Semiconductor stocks extended their rally into Friday's pre-market session after a broad-based surge on Thursday, with Intel, SanDisk, Micron, Nvidia and SK Hynix all trading higher.
Intel Corp shares rose 7.67% to $108.80 in Thursday's session and gained another 2.34% to $111.35 in pre-market trade on Friday. The stock had climbed more than 10% intraday during Thursday's session.
SanDisk Corp surged 6.21% to $1,614.39 on Thursday, while its shares were up 1.45% at $1,637.80 in pre-market trading on Friday.
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Micron Technology gained 5.50% to $977.50 and advanced another 1% to $987.29 in pre-market trade. Nvidia rose 2.54% to $219.34 on Thursday, followed by a 0.77% gain to $221.02 in Friday's pre-market session.
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SK Hynix ADRs climbed 4.64% to $182.99 on Thursday and were up 1.43% at $185.60 in pre-market trade on Friday.
The gains followed a sharp rebound across semiconductor stocks on Thursday as investors shifted focus away from recent concerns over the pace of artificial intelligence spending and towards tight chip supply and continued data-centre demand.
The iShares Semiconductor ETF rose about 3.4% on Thursday. AMD gained 6.5%, while Arm Holdings jumped 8.6% and Marvell Technology advanced 4.8%, according to the background market data.
Intel emerged as one of the key catalysts for the sector after CEO Lip-Bu Tan said the company is currently able to meet only about half of customer demand for its CPUs.
Speaking at the AI Infrastructure Summit in Santa Clara earlier this week, Tan also warned that the global memory shortage could worsen next year.
The comments lifted memory stocks as investors assessed whether constrained supply could support pricing and margins for chipmakers such as Micron.
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Investor sentiment was also supported by reports that SK Hynix is in exploratory discussions with Intel over potential memory-chip manufacturing in the US.
Reuters reported that one proposal involves SK Hynix leasing part of Intel's planned Ohio manufacturing complex. Such an arrangement could potentially provide Intel with a customer for its foundry operations.
SK Hynix has confirmed that exploratory discussions are taking place, while stressing that no agreement has been finalised, Reuters reported.
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