Wednesday was a split-screen session: the Dow ripped 3.03% to 53,356.12 — its best post-midterm day in 44 years — while the AI complex got sold, with Nvidia off 3.17% and the PHLX Semiconductor Index down 3.13%. Traders rotated into perceived AI-light megacaps (Apple +5.3% to a record, Microsoft +6.7%, Amazon +6.1%) on bets a Democratic Congress slows data-center buildout. UBS now says roughly 30% of expected 2028 data-center capacity additions are at risk, with Texas alone accounting for 18 gigawatts.
Qualcomm posted adjusted EPS of $2.17 on revenue of $10.32 billion, topping the $2.16 and $10.11 billion consensus — then guided December-quarter EPS to $2.15–$2.35 on revenue of $10.4–$11.2 billion against a Street looking for $2.27 and $10.48 billion. Memory-shortage-driven weakness in smartphone chip sales and declining Apple-related revenue did the damage. Data center revenue was $650 million in the quarter and management reiterated its fiscal 2027 data-center target of $5 billion, with non-handset revenue projected to grow more than 60%.
Micron closed Wednesday at $795.23, down 7.00% and off roughly 19% over five sessions, as the data-center backlash hit the most capex-levered name in memory. The irony is that the fundamental setup got louder, not quieter: Citi argues the market is underestimating how constrained DRAM and HBM supply will remain, and D.A. Davidson took its target to $3,000 from $2,100 on supply tightness through 2028. Consensus across 49 analysts still sits at Strong Buy.
Arm reported fiscal Q2 revenue of $1.44 billion, up 27% year over year — a fifth straight quarter above 20% growth — with adjusted EPS of $0.52 versus $0.48 expected. Licensing revenue jumped 50% to a record $773 million; royalties rose 8% to $670 million. Q3 guidance of about $1.54 billion and EPS of $0.52–$0.60 also beat, and management now sees up to $2 billion from its AGI CPU across fiscal 2027 and 2028 — yet shares fell as much as 5% after hours before settling down about 2%, with net income nearly halving on rising investment.
Per an FT report, Oracle walked away from a deal that would have leased Tencent roughly 100,000 advanced AI chips over five years across Oracle data centers in Southeast Asia, after US officials raised national-security objections. Shares closed down 1.92% at $123.73 on volume 241% above the three-month average. It lands on top of Monday's $20 billion capital raise — $10 billion in stock, $10 billion in debt — against fiscal 2026 free cash flow of negative $23.7 billion.
Anthropic filed its public S-1 on October 26 and is set to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker ANT, with the roadshow able to begin as early as November 10 and a debut targeted before Thanksgiving. Reports put the sought valuation at $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion, with investors pushing toward the low end. Not yet publicly traded — but the pricing will reset the comp set for every AI name on this list.
OpenAI has trimmed its raise to roughly $20 billion from $30 billion, at a valuation near $1.25 trillion, with SoftBank, Abu Dhabi's MGX and existing backers negotiating participation. The company is showing investors annualized revenue of about $50 billion, with a stated path to $70 billion by year-end. A private-market haircut in the middle of a public-market AI drawdown is the tell worth watching.
The physical-build side of the AI trade absorbed the worst of the midterm reaction, with Vertiv down roughly 9% and GE Vernova down about 8%, alongside declines in Quanta Services and Eaton. The logic: permitting, power interconnects and local approvals are exactly where a change in Washington's posture shows up first. This is where the UBS 2028 capacity warning bites soonest — electrical equipment, power distribution and cooling.
Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1.79% to 61,077.90, its lowest close since May 20, even as the broader TOPIX rose 1.5% — a textbook rotation out of AI. Advantest plunged 14.7% and Tokyo Electron dropped 9.4%; Korea's KOSPI fell more than 5%. Nomura's Wataru Akiyama flagged the view that Democratic gains mean data-center delays, and therefore an earnings-growth pace that may not hold.
Palantir closed Wednesday at $171.70, down 2.11%, extending post-earnings weakness even as the sell side marked estimates higher. Barclays went to $273, Citigroup to $265, Truist to $250, Morgan Stanley to $233 from $205, and Piper Sandler to $235 — while Cantor held Neutral at $207 and RBC kept Underperform despite lifting its target to $130 from $90. Cooling bookings against soaring revenue is the fault line splitting the Street.
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