By Noel Randewich
(Reuters) -Wall Street’s AI heavyweights added a combined half a trillion dollars in stock market value late on Wednesday after quarterly reports from Microsoft and Meta Platforms showed massive investments in the emerging technology were paying off.
In extended trade, Microsoft jumped 8% and Meta surged 9%, with the two Magnificent Seven companies increasing their market values by $288 billion and $152 billion, respectively.
Dominant AI chipmaker Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company, climbed 1%, while Amazon, which reports its results on Thursday, added over 2%.
Shares of the U.S. stock market’s most valuable companies have surged in recent years as they race to dominate artificial intelligence, and their massive investments have left investors eager to see results.
Fueling the late-day enthusiasm for AI-related stocks, Meta forecast quarterly revenue well ahead of Wall Street expectations and raised the lower end of its annual capital expenditures forecast by $2 billion, driven by its high-stakes push for “superintelligence” in the heated AI race.
Microsoft also delivered a blowout quarterly report, with its Azure cloud-computing business powering revenue above Wall Street’s expectations and showcasing the growing returns on its AI bets.
(Reporting by Noel RandewichEditing by Rod Nickel)
