Global stock markets rose as investors continued to back the technology companies driving the artificial intelligence boom, with gains led by the Nasdaq in the United States and semiconductor shares in Asia.
Wall Street’s three main indexes finished higher on Tuesday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.18%, while the S&P 500 gained 0.6% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.03%.
Five of the so-called Magnificent Seven technology stocks advanced. Tesla was the strongest performer, rising 4.04%, followed by Amazon at 1.61%, Apple at 0.93% and Alphabet at 0.9%.
Nvidia, the world’s most valuable publicly listed company, rose by almost 1% after announcing a $3bn investment in Meta’s equity offering. Meta shares fell 1.64%, while Microsoft declined 0.24%.
Other major technology movers included Advanced Micro Devices, Broadcom and Intel, which gained 5.45%, 4% and 3.61% respectively.
Asian markets rally on chip demand
Asian markets extended the advance on Wednesday, with shares rising in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Australia.
Seoul’s KOSPI led the regional gains, climbing 5.84% as of 03:00 GMT after SK Hynix reported a sharp rise in third-quarter operating profit. The South Korean memory-chip maker said profit had increased by about 630% year on year to 83.33 trillion won (£62.8bn).
SK Hynix shares jumped by more than 8% following the results. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.26%, Taiwan’s TAIEX gained 1.32% and the S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney was up 0.11%.
Investors are now awaiting results from several of the industry’s biggest companies to assess whether their substantial spending on AI infrastructure is beginning to generate sufficient returns.
Microsoft and Alphabet are due to report their latest results on Wednesday, followed by Amazon on Thursday and Apple on Monday.
The market’s optimism has been accompanied by renewed concern that heavy investment in AI could be creating a speculative bubble similar to the one that preceded the dotcom crash in 2000.
Anthropic, an AI company, filed paperwork for a highly anticipated initial public offering on Monday. It reported a net loss of $80.7bn in the first half of 2026, against revenue of $16.3bn.
Global investment in AI is forecast to reach $2.7tn in 2026 and $3.6tn in 2027, according to technology insights company Gartner.
Oil prices also rose by about 1% as Asian markets opened. Brent crude, the global benchmark, was trading at about $115 a barrel, 59% higher than before the US-Israel war on Iran began, amid continuing conflict in the Middle East including hostilities involving Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis.
