A bumper earnings report from the chipmaker Nvidia boosted stocks in Asia on Thursday as it helped to ease anxieties about potential overinvestment in artificial intelligence, which had weighed on the shares of major technology companies in recent weeks.
After the U.S. market closed on Wednesday, Nvidia announced that its profit for the most recent quarter had surged 65 percent from a year earlier, reaching $31.9 billion. It also issued a revenue forecast for the current quarter that significantly exceeded Wall Street’s projections.
Nvidia, which commands roughly 90 percent of the market for the chips crucial to A.I. projects, has become the poster company for the artificial intelligence boom. Investors scrutinize its financial results as a bellwether for the prospects of companies around the world that are putting trillions of dollars into A.I.-related infrastructure.
Nvidia’s results helped to drive Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index up by about 4 percent in early trading in Asia on Thursday. Gains were led by groups investing significantly in A.I., including SoftBank, which climbed nearly 6 percent. South Korea’s Kospi index also rose, by nearly 3 percent. Shares of the South Korean chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, key suppliers to Nvidia, rose more than 3 percent.
In the United States, Nvidia shares climbed more than 5 percent in after-hours trading. Futures trading for the S&P 500, for which Nvidia is the largest component, rose more than 1 percent. Advanced Micro Devices, a rival chipmaker to Nvidia, and other tech companies are also expected to see sharp increases.
“The largest technology companies in the world are extremely profitable and they are reinvesting billions of dollars into data centers, servers and chips, and the spending is real,” said Chris Zaccarelli, the chief investment officer at Northlight Asset Management.
Nvidia and other tech firms have enjoyed meteoric growth since interest in A.I. began to skyrocket three years ago. But investors have gotten more cautious since October as concerns mounted that companies’ lavish A.I. spending might be outpacing actual demand.
The American technology company Oracle saw its valuation decline by a quarter after it disclosed an additional, debt-financed investment in OpenAI in September. Before Nvidia’s earnings announcement on Wednesday, an exchange-traded fund from Global X that focuses on a basket of A.I.-linked stocks had dropped approximately 8 percent this month.
While Nvidia’s results are now helping global technology stocks recover, investors are also awaiting key economic data, specifically the delayed September jobs report that the Labor Department is scheduled to release on Thursday. Those figures could intensify concerns about a slowdown in U.S. hiring and the overall health of the nation’s economy.
The retailer Walmart, an indicator of U.S. consumer spending, will report earnings on Thursday. Its rival Target lowered its full-year forecast on Wednesday and warned of slumping holiday sales from a pullback in consumer spending.
“While a market pullback can happen at any time, as long as the economy can stay out of a recession, we expect the bull market to resume and for us to hit new all-time highs later this year and into next year,” said Mr. Zaccarelli.
River Akira Davis covers Japan for The Times, including its economy and businesses, and is based in Tokyo.
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