What Happened?
A number of stocks jumped in the afternoon session after OpenAI announced partnerships with South Korean firms SK Hynix and Samsung for its ambitious 'Stargate' AI infrastructure project, signaling massive future demand for advanced chips.
The news sent immediate shockwaves through global markets. In South Korea, shares of SK Hynix jumped 9.9%, while Samsung Electronics rose 3.5%. The optimism spread to Wall Street, where U.S. chipmakers also saw significant gains, with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) climbing 2.7% and Broadcom advancing 2.5%. This massive investment underscores the insatiable demand for the advanced semiconductors required to power artificial intelligence. The rally reflects growing investor confidence in an AI-driven supercycle for semiconductor growth, positioning the sector's leaders to capitalize on the next technological frontier.
The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks.
Among others, the following stocks were impacted:
- Semiconductor Manufacturing company Entegris (NASDAQ:ENTG) jumped 2.7%. Is now the time to buy Entegris? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Semiconductor Manufacturing company Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) jumped 3.1%. Is now the time to buy Applied Materials? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Semiconductor Manufacturing company Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) jumped 4.5%. Is now the time to buy Photronics? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Analog Semiconductors company Impinj (NASDAQ:PI) jumped 2.5%. Is now the time to buy Impinj? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
Zooming In On Photronics (PLAB)
Photronics’s shares are somewhat volatile and have had 14 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 10 months ago when the stock gained 20.3% on the news that the company reported strong third-quarter results, which blew past analysts' EPS expectations, driven by revenue and profit outperformance vs Wall Street's estimates.
The results marked a sharp rebound from the slower growth in the previous quarter. Revenue rose sequentially in the fourth quarter, fueled by stronger sales of Integrated Circuits (ICs) and Flat Panel Displays (FPDs). Notably, IC sales surged in the United States, while demand for FPDs showed steady growth across multiple regions. Guidance was also solid, with next quarter's revenue outlook ahead of expectations while EPS was in line, suggesting the improved trend will continue. Overall, we think this was a good quarter, especially considering some of the uneven recent earnings performance across the sector.
Photronics is up 2.1% since the beginning of the year, but at $24.52 per share, it is still trading 12.6% below its 52-week high of $28.06 from December 2024. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Photronics’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $2,433.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it should be obvious by now that generative AI is going to have a huge impact on how large corporations do business. While Nvidia and AMD are trading close to all-time highs, we prefer a lesser-known (but still profitable) semiconductor stock benefiting from the rise of AI. Click here to access our free report on our favorite semiconductor growth story.