The technological landscape is witnessing a seismic upheaval as the behemoths of innovation funnel gargantuan sums into constructing data forts, fortified with the latest graphics processing chips (GPUs) tailored for crafting artificial intelligence (AI) marvels.
GPUs, those stalwarts of parallel processing, adept at wrangling colossal data torrents and tackling multitudinous tasks simultaneously, stand as the linchpin for honing AI models and orchestrating AI inference. Recent financial disclosures shed light on the colossal investments:
- Microsoft: a jaw-dropping $55.7 billion on capital expenditures during fiscal 2024, the lion’s share gobbled up by AI data center infrastructure and chips.
- Amazon: unfurled $30.5 billion on capex in the first semester of 2024, predominantly earmarked for AI endeavors.
- Alphabet: furnished $25 billion for AI capex in the initial half of 2024.
- Meta Platforms: charting a course to lavish between $37 billion and $40 billion on AI capex over the entirety of 2024.
- Oracle: dispensed $6.9 billion for AI capex in its fiscal 2024 period, culminating on May 31.
The vanguards – Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Oracle – have explicitly articulated plans of amping up the fiscal ante for the ensuing year. This verily spells out a cornucopia of prospects for the semiconductor sector. Herein, we unveil five stellar chip stocks primed for jubilant prospects as we stride into the domain of 2025.
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Nvidia: Forging Ahead with Futuristic AI GPUs
When the spotlight illuminates the realm of data center GPUs, one name reigns supreme: Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA). Its H100 GPU erected the zenith for the AI constellation last year. The corporation is now gearing up to unveil a fresh chronicle of chips stemming from its Blackwell architecture.
The Blackwell-powered juggernauts like the GB200 NVL72 are slated to conduct AI inference at velocities thrice the mettle of the antecedent H100 systems. Moreover, the standalone GB200 GPUs are prophesied to commandeer prices ranging from $30,000 to $40,000 each. This calculus snugly aligns with the remuneration that data colossi initially shelled out for the H100. Suffice it to say: Blackwell blazes a trail towards a marked enhancement in cost effectiveness for developers who typically foot the bill for computational capacity by the minute.
Nvidia’s luminary, Jensen Huang, envisages that Blackwell GPUs will shower billions of dollars into the organization’s revenue coffers during the climactic quarter of fiscal 2025 (spanning from November to January), with deliveries poised to ascend henceforth.
Nvidia is barreling towards an estimated $125.5 billion in total revenue for the fiscal 2025 voyage, marking a 125% upsurge from the antecedent year. While the stock may not court bargain hunters, it does dance at a judicious forward price to earnings (P/E) ratio of 29.1 when juxtaposed against the organization’s anticipated fiscal 2026 earnings per share. Ergo, patrons willing to clasp Nvidia shares for at least the upcoming 18 moons are conceivably venturing forth at an equitable valuation today.
Micron Technology: Pioneering the Memory Matrix
Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU), an eminent purveyor of memory and storage chips for data redoubts, personal computers, and smartphones, takes center stage. In the AI data crucibles, memory chips dovetail GPUs, harboring data in a primed state for swift summoning during training and inference.
The venerated HBM3E (high-bandwidth memory) 36 gigabyte (GB) units from Micron for the data harborage proffer an uptick of up to 50% in capacity compared to any extant rival, while quaffing 20% less energy. Bestriding the primordial stages, it was anointed to power Nvidia’s H200 GPU and, potentially, its Blackwell GB200 GPUs. Verily, Micron finds itself marooned in a state of destitution concerning HBM3E until the year 2026.
Zooming beyond the data demesne, every A-list wielder of Android-based mobile marvels enlists Micron’s LP5X DRAM memory. Scores among them have unfurled AI-endowed contraptions this solstice with minimum memory prerequisites doubling against their AI-bereft predecessors from the yesteryear. Albeit, akin pedagogues pepper the realm of personal computation, with myriad AI-powered PCs hoisting a minimum DRAM capacity of 16GB in juxtaposition to the 12GB capacity from bygone years.
Elevated memory exigencies seamlessly metamorphose into augmented revenue streams for Micron. Lighting up the canvas, in the denouement of its recent fiscal 2024 quarterly waltz (wrapping up on Aug. 29), the company’s revenue catapulted skywards at a phenomenal 93% on the year-over-year metric to clinch at $7.7 billion, while fortunes of more ilk fortify the promenade.
Axcelis Technologies: Fortifying the Backbone of Semiconductors
Axcelis Technologies (NASDAQ: ACLS), though not a cultivator of semiconductors, crafts ion implantation apparatus that stand as the cornerstone in the cathedral of crafting central processing units (CPUs), memory chips, and the amperage arbiters steering the flow of electrical potency in high-caliber applications.
AI’s inexorable march beckons the evolution of […]
Revolution in the Data Center Market
Axcelis: Pioneering Power Devices for Data Centers
Data centers, the energy-thirsty hubs of the digital age, have become a goldmine for power device manufacturers such as Axcelis. The advent of trench MOFSET power devices utilizing silicon carbide chemistry marks a quantum leap in efficiency and durability compared to traditional silicon variants. Axcelis finds itself riding atop this technological wave, as the demand for silicon carbide power devices intensifies, spelling out a promising trajectory for the company.
The growing hunger for high-capacity memory chips in data centers, computers, and smartphones further propels Axcelis’s fortune. With memory chip manufacturers ramping up production to meet this insatiable demand, Axcelis stands ready, already stockpiling inventory in anticipation of a stellar 2025. Speculations hint at 2025 potentially emerging as a historical year for Axcelis, with a forecasted revenue milestone of $1.3 billion anchored in reality.
Broadcom: Scaling Heights in the Semiconductor Cosmos
Broadcom, a multidimensional AI titan entrenched in semiconductors, cybersecurity, and cloud solutions, steals the limelight across the investment landscape. Its semiconductor arm resonates strongly with investors due to a surge in demand for products fueling the AI infrastructure revolution. The creation of AI accelerators for hyperscale clients like Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet has propelled Broadcom to stellar heights.
In its recent fiscal Q3, Broadcom reported exponential growth – a three-and-a-half-fold surge in business compared to the prior year, especially in the Tomahawk 5 and Jericho3-AI Ethernet switches designed for data centers. Preceding forecasts envisioned total revenues of $51 billion for fiscal 2024, with $11 billion attributed to AI. These projections have since been revised upwards to $51.5 billion and $12 billion, respectively.
Broadcom’s ascendancy is underscored by its imminent entry into the exclusive trillion-dollar club, an accolade reserved for a select few U.S. tech behemoths.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD): Challenging the Data Center Dominance
Advanced Micro Devices, a venerable chip supplier in the consumer electronics realm, has set its sight on dethroning Nvidia in the cutthroat data center segment. The introduction of MI300 GPUs as a worthy rival to Nvidia’s H100 has captivated major clients like Oracle, Microsoft, and Meta Platforms. Not one to rest on its laurels, AMD is already gearing up to launch the MI350, an enhanced GPU based on the revolutionary Compute DNA (CDNA) 4 architecture.
AMD’s leadership in AI chips for personal computing is unequivocal, boasting a staggering 90% market share. Its foray into the Ryzen AI 300 series for notebooks showcases the industry’s fastest neural processing unit, set to power over a hundred platforms across leading manufacturers such as Asus, Acer, HP Inc., and more.
The second quarter of 2024 witnessed AMD’s data center revenue surge by 115% year-over-year, coupled with a 49% increase in client segment revenue attributed to Ryzen AI chips. As the AI epoch matures, AMD’s prospects gleam with unbridled optimism, promising even greater feats in the near future.