026

Intel has its worst day since 1974 after a weak outlook drags the Nasdaq down

Ari — Sat, 31 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Intel shares fell nearly 29 percent on 30 October, their worst day since 1974. The company had beaten its own targets for the third quarter, with revenue up 21 percent to about 16 and a half billion dollars. But it guided the fourth quarter lower, citing a PC slowdown it expects to last at least through the first half of next year. The Nasdaq fell almost 3 percent the same day, its biggest drop since June.

Data-centre and AI revenue rose 78 percent and the foundry business 58 percent, while PC chips shrank 5 percent. Intel expects fourth-quarter revenue of 15 to 16 billion dollars and a gross margin near 38 percent on an adjusted basis, down from 44 percent. Together with Amazon's negative cash flow, the outlook revived worries about how long the AI spending boom can run. The Nasdaq ended October more than 5 percent lower.

Sources

Intel Reports Third-Quarter 2026 Financial Results (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1) — Intel, 29 Oct 2026 (primary source)
Stock Market Today, Oct. 30: Amazon Misses Revenue and Earnings Expectations — The Motley Fool, 30 Oct 2026