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The AI Guard Is Changing, And Micron Is Leading the Charge

Since ChatGPT launched in late 2022, Nvidia has been the undisputed king of the AI infrastructure boom.

But Wall Street has quietly started moving on. This week offered the starkest illustration yet of what Mizuho analyst Jordan Klein is calling a "changing of the guard in AI."

Memory maker Micron surged more than 37% in a single week, crossing an $800 billion market cap for the first time, up over 750% in the past year.

Meanwhile, Nvidia gained “just” 15% year-to-date.

A global memory shortage has turned Micron, a 47-year-old semiconductor company that few talked about in 2022, into one of the hottest trades on Wall Street.

CEO Sanjay Mehrotra told CNBC that key customers are only receiving "50% to two-thirds of their requirements" due to supply constraints.

When demand massively outpaces supply, pricing surges and profits soar.

$MU ( ▼ 6.62% ) has a Ziggma score of 98, as it ranks lower than peers for valuation growth and financial health.

Our takeaway

The AI buildout is broadening from GPUs to the full hardware stack — memory, CPUs, fiber optics, and more.

Micron's explosive run signals that the market is betting on a multi-year infrastructure boom, not a short-term trade.

But investors should also heed the warnings: analysts at BTIG are drawing comparisons to the 1999 dot-com bubble, with semiconductor stocks up 66% year-to-date.

The opportunity is real — but so is the risk of a violent correction.

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🌍 Market Overview

U.S. equities rallied strongly on Friday, lifted by a blowout April jobs report and an easing (if still tense) situation in the Middle East.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that nonfarm payrolls rose by 115,000 in April — more than double the 55,000 economists polled by Dow Jones had expected.

The unemployment rate held steady at 4.3%.

The technology and semiconductor sectors led the charge, with chip stocks surging broadly.

The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) popped more than 3% to a new 52-week high. Micron and Sandisk soared 15% and 16% on Friday alone.

On the macro front:

  • The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment survey fell to 48.2 in early May — a new record low — as surging gas prices from the U.S.-Iran conflict weighed on households.

  • Oil prices ticked up, with WTI crude futures rising 0.64% to $95.42 per barrel after U.S. and Iranian forces exchanged fire in the Strait of Hormuz.

  • Despite the geopolitical noise, strong earnings and AI enthusiasm kept bulls firmly in control.

🔎 FREE GOODSTOCKS RESEARCH:

First Solar (FSLR) After Earnings: The Clean Energy Stock the Market May Now Be Mispricing. 🔖 Read on Substack 🎧 Listen to podcast

Stock Moves Deciphered 📈

🏥 Humana (HUM)

Shares surged over 11%, closing at $274.96, marking a fifth consecutive day of gains. The healthcare insurer's powerful bullish reversal reflects renewed investor confidence and a broader rotation back into beaten-down managed care names.

🚀 Qualcomm (QCOM)

Qualcomm rose 6.48%, adding $13.12 per share, as the semiconductor sector surged broadly. Investors are warming to Qualcomm's AI-in-mobile thesis and its exposure to the broader chip infrastructure cycle.

💻 HP Inc. (HPQ)

HP Inc. rose approximately 8%, buoyed by investor optimism around an AI-driven hardware refresh cycle and increased demand for advanced computing and gaming equipment.

Headlines You Can't Miss 👀

🛢️ U.S. military struck two Iran-flagged oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman, preventing their entry into an Iranian port in violation of a U.S. naval blockade.

📉 Consumer sentiment dropped to a record low of 48.2 in early May, per the University of Michigan survey, driven by surging gas prices from the Iran conflict.

💻 Apple and Intel reportedly reached a preliminary agreement for Intel to manufacture some processors for Apple devices, per the Wall Street Journal — a landmark win for Intel's foundry business.

🔋 Fluence Energy soared nearly 30% on Friday after HSBC and Roth Capital both upgraded the battery storage maker following a strong fiscal Q2 EBITDA beat.

🌐 Corning signed a massive deal with Nvidia involving three new U.S. optical technology factories, with Nvidia retaining the right to invest up to $3.2 billion in Corning.

☁️ CoreWeave slid after reporting a Q2 revenue outlook of $2.45B–$2.6B, below the $2.69B Wall Street consensus, despite Q1 revenues doubling year-over-year.

📊 JPMorgan economists warned that rising energy prices will lead to demand destruction, with Brent crude stabilizing around $100/barrel amid continued hostilities in the Persian Gulf.

🥤 Shake Shack was upgraded to "buy" by Stifel following a 28% sell-off on Thursday, with analysts seeing 23% upside despite lowering the price target to $85.

🤖 Akamai Technologies (AKAM)

Shares surged more than 26% on Friday after the cybersecurity and cloud computing company announced that a leading U.S.-based frontier AI model provider, Anthropic, committed to $1.8 billion over seven years for Akamai's Cloud Infrastructure Services.

This is a transformational contract that elevates Akamai from a legacy content delivery network into a serious AI infrastructure player.

🧃 Monster Beverage (MNST)

Monster Beverage advanced more than 13% after delivering a landmark first quarter: the company hit its first-ever $2 billion revenue quarter, growing 27% year-over-year to $2.35 billion.

Its flagship Ultra brand family grew 20%, while strong international sales rounded out an impressive beat.

Monster is proving that consumer staples with strong brand equity can thrive even as the macro backdrop softens.

💰 Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)

AMD gained more than 11% for the week and surpassed a $700 billion market cap, following a standout Q1 earnings report.

Revenue rose 38% year-over-year to $10.3 billion, driven by surging demand for AI and data center chips.

The company beat on EPS ($1.37 vs. $1.29 expected) and revenue ($10.25B vs. $9.9B expected).

CEO Lisa Su raised the company's server CPU growth outlook to 35% annually over the next three to five years, up from 18% in November.

What’s Next?

Earnings to Watch 👇

💉 Hims & Hers Health reports Q1 2026 after the close: guidance calls for revenue of $600M-$625M and adjusted EBITDA of $35M–$55M.

🏗️ Chart Industries reports Q1 2026 results after market close: watch for updates on cryogenic and industrial equipment demand.

🤖 Nebius Group (NBIS) to report this week: an emerging AI infrastructure name worth watching.

Key Macro Events Ahead:

🏡 Existing Home Sales (April): Consensus calls for 4.06M units; a miss could signal housing weakness and weigh on consumer sentiment.

💸 Existing Home Sales MoM (April): Forecast shows a decline of 3.6%, versus a prior reading of +2.1%. A significant drop would be a meaningful warning sign for the broader economy.

🇨🇳 China Inflation Data already in: April CPI came in at 1.0% YoY (vs. 0.8% consensus), but PPI missed significantly at 0.5% vs. 1.5% expected — a soft signal for global industrial demand.

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