What Happened?
A number of stocks jumped in the afternoon session after Bloomberg reported that Anthropic told prospective investors its second-quarter revenue jumped more than 14-fold.
Anthropic reported preliminary second-quarter revenue of more than $11.5 billion, versus $787 million a year earlier and $4.73 billion in the first quarter according to Bloomberg. The company also showed positive adjusted operating income for the first time. Bloomberg said the figures could still be revised. Chip stocks are a leveraged bet on whether AI labs can keep paying for GPUs, memory, and storage. If Anthropic could more than double sequential sales, and no longer run an adjusted operating loss, this could be evidence that there is sufficient demand to fund that spend.
Reuters separately reported, citing two people familiar with the company’s financials, that Anthropic is projecting 2028 revenue of roughly $190 billion to $200 billion. That could explain why memory and NAND names led the rebound during the session: serving that many queries consumes DRAM and storage, not only training chips.
Chip stocks followed the memory-led rally as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told The Wall Street Journal the Trump administration opposes Apple buying Chinese memory chips. Lutnick said Washington is “not in favor” of Apple using Chinese memory and that he had conveyed that “plainly,” a message that would keep more of the shortage with Micron, Samsung, and SK hynix.
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 Marvell Technology (NASDAQ:MRVL) jumped 5.8%. Is now the time to buy Marvell Technology? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Semiconductor Manufacturing company FormFactor (NASDAQ:FORM) jumped 5.4%. Is now the time to buy FormFactor? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Semiconductor Manufacturing company Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) jumped 5.9%. Is now the time to buy Applied Materials? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
Zooming In On Applied Materials (AMAT)
Applied Materials’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 37 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 previous big move we wrote about was 5 days ago when the stock gained 5% on the news that a wave of upbeat earnings reports and bullish forecasts from key industry players signaled robust and sustained demand for artificial intelligence technology.
The rally was sparked by strong quarterly results from several AI-related firms, reinforcing investor confidence in the sector. Super Micro Computer, a seller of servers and other AI equipment, saw its shares jump after its earnings per share came in 84% higher than expected and it provided a revenue forecast that topped estimates.
Similarly, CoreWeave, which provides cloud computing for AI systems, rallied after its sales forecast also exceeded expectations. This positive sentiment echoed globally, with Asian markets gaining as traders bought into AI- and semiconductor-related shares. The optimism is further supported by fundamental data, such as a reported 155% year-over-year surge in South Korea's semiconductor exports for early August. AI racks consume GPUs, CPUs, high-bandwidth memory, and storage.
When a large server OEM and a major AI cloud operator both lift the path of future shipments, investors typically reprice the chip makers that supply those systems which helps explain the gains in Nvidia, AMD, and Intel.
Applied Materials is up 99% since the beginning of the year, but at $535.03 per share, it is still trading 26% below its 52-week high of $723 from June 2026. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Applied Materials’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $4,155.
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